Bob, at 8 kids and 39 grandkids, this guy has WAY beaten you at the evolution game. That's 47 votes to your family's... 5? (including you and your brother)
Welcome to democracy. Demographics is destiny, bitch.
From page 48 on my copy of his book.
Instead, my college and film pursuits filled my time. Working at Blockbuster (and then Suncoast Video, and then Blockbuster again) helped me channel my growing film vocabulary into a useful job skill, but more importantly it afforded me the ability to make friends of coworkers. These turned out to be the most genuine and lasting friendships I’d had in my life thus far, and a particular assemblage of pals culled from that first Blockbuster job became a posse of like-minded movie buffs with whom I started an independent filmmaking outfit—today, several of them are frequent collaborators in the production of “The Game OverThinker.”
Then on page 49.
Meanwhile, my second Blockbuster job led me to what seemed at the time like a stroke of great fortune: an older gentleman (who will remain nameless) came in asking if he could leave some flyers—turns out, he was starting up a film criticism show for local cable-access television and was looking for on-air talent. Store policy said I had to tell him no, but it said nothing about me volunteering for the position myself. After a set of meetings and conversations, I was hired to do the show along with this person and a female co-host. The resulting show was… what you’d expect from local cable, but it was exposure and a chance to work on my “craft,” such as it was. I was the colorful member of the team, the younger guy with the wild opinions and the deeper film knowledge. It was a fun time… while it lasted.
Then back to page 50.
My time at Blockbuster (number 2) ended soon after that (around 2005, if I recall correctly), but my ongoing friendship with a coworker from the first Blockbuster was able to finagle me a job with him at Best Buy, where I soon found myself moved from a morbid grind in the appliances department (“Yes, we can swap the hinges on that fridge.” “Yes, the ice-maker needs to be hooked up to a water supply”) to the DVD, music and video-games department that was in those days the profit-driving centerpiece of any big electronics store. By then I’d been selling movies for almost a decade, and while my time away from the medium left me a little shaky on the names and faces (who were all these people and creatures on the Xbox and PS2 boxes?) the skill set translated to selling games pretty handily. As you’ll no doubt intuit, it was hard to be around video games – even as a salesman – and not be drawn back toward them. But, in truth, I’d been nudging my way back for awhile by then.
Seriously do a text search for "blockbuster" in his book. There's a LOT of instances.
Also bonus notice:
I’d never gotten much of a sense that anything was especially “off” about the guy running the show. I knew he was fairly conservative politically – ex-military and an ex-cop – but it had never come up in any kind of negative way. But upon the release of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ” and the controversy surrounding it something seemed to change in him. I was fairly certain both co-hosts knew that I’d seen the film and hadn’t cared for it, and expected it would make a good show when we sat down to review it. Instead, I got a phone call, and an unnervingly scary life experience.
My employer (though, for the record, I wasn’t technically being “paid” for my services on the show) summoned me to a “meeting” in his van, in an empty parking lot early in the morning. He did freelance security work (or he said he did, at least), and was “on the job.” This set off more red flags than I could count, but I showed up to meet him. He presented me with a printout of a scathing blog review I’d posted after seeing the film the first time, and wanted to know what I had “against Jesus Christ.” Unwisely, I offered that my objection was to the anti-Semitism in the film and was told “Those people had ‘Schindler’s List,’ now this is our turn”… I was then told that he would be using the “Passion” discussion as an occasion to promote the film’s “positive message,” and that if I wouldn’t go along (by saying I liked the movie) my time on the show would be over.
And that was that. I never heard from the guy again, but I know his show didn’t last long without me. I’m told he’d behaved in a manner (because it’s hearsay I won’t get into specifics) that disturbed the production staff during the taping of the “Passion” episode, and that my name had come up, which had me walking around more than a little paranoid for a few weeks; but nothing ever came of it.
I'm starting to think that incident formed his opinion of right-wing folks more than we realize...
Actually sounds a lot like Bob too. I dunno what is up with that area of Mass. but it seems to produce a whole horde of "temporarily embarrassed nobles."
at anyone that believes that.
