The Piano Teacher

There are few places in the world quite like Hong Kong. It is hard to think of a place that is more of a fusion of East and West. My two visits preceded the hand over to China, so perhaps it is becoming another international city like Shanghai, but I suspect it remains something of an amalgam. The historical legacy is less than pristine of course. The city that grew up around the harbor was a prize in a successful war between drug runners (Britain and its companies) and a state attempting to maintain sovereignty (China.) Not that the US can point many fingers have stolen a good chunk of land from Mexico and even more from the Native Americans. Anyway, this legacy and the decaying colonial society in the city make for an ideal setting for novels.

Janice Y.K. Lee well uses the complicated social structure of the city her subtle debut novel, the Piano Teacher. The story revolves around a pair of love affairs, one that starts just before World War 2 and the other in the 1950s. In the later affair, a English newlywed looking for something to do accepts a job teaching piano to the daughter of a pair of wealthy Chinese. She meets Will Truesdale and eventually begins a torrid affair with him. This gets her into the small society of the island, where she finds that the smallness makes it hard to hide an affair. What's more Will and her employers appear to be involved in the disappearance of valuable antiquities during the Japanese occupation. Flashbacks to the previous affair show a decadent social class ignoring the growing threat only to find themselves at the gentle mercies of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Lee's prose is descriptive and I especially like her ability to create so many distinct characters and her subtle ways of communicating character, plot and emotion. She can be quite indirect in her plot development, not in an annoying way, but certainly one that can be missed by an inattentive reader. The writing is evocative and engaging, balanced between description and moving the story forward. A fine read.

The trouble with short story collections

Oh, I do love a good short story and based on the one I have read so far, Laird Barron can sure write a scary, nasty one. I read Old Virginia (which you can read here) which features many of my favorite story elements: wicked scientists, the CIA, battered tough guys, an ancient evil and a surprise connection to a historical mystery. All of it written briskly and creepily.

Great that it started the collection the Imago Sequence. If he had led off with something weaker, I might not have persisted. With short story collections, I find that each weak story makes me read a little faster and I then miss the nuances and details that make short stories enjoyable, so I think a good story is weak and read a little faster. Pretty soon I have given up on the book. So what to do? In this case, Steve read it first and told me the stories to read and which to skip. That is my kind of friend.

True crime

The latest Book Menage has started at Citizen Reader. The topic is true crime with a focus on Rick Geary's true crime graphic novels and Stacy Horn's The Restless Sleep. Check it out.

Finally back to scifi

Seems like forever since I have picked up a good mass market paperback scifi novel. I had been looking at Kay Kenyon's The Braided World for years and have owned for nearly that long. It was a great read and a nice return to science fiction. It is an anthropological/first contact scifi novel in the vein of Mary Doria Russell or Orson Scott Card in which a mission sent from a dying Earth hopes to find a means to restart the human race on a distant planet.

A rich former opera singer funds a mission to the planet based on a message which says that the planet has what they have what Earth has lost. The captain dies just as the expedition arrives (wouldn't you know it?), putting the whole thing in the hands of two junior officers. The planet is inhabitated by what looks like humans who call themselves the Dassa. Unfortunately, they have some peculiar habits including slavery for women capable of breeding in the human way. The political system is confusing enough to lead to miscalculation by the novice diplomats.

Kenyon is great at creating peculiar societies and here she has made a world in which the strange biology of the Dassa leads to a odd political system. The plot revolves around the attempts by humans and Dassa to use each other to get what they want. There are a few cliches here and there, but I really liked it.

Inflight reading - Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

Traveling solo with three kids normally means no reading. So of course, I ply mine with chapter books, crayons, sticker books, comic books, comic book compilations, Indiana Jones DVDs and whatever nature documentaries and Disney Treasures I feel like bringing. This means I get to do more than scan the Sky Mall catalog.

In this case, I got through a good piece of the awesome Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind. Biskind gives you everything. Your high minded brain gets the history of the revival of American cinema in the early 70s, capsule histories of key films, a sense of how movies get made, and a sense for the titanic amounts of money that slosh around. Your low minded brain gets the salacious details of life in Hollywood. You learn about Dennis Hopper's insane relationships with his wives (handcuffing them to keep them from leaving is a short term play at best) and others. The wild sex lives and the casualness with which they treat other people will shock.

One revelation, among many, is that the great directors of the 70s (Coppola, Scorsese, Friedken, Polanski, etc) were nearly all complete and total bastards. If they weren't stealing your wife, they were stealing your money and burning your career down to the ground. They rode over anyone in their path and they expected a thank you or a blow job as payment. I'm having to do some serious separating the art from the artist stuff in my mind. Otherwise I may have to go break some DVDs. That just wouldn't do.

Great book. Read it immediately if you like movies.

Listening too long to their songs

The Foo Fighters used to be my standard for awesome videos. You had the Evil Dead/Sid and Nancy referencing Everlong (still the most awesomely badasss video of all time) and the Mentos ad mocking Big Me. But I have come to realize the champs are the New Pornographers. These fine Canadians (plus a Yank) have a potentially off putting name, but their songs are poppy, indie rock gems. Unlike so many of their American counterparts, they are unafraid to ROCK while they bring their harmonies, clever lyrics and hooks to the listener. This is the band that Rivers Cuomo wants to front. Amazingly the videos are equally great. Behold the wonders:

Your Daddy Don't Know. This is a cover of an 80s hard band rocker. The band dresses accordingly. Neko's hair is great, as is her head shaking. She looks like the lost sister from Heart. The band plays it straight, but there is another piece about a chair jumping contest that is awesome. I just listened to this one four (now five) times in a row.




Mutiny I Promise You. An impossibly addictive bit of pop rock. The video is actually part of a comedy series by . The video features the two ladies of the New Pornographers, one of whom is naturally gorgeous and the other is hot in an awkward indie way. You can't go wrong.



Sing Me Spanish Techno. Is this the best song of the decade? Rhethorical question, the answer is clearly yes. The video is good enough to match the song. The story of transvestite karaoke is awesome, I particularly like the first stage show.





The Laws Have Changed. Great song, but the least of the videos probably. It references an art film and has Callie from BSG standing in for Neko Case.



Pity there is no video for the End of Medicine as that songs rocks. Seeing this guys live is my great desire (maybe I will get an ELO cover?).

Nukes not a big deal?

I've been in a reading rut of late, nothing has been clicking. I put down Neuropath, I put down a horror novel I was excited about, I thought the Amazon praised Crazy For the Storm was pretty good, but not great.

John Mueller's Atomic Obsession broke the bad spell. The concise, well argued book is a direct assault on all the received wisdom about nuclear weapons. Mueller argues that nuclear weapons are not as dangerous as people think, that proliferation is less likely than people think, that nuclear terrorism is far more difficult than people think and that much less attention needs to be paid to nuclear weapons in general.

He blows up the right and left in this book, but mostly he is taking aim at the foreign policy establishment for whom nuclear weapons remain a core concern driving a sizable chunk of US policy. This one is well worth reading just to reconsider your assumptions. His argumentation is strong, although you are unlikely to buy everything (or even most) of what he has to say. I imagine those nodding their heads at the sections that talk about how the fixation on Iranian nukes is bad for America will blanch when they see him note that using atomic weapons to access resources and to call for the ramping up of nuclear energy.

Random

A Navy destroyer, the USS Lassen recently visited the Vietnamese port of Da Nang. Not a huge deal anymore, but interesting. Much more interesting is that the commander of the ship left the very same city in 1975 as a child refugee.

Nice Bacevich and Frum on Bloggingheads. One conservative apostate and one conservative trying to save his side from creeping madness.

I watched the cartoon New Frontier with the kids. Based on the excellent Darwyn Cooke comic, it tells the story of the formation of the justice league with a close look at racism, McCarthyism and domestic policing as well. Its a bit dark in places, starts with a suicide, Wonder Woman helps a group of Vietnamese women get bloody vengeance, but you can skip parts if needed.

Some scifi for your 2010

io9 has a list of upcoming scifi titles for 2010. I am most excited for the Connie Willis time traveling book, although I wonder which road she will take. Her Doomsday Book, involving time travellers going back to the middle ages, is one of the biggest bummers of all time. Then there's To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is light hearted romp by comparison. The new one is called Blackout and it involves trips to London during WW2. Should be good. Can't say I am all that amped for any of the others, but you may get a charge.

Off the list, there is a new Alastair Reynold on the horizon, another far future one.

Dare we hope for Dance with Dragons? Related note: Will the Game of Thrones HBO series top the Wire?

Oingo Boingo on the Gong Show?

I recall watching the Gong Show back in the 70s. Mostly people getting gonged. Here though we have art rockers Oingo Boingo (known then as the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo) performing. The celebrity guests are just as interesting, including a bowl cut wearing Buddy Hackett, a young looking Shari Lewis and Bill Bixby.



I like them better doing Private life.

Neuropath

Scott Bakker is best known for his constructivist fantasy series called The Prince of Nothing. I liked the books at first, but thought they were too slow moving and was more interested in cramming critical theory into fantasy novels than in writing a story. Also, I couldn't stand weepy one of the main characters became.

Still, I think he is quite talented, so I picked up his first thriller, called Neuropath. I didn't make it too far, as the main character drove me nuts and it looked like more of the things are not what they seem. In the fantasy novels it was all about how love, society, religion and so on are social constructs to be exploited by those who see clearly. In this book, love, society, religion and so on are creations of the chemical reactions in our heads, and they can be exploited or something.

Anyway, a bad guy starts making people do evil, hideous things and it turns out the cocky protagonist used to know him, so the Feds bring him in to fight him.

Anyway, wasn't for me.

More random

I loved Green Apple Books yesterday, but I love them a little more today after I read their plans for the profits from sales of the Palin book.

Not sure that I would follow the advice necessarily, but I love this article on making pie crust and how you are whiny if you won't make one.

Check out this fast food restaurant decision tree. Note the mocking of Arbys.

Fourth star

The Iraq books keep coming, despite the public's waning interest. The Fourth Star, subtitled Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the Army is a book with the Iraq war at its center, but it is quite a bit more. It follows the military careers of Generals Abizaid, Casey, Chiarelli and Petraeus, all of whom recently became four star generals, the highest rank in the Army (five star generals exist, but the rank is an honorific)

The parts I liked best were those that preceded the Iraq war. It shows the often peculiar and roundabout paths that military careers take. There is the constant desire, for those who want promotion, to take positions in charge of military units. In many cases, the Generals in the book despaired of every getting promoted. General Chiarelli found himself teaching at West Point and became known as an egg head. General Abizaid nearly took the career limiting move of becoming a Foreign Area Officer, or one who spends his career in liaison with other militaries. With the exception of the ultra-driven Petraeus, few seemed to be working their way to the top of the Army.

Most of the stories about their careers are fresh and they tell the story of the Army's near destruction in Vietnam, the slow rebuilding in the 70s and 80s, the victory of sorts in 91 and then the challenges of an Army using the wrong tactics in Iraq. The civil-military leadership in the Iraq war is the flip of the Union's situation in the Civil War. In Iraq, incompetent civilian leaders hobbled the general's war effort, just as incompetent generals hobbled the civilian leaderships efforts in the Civil War. Authors Jaffe and Cloud are withering in their treatment of the civilians in the books (as well as towards the self congratulatory Tommy Franks.)

The focus though is on the generals. Casey and Chiarelli eventually took the top two spots, respectively in the Army, but felt that they had been demoted in a sense for their handling of Iraq. Abizaid retired to the Sierra Nevadas and Petraeus continues his quest for glory.

The book is a good quick read, loaded with fascinating stories and analysis. It doesn't quite reach the level of the Thomas Ricks or Dexter Filkins books, but it does give more insight than those books into the Army as an institution.

Mixed

Here is one for Steve. Five pages of why it it hard to translate Beowulf. Includes exercises! Via McCardle.

Ken Ober of MTV's Remote Control has died. So young, so sad. How I loved Remote Control back in the day, with the Stud Boy and Dead or Canadian?

I have been away from the food blog world for awhile, but I saw a link on Marginal Revolution to a guide to buffet eating. I expected a few bullet points, but found a treatise. It's a bit insane. Nice blog though.

Is your day going a little too well?

No need to read a weepy Russian novel, that takes too long. Just listen to Mariah Carey's cover of I Want To Know What Love is. There are few bands worse than Foreigner and few Foreigner songs worse than I Want To Know What Love Is, but Mariah brings her special brand of suck to the party. Enjoy, or, don't.

What happens to scrapped ships

I grew up in Tidewater Virginia, which meant I was surrounded by ships from birth. I was, and still am, attracted to naval vessels. The increasing standardization of the US Navy and the disappearance of the old ships means there are fewer odd ones to spot, but as a boy there were plenty. I even managed to visit two Soviets ships that came to town at the end of the Cold War.

My fascination with warships extends to their scrapping. It's a sad affair. Scroll down to the see the Spanish Dedalo, the former USS Cabot, sitting in a ditch in Brownsville, Texas. Many would prefer that ships have the fate of the USS Oriskany which was sunk to make a barrier reef. Here is a video of that ship sinking.

Anyway, sometimes they just get scrapped and I wonder what happened to them. The old answer was always, they get made into razor blades. Apparently though you can still touch parts of the German battleship Tirpitz, which was sunk in 1944. Parts of the ships armor are still used in Norway as temporary road patches. Images here.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

If you have seen a Kevin Smith movie, you know what to expect from this Zack and Miri Make A Porno. It will have tons of sex jokes and unbelievably bad language. Jason Mewes will be crazy (in this case, crazy and naked.) The plot will revolve around a working class guy (and possibly gal) who takes for granted the great relationship staring them in the face. The only question is whether they will screw it up or not.

This one is a comedy so you can guess how it will turn out. Seth Rogen is sad sack Zack and Elizabeth Banks is Miri Linky (formerly called Stinky Linky). Best friends and roomates, they are always a step away from eviction. When things get really bad, they decide to film a porno. With a group of similar outcasts, including a character played by Traci Lords, they decide to film a porn film. Will Zack and Miri realize what they have in each other? Again, fairly obvious, but still cute.

Best parts of course are the over the top jokes, like Justin Long as a gay porn star who likes to talk about his work. If sex jokes make you uncomfortable, stay far away from this one. If you do watch, enjoy the Pixies on the soundtrack and wait for the bonus scene after the credits.

Random

Went to Beaumont Market and picked up a Buckbean Original Orange Blossom Ale. Quite orangey, not in a nasty puckerish way, but in a yummy way like Terry's Chocolate Orange. I wouldn't spend an evening drinking them (but then again I am a switch it up kind of guy) but I will drink it again.

Did you know Johnny Marr has joined the Cribs? Here is Cheat on Me from the new record. It has quite a different feel from the almost snotty Our Bovine Public (a song I adore). Anyway a nice move forward.

I saw this post on i09 about haunted house books and I was amazed to see that Sarah Langan has a new one out! Since she is a horror writer she is still published in mass market, so I saved a little cash when I bought her new one today.

I've been coming back to Andy Samberg's I Threw It on the Ground. Watched it three times today. It's a concept that really shouldn't work, but he builds it just right.

In the department of wierd but effective covers, here is Of Montreal covering the Misfits Where Eagles Dare. There is a clear dissonance in the Danzig nonsense lyrics "the omelette of disease awaits your noontime meal, her mouth of genocide seducing all your glands" being rocked out in house music style.

Feeling tragic, like I'm Marlon Brando

The Iggy Pop version of China Girl came up on my Ipod today. If you don't know it, give it a listen. It has a far dirtier 70s sound (surprise!) than the early 80s Bowie version. I like them both quite a bit, although I find the Bowie video dubious. The story behind the Bowie version is interesting. They wrote the song together in the 70s and then Pop recorded. When Pop was in a bad place in the 80s, Bowie recorded it, knowing Pop would get some cash from the song rights. Nice guy! Without the song, Pop might never gone on to make Candy or go on his duet/guest singer binge with the likes of the Teddybears, Ida Marie (awesome song, check it out), and Jemina Pearl. The latter one is great fun. Called I Hate People, the video hates on hipsters and features Thurston Moore as a diner owner.

Anyway if the music thing didn't work out, he could have been a pornstar. Can't find it online, but the guy could give John Holmes a complex. For real.

Nitze and Kennan

The Hawk and the Dove is one of the most accessible and enjoyable books about the Cold War to come out in quite awhile. The book's biographical studies of Paul Nitze and George Kennan makes the story engaging and easy to follow. The idea that Nitze was the hawk and Kennan the dove makes stark a more muddled picture, but their relationship nicely highlights philosophical differences in the Cold War. Nitze often pushed the hard line and the militarization of containment, while its author Kennan thought that most military activity was wasteful and unnecessary, although he had a virulent hatred for the Communists.

The book is also concise. The Cold War is a big story, but author Nicholas Thompson (who is related to Nitze) doesn't feel compelled to pad the book with excess background information about the Cold War. He tells what needs to be told and then moves on. Having a background in the subject will help, but it is not necessary. The focus on philosophy also helps.

I really liked the book. There are wonderful anecdotes and it the focus on the perspectives of the two men is illuminating. Although both men are legend in international relations, neither was ever really satisfied in their career, feeling they had been shut out of where they should be. There is sad moment where Nitze thinks he will get a plum spot in the Carter administration only to find himself without any job at all. All in all, a great read. Watch out, though, for the occasional lapse into conspiracy theory. Thompson mentions a number of mysterious deaths that surround the making of foreign policy. It is by no means the focus of the book, or even of a given chapter, but it pops up in odd places.

Finishing the Prisoner

Oh man, the Prisoner has to be the most singular, peculiar TV show ever made. It is part spy drama, part science fiction, part late 60s head trip, part political statement and all around entertainment. How odd is the show? Well for one, there is great disagreement about the order in which to watch them. The main character is never named, but keeps only his number 6. 6 is played by Patrick McGoohan who had a great amount of creative input into the show. He was at least partially responsible for the heavy use of symbolism. For example, the use of the antique penny farthing bike supposedly is there to represent McGoohan's concern that technology is outpacing man's ability to use it. The tension between the individual and society is played out in many different ways, including the whacked out finale.

Speaking of the finale, fans apparently came to McGoohan's house to yell at him after it was made. It is really quite something and is not easily digested. Lock your doors if the Lost people try something this off the wall. There may be riots.

The show itself starts out in a conventional serial method but becomes increasingly odd. 6 resigned from the British secret service and a series of wardens, known as 2 try to figure out why he did it. Their methods grow increasingly bizarre and serve to comment on the oppressive sense of entitlement of the state. The last few shows are just crazy. One starts off in the old West and it is not clear where the hell it is going until the end. The Girl Called Death is a send up of spy shows and is quite funny.

AMC will shortly be presenting an updated Prisoner miniseries. Jim Caviezel is 6 and Ian McKellan, surely the god of all scifi movies now, is 2. There are only six episodes, but before you shout LAME!!, recall that McGoohan originally only wanted the Prisoner to be seven episodes, so it could very well be in keeping with the original.

AMC has all the original shows available to watch online. So what are you waiting for?

Thunderstruck

What is with the new box set releases? I suppose some fans have plenty of cash to burn, despite the downturn. AC/DC has a reasonably priced (<$50) box set out there, but who wants a boring old box set, when you can get one HOUSED IN A WORKING AMP. This version of the set will set you back two hundred bones, but you do get an amp with it. I can't wait to see what you can get when cloning technology is perfected.

Paranormal Activity

Well, I saw it last night. Great movie, you can kinda sorta believe the hype. If you go in with the belief that it will Change Everything and be The Scariest Movie of All Time, you will be disappointed. If you want to experience slow burn dread and good scares, you will be happy.

If somehow you don't know about the movie, it get its buzz from the fact that it was made for less money than most new cars (and has already grossed $16M ) and that it was a huge hit at Sundance. Like Blair Witch, it has few actors and they are all unknowns. Most of the acting is acceptable but Katie Featherston does a great job of portraying an escalation of fear.

Katie, her character is also named Katie, was haunted as a child by a spirit. Her techie boyfriend decides to film the house so they can catch sight of the spirit. The exposition just starts to wear thin when the haunting picks up. The initial actions of the ghost are creepy, but in a way that gets the boyfriend cackling, rather than concerned. As you might guess the haunting get worse, much worse.

The last five or ten minutes are great, in particular a disturbing little bit that went by too fast. I will have to watch it again.

Random links of the day

Here is Carrie Fisher sunning on the barge with her stunt double, both in slave gear.

If you haven't seen it, John Stewart's impression of Glenn Beck is very good.

Speaking of Beck, you may have seen the NYT story about his becoming the new go to person for thrillers. Sarah Weinman expands on it.

Random

Portland is getting a train museum, or park or something. They city owns three steam locomotives and has entered a partnership with the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation to set up some sort of facility near OMSI. My kids will be tired of trains by then, but I will probably stop visit. For now be sure to visit the giant railroad set at the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club. They are only open on November weekends, so do it soon!

Have a look at this local TV station animal visit gone wrong.

Fun at vegans expense.

Q: Are we not men? A: We are Pearl Jam

Covers make me smile. They let you ponder just why it is you like songs. Is the band, is it how the song is played, is it the singer? While I adore a recorded cover, I get even more excited for a live one. Even at the best of shows I leave with a twinge of regret if there was no cover on the set list. The ultimate is when bands dress up for their covers. Sadly I have never seen such a thing myself, but the Internet is there for us. It's not a cover, but here is Stone Temple Pilots playing in Kiss makeup. The greatest example I have heard of is Shellac, joined by David Yow, coming onstage as the Sex Pistols and playing a set of Pistols songs. That transcends epic.

Although not quite as good as an entire show, I quite like how far Pearl Jam went on Halloween night in Philadelphia this year. They came on stage in full Devo gear and played Whip It (note that Eddie has an actual whip, as well as the robotic entry). That would have been something to see in person. Video below.

It's a long way back from hell

I guess I went into Drag Me to Hell with expectations set too high. It's the sort of movie you expected Sam Raimi to make 20 (or even 30 years) ago. You get the gonzo funny gore, like a demon puking up a kitten, and the unstoppable evil, as in Evil Dead. It just doesn't add up to much. Justin Long is in it and I have a hard time watching him without expecting John Hodgman to show up. And he doesn't.

For some real horror, here is Shakira and pretend Danzig singing Hips Don't Lie:

A song for the afternoon

It is rare when scifi geekiness and indie rock come together. Usually one must turn to the Pixies or early Frank Black for such things. Fortunately there are a few others. Butterglory, an underrated 90s band, has the Skills of the Star Pilot. It really just uses some scifi imagery, but I will take what I can get. A nice low key tune.

Gillian Flynn puts on her pants just like the rest of you, except once her pants are on, she writes great crime novels

I used to have no taste in books. It's true! I liked the worst of the worst British (and there are no worse) 80s horror novels. I once gave a friend Michael Slade's atrocious Ghoul, which he rightly hated. The book is notable for a profusion of gore and also a blurb from Bruce Dickinson (yes, THE Bruce Dickinson) He said "Slade is warped and I love it!" The twisted characters in Gillian Flynn's two excellent novels make me wonder about her daydreams, but I will say I love her books but not for the reason Dickinson praised Slade.

Slade like the torture pornographers that dominate horror movies believes that gore and physical torment is scary, or, worse, entertaining. Flynn is more interested in social cruelty and psychological torment. Her first book, Sharp Objects, featured an emotionally shattered outsider who returned to her hometown to cover a brutal murder and to confront her unspeakable family.

Her newer book is Dark Places. This one dials back the social critique a tad, but features a dual timeline story in which the only survivor of a 1980s home massacre finally comes to terms with it. Libby was seven when her family was killed and she helped put her brother in jail for her life as the killer. She becomes a violent withdrawn person herself and makes it to her thirties living off donations. When she runs out of money and choices, she helps out some bizarro murder fetishists who believe her brother did not commit the crime. Not believing them, but needing money she becomes involved in their investigation.

The flashbacks to the 80s depict a small town awash in fears of Satanists (remember that? I recall reading a book cashing in on the hysteria called Say You Love Satan!). The town looks down on Libby's family, as they are barely holding their heads above water. Libby's brother is poor and awkward, which makes him doubly suspicious in the eyes of the community. They are all too happy to demonize him as the story progresses.

The story itself is much better in this book than in the first book. As much as I loved that book for the characterization and writing, the ending was fairly clear at about the midpoint. In this case, you get the gimlet eyed writing, the weak, bitter, but still sympathetic characters, but you also get a story that keeps you uncertain until the end.

I can't wait to see what human ruin Flynn creates next!

King in the New Yorker

I am pretty excited for the giant new Stephen King novel. He is not universally loved, but I love how he made horror novels work. There is a new short story, not explicitly horror, although it is horrific, in the New Yorker. Read it here. I've not read them, but here is a new Lethem and a new Saunders.

Dead Hand

Depending on when you call it, the Cold War may have ended 20 years ago (could have been in 86 at Reykjavik or in 91 when the Soviet Union collapsed). Maybe it is for that reason we are seeing a surge in Cold War books. Last year we saw the angry Arsenals of Folly by Richard Rhodes, this year we have a new one from Neil Sheehan called a Firey Peace in a Cold War (just started it, great so far). Take a look at this review essay from Philip Zelikow for a number of books on the era.

In the Dead Hand, David Hoffman of the Washington Post covers both the East and West, but sheds a lot of new light on the Soviet side. He shows both the good, the realization that the nuclear arms race could end the world, and would certainly crush the Soviet economy, as well as the bad.

The bad is pretty grim. He spends quite a bit of time showing the rise of the Soviet biological weapons industry. The US, viewing bio-weapons as a strategic liability, signed and adhered to the Biological Weapons Convention and killed the offensive bio-weapons program. The Soviets feared the US was cheating, so they built a secret program with all sorts of horrors like smallpox bombs and new two punch viruses with an initial bug to weaken the immune system followed by a knockout punch bug.

Hoffman also shows the effects on international relations of the terrible management and maintenance practices, secrecy and the use of poor technology. The decrepit system allowed for the penetration of Soviet airspace by a young German in an airplane, Chernobyl, the anthrax outbreak of 79 and the shoot down of KAL 007. Recent history has tried to pin the blame on the US for this. Hoffman shows that the weight lies heavily, if not completely, on the Soviets.

Hoffman also discusses the post-war period where unemployed Soviet scientists sat in rotting buildings with weapons materials stored in filing cabinets. He reveals more about the US efforts to get weapons materials out of the newly independent republics.

I have a few minor complaints. The title is a bit of a dodge. The Dead Hand of the title refers to a Soviet Doomsday machine that would ensure that the missiles would fly even if the Russian leadership perished. Hoffman uses it as a metaphor to describe how the WMD is still out there even if we have forgotten about it. If you are expecting a book that focuses on doomsday machines, look elsewhere.

There are also times where Hoffman has done so much research that it starts to take over the narrative. The level of detail becomes a bit much and bogs down in a, fortunately very few, places. Overall I found it an engaging, well-written and informative read.

Take a look at this WaPo Q&A with Hoffman where he addresses these issues and more.

Terror strikes the land

A fell wind blows from Detroit. It has been twelve years since the dark tide of Tuesdays with Morrie nearly crushed the spirit of America. We rested too easy while Albom was quiescent, but now the stars have re-aligned and he has returned with Have A Little Faith. This time the topic is interracial, interfaith relations. I suspect the glurge dial will be set to 11. Hug your children while there is still time.

Ia ia Cthulhu fhtagn!

One of my eldest son's favorite board games is Arkham Horror. In what other game do you get to fight eldritch terrors at the risk of going insane, or worse, being devoured? Not every child is ready for the terrible weight of knowledge of the Great Old Ones, so make it easy for them with this handy video.



(via io9)

Kids books at Borders

I went to the downtown Borders today. I like that one, the staff are friendly, there are some odd books to be found, and the coffee shop is nice. I went with my feverish daughter who wanted some books. I picked up three paperbacks and was amazed at how cheap they are, only four dollars a piece. Kids books have to be the best value in books today. Sure the dollars per word is crappy, but kids read them over and over again. One book can be weeks of entertainment. I am lucky to get a night or two out of a paperback, if only because I don't finish them all.

One we picked up is Horrid Henry, a series very popular in Britain about a nasty young boy. There is a similar series in the US called Horrible Harry. A Scots mother at our school put it this way. Horrible Harry really isn't that horrible (his horror rises to the level of enjoying bad smells), but Horrid Henry is apparently quite horrid. I am looking forward to reading more.

Too much of a good thing?

Well, I wrapped up the epic From Colony to Superpower, George Herring's epic one volume history of American Foreign Policy. It is a the only thematic book in the Oxford History of the United States. I, for one, loved it. The depth of treatment on the 18th and 19th century was wonderful. As we got to the post-war era, my extensive reading in the subject made it less useful, but still good. Good God, though, is this book long. Thanks to the length, this book is for a select group of people. If two of the following make sense to you, then get the book.

• Want value for your money. $35 for 1000 pages, a rare deal, this day and age?!
• Are a Oxford University History of the United States completist (guilty!)
• Want a single volume treatment of American foreign policy that doesn't ignore the 19th century.
• Have lots of free time and can ignore the beckoning call of books from your reading pile.
• Like large colorful volumes for the bookshelf.

Having made it through, and if you find you want something that is more analytical than historical, seek out H.W. Brands What America Owes the World and Walter Russell Mead's Special Providence. The Herring book, while filled with useful ways of thinking, is really about what happened. The Brands and Mead books will give more analytical frameworks for thinking about it.

A Tale of Two Schreibers

There are two horror novelists whose books I avidly await. The first is Sarah Langan and the second is Joe Schreiber. Both write spooky stories that disturb not by creating revolting images, but by creating moods and suggesting terrible things. They are young and have just a few (solid) books to their credit, but Schreiber has two new books out. The books are in different genres, so I expected some variation, but I found the differences between them to be startling.

One book, Death Troopers, has a immediately engaging concept, but a weak payoff. The other, No Doors, No Windows, has one of the most hackneyed of concepts, but is riveting throughout. In Death Troopers, an Imperial prison barge investigates and abandoned Star Destroyer and finds it occupied by space zombies. Sounds cool, but doesn't go anywhere. No Doors, No Windows is a haunted house story about a hard luck family and the gothic horrors of small towns. It's been done a million times, but Schreiber's characters, plot peculiarities, pacing and writing rise to the top.

Death Troopers has weak characterization, relies on the Star Wars universe to carry much of the background and is marred by far too much exposition. No Doors, No Windows has a number of interesting characters, some cliched to be sure, but symphatheically and often surprisingly handled. The difference in the writing is just shocking. It feels lifeless in Death Troopers, while vigorous in No Doors, No Windows. Sadly, I think that Death Troopers might be the future of Schreiber's books (he already has a prequel in the works.)

Death Troopers has a sales rank of 430, while No Doors No Windows has a rank of 89,965 (as of this writing). I can't blame him if he churns out more of these Star Wars books. My only hope is that the people who find him thanks to Star Wars move on (and buy) his much better horror books.

Orange crepe paper and Halloween candy

Thanks to some visits to Target, this year, I am getting a taste for some of the more off the wall Halloween candies. So far, most are less than awesome.

Jones Soda Candy Corn soda This one was tough. I poured out a few ounces for myself and the kids. My apprehension was such that it reminded of the first time I looked down at a glass of Everclear punch. The color is a bright, malevolent yellow. The taste is, well, extremely sweet. So sweet that the sweetness seemed to end, as if it had gone into regions that my tastebuds dare not follow. The kids loved it 'natch. Hats off to Jones for calling their Christmas coconut pineapple soda Mele Kalilimaka though.

Hershey Pumpkin Spice Kiss Overall, not bad! The bright orange color and close to too sweet flavor screams white chocolate, so beware if that is a deal breaker. Unlike regular kisses which I can consume with heedless abandon, I am done after two of these, which is probably a good thing.

Candy Corn Dots. Nicely colored with the traditional orange and yellow, but this one didn't work. The flavor is just like that of a regular candy corn but the gooshy mouthfeel of the Dot made me feel like I was eating really, really old candy corn. Once again, kids loved them.

Blood Orange Dots. In lovely black. These I liked. The flavor wasn't over done and I enjoyed the natural Dots chewiness.

Caramel Candy Corn. Also pretty good, but not something I am going to munch like potato chips. The low end caramel flavor is stronger than the corn flavor although it hangs in there. My friend Joanna ate these while running a half marathon. Not sure what that says, but there you go.

Indulge Caramels. High end caramel. Ran into them at the Portland Nursery Apple fest. I was sad that they were sold out of the sea salt but picked up the cinnamon toast. Exquisite caramel, but not meant for the debauch of Halloween. I'm saving mine for the chill of November.

My big move on Halloween night will be to tax the kids of all their Tootsie Fruit Rolls. They don't like them anyway. I am the only person I know who does.

Blood's A Rover

So I've finished Blood's A Rover and I am happy to say that my initial enthusiasm carried throughout the entire read. I was so sad to see it finish, which is rare for a crime novel. While I tend to think the best crime novels are the equal of the best litfic, there are those that disagree. Genre snobs should consider the book a literary work and note that while its story line is like that of a thriller, the depth of character, the singular use of language and syntax and the emotional depth of the story will win over the more effete readers. Unless of course you can't stand the over the top vulgarity.

Past fans of Ellroy will note many consistencies with his earlier books. There are a pair of men with a complicated relationship who weave back and forth across the good and evil line. There is an unsolved crime scene around which much of the plot revolves, although it is often unclear why. There is the uneasy sense that the power structure is completely corrupt and there is little chance for hope for the good.

If you want to scare yourself this Halloween, but don't like traditional horror stories, you should pick this up. All the conspiracy theories that nagged you about the 60s and early 70s are true. What's more, in Ellroy's dark world, no one is truly innocent. The left is populated by the deluded, the self-important, the idiotic and the ineffectual. The right is populated by a range of terrifying monsters perfectly happy to grind up anyone in their path. The path chosen by the book's few survivors makes perfect sense after the hell they have been through.

My only regret after reading the book is my fear that Ellroy now has no place to go. He has completed his major work started with the Black Dahlia, the first in the LA Quartet and continued with the Underground America trilogy. His story line has been so epic for so long, I am not sure how he goes back to simpler plots or how he would continue this story. My only solace is that his creativity and vision are strong enough to do just about anything.

Pendragon's banner

Helen Hollick's Pendragon's Banner is the second in a trilogy of books about King Arthur. Typically tales of King Arthur have some element of fantasy, like the Lady in the Lake or the magic of Merlin. These books though are written as historical fiction, so you will find none of that here. Instead, it is gritty portrayal of Britain in the chaotic fifth century.

Rome has left the island, although its influence, mostly cultural, remains. Although Arthur is King, his is no united kingdom. He is a Briton, one of the original pagan peoples of the island. His people are threatened by a tide of Germanic invaders. A canny politician as well as warrior, Arthur plays the various factions off one another, while he watches his back.

His greatest foe is Morgause, who harbors thoughts of revenge against Arthur. She comes closest to being a magician, although it is via seduction not spells. Her quest for vengeance shatters Arthur and Gwenhwyfar and makes the story often quite dark.

The grimness of the battle between Morgause and Arthur is matched by the grim reality of much of the book. This isn't the pomp and splendor of the traditional, medieval-based Arthurian stories. Instead it is the brutal time when an invading army might appear on your doorstep, kill you and take your children. Your enemies sought to poison and kill you whenever possible.

Arthur is as complex as the times. He is not chivalrous or noble, but a scheming politician of more than dubious morality. He loves his wife, but he also finds time for his mistresses. He plots wickedly and is willing to kill his opponents children if it is politically the thing to do. This feels correct, given the times, but it may be hard for some readers, especially fans of chivalric legend.

A lost opportunity

I'm a fan of covers, so of course I am interested in the new Killers/Rhythms del Mundo cover of Hotel California. I think its fine, but I am a moderate fan of the song, so your mileage may vary. The Ataris cover of singer Don Henley's Boys of Summer drives me into a frothing fury, partially because it sucks ass and partially because I adore that song.

Song quality aside, the bummer is that what the Killers should be doing is making a poetically critical song like Hotel California, not a cover of it. If Southern California was the center of American decadence in the 1970s, then the Killer's Las Vegas is the center today. Nowhere else (ok, maybe on Wall Street) is avarice, self-promotion and gluttony so nakedly embraced as in Vegas. The mindless expansion of real estate without environmental consideration is evident to anyone flying into Sin City. Now that the market has crashed, it is time for a song of wistful regret and who better than Las Vegas's own to do it?

Anyone like Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

I was on the return flight from Atlanta yesterday when I started the much lauded Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I made decent headway into it, but put it down mid-flight. It was clicking. I'm not sure it was the book's fault as

A) I had just finished Blood's A Rover and loved it. The style of that book is so particular that it may have spoiled crime novels for a week or so.

B) I was tired. I was in a car for six hours and then got on a plane. The brain was not firing on all cylinders I assure you.

C) I was uncomfortable. The person in front of me kept adjusting her seat and the person next to me needed more room than an economy seat provides. I became more acquainted with the side of the plan than I would have liked.

So, I am thinking I should maybe try the book again. Any advice would be appreciated.

Visiting Lynchburg

I'm back from a lovely visit to Virginia and Georgia. I attended my cousin's wedding in Lynchburg, VA. There weren't any events scheduled for Saturday, so my parents and I visited Appomattox Court House and Poplar Forest, which despite the name, is one of Jefferson's houses. As with any trip, a highlight was visiting a new bookstore. Lynchburg isn't a big town, so I didn't expect a whole lot, but Givens Books and Little Dickens delivered. The format is a bit odd. The store is set in quarters. One has new books, one has used. Another has toys and another has teacher supplies. There is also a coffee shop.

The number of used books wasn't huge, but the quality was high and the prices were low. I picked up a used hardcover copy of Almost a Miracle for less than ten bucks. If you are in town you should definitely stop in for a look.

Iain M Banks on the big screen! But.....

It's a short story, not a novel. Since much of the joy of his work is his profusion of creativity and spectacle, most of which is found in his novels, not his short stories, I am not all that excited. Our best hope is that the movie makes insane cash and producers fall all over themselves trying to make the next one.

The new Ellroy and why I like it

Man, am I loving the new Ellroy* I'm sure you're all, whatever dude, you like it, that's cool, but this really matters to me.

In the late 90s, there was no author I loved more than Ellroy. I could not get enough of him. Then I read Cold Six Thousand and I felt like my a close friend had betrayed me. The book did not work for me at all. I didn't speak of his books for years and didn't recommend them. Now the new one feels like an old, but wayward friend showing up with tickets to London to see the reunited Pavement along with a tour of Irish pubs with the Pogues. All is forgiven.

Anyway, I was trying to think of why Ellroy, Thompson, Lehane, Kerr and other authors stand out for me. It comes down to world view. Many crime writers (and nearly all adventure writers) assume that the world is basically good. Their stories tell of evil aberrations brought down by shining exemplars of good. Once vanquished, the world is returned to its rightful, cheerful, sunny state.

Not so for our Ellroy and his ideological brethren. In their novels, the world is evil. The power structure exists to extract, exploit and exterminate, all the while proclaiming its goodness. The heroes in these books are damaged people who rise above their baser instincts and carve some out some small victory, often at terrible cost.

The treatment of violence in these books is markedly different. In the sunny novels, an act of violence by the hero is normally clean, and shaming. He won't be sadistic or attempt to levy justice. Violence is clearly the wrong path in these books. In the darker books, violence is righteous, cathartic and, in its own way, uplifting. The philosophy underlying these books is that some people need a beatdown and the books give us that beatdown.

The best books of the dark side nearly always have some moment where violence is meted out to those who deserve it. The scene in LA Confidential where Bud wrecks the crooked lawyer is an example. Joe Lansdale has a patient man taking an axe handle to a pair of racist fucks. Dennis Lehane's Prayer for Rain has a notable suggested beat down that had me smarting. Deep down, there is a part of us that wants to

The subtext is that the world is terrible and we can't really hope to change it, but we can make some of the jackals and vampires pay, and pay dearly. The funny thing is, for the most part I am an optimist and think most things are just peachy. When I see that view reflected in fiction, it seems mawkish and foolish, and I recoil. Some deeper part of me suspects that the world is not as nice as I hope.

Children of Dust

There are plenty of books out there aimed, at least in part, at helping Westerners get a handle on Islam. Many are designed to whip up fear, uncertainty and doubt. Others, perhaps trying to offset the pernicious effects of the haters, refuse to acknowledge the harsh elements of religious practice. In his memoir Children of Dust, Ali Eteraz portrays Islam as a vast, complex tapestry with beautiful and terrible elements, just like every other religion in the world.

Eteraz, born in Pakistan and now living in the United States, is told early in his life that he is destined for Islamic greatness and spends much of his life pursuing the idea of how to be a Muslim. He studies in a madrassa, moves to the United States, becomes a fundamentalist, then unbecomes one and makes peace with the West. In the US, he trains as a lawyer and becomes a writer.

Eteraz's skills as a writer sets the book apart from similar works. He writing is lyrical, funny and evocative. He handles difficult material, including some occasionally disturbing sexual material quite well. He is best at describing his religous experiences. Far from being a mindless adherent, his relationship with the faith is constantly in flux as his understanding expands.

Although it is not the focus of the book, the early sections on Pakistan are especially valuable today. Despite it's massive importance to the world today, Pakistan remains little known to American readers. His stories of growing up in a small village will give readers a sense of what the life in this vital place is like.

Empire of the Passion

There can't be a lot of movie plots that hinge on the shaving of pubes. OK, maybe a adult movie with twins and a wacky Three's Company-like misunderstanding plot, but not mainstream movies.

Empire of the Passion, submitted for Japan's shot at the 1978 Academy Awards no less, does have a plot where a few thoughtless moments with a razor lead to madness and death. The movie was made by Nagisa Oshima, director of the 1976 In The Realm of the Senses. Like that movie the plot centers on an illicit liaison, but lacks the In the Realm's pervasive nudity and explicit sex. So no, you do not get to see the shaving.

In the movie, a layabout soldier seduces a rickshaw driver's wife and then declares they must kill the husband. If he saw that she was shaved, there would be no end of it. Turns out killing him leads to more trouble.

To be honest the movie is slow moving and may not appeal to everyone. The ghost of the movie is disturbing, but not really scary. The rising madness of the adulterous, murderous couple is the drama of the second act. There are some good scenes and I like how the village slowly turns on the couple as rumors and suspicions grow.

Overall, I would say that Asian horror fans looking for the roots of the modern movies would like this one. Otherwise, it is just too slow.

Adventure books are not for me

Robert Masello got a fair amount of buzz for his recent Blood and Ice, which I read. It was pretty good although twice as long as it needed to be. I decided it was good enough to give him another try so I picked up his earlier Bestiary. This one involves a family of Iraqis who guard an bestiary of ancient and mythical beasts. Thanks to a crack down by Saddam and the invasion of Iraq, the bestiary is now located in the US, but the animals are dying. A restorer of ancient texts, her paleontologist husband, an Army vet and a bunch of right wing whackos clash amid the threat of the beasts escaping.

Its not a bad book by any means. There is plenty of action and inventive situations. It is overly long with action and character scenes that don't really add to the overall experience. This one avoids the general pitfall of making a tight plot that could be cut and pasted into a movie script, but falls into the other problem of more text means more story. The subplots felt like they were bogging down the narrative. I didn't get that have-to-find-out-whats happening feeling, as it was evident where the story was going. I suppose what I really look from these books is being surprised and they so rarely deliver.

Truth be told, I don't think I like adventure novels. Movies do a better job creating the scares and pace, at least in most cases. I loved Jurassic Park and Relic, but those books created a sense of suspense and excitement that I haven't found in many other adventure books. I think I will avoid these in the future unless I get a spectacular recommendation.

Reading the new James Ellroy

Blood's a Rover. yowza. I am about 50 pages in and I am hooked. The writing style is singular and will put off lots of people. It is terse, brutal, abrasively musical, and filled with emotion, mostly negative. The odd thing is, it didn't really work for me in Cold Six Thousand, but it is working now.

I was listening to an Fresh Air interview with another favorite, Michael Chabon, who said that good writing should make the author and the reader uncomfortable. If that's the case, then Ellroy needs to take home the National Book Award and the Pulitzer. Ellroy puts his dark characters through hell and takes the reader through the worst of America. One character is a heroin dealer patricide with a hand in the MLK assasination, and he is one of the good guys.

A lot of crime novelists have supposedly evil characters. Usually this means they are amoral killers who have no mercy on their victims. Ellroy goes a step further with people who use hate to guide society and politics. These are the real monsters. Here he describes the art collection of the country's leading creator of hate pamphlets:

Fine oils. The masters reconsidered. A Van Gogh lynching. A Rembrandt gas-chamber tableaux. Matisse does Congolese atrocities. Paul Klee does Martin Luther King charbroiled.
Crutch scoped the walls. Man Ray did Bobby Kennedy dead on a slab. Picasso did Lady Bird Johnson muff-diving Anne Frank.

My reaction to that last one was the same as the character Crutch, a disbelieving "fuck......" The book is like a fictional, conspiracy theorist version of Nixonland. It shows you the horrors behind the smiles. Oh man would it be fun to read those two books together. You'd need a few weeks to recover, but what a ride.

I love Britain, but...

Really I think the UK is tops (I even lived year for a year!) The books, great! The beer, great! The use of mass transit, great! The people, great!

The only thing I dislike is the idea, which really comes from the US, that the British are somehow more highminded than Americans. That they have their eye on the important things (page three girls apparently.) I have always suspected that they were just as celebrity addled as we are, and the Guardian UK gives a bit of evidence today.

What is the most viewed world news story by Guardian readers today? Why it is news of People magazine publishing photos of kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard.

Beautiful books are waiting for me

Yesterday featured my finest visit to the library in weeks, nay, months! I had four excellent holds awaiting. The only question is whether I can burn through them in the next few weeks (in one case I will probably eat the fine.)

Here they are:

The Dead Hand by David Hoffman. This one is about the end of the Cold War, the legacy of WMD and DOOMSDAY MACHINES!!!! Check out this article by Hoffman about the Soviet doomsday machine that may still kill us some day. PD Smith, who covered this topic in his own book, Doomsday Men, has another good piece on the subject.

The Hawk and the Dove by Nicholas Thompson. This book looks at the Cold War through the lens of the great realist George Kennan and the creator of the national security system, Paul Nitze. The reviews are gushing on this one and the subject matter is perfect for me.

Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber. If you want to bum out your lit fic friends at the bookstore, make them come into the scifi section with you. There will be plenty of eye rolling and mockery of book covers. Sci fi fans themselves will do the same to the little section of Star Wars and Star Trek novels tucked away at the back of the sci fi section. I am often one of those eyerollers.

I make an exception for this book because of the author. He is one of the few horror writers, Sarah Langan also comes to mind, that I think are fabulous writers in a debased genre. Anyway the story is about zombies attacking a Star Destroyer and a prison barge. We shall see.

Blood's a Rover by James Ellroy. This is the one I am most excited about. No one writes quite like Ellroy, but he require some concentrated reading time. I need to go hide somewhere with this one. If you don't know him, his hard bitten style has morphed into a speed freak translating jazz numbers in words approach. He is all dark underbelly, all the time. It has been a long, long wait for the novel and maybe you have worried that perhaps he has gone soft, fear not. Part one of the book is titled Cluster fuck. In all caps mind you. So excited to read this one.

Adventureland returns me to the rock of the 80s

I watched Adventureland last night. The director's previous work, Superbad, was a bawdy comedy. This one is a much more low key story of awkward young love at a theme park, peppered with comedic sets by the likes of Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. It is certainly worth your time.

The movie is set in 1987. The most notable nod to the 80s is the heavy use of 80s tunes. The theme park workers are tormented by Rock Me Amadeus, but find solace in the Replacements, and for some reason Lou Reed. I guess liking Lou Reed = arty outsider status. They could have used something more contemporaneous like Big Black, although that would connote vaguely dangerous outsider status. My vote would be for the use of the Dead Milkmen, specifically Punk Rock Girl. That one has young rebel couple all over it.

Mostly though, I just don't get Lou Reed. Not even Black Francis proclaiming his love can convince me to like Reed or his over-rated band the Velvet Underground. I do like the chorus to Satellite of Love, a little, but for the most part I could never listen to another song.

Fortunately all this Lou Reed cluttering my head is easily dispatched. A visit to the 120 Minutes Archive can clear away the most unforgettable of bad songs. 120 minutes (one of college roomates inexplicably pronounced it one twenty minutes) was a late night MTV show about "altnerative music." Back in late 80s high school days, I drank lots of coke to stay up late and watch. The best/worst part was hoping they would finally play the band you liked.

You might not get the exact song, but you could got plenty of good ones. Here is a Ramones hosted show with Interesting Drug, Dominion (one of my earliest band lady crushes was on the woman in this vid - wow I forgot they shot the video at Petra), and Never Say Never. Of course you had to suffer through Concrete Blonde. There is always a price.

There is always the middle path. The bands that aren't great, but also aren't gratingly terrible. The rock wizards at Clear Channel have apparently decided to revive Billy Squier, who is now nearly unavoidable on the classic rock station. He reminds a bit of what Foreigner might sound like, if they had ever decided to stop being shitty. The one song that I think is not so bad is My Kind of Lover. The lyrics, though, give me pause. He sings to his love "you give me something way beyond revenue." Is he a pimp?

Life in the fast lane

When they work, I really like books about jobs and what it is like to experience thsm. As someone who has worked almost entirely in offices, I don't have a good sense of what a day is like for a fire fighter or a park ranger. Two books that managed to explain a job while also telling good stories are the Last Season, a book about backwoods rangers, and Book, a collection of essays about life in the book trade.

Just as entertaining and informative is Richard Polsky's I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon). Polsky is an art dealer who writes about the big business that contemporary art has become. The principal change was the switch from dealers selling most of the art to the auction houses creating market frenzy.

Polsky moved from representing artists to brokering deals between sellers and the auction houses. Over the years he watches as the prices move from the tens of thousands to the tens of millions. While the increase means the commission on one deal can be quite significant, it also means that he is now priced out of the market. He began his career in part to spend time with and too own art. Now owning the ones he loves is just about impossible.

In addition to his art work, Polsky is a journalist, which shows in the quality of his writing. It is breezy, funny and on target. He maintains a good natured air throughout even when he is getting squeezed out of substantial amounts of money. This one will be of particular interest to anyone interested in the business of art.

Pixu

Well, I'm glad I didn't spend any money on Pixu: Mark of Evil. For whatever reason I am drawn to both horror novels and horror comics so Pixu, a hardcover graphic novel no less, seemed like a good choice. It seemed a bit too short to buy, so I went to the library. Good for me.

My main complaint is how insubstantial the story is. If you your focus is on the pictures (or art if you must) you will get more mileage than I did. I however want story and there isn't much. Here it is. Five people live in a spooky apartment building. Only one is a good person, some are OK and some are evil. Bad things happen to them quickly, but we don't care a whole lot because they aren't developed.

The authors, mostly artists, would rather communicate with images than words, but in a book this short, nothing really cohered. There are some unpleasant themes as well, mostly child abuse, but the authors went a little too far in the direction of suggestion. There also a sense of unreality about the entire thing, that was probably meant to be creepy but ended up making it less engaging.

Do you know what your leaders are reading?

The always excellent George Packer looks at what the leaders in the Obama White House and the Pentagon are reading and comes away concernded. It is well worth reading, but these last two lines are great:

The rule for Administration readers should be: no books that you already know will confirm the views you already hold. If that’s asking too much, at least the advisers and officers should be required to exchange volumes, and read what their policy opponents are reading, before the book group meets and decides the fate of the world.

What are the good myth books?

My eldest is becoming more and more interested in myths. He loves the Greek myths, and now thanks to the Avengers and Marvel Comics, he is becoming interested in Nordic myths as well. I wanted to get him some books on other mythos, but I can't think of any to get. Most I have seen are either too simple or way too academic. The only things I can think of are the two D'Aulaire's myth books. Those are great for my children, but I want something aimed at the adult as well. What I want is something like Robert Graves' Greek Myths, but for Mesoamerica, India or China.

I am trying to remember how I learned about the Greek myths. I think it was a combination of Clash of the Titans (and the rest of the Harryhausen movies), the D'Aulaire book, and Deities and Demigods. There are probably other influences, but I am drawing a blank.

Rocking out with the Pogues

Sweet Jaysis, the Pogues can put on one hell of a show. Yes, it was the Roseland, where everyone sounds good and yes the crowd was filled with maniacal fans, but they really brought it last night. A few things set the show apart.

First of all, ShaneMotherFuckingMacGowan. Good Lord, how is that man alive? The entire band was assembled on stage ready to kick off Streams of Whiskey, and about a minute later he wandered onto the stage looking like a man who just wrapped up the Circle Line Pub Crawl. His banter was completely incomprehensible, the only thing I caught was "Portland, you're fucking wonderful." Spider Stacey encouraged the crowd to yell approval, and eventually everyone cheered whenever he dropped a few phrases. He knew the words to the songs, and while his voice has lost, shall we say clarity, he still has the shout and scream.

The fans were quite something else as well. There was a neo-hippie element of camraderie on the floor. There was lots of stranger hugging and swaying (someone tapped me on the shoulder and said "this guy wants to hug you.") On the other hand, there was more moshing than I have seen since a Helmet/Jesus Lizard show back in 92. It was "I love you man, can you hold my beer while I go slam into those guys?" Irish, I guess.

The crowd appeared to know all the words, so there was lots of audience participation. I think the highlight was Philip Chevron stepping to the mike to sing Thousands Are Sailing, a song he wrote. If you don't know it, it's a song about Irish-Americans and their relationship with Ireland. Chevron sings about Irish-American life in the 20th century and then questions why Irish Americans love Ireland so with these words:

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where e'er we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of Priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies
And we dance

Conquistadors who took their share

Hey remember that French jackass, Frederic Mitterand, the Culture Minister of France who called the US all sorts of bad names for catching that rat bastard Roman Polanski? Well, apparently Mr. Mitterand was just standing up for a fellow pedophile. He wrote a book that described his love of trolling for slave boys in Thailand. If you think slave goes a tad too far, here is what he wrote:

"All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously... the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire."

Apparently he doesn't think it is such a big deal. The sense of entitlement these people (Hollywood, politicians, the mega-wealthy) have never fails to astound.

A remembrance of things past

I've been going back to my local video store Movie Madness lately. Partly it is because I want to support local business, but also because I end up finding things I don't think to put in my Netflix queue. The latest trip led to a terrible mistake.

I had recalled a list of horror movies with great endings from Ten Bad Dates with De Niro. One was the excellent Sleepaway Camp, which does in fact have a jaw dropping finale. For some reason I had it in my head that The House on Sorority Row was on the list. I later realized the movie I was thinking of was April Fool's Day, which probably sucks as bad as the movie I watched.

The movie I saw lacked any reason watching. The acting was piss poor. The story is ridiculous and obvious. Sorority house mother has bad birth experience and when sorority sisters think they have killed her, someone starts killing them. Whatever, why am I bothering? It is shitty like all the other movies of its ilk, the terrible stalker film of the 80s. I watched til the end, which was an uninteresting rip-off of Black Christmas. Bad, bad, bad. I should have watched another episode of the Prisoner.

What is more interesting is why these movies were popular. It is as inexplicable of as the popularity of hair metal. Why did such utter tripe make so much money? Later the same night I watched a little of The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film. It made me dislike these movies all the more. It reminded that one or two (Halloween and Black Christmas) are worth a damn, but I took from it that people just wanted to see people die in different ways. Lovely.

There really isn't much else to the movies, but many of those interviewed tried to dress them up as art or expressions of the time, blah, blah, blah. They are just friendlier versions of Salo.

Transsiberian

I watched Transsiberian last night. This one came out last year, but didn't get a lot of buzz. Too bad because the direction is awesome, the movie is crammed with great actors and performances and it looks great. The movie is centered around Roy and Jessie, an American couple in Beijing for a church volunteer mission who decide to go home via the Siberian railroad to Moscow. Roy, played by Woody Harrelson, is a earnest fan of trains but wife Jessie, played by an absolutely fantastic Emily Mortimer, is a former wild child. She is tempted by a roguish Spanish traveller, although she also befriends his young American companion.

The movie is slow moving, but you can feel the walls closing in around Roy and Jessie even when they don't see it. Ben Kingsley's shadowy Russian policeman complicates their lives and they find themselves way over their heads in backwater Russia.

The director, Brad Anderson, also made Session 9, a horror movie I also adore. Both movies share a wonderfully tense build up of suspense. This one is happier in many ways that the bleak Session 9, but both are better than most films out there.

The next Dennis Lehane

Well I was hoping for another Given Day, but it looks like Lehane is finally going back to Kenzie and Gennaro. His next book is a sequel to Gone Baby Gone. The book takes place 11 years after Gone Baby Gone. The young girl of that story is now a teen and has disappeared....again. I'm a little sad that we won't get a new Given Day (yet!) but I am also happy to see Kenzie and Gennaro again.

Where white America is going

Every once and again, a friend will mention some great new place they have discovered. Usually it is on a beautiful beach, near gorgeous mountains or on some amazing fishing river. Out here in Oregon, Bandon is getting as hot as the overheated Bend. Back east, Florida panhandle developments like Seaside in Florida keep getting hotter. After you note the great places to eat, the natural beauty, and the nicely ordered streets, you will note the people. They will be quite open and friendly and, almost to a person, white. Rich Benjamin, who is black, explores these places in his book Searching for Whitopia.

Benjamin argues that wittingly or unwittingly, whitopias are created by fears of immigrants and terrorists and a desire to create comfortable, expensive playground cities. These places are too expensive for most minorities, and even for poor or middle class whites. They allow for like minded people to segregate themselves. Fans of books like the Big Sort will enjoy this aspect of the book.

Race is a touchy subject in America (to be fair, where isn't it a touchy subject?) but I think Benjamin handles it exceedingly well. He is not interested in attacking people, only problems. He genuinely likes the people he meets in these white enclaves. He has few if any personal beefs with them. Instead he wants the government to look at the policies that encourage the development of segregation. A tall order and one that requires resetting the national conversation.

The United States needs a new approach to race, Benjamin argues. For one, people, including whites, need to be able to express all their concerns and needs, without fear of being labeled racist. Equally problematic though is the adoption of identity politics based entitlements thinking by many whites.

The book reminds me of those of Robert D Kaplan, if generally cheerier than his books. The combination of travelogue and policy analysis makes for a engaging way to deal with this topic.

The remake that will probably be more fun than Attack of the Clones

People love some Star Wars, despite George Lucas neglectful parenting. Is there any other cultural phenomenon that could produce the Flickr group Growing Up Star Wars 1977-1985, where over 1,200 people have uploaded their images from before the dark times (here is one I really like)?

You can't keep the fans down and now there is Star Wars Uncut, an effort at collective film making. Fans claim 15 seconds of the movie and reshoot it anyway they like. Here is the trailer. The selections range from cartoon to live action to surreal madness like this one where all the characters have been replaced by babies:

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 328 from M. Schramm on Vimeo.

Deadly meat

Everyone once and again I think about cutting off my kids from beef. Stories like this one in the New York Times, which details how beef containing E.coli led to paralysis in a young woman, certainly add fuel to the fire.

The Prisoner

My buddy Neill is just now watching Lost. Lucky him! Talking to him about seasons one and two reminded me of how much I have loved the stories built into the show. He may suffer plot whiplash with all the twists and turns in the seasons to come, but he will also not have the agony of the wait.

The Prisoner is an 60s British paranoid spy drama that is often called an influence on Lost. I started watching it recently and expected it to be the loopy island drama. While it does have a person trapped in a remote area and plagued by shadowy forces, it is quite different. For one, it is much more episodic than Lost. There is apparently some debate as to the true order of the shows. In many cases you rearrange them and watch them in the order you like.

I tend to dislike episodic shows, but I have come to quite like the Prisoner. The main character is a British spy who has resigned. He is knocked out at his house and wakes up in a strange place called the Village. The residents act, dress and talk strangely and no one has a name. The main character is known as number six. He is constantly tested by a series of people known as number two.

Among the series's themes is the idea of the individual against the collective. The great powers of the Cold War, the state, the nation and the Party are shown as destroyers and grinders of the individual. Number six is one of the few willing to stand up to them.

It isn't like Lost or 24 where you feel compelled to watch as many shows as you can stand in a sitting. Each show is independent and the mood created is more one of reflection than excitement. Well worth it, if you know what you are getting into.

Another reason to love Powells

Whenever I am near a Powells location with some time to kill, I stop in for a visit. With the huge number of used books and excellent recommendations, I nearly always spot a surprising find. The remainder section is surprisingly good as well. In many other stores, the remainder books are stale popular fiction novels of the James Patterson variety. Most there are are out in paperback already.

Not at Powell's. You will find a number of very good books that didn't sell quite as well. There is lots of serious history, literature and science fiction available. Even better they have piles of British editions of books on hand. Much of the time all you get from the British editions are different blurbs, spellings and crappier paper. Sometimes though you get a paperback edition while the American edition remains in pricey hardback. Other times you get a gem like I found today.

George R R Martin, author of the cruelly incomplete Song of Fire and Ice, is a prolific writer of short fiction. His short works were collected in two hard covers called Dreamssongs. I wanted to buy them when they came out, but they were too expensive. I would have gone to the library, but they aren't the sort of thing you read at once. It is for picking up as the whim takes you.

So I was thrilled that a combined British edition was on sale at Powells for ten bucks. Now if I can just find the time to read it.