Roni Reviews

Rick Steves: American Everyman

March 25, 2011

This is Part Three of my Headliners of the LA Times Travel & Adventure Show posts.

Part One was “Arthur Frommer: Travel Royalty“. Part Two was “Andrew McCarthy: Reluctant Celebrity“.

I wasn’t sure how to write this post. I didn’t want to come off as a dick, but a lot of stuff around Rick Steves rubbed me the wrong way.

Every other speaker had stuff that felt like it applied to everyone, but Steves’ talk was for people that hadn’t been to Europe before, people nervous about travel. And the more I’ve thought about Steves’ speech, the more I’ve gotten annoyed. I really think he has value for a specific subset of people. But I don’t like the mindset of the people that he’s talking to. They’re scared of things because the news makes them scared. They’re scared because America is an island. I guess Steves is trying to get them out of that box, but the fact that that box exists to begin with pisses me off to no end.

Here’s more of what I didn’t like:

  • He threw a lot of politics into the speech.

As a general overview talk, it felt unnatural when he started laying into American gun control. Frommer mentioned how your government shouldn’t tell you you can’t go somewhere, but at least that’s travel-related. But perhaps this related to another thing that annoyed me…

  • How much he shilled for his products during the show.

No one else did so in their talks. They mentioned things they’ve done, but it wasn’t a constant sales pitch. When you’re citing specific pages in your book that relate to what you’re talking about, you’ve hit infomercial status.

  • He said that he doesn’t speak any other languages.

Really? With over 30 years of travel to Europe, he didn’t bother learning anything? I just don’t get that. Actually, I do. I see two possibilities:

  1. He is minimizing his abilities to try to come across as an American everyman. I couldn’t believe how bad his pronunciation on some words were. Literally couldn’t believe it.
  2. He deliberately went out of his way to not let languages sink in so he could maintain his status as the every American.

Either way, from what I hear, it was the same speech every time. And the guy definitely smacks of celebrity, in a way that the others didn’t. While I know it’s annoying to deal with people who are bothering you when setting up or taking stuff down, you just have to suck it up. He would half-respond to them without giving eye contact. Didn’t come off that well. Contrast that with Sam Brown, who put her hand out and said “I’m Sam.”, vs. Steves’ speech that you can see in my Part Two vid.

To be fair, the audience loved him. Packed house eating out of his hand. And a lot of die-hard fans, including some of the travel bloggers I was hanging out with. If you’ve never been to Europe, it’s useful. If you’ve solo traveled at all, meh.

Continue on to Part Four, “Sam Brown: Genuinely Layered“.

About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

Andrew McCarthy: Reluctant Celebrity

March 24, 2011

This is Part Two of my Headliners of the LA Times Travel & Adventure Show posts.

Part One was “Arthur Frommer: Travel Royalty“.

Had no clue what to expect from Andrew McCarthy. Turns out he’s a fairly strange guy. He didn’t seem totally comfortable being in front of the audience and sometimes seemed like he didn’t feel like he had any special knowledge to impart. I got the feeling that he traveled to avoid people, as he usually goes solo and seemed to be the type of actor who “turns it on” for the camera, but doesn’t always want or need to be the center of attention. Whereas the other speakers had the stage to themselves, McCarthy’s talk was a ‘conversation’. The interviewer was Christopher Reynolds of the LA Times, who had his own travel and writing career stories. It was a good mix. Reynolds kept things moving, but let McCarthy be the star. They had chemistry together.

McCarthy thinks of himself as a storyteller, which he felt lent itself well to travel writing. During Q&A, a journalist asked him about where he got his journalistic abilities, which he took as a compliment, but said he just was interested in hearing people’s stories.

Reynolds kept making references to people who he worked with at the Times, then following up with a mention that they’re now dead. One such person was a foreign correspondant, who told Reynolds to avoid photographers:

Don’t go with them. They’re like children. They’re attracted to bright colors.

One interesting thing about McCarthy was the jealousy factor from people watching. People were happy for Sam Brown and just wanted to be her, but seemed to have a chip on their shoulder about McCarthy. I heard it mentioned after that he wouldn’t have gotten what he got in the travel writing world without his prior fame. Sure, and McCarthy admitted it throughout, that no one would have cared if he “wasn’t the Pretty in Pink guy”.

It was a free-flowing conversation. I’m really struggling to come up with what concrete information I took from it, other than:

  • It helps to be a celebrity if you want to get into a new field.
  • I generally dislike Q&A sessions, especially when people treat their question as their chance to soapbox or have a personal conversation with someone in front of a room full of people.

The first woman came up and decried the villainization of the word ‘tourist’. By the end of her monologue, it seemed that all she wanted was to be told she was right. McCarthy and Reynolds didn’t know what to say, so they half-assedly agreed.

A point of contention between the two was on how to take criticism. Reynolds’ take was to listen to people that have been around longer than you, but he also admitted that a lot of times editors will tend toward taking out the more personal stuff, causing a more generic piece. McCarthy then said the exact opposite, that all you have is your voice and that when he first started, someone totally changed his piece, so he told them that they could take the money back, because he needed “to be edited, not rewritten”. Apparently, McCarthy won. They used the piece and it won him an award.

All around, he seemed like a guy that knew that he was lucky for what he had and was working for more, in another direction. A respectable celebrity, more used to the limelight than loving it.

Continue on to Part Three, “Rick Steves: American Everyman“.

About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

Arthur Frommer: Travel Royalty

March 23, 2011

When I heard about the travel celebrities that would be speaking at the LA Times Travel & Adventure Show, I figured I’d sit through some talks that were designed for people with interests that were not my own, then I’d try to get a picture and move on with my day. Was happily surprised that I found at least one kindred spirit.

Once again, the headliners:

Arthur Frommer, Andrew McCarthy, Rick Steves and Samantha Brown.

Today’s post is Part One.

Arthur Frommer is a guy that a lot of people seemed to love, but I knew absolutely nothing about, other than that he was played by someone in EuroTrip and had a series of travel guides. Ah, and that he was relatively old. John, from Over 50 and Overseas (a guy that I’ll write about later) told me that Frommer served in the Korean War. With my Mad Men obsession, that makes anyone cool in my eyes.

The way Frommer spoke felt like New York royalty, old money. Looking at his Wikipedia page, I guess there’s some logic to that, as he went to NYU and Yale Law. His 10-tip talk was about “getting out of the vacation rut”:

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About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

Roni Reviews: The Green Hornet

January 15, 2011

Roni Weiss and Seth Rogen

(If the picture looks familiar, that’s because it was originally in my “Doppelganger Week on Facebook” post, from 1/30/10, wherein I use MyHeritage.com facial recognition software to see who it thinks Seth Rogen and I look like.)

I liked the new Green Hornet movie. I never watched the Bruce Lee stuff before or heard the original radio show, so I wasn’t married to any idea of the character or plot. I’m not for or against Seth Rogen. In fact, most of my dealings with him as a concept revolve around people telling me that I look like him.

So before I tell you the specifics of what I liked and didn’t like within the movie, here’s my new system:

  1. Would I see it again? Yes, if someone else paid for me to see it again. I don’t feel compelled to rush out and see it again, but hey, that’s me. I’m cheap. Some movies, I wouldn’t go if you paid for me. Some movies, I wouldn’t go if you paid me.
  2. Do I recommend it? Who would I recommend it to? Yes. If you like superhero origin story movies, you should be satisfied. If you like the writing of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, you should be satisfied, as well.
  3. Is it necessary to see on the big screen? It’s sufficiently action-y that it’s worth making the effort to see it on the big screen. 3D, once again, didn’t add anything for me.

Feel free to continue on if you want my details on stuff I liked and didn’t like within the flick.

SPOILER ALERT

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About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

Roni Sees Inception

August 9, 2010

After seeing Inception

Note: If you really don’t want to know anything about the movie, probably better not to read this. And this was written before I read anyone else’s reviews, etc.

I didn’t like Inception.

Mind you, I didn’t hate it, a la Avatar, but I am disappointed in everyone that created the buzz that made me feel like I had to see it.

I am beginning to wonder how much I will like a new movie that is generally liked.  When something has broad appeal, it means that it isn’t necessarily making bold decisions, so as to be as palatable to as wide a base as possible.

OK, on to some actual critiquing.

While watching:

I think a good indication as to the quality of a movie is whether or not I tune out. During Avatar, I constructed a whole fantasy of what I could be doing instead of being there. At Inception, there were points where I thought about what I needed to do and realized I’d been tuning out for up to a minute.

  1. I wasn’t into the movie, at first. I felt like Leo and his romantic interest had hackneyed dialogue that didn’t have real emotion behind it. I started getting into it a little when I saw some cool editing as he was maneuvering through the building with his silencer.
  2. From then on, it was really in and out until they got into the snow world, at which point I really began tuning out more.  A lot of the actions scenes bored me, like the van chase and the skiing.
  3. The end felt like a copout to me, since it leaves it open for if you want it to be a happy or depressing ending.

Post-movie thoughts:

I’m not sure what ideas about life one is supposed to gain from the movie.

“Don’t let guilt destroy you”?

“Reality is what you make of it”?

Or perhaps you are just supposed to enjoy this world. Maybe it is just a ‘fun’ heist movie, with a bit more to it.  Either way, I feel like the movie tries to tell you something about you deciding your reality, which I find inaccurate. Reality is reality. Perception can be changed.

The Matrix is a much more successful story because it comments on modern life by saying it’s all an illusion. To wake people up from a world that they are forced to be in to serve a greater machine makes sense and resonates. It’s also clear that that’s whatThe Matrix is trying to tell you. Inception is not clear in this regard and doesn’t tell us about our lives.

All-in-all, there were several elements I wasn’t satisfied with:

  • Cobb’s character felt pretty one-note: desperately guilty with momentum.
  • Too much was explained. It’s part of the drawback of establishing a world that’s different from the normal one in a limited timeframe: explaining it to the audience. It’s one of my biggest complaints that the movie had to try very hard to make sure everyone was following everything.
  • The soundtrack wasn’t anything special. I listened closely a few times and it seemed relatively generic.
  • Ken Watanabe’s stilted accent took me out of it and didn’t seem to match the level of the dialogue that he was saying.
  • I didn’t really believe the love between Cobb and Mal.

There were a couple of moments I did like:

  • When Arthur has the girl kiss him, just because he wanted her to.
  • As said earlier, some of the editing when Cobb is shooting people through the building at the beginning.
  • Some of the fight stuff in the hotel, but I still saw it as The Matrix 2010, in terms of choreography.

Conclusion:

I will not fault people for liking the movie, as I did with Avatar (I maintain that the only way to like that movie is to ignore absolutely everything other than the visual and the political message that it’s unsuccessfully trying to present), but I still think one has to ignore some serious flaws in Inception that I cannot get past. I don’t understand how people can see the characters as interesting. And I don’t think the movie offers anything in terms of giving us ideas to shape or change how we see the world we live in.

I am concerned with people thinking a movie is good simply (or at least mostly) because it is visually appealing. I don’t watch a movie for the technical. It’s nice to go back and review how something was made and know what makes it special in terms of its creation. No matter how in the industry or personally technical you are, if that’s what you’re thinking instead of watching the story and characters, the movie isn’t really doing its job.

Having written this, I will be willing to write up something else, given more comments and if I read reviews that point me in a different direction or which need rebutting.

About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

Roni Goes to The Colbert Report

April 20, 2010

The first difference between The Daily Show and Colbert is that you don’t see a huge line outside.  Even the line that wraps around the back isn’t as large as TDS.

The security staff are nicer and you get brought in earlier, with clips of old Colbert playing in the waiting pen.  When I was there, we were delayed for a while, because rehearsal went on longer than usual.

Finally going in, the audience is only on the front, as opposed to front and one side at The Daily Show.  The set looks pretty much like it does on TV, which is rare for a TV show, as the sets usually look a lot smaller in person.

This time, I didn’t know who the warmup guy was.  His big catch phrase was that various people were ‘adorable’.  Standard warmup fare, with the exception that it went on forever.  It was clear that they weren’t ready to start the show and the guy just had to drag on.  He kept saying “What else?” to himself.  I remarked to the woman next to me that I could picture the movie of this, where it keeps fading, with the clock changing positions and we finally hear him asking “Is there anyone in the audience I haven’t talked to yet?”

Right before I was about to lose my mind, Colbert was introduced to the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme.  He came out in usual fashion, waving, running around and such.

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About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

Roni Reviews: Google Buzz (AKA “Don’t use Google Buzz”)

February 11, 2010

“Socially awkward networking” is right.

Google Buzz is highly flawed. I’m regretting trying it.

I suggest you don’t.

My take: It adds nothing, offers little to no ability to change settings and sends you notifications of responses in the same manner as it sends e-mail notifications.

All-in-all, I haven’t gained one good thing.

Use at your own peril.

You’re better off just joining Twitter or writing on people’s Facebook walls.  Maybe they’ll improve it, but I would stay away until you get actual recommendations from sources you trust, as opposed to just falling for the ‘buzz’.

More details and another opinion?

Check out Molly Wood’s article, “Google Buzz: privacy nightmare”, which goes more into how Google Buzz automatically has you follow people you might have no interest in following, as well as how it posted pictures from her Android phone that she never uploaded.  Scary.

Update: While Google has made some changes to Buzz, I still cannot give it a good faith endorsement as it remains a weaker version of Twitter and Facebook walls. (Thanks to Alok for the link.)

About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

Roni Sees Avatar

January 11, 2010

After seeing Avatar

Note: Possible spoilers/plot elements.

While watching Avatar, I was transported to a world outside the movie theater…  A world of writing blog entries, trying to meet people in Lyon, teaching English, planning trips… A world of what might’ve been if I didn’t have to watch this colorful ball of crap.

I really, really hated the movie.

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About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

Watchmen (Pre-Viewing)

March 10, 2009

I have been surprised at the voracious opinions that people have had regarding Watchmen.

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About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.

And so it begins… Again. (AKA Roni Reviews: The Notebook)

November 15, 2008

Screw it.

I have nothing to hide.

Perhaps I do.  But my opinion of The Notebook is not one that needs to remain hidden.

I hated it.

But let’s go deeper.  Note:  There be spoilers below, me hearties.

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About

Roni Weiss is a social media consultant and travel/events blogger.


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