God's Harvard

While the media attention on evangelicals and politics has declined along with Bush's approval ratings, it would be wise to continue to study this highly organized interest group. In God's Harvard, Hanna Rosin takes a close look at Patrick Henry College, the mission of which is to develop Bible-centric political leaders to change the DC, and the broader, culture from within.

Unlike many ideologically-incompatible reporters studying the evangelicals, Rosin avoids direct criticism, fear-mongering or caricatures in her writing. Instead, she lets her subjects, which include discontented as well as dedicated students, the visionary Chancellor and the staff speak for themselves. One of the strongest believers, the kind and thoughtful Derek gladly reveals viewpoints that would strike mainstream American readers as strange or even disturbing. His inability to see Bush as a potential political liability as well as an asset is odd, for a politics major, while his casual homophobia gives hints of pogroms.

A key tension that Rosin identifies is the desire to participate in and influence mainstream political culture, without oneself becoming influenced and changed. This plays out on the individual level, as students find life on the Hill to be less ideal than they hoped and on the institutional level as the school tries to balance intellectual rigor with Biblical orthodoxy. Like the Communists of the Mao era, the schools leaders move towards a degree of small "l" liberality only to swing rapidly rightward and expel any apostates.

One of the more interesting characters is a charismatic professor who clearly believes in the school's mission, but whose Jesuit-like intellectual challenges prove too much for the leadership. It's a testament to Rosin's skills that I felt great sympathy for a man whose views are most likely opposite my own pursuing a mission I oppose.

For those interested in the interplay between politics and religion, a story which isn't going away, this is an excellent read.

Book marketing

Rick Atkinson's Army at Dawn is one of best written and accessible accounts of the Americans at war. That book covers the War in North Africa in 1942-42. So I am thrilled about the good press for the follow-on volume, the Day of Battle, is getting. The book has quite the promotional website, with a trailer, and interactive maps of North Africa and Italy.

The maps are particularly helpful for military history. For non-specialists, the descriptions of multiple units moving across wide swaths of land is hard to comprehend without maps to detail the action. It must be expensive as far too few books in this category come with adequate maps.

Funny

In discussing the inevitable 00's retrospectives, the smart and funny Reihan Salam posts his candidate for the best advertisement of all time.

Short stories

Stephen King looks at the state of American short stories and calls it alive but not well. His solution? Buy the book he just edited. He notes you can also subscribe to the various journals and magazines that publish short stories, but this is an expensive proposition.

Short stories are a tough sell, as the authors are little known and reading short story collections is tough. Most include different authors and the switch of voice can be jarring. In the case of a single author collection, the range of quality tends to be a problem. I don't mind skipping a story or two, but if it gets too much, I put the whole collection down.

Internet journals that can maintain strict quality control may be the best means of distributing short stories. The costs to the publisher and reader are minimal and the short duration makes reading them online tolerable. At the very least it can help these writers develop some name recognition.

A few Sunday items

It's hard to tell from the trailer whether it will be any good, but the Signal is getting some buzz.

If you like free online games but want something a bit meatier than most, have a look at this.

George Packer has some good news about finally helping the Iraqis that have helped our Army and State Department.

Pop Songs 07 writes about Pavement's ode to REM and disagrees with SM about Time After Time.

Oh my

Are you female and peeved that you are unable to stand and safely pee? Well, check out this sales pitch for the Shenis (yes that is she-nis). Check out the website for Shenis poetry and the Shenis rap. Be careful, some strangeos (and perhaps your sysadmin) might consider this erotic as it features actual product use.

After the Wedding

The Danish film After the Wedding is a bit too lengthy and free with the quick cuts, but it provides a well acted, surprising story about the difficulties of confronting multiple obligations. Mads Mikkelsen, best known in the US as Le Chiffre, is Jacob, a Danish aid worker living in India. He is sent back to Copenhagen to finalize a major donation. Upon his arrival, the donor Jorgen, a seemingly aloof businessman delays the signing and offhandedly invites Jacob to his daughter's wedding. A surprise at the wedding leads to a vexing request from Jorgen.

I found the two male leads compelling and deciding which is the true protagonist isn't easy. They both have bad choices to make, but both make reasonable ones, with costs to each of them. As a study in obligation I think it works quite well.

On the downside the movie at two hours is about 20 minutes too long. The director is fond of mood setting shots, including a motif of living and dying nature, that is laid on a big thick at times. She also goes a little crazy with quick cuts, which I found distracting.

Letting my geek flag fly

Some years ago, Brunching Shuttlecocks published the Geek Hierarchy, which details the geeks who are looked down upon by other geeks. While it's not mentioned, somewhere low on the list must go People Who Play Four Hour Games about war between Sauron and the Free Peoples. Yes, along with other board games, I am happy to spend an evening playing War of the Ring.

Haters will laugh, but there is great tension in trying to hold back the Orcish hordes. In this game both Legolas and Gandalf died before the ring was destroyed. This game has to be good otherwise we wouldn't put up with the rules. I've played three times and I only just know think I can play it correctly.

All of this makes me want to go back and read the books, my memory of the story is confused by the movie, methinks.

Movie blogs

There are lots of good ones out there, but AMC has put out a few of note: Sci fi Scanner, Monster Fest, Shootout Blog, and the Future of Classic.

I guess they know, I'm not no company man

Have a gander at this disturbing trailer for Midnight Meat Train. Pluses include creepy look and feel and Vinnie Jones is the bad guy. Minus is that this is a Clive Barker story. I can't speak to Barker as a writer, although I think I read some of the Books of Blood back in my heavy horror reading days.

What I can speak to is the crappiness of Barker-based movies. Nightbreed is a true stinker and once you get past the gore of the Hellraiser films, there really isn't anything there either. To be fair, it is not as if the Stephen King-based movies have people cheering in the aisles.

Caligula would have blushed

Lydia Lunch's Paradoxia is a voyeur's delight, consisting of shocking stories from Lunch's history as a Magellan of sexual exploration. The tales, purportedly from her past and one hopes at least partially embellished, are varied and would give the editors at Penthouse pause.

The book is subtitled "A Predator's Diary," and this isn't exactly true. The classic vision of predator is a killer that hunts on weak victims. In her case, the appropriate image is the T-Rex battle of Jackson's King Kong. Lunch styles herself as essentially male in her aggressive, conquering sexuality and she tends to form with relationships with people as aggressive as herself. The results are often unpleasant. When she does get busy with the weak, she takes an almost mothering approach. Although she says that she always leans toward the bad side, this means the socially out of bounds, rather than the evil.

Lunch's prose is often appealing clear and unadorned. When describing sex, she gets appropriately over-heated, but she occasionally gets overblown when describing the mundane day to day of life on the fringes.

NYT loves Portland

I don't know if you have noticed, but the New York Times loves Portland, take a look at this article on the PDX dining scene. Long time Portlanders may grumble that they are portrayed as yokels who eyes were opened by outside wisdom, but aside from the that, it should please people.

Escaping the reading doldrums

I in one of those reading doldrums where nothing is working. I started New Stories From the South 2007, but found that short stories weren't clicking. I also tried P.J. O'Rourke's book on Adam Smith, and while it was funny, it just wasn't hitting the reading spot. These were both library books, and for me at least, the bar is not set very high for taking these home.

With new books, I tend to be certain about a desire to read them in the next few months. As it happens it might be years, but purchasing a new book requires an urgent element for me to buy it. Used books are the chance buys, the books that are probably worth it, but may end up going back to the store. With library books I need only the tiniest hint of a desire to read the book to take it home. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I am happy to do this, as often enough I find a gem. The downside is, I often end up with a pile of books I don't want to read, at that time at least.

Anyway, I found my groove with Thunderstruck, the follow up to Devil in White City, and Paradoxia, a autobiography of sorts by rocker-poet Lydia Lunch. So far it makes Motley Crue's The Dirt look it was written by clean living Ian McKaye. It includes a strange theory as to why the Coke bottle shape has changed over time.

Akashic books 10th Anniversary Event at Powells

On October 7 at 7:30, Akashic Books, the mission of which is the "reverse-gentrification" of the literary world, is sending three authors to Powells to celebrate it's tenth anniversary. Chris Abani, author of Song for Night (which I reviewed here, ) Joe Meno, author of the re-released Tender as Hellfire and Felicia Luna Lemus , author of Like Son. Abani's reading should be riveting, as his prose slips from beautiful image of home or the outdoors to the horrific realities of war.

With three readings in one, you are bound to hear something you like, between a youth soldier lost in war-torn Nigeria, a coming of age in New York story a trans-gender tale a daughter who fulfills the family destiny as a son.

Tears of Autumn

The Tears of Autumn is a sober cousin to the paranoid 1970s spy films like Three Days of the Condor and the Parallax View. Like them it investigates a conspiracy, in this case the assassination of President Kennedy, but reveals it more a case of policy failure and politics as usual than the dark-forces-a-work view prevalent at the time.

Like many other books, this story features CIA operative Paul Christopher who believes that he knows who killed Kennedy and why. When he is not allowed to investigate, he resigns to pursue his theory. While this sounds cliched, it plays differently. Christopher is blocked for trivial reasons by the more powerful and he proceeds to investigate by having conversations with the right people and conducing simple, non-violent covert action. Don't look to McCarry for tales of a mild-mannered superheroic spy. Instead look at how spies use intelligence and manipulation to get what they want.

The assassination story is well constructed and is complicated by actors who are unaware of each other. Like so much of McCarry's stories, it has the great feel of reality, perhaps because of the often mundane details. The manner in which the assassins cover their tracks is not through high tech means, but simple process that makes sense once explained.

This novel has relevance today as a key part of the action is the tension between long time professional government employees and the powerful politically appointed policy makers. There is a tension in all administrations, but as is becoming all too clear, some administrations simply ignore professional advice and input when it doesn't suit them.

If you like spy novels, you owe to your self to read Charles McCarry. For more have at look at my thoughts on Secret Lovers and the Miernik Dossier.

The song that encapsulates the 90s

NBK and I were debating which song most defines the music of the 90s. I submit that it is Fastball's The Way. NBK posits that is Life is a Highway by the Lunatic Fringe Guy.

It keeps calling me

Note: This post is about the sequel to Descent and as such contains spoilers regarding the first book. Go read Descent if you haven't already.

The way Descent, one of my favorite thrillers of all time, ended, I didn't think a sequel was really possible. It seems weren't quite as finished as we thought at the end of the previous book. Deeper, the sequel, begins with Ike, one of the main characters of the first novel being drawn back into Hell. Hell, or the Subterrain, as it is called is the center of the novel. This vast underground world was discovered in the prior novel. The discovery prompted a war between humanity and the creatures, the source of many of our myths, living there. Humanity won and the Subterrain is populated with settlers, ragtag armies, lost scientific expeditions, bizarre cults, and Chinese and American armies playing hide. And what would Hell be without Lucifer?

With all of that, it sounds fairly ridiculous. As it happens, it works quite well as the focus is on the grim struggle for survival in an underground world. The plot follows two stories underground and one above ground. Underground, a mother leads a crusade to rescue her kidnapped daughter. Ike's wife Ali, a trained linguist and experienced explorer, leads a smaller group to attempt the same thing. Aboveground, the United States and China engage in increasingly dangerous saber-rattling over control of the Subterrain.

It helps to go in realizing that this is clearly the middle book of a trilogy. The book ends with most of the above plots resolved but with dramatic developments that set up the next book. Keeping that in mind, I am happy with this book. I think this is Long's best book since Descent. It nicely balances the epic view with personal experience. Context setting and world creation is important in this sort of book, but Long doesn't overdo it. He also manages to create a decent amount of suspense as to what is driving the plot.

I heart Multnomah County Library.

I posted this item on PDX Pipeline about the Read for the Record event Sept 20 at the Multnomah County Library. The very same day the Central Library is holding a Keep Portland Weird Event. What a place!

Update: Ummmm, that would be OCTOBER 20 for Keep Portland Weird. I think perhaps we need a Help Tripp Pay Attention Day as well.

Just a drive into the dark stretch, long stretch of night

Ken Bruen's The Guards features a stereotypical noir anti-hero in story true to the noir spirit. The hero, Jack Taylor, is a alcoholic and former policeman who cleans himself up, only to fall again. He has trouble with women, including his mother, and he is incredibly erudite, which allows Bruen to namecheck favorite poets and writers, in particular mystery writers. We've seen this character many times before, but the story is fresh enough to allow us to overlook it.

While recovering from one binge and preparing to commence another, a grieving mother asks Jack to investigate the supposed suicide of her daughter. He eventually does, bringing woe onto himself and many others. The mystery is eventually solved, although not truly by his own efforts. Mysteries often feature a colorful, tough guy character who serves to deliver the violence that would our hero look bad. The colorful tough character is here, but he is as dangerous to Jack as he his to the villains.

While Jack is stereotypical, watching his failed relationships with people is tragic and moving. His attempts at romance fail by his own actions, he fails his friends and can't tell who his true friends are. While Bruen doesn't dwell on it, a poignant meeting with his estranged mother, is terribly sad and illustrates Jack's culpability in his own outsider status. In many novels of this type, there is an element of romance about the lone wolf, there is none here.

Give something new a try

Although I have much love for Interpol, I am really not that into their videos. The link between the song and the video is often tenuous at best. Have a look at the new one No I in Threesome. Given the plaintive nature of the song, I suppose the video is a warning. If you ask your lay-dee if another can join you in the sack you are going to be a lonely old man. This one is in the spirit of C'Mere. That song about unrequited love features nature boy and the snow fairy. Longing for the unobtainable I suppose.

The pinnacle of Interpol video goodness is Obstacle 1. The urgency of the signing is matched by the manic dancing of sweater girl. This video's evil descendant is Evil, which features the scariest dancing puppet of all time. Slow Hands is OK. The action is slowed and sped up, which emphasizes the high tempo wonder of the song. PDA is decent, it's a sort of frenetic combination of the Ring and a Peter Gabriel video.

It's time the tale were told

There is much debate about whether Iraq is or is near a state of civil war. Internecine violence is among the most horrible as it quickly moves to attacks on civilians. Although set in what appears to be the Biafran War or some future sequel, Chris Abani's Song For Night is a harrowing examination of the effects of civil war on children.

The story is told from the perspective of a boy solider. Radicalized by the murder of his mother by members of another ethnic group, the boy signs up as mine hunter. When he wakes up after a mine explosion, he crosses enemy territory in hopes of finding his unit. Along the way, he tries to make peace with what he has become. Essentially a good person, he has participated in mass atrocities, although he has also tried to stop them. On a macro level, this is the story of war, the good commit evil. The question is whether they themselves become evil for it.

The boy character is well developed. He alternates between a soliderly world weariness and a desire to curl up in his mother's arms. There are times when he appears to be a bit too wise, for a child so young. While we can certainly expect him to be well versed in weaponry, tactics and the way people react to violence, he occasionally puts forth social analysis that would be beyond the education of a young child. These instances are rare, but they do jar a bit.

Robert Jordan, RIP

Robert Jordan has died. Now there are many reasons to dislike the Jordan books, known as the Wheel of Time, among which I would point to his teenage wet dream portrayal of women and relationships, his use of a single action (tugging a braid, dice rolling, etc) as a character indicator, and of course the fact that the later books are thick as phone books without anything of consequence occurring within them.

These negative points must be balanced with by the fact that Jordan sold a lot of books and helped re-invigorate a moribund fantasy market, with a number of genuinely fresh ideas. We might not have the rich fantasy scene we have today without the work of Jordan.

And of course, we may never know how the Wheel of Time will end.

Rock Photographer at the Ace Hotel

This is last minute, but Pat Graham, author of Silent Pictures, will be signing books at the Ace Hotel tonight at 5:30. The book features concert and backstage footage taken primarily in the 90s of indie rock acts like Fugazi and Modest Mouse. It should be fun.

What about the voice of Geddy Lee?

In one of Pavement's finest moments, the question is asked as to whether Geddy Lee talks like an ordinary guy. Well apparently Broken Social Scene is the fact checkin cuz, as seen in this video, which has Geddy Lee judging the voices of various BSS members (and in a bit of video referencing this video clearly borrows from the Yo La Tengo Rock School video.) He does in fact talk like an ordinary guy.

Weekend trivia

To entertain yourselves while I camp at the lovely Cape Lookout State Park, you might want to answer these trivia questions. I am shooting for hard, but not so hard as Jimmy's at Beulahland (although question six is straight from Beulahland.) Email or post your answers below. No Internet use allowed.

1) With which number album did Danzig stop using numbers in the title?

2) What are the names of the main character elves in a Year Without Santa Claus? Bonus, what former Portland band shares a name with another character?

3) Which war was ended by the Peace of Westphalia? In what year was it signed?

4) What is oxygen's atomic number?

5) What is the longest river in Europe?

6) In what country would you find the Rub' al Khali? What is it called in English?

7) Who is the current prime minister of Germany?

8) Necco, the candy maker, is a contraction of what name?

9) Who appeared in all of the following films? Alien, Singles, Steel Magnolias and the Rookie.

10) What is the publication order of the following Stephen King books: Tommyknockers, Carrie, Cell, 'Salem's Lot and Insomnia.

Let's put our heads together, and start a new country up

You may have tired of reading of Iraq, but I recommend you read Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City (now in paperback.) The book's focus is on the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American agency that ran Iraq for the first year following the invasion. It's a hugely depressing story of mostly well-meaning people making horrible decisions as they try to turn a wrecked country in a first world liberal democracy with Milton Friedman's dream economic system. We see people closing state run companies that employ thousands with no recourse, attempts to privatize drug sales while hospitals lack generators and of course the disastrous de-Bathification policy.

These policies probably never would have worked, but the Administration didn't help by hiring a bunch of C listers. Like the Maoists, the CPA believed that people were Better Red than Expert. Leading figures in their fields were kept out and barely qualified (often barely out of school) people were given critical roles. The single most important policy initiative of the decade was treated, well, just like Katrina. Critical roles given to ineffective people.

At a macro level, the failure of the CPA reinforces the myth that the Defense Department is the only foreign policy organization that works. The US already over-relies on the military (read Bacevich) and this experience might validate that approach in some ways. The US needs a balanced foreign policy that takes advantage of the capabilities of State, the CIA, the Defense Department and others. It just needs to ensure that skill is more important than political loyalty.

Here be dragons

Imagine a novel that takes the World War 2 rivalry between the RAF and the Royal Navy and then places that context in the Napoleonic era. Now, replace the airplanes with dragons and you have Naomi Novik's novel Her Majesty's Dragon. I'd heard good things about the book, but it was Peter Jackson's decision to option the book for a film that clinched my reading decision.

The story starts with a British naval boarding party seizing a dragon's egg from a French frigate. The captain of the ship is chosen by the dragon to be its rider and the Captain soon finds himself transferring from the Navy to the Aerial Corps. Much is made of the cultural clash, with the Navy man shocked at the loose ways of the airedales and even more shocked that some of the officers are women!

As a Napoleonic era novel, there is of course combat and it is well described. The dragons are crewed like WWI fighters with hand bombs and personal firearms used to attack other dragons or the enemy. Of course there are also claws and the occasional breath. The combat is actually de-emphasized as much more of the novel is about training and the bonding that comes to dragon and captain.

While a bit light, this is certainly entertaining and will appeal to non-doctrinaire fans of the Aubrey-Maturin series as well as fantasy readers.

Justice

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels (which are great fun) feature a police force which can enter novels in order to prevent literary crimes, such as the kidnapping of Jane from Jane Eyre. It would be nice if books were also a punitive option. For example, these filthy (both literally and metaphorically) individuals should be sentenced to 20 years in a Chester Himes novel.

I'm pretty sure Albini wrote Pigeon Kill and Seth with people like these in mind.

Making good friends with you

Ooooo, take a look at this very early Pixies promo vid for Tame. I like the longish Black Francis hair. The Pixies were never that known for videos, but through the power of YouTube here is some Pixies fun for your enjoyment.

Monkey Gone to Heaven - on Letterman for the reunion. - original video here.

Velouria - This is the hopping on rocks in slo-mo video that host Dave Kendall (what's he doing now? Working on something called Porn Valley) dissed.

Digging for Fire - Not all that exciting aside from the Kim Deal getting dressed in leather part.

Alec Eiffel - Really good song, really bad video. Making good videos doesn't make no SENSE.

Here Comes Your Man - An attack on the notion of videos.

Tell me why why'd you have to lie

If not for the fact that perusing Sky Mall was my alternative, I might have put down the Lies of Locke Lamora. Set in fantasy version of Venice at the height of its wealth and power, the main characters are the jolly sort of thieves who steal for the sheer love of it and shout out things like "What! Ho! The merry chase begins!" I normally find happy go lucky thieves intensely tiresome, but the story is so good , that my reservations were quickly overwhelmed.

At first the story appears to be a serious of capers in which our intrepid anti-heroes rather handily relieve the wealthy of their goods. The story becomes one of political intrigue in which the gang, named the Gentlemen Bastards, find themselves in between the city's crime boss, the spy master and a rising star in the criminal firmament. The tone changes to become less light hearted and more violent, although never at the level of the grimmer fantasy writers, like Martin, Mieville or Erikson.

The novel has an odd structure. It alternates between the main story and the past history of Locke Lamora and the Gentleman Bastards. Normally, I would expect this past story line to set up some confrontation or revelation, but it really just exists to show how the criminals became so adept at theft. Perhaps realizing that the main story line is more interesting, the past story chapters get shorter and shorter as the story progresses.

This is a minor complaint though, the story's plot takes such fun and interesting turns that this is a must for fantasy turns. Take a break from the grim and try this one.

The unceasing tide of books

For my weekend visit, I had four tasks. Number one was to attend my friend's wedding. Number two was hang out with some other friends. Number three was to eat a Five Guys burger. And number four was to hit the Arlington Goodwill book rack. Why that place? With flat prices of $.170 or less and donations from the most educated citizens in the USA, it is hard to go wrong. For less than the price of a six pack of Lagunitas, I walked away with the following.

Book Lust by Nancy Pearl. How can I write a book recommendations blog without stealing other people's recommendations?

The General's War by Trainor and Gordon. The team that brought you Cobra II tells you what's what about Gulf War the First.

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Dana. Dana was a sort of 19th century Ted Conover. He was an educated man but signed up for the rough world of the sailor and then wrote a book about it.

Utopia by Lincoln Child. He writes a fine thriller.

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard. It won an award and her a good thing or two.

The Gates of Africa by Anthony Sattin. I'd never seen hide nor hair of this one before, but it reminded me of Barrow's Boys so I took the chance.

Whoreson by Donald Goines. I've always wanted to read Goines, and who can resist a title like that one?

Maybe I will read one or two of them this year.

Best spy novels ever?

Charles McCarry is one of our most under appreciated living authors. Its shocking that he is not as well known as Le Carre or even Furst. McCarry served in the CIA and his background shows in the details of his spy novels. His first novel the Miernik Dossier is a terrifically engaging work recommended to anyone who likes literary thrillers.

While the story, involving the trip of Polish official who may or may not be a spy to Sudan is excellent, the book shines in its verisimilitude, even in its organization. The book is portrayed as a dossier concerning a case. It contains reports from the main characters, analysis by their superiors, transcripts of surveillance reports and other documents. This handily dodges the problem of the omniscient observer, as well providing a fascinating look at how intelligence agencies communicate with and use intelligence assets.

While the main character, a CIA operator named Paul Christopher, is reasonably certain that some of his associates at his cover employer are from friendly agencies (the British and French) he is unable to identify himself as he has no clearance to do so. All three Western spies watch the Pole Miernik for signs of a spy's tradecraft, as they try to determine if he a Polish agent or a true defector. The process in itself is fascinating, but becomes quite interesting, when they have to decide whether to facilitate a trip to Sudan, where he may or may not be trying to arm an insurgent force.

McCarry's follow on novels depict Paul Christopher's rise in the CIA's Directorate of Operations (now the National Clandestine Service.) I will be reading all of them.

A pair of classics

Late to the game as usual, I just read the Road. It's an astounding book, rarely have I been so gripped. I read it far too quickly and will have to read it again to fully digest it. This was a natural follow on to No Country For Old Men. In that book, the main character lamented the shift to a darker more violent world unfit for old men. The post-apocalyptic world of the Road isn't fit for anyone, populated, so it seems, only with the cruel.

McCarthy's descriptive power serves him well, as he paints a destroyed world lit only by the thinnest of hopes. There is a strong sense of the Biblical in the book with the main character (spoiler alert) serving as Moses. Parents may feel the book hits too close to home, but the father-son element just bound me closer to the story.

I recently mentioned to a friend that I thought Ingmar Bergman was over-rated. She tut-tuted and told me I needed to see the Virgin Spring. So I did, and she is right. The film, a story of innocence, vengeance and redemption is beautiful and bleak. The emotional power of the film is great, which makes the blasphemous remake Last House on the Left look like the warm bowl of piss that it is.

Laughs for the kids

We churn through a lot of books at the library and every once and again we randomly hit gold. My wife brought home What Did You Put In Your Pocket? and it has been non-stop giggles since. The book was written in the 50s by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers and has been re-issued with new illustrations. The School Library Journal found the illustrations too childish and distracting, but my kids enjoy them. Even more so, they love a story about someone who spends a week cramming messy substances (ice cream, molasses, pudding, etc) into his pocket. If your little ones laugh at messiness, this one will be a winner.

Sometimes I'm blogging where all the other people write

Were you aware that the Cure song Charlotte Sometimes is based upon a novel? And the Cure never told, or provided financial thanks to the author. Read the tale here.

Joanna reminds us of a candy long forgotten, the sugar filled plastic fruit. For me, this is a bit too much like Fun Dip.

Want to get yet another take on how the last six years have been really bad for the country? Read this.

Now it is not a big deal that a plane flew over the US with live nukes. This is normal, what is news is that a B-52 flew with live nukes and no one realized it. Still this Wonkette bit is worth reading for the title and the image. Fans of Cold War confrontation will be cheered by this news.

Why was Car Jamming never a single? It's so much better than Should I Stay or Should I Go.

Gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting

McEwan's Black Dogs was written in 1992 and follows up the Cold War Innocent with a story that includes both the beginning and the end of the War. It is far more metaphorical than its predecessor, using the story of a failed marriage to show how we react to horror. In 1946, a young pair of newly married socialists travel to France where the bride has a run-in with a pair of malevolent black dogs. Their contrasting reactions destroy their marriage. These reactions, in one case spiritual and in other hyper-rational are stand ins for societal reaction to pure evil. And in their cases, the evil is the suffering caused by World War 2. The black dog manifest itself in the story in other ways, such as the all too common recourse to violence.

We learn about the details of their lives from their son-in-law who lost his own parents at a young age. He wants to write a biography of these people, perhaps, because he never knew his own parents. As usual with McEwan, he captures the inner lives of people wonderfully, and his narrator tries to breakdown the differences between internal perception and external reality.

While McEwan's prose is wonderful as ever and his theme is worthy and well explored, I didn't enjoy this book as much as Atonement, the Innocent or Enduring Love. That's not to say it isn't worth reading, just set your expectations accordingly.

A neverending tide

I've been in a reading funk the last few days. I started a number of books, but couldn't get into any of them. In times of such trouble, it is best to turn to stand-bys, and I went with Ian McEwan's Black Dogs. Of course, my inability to begin a book did not stop me from acquiring new ones. New books include

House of Chains by Steven Erikson. The very definition of epic fantasy, this ten book story spans multiple continents and churns through a number of characters. Decidedly not for everyone, but for the fantasy reader, it is a winner. Thanks to Brack for this one.

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. One the most talked about books of last year. This looks like a more positive and comprehensive Fast Food Nation. Found at Costco.

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. Pulitzer Prize winning account of Al Qaeda up until 9/11. Those 25% off Borders coupons are too hard to resist. It was this or Aunt Hagar's Childrenand that one will likely be next.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. I've wanted these sci-fi short stories for some time and this Sandstorm review fired my interest. I was in Powells and saw they had a used copy. I couldn't say no at that point, right?

Kid fun in PDX

There are two upcoming book events to note for kids. The first is that Mount Hood Railroad (located in Hood River) is running a Little Engine That Could party on the weekends of Sept 8 and Sept 15. I took my then three year old to a Thomas Party and it included a train ride, lots of games, music and movies. It's a good time for the little ones, and it will get you out into the Gorge.

At 1:00PM on September 22nd children's author Daniel Kirk will appear at the Beaverton location of Powells. He illustrated one of my kid's all time favorites, Chugga-chugga choo choo, and wrote books like Moondog and Cat Power. Sorry indie rockers, the latter features actual cats, rather than moody, heartfelt lyrics.

A few items

Man is Denis Johnson's Vietnam epic Tree of Smoke getting some buzz. Check the NYT, (Good morning and please listen to me: Denis Johnson is a true American artist, and “Tree of Smoke” is a tremendous book, a strange entertainment, very long but very fast, a great whirly ride that starts out sad and gets sadder and sadder, loops unpredictably out and around, and then lurches down so suddenly at the very end that it will make your stomach flop) and Esquire. The LA Times takes a more moderate view. Anyway, keep your eyes on it.

In my recollection, The Mist is my favorite Stephen King story. It has the build-up, the scares, the human foibles and failures and a wonderfully ambiguous ending. I somehow forgot the whole religion angle upon which the trailer for the upcoming film. This makes me wonder about books that I fondly remember. How much is due to my reaction at the time and how much would it differ now?

Is there really an anti-pie trend about the land, as this column claims? If so, people need to get their hands on Ken Haedrich's Pie book.

More of me

I am now also blogging on PDX Pipeline. As you might guess I will be writing about books and Portland.

I got an idea of something we can do with a gun

There are plenty of books about US naval history, but the vast majority focus on the wartime navy. In its own ways, the peacetime navy is just as fascinating. How does a navy prepare for the many potential conflicts it faces? How does internal politics determine outcomes? Black Shoes and Blue Water describes the neglected arm of the US Navy, the surface fleet, during a period of decline and renewal from 1945-1975.

The US surface fleet started the period completely dominant but declined as budget dollars went to nuclear programs, aircraft carriers and submarines. By the 60s, most of the fleet was nearly incapable of fighting other surface units, instead focusing on defending carriers. The book ably describes the technical programs designed to maintain a role for the service and the efforts to use the limited budget dollars to convert obsolescent ships into useful assets. Dealing with the shift from a gun to a missile based battlefield was fascinating and makes for a great case of study of the challenges of technical change.

Also helpful is the organizational model of what happens to the underfunded service. With fewer educational and promotional opportunities, fewer of the hard charging officers will choose that service. With fewer training dollars, the crews will be less able to perform their jobs when the time comes. And the weak performance in training operations will reinforce negative perceptions creating a vicious cycle.

Naval nerds will love all the detail of heavy cruisers in Vietnam, the conversions of cruisers to missile cruisers and the many proposals that never made it, like putting Polaris missiles on surface ships. There is a lot of fun detail here.

On the downside, there is a lack of analytical distance which limits the overall lessons. The author identifies closely with the surface fleet and doesn't analyze the overall security threat to the US and how the surface fleet could have optimized the role. While the decline of the surface fleet was certainly bad for that part of the Navy, how bad was it for US national security? The author describes a decline in US conventional deterrence in the 70s, but a more systemic analysis would have been helpful.

What the?

Since I have been talking about covers, here is a cover mystery. One of my favorite songs of all time is The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. Joan Baez made a decent cover, although with some odd word changes ( the Robert E Lee vs. Robert Lee, drove vs. serve for example.) On Ridin the Rails, a TV special, Johnny Cash played part of an awesome cover of the song.

I knew Cash had a studio release of the cover, which I assumed was the Ridin the Rails version. Not so. This appears to be it. It reminds me of late 70s Jimmy Buffett, and I mean that in the worst way possible. What the heck? Who else has made an awesome and a terrible version of the same song?

And Beck came over, he was out of his mind

Check Thurston's reactions to Beck's madness. And then the Beasties show up. I miss 120 minutes, note how non-polished it is.

Transcendent covers

I do love a cover that can stand next to the original. The Sonic Youth cover of the Fall's cover of the Kink's Victoria is such a bizarre take, that I love it despite how it essentially wrecks the song. This is all the more impressive as Victoria is my favorite Kinks song. Here then is the progression:

The Kinks - Victoria
The Fall - Victoria
Sonic Youth (with the Fall) - Victoria

Few other songs have worked so well as both originals and transformed covers. The best example I can think of is Whiskey in the Jar. From Irish folk song to mid 70s rocker to head-banging mosh-pit fodder.

The Dubliners - Whiskey in the Jar
Thin Lizzy - Whiskey in the Jar
Metallica - Whiskey in the Jar

Pistol grip pump on my lap at all times

Richard Morgan's Thirteen is his best book yet, and given that Morgan is one of the best writers of science fiction in practice today, that says quite a bit. While the book is less violent, than prior books, it is thematically consistent. In all his books, Morgan plays to our fascination with carnage, but puts the spotlight on the human cost of violence. In this book that cost is one of his great themes, both in terms of victims but also showing the horrid impact on a person, the genetic variant thirteen of the title, purposely designed to be more violent.

Genetics as destiny plays a big role in the story, but so does the idea of feminine vs. masculine culture. Morgan presents an alternate take of Jihad vs. McWorld debate, putting nativist, anti-science, and non-cooperative societies in conflict with cooperative, post-national societies. The latter is represented by the EU, and seceded elements of the former US. The masculine societies are represented by much of the Islamic world and Republic, which is essentially Red State America populated by some horrible Rush Limbaugh/Nancy Grace devolution. Call it first stage Idiocracy if you like.

All this idea stuff is neato, but there has to be a good story and Morgan builds another good one. This time a renegade Thirteen hijacks a freighter from Mars and starts going on a North American killing spree. Marsalis, the thirteen of the title, is hired to track him down. Marsalis himself is constantly pulled in the direction of violence and can barely control his instincts.

And in a nice trick, Morgan lets us ( and by extension himself) have our cake and eat it too. Marsalis realizes that society is better off without the ultra-violent, but then there are some people that just need their ass kicked. So while, we approve of the more cooperative society, we get to savor the righteous violence. Thanks for that.

Edgefield

I went to see Modest Mouse at the Edgefield last night and it was perfect for my old man status. For one, due to noise ordinances I suppose, the show was over by 10PM. Now at the Roseland or the Crystal you are lucky if the band goes on before 10 or 11. For another, because it is outside (and again noise?) it was rockin' without being ear destructive. This may have been why I saw so many babies, including one in a Bjorn.

Ice cream news

It looks like Cool Moon ice cream won't open until October. It looks like it is worth waiting. Even sooner, we should see the fabled Roses's return to the North East. The old location was at 45th and Fremont, where you will now find Fife. I never went, but is much loved by long term residents.

For Richmonders, take a look at this list of ice cream and gelato purveyors in the capital of the Old Dominion. Sadly, I have not visited any of these.

The Wire

I am watching the second season of the Wire, which is even better than the first. I am constantly surprised at how few people I know watch this show. Part of the issue arises from two problems; the show is grim and it requires patience. The shows are structured like novels and the first season is a slow starter. You could easily give up around episode six, as the long story of a police investigation of a Baltimore drug lord and the day to day violence of the drug trade goes on and on.

This would be a mistake. This show surpasses the Sopranos in many ways and rewards watching. Not only is the season one story compelling in and of itself, but it is important to understand the second. This means you should ignore the advice to skip the slower Season one and move on to the more immediately rewarding Season two. Quite a few of the subplots and motivations will make little sense without the context of season one. On the lighter side, many of the little joys and jokes are based on what we learned about the characters in the first one.

The show surpasses the Sopranos by having equally compelling characters, this time on both sides of the law, that interact in a tightly constructed narrative. Narrative weakness, and the resort to throwaway non-central plot episodes, has been a problem for the Sopranos. Because each season of the Wire is about a single criminal investigation, even the sub-plots tie nicely back into the main one.

Much is made of the similarities of how internal politics drives outcomes, for both the criminal gangs and the police. Some extend this argument to say the show sees them as morally equivalent. I don't think this is the case. It presents the gang members as human, with understandable if flawed (that is to say, criminal) approaches to situations. There is the underlying idea that the drug war is a bad idea, but it is not presented so obviously as in Traffic.

One to skip

I watched the Bedford Incident last night. This is for hard-core Cold War junkies only and even then I recommend you watch the first 15 minutes and skip to the last two scenes, as the only the ending is worth your time. The plot involves an overzealous destroyer captain trying to force a Soviet submarine to surface. Of course, his maniacal management drives his poor crew crazy. A reporter and a German ex- U-boat commander brought along as a consultant try to convince the Captain to be less crazy, but to no avail. A good ending, but not worth sitting through the tedious plot. For your Cold War movie goodness, watch these movies instead.

Have a look at this list (with trailers when available) of upcoming fall/Christmas movies. Some look OK, but I am quite surprised they went back for Aliens Vs. Predator, the first one sucking like it did.

Monday items

Do you need an eye-catching coffee table book? If so, may I suggest Naked Girls Smoking Weed?

Everyone knows that the Imperial March is the coolest musical piece in all of science fiction. Click here for a surf and a classical guitar version. Then there is always the Metalli-version.

Did you know that Biz Markie coined the term "Oh Snap!"? Even if you already knew this, you will enjoy this flowchart for the proper use of said term. Here then is the source document.

Fans of the cringeworthy will dig Miss South Carolina unfortunate response to in the Q&A session.

Nice one from Wonkette.

Two great tastes

I am not sure how I missed this on other listens, but the mellow (for real) Shellac number Genuine Lulabelle has movie trailer king Ken Nordine, but much more importantly and strangely...Strong Bad. This has to be one of the oddest pop culture mash-ups of all time. You may hate it, but I like it, much like the goofy new intro to Spoke. In honor of Strong Bad and droning repetitive music here is Strong Bad's Techno.

And so I read one, it became four, and when I went to the store I read more

I am about halfway through Richard Morgan's new one, Thirteen, and it is A+. Now sure, it could crater, but I doubt it. This one stands up to Altered Carbon, and I expect it will exceed it, as it is more a novel of ideas while still retaining the threat and menace we so love. The reactions to threat and menace, or the perceived threats, are at the heart of this book. Its quite good, more on it when I am done.

I am enjoying this one so much that I realize I must go back and read Market Forces, the only other Morgan book I have not yet read. Yesterday, I was discussing the notion of being a book completist. This is a much bigger challenge than being a musical completist. In this day of iTunes and Hype Machine, it is not too hard to find the B-sides which once drove years long record store quests. For example, here is the bonus track to the latest Interpol.

The issue for book completists is less finding a rare book as it is finding time to read them. If you feel the need to read all of Dickens, or heaven help you, Trollope, well I hope you won the lottery or can take a sabbatical, as that is going to take awhile. For the right author, a category in which I certainly include Morgan, reading all of the books is a good idea for a number of reasons. You know you are getting a quality book, reading more of an author often helps you better understand the books you have read and hey, shouldn't you reward the people you think are doing a good job?

I envy you.....so much rocking to do

Coffee table books are tricky. If you are a student or an enthusiast of the subject matter, they are wonderful, if not, they don't draw out the eye. Fans of rock photography will want to take a look at Pat Graham's Silent Pictures. The book focuses on indie rockers of the 1990s, capturing concert photos of Modest Mouse, Fugazi, the Jesus Lizard and others. The madness of David Yow is nicely captured in these images. The live videos don't capture the carnage of the live act, so listen to this studio version of Puss to get an idea.

Reading through the book, I was sad to recall all the shows that I missed in this period. The shots of Fugazi on the Washington Mall are excellent and remind me that I really underutilized that city during my undergrad years. The moral? Go to more shows. These photos will remind you of what you are missing.

This will be a fun book for fans of indie rock. If you want to see some of Pat Graham's photography, visit his site, which leans more 21st century and color than the book. The site doesn't work very well with Firefox.

Crying parents tell their children, if you survive don't so as we did

Daniel Benjamin and Stephen Simon were NSC staffers who worked counter-terrorism issues during the Clinton Administration. Their book The Age of Sacred Terror provides a good overview of the extreme Islamist terror threat as well as the challenges in recognizing the threat. It is depressing for two reasons. It shows the base from which violent terror arises is large and may well be growing, even without the incendiary effect of the Iraq war. It also shows that the US government is not particularly strong at dealing with threats outside of well understood ones.

The review of the sources and extent of extreme ideology is well described. The authors explore the trail of theological thought that underpins the violent ideology of Bin Laden and his fellow travelers. The societal and political conditions that make the ideology more attractive to many Muslims is also clearly described.

The review of American policy in the 90s and early 21st century shows that the various bureaucracies don't like to change their behavior. Private sector types may tsk tsk, but if you tell a large corporation it needs to change, it will find 100 reasons not to. Like Richard Clarke in his book, the authors make pains to show that the Administration understood the threat was real, but were unable to push the bureaucracies into dealing with it. The FBI in particular comes out badly, with its focus on its total independence and supporting criminal investigations over terror investigations.

Having read this book, I would like to read the much praised and more recent The Looming Tower, which covers much of the same ground.

Weezer

Ah yes, the celebrity cover band, Super Diamond, Beatallica and now Budweezer. This Tired of Sex isn't bad, and this Surf Wax America is pretty good too. I know it is cool to hate on Weezer these days, but those first two albums are really something. And I do like the video where they hang out with the Muppets.

Good news? Bad news?

Jeff Long's Descent is one of the best thrillers of all time. I didn't expect a sequel to this epic but here it is. Normally I would be elated, but the Publisher's Weekly review isn't very keen.

Covers can make me cry

Now this Editors cover of Orange Crush one really doesn't, although the opening few seconds hint at a nightmare cover that eventually morphs into a more or less re-recording version. The main question is how he deals with the incomprehensible mutterings of Stipe found in the latter half of the song. He does a fair job at making them sound more like recognizable words.

This Los Campensinos cover of Pavement's Frontwards does in fact make me cry. And not in the with-joy sense.

You can't hold it too tight, these matters of security

William Boyd is one of the most unappreciated, in the United States at least, novelists of the last two decades. He has written an excellent book on identity, Armadillo, a number of wonderful books set in Africa, including An Ice Cream War and A Good Man in Africa and his 2003 novel, Any Human Heart, stands up any book by Ian McEwan for its psychological exploration. His most recent book, Restless, is a departure, as it is a spy thriller, a literary one to be sure, but nonetheless a spy thriller. For some, for example those put off by Chabon's visit to mystery country, this will be off-putting. For the literati willing to put aside their genre-phobia, this is an excellent read.

The novel has two narrative strands. The first is set in 1976 Britain where an ABD grad student making her living at ESL learns that her dotty old mother was a spy back in the war days. What's more, she thinks someone is coming to kill her. The second strand is a series of journal entries describing the war years. The two stories are tied together as Mother believes she is going to be killed because of the content of the journal.

The spy narrative is a tension filled and outstanding spy story, while the modern story doesn't really stand on its own. The mother becomes involved in an effort to prod the US into the Second World War through the US of disinformation techniques. Her experience in this realm brings into question the veracity of her narrative, and raises the disturbing question about how people manipulate others.

On the literary side, the book directly and indirectly questions whether we can know any other person. The book features a variety of betrayals from the petty to the lethal, and most of these stem from the inability to determine the true nature of a person. The costs of a life of spying are also driven home, especially of the final shot of the mother.

Goofy theme songs

After singing the theme song to Sid & Marty Kroftt kids show the Bugaloos, I decided to find it on You Tube so the kids could hear it. Man, those Bugaloos are some serious hippies. From the same people, there is HR Pufnstuf. I had forgotten the magic flute and the tempting, talking boat. This one appears to be even more influenced by heavy use of the chronic than the Bugaloos. As a program, I prefer Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. Or maybe, Wonderbug or Dr Shrinker. The latter show comes from the mid-70s and abandons the psychedelia of the early themes for cheesy white funk of the Osmonds.

The Kroffts are all well and good, but I must note my preference for Rankin and Bass.

While we are on the subject of dubious pop culture artifacts, take note that Danzig is now emptying the archives.

Amazing

Perhaps you have read Rudy Guiliani's unfortunate Foreign Affairs piece meant to elucidate his approach to foreign policy. If you would like the US to completely drive itself self into the ground, vote for Rudy.

I highly recommend Greg Djerejian's acid take on the piece. Fred Kaplan takes it apart rather nicely too.

I'll teach you to burn

Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin's Pulitzer Prize winning American Prometheus is an excellent example of how a biography should be written. The authors focus on how Robert Oppenheimer's upbringing, academic experiences and personality shaped his approach to his successes in teaching and managing the Manhattan project as well as his failures as a politically engaged public intellectual. While it does not replace Rhodes' book as the leading book of the bomb, it is certainly the leading book on this monumental figure.

Oppenheimer was extremely driven and like a tragic play, many of his early actions comes to haunt him in his later years. His participation with leftist causes in the 30s and his relationships with communist party members nearly cost him his role in the Manhattan project and did cost him involvement in the national security structure during the Eisenhower years. Unfortunately, it was Oppenheimer's ways of alienating people, including President Truman and even worse Lewis Strauss that ultimately crushed him.

There is so much to like about this book. For one, Oppenheimer was an amazing person, conversant in multiple disciplines, although his detractors might instead say he was unfocused and uncommitted to deep study of physics. The book also conveys the turbulent 30s with prominent Americans flirting with hard left politics and then the anti-communist back lash of the late 40s and early 50s. For those who don't desire to read an entire book about the Manhattan project, the book manages to cover that reasonably well. The authors, over the course of decades, conducted dozens of interviews with those familiar with Oppenheimer and the detail is incredible.

The outstanding question about Oppenheimer was not whether he was a spy, but whether he was ever a communist. The authors say no, and provide as much proof as is likely. This makes the witch hunt and hearing all the more reprehensible. The section in which he is effectively tried in a show trial goes on a bit long, but is still worth the read.

Congo

Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost is a disturbing book. The story itself, about the wanton rape of a country by the imperialistic King of Belgium is terrible in its details. As Hochschild points out in an chapter about Conrad, the Heart of Darkness is not an allegory about the theoretical evils of imperialism or, rather it is the shocked reflection from actual visits to the Congo. The overall tone is brightened as Hochschild describes the people who dedicated much of their lives to trying to stop the outrages.

The basics of the story is that through false premises of human rights and anti-slavery, Leopold became the personal owner of the Congo. The famed explorer Stanley played a key role in it as well. My image of him was vague, but he comes out poorly here. The goal was resource extraction and once the rubber market took off, the race was on to exploit it before other markets came online. And if a few locals had to get whipped to death with hippo hide whips, or parents had to watch their children have their hands cut off with machetes, well that's just how the game is played isn't? There is a special club in Hell for the worst of the worst and while he may not be roomies with Hitler, Leopold probably sees him in the cafeteria.

What is more disturbing is how little known the story is today. It was quite the cause celebre in the early 20th century, but it was quickly overshadowed by the German occupation of Belgium. During that war, the Allies used the Rape of Belgium as a propaganda weapon and Congo was forgotten. Hochschild argues that there was no rape, although this book argues otherwise. In any case, the deaths of up to 10 million Congolese due to extreme exploitation and cruelty (one overseer was noted for clearing his the forest around his house, the better to shoot random passersby.)

Hochschild argues that one reason it is forgotten is that the Congo was part of a long chain of barbarity in the 19th and 20th centuries, albeit one of the worst cases. He often compares Leopold and his policies to that of Stalin, hardly a winning comparison.

The crusaders who tried to stop the cruelty didn't all fare so well, many of them were broken by their attempts to highlight what was happening. And as you might expect, those with an interest in the region kept their fingers in their ears. Still they did succeed, as Leopold had to turn over the Congo to the state of Belgium. And many were politically astute. One ally in the US was a racist senator whose goal was to get black Americans to emigrate to Africa. His reasoning was, as long as the Congo was such a mess, there was no way anyone would move there.

Hochschild tells his story in just about 300 pages. He has a big story to tell, but he does it sparingly. All in all, a winner.

A lesson

Check your email every day. As you might guess, I am reasonably obsessive, but I was presenting to a client in Greater LA, so no email. Which means I missed the email from Powell's that my recommendation for the Daily Dose was up. I had until the end of the day to claim my $40 in book credit. Money is one thing, but money you can only spend on book is something else entirely.

It being LA, I had to run into a few film productions. The hotel in which we ate lunch was hosting the new American Band reality show. And at LAX a filmed called the Chosen One, which could be this or this was being filmed.

YouTube confluence

Here is something for the YouTubers, Chad Vader sings Chocolate Rain.

Only slightly, slightly less than I hoped to

My enjoyment of the Host (simply called Monster in its native Korean) was a bit less than I had hoped but it was still a fun monster movie. More overtly than its Japanese ancestor Godzilla, the movie is also a commentary about modern Korean life and the tensions of the Korean-American relationship.

The monster itself works. An American official's thoughtless order leads to a mutated lamprey/frog beast growing in Seoul's Han river. The film company clearly spent money on this one as the monster looks great and is as realistic as one could hope. The first full shot of it is the best in the movie with a soundless lumbering approach that captured the slow, stunned reaction to the extraordinary.

The action centers on the reactions of a family reunited in sadness after the monster took the young daughter of one of the siblings. They are swept up by an incompetent government reaction that is PR rather than effectiveness driven. At certain points, it is made to appear that the US and the ROK government as well are using the opportunity to test all sorts of weapons and plans. As you might expect, it ends up being the main characters rather than the government which ends up resolving the issue.

The movie has Firefly-esque approach to the genre, which is to respect but also tweak it, and tweak it a bit more directly than you would see in Hot Fuzz for example. This may come off as ham handed, but it seemed appropriate to the anti-heroic approach to the movie.

My main complaint is that the movie is a bit too long at two hours. Much of the middle section could have been condensed to minor effect and even the climax was a bit overlong as well. Fans of the monster genre will be glad that it is possible for new ones to be made well.

Books and movies

Sometimes the suits in Hollywood make the right decision. At the top of this list (via Ross Douthot) of the "best movies you will never see" is the Confederacy of Dunces. I realize this is a favorite among many, but I couldn't make it past page 40. Self-important blowhards pointing out the absurdities of our modern life are not for me I guess. A lengthly description of the most recent version of the movie, starring Will Ferrell, is here.

I used to think that only short, uncomplicated books can be made into movies, but I have come to think any book can be made into a movie if the screenwriter and director can capture the spirit of it. The film of LA Confidential managed to condense a mammoth book into two hours without too much loss. And while getting weirdness on film isn't always easy, it can be done, as the Shining shows. Here are some books which should be made into movies.

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. This may happen. Done well it would replace Blade Runner as the cool dystopian future movie.

The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr. Really any of the Bernard Gunther books would do. We haven't had a good Third Reich movie in awhile.

World at Night by Alan Furst. Most of Furst's books would be interesting, but this one has a high amount of action, which would translate well. The intense emphasis on mood would be a challenge.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Yes, it is in the form of a letter, but a director can make that work with a narrator. I think it should lean understated, as in You Can Count on Me, which I think would give it even more emotional power.

I'll swallow your soul, I'll swallow your soul

Fans of the Exorcist will shiver at this story.

Food, glorious food

Is food writing art? Yes and that is an official yes, because the Library of America says so. The LOA recently published a 750 page+ anthology of American food writing. Among the many authors you will find Thomas Jefferson, who here gives the first American recipe for ice cream. The website provides another sample, by Sheila Hibben, the first restaurant writer for the New Yorker.

If you have $4,000 dollars burning a hole in your pocket, you could pick up the Food writing and every other LOA title from Amazon.

Song of the day

Superchunk - Cool. Superchunk laments that all of their songs (and by extension everyone else's) are just re-assemblies of other songs. A fun straight forward rocker.

Perdido once again

Perdido Street Station is hugely entertaining, and I recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction or fantasy. I use both as there are a number of elements that are more common to science fiction that to fantasy. There is one element that is old hat to scifi readers, but may well elicit a woah among the fantasy readers. Scifi readers will be excited and surprised at how he explores it. There are two reasons I can see why people would not like this book.

Hot human on bug action: Among other creative elements, Mieville populates his city with peculiar races, including cactus people, a watery lifeform, steampunk cyborgs and an intelligent insect. The central character of the book has a relationship with one of the bug people and you get more than one scene of sweet bug lovin'. Just hold your nose and keep reading as this drops off.

Grim reality: Mieville, correctly to my mind, notes that a fantasy world would probably be an unpleasant place to live. His depiction of a city is not terribly pretty, even for the most wealthy. Sure, Mieville is a Marxist for whom nearly everything in the past is inherently inferior, but honestly, would you want to live in 17th century anywhere? Still, if a realist approach is not for you, this book may be inappropriate.

I find that the pluses far outweighs the negatives.

Integrated creativity: Mieville populates this book with more cool creations than two or three normal authors can manage in a lifetime. More importantly, the things he creates nearly always serve the purpose of either driving the story or the themes he is addressing. Too often creativity is a cul de sac, but with Mieville it is a particularly well managed art exhibit.

Non-obvious narrative: Mieville begins his book with four of five plot elements, including a research project, an art commission and a labor dispute (!!). These all come together once the story begins, which is nice, but even better it keeps the reader guessing as to the eventual direction of the story.

Cool monsters: The number of memorable monsters is fairly small. I would include the Balrog, the Shrike, the Grendel (from Legacy of Heorot) and the Paratwa as true standouts. One and perhaps two of the beasts in this story can stand in this elite group.

Icky ice cream

(Via marginal revolution) Have a gander at this list of 100 frightening ice cream flavors from Who Sucks. They are pretty odd. How about Ox Tongue ice cream? From the same website, this is amusing.

And this is interesting, color photos from World War 1. If time-wasting is on your list of things to do, you need to hit this site.