Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is getting a lot of well-deserved hype - it's a good read though not without its flaws, and there's an interesting back story about Larsson himself - he died before his "Girl" series of mysteries hit as huge as it has.
But let's leave Larsson's story aside and judge the book on its own merits. Though at heart a mystery, it's also a family history saga, an insider's look at the journalism industry, and a love story all wrapped up in one. Long, too, for a mystery - my rule is if you can't run through these things in 350 pages or so, you're just repeating yourself - but only plodding in a few places. Larsson's sets several wheels in motion from the start and resolves each of the plot lines in a satisfactory manner though the underlying mystery - the disappearance of a girl 40 years ago - is solved in a tired manner. When will we see the end of these serial-killers-as-super-villain stories? None too soon for me.
After that mystery is solved, there's still some 100 pages to go to take care of the rest of the plotlines but Larsson's done his work and makes you care about how things turn out. Much of it is fantasy and wishful thinking but, hey, it's Larsson's book and he can write his plot any way he wants. I just don't have to believe it. As a journalist, Larsson makes his prose trot right along - yeah, I know it's a translation but things move along well for the most part. But though this takes place in Sweden, I never got the sense that I was in a foreign country that the setting was unique to itself, that this story could have only taken place there. Is that because the rest of the world is becoming more like America? I don't know. I like to think some places still have a unique sense of place you can't get from anywhere else but maybe that's wishful thinking on my part.
(There's already a movie with a trailer that, though not entirely dishonest, is rather misleading. Is there an American remake in the works? Of course!)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Love for Sale
Actually, you can have it for free.
Almost three weeks ago, Rachel was doing what she thought was a favor for a friend from school when he was looking for a place to board his puppy, Princess, while he and his family went on vacation. We agreed to look her over and see how she reacted with our dogs, Pepper and Lucky. This friend told us Princess was a "toy shepherd," whatever that is, and she seemed to get along fine with our dogs and was playful and puppy-like and small enough and it'd only be a week and so what the heck, we said yes. She wasn't too much trouble, not too much chewing or digging or many accidents in the house since she stayed outside mostly and our dogs put up with her when she was at her most annoyingly playful and seemed to like her when she wasn't.
A week passed. No word from this friend. Rachel tried to text him and call him. No response. Two weeks passed. Still nothing. Well, somebody was bamboozled, weren't they? Rachel finally got a hold of her friend's mother and she said, honey, you can keep that dog. We don't want her.
Well, we can't keep her, we've got two already and Princess is sure to be something a little more than a "toy shepherd" if her big paws and long legs mean anything. I've already put the word out - Erin, at the office, knows of several rescue groups and we'll look for a good place for Princess to go. She'll make someone a nice companion - she's smart and cheerful and easily adapts. And look, how can you resist:
You can't, so why even try?
Interested? Let me know in the comments and we'll get something worked out.
Almost three weeks ago, Rachel was doing what she thought was a favor for a friend from school when he was looking for a place to board his puppy, Princess, while he and his family went on vacation. We agreed to look her over and see how she reacted with our dogs, Pepper and Lucky. This friend told us Princess was a "toy shepherd," whatever that is, and she seemed to get along fine with our dogs and was playful and puppy-like and small enough and it'd only be a week and so what the heck, we said yes. She wasn't too much trouble, not too much chewing or digging or many accidents in the house since she stayed outside mostly and our dogs put up with her when she was at her most annoyingly playful and seemed to like her when she wasn't.
A week passed. No word from this friend. Rachel tried to text him and call him. No response. Two weeks passed. Still nothing. Well, somebody was bamboozled, weren't they? Rachel finally got a hold of her friend's mother and she said, honey, you can keep that dog. We don't want her.
Well, we can't keep her, we've got two already and Princess is sure to be something a little more than a "toy shepherd" if her big paws and long legs mean anything. I've already put the word out - Erin, at the office, knows of several rescue groups and we'll look for a good place for Princess to go. She'll make someone a nice companion - she's smart and cheerful and easily adapts. And look, how can you resist:
You can't, so why even try?
Interested? Let me know in the comments and we'll get something worked out.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Thievery!
I'm tellin' ya', life's hard here on the south side. Yesterday morning one of our car's alarms suddenly went off. I thought it was one of those in the garage - I'd just tossed my briefcase where I keep both sets of car keys on the kitchen counter and thought that had something to do with it. I fished my keys out, went to the garage to see which one was going, and learned it was neither. Ah, it was Rachel's out in the driveway; my briefcase tossing had nothing to do with anything. Well, her alarm had gotten stuck once at school and likely that's what was going on. I opened the garage door and, sure enough, Rachel's alarm was sounding.
Only one of her back doors was open.
Drat.
Her car had been broken into.
I stepped outside, saw no one on the street, no cars, no evidence anyone had been near her car - the grass was dewy and you'd think there'd've been footprints or something, huh, Sherlock? Rachel's back windows were rolled down - she likes to ride like that when she's tooling around at night - so it was as easy thing for a thief to reach in, unlock the door, give the interior a quick rummage and snatch away whatever could be snatched.
All this time, the alarm was still sounding so I went back inside to Rachel's room to find her key. The alarm had awakened her and I gave her the news. She checked her purse for her iPod - uh oh, not there - and out we went to check things out. By now the alarm had shut off, much to the relief of the rest of the neighborhood, I'm sure, and Rachel pawed through her stuff and confirmed that, yep, they'd gotten her iPod, her adapter and her phone charger.
Well, shoot. A hard lesson learned. Those things can be replaced and there was no damage to the car so we go off easy. Suspects? Mine would include a member of the roofing crews roving the neighborhood since the hail storms but that's because their the newest element around. Who knows, really? Rachel pointed out it couldn't possibly be "kids." What self-respecting kid would be up at 6:30 in the a.m. on a summer morning? Good point.
Note: Rachel's stolen iPod was my old iPod. She'd had another one stolen or misplaced so when I got my iPhone, she got my old classic black iPod. It's foolish to be sentimental about things but the thief took away a little more than just a musical appliance. He took away the small gesture I was able to make for Rachel. (And he also got what is probably the most eclectic list of music he'll ever come across: Rachel's iTunes range from Taylor Swift to world music to heavy metal to Wicked to Glee and all points in between. I hope he's forever puzzled by what he snatched.)
Only one of her back doors was open.
Drat.
Her car had been broken into.
I stepped outside, saw no one on the street, no cars, no evidence anyone had been near her car - the grass was dewy and you'd think there'd've been footprints or something, huh, Sherlock? Rachel's back windows were rolled down - she likes to ride like that when she's tooling around at night - so it was as easy thing for a thief to reach in, unlock the door, give the interior a quick rummage and snatch away whatever could be snatched.
All this time, the alarm was still sounding so I went back inside to Rachel's room to find her key. The alarm had awakened her and I gave her the news. She checked her purse for her iPod - uh oh, not there - and out we went to check things out. By now the alarm had shut off, much to the relief of the rest of the neighborhood, I'm sure, and Rachel pawed through her stuff and confirmed that, yep, they'd gotten her iPod, her adapter and her phone charger.
Well, shoot. A hard lesson learned. Those things can be replaced and there was no damage to the car so we go off easy. Suspects? Mine would include a member of the roofing crews roving the neighborhood since the hail storms but that's because their the newest element around. Who knows, really? Rachel pointed out it couldn't possibly be "kids." What self-respecting kid would be up at 6:30 in the a.m. on a summer morning? Good point.
Note: Rachel's stolen iPod was my old iPod. She'd had another one stolen or misplaced so when I got my iPhone, she got my old classic black iPod. It's foolish to be sentimental about things but the thief took away a little more than just a musical appliance. He took away the small gesture I was able to make for Rachel. (And he also got what is probably the most eclectic list of music he'll ever come across: Rachel's iTunes range from Taylor Swift to world music to heavy metal to Wicked to Glee and all points in between. I hope he's forever puzzled by what he snatched.)
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Movie Review
Gosh, Summer hasn't even begun and it already feels the Summer movie season is losing steam. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time wouldn't've been our first choice but it was just about the only choice in the multiplex - Shrek would've been our other choice but we weren't in a Shrek mood. Not yet, anyway.
Oh, don't get me wrong, Prince of Persia is a lot of fun. Once again, I'm astounded by the imagination that goes into putting the best CGI around up there on the screen. But I found myself longing for something that was real - though the desert scenes are impressive, they can't compare to Lawrence of Arabia when you know that nothing in Lawrence was faked. (Well, almost nothing, I suppose. Hollywood is about nothing if not the art of illusion.) It's a thrilling ride and Jake Gyllenhaal has a career as an action hero if he wants it but he's still too pretty for my tastes. Gemma Arterton is sure purty but I don't remember her in Quantum of Solace and I doubt I'll remember she was in this after a while. A nice surprise: Alfred Molina as a member of a Middle-Eastern Tea Party, so to speak. But it's not top Summer movie stuff - it all seems kind of second rate, as if we're marking time for something better to come along. It'll do until then but it sure seems like it's gonna be a long Summer.
Oh, don't get me wrong, Prince of Persia is a lot of fun. Once again, I'm astounded by the imagination that goes into putting the best CGI around up there on the screen. But I found myself longing for something that was real - though the desert scenes are impressive, they can't compare to Lawrence of Arabia when you know that nothing in Lawrence was faked. (Well, almost nothing, I suppose. Hollywood is about nothing if not the art of illusion.) It's a thrilling ride and Jake Gyllenhaal has a career as an action hero if he wants it but he's still too pretty for my tastes. Gemma Arterton is sure purty but I don't remember her in Quantum of Solace and I doubt I'll remember she was in this after a while. A nice surprise: Alfred Molina as a member of a Middle-Eastern Tea Party, so to speak. But it's not top Summer movie stuff - it all seems kind of second rate, as if we're marking time for something better to come along. It'll do until then but it sure seems like it's gonna be a long Summer.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Runners in the Storm
With a nod to The Doors, we were actually walkers in the storm. We became runners when it started hailing:
Not two seconds after I turned the camera off, the sky was split by a sizzling lightning bolt. It's all about timing, I guess.
No damage to body or property, though. Just a pleasant surprise.
Not two seconds after I turned the camera off, the sky was split by a sizzling lightning bolt. It's all about timing, I guess.
No damage to body or property, though. Just a pleasant surprise.
iPhone Dump
Checking my iPhone pictures and I see I've got a few I haven't posted. Well, they're not amusing anyone just sitting on my phone, are they? Here they are. Be amused!
I'd said I didn't get any good pictures from Emily's Spring Concert and I wasn't kidding. Here's proof: (Emily's playing flute at the far left.)
A couple of Sundays ago, it was crunch time for Rachel and her semester essay for English. Her choice of location to work on it with Dad? The Downtown Library. A great place to jostle with the homeless for a connection to the 'net. Turned out just fine, thanks, but that was the day the huge hail storm came rolling through northwest Oklahoma City causing so much havoc. We got caught on the outer edges as we were making our way home and we sought shelter under a tree:
You can see the marble-sized hail near the windshield:
No damage to the car - that had already been done earlier with the baseball sized hail we'd got on the south side a week or so earlier. I've published those pictures on Facebook so I won't put them here. Can't be repeating myself, can I?
Last Friday I had lunch with Clara. I complain mightily about the limitations of my iPhone's camera but sometimes, when the light and the color and the angle are just right, I manage to capture a little something that makes it worth keeping. Here's a street view from the rooftop of the parking garage across the street from Clara's office:
Here's a glimpse of the Devon locations from the same view:
Finally, the sky was so blue, the Liberty Bank building was so awesome, well, I couldn't resist:
Saturday morning I went back downtown with Clara while she powered down her servers for a building power maintenance procedure. I whiled away the time, watching the Devon construction from her window: (Familiar? They might be to my tweeple; I tweeted 'em already so there goes my policy about repeating myself.)
You can barely see 'em but at the top of the blue tube - it's a concrete form for a pillar of, well, concrete - are three guys who've just scrambled to the top to guide the crane dumping in the concrete. They moved so fast that by the time I saw them and got my camera on them, they'd made it from near the bottom to all the way to the top. Sure, they had safety lines but an impressive, fearless feat nonetheless.
And that's all I've got for now. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
I'd said I didn't get any good pictures from Emily's Spring Concert and I wasn't kidding. Here's proof: (Emily's playing flute at the far left.)
A couple of Sundays ago, it was crunch time for Rachel and her semester essay for English. Her choice of location to work on it with Dad? The Downtown Library. A great place to jostle with the homeless for a connection to the 'net. Turned out just fine, thanks, but that was the day the huge hail storm came rolling through northwest Oklahoma City causing so much havoc. We got caught on the outer edges as we were making our way home and we sought shelter under a tree:
You can see the marble-sized hail near the windshield:
No damage to the car - that had already been done earlier with the baseball sized hail we'd got on the south side a week or so earlier. I've published those pictures on Facebook so I won't put them here. Can't be repeating myself, can I?
Last Friday I had lunch with Clara. I complain mightily about the limitations of my iPhone's camera but sometimes, when the light and the color and the angle are just right, I manage to capture a little something that makes it worth keeping. Here's a street view from the rooftop of the parking garage across the street from Clara's office:
Here's a glimpse of the Devon locations from the same view:
Finally, the sky was so blue, the Liberty Bank building was so awesome, well, I couldn't resist:
Saturday morning I went back downtown with Clara while she powered down her servers for a building power maintenance procedure. I whiled away the time, watching the Devon construction from her window: (Familiar? They might be to my tweeple; I tweeted 'em already so there goes my policy about repeating myself.)
You can barely see 'em but at the top of the blue tube - it's a concrete form for a pillar of, well, concrete - are three guys who've just scrambled to the top to guide the crane dumping in the concrete. They moved so fast that by the time I saw them and got my camera on them, they'd made it from near the bottom to all the way to the top. Sure, they had safety lines but an impressive, fearless feat nonetheless.
And that's all I've got for now. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Georgia O'Keeffe - Movie Review
The Redbox had squat so Georgia O'Keeffe
looked intriguing and, to a certain extent, it was. Yep, there was her glorious work of flowers examined so closely they became abstract and there was her relationship and subsequent marriage to Stieglitz and all that entailed. I suppose it was mostly accurate. There was the usual stuff about artistic freedom and some nice recreations of NYC in the teens and 20s of the last century and New Mexico, of course, but nothing really earth shattering throughout the movie. Just a sort of interesting biopic about an original, and accessible, American artist. A nice change of pace and well worth a buck but I'll bet there's a better episode about her on PBS or the Biography Channel.
looked intriguing and, to a certain extent, it was. Yep, there was her glorious work of flowers examined so closely they became abstract and there was her relationship and subsequent marriage to Stieglitz and all that entailed. I suppose it was mostly accurate. There was the usual stuff about artistic freedom and some nice recreations of NYC in the teens and 20s of the last century and New Mexico, of course, but nothing really earth shattering throughout the movie. Just a sort of interesting biopic about an original, and accessible, American artist. A nice change of pace and well worth a buck but I'll bet there's a better episode about her on PBS or the Biography Channel.
Monday, May 24, 2010
I Spy Emily's Eye
Taken while goofing around, waiting for the doors to open before Rachel's graduation.
(Inspired by the amazing Rick Lee.)
Iron Man 2
Like the rest of America, we saw Iron Man 2 and it was pretty good movie to munch popcorn by. Lots of action, clever quips, and 'splosions so what's not to like? Mickey Rourke does a fine turn as the heavily-accented and greasy bad-guy whose motives are driven by the same psychological sources as Robert Downey. It all ends the way its supposed to with an orgy of FX that just keep getting more dazzling as these kinds of movies progress. There seems to be no end to what can be put up on the screen in a convincing manner. Added bonus: no, not Scarlett Johansson in a too-tight outfit - I like her in anything I see her in - but the scenes of the Gran Prix in Monaco. When's the last time you've seen that location in a movie? Looks like things have built up around there since To Catch a Thief but still beautiful.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Rachel Graduates
Rachel's high school graduation has kept me away from the keyboard this week and I've only just now managed to find the time to upload the pictures we took over at Facebook for the family to share. She still has some school days left to go - a quirk in the ceremony schedules meant that her ceremony was this past Tuesday but her actual last day of school won't be until this Tuesday.
We're so very proud of Rachel and more than a little sad. Yeah, yeah, it seems like yesterday and all that stuff but you know what? It's true. It does seem like yesterday that she marched her way into her kindergarten classroom on that Fall day 13 years ago and started her school career. There've been a lot of ups and downs since then but, man, have those years have simply flown by. Well, it's the way of the world and that's the way things are supposed to be - she's been growing up and away from us ever since she was able to toddle around on her own. One thing has remained constant over the years: the blessings she's brought us have never ended. Never. We don't know yet what her next adventure will be but we know it'll be an interesting one. And we'll be standing by to give her all the love and support she'll need and more than she probably realizes.
So, here's to Rachel.
We're so very proud of Rachel and more than a little sad. Yeah, yeah, it seems like yesterday and all that stuff but you know what? It's true. It does seem like yesterday that she marched her way into her kindergarten classroom on that Fall day 13 years ago and started her school career. There've been a lot of ups and downs since then but, man, have those years have simply flown by. Well, it's the way of the world and that's the way things are supposed to be - she's been growing up and away from us ever since she was able to toddle around on her own. One thing has remained constant over the years: the blessings she's brought us have never ended. Never. We don't know yet what her next adventure will be but we know it'll be an interesting one. And we'll be standing by to give her all the love and support she'll need and more than she probably realizes.
So, here's to Rachel.
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