THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!

GO BOBCATS

2012-02-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Maybe Michael Jordan's sorry he was a hard-line owner during the strike. (I was certainly surprised at his attitude, him being a retired player.) His players won't play a lick for him. Not trying to say they're any good. But if you're not winning 30% at home you're not trying to win.
I saw the graphic: 3-25, M. J.'s Bull's were 25-3.

Bob Woodward's book is despairingly intriguing

2012-02-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

I hadn't read any of this guy's stuff since the Nixon Debacle years. I'm sure that he is no Republican, being from the newspaper establishment. HOWEVER:
"State of Denial" shows clearly that no one was in charge as we tried to change the world in the Mid East (Iraq) post-9/11. Infighting at the highest level would have undermined any plan anyway, had there been one. Condi's and Rummy's departments had their tiffs.
"We're gonna have a plan" seemed to be "Rummy's" refrain. He got to "run" the thing (via NSPD-24) thank you, not Condi, per the insulated Bush's directive. I'm-In-Charge Rumsfeld ran the thing from his desk with a capacity resembling senility. He was never saying anything, he was just saying. Well, he meant well we might say. No, he was a complete and blinded egotist. Military men were driven nuts.
Pie-in-the-sky attitude at the highest level transformed the Iraq war into a reelection ploy with no regard for people on the ground, on any side. It's clear The Rummy Dummies really thought that we would be in and out in 6 months (liberate a welcoming population, set up a democracy and infrastructure-easy stuff), lacking adequate personnel. I'm not the smartest duck in the pond but I don't think so. I don't think so even with adequate personnel.
Obviously we can say that this book is a reporter's slanted viewpoint on paper. In retrospect however, we all knew something was wrong in the Iraq war. The prevailing wind said things will work out, don't worry. "We have chain of command chart's and wish lists, by golly". Iraqis can't read American charts! And our guys on the ground didn't need no stinking charts. They needed a plan that could work!
In all fairness, I haven't finished the book. So far is is a frighteningly disturbing view of incompetence on the part of trusted administrators.

As my own note on the Iraq debacle: I never could understand why we could not grasp in this country that we were fighting a religious war on Muslim soil. Most damaging, no one at the highest level knew it. Believe me, we will always be "Christian Devils". The war which we devised after 9/11 has not negated that opinion at all in the eyes of a suffering Middle East commoner.

Oh, there were no WMD's. You guys on the ground can take off your chemical suits now. It's 180 degrees in there you fools.

I'd like to read Woodward's piece on John Belushi. Most of his stuff is political, so that would be interesting.

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UPDATE FEB. 9:
Prefaced by my opinion that if even half of this book is true it is very frightening, while I understand that a newspaper man's perspective might be skewed. Skewed, while trying to sell a book, and just maybe honest. Anyway I was sold and scared. I think my leaders should be smarter than me. Sorry. I don't think that they should tell fart jokes around serious issues.

The second half of the book finds the lousy gift of the Iraqi situation given to the State Department. So Condi's on the hook now, not Teflon Don. I have no concerns for Rice at all, but what's Rumsfeld got on the Bush clan?
Rummy actually compared IED complications in Iraq to a bowl of fruit. To paraphrase, "Some take out no one, some take out 1 of our people, some take out 50 people. It's like apples, bananas and oranges in a bowl. Whatever." What? Not appropriate Don from your desk. DISTURBING BEHAVIOR.
The competent military man Powell was replaced by Rice at State.
The public continued to receive good old positive sayings and yarns, otherwise known as lies.
Oh yeah, finally with about 20 pages left to read, I noticed Jim Jeffrey refer to the fact that we just could wind up looking like Christian Devils. I want to know how anyone finally saw the obvious in this admin.

"On Writing" admonitions or SK don no nuttin

2012-01-31T09:42:00.000-08:00

I don't really have a problem with the body of "On Writing". It's better than "Danse Macabre". I just got hold of a nice first edition cheap. I never wanted to be a writer anyway so I really don't care. It was pretty good and Stephen is a drunk and diseased like me, whatever. He's funny too.
What I have a huge problem with is his list of great books at the end of the memoir. Granted, this is only a (opinion) list of the best that he read around the turn of the century. No excuse. At first I looked at THE AUTHOR'S LIST and I thought "I didn't like many of these!". To Stephen's credit "Tortilla Curtain" is on the list-good one there. And I know that he loves "Grapes of Wrath"-one of the best books ever written.
So I decided to try Bowles "The Sheltering Sky" because of SK's recommendation. Not only is this book a best but it is also mentioned in the text of King's newest Oswaldian, JFKish novel.
"The Sheltering Sky" is the biggest bunch of egotistical, existential, rambling, pretentious garbage ever I read. Shouldn't it be "Skye"? This is a book that is short without being short enough. A Harlequin novel for us literati I guess. Oh, and Stephen, it's loaded with stinking adverbs.
It is a given that the Paul Bowles is much better than the reader, trying to teach. Well I didn't learn. I get much more out of Eminem singing me cock-a-Doc. At least it's not in French and I know who Doc is. No, I'm not 20, I'm 60ish. Paul, some people don't understand that great French dialogue throughout. "When I'm reading English are they talking French?" he asked angstly.
In fairness, there is a great passage in this book: "How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless." Prefaced by: "...precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well." There was one other good phrase somewhere but I can't find it right now. I'll bet that there are plenty of great things in frigging French too.
Here's one not so swell: "And although he was aware that the very silence and emptiness that touched his soul terrified her, he could not bear to be reminded of that." My problem could be that I have never had that exact profound thought. I'm an imbecile.
Or how about: "Nor did it occur to her how she once had thought that if Port should die before she did, she would not really believe he was dead, but rather that he had in some way gone back inside himself to stay there, and that he never would be conscious of her again; so that in reality it would be she who would have ceased to exist, at least to a great degree." Well, that goes without saying. Would that be the nth degree then?
And Paul, there are better words for "inimical" we thinx say. Ich habe Weltshmerz!
C'mon, be a book! My Constant Reader wife couldn't even finish it.
Good old Paul even explains what the death experience is really like as if he were a Death scholar. I have not read what he wrote as he actually died 50 years later in 1999. In the "autobiographical novel" vision or version there is a mixture of blood and excrement, as though "Port"er sees his physicality unfold and turn inside out at end game (maybe?). How nice. Though fluids may be a fundamentally physical death response, for my mind's eye I might prefer the "white light" theory.
Thank you so much for allowing me to read this book, whoever is responsible. Thankfully I was sick in bed when I read it or I might have given up and missed some of it. Garbage! A visionary indeed.
Sorry Gore V. GV loved it.

Oh, I have a good companion book for Steinbeck's masterpiece. It's called "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan. Like "On Writing" it is non-fiction. The best complement I can give a book like Timothy's is that it read like a novel. It is a great companion to "Grapes of Wrath" because it is about the people who stayed, unlike the Joads. Many of the families highlighted in the book still live in this impossible environment. There are quotes from descendents of the "Dust Bowl" survivors. A few survivors are still alive as of the book's writing. Pickled tumbleweed anyone? I mean 3 meals a day and seven days a week. What could compel these way-past-logical stubborn Scandinavians to live like they did? It's compelling. Read it instead of Paul Bowles.

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PIZZA CONTINUED

2012-01-26T16:30:00.000-08:00

I was in the little town of Hurricane, Utah today and had some great wood-fired pizza at a roadside stand. Amazing, but it stood up against the goods in N.Y.C. I don't know the name of it (Pizza Wagon?-don't know if that's official) but it's on Hwy. 9 in the Cineplex parking lot. Opened hours are noon-8 W-Sa. I will definitely be checking out more of their flavors. We just hopped in there on our way back to Kanab from the Barrel Roll (named for the cacti) biking trail in the Santa Clara River Reserve. You just never know where one might find good food so don't be afraid. It's right on your way to Zion Park.
Look, if you don't believe me see tripadvisor.com about it.

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Against Cancer

2012-01-20T10:41:00.001-08:00

Yes, I am against cancer.
As we know, I have touted the book "Anticancer-A New Way of Life" by David Servan-Schreiber. Alas, David died last year. But I still believe.
So my wife and I have reviewed the book again. We feel that these are the most important points in the book:
Me (the patient): NK cells, pg. 36. Wounds that don't heal, pg. 42. NF-kappa B, pg. 47. Blocking angiogenesis, pg. 54. Detoxing, pg. 94. EGCG in green tea, pg. 110. Circumin in turmeric, pg. 114. Ellagic acid in berries, pg. 117. Spices & herbs, pg. 119. Synergy of food, pg. 120. Recommended food, pg. 132. Measuring vitamin D3 & calcium, pg. 141. The breath, pg. 164. The Mantra (6 breaths per minute), pg. 166. From somewhere, 3 times weekly one should eat Brussels sprouts, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower. Parsley, mint, thyme, marjoram, oregano, basil, and/or rosemary consume daily.
I agree with David, I will never be sorry that I changed my diet.
Her (the patience): Blood tests to measure inflammation, pg. 45. Table 4 inflammatories on pg. 70. Omega 6, pg. 73. Conjugated linoleic acid, pg. 75. Phosphate additives in food, pg. 86-87. Cosmetics etc. (avoid parabens & phthalates), pg. 98. Olives, pg. 112 & 134. Soy, pg. 113. BEST turmeric, pg. 114. Mix turmeric with olive oil, pg. 134.
But you too will still die.

Get in Touch With Your Bad Self Jarhead

2011-12-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

No, this book by Anthony Swofford is not about Archie's comics buddy. That would be Jughead. Swofford is USMC budd (and a sniper at that). This book is about the "Suck" and it ain't mostly comical. (I'm only about a decade behind per usual, but finally got 'er read.) Let me warn that it's a crudie and rudie. If one can handle the language it's a goodie just like the New York Times bestseller list suggests.
I tore through this one in a few days. As I read the book, I felt that I got in touch a little bit with my dad who died when I was young. Even as a youngster though I understood that he was hard-core Marine and screwed up because of WWII and his DIs.
Swofford was too smart to be a Marine but he was too late to realize it.
Very compelling and very disturbing is his writing. It's the best that I could find as my father didn't leave me any war discussion.

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PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA

2011-12-13T09:10:00.001-08:00

I'm going to get away with calling pizza an antioxidant food. TOMATO SAUCE! I am a pizza nut. My wife, not so much. We are nearing 60 and the memory fades, but I said to myself "what's the best pies ever?":
I let my wife decide because she's not so pizza-crazy and so she's uncluttered.

The wife liked Tutta Bella in Seattle, Wa. I think that she is prejudiced but I won't say why here. But I agree, great stuff! The ambiance inside is perfect also.They have other Neapolitan pizza locations too! She puts the brick oven pizza in NYC in her top four, but doesn't remember which great pizzeria in particular. On second thought, she thinks it's the oldest pizzeria in Manhattan; that would make it Lombardi's!? Then Diorios (Grand Jct., Co.) and Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix agree with her.
So there is your best of the best pizza in America, from an unbiased observer. She knows her food.

Stephen King's 11/22/63

2011-12-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

I know how I felt on That Date because I'm a "Boomer". I might be a little younger than SK; I was born in 1952. He remembers how he felt on that date also. He's lived a life of pain like me, like many of us. Money does not dissolve pain. We've all had pain, we're born to suffer.
Anyway, I heard him do an interview about his new book on NPR and I thought: "That sounds like a departure. I'm interested." 'Cause historical fiction is Boyle, right? Historical fiction is not King. My wife the SK nut says not.
Stephen King, to me, has become kind of like the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan. Who cares about them? They are old like me and have lost the voice. SK might be a has-been to me I guess but like the Stones and Zimmerman he is (was?) master of what he does (did?). He's better at consistency than, let's say, T. Coraghessan (who has the best name ever) for instance. That guy is garbage or brilliance.
I haven't even read King's last three or four books. I haven't even bought any Stones or Dylan for a very very long time. I've read lots of Stephen King but not like my wife. She reads it all. If she says "it's pretty good" I don't read SK now.
Well I'm reading 11/22/63 before she does because I heard the NPR interview.
I think that Stephen cares (forgetting about the $) about 11/22/63 more than anything that he's ever done. My thinking is usually wrong though. He's been studying since 1972 for this book. Yeah, it's not the first time that he's put a book on the back burner for decades. They'll finds hundreds of "valuable" manuscripts when he kicks. But again, a style departure interested me.

I have to say that I have become sick of King's 800 page novels with 400 pages of character development. So I said "OH NO" when I bought 11/22/63. It's not so initially plodding along for me as most of his stuff. Not everyone agrees with the "plodding" SK scenario, I know. This book surprised me. I plodded along with the "oh no's" for only about 20 pages. The next 50 have just zipped by and I can't believe that. I'm not working very hard after three chapters.
1) Read the Afterword first. It helps. 2) If you don't remember the Kennedy assassination this is just a book. It won't be very emotionally alluring.
The quote in the beginning by Mailer and the back book jacket are cool.
(12/01/11, so far 4 1/2 stars out of 5.)

Ok, now I am through part two and 200 plus pages. The references to the book "It" were at first a little aggravating to me. This backlash is a common occurence in King's books. It turns out that I had a hard time recalling the billion pages of one of his best books. My prob.
So our main character has to do a practice run before saving JFK and is somewhat successful. Too much of the developmental style for me as usual. I thought about decreasing my rating but am still hanging with 4 1/2 as things went well enough. I haven't struggled too much and am already 1/4 done. If things go status quo with this author, just as I go out of my mind with the lenghth of the thing, I won't be able to put it down. Picked up a good tip on a movie about a Hitler assassination attempt and would like to also check out a book by Paul Bowles. Thanks for having those idiosynchrasies Stephen.
A louse turns good at the last second and helps our hero save all but one.
(12/04/11)

Afterever our hero finishes up in "It" Town and gets out by about page 270. So, I have to wonder if 11/22/63 is about to start-and with plenty of time to spare, almost 600 pages left. I'm thinking I'll need to be convinced now.
A minor miracle performed on the way out of Derry.
ADDENDUM: No such luck, page 400+ and we are just meeting the Oswald's. Someone has bugged Lee's pad. I can't give 4 stars at this point. Pick it up SK. You are slowin' me down.
(12/13/11)

Pg. 640, 200 left. Our Hero has decided finally to undo the dastardly deed which the title references. He has also decided to take his maimed girlfriend to the future for her care? We'll see. The story is dragging at 4 stars.
(12/19/11)

Fini, the last 200 went fast as usual with King. As the story starts I read him fast.
Let's see: Love affair collides with history, love affair loses. 800+ words is too many for this concept. I'm buying the rest but not the human-caused earthquakes. Maybe I should be buying.
Anyway, 3 1/2 stars. The writing hurried along when it got good and languished when it wasn't.
12/20/11.

I had been hoping to add 11/22/63 to my top 10 King books which are: #1) The Stand (which was very long but didn't seem so). Then The Shining, It (reprise The Stand), The Green Mile (in installments as it came out), Hearts in Atlantis, Thinner, Desperation/The Regulators as a set, Insomnia, Needful Things, & Misery. The newest book couldn't infiltrate, disappointing.

My wife declined to do a review, but she did not pan it like me. Of course she read it in a week, me a month. Appears I wouldn't know. She's the SK expert. The lady liked it and it cracked her top 10: #1 like me) The Stand, The Shining, It, The Green Mile, Black House/The Talisman as a set, Hearts in Atlantis, Firestarter (I don't remember this one), the new one at #8, Desperation/The Regs., & Salem's Lot. So we agree on a lot. As one can see, most of King's best is the oldest. Kinda like the Stones & Dylan Bobby.
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Marketing of Madness

2011-06-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

OMG! The Pusher Man. "The Marketing of Madness", a documentary. Please watch. Is it too late? Devastating to the generation which will be taking over from "boomers". Zombie government and pharmaceutical genocide. LOL, NOT! Do heroin, less side-effects. Does not "Big Pharm" go down with the human ship? On the investment side, if you were to analyse your position after 6 straight weeks of losses, you would be happy now if you were holding pharmaceuticals and other DJIA stuff. The Dow has finally started to outperform & smalls are getting hammered. I see the 10500 number as a still positive number in this facade of an environment. We cannot build real investor equity through unemployment. There aren't investors.

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Ezine Didn't Like This One

2011-02-25T10:14:00.000-08:00

Two Books to Define and Divide a Country

Article ID: 5922843

Article Submitted: February 15, 2011

Category: Book-Reviews:Non-Fiction

Article Word Count: 1,309
Article In Problem Status

Your article does not include enough original and informative content.

1) I remember when I first told family that I had cancer. Several said that they did not know what to say. I should have responded "Ha ha, gotcha, finally shut you up." or "I thought that you would say you would be right over to help me fix that." The point is I didn't expect them to know what to say. Saying nothing is fine. I didn't know what else to say either at the time. Then I read "Anticancer: a new way of life". I was able to say "The best way that you can support me is to read this book."

The book "Anticancer" (2008, update 2009), written by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D, is one of the more important books written in the new century. David has lived almost 2 decades with "deadly" cancer. I put that word in quotes only because he has defied the word. By focusing on nutrition he has lived far beyond survival (time) expectations. We all have that power. The thrust of his book is attempting to ensure antiangiogenesis through nutrition. This encompasses antiinflammation and antioxidation. Cancer is an inflammatory event. David has been more unfortunate in his cancer than I, in that he has endured radiation and chemo therapies. Still, good nutrition has helped him to rejuvenate after those therapies. The book passes through dueling chapters alternately describing his personal saga and advising how one can do better. This is an effective structure, so that charts alternate with story. Like all books, especially short and easy reads, it has limitations. (How can he leave carrots and corn off of nutritional charts? And include eggplant?) However, the charted information is invaluable and has changed my life.

Following my pathological diagnosis of cancer (post-surgery) I had no resources to help me not to relapse. A knowledgeable doctor like David Servan-Schreiber had relapsed in diet and disease. What chance did I have? But, as I follow the advice in his book, I believe that I have a chance. I have incorporated the book into my lifestyle, along with some Eastern (TCM) disciplines, post-surgery. Nutritional discipline will determine my pain and destiny as much as anything else I will do. I hope that anyone reading this will not wait for their "tipping point" to read this nutritional "Bible". David's personal saga is worth reading about. He made many of the mistakes which he hopes you will not duplicate. Most of all READ THIS BOOK BEFORE YOU GET CANCER! I didn't, I got disease.
This book is so valuable for me that I bought it. I am extremely frugal (darn cheap) and usually get my books at the library. It holds an esteemed position in my kitchen, where it belongs.

If a person has IBS issues, as a companion book I recommend Heather Von Vorous's "Eating For IBS". Careful though, we thought I had IBS when I actually had something very toxic.

Omissions are an obstacle in this book (not paid by the word) but the message is clear enough and key. My problem is that there seems to be no contact with the doctor available to the public. I have no way to personally thank him.
This book helped me to see that I wasn't a beaten hypochondriac. After my disease confirmed that it was not imaginary, this book helped me to release blame and go forward proactively.

2) If when you see the title of this next book you think "thank goodness" or "col sarn it, I think I'll take me a gander and see if I can't learn how to do that" I suggest that you concentrate on "Anticancer".

"Death of the Liberal Class" (2010), written by Chris Hedges, is one of the more important books written in the new century. I kept telling my wife that I could have written it. But I lack at least 10 articulation IQ points. I am barely smart enough to read this book. Okay, doomsdayers, it's worse than you think. We're talkin' Armageddon, human extinction, pick your persuasion. I'm as anti-government as the next guy, but I didn't want to know some of the statistics cited by Chris. I knew that there was no difference between Republicans and Dems. I already knew that we are destined to collapse and rebuild, but I didn't want confirmation. Like all books, especially tough reads, it has limitations. But I learned a lot. There is no us and them. There is only us. Just like David Servan-Schreiber, Chris Hedges has no reasons to fib. As David's book is like a documentary about Monsanto, Greg's is like a documentary about Abu Ghraib or Darfur. It's painful but you need to know. This fellow leaves no stone unturned. He hates every President since Woodrow Wilson. He hates everyone from Buffett to Walmart and You. He has good reasons. I do think that the title of the book does the author a disservice. Middle-class can be often substituted for liberal class in this book.

Here's some excerpts, quotes, and paraphrases:
Chapter 1-The liberal class fails to protect the rights of the middle class.
In killing off the liberal class, the...state...killed off its most...important partner.
The collapse of past constitutional states,...was also presaged by the death of the liberal class.

Chapter 2-Mr. Noam Chomsky makes a lot of sense here.
Michael Moore gets booed off the Oscars stage by liberals.
Christ said, "My Kingdom is not of this World." It's about preservation of the species down the road.
Malalai Joya regarding Afghanistan: "More civilians have been killed in the Obama period than even during the criminal Bush."
Michael Ignatieff, liberal view: War is a humanitarian action, 2003.
There is a criteria for all human civilizations. Reverse funnel, trickle up.

Chapter 3-The tragic dismantling of the Federal Theatre Project in the late 1930s.
The tragic Taft-Hartley Act, 1948.
TOE THE LINE.

Chapter 4-Starting in the hippie 1960s the liberal class subordinated ethics.
"...to call oneself a liberal one doesn't really have to believe in anything."
"The liberal class had placed its faith in...human progress."
"Pluralism becomes a catchall, dressed up as multiculturalism..."
We should all be mere spectators of life.
The last paragraph of the chapter needs rereading.

Chapter 5-"...intellectuals were not...able to prevent the powerful from...""filling history with...hatred..." (Although I have taken omission liberties with the above quote, the clarity as meant is preserved).
There is a nice story about FedEx crushing an evil unassuming employee.

Chapter 6-Pages 205-206 are great, including an uncharacteristically hopeful "Our communities will sustain us, emotionally and materially."
A frantic SOS: Illusion becomes the truth.
Jaron Lanier's observations are not calming, like: "Funding civilization through advertising is like trying to get nutrition by connecting a tube from one's anus to one's mouth."
And the author's hope that journalism will continue to reach (even) a tiny audience.

Redundancy is an obstacle in this book (paid by the word) but the message is clear enough and key. A negative: the book is written as "elitist journalism" in my opinion. But somehow it is understandable while being unintelligible.This Pulitzer Prize winning author is not the purported journalist here. He is in fact a columnist here. This is not a documentary but an editorial. Sadly, I'm afraid that I agree with him that the book is documentary.
This book helped me to see that I wasn't a hopeless paranoid. Unfortunately, all that I can do is buy low, sell high, and remain debt-free.

Alas, Chris Hedges and David Servan-Schreiber have become part of the problem. These guys carry price-tags. (Attention Michael Moore, Thom Hartmann.) This automatically excludes many of the people who need to read these books. Many of the information needy won't read these. The same old preaching to the choir. Still, journalism is a last bastion of freedom.

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never heard of this guy before, sorry

2011-02-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

James Gray. Like I said, we saw "The Yards". Then later in the month we saw "Two Lovers". You can bet I was scared about that title. I was pleasantly surprised. The head case survives! I think.? We'll be looking for more of this fellow's stuff. He has a new one coming out in 2012. Good director-he seems to favor Joaquin Phoenix. That's not all bad.

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UPDATE 2/25/11-Saw this director's other 2 movies, "Little Odessa" & "We Own the Night". Not as good as the other two. He's got one coming in 2012.

Go Team Go

2011-02-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

Just when I was thinking "There ain't no good DVDs to see anymore" we got back-to-back homers in the bottom of the ninth. One about corruption in NYC (who woulda thought?) could've been about sanitation engineering (that's garbage collection) I suppose, but it was about crooks in the train parts business. All-star cast in "The Yards" (2000 release) includes: James Caan, Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway, Joaquin Phoenix. All straight A+s for dose guys. Ellen Burstyn, giv'er an A too. Problem was, the library copy was ruined right where the crux of da movie took place. I think Joaquin (Willie) did the deed though. All dese guys did dose accents great, weze loved it.
And before that we saw "Truth or Consequences, N.M." (1997), not quite as all-star a cast but not shabby neither. Kiefer Sutherland stars in a great directorial debut. Vincent Gallo is great. Rod Steiger too cool. Martin Sheen as Sir gets 'er done. Boy his kid's a mess though ain't he? Now he didn't just mess himself, he put 300 coworkers on the unemployment line (who work on his TV show) while he goes to Club Rehab.

So anyway, we tie the game in the bottom of the ninth with those back-to-backs and we feel pretty good about it with "Zodiac" (2007) comin' up. Robert Downey, Jr., Jake Gyllenhall right? Downey had straightened up by the time that he took this role, but he still could play a screwball pretty good.
So we're lookin' for one more long one and we're goin' home a winner, but there's two outs. Well, like Mighty Casey "Zodiac" struck out. Well we'll get 'em in extra innings.
Funny, all three of these got 3-4 stars, but I don't think so. I like the first two.

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quirkysmirky Jennifer, like father like daughter

2011-01-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

Yeah, talkin' about David Lynch's spawn. The critics panned her "Surveillance", but I say see it.
It's easy to see that the cops "got what they deserved". And probably ditto the high gal & guy. But the little girl's family? Try to reconcile that! Yeah, the son was a snooty teenager I guess.
Can't divulge more. I'm giving it 5 stars, in your face critics. Smirky & quirrrrrky Julia and Bill are the film's stars.

In all fairness to the critics, I didn't get "Boxing Helana" too much, just like them. It was pure weird enough though. What ain't from this family?

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Macabre Macrame'

2010-08-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

There is more to Edgar Allan Poe than "Quoth the Raven, nevermore." He is difficult, as he quotes Latin without interpretation and is prone to rambling "Old English" drug induced wordiness. I have a copy of his "complete tales & poems" (Dorset Press), and can only highly recommend a few as will follow. I can't imagine a reader sitting through all thousand plus pages while remaining upright. The fellow was indeed a natural genius of the dirge mentality. He is however, too depressing for the sane of us. Too much downers my man. One sentence should be one sentence, not two pages: "The Purloined Letter" for instance. It could have been jolly good but the punchline is in Latin. And E. P. regurgitates and ruminates for 1 1/2 pages. The 5 (pfft) star story has one of my favorite lines in it however: "We gave him a hearty welcome, for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the contemptible about the man..." For my money, nothing worse than a seven star out of ten is worth a read. "The Pit and the Pendulum" is the dude's best, 9*. 8* star stories: "The Black Cat", The Masque of the Red Death"-that's it! 7* (so readable), "The Gold Bug", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "A Descent into the Maelstrom", "Ligeia", "The Tell Tale Heart". Those 4 famous stories are still tough to read after the titles. Forget "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". It could have been a 7. It's a good story (the monkey did it), but again the punchline is in a language that I did not study; French.

here's the website

Pasted from Ezine/One of 2002's Best Films="Spun"

2010-08-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

...on meth that is.

My own personal preface: I will always feel that "crank" chefs deserve the death penalty.

Having said that I will proceed.

I'm just a bi-polar old man but I think this film is so hilariously nasty that it is a must-see.

"I can smell the snail trails all over the store."??? If you are not familiar with that phrase it's in here. It is uttered by one of the quintessential Spanish sleaze princesses. Let's see, what else? The decongestant used to make speed is kept behind the counter as it is supposed to be. But the clerk has no problem selling thirty bottles at a time, as long as it is for a good cause. I almost busted my stitches when the nude blonde in the handcuffs was blank down below, a la 1950's mens mags or "Barbie". We can see a meth factory, but no hair please. A brilliant commentary. This whole epic is an absolute symphonic cacophony.

WARNING: Careful with that axe Eugene. This one is a hard "R" rating. I mean R leaning on X.

If this movie isn't a cult classic it deserves to be. Don't get me wrong. I'm not nostalgic for the homemade poison which it revolves around; never got into it, thank goodness. I did some equally dumb things maybe. Want to snort some aerosol spray cooking oil?

Sometimes it helps to laugh at this mean world. This movie did make me do that. Edgy would be a mild description. I rate it a thousand stars. Seldom does a film hit its mark so perfectly. It's a bulls-eye for director Jonas Ackerlund. The characters are brilliant caricatures in a very sad theme and Mickey Rourke absolutely "cooks".

The writing deserved an Oscar. Just genius.

The animation deserved an Oscar. No airbrushing there.

The makeup deserved an Oscar. They took some really good looking actors and made them look like trash. Except for Mickey. He probably didn't need a lot of help, as he fits the niche. And Mom didn't need much help. Don't look too close. She's just your average American, but I had to turn away.

I cannot tell any more. Just hold on tight.

Seriously though, this film is disturbingly desperate when the laughs are over. The bad thing is, it can really get this horrible. I've seen a friend pick up lint out of the carpet hoping that it was crank. Just tweaking man. This junk is rife in America and it makes me cry, not laugh. SPEED KILLS!!

Jim William knows what he is talking about. He was a drug-induced catatonic schizophrenic for a short time. Much was lost then. Much bonus time was gained, along with a multi-faceted identity.

WEBSITE: http://themaven.synthasite.com

More "Best of the Decades"? Books

2010-07-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

JAMES HILTON's "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1934) rates 5* only because of its brevity and ease of reading. Rather than being touched by Mr. Chips's personality I became extremely annoyed by his umph-ing interspersed speech. As my school Latin is quite rusty, I missed almost all the jokes, too. JA
MARJORIE KINNAN RAWLINGS's "Cross Creek", published in 1942 is a mildly interesting perspective on daily life in rural 1940's Florida, including outrageous political incorrectness as well as some insightful ecological concerns. 5*. non-fiction. JA
L. H. Oswald is the "Libra" in DON DELILLO's novel published in 1988. Unless one is a big fan of J. F. K. assassination theories, the feeling and ambiance are the thing. I was only 11 when this thing went down. So which characters are unreal in this "historical fiction"? I wouldn't know. But the tension is palpable and Jacqueline still gets brain matter on her. 7*. JI
I tried to read "Midnight's Children" as my '80s book. No Way! 60 pages in I gave up, and had no clue what I had read.
"The Evolution Man or How I Ate My Father", by ROY LEWIS (1960), is a humorous tale of the Pleistocene Age, including the discovery of fire, with amusing insight into humans' progress. 7*. JA
BERYL BAINBRIDGE's "The Birthday Boys" (1991) features strong characters in a descriptive, touching fictional account of a 1912 try (Wales) for the South Pole. 8*. JA

Genius...Brilliant......and ?Blonde?

2010-07-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

Originally published in installments in Harper's Bazaar, 1925's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" by ANITA LOOS fits all the criteria for a great book: 1) It's very good. 2) It's very short. 3) It's good and short.
It is a diary by a blonde for blondes. Just by co-instance, nothing much practically happens (as Lorelei would say). One thing I did learn: "...it seems that Munchen is practically full of Germans..." She means Munich.
I can only give it 8 1/2* as it can get a bit over-underwhelming (cause I'm not blonde). JI

WEBSITE

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2010-06-30T16:12:00.001-07:00

Somewhere between "The day broke gray and dull." and "...the sun was shining." things got better for our main character Philip. Alas, not for dear reader though. 600 pages to find out "Philip asked himself what was the use of living. It seemed quite inane." But in 85 pages more the sun was shining (because thank goodness, the book was over). W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM's 1915 "Of Human Bondage" gives me a 4* headache. JI
Oh yeah, 10 years later on the American continent THEODORE DREISER's "An American Tragedy" ran into the same problem. It's author also got paid by the word. At least Clyde (this main character) killed his girl. She shouldn't have got pregnant if she wanted to live. Something happened in almost 900 pages. I guess the tragedy was he wasn't satisfied with his lot. It wouldn't have been that abortion was illegal? Not in 1925. 5*. JA

So take your choice of European or American blah blah. None for me thanks, nice titles though.

WEBSITE

"Little Boy" Speaks Large

2010-06-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

I first read JOHN HERSEY's 1946 publication "Hiroshima" a very long time ago. When I get to the part about the hand and arm skin coming off of a bomb victim's body "like a glove", I still wish it was fiction. And that's not the worst of it! A new worthwhile chapter, "The Aftermath", was added by the original author in 1985. This important book is still a very short read. A matter of hours offers one much introspection. Yeah, Dad fought at Guadalcanal but I still can't reconcile the Enola Gay with humanity. 8*. JI

WEBSITE

More "Best Of" Disappointment

2010-05-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

HARPER LEE's "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960) was voted best novel of the century (20th.) by librarians. Guess I'm not a librarian. It won a Pulitzer. Guess I'm not a boxer. I liked the movie better, and that never speaks well of a novel. 6*. JI
I'm going with Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" (1968) to replace the "...Mock..."

QUINTESSSSSENTIAL HORROR GENRE-the "Best of '70s"

2010-05-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

"The Shining", "hack" Stephen King's "hack" tale published in 1977, lacks his 200 page "character development" fixation. That's what I like best about this one. He jumps right into a good story here. The story even held up in a movie adaptation. That's unusual for a King book.
8* JI

WEBSITE

One of the Best Ever Books-"The Catcher in the Rye", 1951

2010-05-10T10:52:00.002-07:00

WARNING: VULGAR AND IRREVERENT!
It took the author about 10 years to finish the book, but you couldn't tell by the perfect flow. I read it in 6 hours, couldn't put it down. I can't remember that happening ever before. I'm not a fast reader. The dialogue is incredible in this mini-biography re: many men. Problem is, it is told by some moron who's thinking stuff like "she was lousy with rocks". I would call this J. D. Salinger thing a novella. All the more incredible for a classic. 9 STARS if you can take it.
JI

WEBSITE

One of the Best Books of the '30's-"Grapes of Wrath"

2010-05-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

...or "The Human Condition", John Steinbeck's 1939 landmark story of human compassion and cruelty, of hope and hopelessness in an intriguing vernacular gets 9 of 10 stars. Despair has no answer for the will to exist.
JI

WEBSITE

Decades' Best Books-An American Treasure Disappoints

2010-05-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

MARK TWAIN's (Samuel L. Clemens) "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg and other Essays and Stories" 1900, gets 6* of 10 out of respect. In fairness, most of the compilation is from the 1800s. My opinion: read "Huck' Finn".
JI

More bad "Best of the Decades'" from a well-respected published source. In other words, we disagree:

PAT CONROY's "The Prince of Tides" 1986, this is too wordy for a good story (which it is). 5*. JA
ANNE MORROW LINDBERG's "Gift from the Sea" 1955, 4*. The best thing: short, worst: aristocratic. JA
SHERWOOD ANDERSON's "Winesburg, Ohio" 1919, some good descriptive phrases in a story of repression. 5*. JA
MILES FRANKLIN's (Stella Maria Sarah Franklin) "My Brilliant Career" 1901, 6* and surprisingly well written by a teenager near the turn of the century. JA
JEFFREY EUGENIDES's story published in 1993, "The Virgin Suicides", is best of what? Best hip 1990's story? In my doddering old age I hadn't been cognizant of the romanticizing of suicide. I didn't get it but the story's worth 7*. It at least has one of my favorite lines: "Don't waste your time on life". JI
JACK FINNEY's 1970 novel "Time and Again" carries the usual 7* blah blah blah review. "It's a good story with a couple of interesting turns". He tries his hand at historical fiction, and knows his NYC history. JA

Hey, where's "The Wind in the Willows" (1908, K. Grahame) on the '00's best list? Oh for the love of Toady, Mole and Water Rat!

The best of the 1700s: "Gulliver's Travels", 1726 and revised 1735, J. Swift (real title, get this, "Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships"), "Robinson Crusoe" (the first novel in English? I was surprised how little of the book was about R. C.'s man Friday. I think that you will be also. The book is written in "Old English" vernacular. That's a struggle. No pain no gain. It's worth the trouble.), D. Defoe, 1719.

And the 1800s? Not the S. L. Clemens "...Hadleyburg..." thing. I guess "Call me Ishmael." if you will.

WEBSITE HERE

"The Women", T. C. Boyle, 2009

2010-03-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

This book had me running between the dictionary (half of the time for non-existent words, but you'll know what Boyle means) and the computer (to look up referenced people and architectural feats). And it was a marvelous labor. (Most places are real, characters not.) The morphine addict is insane, by the way. Actually, FLLW. seemed to make everyone insane. And yet this story is infused with Everyman. I comprehend the angst in the book too well I fear. Boyle shows that he writes as well from the feminine as the masculine. I would nominate this novel as one of the decade's top ten. Tom (the author) is lucky enough and sincere enough to live in one of Wrieto-San's (this term coined by one of the fervent fictional characters, Tadashi Sato) concoctions, the George C. Stewart House. His other top five novels are (opinionated): "Riven Rock" (his best and another historical novel; worthy of a best of the 1990s), "The Road to Wellville" (about the Kellogg cereal nut), in a different vein would be "Tortilla Curtain" (his 2nd. best), "Budding Prospects" for stoners, and "East is East" with a worthy Japanese main character (like "The Women").