Backwards

Backwards is a 2009 short film that won Best in Show at the ASIFA-East Animation Festival and other awards. It's directed by Aaron Hughes. I got a kick out of this and thought it quite clever.



HT: Cartoon Brew

Lester Flatt

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1979 of Lester Flatt, half of Flatt and Scruggs, and known to me from seeing them on the Grand Ole Opry on tv when I was little.

Here's Foggy Mountain Breakdown:

The Basque History of the World

The Basque History of the World is not so much a Basque history of the world as a history of the Basques from a Basque perspective. I've been interested in the Basque people since I first learned about their history, and this sympathetic book by Mark Kurlansky is fascinating.

from the back of the book:

Straddling a small corner of Spain and France in a land that is marked on no maps except their own, the Basques are a puzzling contradiction-they are Europe's oldest nation without ever having been a country. No one has ever been able to determine their origins, and even the Basques' language, Euskera-the most ancient in Europe-is related to none other on earth. For centuries, their influence has been felt in nearly every realm, from religion to sports to commerce. Even today, the Basques are enjoying what may be the most important cultural renaissance in their long existence.

Mark Kurlansky's passion for the Basque people and his exuberant eye for detail shine throughout this fascinating book. Like Cod, The Basque History of the World blends human stories with economic, political, literary, and culinary history into a rich and heroic tale.

The Smithsonian Magazine doesn't so much review the book as review the Basques. The New York Times calls the book "entertaining and instructive" but also spends most of its time reviewing Basque history rather than the book at hand. The Independent has an excerpt.

Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit is a 1945 ghost story/comedy directed by David Lean and starring Rex Harrison, Constance Cumings, Margaret Rutherford, Hugh Wakefield and Marie Ault. It's not as readily available singly. They seem to want you to spend $50+ to get it along with several other David Lean films in a box set I don't want.

Some of it is available online. part 1:

Blithe Spirit (Part 01) Meowsjr =^.^=

part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 (deleted)

Moria gives it 3 stars and says, "the film is fairly much stolen by that grand old dame of the British theatre, Margaret Rutherford, who sweeps the whole show up with her daffy presence in the role of the medium." Variety praises the acting and the camera work.

Heartless: The Story of the Tinman

Heartless: The Story of the Tinman is a 2010 short film based on the character from The Wizard of Oz. Brandon McCormick directs. Music is by Nicholas Kirk.

Heartless: The Story of the Tinman from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

from Milk and Cookies

R.I.P. Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta has died. His paintings are what shaped my view of what fantasy should look like. I saw the first report at SandBoxWorld, but it looks like there are lots of reports. I'll post links to obits as I see them.

Cartoon Brew
SciFi Wire
SFSignal
SFScope
The Vault of Horror
The Auteurs
Scared Silly

The Murder Room

The Murder Room is the 12th book in the P.D. James Adam Dalgliesh mystery series. This is a series I have enjoyed. I still think of Roy Marsden as I read, but that's ok.

from the dust jacket:

The Dupayne, a small private museum in London devoted to the interwar years 1919-1939, is in turmoil. The trustees -the three children of the museum founder, old Max Dupayne- are bitterly at odds over whether it should be closed. Then one of them is brutally murdered, and what seemed to be no more than a family dispute erupts into horror. For even as Commander Dalgliesh and his team investigate the first killing, a second corpse is discovered. Clearly, someone in the Dupayne is prepared to kill and kill again.

The case is fraught with danger and complications from the outset, not least because of the range of possible suspects -and victims. And still more sinister, the murders appear to echo the notorious crimes of the past featured in one of the musem's most popular galleries, the Murder Room.

For Dalgliesh, P.D. James's formidable detective, the search for the murderer poses an unexpected complication. After years of bachelorhood, he has embarked on a promising new relationship with Emma Lavenham -first introduced in Death in Holy Orders- which is at a critical stage. Yet his struggle to solve the Dupayne murders faces him with a frustrating dilemma: each new development distances him further from commitment to the woman he loves.

The Guardian has a review, as does The Independent. There is a reader guide here.

I have blog posts on these:

#2 A Mind to Murder
#5 The Black Tower
#7 A Taste for Death
#9 Original Sin

and An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, which features an appearance by Dalgliesh.

Short People and God's Song

I heard this on the radio this past week-end. Short People is a Randy Newman song:


He also did God's Song:

Armadillos & Old Lace

A while back I came across 3 Kinky Friedman books in my favorite used book store, bought them all and read Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola. I liked that one but somehow am just now getting around to the next one. Armadillos & Old Lace, like the first one, features a character named Kinky Friedman. Also like the first one, this book just cries to be read aloud. I follow family members around quoting extensive passages, while they say, "Oh, yes, I remember the last time you read something by him." I laugh aloud while I'm reading and then hope someone comments on my laughter to give me an excuse to read that section to them. Delightful books, that's what they are. If you're not as lucky at the used book stores as I am, there's always Amazon.com, where this book is readily available.

from the back of the book:

Kinky Friedman is living proof that you can be a Texan, a New Yorker, a Jewish country and western singer and an amateur detective at the same time. But when New York City gets a little too full of murder and mayhem to suit him, Kinky heads for the fresh air of the Lone Star State - filtered of course, through his ever-present cigar. But something is rotten in the state of Texas too, and Kerrville's justice of the peace asks the Kinkster for his help. Four old ladies have died in the past few months, and though there's no apparent link, Judge Pat Knox is sure there's a connection. Before the case ends, Kinky will meet up with a rose growing survivalist, a swarm of angry bees, a swarm of eight year old buckaroos at his father's ranch and summer camp and, if he's not careful he may just meet up with his own untimely end.

The Los Angeles Times says,

what's best about "Armadillos" is Friedman's own struggle to make sense of the world around him, an effort that is sometimes boisterous and buffoonish, sometimes poignant and endearing. He's a cross between Holden Caulfield and Woody Allen, a Southern-fried Jew with an identity crisis as big as Texas and a heart to match.

Friedman has an online a cigar store and an associated official web site.

When It Will Be Silent

When It Will Be Silent is a science fiction short film written and directed by Don Sachar.

You can watch it at the film's site or here:

When it Will Be Silent (כשיהיה דומם) from Dan Sachar on Vimeo.

The Internet Movie Data Base page describes it as "The last day of a love tale in a morbid post apocalyptic world." Twitchfilm says, "it was shot in the no-man's land between Israel and Jordan, and it uses the barren region as an incredibly effective setting". There's a Facebook page. Quiet Earth calls it a "beautifully shot little story".

HT: The Zeray Gazette

Buried Treasure SF Films

This list from the Classic Sci-Fi Movies blog is of 10 films, all but 1 from the '50's:

1. Red Planet Mars ('52)
2. It Came From Outer Space ('53)
3. Not of this earth ('57)
4. Kronos ('57)
5. X: The Unknown ('57)
6. Incredible Shrinking Man ('57)
7. Colossus of New York ('58)
8. The Mysterians ('59)
9. The 4D Man ('59)
10. Creation of the Humanoids ('62)

I've linked to my blog posts where I have them. I'll be looking for the others.

National Train Day

Today is National Train Day, and there's no observance of it where I live. We have an Amtrak station here, but they're ignoring Memphis except for a stop here at 10 last night on the way to a celebration in Chicago today.

But there's a celebration hosted over at Another Old Movie Blog that looks promising: Trains in the Movies. I found these lists of trains in film: this one is from the South Coast Railroad Museum; Trains Magazine has a list; Amtrak has a list of Top Train Movies.

In the public domain photo above, the bridge on the right is the Harahan Bridge.

The Hollow Man

The Hollow Man is a 1992 novel by Dan Simmons. This is violent beyond anything I've read in a long time.

from the back of the book:

Jeremy Bremen has a secret. All his life he's been cursed with the ability to read minds. He knows the secret thoughts, fears, and desires of others as if they were his own. For years, his wife, Gail, has served as a shield between Jeremy and the burden of this terrible knowledge. But Gail is dying, her mind ebbing slowly away, leaving him vulnerable to the chaotic flood of thought that threatens to sweep away his sanity.

Now Jeremy is on the run--from his mind, from his past, from himself--hoping to find peace in isolation. Instead he witnesses an act of brutality that propels him on a treacherous trek across a dark and dangerous America. From a fantasy theme park to the lair of a killer to a sterile hospital room in St. Louis, he follows a voice that is calling him to witness the stunning mystery at the heart of mortality.

I like this much less than Simmons' Hyperion Cantos.

9 Dragons

"Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself."

9 Dragons is the 2nd of 2 Michael Connelly books given to me by a friend. This one is 15th in the Harry Bosch series, and is much like the others. I've already read Trunk Music (#5), City of Bones (#8) and The Overlook (#13). I like it when a series I enjoy is consistent in its writing and characterization. There are several jazz music mentions, but the only two I noted are

1. the Seven Steps to Heaven track from the Dear Miles album by Ron Carter, whom he calls "one of the most important bassists of the last 5 decades".
2. a cd by Tomasz Stanko

from the dust jacket:

Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South L.A. neighborhood, a store Bosch has known for years. The murder of John Li, the store's owner, hits Bosch hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer.

The world Bosch steps into next is unknown territory. He brings in a detective from the Asian Gang Unit for help with translation - not just of languages but also of the cultural norms and expectations that guided Li's life. He uncovers a link to a Hong Kong triad, a lethal and far-reaching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the U.S.

And instantly his world explodes. The one good thing in Bosch's life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him and Bosch travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he's lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city's Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him, Bosch puts aside everything he knows and risks everything he has in a desperate bid to outmatch the triad's ferocity.

Michael Connelly has quotes from reviews at his web site.

The Overlook

A friend gave me a couple of books from this series by Michael Connelly, and they have made it to the top of the pile. I've already read Trunk Music (#5) and City of Bones (#8) from this same series and enjoyed them, and I also enjoyed The Overlook. It's #13 in the Harry Bosch series, and I can definitely see there would be an advantage in reading them in order. The woman I last saw as his wife is his ex-wife here.

Jazz music gets at least one mention in each of these books I've read, and the ones I remember in this book are

1. jazz saxophonist Frank Morgan in a live performance in New York; and
2. a Japanese import cd from bassist Ron Carter.

from the back of the book:

A body has been found on the overlook near Mulholland Drive. The victim, identified as Dr. Stanley Kent, has two bullet holes in the back of his head from what looks like an execution-style shooting. LAPD detective Harry Bosch is called out to investigate. It is the case he has been waiting for, his first since being recruited to the city's Homicide Special squad.

As soon as Bosch begins retracing Dr. Kent's steps, contradictions emerge. While Kent doesn't seem to have had ties to organized crime, he did have access to dangerous radioactive substances from just about every hospital in Los Angeles County. What begins as a routine homicide investigation opens up before Bosch into something much larger, more dangerous - and much more urgent.

Breaking in a new rookie partner and chasing his first fresh case in years, Bosch is soon in conflict not just with the LAPD brass but also with FBI hotshots who are convinced that the case is too important for the likes of the LAPD. Harry's onetime lover Rachel Walling is among the federal agents frantically working the case, making Bosch's job all the more complicated. Guarding one slim advantage, he relentlessly follows his own instincts, hoping they are still true enough to solve the crime - and to save all of Los Angeles from a deadly hazard.

There are some reviews re-printed at Michael Connelly's site.

Sparrow Serenade

They have a nest on the patio next door, and this sparrow makes noise from dawn 'til setting sun. I can't see the nest and don't know at what stage the eggs are, but I do know this bird keeps a close watch on us. That spot on the fence just under the downspout is his favorite perch.

Outliers

Outliers is a 2010 short film. This site reports: "one of St. Ours' recent projects, a seven minute short called "Outliers," is an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival." They list Lucas Krost as the director. The 48 Hour Film Project has a web site that lists tour dates.

OUTLIERS from MONDIAL CREATIVE LABS on Vimeo.

later: Quiet Earth says it "is a great short with darn effective use of editing. To boot, it’s a pretty nice looking short."

HT: The Litter Box

Mr. Brooks

The Younger and Elder Sons were both home tonight, and The Elder Son picked a film he thought we might enjoy but that he knew The Husband and The Daughter would not like. Mr. Brooks is a 2007 psychological thriller starring Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore and Dane Cook.

trailer:


Variety calls it a "suspense thriller with a smirk". The New York Times calls it "A werewolf movie masquerading as a thriller" and says, "If it is not as sadistic as the “Saw” and “Hostel” movies, it is as malignant in its insistence on the omnipresence of evil." Of the director, the New Yorker says, "Evans will never be Hitchcock, but he produces enough pleasurable tension to send the plausibles into a frenzy of disapproval." DVDTalk concludes that it's

more about the psychology of a murderer - about a man with a healthy, well-balanced life who's quietly compelled to kill - rather than an excuse to string together a bunch of the usual thriller theatrics. Mr. Brooks isn't a great movie, no, but it's intriguing enough to be worth seeing at least once.

Slant Magazine gives it 1.5 stars and says,

Mr. Brooks is bad in countless fundamental ways—it's not thrilling, not incisive, not altogether coherent, and not particularly well shot—and yet there's nonetheless something cheesy-delicious about its lack of inhibition...

Look to Windward

Look to Windward is a book in the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. I do love this series, and I can't tell you how much I wish I had just bought the books as they came out instead of dilly-dallying around looking for them in local used book stores. That's all water under the bridge now -although another expression might be better considering the disaster Tennesseans are undergoing. I'll be buying them as they come out from now on. I have also read Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games and Use of Weapons.

from the back of the book:

Eight hundred years after the most horrific battle of the Idiran war, light from its catastrophic, worlds-destroying detonations is about to reach to Masaq' Orbital, home to the far-flung Culture's most adventurous and decadent souls. There it will fall upon Masaq's 50 billion inhabitants, gathered to commemorate the deaths of the innocent and to reflect, if only for a moment, on what some call the Culture's own complicity in the terrible event.

Also journeying to Masaq' is Major Quilan, an emissary from the war-ravaged world of Chel. In the aftermath of the conflict that split his world apart, most believe he has come to Masaq' to bring home Chel's most brilliant star, the self-exiled celebrity Composer Ziller.

Ziller suspects Quilan has come to murder him, but the major's true assignment will have far greater consequences than the death of a mere political dissident. He is part of a conspiracy more ambitious than he can know -- a mission his superiors have buried so deeply in his mind that even he cannot remember it.

SFSite says "it is one of Banks' finest novels, mature, considered, horrifying and hilarious by turns" and "one of the most significant SF novels of the year." Infinity Plus calls it "a satisfying read but at the same time, a deeply frustrating novel." The Guardian and the New York Times each has a review.

May the 4th Be With You!

Happy Star Wars Day.

The Smithsonian has an article on the celebration.

The picture comes from Sarah + Tim's blog.