Muddy's Grindhouse

Muddy's Grindhouse is fairly new, another location for the people who own the Muddy's Bake Shop I've written about before. This location in the Cooper-Young area of Midtown has more food and coffee options. Here's the entrance:

Isn't that cheerful? The Daughter had the pumpkin pie and Earl Grey cookies, and I had zucchini bread:

We each had coffee. Everything was wonderful. You order at the counter and take your food to a table after paying at the register, just like the other location. There's a patio you can see on the left side of the photo at the top of the post. The prices were average for coffee shops in the city, and the staff is more than pleasant. There was steady traffic while we were there. We enjoyed this very much.

Here's a photo of one of their wall decorations:

We did some Christmas shopping afterwards. 'Tis the season.

Yelp gives it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. Choose 901 has several photos of the interior.

Shanghai Express

Shanghai Express is a 1932 film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong. It also stars Clive Brook, Warner Oland (best known for playing Charlie Chan in numerous films), and Eugene Pallette (best known for his roles as Friar Tuck in the Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie and Father Felipe in the Tyrone Power Mark of Zorro). It's based on a book which, in turn, is based on the true story of the capture of a train by a Chinese warlord and the holding for ransom of the occupants. The film was nominated for 3 Academy Awards and won for cinematography. This is wonderful! It's held up well and remains enjoyable.

via Daily Motion:

Shanghai Express by FilmGorillas

Senses of Cinema says, "It’s a riotous exercise in excess in every area; the visuals are overpowering and sumptuous; the costumes ornate and extravagant; the sets a riot of fabrics, light and space; and all of it captured in the most delectable black-and-white cinematography that one can find anywhere". TCM and MSN have overviews. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.

Oft, in the Stilly Night

In memory of my mother, who died on this date on Thanksgiving Day a year ago. At 95, she was the last of her generation in her family, and much was lost at her passing.

Oft, in the Stilly Night

By Thomas Moore

Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood’s years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm’d and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain hath bound me,
Sad memory brings the light
Of other days around me.

When I remember all
The friends, so link’d together,
I’ve seen around me fall,
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad memory brings the light
Of other days around me.

Extremes: A Retrieval Artist Novel.

Extremes is #2 in the Retrieval Artist series of science fiction detective novels by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I pick these up when I find them, but that's turned out to be a slow process. I like the concept. In this book, the point of view shifts from chapter to chapter, and the transitions are well done. The story itself is interesting. The characters are described well enough so it makes it easy to remember who's who, but not well enough so that I cared much about them as people. The plot moves along at a steady and then gradually increasing rate, and then there's an exciting conclusion. You don't have to enjoy science fiction to enjoy this book; just picture it happening in the Antarctic, and it makes just as much sense. It's a fun, quick read.

from the back of the book:

His name: Miles Flint.
His occupation: Retrieval Artist
His job: Find the Disappeared - outlaws on the run, wanted for crimes against alien cultures.
The catch: Flint isn't working on the side of the law anymore.

One simple mistake and a Disappeared could end up dead. But this time, the death of an ailing Retrieval Artist has caught Flint's attention. He suspects it was foul play, not a viral infection. Equally suspicious is a young woman's sudden demise during the Moon's prestigious Extreme Marathon. As Flint investigates, he finds an ominous connection. Both deaths lead back to a scientist. A scientist who is now one of the Disappeared.

The review at SFF.net concludes, "Read the book quickly without thinking much and I think you'll be entertained -- but pull on any of the dangling threads and the whole thing collapses." SF Revu hopes the series gets better after this 2nd addition.

I've read a short story by this author in addition to the following books from the Retrieval Artist series:

#3 Consequences
#4 Buried Deep

Portrait of Jennie

Portrait of Jennie is a 1948 fantasy drama film based on a short novel by Robert Nathan. It stars Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Ethyl Barrymore, Lilian Gish, and Cecil Kellaway. William Dieterle directs. This is a beautiful film! Haunting and romantic. Joseph Cotton plays a struggling artist, and Jennifer Jones is the mysterious girl who inspires him.

via Youtube:

Slant Magazine gives it 4 out of 4 stars and says, "Portrait of Jennie is a haunting evocation of one man's pained artistic process, and the genius of the film is how Dieterle delicately equates the creative impulse to an ever-evolving spiritual crisis." DVD Talk calls it "one of David O. Selznick's better films" and says, "The movie is a visual marvel, and Jones and Cotten are a sublimely attractive couple". Moria calls it a classic. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 91%.

Happy Thanksgiving (early)

I'm having Suisse Mocha this morning in a cup that I only use during the Autumn. I like the changing of the season from Summer to Autumn, the growing crispness in the air, the colors of the leaves. The end of November brings all that to a close and brings in the bareness of Winter. While the Fall season lasts, though, I'll enjoy it. This coming Thursday is our Thanksgiving celebration. Mother always did the cooking, and I don't have the heart to do it now; so we're buying dishes ready-made. It'll be fine. We'll have turkey breast (I'll cook that), a small boneless sliced ham, cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, fruit salad, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, rolls, and desserts.

We have a children's book that illustrates the poem "Over the River and Through the Woods", and I remember singing the words as we were on our way to Mother's when the kids were little:

As to the cup and saucer, there's no marking on the bottoms, but I've discovered it's a transferware ironstone pattern called Memory Lane (Pink) by Royal (USA). I bought this in a local antique mall. The pattern isn't rare or expensive, even though it's '60s-era and long discontinued. You can buy your own online for $7.99 at Replacements.com.

Join the party at Bluebeard and Elizabeth's blog. I'm headed over there to see what the others are up to this week.

Give Me Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis:

written and originally performed by Chuck Berry, I know the Johnny Rivers version embedded above better. Rivers had his 72nd birthday earlier this month.

Lyrics:

Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee
Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me
She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call
'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd phone me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge

Help me, information, more than that I cannot add
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
But we were pulled apart because her mom did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

Last time I saw Marie she's waving me good-bye
With hurry home drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
Marie is only six years old, information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

Ronia the Robber's Daughter

Ronia the Robber's Daughter is a 1984 Swedish film based on the book by Astrid Lindgrin. This is a fun story and a lovely movie.

via Youtube:

Reviews online are oddly scarce, but DVD Talk calls it "innocent fun".

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) is a thriller/crime/action film directed by John Carpenter. By turns too slow and too violent, I didn't care for this at all. In the end I didn't finish it. It has a cult following, though, and is well-respected in some circles. The Imdb has this plot synopsis: "The lone inhabitants of an abandoned police station are under attack by the overwhelming numbers of a seemingly unstoppable street gang."

via youtube:

Moria gives it 4 out of 5 stars and calls it "A strong and disturbing film." Slant Magazine calls it "among one of the most remarkably composed films of all time". DVD Talk says, "A violent retelling of Rio Bravo, but with street gangs that behave like zombies from Night of the Living Dead, this is A+ exploitation material circa 1976." The BBC gives it 5 out of 5 stars and concludes, "in essence the core reason this film works so well is that it is so unpredictable, ruthless and without reason." Time Out calls it "sheer delight from beginning to end." DVD Verdict says it's "a simple, but effective, siege film only John Carpenter could nail on $100k. Check it out." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 97%.

Annihilation

Annihilation is book 1 in the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Here's an example of a page-turner where I got so involved in the book I forgot everything else. Fascinating world-building and involving characters... I already have the other 2 and almost hate to start them, because I will hate to finish them.

from the back of the book:

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers -but it's the surprises that come across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

favorite quote:

some questions will ruin you if you are denied the answer long enough.

Strange Horizons says,

I have sought to avoid plot summaries or spoilers, because the manner in which VanderMeer builds his tale is of real importance to its effect and achievement; but I hope that in my quotations I've emphasized something of the supple, allusive elegance of his prose here. Annihilation is a large work which looks slight and reads swift. That, too, is the sign of a writer in complete command of his material.

io9 closes by saying,

Action-packed and mind-bending, this is a novel that will leave you pondering, but not because the mystery remains unsolved. Instead, it's because the mysteries of Area X raise all kinds of questions about what passes for "normal" in our own lives, from the bizarre ways we try to draw boundaries across ecosystems, to the kinds of broken organizations we task with making new discoveries about the world.

Kirkus Reviews calls it "Speculative fiction at its most transfixing." The Guardian and NPR and The Telegraph have positive reviews. EW calls it one of the "great weird books". Salon.com calls it "striking".

The Bridge of Sighs

The Bridge of Sighs (2003) is the first in the 5-book Yalta Boulevard sequence by Olen Steinhauer. I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. I have the 2nd in the series and will seek out the rest. Devotion is a theme. It has an authentic feel to it to me.

from the back of the book:

In this auspicious literary crime debut by Olen Steinhauer, an inexperienced homicide detective struggles amidst the lawlessness of a post-WWII Eastern European city. It's 1948, three years after the Russians "liberated" the nation from German occupation. But the ideals of the Revolution are but memories. Twenty-two-year-old Detective Emil Brod is finally getting his chance to serve his country, investigating murder for the People's Militia.

The first victim is a state songwriter, but the facts point to a political motive. Emil wants to investigate further, but his new colleagues in Homicide are suspicious and remain silent. He is on his own in this new, dangerous world. The Bridge of Sighs launches a unique series of crime novels featuring an ever-evolving landscape, the politically volatile terrain of Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century.

favorite quote:

"One man has only so much loyalty. Figure out where yours lies."

The book is on a list of most-awarded mysteries and received 5 award nominations. Kirkus Reviews says, "Time, place, and cast are all richly evoked in a well-written, often gripping debut." Publishers Weekly concludes, "Fans of J. Robert Janes (who provides a blurb) in particular and of mysteries with totalitarian regime backgrounds in general should appreciate the authenticity the author brings from his experience as a Fulbright Fellow in Romania."

The Hills Run Red (1966)

The Hills Run Red is a 1966 spaghetti western starring Henry Silva and Dan Duryea. Ennio Morricone does the music. Carlo Lizzani, who died this past October committing suicide at the age of 91, directs. This is a revenge story, worth seeing.

via youtube:

Fistful of Pasta recommends it. Spaghetti-Western.net praises the acting, the music, the plot, the dialog... and calls it "a must buy for any fan of the genre".

Fraud

Fraud is a 1992 novel by Anita Brookner. I love this author and am quite pleased that she is not only prolific but is still alive. She was born in 1928. This book deals a lot with identity, sacrifice, aging, and mourning, and so there were sad moments for me; but it is an uplifting book -even inspiring.

from the back of the book:

At the heart of Anita Brookner's new novel lies a double mystery: What happened to Anna Durrant, a solitary woman of a certain age who has disappeared from her London flat? And why has it taken four months for anyone to notice?

As Brookner reconstructs Ana's life and character through the eyes of her acquaintances, she gives us a witty yet ultimately devastating study of self-annihilating virtue while exposing the social, fiscal, and moral frauds that are the underpinnings of terrifying rectitude.

There is tea throughout this book. And coffee. It's a thread than wanders from beginning to the very end, so I've decided to enter the book into the T(ea) Tuesday festivities at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. Here's my favorite tea quote:

I am homesick, she thought with surprise. Homesick for that dark flat, which I have never much liked, homesick for my own chair and my footstool, for that brown kitchen teapot which I bought from Pelham Street (Beatrice swore that it made the best tea, and she was right: I often enjoyed a cup in the basement with her), homesick above all for my bedroom, so gloomy in daytime, so comfortingly womblike at night.

There are a couple of artworks mentioned. Degas's Jeunes Spartiates s'exerçant à la guerre is mentioned, as is Titian's Sacred and Profane Love:

There's a reference to a remark by Baudelaire "that he found it difficult to breathe when faced with a portrait by Ingres." There's a piece of a poem in French, which I had to google to translate; but it seems to be Paul Valéry's The Graveyard By The Sea:

After such arrogance, after so much strange
Idleness -strange, yet full of potency-

favorite non-tea-related quotes:

But there was too little to do when one was old, and feeling one's age, reluctant to venture further than the shops and the library, and then faced with a long afternoon at home. If she was at all nostalgic it was for her earlier vigour, when she had thought nothing of being out all day. She did not mind the silence, for she had come to cherish it, but there was a certain lack of human nourishment about her days that distressed her. Not excessively, for she was not an excessive woman, and not at all given to unnecessary regrets. She simply wished for the occasional conversation, the occasional stimulus of another personality. She was careful not to brood on this deficiency, but rather to face it squarely. She was, she knew, fortunate: she was not in need, did not depend on her children, had suffered no serious illnesses. Nevertheless she felt she was preparing mentally for her own death....

Those who love us are the most difficult to withstand.

The Independent has a spoiler-filled review and says, "Fraud, her 12th novel in 12 years, apparently conforms to everything that one has learnt to expect". The LA Times closes its review with this:

Fraud and denial, often yoked together, are indeed everywhere in life, and it takes a novel like this to show just how pervasive they are. "Fraud" sneaks up on you, delivering less than it promises in terms of mystery but more in terms of insight.

Feelin' Good

Feelin' Good:

by Junior Parker, who died 43 years ago tomorrow at the age of 39 during surgery for a brain tumor. This was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis in 1953. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001.

Alice (1988)

Alice is a 1988 claymation adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It's a very loose adaptation directed by Jan Švankmajer. I like this director's work, and this film is a treat. I will admit that, by the end, the "said the White Rabbit" narration by Alice was irritating me, but that's a minor quibble.

trailer:

Moria gives it 5 out of 5 stars, calling it a "work of bizarre genius". io9 calls it "The weirdest Alice in Wonderland movie ever made" and says, "It's an interesting experience for anyone familiar with the novel, but I certainly would not recommend it as an introduction to the story." The Telegraph says, "This Alice's glorious proliferation of magical transformations works like a charm on anyone who values the imagination". DVD Beaver says, "What the Czech animator Jan Svankmajer does in "Alice" seems more akin to alchemy than moviemaking. His is an art of dark conjuring, brought to life more by the wave of a wand than the slap of a clapper board." It has a critics score of 100% at Rotten Tomatoes.

Dressed for Death

Dressed for Death (or The Anonymous Venetian) (1994) is the 3rd book in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series by Donna Leon. I picked up a couple from this series when I came across them in the used book section of my local book store. I enjoyed this one and will buy more as I find them.

from the back of the book:

Commissario Guido Brunetti's hopes for a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are once again dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in Marghera -a body so badly beaten the face is completely unrecognizable. Brunetti searches Venice for someone who can identify the corpse but is met with a wall of silence. Then he receives a telephone call from a contact who promises some tantalizing information. And before the night is out Brunetti is confronting yet another appalling, and apparently senseless, death.

favorite quotes:

The city had grown old, but Brunetti loved the sorrows of her changing face.

...

One of the secrets Paola and Brunetti never revealed to anyone was their decades-long search for the ugliest Christ child in western art. At the moment, the title was held by a particularly bilious infant in room thirteen of the Pinacoteca di Siena. Although the baby in front of Brunetti was clearly no beauty, Siena's title was not at risk.

...

Beauty changed nothing, he knew, and perhaps the comfort it offered was no more than illusion, but still he welcomed that illusion.

Kirkus Reviews closes with this: "One of the most appealing of recent detectives, Brunetti stars in a case that brings out his canniness and his compassion--and shows his creator spreading her wings more powerfully than ever." Reviewing the Evidence says,

Guido Brunetti is a character who is always welcome at my reading table. He is a devoted family man. Unlike many cops, he is always civilized and has an intuitive sense of how to comfort or interrogate those he meets during his investigations. He is sensitive and serious but exhibits a fine sense of humor as well, especially when interacting with his wife, Paola.... Leon does an exceptional job of portraying Venice, its glory and its warts, as well as the complicated politics of the time.

The Doll

The Doll is a 1919 Ernst Lubitsch film about a young man who fears women but has been offered a generous dowry to marry. He buys a doll in the likeness of the dollmaker's daughter in order to claim the money, but due to the assistant's damage to the doll the daughter steps into the role. When the young man is insistent on taking the doll with him on the spot, the real woman plays along.

This film is absolutely delightful.

via youtube:

DVD Talk says, "This is a charming, unpretentious, and funny movie.  With many comic scenes and some wonderful acting on Oswalda's part, it's a true gem."

The Hydrogen Sonata

The Hydrogen Sonata is one of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. I'm partial to big, sprawling space opera, and this is one. No complaints here, except that the author has died. This is the last of the Culture series; there will be no more. I mourn that fact. You can read the first chapter at io9.

from the back of the book:

The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End of Days for the Gzilt civilization.

favorite quotes:

Always try to avoid setting up future opportunities for kicking yourself.

.....

Living either never has any point, or is always its own point; being a naturally cheery soul, I lean towards the latter. However, just having done more of it than another person doesn't really make much difference.

.....

..."one thing that does happen when you live a long time is that you start to realise the essential futility of so much of what we do, especially when you see the same patterns of behavior repeated by succeeding generations and across different species. You see the same dreams, the same hopes, the same ambitions and aspirations, reiterated, and the same actions, the same courses and tactics and strategies, regurgitated, to the same predictable and often lamentable effects, and you start to think, So? Does it really matter? Why really are you bothering with all this? Are these not just further doomed, asinine ways of attempting to fill your vacuous, pointless existence, wedged slivered as it is between the boundless infinitudes of dark oblivion bookending its utter triviality?"

"Uh-huh," she said. "Is this a rhetorical question?"

"It is a mistaken question. Meaning is everywhere. There is always meaning. Or at least all things show a disturbing tendency to have meaning ascribed to them when intelligent beings are present. It's just that there's no final Meaning, with a capital M. Though the illusion that there might be is comforting for a certain class of mind."

.....

"Even without the intrinsic limitations of a conventional biological brain, what one forgets can be as important and as formative as what one remembers."

.....

... obsession is just what those too timorous to follow an idea through to its logical conclusion call determination.

.....

Sometimes you just had to adopt the attitude summed up by, Too bad.

.....

"One should never regret one's excesses, only one's failures of nerve."

The Guardian says, "For all that the books are epic in scope and derangingly replete in detail, The Hydrogen Sonata reiterates a key theme: that personal fulfilment, in whatever form that takes, is rare and to be treasured." Kirkus Reviews closes its review with this,

Scotland-resident Banks’ Culture yarns, the science-fiction equivalent of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, brim with wit and wisdom, providing incomparable entertainment, with fascinating and highly original characters, challenging ideas and extrapolations, and dazzling action seamlessly embedded in a satirical-comedy matrix.

Hour of the Gun

Hour of the Gun is a 1967 John Sturges western, starring James Garner, Jason Robards, Robert Ryan, Jon Voight (in an early role), Steve Ihnat (who has a Star Trek: TOS connection), William Windom (who also has a ST: TOS connection), William Schallert (yet another Star Trek connection, TOS and DS9), Monte Markham (who was in Star Trek: DS9) and Frank Converse (who was in a 13-episode TV series in this same year called Coronet Blue, which I dearly loved). A fun cast for me to watch.

The film is an attempt at a historical re-telling of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral story and focuses on the aftermath. I had never heard of it 'til I came across it on Youtube. This is a well-done traditional western. Everything in it is good, working together to make such a movie that I wonder why it's not one of those highly acclaimed westerns everybody has seen. Jerry Goldsmith did the music; it's perfect. The acting can't be beat. I can't find any fault with it at all.

DVD Talk says, "Hour of the Gun deserves to be pushed closer to the top of the list of great westerns." Riding the High Country says, "I think it’s a little hidden gem of a movie that deserves much more recognition." Great Western Movies says "it stands up pretty well more than 40 years later". Roger Ebert gives it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars and says, "Sturges has made some good ones ("Gunfight," "Bad Day at Black Rock," "The Magnificent Seven"), and "Hour of the Gun" belongs in the same company but slightly lower on the guest list." Rotten Tomatoes has a 100% critics score.

Happy Veterans Day

Not to be confused with Memorial Day when we honor our war dead, Veterans Day is set aside to honor all those who have served our country in the military. At Overton Park here in Memphis we have a place called Veterans Plaza, where there are statues commemorating service in various wars. The picture above was taken at Overton Park earlier in the year.

I admit I'm not a fan of folks with guns, whether sponsored by the military or not; and I'm opposed to what I see as the glorification of war in our current culture. Today, though, I lift a glass in memory of Daddy, who did what he had to do during World War 2 and then never much wanted to talk about it afterwards.

Here's to American valor. May no war require it, but may it ever be ready for every foe.

Please join the T(ea) Tuesday gathering over at Bluebeard and Elizabeth's blog.