Tag: books

Torg Favorite Books, Movies, Musical Artists and Shows

It’s TORG FAVORITE BOOKS, MOVIES, MUSICAL ARTISTS and TELEVISION SHOWS on this edition of the Torg Stories Podcast. 

BOOKS OR ESSAYS: Bill’s  Favorite Books or Essays of All Time…

(Anne’s lists appear further down on the page.)

  1. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby – came to this book through the film with John Cusack. Book set in London, Rob works in a record shop and visits ex girlfriends as a way to figure out his current relationship. Lots of lists! 
  2. Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. Rob writes about music and the mix tapes he finds as a way to write about the passing of his wife. 
  3. Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion writes about the year that follows after the passing of her husband. 
  4. “A & P” by John Updike – first time I realized stories could reflect my life
  5. “The Planet Trillaphon as it Stands in Relation to the Bad Thing” by David Foster Wallace as my favorite of a whole bunch of essays by Wallace that I like. 
  • Honorable mention: No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut, Wonderboys by Michael Chabon, Illusions by Richard Bach, “The Ecstasy of Influence” essay (not the collection) by Jonathathan Lethem, Missoula by Jon Krakauer, My Losing Season by Pat Conroy, On Writing by Stephen King, Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon, The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov, Moneyball by Michael Lewis, Catcher in the Rye by Salinger

MOVIES: Bill’s 5 Favorite Movies of All Time…

  1. Pulp Fiction – non linear story with some of my favorite actors including Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta, let’s check out LA! Capture the way a certain person talks with language that I don’t hear. Picked this over Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 
  2. No Country for Old Men – the force of evil and human beings inability to stop it but to try anyway, beautiful landscape, Tommy Lee Jones fan 
  3. High Fidelity (directed by Stephen Frears) – a more grown up and mature romantic comedy that comes after the 80s, lots of lists by the characters who work in the record store 
  4. Good Will Hunting – Robin Williams to Matt Damon: It’s not your fault! Genius movies are fun. 
  5. Moneyball – a sports story where someone (Billy Beane / Brad Pitt) has the courage to try something different and compete
  • Honorable mention: Say Anything, The Fugitive, Silence of the Lambs, The Green Mile, Secret Garden, The Shawshank Redemption, Unforgiven, Nodding Hill, Air, The Bourne Ultimatum 

MUSICAL ARTISTS OR GROUPS: Bill’s Favorite Musical Artists or Groups of All Time…

  1. The Killers – Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me, When We Were Young, Human. I saw them at Mohegan Sun in CT. 
  2. Noah Kahan – Mess, Homesick, Dial Drunk, She Calls Me Back, the collaborations, saw him in Nashville
  3. REO Speedwagon – Keep on Loving You, Take it on the Run, Time for Me to Fly, 
  4. Ed Sheeran – Castle on the Hill, Old Phone, Galway Girl 
  5. Def Leppard – cassette getting turned over and over, Hysteria album, Women, Rocket, Animal, Love Bites, Pour Some Sugar, Hysteria
  • Honorable mention: Luke Combs, The Outfield, Bare Naked Ladies, Rolling Stones, Prince, Liz Phair, Chappell Roan, Jackson Browne, Bob Seeger, Journey, ABBA  

SHOWS: Bill’s Favorite Shows of All Time…

  1. Ted Lasso – positive vibes with lots of 80s sports pop culture allusions that are funny and thought provoking 
  2. PTI – writing background of Tony and Wilbon, their chemistry as friends, the rundown 
  3. Daily Show with Jon Stewart – news with some funny commentary
  4. Saturday Night Live – live sketch comedy, Will Ferrell, Colin and Che, Marcello
  5. Seinfeld – the group of friends, uniqueness of George and Kramer 
  • Honorable Mention: Landman, Family Ties, Penguin, 

Anne’s BOOKS OR ESSAYS: Anne’s Favorite Books or Essays of All Time…

  1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  2. Dune by Frank Herbert
  3. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
  4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  5. The Once and Future King, by TH White
  • Honorable mention: Demons by Fyodor Doestoevsky, Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones series, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

MOVIES: Anne’s 5 Favorite Movies of All Time…

  1. The English Patient
  2. 2001: A Space Odyssey 
  3. Terminator
  4. The Princess Bride
  5. Spy
  • Honorable mention: The Silence of the Lambs, Titanic, Return of the Jedi, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Thin Red Line, Heat, My Name is Ivan, Dirty Dancing, The Sixth Sense, Gattaca, Goodfellas

MUSICAL ARTISTS OR GROUPS: Anne’s Favorite Musical Artists or Groups of All Time…

  1. Fleetwood Mac
  2. Bon Iver
  3. Bad Bunny
  4. Abba
  5. New Order
  • Honorable mention: The National, War on Drugs, Radiohead, The Antlers, Shelby Lynne, Silversun Pickups, Local Natives

SHOWS: Anne’s Favorite Shows of All Time…

  1. Chuck
  2. Game of Thrones
  3. Alias
  4. X-Files
  5. Wonderfalls
  • Honorable Mention: Sopranos, Remington Steele, Lost, Friends, Arrested Development, Bojack Horseman, The Americans

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast! 

Goodreads Giveaway

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/widget/79128
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A Viking on the Subway

urban fantasy, Vikings, science fiction, epic fantasy, thriller, mystery, suspense, Central Park, Astoria, Queens, Manhattan, Chinatown, ghosts, New York City

$7.99 Paperback

99 Cent eBook!

Kobo

Nook

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Horseshoe

Midwestern Gothic Horseshoe novel in stories

a Midwestern Gothic Novel

With stories including ones about runaway coffins, a midnight knocker, church healing services, and adulterous relationships, Horseshoe is a float down the river past themes exploring sin, guilt, faith, doubt, and redemption.

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

 

 

Love on the Big Screen

John Hughes, Molly Ringwald, Sixteen Candles

a coming of age novel in the spirit of Say Anything and High Fidelity

  •  Everything Zuke knows he gets from the movies, most of them late-eighties romantic comedies.
  • You can read the first chapter of Love on the Big Screen as a (downloadable pdf).
  • Listen to a sample from the audio book.
  • Read a sample and purchase from Amazon.

 

Short Story “Twilight” in

Suicidally Beautiful

Flushing Queens golf sports New York

  •  $5  “Twilight,” is a short story inspired by the twilight rate at a golf course I worked at in Queens. It appears in a sports anthology entitled Suicidally Beautiful. 

For the Love of Books

book club, good books, great reads, Kathy Patrick

a documentary film about Kathy Patrick and the Pulpwood Queens

If you’ve got questions, comments, or just want to say hello, I encourage you to write me at <William.Torgerson@gmail.com>.

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Dear Reader,

Ever since a former professor of mine introduced me to the idea that writing floats on a sea of conversation, I’ve thrived on the energy that is derived from interacting with others who care about stories and the teaching of writing. I’m a writer and filmmaker who teaches in the Institute For Writing Studies at St. John’s University in New York. I’d really appreciate it if you wrote me a note to say hello. Thank you so much for stopping by the website!

     Yours in Books,

     Bill Torgerson

     William.Torgerson@gmail.com

 

 

 

Which novel title would you be more likely to be interested in?

Not a How-To Post on Documentary Filmmaking

In order to spark conversation, I thought I’d take a quick run through my process of making the documentary film, For the Love of Books. I invite questions, requests for more of an explanation, and most of all suggestions for improvement.

documentary filmmaking, how to, step by step

  1. As a longtime fan of documentary films and a writer of scripts, the catalyst that sparked me into action to try and make my own film came as I attended the Rhode Island International Film Festival.  
  2. While watching a block of shorts, I saw a film called Two’s a Crowd. It was about a Manhattan Jewish couple who had maintained separate apartments during their marriage but because of economic circumstances, they’d decided to finally move in together. I remember a line: “I can get married or move in together, but I can’t do both.”
  3. Two brothers made the film. I thought it was funny and interesting about relationships. I turned to my sister and said, “We can do this.”
  4. A plan was hatched to do a short film about my father and his morel mushroom hunting buddies. (now in progress)
  5. I have a MacBook from St. John’s University I use for work. My wife has one too. I decided I would be an Apple guy and that I would look for a camera that worked well with Apple and the company’s software program, Final Cut Pro X.
  6. I purchased an iMac with the largest screen possible. I purchased their video editing software Final Cut Pro X. 
  7. I might use the wrong computer jargon here, but I’ll do my best and correct me if you find mistakes. You’re going to need a lot of RAM. I think of this as working memory.  The iMac often comes with 4 GB of RAM. I have since upgraded to 16 GB.  It was very easy to do this myself. Just involved a few screws. Apple charges a lot for their RAM. Buy it and install it yourself.
  8. You are going to need an external hard drive. Final Cut Pro X will work much better if your video is stored on an external hard drive so the desktop processor is free to run the video editing software.
  9. Sometime after I bought my computer and before I bought the camera, I started to think about the crazy costumes of the Pulpwood Queens. I thought they’d look great on camera. I emailed Kathy Patrick and asked her if I could bring my camera down to Jefferson, Texas and film some of the events.

my camera: the JVC GY-HM150U

  1. A couple days before my trip to Jefferson, I purchased the JVC GY-HM150U from B & H photo. I purchased memory cards, a bag to carry the camera in, and an extra battery.
  2. I read Anthony Q. Artis’s book, Shut Up and Shoot. It gave me a lot to consider before I began shooting.
  3. I thought a film needed a through story, something a viewer could watch from beginning to end. The only story I could think of (maybe the only story I had access to) was my own story of being nervous and travelling to Jefferson for the Pulpwood Queens’ party. 
  4. I decided to shoot at 24P. I kind of wish I would have just shot in HD.  I may not have even described this right.
  5. I did what I could to shoot footage of the journey. This included still photos and video of airports, my rental car, the state line, sites along the way, and the “Jefferson” sign as I entered town. Except for when my battery ran out, I videoed everything that happened at Girlfriend Weekend.
  6. What story are you telling? How can you “show” it? I tried to feel out a story as the weekend passed. I knew I had to have an ending. I was on the lookout for it.
  7. It wasn’t long until I wished I’d bought a tripod. 
  8. Other mistakes? forgot to white balance the camera, didn’t know my camera had a “stabilization” button, ran out of battery in the middle of great footage, and I once had the mic facing the wrong direction.
  9. As you fill up your memory cards, where will you put the video? I had a MacBook and an external drive that I put footage onto at night. The files are enormous.
  10. Kathy Patrick introduced me to the crowd as a documentary filmmaker. I had a camera. As far as anyone knew, I was a documentary filmmaker. I tried to start acting like one. I focused on trying to capture the experience of the Pulpwood Queens’ Girlfriend Weekend. The more I filmed, the braver I got and the more I was willing to stick my camera into the action. I asked people questions and filmed their answers. 
  11. I wasn’t determined to make a documentary film. I wanted to learn to use my camera and get some experience. My experience with the Pulpwood Queens motivated me to see the film to completion.
  12. Having been introduced as a documentary filmmaker,  (rather than a guy who bought a camera) I was approached by Brooklyn-based photographer Natalie Brasington.  She offerred her still photographs to the film. I believe this is one of the key events that allowed the film to be completed. 
  13. I connected via Facebook with my old high school basketball rival and friend Jeremy Vogt. He offerred his music to the project.
  14. I took Apple workshops on Final Cut Pro X  at the Apple store on West 14th Street in Manhattan.  It was during these courses that I also learned about Larry Jordan and his book Final Cut Pro X: Making the Transition.  
  15. I essentially wrote an essay about the Pulpwood Queens. I cut it in half and read the first half of it to open the film. I used Natalie’s photographs to illustrate it. I added Jeremy’s music. I did the same for the end.

Hope this gives you an idea of my process

Love to hear questions and suggestions

Thanks for reading!

The Movie Poster is Out! by Natalie Brasington

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I’m excited to share with you the movie poster created by photographer Natalie Brasington for the premiere of our film, For the Love of Books.  It will screen as part of the inaugural Phenom Film Festival in Shreveport, Louisiana at the Bossier Civic Center on Saturday, September 8th at 6:00 PM.  I’ve heard rumors that Kathy Patrick is planning a party.  I’ll be there!

documentary film movie Kathy Patrick John Berendt Robert Leleux film festival William Torgerson St. John's University Love on the Big Screen Horseshoe

pictured from left to right:  author John Berendt, a close up of Robert Leleux, Kathy Patrick with a pretty hat on, Wade Rouse in a tie, and a chapter of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club

Can you help me out and let me know which Pulpwood Queen chapter is pictured?  If you’ll enter your email into the box below, I’ll write you a note and say hello.  Thanks for checking out the site!

Movie trailer can be viewed here.

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