Category: Story & Song
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The Ultimate Bourne Thrill Ride
This is not applause. I wasted $8.25 and two hours on the theory that the team that created the Identity and the Supremacy could be trusted to deliver a decent sequel. The Bourne Identity was good. It was based on a Robert Ludlum thriller so I knew that I would have to surrender disbelief and…
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Vancouver Island MusicFest 2007
Vancouver Island was good. It must be one of the large folk festivals in Western Canada, with enough sponsors, grants and fan support to be able to get the performers that attract more fans. The Comox Valley Fairground is a good venue, with enough room for half a dozen stages, and camping. The camping is…
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American Pie
Sunday evening, July 8, 2007, I heard Don McLean and his band perform American Pie at the Vancouver Island Musicfest (aka Folk Festival). McLean, like Joan Armatrading, Los Lobos, and Bedouin Soundclash, was a headliner, who played one set during the evening concert at the main stage. The performance was professional and competent. McLean’s songs,…
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SF Titles List
When Randy and Garth blogged about this list, I copied it and worked through it. The part about marking the ones you loved get interesting. There were books I loved once, but have lost their bloom, and some now seem to have been a great waste of time.
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Pop Quiz
Watching TV. The Green Berets has turned up on cable. What does the movie have in common with Star Trek and Heroes? George Takei.
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Reading List
Randy’s point about the fall TV lineup is good. There is so much material, so little time. The days of 3 channels are long gone. I have the same problems with reading material. I have picked up several mystery or thriller titles, primarily serials, out of loyalty to the writer. I see them on the…
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Starship Troopers
The Wikipedia entry of the day relates to Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers. I was impressed by the novel when I was 14, less impressed when I was 20, and more impressed today. Heinlein wrote a good story and rendered the didactic and tendentious as palatable. I have never been clear on whether Starship…
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Murrow
For fans of George Clooney’s movie “Good Night, and Good Luck”, a discussion of the work and influence of Edward R. Murrow from the New Yorker: THE MURROW DOCTRINE, Why the life and times of the broadcast pioneer still matter, by Nicholas Lemann.
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Raised by Sewer Rats
The Foxtrot cartoon strips published on several consecutive days starting Monday January 23, 2006 have been a brilliant satire of the publishing industry and Oprah Winfrey’s influence and taste.
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Coming Up for Air
After The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell’s next book was Homage to Catalonia, which was about the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, he published the novel Coming Up for Air, a first person narrative covering a few days in the life, and many years in the memories of George Bowling. Bowling is a 45…