tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49473591156076984822024-02-19T01:06:08.328-08:00KULTURE VULTUREThis blog is about writing, a writer's life, literature and the arts: painting, sculpture, music, dance, novels, poetry, film, movies, and entertainment.Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.comBlogger184125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-13526717056432330212013-01-24T18:03:00.000-08:002013-01-24T18:03:48.906-08:00SLICING THE BACON <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think Kevin Bacon is a fine actor. He becomes the character, goes all the way. So I recorded the pilot of his new TV series, "The Following," thinking it had to be damn good. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boy was I disappointed. Then I happened to read a big cover story in TV Guide (at the doctor's office) about "The Following." The magazine article talks about how bloody and brutal the show is, which is true, but they don't talk about the show's content. Or lack of content. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After all, isn't the point of drama to deliver some insight into human nature, some revelation that sheds light on the human condition? Shouldn't the drama be after some kind of truth? Shouldn't we learn something about ourselves? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apparently not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For me, the trouble with "The Following" is not so much the brutality, which is almost impossible to watch. How many slit throats and bodies covered in blood do you want to see? T</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">he problem is that all that bloodshed serves no purpose. Where is the drama? The insight? The revelation? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't mean a message. Samuel Goldwyn is supposed to have said, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union." (Today it would be a text or e-mail.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This new TV show almost leans toward meaning a couple of times. What is the price cops pay for dealing with all this horror? And how <em>do</em> they deal with it? The show starts to confront that question then shies away from it. Too heavy, I guess. We don't want to engage the intellect of the audience, do we? Why would we do that? We might strain their collective brain. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">For any kind of insight into cop life that I have seen, you have to go all the way back to early Joseph Wambaugh's novels like "The Choir Boys" and "The New Centurions." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Those were great funny true books, full of insight into what it's like to be a cop and what that does to human nature. I remember one scene where two cops are dealing with a fatal car accident. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">A motorist's head has been severed. One poor woman pulls up and asks what happened. A cop holds up the severed head and makes a smart-ass remark. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Brutal, but funny in a macabre way. The brutality serves a purpose in the veteran hands of former cop Wambaugh. But not so in this new TV show. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The only purpose for the over-kill (so to speak) of brutality in "The Following" seems to be to convince us that the bad guys are really bad. They are evil and they are dangerous. Duh. I guess we couldn't figure that out with fewer bodies. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">These TV producers must think we are awfully thick-headed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have we sunk to this? Do we have to see buckets of blood and rooms full of dead people to be entertained? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I sure hope not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I still admire Kevin Bacon's work as an actor. But I don't know if I can keep watching the show. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2013, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-61360185956484039492012-12-25T18:17:00.000-08:002013-01-05T08:53:18.124-08:00MAKE THE AUDIENCE GIVE A DAMN <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I tried to watch two movies today. Couldn't stand either one. They had the same problem: Failed to make the audience give a damn. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I think movies and stories are all about caring. The reader or audience has to give two hoots and a holler about the story and the characters, who in turn have to care about something that is hugely important to them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">They have to give enough of a damn about something or someone to take a great, huge, scary emotional or physical risk. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Otherwise we don't have a story. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Today's movies took two different approaches. "The Stratosphere Girl," is about a 15-year-old budding cartoonist who has a boring life. She needs to get away, and when I watched it, so did I. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is very hard to show a character who is bored without boring the audience to tears. I lasted about 10 minutes. I probably didn't get to the good part, if there was one. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The other movie, "Sleepless Night," is a French thriller that plunges us into action right away. Two guys are pulling an armed robbery. Guns. Speed. Chase. Shoot-out. Bang-bang. A knife. Slice, cut, blood. Foot chase. Bag of cocaine. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">You get the idea. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">But who cares? Not me. These two guys don't seem to care about anything except the bag of cocaine, which has no emotional resonance for me. For one thing, it is a big fat cliche. (The filmmakers needed a MacGuffin, and that was easy, I guess.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Later, they show one of these thugs dealing with his teenage son, whom he loves very much. That is supposed to make us care. But it does not. We have already seen him shooting at people. So I am not going to care about him. It's too late. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I look back at my list of favorite movies and realize they all start with the main characters caring about something very much. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">"The Godfather" starts with the wedding scene. The old man grants favors on the day his daughter gets married. He has to. He cares about the Sicilian tradition, and about his daughter, and his god-son, and so on. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">We see his power, and we also see his sense of honor, and his caring. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">"Silence of the Lambs" starts with Clarice Starling working out on the FBI obstacle course. She wants to become an agent in the worst possible way. She cares about her work, and about stopping the killer, "Buffalo Bill." She will take any chance, any risk, to get the job done. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Her caring makes us care about her. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">When you write a story, show that your characters give a damn about something that is so important to them that they will take a huge risk for it. It can be an emotional or physical risk, or both. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">You have to care about it, and so do your characters. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Otherwise, we won't give two hoots and a pile of horse dung. If they don't care, we won't care. And there goes your story, and quite possibly your career. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-9824044261044675312012-12-22T16:43:00.000-08:002012-12-28T16:55:22.715-08:00THROW THE LONG BALL <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For years I tried to give my novel writing students, both in private workshops and at various colleges, this advice: Don't seek success by imitating some famous writer you admire. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">We already have a Dean Koontz, an Elmore Leonard, a Lee Child, a John Grisham. And in most cases one is enough, sometimes more than enough. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Not that you can't learn from them. You can. But you should also learn from the classics, the great literature of the past. I was talking to my friend Harry today, and he said that too many young writers today have not learned from Sophocles and the ancient Greeks, from Shakespeare, Faulkner, Hemingway, or Melville. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It is true. Learn from the masters, but don't try to <em>become</em> them. They did what they did better than anyone. You are not likely to do it better. We don't need another "Short Life Of Francis Macomber" or another "Hamlet." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But what you can do better than anyone is be yourself. Use your own life and experience as material. Faulkner found enough material in Oxford, Mississippi, to become one of the world's great writers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">If you want to be successful, dig deeply into your soul and your psyche and your experience, and don't be afraid to make a fool of yourself. I had an actor friend who said that was the most important thing. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Be vulnerable. Don't try to be strong and tough and famous like someone you admire. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Here is a great little story about how a writer-director-actor named Mark Duplass and his brother made a mistake trying to make a movie like "Rocky": </span><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/12/09/mark-duplass-on-why-his-sports-movie-was-a-big-mistake.html">http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/12/09/mark-duplass-on-why-his-sports-movie-was-a-big-mistake.html</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They found success by making a short film about one of them trying to perfect the outgoing message on his cell phone's voice mail. It cost $3 to make and launched their careers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Trying to imitate John Grisham or Sylvester Stallone, I think, is a way to avoid taking chances, and that is not the way to succeed. You have to strike out on your own, find your own material, your own themes, your own stories, and your own voice. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Being a new quarterback calling your own plays may scare the hell out of you, but that is OK. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Sometimes, you gotta throw the long ball, to continue the football metaphor. Even if you're a rookie. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-42933876975433717082012-09-29T17:49:00.000-07:002012-10-07T01:12:10.436-07:00MORE FICTION B.S. <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A new review, of a book I just tried to read: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">THE NERUDA
CASE – by Roberto Ampuero </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">(2012, Riverhead Books, Penguin Group) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">9/29/2012 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">I saw this
recommended somewhere and tried to read it. But I found it very confusing. At
the same time, I started rereading “Seabiscuit” by Laura Hillenbrand and her
writing is a thousand times better, more engaging and clearer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">I can’t
read this Ampuero stuff. I can’t tell where we are or what is going on. I found
the sentences convoluted and confusing from the get-go. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The
beginning: </span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">“What
could be bothering the partners of Almagro, Ruggierio & Associates, who had
asked him to appear at their headquarters in such a hurry?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">What? Why
not just say they called him and they were on the rag? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Even the
names are boring. The sentence is long and wordy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">I managed
to wade through the first chapter, but then I got lost again. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Slow,
boring and complicated. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Not my
kind of stuff. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Where did
this guy learn to write, in a law firm? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">His
purpose seems to be to obfuscate. To bore. To cloud the mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">He's a typical acadmeic. Required to publish, whether his work is any good or not. You might
know he teaches at a university and is Chile’s ambassador to
Mexico. This writing is sad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
-- Roger </span><br />
<br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-44770369814382016412012-09-18T09:52:00.001-07:002012-10-13T00:11:34.566-07:00GOOD THRILLERS? REALLY? <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love a good thriller. I can't think of one, off hand, but I do love the <em>idea</em> of one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">When I was young, I read one whole Robert Ludlum book, a mechanistic thriller with lots of twists and turns and gut wrenching action. When I got to the end--I stayed up all night to finish it--I was exhausted, wrung out, sweaty and tired in a moral and emotional sense. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then I found out that I could get the same effect, from another one of Ludlum's novels, by reading the first chapter, then skipping ahead to read one anywhere in the middle, and then reading the last chapter. And guess what. That took a helluva lot less time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I find most "thrillers" unbearably boring. Lee Child, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, etcetera, etcetera. Most are a big fat snore, to me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Here are my notes about Lee Child's novel "Persuader," published in 2003. </span><br />
<br />
<u><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Sunday, July 04, 2010 <o:p></o:p></span></u><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The first chapter isn’t bad, a fairly exciting
action scene, although it doesn’t make complete sense. The last line of Chapter
One is startling and turns the story on its head. It’s great, in a way. The
second chapter explains why Jack Reacher was there, and then it gets way too
complicated and repetitious for me. A paragraph or two of back-story would
suffice. The narrative breaks two of the rules I tell my students: Don’t repeat, and don’t explain. The worst thing you can do is go through the planning of an
action with the reader and then go through the action itself. The only time
that works is when the action goes horribly wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Here, the novel goes through the action and then
through an endless explanation in flashback. It is so very, very boring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I don’t care about any of this, not the characters,
not the story, not the set-up, not the crime family, not the long-lost dead
guy. Jack Reacher is a big fat cliché: ex-Army, highly trained with guns, other weapons, blah-blah-blah. Who cares?
I ran out of gas on Page 38. I don’t know why anyone would read any farther.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> I tried to go back and finish Ch. 2. I
sped-read it and when I finally staggered to the end of the chapter I was exhausted. Done. No
more for me. I just didn’t care. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The writer’s main job is to make the reader care<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>about what is going on, about the
characters and the story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The only person I could come close to caring about
in this novel was the kid who was “kidnapped” and he was barely there. Just a few sentences, as I recall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">##
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p>I have this friend Jack, who is a Renaissance man: engineer, avid reader, a graduate of CalTech. A man of many moving parts. I often use him as a literary scout and often read whatever he recommends. </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p>So I called him on the phone to talk about Lee Child and the tough-guy hero Jack Reacher. My question: Why would anyone <u>enjoy</u> this crap? </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<u><span style="font-family: Verdana;">JACK</span></u><span style="font-family: Verdana;">: It's all psychological. Some people need to feel powerful and even omnipotent,
and these narratives feed that need. Like James Bond. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>RA: The second chapter does show that the idiot
Jack Reacher is in control. But that does not interest me. I’m more interested in
what happens when you let go, when you lose control. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Back to my own notes: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Another insight: M<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">ediocre
writers attract mediocre readers. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> Escapist readers just want to get away from their humdrum lives</span>. That explains why mediocre writers, like Lee
Child, attract a lot of readers, who must have boring jobs and boring families and live boring lives. They are probably grinding along in their routines and feel just barely alive. Jack Reacher and his "adventures" must bring them to life. Sort of. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Child writes in a familiar genre: macho-psycho-stupid fantasy fiction. I don’t care about all that
shoot-em-up stuff. Boom-boom, bang-bang, you’re all dead. Who the hell cares? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> But a lot of people do care. I don't begrudge them their escape. But I do wish they liked more depth, more character development, and better writing. Then they might like my stuff. At least that's what I tell myself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-42573902573221811582012-09-03T21:00:00.000-07:002012-09-03T21:00:35.255-07:00 A SKINNIER ME <span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been trying to lose weight, and winning the battle of the bulge. <span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you know if you've been following this blog. </span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I started out at 174 lbs on March 28. Today I cracked 160. Am at 159 1/2. So far, so good. Started with a 44-inch waist and am at 40" today, around the middle, the largest part. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The secret is simple: calories. It doesn't matter what you eat, it's how many calories. Twice in the last week, I've had ice cream, probably the most caloric food you can eat. I drink an occasional beer. I had two cookies the other day. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">But I don't eat huge plates of food that I don't need. I don't eat ten cookies in one day or eat a quart of ice cream in one sitting. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I try to stay under my baseline, which is 2,000 calories a day. (See my earlier posts.) And I stay active, working out every other day, most of the time -- 30 minutes cardio plus lifting weights. Moderately. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I don't kill myself at working out, and I don't starve myself. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">But it's really simple. I didn't read any books, and I didn't join any support groups. I counted calories for a few days and learned how to eat, and how not to eat. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I try to eat foods that are low in fat and low in calories. I cut way down on the olive oil. I almost never eat butter. I eat Go Lean cereal with non-fat milk. I boil my eggs rather than fry them. I eat lean meat, soups, dry toast. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I find all this very satisfying. I often skip the ice cream or other desert. It's more important to me to lose weight. I eat as much as I need, not as much as I want. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Maybe this wouldn't work for everyone, but it sure is working for me. </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-2391878488807044472012-08-10T22:39:00.001-07:002012-09-11T21:50:16.624-07:00THE NEW BOURNE B.S.<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I saw the new Jason Bourne movie, "The Bourne Legacy," on its opening day, Friday, Aug. 10, and I was sorry. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">What a load of hokum. All razzle-dazzle with no real story, no character development, no real movie. It's as if they spliced a lot of action sequences together with transition scenes that don't make any sense. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Some of the action sequences seem great until you think about them. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I kept thinking to myself, over and over, Why are the characters doing this? What does this mean? And, most often, Huh? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Why is our hero in the Alaska wilderness? It's a training area. Is this a training exercise? No, that would make too much sense. Wait, he's not supposed to be there. But then why is he there? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The black ops agency is killing its own people? Why is that? It makes absolutely no sense. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">How does our hero find the hot scientist babe? If the bad guys are there to kill her, why don't they just go ahead and kill her? Why try to fool her first? Or are they really trying to fool the audience? Ya think? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our hero and the hot babe are on the run--a mad, scrambling, crazy run--away from the government bad guys (the government is always the enemy in these movies, for some reason) and they just happen to have a laptop computer with them? Huh? WTF? How did that happen? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">(This movie treats the audience like morons, in the same way the black ops agency treats its field agents like morons.) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Wait, our hero had a low IQ, and now he's brilliant? How in hell does that work? Where do we get that pill? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">What is all this hokum about a virus and, I guess, genetic engineering? The movie has some 'splainin' to do. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Most of it is confusing, silly and pointless. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I did like a few scenes, and I do like going to the movies. But Lord, this is a load of crap. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Check your brain at the door. And don't ask too many questions. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">These Bourne movies have gotten worse each time. The first one is pretty good, one of my favorite action films. Then they go downhill. Why is that? I think these movies are made to be stupid, for a younger and dumber audience. For an audience that is incapable of critical thinking. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In Hollywood, big dollars don't go with high IQs. The big studios, which have big bucks to invest in a blockbuster movie, don't care about intelligence or quality. They care about one thing: money. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So the movies get bigger and dumber. And so do the audiences. Hooray.</span> <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Welcome to the Big Brainless Blockbuster. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-16760771696468929662012-08-07T11:35:00.000-07:002012-08-09T01:38:09.329-07:00'PURPLE CANE ROAD' LOSES ME<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm about three quarters of the way through James Lee Burke's well written and mostly entertaining novel "Purple Cane Road." But on Page 288, it's losing me. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has gotten too complicated, and it's focusing on things I no longer care about. It's hard to spend so much time with low-lifes--criminals, psychopaths, pimps, hookers, hit-men, corrupt cops. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The main character, Dave Robicheaux, is focused too much on the past. I don't care who killed his mother. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Burke has not managed to interest me in that through-line. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Dave feels sorry for himself. Oh, poor me, my mother was a cleaning woman for hookers, and my father was a drunk who liked to fight in bars. OK, so Dave was born poor white trash. We all have our problems, get over it. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">As the famous hard-boiled novelist Mickey Spillane said, "No one ever read a novel to get to the middle." But what pulls you along, usually, are dramatic questions (Did Hamlet's uncle kill his father? What is Hamlet going to do about it?) and concern for the fate of the character. (How will this affect Hamlet's life?) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In "Purple Cane Road," the dramatic questions I see are four: Will Letty Labiche be executed by the state for killing her molester? Will Dave find out who killed his mother and why? Is the sexy female attorney general corrupt? Will Dave's wife's past destroy their marriage? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Frankly, at this point, I don't care about any of that. Maybe I should, but I don't. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Maybe there are too many story questions. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Maybe these story questions are not momentous enough. Maybe they are not matters of life and death. Maybe not vital to Dave's future. I don't know. Anyway, I am giving up, at least for now. Still, the writing is great. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-7803972786676793612012-08-01T10:29:00.000-07:002012-08-07T11:45:14.525-07:00'PURPLE CANE ROAD' - YES<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have been re-reading James Lee Burke's novel "Purple Cane Road" and I do love it. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">My buddy Adam asked me why I like it so much. Here is my answer: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I love "Purple Cane Road" for everything: mostly the incredible richness and
complexity of it. It would take me years to write a novel like that, with
several through-lines (which seem obscure at times); with so many weird, quirky,
unforgettable characters; with a single narrative voice, but with multiple
points of view, including first, third and omniscient, all in one unified story;
lush descriptions of a fascinating place; wild, driven, original action scenes;
ambiguous concepts of good and evil. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Whew. It is a big mother of a crime novel. If you like to get lost in a novel and live in that world, this will do it,
at least for me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
-- Roger </div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
</span>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-25767476942103311292012-07-30T08:37:00.000-07:002012-07-30T08:55:23.577-07:00'BLADE RUNNER' - FOREVER<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I watched "Blade Runner" again last night, for the four-hundredth time. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I love this movie; it’s on
my list of all-time greats. I always get completely caught up in the experience of it, the look, the feel, the music, the story, the unforgettable characters. It transports me completely. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I love the ‘40s film noir atmosphere combined with the
futuristic man-has-spoiled-the-planet setting; the way the story proceeds
from clue to clue; the way the replicants’ actions mirror the humans’ actions (the replicants follow clues, too; when Deckard has trouble with his right hand, so does Roy the replicant);
and the theme, that the humanoid machines are “more human than human.” They are more human than many of the humans in the movie. And many in real life. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I love this movie partly because it is about something. Not having a theme is the great failing of most mystery/thrillers, whether movies or books. For example, the latest Oliver Stone movie "Savages" ultimately fails as a story because it is not about anything. It's only purpose is to keep jacking up the audience until the final credits roll. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The classic mainstream thrillers "Presumed Innocent" and "Gorky Park" are unsatisfying because they lack themes. So are most mysteries and thrillers. Weirdly enough, the Stieg Larsson thrillers are about something: neo-Nazis and the denigration of women. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">"Blade Runner" is from a novel by Philip K. Dick, "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep." So it is a well-worked-out story and not just a quickie script hacked out in Hollywood. Philip K. Dick had literary and artistic ambitions and sensibilities, which usually produce better stories than those with merely commercial intentions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Last night, I watched the theatrical version, which I prefer to all the other cuts. I will watch the so-called director's cut and the final cut again and again, no doubt. (I bought them all, in a boxed set through Amazon, on sale, a good deal.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Here are ten (or eleven) more movies that I love: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<ol style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">THE GODFATHER <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">L.A. CONFIDENTIAL <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">ONE-EYED JACKS <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">SILENCE OF THE LAMBS </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">ALIEN <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">BULLITT <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">FATAL ATTRACTION <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">PULP FICTION <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">THE
BOURNE IDENTITY <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">THE
TERMINATOR (1 & 2) <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love these movies. They are almost as much fun as movies were when I was a kid. I'm always looking to get back to that experience of being transported to a world that is more exciting and more satisfying than than the one in which we all live. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span></div>
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-53436244645199675122012-07-29T08:54:00.000-07:002012-07-31T12:10:19.010-07:00BRUCE STRINGBEAN? REALLY?<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm reading the very long profile of Bruce Stringbean in
The New Yorker. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ooops. Er, Bruce Springsteen. </span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I have no clue as to why Bruce is so popular. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He seems like an overgrown Jersey street kid, and his music seems a bit brainless to me. I'm suspicious of anyone who is that
popular. Like most bestsellers, most pop music is disposable junk, it seems to me. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">"Born In The USA" makes me sing "Bored in the USA." Sure, the lyrics are the opposite of a cheer for the USA. I find that mildly interesting. A lot of his music has a driving beat that is enough to give you a headache, and the sound seems thin and tinny to me. I find it hard to like. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Not being all that familiar with his music, today I watched a video on YouTube: </span><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129kuDCQtHs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129kuDCQtHs</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I still don't get his popularity. Bruce seems like </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the kind of guy you'd meet in a bar on Saturday night, and he'd try to steal your girl and want to get in a fight. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I like a lot of people better: Fiona Apple, Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, Irma
Thomas, Eminem, The Eagles, Amy Winehouse, Guns N Roses, Nina Simone, Roy
Orbison. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could go on.</span> <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Am I missing something here?</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If so, what? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why is Bruce a big deal? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Maybe it is all a matter of taste. And as the old saying goes, there is no arguing with taste. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-- Roger </span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-67108133305542531762012-07-28T10:49:00.001-07:002012-07-30T14:27:23.883-07:00OLYMPIC SNORE<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I tried to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on Friday, July 27, 2012. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What a snore. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">What were they thinking? Phony green hills covered with sod. Hundreds of people milling around. Stupid dialogue. What was the point? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The show seemed to depict the history of the British Isles. I quit during the Industrial Revolution. Giant chimneys spouting what appeared to be life-killing smoke. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The show had nothing to do with athletics or competition. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It was the least creative, most boring spectacle I have ever seen. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">An Olympic snore. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">If their goal was to put people to sleep and get people to tune out, it worked. I switched to baseball and then watched a movie and then went to sleep. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-59981012371720422572012-07-11T12:03:00.001-07:002012-07-11T12:11:41.176-07:00'SAVAGES' -- SHALLOW B.S.<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I went to a theater last Saturday to see the new Oliver Stone movie "Savages." </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">God knows why. I had a free ticket and a buddy wanted to go. And I got caught up in the hype and it sounded like fun. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I hadn't been to a theater in a long time, maybe two years. It was a pleasure to see the big screen. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But the sole purpose of the movie seemed to be to jack up the audience and keep us on the edge of our seats. The young people in the audience laughed and cheered in all the right places. Oliver Stone seems to know these people. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But as they were cheering, I was thinking, what a load of crap. To me, any piece of writing or film making--any storytelling--should be after some kind of truth about life or the world or some insight into the human condition. "Savages" doesn't give a damn about truth or the human condition. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Here are my notes, written after I got home: </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
"SAVAGES" -- July 07, 2012 </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Razzle-dazzle BS. Looks
good, but shallow and superficial. I didn't believe most of the characters. I
sure didn't believe the blonde girl. Sure, she loves both these guys. Yeah,
right. Taylor Kitsch is excellent, in spite of his schmaltzy name. The story
seems designed to jack up the audience rather than to reveal anything about
human nature. No insight here. Cheap storytelling. Nice setting. Overall: C
plus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">## (More notes written later:) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Obviously from a really
crappy novel. It is too bad that this is what the culture rewards. As Ezra Pound once wrote, <span style="mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">“In the end the age was handed / the sort of
shit that it demanded.” </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This movie has way more dazzle than depth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">When they do go for depth,
it’s cheap pop psychology: These guys love each other more than they love you,
that’s why they can share you. Yeah, right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">People judge these movies
on <em>how well</em> they jack up the audience, not on <em>whether</em> they jack
up the audience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The blonde is screwing
both guys, right, but why? To excite the audience, not because it’s something
the character would do. She’s a poor little rich girl who is financially
spoiled and emotionally deprived, so her natural inclination is to place
herself in an even more insecure emotional situation? Right. Sure. What a load
of crap. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">And her name is ”O,” like
orgasm, which stands for Ophelia. What crap. Again, just to jack up the audience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The opening scene is “O”
screwing the tough guy. Yeah, right. Then the other guy comes home and she does
him, too, right? Oh, isn’t that the way we all want to live, or fantasize that other people live?
No, we don’t. I don't. Looks like emotional chaos to me. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This is typical of a
certain kind of mystery/thriller, where the object is to goose the audience
till they are silly. This crap makes a lot of money, so there are dozens, even
hundreds, of cheap writers competing with each other, not to see who can write
the best novel, but to see who can jack up the audience with more cheap
thrills. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">These novels don’t mean a
thing. It’s like Flannery O'Connor said, “There's many a bestseller that could
have been prevented by a good teacher.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="DefinitionTerm" style="margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This one should have
been prevented. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">However, there is lots of good acting here.
Benicia del Toro is great, as usual. Too bad all that talent is used just to jack up the audience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I didn’t believe most of the characters, including Salma Hayek, although her acting is good. There is just not much character there. Nor did I believe John Travolta. Such
shallow, clichéd characters are not engaging. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I am so-o-o-o-o
tired of former Navy SEALs as tough guys. They are the standard macho muscle heads now,
in schlock movies and pulp novels. Or some other special ops. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Yargh.
Please, God, no more Navy SEALs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p>-- Roger </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-2738069391785188702012-06-14T10:47:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:25:13.656-07:00A GLUT OF STORIES<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you may know, I am a writer, and for many years I tried to make a living writing novels. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Came close, but no cigar. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Oh, well. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">My theory was that if you wrote well enough, and put out engaging and meaningful stories, you might have a chance. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But now I see a society overwhelmed with stories, a popular culture that has a glut of narrative. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Today, the LA Times has a section called "The Envelope" which is full of stories and ads about TV dramas. Lordy, there are a million of them, or so it seems. I counted ads for 24 dramatic TV series. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">And that doesn't count the 300-400 movies that come out every year, plus thousands of novels and nonfiction books. Some 180,000 books are published in the USA annually, according to some estimates. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">How does a writer compete in this environment? It's like prescribing drugs to a society that is already over-medicated. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Here, folks, is yet another story. Why should anyone care? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Because mine has more depth and better writing? Do people honestly give a big hairy rat's derriere? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I wonder. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I used to believe that if you wrote well enough, you could float the pages out the window, and they would find an audience. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Ha! It is a lot more complicated than that. It involves agents and editors and corporate conglomerates. Most of what is published, at least in fiction, seems less than stellar. How do you compete against bestselling literary junk food? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I don't know, but I will keep at it--because this is what I seem wired to do, and this is what I want to do--and we shall see what happens. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">My philosophy has always been simple: Go after what you want in life. If you don't, you know you aren't going to get it. If you do, at least you have a fighting chance. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Wish me luck. I will surely need it. Big time. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Meanwhile, I have to say I do love it. Win or lose. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">- Roger </span><br />
<br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-69986412182290085092012-06-12T19:20:00.003-07:002012-07-28T14:01:00.959-07:00JOURNALISTIC CRAP<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was appalled the other day to read this opening line of an article in the June 3, 2012, issue of Los Angeles Times Magazine: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The world is obsessed with Blake Lively." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Really? Who the hell is Blake Lively? I never heard of it or him or her. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The article's headline is "Blake Lively." Then the teaser lines say she is "at the center of Oliver Stone's crime thriller <em>Savages</em>." I never heard of it either. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hate this kind of journalistic crap. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How are we supposed to believe anything in this article? Why would anyone read further? I didn't, and I won't. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I tried to find an e-mail address for the bylined writer, Leslie Gornstein, but couldn't find one. I was going to gently and politely point out that she is a purveyor of journalistic bullsh**. Of course, it could be that her editor added that stupid line. Such things happen. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can see why some people have lost respect for newspapers and magazines. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have to point out that the news pages of the LA Times are enormously more respectable than those of this cheesy magazine. And there are still great newspapers and magazines out there. I rely on The New Yorker and The New York Times. The latter's weekly magazine is good, I think. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The problem is that a lot of people have no quick and easy guide to what is junk journalism and what is reliable. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-- Roger </span><br />
<br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-83683243185511292812012-06-07T08:11:00.000-07:002012-06-07T08:16:04.759-07:00CRAP RULES<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good article about mediocrity, which is everywhere in the good old USA:</span> <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-ca-puttnams-law-20120603,0,672709.story#tugs_story_display">http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-ca-puttnams-law-20120603,0,672709.story#tugs_story_display</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">People are afraid to be too creative, too original, too inventive, at least in culture and the arts. It's OK to be bad, if you are bad like everyone else. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same thing is true in popular and not-so-popular literature. Most fiction in the USA today is unbearable crap. But few venture outside the norms. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This is true of all kinds of fiction, from so-called literary fiction, which is not usually very literary at all, to the most blatant of genres, mystery fiction. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The famous mystery writer Raymond Chandler said, toward the end of his career, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">“As
I look back on my own stories it would be absurd if I did not wish they had
been better. But if they had been much better they would not have been
published.”</span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maybe this also accounts for the preponderance of crap in the art world. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-91511483188729880002012-06-05T15:41:00.002-07:002012-06-06T15:13:42.478-07:00WORST BOSS EVER<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I was thinking today about the worst boss I ever had. He was controlling, no trust, no confidence in anyone but himself. No respect for anyone. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">He was the opposite of a good manager. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The famous manager and management guru Jack Welch famously said that being a manager is like being a gardener. Your job is to water the flowers and get rid of the weeds. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">My old boss, Brian, was just the opposite. He treated everyone like weeds. He treated everyone like dirt. He didn't trust anyone. Everyone who worked there was physically sick. All 15 people separately and individually woke up at 4:00 in the morning with diarrhea. When it started to happen to me, I quit. Told him to go make whoopee with himself, only not in those words. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">A terrible gardener. A black thumb. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I hope he is broke and poor and miserable somewhere. Maybe even in jail. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. </span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I don't know if other people wish their bad bosses would burn in hell. I sure do. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">-- Roger </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-70241997139772883772012-05-30T18:06:00.000-07:002012-05-30T18:06:25.043-07:00NO TO GRANOLA BARS - YES TO BEER<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blew it today. Caught out running errands and got way, way, way too hungry, all of a sudden, like I do. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I ate a two Nature Valley granola bars. Big mistake. They only hold me about 20 minutes. Too high in carbohydrates and low in protein. And those little bucker-muckers loaded me up with 380 calories! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So then, cuz I had to have more protein, I drank a Bolthouse Farms protein shake. Wow, that was great, tasty and filling, and I am still full, two and a half hours later. Yes! That's what I'm talkin' about. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So it makes a big diff what you slug down yo mouth, children. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So far, I've gobbled up 1840 calories, and it's only 5:30 p.m. (or 1730 hrs), but that total would be 1460 calories without those stupid granola bars. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let that be a lesson to you, Lard Belly. Yessir. (I salute.) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Now there is almost no way to lose weight today. I will need to chomp something around 7:00 p.m. Oh, well. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The struggle goes on. Maybe I'll have a beer. Hump it. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-- Roger </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-74905246273360502012012-05-30T09:09:00.002-07:002012-05-30T10:09:47.160-07:00THE SKINNY ON THE SKINNY<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some foods make me hungry. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Carbs, for example. If I eat a whole-wheat flour tortilla, with hummus and hot sauce--I scarfed up two last night--in about half an hour I get hungry for another one. Carbs beget carbs. If I wait a little bit longer, I go starving crazy out of my mind. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hell, that's 250 calories. I want it to last two and a half hours. But it doesn't. Why is that? Who the hell knows? Has something to do with food chemistry, I think. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Same thing is true of sweets. If I start eating chocolate covered almonds, pretty soon I am in there on my hands and knees, like a beggar or a supplicant, grubbing away, like a man in love. It's embarrassing. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But this morning at 6:00 a.m. (0600) I ate one tomato, about 35 calories, and I did not get hungry for an hour and a half. That is a good ratio of time to calories consumed. At that rate, I can win this battle of the bulge. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I got hungry, about 7:30 a.m. (0730, if you prefer), I decided to splurge on calories and eat a banana with peanut butter. Yum. But oh is that fat city, in both ways: 300 calories. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(I estimate calories, using a book or counter. Here is one: </span><br />
<a href="http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-bananas-i9040"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-bananas-i9040</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are lots of these on the Web.) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is now 8:45 or 0845, and I've gobbled up 350 calories or so. That is probably a little higher than I want, so I'll see if I can slow down the calorie intake. Am drinking green tea with no sugar, and it tastes great, thank the Lard (sic). So that is workin' for me. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's see how the day goes. Worked out yesterday, 40 minutes, level "B." Pretty vigorous, but not exhaustive. Will try to move around a lot today, keep the flab moving. Flab in motion tends to stay in motion. Ha! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Am thinking about buying a get-skinny book. Never done that before. I'll let you know. "The Mayo Clinic Diet" looks good online. Hmmm. Maybe. (Mayo does not stand for Mayonnaise, BTW.) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">When I started this, on March 28, I weighed 174 at my doctors office. Lost five tons ... ooops, sorry, five pounds ... in ten days, but now am holding at 170. Not so good. My goal: 155. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">More later, as the saga of the sag continues. Wish me luck. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-- Fat Roger, a.k.a. Lard Belly </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-61759436629119706432012-05-28T10:10:00.002-07:002012-05-28T22:31:55.774-07:00HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT: THE FAT AND THIN OF ITThe most popular books in the USA are two kinds: cook books and weight-loss books. <br />
<br />
Ironic, huh? We fatten up and then try to slim down. <br />
<br />
Turns out that losing weight is the simplest thing in the world. Calories. That is all it is. <br />
<br />
My baseline is 2,000 calories a day. If I consume less, I lose weight. If I consume more, I get fat. <br />
<br />
Simple. Here is a good way to figure yours: <br />
<a href="http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm">http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm</a><br />
<br />
I can break it down by the hour. If I eat 100 calories an hour, for 16 waking hours, I lose weight. If I eat 200 calories an hour, for ten hours, I maintain my current weight. If I consume 3,000 calories a day, as I used to, I go chow-chow, baby, chub-chub, and become a bigger lard-belly. <br />
<br />
For me, the best thing is to aim for about 150 calories an hour, for 12 hours. I tend not to get so hungry at night. <br />
<br />
I need to keep something in my belly, otherwise I get too hungry and overeat. Some foods are higher in fiber, protein and healthy fat than others. Those work the best: Try Kashi Go Lean cereal with non-fat milk. Low-fat cheese. Whole wheat bread and tortillas. Tacos not burritos. Salads of course, with non-fat dressing. Fruits and veggies. Lean meat: chicken, fish, low-fat beef. <br />
<br />
Foods to avoid: Ice cream is the worst. It never fills you up and it makes you want more and more. Caloric? Don't ask. Chips are bad. So are whole milk and cheese. <br />
<br />
A little beer is OK. It's non-fat. No, really. It ranges from 150 to 200 calories per 12 oz. That isn't bad, if you don't eat cheeseburgers and fries along with it. <br />
<br />
Good luck. People like Dr. Horse's Butt Phil on TV make millions by suckering people into buying their weight-loss books. Don't do it. Just count those calories. Keep it simple. And low-cal. You will lose weight. I guarantee it. It's up to you, not Dr. Phil. <br />
<br />
Of course, if you exercise at all, you are ahead of the game. <br />
<br />
-- Roger <br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-36778807195585688882012-05-24T09:06:00.000-07:002012-05-24T09:06:30.886-07:00SLASH? REALLY?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I noticed in the L.A. Times today -- </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-slash-20120524,0,5498162.story">http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-slash-20120524,0,5498162.story</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> -- a rock star who calls himself Slash. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Really? Slash? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So, in honor of that, I am going to add another name to my roster. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">What shall I call myself? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Dash? Crash? Flash? Splash? How about Flush? As in Royal Flush? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">OK, from now on, just call me Flush. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Just don't push the handle. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">a.k.a. Flush, a.k.a. Royal Flush, a.k.a. Eternal Zen Master </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-11309258590806428852012-05-19T20:50:00.002-07:002012-05-19T20:53:39.163-07:00WHERE IS THE STORY?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm rewriting an old unfinished novel called THE PAINTED SUN. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I usually do, when I start a novel, is begin with the voice of a narrator in my head, or an image, or a character, without knowing where I am going. It's a matter of exploration, following the characters, letting the voice lead the way. But sometimes, too often, no story emerges. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With "The Painted Sun," I started with a man in real life, a guy who lived across the way in back, on the next street. I could see him from my deck, over the tops of two garages. He looked about 60, and was lean and muscular, unusually fit for a man his age. No fat on him. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gray hair, a thick mat of curly hair on his chest. He would come out onto his second-floor balcony and look around, shirt off, like a man who was under house arrest, or waiting for something, or someone. He wore well-cut gray slacks. Not a bum. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He never seemed to go anywhere, and I never saw anyone come to visit him. So of course my fantasy was that he was a retired hit-man waiting for his next job. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I didn't want to meet him, didn't want to know anything about his real life. It would spoil my fantasy. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So anyway, as novels do, this character evolved into an old horse trainer from Kansas, who was looking for his daughter who had run away ten years ago, when she was 16. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I followed the character and I guess you could say he led me astray. He comes to L.A. and meets a young woman who moves in next door. Her boyfriend beats her up and my guy rescues her and leaves the boyfriend with a broken arm. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">What did this have to do with the daughter? Well, nothing. An interesting beginning, but leading nowhere. T</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">here was no story. He finds out the daughter went to Mexico with a rich racehorse owner who lives on a big ranch. Here I used a true story, told me by a friend, about an American girl who lives a racy and risky life on a big <em>rancho</em>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But this novel of mine wasn't working. I wrote about 200 pages and found myself down a dead-end street with no action in sight. No consequences. No causal chain. No theme. What was this novel about? Who the hell knew? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I still like the main characters, so I'm trying to stir up a new pot of stew and see if I can create a situation or story problem or dilemma that will come alive again and lead me somewhere interesting. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I have some ideas, and I have the feeling these characters are out there somewhere, and they are breathing, and waiting, chomping at the bit, waiting for the story to come along and sweep them away. Waiting for their next job. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Kind of like that old man on the balcony. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Wish me luck. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-38148809362425157632012-05-16T11:46:00.002-07:002012-05-16T11:47:25.942-07:00LIFE AS SAMURAI TRAINING<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of my favorite quotes: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SAMURAI
TRAINING <o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Somewhere
there is a samurai warrior who is young and smart and strong. He trains every
day. He gets up early, he eats right, he works on his technique, and he cuts
bamboo trees with his sword until he can slice pieces in mid-air. One day, you
will meet him in battle. Do you really want to be unprepared?” -- Unknown <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">That touches my heart, for some reason, I don't know why. Perhaps it has something to do with a person's attitude toward life. In my experience, you are either up and at 'em, or you are dead inside, and might as well be dead outside, too. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-70660665969386606812012-05-10T20:55:00.001-07:002012-05-10T21:05:03.010-07:00'BLOOD MERIDIAN' - TOO TRUE, TOO VIOLENT<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I recently finished reading Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" for the third or fourth time, and it was completely different this time. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I had always assumed that it was totally fiction, a fantasy of violence, bloodshed and depravity that showed what lies deeply buried in our psyche, in our unconscious mind. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It never occurred to me that it might be true, heaven forbid, but it is. As I read through the book itself, I also read "Notes On 'Blood Meridian'." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">My God. Glanton and his gang really did most of these horrible things. Endless depravity and cruelty for no reason. In one scene, to take a small example, a man is trying to sell two puppies, and the Judge buys them, then throws into a violent, swirling river. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">As the puppies surface in a calm pool below a dam, another member of Glanton's gang pulls out his pistol and shoots them, for no other reason than sport. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Children get murdered, for no reason. The buffalo get slaughtered, by the millions, and the meat left to rot on the plains. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">How inhuman it all is. Disgusting. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It's one thing to assume this is all fantasy, and another to realize that most of this stuff really happened. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">There is a grim kind of gallows humor to much of it, but finally it sinks into a cauldron of bloodshed. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I don't think I'll ever be able to read it again. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">And I take back my recommendation. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Don't read it, unless you have a very strong stomach. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Or read it as a fantasy. I wish it wasn't true. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4947359115607698482.post-51057278679139973322012-04-26T12:03:00.000-07:002012-04-26T12:15:09.329-07:00'BLOOD MERIDIAN' AGAIN AND AGAIN<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am reading Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" again, for the third or fourth time. It is an amazing experience. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On one level, the novel is a wild hairy adventure story like no other. I reminds me of "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville, in scope, in effect, and in its multiple layers. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On another level, it is a journey into the unconscious, and it reminds me of paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, the German painter. "Blood Meridian" is a phantasmagoria of violence. I doubt if anyone has nightmares as vivid or as horrific. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At one point, one of the characters describes this band of killers as men of good heart. My God, how bloodthirsty they are. How could they be of good heart? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Their leader, John Glanton, is a brave man, a decisive and competent leader, admirable in some ways. Yet you've never met a more enthusiastic butcher of men. And women. In some ways, he is heroic, in others a devil revelling in hell. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Michael Herr, in a cover blurb, says the novel is about "regeneration through violence." I don't know if I'd put it that way. But there is a sense of redemption about all this, and I don't quite know why or how that works. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The novel is Biblical in scope, in tone, and in its use of language. It is a hot steamy cauldron of meaning and image and language, horrid and profound and wonderful. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Its technique is almost all narrative. That is, we are told the story, and the events are related mostly rather than rendered. It is an unusual mode. But it works well. We are lulled to sleep in this dream. It won't remind you of any crappy bestseller I have ever tried to read. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">There is tremendous energy and invention in the language and seemingly in the events, although "Notes On 'Blood Meridian'" by John Sepich claims that "Blood Meridian" is an historical novel, taken largely from "My Confessions" by the decorated Union Army General Samuel Chamberlain, and from other historical sources. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Sepich says that the exploits of Glanton and his band are presented "with remarkable fidelity." </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">In other words, Cormac McCarthy seems to have used history as a template or an outline, a basis for his creation. Perhaps in much the same way Melville used his experiences on whaling ships as a basis for his novel. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">"Blood Meridian" is, in my opinion and that of others, the greatest American novel written by a living writer. It ranks right up there with Faulkner and Melville. Perhaps even Shakespeare. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I recommend it highly. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Roger </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Copyright
© 2012, Roger R. Angle <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<br />
<br />Roger R. Anglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16000919418744703419noreply@blogger.com0