just call me horchata

Summer weather hit in a mere 1.5 days.

I picked these up while out today.

It amuses me how many "documentaries with a cause" are proliferating on the net these days. It's a good thing, of course, but after watching a few that were worthless, I've found that I need to be wary.

Part of the producer manipulation is to design an image that looks like the cover on a professional DVD case. At the top there will usually be two or three "awards" with the gold branches around them, a la Cannes style.

The awards will usually be nominations or honorable mentions instead of winners, and they will be obscure, something like "nominated for best picture, Hooterville Film Festival." lol.

Be wary. Video time wasters abound. Well, my blog is a time waster, so what can I say.

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Book reviews are next. Random mainstream book reviews on the net, in newspapers, in magazines, are corrupt nearly at 100%. Almost all of them are press releases by the publisher. It amazes me how many reviewers will endlessly paraphrase and redact the press releases to make it seem like they have read the book. It's usually transparent enough to be laughable.

Example:

If you are looking for a book on technology, never ever trust a review on the tech site Slashdot. The reviewer has NOT read the book. I can guarantee it.

Example:

Amazon. Actually reviews on Amazon can be quite good on occasion. Buyer beware. What's real and what's fake can blend pretty seamlessly. The comments from readers have to be evaluated with a steely eye. If the book is controversial or political, people with opposing viewpoints will expend a lot of energy smearing a book they've never read. Also watch out for Amazon "Top 500" or "Top 100" reviewers. I find them worthless, totally bought and paid for.

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For worthwhile reviews on books, I like to rely on reviews from other quality writers or people with whom I'm familiar. Sometimes reviews from other writers are weak in that one writer might be calling in a favor on another, but I usually find them to be reliable.

For science fiction, an endorsement from Isaac Asimov (he dead!) or Cory Doctorow would be trustworthy. There are many others.

For social and political issues, I would view a wink from Isabel Allende or Noam Chomsky as positive. OMG, now you're going to call me an anti-Semitic communist.

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One more caveat, a free online sample or chapter doesn't mean a lot. Often the free sample is absolutely the only good part of the book. The rest can be crap.

Contrast this with Cory Doctorow putting everything online for free. If you don't like what you've read with him, all you wasted is your time. At least you weren't deceived to get you to pay up.

Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. The title in Spanish: Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina.

It's an oldie, 1971, but many themes are universal and long-term. So much applies right to the present day.

It's everything I expected and overwhelmingly much much more. OMG. I've been a student of that area of the world for a long time, so no surprises, just the usual difficulty in processing it.

With a failing mainstream press and bat-shit-crazy politics the norm, books are still where it's at in so many ways.

I think I'll get a framed print of this to go over my bed.

I've always thought that the electric shopping carts stores put out were a good idea. This spiffy roadster pulled up at the pharmacy counter.

This one was rather competently driven by an elderly man. Usually they are driven by people who couldn't put down the buckets of fried chicken for twenty years.