Reviews and More

In the past couple of years, I’ve noticed a somewhat disturbing trend in radio commercials around here. It seems that many local businesses run ads on the airwaves without bothering to pay for professional voice over talent, choosing to rely instead on amateurs or, in some cases, even employees, to drive sales. Speaking as a consumer, I can tell you that this is a huge mistake! I hate it when these amateurs stumble their way through scripts while trying to sound like they know what they’re doing. These types of commercials don’t make me want to do business with the advertisers; they simply make me wonder what other services those companies are skimping on.

In order to make the best impression on the target audience, it’s important for businesses to choose a professional voice actor for their advertisements. I’m talking about someone like Don Capone, who has been one of the most sought-after personalities in the industry for nearly three decades. In that time, Mr. Capone has built an impressive resumé of voice over work that includes radio and television commercials, documentaries, on-hold telephone messages, audiobook narration, voicemail greetings, podcasting, and more. His long list of satisfied clients range from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, and all have benefited from his talent.

If you need the help of an expert voice actor to put the finishing touches on your radio ad, TV commercial, movie trailer, or special project, get in touch with Don Capone today. You can find samples of his work at DonCapone.com, so check out the site and take a listen for yourself!

I’ve mentioned many times that Roger Ebert is my favorite movie critic, not because I agree with his take on films (often I don’t) but because he is a wonderful writer, able to convey his thoughts and feelings very clearly. His essays and reviews are simply a joy to read, so I keep going back no matter how divergent our tastes. Even when I don’t agree with Ebert, even when I hate a film he loves or vice versa, I still respect his opinion because he presents informed, logical arguments to support his views.

I like Ebert’s writing so much, in fact, that I even purchase volumes of his collected essays, such as Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert, which was published in 2006. This book contains interviews, essays, profiles, and reviews that Ebert and his editors consider to be the best writing of his distinguished career.

Like most compilations or anthologies, it’s not necessary to read this book from cover to cover. It’s the kind of volume that you pick up and peruse, that you enjoy at a leisurely pace bit by bit. It’s a book that can be used for quick reference or for more profound study.

Although the profiles and interviews with top stars are interesting, it’s Ebert’s take on the movies that will compel most people to buy this book. Some of the reviews in Awake in the Dark are extended versions, not the ones that you can see for free on the Sun-Times website, and those alone are well worth the cover price. Others are indeed reprints, but that fact didn’t bother me at all. I didn’t expect Ebert to rewrite everything for this book!

He includes a nice, varied selection of films, such as Goodfellas, Leaving Las Vegas, Mississippi Burning, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Do the Right Thing, Bonnie and Clyde, and more. It doesn’t really matter if you liked these films or even if you’ve seen them; you can still benefit from reading them.

There’s also a section for foreign films, one on documentaries, and a few essays on the art of film criticism.

I was very impressed by Awake in the Dark, not only because of the quality of the essays and reviews (I never really expected anything else from Ebert) but also because of the sheer variety of the writing. Even after 40+ years of writing about the movies, Ebert manages to find a fresh, original way to express his opinions about them. As someone who repeats myself far too often, I can fully appreciate how difficult a task that is.

Overall, Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert is a must-have for any movie buff. Trust me, you’ll come away with a greater appreciation for all films after you read this book!

I’ve had this particular WordPress theme for about four or five months now and have generally gotten positive feedback from readers about the clean look and feel of the site. That makes me feel good, as I spend a lot of time trying to make this place appealing to my readers. But the one thing that almost everyone asks me about is all the white space up in my header area. They tell me that I need to put a logo or something up there to make it look better, and I totally agree.

The biggest obstacles to getting a logo were the fact that I have no graphic design skills whatsoever and that I don’t have the funds to pay a professional designer hundreds of dollars to make a logo for me. Still, I couldn’t get over this need for a logo, so I’ve been looking around for different options. I finally found one today on a website called LogoYes.com.

LogoYes is a site that provides users with an easy-to-use do-it-yourself logo creator on which they can generate custom logos based on 20,000 available symbols and a wide variety of fonts. I’ve spent the last 30 minutes looking at the various logo design samples on the site and playing around with the logo creator to try to come up with something cool for my Reviews and More header. I’ve got a few preliminary ideas here, but nothing solid yet. Fortunately, there are so many symbols, font options, and design ideas to choose from on LogoYes.com that I’m confident I’ll be running a brand-new logo in my header sometime soon!

I was also impressed by how affordable it is to get a high-resolution logo from LogoYes.com. In fact, the cost is so low that I’ll probably end up getting the Logo + Biz Card package instead of just the logo alone.

I’m going to try working on this over the next couple of weekends and will hopefully have everything ready to go within a month. I can’t wait to see how much better my site will look with a custom logo up there!

Last night’s episode of Burn Notice was another new one. I guess the series isn’t old enough to start airing repeats yet, which is definitely a good thing considering how slow the summer TV season has been this year. The latest ep was number 1×07 and was called “Broken Rules.” In it, we got the same basic Burn Notice formula that the writers have been using all season long, which I still think is an effective approach to the show. There were more confrontations between Michael and Jason Bly (Alex Carter), and I truly hope Bly isn’t done making appearances here. We also got another side job that Michael and crew were able to wrap up neatly.

Odd Job of the Week: All the small business owners in one of the Cuban neighborhoods are being extorted by an organized crime outfit run by a woman named Concha Ramirez (played by Idalis DeLeon). One of the store owners, Ernie Paseo (Esai Morales) is tired of forking over “protection” money all the time, so he gets in touch with Michael. He wants Michael to make Concha and her gang go away for good. In return, he’ll give Michael $20,000. Michael agrees to take the case, and gets $10,000 up front.

In order to squeeze out Concha, Michael has to make it look like someone else wants in on the territory. So he poses as a psycho thief and goes in to destroy the front part of Ernie’s store himself. Once Concha’s lackeys get wind of this, they let her know that someone else is trying to muscle in on their action.

Concha calls a meeting with Michael, eventually getting him to join her gang. Then, he teams up with Diego Cruz (Tony Perez) one of Concha’s assistant crime bosses in order to take her out. Michael doesn’t like that he essentially has to have someone killed, but he rationalizes it by saying that sometimes you have to do bad things for good reasons.

Burn Notice Progress: Michael and Jason Bly engage in an entertaining series of one-upmanship in this episode. For example, Michael starts by reading Jason’s credentials out loud to the crowd in a restaurant; Jason responds by setting Fiona up to take the fall as an arms dealer. Jason also offers Michael a chance to get a life by giving him job references and a credit history so he can work as a bank security guard on the night shift. If Michael doesn’t take the offer, Jason will start going after Michael’s friends and family.

Michael initially agrees to this proposal, but we soon see that it was just a ploy to buy some time. He then meets up with his money launderer friend named Barry to set up offshore accounts in Bly’s name to make it look like the agent is into illegal dealings. When Bly realizes what Michael did and the implications the offshore accounts have on his career, he has no choice but to give Michael whatever he wants. In this case, it’s the full burn notice dossier so Michael can see what’s really going on.

Character Development: Well, Fiona finally gets her way with Michael. They start to hash out what really happened to their relationship all those years ago, and end up sleeping together.

My Reaction: I was a bit disappointed with this episode on several different fronts. First of all, as I mentioned above, I hope this isn’t going to be the last we see of Jason Bly. I like him as Michael’s nemesis and thought they matched up very well together. But now that he’s given Michael the dossier, I don’t see any reason for him to stick around — especially since Michael still has all that doctored evidence against him. If those documents and photos were convincing enough to get Bly to turn over the classified dossier, then what is there that he won’t do for Michael. Bly has no leverage right now, so unless he can get some, he’s become useless to the government.

Second, I thought the OJotW plotline was pretty weak. Remember that scene where Michael walls in a car full of Concha’s thugs and starts jumping on the hood and trunk and drilling holes everywhere? I thought that was funny for all the wrong reasons. Like four guys would scream and not be able to react to ONE person doing that to them? And they couldn’t manage to pull out their guns until after the car was full of turpentine? Yeah, right. Also, I thought it was a bit too convenient that Diego was willing to roll over on Concha so easily.

And finally, I was disappointed in this ep because of the fact that Michael and Fiona slept together. I suppose this was inevitable since the writers kept bringing up their relationship and the flirting in every single episode so far, but still. I was hoping Fiona would just give up or something. Now I wonder where the writers are going to take this relationship. Will Michael and Fiona officially be a couple again, or was this all Fiona needed to get Michael out of her system. You know which option I’m pulling for!

One false step by Burn Notice in seven weeks isn’t so bad, I guess. Let’s hope the show rebounds next Thursday!