Olsson's: Event News

Olsson's is a locally Owned & Operated, Independent chain of six book and recorded music stores in the Washington, D.C. area, started by John Olsson in 1972. As Event Coordinator, Tony Ritchie handles the author readings at our stores. Each week he blogs about his experiences.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

John Schwartz

Mardi Gras has come and gone. Now what are we supposed to do with ourselves?

Well, Television still sucks but at least movies are picking up. I went to see "The Savages" recently. Wow. If you have seen it, I will say, 'wasn't that messed up?'

If you have not, then you should. You should see it for Philip Seymour Hoffman at the very least. He has been bumped to "Greatest Character Actor Ever" in my eyes. Given the work he has done recently on this film, Charlie Wilson's War, Happiness, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and Capote, it is obvious to me that he deserves more than the single Oscar he has gotten. Any actor that can deliver the phrase, 'I sharted' (Along Came Polly) with the same conviction as he pitches the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan (Charlie Wilson's War) gets my vote every time.

While I was watching previews for the film--and not having popcorn, which is huge for me. I love popcorn-- I saw a preview for another messed up film. This one is called "Reservation Road" and is about a hit and run. It looks pretty intense and something I will be checking out when it hits theatres. Before it was a movie, it was a book. the book was written by John Burnham Schwartz.

In an odd twist of fate, John will be at our Dupont store on Tuesday February 12th. You could come out and hear him read from his latest book, "The Commoner" and ask him the question on everyone's mind. "Where in the hell do you come up with this crazy junk?" Of course, you would have to play nice and listen to what he has to say about this new book before you start hitting him over the head about an older one.

He looks like such a nice man. Why do the nice ones write about the most messed up books? This should be a clue to Dads everywhere, the freaky, tattooed guy your daughter brings home? He is probably okay. It is the clean-cut guy in the shirt and sweater that you need to worry about. He is the one dreaming up strange scenarios with kids getting run over by cars.

So that is the event for this week. Just in case you were wondering about the status of my book club, I have had a handful of people throw their hats at the computer screen (good one Raj) I am on the verge of getting it sorted out. I have gone so far as to set up a separate folder in my Outlook for the book club members. I will get with you all this week and we will figure out a day to meet up. I have not forgotten you, it has just been one of those weeks.

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Tony Ritchie is settling into the job of Events Cordinator. He has been working with authors and books for the last three years, two in London at Waterstone's and one here in the U.S. He reads lots of new fiction and is partial to debut novels. He is an occasional vegetarian and a non-practising Buddhist who watches documentaries, enjoys long walks on the beach and is training for the Olympics.

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