Craig Lieske <garbageisland@hotmail.com> wrote: I really was underwhelmed by the DVD. I felt like that it was sort of an ego trip on the director's part. It just wasn't that interesting, outside of the musical footage.... CL Well . . . depends on whether you think the film belongs to Claudia Heuremann (?) or John Zorn. In my view, "Bookshelf" is first & foremost the filmmaker's film; it's her story. If we're talking ego trips, you could easily say that Zorn's work is one great, long extended ego trip. But where does that get us? Ego trips are what make art interesting. For me, the glory of that film is that, in her work as a documentary film maker, she managed to make a work of art out of her obsession. Most of the rest of us have merely bookshelves and CD shelves and video shelves to show for it - all the way up to the sky and heavy with product. That she personalised the film, that she structured it as the story of her quest to get the film made at all, and that she so successfully avoided the straight-ahead, matter-of-fact documentary format that you get all the time on TV, in my humble opinion, made it all the more appealing. When she talks about hearing Torture Garden for the first time & how it changed her life, you immediately think of the first time you heard Zorn & how music was never quite the same ever again. I'm amazed she could limit her stories to 12. There are probably a million stories relating to the work of John Zorn, about the kind of things people do with his music - I used to use Spillane as part of a lesson in narrative tense for English language students, for example - or along with his music, or because of it, or in spite of it, or - you know. What other stories are out there about the influence of Zorn? What have people been moved to achieve, or do, or become, in their own lives because of the sheer inspirational energy of the man & his art? Has his music changed people's life paths in the manner of Claudia Heuermann? I bet I'm not the only one who wants to know. c