Tag: Moby Awards

Jonathan Franzen Is the Worst, Monkey Sex, and Other Highlights from the 2011 Moby Awards

BibliokleptLeave a comment

Book folks gathered last night in Brooklyn to celebrate the best in worst in book trailers, as indie publisher Melville House handed out their second annual round of Moby Awards.  Gary Shteyngart and Tao Lin were on hand to sanctify the ceremony, along with a who’s-who of internet literati, including Laura Miller (Salon), Blake Butler (HTML Giant), Jason Boog (GalleyCat), Patrick Brown (GoodReads), Andy Hunter (Electric Literature), C. Max Magee (The Millions), Troy Patterson (Slate), and Dennis Johnson, founder of Melville House. From the press release—

The full list of recipients for this year’s award—a golden whale—is as follows:

 

Lifetime Achievement Award:

–Ron Charles – Acceptance Speech

 

Grand Jury/We’re Giving You This Award Because Otherwise You’d Win Too Many Other Awards:
–Super Sad True Love Story – Gary Shteyngart

 

Book Trailer As Stand Alone Art Object:

–How Did You Get This Number? – Sloane Crosley

 

Best Big House:

–Packing for Mars – Mary Roach

 

Worst Big House:

–Savages – Don Winslow

 

Best Small House:

–Tree of Codes – Jonathan Safran Foer

 

Worst Small / No House:

–Pirates: The Midnight Passage – James R. Hannibal

 

Worst Performance by an Author:

–Jonathan Franzen – Freedom

 

Most Celebtastic Performance

–James Franco – Super Sad True Love Story

 

What Are We Doing To Our Children?

–It’s A Book – Lane Smith

 

General Technical Excellence and Courageous Pursuit of Gloriousness:

–Electric Literature

 

Most Monkey Sex:
–Bonobo Handshake – Vanessa Woods

 

Worst Soundtrack:

–GhostGirl

 

Most Angelic Angel Falling to Earth:
–Torment – Lauren Kate

 

Most Conflicted

–TCooper – Beaufort Diaries

 

Moby Award Winners Announced; Zach Galifianakis (and Other Less Famous People) Honored

BibliokleptLeave a comment

The Moby Award Winners were announced last night for best, worst, and, uh, other book trailers. From Melville House’s press release:

The winners of the first Moby Awards for Best and Worst Book Trailers were announced earlier tonight before a standing-room-only crowd at a black tie ceremony held at New York’s chic Griffin club. Organized by the MobyLives book blog, the event included book industry celebrities such as author John Wray and critic Dale Peck handing out awards to, among others, Dennis Cass for Best Performance by an Author, Jonathan Safran Foer for Most Annoying Performance by an Author, and Zach Galifianakis for Best Cameo. Kathryn Regina won for best trailer from an independent publisher, and Maurice Gee won for best trailer from a conglomerate publisher.

“The idea was to spoof the fact that the book business too often looks to the movie business as a model,” said organizer and master of ceremonies Dennis Johnson, founder of MobyLives. “But as it turned out some writers make some pretty good videos and there was something to celebrate after all.”

Winners were selected by members of the MobyLives Academy, and included book industry luminaries Colin Robinson of OR Books, Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times, Megan Halpern of Melville House, Jason Boog of Galley Cat, Ina Howard Represent, Inc. Troy Patterson of Slate.com.

Winners received a statuette of a golden whale. “The only problem was it was a gray whale,” said Johnson. “Sperm whales, as Captain Ahab could tell you, are very hard to locate.”

Zach Galifianakis snagged one for his “work” on the trailer for John Wray’s Lowboy:

You can see all winning videos at MobyLives.

Here’s the full list of winners; some awards seem to have been arbitrarily invented for the occasion, which is absolutely marvelous with us, of course:

Trailer Least Likely to Sell the Book:
Sounds of Murder by Patricia Rockwell

Best Performance by an Author:
Head Case by Dennis Cass

Most Annoying Performance by an Author:
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Best Cameo:
Zach Galifianakis, in Lowboy by John Wray

Best Low Budget/Indie:
I Am in the Air Right Now by Kathryn Regina

Best Big Budget/Big House:
Going West by Maurice Gee

Biggest Waste of Conglomerate Money:
Level 26 by Anthony Zuiker

Best Foreign Film Book Trailer:
Etcetera and Otherwise: a Lurid Odyssey by Sean Stanley, illustrated by Kristi-ly Green

Bloodiest Book Trailer of the Year:
Killer by Dave Zeltserman

Most Annoying Music:
New Year’s At the Pier by April Halprin Wayland