The Child in Time

The Child in Time is a 1987 Whitbread Prize-winning novel by Ian McEwan. It takes place in a near-future dystopia and deals with the relativity of time and the effect of deep personal loss on life and relationships. This has been a difficult read, dealing with loss as it does.

description from Amazon.com:

Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children's books, is confronted with the unthinkable: his only child, three-year-old Kate, is snatched from him in a supermarket. In one horrifying moment that replays itself over the years that follow, Stephen realizes his daughter is gone.With extraordinary tenderness and insight, Booker Prize–winning author Ian McEwan takes us into the dark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child. Kate's absence sets Stephen and his wife, Julie, on diverging paths as they each struggle with a grief that only seems to intensify with the passage of time. Eloquent and passionate, the novel concludes in a triumphant scene of love and hope that gives full rein to the author's remarkable gifts. The winner of the Whitbread Prize, The Child in Time is an astonishing novel by one of the finest writers of his generation.

my favorite quotes:

Thre was no single action for which Stephen could generate a motive. He saw no point in being warm, or in having socks or teeth. He could carry out simple commands so long as he did not have to reflect on their rationale.

The constant urban rumble could not mitigate the burdensome silence that emanated from the carpet's deep pile, the fleecy towels on the wooden stand, the granite folds of the velvet curtain. Still dressed, he lay on his back on the bed. He was waiting for the pictures, the ones he could only dispel by jerking his head.

... however familiar, parents are also strangers to their children.

If he could live in the present he might breathe freely. But I don't like the present, he thought, and picked up his things.

He mentions the books of his adolescence, naming Hemingway, Chandler and Kerouac.

Several pieces of music are mentioned, including "a Bach partita". This is Bach Partita #1:

He also mentions the Schubert C major quintet, particularly the Adagio:

Kirkus Reviews calls this book "a work of remarkable intellectual and political sophistication--his most expansive and passionate fiction to date."

Winterhawk

Winterhawk is a 1975 Western starring Leif Erickson (I know him best as Big John Cannon in the TV series The High Chaparral), Woody Strode, Denver Pyle, L.Q. Jones, Michael Dante, Elisha Cook, Jr (who was in an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series), Dawn Wells (better known as Mary Ann on the Gilligan's Island TV series) and Dennis Fimple.

This is a beautiful movie to watch. The plot is straightforward and interesting. The acting is good. The characterizations of both native tribespeoples and white traders and settlers avoid racist over-generalizations. Not that you should expect historical accuracy, mind you, and I found the soundtrack annoying; but it's an enjoyable modern Western.

Youtube has it with embedding disabled here.

trailer (in Italian?):

Roger Ebert likes it, saying, ""Winterhawk" is a traditional Western, simply and well told, almost old-fashioned in the clarity of its narrative." Rotten Tomatoes doesn't have any critics reviews but has an audience score of 60%. TCM has an overview and this synopsis:

The members of the Blackfoot tribe are dying from a smallpox epidemic, so their Chief Winterhawk goes off in search of a cure. On the way he is ambushed and in retaliation he later kidnaps two white men. The men come to respect Winterhawk, but a search party is hunthing for them and there is no telling what the outcome of the dangerous situation will be.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

T.S. Eliot began writing The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in February of 1910 and first published it over 5 years later. You can read an annotated edition online here. Poor J. Alfred Prufrock longs to express his love, yet he does not dare.

This is one of those famous literary works that offers tea, including in this section:

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep . . . tired . . . or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,

And in short, I was afraid.

How sad: the risk not taken, eternal regret.

Listen to Eliot reading it:

"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."

Bleubeard and Elizabeth offer a way to connect with others on Tuesdays at this link at their blog.

Banjo Playing

Randal Morton:

and playing with Grassfire:

The 100 Greatest SFF Novels of All Time

This Recording has a list of 100 SFF novels they say are the greatest of all time:

1. The Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
2. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
3. The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
4. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
5. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
6. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
8. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
9. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
10. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
11. Dune by Frank Herbert
12. Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance
13. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
14. All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman
15. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
16. The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (It's on my tbr stack.)
17. The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
18. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
19. A Song of Ice And Fire by George R.R. Martin (I've read the first couple of books.)
20. The Fifth Head of Cerebus by Gene Wolfe
21. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
22. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
23. Lost Horizon by James Hilton
24. The Cadwal Chronicles by Jack Vance
25. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
26. 1984 by George Orwell
27. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
28. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
29. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
30. A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge
31. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
32. Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein
33. The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
34. Ubik by Philip K. Dick
35. True Names by Vernor Vinge
36. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
37. Lyonesse by Jack Vance
38. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
39. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
40. Animal Farm by George Orwell
41. A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
42. Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein
43. Flatland by Edwin Abbott
44. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
45. Alastor by Jack Vance
46. The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson (I tried but couldn't make it through this series.)
47. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
48. The Demon Princes by Jack Vance
49. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (I read Atlas Shrugged. That's enough Rand to last me.)
50. The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe
51. The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
52. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
53. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
54. The Book of the Short Sun by Gene Wolfe
55. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (This is in my tbr stack.)
56. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
57. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
58. Nightwings by Robert Silverberg
59. Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
60. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (I read the first couple of books.)
61. The Book of Knights by Yves Maynard
62. Wildlife by James Patrick Kelly
63. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
64. At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
65. A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin
66. The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
67. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
68. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
69. Flow My Tears The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
70. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
71. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
72. Maske: Thaery by Jack Vance
73. Old Man's War by John Scalzi
74. Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling
75. Ringworld by Larry Niven
76. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
77. Free Live Free by Gene Wolfe
78. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
79. Griffin's Egg by Michael Swanwick
80. Watership Down by Richard Adams
81. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
82. The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
83. The Alteration by Kingsley Amis
84. Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
85. Sphere by Michael Crichton
86. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
87. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
88. Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (on my tbr list)
89. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
90. Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch
91. Dhalgren by Samuel Delany
92. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
93. An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe
94. The Company by K.J. Parker
95. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
96. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
97. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
98. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
99. Sorcerer's Son by Phyllis Eisenstein
100. The Word For World Is Forest by Ursula K. LeGuin

The list is quite heavy on some authors (Wolfe and Vance, for example), a very idiosyncratic list. I've read 59 of these. Very few of the ones I haven't read are on my tbr radar.

via SF Signal

The Answer

I saw this 42 art months ago but was never in a mood to stop and take a picture. This time The Daughter was with me and encouraged me to go ahead and stop.

42 is, of course, the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything in Douglas Adams' brilliant work The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I've seen other places in town displaying this helpful number:

on Summer Avenue
at the golf course on Park Avenue
at Park Avenue and Getwell
near the Kroger on Mendenhall
at the gas station on the corner of Park and Mt. Moriah
on the front of Whatever at the corner of Highland and Southern
on Park Avenue close to Cherry
on the side of Whatever on Southern at Highland

The Doomsday Machine

The Doomsday Machine (or Escape from Planet Earth) is a science fiction film. Production began in 1967, but the film wasn't completed until 1972. It was finished without the original actors or the original sets. As you can imagine, continuity errors abound. The ship is represented by something like 6 different images. Production quality is sad -or laughable depending on how you look at it. Sexism is rampant. These pitiful women are just helpless with anything except hair styles.

This is the first time I've ever seen throwing a cat to distract the guard dog as a way to infiltrate a military facility.

Grant Williams (The Incredible Shrinking Man) is one of the stars, though he doesn't get top billing. This was the last film released with him in it. Casey Kasem gets a co-starring credit. Mike Farrell is in the list of featured actors.

It takes them almost 30 minutes to get into space. And soon after:

Man: "Why don't you relax and enjoy it."

Woman, after passionate kiss: "You're very forceful, aren't you."

Man: "Do I need force?"

Woman: "I was talking about vibration."

Man: "Oh. How are yours doing?"

Oh, my.

The plot has a lot of these awkward sexual encounters, some more tasteless than others.

And there are unstable, screaming astronauts. You'd think those types would get screened out of the program.

from Wikipedia:

A spy discovers that the Chinese government has created a doomsday device capable of destroying the Earth, and it will be activated in 72 hours. Soon after, Astra –a two year return mission to Venus by the United States Space Program– has its time of launch sped up and half of the male flight crew are replaced by women shortly before take-off. Shortly before blastoff military alerts are put into effect.

via youtube:

Million Monkey Theater opens their review with this: "If there was ever a crappy, grade-z sci-fi stinker whose murky and bastardized provenance has been beat to death with the snarkystick, it's this film" and then provides a lengthy and snarky plot description. Stomp Tokyo closes its review saying, "Misery, of course, always loves company, so if you choose to seek out Doomsday Machine, I cannot stop you, but I felt that for the sake of my immortal soul, I had to at least try." DVD Talk says, "Hard-core science fiction movie fans should try and muster up the courage to experience Doomsday Machine at least once. All others will find it stupefyingly dull". Rotten Tomatoes has no critics score, but the audience rating is 5%. That's not a typo- the audience score is 5%.

Whom the Gods Love

Whom the Gods Love by Kate Ross is one of the Julian Kestrel mysteries. The action takes place in Regency-era England. There will be no more in this series, as the author died of breast cancer in 1998 at the age of 41.

Historical fiction was a favorite of mine in junior high and high school (favorite authors were Thomas B. Costain and James Michener), but I haven't read much in that genre since. I picked up 2 of Kate Ross' Kestrel books in a used book store because she had won the Agatha Award for 1 of them. I enjoyed the setting, characters and writing, and I'll be on the look-out for the other 2 in this series.

from the back of the book:

Alexander Falkland hasn't an enemy in the world. Young, talented, and charming, he shines in every field he enters: law, architecture, the investment market. But one night his luck runs out with a vengeance. In the midst of one of his famous parties, he is found in his study with his head smashed, a blood-stained poker beside him. No wonder the inscription on his gravestone reads: Whom the Gods Love Die Young.

When the Bow Street Runners fail to solve the crime, Alexander's distraught father turns to Julian Kestrel, elegant dandy and intrepid amateur sleuth. Soon Kestrel is up to his ears in suspects -and enigmas. Who was Alexander really? Social reformer or butterfly, devoted husband or rake? Kestrel must peel off one mask after another, until at last he discovers an Alexander no one knew -except, perhaps, the killer.

favorite quotes:

"I'm inclined to think," said Julian slowly, "that people are responsible for themselves. I know a father's influence is far-reaching. I'm very much the product of my own father's upbringing. But I think, as Shelley said, a man must rule the empire of himself. ..."

Kirkus Reviews calls it "An 1825 remake of Death on the Nile, with enough time for red herrings and subplots aplenty".

I have also read the 4th one: The Devil in Music.

The Lone Gun

The Lone Gun is one of many little-known westerns from the 50s. This one stars Dorothy Malone and George Montgomery, so it's not lacking in star power. Montgomery was an interesting man with diverse interests. In addition to acting, he was a skilled wood-worker who ran a furniture business. He was also a self-taught sculptor who worked with bronze. He died in 2000 at age 84. I first saw Dorothy Malone with Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep. Her last film was Basic Instinct in 1992, but she's still alive, so maybe she'll appear in another film yet. Frank Faylen is also here. I remember him best from the Dobie Gillis tv show. He played Dobie Gillis' long-suffering dad. (I watched that show for beatnik Maynard G. Krebbs.)

onscreen as the movie starts:

The history of any frontier region... such as the great expanses of the new state of Texas.... offered many examples of the strange way in which a few men of great evil could dominate whole communities of well-meaning but passive citizens...

...And examples, too, of men of a different breed... men who rode out alone for law and order with badges on their vests and handcuffs in their pockets... playing a lone gun against great odds.

via youtube:

The Stalking Moon reports it as considered one of Montgomery's best.

Bluff City Coffee

The Daughter and I walked down to Bluff City Coffee on one of our downtown excursions. They have food there (menus online), but we had just eaten lunch so weren't hungry. We had coffee instead. She had an Americano, and I had a double espresso:

Their espresso is very good. I couldn't have asked for better. They had nice seating inside, but we sat outside it was such a pretty day.

A couple passed by, and the man commented that we had been seeing each other all over downtown that day. He asked me where we were from, and I said, "Here!" He laughed. I think we look like tourists when we take pictures of everything. While The Daughter and I were sitting at our table we watched a man taking pictures. Then we saw another man take a picture of him while he was taking a picture. Then I took a picture of the both of them while they were taking their pictures:

We were all 3 documenting photography in Memphis. I lost sight of the 2nd photographer, but the 1st one got into a car with Shelby County tags, so my guess is we were all local. Fun!

The Memphis Foodie blog likes this coffee shop. The I Love Memphis blog has instructions for making their brownies. Yelp gives Bluff City Coffee 4 out of 5 stars with 48 reviews. Urban Spoon gives them a score of 92% with 105 votes.

Join the others at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's link haven for T-Tuesday.

Going Back to Memphis

Going Back to Memphis:

by the Memphis Jug Band, a jazz band featuring jug and kazoo that was active from the mid-1920s through the late 1950s.

Lyrics:

I'm leaving here, mama, don't you wanna go
I'm leaving here, mama, don't you wanna go
Because I'm sick and tired of all this ice and snow

When I get back to Memphis, you can bet I'll stay
When I get back to Memphis, you can bet I'll stay
And I ain't gonna leave until that judgment day

I love old Memphis, the place where I was born
I love old Memphis, the place where I was born
Wear my box-back suit, and drink my bottle of corn

I wrote my gal a letter, way down in Tennessee
I wrote my gal a letter, way down in Tennessee
Told her I was up here hungry, hurry up and send for me

I'm gonna walk and walk 'til I walk out all my shoes
I'm gonna walk and walk 'til I walk out all my shoes
Because I've got what they call them leaving here blues

Cancer Sucks!

Specifically non-Hodgkins Lymphoma sucks. I don't have it, but a family member does, and the fact that it's curable is the only bright spot. Admittedly, that's a hugely blindingly bright bright spot! It's a shame when you have a cure that makes you feel worse before it cures you, but it's such a blessing that it does cure you. We're feeling extremely grateful for that right now.

An online chapel with a 20-minute guided contemplative prayer video is here at ContemplativePrayer.net. Sometimes I find it helpful.

Oddly, I keep worrying about how I'm going to keep Mother from finding out. Since Mother died about 4 months ago, this makes no sense at all.

Happy Tabletop Day!

Tabletop Day is here! I know I still have my Trophy of Awesome around here somewhere, but if I can't find it I can print off another one.

I kinda looked around last year but found no local events. This year I see there's an all day International Tabletop Day celebration at the University of Memphis. This event is co-sponsored by the Memphis Role Playing Association and the Mid-South Board Gaming Club. We'll probably just play at home since the site warns about limited space and a first-come first-served policy that makes me think it'll be too crowded to suit me.

Here's the flyer for the local event:

The main board games I remember playing as a child were Yahtzee, Monopoly, Checkers, Tic-Tac-Toe, Chinese Checkers, Clue, and Parcheesi. I liked cards so much, Daddy taught me solitaire when I was fairly young so I could play cards when he got tired of it. When my kids were growing up, they enjoyed the same games, and we added some new ones along the way. We don't play games much any more. I'm not sure why that is, but TableTop is a good influence on me. I've discovered some new games through them.

Brimstone and Treacle

Brimstone and Treacle is a 1976 horror teleplay starring Michael Kitchen as a demon in human form. Denholm Elliott stars as the father of a young woman rendered helpless by an accident. Considered too disturbing to air, it wasn't televised until 1987. This is another film which shows the striking effect a stranger can have on the lives of the unsuspecting -never quite what you would expect.

BFI Screen Online says this "darkly comic religious fable remains powerful without ever being gratuitous." BritishTelevisionDrama.org says, "Brimstone and Treacle is a product of the time in which it was made, but because it was never transmitted at the time it should have been, sadly it can never be truly assessed as social commentary." Fright calls it " A deeply subversive essay on the allure—and possible beneficial effects—of evil, it’s a dark and provocative treat...."

It was remade with Sting in the Michael Kitchen role in 1982.

Caliban's War

Caliban's War is 2nd in the Expanse trilogy by James S. A. Corey, which is the pen name of 2 authors working in concert on this creative endeavor. This space opera is great fun -solid, engaging fun. The world-building includes everything I wanted, and characters were diverse and nicely filled-out. The plot included inter-personal relationships, political intrigue and action -something for everybody. I'm looking forward to the 3rd (which is ready on my shelf) and am hoping this author collaboration continues to write. Do read these in order; this is a trilogy in the traditional sense.

from the back of the book:

WE ARE NOT ALONE.

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent inter-planetary war. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.

In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun...

SF Signal calls it "solidly entertaining space opera". Kirkus Reviews describes it as "Part two of the topnotch space opera begun with Leviathan Wakes". The Little Red Reviewer praises it, saying, "the plotting, pacing, characterization and dialog are spot on perfect. Striking a balance between space opera, adventure, and horror, if you’re looking for a new science fiction series to get hooked on, look no further because this is it." Wired closes its review with this:

Great characters, excellent dialogue, memorable fights, freakish experiments, and twisty-turny mysteries — sometimes you’re lucky to get a few of those in a good book series. Only an excellent book series can pull them all off, and The Expanse will definitely be added to the short list of science fiction tales that manage to do so.

A Man, a Horse, a Gun

A Man, a Horse, a Gun is a 1967 spaghetti western. Oh, I do hope I never run out of spaghetti westerns! This one stars Tony Anthony in the 2nd of the 4 Stranger movies. Dan Vadis, Marco Guglielmi and Ettore Manni are also in this film. The score is by Stelvio Cipriani and adds a lot to the watching of the movie. I'm unfamiliar with this series, but after seeing this one I'll be looking for all of them.

via youtube:

Spaghetti-Western.net calls it "an enjoyable story of greed, double cross and violence presented with odd humour and taciturn dialogues."

April Fools Day

This may be my least favorite day of the year. I truly do hate April Fools' Day! I grew up dreading it not because of the tricks the kids at school would play (I mean how upset can you get over, "Your slip is showing," "There's a spider on you," and such). No, I hated it because my mother took an odd glee in the day. And somehow I always fell for it.

One year she woke me up telling me my favorite cousins had come during the night and were sleeping in the living room. I was so excited! I rushed to the living room to the tune of laughter and "April Fool!"

Every year she got me.

Once after I married, in the days before cell phones, she called me to tell me she had tried to drive up to see us but had gotten lost on the way. At the time, we lived off of a road that was off of a rural 2-lane highway. We lived way out in the middle of nowhere, and getting lost out there would not have been hard to do. Mother said she had found a pay phone but had no idea where she was. Lost and confused, she said she had used her last coin to call me and didn't see any sign of people and no sign of civilization other than the pay phone she was using. I was headed out the door in tears to look for her before she finally said, "April Fool". She had never left her house.

I just never learned! I'm a bit slow on the uptake, ya think?

That was the year I told her I would never again see or talk to her in person or on the phone on that day. She was honestly dumbfounded -for her it was just funny little gags- but I had reached the point where I didn't want to play that game any more. I prefer jokes that we share. She had a good sense of humor, but on this type of joke we were definitely at odds.

One of the pacts The Husband and I made early on was No April Fool Jokes Of Any Kind. Call me a fuddy-duddy stick-in-the-mud if you will, but we still abide by it.

And so, on this day I offer you a soothing cup of chamomile tea and nothing else. No tricks, no jokes, no stress, no nothing except that soothing cuppa. I'm hiding from the jokesters today, Folks; and my tea and I are in a secure, undisclosed location. Shhhhh

Enjoy your beverage -with or without tricks as suits you best- in peace with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T(ea) Tuesday linky.

Rocket 88

Rocket 88:

Recorded in 1951 at Memphis' Sun Studio, it was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who were actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm. This is the first ever rock 'n' roll record.

lyrics:

You women have heard of jalopies,
You heard the noise they make,
Well, let me introduce my new Rocket '88.
Yes it's straight, just won't wait,
Everybody likes my Rocket '88.
Baby will ride in style,
Movin' all along.

V-8 motor and this modern design,
Black convertible top and the gals don't mind
Sportin' with me, ridin' all around town for joy.

Blow your horn, Raymond, blow!

Step in my Rocket and don't be late,
Baby, we're pullin' out about half past eight.
Goin' round the corner and get a fifth
Everybody in my car's gonna take a little nip.
Ooh, goin' out,
Boozin' and cruisin' along.

Death Race

Death Race is a 2008 Paul Anderson-directed science fiction action film starring Jason Statham. It's a remake (or perhaps prequel, depending on who you ask) of Death Race 2000. This is a fun-enough action movie. Jason Statham is always worth watching, and his character here is a wrongly convicted doting dad, which is a nice touch. The action is steady with plenty of car chases and resultant explosions, but that action is about all there is.

trailer:

Moria doesn't like it but has some praise for Statham and Joan Allen, who plays the warden. SF Gate pans it, comparing it unfavorably to the original. Empire Online gives it 3 out of 5 stars and concludes, "It’s nothing more than an enjoyable, ridiculously macho B-movie romp, but it’s Anderson’s best movie since the underrated Event Horizon". EW gives it a B+ and says, "Soft sexual and racial jabs replace the more daring political commentary of the original, ... That was the anarchic '70s, baby; this is the conservative now". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 43%.

Dog Sculpture

I saw this sculpture downtown but saw no plaque or any indication of who placed it there or who the artist was. I got a kick out of seeing these playful puppies.

Free parking is harder to find downtown than it used it be. Lately, I've given up looking and started parking here:

It's called Parking Can Be Fun, which I'm not buying, but it is fun to see a business make an effort to be a bit different.

The garage is centrally located and easy to get in and out of.

King Kong (1933)

The Husband is having some health issues lately and has taken comfort in some old movie favorites. Thus: King Kong, the original 1933 monster movie/love story. This has always been one of his favorites, but it's been a while since I watched it. It never gets old.

Moria opens by calling it "perhaps the greatest of all fantasy films, it is certainly the greatest monster movie ever made." 1000 Misspent Hours says, "The most important thing to keep in mind about King Kong is what a revolutionary movie it was." DVD Talk says, "I hold no grudge whatsoever against Peter Jackson's 2005 remake but there's no substitute for an original work of popular art -the '33 Kong is the one that activates the subconscious, stirs one's imagination and remains a masterpiece of spectacle, horror and adventure." Classic-Horror.com says,

One of the outstanding things about King Kong is that it truly and successfully has something for everyone. It has at least a little bit of everything—action, adventure, horror, sci-fi, drama, love, even humor—and they somehow combine well despite the disparity. ... There are few films that everyone should see, but this is one of them.

Senses of Cinema says, "The continuing success of King Kong is due not only to its spectacular special effects, but also to the exemplary economy with which the filmmakers handled the screenplay, filming and editing." Empire Online calls it a "collossus of a film" and "a brilliantly structured adventure movie". Time Out praises "the remarkable technical achievements of Willis O'Brien's animation work, and the superbly matched score of Max Steiner." FilmSite.org has quite a lot of information, including a lengthy description of the plot. Roger Ebert considers it a "great movie" and says,

But "King Kong" is more than a technical achievement. It is also a curiously touching fable in which the beast is seen, not as a monster of destruction, but as a creature that in its own way wants to do the right thing. Unlike the extraterrestrial spiders in the "Alien" pictures, which embody single-minded aggression, Kong cares for his captive human female, protects her, attacks only when provoked, and would be perfectly happy to be left alone on his Pacific Island. It is the greed of a Hollywood showman that unleashes Kong's rage...

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a critics score of 98%.

When We Were Orphans

When We Were Orphans is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Not judged his best book, it was still shortlisted for the 2000 Man Booker Prize. It's considered a detective story, and I'm shelving my copy with my mysteries.

Reading some authors is to me like sitting in a row boat and going down the river. I'm swept along gently by his prose. I think this author is especially good at foreshadowing that doesn't give away too much.

from the back of the book:

Renowned London detective Christopher Banks was born in Shanghai at the beginning of the twentieth century, and lived there relatively happily until he was orphaned by the disappearance of his father and mother. Now, more than twenty years after leaving Shanghai, he is a celebrated figure in London society; yet the criminal expertise that has garnered him fame has done little to illuminate his understanding of the circumstances of his parents' alleged kidnappings. Banks travels back to the seething, labyrinthine city of his memory in hopes of recovering all he has lost, only to find that the Sino-Japanese war is ravaging Shanghai beyond recognition - and that his own recollections are proving as difficult to trust as the people around him. Masterfully suspenseful and psychologically acute, When We Were Orphans offers a profound meditation on the shifting quality of memory, and the possibility of avenging one's past.

Kirkus Reviews ends its review by saying,

Elegiac, meditative, ultimately emotionally devastating, and the purest expression yet of the author’s obsessive theme: the buried life unearthed by its contingent interconnection with the passions, secrets, and priorities of unignorable other lives.

The Guardian says, "The single problem with the book is the prose, which, for the first time, is so lacking in local colour as to be entirely inappropriate to the task in hand. One can't only admire a book's structure."

Salon.com closes with this:

The reason to read the book is Ishiguro’s gorgeous, perhaps matchless, prose. And that’s more than enough until (maybe with his next novel) Ishiguro manages to build a fictional vessel that can contain his formidable command of both the architectonic and the surreal.

There's a reading group guide here.

Hell-Fire Austin

Hell-Fire Austin is a 1932 Western starring Ken Maynard. It's only about an hour long, and how can you resist a horse named "Tarzan"? It's a bit cute for my tastes and I'm not a fan of singing cowboys, but still, there's a horse called "Tarzan"!

via youtube:

Online reviewers have pretty much ignored it, but that's not uncommon for Westerns this old.

Makin' Coffee

Makin' Coffee:

an Allan Sherman song parody of Makin' Whoopee.

Lyrics excerpt:

Each weekday morning at 10:15
I see my favorite vending machine
It stands there waitin' and percolatin'
Just makin' coffee
...

I never get coffee from vending machines these days. Are there still coffee vending machines around? I can't remember the last time I saw one, much less one that had a tea option. (Vending machine hot tea was dreadful!) Now coffee seems readily available in carafes on hot plates, and the vending machines have soft drinks and bottled water. And tea? Never!

These days I hear more talk of the best way to make coffee so that the flavor is enhanced, the best quality coffee, the best machine for making coffee or grinding beans, etc. And with tea, I hear talk of the highest quality leaf and the best blends. Sometimes I think the coffee and tea of my youth is lost. If vending machine coffee/tea is an example of what was typical back in the day, that may be a blessing!

Enjoy your beverage of choice (whether from a vending machine or not) with the tea-partiers hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

My Babe

My Babe:

sung by Mississippi Fred McDowell, who moved to Memphis as a young man in 1926 and died here in 1972 at age 68. This is a performance from late in his life.

lyrics:

My baby don't stand no cheatin'
My baby don't stand no cheatin'
My babe she don't stand no cheatin'

My babe, she says she loves me
My baby says she loves me
Says she loves me

Kakuryu wins his first sumo tournament!

Kakuryu has won!

Here's the bout that did it for him, from Jason's All-Sumo Youtube channel:

Mainichi opens with this: "OSAKA (Kyodo) -- Kakuryu defeated rival ozeki Kotoshogiku to capture his first career championship on the final day of the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament Sunday, defying the odds to all but secure his promotion to sumo's highest rank of yokozuna." Asia & Japan Watch says, "One of the keys to Kakuryu’s recent success has been his face-off--calm and focused. Against Kotoshogiku, Kakuryu put that new attack on display, absorbing his opponent’s onslaught and keeping his cool". from The Japan News: "Chances are high Kakuryu will be promoted to yokozuna ... If Kakuryu, 28, receives the promotion, he will be the third active Mongolian-born yokozuna and fourth overall."

Happy in Memphis

Yes!

locations pictured in the video:

Rendezvous Alley
Gibson’s Donuts in East Memphis
The Pyramid
Beale Street Landing
Binghampton Park
Autozone Park
Trolley tracks downtown
Caritas Village
Mural outside Double J Smokehouse
Brookhaven Circle
Jerry’s Sno Cones
Gus’s downtown
Levitt Shell
Sun Studio
“I love Memphis” mural in Cooper Young
Tiger Lane at Liberty Bowl Stadium
Huey’s Midtown
Brooks Museum of Art
Shelby Farms – Woodland Discovery Playground
Peabody roof
Harding Academy (East Memphis and Cordova locations)

The Cotton Museum

The Daughter and I had neither one been to the Cotton Museum. It opened back in 2006 and provides historical and cultural exhibits, including displays in glass cases, videos which explore the history and influence of the cotton industry, and features that were present in the original Cotton Exchange. It's not a large museum, and we toured it in less than an hour, but it was definitely worth the visit.

The photo from Wikipedia shows more of the building that my photo does:

You can see photos of some of the exhibits and hear an overview here:

Tennessee Crossroads explored this museum:

Cotton was King, and understanding it's place in the city's history is important to an understanding of the city itself.

The Woman in the Dunes

The Woman in the Dunes is a 1964 Japanese film based on the book by Kobo Abe. Hiroshi Teshigahara directs. He was nominated for an Oscar for best director but lost to Robert Wise (The Sound of Music). It stars Eiji Okada (Hiroshima mon amour) and Kyōko Kishida. This film won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes. This is a fascinating movie -thought-provoking. It's a picture of people trapped in a life, in this case physically trapped, and what their different responses are. It's a beautiful film to watch. Sand doesn't often receive such careful visual treatment. The sound track by legendary composer Toru Takemitsu is the perfect complement to the picture.

Woman Of The Dunes from Umbrella Entertainment on Vimeo.

Time Out calls it "a tour de force of visual style, and a knockout as an unusually cruel thriller". Chicago Reader says it's "A bizarre film, distinguished ... by Teshigahara's arresting visual style of extreme depth of focus, immaculate detail, and graceful eroticism." Roger Ebert has it on his list of "Great Movies" and says, "Unlike some parables that are powerful the first time but merely pious when revisited, "Woman in the Dunes” retains its power because it is a perfect union of subject, style and idea." It has a critics rating of 100% at Rotten Tomatoes.

A Fairly Honourable Defeat

A Fairly Honourable Defeat is a 1970 Iris Murdoch novel. I've liked all her novels that I've read so far, so it's not surprising that I like this one. This book focuses on relationships and the ease with which they can be disrupted. Some people are heartless and some are stupid. Life is good; or is it? The story is told through dialog; there's not much description.

from the back of the book:

Rupert and Hilda are perfectly matched.

Their only worries are a drop-out son and Morgan, Hilda's unstable sister, just back from America.

Enter Julius, Morgan's ex-lover, determined to give Rupert and Hilda's seemingly impregnable marriage a mild jolt. He finds an unexpectedly spirited opponent in Morgan's husband, Tallis...

This is a tale of the struggle between two demonic beings, one good, one evil. The evil one wins, but the defeat of the good is a fairly honourable one...

The Guardian says this book "marvellously retells the story of Much Ado About Nothing with a modern-day Christ and Satan added, in South Kensington."

Rio Conchos

Rio Conchos is a 1964 Western starring Stuart Whitman, Richard Boone, Jim Brown, Edmund O'Brien and Tony Franciosa. The music is by the prolific Jerry Goldsmith. Director Gordon Douglas, who began his film career as a child actor, has directoral credits from 1934 to 1977. This is another fine Western. Why are there so many good Westerns I've never heard of? Sad. But discovering them is fun.

via youtube:

DVD Talk says, "Rio Conchos on the surface may look like a mid-sized studio Western with second-tier stars, but it's surprising hefty when it comes to mixing ideas and action." TCM has an overview. It has a 40% critics rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Truly Evil

Evil characters have always populated the literary world, but some stand out. My choice for a real stand-out, beyond the pale, truly evil character is Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter series. A more cruel, self-righteous piece of work would be hard to name. She is humorless, delights in torturing others, is cowardly, and has no -and I really mean no- redeeming qualities.

She does drink tea, but we won't hold that against the tea, surely, any more than we'll hold her attraction to cats against the cats.

Here are video clips from some of her scenes, but you have to watch the movie The Order of the Phoenix and see her wickedness unfold through the film to appreciate the depth of her depravity:

Let's join Bleubeard and Elizabeth for tea and leave Umbridge out of our fellowship, shall we?

The photo at the top of the post is from the Harry Potter Wiki.

Tiptoe

Tiptoe:

by Devil Train, Memphis musicians.

Spring Comes to the Botanic Gardens

There was no sun and it was a bit breezy, but it was warm enough to venture forth in search of Spring! The Memphis Botanic Gardens provided hope that the season was headed for change. The daffodils above and the star magnolia below looked cheery.

The fish seem more active as the weather warms. It won't be long now they'll let us start feeding them again. It's too early for that still.

The Daughter and I had a nice afternoon wandering around the grounds. I always enjoy time spent at these gardens.

The Demon Tree

I had been wanting a picture of this tree for some time and finally had a chance to get one when The Daughter was with me in the car.

Bunker Palace Hotel

Bunker Palace Hotel is a 1989 French post-apocalyptic film directed by Enki Bilal, better known for his 2004 film Immortal. In movies, that is. Apparently he's really known as a graphic artist, but I'm not familiar with that field. This movie is not what you'd call "action-packed" but is definitely worth watching.

trailer:

Moria concludes, "What you could accuse Bunker Palace Hotel of being is a film with a fascinating background in which nothing interesting happens." Quiet Earth says "it makes for a wholly original viewing experience." FilmJournal.net says it is "never less than intriguing" and "Certainly worth tracking". Films de France opens with this: "This is a stunningly imaginative film with a strong vein or two of distinctly black comedy, offering a disturbingly credible vision of a future world." Rotten Tomatoes has no critic reviews, and the audience score is 50%.

One for the Money

One for the Money is the first in the Stephanie Plum mystery series by Janet Evanovich. Wikipedia describes them as "a light-hearted series of mysteries starring barely competent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum". This was fun, mindless entertainment, and I'll certainly read more from the series as I come across them. Since there are 21 so far and the author is still writing them, I'm set for reading material for some time to come.

from the back of the book:

ONE FINE MESS

Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash-fast-but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family...

ONE FALSE MOVE

Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company. She's got no experience. But that doesn't matter. As does the fact that the bail jumper in question is local vice cop Joe Morelli. From the time he first looked up her dress to the time he first got into her pants, to the time Steph hit him with her father's Buick, M-o-r-e-l-l-i has spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e. And now the hot guy is in hot water-wanted for murder...

ONE FOR THE MONEY

Abject poverty is a great motivator for learning new skills, but being trained in the school of hard knocks by people like psycho prizefighter Benito Ramirez isn't. Still, if Stephanie can nab Morelli in a week, she'll make a cool ten grand. All she has to do is become an expert bounty hunter overnight-and keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man...

It's been adapted for film to negative reviews. I won't be looking for the movie.

Kirkus Reviews closes with this: "A smartly paced debut with an irresistible heroine who, despite trouble getting her man, will have readers hooked by page three. Trenton is about to become the comic mystery's most improbable hot spot."

Don't Come Knocking

Don't Come Knocking is a 2005 Wim Wenders film about a Western film actor who rides off on a horse from the movie set seeking some meaning for his life. He's followed by an agent of the company insuring the film. It stars Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth and Eva Marie Saint. I'm glad I've seen it but won't watch it again. Male mid-life crisis, much angst... just not my thing, I guess.

via youtube:

Slant Magazine gives it 2 out of 4 stars, condemning it as "just another male menopause movie, marred by unlikely dialogue and hokey theatrical symbolism." DVD Talk describes it as "120 minutes of uneventful storytelling." Bright Lights Film Journal compares it unfavorably to Wenders' early films and says,

Wenders has a great visual eye, and the look of the film can't be overpraised: ... The clean, pristine images from cinematographer Frantz Lutzig of these settings are magnificent — but if only Wenders had trusted his visual strengths and dispensed with the redundant, wordier parts of his screenplay.

Spirituality and Practice says, "Don't Come Knocking has the quirky characters we've come to expect and relish in a movie directed by Wim Wenders." Roger Ebert concludes, ""Don't Come Knocking" finally doesn't work for me, because instead of embodying its themes it seems to be regarding them from outside, with awe, as if it is the high school production of itself." It was not popular with critics and has a critics score of 42% at Rotten Tomatoes.

Douglas Adams' Birthday

via Tsaiera Blog

I never (well, now I'll have to say, "almost never") observe the birthdays of people who have died. I prefer to observe the anniversary of the death for various reasons. Today, however, is both T(ea) Tuesday and Douglas Adams' birthday, so I thought I'd share this quote from the screenplay to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

“A cup of tea would restore my normality."

Yes! Yes, indeed! Sometimes a cup of tea is all that's needed to restore normality, and sometimes normality really needs to be restored.

Douglas Adams' books are great fun, and I highly recommend them if you like science fiction with a bit of humor. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is his best-known and most readily available work. You can order it from a Memphis bookstore here.

Please join T(ea) Tuesday with Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

The Abyss

The Abyss:

by Alex da Ponte, Memphis musician.

Lyrics:

Woke up earlier than I should
I would get up if I only could
But something heavy is weighing me down

Wrote a letter that you’ll never see
I guess I really wrote it for me
‘Cause the abyss is calling me

You said it wouldn’t take too long
But I think now that you were wrong
I’ve had enough time to write you a sad sad song

Will I be happy or is this it?
Or have I had all I’m gonna get?
You said I’d be fine, I guess you don’t know shit

Can you feel me?
Can you feel me?
Am I still here

You’re like a werewolf after the change
I’m screaming please just remember your name
Look in my eyes and see I’m the same

I’m in this tunnel and I can’t see
There’s no light at the end for me
The abyss is calling me

Can you feel me?
Can you feel me?
Am I still here

Picnic At Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Peter Weir film based on a book supposedly based on a true story -but not actually based on a true story. It's fascinating, a mystery without a solution with an eerie feel and a definite sexual subtext. I had seen this one several times (The Boys here don't like it at all), but this time I watched it with The Daughter. She liked it, and we enjoyed talking about possible solutions. What really happened?

trailer:

Moria calls it "an incredible and haunting film" and "a film that resonates with a sense of enigma that continues to work the mind long after many of its individual details have faded in memory" and says, "The combination of haunting unsolved mystery and broodingly sinister symbolism creates an atmosphere that is spellbinding." DVD Talk calls it "unnervingly mysterious" and "unique" and "a disturbing but unforgettable viewing experience" and closes their review with this:

Beyond setting up the mystery of Hanging Rock, Weir's film also works as a finely observed, and at times heartbreaking, period drama. Uniformly excellent acting and characterization expertly communicate the inevitable sense of sadness and tragedy that pervades this film on a number of different levels. Top-notch cinematography, art direction and costume design work serve to complete the compelling picture found here.

Empire Online gives it 5 out of 5 stars and calls it "A fascinating film that is by turns fascinating and mysterious." It's on Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies, and he calls it "a film of haunting mystery and buried sexual hysteria." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 91%.

The Red Shoes

The Red Shoes is a 1948 Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger film. The ballet in the film is called The Red Shoes and is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story by that name. I've seen it several times, but this time I watched it with The Daughter who had never seen it before. I'm happy to say she liked it; I was hoping she would.

That makes the 3rd ballet-based movie I've seen lately: The Black Swan and Etoile are the others.

trailer:

Senses of Cinema says,

The Red Shoes was a landmark dance film because it was the first film to transcend dance’s theatricality and move into “pure cinema”. As a mise-en-abyme, the film’s structure and production provided a concrete example of how films about dance productions could be interpreted more evocatively.

Slant Magazine opens its review by saying,

To paraphrase Macbeth, the cinema hath bubbles—a select few works of art so rare in their beauty, delicacy, and refinement that you fear they will vanish in front of your eyes before your retinas have fully gorged themselves on the visual splendor before you. The Red Shoes is one such film.

It's #5 on the Time Out list of 100 best British films. DVD Talk says, "If The Red Shoes is The Archers' (Powell/Pressburger) most popular film, it is because it has inspired an audience beyond the fans of creative cinema." Roger Ebert has it on his list of great movies and says, "The film is voluptuous in its beauty and passionate in its storytelling. You don't watch it, you bathe in it". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 98%. It's listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

The Bitch

La Chienne (The Bitch) is a 1931 French film, the second sound film directed by Jean Renoir. Poor Maurice is an unhappily married cashier who is an amateur painter. He meets Lulu by accident. Not realizing she's a prostitute, he falls in love with her. She and her pimp milk Maurice for everything. It doesn't end well for anybody.

Fritz Lang remade it as Scarlet Street with Edward G. Robinson.

via youtube:

TimeOut calls it "Wonderfully moving, with great performances." Films de France calls it "authentic and emotionally involving" and says, "it represents something of a landmark in cinema." FilmRef.com says, "Jean Renoir creates an incisive, provocative, and excoriating commentary on human behavior, class structure, and social conduct". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.

Redshirts

John Scalzi has become one of my go-to authors for enjoyable reading. The Husband bought me Redshirts for Christmas, and it was great fun. Being a Star Trek fan from way back (which was a bit hard with my mother making sure I could never watch Kirk and Company on TV because she disapproved of science fiction), I loved the connection with that series. I would think it would help you appreciate the fun more if you're familiar with the Star Trek meme the red shirt:

but it's certainly not necessary. There's plenty here to consider if you are of a more philosophical bent.

The book won the 2013 Hugo Award for best novel. You can read the first 5 chapters here.

from the back of the book:

THEY WERE EXPENDABLE...

UNTIL THEY STARTED COMPARING NOTES

Ensign Andrew Dahl had just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better...until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy belowdecks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is...and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

The review at The British Science Fiction Association closes with this: "Once again John Scalzi has written a novel that surprises and entertains but that also sticks with you long after you’ve finished reading it. Well recommended in my humble opinion." Wired calls it "a brilliantly funny book with an unexpected amount of emotional heft". io9 says, "It's one part Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, one part "Below Decks," and one part geeky nitpicking about the bad science in science fiction television. With a dash of Cabin in the Woods." SFReviews.net concludes,

SF might not be the genre you think of when it comes to "you'll laugh, you'll cry" entertainment. But if we must have stories like that, I'm happy to have John Scalzi be the guy writing them. Just as long as he remembers to throw in a few ice sharks and Borgovian Land Worms.

SF Signal gives it 4 out of 5 stars and says the book "accomplishes exactly what it was intended to do: entertain the science fiction fan. In that respect, the book wildly succeeds". Kirkus Reviews does not like it at all and says, "It's all vaguely amusing in a sophomoric sort of way, which is fine if you're an easily diverted sophomore with a couple of hours to kill." SFSite.com says, "Not only does Redshirts work as a novel, but Scalzi is able to make the characters come alive." Forbes closes its review with this:

You don’t have to be a hardcore sci-fi fan to enjoy Redshirts, though there are plenty of Easter Eggs for those who are. And the beauty of the book is that it works on multiple levels. If you’re looking for a breezy, fun read for the beach, this is your book. If you want to go down a level and read it as a surreal meditation on character and genre like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, this is your book. If you’re looking for a deeper interplay about the intersections between story and our lives, well, this is your book, too. Suffice to say, I highly recommend it.