Pete Terranova

Black Light - Book Review

2012-01-07T18:32:00.003-06:00

Black Light is the second in Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger series though it's the last one for me and the first one, too. Some years back I'd tried to start the series and had picked up this book but set it aside after a hundred pages or so - at the time, it just wasn't my kinda book. Amazing what time can do.

Having introduced the story of the death of Bob Lee's father in his first book, Hunter now takes up that story in detail and ties it to the present time of the book. (Hunter's prior published book, Dirty White Boys, is also tied to this Black Light, forming a sort of trilogy of Time to Hunt, Dirty White Boys, and Black Light. I've no desire to read Dirty White Boys and there's no need since the essentials of that book are detailed here.) It's a what-happened-years-ago-is-now-very-important-to-the-present-and-must-be-kept-secret-at-all-costs kind of plot. Swagger and his side kick follow the clues and fight the bad guys and there's some gunplay but not on the scale of Hunter's other Swagger books. Justice is delivered and arrangements are made and everybody's ready to move on to the next adventure by the end of the book.

Not Hunter's best and not near the top of the series but a decent enough place holder until the next book. Glad I read it. Glad I'm finished with it.

So that just about finishes my Stephen Hunter reading jag. I've got one more to go - his latest - and than my mild case of reading OCD will allow me to move on. Oh, it's been fun all right but the bad thing about finishing a series is that you're finished with the series. I'll be glad to look for another series but I was perfectly happy with this one.

Point of Impact - Book Review

2011-12-28T18:38:00.000-06:00

Point of Impact is where it all started, the first book in Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger series. Don't let the uninspired title keep you away. Sure, the plot-line is worn out - an innocent man is set up to take the fall by the government and he takes awesome revenge. (Hunter himself talks about how so well-used the plot is that he used it again in Dead Zero. As he points out, when you've got a good plot, you stick with it.) But this is not only an origin story, it's a good tale well-told with Hunter's trademark delirious prose. All of the highlights you've come to expect from this series is here: gun lore, exciting shoot outs, plot twists, Swagger outsmarting and outgunning his enemies. A great start to what's turned out to be a great series.

Since this was written in the early '90s, it's interesting to see who the bad guys are. Remember when things were heating up in Central America? There was a time when that part of the world seemed so very important to the United States. My how the world has turned.

(The movie version is Shooter, which I didn't see, which was directed by Antoine Fuqua, a more-than-able thriller movie director starring Mark Wahlberg, the more than adequate action movie star. I understand it wasn't very good. Oh, well.)

Stephen Hunter Obsession

2011-12-27T18:31:00.022-06:00

I'm not alone in my Stephen Hunter obsession. Here's part of Zachary Leeman's review of Hunter's latest, Soft Target:

Any novel that opens with crazy jihadists killing jolly old Saint Nick on the first page can’t be too bad.

“Soft Target”. . . manages to be more than just not bad; it’s a modern Western on amphetamines; it’s Tom Clancy if Clancy were a better weaver of the old fashioned good vs. evil yarn; it’s… well, it’s Stephen Hunter all the way. Semper fi and all that. . .

. . .Hunter is famous for going where no other writer will go. He enters the grey. He tells the densely complicated stories other thriller writers shy away from. He throws his noble yet heroic characters into the world of grey and forces them to deem what is black and white, good and evil, and we sit back and enjoy.

Hunter’s novels also appeal because of their visual style, and this one is no different. He manages to keep the pace fast and the narrative swift without sacrificing clarity, because he knows exactly what we want. He feeds us the exact images and verbs our inner beasts need to gobble up in order to be completely consumed by the story. Hunter has perfected the craft of the thriller by keeping his prose simple a la Hemingway and giving us the details other writers shy away from, all while providing these in the context of a visually striking world only a man who reviewed films for decades could give us.

Ten Reasons Why I Should Be Preparing Your Tax Return and Not Turbo-Tax

2011-12-27T08:07:00.001-06:00

Tax season looms. Time to bump this list to the top of the blog. I wrote it almost two years ago; it's not perfect but I don't have anything to add. Interested? Look to the sidebar for my contact information. Let's talk.

1.) There are no free lunches. I've had a chance to look further into Turbo Tax's free edition of their software and it's not, you know, free if you have to file a state tax return or you call them with a question. Their other packages? Sure, somewhat cheaper than what I'll charge you but my price includes the state return and, of course, e-filing's free. So while TurboTax can beat my price, they can't beat it by too terribly much.

2.) Price isn't everything is it? Cost is. What will it cost you to use TurboTax to do your tax return rather than me? Let's see, there's the cost of the software, the computer to run the software, the time you spent learning the software and inputting the information, and the potential cost you'll have if the IRS has a question about your return. And make no mistake, the IRS is questioning more and more returns. You'll have to take time to respond to any IRS inquiries and should the IRS take a hard line - something they seem to be doing more and more nowadays - you'll have to take time to research and respond to that. That's all included with my fee. I call that a pretty low cost for a some peace of mind.

3.) Customer support. I'll grant TurboTax has pretty good customer support. Not as good as you'll get from me - I'm a phone call or e-mail away. And depending on the circumstances, I'll even come to you. I don't think anyone from TurboTax will do that, do you?

4.) Coffee. Drop your information off and stay for a chat, get coffee. It's Colombian. It's free.

5.) Change is the tax code throughout the year? Changes in your personal status? You won't call TurboTax will you? Didn't think so.

6.) Record keeping. I maintain files of all the tax returns I prepare for you. Think of all the attic space you'll save. And I'm ready to provide copies to whomever you authorize me.

7.) A reliable referral source. Anyone you send to me, I guarantee will get the same great service you got.

8.) Networking. I have an incredible span of clients. Chances are, if you have a professional need, I can refer you to someone I know who'll take care of it. We're all in this together, you know.

9.) Tax organizers. At the beginning of each year, you get an organizer from me to help you get your records in order for tax preparation. That and a client letter with the latest tax information that might affect you.

10.) If you have a business, I can do more than just your tax returns. I can do your accounting, payroll, consult about QuickBooks, your business, perform financial statement reviews and audits. Name it. I'll help you find a solution for your business.

Interested? I've added my contact information on the sidebar. Give me a shout. Let's see what I can do for you.

Time to Hunt - Book Review

2011-12-26T22:01:00.004-06:00

I'm continuing with my out-of-order reading of Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger series - I read 'em when I can get 'em - and the next one I had on hand was Time to Hunt . It's the third in the series and Hunter would break off for three books to explore the goings on of Bob Lee's father Earl, who I've already written about.

This time around, Bob Lee's family is in jeopardy. His wife and daughter are out in the wilderness riding horses and thanks to a narrative trick we believe that Bob Lee is mortally wounded within the first few pages. Then Hunter takes us on a long flashback, back-filling Swagger's Vietnam experience as well as Swagger's spotter, Donny. All of this sidetracking is vitally important to the present day story so that when Hunter brings us back, we know exactly who the players are and what's at stake. Picking up the narrative, Hunter takes us headlong into the thriller territory we've come to know and the twists and payoffs and very satisfying. Oh, and then there's all that gun lore that's so important to the series.

No, this one doesn't disappoint at all. One of his best. And the book that's probably the key to the whole Bob Lee Swagger character.

2011-12-08T05:21:00.001-06:00

Good morning #teamcoffee from The Villages, Florida, America's friendliest hometown. I'm considered a whippersnapper here which delights me.

The 47th Samurai - Book Review

2011-12-05T09:12:00.000-06:00

Back to Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger series. Next up: The 47th Samurai. (It follows Havana in publishing chronology but it's a return to the series after a three-book hiatus. I'll get the story chronology straight when I'm through with the series in about three books or so.)

Hunter's plans for Bob Lee seem similar to his plans for Earl - place his character in a new setting and turn 'im loose. In this case, Hunter plunks Bob Lee in the middle of Japan and the traditions of the samurai. (D'uh.) He ties the Earl Swagger series to the Bob Lee series with a prologue involving Earl and the plot drives from those scenes. Hunter spins his magic with the new setting and old characters and makes the implausible plot and events and climax seem doable in its own world. Just try not to think too much about it after you close the book. He seems to know as much stuff about swords as he does guns and that's quite a bit and I always find that part of his books to be the most interesting. There's the usual trouble you'll find in series fiction - events shape and grow the characters yet essentially they remain unchanged at their core. Minor characters age and their actions must be explained and tracked and at the end there's a new character to wonder about. (Which is no wonder if you've read the subsequent books like I have.)

A solid installment in the series.

Now, to backfill the remaining three prior books.

Nothing Secret About Victoria's Secret

2011-12-04T07:06:00.001-06:00

The latest commercial of Victoria's Secret, that lacy underthang company, tries to tell me that the perfect gift I could give this Christmas season is one their of lacy underthangs. Or so I think that's what they're telling me. I'm a little distracted by all the ladies the commercial has caught lounging in their undies. They don't seem to be bothered at all to be caught short, clothing-wise. I guess I shouldn't be either. But I get the message: nothing recalls the gift of Christ like giving a gift of super-sexy underwear to the one you love.

And Victoria's secret use of a religious iconography seems a little odd, too - you know, their models wearing angel wings as they glide down the runway in their recent fashion show. Certainly the Bible has its share of eroticism but I can't imagine the angels going about their glorious tasks in their skimpy frockery and high-heeled shoes. That would have been a sight for those poor shepherds to see that Christmas night so long ago.

Well, at least this gives me an opportunity to give you another poem by my favorite poet, Billy Collins. As he says, this is already too much, this fuss about things that used to be unmentionable:

Victoria's Secret

The one in the upper left-hand corner
is giving me a look
that says I know you are here
and I have nothing better to do
for the remainder of human time
than return your persistent but engaging stare.
She is wearing a deeply scalloped
flame-stitch halter top
with padded push-up styling
and easy side-zip tap pants.

The one on the facing page, however,
who looks at me over her bare shoulder,
cannot hide the shadow of annoyance in her brow.
You have interrupted me,
she seems to be saying,
with your coughing and your loud music.
Now please leave me alone;
let me finish whatever it was I was doing
in my organza-trimmed
whisperweight camisole with
keyhole closure and a point d'esprit mesh back.

I wet my thumb and flip the page.
Here, the one who

happens to be reclining
in a satin and lace merry widow
with an inset lace-up front,
decorated underwire cups and bodice
with lace ruffles along the bottom
and hook-and-eye closure in the back,
is wearing a slightly contorted expression,
her head thrust back, mouth partially open,
a confusing mixture of pain and surprise
as if she had stepped on a tack
just as I was breaking down
her bedroom door with my shoulder.

Nor does the one directly beneath her
look particularly happy to see me.
She is arching one eyebrow slightly
as if to say, so what if I am wearing nothing
but this stretch panne velvet bodysuit
with a low sweetheart neckline
featuring molded cups and adjustable straps.
Do you have a problem with that?

The one on the far right is easier to take,
her eyes half-closed
as if she were listening to a medley
of lullabies playing faintly on a music box.
Soon she will drop off to sleep,
her head nestled in the soft crook of her arm,
and later she will wake up in her
Spandex slip dress with the high side slit,
deep scoop neckline, elastic shirring,
and concealed back zip and vent.

But opposite her,
stretched out catlike on a couch
in the warm glow of a paneled library,
is one who wears a distinctly challenging expression,
her face tipped up, exposing
her long neck, her perfectly flared nostrils.
Go ahead, her expression tells me,
take off my satin charmeuse gown
with a sheer, jacquard bodice
decorated with a touch of shimmering Lurex.
Go ahead, fling it into the fireplace.
What do I care, her eyes say, we're all going to hell anyway.

I have other mail to open,
but I cannot help noticing her neighbor
whose eyes are downcast,
her head ever so demurely bowed to the side
as if she were the model who sat for Coreggio
when he painted "The Madonna of St. Jerome,"
only, it became so ungodly hot in Parma
that afternoon, she had to remove
the traditional blue robe
and pose there in his studio
in a beautifully shaped satin teddy
with an embossed V-front,
princess seaming to mold the bodice,
and puckered knit detail.

And occupying the whole facing page
is one who displays that expression
we have come to associate with photographic beauty.
Yes, she is pouting about something,
all lower lip and cheekbone.
Perhaps her ice cream has tumbled
out of its cone onto the parquet floor.
Perhaps she has been waiting all day
for a new sofa to be delivered,
waiting all day in a stretch lace hipster
with lattice edging, satin frog closures,
velvet scrollwork, cuffed ankles,
flare silhouette, and knotted shoulder straps
available in black, champagne, almond,
cinnabar, plum, bronze, mocha,
peach, ivory, caramel, blush, butter, rose, and periwinkle.
It is, of course, impossible to say,
impossible to know what she is thinking,
why her mouth is the shape of petulance.

But this is already too much.
Who has the time to linger on these delicate
lures, these once unmentionable things?
Life is rushing by like a mad, swollen river.
One minute roses are opening in the garden
and the next, snow is flying past my window.
Plus the phone is ringing.
The dog is whining at the door.
Rain is beating on the roof.
And as always there is a list of things I have to do
before the night descends, black and silky,
and the dark hours begin to hurtle by,
before the little doors of the body swing shut
and I ride to sleep, my closed eyes
still burning from all the glossy lights of day.

Havana - Book Review

2011-11-25T18:26:00.005-06:00

Havana, the last of Stephen Hunter's Earl Swagger novels, is set in, well, Havana, where this time Earl is recruited by CIA types to take out none other than, who else, Fidel Castro.

Need to know about Havana in the early 50s, before Castro came to power? (You know, around the time as it's depicted in Godfather 2?) Here's your book! Full of gangsters and government-types and revolutionaries, and mojitos and cigars all under a blazing tropical sun it's Hunter's fever dream of the era, mixed with real events and his fictional character, all wrapped up with a nice show down between our hero and the bad guys. No, it can't come near Hunter's masterpiece in the series, it'still a fine example of Hunter's writing powers. Sadly, though, it's apparently the last we'll see of ol' Earl in a book of his own. In his next book, Hunter will then pick up where he left off with Earl's son, Bob Lee, but now we know as we read those books more about this larger-than-life hero that looms so large in Bob Lee's mind.

Stick around to the end: Hunter includes two articles he wrote for The Washington Post that resulted from his research trips to Havana - one about Castro's raid on the Moncada Barracks and another on the Shanghai Theater. I hope the links work but if you click through you'll get a good sense of Hunter's writing style.

Pale Horse Coming - Book Review

2011-11-12T08:18:00.002-06:00

Next in Stephen Hunter's Earl Swagger is Pale Horse Coming and it's a doozy.

The bare bones plot borrows from the real life events of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (per Wikipedia. Click through that link if you want a synopsis of the entire plot.) See, there's this prison in the deepest, darkest reaches of, uh, Mississippi, and Earl's friend has been wrongfully taken prisoner. There's a break out, a capture, much misery, another break out, a break in and then it's all Apocalypse now with the world ending in fire and flood and whole lot of shooting thrown in for good measure.

Long and thrilling, Hunter is clearly having fun with his series and when an artist is having fun great things happen and no doubt Hunter is an artist in this genre. For shooting fans, there's the usual gun lore to be found and for movie fans Hunter borrows from his day job as a movie reviewer and pays homage to those movies where a group of guys (and a girl!) go up against impossible odds and prevail. Sure, it's all preposterous. So? It's also epic and could very well be Hunter's masterpiece of his series.

Hot Springs - Book Review

2011-11-08T07:18:00.000-06:00

Chewing through more of the Stephen Hunter list, I opted to change things up a bit and shift over to the Earl Swagger portion of his series. (Earl Swagger is the father of Bob Lee Swagger; Hunter runs two series where they intersect somewhere down the line in Black Light. Black Light is the third in the Bob Lee Swagger series and was written before the Earl Swagger series though it takes place years later. Got that?)

So Hot Springs is the first in the Earl Swagger series and introduces more in full to a character that Bob Lee Swagger fans already know about. Earl's a World War II hero, returned home to Arkansas after being recruited by law enforcement to help clear out that hotbed of sin known as Hot Springs. Hunter does his usual bang up (heh) job of getting the story underway and showing us why Earl's such a hero while keeping us interested in the gun lore about which Hunter is an expert. There are plot twists aplenty as well as cameos from real life gangsters, heckalacious gun fights, a portrait of post World War II Hot Springs, rural Arkansas and a very fine climax. An excellent start to this series as well as a primer on an offstage character that looms so large in the Bob Lee series.

Night of Thunder - Book Review

2011-10-18T20:29:00.001-05:00

Some post-filing season catching up:

In keeping with my intent to fill in some of the spaces in the Bob Lee Swagger series, I finished Night of Thunder, a not-bad entry in the series but one which his fans, according to the comments on the Amazon.com page, thought was one of his weaker efforts. But, like Hunter says in his Afterword, he decided what a NASCAR event needed was a good gunfight and, by gosh, that's exactly what he's accomplished. If that's not your thing, well, that's not your thing and there's not much to be done about it, but Hunter's prose reaches a feverish pitch here and, though my experience in this culture is limited, I imagine his descriptions of the event and the people involved with it are about the best you'll find anywhere. Oh, and there's a corking good gunfight thrown in there as well.

And, as usual, there's the heavy baggage of updating readers on the tangled relationships of the series character with those around him. Once those are sorted out, though, it's a wild ride. Sure, of the books in this series I've read this may be the weakest but it's very entertaining and a solid entry. Nothing wrong with that.

Dead Zero - Book Review

2011-10-17T08:34:00.000-05:00

After nine months I've managed to return to Stephen Hunter and his Bob Lee Swagger series. The latest is Dead Zero and it doesn't disappoint. This time around Swagger has to track down some rogue element within the government who can't stand to have the possibility of peace in the sandbox and complications ensue. Plenty of the stuff I've come to expect from Hunter: shooting, guns, 'splosions, sure, but it's his writing style that I'd admire the most. Keeping things from going over the top, but barely, Hunter tells his story with great enthusiasm. Sure, there's the usual problems of a series character - all of the baggage Swagger's managed to pick up over the series has to be commented on and sometimes updated and there's yet another surprise about family relations. That kind of plot twist and is old and tired but if you like that sort of thing, well, that sort of thing is there for you. Hunter knows what he's doing. Who am I to say otherwise?

But I'm back to my original dilemma: now that I'm current with the series, should I go back and fill in the spaces. I know back in February I said I didn't see the point but I'm enjoying this series so much I just might have to go back and read about Swagger's origins for myself instead of relying on a passing comments in the newer books.

We'll see. There's a lot of other books I'd like to read.

Likable Links

2011-10-16T20:35:00.003-05:00

I've been swamped with work so I haven't been able to post some links that I'd wanted to post. I've used the following already over on my Facebook page - I'm not overly sold on the benefits of Facebook but it's a good place to keep up with friends and family and even a few clients - and since this blog's RSS feed sprays over to my Facebook page, these links will be a repeat.

Anyway, this caught my eye. You might like 'em, too:

America's most literary street.

Mass Karaoke at the Minnesota State Fair.

Hemingway's Boat - Book Review

2011-09-22T18:38:00.000-05:00

It seems to me the Hemingway biography industry has run dry - the last I remember reading was Michael Reynolds final volume of his wonderful biography - but just when you think there can't possibly be anything to add to life of Hemingway along comes Paul Hendrickson's Hemingway's Boat and that changes everything.

Hendrickson singular take is to begin in 1934 when Hemingway acquired his beloved boat, Pilar, and then work his way forwards and backwards and, sometimes, sideways. For that effort alone, Hendrickson should be applauded - he more than makes his case that everything that came before Pilar and that came after had a profound effect on Hemingway and his boat is what ties it all together. Passing characters in Hemingway's life get a closer look. Arnold Samuelson, who spent a memorable Summer with Hemingway in Key West which both Hemingway and Samuelson would write about, changes from a sometimes comic character to a tragic one. And there are new characters on the scene - Walter and Nita Houk, a couple who Hemingway befriended in the early 50s, that provide a sweet counterpoint to an ugly time of Hemingway's life. If Hemingway was capable of great cruelty, he was also capable of great gallantry. As Hendrickson points out, Walter Houk is still alive today, one of the few people who are who were around during those days and can provide a firsthand account of how things really were. But because Houk's story sheds a positive light on Hemingway, his and his wife's story has been overlooked by other biographers. That's too bad.

And then there are the final chapters about Hemingway's sad youngest son, Gregory, and the intriguing theory that perhaps the two shared similar impulses. It's too easy to say that Hemingway's overt macho-ism was a response to his mother's dressing him up as a girl when he was a toddler and later trying to twin him with is younger sister that led to his very real mental problems. Certainly his own father's struggle with mental illness had more to do with that than anything. But how do you explain Gregory's penchant for transvestism taken to the final extreme of transexualism at the end of his tragic life? Hendrickson says that Hemingway's impulses may have found an outlet in his writing; Gregory's impulses, alas, didn't, and he ended up acting them out in a most dramatic manner. Still, Hendrickson believes, and I do as well, that despite the distance between the two, neither could really give up on the other.

No doubt the Hemingway family was a strange family, driven by impulses they couldn't understand. Hemingway, whether he knew it or not, did the best he could to come to terms with those impulses through the life he lead and his writings. He was really a confessional writer before Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton forced the term to be coined.

Here's a review from OpinionJournal that delves deeper into the book than I do here and which summarizes and makes the final point about the book far better than I can:

This is persuasive. Yet there may be a simpler and more common explanation for the artistic decline and the despair it engendered: that Hemingway exhausted his material. It is a common fate for novelists, especially novelists who achieve early success. Most go on publishing, pretending that their new work is as good as their old. Hemingway, who told so many lies in his books, couldn't tell this lie to himself. He continued to write, at far greater length than in the good years, in the hope that the work would come out fine. It didn't. So the reams of manuscript and typescript were locked away in the bank. Even so, the gods had not altogether deserted him; he was granted that late miracle, "A Moveable Feast."

For Mr. Hendrickson, discovering just how unhappy and unsettled Hemingway was for so long makes him more of a hero. He states his case persuasively, which is why this book is so good. Certainly one cannot help admiring the way in which Hemingway stuck, grimly and doggedly, to his métier, even as his powers failed.

There are two sentences that sum up what happened to Hemingway. They were written neither by himself nor by Mr. Hendrickson but by Fitzgerald, whose own weaknesses Hemingway, his friend and rival, admirer and denigrator, threw in his face. They were words that Fitzgerald gave to Dick Diver in "Tender Is the Night" to explain his decline: "The change came a long way back—but at first it didn't show. The manner remains intact for some time after the morale cracks."

No, you won't read this book about Hemingway because Hemingway doesn't mean anything to you. Even so, to miss it is to miss an extraordinary book about an extraordinary American writer.

A Drop of the Hard Stuff - Book Review

2011-08-20T08:45:00.000-05:00

Why, lookee here, I finally got a book read. Actually, I've read more than one book since my last book-related post - I just haven't said anything about them. Looks like I've got some catching up to do. Not that I've read that many but still.

Anyway, just finished Lawrence Block's latest Matthew Scudder novel, A Drop of the Hard Stuff. It looks like I haven't posted anything about Block though I know I've read within recent memory the last installment in his Keller series. He hasn't written a Scudder novel in quite some time so it's good to get back to the character. And, ingeniously, Block manages to take us back to a time where Scudder was really setting himself apart from the other private investigator characters of other mystery series: 30 years ago, when Scudder was first struggling with his sobriety. The mystery at the core of the novel is less important than Scudder's personal struggle and it's a delight to visit New York City back in those days. Bracketed by scenes in current time, it's a nice contrast to the way things used to be. Better? Not at all. But interesting nonetheless.

Honestly, I'd grown a little weary with the evolution of the Scudder character in recent books; domesticity doesn't really suit him. This is a nice way to re-visit him without having to go back to the old novels. Block's writing is effortless, as always, and while there's no real surprises to be had - and I wasn't as pleased as I'd like to be with the plot's resolution - Block remains a pro and he brings everything, and everyone, in for a safe landing.

Hard Stuff is good stuff.

April iPhone Photo Dump

2011-06-04T07:54:00.001-05:00

My goodness. I'm getting worse at dumping these pictures from my iPhone. May's done come and gone and June is already off to a fine start and still no April pictures. Well, time to cure that. Ready? Here we go!

April is the cruelest month. Just ask T.S. Eliot or any CPA. In my case, that means I don't have a whole heckuva lot of time to for photo opportunities. Still, you take 'em where you get 'em. It isn't unusual to find a CPA in his office on a Saturday morning and I'm not exception. One of those fine mornings, they held the biking portion of the Redbud Classic. The route runs right by my window:

The hardcore head out first and fast:

The not-so-serious are a little more. . . leisurely:

While dashed in the store one day, I noticed this seasonal display, unusual for this part of the country:

We're becoming more multi-ethnic here in Oklahoma. Usually you'd find this tucked away on a dusty shelf somewhere but in honor of Passover these items get a more prominent location:

Monday nights, Clara teaches ESL. That means a movie for Emily and me, if we can find one. Emily gets to pick both the movie and the seat:

Storm season approaches and so do massive thunderheads. These stayed south and to the east but ominous no less:

Here's a better shot:

So the storms passed us by. That means the running of the hoses and sprinklers:

When the weather is fine, the clouds are almost cheerful:

Post-filing season, there was time for golf. The fairways and greens are coming up nicely. Too bad my game wasn't:

Aw, Emily. My drive wasn't that bad:

April is past us and tucked away in our memory. Let's see what May holds.

Twistin' the Night Away

2011-05-25T07:39:00.001-05:00

Last night's tornadoes left us unscathed but others weren't so lucky:

At least eight people were killed and dozens more injured after multiple tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma on Tuesday, including a massive twister that left a trail of damage 50 miles long.

Cherokee Ballard, spokeswoman for the state medical examiner, said the death toll has risen to eight. About 6 a.m. Wednesday morning she learned from a hospital that a child has died. She did not know in what county or hospital the child died.
Ballard also said the fatalities include four deaths in Canadian County, two deaths in Logan County, one death in Grady County and the child's death.

There are plenty of pictures and first-hand accounts at the link so follow it through if you feel compelled.

For us, things were tense enough that we headed to the closets - no, we don't have a shelter though a neighbor does down the street and that's where most of the the neighbors go. You can also go to the high school about a mile away so there's we'd have no lack of options if we felt it was dangerous enough. All signs indicated we'd be spared but a last minute button hook of the storm made us re-think things. Rain, hail, wind, lightning, thunder - the usual mix, but that was all we got. (I can't find a graphic to illustrate this but I did see something on television that showed the tornado's track was headed right for us but sputtered out and died a couple miles away.) The power went out for about 2 hours which is about our limit for roughing it.

So, once again, we were blessed. Even more so than usual.

(For us, it was nothing like the May 3rd tornado. That, my friends, was something.)

Bob Dylan's Birthday

2011-05-24T07:40:00.002-05:00

While you're celebrating, you may begin to think there's something happening but you don't know what it is. Well, here's why:

Bob Dylan famously found Jesus in 1979—and then apparently misplaced him, moving away from born-again Christian rock in his set lists and on to his next reinvention. Mr. Dylan himself has been steadily ducking messianic labels since the 1960s, and on the advent of his 70th birthday (May 24) can only be bewildered that critics still tend to refer to him in Christ-like terms. "I never wanted to be a prophet or savior," he told "60 Minutes" in 2004. "If you look at the songs, I don't believe you're going to find anything in there that says I'm a spokesman for anybody or anything really"—except, possibly, for Victoria's Secret, in whose TV ad Mr. Dylan had appeared a short time before, staring moodily into the camera while his song "Love Sick" played in the background. Yet for intellectuals as diverse as music critic Greil Marcus and historian Sean Wilentz, he is a subject fit for fine-grained, extended study. (Mr. Marcus became a writer, he says, in large part because of Mr. Dylan's music.) No other living musician has generated so much ink—articles, biographies, cultural studies, dissertations, monographs, coffee-table books, even the scholarly "Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan."

A Drink Before The War - Book Review

2011-05-19T07:53:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned, I thought I might fill in the Dennis Lehane books I haven't read so why not start with the first?

The first book in a series is always interesting - the writer is just beginning and seems to be trying to hard and too earnestly where later in the series he's in full, confident stride. Lehane is no different here - there are glimpses and glimmers of what may be great things to come but for now the characters seem kind've gimmicky. Come on: an office in the bell tower of a church? (Yeah, yeah, there's a reasonable explanation for it. Okay, the explanation isn't reasonable. Never mind. It's a gimmick.)

Lehane's liberal political leanings are at full sail here. The central problem. Racism, of course. You know, if it wasn't for the racism of the white characters, the black characters wouldn't act the way they do. There's also a lot of class hooey - did you know poor people are inherently good because they're poor? Yep. Same reason why rich people are inherently evil. It's a law of nature. This kind of thing is surprising, too, since the book was published in 1994. The 60s were 24 years gone but the eras radical values still echo for Lehane.

But what about the plot, the style, Lehane's skill with language and ratcheting up the suspense? Far-fetched, not bad, pretty good and not bad, in that order. So toss away the ridiculous plot and politics and gimmicks and you'd have a good start for a series. Presumably Lehane gets better because the series goes on for several more books before he tries his hand with other things. For now, though, this is an uninteresting start.

George Will Turns 70

2011-05-11T10:58:00.000-05:00

And reminds us: Is this a great country or what?

Finally, to be 70 is to have lived 30 percent of the life of this nation, which is almost enough time to begin to fully appreciate the inestimable privilege of being a legatee of those who first unfurled the republic’s sails and steered it toward the present. That is why — with homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald — as we beat on, boats against the current, we should be borne back ceaselessly into the American past: It is impossible for the young to know, but never too late to learn, that America truly is something — perhaps the only thing — commensurate with our capacity for wonder.

Stallion Gate - Book Review (Again!)

2011-05-11T06:52:00.006-05:00

In the recent "Great Blogger Blackout," the following post was lost and never re-stored. Posting it again for the sake of completeness so if it seems familiar, well, that's because it is. (Funky font brought to you by Facebook, which is a lesson learned, I guess: sending the RSS feed to my Facebook preserved the post. Users of Blogger might be well-served to do something similar with their posts in the event of future blackouts.)

Taking a break from his Arkady Renko novels, Martin Cruz Smith back in the '80s tried his hand at another genre - the World War 2 history genre, I guess you'd call it. Anyway, Stallion Gate it's a fictional treatment of the the development of the atom bomb at Los Alamos with some intrigue about spies thrown in for suspense with a twist of romantic drama to make things more interesting, as if the subject matter alone wasn't interesting enough.

Unfortunately, Smith takes the liberal view that communists really weren't that big a threat to the United States and anyone who thought so was paranoid and foolish. His protagonist, Joe Pena, doesn't take very seriously his assignment to prove that Oppenheimer is a Red and instead the personal becomes political. All that is good and fine, I suppose - LeCarre has made a pretty good living at just this sort of thing - but after 9/11 I don't have the patience for it anymore.

Still, Smith's powers of description are in full force here and he renders the New Mexican landscapes beautifully. He keeps things moving along and works in his research, which I assume is accurate, about the creation of the atomic bomb and the site where it was created in interesting ways. But the ending is ambiguous - did Pena get caught in the atomic blast? It seems so. But since I found him unsympathetic so I really didn't care and I guess that's the real problem with this novel: I just didn't care about the main character. A fatal flaw in any novel.

(Another of the cheap books I bought at the Friends of the Library book sale.)

Mel Talks

2011-05-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

Mel Gibson has a new movie coming out and as part of his public rehabilitation, here's an interview he gave that's as revealing as it can be considering the legal questions that remain unresolved. He does well.

Gibson is like all of us, looking for redemption after a fall only his was more public than most. Give him credit. At least he's trying. Early reviews of The Beaver has been unkind to the movie but Gibsion's performance is getting some good reviews. No doubt he's a talented actor - a talented director, too - so if nothing else, seeing this movie will be an opportunity to watch a man use his work as part of his contrition. A rare occurrence these days.

(Here's my prior post about his troubles with a slightly bizarre rant from a commenter.)

Famous Authors And Their Typewriters

2011-05-05T08:19:00.000-05:00

There's a nostalgia out there for typewriters; this may be overselling the point a bit but there's a nostalgia for famous writers and their typewriters as well:

There’s something magical about catching a glimpse of one of your favorite authors at work – even a photo of the epic event can send an anxious thrill down your spine, as if you might be able to see some hint of literary genius in posture or setting, in attire or facial expression. And it’s even better if they’re working on a typewriter. After all, there’s something impossibly gorgeous about a typewriter – maybe it’s the vintage charm, maybe it’s the physicality the noisy machine lends to the writing process, but people. . . go mad for typewriters. . .

I think the writer of this piece misses the point about typewriters. It's likely she learned her craft clicking away at a computer keyboard and has little experience with typewriters.

Sure, nostalgia for typewriters is fun but writers used these instruments as tools of their trade. Bottom line: a typewriter helped the writing process and made getting the prose down on paper easier. Using a pad and pencil or pen was inferior though many may have continued to use that - Hemingway recommended first drafts in long-hand - you had one more chance to sharpen your prose and no one knew more about sharp prose than Hemingway- and Martha Grimes still writes in long-hand though you can be sure the manuscript she turns in to her publisher has been run through a word-processing program. Which is to say if a writer is still writing his drafts by hand, he's being self-indulgent. But when it comes time to cranking out clean, readable copy for editors or readers or other users of the piece of writing, typewriters were far superior than old-fashioned handwriting. I imagine these writers at the linked article would gladly trade their Remingtons and Olivettis and IBM Selectrics for a laptop and a Word program.

No, I'm not immune to romance. This is what I imagined I'd be doing when I graduated from college with a degree in journalism:

The truth is, crafting prose is hard work and you're lucky if you can make a living doing it. A professional finds, and uses, the best tools of the trade to help him along.

Osama Bin Laden - Killed!

2011-05-02T06:31:00.002-05:00

Of course you've heard the news but in pre-Internet days, news like this would be preserved by buying copies of newspapers and magazines and stowing them in a closet and bringing them out in future years to remember the occasion. Now we post links. Well, I'd better post 'em while they're available:

From MSNBC.com:

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was slain in his luxury hideout in Pakistan early Monday in a firefight with U.S. forces, ending a manhunt that spanned a frustrating decade.

"Justice has been done," President Barack Obama declared as crowds formed outside the White House to celebrate. Many sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "We Are the Champions," NBC News reported.
Hundreds more waved American flags at ground zero in New York — where the twin towers that once stood as symbols of American economic power were brought down by bin Laden's hijackers 10 years ago.

From Fox News:

Declaring “justice has been done,” President Obama announced late Sunday that Usama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan, marking the end of the worldwide manhunt that began nearly a decade ago on Sept. 11, 2001.

The president made the stunning announcement within hours of informing congressional leaders. He said bin Laden was killed Sunday, the culmination of years of intelligence gathering. The news drew a large crowd to the front of the White House, as well as in Times Square, as people chanted “USA. USA.”

Obama, in his address to the nation shortly before midnight, thanked the Americans who have toiled in pursuit of bin Laden and applauded those who carried out the successful mission in Pakistan. Describing that mission only briefly, he said its result “is a testament to the greatness of our country.”

In a few months, certainly years, these links will no longer be any good but at least my little blog will have a reminder of this historic day.

Sorry Charley - The Truth Behind Steinbeck's Travels With Charley

2011-04-30T09:36:00.000-05:00

It's been a few years since I've read the book but count me among the fans of John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley. Here was the soon-to-be Nobel prize winner laying it on the line and hitting the road to report about the current state of America. But how true was the book?

Turns out, not very:

A huge commercial success from the day it hit bookstands, Travels With Charley in Search of America was touted and marketed as the true account of Steinbeck’s solo journey. It stayed on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list for a year, and its commercial and cultural tail—like those of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath—has been long and fat. For five decades Steinbeck scholars and others who should know better have not questioned the book’s honesty. But I had come to realize that the iconic American road book was not only heavily fictionalized; it was something of a fraud.

I'd say "fraud" is too harsh a word but when you're dealing with writers who make up stuff for a living, you have to expect that the work they insist is true may not be entirely so.

I'm not disappointed to learn this. I didn't expect the book to be straight journalism - no one reading it can come away quite believing everything Steinbeck has to say. Bill Steigerwald in the above linked article as well as his blog entries has done a fine piece of literary excavation and found a truer version of Steinbeck's story. And he also found there are plenty of people out there who, well, can't handle the truth. Steinbeck might've found that amusing and worth writing about, too.

I think Steigerwald's work sheds a different light on Steinbeck's book but says more about Steinbeck's supporters and promoters than the man himself.

March iPhone Photo Dump

2011-04-29T18:37:00.000-05:00

I know it's the end of April and I'm only just now getting around to my monthly iPhone photo dump but, well, I've been a little busy. So let's just get to it, okay?

March began sunny and warm and clear. Clear enough that I finally noticed something I hadn't noticed before: I can see downtown Oklahoma City quite clearly from the entrance to my building:

But March weather in Oklahoma is nothing if not restless. My father-in-law had to do some time in the hospital for what turned out to be nothing serious and the days turned gloomy. The view from St Anthony's looking East:

Barely 10 days later, my mother-in-law did her own time in the same hospital for some heart-related tests. The construction of the Devon tower kept her more amused than anything. The cranes worked through the day and through the night, she said:

I posted a short video on YouTube of the part of my morning routine that includes setting loose the dogs. This barely does it justice though the blur of motion is just about captures the morning's feel:

I found time to make a batch of wine. Usually that kind of thing deserves a post of its own but see my comment above about being busy. This time around: a pinot grigio. My palate's too unsophisticated to detect much of a difference between it and the riesling I made but it's a good batch. (A client of my office partner gave him a case of wine for a filing season ending gift and I managed to snatch up a bottle of pinot grigio to perform a taste test. Mine compared favorably to a major commercial product so I was quite pleased) Perfect for Spring:

March was windy and dry and that meant grass fires:

We managed to get to Dallas for an overnight trip. I spent time browsing in the bookstore while the girls shopped. There's a name now for the genre of fiction that Emily's addicted to:

The atrium of the hotel always makes me dizzy. You?

Don't look down!

And so I end March where I began: a view of downtown from my drive home. The afternoons are sunnier, clearer, the skies bluer. Winter's a dim memory.

Tree of Life - Movie Trailer

2011-04-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

Emily and I made it to the movies last night and one of the trailer we saw was for the new Terrence Malick movie, The Tree of Life. Here it is:

I have no real idea what it's about; neither, apparently does the synopsis writer for IMBD:

The story centers around a family with three boys in the 1950s. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence.

Well, all righty then.

Not that I'm complaining. Too often, movie trailers tell the entire story of the movie and there's no real point in seeing it if you're interested in the story alone.

Oh, but The Tree of Life looks intriguing. Due to come out next week, it's sure to be swallowed up by the Summer's blockbusters. But if the trailer's any indication, you'd better see it while you can. I don't think any TV screen will do it justice.

Catching Up

2011-04-25T06:39:00.001-05:00

I've been a bit busy lately what with filing season and all. I plan on catching up and soon but don't hold your breath.

Cheap Books

2011-03-14T13:31:00.000-05:00

Speaking of cheap books - and I was - the price point of e-books may be as low as 99 cents:

Joe Konrath has an interesting interview with independent writer John Locke who currently holds the coveted #1 spot in the Amazon Top 100 and has sold just over 350,000 downloads on Kindle of his 99 cent books since January 1st of this year, which, with a royalty rate of 35%, is an annual income well over $500k. Locke says that 99 cents is the magic number and adds that when he lowered the price of his book The List from $2.99 to 99 cents, he started selling 20 times as many copies — about 800 a day, turning his loss lead into his biggest earner.

I think that's about right. I know for iTunes, I don't mind taking a chance and dropping a buck on a tune. If I don't like it, I'm only out a buck; if I do like it, well, the pleasure of the 3 or 4 minute ditty is endless.

Writing a book takes a lot of time and effort and talent but no more so than producing a piece of music. Sure, the pleasures of a good book may last longer but that's only because it takes a longer time to consume. You'd think, then, you'd be willing to pay out more for a book than for a song but that's not how the market works. You pay what for perceived value.

In this case, Konrath has found no one's interested in taking a risk on his book for $2.99. For a dollar, they're willing to take that risk. I'd take that risk, too, if I used an e-reader. Once Konrath has his reader hooked at this price, he still has the writer's responsibility to be interesting. If he is, then he's got a customer for his next book. If not, well, he still earned a buck. In the writing world, that's not bad.

Books I'm Not Reading

2011-03-10T07:31:00.000-06:00

I'm not reading Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Yes, yes, I know, it's a mystery classic, made into a great movie with Humphrey Bogart blah blah blah but, really, I'm 75 pages into it - somewhat nearly half way but at 230 or so pages, so I'm a good way in - it's just not that well written. Maybe it carries too much of the "classic" baggage; it reads as a cheap imitation of itself. Sam Spade isn't really likable in the book though, yes, in the movie, it's a different story. In the movie Spade was played by Humphrey Bogart; in the book, Spade is played by Sam Spade. Too much of what happens is a just a lot of talk in different rooms and in between these scenes are scenes of Spade getting from one room to the next.

And, okay, another reason why I'm not reading the book is that it only cost me 50 cents. I picked it up, along with a stack of others, at the Friends of the Library Book Sale a couple of weekends ago. Didn't spend much and got a bunch of things I'd been wanting to try but didn't want to invest the money or the time going to the library to check 'em out.

See, that's what happens when you don't have much invested in a book but that's not a bad thing: that means the book has to try all that much harder to keep me committed. The Maltese Falcon has committed an unpardonable crime: it let my attention wander.

Oh, I may get back to it. An investment of the time to get to 75 pages is still something. But for now, other books in my stack beckon. Let's see what they have to say about it.

Innocent - Book Review

2011-03-07T19:47:00.000-06:00

Scott Turow's Innocent is a sequel to his Presumed Innocent, that wonderful first-novel and legal thriller from the 80s that was made into a pretty good movie with Harrison Ford. Rusty Sabich, the protagonist in that first novel, finds himself accused of murder yet again in this novel and, again, hires Sandy Stern to defend him. So all the players from the first novel are in the place only it's different this time. Or maybe it's not so different.

Regardless, Turow's prose is a pleasure; Turow claims Dickens as one of his inspirations and thought the characters may not be as rich and varied those in a Dickens novel, they are memorable and vivid with complex and complicated personal lives. The old wounds from the earlier novel have festered and remain unresolved, driving Sabich to take risky action which leads to his undoing but not in the way the plot might have you believe.

A genre novel that rises above the limits of the genre.

(Funny, a year ago, I'd returned to Turow and was underwhelmed. This time around, I just may have to pick up those old books of his and see what I've been missing all these years.)

February iPhone Photo Dump!

2011-03-07T07:33:00.001-06:00

February was a light month - not only is it shy a few days of being a normal month but with the two snowstorms, it seemed the month was all about preparing for the storm, enduring the storm, and digging out from the storm.

Now here we are in March. The weather's warm! All of that snow is but a dim memory. Still, lest we forget:

Here's what happened with the second storm. This time the snow was dry and powdery, a pleasure to shovel:

Emily did the smart thing. Bundled up, reading in the flood of light reflected from the snow:

But all that passed and we survived. One night I went to pick up Emily and there was a full moon and the night sky was bright. You could clearly see a jet contrail glowing in the light and if I had a better camera I might be able to show you how lovely it looked. Instead, this'll have to do:

As the weather warms, golf becomes possible and that means Emily's skillz as a golf-cart driver are needed. Time to contemplate the meaning of existence while waiting for the party ahead of us to tee off. The flag behind Emily tells you it was a bit. . . breezy:

We're done with Winter. Oh, it'll try a comeback or two before letting up but, really, what's the point? The earth spins, the planets wheel, and we move on.

Three Stations - Book Review

2011-02-23T08:21:00.001-06:00

Martin Cruz Smith's Three Stations is his latest Arkady Renko novel and finishing it catches me up with the series. (Though I still think I need Red Square to be complete; I've no desire to go back that far in the series. Famous last words, though, so you never know.)

This one's as good as any of them. A remarkably fast read - well, that's because it's shorter by about 50 pages - involving another Russian landmark or location. (Three Stations is, well, three train stations located next to one another, where a mass of Russian humanity boils with their coming and going.) An intertwined storyline that, though not quite Dickensian, does involve street urchins and the tired trope of a serial killer. But plot isn't really important in Smith's Renko novels. It's the portrait of modern Russia that he creates of a tired, worn out country with a long, frequently dark past, trying desperately to keep up with the modern world and not quite making it. And the characters, of course. Always the characters.

Another great installment in this fine series.

Moonlight Mile - Book Review

2011-02-18T10:32:00.001-06:00

Dennis Lehane's latest, Moonlight Mile, is a sequel of Gone, Baby, Gone, a book I didn't read but a movie which I enjoyed (and didn't, alas, review.)

The players from the earlier book are all here but it's 12 years on and once we get caught up, Lehane takes us through an intriguing yarn involving identity theft and the Russian mob. Ah, the Russian mob. Once they're on the scene, you can be sure of some cold-blooded killing. And, in this case, comedy. Despite myself, I liked one of the chief Russian baddies and his stilted English. It all gets resolved in the end with a nice twist near the end when you believe there's no way out for the good guys. Which might be the only real flaw of the book - spoiler alert! - our good guys make it through but thanks only, really, by the good graces of the bad guys and not from their own actions.

But, otherwise, Lehane handles the chores of this latest installment in his detective series quite well. I've read only one other of the series - I've read his Mystic River and Shutter Island, and thought they were very well done - and at the time I didn't think the series was worth pursuing. After this, I may fill in the missing pieces.

Wanda Jackson to Rock Bonnaroo

2011-02-17T11:15:00.002-06:00

The coolness of Wanda Jackson is boundless:

Wanda Jackson, 73, has been selected to play the celebrated Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival this summer in Manchester, Tenn.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is part of a prestigious and eclectic lineup that includes Eminem, Arcade Fire, Robert Plant and Band of Joy, Lil Wayne, The Black Keys and Loretta Lynn.

The 10th annual Bonnaroo is set for June 9-12 on the 700-acre farm it has called home since its 2002 debut.

A Maud native and longtime Oklahoma City resident, Jackson has been celebrating a career revival since she partnered with rocker Jack White, who produced her new album “The Party Ain't Over.” She and White promoted the January album release with performances on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “Conan,” and Jackson and Weatherford band Green Corn Revival ripped through a packed hometown show at the ACM@UCO Performance Lab in Bricktown.

Summer Morning, Summer Night - Book Review

2011-02-17T09:43:00.000-06:00

While browsing Amazon.com recently, I came across Ray Bradbury's Summer Morning, Summer Night, a compilation of old and recent stories and recent sketches with the shared theme of Summer in his beloved Green Town. A chance to revisit the Bradbury country depicted so well in my favorite Dandelion Wine, I grabbed it and chewed my way through it when it arrived.

The older stories were familiar and comfortable and well done, perfect demonstrations of Bradbury's artistic power; the more recent stories were less so but worth reading nonetheless. The sketches were obviously filler, with most not really worth the effort and probably better left unpublished. But it was a reason to read Bradbury again and I was glad to have it. There was a time when I read him for the seasons - Dandelion Wine for Summer and, well, the rest of his work for Autumn but I've allowed that tradition to lapse. Too bad for me. I need to see what I can do to change that.

Anyway, this slim volume was the perfect antidote to the snowbound few days we had here recently. A brief glimpse of the promise of Summer.

Stephen Hunter - Why 33 Rounds Makes Sense in a Defensive Weapon

2011-02-15T19:31:00.001-06:00

Writer Stephen Hunter - Hey! I was just talking about him the other day! - explains why an extended magazine makes sense for a self-defense weapon:

(E)xtended magazines are rarely featured in crime - and that awkwardness spells out the magazine's primary legitimate usage. It may have some utility for competitive shooting by cutting down on reloading time, or for tactical police officers on raids, but for those who are not hard-core gun folks it's an ideal solution for home defense, which is probably why hundreds of thousands of Glocks have been sold in this country.

But that's not why I'm linking to his article. Forget Hunter's subject; admire his style. Here's why I like him as a novelist, as a movie reviewer, as a columnist:

Guns were the software of the 19th century; the most dynamic age of development was roughly 1870 to 1900, when the modern forms were perfected. Two primary operating systems emerged for handguns: the revolver, usually holding six cartridges and manipulated by the muscle energy of the hand, and the semiautomatic, harnessing the explosively released energy of the burning powder to cock and reload itself. Since then, design and engineering improvements have been not to lethality but to ease of maintenance and manufacture, or weight reduction. A Glock is "better" than a Luger because you don't need a PhD to take it apart, nor a fleet of machinists to produce the myriad pins, levers, springs and chunks of steel that make it go bang. Moreover, you can lose a Glock in a flood and find it six months later in the mud, and it still will shoot perfectly, while the Luger would have become a nice paperweight.

Black Swan - Movie Review

2011-02-15T18:31:00.002-06:00

It's the time of year where there's precious little to see at the movies but since it's Oscar season and there remains a Best Picture nominee or two we haven't caught, we saw Black Swan. No, we didn't expect a behind-the-scenes look at the grueling work that goes into a ballet production but we hoped for a little more than what we got. Oh, stylish, for sure, but can we do away with the jittery hand-held camera for a while please? We get it, the POV is up close and personal because this an up close and personal kinda movie so no need to hammer us over the head about it.

Natalie Portman is suitably hysterical but that's all she is; I hold with the reviewer who suggested a more interesting movie would have been about Mila Kunis' character trying to find her light side rather than Portman's character trying to find her dark side. (And Kunis steals the show, for my money. She's got that look. You know what I'm talking about, right?) And you gotta give the producers some props: a movie made for a $13 million pittance, it looks impressive.

A nightmarish movie with some technical flair that saves it but that's about all there is here. Not a real contender for Best Movie.

The Latest in Beer

2011-02-10T18:31:00.000-06:00

I tried a wheat beer several years ago and didn't like it. Tasted like water passed through a bag of lawn clippings and not very recent bag of clippings at that. I never tried another again. Time changes things and with this little homebrew hobby of mine, it looked like it was time to try it again. I'd tasted a good wheat beer at a restaurant and found it as advertised: citrusy, spritzy, just the thing for a sunny Spring day.

Of course, in home brewing, if you want to have a beer now, you'd better have started brewing it three weeks ago. So I did exactly that and though it's still winter and there's snow on the ground, I have a batch of wheat beer that's ready for the warm weather:

Not quite as good as the one I had at the restaurant but it's light and fruity and has a good creamy head. Success!

Brian Jacques Dies

2011-02-08T09:49:00.001-06:00

Children's author Brian Jacques passed away over the weekend:

A former merchant sailor whose children's books sold millions worldwide has died aged 71.

Brian Jacques' Redwall series of books were translated into 29 languages and sold 20m globally.

He first wrote the series, set in an abbey populated by animals, for children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool.

When Rachel was still in elementary school, she came home one afternoon to excitedly tell me Brian Jacques was making a personal appearance at a local bookstore. Rachel had never heard of Mr. Jacques before that afternoon - I had only a passing acquaintance of his work - but her English teacher had told her how great his books were and that if she had a chance, she ought to go see him. I was early into my stay-at-home-Dad career so we had that chance and off we went.

By the time we got to the bookstore, a small crowd had already gathered. Knowing how these things are supposed to work, I bought a volume for Mr. Jacques to autograph for Rachel and we got in the lengthy line. Things moved along quite well - we were told that for the sake of efficiency, Mr. Jacques could not personalize his autographs and because of laryngitis he wouldn't be able to speak much, if at all. Cynical Dad saw this as a ploy to keep the fans moving through the line and the purchasing of books unheeded but by the time it was our turn, Mr. Jacques was quite charming. He made a subtle show of being taken in by Rachel's fresh-faced looks and he asked her her name in a hoarse whisper (Take that cynical Dad!). He leaned close to her, repeated her name in a low growl, rolling his r's and dragging out the last syllable in his Liverpudlian accent. Rachel smiled, he smiled back, signed, her book, and gave her a nod, his eyes twinkling. Rachel was enraptured, even though until a few hours before, she had no idea who this man was. And it didn't hurt that he looked a whole lot like Grandpop Pete:

Rachel has never been the most rabid reader in the world and I don't think she ever got past the volume we bought that day but Mr. Jacques gave her, and me, a warm memory of an afternoon with an author who took just a few seconds from his book tour to acknowledge a new fan. I thank him for it.

Flash forward to a few years later and Emily became of reading age. She picked up the volume from that afternoon and was instantly hooked. And, as is her habit, once she gets her reading meathooks into a series, she has to read them all, and in order. And so began a literary love affair for Emily as she marched her way from one end of Mr. Jacques ouvre to another. I remembered the time when books enraptured me, when I could get lost in their worlds and not become overly aware of what the author was trying to do. Mr. Jacques gave Emily quite a reading experience and I thank him for that, too.

In this digital world, it's rare that good writers come along and create a body of work that will last. Though I've never read any of his books, from personal experience and reports from the field, he managed to do just that.

Oklahoma's Number 7!

2011-02-07T07:30:00.000-06:00

In sales tax rankings, that is. Via
TaxProf Blog, I can't import the data table but here are the top 10 rankings:

1
Tennessee
9.44%

2
California
9.08%

3
Arizona
9.01%

4
Louisiana
8.69%

5
Washington
8.64%

6
New York
8.52%

7
Oklahoma
8.33%

8
Illinois
8.22%

9
Arkansas
8.10%

10
Alabama
8.03%

I'm sure if we tried harder we could beat New York. California, too. But it'll take some doing by the Legislature to overcome Tennessee. I don't doubt they'll try.

The Reversal - Book Review

2011-02-04T17:57:00.001-06:00

It's been over a year since I read anything by Michael Connelly and even then I wasn't too impressed so I'm not really sure why I picked up his latest legal thriller, The Reversal. I was at the library and it was available and it was his most recent so, well, why not?

I admit, it was a better read than the first in this series - the problem of the legal thriller being bogged down by the time constraints of the legal process was solved by having the main character, Haller, be appointed as independent counsel in a re-trial. Opposing counsel wants a quick re-trial so things move along lickety split. But there's the same problem I have with Connelly's prose style - for a journalist, he's merely OK - and instead of relying on an intriguing case playing out in the courtroom, he ends things with a contrived bang, as if he didn't trust his own material or skills to keep our attention. And I've yet to get a feel for Southern California as a setting which is odd since Connelly's been touted as being in the same league as Hammett. Obviously I'm missing something.

I did enjoy this one better than the first one though I have no desire to pick up the one that just preceding this in the series. I've given Connelly a fair shake and it's time to move on; I don't plan on coming back to him. Uh, unless I come across another book of his in the library. You take what's available.

I, Sniper - Book Review

2011-02-01T17:15:00.002-06:00

I've long been a fan of former Washington Post movie reviewer Stephen Hunter - I link to one of his reviews in this post - so you'd think I would've picked up one of his Bob Lee Swagger novels before I, Sniper and you'd be right. I'd read one of his several years ago and wasn't impressed enough to continue with the series. As a thriller writer, I thought, Hunter made a great movie reviewer. But I see he's gotten along quite well without me and his series has grown and I can't ignore him anymore, not if I'm wanting to find another genre series to get immersed in.

I, Sniper's a fine one to get re-introduced to the character. Hunter's at the top of his form, much better than I remembered. Plenty of nuts and bolts about sniper guns and the manly art of sniping as well as a highly effective scene of waterboarding that reaches the height of art. And I'm not kidding. The Wikipedia article I linked to describes his prose as almost lyrical and though that might be strange for the thriller genre, I think it's spot on. Overblown in parts, sure, but you can tell Hunter is passionate about his subject and I like passion. He takes a few sly potshots at the media and liberals, too, so that's an extra bonus if you're looking for that sort of thing.

Of course, the problem with entering a series in the latest installment is that the author has to bring new audience members like me up to speed with his character and, having done so, there's little reason to read the prior books other than for the sake of completeness. Still, that doesn't mean I might not visit those earlier books and get caught up on what I've been missing.

Librarians, Budget Cuts, Assumptions

2011-02-01T09:13:00.002-06:00

As a response to a rash of budget slashing to public libraries, Wil Wheaton posted about how he thinks librarians are awesome. It's hard to argue with that premise; libraries and librarians are, indeed, awesome, and you'd be a fool to say otherwise. Who among us reader-types doesn't have a heart-warming memory of libraries and librarians, like Mr. Wheaton? It's part of why we became readers in the first place. Good for Mr. Wheaton for staking a controversial claim.

But then Mr. Wheaton spoils a perfectly lovely remembrance by ending it with this bit of straw man nastiness:

Libraries are constantly under attack from people who fear knowledge, politicians who think guns are more important than books, and people who want to ensure that multi-millionaires pocket even more money.

Ah, of course. The culprits to these budgets cuts are obvious. Knowledge fearing people, gun-clinging politicians, greedy millionaires. The usual suspects. It's so obvious.

Only it's not so obvious. Mr. Wheaton offers no proof of his assertion because I guess it just pretty much goes without saying: anyone who wants to cut library funding must be evil and conservative and not good and liberal like, say, Mr. Wheaton himself. There's just nothing left to say. Which is fine; it's Mr. Wheaton's blog, after all, and he can say anything he wants bno matter how ridiculous and without proof. That's the way blogs work.

His commenters are quick to agree on the subject of librarian awesomeness - and quite a few let Mr. Wheaton know how awesome he is for thinking librarians are awesome - and barely pay attention to his claims about the causes of library extinction. Maybe it's a given for them, too. I clicked through to some of the links posted by the commenters to other articles that bemoan the demise of libraries and nowhere did I see anything about knowledge-fearing, gun-clinging, tax-dodging people and politicians being behind this flurry of budget cuts. In fact, in Mr. Wheaton's own California, the culprit is the recently elected liberal Jerry Brown. And in Los Angeles, no one must be behind library budget cuts because the mayor and a good chunk of the city council have thrown their support behind Measure L, which, if passed, will give libraries a bigger guaranteed chunk of the city's general fund. (An increase from .0175 to .03 share of the general fund may seem minuscule but that's a 170% increase; you wouldn't turn down a 170% increase in your salary, would you? Didn't think so.) I guess that means the mayor and city council are powerless to stop these budget cuts without a vote of the people. If true, exactly what role do Los Angeles elected officials have to play in the spending process? What do they do, exactly?

I clicked on through to some of the related articles and learned this about library budget cuts. Hey, things are tough all over! Who knew?

I make a brief appearance in the comments pointing this out and Mr. Wheaton was kind enough to rejoin that the problems aren't limited to Los Angeles and California, completely ignoring my point. I countered that likely what holds true for Los Angeles and California holds true for the other areas quoted in the linked articles, that budgetary crunches call for cuts across the board and politicians of all stripes are likely behind them. Mr. Wheaton leaves that alone, content, I suppose, to continue to believe the narrative that all bad things come from stupid people and all good things come from people like him.

I'm not advocating budget cuts for libraries. I, too, think libraries - and librarians! - are awesome. Government should do what only government should do and maintaining a library system accessible to all seems like a role for government. (Though the Internet fills at least part of a library's role quite nicely without government intervention.) (And could we do with a little less easy access to porn, libraries? Keep the experience more family-friendly? I mean, I know all about the 1st amendment and everything but come on. Show some judgement.) But budgets are tight, spending has to be cut, and it all finally comes down to whose ox is being gored. If you don't cut library budgets, what do you cut? Police and fire protection? Sanitation? Road maintenance?

Government budget cuts mean tough choices. That's what politicians are elected for; that's the democratic process. Don't like it? Vote someone else in who'll do the job you want. But leave the straw men aside. That doesn't help.

Shafted

2011-01-28T12:32:00.001-06:00

I've never played in the high school band or orchestra but both Rachel and Emily have and while attending their wonderful concerts I've often though that, you know, classical music is fine but if I were a band director I'd throw in some more crowd pleasing numbers. Not that these concerts need lively-ing up but I'm sure that just the right music would bring a smile to a lot of faces.

Like themes from movies. Music that sounds like classical music but bonds the audience with a common experience. The Theme from Star Wars. Jaws. The Magnificent Seven.

Or The Theme From Shaft.

This thought struck me the other night while I was driving Emily and Emily's buddy home. the Theme From Shaft came on the radio and you can be sure I cranked it up, much to Emily's embarrassment. Something there is about the funk that Emily didn't like. That or my sing-talking along with Isaac Hayes as he tells us how bad Shaft is. (You know, the only person that understands him is his woman? True!)

Oh, The high school band could be do it! Okay, maybe the whacka-chacka part might be difficult but Wikipedia tells me that's just a guitar with a wah-wah pedal. You know there's a high school kid practicing that sound right now in his bedroom. The rest of it sounds pretty straightforward to me. Emily could play the flute part!

Yes, a high school band could play the Theme From Shaft. Heck, a ukulele orchestra could play the theme:

Anyway, that's my idea. If I were a high school band director life would be funky indeed.

iPhone Photo Dump

2011-01-27T06:23:00.002-06:00

Who's in the mood for an iPhone photo dump? I am! Let's get started:

Post Christmas, the weather warmed enough so that we could play golf. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea. While we were waiting to tee off, Emily spent some time getting some putting pointers from Grandpa:

I think they were betting money on this one. I saw money changing hands later:

New Year's Eve, we took Emily and her friend with us while we went to a movie. On our way back, we stopped at the Chesapeake Energy Christmas light display:

A riot of color:

Emily and her friend, Alex:

You can almost hear the brightness of the lights:

We're well into Winter and that means the days are getting longer and that means pictures of the dawn on the drive in to work make their re-appearance.

A shot from the Westmoore parking lot after I dropped Emily off to school:

Another shot, with a bus driving by:

I tweeted some of the following pictures already so those of you who've already seen them may leave. Emily and I were cooking spaghetti sauce and meatballs a la Grandpop Pete; though he lives 1,500 miles away, the smells made us think he was right there with us:

Coming along nicely:

Emily seems pensive about the recipe:

Emily-a, she makes-a the meat balls-a! (Imagine a Sinatra song in the background.)

Rachel's birthday rolled around, her 19th so not the same milestone as last year's 18th but no less important. Her choice this year: Red Lobster. She brought her friend Matt along:

Don't touch Emily's silverware!

After dinner, I had to drop off Rachel and Matt at Wal-Mart to get Rachel's car; she'd had a flat earlier in the day and needed two new tires and her car was ready. As I turned down on our street, the full moon spilled silvery light on over the houses. Who says you can't find beauty in suburbia? Of course, I tried to get it on camera. Of course, I failed:

And that's it for this edition. The days and weeks and now month are flying by. These pictures aren't nearly enough to grab a hold of some of it but they'll have to do.

More Fuss About The King's Speech

2011-01-26T08:26:00.001-06:00

More proof The King's Speech is all that: 12 Oscar nominations.

Of course, nominations don't mean awards and awards don't mean good. Still, just sayin'.

Wanda Jackson Teams With Jack White

2011-01-22T10:41:00.000-06:00

I've posted before about Wanda Jackson, a member of our stodgy Baptist church, and her working with the yowling Jack White. Here's the latest:

What happens when Oklahoma's “Queen of Rockabilly” meets Detroit's dean of daring guitar dynamos?

Why, a party, of course.

That's what Wanda Jackson's been all about since she hit the Top 40 with “Let's Have a Party” in the late '50s. Back then it was boyfriend/mentor Elvis Presley who taught this country girl from Maud how to rock 'n' roll.

Now she's learning some 21st century tricks from one of alternative music's most successful eccentrics — Jack White.

Sounds interesting.

Juliet, Naked - Book Review

2011-01-21T17:40:00.001-06:00

Great. Nick Hornby's latest novel, Juliet, Naked is sure to get me all the wrong kind of Google search hits. Sorry to disappoint anyone who clicked through expecting nekkid pictures of Juliet and got this book review. That's what you get for not refining your search correctly. Also for being a perv.

Anyway.

A quick explanation of the title: the story is about a reclusive singer who releases the demo tapes of his last recorded album, Juliet, as Juliet, Naked. Like The Beatles' Let it Be, Naked. Get it? Okay. Can we concentrate on the novel now?

Tucker Crowe is a reclusive American singer who quit the business in mid-tour, supporting his last album, Juliet and hasn't been heard from since. Rumors about his demise arose and with the Internet a website was started dedicated to all things Tucker Crowe. Crowe comes out of seclusion to comment about an online review posted by Annie, in England, about Juliet, Naked and from there the story and the characters finds their own way.

We're in Hornby territory now, with his love of popular music and what it means to our personal lives and he has some fun with it. He has some fun, too, with the Internet culture and fandom and the overwhelming need to over analyze art and its inspiration. Hornby, a fan of Anne Tyler, is much like Tyler herself: wryly funny and forgiving of his characters, with a sharp eye and talent for a memorable phrase.

A delight.

The Fighter - Movie Review

2011-01-20T08:23:00.000-06:00

There's much buzz about Christian Bale's performance in The Fighter and rightly so but the movie's not supposed to be about his character but about his character's brother. (Though an argument could be made that the movie title refers to Bale's character as well. Hmmmm. Discuss.) So we've got two compelling stories to follow: the primary story of Mickie Ward and his struggle to make the boxing big time and Dickie Ecklund, Mickie's half-brother, and his struggle to stay on the straight and narrow. Pick either one to root for and you won't lose.

So Bale's performance eclipses everything else and, yes, it's a good one. Look past his drastic weight loss, though, and see how he physically inhabits the role, how he physically interacts with the other characters. It's both obvious and subtle at the same time. And then stick around for the end credits to see the actual character and see how close Bale came. Sure, Bale's a great mimic but his physical performance is used to service his character's development and enhance the plot which is what it should be.

Raging Bull has spoiled us for the depiction of boxing scenes but here they're more than adequate. The supporting actors and on location sets enhance the real-life feeling of this well-made movie. A great story about family ties and love and hard work, values celebrated too rarely at the movies.

Some Fuss about The King’s Speech

2011-01-19T08:18:00.001-06:00

It's not just me who thinks The Kings Speech is the bee's knees. So does Gina R. Dalfonzo:

I found myself in an animated conversation about The King’s Speech with the heavily tattooed twentysomething who rang up my purchase at Borders. “That was a great movie!” he said enthusiastically when he saw the title of the soundtrack I was buying.

I told my parents about this, remarking that if the movie had reached even this unlikely audience member, it was bound to be a smash hit. “So what’s the appeal?” my dad wanted to know.

Read the whole thing.

Something else: a young man in my office was had the same sentiments as the young man in Dalfonzo's article. He thought this movie was among the best he'd seen this year and this is coming from a babes and bullets kinda movie guy. And Clara reports one of her co-teachers at ESL was surprised at how well they liked this movie.

Interesting. Can't think of a recent movie that had such broad appeal, can you?

The First Rule - Book Review

2011-01-13T11:43:00.001-06:00

I finally got around to Robert Crais' latest Joe Pike novel, The First Rule and now I see Crais has just published another. Great. I'm only a year behind.

It's good to get back to this series. As I said a little over a year ago, I see little reason to dip back into the early Crais books and so I was glad to finally check out a copy of this one from the library and make time to finish it off. Typical Joe Pike stuff - tough guy antics in the service of finding the killers of Pike's old friend and his old friend's family. (The fatality rate for old friends of series characters is close to 100%. There's a lesson to be learned here.)

I like how Crais starts with the premise with seemingly no clues and then has Pike work his way doggedly through the leads he manages to develop. This time the bad guys are Russian mobsters and there are bigger issues then personal vendettas but who cares, really. I know it's all preposterous but it's the character I'm here for and Crais delivers another fine installment on Pike. (Oh, and I'm also here for the Southern California locale and Crais' well written prose.)

An entertaining series. I see another Pike novel has just come out. Time to get on the waiting list.

The King's Speech - Movie Review

2011-01-12T08:31:00.001-06:00

Surprisingly engaging, The King's Speech is about, well, the King's speech, or, actually, his speech impediment. King George VI had a killer stammer and being King of England and all, that won't do. Heck, it won't do for anyone but when a large part of your duties is giving speeches to inspire your people through a little thing called World War 2, well, something must be done. Enter Lionel Logue, a speech specialist, and what follows is an interesting story of how a man overcomes a disability and how two men separated by class become good friends.

Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush play the leads and the buzz about their acting is well-deserved. Helena Bonham Carter, in normal-mode, does a fine job as Queen, too. Sets, costumes - a period piece in England so what else could period-piece fans want? It's rated R for a brief sequence of profanity played for comic effect but otherwise there's nothing offensive about this movie.

This didn't seem like a movie I'd want to see but I was pleasantly surprised. One of my recent favorites.

Wolves Eat Dogs - Book Review

2011-01-11T16:29:00.003-06:00

Next in line for me on my Martin Cruz Smith reading list was Wolves Eat Dogs, another Arkady Renko novel though this one is the installment before Stalin's Ghost. More great stuff. The mystery? A New Russian billionaire has committed suicide which in Old Russia, and, apparently, the New, means someone else killed him. The trail takes Renko to the no-man's land of Chernobyl and here Smith transports us, once again, to another strange world. As if Russia isn't strange enough.

Some of the characters in the Stalin make their first appearance here so that helps shed a little light on the subsequent novel. The characters names confuse me, of course, and I had a little trouble keeping them straight; I often do with mystery novels and that can be a problem - wasn't this guy the other guy who did one thing or the other? - and the Russian names only compounds the problem. But I buckled in for the ride and everything finally made sense. If Smith's research is accurate, the incidents leading up to the Chernobyl accident, its aftermath and the nether-world that's risen from the ashes, are weird and fascinating. A perfect setting for a mystery.

Another very good installment in a very good series.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Movie Review

2011-01-11T12:19:00.000-06:00

Can anyone tell me what The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is about? Emily's the Chronicles of Narnia fan and so we saw this with her; she, of course, loved it, and can't understand why anyone is having a problem following along. I guess because it's been a few years since the last installment, I've lost the thread of the narrative. Heck, I'd lost that with the first installment. All of these fantasy epics blend into one - our heroes are sent on a quest against unstoppable forces and must rise above it all and learn important, life altering lessons. (Which, I guess, is the plot of all stories, isn't it?) I was no fan of The Lord of the Rings until the LOTR movies came out and though I'm a fan of the series now, it's the series as depicted on the screen; I find the books slow and plodding. No, LOTR filled my fantasy quotient nicely, thank you, no need for more. Okay, Harry Potter. I'll go with Harry Potter. Chronicles of Narnia? A fantasy too far.

Still, there's much to like about this movie. Though it's in 3D - boy, will I be glad when that fad is over! - the visuals are quite arresting and represent, once again, the state-of-the-art of what Hollywood is capable of producing. If you can imagine it, they can put it on the screen. The acting is fine, the kids engaging, though I find the little mouse character to be annoying. Technically, a good a movie as can be produced but I just had no idea who was who and why they were doing what they were doing. Emily and the audience knew so clearly the problem lies with me.

The important this is that we got to see it with Emily; Rachel tagged along, too, and that's a rare thing, so I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything.

Why Liberals Want Higher Taxes

2011-01-07T14:16:00.000-06:00

Via TaxProf Blog:

Much Ado About Huck Finn

2011-01-07T09:51:00.001-06:00

A whole lot of fuss is being made about a new edition of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn that omits certain offensive words. While I don't think this is censorship - that's government's job and, besides, a regular edition is easily available. And since the copyright on the book has long expired and it's now in the public domain, I'm not opposed to publisher's making an honest dime for their efforts. I still don't think it's a good idea.

Huckleberry Finn was written to make the reader uncomfortable. Underlying a story seemingly intended for the youth market is the story of how a boy comes to view his friend, Jim, a runaway slave. Finn attains enlightenment; it's wrong for a free person to own another person. In short, as any high-school teacher or college professor will tell you, Huckleberry Finn is the story of America itself. Bowdlerizing the language is an insult, not a good-intentioned effort to spare someone's feelings.

This kind of thing isn't anything new. Here's Ray Bradbury in his Coda to his prescient Fahrenheit 451:

About two years ago, a letter arrived from a solemn young Vassar lady telling me how much she enjoyed reading my experiment in space mythology, The Martian Chronicles.

But, she added, wouldn’t it be a good idea, this late in time, to rewrite the book inserting more women’s characters and roles?

A few years before that I got a certain amount of mail concerning the same Martian book complaining that the blacks in the book were Uncle Toms and why didn’t I “do them over”?

Along about then came a note from a Southern white suggesting that I was prejudiced in favor of the blacks and the entire store should be dropped.

Two weeks ago my mount of mail delivered forth a pip-squeak mouse of a letter from a well-known publishing house that wanted to reprint my story “The Fog Horn” in a high school reader.

In my story, I had described a lighthouse as having, late at night, an illumination coming from it that was a “God-Light.” Looking up at it from the viewpoint of any sea-creature one would have felt that one was in “the Presence.”

The editors had deleted “God-Light” and “in the Presence. . .”

. . . There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italian / Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist, Zionist / Seventh-day Adventist, Women’s Lib / Republican, Mattachine / FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.

(While I'm quoting Bradbury, and since you've come this far, I might as well quote my favorite part of his Coda. It's relevant to this issue, too:

In sum, do not insult me with the beheadings, finger-choppings or the lung-deflations you plan for my works. I need my head to shake or nod, my hand to wave or make into a fist, my lungs to shout or whisper with. I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book.

All you umpires, back to the bleachers. Referees, hit the showers. It’s my game. I pitch, I hit, I catch. I run the bases. At sunset I’ve won or lost. At sunrise, I’m going out again, giving it the old try.

And no one can help me. Not even you.)

Hemingway says all American literature stems from Huckleberry Finn and he's right. Leave the offensive language alone. Don't worry. We're readers. We can take it.

True Grit - Movie Review

2010-12-23T14:47:00.001-06:00

I was worried that the Coen Brothers' version of True Grit would be a terrible thing but it turns out the new version holds its own while leaving the original undiminished.

Comparisons are inevitable. If you enjoyed the first version there's no reason why you can't like this version, too. While not as rousingly enjoyable as the first, I liked better this version's sense of hard realism. The original tried to pass off the Rocky Mountains around the town of Ouray but this time around, even though it wasn't filmed on location, we get more of a sense of what the Indian Territory was really like.

Jeff Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn as a shambling man full of faults and flaws but just the one you'd need to hunt down a killer in a pitiless land. Matt Damon does a nice turn as LeBoef as well. But much is being said about Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and rightly so; she comes across as steely and determined while still retaining her softer side in the scene where she tears up at her deceased father's belongings. The haggling scene with horse-seller remains classic.

I don't hold with those who seem to think that the Coen Brothers brought their loopy sense of humor and ornate use of stilted, formal language to the story but that's always been there, in the book and in the original. The Coens aren't reinventing anything and stick no closer to the book than the original did - both movie versions take their liberties with the story but I liked how this one is told, like the book, as a remembrance of Mattie.

We saw a lot of pickup trucks in the parking lot, a lot of moviegoers wearing cowboy hats; I don't think they were disappointed with what they saw. I know I wasn't.

The Health Care Credit Explained!

2010-12-23T10:34:00.001-06:00

This one may be a little too insider-baseball and funny only to tax return preparers.

Bob Jennings, whose seminars I attend for CPE, does a bit on the business credit authorized by Obamacare to help offset the cost of providing health insurance to employees. Simple, right? Not so fast:

Sadly, Jennings isn't exaggerating. I've tried to run this calculation for my business clients that might qualify and after the torturous calculation it turns out the credit either doesn't apply or is so minuscule as to be useless.

Well, that's tax policy for you. Nothing but the hidden land mines of unintended consequences.

Evidence of Emily's Awesomeness

2010-12-22T08:47:00.000-06:00

Emily's taking a Journalism class this semester and she's had her story published in the school newspaper. Need to know about those wrist bands all the kids are wearing? Emily's got the scoop!

Next thing you know, she'll want a fedora with a band she can tuck her press pass into.

The Journalism class also did a little community service and Emily volunteered. That's her second from right.

Awesome? You bet!

A Big Ol' Ball of Cute

2010-12-21T08:21:00.001-06:00

We stopped in at PetsMart on Saturday, just to take a quick look at the adoptable dogs but fell in love instead.

One of the local dog rescue organizations had two groups of mixed-breeds puppies available for adoption. These were a shepherd mix and looked like they'd make a great dog for a family who lived out in the country or had a big yard:

Awwwwwww.

Fifty bucks to cover their shots and care and one of 'em could be yours.

Here's the other bunch, in black and white, just because I can. They're a dachshund mix and a little more higher priced:

Awwwwwww.

No, we've got two dogs already. We don't need another. But they're awful hard to resist.

Turbo Tax vs. Tax Professional - Revisited

2010-12-18T07:48:00.000-06:00

Althouse thinks you should purchase TurboTax to do your taxes; I say otherwise. (Hmmm. Both of us seem to have a profit motive for our positions in the debate. Well, consider the merits of my argument while discounting my motive and do the same for Althouse. I still win.)

Price seems to be the biggest factor for those who favor TurboTax. (Which is a pretty good program, don't get me wrong. Just ask Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary, who able to manipulate it into preparing a false return for him.) If that's the case for you, here's my number 2 reason in my Top 10 list of reasons to hire me:

Price isn't everything is it? Cost is. What will it cost you to use TurboTax to do your tax return rather than me? Let's see, there's the cost of the software, the computer to run the software, the time you spent learning the software and inputting the information, and the potential cost you'll have if the IRS has a question about your return. And make no mistake, the IRS is questioning more and more returns. You'll have to take time to respond to any IRS inquiries and should the IRS take a hard line - something they seem to be doing more and more nowadays - you'll have to take time to research and respond to that. That's all included with my fee. I call that a pretty low cost for a some peace of mind.

Bottom line: forget about the cost of my time; what's the cost of yours? What's your time worth? I'd say your time is worth far more to you than mine.

The Deer Hunter

2010-12-17T09:33:00.000-06:00

The Deer Hunter was on the other night. I hadn't seen it in years and years and came across it only by accident. I got in on it where the first hunting sequence begins, right after the wedding, about an hour or so in, and I knew there was still plenty to go. I told Clara and she thought she'd watch it until it got to the sad parts - as I recalled, that wouldn't be long - and so we settled in and finished the remaining two hours or so, riveted.

I don't intend to review the movie here but I did want to note that it was as good as I remember. The actors looked so young and the music was as lovely as ever, especially the guitar work of John Williams. (No, not that John Williams. This John Williams.) The movie's soundtrack was the firstone I can recall ever buying and I'm sure I must have it around here somewhere. I remembered the theater where I first saw the movie and the friend I saw it with and how when the doors of the theater had opened, the audience came out in silence and the very air of the theater was warm and still as if the audience had just shared an intensely emotional experience. I soon would. The movie stayed with me for a long, long time after that but had gradually faded from my memory.

No, all I really wanted to say here was how pleasurable it was to stumble across a movie that had at one time greatly moved me. It was good to re-visit the story and the characters and the settings and experience the deep sadness that only great movies can bring. It was good, too, to go back to a time and place where I too seldom visit.

I don't know why the movie doesn't show up more often on cable but maybe it's best - if I had seen it often over the years it might have lost its impact. It's good to know some things stand the test of time. I think this movie does.

Early Buzz on True Grit

2010-12-16T08:31:00.001-06:00

The Coen Brothers talk to the New York Times about their True Grit re-boot:

Joel Coen said it was apparent from the beginning that “True Grit” might land in a place where their other films had not.

“When we first approached the studio, one of the things that they wanted to know was whether we could be finished in time for Christmas,” he said. “And after a while we thought to ourselves, if we do the movie the way that we were thinking about it, positioning it as a Christmas movie does actually make sense.”

Or, as Ethan put it, “Yes, you can probably bring Grandma to this one on Christmas.”

But, uh oh, an early review has some problems with the new version:

Despite the number of credited executive producers including Steven Spielberg, someone should have taken the Coen Brothers aside and told them what a fool’s errand they were on. Remaking True Grit is like remaking Citizen Kane, Casablanca or The Searchers. You can take the storyline and reinvent it with a different locale and altered characters, but you should only remake a film if you have something new to say that will be entertaining and interesting. The new True Grit is neither.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Don’t Mess With Texas!’” We’ll, the Coen Brother’s version of True Grit proves a similar very valid point – don’t fool with John Wayne, either.

Well, I'm still willing to give it a chance.

Night Pictures

2010-12-13T08:21:00.000-06:00

I had the task of dropping off and picking up Rachel and Emily at the recent Michael Buble concert and it was the perfect opportunity to whip out the iPhone camera and catch some night shots. The Oklahoma City skyline was especially beautiful. Too bad I wasn't able to capture it.

Cripes. When will I learn: low light + moving vehicle + one-handed-shooting-with-one-hand-on the-wheel = crappy pictures.

Still, I managed to capture a couple of good enough images. Here's some of the Christmas lights downtow:

And here are a couple of Michael Mann-ish street shots, all shiny and slick and urban-grittiness:

Ah, well. The good side about bad photography and that there's always hope that future pictures will be better. How could they be worse?

Golf

2010-12-09T07:17:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday, I played golf at the James E. Stewart golf course, a good 9-holer, run by the City. (No, not that James Stewart.) The temperature was 43, the wind howled from the north at 25 MPH. Was I alone on the course? I was!

That's the view from the 6th hole, with the Oklahoma City skyline in the background. The course is par 35 and offers some challenges from water and bunkers. Located in a not-nice part of town, I'm told this is the course where Tiger Woods once visited the local youth for an inspiring talk. It looks pretty bleak now but it's Winter; the grounds crew was out and you can tell they were spot-treating for weeds so things'll perk up come Spring.

A straightforward par 4, I managed to hit not nearly as well as I'd've liked but not nearly as bad as I could have. I call that progress.

The 19% Solution

2010-12-08T18:35:00.001-06:00

Obama came to fractious agreement on taxes with Republicans yesterday but it's important to remember that, no matter what anyone agrees to or what's passed into law, the government can only raise about 19% of GDP in total taxes.

Don't believe me? Here's a scientific looking graph to prove it:

And here's source of the graph.

So, tax the rich, tax the middle class, pass the Fair Tax, it doesn't matter: the economy can only sustain the 19% of GDP level for any length of time. If politicians want more dollars to spend, they should choose whatever method of taxation boosts the economy most. Cutting taxes across the board seems to do just that.

Oh, but what about the deficit, you ask? I'm not entirely sure deficits matter but could fiscal responsibility demands we do keep an eye on it. Here's how to balance the budget without really trying:

The CBO, the non-partisan agency charged with estimating the effects of legislation on government costs, has produced a long-term budget outlook in which Bush-era tax rates remain unchanged. Their conclusion is that over the next decade, "government revenues would remain at about 19 percent of GDP, near their historical averages." That's actually a bit higher than the historical average, but is within the bounds of reason.

A balanced budget in 2020 based on 19 percent of GDP would mean $1.3 trillion in cuts over the next decade, or about $129 billion annually out of ever-increasing budgets averaging around $4.1 trillion. Note that these are not even absolute cuts, but trims from expected increases in spending.

Short version: you can still have a mighty big Federal government with spending at 19% of GDP.

Somewhat related and entirely prescient. This idea isn't new. From October 8, 2008:

(L)ower taxes = higher GDP. Higher GDP = better for everybody.

'Times They are A-Changin' Lyrics for Sale

2010-12-02T11:37:00.000-06:00

You can own a part off American music
history:

Bob Dylan's original handwritten lyrics for "The Times They are A-Changin'" are heading for the auction block in New York City. They could sell for an estimated $200,000 to $300,000.

Written in pencil on a sheet of unruled, three-hole notebook paper, the classic 1960s folk protest song was the title track on Dylan's third album. The paper is creased with some small tears and signed "by Bob Dylan."

Sotheby's will offer it for sale on Dec. 10.

Here's what you'd be buying:

No word about who the current owner is but I presume it isn't Dylan. Then again, why not? The item's his to do with as he wants and you can't begrudge him the opportunity to make a buck or two on his own memorabilia. I think it's a great chance to own a part of history, though it's a bit pricey for my taste. Still, Dylanophile or not, it's fascinating to catch a glimpse of the humble beginnings of such a great song.

What's Brewin'?

2010-11-24T19:33:00.002-06:00

A lager, actually:

But not a true lager. That would require ingredients and equipment and skill that I don't possess. This is a good substitute, though, and my taste isn't sophisticated enough to tell the difference.

The picture shows a higher, frothier head than this beer should have but I'd poured it a little warm and spent a few too many minutes getting the camera right so that the head began to collapse. When it's poured cold, though, this is a fine, tasty beer that's not fussy at all.

So it looks like I'm set for the Winter. The Porter and this beer may not be the obvious choices for the season but I'm happy enough with the results.

Stalin's Ghost - Book Review

2010-11-24T09:35:00.001-06:00

Holy crow! Nearly two months to get through one measly book? Well, not quite. I've spent a good deal of that time working my way through a couple of golfing books a and I don't count them for book review purposes. Maybe I should.

Regardless, it has taken me some time to get through Stalin's Ghost but that says more about me and my reading habits than it does about this fine mystery. It was good to get back to Smith's Russia and his investigator Arkady Renko after laying off for several years. Like a lot of readers, I thought Gorky Park was very well done and though I enjoyed both Polar Star and Havana Bay, I found other books and writers to interest me and so I never returned.

That's too bad. If Stalin's Ghost is an example of what I've been missing, I've been missing out on a lot. Renko is the same - an honest man, or a man trying to be honest, in a society that's entirely corrupt, haunted by the past and by the present. A bit of a mope, really, but not unpleasantly so. They mystery to be solved is the reason for the sightings of Stalin's ghost - no, it's not real, but there's a political motive and Renko, like any good investigator in these kinds of series, steps on a lot of toes trying to get to the bottom of it. I've missed out on the introduction of several characters from prior books but I didn't find it too big of a distraction. I struggled with the Russian names, of course, but that's probably more a function of my lousy handling of names in general than anything. Smith delivers a world that's strange to our Western eyes and immerses us to completely that it becomes familiar and that's quite an accomplishment.

I'm glad to re-discover a forgotten favorite writer and to see the old magic is still there. I'm looking forward to filling in the pieces I've missed - hey, I may even revisit some of the old stuff! Or even some of Smith's non-Arkady novels.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 - Movie Review

2010-11-23T09:32:00.001-06:00

Emily's a huge fan Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 so though we didn't make the opening day, we did make it to a Saturday afternoon showing and that was good enough.

I've never read any of the books - oh, okay, I sneaked a look at the last section of the last book so I know how things turn out - the prior movies were easy enough to follow, though I'll have to admit, I'm hard-pressed to recount the plots of any of the most recent releases. Confusion reigned for me in this outing - we start with Harry and friends battling/running from bad guys and then a great deal of the rest of the movie is spent hiding out from the bad guys and then something important is suddenly found and there's a sad death followed by a steely determination to face whatever's to come in Part 2. Spoilers omitted not only on purpose but because I have no other choice: I really didn't know what was going on. But that didn't stop me from enjoying the effects and the sets and marveling at Rowling's imaginative world. Not a world as detailed as Tolkien's creation - really, what is? - it's a world that, nonetheless, looks like fun to inhabit. I'm just sorry I'm not one of those who caught the ride at an early stage.

Emily, is, though, and she pronounced the movie awesome though she admits it didn't quite live up to her expectations. Still, she's looking forward to Part 2. If I can go with her, so am I.

Another Beer Update

2010-11-17T07:32:00.000-06:00

My, my, it's been a couple of months since I've posted anything about brewing beer. Let's remedy that.

I chose a Porter for my Fall beer, sort of a poor man's stout. Dark, not as full-flavored as I'd like, and a little too carbonated so as smooth as I was hoping for either:

The head looks a little punk because I poured it carefully and cold; a little more noise and warmth and the head's has quite bit more presence. A little too foamy, actually. Things smooth out if you let it set for a bit and come to temperature but, honestly, I'd rather have had brewed up a stout; if you're gonna go full-bodied, you might as well go full out.

Still, I'm not entirely disappointed; I did what I wanted to do and that's try something a little different and the results weren't bad. You can't ask for much more than that, can you?

Unstoppable - Movie Review

2010-11-15T07:41:00.000-06:00

Unstoppable is a traditional disaster movie: something goes wrong at the first of the movie and the rest of the movie is spent making it right. (Wait, I just defined the plot of all movies! Welcome to Screenwriting 101.) The personal stories of the main characters are interesting but, really, we're just here for the runaway train barreling down the tracks to sure disaster, aren't we? Denzel Washington is his usual likable self but I think we get a little more with him than just likability; I can't help but think that when we seem him work, we're witnessing movie star power that we haven't seen in a long time and he'll be looked on years from now as one of the true greats. Chris Pine makes good on his promise he showed in last year's Star Trek re-boot and the charming Bottle Shock so this makes three good movies I've seen him in. He may have a future in this business.

Director Tony Scott finds the perfect material for his frenetic style and we're kept enthralled by the events. The personal stories do their work and engage you with the characters and I'm with those who hail the movie as a tribute to the regular working class folks who keep this country running so that's something new. The sound design and settings make this a movie worth going to see in the theatre so you'll miss out if you wait until it comes out on DVD.

All in all, a very good outing.

(I can't figure out how to embed the video of the preview but go here if you want to watch it.)

Oklahoma Sisters Each Record Hole-in-1 in Same Round

2010-11-15T07:31:00.000-06:00

For someone who's returning to the game of golf after an 18 or so year layoff, this is both an encouraging and discouraging story:

Two sisters on the Central Oklahoma golf team are celebrating holes-in-one recorded in the same round.

Erica and Lindsey Bensch each pulled off the feat Tuesday during a round at KickingBird Golf Club.

Erica Bensch, a junior, had the ace on the 124-yard No. 3 hole, using a gap wedge in windy conditions. Less than two hours later, freshman Lindsey Bensch knocked in an 8-iron on the 142-yard No. 11 hole.

Encouraging because it's clear good fortune favors the prepared. Discouraging because of the range these young ladies have with their short irons. I'm just trying to get my drives to stay in the middle of the fairway for more than one shot in a row; Erica Bensch is using a wedge to knock her ball 124 yards.

Man, have I got a long way to go.

Ah, but sibling rivalry dies hard, doesn't it:

"I had finally got my first hole in one to tie her and she had to go one-up me again." – Erica Bensch.

Fixing a Hole

2010-11-12T09:26:00.000-06:00

Not good. We came home from work to find this in our front yard:

It's part of the water main upgrade currently going on in our 'hood. Our side of the street is getting some brand spankin' new pipes and we'll be the envy of our neighbors across the street. Oh, how the water will flow!

From past experience, this looks worse than it'll end up being. They're a good crew and when they're finished, what they've left behind isn't all that bad. In the meantime, though, count on this thing being fired up in the pre-dawn light.

IRS Aims at Non-Filing Businesses

2010-11-11T09:43:00.001-06:00

Finally, the IRS gets off its collective duff and go after non-filers:

The IRS plans to take a closer look at businesses that fail to file tax returns, and identify more of themhe agency cannot develop a comprehensive estimate of the number of businesses that do not file returns because it lacks data about the population of all businesses, but it could use the inventory of business non-filers it already has on hand to determine noncompliance, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, which noted that the IRS identifies several million potential business non-filers each year, more than it can thoroughly investigate.

Why is this news? Because the IRS would rather spend its budget on terrorizing the compliant - the fish in this barrel over here who are easy to shoot - than going after the non-compliant - the fish in that other barrel way over there, who are too hard to shoot and aren't much fun to shoot at anyway.

The IRS thinks it spends too much time and effort hunting down the non-compliant and the potential payback is negligble, dollar-wise - most non-compliant taxpayers are non-compliant for a reason: they're off the grid because they don't earn that much money anyway; you won't see a company like GM not filing a tax return but the handy-person down the street who works for cash has more incentive to underreport his income or not file at all. After the chase, these kinds of cases rarely give up a lot of tax dollars and when they do, the taxpayer is rarely in a position to pay. That kind of budget expenditure requires the IRS to do a lot of 'splainin' to Congress and there's one thing the IRS doesn't like to do and that's 'splain itself.

No, rounding up non-filers won't make a significant dent in the deficit but the sense of fairness - you're filing your returns and paying your taxes, why isn't the IRS going after that guy who isnt? - will go a lot farther in promoting voluntary compliance with the tax laws than disallowing reasonable deductions. Taxpayers may grumble about paying taxes but what they grumble about most, and tempts them to cheat even more, is perceived unfairness in the system. It's not fair you should try to play by the rules of the game when others don't even show up to play.

So if you haven't been filing, the IRS will be looking for you. Finally. Get caught up. I happen to know a pretty good CPA who can help you out.

Civilization Has Beer to Thank

2010-11-10T06:35:00.000-06:00

This will come as no surprise to my brother John: Beer Lubricated Rise of Civilization Study Suggests.

Hmmm.

Link takes you only to a picture. Funny but when I sent this to my drafts a few days ago, there was an article that accompanied the picture this link now takes you to. Don't ask me. I don't know how the FoxNews site works.

Bottom line: ancient artifacts show folks have been making beer for a long time. Civilization rose. Coincidence? I don't think so.

iPhone Photo Dump

2010-11-05T07:57:00.000-05:00

Time for another iPhone photo dump. Can't let these days pass without documentation, can I? Let's see what's on the memory card that I haven't blogged about.

I've mentioned in passing about my new obsession - golf! - and I'm lucky enough to have my father-in-law agree to come along. But at 87, he claims he's not quite what he used to be; he loses his balls easily (!) and he'd prefer to have a cart rather than walk the course. Enter Emily, Grandpa's designated handler and caddy:

When we asked Emily to be Grandpa's caddy, she said: "Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll watch Grandpa for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Not like going down the pond chasin' bluegills and tommycods. It's not gonna be pleasant. I'll watch him but it'll cost ya'. A trip to the mall. And some Pad Thai after. For that I'll watch him, drive him around, keep him outta the hazards, the whole darn thing."

Uh, okay. Emily the steely-eyed negotiator:

Emily earns her fee and keeps Grandpa out of the mossy creek:

Emily drives, Grandpa holds on for dear life:

Emily has time to lend advice to Mom: Green breaks to the right, give it some oomph. The hole's not gonna run up to the ball:

Approaching the clubhouse. Grandpa accounted for while Mom follows:

Another day, another caddying session. We've been blessed with some beautiful early Fall days:

Grandpa addresses the ball, Emily and Mom look on:

For Fall Break, we took an overnight trip to Dallas for some shopping and a meet up with Clara's cousin. The great Hoyt Axton's comment about Oklahoma to the contrary - he'd claimed we're the cultural center of the universe and it's true! - we don't have a Buca Di Beppo but Frisco does and that's where we met up with Clara's cousin and her husband. (We'd first been to this restaurant chain a few years ago while visiting family in Florida. Good times.)

Clara prays the food arrives soon:

Emily would appreciate quick service, too. She gets cranky when she's hungry:

Patience:

The cousin and her husband arrived, we had a fine dinner and conversation and carried it over to the hotel lobby. A nice visit and good to get caught up.

Next day, shopping. And a hard day of shopping requires a break. Product placement by Wetzel's Pretzel's:

With Rachel's graduation from high school this past May, she's doing more of her own thing with work and hair school and that means less time with us. And that means fewer pictures. But I got this one of her showing off her latest 'do, courtesy of the instructor's at school. She'll hate me for posting it but tough. It's the only recent one I have of her:

Enough for now. Time to fill the memory card again.

Hereafter - Movie Review

2010-11-03T09:46:00.001-05:00

The Clint Eastwood-directed Hereafter is less about what the hereafter is really like - it seems, according to this movie, to be a mush of the dearly departed walking around, trying to communicate with the living and predicting the future and saving some of us from it and then moving on to whatever business the dead have to attend to on the other side- and more about how the characters deal with their individual tragedies and how their stories intertwine.

An impressive opening sequence of the tsunami in Indonesia, what follows is more of a deliberately paced character study. And by deliberately-paced, yes, I mean slow, but I don't really mind slow and, besides, it's Clint Eastwood who's directing. If you want a fast moving film about the hereafter, direct your own, punk. I liked the scenes of London and Paris and San Francisco, all safe and travelogue-y and temporarily taking me out of the movie and wanting to go actually visit these places. Matt Damon underplays his roll and the kid who *spoiler alert!* loses his brother is charming. I didn't know who the French actress is but, well, she's French and you don't have to say anything else after that, do you?

If you're looking for a more, heavily-plotted movie, you'll be disappointed but there's much to like here. I don't think much, if anything, would be lost watching this on the small screen so it might be one of those movies to wait for on DVD.

Inside the Rolling Stones Inc.

2010-11-02T10:10:00.000-05:00

TaxProf Blog links to an old article - internal clues point to 2006 - about how tax-savvy the Rolling Stones are:

Like the protagonist in one of his most devilish songs, Mick has been around for many a long year. He had plenty of smarts to begin with, and now he has 40 years of music industry experience under his belt. Jagger may be getting a trifle old to rock & roll--he'll turn 60 next July--but from a business perspective he's at the top of his game. Which makes sense in a way. After all, that's a typical age for a CEO of a large, multinational organization. (Okay, so most of the CEOs we follow don't have to swivel-hip their way through "Midnight Rambler," but you get the point.)

Even aging rockers want to avoid the tax man.

(OKC rockers: wanna be like the Rolling Stones? Tax-wise, I mean? Gimme a shout. I'd be glad to talk with you.)

Lileks and Disney

2010-11-01T07:50:00.001-05:00

Once again, James Lileks does Disney (scroll down):

We went to Epcot the first day. I love Epcot. Don’t have the same reaction I did the first time, where newness and delight was tinged with a certain sort of sadness – seeing the 70s ideas of THE FUTURE! was nostalgic and bittersweet. The glass pyramid, the monorail, the enormous million-faceted sphere, the tinged concrete, and all the other details that made you feel like you were in a Gene Roddenberry pilot. Now I enjoy it for what it is, and enjoy its curious conjoining of Science! and international comity. One half techno-theme-park, one half permanent Festival of Nations housed in exquisite sets.

Here he is from two years ago and, as I noted then, Lileks gets it. He's blogged each of his visits since though I've failed to note them. Each of his entries, though, just about sums up my own feelings for the place and makes my own seem paltry in comparison.

But that's okay. If I can't go there myself, I'll relive those trips through Lileks. Good enough for now.

Teachout and "Orson Welles and Me" and Me

2010-10-30T08:36:00.004-05:00

The mighty Terry Teachout agrees with me! Though his pleasure with the movie is somewhat different. Teachout is the drama critic for the Wall Street Journal and he points out this is probably the closest we'll ever get to seeing a play produced by the genius Orson Welles:

Enter Richard Linklater, the director of such distinctly un-Wellesian movies as "Dazed and Confused" and "School of Rock," who last year made a film called "Me and Orson Welles" that was recently released on DVD. Based on a 2003 novel by Robert Kaplow, the movie is a coming-of-age screwball comedy in which Zac Efron, lately of "High School Musical," plays a stage-struck high-school senior who unexpectedly finds himself playing a bit part in "Julius Caesar." Don't snicker: Christian McKay's Welles impersonation is so accurate as to be spooky, and despite the film's obligatory (albeit charming) rom-com trappings, I've never seen a backstage movie that was truer to the experience of putting on a show.

Read the whole thing then go out and rent the movie. You won't be disappointed with either.

Winter's Bone - Movie Review

2010-10-30T07:27:00.001-05:00

Winter's Bone is The Godfather set in the Ozarks, a tale of clannish crime and punishment in the name of the business at hand, which in this case is the cooking and selling and using of crystal meth.

Stubborn Ree Dolly has to find her missing father or risk losing the family home; her wide-scattered, and dubious, relatives won't let her. At points, the plot is difficult to follow but it all unspools eventually and you end up rooting for Ree and suffering with her as she makes the sacrifices to protect her family.

The performances by the no-name cast are gritty, the sets depressing. Shot in the area around our beloved Branson, Missouri, it's a vastly different take of the touristy side of the Ozarks. I liked, especially, the scene where Ree talks with an Army recruiter at school about enlistment as a possible way out. The recruiter plays it straight and respectful and you get the sense she appreciates his manner even though he lays some hard truth on her.

A tight, impressive movie

A Single Man - Movie Review

2010-10-28T07:35:00.000-05:00

Colin Firth gives a great performance in A Single Man and that's not the only thing to like in this movie about death and loss. First-time director Tom Ford has a confident eye and those fond of a Mad Men vibe won't be disappointed with the sets and costumes. Though the mournful soundtrack is intrusive - it plays nearly non-stop - it's quite lovely.

No, the movie is put together quite well and the performances are more than good. It's just the character of George I had some trouble with. While not quite a mope, he's 8 months past the tragic death of his long-loved partner and still grieves and now not only contemplates suicide, he takes action this particular day to make it so. I couldn't help but think, man, just buck up already, bad things happen to people and time will help soothe the hurt and it'll be okay. And whattaya know, that's almost the point of the movie: George learns *spoiler alert* there's still much to live for and *spoiler alert* decides to do so. But because this is a "literary" movie where *spoiler alert* happy endings aren't allowed, there is *spoiler alert* no happy ending. How ironic. Everyone nod your heads knowingly.

Good dramas are hard to come by so this is well worth a buck from Redbox for a slow night. I just wouldn't pay too much more to see it.

More Flaming Lips Coolness

2010-10-23T06:53:00.001-05:00

More evidence of how cool The Flaming Lips are (is?):

When the days grow shorter, the evening shadows grow longer and the air turns crisp and full of falling leaves, Wayne Coyne gets in touch with his inner trick-or-treater.

And the kid within dictates that the Flaming Lips leader go all out for Halloween, starting with the band's annual March of 1,000 Flaming Skeletons this Saturday in downtown Oklahoma City.

"And of course I'll be the there in the space bubble at the end of it, bringing in the new unexpected," Coyne said this week. "I guess I'm kind of viewed as like the Santa Claus at the end of the Thanksgiving Day parade. At the end of this Halloween parade, you have me in this space bubble with a bunch of freaks all around me."

And being a kid in leader Wayne Coyne's neighborhood sounds like fun:

A week later, on the official fright night — which this year falls on Oct. 30 — when all the little ghouls come out to play, Coyne plans to pitch a giant tent on his sprawling property in the Classen-10-Penn area of midtown Oklahoma City and resurrect the "500-pound human brain" that the neighborhood kids went bonkers for last year.

"If it'll work and it's still in good shape," he said. "The guys have talked about just making a new one, like a bigger and better brain this year.

"Whatever we do, as long as the kids around the neighborhood get to come and help us do it, I think that's the best bit. It isn't really even if it works very well. Sometimes the more elaborate we make it, the better the kids like it because they get involved and they get to see that we're plugging in speakers and lights and smoke machines and things. That (stuff) is a lot of fun.

"We always buy a thousand dollars worth of candy to give out, too, so that never hurts."

Gee, all we're doing is giving out candy. I never thought of a giant brain.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - Movie Review

2010-10-22T06:50:00.000-05:00

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps wasn't the first on our list of movies to see but it was on the list and there's not much else out there so it would do.

I'm no Oliver Stone fan but at least he makes a movie interesting and he's no slouch here. I liked the scenes of New York and the cameos and you know that Carey Mulligan is as cute as a bug's ear. I liked the soap operatic plot - the protege in love with the villain's daughter and much worry ensues. I'm pretty sure whatever caused the financial meltdown of a couple of years ago isn't explained at all in this movie. In fact, I'm pretty sure just about everything they're talking that's finance-related in this movie is just a load of crap. But who knows?

Still, the movie began to feel it's age about 30 minutes from the end - it's 2 hours and 15 minutes long - and there are no surprises to be had by the finale. It's just a reason to re-visit these characters if you liked them before - I didn't, really, but I found them mildly engaging this time around - have a chuckle at seeing Gekko's mobile phone from way back, and work your way through a tub of popcorn. It's not perfection but few movies are.

Don't Waste Your Time

2010-10-21T09:36:00.000-05:00

Terry Teachout says you shouldn't waste your time. I agree:

As a professional critic, it's my job--my destiny, you might say--to spend a fair amount of time experiencing art that I don't like. Insofar as possible, though, I don't propose to waste any more of the days that remain to me consuming bad art than is absolutely necessary. Unless I'm being paid to do so, I won't even finish reading a book I don't like, or listening to a record that fails to engage me. I have better things to do, and not nearly enough time in which to do them.

Read the whole thing for more about traveling light.

True Grit - Classic

2010-10-21T07:33:00.000-05:00

I'm all excited about the new version of True Grit coming this Christmas movie season but it's only fair I give you the trailer to the original version:

The IRS and the Latest Licensing Outrage

2010-10-20T15:12:00.001-05:00

Most people care not one farthing about the IRS' new licensing procedures, and rightly so, but in the tax preparation industry, it's a big thing. Dan Alban does some heavy olifting in making the point for those few of us who are opposed to what amounts to be a tax increase aimed solely at tax preparers:

Who would you rather prepare your taxes? A professional tax return preparer with over a dozen years experience in preparing tax returns for taxpayers without incident. Or me, an attorney who has never so much as taken a law school class or continuing legal education course in tax law, and gave up on doing his own taxes last year once he started needing to itemize his deductions. You probably think you’d prefer the first option, but the IRS says you’re wrong.

The IRS already has procedures in place to pursue those incompetent or dishonest tax preparers - get called in for a questionable deduction or credit and you'll roll over pretty quick on your tax preparer, won't you? - so there's no need for more licensing. And it already maintains a database of registered attorney, CPAs, and Enrolled Agents that nothing for those preparers required to be registered. No, the new rules not only take in these professionals but others, like those Alban refers to, as well as every single staff member in a firm who decides which information is entered onto a return. Oh, and at $65 a licensing pop. And they'll have to take a test, too. And Continuing Education to maintain their registration.

Now, will my staff be responsible for any errors on a return they prepare for my signature? Heck, no! And well they shouldn't. I'm the one who signs off on the return so I'm responsible for making sure the information is accurate and takes reasonable advantage of the tax laws.

The IRS needs this, it says, because it's receiving a lot of fraudulent tax returns prepared by unscrupulous preparers. How does the IRS know this? Because they already track this information! They already know who these preparers are! They don't need additional licensing to nab these no-gooders. This is a naked power grab, pure and simple, signed off by major firms like H&R Block to keep the mom-and-pop tax return preparation shops - places where many taxpayers go to have their returns prepared for a cheaper fee than I can prepare them. And let's not talk about the ethics of giving an agency the power to decide who can represent taxpayers in their convoluted administrative processes.

And it's clear the IRS hasn't thought all of this through. The IRS has disclosed its current staff of 19 which processes licensing requests under the old laws is already overwhelmed. The $65 licensing fee is necessary to pay for additional staff and resources to process of what has been estimated to be millions of requests for licensing under the new rules, as well as the renewal requests and administration of tests and continuing education each year.

Wait a minute. Maybe the IRS has thought all of this through. It's a whole new bureaucratic nightmare it can preside over, full of managers and district and regional managers who must be supervised by even higher management and, well, you get the idea. Oh, and managing the new Health Care law is on the way, too. So it looks like things are looking up for the IRS.

And, as usual, it's the taxpayer who'll come up short.

Oklahoma earthquake: Not as Awesome as Originally Thought

2010-10-15T07:44:00.000-05:00

Dang. Wednesday's earthquake was downgraded to a measly 4.7.

Earthquake!

2010-10-14T06:12:00.000-05:00

Hail and ice storms and blizzards and twisters just aren't enough for us here in Oklahoma. No, we gotta have an earthquake:

One of the strongest earthquakes in state history startled Oklahomans Wednesday morning, rattling windows and nerves but causing no major damage or injuries.

The quake was centered eight miles southeast of Norman, south of Lake Thunderbird, near E Post Oak Road and 84th Avenue SE, Oklahoma Geological Survey research seismologist Austin Holland said. He estimated the magnitude of the 9:06 a.m. quake at 5.1 and called it a "small to moderate earthquake," while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 4.3.

Although there were only two reported minor injuries in Oklahoma, people were caught off guard by a jolting earthquake in the land of tornadoes.

Especially unnerving for Clara and others who were downtown during the Murrah Building bombing back in the 90s. The building swayed just like that fateful day and she was quite spooked until she learned what had happened.

(Oh, look, this isn't the first one I've noted. Getting to be like California around here.)

The Social Network - Movie Review

2010-10-02T07:23:00.000-05:00

The Social Network is a fascinating look at the not-very sympathetic founder of Facebook who, like the book this movie is based on is titled, becomes an accidental billionaire. Most of the cast are unknowns to me - hey, there's Justin Timberlake! - but Jesse Eisenberg plays the lead to socially-misfit perfection. Director David Fincher keeps things moving right along from Aaron Sorkin's whip-smart script, expertly cutting from one lawsuit deposition to the next and to the past and back again without leaving you confused but giving you a good grasp of the whole story.

I don't hold with critics who claim the movie's cold and lacks sympathetic characters - I felt for Eduardo, the partner shunted to the side and party of one of the lawsuits - though I will agree that while I found the movie interesting, I wasn't really moved emotionally. Still, like most great endeavors, what starts things and keeps them rolling along is a deeply felt emotional drive and I think that came across just fine.

Farewell Summer - Book Review

2010-10-01T07:26:00.000-05:00

It only seems appropriate that I finish reading Ray Bradbury's Farewell Summer at the end of summer; I often read his work during the season for which it's written: Dandelion Wine in Summer, The Halloween Tree and Something Wicked This Way Comes and, well, just about every other work of his in Autumn. But this book is his latest novel length work and as a fan and a stickler for completeness it's necessary that I read it and though there were parts of it where Bradbury's old genius shone through and I enjoyed it, overall it wasn't a very rewarding experience. For fans only, I'd have to regretfully say.

Dandelion Wine is my favorite work of Bradbury's and I think his preface to the book is the finest piece of writing you could ever hope to come across. It didn't demand a sequel but Bradbury, in his Afterword, insisted it did. I won't get into an argument with him but, instead, leave the two books as evidence that I'm right. Farewell Summer retreads much of Dandelion Wine and while it's held together by a single narrative event - a "war" between Douglas and his friends against the old codgers of the town with a very special lesson learned by all at the end - and Dandelion Wine is a string of related incidents held together by a single theme, Summer is the much slighter work of the two. And the final scene with Douglas in a conversation with, uh, a part of his male anatomy, well, talk about TMI. C'mon, Ray. You've done better. You can do better.

(Or maybe not. Bradbury, like most artists, has his greatest work behind him. It's not reasonable to expect him to produce art the same caliber of which he created in his relative youth. It's not an age thing, really. It's just that he's had his say. Now he's saying it all over again. It's enough that he's alive and still a delight to have around and to have the old works to enjoy. I don't need anything new.)

Hey Ya, Peanuts Style

2010-09-30T14:18:00.001-05:00

While waiting for MC Hammer to perform last week at the State Fair, Rachel and I got into a disagreement about one of the songs that was playing on the loudspeakers. She thought it was a Black Eyed Peas song; I thought it was Hey Ya, by Outkast.

I, of course, was right.

But it got me to remembering this video that had made the Internet rounds some time ago and so I found it and now I've posted it for your enjoyment:

It made me smile. I'm sure it did you, too.

Me on TV

2010-09-30T07:37:00.001-05:00

Amy Welch, the Communications Director of the OSCPA had tweeted about a local television news story of a tax preparer who'd disappeared and left his clients caught short with the looming October 15th deadline. I'd had clients come my way when their preparer had fallen ill or died and working for the IRS I'd seen this happen, too, so I felt for these people and asked Amy how I could help. She said she'd send my contact information to the reporter and we could take it from there. The reporter contacted me, I helped her run down a lead or two, and then offered some advice - the clients shouldn't panic, the IRS could waive penalties in situations like this, and they should start trying to recreate their records the best they can. Would I say this on camera?

Gulp.

Well, I've turned Amy down enough times in the past that it was about time I said yes and so I did and the next thing you know, well, here it is. I'm at around the 1:05 mark:

Hey, at least I didn't stammer and stutter and sweat too much so I'll call this a success.

Thanks to Amy for setting this up. She was right. It wasn't so bad.

True Grit Trailer

2010-09-29T07:36:00.001-05:00

I want to hate the True Grit remake but this makes it hard. Real hard:

No one can replace John Wayne but Jeff Bridges seems to make the character memorable in his way, too. The movie's been touted as hewing more closely to the book than the original but I didn't find the original strayed that far, other than some plot points. It's a great book and was made into a great movie. It looks like it may have been made into a great movie again.

iPhone Picture Dump

2010-09-28T08:32:00.002-05:00

Time for another iPhone picture dump. If I don't mark the days, who will? Let's see what I've managed to collect over the last few weeks:

Storm's a'brewin' from my office window. I liked the contrast of green trees and the purplish blue storm clouds roiling in the afternoon sun:

The storms came in. Some action shots from the Interstate coming home from Norman. Late summer fury. Blessedyl hail - and twister - free. Just hurricane strength winds:

A new obsession: golf! More about that in future posts but here's Clara and her father taking a break on a Saturday morning:

The season's change, the time of sunrise changes with it. Once again, the drive in makes for some beautiful mornings, washed with blue and gold:

This year's State Fair installment. I've tried tweaking this but to no avail. For Mike Hasenstab, the blazing sign says "Hot Wisconsin Cheese." Because I know he'd settle for nothing less:

Rachel at the Fair patiently waiting for MC Hammer to perform "You Can't Touch This." He did, eventually. Her take: he didn't wear his Hammer pants so it was disappointing :

Another Saturday, another golf course :

I was dropping off Emily and a buddy at a JV football game yesterday evening and we caught this. See that line in the sky above the treeline? The picture doesn't do it justice but it was sort of a rainbowy thing. The ice crystals blowing away from were clearly visible. A sun dog?

I tried again. This is no better, I'm afraid:

Bruce'll know so let's see what he has to say about it. It was unusual, though, someting I can't recall seeing recently, if ever.

That's all I've got on the iPhone camera; time to fill it up again.

The Town - Movie Review

2010-09-23T13:42:00.001-05:00

Ben Affleck's latest movie, The Town proves his inaugural directing effort, Gone Baby Gone, wasn't a fluke. His second directorial effort isn't perfect though it's a far cry better than most crime movies you're likely to come across.

Think of it as Heat-lite. All of the elements of that far-superior movie are there: a crack thievery crew, a character wanting out after falling in love, a one last-heist heist that goes wrong, a dogged law-enforcement officer on the trail, a strong sense of place. Affleck maneuvers everything deftly and makes an enjoyable movie except for the end. No spoilers here but compare this movie with Heat and you'll see what I mean when I say this is the lighter of the two.

It's about the best that's out there right now so you'd better grab it while you can. The Fall movie slump is under way and there doesn't seem to be much on the horizon until the holidays.

Would It Kill You to Read Some Poetry?

2010-09-23T08:29:00.001-05:00

Via amba12 on Twitter, Barry Casselman discusses why Americans no longer read poetry:

Outside the older grades of high school and most college English literature courses, almost no one in America reads poetry. It is often pointed out that this is not so in many other countries, especially societies in Europe, South America and Asia. In the U.S. past there seemed to be more poetry readers, especially in the 19th century when American poetry first blossomed.

The question is whether this is due to the character of American civilization itself, the current state of the U.S. cultural mood, the nature of poetry in the American English tongue, or the contemporary quality of poets and their writing. In short, is the lack of interest in poetry inherent in our U.S. society, or is it the responsibility of those who write poetry?

I come down on the side of writer responsibility. It's not the reader who is uninterested; it's the writer who is uninteresting.

Casselman points to what he thinks is the problem with American poetry:

So much contemporary U.S.poetry, in my opinion, is so esoteric, obscurely self-referential and political that the task is immense. I think it will require a new and younger generation of poets.

I should add that some of the problems affecting poetry have also affected serious U.S. music, painting, sculpture, dance and theater. Poetry is not alone in this dilemma.

I think once the arts became democratized, that anyone can paint or write or make music or do anything in the arts and no one could tell you otherwise, the arts fell into decline. If anything goes, nothing does, and we've reached the point now where the consumer of art is guilty of failing to "get" the artist rather than the artist failing to communicate his intentions. That's why I get a sense of hostility from modern art when we visit the art museum. I feel I'm being assaulted because of my ignorance when, really, all I want to do is look at pretty pictures.

But back to poetry. My favorite contemporary poet, - my only favorite contemporary poet - Billy Collins, when he was Poet Laureate of the United States, introduced Poetry 180, a program to bring a poem a day into the daily routine of high-schoolers. I'm not sure if it helped but at least students had the opportunity to hear good poetry. I admit to not being entirely comfortable with free-verse poetry - isn't it really just prose chopped up into verses and stanzas - but Collins style is sort of free verse and I seem to have no problem with that. Sure, I think poetry should follow formal rules - like Robert Frost said about free-verse being like playing tennis without a net - except for when poetry doesn't follow the rules. I just want it to be well-written - you do, too, don't you? - and that's sometimes hard to pin down. Ray Bradbury says you may not understand poetry but your animal brain does. I enjoy Collins because of his wry humor and observations of every day objects and his descriptions of clouds. Give him a try and you might find you like poetry, too. It certainly won't kill you. And neither will eating broccoli so you need to do that, too.