The Social Network, The Room, The Social Network
April 13, 2011 6:56 PM   Subscribe

 
Also known as The Metterling Lists Vol II.
posted by joannemullen at 7:00 PM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


I like to know what he thought of Just Kids then just the fact that he read it.
posted by The Whelk at 7:06 PM on April 13, 2011


I really need to keep a better track of all the media I consume. GoodReads and my XBox's profile thingy help, but they're not everything.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:15 PM on April 13, 2011


Why did he watch Raiders of the Lost Arc in black and white 3 times? Must be related to some film project he's working on
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:19 PM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


05/22 THE SOCIAL NETWORK, THE ROOM, THE SOCIAL NETWORK

That must have been one hell of a day.
posted by coolxcool=rad at 7:28 PM on April 13, 2011 [6 favorites]


Interesting to read this, considering that a guy like him is as likely (more likely?) to watch a movie for research or study purposes as to simply watch a movie.
posted by scrowdid at 7:35 PM on April 13, 2011


Oh, "Hi" Mark Zuckerberg!
posted by ShutterBun at 7:38 PM on April 13, 2011 [5 favorites]


Wow, this Haywire thing must be pretty awesome. He keeps watching it over and over again.
posted by Naberius at 7:39 PM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


Not sure if you're serious, Naberius, but it's the film he was making at the time(s).
posted by basicchannel at 7:43 PM on April 13, 2011


The dude's good. He read Infinite Jest in one day.
posted by greasy_skillet at 7:44 PM on April 13, 2011 [4 favorites]


(Haywire and Contagion are the two movies he shot last year. When they're on the list, he's watching dailies (during principal photography) or edits.)(Though I think he stopped listing Contagion because he realized it didn't quite fit with the intent of the list.)

This list is sort of what my list looks like, although I watch more movies and read fewer books than him. I'm guessing here, but I'd presume he isn't watching every entire movie when it's on the list. I'll often watch specific scenes or half-hour chunks of films or I'll cycle through a movie watching only one character's scenes or -- you get the idea. I'm watching with a very specific purpose. If I haven't seen something before or if it's been a long time, I'll watch it all the way through, though often I'll rewind midway through and watch a specific scene two or three times (which my wife just LOVES, I'm sure you can imagine).

a guy like him is as likely (more likely?) to watch a movie for research or study purposes as to simply watch a movie.

Every piece of media I consume is work. I'd venture Soderbergh is the same.
posted by incessant at 7:58 PM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


Wow, this Haywire thing must be pretty awesome. He keeps watching it over and over again.

Haywire is a movie he's working on... not sure what we mean by "consumed" here.
posted by jeremy b at 8:06 PM on April 13, 2011


The dude's good. He read Infinite Jest in one day.

Yeah, and you know what his motivation was? "This'll look so friggin' impressive on my list!!"
posted by jeremy b at 8:08 PM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


Is there context for this? How much of it does he have to consume for it to count?
posted by starman at 8:22 PM on April 13, 2011


why is consumption even an issue - it's just a .pdf with dates and works.
posted by past at 8:41 PM on April 13, 2011


This totally reminded me that season 4 of Breaking Bad is almost here.
posted by Arthur Phillips Jones Jr at 8:55 PM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


The dude's good. He read Infinite Jest in one day.

There's 4-5 days that are mostly empty before the start of a John Barth novel. It's not inconceivable the novel could be read in that time frame (I remember some early book reviewer complaining about having to have read it in three days) or it could of been either abandoned or read concurrently with other novels I suppose.
posted by bobo123 at 9:19 PM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


Eh, it's been done.
posted by kenko at 10:04 PM on April 13, 2011


Guy has sucky taste.

Yeah that's right I'm just gonna drop that in here like the rich heady smell of a stranger's sweaty unwashed dick in the next cubicle over.
posted by tumid dahlia at 10:18 PM on April 13, 2011


The dude's good. He read Infinite Jest in one day.

But did he understand it?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:56 PM on April 13, 2011


It would be even more interesting if the medium was noted ie. Infinite Jest in a trade paperback, Just Kids on an e-book reader.
posted by stbalbach at 11:03 PM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


I read Infinite Jest in a day. It's about tennis.
posted by IjonTichy at 11:12 PM on April 13, 2011 [3 favorites]


He gets big ups, for having The Ipress File, in there. Great great unique and quirky spy movie from '65, with Michael Caine, with some incredibly trippy elements to it. And just stunningy ahead of its time, too.

It's based on a Len Deighton novel, which is quite a bit different from the movie, but any how major Cold War paranoia.
posted by Skygazer at 11:24 PM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


I read Infinite Jest in a day. It's about tennis.

Well, thanks for ruining the book for me. Jerk.
posted by Skygazer at 11:36 PM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


"Apes don't read philosophy."
"Yes, they do, Otto. They just don't understand it."
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:00 AM on April 14, 2011


Every piece of media I consume is work.

Me too. I'm just breakin' rocks all day long.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:00 AM on April 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


This guy is like the Galactus of media consumption. I imagine the denizens of entire video/music stores and bookstores trembling at the approach of REDACTUS, DEVOURER OF WORDS.

It must suck to be his personal assistant: "To me, my herald! What new content have you found to quench my never-ending need for mental simulus? I HUNGER!"
posted by KingEdRa at 1:48 AM on April 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


All of the media consumed by Soderbergh in one year? BULL. SHIT. This is "All of the media Steven Soderbergh is willing to admit he consumed in a year".

Let me fill in a few holes for you.

04/12 30 minutes of MANSQUITO while flipping channels
04/14 Entertainment Weekly
04/14 BARELY LEGAL VIXENS 4
04/17 Maxim (Vol. 14, No. 4)
04/18 AMERICAN IDOL (1)
04/20 had insomnia, re-read Twilight series
04/24 BARELY LEGAL VIXENS 5
05/04 THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE (1)
05/15 Maxim (Vol. 14, No. 5)
05/16 FURRY VENGEANCE watched again for director's commentary
05/18 latest Sookie Stackhouse novel
05/30 THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS (6) - Bravo had a marathon
posted by graventy at 4:12 AM on April 14, 2011 [7 favorites]


Ditto graventy. Also, it doesn't list the Internet, which last time I checked counts as media.
posted by fungible at 4:43 AM on April 14, 2011


Dune? Dune?
posted by stargell at 5:47 AM on April 14, 2011


stargell: "Dune? Dune?"

... Fucking DUNE?
posted by bwg at 6:38 AM on April 14, 2011


Dune is David Lynch's second best science fiction film, after Dumbland.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:26 AM on April 14, 2011


I like to know what he thought of Just Kids then just the fact that he read it.

Trust me. You don't. My wife has read it. I've heard all about it.

I read Infinite Jest in a day. It's about tennis.

Also drugs, suicide, and ghosts. Four days is pretty hardcore (~5 hrs/day at least), but I figure that a lot of these books were read on airplanes. I'd like to see what his carbon footprint looks like.

I only looked at the books, but I thought his list was pretty good, probably because I've read or are reading a bunch of those books. I didn't get a whole lot of new reading suggestions, though. ...

I was more impressed by Sentimental Education in 2 days. Though I read and wrote a 10-page paper on Portrait of a Lady in one night, so most things are possible if you have time and stimulants.

Confession: I like Dune the movie better than Dune the book.
posted by mrgrimm at 7:53 AM on April 14, 2011


/This guy is like the Galactus of media consumption.

It doesn't seem unusual to me, it's at a fairly relaxed clip, if I'm on a tear for research or whatever I can easily blow through a few books a day, with noted.
posted by The Whelk at 8:43 AM on April 14, 2011


If you cut out TV time, which for most people is on average 3-4 hours a day, that's probably enough for everything on his list.
posted by stbalbach at 9:18 AM on April 14, 2011


If you cut out TV time, which for most people is on average 3-4 hours a day, that's probably enough for everything on his list.

Likewise, you free up a shitload of time if you cut out your kids. (I think his other child is much older.)
posted by mrgrimm at 10:59 AM on April 14, 2011


I like his Comically Basic Syllabus at the end.
posted by blucevalo at 11:01 AM on April 14, 2011


Nowhere does it say that he actually went from start to finish on any of these. Not that it matters, given how trivial the exercise is for all but Mr S himself and his most devoted fanatics, but, you know - it would have given a little more life and context to the thing. Plus I'd have a little more respect if I knew he had gotten a few pages, frames, minutes into something and just said, No, sorry, I can't, I just can't.
posted by IndigoJones at 2:27 PM on April 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


Where did this come from anyways?
posted by smackfu at 2:55 PM on April 14, 2011


Nowhere does it say that he actually went from start to finish on any of these.

Precisely, not to mention he's probably got an assistant or two (maybe more) researching things for him that he asks for and pointing him to certain parts of a work that fits his needs, and giving him summaries and synopsis's and such things like that, all of it in some way relating directly to his work.

So, this really is actually "work" technically speaking, as someone said above. But in the famous words of Gene Simmons when asked why he founded KISS:

It sure beats working.
posted by Skygazer at 2:57 PM on April 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


> I read Infinite Jest in a day. It's about tennis.

This reminds me of one of my high school English classes. We were assigned Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (also on this list, coincidentally.) Our teacher told us that if the philosophical Chautauquas were too dense for us we could skip them and just stick to the narrative.

...

What I'm trying to say is I like tennis, so I guess I'll pick up Infinite Jest on my Kindle.

Oh god, can you imagine the pain reading that on an ereader???
posted by m@f at 3:14 PM on April 14, 2011


Where did this come from anyways?

I actually saw it circulate on a few film blogs before I could track down attribution. It appears to be (via).
posted by shakespeherian at 3:56 PM on April 14, 2011


I'm sort of surprised at some of the comments of puzzlement.
The internet is full of blogs that are basically lists of what people read, watch and listen to - but in more detail.

Note Art Garfunkel has a list of books he has read from 1968 to 2009.
posted by Rashomon at 5:00 PM on April 15, 2011


Indeed, the Garfunkel thing has been noted here before.

I stand by my two cents
posted by IndigoJones at 5:40 PM on April 17, 2011


I'm sort of surprised at some of the comments of puzzlement.

I think people just expect famous people with good interesting lives to be less obsessive about things like making lists of all the movies and books they read.
posted by smackfu at 6:40 AM on April 18, 2011


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