tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32573930992625294692024-03-12T21:53:15.551-07:00Wuthering TypeHonest thought and writing about ...Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-50495770228580028682021-07-03T14:10:00.001-07:002021-07-03T14:12:34.230-07:00The Folly of Forgiveness ( Ruminations on Reparations on the Eve of July 4th )<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">The
Folly of Forgiveness </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">( Ruminations on Reparations </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">on the Eve of July 4th )<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Forgive
and Forget. But what if you don’t want to? What if the apology feels more like just a
landmark for the crime rather than a lighthouse for the way forward? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is
said that forgiving is good for you, that without it the transgressor keeps
winning, that you will feel relieved. Lighthearted, even. But what if
forgiving makes you feel defeated, ignored, and not just bloodied but left to
bleed? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What
is the basis for our penchant for forgiveness? Why do we revel in stories where
a person who has suffered great loss forgives the perpetrator? How does it
happen that holding a grudge is a worse faux pas than the original sin? Is
it because everyone prefers to be excused for their crimes rather than be held
to account for them? Or is our call for forgiveness actually tacit acknowledgment
that once the damage is done, there truly is no making it “as good as new” so
you may as well “get over it”? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">How is
the transgressor penalized for his actions if forgiveness operates like a get
out of jail free card? We say, that the kid on the playground who hits
first should not be hit back. We say, when they go low, we go high. Be the
bigger person. Take the hit. Move on. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
winner (truly) takes all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Why
are we willing to let people who have broken what we say are “the rules”
keep the spoils of their bad act? Is it because we think of victims of
injustice as losers? Is that why we chastise them for being “sore”? Do we worship winners even if they are takers, absconders, grifters, abusers, thieves,
mean? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When
we do demand recompense, we usually require only that the aggrieved person be “made
whole”. “Don’t get mad, get even.” But why does the transgressor have the
right to a full reset?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“An eye for an eye,” we say. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But why should the victim and the miscreant be
equally blind? Isn’t the victim entitled to just a scooch more than the
criminal?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><img height="1" src="file:///C:/Users/Janet/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" style="background-color: #e8eaed; font-size: 16pt;" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_1" width="1" /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p> V</o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">ictims
are urged to not only forgive, but also to forget. (!) They are expected to
help erase the record, and even their own experience, of the damage they
sustained. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">If there is no record of the events, then there’s no proof of the crime. If there’s no proof of the crime, there
can be no assessment of guilt, and thus no recompense or punishment – even as the damage continues
to fester.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Forgive
the person. Forget the crime. Forego reparation. Forge ahead. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Everyone loves a winner.”
We let winners win - no matter what it was they took.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-63980170801677043272020-07-04T00:44:00.001-07:002020-07-04T00:44:33.750-07:00Book Review- “Weather “ by Jenny OffilCritics of the film “The Titanic” say that its story is simple. I agree. But that’s what makes it universal - and magnificent. Each of us stands on the prow of life, with the wind blowing in our hair, while knowingly sailing into the sunset. <br />
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Life is a game you know you will lose. So how to live when you know catastrophe is coming? Each of us must decide whether to give up or weather it. It’s a second by second choice. <br />
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John Irving wrote about this largely human dilemma (human because we have the capacity for great self- awareness) in “The Hotel New Hampshire”. His characters had to decide whether to “keep passing the open windows”. Jenny Offil handles the same question in her novel- “Weather”.<br />
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Offil’s prose is accessibly poetic, that is, it is mysteriously beautiful yet clear. Though she is quite young, I think this will likely be her career masterpiece - because it is a masterpiece and an author typically gets only one of these. (Shakespeare lovers - you have to admit that not everything he wrote was brilliant - or even made sense.)<br />
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But back to this stunning novel. It features a woman who works in the hub of human knowledge - a library- and ponders how to stay alive against the odds. She is a doomsday prepper. She thinks about climate change a lot. Her brother, a recovering addict, has a narrower range of view. Though their living situations are different, they’re presented with the same basic question, during the same seconds, all the time. The difference that decides their futures is a knife’s edge.<br />
<br />
It seems that our engagement with this question of being is variable. Like the weather, we have sunny days and stormy days. Mild and extreme temperatures. We have wind. And indeed the author uses climate change as another factor to calculate in our collective end of the world/ end of me angst.<br />
<br />
So,<br />
To be, or not to be?<br />
Pass the open window or dive?<br />
Whether to weather?<br />
<br />
Either way, “Weather “ has has my highest recommendation.<br />
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Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-68571137196048156032020-05-17T15:58:00.002-07:002020-05-17T15:58:10.261-07:00Book Review - A Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner<br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This is about a lady waiting for her life after husband, kids & Princess Anne to begin. Though her life was filled with activity I don’t get the sense it was filled with meaning because she only reports from a cool distance what other people around her did. You get a good dose of history, but no idea of who she was as a person. This “extraordinary” life was given to her. She neither fought for it or longed for it. Just accepted it and walked through it. For her, life just happened. Missing the personal drive that powers most autobiographies, this falls flat. A better title for this is “A Lady Vanishes”. Oops - That’s already taken!</span>Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-6139163176052470742020-05-17T15:54:00.003-07:002020-05-17T15:55:04.675-07:00Book Review - Oona Out of Order by Margarite Montifore<div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Well, it was a good idea - sort of. A woman travels through her own life out of sequence. She jumps from 19 to 51 first - and then to other ages, back and forth. We never learn why.<br />I realized this at chapter 3 and should have stopped reading then and there.</div>
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I wish the writer had thought this one out. As it is, Oona doesn’t experience her years out of order, she just views them that way. Nothing she sees at 51 changes her at 27. ( Because if it did, 51 would change. ) While visiting age 51 she meets someone who she doesn’t know she’s met, but who knows he has met her. But how can this scheme work when they re- meet at younger ages? It doesn’t.</div>
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By the end, Oona learns how to appreciate life but it matters not one whit that she went out of order to do so. The whole time travel scheme is irrelevant. And I think it is much harder to understand your life out of sequence than in sequence.</div>
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Many call this book one of the best reads of the year.</div>
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I call it a gimmick.</div>
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Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-38260767884511637972020-04-25T14:44:00.001-07:002020-05-02T19:34:35.132-07:00Book Review - The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books <div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c889d" data-offset-key="8sava-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="8sava-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u>The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books</u> by Edward Wilson - Lee</span></span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="8sava-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Columbus and the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. By the end of this fascinating book you will be gobsmacked about how we ever had the day off for that guy. But this book is about his son Hernando, the founder of the 16th century Google. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2hck-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Both like and unlike his dad, Hernando Colon collected the world. Hernando, though, did it by collecting global knowledge. He amassed a library of about 25,000 books and items published around the world. I know this sounds like a "so what". However, a library is more than a building with books on shelves. It is a method by which global knowledge is distilled, organized, distributed and noticed. But libraries in this form did not always exist. Enter Hernando, heir and "illegitimate" son of Christopher Columbus. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e2o6a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">He travelled with Columbus on his 4th voyage to the "new" world". He was a life-long witness to the discovery era. In the 16th century countries played a bizarre, massive game of Finders Keepers: if you landed on it it was yours. To this end, Columbus personally claimed financial rights to the places he - well, let's say places he visited. His rather violent tenure as governor of these isles (the places many vacation on today) resulted in his ultimate expulsion therefrom - in chains no less. However, the Columbus family was in the in-crowd and by hook or crook the sons won financial rights and in some cases governance of these lands for many years after the voyages. The story of the fight for these rights is something straight out of a tele-novella - out of wedlock babies, powerful alliances by marriage, lawsuits heard by the Vatican, summits with the Portuguese about how to measure the latitude of the world in order to know who owns what, etc. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e2o6a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Along the way Hernando starts collecting books. At this time books are proliferating like modern-day podcasts. Rome and Venice turnout to be the cultural crossroads where books from many countries are bought and sold. (By the way, at this time Rome is already a tourist trap where Judas' rope and a vial of Mary's milk are on view and already a place where it's careless to go out to dinner without a will. But I digress... as does this book, down many curious side paths.)</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e2o6a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">To ensure that he doesn't re-purchase the same book, Hernando begins to catalogue his purchases. This then leads to creating the practice of adding indexes to books, to summarizing books so searchers know what it is about, to identifying the author (thereby giving rise to the personalization of academia), to displaying books on their spine as opposed to flat, the creation of the predecessor to the card catalogue which allows for an infinite reshuffling of how to organize information and the valuation of popular culture publications. Hernando's overarching idea is that there is information everywhere, but it won't matter if you don't know where to find it. He and his growing team had to ponder how people look for info. Should "asp" be categorized under "serpents" or "snakes" or "demons"? Should "hemlock" be under "plants" or "poisons"? This is something modern search engines wrestle with everyday. The Big Idea is that the truth of any item can be seen from many vantage points. What Hernando sought to do would only truly become possible in our digital age. (I often think of what Frank Lloyd Wright would have built had he had access to more modern materials. The Guggenheim Museum, of course, gives us a hint.)</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e2o6a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hernando also created epitomes, which were a brief explanation of a book's content. The plan was to distribute these so people knew what information was available. While this created a community of in-the-know people, it of course was not as powerful as the modern day web where recipients can easily share and discover between themselves. But the germ of the modern day web is there. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e2o6a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">In addition to organizing books he made localized maps of Spain. Similar to the purpose of the Google camera cars, he sent people out to survey the landscape, had locals verify it and then sent others out to triple check it. He had ships take logs on their journeys so he could collect crowd-sourced data to help with sea navigation. (I mean, I just don't get why we are talking about his father.) </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e2o6a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">He dies in 1539. Five centuries later Google launches Project Guttenberg, today's version of everything from everywhere in one searchable place.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e2o6a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some of Hernando's catalogues survive. But o</span><span style="font-size: large;">f his vast collection, only 4,000 items are extant, signed and annotated by him, along with the date and place of purchase. They are are located in Seville. Truly a reason to visit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">A reason to read this book?</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2sslv-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you want to know about :</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2sslv-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Early colonialism </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6g2j8-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Libraries- it is a true eureka moment to break the Trumpian walls of nationalism in favor of gathering thought, both high and low culture, without regard to religion, language or region. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Spanish history- I thought Ferdinand and Isabella was a love story, but it was really more of a coalition government</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5epii-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">New world horticulture - Hernando planted and cultivated many of the plants he brought back from the "new" world, changing the landscape of Seville.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bojin-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Distinction of academic disciplines</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is dense reading and I recommend the audiobook. Also adding a review in case I have not convinced you to read this one. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-story-of-christopher-columbuss-son-the-ultimate-completist/2019/03/12/7438f79e-44f6-11e9-aaf8-4512a6fe3439_story.html#comments-wrapper">https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-story-of-christopher-columbuss-son-the-ultimate-completist/2019/03/12/7438f79e-44f6-11e9-aaf8-4512a6fe3439_story.html#comments-wrapper</a></span></div>
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Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-6553688901445888212020-04-05T21:25:00.001-07:002020-04-05T21:25:19.938-07:00Book -Review - “Janet and Me” by Stan Mack<div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
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This is an emotionally balanced true love story. With beautiful drawings, sadness and humor the author relates what life for him and his partner was like after her fatal cancer diagnosis. It is hopeful and honest. The images are conceptually specific. The big idea and individual story are made loud and clear by the consistent renderings of their apartment, travels, and the hospitals and the friends. I was struck by one image where she is facing the<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"> computer reading about her disease, but the reflected light from the computer bathes her in darkness. And another where she is realizing the poor prognosis while he is yet doing what it takes to live - exercising. And another where he admits to imagining what his life will be like when this particular pain ends. This is an important book. It made me remember that the start of any love story already includes its end.<br /></span></div>
Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-81661804963607033492020-03-29T17:48:00.002-07:002020-03-29T17:49:17.637-07:00Book Review - "Less" by Andrew Greer<div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
“Less” by Andrew Greer<br />
The main character in this book, Arthur Less, is an aging gay man whose ex -lover is very ill and whose most recent ex-lover is marrying a younger someone else. You may think that a middle aged sorrowful gay man is not a character you can relate to. But I don’t know any American who has traveled broadly who hasn’t had this experience:</div>
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The Moroccan bus tour guide: ‘ “I am sorry for the unpleasant surprise of the heat.”<br />
From the back, a female voice: <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">“Can you turn up the air?”</span></div>
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Some words in Arabic, and then vents begin to blast warm air into the bus. “ ‘</div>
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Less goes on a worldwide tour to avoid the fact of aging and the fact of his midling career and the fact of his lost loves. Everything that happens to him has probably has happened to you. Maybe it wasn’t a hot gay man wearing a banana speedo on a rocky SF beach, but I’m betting there was someone who knocked you off your feet who still haunts you. Some job that was different than you thought. Something new about your reflection in the mirror that you dislike. As all really good novels, this exposes shared humanity from a very particular vantage.</div>
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The writing is impeccable. The story moves in and around Less’ history using the fluidity of waves of his memories that come about in the midst of daily life - as memories tend to do. Despite this moving back and forth and back again through time the reader is never lost as to what is current, past or daydream.</div>
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Don’t they say you spend the first half of life leaving home to find yourself and the second half trying to get back home? It’s something like that. Well, this book is about that. And the funny way you imagine what other people from your past are doing while you’re walking your dog. It’s not quite regret, but more like a pang to know what else could have been at any moment.</div>
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Lastly, this novel flawlessly drives home its ideas, with each chapter progressively providing deeper color and clarity of its themes as the plot organically and logically plays out. He sticks the landing. Which for writers is as hard to do as anything Simone Biles does.</div>
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Highly recommended. A quick, funny and meaningful read - and you can also check this off your list of Pulitzer Prize reads while you’re at it.</div>
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Leaving you with more beautiful prose: this economic description of a party goer’s demise: “… Perhaps it’s the pale Moroccan wine, poured glass after glass at dinner, ... or perhaps the gin and tonics requested after dinner, when she sheds her clothes and slips into the courtyard pool, where turtles stare at her pale flesh, ... the water rippling from her backstroke... or perhaps the tequila she discovers later once the gin runs out, when someone has found a guitar and someone else a shrill flute and she begins an improvisational dance with a lantern on her head ... or the three loud claps... a sign they are up too late for Marrakech.“</div>
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You really should read this one.</div>
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Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-45014219738719792352020-03-29T17:45:00.001-07:002020-03-29T17:52:58.731-07:00Book Review - "Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey" by Washington Irving<div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey<br />
By Washington Irving<br />
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So it turns out that the author of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving- was also an investigative journalist/biographer.</div>
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In this book he details a weekend stay with the famous Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe. Scott actually lived the romantic life of a big time, celebrity author. He lived on a massive estate where he built his dream “cottage”. He had a happy family life and pack of faithful dogs who were very close to him. There are more paintings of him with his dogs than his kids.</div>
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It’s fascinating to see his daily life and to hear thoughts of the time. For ex he once saw a Sequoia tree from America which he revered as being similar in value to the obelisks from Egypt in that they similarly protected the natives. He was a Scottish nationalist who honored the border clans for keeping Scotland safe from England and treasured the Scottish culture. This is a painting of an out building on his lands.</div>
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Part 2 covers Newstead Abbey located in Sherwood Forest - Lord Byron’s ancestral home. The abbey is like all things Byronic - from afar they look boldly romantic, but when examined closely they’re tawdry and underwhelming. His is a tale of inherited near-wealth, unearned privilege and aggressive laxitude. Not entirely due to his fault, only a few rooms of the abbey were actually furnished and liveable. The others were used for fun and games - including digging up skulls and placing coffins about. He left England to help the Greeks defeat the Ottoman empire during which fight he died early. Again, sounds heroic, but he left also to escape debts and babies and scandal. And despite that gloriously romantic photo we have of him, he was overweight and treated women poorly.</div>
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It is though valuable to read Irving’s account as he visits the home just a few years after Byron’s death. ( The housekeepers who knew him and even the dog that accompanied his body back to England were still alive. ) Also, Irving gives an account of the relics of Robin Hood’s haunts in Sherwood. Those are less convincing chapters, but whether true or lore, that part is actually romantic.</div>
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Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-25771750540593907682020-02-01T10:25:00.002-08:002020-02-01T10:38:36.725-08:00BYOB - Bring Your Own Book - The American Dirt Controversy<br />
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“American Dirt” - if you don’t like it, don’t read it. People get to write the fiction they want in the same way people get to read the fiction they want.</div>
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A novel is imagined. It is not a documentary or a memoir or a true account. It is absurd that the writer has to be the person they write about. First, if that were true, how could you. populate a novel? It has many people. ( And if you believe Virginia Woolf and FS Fitzgerald, each character shares one thing in common- and that is a bit of the author. There is no escaping the author’s fingerprints and that includes when a person of color writes about a person of no color.) Second, no argument can be sustained that this is a requirement when we know that with great success Flaubert wrote about Madame Bovary and Tolstoy wrote about Anna Karenina and Wharton wrote about Ethan Fromme and Christie wrote about murderers.</div>
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What is does take to write a worthy novel that’s well beyond your direct experience is one of two things: being a masterful writer with a strong imagination OR being a masterful writer who knows the subject area well because you have lived very, very near to it. Like the distance and view between you and it is like that of a window screen. Let’s use Harper Lee as an example of that when she wrote Mockingbird.</div>
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When a writer selects a subject it is because it has caught her eye. When you read a novel you are looking through an authorial eye. Quentin Tarantino never had a stunt double in his life. But one day he noticed a stuntman and his actor talking on set and had a, dare I say, novel idea. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was birthed.</div>
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A writer of literary intent is not writing a story for you. A writer writes what works for them. There is just no other way to do it. And that makes sense: there are many of “you” and only one writer. Think about Game of Thrones. The writers had one ending to their story. You and I and the neighbor had others. The story must spring from one voice: the author. Miraculously, every now and then the author’s story as told through her eye is so emotionally and psychologically true and beautiful that it is effective for many others. That is why there are a few masterpieces and then everything else of varying degrees of quality and value.</div>
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If American Dirt is a competent, but not great novel, it may be because even the five years of research the author did cannot replace the unconscious sensibility that one who sensibility that one who has lived it / almost lived it has. Still, there are many ways to approach this novel. You can read it as an immigration story told from the authorial pov of a white upper middle class American. The protagonist is not in what we think of as the usual immigrant situation, so this can be read as a telling of a rarely examined immigration story. No one can say that this would never happen or that the more common immigrant stories are so important that this one is unworthy.</div>
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Or it may be that American Dirt is a novel of little merit. IMHO that is about 88% of what is sold anyway so what’s the uproar about? If the beef is that the publishing industry ignores certain voices, there are better remedies than damning the creative efforts of one writer and extending that damnation into the dangerous territory of decreeing who can tell what story.</div>
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There are many, many stories and storytellers. We will never run out. If you don’t like this one, read some something else. Or write one. And hope for a miracle.</div>
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Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-58075410449076967442019-12-16T23:48:00.001-08:002019-12-16T23:48:52.545-08:00Wuthering Type: “they” is the Word of the Year, so they say<a href="https://wutheringtype.blogspot.com/2019/12/they-is-word-of-year-so-they-say.html?spref=bl">Wuthering Type: “they” is the Word of the Year, so they say</a>: The proponents of they/ them never fully answer how we clear up the non- gender significance of the word: plurality. They argue that they wa...Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-82234984719760984692019-12-16T23:47:00.002-08:002019-12-16T23:47:40.205-08:00“they” is the Word of the Year, so they sayThe proponents of they/ them never fully answer how we clear up the non- gender significance of the word: plurality. They argue that they was used in the singular centuries ago. I argue that there was a reason for its falling out of favor which may be the confusion when you are trying to distinguish between one non binary person and a group of people - binary or not. I am Ok with the non- binary thing. Just wish they had picked pronouns that didn’t currently already mean something else. In this podcast a supporter essentially dismisses the confusion with “I guess.” But the avoidance of confusion is the primary reason for language. I know.Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-77817689040918551652019-12-11T11:26:00.001-08:002019-12-11T11:26:42.737-08:00TV Review - Holiday HeistYou could be forgiven if you forget that Lifetime’s excellent film Holiday Heist (produced by Mar Vista Entertainment) is a Christmas movie. There is sibling love, parental love, friends in love, “cute meet” love, middle age love, black love. If there were not already a film called “Love, Actually” this would be it.<br />
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Oh, and then there’s the heist. Most films of this scope get it wrong by having an overly big crime plot. This one is well set up and goes down like a perfectly sized and spiced gingerbread cookie.<br />
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While the cast is up to the task of this film, the writing and cinematography are the stars. There is a pleasingly tempered tension in the story. Rather than the being set in the usual Anyplace, USA, this film feels situated with generous references to Chicago - which it gets right. ( While hot dogs may be picnic fare everywhere else, they are year round there. ) It hits all of the Christmas romance notes - woman falls into man’s arms, current lover is a red herring and the second lover is maddeningly irresistible and the main character has suffered a personal loss.)<br />
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But, this is not the typical pretty snow globe of a movie where a slight upset raises flurries that settle as softly and quickly as they arose. In this movie, Christmas is what happens while you’re living in December. Decorations are put up, parties are danced and sh*t happens. Which is how most of us experience it.<br />
Well worth the watch.<br />
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(Lifetime December 14)Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-74751631333143006092019-11-27T08:04:00.002-08:002019-11-27T08:04:57.736-08:00The Waves - film reviewThe Waves<br />
A very real family drama that deals with grief as it exists both before and after a tragic event. Very well written with fresh characters, strong acting and a wonderful music track. It’s a movie that’s deeply about all the characters - the way a family is.<br />
Highly recommended.Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-25572667200816404352019-11-06T08:55:00.003-08:002019-11-06T08:55:21.246-08:00JoJo Rabbit - Film Review“JoJo Rabbit”<br />
A wonderfully inventive film. It made me think about the choices that young children make every day in their natural search for morality- and how that search becomes bewilderingly difficult in a time of war. Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-27908661258231118602019-11-02T23:23:00.001-07:002019-11-02T23:23:17.431-07:00The Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon- Book Review“The Wonder Boys” by Michael Chabon<br />
This is a wild ride of a story about what ambition looks like in the bloom of youth and at the opening of old age. Set in academia, where promise shines and dulls with the advent of star students and waning of star professors, it tells a story as old as time. It’s a story about the abuse of time itself. While this shares a subgenre with “Goodbye, Mr Chips” and “The Paper Chase” it is about so much more than an old teacher and his unruly modern students. Chabon reaches well past the classroom to tell this story, fitting in 3/4 of a dead snake, Marilyn Monroe’s wedding jacket and old jazz clubs in Pittsburgh. And then there is the writing. In a very good novel you are lucky to get five fabulous sentences that motor the plot forward with lyricism and are invisibly dipped in meaning. Here the mic is dropped on about every third page. To wit, “...he likes to caution and amuse his young companions with case histories of the incurable disease that leads all good writers to suffer, inevitably, the quintessential fate of their characters.”<br />
People say I am a harsh critic on literature. But that is only to remind everyone what stellar looks like.<br />
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<br />Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-50892491847704997382019-10-23T14:43:00.000-07:002019-10-23T14:43:19.778-07:00“Parasite” ReviewSPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT<br />
“Parasite” is a wonderful Russian doll of a film. Its message is precisely, yet differently carved, everywhere you look. Even the house tells the story. It’s a magnificent house that’s not just behind gates, but behind a faceless, tall, stone wall - a wall that gives nothing to the community but protectively wraps a lush private park and spacious, high end, indulgent living quarters. Outside, a grey unscalable mountain/ inside, “what wall”? And within that house is another that tells the story again. The existence within is both serene and grim. Calm and agitated. Opulent and threadbare. Compliant and rebellious. A modern re- telling of the best of times/ worst of times. I could write a similar paragraph about the weather, the clothes, the twist, the climactic scene, the spousal relationships. Tremendous performances all around with a script that is tightly sewn together with the tiniest of necessary scenes that make the story sail. This is a film that uses all the paints in the box to set the picture. Highly recommended and a good kick off to Oscar season.Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-64320484010765493282019-07-26T00:14:00.001-07:002019-07-26T00:14:18.102-07:00)sub) Audible<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I hear that the era of dog whistle politics is over</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Good</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now everyone can hear the ear splitting quiet I hear everyday</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The refusal to say thank you </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or good morning</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The near silent command to step aside </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As pets walk by and the screaming crush of grass under my shoe </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The silken sound of help being slid into a pocket out of reach</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The gentle lap of the waves of resentment </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">(that also tickle my toes while I reach high)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">That yet rises above the thunderous uplift of the sky</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The cold slapping sound of forgotten invitations</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The distant babbling brook of the public, yet private, prattle of peers</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The humming of doubt</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The surprising whoosh of waiting</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Of uncertain hearts</span></div>
Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-5566431004431354832019-04-16T23:26:00.000-07:002019-04-27T20:06:49.039-07:00The Sound of Murder: a Night Out at a Vintage, Broadway Failure I discovered Theatre40 yesterday, tucked inside Beverly Hills High School. The play was The Sound of Murder. It played Broadway in 1959. It was not a hit. That is why I went to see it.<br />
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I wanted to learn what was thought to be Broadway worthy 60 years ago. What themes resonated with an audience that had yet to see a hippie, the march on Washington, the moonshot or The Brady Brunch? What the heck were people thinking about in the year before I was born?<br />
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The play is a whodunnit- a tasty bit of cat and mouse between a wife who wants to leave a marriage and a boorish, author husband who knows she is having an affair but refuses to grant a divorce. He also refuses to have children. The lovers’ plan to kill the husband is overheard by his devoted secretary. Trouble ensues.<br />
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In the theatre dark, I tried my best to be a 1959 version of myself. I appreciated the long skirts, tiny watches, and a two story home with a single first floor phone. The murder planning is accidentally recorded on a reel to reel tape machine that the man uses to dictate his novels. On the day when we learned that Amazon’s Alexis is listening in on homes this was my first link back to 1959: the unintended consequences of convenient tech. On a cultural level, it was easy to recognize the trope and trials of the unmarried, professional woman so typically illustrated as an unattractive secretary. But it was much harder to determine the impact of these things: the affair, the husband’s hatred of children, the need for your spouse to grant you a divorce, domestic abuse, limited opportunities for women, and the heartbreaking schism between commerciality and artistry. (The husband writes children’s books but cheerfully despises children.)<br />
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Eventually, the lovers have to make a second, more determined and angry attempt to kill the husband. In the last scene we see them on the way to do the deed, climbing the stairs, hand in hand, with heroic purpose and lighting.<br />
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So what to conclude? By 1959, Tennessee Williams had written Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Ibsen had written A Doll’s House and Tolstoy had written Anna Karenina. We can add Tess Derby and Emma Bovary to a long parade of desperate wives and near- wives. It seems that in 1959 society was still wrestling with the known problems resulting from the repressed lives of women.<br />
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This play champions the concept that modern people should take the situation in their own hands, to do a wrong to make a right. In that way it whispered the decade to come, where civil, and if necessary, not so civil, disobedience was righteousness.<br />
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I’ve always sensed 1960, my birth year, was an incendiary crux in time, where what came before was entirely different than what came after. The Sound of Murder was not a popular play. But to be popular you have to be not only accepted but broadly understood. My 1959 self probably would not have seen what was coming. But now I think I know what I may have been thinking about.Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-20811362043184805252019-02-13T01:11:00.003-08:002019-04-27T20:06:20.700-07:00Book Review - The Folded ClockSome books are like pillows. You can not get a sense of their shape and substance no matter how hard you grip them. Yet they comfort. Books like these are usually very good books Such is The Folded Clock, a diary of two years in the life of author Heidi Julavits. (Ignore the reviews: this is not the diary of a sick woman.)<br />
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From this book I learned about the Wansee / final solution conference and New England heritage families and Edith Wharton’s husband and possibly poisonous apricot kernels and giornate and the trap door in the road way of the Brooklyn Bridge. (This Heidi has had a great life so far!)<br />
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The diary is mostly chronological and shows the musings of a writer’s mind as she travels through her days. She examines our shared secret thoughts: the real cracks that exist between between even the closest of friends; imaginings of the worst case scenarios for our kids’ lives; and the guilt of keeping a gift you bought for someone else. She boldly lays out uncomfortable truths - that women praise the beauty of unattractive women; that they date men to try on new worlds and identities; that they lose their filters as they age in order to be seen.<br />
I highly recommend this book that appears to have no reason to be. But is, in the most glorious of ways.<br />
Book 2Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-5295103408727447132019-01-21T19:26:00.002-08:002019-01-21T19:26:36.841-08:00Americana<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One - one - copy of a remarkable document survived the Holocaust: the minutes of the Wannsee Conference at which the Final Solution was delineated and pledged to. I became aware of this reading <u>The Folded Clock</u> - an unusual diary/memoir by the author Heidi Julavits. </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The document outlines in great detail - like board game rules - who will be allowed to live and die; how they will be moved; who will kill them; where they will be killed. (Like Thomas Jefferson before them, every effort is made to have their ultimate evil deeds done at their direction, but outside of their view.) </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some "mixed-bloods" can be saved by their attachment to a "German". However, even they will be killed if they look like a Jew or act like one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It got me thinking about this mash-up of nationality with genetics and religion. In Nazi Germany, a Jew could not also be a German. How is this? Is this what explains the blindness to Colin Kaepernick's patriotism? Or the refusal to acknowledge Dreamers as Americans in every way except on paper? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Current events have prompted many to ask what an American looks like. But in this we have a question that has no answer because being an </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">American is a state of mind. My being an American is not tied to the texture of my hair or my spiritual beliefs. Nor is it contained by the boundary of 50 states. Wherever I go, I will be one. Wherever I came from, I am one. Which must mean that anyone can become one - wherever they came from, whatever they look like. It simply must. </span></div>
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Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-25601297406706014092019-01-19T20:25:00.003-08:002019-01-20T13:05:52.302-08:00Book Review - My Life with Mr S<span style="font-size: large;">In this 2002 memoir, Frank Sinatra's valet of over a decade spills the beans. Or does he? This isn't a gossip book. It pretty much just adds color to the image we already know: talent, women, gangsters, politicians and ultimately seclusion as Sinatra's Hollywood became a thing of the past. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is a wonderful time capsule of Hollywood as it names names and addresses. We learn about Mia Farrow's hippie-ness and longing for children, and Marilyn Monroe's poor grooming habits and lack of interest in material things. (Which explains the pictures of her empty bedroom at her death and why she moved to that house.) The allure of Ava Gardener and Humphrey Bogart as well as the shadiness of Joe Kennedy senior is palpable when told by someone who served them drinks and pool towels. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And Johnny Fontaine, the singer given the Vegas gig by the mob in "The Godfather" film? Yeah, that's totally the Sinatra story. There may not have been a decapitated horse, but he dealt closely with killers so there was probably a bloody something left somewhere. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A good read if you are a romantic for Old Hollywood. </span>Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-53249900887199757092019-01-19T20:00:00.001-08:002019-01-19T20:00:09.064-08:00Film Review - Mary Poppins Returns<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary Poppins Returns SPOILERS</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">I cannot recommend this. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">So sorry. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">The original was about the sour bite beneath the sweetness of life. The medicine needs sugar and laughing too much might make you sick. Losing a loved one or a house is not needed to ramp up the stakes in life. Think about it: did the Banks family have any serious practical worries? No. The original film is about perspective and attitude - even when you have the elements to make a good life. It is a very pretty picture and some scenes captured the essence. However, there was not enough variety in the score. Angela Landsbury and Meryl Streep should have switched roles. (Can someone please insist that Streep never appear in turban again?) Miranda and Blunt were underserved by the script. They could have innovated a bit more - maybe this time dance with puffins instead of penguins? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">Finally - and this in my book is unforgiveable - I don’t know how ANY writer who loved the original could base the climax and cheer of this sequel on Michael NOT having giving the tuppence to the bird lady.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">I wrote this a week ago. Poppins is my favorite Disney film and I admit to being protective and picky, but I think this is a fair assessment. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Perhaps some things are masterpieces of their time and do not need to be re-made. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">Lord help me when Toy Story 4 comes out. </span></span>Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-8787218244172613092018-09-29T09:03:00.004-07:002018-09-29T09:07:31.329-07:00Book Review - "Who is Michael Ovitz?"<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">“Who is Michael Ovitz?”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">A fascinating and fast read. It’s all here, the growth of CAA, decline of Lew Wasserman, MGM and MCA, his departure from CAA, the Picasso Eisner had to give Robin Williams, being fired from Disney, David Letterman’s battle for the Tonight Show, the “gay mafia” and his third act as a wildly successful Silicon Valley investor. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Ovitz is certainly an egotist but there’s no denying his hard work, vision and success. If you worked in entertainment between 1988 - 2006 no doubt you will get some juicy details on a story you were attached to and enjoy hearing Ovitz’ POV on the rest. And he names names. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Memoirs are often criticized for not being objective. But that’s part of the fun of it and also the authorial subjectivity tells you something about the person that no one else can. </span>Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-28313551436849262922018-09-10T19:06:00.004-07:002018-09-14T00:10:37.736-07:00Book Review - "Severance: A Novel" by Ling Ma<br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Post-apocalyptic novels work on the premise that all was fine before the bad event. The best thing about this one is that it shows that what came before the big event was itself the apocalypse. It’s popular with millennials as it suggests that rot results from our routine & meaningless walk through life. It is also right on trend with AI thinkers who question whether your daily existence is different than that of a closed loop robot/zombie. Is it?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">And just when you think that is quite enough to chew on, Ma also gives you a background immigration story that pairs like a fine wine with an apocalyptic migration story. But, wait, there’s more! It’s also a coming to maturity story which works well with the theme of the acceptance of inconvenient truths - known as “adulting”. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">You will find a lot to like here. I made sure to collect this as a first/first. Let me know what you think.</span>Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257393099262529469.post-71484055032351117532018-08-26T12:26:00.000-07:002018-08-26T13:21:13.973-07:00Hillbilly Elegy - A Companion Reader from the View of a Black PersonINTRODUCTION<br />
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J.D. Vance starts his memoir with a confession. I will start this commentary with one. I confess that I did not want to read this book as it seemed nothing but an excuse for why poor, rural, white people voted for Donald Trump. It may yet turn out to be that.<br />
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I am struck, however, by what I think Vance's actual goal was: to explain the effects of poverty and its attendant social isolation without the distraction of the racial filter.<br />
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What Vance does not know though is that there is always a racial filter. Even the fact that he seeks to explain poverty in a white environment so people can "get it" has the cloud of the white filter.<br />
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Trust me. Black people of all socioeconomic levels get how "deep anger and resentment" lead their communities to despair, turning them into "hub(s) of misery". Nevertheless, Vance diligently and earnestly seeks to explain how the demons of that life, even when "left behind" continue to haunt a life.<br />
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This is evidence that the racial filter simply cannot be dropped: what Vance doesn't seem to know is that black people do not ever get to leave that life behind - even if they were never actually in it (me); even if they transcend it. Just ask Obama.<br />
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Still, I will continue to read and reflect as I go, but as a black, city-centered woman, I expect I will learn much more about living in rural America than I will about climbing the jungle gym to The American Dream. But if Vance thought I would be surprised about the desperate lives of some poor white people, he has another think coming.<br />
<br />Janethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01403508784236699039noreply@blogger.com0