The Broken Bullhorn

February 9, 2010

Waves and Murder

Filed under: Review — Tags: , , , — Richard @ 8:37 am

The Dawn Patrol

Don Winslow, © 2008
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard 2009 trade paper

I hadn’t read any Winslow in a while and had forgotten how good he is. The characters in this one , especially surfer/P.I. Boone Daniels, are three dimensional and well drawn. The dawn patrol is the name of a small group of surfers who are out on the waves each morning at dawn, waiting for sets and about food, waves and the best things in life.

There’s a big storm out to sea, and it’s going to mean some epic waves, an event of importance which will bring surfers from Hawaii, even Australia, and the surfing press. That means reputations can be made, and could be the break some amateurs need to break into the ranks of the pro surfing word, with sponsorship and travel world-wide. One member of the dawn patrol has been working toward and living for that big chance, and it’s coming.

But trouble is also coming. While Boone is a P.I., another member of the dawn patrol is a cop, and they’re both trying to find out who murdered a girl at a local Pacific Beach apartment complex. The cae gets more complicated, and the friends turn into adversaries, ghosts from the past get in the way, drugs and illegal aliens enter the mix. As the big waves approach, so do some nasty surprises for each member of the dawn patrol.

Another strong effort by Winslow, good plot and characterization, a page-turner, satisfying ending. I enjoyed this one a lot, and it couldn’t be written by a nicer guy, either. I hope we’ll see more of Boone Daniels and his pals.

February 8, 2010

The Sci-Fi Experience Challenge: Update

Filed under: Personal Opinion — Richard @ 5:00 pm

Just a day under three weeks remaining in the Sci-Fi Experience Challenge. Since January 1, 2010 I have read 6 qualifying books:

  1. The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt – fantasy

  2. Snake Agent by Liz Williams- science fiction/occult/fantasy

  3. War Games by Christopher Anvil – science fiction short story collection

  4. Hospital Station by James White – science fiction novel

  5. Star Surgeon by James White – science fiction novel

  6. Major Operation by James White – science fiction novel

How are YOU doing?

The Day After

Filed under: Personal Opinion — Tags: , , , — Richard @ 11:20 am

So yesterday was the big day. Uncountable slices of pizza, chili dogs (I helped) and so on consumed. Countless cans of beer. The can recycling places will be busy this week.

Over on his blog (Not the Baseball Pitcher) Randy Johnson gives a good summary fo the game and thoughts about the commercials. He says the Budweiser commercials with the Clydesdales have been done one time too many. Personally, I still really love the Budweiser commercials featuring the Clydesdales, so does Wife and also most of the guys at the SB party I attended. Hey, if Bud sold a DVD of all those commercials, I’d buy it.

The favorite by far in our group was the Doritos no-bark dog collar commercial. In what I consider a pretty darned weak field, my 3rd place goes to the Monster.com musical beaver ad. It was a pretty good game, not marred by injury or officiating gafs, which is good. Congrats to the Saints.

I don’t have much else for today, but I’ll leave you with something nice to look at, a picture from our 2008 Alaska trip. The colors in this rock cliff were amazing! Click for a slightly larger image.

February 7, 2010

Happy Super Bowl Day

Filed under: Personal Opinion — Richard @ 8:55 am

Just thought I’d blow in (like the proverbial ill wind. Or something.) and wish everyone a happy Super Bowl day.

If you’e enjoying a party, be safe, drive safe and al that stuff. If not, you apparently have no friends. Like me. No, wait, I’m going across the street to a small SB party. Game comes on at 3:00 p.m. here, so there’s still lots of time to get something worthwhile accomplished, like read a book.

I’m not rooting for either team so much as I just want a good game, free of injuries and officiating gaffs. May the best team win!

February 5, 2010

Princess Mononoke

Filed under: Review, Saturday Soundtrack, film music — Tags: , , — Richard @ 8:25 pm

this is # 17 in the ongoing Saturday Soundtrack series

Princess Mononoke

Music from the motion picture, composed by music by Joe Hisaishi, [Milan, 59:12, 32 cues]

Like most film music written to carry the mood and emotion of the film it accompanies, Hisaishi’s music for the 1997 film Princess Mononoke is varied: soft and enchanting (“The Journey to the West”), exciting, driving and forceful (“The Demon God”, one of my favorite things on this CD), haunting (“Adagio of life and Death”) and majestic (“Legend of Ashitaka”).

There is a definite Japanese sound to the music, but it’s not overt with the exception of the “The Tatara Women Work Song” and the “Princess Mononoke Theme Song” beautifully sung in Japanese by Sasha Lazard. The song translation is included in the booklet.

Don’t worry that the music here is from an anime film, that fact makes no difference in how good it is or how much it can be enjoyed.

Hisaishi’s genius is displayed in every cue, his ability to weave together the various themes of individual characters into a coherent whole that makes sense. There are avante garde elements, classical elements, tribal elements melded into a wonderful whole.

I’ve been doing several soft and touching, beautiful, lyrical soundtracks lately. This one has some of that, but it has more: it’s dramatic, forceful and strong where it needs to be in keeping with the story it underlies.

I always say good film music should be able to stand alone, and this does, it can be enjoyed without you having seen the film, but I urge you to see the film if there is any possible way to do so. It is available on DVD from most outlets including Netflix. I’d love to see a Blu-ray version. I had the good fortune to see it on the big screen and it was breathtaking. (Someone, somewhere will undoubtedly say Cameron stole from it for Avatar, but then it seems they say that about everything.)

I loved the film, and this is film music I take out often to enjoy for the drama, lift and scope of it.

Ahhhh!

Filed under: Personal Opinion — Tags: — Richard @ 10:16 am

New chair has arrived. What a difference!

Bullet For A Star

Filed under: Friday Forgotten Book, Review, mystery — Tags: , , , — Richard @ 2:21 am

This is the 21st in a series of Friday Forgotten Books

Bullet for A Star by Stuart M. Kaminsky, © 1977, Mysterious Press 1991 paperback (shown), first Toby Peters, mystery (P.I.)

I like most of the entries in Kaminsky’s other series featuring Russian cop Inspector Rostnikov, and A Cold Red Sunrise is a particular favorite. Reading some of the many tributes to Kaminsky after his death last year, I realized I’d not read any of  the Toby Peters series and decided to start with this one, the first in the series.

It’s 1940. Peters is a down-at-the-heel private eye working in the Los Angeles – Hollywood area. He’s been a cop – his brother still works in homicide – and he worked in security at the Warner Brothers studio for several years before a fight with a star got him fired. Now he pretty much lives from job to job. A producer at Warner’s hires Peters to deliver a blackmail payment, and get a compromising film and it’s negative in return. The trade doesn’t go well, with the film, negative, Peters’ .38 and five thousand dollars disappearing while Peters is left with a bashed in head and a corpse nearby.

From there is pretty much the classic P.I. story. The plot takes a lot of twists, Peters gets knocked around, and rubs shoulders with a lot of movie stars while trying to find the missing materials and the killer. There’s nothing complicated or stunning in this, but it’s fast, fun and easy to read. I enjoyed it and I’ll try the next in the series, which runs to 24 books, as soon as I get a chance.

~  ~  ~  ~

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more FFB reviews at her own blog,
and a complete list of today’s participating blogs will appear in a day or two.

February 3, 2010

Oops! Crash…..

Filed under: Personal Opinion — Richard @ 4:51 pm

Here’s the thing. The office / desk chair that has served me faithfully lo these 14 years has, um, self destructed. With a little help from me. The left arm sort of collapsed outward with a very loud CRACK! noise and the whole assembly has settled like a sinking ship.

It was a good chair, a nice chair, and I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in it as I increase time at the computer with this and other blogs, plus the desk work, writing, cataloging and general fooling about in the computer and at the desk.

So today Wife and I met at lunch time to shop for a replacement, and we got a dandy from the local Relax the Back store, which just happened to be having a sale, and just happened to be giving an extra 20% off the sale price for floor models, one of which was exactly what we wanted.

The picture is just like the one we got except ours is in dark brown leather, not this reddish-cordovan shade. This chair is probably better than we needed, but it’s so comfortable and has so many great ergonomic features, beautiful leather and at that price, we couldn’t resist.

The new chair will arrive Friday. I can hardly wait!

Blogging may be a bit delayed until it’s arrival…

the Classical Music Grammies

Filed under: Classical Music, Personal Opinion — Tags: , , — Richard @ 6:55 am

There’s a lot more to the Grammy Awards than the stuff you see on the hard-sell television broadcast. Here are the results of what I consider the REAL Grammy Awards (the ones where you don’t have to shake your butt to win).

2009 classical music Grammy award winners:

Best Engineered Album, Classical
Traditions And Transformations: Sounds Of Silk Road Chicago –  David Frost, Tom Lazarus & Christopher Willis, engineers (Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Alan Gilbert, Silk Road Ensemble, Wu Man, Yo-Yo Ma & Chicago Symphony Orchestra) [CSO Resound]

Producer Of The Year, Classical
David Frost –  for Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic), Right Through The Bone — Julius Röntgen Chamber Music (ARC Ensemble), Schubert: Sonata In D Maj.; Liszt: Don Juan Fantasy (Min Kwon), Traditions And Transformations: Sounds Of Silk Road Chicago, (Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Alan Gilbert, Yo-Yo Ma, Silk Road Ensemble, Wu Man & Chicago Symphony Orchestra)

Best Classical Album
Weill: Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny -  James Conlon, conductor; Anthony Dean Griffey, Patti LuPone & Audra McDonald; Fred Vogler, producer (Donnie Ray Albert, John Easterlin, Steven Humes, Mel Ulrich & Robert Wörle; Los Angeles Opera Chorus; Los Angeles Opera Orchestra) [Naxos EuroArts]

Best Orchestral Performance
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 –  Bernard Haitink, conductor (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) [CSO Resound]

Best Opera Recording
Weill: Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny –  James Conlon, conductor; Anthony Dean Griffey, Patti LuPone & Audra McDonald; Fred Vogler, producer (Donnie Ray Albert, John Easterlin, Steven Humes, Mel Ulrich & Robert Wörle; Los Angeles Opera Orchestra; Los Angeles Opera Chorus) [Naxos EuroArts]

Best Choral Performance
Symphony Of Psalms –  Sir Simon Rattle, conductor; Simon Halsey, chorus master (Berliner Philharmoniker; Rundfunkchor Berlin), Track from: Stravinsky: Symphonies [EMI Classics]

Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
Schoenberg/Sibelius: Violin Concertos -  Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Hilary Hahn (Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra) [Deutsche Grammophon]

Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)
Piano Music Of Salonen, Stucky, And Lutoslawski –  Gloria Cheng [Telarc]

Best Chamber Music Performance
Carter, Elliott: String Quartets Nos. 1 And 5 -  Pacifica Quartet [Naxos]

Best Small Ensemble Performance
Spotless Rose: Hymns To The Virgin Mary –  Charles Bruffy, conductor; Phoenix Chorale [Chandos]

Best Classical Vocal Performance
Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems Of Bob Dylan –  Hila Plitmann (JoAnn Falletta; Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra) [Naxos]

Best Classical Contemporary Composition
Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems Of Bob Dylan –  John Corigliano (JoAnn Falletta), Track from: Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems Of Bob Dylan [Naxos]

Best Classical Crossover Album
Simple Gifts –  The King’s Singers [Signum Records]

There you have it. Note that there are also grammy awards given in the jazz music genre.

February 2, 2010

Hospital Station

Hospital Station

James White, © 1962
Orb Books 2001 trade paper (3 novel omnibus volume)
Sector General series – science fiction

Every once in a while I’m amazed to learn of an author completely new to me, that in all logic I should have at least heard of and more likely would have read. It’s happened again with James White. He began writing these hard science fiction stories in the early 1960s, a time when I was reading that kind of thing a lot, and he continued writing this series for decades, all through the time I was spending a lot of time in book stores browsing the SF and fantasy shelves and buying a good deal of it. So why didn’t I ever see any of White’s books? I have no idea, not even the faintest wisp of a theory.

The good news I did find these books, thanks to sally906, who posted in a comment to my January 13 post “Hey, read dome science fiction!” that she was reading an omnibus volume of White’s first three novels. George Kelley said the books were great, if I liked Murray Leinster’s Med Series, I’d like these, so I bought the omnibus collection Beginning Operations, containing the first three Sector General novels, of which this is the first. (original cover shown. I’ll show the omnibus cover when I review the third novel in the book)

This first novel (and the following two) are identified in the introduction as “mosaic novels”, that is they began as several short stories which were combined into a novel. The stories became chapters, and it doesn’t appear much additional editing was done to unify them. There is a set cast of characters here, and a nice prequel added at the beginning to show the background of one of the major characters.

Short stories, novel, regardless of origin, these are well written, interesting stories involving a small number of the vast staff of Sector General, a huge deep space hospital which caters to the needs of every conceivable alien and human patient, with specialized atmospheric sections able to provide any needed combination of gravity and breathable environment required. The stories take on the aspect of problem-solving puzzles, with main character Dr. Conway and other staff, human and alien, trying to understand what is wrong with the patient, how to heal it.

White does a good job of presenting his aliens in this book, he invents a classification system which the hospital uses to determine what atmospheric environment they need to be in, and the descriptions of these and the treatment procedures are deftly written. Of course problems arise, complications ensue, intra-species conflicts occur. Very entertaining.

January 31, 2010

IFMCA 2009 Nominees For Best Score Announced

Filed under: film music — Tags: , , , , — Richard @ 3:58 pm

The International Film Music Critics Awards, simply because it is the best award “show” only for film music. Here are this year’s nominees  (Source: IFMCA)

FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR

• AVATAR, music by James Horner
• DRAG ME TO HELL, music by Christopher Young
• STAR TREK, music by Michael Giacchino
• THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, music by Alexandre Desplat
• UP, music by Michael Giacchino

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

• Alexandre Desplat
• Michael Giacchino
• James Horner
• Brian Tyler
• Christopher Young

BREAKOUT COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

• Henry Jackman
• Abel Korzeniowski
• James Peterson
• Clinton Shorter
• Austin Wintory

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM

• AGORA, music by Dario Marianelli
• BAARÌA, music by Ennio Morricone
• CREATION, music by Christopher Young
• MAO’S LAST DANCER, music by Christopher Gordon
• A SINGLE MAN, music by Abel Korzeniowski

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM

• COUPLES RETREAT, music by A.R. Rahman
• DUPLICITY, music by James Newton Howard
• THE INFORMANT!, music by Marvin Hamlisch
• JULIE & JULIA, music by Alexandre Desplat
• LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS, music by Debbie Wiseman

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/ADVENTURE FILM

• G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, music by Alan Silvestri
• LUCKY LUKE, music by Bruno Coulais
• THE RED CANVAS, music by James Peterson
• SHERLOCK HOLMES, music by Hans Zimmer
• UNDER THE MOUNTAIN, music by Victoria Kelly

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION FILM

• AVATAR, music by James Horner
• THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS, music by Mychael Danna and Jeff Danna
• KNOWING, music by Marco Beltrami
• STAR TREK, music by Michael Giacchino
• THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, music by Alexandre Desplat

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A HORROR/THRILLER FILM

• DRAG ME TO HELL, music by Christopher Young
• IMAGO MORTIS, music by Zacarías M. de la Riva
• IN THE ELECTRIC MIST, music by Marco Beltrami
• THE KILLING ROOM, music by Brian Tyler
• TRICK ‘R TREAT, music by Douglas Pipes

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• A CHRISTMAS CAROL, music by Alan Silvestri
• CORALINE, music by Bruno Coulais
• FANTASTIC MR. FOX, music by Alexandre Desplat
• THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, music by Randy Newman
• UP, music by Michael Giacchino

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• BROTHERS AT WAR, music by Lee Holdridge
• EARTH DAYS, music by Michael Giacchino
• GARBO: EL ESPÍA, music by Fernando Velázquez
• HOME, music by Armand Amar
• UNDER THE SEA 3D, music by Micky Erbe and Maribeth Solomon

FILM MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR

• AVATAR – “War,” music by James Horner
• DRAG ME TO HELL – “Concerto to Hell,” music by Christopher Young
• THE RED CANVAS – “Ballet for Brawlers,” music by James Peterson
• STAR TREK – “Enterprising Young Men,” music by Michael Giacchino
• UP – “Married Life,” music by Michael Giacchino

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR TELEVISION

• BATTLESTAR GALACTICA [SEASON 4.5], music by Bear McCreary
• CAPRICA, music by Bear McCreary
• LIFE, music by George Fenton
• LOST [SEASON 5], music by Michael Giacchino
• YELLOWSTONE, music by Edmund Butt

BEST NEW RELEASE/RE-RELEASE OF AN EXISTING SCORE

• BACK TO THE FUTURE, music by Alan Silvestri; Douglass Fake, producer (Intrada)
• INNERSPACE, music by Jerry Goldsmith; M.V. Gerhard and Mike Matessino, producers (La-La Land)
• THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN, music by James Horner; James Horner, Simon Rhodes and Douglass Fake, producers (Intrada)
• STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, music by James Horner; Lukas Kendall, producer (Film Score Monthly)
• TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, music by Jerry Goldsmith; Bruce Botnick, Lukas Kendall and Mike Matessino, producers (Film Score Monthly)

BEST RE-RECORDING OF AN EXISTING SCORE

• THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, music by Max Steiner, cond. William Stromberg; Anna Bonn, John Morgan and William Stromberg, producers (Tribute Film Classics)
• EXODUS, music by Ernest Gold, cond. Nic Raine; James Fitzpatrick, producer (Tadlow)
• THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, cond. William Stromberg; Anna Bonn, John Morgan and William Stromberg, producers (Tribute Film Classics)
BEST FILM MUSIC COMPILATION ALBUM OR BOX SET
• 40 BANDES ORIGINALES POUR 40 FILMS, music by Vladimir Cosma; Vladimir Cosma, producer (Larghetto Music)
• DAVID RAKSIN AT M-G-M, music by David Raksin; Lukas Kendall, producer (Film Score Monthly)
• THE FILM MUSIC OF MISCHA SPOLIANSKY, music by Mischa Spoliansky; Philip Lane, Ralph Couzens and Neil Varley, producers (Chandos)
• HOWARD SHORE: COLLECTOR’S EDITION Vol. 1, music by Howard Shore; Jonathan Schultz, producer (Howe)
• NORTHWEST PASSAGE: CLASSIC WESTERN SCORES FROM M-G-M Vol. 2 (1940-1974), music by various composers; Lukas Kendall, producer (Film Score Monthly)

FILM MUSIC RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR

• Film Score Monthly
• Intrada
• La-La Land Records
• MovieScore Media
• Varèse Sarabande

January 30, 2010

Have some Morricone

Filed under: Review, Saturday Soundtrack — Richard @ 9:40 am

this is # 16 in the ongoing Saturday Soundtrack series

The Mission (1986)

Original soundtrack from the motion picture, composed by Ennio Morricone, play time of 48:31, and 19 tracks (cues)

Ennio Morricone is certainly a recognizable name to those of us who listen to film music, and if you’re a very casual listener of this music probably all I have to do is remind you that he wrote the memorable music for the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It has been said by some, and I concur, that those films would not have been nearly as good without Morricone’s inspired compositions. The man – his music – is a legend in film music circles, writing music since 1959.

The music for this 1986 film is one of his greater commercial successes, and it’s a good one. That said, there are some cues here that are wonderful and others I skip while listening to the CD because I think they distract from the whole. One cue, “Gabriel’s Oboe” may be instantly recognizable to even non-film music listeners.

So if it’s not all completely wonderful why am I doing a Saturday Soundtrack on it? Because what is good here is very good indeed. This may be a soundtrack to preview on a download site and pick the cues you want. For me, the CD is in hand and I play it fairly often. You probably will too.

Track list of The Mission CD:  1. On Earth As It Is In Heaven  2. Falls  3. The Mission – Gabriel’s Oboe  4. Ave Maria Guarani  5. Brothers  6. Carlotta  7. Vita Nostra  8. Climb  9. Remorse  10. Penance  11. The Mission  12. River  13. Gabriel’s Oboe  14. Te Deum Guarani  15.  Refusal  16. Asuncion  17. Alone  18. Guarani  19. The Sword

January 28, 2010

The Joy of Discovery

Note: This post constitutes the 20th in a series of Friday Forgotten Books, this time in the form of a brief memoir about discovering books. For more Friday Forgotten Books, see Patti Abbott’s blog.

There are few things more pleasing to readers than the discovery of a new-to-them author or book that really clicks with their tastes and preferences in reading, whatever those tastes might be. I call those Joy of Discovery moments, and I’ve had many over the years. I suppose you could say that almost all of my reading has resulted from such occurrences.

Certainly, the earliest of these wasn’t made by me but was instead a result of selections made by my parents. The beloved children’s books from my now-distant youth were selected by them: Winnie the Pooh, Millions of Cats and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, to name just three very early childhood favorites, were in the house and often read to me, as they had been to my older brother.

But early on, often it was the books I somehow discovered for myself that made a difference. My reading skills were weak until I found things I really wanted to read, and that surely wasn’t the adventures of Dick, Jane, Spot and Fluffy. It was The Hardy Boys books, the Chip Hilton Boy’s sports series (here), Tom Swift Jr. and especially the Winston Science Fiction series (covers and endpaper art here) that really got me reading. The Hardy Boys got me reading mystery fiction, and though I set that genre aside for many years I did come back to it, as a result of one of those discoveries mentioned above. The Winston books were real science fiction, by authors who wrote for both youth and adult audiences, and that led to my life-long love of the genre, which I still read avidly. I don’t remember how I discovered the Winston books, but I’m pretty sure it was because my brother had read them, and they were available in the local library, an important consideration.

Okay, enough ancient history, let’s get on to some of those discoveries, shall we? I’ll start with something I’ve mentioned in passing several times in posts and reviews: Astounding Science Fiction magazine. Street and Smith published this one, and John W. Campbell edited it during the time I was reading it. My brother (yes, him again) had a subscription, and the issues were kept, carefully and in good condition, in his room. At some point either he allowed me to read them or I did it surreptitiously. Whichever, what is important here is that there were great covers, really good stories and the interior illustrations added a huge amount to the experience. The novelettes serialized over three months kept me going to the next issue, as if I needed any prompting! That’s where my love of the work of Kelly Freas originated. I guess, though there are many really top SF interior illustrators out there, he remains my favorite.

Inevitably, those issues of Astounding –later Analog – led me to the paperback racks, first in the local Woolworths, then in an actual bookstore, where a combination of cover art and author name I recognized from the magazines (I’d also begun reading Galaxy by this time) informed my purchases, and some of those books were more happy discoveries: Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Leinster, Anderson, Clement, A.E. Van Vogt. I still read those authors – occasionally – today.

So I happily read SF for years, and in the process of visiting the book store, I came across something else new: fantasy. Thinking back (foggily at this distance) it was probably Fritz Leiber who got me started with the 1970 collection of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, Swords and Deviltry. I went on to read them all. I still love them. Fun, atmospheric, clever, not taking themselves too seriously but providing great adventure and fun, I ate them up. Wonderful! After that start, a lot of the fantasy available was a little hard to swallow. The Castle of Otranto and The Worm Ouroboros and their like such were not so much fun. Of course there was that fellow Howard and his character Conan, that was good stuff.

But then I came across an English writer who’d done something darn good, a fellow named Tolkien. Now there’s a gigantic “joy of discovery” moment, and once again I have my older brother to thank for it. He read the books, he said they were good. I heard a little more and went out and bought copies in a small book store – now long gone – in Laguna Beach, CA. I took them home and read them. Wow! Author/book discoveries like that just don’t come often enough in life.

Remember there was no Jordon, Eddings, R.R. Martin, and all the others at that time. Tolkien was the ne plus ultra. Many believe he still is, and I may be among them, but that’s not the point.

I hear you asking “how about that happy discovery of mystery fiction you mentioned earlier?”. Well, I was just getting to it.

I’d read and really liked Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and novels. I had many friends who were avid fans of the mystery genre and often suggested other authors and books to me, but I had a couple of lukewarm contacts with the stuff and had decided to stick with rockets and elves, swords and sorcery, gravity wells and magic, thanks very much. Then on a trip to the mountains four of us got snowed in. I’d finished the book I’d brought with me, and began looking for something else to read. All I could find was an Agatha Christie novel featuring some guy named Hercule Poirot.

Joy of Discovery moment! It could have been the snowy weather outside, the company in the house or the mood I was in, but that day, that book was just right. I loved it, and it wasn’t long before I’d purchased a few large handfuls of Christie paperbacks, a reader’s guide to the Poirot novels, and was on the way to reading all of them. I even branched out and tried a few of the Miss Marple books, but preferred Poirot.

That led to other similar authors, from Allingham to Arthur Upfield. So much to read, suddenly, in the genre, and I was still reading SF and Fantasy. I was already well on the way to having more books than time, and eventually more books than space, or – perhaps – even common sense.

Then a friend of mine told me about a book I just HAD to try. An absolute must, he said, even if I did usually read Christie, et al. It had an odd title, but I got a copy and read it, while on vacation, lying on a beach in Mexico, as a mater of fact. The title? The Simple Art of Murder. with that great Tom Adams cover. (For more of the great covers painted by Adams, see here)

The ground shook, the sky cracked open, I had a Joy of Discovery moment unlike any other since Tolkien. Raymond Chandler’s writing and plots hit me like an exploding light bulb. I bought and read every Chandler short story I could lay hands on. When those were gone, I went looking for the novels.

That led to Dashiell Hammett and all the other past and current hard-boiled writers around. Poirot stood unnoticed in the shadows for a long time, and hard-boiled is still my preference in mystery fiction, or “crime fiction” if you prefer. Give me a P.I. on a case and most of the time (level of writing allowing)I’m a happy reader.

Not that I’ve forsaken SF and Fantasy, and there continue to be Joy of Discovery moments in those genres: last year – or was it in 2008? – John Scalzi, late last year it was Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Jay Lake. Most recently it’s the hard SF Sector General series by James White. I could go on and on, but I hear you thinking “You’ve gone on long enough!” and you’re probably right.

So I’ll end here. Happy reading to you all, and may you have Joy of Discovery moments soon and often!

January 26, 2010

Huh? What’s THAT thing?

Filed under: Humor, Personal Opinion — Tags: , , — Richard @ 2:39 pm

Okay, so I changed my “gravitar”, that little picture next to my name, or at the end or beginning of a comment, or whatever, when I post here or on other WordPress sites. For some reason known only to itself, Google will now allow me to do this, I suppose because I have a Google account, but not a Google blog with e-blogger. If they want to be that way, I’ll just remain little-anonymous-icon-guy on those sites. But here, and on other WordPress sites, I can bask in the glory, and you can warm yourselves in the reflected radiance.

Hmmm, it’s getting a little deep in here.

Anyway, that little dark blob you’re now seeing is in fact a small statue of a bear reading a book. It’s a bookend. Here’s a better look:

Hope you like it. I was just tired of that grainy black and white picture of myself. You know how it is, we creative types are always on the lookout for something new…

More Christopher Anvil

War Games

Christopher Anvil, © 2008
stories originally published 1957-1972
Baen Books 2008 hardcover

science fiction short story collection

Baen books has been reprinting Anvil’s work in a set of collections edited by Eric Flint. This is the seventh such collection. In this one we have 18 stories which were originally published between 1957 and 1972.

Anvil (the pseudonym of Harry C. Crosby) has long been a personal favorite, since I began reading his stories in Astounding Science Fiction in the 1950s. Droll, eminently readable, sometimes humorous, sometimes thought-provoking but always entertaining, Anvil’s short stories are a delight.

This collection shows the influence of the cold war on science fiction of the time. The “bad guys” in these stories, with one exception, aren’t aliens. It’s Russians, or Communists,  who pose the threat in these stories, but that doesn’t make them any less  enjoyable to read, except for the restrictions of one set of bad guys and of staying on Earth. That may make this the weakest set in the reprint series, but it’s still worthwhile reading, especially if, like me, you’re a fan of this author.  About the only things I could wish for here are an introduction and a few of the original interior illustrations. So far as I can tell, the cover illustration here, by the way, seems to have no basis in any of the stories.

January 25, 2010

weather report

Filed under: Personal Opinion — Richard @ 11:26 am

Just a quick note to say the rainstorms that caused some flooding and mudslides in areas of central and southern California seem to have passed through and moved east, and today it’s sunny and clear, though still cold for this area. We had no problems here at home, everything is weather tight and well drained, and we certainly need the rain, though it’s a shame it has to come all at once like that. More rain is forecast for later this week.

Wherever you are, I hope you are safe, warm and well.

January 23, 2010

Avatar part 3: the music

Filed under: Review, Saturday Soundtrack — Tags: , , , — Richard @ 8:19 am

This is # 15 in the ongoing Saturday Soundtrack series

Music from the Motion Picture, Fox/Atlantic Records 521681-2,  120 minutes

James Horner is a film composer whose work I enjoy and admire. When I see “music by James Horner” I’ll buy the soundtrack recording , as I did this one, which was available just a couple of weeks prior to the film’ U.S. release in December 2009.

I listened to this soundtrack as soon as I got my hands on it, and was lukewarm about what I heard. Sure, there are echoes of other Horner soundtracks, everyone comments that he reuses music, tunes, motifs from one project to the next. Since I like the music, that’s not a problem for me, but some reviewers love to sound off long and loud about it in a negative way. I can enjoy identifying some of those favorite hints from soundtrack to soundtrack, and for me it unifies Horner’s work in a subtle, pleasant way.

After a few times listening to this one, I began to realize that, unlike some of his other works, this time Horner has created music that is symbiotic with the film’s imagery, and since I hadn’t seen the film, I was missing some things. Sure enough, after seeing the film, the music made more sense and I realized, while watching, how the music supports what’s on screen.

I have often said I believe that a good soundtrack should be able to stand alone as a piece of music. I still believe that, but here we have a soundtrack that leans, pretty heavily at times, on the imagery it was written to accompany. That’s okay, I get to enjoy the music and recall the film at the same time, which is a good thing.

For a more in-depth review, without my personal opinions, take a look at this page at the Soundtrack Geek website. Jorn Tillnes has done a fine job reviewing the music, and there is a complete track listing with his ratings for the individual cues.

That wraps it up for my three-part Avatar coverage. Hope you liked it.

January 22, 2010

Can You Feel the Jungle?

This is the 20th in a series of Friday Forgotten Books stuff

The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny

2 CD collection of the greatest music from Martin Denny
Capitol Compact Disc CDP 7243 8 38374 2 7   120 minutes

It is 1957. In a couple of years Hawaii would become the 50th state, but right now America has Hawaii fever. The Hawaii Calls radio program was on every afternoon, and a lot of people were listening.

One of the hottest destinations in the islands is The Hawaiian Village, brainchild of entrepreneur Henry Kaiser. It was the first large tourist resort in Waikiki, and Kaiser wanted the best entertainer for his $10 million pet project. He stole Don Ho from Don the Beachcomber’s joint, and he stole the bartender from the place too. Then he hired Martin Denny, whose album Exotica had become a surprise hit, with the single “Quiet Village” hitting the charts all over the U.S.

Once you heard that song, you could identify it in the first few notes. First the quiet, warbling bird call, then the drum and acoustic base duo, ta da ta-da, ta da da dum, and another louder bird call, before the piano kicks in. If you can’t hear it in your head, you’re not trying hard enough. OK, try this: 

NOW do you remember?

The Exotica album was followed with Exotica II, Exotica III, Exotic Sounds, Afro-Desia, Primitiva, Forbidden Island, Hypnotique and several others.

~ ~ ~

So what we have here is a two CD, 40 tune collection, pressed in 1996 by Capitol. It contains music from all of the albums named above.

Feeling like throwing a tiki party yet? Great! Put on the Hawaiian shirt, light the tiki torches, get out the rum and put these discs on the player. You’ll have 2 hours of the perfect music.

We’ll be back to forgotten books next week. Meanwhile, somebody pass me a pineapple daiquiri.

series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more FFB reviews at her own blog,
along with a complete list of today’s participating blogs.

January 20, 2010

Avatar – part 2: sources

you can find Avatar – part 1: seeing the film right here.

There has been a LOT of discussion and opinion about the possible sources and influences on Cameron resulting in the plot and look of Avatar. I’ve yet to see Cameron give anything specific, other than to say he’s wanted to make the film for a long time but had to wait for the technology to catch up to his concept.

The Plot

Much of the discussion is about the storyline for Avatar, and a lot of it is insightful. The first reference I read, just after the first leaks about the film, was that it sounded a lot like Harry Harrison’s Deathworld. My reaction to that was Wow! Great! I LOVE Deathworld , did when I read it in Astounding Science Fiction (January-March, 1960) and loved it when I reread it years later. Later, as people saw the trailers and read more about the film, the most consistently identified source was Poul Anderson’s story “Call Me Joe”, which features the concept of a remotely controlled body on a planet. That’s another favorite story from back when, and recently reread in a Anderson collection I’m working my way through, so that sounded pretty good to me as well. The comparison is apt.

Then I began reading more and more suggestions, most of them fairly sensible, but the longer the list got, the more it seemed to me the comparison could be made to a goodly share of the entire genre. Where do the comparisons end? It has advanced science, spaceships, explorers, a military presence, aliens, a religious/quasi-religious theme, an alien landscape, unknown botany and biology, an advanced – or is it a backward? – alien culture, humans at cross-purposes with each other in the face of a threat… I can go on, but you get the idea.

There are a lot of basic themes in science fiction, and any time a new SF film is made, someone is going to say, “look, they stole this…or that… from (fill in the blank)” It happened with 2001: A Space Odyssey, with Star Trek and Star Wars (Buck Rogers, anyone?). Even THX 1138, Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park (Godzilla, anyone?) and on and on. Fact is, it’s darned hard to find any SF film that isn’t derivative of something in some way. That’s just the way the genre works.

That said, there are some pretty nice tributes in the film, and I’m not going to mention them all – heck, I probably missed a lot of them. I saw the six-legged beasts as a direct nod to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars books, as the Martian men and beasts were six-limbed. There were nods to the bonding and dragon-riding of Anne McCaffreys’ Pern books. There are many others.

The whole issue of cribbing and being unoriginal is really a non-issue, or should be. Sure, go ahead and read the books and stories that are being pointed at, because for the most part they are darned good stuff. I say just get over worrying about where Cameron got the ideas, and look at what he did with them.

The Floating Mountains

This is one particular thing that’s come in for a lot of criticism. Floating mountains? Sure, you say. Right. As if. But like everything else here, there is a precedent. The first one I think of is traditional Chinese painting. There are some areas of China that are very mountainous and misty and fogs are common.  Take a look at this sepia toned painting. Not exactly floating mountains, but the look is certainly there.

Then I think of the art of Roger Dean. Take a look at this cover for The Flights of Icarus painted by Roger Dean. See anything familiar, like maybe a floating hunk of real estate? Yep. Dean did a lot more of this kind of thing, but I’m not going to take the space here to insert them.

You want another source for floating mountains? Sure. This one (below) is by Josh Middleton, an artist who said he was influenced by the Dean art for various Yes album covers and other art by Dean. It’s from CrossGen Comics title Meridian.

It’s been suggested that the art of Christopher Vacher and other more contemporary artists have been doing floating mountains, cities, and whatnot for a while. True, but also look at that pretty old traditional Chinese painting.

I could go on with this one, but you get the idea. I guess the point of all this is simply – and I’m repeating what I said above - It’s not so important where Cameron got the ideas, it’s what he did with them.

Okay, that’s enough for Avatar for today.

The final part of this three part look at the film will be on the soundtrack by James Horner. That’s coming on Saturday for my weekly Saturday Soundtrack feature. See you there.

January 19, 2010

Yep, a new theme

Filed under: Personal Opinion — Richard @ 4:47 pm

If you think things here look a little different, you’re right.

I changed the template (“theme” in WordPress parlance), so the pages look a little different. The biggest difference here is that thks one os a fixed-width theme, the other was a variable-width one. That means while the old onecould expand to any width, this one is the same all the time. I may have to make my media a little smaller.

I may also try another theme or two in the next couple of weeks, so don’t be surprised.

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