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

I've been in a B-movie sort of mood lately and Netflix and Multnomah County library have delivered.

After reading Marvel Zombies vs. the Army of Darkness, I felt a bit underwhelmed. This reaction led me to question my decades old affection for Evil Dead 2, which like Army of Darkness, is a movie about Ash fighting Deadites. I am pleased to report that Evil Dead 2 holds up quite well thanks to some bizarre dialogue, over-the-top effects, and Bruce Campbell's perfect B-movie acting. There is lots of blood in this movie, but not in a make you vomit Eli Roth kind of way. Rather it plays more like a comedic veiled satire of horror movies.

Razor, a Battlestar Galactica stand-alone movie, will appeal to fans of the current show. It fills in some gaps, provides some context for later events, but it also tells the story of (spoiler) the Pegasus. Don't watch this if you haven't seen the show before, as some experience with the show will make it much more entertaining.

Superbad is a great teen movie, although some may be put off by the wall of vulgarity. If you are not, you are in for a very funny movie, which well captures the 18-y/o male experience. The movie centers on the desperate attempt to get alcohol, which will hopefully facilitate the getting of action. While the story has been done many times, the movie brings quite a bit of originality to the subject.

I've got the Dungeon Master's Guide

Ur-nerd Gary Gygax, creator Dungeons and Dragons has passed. Nerd World links to an excellent Believer article on Gygax and the D&D phenomenon. While Star Trek and Star Wars are obviously critical in the growth of mass nerd culture, Gygax is their equal in importance. Because his influence took place behind closed doors and not on the big screen, he won't get the same recognition, which is too bad.

The article wonders whether D&D will become a passing thing in the coming years. I doubt that is the case, with over $1B in sales in recent years. And one of our female friends is making up for being excluded by the boys by serving as the Dungeon Master for her son.

Arsenals of Folly

Richard Rhodes's Arsenals of Folly is his third book about nuclear weapons. The Making of the Atomic Bomb detailed the successful development of fission weapons. Dark Sun described the successful creation of hydrogen or fusion weapons. Arsenals of Folly focuses on a failure; the attempt by Gorbachev and Reagan to abolish nuclear weapons.

Rhodes's book is selective and this makes sense in supporting his main thesis, which is to explain how the US and USSR came nearly to abolish the weapons and what held them back. The book runs into trouble with some of his asides and side arguments, in which his selectivity shows more bias.

The principal stumbling block to a final agreement was SDI, or Star Wars. Rhodes aligns this program with a series of defense programs built not so much for defensive purposes as for tools in bureaucratic wars, means to starve domestic programs and potential tools for rollback.

Rhodes nicely summarizes the numerous factors that drove the wild increase and innovation in nuclear weapons development. The desire for the Air Force, through SAC, to dominate the budget and the Navy and Army's attempts to defend their share by introducing more platforms certainly boosted spending and created the notion of a triad (missile, bomber, submarine missile) which guaranteed massive spending.

He cheats a bit, and even admits it, by not discussing Khrushchev's foreign policy, which depending on your analysis, created the basis or the cover for much of the eventual defense spending. I think he should have been more critical of Kennedy, who upon learning that the "missile gap"he talked about in the campaign wasn't real, continued to support weapons development despite a massive American lead.

Gorbachev is the hero of the book, as the person who saw that the only way to rescue his country was to turn off the Cold War. Rhodes explores two key historical events that underlie his decision making. The first is the Stalinist terror, which created the seeds of doubt in the application if not the philosophy of Soviet communism. The second is the Chernobyl accident which highlighted the danger of nuclear war. Reagan is given credit for recognizing what Gorbachev was doing and reacting appropriately, but Gorbachev is the hero.

The great villain is Richard Perle, who is presented as nearly Satanic, with a silvery convincing voice and a heart of darkness. His nickname is the Prince of Darkness, so there is probably something to what Rhodes says. Throughout the Reagan years, Perle works to prevent arms control agreements as well as to develop new weapons systems.

The main problem with the book is how Rhodes occasionally ignores complexity where it might slow down his argument. The best example is the concept of deterrence, which Rhodes never explains and for which he makes contradictory statements. Early on, he seems to promote the idea of minimal or even existential deterrence, while later calling into question whether nuclear deterrence works at all. He then cites one article that questions the value of nuclear deterrence, without citing the many more that support it. A deeper discussion of the debates over how and if deterrence works would in the end have made the US arms build up more understandable, which would have tempered, but not contradicted, some of his arguments.

This book does not reach the same standards as the Making of the Atomic Bomb, but it remains an excellent and informative read, as well as a good starting point for thinking of abolition again.

A few laughs

Check out this woman do 21 accents. Yes, not all are great, but on average they are excellent.

In the funny because it hurts, take a look at Nine Depressing True Life Adult Counterparts of Beloved Children's Books.

Garfield minus Garfield takes a worthless comic and, by cutting out the cat, turns it into a existentialist nightmare.

Thank god for the mall ninja.

Erikson

About halfway through Steven Erikson's Bonehunters, I wondered if the Malazan saga was superior to Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. In the end I decided Martin wins over all with superior characters, writing, editing and emotion. Erikson is ahead of Marting on world creation, over the top plotting and action sequences, but he really needs to shorten these books.

The first 200 pages of this book elicited a number of "huh?"s and "what?s" as I tried to recall the backgrounds of the characters being referenced and the meaning of their various actions. Once the book clicked, it was excellent, but that was a really long ramp. (spoilers ahead)

This book makes clear that which was hinted in prior books. The conflicts among the human nations are really the manipulations of the gods as the pantheon is threatened by an enemy. The gods (and the elder races) begin to take sides and there is carnage aplenty. It is to Erikson's credit that he can keep this key development under wraps until after the half-way point in the series. I wish Erikson would provide some graphical representation of the relationships between the various factions as it becomes quite hard to follow just why so and so is sent on a mission to kill this other person.

Erikson also begins to answer the questions of which of his many badasses is the biggest badass. It would appear that Apsalar is actually the superior to Kalam in assassination. Icarium is looking like he may be the tops, although Karsa Orlong is certainly a contender. And what of Amonander Rake? These questions have raised debates in the fantasy fan world.

Perpetuating a myth

I am predisposed to dislike a revisionist history of World War 2 written by novelist using a non-analytical framework, but there is one element of Nicholson Baker's upcoming Human Smoke that I find particularly grating.

Like the celebrators of the Good War, Baker, from all I can tell, makes the Anglo-American-centric error. The Western Allies did not win the war, they contributed to the victory of the Red Army. Removing the Western Allies from the war would have just allowed the Germans to attack the Russians more quickly.

The vast majority of killing and dying happened in the East. Combined, the total deaths for the UK and the USA totaled less than a million while Poland lost five million, Germany over seven and Russia over twenty. Had the US and the UK sat out, it still would have been the worst war ever. This puts aside the problem that the UK most likely faced the choice of conquest or vassalization regardless of whether Churchill led the government.

In this, admittedly brief, interview, Baker connects the Holocaust to the events of 1941. His apparent thesis is that Roosevelt and Churchill were war-mongers and if we just sat out the war, things would have been better.

The Holocaust is connected to 1941, but certainly not due to Pearl Harbor. World War 2, even more than World War 1, is centered on the German-Russian conflict. Once the German Army was able to commence its race war in Russia, the real killing began. While the death camps didn't kick into gear until after the 1942 Wannsee Conference, the Einsatzgruppen began their reign of murder well before the United States entered the war.

If you want a provocative argument for pacifism by Britain, take a look at Niall Ferguson's Pity of War, which argues that the world would have been better off if Germany quickly won World War One, without Britain joining.

Something to do with a nuke

Nuclear weapons aren't just for war. Edward Teller supported the idea of using H-bombs to make harbors and managed to begin the process for Project Chariot, which was to create an artificial harbor in Alaska using a small number of H-bombs. Locals were none too pleased and no one knew why we needed an artificial harbor in Alaska anyway, so the plan was shelved. More interesting is the plan to use nuclear weapons as propulsion system as in Project Orion. That project was designed to create a ship capable of taking humans to Saturn.

The clip below shows science writer George Dyson discussing what he knows of the project, based on his research. He presents a number of fascinating documents and presents many of the challenges involved including the almost certainly lethal levels of radiation to which the crew would be exposed. His final note, where he presents the good and bad news about destroying an asteroid coming to Earth, is both amusing and disturbing.



As if nukes weren't enough to worry about, now we are told that automated killer robots are a threat to society. Time to apply for robot insurance.

Free book

Well, electronically at least. For the next three days you can download Charles Bock's Beautiful Children. It's a rather disturbing looking story of a runaway falling into a bunch of street kids and strippers in Las Vegas.

Best of Booker

The Man Booker Prize is approaching year 40 and to celebrate, the Man Booker judges are picking the best of the prize winners so far. One of the oddsmakers have an interesting take with Life of Pi with the greatest chances, followed by Midnight's Children and The English Patient. This is a mixed bag, with one of the easiest to read followed by two of the densest. Ladbrokes says no way, its Midnight's Children, Sacred Hunger and the Blind Assassin. I am rooting for Margaret Atwood, partly for loving the books and partly because I like to see science fiction win. You can read Atwood's defense of science fiction here.

My true hope is that JG Farrell's the Siege of Krishnapur. Set in the Great Mutiny (or if you prefer the First War of Indian Independence,) the book is at once a thrilling story and an exploration of the colonial mindset.

I think a much more fun Prize would be the making up for past errors prize. That is to say, which book should have won the Booker, but didn't. I would say that Oryx and Crake was robbed in 2003, but Atwood had won two years previously, so that might be overlooked. Despite quite liking the Line of Beauty, I think the Cloud Atlas is the better book.

How about another video

James Poulous sociological exploration of Radiohead and indie rock makes for some fascinating reading. This essay skates right up to the edge of pretentious bullshit, but pulls off the triple axel. For example,

Like their albums, Radiohead’s live performances are events, recoronations of the band as the peerless postmodern icons of popular music. In the past ten years, they’ve learned how to thrive as the embodiments -- deliberate or otherwise -- of our full palette of era-appropriate buzzphrases. They’re authentic. They break down boundaries. They reinvent themselves. They flout convention. They shatter expectations. They’re ‘willfully perverse.’ They almost broke up over track listing. They were the subject of an essay in n+1’s first issue. People think seriously about writing their dissertations on Radiohead.

I've tended to ignore the band, but they made a song by one of my favorite bands their own and that says something.

And there stands REM

Every decade REM puts out a rockin' album. In the 80s it was Life's Rich Pageant. In the 90s it was Monster and in this decade we are going to get Accelerate. The first single, Supernatural Serious, bodes well. It's the best song I have heard from them in over a decade. Please note, Bad Day cannot be counted as a recent song, here it is an 1986 demo version.

Although I am not an IRS-only type, there are plenty who rue the day that REM signed to the majors and became popular. Many of these folks probably skipped the Eponymous compilation, as they had 90% of the songs already. The one highlight from that one is Romance, a song recorded for a crappy movie. It's actually a great song, so here is an audio only YouTube bit for those that missed it the first time.

But they should never have taken the very best

I found the Palme D'Or winning The Wind the Shakes the Barley to be terribly depressing, if well made. While it is very much about the rise of the IRA in the Irish War of Independence and subsequent Civil War, it is also a story of political radicalization, and it looks approvingly on it. Cillian Murphy, who is excellent, plays Damien, who initially resists taking any part in the resistance to British rule, but eventually becomes so die hard that he believes killing fellow Irish is the best course of action.

There isn't a lot of subtlety to the movie. The Black and Tans are presented as brutal thugs, which they may well have been, but they are also nearly faceless. It would have been much more interesting to see the two-sided approach taken in the Battle of Algiers. While that film clearly sympathizes with the oppressed, it presents both sides as rational actors, pursuing opposing goals. This movie would have greatly benefited from a strong British character that wasn't a sneering villain or a target.

Once the British have been driven out, the insufficiently radical Irish Free State and its agents become the enemy. It doesn't take long for the killings to commence and for brother to turn against brother.

In the end, the film sides with the view that political result is best achieved through violence, and not as a last resort, but as the first resort. The situation at hand is certainly dire and it is understandable that the actors take the positions that they do. While I am not sure that is the intention of the director, the movies stands as a warning to those who would counsel war, especially civil war.

Irrationality

Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational sounds interesting. Taking advantage of the rise of pop economics (Freakonomics, Discover Your Inner Economist) Ariely argues that behavioral economics shows that people do not behave in the way that classical economics claims. You can see Ariely discuss the book with Will Wilkinson on Bloggingheads.tv.

Prince of Spies

For many years, the superior spy novels of Charles McCarry were only found in used bookshops. Thanks to republication by Overlook Press, it is now possible to easily get copies of McCarry's Paul Christopher novels. I've just finished the Last Supper, which is probably the best of the four Cold War Christopher novels.

What I find most remarkable about these four novels is that they remain consistently excellent while being dramatically different in execution. The first, Miernik Dossier, is the most experimental. It using a documentation review as the framing device, and the reader is meant to be a government official examining various reports from a spy operation.

The Tears of Autumn is a conspiracy thriller with Christopher developing a novel theory about the Kennedy assassination. Be sure to read this before you read Last Supper as it is partially a sequel to that book. This one is a bit bleak.

The Secret Lovers precedes Tears of Autumn chronologically and is the most conventional spy novel of the bunch. It will be one of the finest spy novels you read, but it is at heart a basic story of betrayal and identity.

With the Last Supper, McCarry goes epic. The time scale is much longer, starting just after WW1 and ending in the early 80s. It spans two (maybe three) generations of the Christopher family and their strong wills and great misfortune. There are many more characters and non-obvious interactions. I think James Ellroy read this one, as I can see how the murky moralities and actions of the main characters influenced the LA Quartet.

While these books are different, together they paint a fascinating view of the world of espionage as a machine that churns up its participants, but they keep coming back for more. The overall tone is realist as to what can be achieved although an element of despair creeps into the final book. These are consistently good books and I will continue reading them.

Meeting in the middle

In Declaring Independence, political pollster Douglas Schoen argues that the time is right for an independent third party candidate to run, and win, the Presidency. He identifies a group of voters he calls restless and anxious moderates who are disenchanted and even alienated by the two parties. He also claims these key swing voters will be won over by substance and not style, and that they are looking for a pragmatic problem solver who fix the many problems the country faces. Schoen also points to changes in the ability of third party candidates to reach voters and raise money. It is the combination of a desire among the electorate and a system more friendly to third party candidates that makes this heretofore unlikely occurrence a possibility.

Schoen also discusses the way that technology and the Internet in particular is increasing the viability of candidates outside of the anointed. Where Ross Perot had to rely on 800 numbers and TV advertising, today's candidates can use the various Web 2.0 tools like social networking, YouTube and PayPal fund raising.

The rise of Obama in the past few months could argue both for and against Schoen's thesis. On the one hand, Clinton and McCain could be associated with the same old product from the parties, and Obama represents the idea of the new. On the other, voters may merely like his fresh new style, as they once liked JFK, which would argue against what Schoen is saying.

Imagining a scenario in which Obama was not involved, but Clinton and McCain were the candidates, it is much easier to imagine voters looking to someone else. Schoen is an advisor to New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and he muses about Bloomberg's chances in 2008. You don't have to believe in the Bloomberg candidacy to think that someone could step in at this point, if there was no Obama that is.

The specifics of the 2008 election aside, Schoen does identify the means by which a insurgent candidate could overturn the existing party structure in the US. The result would likely be the emergence of a party that would eventually replace the Democrats or Republicans. The government can't be run by an independent alone and eventually a legislative agenda would have be created and that would require local organization and party affiliation.

If you would like to get a sense of the argumentation in the book, read his recent editorial in the Washington Post. It lays out his thinking nicely.

The return of nukes

My reading pile is getting dominated by nuclear weapons. I've recently finished PD Smith's excellent Doomsday Men and my next nonfiction is Richard Rhodes' Arsenals of Folly, which is Rhodes third book on the development of nuclear weapons. After that I have Atomic Times, a memoir of military service at the H-bomb testing grounds on Eniwetok.

All of this would seem like history, which I wish were true. Nuclear weapons are creeping their way back into the world at a disturbing pace. While I think Graham Allison overstates the risk in his Nuclear Terrorism, the fact that countering potential terrorism is so low on the policy agenda is shocking. The fact that three (NK, Pakistan and India) new nuclear powers and potentially one more new one (Iran) are creating new risk of nuclear war gets surprisingly light attention. Any review of the history of the US-USSR nuclear stand-off will reveal that the world is lucky to have escaped without a war.

I fear the Iraq war with its false/failed (depending on your viewpoint) assessment of the Iraqi program has focused the attention away from the problems of nuclear weapons and towards parsing the motivation of those who would address nuclear weapons. The development of new weapons systems, now canceled, like the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, has not helped either. It's hard to support the norm that people shouldn't develop new nuclear weapons when you do the same yourself.

I push my fingers into my ears

Carrie Brownstein muses on the nature of covers on her blog. She remains mostly positive, identifying the times in which a cover can be good. I hope she gets to the world of the terrible, misbegotten cover. I am sad to say that I have found a new cover that I hate even more than Natalie Merchant's brutal slayings of REM and Morrissey songs and the Ataris misuse of Donald Henley.

I speak of metal band Celtic Frost's cover of Wall of Voodoo's Mexican Radio. Aside from the Gwar-like shout of "Hey!" at the beginning, this song just makes me want to die. This raises the question as to whether metal bands are even capable of making a decent cover. Metallica makes Whiskey in the Jar their own, but former bandmate Mustaine's cover of Anarchy in the UK is a real horrorshow (complete with at least one mistaken lyric).

Country on the other hand, and alt country in particular makes for excellent covers in both directions. Social Distortion's cover of Ring of Fire is a treat. And Uncle Tupelo's cover of Now I Want to Be a Dog is fantastic, when played acoustic at least. This live version is fun, but sounds like the Stooges.

With just a touch of my burning hand

One of my favorite movies of the 1980s was Evil Dead 2, the movie which most of all made Bruce Campbell a B-movie star. As someone who also enjoys comics, I was drawn Marvel Zombies vs. the Army of Darkness. As it happens, I didn't get much out of the book, which consists of various Marvel heroes turning into zombies and Ash dodging them. He finds allies among the heroes, but they keep dying so he has to find more, which eventually lead him to Doctor Doom.

I have two theses as to why I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped, and they both relate to humor. The dialogue was decent but not quite what I remembered. So one possibility is that the humor is dependent on the verbal delivery and facial expressions of Bruce Campbell. The other is that this a kind of entertainment I really enjoyed as a teen, but not so much in my mid-30s.

End of days

Having just visited Shanghai, I finally pulled Noel Barber's The Fall of Shanghai off the shelf. This one has survived countless book purges over the 12+ years I have owned and now it will be shipped off to a friend in Shanghai.

It isn't the best book you can read on China but it is one of the few to concentrate on the city in the year before the communist takeover in 1949. The city was home to many millions in the late 40s and was the leading commercial center of the country. This was largely due to the concentration of colonial power in the city. Barber's book, while it touches on the Chinese in the city, is primarily concerned with foreigners in Shanghai and the lives they led.

The book's tone is nostalgic, longing for the days of the clubs along the Bund, and for the country of living of some of the foreigners as well. The violence of the war is referenced but is most closely discussed in the case of the HMS Amethyst, a British frigate that became trapped on the Yangtze river in between communist and nationalist troops.

What makes the book a bit peculiar is the emphasis placed on the Europeans when China's biggest national drama was underway around them. That's not to say it isn't covered, but the emphasis is strange. The book's coda, written in 1979 laments the loss of the colorful colonial Shanghai and its replacement by the drab Maoist version. Had Barber lived to this century, I imagine he would be impressed with the activity in the city today.

There are of course a number of good books about China available. The one about which I keep hearing is China Road written by NPR's Rob Gifford. It's next on my list. Peter Hessler's River Town is a readable and thoughtful account of Hessler's two years as a teacher in a small town on the Yangtze river. The interior of China remains far less developed than the coasts and it is interesting to read about how the changes in the economy affect this part of China. Finally, one question that should be on everyone's mind is how green will be China be. Elizabeth Economy's The River Runs Black presents a bleak picture.

A new field guide

If you have some time to kill, check out Stuff White People like. On Colbert/Daily Show:

Take note that Tuesday through Friday during the working week, you can break ALL awkward silences with white people by saying “did you see the Daily Show/Colbert Report last night?” At which point they will start talking until it’s time for you to move on to more interesting activities.

On Recycling:

If you are in a situation where a white person produces an empty bottle, watch their actions. They will first say “where’s the recycling?” If you say “we don’t recycle,” prepare for some awkwardness. They will make a move to throw the bottle away, they will hesitate, and then ultimately throw the bottle away. But after they return look in their eyes. All they can see is the bottle lasting forever in a landfill, trapping small animals. It will eat at them for days, at this point you should say “I’m just kidding, the recycling is under the sink. Can you fish out that bottle?” And they will do it 100% of the time!

Hungry Hill

Carole O'Malley Gaunt's Hungry Hill is a hybrid novel-memoir about growing up in a family with an alcoholic parent. The book starts with Carole's father sending her away as her mother dies. This is the start of his bad decision-making and the torment the children faced. Carole herself became an alcoholic and the book is part of her way of dealing with it.

The book is not quite a memoir as it contains fictional pieces. The memoir sections are separated by short scripts in the present day. This deepens the overall story but may seem peculiar in light of the memoir of the rest. At least unlike one prominent recent memoirist, she clearly separates the truth and the fiction.

You can hear Gaunt discussing her book and her early life here.

As nerdy as they want to be

One of the many reasons I listen to indie rock is that I suspect all those people are nerds. While it doesn't prove the broader case, this video of Butterglory's 1996 She's Got the Akshun! certainly argues in favor. It's not often you get Pavement-esque rock with a little LARP on the side.

And we become silhouettes when our bodies finally go

PD Smith's Doomsday Men is a mix of science fiction analysis and all too real history. The book covers the fixation on the dream of the ultimate weapon, which evolves from chemical weapons to a true doomsday system put in place by the Soviets. On both the side of scientists and writers there is the great fear of what these more powerful weapons might mean for political power and for society. What drives them is the dream of what they might do. From Nobel with his dynamite on, the dream has been that weapons might become so powerful as to prevent war altogether.

On a more practical front, the dream has been that powerful weapons will drastically shorten war and thereby lessen its effects. The fixation on technical solutions to these problems tend to come up short as demonstrated by chemical weapon which were initially overpowering but were quickly countered. The technologists tend to forget that war is a competition of measure and countermeasure and all the new weapons tend to do is to make it worse.

The book is an excellent introduction to the subject of weapons for non-specialists, but specialists will benefit from the seeing the interplay between science fiction and the development and understanding of what these weapons can do.

It is worth noting that the British cover is a much better representation of the book's contents that the American one.

Here is the British cover:



Here is the American one:



The British cover accurately conveys the mix of science fiction and science, while the American cover makes it look like a conventional history of the H-bomb.

Motorway to Roswell

One of my favorite scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark was the last one, with the Ark of the Covenant being placed in a nondescript box and rolled into a giant government warehouse. Well from the trailer it looks like the warehouse is the setting for a fight scene in the newest Indy movie and the box is from Roswell.

Chabon movie

I think it is good news that the Coen brothers are tackling the Yiddish Policeman's Union rather than Kavalier and Klay. While I think the latter is the better book, the former is better suited to a film treatment (although it is also being attempted). Since Union is at its heart a noir crime story, the Coens should feel right at home. The movie is going to be a mix of Insomnia, Kiss Me Deadly and Yentl. To feel true to the book, the mix should be about 15, 45, 40, which I hope the Coens get right.

Regarding Kavalier and Klay, it will be difficult to fit the range of the story into a 2 to 2.5 hour long movie. LA Confidential and LOTR prove that epics can be distilled into a shorter format, but I worry that the number of scenes would get short shrift. This site lists some of the scenes in the current script. I note no mention of Antarctica, which to me is pretty essential.

Everyday's the fourteenth

Candy Addict blogs a questionable Valentine's gift, the chocolate pastie. It really won't do to give a gift meant to be consumed by the gift giver rather than the recipient. If you feel the need for something risque, why not give Lust by Ellen Forney. The book is a series of cartoons illustrating the often bizarre request from personal ads (note: not at all work safe) in Seattle's The Stranger. If you just want to spend a few bucks, there is always the cock-n-balls donut from Voodoo Doughnut.

Where are the green apocalypse novels?

Reading Doomsday Men with its analysis of the predictive power of science fiction in regards to the possibility of nuclear doom, I got to thinking about the relative lack of environmental apocalyptic fiction. Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy starting with Forty Signs of Rain has been successful. Frank Schatzing had great success in Europe with the Swarm in which a Gaia like force decides to rid Earth of the polluting humanity. Aside from that, science fiction doesn't appear to have caught up with the latest fear.

Geek test

You can tell how big a geek you are by how much you laugh at this page. Essentially the more you know about D&D, particularly D&D from the 70s and 80s, the more you will laugh. I suppose this is also a geek hater test. (via inconsequential ruminations)

Some people should die, that's just unconscious knowledge

As a fan of the Dexter novels, I was a bit nervous about the Dexter television show on Showtime. I needn't have worried. Michael C Hall nicely captures Dexter's mix of fake emotion, goofiness and cold murderous need. If you are not familiar with the books, Dexter is a oddball. He has a girlfriend, He works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami PD. For fun he hunts and brutally kills the criminals that the justice system can't catch. In episodes 1 & 2, a child murderer, a rape snuff film maker and a serial drunk driving killer come to unpleasant ends.

He chooses these bad people because his foster father realized early on that something was not quite right with son. He trained him to follow the code, which sets rules for who Dexter can kill and who he cannot. He calls his need his Dark Passenger and he is unable to resist.

While his need to feed his Dark Passenger is a core component of the show, most of the show is spent with Dexter either amazing his colleagues with his insights into the criminal mind and dealing with people trying to get close to him. On the positive side, he has a girlfriend who is inching closer to sex, an intimacy Dexter neither wants nor understands. On the other, there is Doakes a policeman who understands that Dexter is something out of the ordinary. And not in a good way.

The Dexter stories neatly elude some of the core problems of the vigilante story. Most feature either vigilantes collapsing under the moral weight of their acts (Munich,) an avoidance of killing (Batman) or simply devolving into parody (Death Wish.) Dexter can go on killing until they catch him. Because he researches so long, he makes absolutely certain of the guilt. Collateral damage is hinted at, but rarely touched upon. It's clean and just. And funny.

The emphasis on black humor lets the reader or viewer hide from the bleakness of the underlying message. It also lets them vicariously enjoy the deaths of people who really deserve it.

Last night I met this guy and I'm gonna do a little favor for him

I admit my interest in the Australian Western film The Proposition was based mostly on the fact that the screenplay was written by Nick Cave, he of the scary songs. As he points out in the making of special, Cave's song writing is of a narrative bent, so it isn't surprising he has crafted a compelling story here.

The story begins with two of the Burns brothers, wanted for rape and murder, captured by Captain Stanley of the local constabulary. Stanley correctly sees that Arthur Burns, who was uncaptured, is the true demon. So he offers Charlie Burns a deal. If he can bring back Arthur, he will spare the life of the simpleton brother Michael Burns. If he doesn't, Michael will hang.

Like the Wire, the Proposition blurs the lines between good and bad guys. Both Charlie and Captain Stanley live by a reasonable moral code, while Arthur and many of the other police are merciless and cruel.

At some level, this is about the environment, the harsh Australian outback. On one level, the English try to bring their culture and lifestyle to the outback. This fails to take. Unfortunately they bring their hatred of the Irish and the Aborigines, and this succeeds all too well.

Like Cormac McCarthy in Blood Meridian, director John Hillcoat contrasts the beauty of the landscape with the cruelty of the people. Adding to the ambiguity only the truly wicked, like Arthur Burns, express admiration for the landscape.

It's a good movie and a look at Australian history that will be new to many.

A few good pieces

Here is Andrew Bacevich, one of my favorite writers, on the end of NATO. This is a nice lead in to my next IR read, End of Alliances.

Fred Kaplan's NYT magazine piece on SecDef Robert Gates is a must-read. After reading it, you will wish he held the position in 2000.

Two IR profs discuss a book from one of my grad school colleagues. Yeah, I feel lame.

Doomsday

I am reading P.D. Smith's Doomsday Men: The Real Doctor Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon. It's an odd, but very enjoyable, book mixing the relationship between science and weaponry in the 20th century with the visions found in science fiction.

As you might imagine based on the subject matter, the narrative is discursive, starting withe the idea of a true Doomsday bomb and then heading back to Marie Curie and Fritz Haber, the chemist who developed nitrogen fertilizer and the German chemical weapons program. One of his major themes appears to be the balance scientists take in assisting destruction and serving the greater good. The main subject of the book is Leo Szilard, the man who sought peace but who created the idea of the doomsday weapon.

It's a entertaining and educational read> I love the little details, like the fact that Marie Curie's personal papers remain radioactive and researchers have to sign a waiver before seeing them.

Preoccupied with 1986

Is there any soundtrack that is more 80s than Pretty in Pink? (yes, Repo Man) It was a giant introduction to indie (or as was then known alternative) rock. New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, OMD, the Smiths and the Psychedelic Furs were probably first heard by many on this disc, or tape as was more likely. What could be better than covers of these classics?

The National - Pretty In Pink. They take the slow down approach, which I think makes sense. The speed up approach could lead to the dread Ataris error.

Nada Surf - If You Leave. The best of these covers. They strip it of the 80s shimmeryness but keep the spirit of the song intact.

The Decemberists - Bring on the Dancing Horses. Colin Meloy loves him some covers. See Cuyahoga, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Nobody's Home, and Ask. Still don't believe me? He made an EP of nothing but Morrissey songs.

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - Tom Baxter. Not bad.

The good times are killing us

Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma was my favorite read of 2007, so I had to get his new book, In Defense of Food. The new book starts where the old one stops. The first book talks about the origin of American food and the new book argues that Americans should eat food. That strange argument is a set-up for a larger discussion about the idea that Americans actually don't eat food, but instead eat nutrients.

The focus on nutrients is problematic for a number of reasons. The most important is that the understanding of the health benefits and detriments of various nutrients is misunderstood. What's more, the benefit comes from the combination of multiple nutrients (in a food) and not from an individual nutrient. Because these nutrients cannot be understood by the non-specialist, Americans come to rely on experts, who unfortunately don't seem to have a firm grasp on the subject. The example of margarine, once supposed to be better for us and now understood to be bad is just one example. The worst effect of the focus on nutrients over food is the switch is the crowding out of healthy delicious whole foods, by processed foods which principally benefit shareholders in food companies.

Going further Pollan argues that the Western diet, which includes an overabundance of processed foods and a paucity of whole foods, encourages unhealthy eating in the form of snacking and the disregard for the culture of food which comes from cooking and eating meals together. He argues that our great wealth (and the pursuit of it) has led us into food choices of a dubious quality) He is aware that changing this is a tall order, but he does provide some basic advice about how to realign your relationship with food.

This a much shorter book than Omnivore's Dilemma and because of that it lacks much of the detail that made that book so great. That qualm aside, this is the sort of book that is incredibly motivating. People want to enjoy food and Pollan helps you see how this can be done.

You can read the intro to the book here.

So many ways to be wicked

Thanks to Nonanon, I picked up Ron Franscell's harrowing Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town (note: the upcoming paperback edition will be called the Darkest Night.) The book is principally about the fallout of a brutal crime. Two petty criminals kidnapped two girls aged 11 and 18. They raped one and threw them both off a bridge. The surviving 18 year old was able to identify them and off they went to prison, missing the death penalty due to timing.

The book shows that nearly everyone touched by the crime was permanently damaged. Some were only slight, like the author's brother who lost part of his happy go luckiness, while others, like the victim and killers families, were shattered. The only ones who turned out fine were the killers. One thought prison was a pleasant place and the crueler leader of the two managed to work the system to his benefit.

Franscell is arguing for the death penalty in this book, and if anyone deserves it, people like these do. Even if you do not support the death penalty, the book raises a number of questions about criminal justice. Why as Franscell points out should the killer get medical treatment on the public dime while the victim must pay their way? What to do with people who like prison?

While not quite explicitly, Franscell calls for blood vengeance for the victims to help them cope. Again, you don't have to agree with this, but prison should be a place of torment for people such as these killers. How do that is more than a little tricky of course. The fact that these two are among the worst of the worst makes it hard of a generalized system to deal with them.

This is a very good book, but also a very sad one.

Not the face of the one you love

I wager you noticed the Danzig song Mother used as background music for the Terminator TV show. Much though I make fun of him, this is a very good song and it is great to hear it on TV. The video made it clear that the Danzig of the Misfits and the fun Ramoneseque paeans to 50s and 60s horror and scifi movies was no more. No, in this video, he is become the Herald of Satan with lots of upside crosses, scary John Bunyan quotes, scary lighting and a ritual sacrifice scene. Watch this interview where Glen shows that he is both evil AND learned. A nice chaser is parody Danzig singing his grocery list.

Scanning the online Netflix movies I see that my second favorite (first favorite? Ghouls Night Out) Misfits song's title comes from an actual movie. Astrozombies rates an astonishing 2.5 out of ten on Imdb. Perhaps you can satisfy your curiosity with some film footage set to the song.

Update: While I felt the grocery list song was sufficient to balance out that insane interview, Brack believes that karmic justice demands that I post the video of Danzig getting clocked. Apparently his martial arts training didn't help.

Dobbs

Set in the late 20s and early 30s and featuring an independent female investigator, the Maisie Dobbs series will appeal to those seeking good period mysteries. While the books deal with the aftereffects of World War One, they present an alternative to the bleak period mysteries of Charles Todd and Rennie Airth. The mood is much less dark and unlike Inspector Rutledge, whose only companion is the voice of an executed soldier in his head, Dobbs has a circle of friends.

Her latest book, An Incomplete Revenge, tells the story of a county village and the odd secrets it holds. The story continues her themes of the shifts in the social order that allow women and the working classes a bit more equality. And as usual, there are those that would oppose such changes.

One of the rewards of a mystery series is watching the development of the characters back story. Reading the up and downs of the returning characters in Peter Robinson's mysteries is almost as much fun as the crime story. In his case, the lives of supporting characters in prior novels often furnish the main storyline of subsequent books. Winspear similarly uses the pasts of her supporting characters to drive and enrich her stories.

Winspear is one of the five authors who contribute to Naked Authors, a mystery blog. Take a look at Cornelia Read's noir quiz on that site.

Happy, happy, happy all the time

With a title like You Must be This Happy to Enter, you might expect bucket loads of bitter irony. This third collection of stories by Elizabeth Crane is actually filled with laugh out loud humor, strange turns of events and stories that look realistically at the world, while maintaining the belief that life is worth living.

These stories are some of the best I have read in years, and remind me of another favorite, Ted Chiang. Like Chiang, Crane sets up bizarre situations (a woman goes through life with words on her head, a woman becomes a zombie and is put on a reality TV show, a couple's child turns into Ethan Hawke and so on) and then sees how they react. These people find that yes, their lives are strange, but they are still good and worth living.

A major theme of the book is realizing that you are different (usually bizarrely so) but living with it rather than ranting, collapsing or withdrawing. Don't worry, Crane doesn't go all Free to Be You and Me on you. No, it manages to portray a sincere belief in goodness without becoming cloying or cheap. I think she manages this by focusing on the individuals and not trying to present lessons. The humor doesn't hurt either. As I mentioned this is a funny book.

One of the better, albeit more sad and touching than funny stories in the book is called Promise. Its a list of promises that a hopeful mother is making to her eventual child. You can read it here.

Since this is a short story collection and they tend to be spotty, I planned to read a few strories each night, but I found myself powering through it all at once. I guess I need to get her other two collections.

If only to punish you, for listening too much to one song

One of my college roommates once blasted Garth Brooks's Friends in Low Places ten times in a row, so that we could all hear and enjoy it (Full disclosure: it was my CD) . He didn't have the excuse of drinking either. On the plus side, he probably worked out his desire to hear the song.

When I was trapped on the 12 hour plane ride from Shanghai with only a single book I wanted to read, I had to rely on my Ipod (along with wine and Benadryl) to stay sane. Like my friend, I had the bad habit of listening to the same songs over and over again on the plane. Here are some of the songs I will soon be avoiding.

Mistakes and Regrets - ....And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead. Without question my favorite song of late January 2008. The quiet, loud start is fantastic and the opening lyric is wonderful (If I could make a list/of my mistakes and regrets/ I'd put your name on top.) I dig the video, except for the obvious impossibility of all that dancing at an indie rock show. Either that crowd is rolling or they stole kids from a DMB show.

Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out - The Replacements. Some people like the Replacements for their thoughtful songs about teenage alienation, but I like the snotty ones. Listen for the whispered voice of the doctor hitting on the nurse. From the same band, check the Alex Chilton anti-video.

Shine A Light - Wolf Parade. This one miraculously went from over-listened to shunned and back to over-listening. This is rare indeed. This song is one of the finest arguments for promoting synths and percussion over guitars. And the video is hilarious.

Here are a few covers I (at least kinda sorta) wish I had on the plane.

Silver Stallion - Cat Power. Back before they were cool, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson had a country super-group called the Highwaymen. If you don't know the band, acquaint yourself immediately. Their excellent songs are marred only by the cheesy 80s production, so this cover by Chan Marshall is welcome.

Jailbreak - Dropkick Murphys. The song that most needs the ultimate cover is the hookalicious wonder from Thin Lizzy and this version...isn't it. An update either needs the space between instruments provided by the likes of Spoon or the the power of Shellac, Sleater-Kinney or Slipknot. Oh well, maybe this cover will inspire.

Hang Me Out to Dry - Kate Nash. I am not sure whether I should love or hate this. Nash certainly puts her mark on this one and while I like the fiddle, I miss the aggression of the original.

Land of hope and gloria

In The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery, Paul Kennedy, author of the classic Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, explores the overall utility of naval power through the case of Great Britain. The book is an excellent choice for students of international history and politics, but will disappoint those looking for stories of battles or naval lore.

Kennedy explores the role that geography, society, alliances and the utility of land power played in the various wars facing Britain from the 1600s to the 1900s. He argues that naval power was most valuable in the mercantile trade era and became less valuable in the industrial, except against island nations like Japan, and unfortunately enough, Britain. His successfully argues that naval power alone is defensive, but becomes valuable when combined with land power, but that the utility for a given power is dependent on the particular conditions in which it is being used.

The book will irritate navalists and those who want to learn more about the specifics of British naval history. Peter Padfield's Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind will appeal to those wanting more battle history, even if you don't buy his thesis of the interconnection between the small l liberal world and naval power.

New Lost

Good episode and plenty of mystery for the start of the season, but my favorite thing is that Lance Reddick (Lt. Cedric Daniels of the Wire) is now a character. He also had the best line of the show. I hope he becomes a significant character.

Trapped in ice

There are few if any writers who cover as many genres as Dan Simmons. While best known for his science fiction, he has also written horror novels, crime novels, and spy thrillers. Not content with success in all of these fields, he turned to historical fiction with the Terror. While this is a monster in this book, the book is best described as historical fiction with horror elements, rather than a horror novel set in the past.

It is worth emphasizing that this is not a horror novel as Simmons created one of the greatest monsters of all time, the Shrike. The monster in this book, while terrifying, is not as engaging as the Shrike and is not ultimately all that important. While the book couldn't end as it did without him, this would be a fine book without him.

The Terror tells the story of the doomed 1846 polar expedition of Sir John Franklin. Due to poor decision-making by Franklin, the ships Erebus and Terror become trapped in the ice. While they are provisioned for years, they soon find there are issues with their food, their heat supply and their scurvy-fighting asorbics. That is about the time the monster starts picking off the men.

The drama of the story is how the crew reacts to being trapped in the far north with dwindling chances of survival. The crew's ingenuity in dealing with the variety of challenges in living in the far north makes for some of the most interesting reading. Initially those that would respond with valor and with determination predominate, but as they die off, the venal see their chances.

Many of the people attracted to this book will already be acquainted with the story of the expedition and the mysteries surrounding it. Others may not be as ready for such bleakness. As Fergus Fleming discusses in his brilliant Barrows Boys, the story of British exploration in the 19th century is one of the arrogant and unprepared going to their unpleasant demise.

Simmons provides a hero, and the principal narrator, in Captain Crozier who is able to effectively lead where the hapless Franklin cannot. It would have been bolder perhaps, to explore the character of Franklin, who Simmons portrays as a fool, facing his folly, but Franklin is known to have died early in the expedition. Crozier represents the heroism of those who persevere in the face of all but certain doom.

This is a great story on its own, but fans of historical fiction will appreciate Simmons attention to the detail of 19th century social life and the life on a ship and in the Arctic. Simmons pays close attention to the mindset of the early Victorians and this informs the various reactions to the situation. Those who dislike historical fiction, for example those who find the detail in the Aubrey and Maturin stories tedious, will find themselves skimming sections of the book.

Reading on a jet plane

I faced my nightmare scenario yesterday; a long (20 hour) journey with inappropriate books. Three of the four I had didn't work out. While I usually quite like Charles Stross, his Accelerando didn't do much for me. I had Dorothy Dunnett's Spring of the Ram, but I think my brain was too tired for it. I know my brain my too tired for A Consumer's Republic. I suspect I will give the last two another try. I suppose there is a reason that books are called airplane reads.

The only book that worked well in the circumstances was Charles Todd's A Fearsome Doubt. On the plus side I actually slept thanks to Benadryl. Otherwise it would have been hours spent with films of the Rush Hour 3 caliber. I didn't appreciate the fact that the United Airlines hostess taunted we in the cattle car section with the much better film selection in business class.

I smell death and candy

Today I lost my innocence. Today I tried durian candy.

I knew I was in trouble when I opened the bag. The room was immediately filled with the barely perceptible smell of wrong. I almost threw away the bag at this point, but decided that would be the pussy move, so I went ahead and unwrapped one. The little yellow cube, advertised as soft and chewy sat on the hotel desk and mocked my fears. So I put it in my mouth.

In the first second, I thought it might not be as awful as I thought. Then the aroma of rotten eggs reached my nose and I nearly gagged. Upon chew three or four, I tasted the distinct flavor of green onions. Green onions that have been swimming in rotten eggs. I spit it out on second five and drank as much Pepsi Light as I could. I am lucky that this particular brand contains sugar. Had I faced 100% durian I may have vomited.

There is a numb spot on my tongue where it sat and I feel vaguely queasy. Apparently this nasty, horrible fruit is favored for its aphrodisiac qualities. If you need to eat this to get ready for business time, you should really just take up a hobby instead.

No future for you

In an interview with Powells (to which I cannot link as the Chinese censors are apparently not down with Powells), George R R Martin identified five novels which should have won the Nebula (or maybe it was the Hugo, I can't remember.) One of them was Wilson Tucker's The Year of the Quiet Sun from 1970. While I expect it made for a riveting read back in the Nixon days, today it reads as a dated tale of the apocalypse. Its quite good but is really meant for those whose reading tastes lean to the eschatological.

The book starts in 1978 where the Vietnam war continues at the ferocious level of the 68-70 period with China becoming directly involved. Crime has escalated to the point where trains are armored and the President is a tad wacky.

Super-smart, Bartlett's quoting Brian Chaney (who reads like a stand in for the author) is known for his Biblical writings about Revelation. The government asks him to recommend changes for the nation and he produces a creepily statist report (another 70s peculiarity) that calls for all kinds of paternalist stuff like banning emigration to California. Chaney is recruited into a time machine project along with a two military men. Unlike nearly every other time travel tale ever, they decide to go to the future rather than the past.

The crappy present of the book is just a teaser for a really crappy future. I won't spoil the surprises, as there are some bleak twists and a nasty little ending. The main problem is that the scenario created feels so far from today's world, that it will really only appeal to those who like to see different versions of how our world might end.

Shopping for English books in Shanghai

When I was first in China, teaching English in Xi'an in 93/94, the English book pickings were slim indeed. The selection was limited to Signet and Bantam classics, and focused on books that called into question Western society. So lots of Dickens, but no Trollope. There were also copied versions of books that were bound like the coursework you used to get at Kinko's. There were so few books available that I believe my co-teacher and I bought all of them and still traded for them with other teachers and visiting back-packers.

So, the bookstores in Shanghai (Garden Books and the Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore) look wonderful to me. Yes the number of volumes is about that of a 1987 Waldenbooks, but the quality of the books is quite high, with current hard-covers and trade paperbacks in abundance. And really, this is English bookstore in China, you can't expect Powells. I didn't purchase any as I brought more than I can conceivably read, but I was tempted by a mass market Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

What's that you say? Mass market? A number of books available in the USA only in trade can be had in the mass market format here in China, and other markets too I imagine. I suppose the publishers did the math and found that adding a third edition in the US would not adequately increase net purchase, but I for one would pay eight bucks for many books that I would not pay sixteen.

It is also worth noting that there is quite a bit of open-mindedness about the books available. There are a number of books that take a critical look at China, including the China Fantasy, that are readily available. So good for China.

Feed the tree

There are Tree of Smoke lovers and haters. Count me on the side of the lovers. The time shifts in the first section might make you think you are in for a trippy update of Dispatches, but the book quickly moves into a year by year account of the destruction of a number of American and Vietnamese lives.

The title represents a number of images and themes in the book. It references a verse in the Bible which a grizzled intelligence vet uses as a code name and a kind of mantra. The tree is used to signify ghosts, mushroom clouds, fire, threat and, I think, the potentially weak nature of family connection. Most of the characters wrestle with family members, some betraying and some trying to save, but nearly all lead to disaster. And like smoke, many find that their family is simply gone.

Religious imagery is also significant, with characters wondering just who the Judas is and what the nature of betrayal and redemption is. Again, it is primarily at the hands of family that the action takes place and when some are accused falsely it is terribly sad. In one case, people commit wrong to help their family, and the portrayal of it is morally ambiguous.

While this is a Vietnam novel, very little combat is depicted. This book is more in the mold of spy fiction with its exploration of the life of the operative and the Quiet American (which one character references more than once.) Ultimately it is about the human cost of war and it shows the cost is even worse than is usually shown.

There is a wide range of characters, including a Canadian nurse whose husband disappears in the Philippines, two working class brothers who experiences in the Navy and Army do not set them up well for civilian life, a Vietnamese Viet Cong volunteer who now doubts his choice, and the elder operative. The nephew of said operative, named Skip, is the core. He, and his uncle, ties the characters together and he goes through the worst of all of them.

The book's epilogue is a bit long, as it covers almost all of the surviving characters in 1983, but it helps wrap up the book. I had to re-read the opening section set in 1963, as it made little sense when first read, but clearly sets up the major themes of the book which include the possibility of spiritual death, betrayal, family and cultures which cannot comprehend one another.

Ignore the haters who, in my view, criticize tangential detail. My first reaction on closing the book was that I needed to read it again because I realized that I missed quite a bit. That is the sign of a great book.

Ice Ice Baby

One sure antitote to getting pissy about flying overseas in a middle seat is reading about real hardship. I am about a quarter of the way through Dan Simmon's The Terror, which is a look at what may have happened to the lost Franklin Expedition. He does an excellent of job of describing the harsh and alien environment of the far north and the hard life facing those trapped there. The mixed reviews kept me away from this one, but I am glad I picked up. Those new to the crazed 19th century explorer genre should start with the nonfiction Barrows Boys.

India

I'm traveling to China tomorrow for work, so naturally I read a book about India this week. Edward Luce's In Spite of the Gods makes for an excellent introduction of India. The book is organized thematically with each chapter covering a topic like the urban-rural divide, the role of Nehru-Gandhi family, the state of the caste system and the role of a rising India is national politics. Each chapter provides the basic context for the topic as well as illustrative interviews with political, business and cultural figures.

With each chapter, we see India as an immensely diverse country. While there are rural differences, the rural north is quite different from the rural south. Hinduism is the most significant religion, but Islam is also well represented as is Christianity. The importance of caste means that class based analysis will often miss the mark on understanding identity. The huge number of political parties representing all of the nation's interests makes governing quite a feat.
No single book will ever be able tell you all you need to know about a country. This one manages to clearly provide some key points and will provides a reader with the interest and confidence to read further.

You can read a Q&A with the author here.

Powells will grow

The downtown store will grow, absorbing the nearby technical store. That seems like a good idea. It wasn't that long ago that the Powells building loomed large in the neighborhood, but with all the construction in the Pearl, it now looks smallish. So, I say build away.

Trading in books

I received some Powells store credit for Christmas and, greedy bastard that I am, I decided I wanted to up the free book action by trading in some more books. While the end result of trading books is almost always delightful (I got how much for that?), I find the process a bit unnerving.

When you unload your books on the counter, the salesperson quietly sorts them into the keep pile and the no-thanks pile. Once my no-thanks pile was substantially taller than my keeper pile and I felt like someone in a Bible story whose offering was found wanting. Every once and again the salesperson will glance at you. I get the feeling they are trying to figure out what sort of person I am who would either own or return the books I am presenting for trade. It also doesn't help that you have to carry your loser unacceptable books back home.

I then a feel a little guilty about the books that didn't get picked. I will probably go ahead and keep Legends of the Outer Banks and Tar Heel Tidewater, as I don't have many books about that region. Others will hang around the house and then probably go to Goodwill.

The haul was rather good today, which is nice. I picked up the new Michael Pollan, Dan Simmon's the Terror, Ivan's War and a few others.

Playing songs bringing tears to my eyes

If you have half an hour to kill, read the Washington Post's Two Minute Man columns. David Malitz reviews the songs he hears on the radio during his two minute drive to the coffee shop. You get the videos and some hilarious commentary. Here he is on the Coachella-headlining Jack Johnson(!!)

The new single from this Hawaiian surf-rock dude is as good-natured and mellow as you'd expect. It's the most wholly inoffensive thing you could ever conjure up. Yacht Rock for the 21st century. The freshman girls rushing tri-delt will love it.

Less than meets the eye

The Transformers is about what you would expect a 80s cartoon would like it if it had a budget of $150M. Lots of CGI robots wrecking buildings, people in danger, but little to no onscreen death, despite massive carnage and an emphasis on explosions over story. There's nothing wrong with making movies about 80s cartoons, I think a Thundarr the Barbarian film would be fun, what with Ookla the Mok and all.

What I dislike about this style of movie is how so many action/scifi films reference the complicated explosions of Star Wars while forgetting it is the characters that draw people to those movies. Much more of that film is given to detailing Han, Luke, Leia and Ben than to showing prowess with effects. Even the droids are developed more fully than most characters these days. This is why Firefly is so appealing.

On the plus side, Peter Cullen, who worked on the original cartoon voices Optimus Prime. You may also recognize him as the most recent voice of Eeyore.

I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy

Arnel Pineda of the Philippines is the Rich Little of our times. His talent is mimicking the singing of a wide range of rock and pop acts. Here he is on Rush's Tom Sawyer. That alone is impressive, most impressive, but he is also strong on Steve Perry ( he nails this one), the Worst Song of All Time, Anthony Kiedis, and Bryan Adams. So yeah, there is the commonality of the high pitch voices, but he gets the styles so nicely.

Lost

Screw Cloverfield, I want to see Season 4 of Lost. Check out the trailer. I had forgotten how much I love this show.

Talbot

Long serving diplomat, member of the Clinton administration and President of the Brookings Institution Strobe Talbot has a new big think book called The Great Experiment. The experiment is global cooperation in the face of major problems like global warming or the proliferation of nuclear weapon. This can take the form of global governance or cooperation through diplomacy.

Given his ties to the Democratic party, the book is probably a look at the philosophical underpinnings of a Clinton or Obama Administration. Listen to Talbot on the Diane Rehm show. The focus is more on the current international system than the book, but it will give you a sense of his views and approach to international relations.

This will be a big year for books about where American foreign policy should go. Not only is it an election year, but very few people would argue that the current course should continue.

16 Blocks

When I visit the library I usually swing past the DVD section. Normally I am looking for something way down on my Netflix list (like The Passenger, which I picked up last week,) but I will also pick up a title that someone has mentioned. Someone out there told me to see 16 Blocks so I did. For what it is, a chase thriller, it is a reasonable night's entertainment.

The movie starts with Bruce Willis's aging cop taking Mos Def, a witness 16 blocks to a hearing. It turns out someone wants Mos Def dead, and as you might wager, even a tired, alcoholic, broke-down Bruce Willis isn't going to stand for that. The movies moves across New York as Willis and Def avoid their numerous and well armed pursuers. It moves along predictably enough and ends about as you might expect.

Despite having seen similar things before, the movie has some nice moments of tension, one interesting plot twist and generally moves at a pace fast enough to hold interest. Just like there are times when you want to read a simple mystery novel, there are times when you want a thriller that doesn't require deep thought or that leads to quiet reflection. This is that movie.

Sunshine

The thoughtful science fiction film is all too rare. While science fiction books are evenly split between action-oriented books and more cerebral fare, the movies slant heavily to the flashy lights and explosives. If you look at the top 20 IMDB sci-fi films, only one or two isn't action-oriented. Even the Guardian's list is mostly action. It's understandable as even the slow paced science fiction films require special effects and are therefore expensive. The sci-fi equivalent of You Can Count on Me would probably lose a lot of money. This isn't to disparage space opera, but only to wish for more movies like the books of Hal Clement or the Speed of Dark.

So it is nice to see that a movie like Sunshine was made. The movie centers on Icarus II (Icarus I didn't make it), a ship carrying a bomb meant to re-start a dying sun. The first two thirds of the film focuses on the psychological, social and technical problems facing a eight person crew on a lengthy and possibly suicidal mission. The ship's psych officer is fascinated by the sun and goes right up to the edge of safe exposure to its light. The engineer is the hard nosed realist who would do well in the Cold Equations. The crew's captain reminded me of Dallas, which bodes poorly for him. The principal character is the physicist who designed the bomb. He is given to indecision and doubt.

As you can imagine thing begin to go wrong on the Icarus II, and as Apollo 13 showed us, errors in a environment like space lead to more errors, often worse than the initial ones. The film switches to danger/action mode at the end, but I think it does so without sacrificing the general tone of the film. I really liked this movie and hope it leads to more like it.

This day anything goes

Like Joe Schreiber (nice Lovecraftian blog post here) , Norman Partridge proves that it is possible to write good horror stories. His Dark Harvest is a tale of quiet Midwestern farm town with a unpleasant means of testing its youth. Each year on Halloween, the male teens must hunt and slay the October Boy, with the killer's family getting great rewards. With a ritual as odd as this one, you can suspect there is something peculiar about this town.

Like other great horror writers, Partridge doesn't explain everything. The ending is left a tad unclear, the source of the ritual is hinted but not explained. It reminded me a bit of the ending of Russo's Ship of Fools, where something disturbing and difficult to understand is happening and the only real choice is to run. Partridge handles the balance between mystery and revelation nicely.

On the downside, the book is really quite short. It is a novella rather than a novel, so it is pricey for its length. On the plus side, it could make a really enjoyable film.

Finishing 1491

As I mentioned, I am reading 1491. Having finished it, I highly recommend it as a way to reset your understanding of the Americas. Author Charles Mann's purpose is to debunk three commonly held ideas about the Americas before Columbus: that the continents were sparsely populated, that the social and technical development was limited and that the locals left the environment untouched.

In discussing scholarly debates on these subjects, he convincingly argues that the population, before the decimation of disease, was quite high. The debate is just how many people there were rather than whether the continents were pristine unoccupied lands waiting for the taking. The major factor here is the spread of Old World disease.

On the question of social and cultural development, he argues that Peru and Mesoamerica should be counted among the birthplaces of human culture. While they didn't develop in the same way as Asian or European societies, they represent great achievements that best took advantage of their situation.

His final point is that the locals were extensive modifiers of the environment. In fact he goes so far as to say that the Amazon as we know it is the result of thousands of years of human engineering.

All of these arguments have their foes and Mann gives them room in the book as well. It's a fair, easy to read book that will likely educate and entertain all but specialists.

A really good cover

The Beatles playing Led Zeppelin? OK not really, but a very good Beatles tribute act playing Stairway to Heaven is almost as good as it gets in cover terms. Thanks HLK.

Grindhouse

I had originally planned to see Grindhouse in theaters, but I have children and I never see movies in the theaters. Having watched both Deathproof and Planet Terror on DVD, I also think that the movie would have been too long for the theater, for me at least. That said, I thought both movies were effective as entertainment and send-ups of the bad movies of yore.

Planet Terror, directed by Robert Rodriguez, is a play on the gory zombie films of the 70s. What I liked best is how the actors, many of whom are quite good, manage to act as if they were C-movie hacks who are trying really hard to be serious. This isn't like the jokey scenes in a Kevin Smith film, but the true cheese of the creature features. I thought this one was quite funny, as long as you took it for what it was. It is worth the time just to Naveen Andrews with his testicle removal device.

Death Proof, directed by Quentin Tarantino, goes on a bit too long, but the second half makes it worth it. The movie focuses on girls and cars, and what could more grindhouse than that? The biggest surprise is New Zealand stunt woman Zoe Bell who plays herself. Her car scene will have you covering your eyes out of fear. I wasn't aware that she is a stuntwoman and I was shocked when it was obvious she was doing the scenes. Tarantino works his dialogue magic in a number of scenes, but it gets a bit self-indulgent as many of these scenes are long. Still he manages to deliver some shocks.

These movies are for people who grew up watching a lot of bad movies, but now like good ones. One of the classic Onion headlines is Aging Gen-Xer Doesn't Find Bad Movies Funny Anymore, but fortunately these movies escape the trap by doing bad well.

Someone took in these pants

Eric Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman's Fattening of America looks at American obesity from the economic perspective. That is to say, what incentives have made us eat poorly and get less exercise than is needed to stay fit. The incentive approach is often valuable as it lowers the heat in political arguments, and it has some value here as well.

Food in America is cheap, really cheap. While in the 50s, food expenditure was a fifth of total income, it is now just 10%. This is because the prices have fallen dramatically, often for lower quality food. Just over 40% of food expenditures are eaten away from home, which also contributes to overeating.

This would all be well and good if we were a nation of ditch diggers who burned 5000 calories a day, but sadly many of us only get out of the chair to eat the free food left in the company kitchen. Labor saving devices have proliferated to the extent that it is hard to find ways to exercise.

All of this is well and good, but it is also well-covered, often more in-depth as in Fast Food Nation and the Omnivore's Dilemma. We don't learn a lot more about why we have become such a weight challenged nation in this book. There is more value in the discussion about what to do about. As a committed free marketer, perhaps it is not surprising that Finkelstein's answer is not much of anything.

The book argues that the costs of obesity are overstated, they are counterbalanced by the economy that supports the obese and that any attempt to reduce obesity rates would eradicate any savings. Instead, the economy should focus on providing incentives to be thin rather than fat, creating more parks for example. For kids, it is less market driven, about providing more information to kids. I would have liked to see more policy recommendations about incentives. It is not easy, so more discussion would have been valuable.

Finkelstein has a blog, and a website, where you can get a good sense of his argumentation. This post in particular is useful.