Book Review: Eye For Eye/Tunesmith

I bought this book (used) because the first story was written by Orson Scott Card, who's writing I've enjoyed since reading Ender's Game. It's a twin SF paperback (published by Tor as 'SF Double #27'), with a second story ' The Tunesmith' by Lloyd Biggle Jr. Both stories are short, approximately 100 pages, larger than usual fonts.

'Eye For Eye' by Scott Card was interesting at first. The strong writing of the main character drawing me in. 'Who is this kid? Why are people getting killed? Why is he on the run?' But by the end of the story I was a bit disappointed. The story seemed so clique and trite. Boy growing with unusual deadly power, that he has difficulty controlling, and everyone around him is wary of him (with good reason as people around him usually die), finally runs away, as the 'corporation' tracks him down. But who are good guys, and who are really the bad guys? It seems I've read versions of this plot several times, and it was typical, with no real surprise in the last paragraph.

'The Tunesmith' however, I really enjoyed. The irony being I never would have read the story if not for the first Card story. The includes an Introduction and Afterward to The Tunesmith, written by Card, who loved the story himself as an eager SF reader as a child.

I was intrigued to learn this story was originally written in 1957 - as it seems to fit and work so well in 2008. When this futuristic takes place, it's difficult for the musically inclined and talented to find work or express themselves. The only market is... writing ditties for (the equivalent of) TV commercials. Our main character Baque (intentionally, ironically pronounced 'Bach') is so passionate about his craft, he can barely survive. What sells best is a continual outpouring of mindless drivel and senseless jingles. Sound familiar? Unable to produce this garbage, he's forced to accept work as a Tunesmith as a local bar to entertain customers. The twist is that his music so impassioned that he makes a bit of a name for himself, so of course the 'establishment', in the form of the Performers Guild ,comes down on him. The story does have a bit of a good ending and... a bit of a sad ending.

I highly recommend 'The Tunesmith'!

McDoogle

PS. Your Challenge: Write your own special song. However it is not necessary to sing to everyone you meet!

CD Review: Styx: Big Bang Theory

No surprise to anyone who knows me, but Styx is my all time favorite band, ever since I first discovered them and the Grand Illusion album in college. Although I've never seen them in concert (or anyone else for that matter).

I found it to be a long dry spell after the Kilroy Was Here album which only contained the mega-hit, Mr. Roboto, and a lot of horrendous noise. After that 'concept album' which never should have been conceived of, the band seemed to split and in general gone in separate ways, except for a few reunion tours, like the re-opening of Chicago's famed Paradise Theatre.

But recently, the band seems to be on a small comeback. PBS (during yet another $$$ night) aired a Styx concert from nearby Blossom Music Theatre with the Cleveland Youth Orchestra and Chorus as part of their 'One With Everything' tour. It was great!

But as part of the pledge, PBS also offered as a throw-in (if you pledge $95) the Big Bang Theory CD. Hmmm. I later found out this album was a cover album of former hits by the currently group of Styx, with Lawrence Gowen replacing Dennis DeYoung. Seemed like it might be interesting, I'd keep an eye out for it.

Then a few weeks after eating Chinese buffet with a friend from the steel mill in Lorain, I stopped by the Record Exchange store in search of treasures and found Styx: Big Bang Theory. Only $5!

And it's great! Most of the songs are remakes from the 60's.

Songs on the album:
I Am The Walrus /Beatles (good)
I Can See For Miles / The Who (great)
Can't Find My Way Home / Steve Winwood (not bad)
It Don't Make Sense / Willie Dixon (could live without it)
I Don't Need No Doctor / Ray Charles (great)
One Way Out / Allman Brothers (great)
A Salty Dog / Procol Harum (interesting, catchy)
Summer In The City / Lovin Spoonfuls (great)
Manic Depression / Jimi Hendrix (excellent)
Talkin' About The Good Times /The Pretty Things (good)
Locomotive Breath /Jethro Tull (good)
Find The Cost Of Freedom / Stephen Stills (could live without)
Wishing Well / Free (average)
Blue Collar Man 2120 /Styx (different, jazzy)

As you can see by my comments, I highly recommend the album if you can find it.

Grade: A+

McDoogle

PS. Your Challenge: Record your own remake of a song from the 60's. Nothing from the Beach Boys, please!

Book Review: Interesting Times

I thought I would take another stab at reading a Terry Pratchett novel. While I've never been enamoured with the few novels I've read in the DiscWorld series, I was told by a friend that this was one of the better ones. I've much preferred the Xanth fantasy series in the past.

But I really did like this one the best. One reason was that Rincewind the Wizzard was a main character, my favorite Discworld character. Rincewind is a wizard (much like most of the wizards in Discworld) with seemingly no magical ability whatsoever except a strong innate sense of when to Run Away. Yet Rincewind is continually put in impossible dangerous situations, and always manages to 'miraculously' save himself and those around him. Two Flower the tourist swears by him.

But the characters who steal the story are the Silver Horde led by Cohen the Barbarian. Six old men, former Gladiators, who refuse to retire! Fighting, conquering, and pillaging is their life... and their art. Even wheelchair bound Hamish (a wheelchair with knives!), refuses to go out without a fight - despite being hard of hearing. Lead by Cohen the Barbarian, they go on a conquest to defeat the kingdom of Hunghung.

This novel also had some very witty lines. The one I remember best is when Rincewind is in prison with TwoFlower the tourist:
Rincewind: "Do we get fed in here?"
Two Flower: "Oh, sometimes. But it's not like the marvelous food in Ankh-Morpork."
Rincewind: "Really."
Two Flower: "I'll always remember the taste of Mr. Dibbler's sausages."
Rincewind: "People do."
Two Flower: "A once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Rincewind: "Frequently."

I started reading this book very very slowly ( a few pages every other day), but the pieces all seemed to start coming together about midway, and I started reading faster. And overall I now recommend the book.

I'm not sure what the Quantum Weather Butterfly had to do with anything. It was hinted that the butterfly was going be a critical factor to the storyline, but whatever it was, it didn't see it.

May you live in Interesting Times!

Grade: B-

McDoogle

PS. Your Challenge: Find an old CD you no longer listen and create your own Discworld. Anything from Neil Diamond would make a great one.

Struck by Hurricane Ike

About 1000 miles north of the Gulf Coast, we seldom feel the devastation and effects of the hurricanes that plague Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Carolina's. The remnants of the storms usually crawl up here a few days later with a smattering of warm refreshing rain from the Atlantic for a day... but Ike was different!

Arriving with winds of up 60 to 70 miles an hours, we lost power about 5:00PM Sunday. And so did much of the area. 300,000 homes were out of power come Monday morning. No electricity at work... no electricity at home... And with many of the electric company's trucks having been sent out to help assist the people in Texas... repairs were slow in coming.

Of course the people just across the street had power and lights the whole time! As always... Grrr!

Tuesday morning, power still had not been restored, So I eventually decided to check out a movie and drove down to the theater. No power there either! Despite the nearby restaurants have full power and serving tons of customers. I ended up checking out a bookstore (Barnes & Nobles). And by the time I arrived home at 4:00PM Tuesday afternoon... power had finally been restored for over an hour (almost 48 hours without electricity). Before I left five trucks from New Jersey had been roaming the streets so the out of state help must have the job!

At last!!! It's so nice to be able to turn a light on again!!

Power is also restored at work... via a generator. True power may not be restored until the end of the week.

Ike will be remembered... for a long time.

McDoogle

Your Challenge: Create a hurricane of your own. Start with a squirt gun and a big fan and work your way up to a Cat 3 storm from there. Be sure to give your hurricane a really fun name. Like Otto!

DVD Review: WKRP in Cincinnati

Yes, it's Season #1 of WKRP in Cincinnati - that great comedy series from the late 70's. For those who don't remember or didn't see (?) the original series... a failing radio station in Cincinnati regulated to playing oldies (think the 30's and 40's oldies), hires a new station manager who abruptly changes the format to.... gasp!.... Rock n' Roll!

What a great ensemble cast. Standout performances are Johnny Fever by Howard Hessman (layed back doesn't even begin to describe him. Oh, by the way...... BOOGER!), Jennifer E. Marlow portrayed by Loni Anderson (the beautiful secretary who wouldn't do secretarial work. 'It's in my contract!'. Smart and Sassy, and may have enjoyed tormenting Herb Tarlick the salesman), Les Nesman the news report (his hillbilly hick news reports on hogs and other farm critters in contrast to the rock format made for an unusual merging of cultures. And Les' yellow taped office 'walls' - very off-beat). Jan Smithers played the shy Bailey Quarters trying to establish herself in the media biz, but rumors are that Jan really was shy and there really wasn't a lot of acting going on... I also have a new respect for the actor who played Herb Tarlick - while I never cared for his part, he did a good job to playing part convincingly! Tim Reid's Venus Flytrap is also unique, good, and unbelievable. Gary Sandy's performance as Andy Travis the hip new station manager is probably the weakest performance of the lot. Why these actors didn't have more success post-WKRP is a bit of a mystery to me.

The DVD set contains 2 Commentary episodes with the writer Hugh Wilson, Loni Anderson, and 'Herb Tralick'. A lot of fun facts, and behind the scenes secrets are revealed. Even the creation of the songs in the opening and end credits. The ending credits songs isn't even a song... it's just nonsensical words played by a friend of the crew looking for work! Listen closely... see if anything makes sense to you! Also... the famous turkey drop promotion for Thanksgiving episode is actually based on a real radio promotion event which took place in Texas where a manager really did believe turkeys could fly and threw them out of a helicopter. And more...

The DVD set also contain two story featurettes. One (Do My Eyes Say Yes?) is the turbulent relationship between Jennifer and Herb and his continual frustration with getting anyway with the quip Jennifer, and her ability to avoid anything resembling secretarial work. The second (The Fish Story) told how the writers were being strong armed into writing an episode with physical humor in it, more like 'Laverne and Shirley' - less character driven, issue driven stories. So the writer, Hugh Wilson, decides to create the most far fetched episode he can think of: 'The Fish Story'! And the plan backfires. To Hugh's dismay The Fish Story is a big hit and one the the highest watched show in WKRP history!

DVD rating: B+

McDoogle

Your challenge: Start a radio station of your own. Tools required: Microphone, wires and cords, Speakers, a radio frequency, and a little modulation, and some duct tape wouldn't hurt. Must be able to speak fluently, sometimes for hours at a time.

The Mole is....

Craig!

My #1 suspect to be the Mole from week 1 turned out to be right on the dot! The out of shape fun-loving guy used his friendly charm to fool the other players into thinking: 'it couldn't be him...'.

Others suspected Mark, who won the game, but wasn't actually on the trail of the Mole until almost the last week. Mark was lucky to have stayed in the game, barely missing being executed time and again on tie-breakers (faster times on the quiz). As his picks for the Mole dwindled, eventually so did his choices. And remembering that his coalition partner was elimated after targeting Nicole as a suspect, changed his quarry to Craig. And it won him $420,000. Not a bad guess. Nicole also had Craig targeted as the Mole on the final quiz but was out scored by Mark 17 to 13.

So ends another exciting season of the Mole. Alas! The best of the reality TV games shows.

Rating: A

McDoogle

Movie Review: The Dark Knight

The new Dark Knight has dawned.

As a devoted Batman fan since I started reading comic books at age 6, I've felt compelled to watch every Batman movie version that gets plastered to the silver screen no matter how bad (i.e. the George Clooney Batman). The movies had been on a downward spiral. So, I didn't expect much when we went to see the new version, 'Batman Begins' a few years ago. But it was surprisingly the best Batman of them all to date. Christian Bale is an excellent Batman. And Ras Al' Ghul, while unknown to the novice Batman viewer, was a classic villain for veteran Batman fans.

Now the long awaited 'Dark Knight' with the Heath Ledger version of the Joker has arrived.

The acting in excellent. Take the back seat Jack Nickleson, a new Joker is in town. Also great acting from Aaron Eckart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. I enjoyed the aspect of the storyline that Batman is waiting for another hero in Gothom - someone Gotham can look up to - so he can step down. And Harvey Dent as the tough District Attorney is that man.

The gangsters teaming up and becoming more desperate due to the arrival of Batman and the impact it had on their 'business' was also realistic.

Batman's new high tech toys (the sonar glasses, the cell phone matrix, and the bat-cycle) were great. My favorite scene is when Batman retrieves the crime lord from Laos from the high rise building by blowing out the windows, jettisoning a weather balloon, and getting hooked by an aircraft that resembled a white C-140 carrier. The bat gliding scene previous was also pretty cool.

What I didn't enjoy about the movie was the typical Hollywood influence of most movies. The fight scenes were fast, furious, and overblown. I can never tell what's going on in those. Wake me when they are over.

<* Spoiler Alert! *> The movie was also somewhat predictable. Who really believed the passengers in either ship would blow the other up? And Commissioner Gordon dead? Never! No surprise when he shows up again.

Overall Rating: B

McDoogle

PS. Your Challenge: Make your own Batsignal by pasting shapes to a flashlight. At midnight turn the flashlight on and wave it in the night sky (cloudy nights work best). Wait for 10 minutes. See who shows up.

DVD Review: Banacek

There's an old Polish Proverb that says:

"Banacek Rocks!"!

What a treat to have found Season #1 of Banacek on DVD. Eight original episodes of the great Polish detective. Well, not exactly... Banacek is actually a Insurance Investigator. The best in the business. Initially that sounds a little boring compared to solving murder mysteries. But Banacek ends up on some amazingly difficult cases to crack. When valuable jewels, books, cash, experimental cars of future, paintings, and coins disappear - right under the noses of eye witnesses in heavily guarded rooms - it's Banacek the insurance companies come running to to solve the uncrackable cases and find the missing goods. All for a mere 10% of the insured value (usually millions >>> $$$!!!).

This DVD set includes the most memorable Banacek case of them all: the disappearance of a professional football player. A running back is tackled in a nationally televised live game, but when the players unpile... he's gone! At first I thought he might be hidden in a big rip in the astroturf... but no giant man sized bumps were found. Leave it to Banacek find solve what 80,000 stadium fans and 20 million TV viewers couldn't figure out.

Suave and debonair, Banacek also had a way with the ladies. Every episode features a 70's Hollywood starlet who falls under his charm. The Bana-Chicks in Season #1 included Stephanie Powers, Brenda Vaccaro, Jesseca Walters, and... Margot Kidder (?)!

And who can forget Banacek's famous tag line, "There's an Old Polish Proverb that says...". One of my favorites is: "... a wise man doesn't warm himself by a painting of a fire!". Which often induces the customary response from the guest star, "Can you explain that one?"

However, despite all this mirth and merriment there is a bit of a sad note. When I went back to purchase the Banacek Season #2 DVD set... they had all been bought already. <* sadness *>

DVD Rating: A+

McDoogle

PS. Your Challenge: Write an 'Olde Polish Proverb' of your own. Feel free to post it in the Comments section. Or just to amuse yourself. :-)

Book Review: Blood Rites

My cover looks different. But it is Book Six of the Dresden Files. After this book the publishing company did away with the numbering system which I disagree with. I enjoy reading the series in order. Relationships change. Characters grow. References to previous cases and stoylines make more sense.

As to this book in the Dresden series. It's not my favorite. Book 1 Storm Front was my favorite. I also enjoyed the previous book 5: Death Masks .

I liked how this novel started. Dresden is drawn into a bit of a magical murder mystery as a favor for his 'friend' Thomas - a vampire of the White Court and a snappy dresser. Women in life of Thomas' friend Arthro are dying is very bizarre unlikely ways. Who? Why? How? Dresden quickly determines that someone is throwing killer entropy curses. But who has it out the maverick film maker?

I thought this was a solid interesting plot and had enough steam to hold its own for the whole novel. But Butcher decides (once again) to add a second major stoyline, running simultaneously with Dresden's magic murder mystery. It's Marva the female vampire of Red Court gunning for Dresden with curses of her own. While Book 5 also had two major storylines running through the same timeline, I could handle that once. But twice? This is getting a little irritating. Everyone loves action packed stories, but planning one major battle for noon, and then assuming you'll survive that one, schedule another at dinnertime.... it's a bit much.

I enjoyed the revelations of Dresden's family tree, and the new branch that was added. learning more about Dresden's mother was an added bonus, since his abilities are obviously not from his showman father's side of the family.

Overall, it was a good book, but not one of Butcher's best efforts.

Grade: B-

McDoogle

PS. Your challenge: Find a branch in the backyard. Whittle it into a staff. Use it to scare the mailman on bill days.

Who is The Mole?

My favorite TV show is back on the air. The Mole! The original version. Not the crazy celebrity version. The real deal. 11 regular people trying to win money in a variety of team contests. And one mole - trying to sabotage the games, and purposely lose money for the players.

I love trying to figure out which of the players is actually the Mole. It's difficult, because some players are just naturally gumballs who blow the games unintentionally. Other sneaky players try to get the other players to think they are the Mole, to throw others off the scent and give themselves an advantage.

After Week #1 I think the Mole is Craig (Occupation: Graphic Artist, Age 30). I suspect him mainly because because he looks so un-mole-like. He's the type of fellow that if he causes the team to lose points you tend to overlook it because you figure he's an out of shape guy, no wonder he couldn't to the task successfully. Very sneaky!

My second suspect would be Liz (Occupation: Retiree, Age 60). I mean really... who's going to suspect an 60 year old lady? I would!

Will I be right?

After week #1, Marcie (housewife, mother) was sent packing, since she did the poorest on the 'Who is the Mole' quiz. Both my suspects are still alive. Next Monday, 10:00PM on ABC can't come soon enough.

McDoogle

PS. Your challenge: The Mole is at the airport. Find her!