American Buffalo

American Buffalo is such a great read that I am surprised I haven't heard of it sooner (presumptuous of me, I know). The book is part memoir, part meditation on the American relationship with nature, part social commentary and part outdoor adventure tale. It takes quite a writer to weave that many strands together in a short book without derailing the narrative, but Steven Rinella makes it look easy.

Rinella's tone is that of a self deprecating conversationalist. He hops from topic to topic with ease, which lets him bring in a number of interesting asides about the buffalo. When it really won't quite fit, he isn't afraid to break out a half page footnote (which you should read, as they are uniformly excellent.) Many writers of adventure books puff up the exploits of the author. Rinella's excursions into wildest Alaska are amazing and would probably kill me, but rather than brag, he talks about the difficulty and the mental challenge of it. This also helps bring the reader deeper into the story.

Rinella's encounter with the buffalo began when he found a buffalo skull in Montana. His research into the animals leads him to a lab in Oxford, museums in the United States and eventually to a park in Alaska where he hunts buffalo. This part may shock readers to whom hunting is completely alien, but the care he takes in the hunt and his discussion of the history should assuage everyone who lacks a PETA membership.

This is just a fabulous read which I recommend to everyone.

Dewey Cox

The reviews convinced me not to see Dewey Cox when it came out, but my brother in law put me wise. It's a funny send up of rock and rock movies. While it uses Walk the Line as the basis for its narrative, the jokes are wide ranging from Jack White's cameo as Elvis to a all star comedy Beatles joke to a play on Brian Wilson's Smile madness.

At one point in the movie, Dewey Cox's career has cratered and he is on a TV variety show. There is a quick clip of his disco cover of David Bowie's Starman. The full version is below. So good.

Devil of Nanking

I had heard that Mo Hayder was one of the top writers of grisly horror-thrillers, so I was on the lookout for her books. I found a copy of Pig Island and gave it a try. I wasn't impressed. The writing was great and the book was bloated. Friends assured me that The Devil of Nanking was worth it. So I picked it up and it is.

The book ties (a bit improbably, but whatever) a young damaged British woman and an old damaged Chinese man. The man is rumored to be in possession of a film of an atrocity from the 1937 Rape of Nanking. The woman is obsessed with that act, for reasons she doesn't fully understand herself (but the wise reader knows she will learn.) Chasing the man down in Japan, she finds herself wanting work, which she finds as a hostess in a shady nightclub. Shady, because many of the guests are yakuza, Japanese gangsters. As it happens, all of these people are tied together.

While this book is a sort of thriller, it isn't one that keeps you guessing. About a third of the way through, you will be nearly certain how the book will end. That's fine, the punch of the book isn't in the guessing, but in the dread and tension that Hayder creates. Her characters remind me of those that Gillian Flynn creates, that is to say damaged and twisted. Rather than the middle American types we get in Flynn's books, here we have the oddballs of the expatriate community.

The terrible events of Nanking, which remain criminally little known in the West are at the center of the book. Hayder dedicates the book to Iris Chang, the Chinese-American writer whose book on the subject is a must read. Like Hayder's book it isn't very popular in Japan.

It's tough to be Hungarian

Back in college, we had a requirement to take a year of history of a non-Western region. Given later interests, I probably should have gone with China, but at the time I was open to whatever. I had heard the Eastern European history class was interesting. Rather than reading nonfiction narratives, we read novels as a way of understanding Eastern Europe. So we read Bridge On Drina (our professor tended not to use articles) to learn about the intersection of Christian and Islamic Europe in Bosnia. We read the Good Soldier Svejk to learn about the multiethnic Austro-Hungarian empire. And so on.

We didn't read a lot about Hungary though. I wonder if my professor, if he is still teaching (note: he is!) would include Miklos Vamos's The Book of Fathers on the reading list. It can be a little tough going, but it does shine a light on the often dark history of Hungary.

Vamos did some research on his own family in Hungary and came up with the idea of a history of a family passed down generation to generation by in a book (naturally the Book of Fathers). There is a element of magical realism in that the as they die, they become connected to the generations before them through the book. The deaths are important, as the chapters almost always end with the death of the main character. Since they are Hungarian Jews, the deaths are often less than pleasant.

In his notes at the end of the book, Vamos notes that Hungary has lost every war it has fought after the 15th century. So many of the stories involve terrible fates at the hands of invaders. As such it is not a terribly happy read, but it is an educational one. Thanks to Blue Dot Literary for the book.

A- Team trailer

This may not be up for very long, so watch it if you can. Two things to note, Liam Neeson(!) saying he loves it when a plan comes together and a truly inventive action sequence at the end.

Last Winter

Despite initial interest, I read some bad reviews about The Last Winter which gave me pause. My reaction to director Larry Fessenden's The Wendigo, which I thought was OK, reduced my interest further. Then I saw this list of top ten wintry horror movies and decided to give it a try. It's actually pretty good!

It's a horror/science fiction hybrid. The pacing, acting and narrative are low key and subdued, but there is an undercurrent of disquiet and tension that kept me watching. It is set in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge at a potential site for drilling. The oil company who has the lease has hired some environmental experts to review the site and give it the OK. Strange warming in the area makes it difficult or impossible to bring in the gear and the experts advise against proceeding. This sets up a conflict with the roughnecks.

The movie sets has a pair of conflicts that slowly escalate. One is between the red and blue staters (much more subtle than in the Wendigo) and the other is the conflict between the environment and the humans. The Arctic Circle is a dangerous place and it might be even more dangerous than we suspect. Fessenden keeps both conflicts going and it is hard to tell which is going to be the bigger problem.

The end will be a problem for some. I loved it, but it may come as a disappointing surprise to some. This is the first bit of science fiction about global warming that I have really enjoyed.

Glass Room

Simon Mawer's The Glass Room was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker along with the likes of AS Byatt, JM Coetzee and Sarah Waters. The prize went to Wolf Hall that year, but Mawer's book, like most Booker short listers, deserves attention as well. Sometimes the Booker committee goes for dry, overly literary (See for example the brutally boring The Sea) books. The Glass Room is literary but it is also grounded in popular fiction with plenty of sex, violence, familial discord and history.

The main characters are Viktor and Liesel Landauer, a pair of wealthy Czechs who make the aquaintance of a famed architect on their honeymoon. The meeting leads to more and the architect eventually designs a house made of glass for them. The story then revolves around the house as the the family is thrown from the house and it is taken by the Nazis and eventually the communists. The story is framed by Liesel's return during the Prague Spring and other visit after the fall of the communist state.

Both Viktor and Liesel become dissatisfied by their marriage and launch on affairs, one straight and one gay. The ins and outs of these relationships lead to plenty of trouble but are well portrayed. Thanks to Blue Dot Literary for providing a copy.

Bookshopping

Thanks to the strong recommendation of Citizen Reader, I picked up the Bookshopper over the weekend. The author, Murray Browne, has lived a life of books, as a reader, a book reviewer and most important to this book, as a person who shops for books. If you are the sort of person who longs for a few spare hours to wander unrushed through a bookshop looking for just the thing, you will enjoy this book.

The book is discursive, hopping from topics like the unpleasant nature of bookstore owners, the books that indicate whether a store is worth perusing, giving used books as gifts, how to arrange books and how to dispose of them. The essays are short, so if you find your interest waning, you can skip ahead, as Browne even advises you to do in his preface (titled About the Author)

Throughout the book, he has little asides about favorite books and authors and how they have influenced him. He mentions one called Heroes in Blue and Gray, which he says isn't necessarily great, but was important in making books come alive for him. I have a similar experience with An Album of Dinosaurs. You can see examples of the amazing pictures from the book at The Haunted Closet. This book enraptured me as a child and I was thrilled to see that my parents kept my copy allowing me to give it to my kids. Powells has a few copies, go get one!

I enjoyed this book as it made me think about my own relationship with books and I liked hearing about Browne's. There are some practical things, like the defense of giving used books as well. I am perfectly happy to get a used book as a gift, if it is well chosen, but I fear looking like a cheapskate if I give one. Browne helped talk me through that.

Shutter Island is now a graphic novel

I was going to warn potential readers of the graphic novel that they may want to pick up the non-illustrated version first, but Geoff Bucher puts it perfectly in the LA Times.

Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Paramount Pictures are bringing “Shutter Island” to the screen (finally) on Feb. 19 and a discerning consumer of culture might reasonably ask if it’s worth investing his or her time in a novel, a graphic novel and a film version of the same tale. The answer, so far, appears to be a resounding “yes.” One word of warning, however: The ending of “Shutter Island” is so jolting that any second-time encounter with the material (no matter the medium) will have a hard time matching the payoff of the first visit to the island. Choose your nightmares carefully.

The novel is the probably the fastest read Lehane has produced. It is almost as if he wanted to do the ultimate stay up all night thriller before staring in on the gigantic brooding, seething The Given Day.

Another one I couldn't finish

I tend to like David Morrell,but I couldn't finish The Brotherhood of the Rose. There is a lot of love for this book, on Goodreads, at least, but a few things killed it for me. One was the idea that all the spy agencies got together in the 30s and decided to create safe havens for their agents where no one could harm one another. That sounds nutty today but even nuttier back in those days. Then the writing got me down, including some just plain weird stuff, as in the time when a Chinese assassin refers to "what you Westerners call dignity." What the Chinese have no concept of dignity?

Those annoyances aside, I just didn't care that much about it. There are twists and turns, but it just didn't grip me. Anyway, if you want a tale of assassins fighting their masters, that is what you get.

Getting the band back together

It was rumored, but now it is confirmed. Soundgarden is returning. I am less excited for new material (the last studio Soundgarden was so-so and recent work is, err, not fabulous,) but I am psyched to see them live again. I only saw them once. My friend Neill was hit by Chris Cornell's boot when he stage dived into the audience. That was on a tour with Danzig.

Speaking of Danzig, I finally saw the Hangover, which is hilarious. That's not the only reason to love the movie though. For one it is packed with Daily Show correspondents. For another, it kicks off with a Danzig song. One of the slow spooky numbers, which are the only good ones from the later years I think.

Searching for a distant star, heading off to Iskandar

Are you ready for some live action Star Blazers? I'm not I am either. Still, the video below (via Techland) gives us hope with the BSG looking space battles. This made me think of Battle of the Planets, the show I watched when I couldn't get any Star Blazers, which was most of the time. Wow, does it have a terrible intro.

9 Dragons

Michael Connelly's 9 Dragons was better than I hoped. I liked the early Bosch books, but I felt that got a bit samey over time. The subject matter (Chinese gangs in LA and Hong Kong) and the fact that my Mom gave me her copy convinced me to give it a shot. I ended up reading it in an evening. This speaks both to the engaging plot and the brevity.

The story is a definate strength of the book. It moves fast, even a touch too fast really. It lurches from plot development to plot development at such speed that there are few lulls that would lead you to take a break. On the downside, the speed sacrifices character and the full exploitation of the Chinese subject matter.

I was suprised that Bosch didn't seem as tired as I thought he would. Yes, he has the cliched relationship issues and the love of jazz records, but he fallible, often terribly so and he avoids screeching into Jack Bauer amoral superhero territory.

Still, I was hoping for a little more background on China. Rather than give us a feel for Hong Kong, we get a list of place names. The bad guys are conveniently strewn across the territory. The characters are also terribly thin.

There are, I think, at least two kinds of good crime novels. One is the thoughtful, and often lengthy study that mulls over the grey emotions, like regret and remorse. Then there are the sorts that get the pulse racing. They both serve a purpose. What I do dislike about the new thrillers is how efficient they have become. Nearly everything other than plot is cast aside in order to hurtle the reader down the track. It's a fun ride, but when its over, it is more often than not forgetable.

Happy New Year

Let's hope it is a good one. Here are some links to divert on this lazy (wet in Portland) day.

Here is Conor Friedersdorf discussing why the Cheesecake Factory is such a bad place.

Did you know there is a group of civil peace protesters trying to raise awareness about Gaza? Neither did I, but Stephen Walt is on the case.

The NY Times has a nice round up of people discussing which books they are discarding. This is useful to me now, as I am unloading a large number myself.

And I know Paul Krugman isn't for everyone, but he is wearing his economic, rather than his political hat in this great piece on China.

Two movies

So I watched two movie in the past few days, one pretty good and one disappointing. Let's start with the let down.

Fanboys is a movie that could have been much better than it was. It concerns a group of 20 something friends who plan to break into the Skywalker Ranch so that their friend can see Episode 1 before he dies. The problems are manifold. The main characters aren't interesting, seeming like shadows of characters that might appear in a Kevin Smith or Judd Apatow film. Perhaps recognizing this, the plot relies on a series of cameos. Hey look it's Billie Dee! and there's Ray Park goofing on Darth Maul.

This would be forgiveable if the writing were smart and funny, which it generally isn't. The Star Wars jokes are weak and the movie doesn't really capture why people are fans in the first place, or how far fans will go. Most of the talk of the movies is in opposition to Star Trek, but all of those jokes pale in comparison to the Clerks 2 LOTR vs. Star Wars scene. A movie ABOUT Star Wars fandom should be able to top that, but it can't.

Then the movie has to contend with the reality that Episode 1 is a shitty, shitty movie that crushed the dreams of millions. It acknowledges this at the end, but it could have been better incorporated. The last scene shows tons of cheering fans at opening night. I remember well hearing the opening blasts of the theme and a thrill that I have never experienced in a theater, only to shortly feel the air let out of my balloon. That has been best done in Spaced in this wonderful scene.

The Star Wars machine has grown so large that the original trilogy is lost in the clutter. Anyone who has shopped for kids toys knows that the Clone Wars dominate the merch now. What a bummer.

The King of Marvin Gardens is a bummer too, but of the good kind. The slow, moody early 70s picture is set in off-season Atlantic City. The nearly empty town is the setting for brothers Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern to reconnect and attempt to reconcile after years apart. The bombastic and oily Dern has a real estate scheme in which he hopes to partner with Nicholson. The two brothers clearly love each other and want to work it out, but their differences keep getting in the way. The acting is great, the tone is great and it is well worth watching.

Interview with Laird Barron

Laird Barron is one of the most exciting new (well, new to me) writers I have encountered in years (thanks, Steve!). He writes horror stories, a genre I want to love, but so often loathe. Unlike so many others, his tales are psychologically rich, well-written, and filled with nightmarish images. His Imago Sequence collection includes the fantastic The Procession of the Black Sloth story referenced below. You can also find his stories in anthologies like Poe and Lovecraft Unbound. Don't fret if you have already greedily consumed all these tales and can't find more. Next year, Night Shade Books is publishing a new collection of his tales called Occultation.

I recently requested an interview with the author and he was kind enough to agree.

1) What is it that attracts you to writing horror stories? What can the genre offer that others can't?

Hello, Tripp, and thank you for the interview.

My tastes are eclectic -- I enjoy everything from Michener ‘s historical doorstops to New Wave science fiction. There’s a special place in my heart for procedurals and crime novels. Gorky Park, Smilla’s Sense of Snow and Robert Parker’s Spenser series are some of my favorites.

The thing horror offers is the frisson that comes with fear and dread and visceral shock; frightful imagery appeals to our lizard brain in a way that is profound and immediate. Horror is an important and vital art form -- it’s rooted in primitive emotions, the animal self that resists sublimation. We’ve not evolved sufficiently as a species to turn our backs on the lizard, the wolf, the ape. Our ineluctable fascination with the gruesome, the violent, the macabre, is a gentle reminder of that.

2) How do you account for the continuing interest in and exploration of Lovecraft's mythos? What is it like to write a Mythos story?

Lovecraftian and the best Lovecraft-influenced fiction explores a mysterium tremendum et fascinans. The Mythos evokes a sense of wonder. Dreadful enigmas, the contemplation of cosmic forces, exploration of the Other at its most inscrutable and alien captivates us because of our relentless curiosity, our insatiable desire to see what vistas lie beyond the next curve in the road, over the next hill.

I’ve only written a couple of pure Mythos tales, but indeed much of my work has been inspired by Lovecraft’s cosmic horror as well as several authors who’ve contributed to the canon. It’s always enlightening to put together a Lovecraftian story. I dig deep into the subconscious well, stirring up the muck and the sediment, so to speak. There are ancient artifacts buried among the roots of the dreaming mind. I never know what I’ll uncover.

3) Your excellent story "The Procession of the Black Sloth" is driven by Asian myth, but also appears to be influenced by film. How does cinema influence your writing?

Yes, the story was inspired by Chinese mythology, particularly that of the Eighteen Hells. Cinema in general counts among my chief influences, especially aspects of cinematography and script. Asian cinema has been a revelation. Mood, pacing, dialogue -- the higher quality Asian films exhibit a rawness that Hollywood eschews. Takashi Miike, for example, imbues his pictures with edginess and a kind of tainted eroticism. He’s a master manipulator. He injects absurdity at precisely the right moment. Even at his darkest he’s playful after a macabre fashion and these elements complicate what are otherwise simple narratives.

4) In this age of smaller and smaller attention spans, do you think short stories will see a resurgence?

I don’t know. Novels reign supreme. Short story collections remain a tough sell in New York. Fortunately the independent and small presses champion the short form and there appears to be a loyal core audience, especially in the horror/weird categories. It’s also heartening to note that Ellen Datlow has steadily put forth anthologies from Dark Horse, Tor, and Solaris.

There’s also lot of great short work on the internet -- ezines such as Clarkesworld and Chizine provide high quality content. If not a resurgence, at least we’re witnessing a healthy status quo.

5) Who is the one author right now – regardless of genre – that everyone should be talking about but they are not?

Stephen Graham Jones. He’s written novels such as Demon Theory and All the Beautiful Sinners and appeared in more literary magazines than you can shake a stick at. His latest collection The Ones that Got Away will appear in 2010. His work encompasses a broad spectrum of genre categories, including the various manifestations of horror and dark fantasy. He’s a fantastic stylist. His stories are the kind that stick in your mind for weeks. Jones will shock and amaze you.

Thanks for the propaganda!

True fans were probably well aware, but I had no idea that we have the British effort to pull America fully into World War 2 to thank for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. After being grounded as an RAF pilot thanks to injuries, he was sent to the embassy in DC where he eventually joined a group that sought to clamp down isolationist and anti-British sentiment in the USA. In her book the Irregulars, Jennet Conat details his adventures.

He came into writing due to boredom and a lucky encounter. CS Forester approached him to jot down some notes so that Forester could write an article about his RAF life. Not thrilled with his party circuit lifestyle, he wrote an entire article instead. Forester loved it and helped it get published. Soon, Dahl was working with Disney on stories about gremlins and his writing career was launched.

It wasn't all writing though. He worked with other spies (they preferred the term agent) like Ian Fleming and the legendary William Stephenson (known as the Man Called Intrepid). He formed a relationship with the Roosevelts and an intimate one with the married Clare Booth Luce, who used her position in Congress and her husbands Life magazine to push for a Pacific rather than a European focus. The dashing Dahl was ordered to sleep with Luce, the better to influence her.

I haven't finished the book, but I like how it both delights with little tales and that it educates with important reminders. For example, Britain and the United States were intensely close at this period, but even still they had crucial policy differences, because they had different interests. There is a sense today that we are not allowed to disagree with an ally like Israel, even when our interests are increasingly divergent.

I also like how the book shows how dis-united American public opinion was on how to conduct the war. If there was any war that you would think people would get behind it was this one, but even then there was intense disagreement.

Mixed

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas weekend. Mine was relaxing, although festive. The egg nog finally came out last night and it was a delight. Thanks to some generally lackluster reading, I changed my book selection approach in the past few weeks. I have been reading books chosen more because I felt like i should read them rather than any desire to read them.. This has been all well and good, but I am focusing on reading the many books I already own. It has made a difference in the excitement already.

Anyway, here are a pair of interesting links.

Chris Hayes went to China and wrote a sobering report about it.

I enjoyed this video, which shows what English sounds like to those that can't understand it.

A last minute addition to my best of the year list

Stuart Neville's debut, the Ghosts of Belfast, is crazy good. It is the sort of book I kept nearby at all times, so that I can could read it when I found some spare minutes. It reminded me of first reading Dennis Lehane, although that is slightly unfair to Neville, as his debut is better than Lehane's. We are lucky indeed to have another crime novelist of this caliber.

The book's anti-hero is Gerry Fegan, a former IRA enforcer and murderer. Released from prison, he is going slowly mad from drink and from 12 ghosts that haunt him. His only way out is to listen to the ghosts and to kill the men that ordered or helped him to kill.

Neville's protagonist is nasty and so are the rest of his characters, it's no surprise that he considers James Ellroy to be the greatest living crime writer. The cruel mobster/terrorists of the IRA are now gussied up politicians, although they aren't afraid to dabble in crime to get a few more dollars. The British are manipulative monsters, willing to throw innocent after innocent into the maw in order to maintain their political objectives. Fegan gains our reluctant sympathy as he is the only one to recognize what he has done is wrong and to act on that understanding as well.

Neville could have written a simple, if exhilarating, revenge thriller, but he set his sights higher. The book pulls back the reality behind the ideas of nationalism and national security. The real bad guys of the book aren't the trigger pullers, although many are loathsome, but the people pulling the strings, who use happy concepts to justify the blood on their hands.

I can't wait for Neville's next book!

A re-read I enjoyed

I generally don't re-read books. Although I enjoy a good passage as much as anyone else, I don't often go back to savor them. Unless the writing is stellar, I focus on the fact that I know what is coming and wonder why I am reading the book again. Sometimes though, a book will call me once again. I re-read Dune this year and loved it. I just finished re-reading World War Z by Max Brooks.

The book is a speculative oral history set 10 years after a worldwide zombie plague has reduced humanity to a tiny remnant. This format eliminates any sense of character development, but it does allow Brooks to cram in an amazing range of ideas, from how the government would re-organize, how geopolitics would shift and the role of dogs. In a relatively short book, Brooks creates a richer world that is found in the thickest of fantasy novels. A dark and terrible world to be sure, but a fascinating one.

Anyway, it makes me think there are other books I could re-read and enjoy. I didn't find anything new by reading it again, but I did marvel at what he accomplished.

Nice book for Christmas - nonfiction

If you have people on your list who still like to read about Iraq, consider David Finkel's Good Soldiers. It has made it onto more than one best of list. Finkel follows one small unit in Baghdad through 2007 and 2008. It reminds me a bit of Dispatches, in that it is quite literary, but it lacks the phantasmagoria of that book.

Here is a section where Finkel uses translation as a means to show the difficulty the Army had in working with the locals. The he is a Lt. Colonel who met regularly with leaders of Sadr City. I love the economy of language and the amount of emotion packed into this tiny bit of writing.

He learned to say habibi, which meant "dear friend."

He learned to say shaku maku ("what's up?), shukran la su' alek ("thank you for asking") , and saffya daffya ("sunny and warm")

He learned to say anee wahid kelba ("I am one sexy bitch"), which made people laugh every time he said it.

The months went by. The meetings grew repetitive. The same complaints. The same selfish requests. The same nothing done.

He learned to say marfood ("disapproved") and qadenee lel jenoon ("it drives me crazy")

June came.

He learned to say coolah khara ("it's all bullshit") and shadi ghabee ("stupid monkey")

July came.

Allah ye sheelack, he found himself saying. I hope you die. " May God take your soul."

She was a bloody disgrace

Bodies remains one of the most surprising songs of the punk era. Coming from those that called the queen a fascist and compared her to a nuclear weapon, you wouldn't expect such an aggressively anti-abortion song. In the original Sex Pistols version, where the verses are hard to parse and the target of the sneering is ambiguous, the message is a not totally clear. I recall arguing with people as to whether the song was anti-abortion or perhaps about just being for the girl. The Veruca Salt cover brings the bloody imagery to the fore and I think makes the case for the song being anti-abortion. Either way it rocks, check it below.

Making the world go round

I have nearly finished Peter Maass' Crude World. Usually when I like a book, I say it is a "delight" or a "pleasure" to read. In this case, those words aren't really appropriate, what with all the terrible tales, but it is a great read nonetheless. Maass's book is a series of impressionistic essays about oil's impact on the world, particularly on the places where the oil is. It is not a happy story.

He starts off in Equatorial Guinea, a country with lots of oil and few people. It should be a little Singapore off Africa, but instead it is a kleptocracy with the leadership class flying jets while the people starve. They also coopt Western banks companies and politicians. Riggs Bank plays a particularly sordid role as the ATM for the despot. Then it is off to Nigeria where the populous Niger Delta, which should be a vibrant environment and living space, is a nightmare of pollution and random government destruction of villages.

Maass's argument is not with oil companies, although he is highly critical of them. Instead, his argument is that oil companies are in a business which by its nature provides incentives to be corrupt and shady. He says that if Apple had to go get its chips from under the ground of failing states, we would be bemoaning the horrible practices of Steve Jobs. This isn't to excuse the oil companies, but to refocus on the real problem.

This isn't the sort of book to help you understand oil's role in the economy, or the history of oil. I think the book for that is the Prize, a book I own but I have not yet read (this one joined the semi-secret pile of unread books on the play-room bookshelf. Not exactly secret, but covert so as not to showcase the growing number of unread books.) No, this is the book to read to go beyond the dry stories to see what is happening on the ground.

The best best of list I have read so far

It's not a huge surprise that I like Jonathan Yardley's list. For one, it isn't a list, but an essay. For another, I haven't heard of most of the books but want to read them all.

Tempered excitement

Ordinarily I would be quite thrilled about the new Douglas Preston thriller, Impact. For one, Douglas Preston writes thrillers that actually thrill. For another, the book appears to be a new take on the dangerously large object hurtling towards the earth story.

My only qualm is that the book is coming out on January 5th of next year. Why then? I imagine they could have rushed it to make it ready for Christmas. In the movie world, the early year is often the dumping ground for loser movies, is this true of books as well. Maybe they didn't want to compete with the new Crichton or King?

Mocking adults who like kids books

The Onion has a nice one about adults going nuts over a picture book. A jab at those who read Harry Potter, Twilight and others no doubt.


Adults Go Wild Over Latest In Children's Picture Book Series

Two shows in two days

Yowza, am I tired. I think I may be too old to go to two shows in two nights. Thank goodness radio friendliness (the shows were broadcast on KNRK) meant they ended early. Otherwise I would probably still be sleeping.

Anyway, night one was Vampire Weekend, night two was Spoon. The big surprise was Vampire Weekend. As a newish band, I expected to them to not have their stage show or presence down. No such problem! They came out dancing and kept the show moving the whole (admittedly short) show. The banter and crowd interaction was great.

Spoon was good too, especially when the horns came out and when they really rocked. The best song of the night was a new one, which bodes well.

One weird thing was the heavy use of vocal effects by both bands. Not a huge issue, but it was a little odd. On the plus side, for both bands, you could understand all the words, even of the new songs. Yay!

Not Too Dense to Read

I've tried to read a number of books on the financial crisis and, I confess, I had to put a lot of them down. I have found that they assume more knowledge of financial instruments and the financial system than I possess. They are often laden with more jargon than I can handle. Part of it is interest level. I know I could understand it if I put more effort into to it, and given the importance, I know I should. But I should do the same for health care and plenty of other issues. So instead I get a surface level of information and focus on foreign policy, that which really interests me the most.

Anyway, I really liked Too Big To Fail, because it focuses on the people, namely all the bankers and government leaders desperately trying to figure what to do as Lehman and AIG fall apart. It reads like a Bob Woodward book, with lots of detail, profanity and insider info. Andrew Ross Sorkin interviewed nearly everyone involved so he has the detail and he keeps the story rolling. My only complaint is that the book runs a bit long. I am not sure how much more I understand about the financial collapse, but I can see that lots of highly paid, intelligent people can struggle when the system is built to fail.

A book not to give this Christmas

I think at one point I liked Ralph Peters. His Red Army was a good NATO vs. Warsaw Pact novel, told from the perspective of the Soviets. Since he has moved on to a career as a jingoistic political commentator, it is no surprise that his books were heavy on the message. In this case, it was the US might just be able to eek out a win, unless the pusillanimous, pinko pussies in Europe screw it up. His next one, War in 2020, had another message, which was watch out cocky westerners, the tricksy Asian and wicked Muslim are coming to get ya.

Perhaps trading on his Fox News fame, he now has a new one called the War After Armageddon. I think he has a message, which appears to be that the evil Muslims will launch a wave of attacks leading to the creation of a religious state in the United States and the obliteration of ALL Muslims. So there, Islamic terrorists.

He gets points for making everyone, with an exception of those in the military, out as wicked, but loses points for the crappy writing. I suspect this one will be popular with those that like One Second After, the thriller about a particularly unlikely scenario, an EMP attack on the United States.

Best of the year

Wow, I have read a total of zero of the New York Times Book Reviews top ten books of 2009. I at least own Lords of Finance and have another coming from the library, but sheesh! I like the Atlantic Best of List, as it has many thick history books I have been seeking. Here are my top reads of the year, some of which were published this year, some not.

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. This one recently became available in paperback, so it is sort of a 2009 book. Anyway, this is the move to literary fiction that he was shooting for in mystic river. You get the strength of character and plot from his crime novels while he writes on a broader canvas with much bigger themes. This one rocks.

Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy. This is his triumphant return and a capper to a series of seven semi connected books that started with the Black Dahlia. It's hard to state how much this one made me happy.

The books of Gillian Flynn. Ooooo, man can this woman do dark and evil. She writes books about damaged people dealing with even more damaged (and evil) people. Among her strengths are her cutting analysis of social groups and a way with words.

The books of Michael Perry. Yeah finally something wholesome and decidely unwicked. Perry is writer and occasional EMT and farmer living in the small town Midwest. He writes philosophical essays about life. Normally this sort of thing makes me vomit, but his physical connection to the subject matter and his attitude make him a delight.

Only Yesterday by Frederick Allen. This one was written in the 30s but feels like it could have been written last week. A model for presenting a wide ranging narrative for non-history readers.

Yet more Laird Barron

I have been pleased enough with the Laird Barron short stories I have read to go seeking more. Yesterday I read Catch Hell, Barron's contribution to the Lovecraft Unbound anthology. The story starts in a pedestrian manner with a couple in a dying marriage heading off to a strange small town in the Pacific Northwest. It seems like the classic innocents in peril scenario, but it turns out these two aren't so innocent. It would seem they are fated for their, um, sticky end. This one is right up there with the great horrific endings.

Today I picked up Poe, a collection of Poe inspired tales which has another Barron tale. This one is edited by Ellen Datlow, the same person who edited the Lovecraft book.

A Shining sequel?

Stephen King is apparently sketching out a possible sequel to the Shining. Danny, the traumatized boy of the original book, now works in a hospice where he helps people get over the fear of death, while also making money at the track. Sounds potentially cheesy, but then so do many of his better ideas. There may be some overlap with Connie Willis' fantastic if overly long Passage.

On the subject of horror novels, I just read another short story by Laird Barron. This one called is called the Progression of the Black Sloth and man is it a nightmarish tale. The story, which concerns an investigator flying to Hong Kong creates the feeling of reality unraveling and the flash of terrible images that you see in movies like Angelheart, Lost Highway and Jacob's Ladder. Super good stuff. Here is an interview with the author where he talks about the influence of Asian cinema on the story.

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.