Whenever people see the title of the book I'm reading, they get a "look" on their face. It's kinda funny. Let's get to the good stuff.
"They closed the door on him, and he sat back down on the floor. It had been a valid question: what on earth had possessed him to do such a reckless, stupid thing? Unfortunately, he couldn't think of an answer, and he'd been searching for one ever since they arrested him. If they bothered marking the graves of abominators, his headstone would have to read:
SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME
Wonderful epitaph for a wasted life."
----------
[a prisoner's friend has just paid him a visit and left]
Remarkable, Ziani thought; I've know Falier most of my life and I never knew he had magic powers. Always thought he was just orindary, like me. But he can walk through doors, and I can't.
----------
[one character ponders his relationship with another]
This isn't love, Valens told himself. He knew about love, having seen it at work among his friends and people around him. Love was altogether more predatory. It was concerned with pursuit, capture, enjoyment; it was caused by beauty, the way raw red skin is caused by the sun; it was appetite, like hunger or thirst, a physical discomfort that tortured you until it was satisfied...and so this couldn't be love, in which case it could only be friendship; shared interests, an instructive comparison of perspectives, a meeting of minds, a pooling of resources...Not love, obviously. Different. Better...
[a little bit later, he reflects further]
It was just as well he and the Eremian Duchess were just good friends, when you thought of all the damage a lover could do in the world.
----------
There's an enormous amount of detail in the book about seemingly trivial things. But there's also a good deal of insight and individual asides that are fun and funny. There's a lot of authors whose work I love and admire. But right now, I'd want to write like K.J. Parker.
Back to watching the Super Bowl. I bought some chips and pistachios to eat during the game. So far I've just been drinking tea and blogging.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Five movies
After a hiatus from the movies, I've seen five in recent weeks.
Movie #1: Cloverfield. The best recent example of why I consider the type of movie and what it's trying to accomplish when evaluating it. This is an experimental kind of movie, shown from the viewpoint of a hand-held camera. If you don't like the jarring motion and all that, you'll hate the movie. It did give me a headache. But all in all, I thought it was done okay. People in the theater with me didn't like the ending, but endings are always tricky. Part of me thinks that movie makers have struck back against high expectations by deliberately leaving the audience hanging and unsatisfied. The guy acting as the cameraman was really funny, like your nice-but-stupid friend who can't keep a secret and always says the wrong thing at the worst possible time. I saw where it was called an American Godzilla movie, and that's kind of accurate. There's a little bit of creepy-crawly things that I'm not fond of, but it was effective. I don't expect everybody to like it, but it was all right.
Movie #2: Charlie Wilson's War. Very funny and fun. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are good, as they often are. Philip Seymour Hoffman is very entertaining, and I heard several people comment on how good he was. And in case you didn't know, it's about how a Congressman managed to wage war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Or something like that. It's based on a true story, so you can't really mess around with the ending too much.
Movie #3: I Am Legend. I saw this mostly because my sister raved about it. It's not really my kind of movie, since it involves creeping around in the dark, waiting for the bad things to jump out. Once the fighting started, I was okay. But the anticipation isn't for me. Will Smith is good. The whole thing is pretty well done, except for the ending. I wouldn't really recommend it unless you LOVE Will Smith and zombie-type movies. And I mean really, really love him.
Movie #4: Bucket List. Touching and funny. It's a comedy, but it does a pretty good job of showing you how serious it is to be in a hospital with cancer. There are some touching moments. But mostly it's funny with a bit of insight. Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson (maybe you've heard of them) appeared like they were having fun with each other, at least on screen. Ending was a bit of a cliche, but it was good. Just because it's cliche doesn't mean it can't work.
Movie #5: There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis is great. His character's persona just reaches out from the screen and grabs you. Part showman, part ruthless businessman. It's a long movie, listed at 2:38. The first hour and fifteen minutes to hour and a half are good. Then it gets a little clunky. But the last hour has some pretty good scenes. The final scene, even with a sudden ending, is a great scene. Pretty good movie, though they could have cut off about a half hour or so and it would've been just as good.
Incidentally, this movie has Fletcher Hamilton, who played Julius Caesar in Rome. I could not for the life of me remember where I'd seen him. Turns out he was also Firmin in Phantom of the Opera.
There's something that bothers me about the movie, though, and it's not anything that appears on screen. It's rated R. Why? There's very little violence. There's only two things you could really consider a "killing", and they're not gory or terrible to look at. There's a couple of other instances of people dying, but it's nothing awful to watch. There's no nudity. I remember exactly one curse word. The MPAA warning on the movie says "Rated R for some violence." There's way more violence, sex, nudity, and foul language in dozens and dozens of movies that will be rated PG-13 (or even PG!) this year. I just don't get it.
Movie #1: Cloverfield. The best recent example of why I consider the type of movie and what it's trying to accomplish when evaluating it. This is an experimental kind of movie, shown from the viewpoint of a hand-held camera. If you don't like the jarring motion and all that, you'll hate the movie. It did give me a headache. But all in all, I thought it was done okay. People in the theater with me didn't like the ending, but endings are always tricky. Part of me thinks that movie makers have struck back against high expectations by deliberately leaving the audience hanging and unsatisfied. The guy acting as the cameraman was really funny, like your nice-but-stupid friend who can't keep a secret and always says the wrong thing at the worst possible time. I saw where it was called an American Godzilla movie, and that's kind of accurate. There's a little bit of creepy-crawly things that I'm not fond of, but it was effective. I don't expect everybody to like it, but it was all right.
Movie #2: Charlie Wilson's War. Very funny and fun. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are good, as they often are. Philip Seymour Hoffman is very entertaining, and I heard several people comment on how good he was. And in case you didn't know, it's about how a Congressman managed to wage war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Or something like that. It's based on a true story, so you can't really mess around with the ending too much.
Movie #3: I Am Legend. I saw this mostly because my sister raved about it. It's not really my kind of movie, since it involves creeping around in the dark, waiting for the bad things to jump out. Once the fighting started, I was okay. But the anticipation isn't for me. Will Smith is good. The whole thing is pretty well done, except for the ending. I wouldn't really recommend it unless you LOVE Will Smith and zombie-type movies. And I mean really, really love him.
Movie #4: Bucket List. Touching and funny. It's a comedy, but it does a pretty good job of showing you how serious it is to be in a hospital with cancer. There are some touching moments. But mostly it's funny with a bit of insight. Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson (maybe you've heard of them) appeared like they were having fun with each other, at least on screen. Ending was a bit of a cliche, but it was good. Just because it's cliche doesn't mean it can't work.
Movie #5: There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis is great. His character's persona just reaches out from the screen and grabs you. Part showman, part ruthless businessman. It's a long movie, listed at 2:38. The first hour and fifteen minutes to hour and a half are good. Then it gets a little clunky. But the last hour has some pretty good scenes. The final scene, even with a sudden ending, is a great scene. Pretty good movie, though they could have cut off about a half hour or so and it would've been just as good.
Incidentally, this movie has Fletcher Hamilton, who played Julius Caesar in Rome. I could not for the life of me remember where I'd seen him. Turns out he was also Firmin in Phantom of the Opera.
There's something that bothers me about the movie, though, and it's not anything that appears on screen. It's rated R. Why? There's very little violence. There's only two things you could really consider a "killing", and they're not gory or terrible to look at. There's a couple of other instances of people dying, but it's nothing awful to watch. There's no nudity. I remember exactly one curse word. The MPAA warning on the movie says "Rated R for some violence." There's way more violence, sex, nudity, and foul language in dozens and dozens of movies that will be rated PG-13 (or even PG!) this year. I just don't get it.
Talking Football
Today is Super Bowl Sunday, so let's talk football: LSU football. LSU has more players in the game than any other team, so I can get away with it. Corey Webster has been playing the best football of his life for the Giants the past few weeks. The Patriots have Kevin Faulk (who's gotten a lot of praise lately), Randall Gay, Eric Alexander, and Jarvis Green. They also wear a 91 sticker on their helmets to honor Marquise Hill, who died in an accident during the offseason.
LSU was able to play in the BCS national title game in spite of losing twice during the season, including losing the last game of the regular season to Arkansas. They came back and won the SEC Championship Game (SECCG to you message boarders) with a backup quarterback, and a few other things bounced their way as well. And so it happened that Ohio State would take on the SEC champion in the national title game for the second year in a row.
Based on how things had gone for them a year earlier, (and an 0-8 record against the SEC in bowl games) a lot of people predicted that OSU would get hammered. I felt that they were being undervalued. They were a good team with a great coach, and I thought the talk about LSU's speed advantage was nonsense. OSU had a good offensive line, a great running back, and a good defense. I wasn't prepared to say they deserved the #1 ranking that the statistics awarded them, but they were good.
So as you know, LSU won 38-24. Ohio State got off to a 10-0 lead one a great run by Beanie Wells and a figgie. At the time, I thought LSU holding them to a field goal on the second possession was big. A false start penatly helped. And 10-0 wasn't a big deal considering that LSU had faced ten-point deficits before. "Got 'em right where we want 'em," I thought. I didn't really mean it, but I thought it.
After that, LSU ran off 31 straight points. Gary Crowton had put together a great game plan, got the defense spread out, and Matt Flynn picked it apart. When a yard or two was needed, Jacob Hester got two or three. The receivers held onto the ball, and the offensive line gave Flynn and the running backs plenty of time and room to work with. I don't think LSU's speed on offense was what led to their success, but rather the combination of the plan, execution, and winning up front. Which brings me to the defense:
After the first two OSU drives, LSU controlled the line of scrimmage on defense. I'd watched the OSU-Illinois game and wasn't terribly impressed with Todd Boeckman, though it's not really fair to judge a guy on his worst game of the season. Illinois got some pressure on him early, and as the game wore on he got antsy. He eventually felt pressure that wasn't really there. The same thing happened against LSU. It didn't help that his wideouts had a hard time getting open, which gave the rush more time to get in his face. Aside from letting Brandon Saine get wide open a couple of times, the pass defense was fantastic, knocking down passes, getting two INTs, and tackling pretty well.
More about controlling the line: there's a general point of view that says SEC teams are faster, and Big Ten teams are more physical. LSU was the more physical team up front, and the advantage only grew as the game went on. On defense, Glenn Dorsey was healthy and looked more like the All-American people thought he was. Ricky Jean-Francois was getting back into the swing of things after missing the entire regular season (he played in the SECCG) and came up with a blocked figgie. Tyson Jackson played very well, shutting me up. I'd criticized him a good deal during the season for not pressuring the quarterback as much as I expected. He did get better at the end of the season, and when he had a one-on-one matchup, he did well.
LSU doesn't do a lot of fancy stuff with the running game, so it's mostly pulling, trapping, and straight-ahead mashing. Vernon Gholston was an All-American at defensive end, but outside of a couple of plays where he got pressure on Flynn, I didn't see much from him. Considering that LSU had a converted defensive tackle playing right offensive tackle, that's not that much. So yes, LSU has a lot of speed, but it was the line giving the speed and athleticism of the skill players the opportunity to get to work that made the difference.
(This was actually the best argument to be made for OSU winning the game, and it was made by Todd Blackledge: LSU was a better matchup for OSU than some other teams. LSU's offense really isn't a speed offense like Florida's last year. It's more of a power offense)
LSU's game plan reflected that. There was one deep pass the whole game. Most of passes were short, relying on timing, execution, protection, guys getting open, Flynn being accurate with the ball, and guys holding on to the ball. It wasn't a "let's run away from them" style of offense. It worked. Flynn threw four TD passes.
Special mention goes out to Harry Coleman, who filled in for Craig Steltz at safety. Coleman blitzed and hammered Boeckman on a play that ended in an INT. He also recovered two fumbles, one of LSU's and one of theirs. OSU was unable to take advantage of Steltz's absence, partly because everyone else was playing so well, but also because Coleman had such a solid game.
So congratulations to the players and coaches from LSU. Glenn Dorsey has been a great player for four years, and he has always expressed his joy at playing for LSU. I'm glad he came back. A couple of guys who have waited a while to earn a starting job, Flynn and Steltz, got to walk away with rings. Be Pelini got a nice sendoff before becoming the head coach at Nebraska, where I hope he does well. Ali Highsmith has been LSU's best all-around linebacker for the last three years, and he had a great game. And of course, Les Miles has only gone 35-6 in his three years as head coach at LSU. LSU doesn't always play great, (though most of the time they do) but they always play their guts out for him. Most times, that's been enough.
LSU was able to play in the BCS national title game in spite of losing twice during the season, including losing the last game of the regular season to Arkansas. They came back and won the SEC Championship Game (SECCG to you message boarders) with a backup quarterback, and a few other things bounced their way as well. And so it happened that Ohio State would take on the SEC champion in the national title game for the second year in a row.
Based on how things had gone for them a year earlier, (and an 0-8 record against the SEC in bowl games) a lot of people predicted that OSU would get hammered. I felt that they were being undervalued. They were a good team with a great coach, and I thought the talk about LSU's speed advantage was nonsense. OSU had a good offensive line, a great running back, and a good defense. I wasn't prepared to say they deserved the #1 ranking that the statistics awarded them, but they were good.
So as you know, LSU won 38-24. Ohio State got off to a 10-0 lead one a great run by Beanie Wells and a figgie. At the time, I thought LSU holding them to a field goal on the second possession was big. A false start penatly helped. And 10-0 wasn't a big deal considering that LSU had faced ten-point deficits before. "Got 'em right where we want 'em," I thought. I didn't really mean it, but I thought it.
After that, LSU ran off 31 straight points. Gary Crowton had put together a great game plan, got the defense spread out, and Matt Flynn picked it apart. When a yard or two was needed, Jacob Hester got two or three. The receivers held onto the ball, and the offensive line gave Flynn and the running backs plenty of time and room to work with. I don't think LSU's speed on offense was what led to their success, but rather the combination of the plan, execution, and winning up front. Which brings me to the defense:
After the first two OSU drives, LSU controlled the line of scrimmage on defense. I'd watched the OSU-Illinois game and wasn't terribly impressed with Todd Boeckman, though it's not really fair to judge a guy on his worst game of the season. Illinois got some pressure on him early, and as the game wore on he got antsy. He eventually felt pressure that wasn't really there. The same thing happened against LSU. It didn't help that his wideouts had a hard time getting open, which gave the rush more time to get in his face. Aside from letting Brandon Saine get wide open a couple of times, the pass defense was fantastic, knocking down passes, getting two INTs, and tackling pretty well.
More about controlling the line: there's a general point of view that says SEC teams are faster, and Big Ten teams are more physical. LSU was the more physical team up front, and the advantage only grew as the game went on. On defense, Glenn Dorsey was healthy and looked more like the All-American people thought he was. Ricky Jean-Francois was getting back into the swing of things after missing the entire regular season (he played in the SECCG) and came up with a blocked figgie. Tyson Jackson played very well, shutting me up. I'd criticized him a good deal during the season for not pressuring the quarterback as much as I expected. He did get better at the end of the season, and when he had a one-on-one matchup, he did well.
LSU doesn't do a lot of fancy stuff with the running game, so it's mostly pulling, trapping, and straight-ahead mashing. Vernon Gholston was an All-American at defensive end, but outside of a couple of plays where he got pressure on Flynn, I didn't see much from him. Considering that LSU had a converted defensive tackle playing right offensive tackle, that's not that much. So yes, LSU has a lot of speed, but it was the line giving the speed and athleticism of the skill players the opportunity to get to work that made the difference.
(This was actually the best argument to be made for OSU winning the game, and it was made by Todd Blackledge: LSU was a better matchup for OSU than some other teams. LSU's offense really isn't a speed offense like Florida's last year. It's more of a power offense)
LSU's game plan reflected that. There was one deep pass the whole game. Most of passes were short, relying on timing, execution, protection, guys getting open, Flynn being accurate with the ball, and guys holding on to the ball. It wasn't a "let's run away from them" style of offense. It worked. Flynn threw four TD passes.
Special mention goes out to Harry Coleman, who filled in for Craig Steltz at safety. Coleman blitzed and hammered Boeckman on a play that ended in an INT. He also recovered two fumbles, one of LSU's and one of theirs. OSU was unable to take advantage of Steltz's absence, partly because everyone else was playing so well, but also because Coleman had such a solid game.
So congratulations to the players and coaches from LSU. Glenn Dorsey has been a great player for four years, and he has always expressed his joy at playing for LSU. I'm glad he came back. A couple of guys who have waited a while to earn a starting job, Flynn and Steltz, got to walk away with rings. Be Pelini got a nice sendoff before becoming the head coach at Nebraska, where I hope he does well. Ali Highsmith has been LSU's best all-around linebacker for the last three years, and he had a great game. And of course, Les Miles has only gone 35-6 in his three years as head coach at LSU. LSU doesn't always play great, (though most of the time they do) but they always play their guts out for him. Most times, that's been enough.
"Put the penguins in there. And the weapons."
Of all the strange quotes and comments I heard when I was home for Christmas, that was probably the most bizarre. Speaking of Christmas vacation...
It was nice. The most interesting part was the road trip we took from the 27th-28th. We drove down to Plaquemine, LA and had lunch with my buddy Corey. We had planned on eating at City Cafe, but Corey graciously informed us that it was closed. So upon his recommendation we ate at Miranda's instead, and everybody came away praising the food up and down. And no easy critics, we. I had the sauteed (though, as the waitress noted, it was really more pan-fried) catfish, smothered in crawfish etouffee, served over white rice, with red beans and sausage. It was fantastic. Well done, Corey.
That night we had dinner at Randol's in Lafayette, where they also have Cajun dancing. I partook of the food, passed on the dancing. I had the redfish (love redfish) with crawfish and shrimp etouffee. Not bad. Here's what it looked like:
I skipped the onion rings. The next day in St. Martinville we had a very nice lunch of shrimp stew.
I'm sure there was more to the trip than food. Visited with family and friends and had a great time. I flew through Houston, the greatest airport in the world by reason of having a Popeyes and a Shipley's donuts. A long layover there is heaven on earth, I say.
It was nice. The most interesting part was the road trip we took from the 27th-28th. We drove down to Plaquemine, LA and had lunch with my buddy Corey. We had planned on eating at City Cafe, but Corey graciously informed us that it was closed. So upon his recommendation we ate at Miranda's instead, and everybody came away praising the food up and down. And no easy critics, we. I had the sauteed (though, as the waitress noted, it was really more pan-fried) catfish, smothered in crawfish etouffee, served over white rice, with red beans and sausage. It was fantastic. Well done, Corey.
That night we had dinner at Randol's in Lafayette, where they also have Cajun dancing. I partook of the food, passed on the dancing. I had the redfish (love redfish) with crawfish and shrimp etouffee. Not bad. Here's what it looked like:
I skipped the onion rings. The next day in St. Martinville we had a very nice lunch of shrimp stew.
I'm sure there was more to the trip than food. Visited with family and friends and had a great time. I flew through Houston, the greatest airport in the world by reason of having a Popeyes and a Shipley's donuts. A long layover there is heaven on earth, I say.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)