Fred Seibert's Blog

Some people get their cultural from comics, or movies, or the ponies. Me, it’s work, music, and books. And when my friend and NNN/tumblr investor Bijan Sabet posted about Goodreads, which he said was “sort of like last.fm for books” it reminded me what a reading junkie I am. Interestingly, my years in cartoons have once again proven to me that even the most interesting animators are the most curious, often well read, people. So, while I’m on vacation, aside from reading, I thought it might be useful to review my year’s reading list so far. Since I now read almost everything on my Kindle, my shelves aren’t quite as burdened as the picture above, but, it’s still a heavy load.

(By the way, for those who wonder, like I do, when I get the time, I read in the elevator, the subway, taxis, airplanes, and when I put my kids to bed.)

I’m not going to post about the billions of picture books I’m always getting (like the incredible “Wacky Packages”, a must have,

a five Frederator read ) because this post would go on even longer.

Rhythm and the Blues by Jerry Wexler and David Ritts

(a four Frederator read)

I posted when I started this book last week. It follows the story of an atheist New York Jew who fell in love with the rhythm of Black America and found his love in bringing the story to the world. The great record producer of everyone from Aretha Franklin to Ray Charles to Bob Dylan to Wilson Pickett (and hundreds more) Jerry is one of my prime professional role models and I’m inspired to hear his stories as often as I can. He follows the credo of “Does it have heart? Make it!”

Hit and Run by Lawrence Block

Mystery fiction is the beginning and the end for me. In fact, I can’t remember when the last time I read anything else. I love Lawrence Block because he writes genre books as if they were “serious” fiction, and I read him always ending up feeling more of the human condition when I’m done. Block is an exceptional writer [Read more…]

As usual, I’m very late to the party, but I wanted to say a few words about Floyd Bishop’s fabulous Pixar debate.

(Immediate background: I just returned from seeing WALL-E with my family. My 13 year old was somewhat bored but appreciated the theme; my 11 year old saw it for the second time, surprised how much he loved it the first time out; my wife loved it both times she saw it; I was way impressed but not deeply engaged.)

I love everything Pixar does, for every reason imaginable, not the least being it’s the only studio (Frederator excluded, of course) that relies on animator trained folks as their primary writers (Lasseter, Stanton, Doctor, Bird, et al). And it really shows in the unique quality of the movies. And, of course, [Read more…]