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January 23, 2011 12:55 PM Subscribe
Paulo Coelho to Sean Parker: Did you like the movie? (seven second time delay) (question at 4:40)
I had a hard time with the out of synch audio, and I had to look up who Sean Parker and Paulo Coelho are (and I didn't see the movie).
This said I was really hoping Sean hadn't seen the movie. There's few things that amuse me more than when someone gets all bent out of shape over a movie they haven't seen. It was a bit disappointing to see him be so rational about the whole thing. He called the movie fiction, then went on from there. Seems like a decent guy.
posted by cjorgensen at 2:05 PM on January 23, 2011
This said I was really hoping Sean hadn't seen the movie. There's few things that amuse me more than when someone gets all bent out of shape over a movie they haven't seen. It was a bit disappointing to see him be so rational about the whole thing. He called the movie fiction, then went on from there. Seems like a decent guy.
posted by cjorgensen at 2:05 PM on January 23, 2011
I don't have a computer, had to look up what the internet is, but I found the FAQ, so I could make a comment.
posted by found missing at 2:13 PM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by found missing at 2:13 PM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]
Paulo Coelho is kind of more interesting a person than his books would ever suggest. (Or at least the 100pp of that one that I did read...)
posted by From Bklyn at 2:34 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by From Bklyn at 2:34 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
A vanilla, self-deprecating, humble, oft-rehearsed answer... can't really blame the guy, it's nice he's handling it with poise, but you learn practically nothing from this response. Oh well.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 2:35 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by Solon and Thanks at 2:35 PM on January 23, 2011
It has to be pretty odd being one of the real people who are portrayed in the fictional account of real events of a movie that may win every award this time around. I can't imagine what that would be like.
Man, what I know -- and am glad I do not know -- is what it's gotta be like to walk into a room and have someone introduce you and have everyone else look around the room for Justin Timberlake. I'm more likely to get confused with Justin Timberlake than Parker is, and trust me when I say that I will never ever be mistaken for Justin Timberlake.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:39 PM on January 23, 2011
Man, what I know -- and am glad I do not know -- is what it's gotta be like to walk into a room and have someone introduce you and have everyone else look around the room for Justin Timberlake. I'm more likely to get confused with Justin Timberlake than Parker is, and trust me when I say that I will never ever be mistaken for Justin Timberlake.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:39 PM on January 23, 2011
Also, I watched far enough to see the spectacularly wealthy man talk about how awesome it is that no one can make money from music anymore. That's pretty cool, dude!
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:49 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:49 PM on January 23, 2011
About the time the film came out, Vanity Fair ran a profile of Sean Parker. It seems pretty genuine and nuanced to me. It jibes with my impressions from meeting Sean a couple of times in, oh, 2001. He was polite, humble, charismatic. And smart.
I think it's fascinating that The Social Network is simultaneously a great portrayal of exactly what being in a successful startup is like, inspired by true events, and yet also so thoroughly a work of fiction.
posted by Nelson at 2:55 PM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
I think it's fascinating that The Social Network is simultaneously a great portrayal of exactly what being in a successful startup is like, inspired by true events, and yet also so thoroughly a work of fiction.
posted by Nelson at 2:55 PM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
I don't think I'd ever seen Sean Parker speak before. Now I'm rather impressed not only with how well Aaron Sorkin captured his apparent rapid-fire communication style but also how well Justin Timberlake performed it.
posted by fuse theorem at 3:03 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by fuse theorem at 3:03 PM on January 23, 2011
Sean Parker seems more interesting than his character. That's something.
posted by mecran01 at 3:38 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by mecran01 at 3:38 PM on January 23, 2011
Man, that audio lag is disconcerting.
Parker is pretty funny.
Coelho seems a bit shifty, in the way that anyone who sells over 100,000,000 inspirational books seems a bit shifty.
posted by ovvl at 5:24 PM on January 23, 2011
Parker is pretty funny.
Coelho seems a bit shifty, in the way that anyone who sells over 100,000,000 inspirational books seems a bit shifty.
posted by ovvl at 5:24 PM on January 23, 2011
I guess it's useful to know that not only is Coelho my least favorite kind of novelist (I think my MetaFilter comment history backs that up), but he's also my least favorite kind of interviewer: You asked a really touchy question about a topic a lot of people are fairly curious about to a guy who is still willing to answer you in good faith, and you basically cut him off in the middle of it? Damn.
posted by kittyprecious at 7:22 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by kittyprecious at 7:22 PM on January 23, 2011
Justin Timberlake's Sean Parker seemed almost like a roguish but lovable con-man on the lam whose arrogance almost succeeds at concealing his sincere desire for you to like him. The real Sean Parker is smug and self-satisfied because he has nothing left to prove. Advantage: Timberlake.
posted by AlsoMike at 12:02 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by AlsoMike at 12:02 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
Also, I watched far enough to see the spectacularly wealthy man talk about how awesome it is that no one can make money from music anymore. That's pretty cool, dude!
Two spectacularly wealthy men, one of whom made his living, for a good twenty + years, writing songs and producing albums the other who, of course, founded/created napster. The irony is rich, if not frothy.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:25 AM on January 24, 2011
Two spectacularly wealthy men, one of whom made his living, for a good twenty + years, writing songs and producing albums the other who, of course, founded/created napster. The irony is rich, if not frothy.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:25 AM on January 24, 2011
From Paulo Coelho's wikipedia page:
"Paulo Coelho is a strong advocate of spreading his books through peer-to-peer file sharing networks. A fan posted a Russian translation of one of his novels online. Sales of his book jumped from 3,000 to one million in three years, with no additional promotion or publicity from his publishers. Coelho took to pirating his own books on Pirate Bay. Coelho provides free translations of many of his books. He was caught by the head of HarperCollins, Jane Friedman, who noticed that one of the unauthorized versions Coelho linked to had notes from his own manuscript. The two reached a compromise: each month a new novel can be read for free on the publisher's website. Due to the openness regarding his content, author Jeff Jarvis named Coelho 'the Googliest author' in his book What Would Google Do."
posted by hot soup girl at 5:19 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
"Paulo Coelho is a strong advocate of spreading his books through peer-to-peer file sharing networks. A fan posted a Russian translation of one of his novels online. Sales of his book jumped from 3,000 to one million in three years, with no additional promotion or publicity from his publishers. Coelho took to pirating his own books on Pirate Bay. Coelho provides free translations of many of his books. He was caught by the head of HarperCollins, Jane Friedman, who noticed that one of the unauthorized versions Coelho linked to had notes from his own manuscript. The two reached a compromise: each month a new novel can be read for free on the publisher's website. Due to the openness regarding his content, author Jeff Jarvis named Coelho 'the Googliest author' in his book What Would Google Do."
posted by hot soup girl at 5:19 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
kittens for breakfast: "Also, I watched far enough to see the spectacularly wealthy man talk about how awesome it is that no one can make money from music anymore. That's pretty cool, dude!"
I think that's a rather uncharitable reading of what he was saying. While he does seem to miss the point that some people may actually need to make money to keep making music, his perspective seems to be that art can be corrupted by money. Allowing people who can't afford to publish in the mainstream access to a wider audience is a good thing from his perspective. The collateral damage ("no one can make money from music anymore") may not be obvious to him, or it may be less important than the net good he sees. I'm not sure if we can tell which from a brief soundbyte during an interview with a decidedly pro-freedom-of-information author.
posted by This Guy at 10:23 AM on January 24, 2011
I think that's a rather uncharitable reading of what he was saying. While he does seem to miss the point that some people may actually need to make money to keep making music, his perspective seems to be that art can be corrupted by money. Allowing people who can't afford to publish in the mainstream access to a wider audience is a good thing from his perspective. The collateral damage ("no one can make money from music anymore") may not be obvious to him, or it may be less important than the net good he sees. I'm not sure if we can tell which from a brief soundbyte during an interview with a decidedly pro-freedom-of-information author.
posted by This Guy at 10:23 AM on January 24, 2011
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posted by hippybear at 1:05 PM on January 23, 2011