This is the second in the Coromander Strike series. It is a very good book. Normally, I don't have much use for stories about writers since it seems like so much literary masturbation to me, but in this case it works. The mystery is about a writer who has written an autobiographical smear of literary pretentiousness that slams everyone around him. At first, Strike is just to find him but when he finds his target dead, it becomes a murder mystery.
The characters are interesting in this, particularly the highly complex relationship between Strike and his assistant. Strike is not the normal lantern jawed handsome white guy who solves mysteries, he's a flawed person but a real person with contacts and contracts and obligation. Rowling does an excellent job at hinting at the rich and complex backstory that Strike has, without wallowing in it. 90% of the prose in the book is about the mystery, and more importantly, it is highly believable how he solves it.
I highly recommend this book to both mystery fans and those who like Rowling.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Sunday, June 29, 2014
[Tech] The Panasonic DMP BD91P-K
This is a piece of crap. So apparently, regular Blu-Ray players do not require an internet connection BUT they all require firmware updates but its up to the manufacturer when it takes place. Panasonic has a wifi receiver in the device that can receive a signal indicating it needs up upgrade. BUT with this model you cannot update the device using wifi. We bought it six weeks ago and today Panasonic sent out a signal indicating that it needed a firm ware upgrade.
I called the Panasonic guy and he offered to SELL ME AN EXTRA PART to make it work. "Nice DVD player you have there. Wanna buy this wifi connection device? Oh? Well then you'd better hook up with our good buddies, the cable companies."
Note, as a Blu Ray player, it seemed to work fine. But they reserve the right to brick it any time they want. We did have fair warning, after all, as the Panasonic customer service rep mentioned on the phone, it said clearly in the manual firmware updates were required. That's right, the manual in the box we purchased. So right when I'm going to call the DA and ask to prosecute for fraud, I notice on the back of the box in tiny tiny tiny letters it says, "Requires Broadband Connection."
The next time someone tells you labeling requirements from the government are ridiculous? Send them to this statement.
I called the Panasonic guy and he offered to SELL ME AN EXTRA PART to make it work. "Nice DVD player you have there. Wanna buy this wifi connection device? Oh? Well then you'd better hook up with our good buddies, the cable companies."
Note, as a Blu Ray player, it seemed to work fine. But they reserve the right to brick it any time they want. We did have fair warning, after all, as the Panasonic customer service rep mentioned on the phone, it said clearly in the manual firmware updates were required. That's right, the manual in the box we purchased. So right when I'm going to call the DA and ask to prosecute for fraud, I notice on the back of the box in tiny tiny tiny letters it says, "Requires Broadband Connection."
The next time someone tells you labeling requirements from the government are ridiculous? Send them to this statement.
Friday, June 20, 2014
[Book] Skin Job by Jim Butcher
Awesome! [Drops mike and walks away.]
[Awkward Pause]
[Sticks head out of side of stage left] What?
Fine. So the fiftheenth book in the Dresden Files series is Awesome.
All Dresden files books are awesome and this one is awesomer still.
Imagine your favorite heist movie, like Oceans Eleven or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, now add Harry Dresden, and you get a supernatural thriller that only Jim Butcher could pull off. Because his rules matter, and because by now they are so well explained from the other books, he can have really complicated characters who you know the rules for, but for which he can focus on the intruige and character development instead.
[Spoilers]
Harry, now Winter Knight, now Not Dead, has three dilemas. He has a thing in his head that will kill him if he doesn't get it out, he has a favor that Mab owes to the lunatic demon denarian Nicodemus, and he has to do all this without pissing off the White Council that governs magic. Two out of three aren't bad. Nicodemus wants to steal the Holy Grail....from Hades in the underworld, so a rag tag team including a Yeti, a Summoner, a Pyromaniac and a shapeshifter make for an interesting caper indeed.
Old friends and new appear. Some things that any dresden fan would love who hasn't read this yet.
Butters is back and he's kicking ass and gets a fantasticly interesting upgrade.
Murphy and Harry finally get over it and do something about each other.
You learn a bit more about Molly's situation but not until the very end of the book.
On the whole, I'll give this book a 9.4 out of 10, and rate it my third favorite of the series after Dead Beat (It is impossible to beat a zombie Trex. It wins everything...forever) and Small Favor (Bring me a Jelly Donut!). Read it.
[Awkward Pause]
[Sticks head out of side of stage left] What?
Fine. So the fiftheenth book in the Dresden Files series is Awesome.
All Dresden files books are awesome and this one is awesomer still.
Imagine your favorite heist movie, like Oceans Eleven or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, now add Harry Dresden, and you get a supernatural thriller that only Jim Butcher could pull off. Because his rules matter, and because by now they are so well explained from the other books, he can have really complicated characters who you know the rules for, but for which he can focus on the intruige and character development instead.
[Spoilers]
Harry, now Winter Knight, now Not Dead, has three dilemas. He has a thing in his head that will kill him if he doesn't get it out, he has a favor that Mab owes to the lunatic demon denarian Nicodemus, and he has to do all this without pissing off the White Council that governs magic. Two out of three aren't bad. Nicodemus wants to steal the Holy Grail....from Hades in the underworld, so a rag tag team including a Yeti, a Summoner, a Pyromaniac and a shapeshifter make for an interesting caper indeed.
Old friends and new appear. Some things that any dresden fan would love who hasn't read this yet.
Butters is back and he's kicking ass and gets a fantasticly interesting upgrade.
Murphy and Harry finally get over it and do something about each other.
You learn a bit more about Molly's situation but not until the very end of the book.
On the whole, I'll give this book a 9.4 out of 10, and rate it my third favorite of the series after Dead Beat (It is impossible to beat a zombie Trex. It wins everything...forever) and Small Favor (Bring me a Jelly Donut!). Read it.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
[TV] Series: Batman: the Brave and the Bold
This show is awesome if you like super heroes. At first I thought it would be stupid since it is an omage to silver age comics, but it actually turned out to be quite awesome. It's 70% silver age with 30% post modern spin and it hits that sweet spot that Henson does about being a product with duality...perfect duality. The delight and moral clarity of camp is there, but at the same time they acknowledge deeper levels that we are now aware of and can't NOT be aware of thanks to the evolution of the zeitgeist and our society.
Which in regular English means that it is both fun and occasionally deep without wallowing in it. The show basically involves Batman pairing with another hero, with an intro teaser at the start before the credits and a second longer story thereafter. It still isn't as good as Batman: The Animated Series that was done in the 90's, but the mark on that was set very high.
And to be honest, I really enjoyed the show. I think they had a lot of stories to tell, told many of them but still had more to tell. It was basically a giant love letter to the wonder of comics and some of the now forgotten characters of the previous generation. If you like comics, this is a show I would watch.
Which in regular English means that it is both fun and occasionally deep without wallowing in it. The show basically involves Batman pairing with another hero, with an intro teaser at the start before the credits and a second longer story thereafter. It still isn't as good as Batman: The Animated Series that was done in the 90's, but the mark on that was set very high.
And to be honest, I really enjoyed the show. I think they had a lot of stories to tell, told many of them but still had more to tell. It was basically a giant love letter to the wonder of comics and some of the now forgotten characters of the previous generation. If you like comics, this is a show I would watch.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
[Opera] The Barber of Seville
I saw this a few weeks ago with the Carlsons at the Cobb Energy Center, performed by the Atlanta Opera company. In short, it was FANTASTIC. The venue was moderately nice as always, but the vocal quality of the performers was exceptional, particularly in the female lead, as was Basilio. All were good of course, and Berta was particularly impressive, but the first two greatly stood out. I wish it was still playing so I could recommend it, but at the least I'd check out other productions by the company.
The basic story is about a rich count who is in love with a beautiful shut in, hid by a psycho guardian who plans to marry her against her will. The count enlists the help of the barber who is the city's dating service. The Count dons various disguises to try and woo her, and chaos ensues. This particular production was only 2 hours long and tightly edited but it worked very well.
It had been at least 20 years since I'd seen an Opera, the performance of "Faust" at BYU, which was quite good but this blew it away. The addition of subtitles in a light box at the top helped quite a bit since I liked to know what they were saying. After all, if a foreign film can have them, why not an Opera?
The basic story is about a rich count who is in love with a beautiful shut in, hid by a psycho guardian who plans to marry her against her will. The count enlists the help of the barber who is the city's dating service. The Count dons various disguises to try and woo her, and chaos ensues. This particular production was only 2 hours long and tightly edited but it worked very well.
It had been at least 20 years since I'd seen an Opera, the performance of "Faust" at BYU, which was quite good but this blew it away. The addition of subtitles in a light box at the top helped quite a bit since I liked to know what they were saying. After all, if a foreign film can have them, why not an Opera?
[Movie] Charade
This is an old time movie with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. From a production stand point, you can clearly see that it's set in the 1960's, but thematically and acting wise it feels like a lot of Grant's earlier works. The plot works well. Short version: A bunch of folks are looking for some money from Hepburn's ex husband, and they believe that she is the only one who can get it for them, so they threaten her. Grant normally plays good guys, but in this one it is hard to tell what his role is, and the potential villain suits him very well.
Mainly, seeing the chemistry between these two, despite the age difference, is worth the movie alone. The supporting characters are a bit...well, supporting but these two are titans and easily steal the entire show. And the ending is quite delightful because just when you think they've run out of things to throw around in the plot, they hit you with more huge ones totally out of nowhere.
I highly recommend this movie.
Mainly, seeing the chemistry between these two, despite the age difference, is worth the movie alone. The supporting characters are a bit...well, supporting but these two are titans and easily steal the entire show. And the ending is quite delightful because just when you think they've run out of things to throw around in the plot, they hit you with more huge ones totally out of nowhere.
I highly recommend this movie.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
[Book and Movie] Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
So I have a bit of a history with this book. I knew it was important, and it was on my list of books to read, but I tried three times to read it and was unable to do so. It wasn't because it wasn't well written but I think, ironically it was of the same reasons that other people have reasons with Elizabeth's family, specifically the crazier more flippant members of Elizabeth's family.
I even tried the book on tape. That normally does the trick but in this case I was still unable to get through it. There was an amusing incident in which I complained about the book on Facebook and was quietly assaulted by no less than seven ardent defenders of the book in the most emphatic terms that my negative opinion was balderdash.
And they were right. But the truth was, even after the second and third time I tried to read it...I still couldn't get through the thing. It was too...flippant and pointless.
Sometimes it takes the right perspective though, or rather the right person to help you see the right perspective. Julia, my now wife, explained to me about the laws at the time in which a woman could not own property, and the entail, which forced noble estates to male heirs, often kicking those who had previously owned it out into the street.
And that changed everything. Suddenly this was a struggle of principal vs survival. It was politics and fighting with the only weapon they had in a patently unjust society. The characters do not see themselves in such directly but it added to the gravity of everything. It made Elizabeth's decision to marry only for love gloriously insane but worthy of admiration.
And just like that I fell in love with the book.
Let's start with the characters. For a "Chik Lit" book, they are surprisingly empathetic and in depth. I've read modern novels that don't even approach Jane Austin's approach to things. Also, the fact that many of the tropes she invented, that are tired in other stories, still WORK in hers, even independent of the fact that she invented it is all the more impressive. The dialog is also very interesting and fresh. In fact, the only real criticism is that sometimes it becomes difficult to determine where one character is speaking and another is ending, and that was WITH Julia reading the book out loud to me.
The villain is believable, and not evil for his own sake, even though he is as evil as any selfish person today. People are noble or small and stupid just like they are now. This is a slice of reality in the 18th century that shows us that while some things have changed radically, others have remained radically the same. The descriptions of the lifestyle is also quite intruiging.
Granted, there are some socioeconomic questions here...such as the fact, that I can't ignore that this is largely about the gentry, rather than the common man, but for a good story I can put that in the back of my mind so long as it isn't about something like the glorification or white washing of slavery. And despite the uneven nature of resources (and its not like we don't have that now) they had a gentility and nobility to their system of etiquette between themselves that you can understand its appeal in the modern day where informality and a lack of respect has reached epic and disastrous proportions.
In short, the book was fantastic.
Then for Julia's birthday, she convinced me to watch the six hour miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. It was a fast six hours as the casting was good, the settings were fantastic and the acting excellent. Again, it was an easy watch. I'm not someone who will pull a Peter Griffin at a Chick Flick here, but I like a good story and this really was quite good. I'd also recommend watching it. Though I sincerely recommend reading the book first. You learn things about the book that you might miss on the reading, but the book, as usual does things and explains things that can't be covered easily in the movie.
I even tried the book on tape. That normally does the trick but in this case I was still unable to get through it. There was an amusing incident in which I complained about the book on Facebook and was quietly assaulted by no less than seven ardent defenders of the book in the most emphatic terms that my negative opinion was balderdash.
And they were right. But the truth was, even after the second and third time I tried to read it...I still couldn't get through the thing. It was too...flippant and pointless.
Sometimes it takes the right perspective though, or rather the right person to help you see the right perspective. Julia, my now wife, explained to me about the laws at the time in which a woman could not own property, and the entail, which forced noble estates to male heirs, often kicking those who had previously owned it out into the street.
And that changed everything. Suddenly this was a struggle of principal vs survival. It was politics and fighting with the only weapon they had in a patently unjust society. The characters do not see themselves in such directly but it added to the gravity of everything. It made Elizabeth's decision to marry only for love gloriously insane but worthy of admiration.
And just like that I fell in love with the book.
Let's start with the characters. For a "Chik Lit" book, they are surprisingly empathetic and in depth. I've read modern novels that don't even approach Jane Austin's approach to things. Also, the fact that many of the tropes she invented, that are tired in other stories, still WORK in hers, even independent of the fact that she invented it is all the more impressive. The dialog is also very interesting and fresh. In fact, the only real criticism is that sometimes it becomes difficult to determine where one character is speaking and another is ending, and that was WITH Julia reading the book out loud to me.
The villain is believable, and not evil for his own sake, even though he is as evil as any selfish person today. People are noble or small and stupid just like they are now. This is a slice of reality in the 18th century that shows us that while some things have changed radically, others have remained radically the same. The descriptions of the lifestyle is also quite intruiging.
Granted, there are some socioeconomic questions here...such as the fact, that I can't ignore that this is largely about the gentry, rather than the common man, but for a good story I can put that in the back of my mind so long as it isn't about something like the glorification or white washing of slavery. And despite the uneven nature of resources (and its not like we don't have that now) they had a gentility and nobility to their system of etiquette between themselves that you can understand its appeal in the modern day where informality and a lack of respect has reached epic and disastrous proportions.
In short, the book was fantastic.
Then for Julia's birthday, she convinced me to watch the six hour miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. It was a fast six hours as the casting was good, the settings were fantastic and the acting excellent. Again, it was an easy watch. I'm not someone who will pull a Peter Griffin at a Chick Flick here, but I like a good story and this really was quite good. I'd also recommend watching it. Though I sincerely recommend reading the book first. You learn things about the book that you might miss on the reading, but the book, as usual does things and explains things that can't be covered easily in the movie.
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