"Blogging is not writing...

...It's just graffiti with punctuation."

That's lectured to blogger Jude Law who is trying to expose a possible government cover-up in the movie Contagion (2011 - featuring yet another fine piece of work by Matt Damon, who absolutely makes me want to throw things at him whenever he opens his mouth politically, but whom I regard in awe as an actor).

(Addendum - That I use a quote for a title doe NOT mean I agree with it. :-)

I've been blogging here since October of 2009, and have posted close to 150 items during that period (including a few I later deleted).

For several years before that, I have commented on many other blogs with comments that grew into essays resulting in suggestions that I really oughta put them up in my own blog (if that was meant as "rather than cluttering up our space", I'd rather NOT know.).

I eventually did just that, even recycling some of my comments as posts here (yes. I still do that sometimes. Who better to plagiarize from than myself?  At least, I wont sue myself. :-)

I hope to God that some of my posts rise at least a little above the opinion stated in the title.

I confess here to being addicted to the site meter, and am very gratified to see that there are a few who return to see if there's anything new.

Most of my posts are reactions to something else I've read, seen or experienced.  A few have been at the back of my mind for some time, and eventually I get around to them.  They come from a "To do" list I keep to jot down ideas I'm not ready to go into immediately.

What follows is my current "Coming Attractions" list.
Black remains to be done.
One of them is stricken out as having been on the shelf too long.
Red is done.
A yellow background highlights info not in the original list, but explaining what I'm interested in for that possible post.

*************************************************
Posts to do...

Nibbled to death by ducks
Supposedly attributed to someone in the State Department saying that's what working there was like, I suspect the saying is really as old as bureaucracy itself.

The Floating Skyscrapers of Houston
"Sailing, sailing, over the gumbo plain..."
In my post Some rambling thoughts on Houston, I mentioned the ephemeral nature of parts of my town and how we routinely tear things down only to replace them with structures pretty much the same as what was before. I felt that the fact that Manhattan Island was granite and that most of Houston is sited on gumbo (Beaumont clay actually) was responsible for that. BUT, you may have noticed that my title picture at the top of the page shows what suspiciously looks like skyscrapers.  How do we manage that?  The title of this possible post offers a clue.

A Tale of Two Books.  (Finally posted as "Possibly a good movie ...")
 (The Feather Men and Taming the Nueces Strip)

Verisimilitude
Try saying that real fast. (Fiennes, Rivers, Joey, Jennifer Project)
I have a number of books by various people that sure sound like they are speaking truth, but I simply do NOT know.  Some of them could be pure BS, told by someone who knows how to write convincingly. The first three names above are authors, and the last is a book I'd love to believe.

Defending Ranulph Fiennes
Ranulph, who wrote The Feather Men, has been accused of making up a lot of fiction and passing it off as fact.  Just don't know yet.  If I ever get around to it, I will research it on the principle of behavior not existing in a vacuum and try to learn if other actions of his support (or throw into doubt) the accusations.

Bimbos of the Death Sun ...
 (inspired by Foxfier's latest email, with apologies to Sharyn McCrumb)

"There can only be ONE!!!" ...
... Clancy Brown, that is.
Clancy Brown (whom I first saw as the Kurgan in the original "Highlander" movie) is an awesome presence when he gets the right role.  I truly thought he deserved a supporting actor nomination for playing Guard Captain Hadley in "The Shawshank Redemption".

Blessed are the Peacemakers (B-36 and Colt)
One never saw action;  the other saw plenty.
Done, sort of, as "Peacemaker", devoted to the B-36 and some of its contemporaries.  Not having anything to say about Colt's Peacemaker, I confined it to the airplane.

Kdaptist Republicans.  Beware thou, of the mutant.  Watch thou, for the Mutant!
(The last from The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham)
In Larry Niven's "Known Space" series, among our adversaries were the Kzinti: eight-foot tall catlike aliens who warred with us many times; always losing ("It's not like they're a real threat; they'll always attack before they're quite ready"). The mad Kzin Kdapt Preacher started a religion based on the idea that it was man whom the Creator made in his image and therefore we humans were the favored ones.  They would wear masks and skins made from human skin to try and fool the Creator long enough to achieve a victory. ("You kept winning!" a Kzin explained to us).  I felt this a perfect analogy for the behavior of many Republicans who appear scared to death of being distinguishable from democrats.

Adversary
Is NOT synonymous with "villain". Examples of movie adversaries who were so for reaons (good reasons) and not just because they woke up one morning and decided to be a**holes or monsters.

Guilty Pleasures (or Under-appreciated Gems)
Movies that deserved better than they got, or at least were a hell of a lot of fun.
("Dragonslayer", "Deep Rising", "The Hunted", "Devil in a Blue Dress", ...)

On Guns & Shooting

Slide Rule
(The real world is analog; digital gives an illusion of exactness that doesn't really exist.)

The Black Arts of Engineering and Computer "Science"
(The Slide Rule suggestion above could be part of this)
 "Phase of the Moon", "Age of Aquarius", Zen, Spot the anomaly and you're almost there..
As a programmer (Excuse me; "Software Engineer") I genuinely felt that the "phase of the moon" was as good an explanation as any for the often capricious behavior of software under development (and often long after).  I wasn't the only one who might be heard humming "When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligned with Mars..." (from "Age of Aquarius") while trying to puzzle out a problem.  I once figured out a circuit board problem (without much knowledge of the electronics involved) by just going into a relaxed state and quietly staring at this cookie-sheet size board with 256 identical processor chips in a 16 x 16 matrix.  One caught my eye because it looked slightly different; the difference being a missing wire-wrap connection. Hence the "Spot the anomaly..." advice.

THAT dude was Shakespearean.
Ian McShane, as Al Swearengen and many others. Title from reference in "My name is Boyd Crowder...  (TRY to do this one before the fourth Pirates of the Carribean comes out in May.)

It's all Frank Martin's fault...
... that some of you get inundated with emails about my latest posts.
 A couple of his posts that got me hooked on blogs in the first place:
  TODAY, I WAS "UNPROFESSIONAL"...
     (note that Gail Halvorsen link near bottom no longer works)
  FOSSETT (A pilot's take on the what may have happened to Steve Fossett)

"The Wrath of The Lord...
...is about to descend upon them"
  (Scenes in movies or TV where one man takes on that role, and delivers)
    Roberr Duvall in Lonesome Dove
    Robert Redford in Jeremiah Johnson
    Yoshio Harada in The Hunted
    Sean Connery in The Wind and The Lion
    Paul Newman in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

Music
 Kodo, Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield),  Walter/Wendy Carlos, Tangerine Dream
Beside's original synthesizer scores Walter/Wendy Carlos did much of the music for "A Clockwork Orange" and the original "TRON".  The way I wrote the name of this one person means exactly what you might conjecture it does.

"My name is Boyd Crowder...
 -You can come after me if you want, but it will be the last thing you ever do. I promise you that."

Psychosomatica

The recipe for making a nuke ...
... starts the same as the recipe for "wabbit" stew.
First: Catch your "wabbit"!!!

"Czars"
About Obama's obsession with creating Czars to be in control of everything and accountable to no one but him. 

An Urban Legend
 Urban, Karl Urban
I've touched on him a bit in WANTED!!! -- For stealing these movies..., so you probably shouldn't hold your breath waiting for a post exclusively about him.

The Return of Mickey Rourke
 "Presence" is a not-easily defined quality of an actor that absolutely compels your attention when he shows up.

"...and the sharks will come."

Thinking the Unthinkable
  Under what circumstances can national elections be suspended?
   (Nothing appears to be "unthinkable" to the current group in charge.)
  Can individual states enact measures to allow recall of their U. S. Congressional  reps and senators?

Rethinking Recall
  Check out parliamentary systems that the founding fathers would have known about and ultimately rejected.

"Kamikazi Congress?"
 If there IS a wipeout in the November election, what might the democrat losers
 attempt in the 2 and 1/2 months before they are officially gone in late January?
(Too late!  This article is way past its "Sell By" date.)

"This is what happened."
- The essence of storytelling, in four simple words.
 Credit Stephen King for title, refer to his use of opening in The Mist
 (HE credits Douglas Fairburn for use in Shoot), use what examples you can from Heinlein's "Channel Markers".

Prose I'm jealous of...
 ...because someone else beat me to it.
Use examples from Sebastion Junger, Michael Sharra, Jimmy Breslin.
I used a couple of examples, from Junger and Breslin, in So, how good is computer translation?

( "This" and "Prose" could probably be combined into one post.)

The Sugar Grain Universe
 Another perspective. Should illustrate (with photos of globe, marble, BB, sugar grains, etc.)
This has been on my list for a looong time.  Long ago I saw a factoid somewhere about a pound of sugar containing 2,260,000 grains, and thought of using that as a yardstick to give perspective to the universe of which we are a  part ("We are ALL made of star stuff" ~Carl Sagan).  If our sun was a grain of sugar, the closest neighboring grain (Alpha Centauri) would be miles away. Near the center of our galaxy (watch out for that possible massive black hole), things are more crowded;  some grains might be only a half-mile away. Previous attempts to visualize our universe were Kees Boeke's truly excellent (and way too long out of print) book "Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps", and the short film "Powers of Ten" by Charles and Ray Eames.  Early ideas for the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" included having an intro with something like "Powers of Ten", but they decided to omit that.  The movie "Contact", with Jodie Foster and based on Carl Sagan's novel, opens with a scene pulling back from our earth on out to the edge of the known universe (and beyond?) turning into a gleam in the eye of the girl who would become Jodie Foster's character.  I cannot recall another commercial movie even coming close to that scene as an attempt to help us comprehend something that is almost beyond imagination.

On the wisdom and judgment of Twenty. (Update - Done, as "The Anvil of Life")
 Use sex and booze trip to Villa Acuna as example.

Common Triggers
 WHY so many stories and movies appear at same time with similar themes?

Inuit Suit?
 In a book by Audrey Schulman, one is described as made of wolfskin,
 worn with the hair on the inside.

Snake-bit
 The saga of a 1994 Dodge Intrepid
I got that vehicle new, in 1994, mostly because I was seduced by its looks (like an American Jaguar) and because Consumer Reports (whose recommendations I'd found trustworthy) gave it a good write-up at the time. Not long afterwards, they began getting reports that changed their view considerably, but I was already stuck with it by then.  In engineering, we used the term "snake-bit" a lot.  Consider it a synonym for "cursed".

Serendipity
 Or, the randomness of my life, and how I got here by sheer chance.

"Winter's Bone" (Done - as "John Hawkes - Man of Steel")
  Review, especially noting John Hawkes

The Subtleties of Subtitles
On translation, subtitles and dubbing... (Absolutely MUST conjure up a better title). Use "The Host" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" as examples.

"When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you..."
...perfectly encapsulates Obama's attitude towards the electorate.

Titles in Search of a Subject:
   Anatomy of an eBay transaction
   An Ode to PayPal (depending on the outcome of the case opened with them).
   "For reasons that seem good to me..."
   It seemed like a good idea at the time.
   "You Honor, he NEEDED killin'!"
   "That which does not kill me..."
   Two ends of the same snake
   Okay, then...

*************************************************

Okay then...

I've just shown you what I might eventually get around to. Am I afraid someone might steal something there? My feeling about that possibility is best summed up by ...

"They copied all they could follow but they couldn't copy my mind
 so I left them sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."
 ~Rudyard Kipling

While I'm not Kipling, and I've probably yet to leave anyone "a year and a half behind", I'm confident I can come up with other ideas.

So, if anything up there inspires you, then GO FOR IT!!!
Instead of being outraged, my response will be "COOL!!!"

Just try to do a good job of it.
-

Two Countries.

North Korea's maximum leader (in his eyes) Kim Jong Il is dead, and replaced by his son Kim Jong Un (In Asia, family names come first).

The more things change ...

The Korean peninsula is a laboratory of economic and political systems; the South going in the direction of democracy and free market, and the North going for a centralized dictatorship of control to a degree probably not even matched under Hitler and the Gestapo.

Giving us ...

korea_night1 - from upbynoon.files.wordpress.com - Ed Driscoll

Says it all.

-

Roger L. Simon makes the case for Newt.

Newt Gingrich was never my first choice.  That would have been Sarah Palin.

Without her, I would prefer Rick Perry, as he has been an excellent and successful Governor, and I truly believe would be a fine President.  But, debating just ain't his thing (although I've yet to see a correlation between debating skill and the ability to actually do the job) and at the moment it appears less and less likely that he will succeed to the nomination (although it's still early yet;  the election is eleven months away).

Roger L. Simon is doing a pretty good job of making me take a longer and harder look at Newt (in Explaining Newt), noting (emphasis mine) ...

What attracts me about the man is the very thing that Romney criticized, the part that wants to explore the moon and stars, maybe even mine them.

Sure Gingrich has an idea a minute, many of which are bad, but at least he has ideas. At least he is thinking. And — guess what — he says what he thinks. Politicians aren’t supposed to do that.

But Gingrich reminds me more of a Steve Jobs or a Richard Branson than he does of a politician, and that is a good thing because politicians these days are the kind of people that make me want to bang my forehead against the desk.

For my part, one thing I like about Newt is that he is a fighter (and not a doormat to anyone taking a cheap shot at him), responding "Bring it on!" to Nancy Pelosi's threat to release a lot of dirt about him from House investigations (she backed off when it was pointed out to her that such action would result in an investigation of her conduct), and responding in one debate to Mitt Romney's characterization of him as a "career politician", "Let's be honest; the only reason that you're not a career politician is that you lost to Ted Kennedy in 1994."

I'm quite aware that, a few months back, I said similar things about Perry (and still hope that he will try fighting again;  if you're going to run, then RUN!!!).

But, where Newt's concerned; I truly believe that he will campaign as if he's actually trying to win the office, and not just going through the motions.

And if that last part sounds like a slap at someone, then so be it!

In 2008, Sarah Palin seemed to be the only one on the GOP side actually running.  If McCain had made that kind of effort, our country would likely be a hell of a lot better off now.

If only...

-

If THIS doesn't pique your curiosity ...

... then, I am truly sorry for you;  you're already dead. :(

Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods.
Bad things happen.

That poster is from AICN Exclusive: The Long Awaited Poster for Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard's CABIN IN THE WOODS!!!  (you can click on it for a full-sized image, but be warned: It's a monster of almost 2 Megabytes.)

I absolutely love movies, and am a sucker for an imaginative grabber where posters or advertising campaigns are concerned.  If that doesn't qualify, what would?

Opening 13 Apr 2012 (A Friday, of course; what other day could it possibly be?)

See you there? :-)
-

Wolf Howling is BACK ...

... with a vengeance.

After a seven and a half month absence (since May 22), one of my favorite bloggers ( Wolf Howling ) has put up five new posts in the last two days.

In a comment to one of those posts, I wondered "What happened?", and suggested that that was worthy of a post of its own.

If he picks up on that, I suspect that a quote from John Lennon would likely cover it:

   "Life is what happens while we're making other plans."

-

Don't write off Rick Perry just yet.

Reports of Rick Perry's demise, over his memory lapse in Tuesday's debate, are greatly exaggerated.

Dr. Jerry Pournelle's take on the Michigan debates.  …
The Michigan Debate: Candidates 9, Moderators 0; The Cain Affair

(Emphasis mine)
As to Perry, he had a momentary fit of absentmindedness as he tried to remember the names of the Departments of the government that he would eliminate the day after his inauguration: Commerce, Education, and – and he couldn’t remember. Gov. Romney suggested EPA, and for a moment Perry accepted that, then recalled that it’s an Agency, not a Department. Given another chance to name the Department he would eliminate, he once again had a lapse of memory. Eventually he realized, as everyone who has listened to his previous speeches already knew, that it was the Department of Energy.
 ...
But when all is said and done, while the incident was embarrassing, it was hardly definitive. It doesn’t show Perry more or less qualified to be President. We know that Perry has been an effective and re-elected governor of a prosperous state. We know that candidates can be dependent on a teleprompter and get elected. We know that Perry’s lapse of memory was both temporary and unimportant.
 ...
...but my conclusion from the debate is that all the candidates are alive and well, any one of them would be capable of beating Obama, and any one of the would be infinitely superior to the current president.
...
I came away much relieved.

That's Dr. Pournelle's perspective.  Here's mine ...

I don't recall anyone ever describing Rick Perry as an ace debater, but I also have difficulty in recalling just how much help that ability is to actually getting the job done as Governor, or as President of the United States.

1600 Pennsylvania is currently occupied by one who is supposed to be a fantastic debater (although I've yet to see any evidence of that -- all the supporting praise comes from a media that drools over his every pronouncement), but going by his actual performance over the last three years, is debating skill going to be your definitive test of the man you will vote for?

Really?!!!
-

CISOH

(I pronounce it "key-so".  Yes, I made it up:  I'll tell you what it means down below).

This is not a review of the new movie Anonymous (2011), but of its basic premise that William Shakespeare could not possibly have written those plays, because the son of a glove-maker simply didn't have the "education" to do so.  How could he display such knowledge of history, politics, etc.?

That is liberal elitist bullshit at its snottiest: The notion that if you didn't go to the "right" schools, weren't taught by the "right" teachers, in the "correct" prescribed manner (from which no deviation is allowed), how could you possibly be expected to know anything?

Well, if you actually read the plays, you might notice that they are more poetry than prose, and that aside from a few scattered references, don't really say all that much about the inner workings of Danish kingdoms or moneylenders in Venice.

They, in fact, say much more about the inner workings of human beings, of which he probably had a fair amount of knowledge just from observation.

Shakespeare wrote most of his stuff between 1589 and 1613.  My gut feeling is that Will was a guy who loved to read (almost anything) and was blessed by it being easy for him (see my post On Reading... ).  I suspect that he had CISOH (Curiosity, Imagination, Sense Of Humor) in spades and was probably an interesting guy and fun to be around.

(As to why CISOH is important for good writing: Well the need for curiosity and imagination should be obvious. A sense of humor keeps you balanced and helps you avoid taking yourself too seriously.  A lack of CISOH can turn you into a liberal. )

Did he have much material with which to indulge his curiosity?  Gutenberg's invention of movable type had made commercial mass printing of books available for more than a century before he began writing his plays; so I would have to say, Yes!

This whole idea of the necessity of a "proper" education to be able to succeed at anything is snobbery of the worst sort, and doesn't allow for people who were largely self-taught at their professions (Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Tom Clancy, Steve Jobs, just to name a few).

Take Tom Clancy, for example (possible spoilers below).

"The Hunt for Red October" (1984) features an advanced Soviet missile submarine, a "caterpillar" drive almost undetectable by our listening devices, a way in which it is detected, naval tactics between our subs and theirs, and a lot more.

"Patriot Games" (1987) describes Irish terrorism, satellite detection of terrorist camps, anti-terrorist operations.

"The Cardinal of the Kremlin" (1988): Anti-satellite lasers and the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

"The Sum of All Fears" (1991): Recovering a lost Israeli nuke, turning that nuke into an even more powerful one, an abandoned East German nuclear weapons project.

"Debt of Honor" (1994): Japan going nuclear,  war with same,  airliner crashed into U.S. Capitol Building.

Now, how could a man who was an Insurance Broker possibly know all of that stuff?

It's simply unthinkable that he just reads a lot and could have combined CISOH with a boatload of common-sense to be able to come up with those stories.

Obviously, someone like Oliver Stone needs to get to work and direct a movie to expose who really wrote all those books with Clancy's name on the cover.

Doesn't that make as much sense as supposing that it had to be Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and/or Edward de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford) who wrote all those plays?  After all, Clancy is a hell of a lot more detailed in what he writes than Shakespeare ever was.

What more proof do you need?

Damn!!! Tinfoil makes a lousy hat;  it's not rigid enough to hold its shape very well. :(
-

Another Bumper Sticker ...

... seen this afternoon on the tailgate of a contractor's pickup:

   GOVERNMENT PHILOSOPHY

        If  it  ain't  broke,

        fix  it  until  it  is!

-

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

11 Dec 2011 - Update at end - Not in Houston yet, but coming soon (I hope).
26 Dec 2011 - Another update at end - Finally have a date of general release.
06 Jan 2012 19:30 - Finally saw it.  I'll sum up at the end.

Can a story that was made into a truly excellent five and a half hour mini-series be rendered into a script for a two-hour movie, without proving "rend" a very appropriate part of that verb?

(WARNING: If you have never seen the movie Aliens, it's NOT what this post is about, but I DO use a scene from it to illustrate a point; making a bit of a spoiler.)

Coming in December is a movie version of John le Carré's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy".  The novel was largely inspired by the 1963 Kim Philby scandal in the British Secret Service, and involves le Carré's civil servant spy, George Smiley.

About as far from 007 as you can get, Smiley operates within a world of bureaucratic infighting wherein a memo can be as deadly as a Walther PPK.

He is brought out of retirement to look into the very real possibility that there may be a Soviet "mole" near the very top of British Intelligence, and has been for years.

A BBC mini-series, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) was aired in 1979 ...

 Alec Guinness as George Smiley  -  from www.irishtimes.com

... starring Alec Guinness, and proved to be a superb and faithful adaptation of the novel, refuting arguments that major changes are necessary because film and print are such different mediums.  Although over five hours long (the DVD shows less running time, but that DVD has some scenes missing), that time is essential to telling the story and is gripping throughout.

The new version, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), ...

 Gary Oldman as George Smiley  -  from www.thefancarpet.com

At first, I had considered using Photoshop to brighten this picture, but then decided:

No!  It's perfect as is.  Shadows are Smiley's natural habitat.

...scheduled for December 9 in the USA, and starring Gary Oldman, is listed at 127 minutes running time.

That is my greatest concern.  I have no qualms whatsoever about Oldman;  if anyone can follow in the footsteps of Alec Guinness, I believe it is he.  I just strongly doubt that two hours are sufficient to do justice to this story.  We shall see.

So, how does one turn five and a half hours worth of story into a two-hour movie script?

One way is what I call the "Alien Queen Method" (or AQM), which will be demonstrated here by Bishop (Lance Henriksen), the android in Aliens.

(The following images from Aliens are screen-caps from the DVD)

Let Bishop stand-in for the original story ...

The Alien Queen  has volunteered to be the writer tasked with adapting that story to a more manageable length ...

And, there you have it.  Story cut down to size.  That clear things up some?

Up there, I'm showing you the optimistic version of AQM.  In that last picture, you see the half of Bishop (or the story) that still retains sentience and some functionality in its remaining limbs.  Don't forget that out there is the other half;  and in the movie business it appears to be a coin-toss as to which half will make it to the screen.

There's also the Frankenstein version of AQM: Slice up the story, as in a Ginsu Knife commercial, pick enough slices (at random) to get the necessary length, and put them together.

Add to that the practice of dumpster-diving amongst the remains of other non-related stories for parts that might seem "cool" to the one trying to stitch this monster together.

"It's ALIVE!!!" - or more probably not.

So, have I a concrete example to justify my fears about the "Tinker Tailor ..." remake?

In 1986, I was mesmerized for three straight nights watching the six-part BBC mini-series Edge of Darkness (1985) that the local PBS station aired during that period.

In it, Yorkshire Police Inspector Ronnie Craven picks up his daughter Emma from a demonstration she was part of and brings her home.  On arrival, a gunman steps out of the bushes and opens up with both barrels of a shotgun, killing Emma who has stepped in front of her father, and escapes afterward.

Bob Peck as Ronnie Craven  -  screen-cap from DVD  -  Peck is probably 

best known to American audiences as the game warden in Jurassic Park.

That picture could probably stand a bit of explanation.  At first, he thinks that he was the target and that Emma was just tragic collateral damage.  After the shooting, Craven goes through Emma's things, discovering an automatic pistol and a gadget he recognizes as a radiation counter (which later goes wild when brought near his coat pocket containing a lock of her hair which he cut before releasing her body).

A Willie Nelson record of her's is playing and while Willie is singing ("Time of the Preacher") in the background ...
  "He cried like a baby
  "He screamed like a panther in the middle of the night
  "An' he saddled his pony
  "An' he went for a ride"

... he just lays back on her bed, with her teddy bear in one hand, and that pistol in the other, staring off into nothingness, obviously wondering. "WHAT in HELL have you gotten yourself into?!!!",

This man may possibly have some answers...

Joe Don Baker as Darius Jedburgh  -  screen-cap from DVD

... U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Darius Jedburgh (A wonderful name to any familiar with the history of war, and with that of the wartime O.S.S.), apparently on indefinite loan to the CIA.  He knows that Emma was working with a protest group called GAIA that was trying to find out if a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, in a mine at a place called Northmoor, may in fact be processing weapons-grade plutonium.

He knows all this because he set up the group to spy for him, and figures that Emma was far more likely to be the target than Ronnie.

What follows is the teaming of Ronnie and Jedburgh to penetrate Northmoor and deal with this.

Peck is first-rate (as you've come to expect with British professionals) and Joe Don Baker may have done his best work ever as Jedburgh.  I'm aware that Mystery Science Theater 3000 showed absolutely no mercy to Baker when they tore into one of his lesser movies ("Mitchell"), but he actually has done some decent work (The original "Walking Tall", a TV movie called "Mongo's Back In Town", and a Walter Matthau thriller called "Charlie Varrick").

In the new movie version Edge of Darkness (2010) , you have ...

Mel Gibson as Thomas Craven (with Ray Winstone)  -  from media.theiapolis.com

... Mel Gibson as Thomas Craven, a Boston Police Detective who eventually teams up with British operative Darius Jedburgh, played here by ...

Ray Winstone as Darius Jedburgh  -  aceshowbiz.com

... Ray Winstone, yet another of those British professionals who simply don't know how to do a second-rate job.

Now, for all the flack that Gibson's taken lately, I have to say that he is just fine here; as good as I've seen him in ages.  Nothing wrong with Winstone either.

The problem is that the story is so gutted to fit within that two-hour time frame.

In the BBC version, Craven genuinely wanted to find out what it was all about, to try and make some sense out of the senseless; NOT knowing being an open wound.

The movie version can be boiled down to the last sentence I quoted from the Willie Nelson song, being entirely devoted to going "for a ride", and seeking only vengeance (about all that two hours allow for, I suppose).  All the subtlety that made the mini-series so fascinating is completely gone.

Darius Jedburgh has been reduced to such a small part that what he does, and what happens to him make almost no sense whatever.

I've long ago lost count of how many times I've seen the whole 5+ hours of the mini-series.  I watched the new movie precisely once.

I honestly cannot recall if the movie had anything at all like the gun and teddy bear scene I described above, but it's little subtle touches like that and many, many others that the mini-series had and the movie doesn't that make the difference between somebody you'd like to know, and a corpse.

That pretty well describes the difference between the two versions of "Edge of Darkness".  I'm fairly confident that the Frankenstein version of AQM, along with some dumpster-diving, is an accurate description of how the movie was conjured up.

Gary Oldman's presence guarantees that I will check out "Tinker Tailor ...", when it gets here in six and a half weeks.  I've heard a little buzz that suggests it might actually be pretty good (it's already showing in Britain), but as I said way above, we'll see.

Update - 11 Dec 2011 - It ain't here yet. :(
All of the websites I've seen on this movie showed a Dec 9 USA release date.

I've now learned that date is for a "limited" (as  in L.A. & NYC probably) showing to get the movie officially released in this country before the end of the year, to qualify for 2011 Academy Award nominations;  Gary Oldman considered almost certainly to be nominated.

An Alamo Drafthouse manager I talked to on the phone thought they might have it by the 16th.  A manager at the Regal 23 I talked to in person thought possibly sometime in the next few weeks.  Nobody appears to know for sure.

I have some confidence (and a lot of hope) that I will get the chance to see it soon.  (Hopefully not to see my worst fears realized.)

In the meantime, is there anything else worth giving a look?

Check out Hugo.  Director Martin Scorsese (who gave us "Taxi Driver") tries his hand with a family film, and delivers pure magic.  That's as big a surprise as Bob Clark (who's legacy was the raunchy "Porky's" movies) turning out a gem like A Christmas Story in 1983.

"Hugo" just might be the best movie of this year. I'm totally serious. Give it a look.

Update - 26 Dec  2011 - Have just seen commercial announcing Friday, 06 Jan 2012 as date of general release in USA.

06 Jan 2012 19:30 - Mild-mannered steel.
That's how I would sum up Gary Oldman's performance here. Having to be an inquisitor searching out clues to the possible "mole" he's searching for, he doesn't attempt to be menacing in any way, but seems to peer into your very soul.  I'm pretty confident of a "Best Actor" academy award nomination for this, and he may have a pretty good chance of actually winning it.

On the other hand, squeezing the story down to two hours doesn't leave much for the other actors and truly does hurt it.  Not nearly as bad as what happened to "Edge of Darkness";  the gist is pretty much there, but it's only a pale shadow of the mini-series.

Bottom line:  Not bad, but Oldman's performance is the only reason to watch this.  If you have the patience and attention-span, get the DVD mini-series instead.
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"The Thing" prequel - DAMN!!! - (Spoiler Warning)

I was really looking forward to this movie.  But...

Harry Knowles saw a preview screening several months ago.

Harry says THE THING prequel is the warmest load of shit on screen in ages!
and continues...

I hate the film. Hate it. Absolutely loathe it. It was my gut reaction the second it ended, but over the months I’ve had to consider the film – I’ve realized just how much I love John Carpenter’s original. I’ve rewatched it a few times since seeing the remake, and it really is a little bit of a miracle just how perfect that film is.
...
There’s a moment where he and his buddy are going to fly an injured Norwegian back to the real world. Now, we all know this character is a THING. There’s never any real suspense or mystery about who the THING is for the film, because the actors all play it like they’re The THING. Anyway, so they’re going up in the helicopter – and THE THING, who is a man. And knows this helicopter is going to take it to a populated area… well he decides to attack on the helicopter. Nevermind that this pretty much makes the THING a really stupid creature that can’t help but attack any non-THING. Something that the original THING would never have done.
...
THE THING is the exact kind of soulless bullshit that is meant to capitalize on our nostalgia – while really having no notion of how to really deliver on that. I know personally about a dozen horror filmmakers that would’ve given their last tooth to make a great THING prequel. THE THING is a marquee HORROR film to play with – and you went with a first timer that was grotesquely out of his league
...
I recommend staying home and watching the original with friends. Use your theater money wisely.

Now, let me tell you something about Harry Knowles, the creator of the Ain't It Cool News site (No! I don't know him personally, although he's just down the road in Austin).

He absolutely loves these kind of movies (horror and science-fiction);  so much so that he is far more forgiving and cuts a lot more slack than most critics.  My experience has been that when he feels something is a piece of dreck, you can pretty well take that to the bank.

So, will I check it out personally?  Don't really know. After all, I have been warned, by someone who usually knows whereof he speaks.

This is another Public Service Announcement from Paul In Houston. :(

Update - Same Day (14 Oct 2011) 20:17 - At the Murder By The Book store, here in Houston, F. Paul Wilson (one of my very favorite writers, author of "The Keep", the "Repairman JacK" series, and many others) showed up for a talk and a book signing.

I got my copy of his latest Repairman Jack ("The Dark at the End") signed and gave him my solemn  promise to be more careful about "Spoiler Warnings" when writing a post about something he may not have seen yet (especially if I had invited him to read the post in the first place :-).

Had a very good time. If you're wondering if my compliments may be because of the possibility he may come across this post, you betcha!

Oh, Wait!!! Ain't this post supposed to be about "The Thing"?

Ok, then.  I noticed that I had plenty of time to go and check it out before going to the book signing so, in a fit of curiosity and masochism, I went and did so.

Bottom line: I was fairly warned. :(
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Obviously, we Texans haven't a clue as to how to get things done ...

... as evidenced by this from Jerry Pournelle's Steve Jobs RIP; education, space, proscription, and debt. Lots of debt.  On that page, go down a bit and look for the letter entitled "FEMA".  It's about two ladies that went out to the area where the fires were being fought and set up their own organization to help the firefighters.

...
Here are some stories about the Tricounty fire in Montgomery, Grimes, and Waller County, Labor Day week, 2011. (Just northwest of Houston)
...
Kenna moved on to the Unified Command Post at Magnolia West High school. She looked at what the fire fighters needed, and she made calls and set it up.
...
As exhausted firefighters (most of them from local VFDs with no training or experience battling wildfires) and workers came into the school after long hours of hard labor, dehydrated, hungry, covered with soot and ash, they got what they needed. They were directed through the commissary, where they got soap, eye wash and nasal spray, candy, clean socks and underwear, and then were sent off to the school locker rooms for a shower. HEB then fed them a hot meal and they got 8 hours sleep in a barracks, then another hot meal, another pass through the commissary for supplies to carry with them out to the lines, including gloves, safety glasses, dust masks and snacks, and back they went.

One of the imported crews from California came into Unified Command and asked where the FEMA Powerbars and water were. He was escorted to the commissary and started through the system. He was flabbergasted. He said FEMA never did it like this. Kenna replied, ”Well, this is the way we do it in Texas.”
...
Mind you, all of this was set up by 2 Moms, Kenna and Tara, with a staff of 20 simple volunteers, most of them women who had sons, daughters, husbands, and friends on the fire lines. Someone always knew someone who could get what they needed – beds, mechanics, food, space. Local people using local connections to mobilize local resources made this happen. No government aid. No Trained Expert.
...
FEMA came in and told those volunteers and Kenna that they had to leave, FEMA was here now. Kenna told them she worked for the firefighters, not them. They were obnoxious, bossy, got in the way, and criticized everything. The volunteers refused to back down and kept doing their job, and doing it well. Next FEMA said the HEB supplies and kitchen had to go, that was blatant commercialism. Kenna said they stayed. They stayed.
...
The upshot? A fire that the experts from California (for whom we are so grateful there are no words) said would take 2-3 weeks to get under control was 100% contained in 8 days.
...

I considered asking Dr. Pournelle for permission to reproduce the entire letter in this post, but that would be a strain on hospitality and, as it was a letter from another, that permission might not be his to grant.

Besides, some of you need practice at clicking on links anyway, and you really should click on that link I provided near the top of this post, just to fill in the ellipses.  They make for fascinating reading, and I've only pity and despair for those too lacking in curiosity to do so.

Addendum a few minutes afterward - Is this unusual for this area? Not in the least. See also MORE ON THE HURRICANE IKE AFTERMATH, from September 10, 2008. It's just the way we are.

Another addendum - Why is it "just the way we are"?
I was lucky enough to be born in Texas. But many Texans were not so blessed, although they got here as soon as they could. :-)

A lot of people down here are from somewhere else.  Houston has seen waves of emigration from other states, from time to time.

When I first moved here, in 1964, the population of Houston was a bit over half a million.  Today, it is well over two million within the city limits, and approaching five million within the metro area.

In the late 70's, when the rust-belt states (Michigan in particular) were in recession, so many came here, that a PBS special noted ...
 "over a million people poured into Houston, looking for jobs, and found them!"

During that period, it did indeed seem like the Michigan license plates outnumbered the locals.

Believe it or not, most of us did not resent that.  Some did (even we are cursed with a few complainers), but most of us saw those expatriate Michiganders as folks who, instead of moaning and whining about their lot, actually did something about it.

In the pioneer days, that was truly a big deal, as
  "the cowards never started and the weaklings died along the way".

Today's times are a bit less drastic, but even now to pull up stakes and move 1300 to 1400 miles to better your situation is very daunting to many;  downright terrifying to some.

Wimps don't do that.  To those of you who have joined us in that way, let me tell you that most us of have nothing but respect for you, are glad to have you with us, and simply can never get enough of you.  You enrich our state;  by being here and making it worth bragging about.

One result of that is a significantly higher percentage of folks who are inclined to fix their own problems instead of waiting for others to do it for them.  Thus, the fortitude and self-reliance shown in the two linked articles above are not at all surprising.  It would be far more of a surprise if they were not evident.

So, to all of you who have joined us from somewhere else:

Thank you!

Oh, by the way - I've seen a couple of other posts linking to this one, and commenting favorably about it.  Please remember, I'm mostly reporting on an original post by Dr. Jerry Pournelle (linked near the top), and all I've done is to use it as an opportunity to brag about my state.  Pournelle (or more properly the one who sent the letter to him) deserves all the credit for the points made about FEMA vs the volunteers.

Ok?

Update - 07 Oct 2011 - This post is linked at Volunteerism vs. Bureaucracy in which commenter Politicalprincess_007 takes us to task for inaccuracies in the TriCounty fire incident and provides sources refuting the impression of FEMA being the villain there. See her comments;  she makes a very good case.

As far as I can see, it in no way invalidates the main point of the post (emphasizing self-reliance and volunteerism), so I'm letting my post stand as is; with this very important clarification added.
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Thoughtcrime

The University of Wisconsin-Stout is bravely defending us against the perils of free speech and that awful 1st amendment.

See Brad Kozak's Freedom of Speech Evidently Has No Place In a University., and what got them up in arms (so to speak) ...

Poster from Brad Kozak's post (linked above)

This poster, from one of my favorite short-lived series Firefly  (sort of a live-action Cowboy Bebop), made U of Wisconsin-Stout officials go ballistic (Can I even use that word?) when a theatre professor posted it on his door.

Apparently he's posted things there for a long time, but this particular one set off the trip-wire of political correctness, which obviously trumps a 200+ year-old scrap of paper called the Constitution.

Please click on the link and give Mr. Kozak's post a look.  There's another poster in there which did not further endear the professor to the powers that be at that institution.

This is a public service announcement from Paul_In_Houston.

H/T: Instapundit

Addendum - 30 Sep 2011 - Context:  Captain Malcolm Reynolds (the dude in the poster) and his motley crew make a pretty much off-the-books living by using their "Firefly" class cargo ship to transport various and sundry items and passengers to other worlds. On learning that one of his passengers has smuggled aboard his sister (a greatly sought-after fugitive from the oppressive Alliance) and berating said passenger about them being an albatross he just doesn't really need at this point, the passenger openly wonders about being killed in his sleep, prompting Mal to clarify things a bit.
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Your browser is no longer ...

... supported by Blogger. Some parts of Blogger will not work and you may experience problems.

For a couple of days now, I've been unable to edit or update my existing blog posts, or to create new ones.  When searching through Blogger.com to see if others were also having problems, I learned that they just recently tightened up browser requirements, hence the title and the top line.

If you are having problems, try Google Chrome. 

That is their recommendation.  Blogger.com is a part of Google, and they recommend using Google Chrome as a fix.  How about that?

It's vaguely reminiscent of Jimmy Breslin's Watergate book wherein he describes Nixon campaign fundraiser Herbert Kalmbach telling businessmen, "You do a lot of work with the government. You should be in with the right people".
 In other places, other men, better men than Kalmbach, tell you, "Pay, -- or die!"
    (~Jimmy Breslin - How The Good Guys Finally Won)

I've been usimg Firefox 3.03 for years now, because it's not so much of a resource hog as other browsers I've worked with.

Now, it looks as if I'm gonna have to use something else.

I'm using an HP computer that I got at the end of 2003, with Windows XP and 256 MB of RAM.

Get a new one?  Right!!!
 "I'll just walk out in back where the money tree grows.
  Grab me a handful and off to the store I'll go."
 (Slight rephrasing of an old Roger Miller song).

I've had several people recommend Chrome to me even though it comes from the evil empire of Google (as opposed, of course, to the evil empire of Microsoft :-)

Truly, a choice of evils. :(

Well, I've downloaded Chrome and am using it (this post is proof that I changed to something else, as my version of Firefox wont help me any longer.)

Biggest irritant of course is getting used to the changes in layout of some things (although, thankfully, the bookmarks menu imported from Firefox retains its general appearance even if it is on the wrong side of the page.

But I can adapt, even to changes that I truly think may have resulted from boredom on someone's part.

The early part of my engineering career was in the slide-rule days. Give one of those to modern day engineers, and I'll bet you some would be trying to figure out, "How do you turn it on?"  ("With a really interesting problem.", I would respond. :-)

That particular career (before I moved into IT) was from 1964 to 1984, and during nearly half of it, the most modern tool we had was an electric adding machine.  I truly kid you not; we had one engineer who used an abacus (and was damned good with it).

It was the late 1960's before someone tried to interest us in a four-function electronic calculator, about the size and shape of an IBM Selectric typewriter, using a bank of tubes showing 7-segment numbers for the display and costing about $600.00 (at a time when that was one third the price of a brand-new Volkswagen Beetle).  We passed on the deal, at that time.

A couple of years later, I bought a Miida calculator (still only four-function) for about $170.00 from Sears, Roebuck, making me the first in the company to have one.  It got popular very quickly.  I even worked out a three-step method of averaging to get very precise square roots from it (we used those a lot in electrical calculations) and felt pretty damned good about that (although slide-rule accuracy was actually more than sufficient for our purposes -- it was an ego thing for me, I suppose).

Of course, another year or so, and the same amount of money bought an 80-function calculator.  Since then, prices of those things have dropped so much that the only thing keeping them from becoming Cracker Jack prizes is fear of lawsuits if a kid swallows one.

Through all my careers, I have become self-taught on slide-rule, logarithms, computers and programming.

If I can figure those things out, I reckon I can somehow manage the transition from Firefox to Chrome.

I think.

(Pray for me).
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CALL it "The Freedom Tower" ...

... Not that mind-numbing bureaucratese of "One World Trade Center".

(Originally published 1404 CDT 10 SEP 2011 - Updated below)

"Freedom Tower" is what it was originally meant to be called anyway, until somebody got their panties in a twist and thought that such a name would be a gigantic Foxtrot Yankee to those who tried to bring us down. (Sounds to me like an excellent reason to so name it.)

From the Wikipedia entry (for what that's worth) ...
In 2009, the Port Authority changed the name of the building from "Freedom Tower" to "One World Trade Center", stating that this name is the "easiest for people to identify with".

All I can say is (EXPLETIVE DELETED!!!).

I saw a NOVA special on TV a few nights ago, all about the design and construction of the  1 WTC Building (They've already forgotten the original name) and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

The Presence of Absence ...
That's what the architect of the memorial said it was to evoke;  the sense of loss in the footprints of the original twin towers.

That's not a bad description of what appears to be the attitude of Obama and many of his minions who will appear at the 10th anniversary on 11 Sep 2011.  An attitude of "Let's put this behind us and move on." ;  a good sentiment in some circumstances, but in this context almost like saying that the Holocaust Museum should never have been built.

In the Shadow of the Freedom Tower ...
To add to the mix, we also have the Ground Zero mosque, except we're not supposed to call it that on account of it ain't located directly on the former World Trade Center site, Ground Zero, nor is it primarily a mosque,  ("A rose by any other name ...")

Although the City of New York refused to let a Greek Orthodox church that was destroyed at Ground Zero be rebuilt, they appear to have no problem with this abomination.

Maybe some solace can come from the fact that its location, about two blocks northeast of the Freedom Tower suggests that in the fall (around Sep 11), each afternoon it will lie in the shadow of the tower.

So, where are we now? ...

I don't have a date for the picture on the left, but it would probably be several months ago. The two open squares will be the memorial (hopefully completed tomorrow 11 Sep 2011). The picture on the right is how the tower should look when completed a couple of years from now.  (All images in this post are from www.nyc-tower.com )

This one is dated 24 Aug 2011

And this was taken on 01 Sep 2011 - coming right along.

Where was I on that fateful day? ...
The same place most of you were;  at work that Tuesday morning 11 Sep 2001.  Being in IT, they tolerated my occasional surfing of the internet, but it was other workers who urged me to check out the CNN website that morning; something about an airplane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers.

I immediately thought it was a horrible accident, with Murphy's Law working at peak efficiency that it would be the tallest thing in Manhattan to be hit.  Indeed, that even made sense as it would be a more likely thing to happen because of its height.

I had read, many times, about the July 1945 incident in which a USAAF (United States Army Air Forces) B-25 Mitchell bomber ...

... tried to land in zero visibility (because of fog) at LaGuardia Airport and the pilot became disoriented and crashed into the Empire State Building between the 78th and 79th floors.  At the moment, I felt that, because of the proliferation of tall buildings near landing approaches, such an accident was almost inevitable sooner or later.

Of course, that second plane hitting the other tower made it painfully clear what had really taken place.

The most horrific part was when the South Tower collapsed.  Most of the people killed would have been those trapped on the upper floors.  By that time, the ones below would have already been evacuated, with the only people still below being responders and others desperately trying to reach those still trapped.

What a horrible word is "only" when applied to people like that. The most merciful thing in their case was that when the rumbling started, they probably barely had time to wonder "What the Hell is that?" before it was over.  It was half an hour later before the North Tower went, and I believe that rescue people were still trying their level best there, knowing all too well what could happen and being totally aware when it did.

A year later, I took a driving vacation and, among other places, visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

On display in one wing of the museum was a U-2 reconnaissance plane.  On one wall, curving up from the floor, was a huge aerial photo, taken from that (or a similar) plane, of Manhattan Island.  What you could see so clearly in that photo were the Twin Towers, and it literally took your breath away realizing what was now gone.  I was trying very hard to hold back tears, and I don't think I succeeded. (If any reading this have been to the museum recently, I'd love to know if that photo is still on display.)

Update 27 Jan 2012 - As nobody has volunteered that information, I emailed the museum and received this reply:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your inquiry of January 26, 2012, regarding an exhibition has been received in the Smithsonian’s Public Inquiry Mail Service for response.

The oblique U-2 photo of the New York metropolitan area in the 1970s is still on view in the Looking at Earth Gallery (110) in the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update - Sunday, 09 Sep 2012 - What was, ...

(Couldn't find a date for this picture)

... what is ...

As of April 2012 - from urbanpeek.com 

(The only image in this post not from www.nyc-tower.com )

As of today (Sunday, 09 Sep 2012) - from live camera

The steel structure is complete, with work on glass still proceeding and the spire to follow.

... and what shall be ...

The Tower is scheduled to be ready for occupancy in 2013, and at present has about 55% of its leases filled. The current economy isn't exactly helping, but those who worry about being able to find tenants should recall that the Empire State Building and the original Twin Towers took decades to fill to capacity.

Bottom line, about that name ...
I hope this will be read by bloggers with far greater readerships than my humble 3 or 4 hundred a month, because I beg you to launch a campaign to make "Freedom Tower" the official name of this magnificent structure, or failing that, at least make it the de-facto name.

For my part, from here on out, I shall never refer to it as anything else

If honoring the memory of those who fell there was the only reason, that would be more than enough.

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