Joe M. O'Connell: June 2007

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The illusion of film flab

Wonder why Americans have a skewed view of weight? I recently watched Knocked up, Judd Apatow's very well done film about becoming a parent. First off, I thought it was very weird that people brought their kids to this film. I figure either they're either seeing too much or getting very bored. I think I personally would have looked at this film in a completely different light a couple of years ago. Now that I'm a parent, it's spot on. This is very close to what I went through, including my wife's doctor being out of town for the birth (not nearly as uncommon as you'd think in the days of HMOs).

But here's what really bugged me: At one point Seth Rogen, the supposed fat guy of the film, tells us he's over 200 pounds. He's also clearly standing no more than 5'8" (although imdb lists him at 5'11"! Which if it's true means the Katherine Heigl--listed at 5'8" on imdb--and the entire cast of Grey's Anatomy is towering, including Sandra Oh (listed at 5'6"), T.R. Knight (listed at 5'8") and Ellen Pompeo (listed at 5'7")and--Hah!--Patrick Dempsey, the tiny guy of '80s films (who is listed at a whopping 5'10 1/2"!!!).

Don't even get me started on Paul Rudd, who lists his height at 5'9" but is clearly tiny with a giant head.

The truth: Rogen probably weighs in at about 160 lbs. He has the slightest hint of a gut. If they wanted a fat guy to knock up Heigl, how about Jonah Hill?

The truthiness: Every actor's height is fudged by two inches on imdb, and their age (down) by two years. Take it from the people at bigheadedpygmies.com. It's all a big, not-so-fat lie.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Austin Chronicle cover

Lesson #1: Beware of sending a mass email about your ugly mug appearing on the cover of The Austin Chronicle. Your friends, family and near strangers will start throwing taunts back and forth. It can be interesting.

Look here for an excerpt the Chronicle ran of my novel.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Of cover shoots and columns

I was among six authors who met up at an Austin grocery store Friday for a cover shoot for this coming week's cover of The Austin Chronicle. I hid in the back, but expect my melon head to still show up there this coming Thursday. They also will run a brief excerpt of my upcoming novel Evacuation Plan.

Oh, and check out my lastest column in the Dallas Morning News.

What they're saying about EVACUATION PLAN

"Tales alternately gentle, dramatic, surrealistic, that collectively affirm the beauty of being alive, even as they acknowledge that all of us face the necessity of making our own 'evacuation plan.' "
-- Brad Buchholz, Austin American-Statesman

" The chapters about Matt and the short stories demonstrate O’Connell’s ability to develop sympathetic, true-to-life characters using intriguing details and compelling dialogue. The stories remind us of those times when a brief encounter with a stranger left us wondering about that person’s past. In Evacuation Plan, O’Connell satisfies that curiosity. "
-- The Texas Observer

"It was very hard for me to put this book down. It carries us through the deepest meaning in life and most painful, most hopeful memories for a wide range of fascinating characters. Based in a hospice, this book could have easily resorted to cheap sensationalism, or whacked us upside the head with stereotypic melodrama, but instead it was respectful, honest, and tender. The characters will stay with you - you may even recognize some of them within your own life. "
-- Award-winning author Carmen Tafolla

"An excellent, thought-provoking diversion from our own inevitable plummet toward the grave, and we highly recommend it to you, the living."
-- Wayne Alan Brenner, The Austin Chronicle

"O’Connell has drawn some colourful and believable characters. The material relating to the hospice and terminal care rings true, all the way to reconciliation and forgiving."
-- Dr. Roger Woodruff, International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care

"The tales are nicely written, and some are quite compelling; “The Male Nurse,” for one, is a dreamlike reverie."
-- Texas Monthly

“Evacuation Plan: A Novel From The Hospice by Joe M. O'Connell is nothing short of remarkable … a novel that walks hand-in-hand with death and yet, somehow, the reader finishes the book feeling inspired to live.”
– The Paisano

"A wonderful blend of lives ordinary but with sometimes extraordinary elements. We all share these stories of life in some way, despite moments of harshness or unforgiving pain. There is always a common thread of humanity and ultimately forgiveness to be found, even if it's in the last moment of life."
-- Elaine Williams, author of A Journey Well Taken

"Reading Evacuation Plan is akin to unwrapping a series of small perfectly-chosen presents. Both human and humane, The book resembles a modern Spoon River Anthology with its vivid, touching glimpses into the lives of those in and around a hospice."
-- Tim McCanlies, screenwriter The Iron Giant, writer/director Secondhand Lions

"In Evacuation Plan Joe O'Connell does for the process of dying what Sherwood Anderson did for middle America in Winesburg, Ohio--he shows us in brief flashes the aching beauty of the grotesque, and shows us how extraordinary small lives and quiet deaths can be."
--John Blair, Drue Heinz Literature Prize winning author of American Standard

"Here's a book so rich with stories of the living, so filled with people's bountiful problems, as well as incidents of wry forgiveness, one realizes over and over the circling forces of life's completeness. It's not a sad tale nor a needless feel-good account but a balanced, sometimes comic, affirmation of what is here and what we all know is waiting."
-- Carolyn Osborn, award-winning short story writer

"The broken, the hopeful, the frustrated, the clueless, and the forgiving touch one another with words, remembrances, and hands. Inevitably, readers will quietly wonder about their own evacuation plan."
-- Will's Texana Monthly

O'Connell's protagonist skillfully navigates under the guise of a writer seeking raw materials for his craft in the stories of the dying, but mines and refines instead the stuff we're all made of. In this finely crafted novel, we come away with much more than the astute observation that many of the best stories begin at the end. But, then again, that notion is also worth a lot.
--Jesse Sublett, cancer survivor, rocker and author of Never the Same Again

"Joe O'Connell's Evacuation Plan--this Decameron of the hospice--encompasses a paradox. Death comes for everyone, but death is the only human universal because everyone dies, and witnesses dying, with private, unspeakable shame. Yet there are a few minutes left to speak. As people die, they tell stories which spawn new stories, which remind us that death is agony, a violent struggle, but so is living."
-- Debra Monroe, Flannery O'Connor Award winning author of Newfangled and Shambles

Joe M. O'Connell

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The illusion of film flab

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Austin Chronicle cover

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Of cover shoots and columns

About Me

What they're saying about EVACUATION PLAN

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