Once again, it's time to dig into the book piles and have a short ramble on about what's being read, and whether they're good, enjoyable, interesting, dumb, smart, or any of the above. Once more, the game is afoot!
'The Ship Who Won' by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye (1994)
I have read this two book series out of order, this one being set and published before 'The Ship Errant' by Jody Lynn Nye alone. It's very much a different work to its sequel but also has lots in common. A brain-ship and her companion mark out a first contact on a world, but discover a bizarre mock-feudal society run by apparent wizards. It sounds good as it's described, doesn't it? It's an adventure, but a bit less substantial than the follow-up, unless the last few pages turn up something unexpected.
'Murder Must Advertise' by Dorothy L Sayers (1933)
This is one of the most famous of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, and on first reading it shockingly unveiled the rottenness of the advertising business. So far, only a few pages in, it's a witty bit of mystery fluff. We'll see what happens in this entry in the excellent series.
'Journey To The West' (Volume 2) by Wu Cheng'en (~1590)
Progress is being made. There are only another fourteen or fifteen hundred pages to go in the whole story and a few hundred here in volume two. It's fascinating and inventive, but ultimately a massive set of short stories, and short stories are my kryptonite. It's hard to believe that 'Journey To The West' was written more than four hundred years ago, as the translation is so crisp and modern, and the fantasy on a par with many a modern work. Very good.
'The Voyage Of The Beagle' by Charles Darwin (1839)
Stalled. Even more stalled. It will get back to the top one day. Somehow. It's really not bad.
'Jokes And Their Relation To The Unconscious' by Sigmund Freud (1940)
A non-fiction book that's actually reaching its conclusion? Good grief! That must mean that it's good and readable. Seriously, folks, this has been a lot more interesting than I thought it would be, and a lot of the reasoning on jokes, jests, and the comic, makes a lot of sense. Also, I learnt a new word in 'cathexis', for which I will always be grateful. Why not grab a few more of the Freud books?
'Kentucky Thriller' by Lauren St John (2013)
Barely begun, but it seems to be keeping up the quality of this young adult series. Hopefully, it will not go so far afield this time!
'Galileo's Daughter' by Dava Sobel (1999)
A third non-fiction book selected from the piles for this summary, and it's abour the surviving correspondence between legendary astronomer Galileo and his convent-bound daughter. Sadly, only the correspondence going to Galileo survives as his letters in return were burnt by a convent official. Still in the early stages, but it seeme interesting.
O.
Monday, 10 July 2017
Sunday, 9 July 2017
Act, Don't React
It's quiet out there. Too quiet. As if on cue, an airplane flies over. A dog barks. Blast. Another promising beginning sent to narrative jail. Let's begin again.
It's not quiet out there. It's eerily noisy. Children scream over at the playground, in the nice way. The sunshine continues, and it becomes a miracle that no-one has brought out a lawnmower to annoy everyone. However, a power saw is heard, and muttering begins deep in the heart of the writer of the Quirky Muffin. Why, oh why, do people like the Summer? Presumably it's not for the insects. Oh, to each their own in the grand scheme of things. Let's not be negative, but positive.
<Thinks for a while>
Positivity has to be found internally in these days of media cynicism and utter pessimism. No change is good according to the powers that try to shape out opinions, and nothing good can come out of people having ideas anywhere. It's of course not true. Good things can come out of current processes like the Exit from the EU, or the eventual aftermath of Trump. Nothing absolutely must be bad. Hopefully, and the hope is really there, we can escape the reporting tyranny, bypassing it completely, and actually find out how things are working in the world. Is it possible? Yes, for we have positivity. Good things can happen! Let's not assume disaster when some measure of success is possible!
How do we find positivity? Much as in 'City Slickers', we can say that the answer to that question is different for every one of us. Some people watch cheering television shows and movies, and read books that they love. Some others lean on the innocence of their children and live vicariously on their optimism. Sadly, some people don't find their inner smile, but they could. It's just a question of finding space to act instead of to react, and in which to relax. Everything in the world is pushing us to not think about what we do. We need to think. That will be next two hundred part lecture, complete with illustrations and cracker recipes. (No, not really.) To think is to plan for better things.
Better things can happen.
O.
It's not quiet out there. It's eerily noisy. Children scream over at the playground, in the nice way. The sunshine continues, and it becomes a miracle that no-one has brought out a lawnmower to annoy everyone. However, a power saw is heard, and muttering begins deep in the heart of the writer of the Quirky Muffin. Why, oh why, do people like the Summer? Presumably it's not for the insects. Oh, to each their own in the grand scheme of things. Let's not be negative, but positive.
<Thinks for a while>
Positivity has to be found internally in these days of media cynicism and utter pessimism. No change is good according to the powers that try to shape out opinions, and nothing good can come out of people having ideas anywhere. It's of course not true. Good things can come out of current processes like the Exit from the EU, or the eventual aftermath of Trump. Nothing absolutely must be bad. Hopefully, and the hope is really there, we can escape the reporting tyranny, bypassing it completely, and actually find out how things are working in the world. Is it possible? Yes, for we have positivity. Good things can happen! Let's not assume disaster when some measure of success is possible!
How do we find positivity? Much as in 'City Slickers', we can say that the answer to that question is different for every one of us. Some people watch cheering television shows and movies, and read books that they love. Some others lean on the innocence of their children and live vicariously on their optimism. Sadly, some people don't find their inner smile, but they could. It's just a question of finding space to act instead of to react, and in which to relax. Everything in the world is pushing us to not think about what we do. We need to think. That will be next two hundred part lecture, complete with illustrations and cracker recipes. (No, not really.) To think is to plan for better things.
Better things can happen.
O.
Friday, 7 July 2017
Television: 'Supergirl: Bizarro' (2016) (Episode 1x12)
This could so easily be a great season of television if it could stop being lazy. I've already mentioned the uninteresting fighting scenes, but there is also the element of using all the standard superhero episode stories. Twelve episodes into the series, we've already had the ceremonial losing of powers/memory ('Lois and Clark', 'The Flash' (1990-1991), 'Superman II', 'Spider-Man II', 'The Adventures Of Superman') and the bizarro evil clone ('Lois and Clark' Season 1, 'The Flash' (1990-1991), 'Superman III') and we're only a four episodes away from the hero going bad after exposure to something silly ('Superman III', 'Spider-Man III', and arguably every superhero show). We also have a blatant retread of Lex Luthor in Maxwell Lord, and a carbon copy of Daily Planet dynamic at CatCo, right down to the presence of James Olsen (coincidentally in the 'Supergirl' movie). On the other hand, we don't seem to be getting the visit to a parallel universe where the hero failed, which is something.
Wow, that turned into a much longer rant than I expected. 'Supergirl' is definitely not that bad. It just needs a different emphasis.
The good parts of 'Supergirl', however, are very good. In this episode, for example, we get great character work between the four regular characters at CatCo, who consistently do their best to save each episode. This time, we get the rapprochement between Kara and the heartbroken Wynn, a touching scene between James and Wynn as they ponder their feelings for Kara 'Supergirl' Danvers' in the wake of her somewhat callously revealing her new boyfriend, and some great moments between Cat and Kara on the latter dating the former's son. Even the dodgier side of things over at the alien-busting DEO has a moment or two, but it's mostly undermined by the clone storyline being a complete ripoff of those other examples, right down to 'Maxwell Lord' being written in where it would have said 'Lex Luthor' in a previous version. The Bizarro storyline almost works anyway, and is saved by the final reconciliation between Supergirl and her doppelganger, but 'Lois and Clark' did it better, as did the 1990 'The Flash'. If only they could have put a new spin on it here, and not just had a carbon copy. We also saw the departure of Kara's first boyfriend, henceforth to be known as Captain Bland.
It's a remarkably charismatic cast. Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan make an especially good double act at CatCo, and really need to be used more. There is also a good moment of daring rescue, which they manage to work in most episodes, which is to their credit. Rescues are the super-thing. Will the season end up being good? We'll have to see how it works out over the next eight episodes, but the episode synopses aren't looking good...
O.
Wow, that turned into a much longer rant than I expected. 'Supergirl' is definitely not that bad. It just needs a different emphasis.
The good parts of 'Supergirl', however, are very good. In this episode, for example, we get great character work between the four regular characters at CatCo, who consistently do their best to save each episode. This time, we get the rapprochement between Kara and the heartbroken Wynn, a touching scene between James and Wynn as they ponder their feelings for Kara 'Supergirl' Danvers' in the wake of her somewhat callously revealing her new boyfriend, and some great moments between Cat and Kara on the latter dating the former's son. Even the dodgier side of things over at the alien-busting DEO has a moment or two, but it's mostly undermined by the clone storyline being a complete ripoff of those other examples, right down to 'Maxwell Lord' being written in where it would have said 'Lex Luthor' in a previous version. The Bizarro storyline almost works anyway, and is saved by the final reconciliation between Supergirl and her doppelganger, but 'Lois and Clark' did it better, as did the 1990 'The Flash'. If only they could have put a new spin on it here, and not just had a carbon copy. We also saw the departure of Kara's first boyfriend, henceforth to be known as Captain Bland.
It's a remarkably charismatic cast. Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan make an especially good double act at CatCo, and really need to be used more. There is also a good moment of daring rescue, which they manage to work in most episodes, which is to their credit. Rescues are the super-thing. Will the season end up being good? We'll have to see how it works out over the next eight episodes, but the episode synopses aren't looking good...
O.
Book: 'The Complete Brigadier Gerard' by Arthur Conan Doyle (1894-1903)
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote many different series of stories. It wasn't all Sherlock Holmes, although the Great Detective is predominantly what he is remembered for, as the writer feared might happen. There were also historical novels, the Professor Challenger stories, a host of one-off stories, and these Brigadier Gerard stories. The Gerard stories were and the historical novels are the black hole of my knowledge of Doyle, but at least that hole is slightly smaller now.
The titular Etienne Gerard was a fictitious French cavalry officer during the Napoleonic wars, who was excessively vain of his abilities on the battlefield and with the ladies, and of course of his looks. It's an impressive set of seventeen stories, clearly from the prime of Doyle's creativity, and it manages to maintain a delicate lightness of tone even in the stories around Waterloo and the downfall of the Emperor. Yes, it's a light satire of the French but it's also that for the British, effectively neutralising any offence taken by those who may have missed the very affectionate prose. There is no hatred toward anyone in the Gerard stories.
It's definitely refreshing to be reminded that Doyle was a master storyteller. He had it all. He wrote some of the best detective stories ever made, he did a dinosaur adventure in 'The Lost World', he wrote historical novels set in the middle ages, he created short stories in practically every genre, and these Brigadier Gerard stories as well. He had a twinkle in his prose, an eye for context, and a disregard for the punctilious maintenance of continuity.
The Gerard stories cover twenty-one years of history, and are all fascinating. My expectation was that boredom would seep in at some point, but Doyle did well and maintained variety and focused more on adventure than the horrors of war. Having said that, the horror of Waterloo is not glossed over, even as Gerard himself races through it in a mad dash to save Napoleon from his pursuers. In many ways, these are the stories that I really wished the Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe stories could have been. There is humour, stunning construction, excellent prose, and a smooth flow from story to story which makes it easy to read all the stories consecutively. There is also a far amount of globetrotting, which you might not expect and some little examination of the aftermath and consequences of the fall of the Emperor.
Yes, it's a recommended set of stories. If you fancy reading them, then get the illustrated collection, which has pictures which are easily the equal of those done for the Sherlock Holmes stories.
O.
The titular Etienne Gerard was a fictitious French cavalry officer during the Napoleonic wars, who was excessively vain of his abilities on the battlefield and with the ladies, and of course of his looks. It's an impressive set of seventeen stories, clearly from the prime of Doyle's creativity, and it manages to maintain a delicate lightness of tone even in the stories around Waterloo and the downfall of the Emperor. Yes, it's a light satire of the French but it's also that for the British, effectively neutralising any offence taken by those who may have missed the very affectionate prose. There is no hatred toward anyone in the Gerard stories.
It's definitely refreshing to be reminded that Doyle was a master storyteller. He had it all. He wrote some of the best detective stories ever made, he did a dinosaur adventure in 'The Lost World', he wrote historical novels set in the middle ages, he created short stories in practically every genre, and these Brigadier Gerard stories as well. He had a twinkle in his prose, an eye for context, and a disregard for the punctilious maintenance of continuity.
The Gerard stories cover twenty-one years of history, and are all fascinating. My expectation was that boredom would seep in at some point, but Doyle did well and maintained variety and focused more on adventure than the horrors of war. Having said that, the horror of Waterloo is not glossed over, even as Gerard himself races through it in a mad dash to save Napoleon from his pursuers. In many ways, these are the stories that I really wished the Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe stories could have been. There is humour, stunning construction, excellent prose, and a smooth flow from story to story which makes it easy to read all the stories consecutively. There is also a far amount of globetrotting, which you might not expect and some little examination of the aftermath and consequences of the fall of the Emperor.
Yes, it's a recommended set of stories. If you fancy reading them, then get the illustrated collection, which has pictures which are easily the equal of those done for the Sherlock Holmes stories.
O.
Wednesday, 5 July 2017
Do It Yourself!
What should be written about this time? If this weren't a 'Type A' post, I could write a little about 1961's 'Master Of The World', which is oddly beautiful and erratic, and in its adaptation from the novel the movie has essentially become 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea' in the sky. Oh, Vincent Price has some silly eyebrows in this one! However, this is a Type A, so we will simply waffle on without any particular plan. It's not difficult, but it does require getting into a frame of mind that is loose and freewheeling. And not talking about muffins.
'Loose and freewheeling'? That was the original point of this exercise! It's easy to forget that this is a therapeutic activity above all, a soothing of the mental stresses that afflict us all from time to time. That's why the stories are really wonderful, when they work. Sometimes they don't work, and we end up with the multiply dead-ended 'The Glove', but the first part of 'Wordspace' was worth it. I think. It's hard to tell from the outside.
The next few days will be strange, as a new Summer side project opens and adds woodworking into the mix. No, that wasn't a typo, it did say 'woodworking'. When you have a few quiet months, it's good to challenge yourself, and so some bookcases will be made. It will be difficult, completely new, and probably a completely daft thing to do, but a good idea nonetheless. If they work out well, then who knows what else might follow? It's nice to make things for your yourself when you can, and not just accept the generic items handed out by the homogeneous would of retail. People from a hundred years ago would be shocked at how limited and inflexible the size ranges of items available today can be. Do it yourself, people of the world! Do it yourself! It's actually cheaper, if you re-use whatever tools you buy, and you get life skills in the process...
Blather blather blather. It's time to close up this post, embrace the thrill of unconsciousness for another night, and read some more of the 'Brigadier Gerard' stories if sleep proves difficult. That collection of stories is awesome, and really proves Doyle's eminence in adventure stories. He was amazing. There will be more on Doyle and 'Brigadier Gerard' sometime soon.
O.
'Loose and freewheeling'? That was the original point of this exercise! It's easy to forget that this is a therapeutic activity above all, a soothing of the mental stresses that afflict us all from time to time. That's why the stories are really wonderful, when they work. Sometimes they don't work, and we end up with the multiply dead-ended 'The Glove', but the first part of 'Wordspace' was worth it. I think. It's hard to tell from the outside.
The next few days will be strange, as a new Summer side project opens and adds woodworking into the mix. No, that wasn't a typo, it did say 'woodworking'. When you have a few quiet months, it's good to challenge yourself, and so some bookcases will be made. It will be difficult, completely new, and probably a completely daft thing to do, but a good idea nonetheless. If they work out well, then who knows what else might follow? It's nice to make things for your yourself when you can, and not just accept the generic items handed out by the homogeneous would of retail. People from a hundred years ago would be shocked at how limited and inflexible the size ranges of items available today can be. Do it yourself, people of the world! Do it yourself! It's actually cheaper, if you re-use whatever tools you buy, and you get life skills in the process...
Blather blather blather. It's time to close up this post, embrace the thrill of unconsciousness for another night, and read some more of the 'Brigadier Gerard' stories if sleep proves difficult. That collection of stories is awesome, and really proves Doyle's eminence in adventure stories. He was amazing. There will be more on Doyle and 'Brigadier Gerard' sometime soon.
O.
Monday, 3 July 2017
Board Game: 'Thunderbirds' ('The 50th Anniversary Cooperative Board Game') (2015)
This is an impressive game. If it hadn't been for some enthusiastic reviews on the 'Dice Tower' for the expansions (Thank you, Zee Garcia) and great playthroughs on Youtube from 'Dad Vs Daughter', it probably wouldn't have popped into the mental category of 'buyable games', but it thankfully did. However, you do need to get the 'Tracy Island' expansion, which makes it all just a tiny bit easier more intuitive. It's essential for getting the full effect, and playing without that little mountain miniature would be a gloomy business indeed.
It's exceedingly unusual to find good licenced games which aren't just 'Star Wars' or war games of some other flavour. Exceedingly unusual. 'Thunderbirds' bucks that trend. In it, one to four players share out some characters from the show between them, and spend an hour to two hours moving around the board, dropping off and picking up each other and utility vehicles, and averting disasters with the help of various bonuses and the disaster dice. On each occasion, if you're lucky you get a reward and save the day, or you fail and possibly advance the progress of the arch nemesis known only as the Hood. Why is he called the Hood, despite not having a hood? These questions are best left for finer minds than mine. Arching above these pursuits, you also need to stop three of the Hood's schemes before he moves far enough along his progress track to launch any of them. It is surprisingly tense, and the integrating of the 'Thunderbirds' mythology into this classic Matt Leacock ('Forbidden Island', 'Forbidden Desert', 'Pandemic') cooperative game is great.
Ultimately, 'Thunderbirds' is what is called a 'pick up and deliver' game. You have nine characters, each of which has a primary active power, and a secondary power which is active when he or she is in his home vehicle or location. By carefully optimising, and burning out your brain in the process, how you're going to move, you try to have all your pieces, vehicles, and tools in the right places at the right times (including in space!) to avert the disasters and schemes before the Hood can win. All with gorgeous art from the 1960s television show, and a rather gorgeous board and solid miniatures. It's lovely, and quite difficult even at the lowest level of difficulty. Sometimes you have to plan things out carefully, and sometimes you just have to rely on your luck and hope to roll your way out of an unavoidable crisis. Sometimes you lose, and learn a life lesson in dealing with impossible situations, as the world falls to the machinations of that purple fiend. Hopefully, you have a plan for most of the time.
Yes, it's a good game. I do wonder if it would be lessened by a lack of exposure to the original television show, which saturates the experience. Sometimes you do want to just get John Tracy back on the space station and out of the way, and I would be surprised if anyone ever could resist the temptation to do Parker impressions while driving Lady Penelope around in FAB 1. Recommended, but you really do need to get 'Tracy Island' too! (The other two expansions aren't particularly important in comparison.)
O.
It's exceedingly unusual to find good licenced games which aren't just 'Star Wars' or war games of some other flavour. Exceedingly unusual. 'Thunderbirds' bucks that trend. In it, one to four players share out some characters from the show between them, and spend an hour to two hours moving around the board, dropping off and picking up each other and utility vehicles, and averting disasters with the help of various bonuses and the disaster dice. On each occasion, if you're lucky you get a reward and save the day, or you fail and possibly advance the progress of the arch nemesis known only as the Hood. Why is he called the Hood, despite not having a hood? These questions are best left for finer minds than mine. Arching above these pursuits, you also need to stop three of the Hood's schemes before he moves far enough along his progress track to launch any of them. It is surprisingly tense, and the integrating of the 'Thunderbirds' mythology into this classic Matt Leacock ('Forbidden Island', 'Forbidden Desert', 'Pandemic') cooperative game is great.
Ultimately, 'Thunderbirds' is what is called a 'pick up and deliver' game. You have nine characters, each of which has a primary active power, and a secondary power which is active when he or she is in his home vehicle or location. By carefully optimising, and burning out your brain in the process, how you're going to move, you try to have all your pieces, vehicles, and tools in the right places at the right times (including in space!) to avert the disasters and schemes before the Hood can win. All with gorgeous art from the 1960s television show, and a rather gorgeous board and solid miniatures. It's lovely, and quite difficult even at the lowest level of difficulty. Sometimes you have to plan things out carefully, and sometimes you just have to rely on your luck and hope to roll your way out of an unavoidable crisis. Sometimes you lose, and learn a life lesson in dealing with impossible situations, as the world falls to the machinations of that purple fiend. Hopefully, you have a plan for most of the time.
Yes, it's a good game. I do wonder if it would be lessened by a lack of exposure to the original television show, which saturates the experience. Sometimes you do want to just get John Tracy back on the space station and out of the way, and I would be surprised if anyone ever could resist the temptation to do Parker impressions while driving Lady Penelope around in FAB 1. Recommended, but you really do need to get 'Tracy Island' too! (The other two expansions aren't particularly important in comparison.)
O.
Saturday, 1 July 2017
Countdown
It's never too early to start planning. We are now only one hundred posts away from a thousand Quirky Muffins, at which point the universe will end and the world as we know it will convert into rice pudding. Hmmm... rice pudding... what a distracting thought. What could the thousandth post possibly be that would prove fitting? How about something utterly banal and silly or extemporised? That's a good plan. Let's stick to that. It's worked nine hundred times so far.
One hundred posts will take a while to fill, so we will have a large number of words to write, hopefully in the correct order and making some sense. It's not hard to do, but it is hard to contemplate the final result. The joined-up version of 'Oneiromancy' was a beast to check and lightly edit, and that was only the equivalent of thirty or so parts! As with all grand projects, you take each day as it comes, and write what comes to mind.
It occurs to this writer that there is a massive amount of repetition in the blog by now, which is inevitable. Some of the rambling ideas have probably been imagined several times over, and the existing pile of posts is so vast that we would never be able to check through it all. Yes, tags would have been a good idea, nine hundred posts ago. The 'Chatter' links serve as a rudimentary replacement, indexing as they do all the reviews and story episodes posted to date. It's true that tangential and minor references won't be in there, but there's no going back and fixing things now!
As an example, this reference to the 'Magnum, PI' episode 'Home From The Sea' won't make it onto the 'Television Chatter' index, as I'm simply going to state that it's a very good example of the show. 'Magnum PI' helped me get through writing my doctoral thesis, and a rewatch is very much in order, so anticipate a lot more on the subject as time winds on. It actually is one of the best series ever made, despite it being so manly! Yes, more 'Magnum PI', more of the stories, despite their debateable qualities, and a lot more on books as the habit becomes more ingrained. In fact, another 'On The Book Piles' must be imminent, as there have been many changes since the last post. We might even get to talking about board games. What a turnabout that would be!
For now, though, we close another post, and wonder what the world will deliver next. Hopefully, it won't involve sharks, a giant marshmallow man, or a trip to an antimatter universe.
O.
One hundred posts will take a while to fill, so we will have a large number of words to write, hopefully in the correct order and making some sense. It's not hard to do, but it is hard to contemplate the final result. The joined-up version of 'Oneiromancy' was a beast to check and lightly edit, and that was only the equivalent of thirty or so parts! As with all grand projects, you take each day as it comes, and write what comes to mind.
It occurs to this writer that there is a massive amount of repetition in the blog by now, which is inevitable. Some of the rambling ideas have probably been imagined several times over, and the existing pile of posts is so vast that we would never be able to check through it all. Yes, tags would have been a good idea, nine hundred posts ago. The 'Chatter' links serve as a rudimentary replacement, indexing as they do all the reviews and story episodes posted to date. It's true that tangential and minor references won't be in there, but there's no going back and fixing things now!
As an example, this reference to the 'Magnum, PI' episode 'Home From The Sea' won't make it onto the 'Television Chatter' index, as I'm simply going to state that it's a very good example of the show. 'Magnum PI' helped me get through writing my doctoral thesis, and a rewatch is very much in order, so anticipate a lot more on the subject as time winds on. It actually is one of the best series ever made, despite it being so manly! Yes, more 'Magnum PI', more of the stories, despite their debateable qualities, and a lot more on books as the habit becomes more ingrained. In fact, another 'On The Book Piles' must be imminent, as there have been many changes since the last post. We might even get to talking about board games. What a turnabout that would be!
For now, though, we close another post, and wonder what the world will deliver next. Hopefully, it won't involve sharks, a giant marshmallow man, or a trip to an antimatter universe.
O.
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