Once again, and so on and so on, it's time to a reading roundup. On this occasion, we have three disparate, all of which are, however, intended to lighten the mood.
'The Columbo Collection' (2010) by William Link
This is a very unpredictable set of twelve stories from the surviving half of the duo that created the legendary detective Columbo. Some of the stories feel very genuine and authentic to the best of the series, and some of them authentic to the less interesting parts of the revival. It is very nice to get that Columbo paradigm in written stories, though; to get at the detective story from the murderer's point of view has always been refreshing. And it is still Columbo, because the culprit is always rich or a celebrity, and normally hoist on their own petard. In a nice twist, one of the stories involves a policeman as the culprit, who actually takes Columbo to task over his methods, and criticises 'the duel' in which our dogged sleuth customarily engages. I thought that I was going to be far more critical, but actually it's a pretty good set of stories. There aren't any particularly neat 'gotcha' moments, but it is good and solid, especially if you like 'Columbo' in general. It was one of the all time classic detective series, after all.
'Pyramids' (1989) by Terry Pratchett
'Pyramids' is one of the best Discworld books, which is natural as it's only the eighth one that he published. There's a sense of vast potential lurking around in the freshness of 'Pyramids', which has so many jokes and so many great ideas that it really should be a great novel. As with Wodehouse, however, there's a slightness that limits it to merely being an excellent comedic novel. 'Pyramids' is one of the most original of the series, features almost no overlap with any other entry, and has camels with lots of mathematics jokes. No, not serious mathematics, so don't be scared, people of the Internet, nor alarmed. The sheer scale of the lampooning of Egyptian epics is incredible, as is the expansion of the methodology of the Assassins' Guild of Ankh-Morpock. A special note should be made here for the opposing lines of Trojan Horses in the extremely brief Ephebean/Tsortean conflict, which is utter genius and completely brilliant. How stupid can opposing forces be? Exactly this stupid.
'The Kobayashi Maru' (1989) by Julia Ecklar
One of the favourites of the 'Star Trek' novels, which takes its initial cue from the Kobayashi Maru incident seen in 'Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan', and then runs with it magnificently. This is really a set of five short stories, one of which is both a framing device for the four anecdotes told and a pretty compelling narrative in itself. For background, the Kobayashi Maru was a ship inside a command school simulation, a simulation which was impossible to win and therefore constituted a vital test of character for potential future captains. Kirk, of course, cheated and reprogrammed the scenario on his third attempt, which is the first of the four anecdotes told while he and a shuttle party are trapped in a crippled craft, deep in an extremely dangerous part of space. As they go about the business of survival and trying out schemes for attracting rescue, Kirk, Chekov, a badly wounded Sulu, and even Scotty relate the events surrounding their own performances in the legendary test to an incredulous doctor McCoy. They're all different, and reveal interesting backgrounds on the three supporting characters. Julia Ecklar was one half of the writing team known as LA Graf, who paid a lot of attention to developing Chekov, Sulu and Uhura. Chekov, in particular, became a very different character in their novels, entirely disconnected to how odd he was in the show and films. Very good, and it's nice to have even more reason to be impressed by Scotty. He's a legend for more than one reason, after all. In later years, the box ticking of the Star Trek novels became a severe problem, but here it's charming and feels organic.
O.
Sunday, 28 January 2018
Friday, 26 January 2018
They Call It Fruit Cake
Since the brown feeling of fatigue has struck, and there is plenty to worry about it in other events, this post can fill the rarely met baking remit of the Quirky Muffin. Yes, baking. It's not just a silly subtitle to the blog! So, without further ado, here's a new spin on the previously featured no added sugar chocolate cake. However, there is no chocolate this time, as it's a prototype fruit cake. Huzzah! (The first result was pretty awesome.)
Can you believe that January is almost over? Finally?
Experimental Fruit Cake
Ingredients:
2 medium apples
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup butter (I use Clover, which is half-butter)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour (and maybe a bit more to stiffen it up)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup set honey
Some chopped dried pears (8, perhaps)
Some raisins (roughly the same mass as the pears)
01 Peel, core and chop the apples finely. Put them in a bowl with the lemon juice, to stop the apple going too brown.
02 Preheat your oven to 140C-160C, and line a cake tin with greaseproof paper.
03 Sift and combine the soda, salt and flour.
04 Melt together the butter and honey.
05 Mix together the dry and melted ingredients.
06 Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Combine.
07 Finally, mix in the apple, pears and raisins.
08 Place the batter into your baking tin, make the necessary prayers and rituals, and then put it in the oven. My prototype was cooked after fifty-five minutes.
Can you believe that January is almost over? Finally?
Experimental Fruit Cake
Ingredients:
2 medium apples
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup butter (I use Clover, which is half-butter)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour (and maybe a bit more to stiffen it up)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup set honey
Some chopped dried pears (8, perhaps)
Some raisins (roughly the same mass as the pears)
01 Peel, core and chop the apples finely. Put them in a bowl with the lemon juice, to stop the apple going too brown.
02 Preheat your oven to 140C-160C, and line a cake tin with greaseproof paper.
03 Sift and combine the soda, salt and flour.
04 Melt together the butter and honey.
05 Mix together the dry and melted ingredients.
06 Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Combine.
07 Finally, mix in the apple, pears and raisins.
08 Place the batter into your baking tin, make the necessary prayers and rituals, and then put it in the oven. My prototype was cooked after fifty-five minutes.
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Television: 'The Man From UNCLE: The Giuoco Piano Affair' (1964) (Aired 1x07, Produced 1x10)
This is quietly excellent, and one of the rare examples of continuity in a 1960s television series. We have several recurring characters, from the previously produced episode 'The Quadripartite Affair', and a continuation of the story itself! They were aired several episodes apart, so it's even more rare. On this occasion, we have a recurrence of all three of the guest cast (Jill Ireland, Anne Francis, and John Van Dreelen), as well as director Richard Donner and writer Alan Caillou.
The economy of these early episodes is one of their main strengths, as is the movie-grade production. 'The Giuoco Piano Affair' is often better than a James Bond movie of the time for those reasons, and it's no surprise that Donner went on to make hugely popular movies. He's one of the lesser known cameo directors, but he appears here in a great two-part party sequence, where the producers Sam Rolf, Norman Felton and Joseph Calvelli also pop in in quirky fashion. It'a a party that bookends the whole episode, as it continues without Marion (Ireland), in her apartment, as she is hooked on a decoy mission with Ilya and Napoleon, and doesn't even notice that she has vanished for four days. It looks like a nice party. There is a chess board, so it can't have been all bad.
If we must have a plot summary, then let it be brief: Napoleon and Ilya talk Marion Raven into going with them and being kidnapped by the fugitives Gervaise Ravel and Harold Bufferton, so that the deviously dangerous duo can finally be captured. Using a mix of hideous schemes and double bluffs, and while being betrayed in unexpected ways, will the UNCLE agents reach their objective? Well, of course they do! Let's not ask questions which are too silly.
It's the usual fluffy nonsense, of course, but it is done very very well. The then-married McCallum and Ireland click more in this episode, not having to start from scratch this time, and Robert Vaughn continues to out-class practically everyone in the show apart from Leo G Carroll and Anne Francis. The man just has to stand there, bizarrely, and barely do anything. He even flashed a mirror stylishly. Maybe he was the king of cool, after all? His take town of the corrupt police lieutenant at the end is masterful. The big test will be when we get Vaughn and Shatner on the same side, in a few episodes time, and Nimoy too! Also in the plusses for this episode, we have John Van Dreelen giving a very cool performance of what could have been some very hacky lines indeed. He was definitely one of the great UNCLE villains.
And thus we stop. What a lovely season this is.
O.
The economy of these early episodes is one of their main strengths, as is the movie-grade production. 'The Giuoco Piano Affair' is often better than a James Bond movie of the time for those reasons, and it's no surprise that Donner went on to make hugely popular movies. He's one of the lesser known cameo directors, but he appears here in a great two-part party sequence, where the producers Sam Rolf, Norman Felton and Joseph Calvelli also pop in in quirky fashion. It'a a party that bookends the whole episode, as it continues without Marion (Ireland), in her apartment, as she is hooked on a decoy mission with Ilya and Napoleon, and doesn't even notice that she has vanished for four days. It looks like a nice party. There is a chess board, so it can't have been all bad.
If we must have a plot summary, then let it be brief: Napoleon and Ilya talk Marion Raven into going with them and being kidnapped by the fugitives Gervaise Ravel and Harold Bufferton, so that the deviously dangerous duo can finally be captured. Using a mix of hideous schemes and double bluffs, and while being betrayed in unexpected ways, will the UNCLE agents reach their objective? Well, of course they do! Let's not ask questions which are too silly.
It's the usual fluffy nonsense, of course, but it is done very very well. The then-married McCallum and Ireland click more in this episode, not having to start from scratch this time, and Robert Vaughn continues to out-class practically everyone in the show apart from Leo G Carroll and Anne Francis. The man just has to stand there, bizarrely, and barely do anything. He even flashed a mirror stylishly. Maybe he was the king of cool, after all? His take town of the corrupt police lieutenant at the end is masterful. The big test will be when we get Vaughn and Shatner on the same side, in a few episodes time, and Nimoy too! Also in the plusses for this episode, we have John Van Dreelen giving a very cool performance of what could have been some very hacky lines indeed. He was definitely one of the great UNCLE villains.
And thus we stop. What a lovely season this is.
O.
Sunday, 21 January 2018
Snooker
It's a daft game, and one I can frivolously watch now that studies have been put on hold until the next academic year. Yes, two men with sticks hit balls into other balls on a big green table, in the hopes that they will go into pockets and sometimes be replaced by the referee. It's also a fascinating game which plainly demonstrates the sheer futility of our puny human existences, and the importance of bow ties. You stick those coloured balls in the pockets, and then they reappear over and over, until they sudden disappear as if they were never there at all. Plinkety plonk.
The geometry of snooker is wonderful, and it is one of the most fundamentally Newtonian of sports. Force and counter-force, impulses and contacts, spin and drag, and the relentless threat of chaos theory combine to make something special. It used to be better before the players and referee were walking billboards, though, and it was less of a relentless quest for money. Perhaps I'm just being oversensitive to an imagined hollowing out of civilization by capital though? Back to snooker. Is there a current practitioner of the banana shot, I wonder?
One of the interesting things about snooker is that each frame has a finite number of points available within it, and if you get far enough ahead, then it becomes mathematically impossible for your opponent to win unless he forces you to foul and thus get awarded penalty points. This means there are two radically different extremes in games of snooker. There are spells of rapid sequential point scoring, which aren't all that interesting if they're not interrupted from time to time, and there are frames of intense tactical play, which can be indefinitely protracted and totally break or shift the path of destiny. Also, since only one contestant can play at a time, there is a deep character study in watching the passive one of the two deal with losing a frame without ever getting to the table. It's difficult to lose through no fault of your own, without ever having a chance to take part. While wearing a bow tie.
Snooker has suffered through numerous periods of intense domination by single players in the past, which have often deterred us here at the QM, but maybe it's worth another chance. It's wonderfully silly and profound at its best, when it's not a foregone conclusion who will win. This final of the (sponsor omitted) Masters is certainly shaping up to be a nail-bitingly close game. Let's see what happens.
Snooker truly is remarkably relaxing to watch. Let's all be snooker loopy.
O.
The geometry of snooker is wonderful, and it is one of the most fundamentally Newtonian of sports. Force and counter-force, impulses and contacts, spin and drag, and the relentless threat of chaos theory combine to make something special. It used to be better before the players and referee were walking billboards, though, and it was less of a relentless quest for money. Perhaps I'm just being oversensitive to an imagined hollowing out of civilization by capital though? Back to snooker. Is there a current practitioner of the banana shot, I wonder?
One of the interesting things about snooker is that each frame has a finite number of points available within it, and if you get far enough ahead, then it becomes mathematically impossible for your opponent to win unless he forces you to foul and thus get awarded penalty points. This means there are two radically different extremes in games of snooker. There are spells of rapid sequential point scoring, which aren't all that interesting if they're not interrupted from time to time, and there are frames of intense tactical play, which can be indefinitely protracted and totally break or shift the path of destiny. Also, since only one contestant can play at a time, there is a deep character study in watching the passive one of the two deal with losing a frame without ever getting to the table. It's difficult to lose through no fault of your own, without ever having a chance to take part. While wearing a bow tie.
Snooker has suffered through numerous periods of intense domination by single players in the past, which have often deterred us here at the QM, but maybe it's worth another chance. It's wonderfully silly and profound at its best, when it's not a foregone conclusion who will win. This final of the (sponsor omitted) Masters is certainly shaping up to be a nail-bitingly close game. Let's see what happens.
Snooker truly is remarkably relaxing to watch. Let's all be snooker loopy.
O.
Friday, 19 January 2018
Movie: 'Wonder Woman' (2017)
'Wonder Woman' is really two movies, just as that first season of 'Supergirl' was really two series smushed badly into one. It is intelligent and nuanced in one part, and exceedingly dumb and viciously violent in the other. Oh, if only we could break superhero movies and television series out of the mindless brawl blockbuster mold, we might get some really good works. 'Wonder Woman' suffers from an utterly ludicrous and dumb final fight that I would have chopped up and used for firewood, but what can we do? It was an extremely successful movie, which was hopefully due to the other aspects of the movie.
We're in an age of woman power, which is great, and 'Wonder Woman' definitely succeeds in bringing a female protagonist to the fore, but it also brings a male lead along for the ride, and both Diana of Themyscira's and Steve Trevor's stories work. Actually, in many ways, Trevor's story works better as it's not marred by the horrifically dumb final fight, but let's not linger on that any more. We don't have to be boring and negative; we can look at the positives. It's not so much a woman's movie as a fair partnership, which is in itself almost unprecedented.
So, 'Wonder Woman', what is it exactly? It's a war movie, with a nice dose of Greek mythology mixed in. It's also a movie about making peace, led by someone who really does inflict an awful lot of violence, which contradiction was often quite jarring. For every moment that Gal Gadot's lead character was inspiring, or delightfully giddy, while exploring the world outside of the secret sanctuary of Themyscira, there was another moment of violence that was just annoying and vexing. Chris Pine's Steve Trevor was much more the pacifist, which was interesting. There's a mixed message at the core of 'Wonder Woman', which reflects its dual nature.
To summarise the plot very briefly, Diana of Themyscira, a royal princess of the Amazons, rescues a Great War pilot and spy from his sinking plane off the coast of her island, prompting a quest to venture out into the war-torn world to try and eliminate Ares, the last of the Greek Gods, who has been fomenting much of the conflict ravaging the world. Fortunately, Trevor is a spy for the British, who puts together a team to help Diana get to the Front and then behind enemy lines, on a mission that coincidentally overlaps with hers.
As with the 'Supergirl' series, the problem here is a generational one, where lots of people are used to superheroes who aren't warriors, and who think lots of violent brawling is the opposite of heroics, and lots of more modern people have no idea that there used to be another way. That's where I am, and it is an issue. Will we move on from what we have right now one day?
'Wonder Woman' is one of the very best superhero of the last twelve years, since 'Iron Man II' and 'Superman Returns'. It still has lots of the problems you find in these movies, but it's definitely trying to be more when it's not being dragged into the black hole of bad finales. And it's got a wonderful woman in the lead.
O.
We're in an age of woman power, which is great, and 'Wonder Woman' definitely succeeds in bringing a female protagonist to the fore, but it also brings a male lead along for the ride, and both Diana of Themyscira's and Steve Trevor's stories work. Actually, in many ways, Trevor's story works better as it's not marred by the horrifically dumb final fight, but let's not linger on that any more. We don't have to be boring and negative; we can look at the positives. It's not so much a woman's movie as a fair partnership, which is in itself almost unprecedented.
So, 'Wonder Woman', what is it exactly? It's a war movie, with a nice dose of Greek mythology mixed in. It's also a movie about making peace, led by someone who really does inflict an awful lot of violence, which contradiction was often quite jarring. For every moment that Gal Gadot's lead character was inspiring, or delightfully giddy, while exploring the world outside of the secret sanctuary of Themyscira, there was another moment of violence that was just annoying and vexing. Chris Pine's Steve Trevor was much more the pacifist, which was interesting. There's a mixed message at the core of 'Wonder Woman', which reflects its dual nature.
To summarise the plot very briefly, Diana of Themyscira, a royal princess of the Amazons, rescues a Great War pilot and spy from his sinking plane off the coast of her island, prompting a quest to venture out into the war-torn world to try and eliminate Ares, the last of the Greek Gods, who has been fomenting much of the conflict ravaging the world. Fortunately, Trevor is a spy for the British, who puts together a team to help Diana get to the Front and then behind enemy lines, on a mission that coincidentally overlaps with hers.
As with the 'Supergirl' series, the problem here is a generational one, where lots of people are used to superheroes who aren't warriors, and who think lots of violent brawling is the opposite of heroics, and lots of more modern people have no idea that there used to be another way. That's where I am, and it is an issue. Will we move on from what we have right now one day?
'Wonder Woman' is one of the very best superhero of the last twelve years, since 'Iron Man II' and 'Superman Returns'. It still has lots of the problems you find in these movies, but it's definitely trying to be more when it's not being dragged into the black hole of bad finales. And it's got a wonderful woman in the lead.
O.
Wednesday, 17 January 2018
To Baker Street!
It's that time again, and it may be a long haul after three hours of teaching and an hour in the swimming pool. Only industrial grade matches might keep these open for very long. This may well degenerate into completely gibberish before the cabbages even begin to crow at midnight. It might already be too late...
It's very restful to watch people playing abstract games, for some reason. At this very moment, Zee and Tom from the Dice Tower are happily shuffling pieces around in an abstract tryout session, and it's very nice. It's just a shame that there is no-one here with whom to play abstract games, as there are lots of unusual ones to be explored. That is definitely a first world problem, isn't it? A lack of people with whom to play abstract games? The video is becoming hypnotic, and now there's something very nice called 'Katarenga', which is a very unusual chess variant. How... mesmerising...
No! It is not yet time to be brainwashed by the board game fanatics! That can be for tomorrow!
There are lots of things that could be written about right now, as the world is full of lunacy. There are crazy presidents, collapsing service companies of giant proportions, snow storms, long-running scandals and wibbly wobbly movements in the prophetic winds. Society is trying to reshape itself, but the world is fighting back. It's
still not as chaotic as last year or its predecessor, though.
The most exciting thing here at the Quirky Muffin, to be very different, is the advent of 'Basil of Baker Street', the classic children's novel. Will it be good? Will it be bad? Will it be extraordinarily rad? Yes, 'rad' is the word. We invented the colloquial time tunnel and are very proud of it! Let's be dated, but to a different time period than the one that seems most obvious. Cowabunga.
To Baker Street! After Terry Pratchett's 'Pyramids'! And more exclamation marks!
O.
It's very restful to watch people playing abstract games, for some reason. At this very moment, Zee and Tom from the Dice Tower are happily shuffling pieces around in an abstract tryout session, and it's very nice. It's just a shame that there is no-one here with whom to play abstract games, as there are lots of unusual ones to be explored. That is definitely a first world problem, isn't it? A lack of people with whom to play abstract games? The video is becoming hypnotic, and now there's something very nice called 'Katarenga', which is a very unusual chess variant. How... mesmerising...
No! It is not yet time to be brainwashed by the board game fanatics! That can be for tomorrow!
There are lots of things that could be written about right now, as the world is full of lunacy. There are crazy presidents, collapsing service companies of giant proportions, snow storms, long-running scandals and wibbly wobbly movements in the prophetic winds. Society is trying to reshape itself, but the world is fighting back. It's
still not as chaotic as last year or its predecessor, though.
The most exciting thing here at the Quirky Muffin, to be very different, is the advent of 'Basil of Baker Street', the classic children's novel. Will it be good? Will it be bad? Will it be extraordinarily rad? Yes, 'rad' is the word. We invented the colloquial time tunnel and are very proud of it! Let's be dated, but to a different time period than the one that seems most obvious. Cowabunga.
To Baker Street! After Terry Pratchett's 'Pyramids'! And more exclamation marks!
O.
Monday, 15 January 2018
Television: 'The Invisible Man' (1975-1976)
It's a series that got a short pilot movie, and ran for only twelve episodes before being cancelled. I have no idea why it was cancelled as it's a delight to watch now, a great concoction of humour, invisibility effects and a wonderful variety of plot types to explore. It's 'The Invisible Man', the television series featuring David McCallum from the 1970s, and if you haven't heard of it, then that's a shame.
While the pilot movie is sombre, and therefore appropriate to the original text despite being set in the 1970s (at least I assume the original text is sombre?), the twelve regular episodes are a delightful set of capers. They all positively revel in using as any practical effects as they can, and then making the best use of blue screen techniques to do everything else. It's amazing. You might get dizzy from counting the number of times the masks gets pulled off to reveal nothing, though.
The concept is this: Physicist Dr Daniel Westin, against the wishes of his computer genius wife, tests his invisibility generator on himself, and then ultimately ends up permanently invisible, and working doing missions for the corporation they work for, while trying to reverse the effect. As you begin to work through the episodes, you expect a rash of silly spy stories, but instead you get a raft of silly unpredictable nonsense! There's a reverse bank heist, a bid to stop a foreign premier's facelift being disrupted, an invasion of the corporation by a criminal mastermind, a false medium, a crooked judge (Harry Mudd!) ruling over a small town, and a corrupt prison scheme. There are still quite a few spy stories anyway, though.
It feels strange now, after corporations have in many ways become the villains in our global narrative, to have a company (The Klae Corporation) controlling and hiring out the Westins, for they work as a team, to any government entity that needs the help of the mysterious 'Klae Resource', but that's more of a problem in our minds than in the reality of the show. They go out of their way to explain that it's a family-owned business on many levels.
The main thing to take from 'The Invisible Man' is how goofy it is, and how much less time than usual that David McCallum must have spent on screen, as the leading man. He gets to do a lot of voiceover with the practical effects, and watch the lovely and talented Melinda Fee and stalwart Craig Stevens react to all effects, including with a hefty dose of mime-craft. It's delightful, and it's a shame that it didn't last longer.
'The Invisible Man' lives on. A great show, if you can handle the naivete of the past, and thrive on the comparative innocence of it all.
O.
While the pilot movie is sombre, and therefore appropriate to the original text despite being set in the 1970s (at least I assume the original text is sombre?), the twelve regular episodes are a delightful set of capers. They all positively revel in using as any practical effects as they can, and then making the best use of blue screen techniques to do everything else. It's amazing. You might get dizzy from counting the number of times the masks gets pulled off to reveal nothing, though.
The concept is this: Physicist Dr Daniel Westin, against the wishes of his computer genius wife, tests his invisibility generator on himself, and then ultimately ends up permanently invisible, and working doing missions for the corporation they work for, while trying to reverse the effect. As you begin to work through the episodes, you expect a rash of silly spy stories, but instead you get a raft of silly unpredictable nonsense! There's a reverse bank heist, a bid to stop a foreign premier's facelift being disrupted, an invasion of the corporation by a criminal mastermind, a false medium, a crooked judge (Harry Mudd!) ruling over a small town, and a corrupt prison scheme. There are still quite a few spy stories anyway, though.
It feels strange now, after corporations have in many ways become the villains in our global narrative, to have a company (The Klae Corporation) controlling and hiring out the Westins, for they work as a team, to any government entity that needs the help of the mysterious 'Klae Resource', but that's more of a problem in our minds than in the reality of the show. They go out of their way to explain that it's a family-owned business on many levels.
The main thing to take from 'The Invisible Man' is how goofy it is, and how much less time than usual that David McCallum must have spent on screen, as the leading man. He gets to do a lot of voiceover with the practical effects, and watch the lovely and talented Melinda Fee and stalwart Craig Stevens react to all effects, including with a hefty dose of mime-craft. It's delightful, and it's a shame that it didn't last longer.
'The Invisible Man' lives on. A great show, if you can handle the naivete of the past, and thrive on the comparative innocence of it all.
O.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)