After 13 years outside Boston, Erik, Veronica and Thomas now live just outside San Diego.
Erik as he prefers to have his picture taken
Erik has a Master’s degree in English and an undergrad degree from Pacific University with a double major in literature and creative writing. His former places of employment include numerous bookstores, like Powells, the Brookline Booksmith, Barnes and Noble and an idiotic company named Borders that drove itself into the ground. For six years, he was the Project Coordinator for A New Nation Votes, a vital project for learning about early American political history, something which he is very proud of and which is now complete. After moving to San Diego, he landed as a Metadata Specialist with the San Diego State University Digital Collections.
Veronica (Martzahl) has her Master of Library and Information Science and MA in history from Simmons College in Boston. She is a Records Manager – Archivist with San Diego County.
Veronica in June of 2006
Thomas in July of 2008
Thomas is their amazing and wonderful 17 year old son.
News from the San Diego Becks 
9 May, 2010 at 1:44 am
Hi!
I am Malcolm from The Final Oscar and I am cordially inviting you to a smackdown. It’s the SMACKDOWN: 1995 BEST PICTURE. The nominees for that year are:
Apollo 13
Babe
Braveheart
Il Postino
Sense and Sensibility
If you confirm or reject your participation in this smackdown, please reply to this mail. If you have any inquiries, just mail me at mylastoscar@gmail.com
Submission of Analysis: May 20, 2010
Posting of Results: May 23, 2010
For more details, you can just visit my site: mylastoscar.wordpress.com
Thanks for the time and I hope you’ll join!
Malcolm
5 October, 2010 at 3:10 am
Cool blog. Thomas must be one of the youngest members of wordpress!!
28 December, 2010 at 10:43 pm
How did you see “East Lynne” and “The White Parade” ? Did you go to UCLA to view the films?
29 December, 2010 at 9:34 am
Actually, I haven’t seen either. If you read the various years, you’ll see I discuss the films and how they ended up getting nominated, but I have yet to see either of those two.
13 June, 2011 at 10:41 pm
I stumbled upon your blog and I just have to say that I love your book reviews! Great taste in literature and film! Our lists are comparable. I’ll keep on checking your blog. :)
6 October, 2011 at 11:29 am
If you think that Margaret Atwood is Canada’s finest novelist you should check out Cordelia Strube, author of eight bleakly funny urban edgy novels. I would recommend either The Barking Dog or Lemon to start with.
Barry Healey
26 October, 2011 at 9:10 pm
Hi,
I’m making a presentation and was searching online for cute photos to spruce up the slides. May I ask permission to reuse the photo of your son, dated 10 Oct 2004?
Thanks so much.
22 December, 2011 at 9:40 am
You have a great site. I am beginning work on a book about two films from 1959: North by Northwest + Anatomy of a Murder.
I am at retirementyoung.wordpress.com
25 April, 2015 at 6:37 pm
You have, among other attributes, a fine-looking son. Next comes a very helpful web site. My compliments on both !
Kenneth
28 February, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Erik, do you by any chance have a Twitter account?
28 February, 2016 at 2:37 pm
Absolutely not, nor will I ever have one.
29 February, 2016 at 4:32 am
I take it you hate Twitter.
3 March, 2016 at 5:43 pm
Hi, I was just looking at Erik’s list of the 25 best foreign language novels. Interesting list! Your ranking of brothers K. at number one was exciting to me! I love that novel, but haven’t read it for a while, maybe five years. i think it’s time to give my current reading list a break and return to brothers k for another read through! What did I love so much about this novel? Of course I loved Father Zosima. and of course I loved everything involving the third son Alyosha. the stories involving Dmitri I found very disburbing but very moving.
back to your list, i enjoyed your placement of war and peace a bit farther down the list than orthodoxy might prescribe. I have been nibbling on war and peace for at least a year. parts of it i have adored and other parts not so much… i will sink my teeth in to anna karenina at some point. but haven’t yet…
i am intrigued by your omission of Don Quixote. I would love to hear your thoughts on that…i think that book is brimming with humor, sweetness and inspiration…
anyway, i really just wanted to salute you for your most interesting list!
12 April, 2016 at 12:12 pm
Not quite sure if this is the easiest way to contact you, but as I’ve been perusing your Nighthawk Awards lately, I noticed I have a bunch of the “Awards” movies you haven’t seen yet. I’d be happy to loan them to you.
So far, the ones I have been able to locate from my collection include: Banning, The Divided Heart, 3 Into 2 Won’t Go, The Four Poster, Rotten to the Core, Thunderbolt, The View from Pompey’s Head, Carrington V.C. and Another Part of the Forest. I also have The Valiant with Paul Muni, but it was recorded from TCM years ago and the DVD doesn’t even play in my current player or computer, so it must have been recorded on an older DVD player. Chances are good TCM will play that one again.
If you’re interested, please email me back. I’d be happy to help out a fellow film enthusiast.
Cheers!
12 April, 2016 at 12:14 pm
Oh, I also have The Scoundrel (1935) as well. If I look hard enough, I know I own The Shiralee and State Secret, but they are currently eluding me.
5 July, 2016 at 11:10 am
Just found your blog, very interesting stuff, thanks for all of your hard work! Question: I am very surprised that nowhere on here can I find a word about Herman Hesse. Do you dislike him?
2 February, 2021 at 6:22 pm
Hello! I just love your blog! Totally random question – you mentioned “The Sweet Hereafter” song from “The Sweet Hereafter” being on your nominee list for that year. When in the movie does it actually play???
20 December, 2022 at 8:53 pm
Found you on Supermegamonkey. A shame we can’t comment there anymore.