Monthly Archives: January 2017

General

Hello darkness…

So today, January 20th, 2017 we here in the good ol’ US of A inaugurate our latest president and we enter a new era full of optimism and hope that…

Who the f#$k am I kidding?

When George W. Bush was elected president following Bill Clinton, I feared the worst and it proved to be the case.  Not only did George W. Bush not get the popular vote, but there is still a legitimate, IMHO, case to be made he didn’t win Florida either.  It was the meddling of the Supreme Court, most specifically the conservative judges, who bent over backwards to give Mr. Bush his presidency.

Granted he won re-election but this too was a close shave and I know there are those (perhaps a little less legitimately) who suspect there was some hanky-panky going on in Ohio which gave him the edge over John Kerry (personally, I feel Bush the younger benefited mightily from shenanigans the first time around and a weak candidate in Al Gore and benefited from a weak candidate in Mr. Kerry the second go around).

Regardless, by the time Bush the younger’s terms were done, even the most steadfast Republican couldn’t even mention Mr. Bush’s name in any way, shape or form, lest they hurt negatives.

When Mr. Obama came into office, the country was a mess and, despite incredible odds, considering how much “help” he was afforded by the Republican side, he managed to clean up much of Mr. Bush’s mess.  I do not believe Mr. Obama was a perfect president, but at least he was smart and tried to do the right thing despite the wall of opposition he constantly faced.

Today we inaugurate a person that, incredibly, actually makes me long for Mr. Bush.

In Mr. Trump’s presidency, I fear we’re about to enter another period of great harm.  Even if we were to ignore the racist, misogynistic, narcissistic, and just plain stupid things Mr. Trump say, his cabinet picks are, for the most part, a damn unpleasant joke.

In his picks we have a who’s who of individuals who either have conflicts of interest (some very major), a history of sketchy financial dealings, or are idiots.  Rick Perry, the nominee for Secretary of Energy, admitted he didn’t know what the Department of Energy was about.  Every time Ben Carson opens his mouth, I wonder if his resume (he is supposedly one of the better neurosurgeons) was invented whole cloth…or if he’s one of those idiot-savants who knows one thing really well.  Then there’s Betsy DeVos, a woman who was nominated to be head of the Department of Education for no other reason than that her family is very wealthy and has contributed mightily to the Republican party (she’s also the one who felt guns should be allowed in schools because, I kid you not, they may be needed to repel grizzly bears).

It’s a complete shit-show and not only will the United States be dealing with this, sadly so too will the rest of the world.

I started this post with a famous movie quote and I’ll end it with another.

I’ll try to be optimistic.  I’ll hope Mr. Trump surprises everyone and turns out to be not as bugnuts crazy as he seems.   And if he is, I hope the darkness he creates is quickly followed by light.

Movies

Blood Father (2016) a (mildly) belated review

It is impossible to review a relatively new movie featuring Mel Gibson without first addressing the controversy surrounding the man.  While what happened to him occurred a long time ago, there are many who still cannot stomach watching a film featuring the actor.

I can’t blame people for having that opinion.

It seemed Mel Gibson’s life went seriously off the rails at that time and he himself has stated he was in another frame of mind at that time and heavily into drinking…a mix that could have resulted in tragedy instead of what actually happened: Mel Gibson became a Hollywood pariah.

To some extent, he’s still there and the proof is obvious.  When Hacksaw Ridge, the critically acclaimed WWII drama he directed was released this year, TV commercials for the film stated something along the lines of: “From the director who brought you Braveheart” yet nowhere was it mentioned that director happened to be Mel Gibson.

So for those who simply cannot see a Mel Gibson film without being reminded of the things he did, Blood Father is obviously not for you.  For the rest, here’s my review…

Blood Father is a low budget “B” action movie featuring Mel Gibson in the title role.  His character, Link, is a curious amalgam of the “real” Mel Gibson and the types of characters he is best known to play.  Characters who hide an inner rage and may be just a little crazy yet are, in the end, noble and trying to do what’s right.  Like Mad Max or Martin Riggs, these people aren’t supermen.  They carry a lot of hurt inside and can barely contain it.  They will also fight for their loved ones and, quite literally, step in front of a bullet for them.

As the movie begins, we see Link in an AA meeting (here’s where real life, I suppose, mixes with fantasy).  Link talks before the group, offering a “state of the state”-type statement, that he’s been sober for two years and living clean.  Clearly the past has scarred him, bad, yet he’s fighting along, trying to do what’s right.

Link lives in a shabby trailer (not unlike Martin Riggs!) and works as a tattoo artist.  On the walls of his trailer are posters for his lost child.  Clearly, he misses her badly and wants to get back to her.

Meanwhile, we catch up on Link’s daughter, Lydia (Erin Moriarty) and find she’s mixed up with the wrong crowd.  They’re a group of violent, drug dealing Mexican traffickers who are in the process of strong-arming (and killing) people who worked for them.  Lydia can’t handle the scene and, accidentally, shoots her boyfriend and flees his violent friends.

Having no one to turn to, she calls Link and asks for some money so she can disappear.  Link hurries to get her but soon enough he’s confronting the violent Mexican traffickers as well as the police while trying to save his daughter’s life.

As mentioned above, Blood Father is a low budget “B” action film and I suspect if it wasn’t for Mel Gibson’s presence, and pretty damn good acting, the film might easily have disappeared without much of a trace.  Mind you, the way it was handled by the studios did a pretty good job in burying it anyway (I heard almost nothing about the film until it was available on VOD), so any success the movie has -modest though it likely was- is a testament to the quality of the film alone.

And there is quality here.

For most of the film’s run I enjoyed the movie, though I have to admit I groaned more than a little at the way Lydia allowed the bad guys to track her (Come on, girl, its understandable your old man doesn’t know about modern technology but don’t you know Apple iPhones can be tracked?!).

Anyway, regardless of this, the film moved along well and the action sequences were tightly cut, exciting, and never over the top.  There is even one action sequence involving Mel on a motorcycle that echoed Mad Max in the very best way possible and was, to me, the highlight of the film.

But having said all that, the film did have issues.

The biggest flaw, to me was the casting of Ms. Moriarty in the role of Lydia.  Don’t get me wrong, Ms. Moriarty is a damn fine actress.  I think she played her role as well as she could.  But she just didn’t fit the part of a drug snorting/boozing runaway who was at the edge of a precipice and coming down the drugs/booze while in the care of her father.  In this movie she’s supposed to be a young version of Link, something her father is all too painfully aware of so he hopes to clean her up and offers her something he never had: A second chance.

Again, Ms. Moriarty, IMHO, is a good actress but she looked a little too “clean” for this role and I found it hard to believe she was someone who lived on the streets for several years before returning to her father.

However, this was a minor problem compared to the movie’s climax, which for me was something of an abrupt dud.

As I said before, this was a low budget film and the climax of the movie makes that all too clear.  The final shootout proved to be the film’s least exciting action sequence, and it boggles my mind that was the case.  There was little tension and a resolution that felt hurried and, ultimately, hurt the film more than the miscasting of Ms. Moriarty.

Sadly, one can have 3/4ths of a damn good film ruined by the last 1/4ths.  While I don’t believe the lame ending of Blood Father completely wiped the film out, it took all that good will and, unfortunately, squandered it in a less than exciting shootout.

I truly, truly wish the film had done something a little better here.

Regardless, while Blood Father may have its flaws, it is an exciting (for the most part) film that features Mel Gibson in a familiar type role, one that he handles quite well.  Considering some of the other “geriatric” action films of late, even with its missteps Blood Father is worth a look see.

Here’s the film’s trailer which, unfortunately, gives a little too much away…

Books/Literature

The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie (1936), a belated review

I admire the hell out of author Agatha Christie.  In her lifetime she released an almost obscene amount of novels (66) and short story collections (14) many of which, today, are considered classics in the crime/mystery genre.

During her lifetime she also created not one but two very famous “sleuths” to inhabit many of her novels.  The more well known of the two, Hercule Poirot (the other is Miss Marple), appeared in 33 of those 66 novels and some 50 short stories.  Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot is a detective with an intelligence that is superior to those around him.  He makes all the connections between crime and murderer and solves crimes that leave all others baffled.  Curiously, also like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie grew to hate the character of Poirot, though unlike Mr. Doyle reserved the “last” Poirot case, Curtain, for release in 1975 (Mrs. Christie would pass away in 1976).

Over the Holidays, Amazon.com offered many books for sale.  Among them were several Agatha Christie novels, some of which I read and others which I didn’t.  I think I read her 1936 Poirot novel The A.B.C. Murders many, many years ago.  However, if I did, I recalled no details so reading this book was, essentially, like reading it for the first time.

The ABC Murders: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot series Book 13) by [Christie, Agatha]

The book is the 13th to feature Mr. Poirot in the lead and it is an interesting book to read, though because of my familiarity with Mrs. Christie’s writing style I found some of the bigger surprises not quite as surprising, I suspect, as most virgin Agatha Christie readers might find them.

To begin, the mystery presented is different from some of the usual Agatha Christie affairs.  Hercule Poirot, living in London, receives a strange letter from someone who signs it “A.B.C.”  The person states s/he will kill someone in a certain town (the town’s name begins with the letter “A”) and dares Hercule Poirot to find and stop him/her.

The police wonder if the letter is written by some crank and Hercule Poirot hopes this is the case while clearly worried it is not.  To make a long story short, a murder is committed and the victim’s last name also begins with an “A”.  Then a second letter arrives, indicating the next victim, who will have a “B” in their last name, will be found in a town that begins with the letter “B”.

What’s fascinating about this novel is that many of the Agatha Christie novels I’m familiar with tend to be murder mysteries revolving around a set of characters and this novel and this one hints at the possibility of Hercule Poirot going up against a serial killer.

What is even more fascinating, I found, is that at one point Mr. Poirot states something along the lines of wanting to get into “the killer’s mind”, a big plot device used very effectively nearly a half century later by Thomas Harris in his Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs novels, both of which were eventually made into very good movies (I refer to the Michael Man directed Red Dragon adaptation Manhunter rather than the remake done post Silence of the Lambs).

As I read the novel, I was fascinated by how well Mrs. Christie writes.  She manages to say a lot with very little, often allowing the dialogue to propel the story along and giving us tasty hints as to what characters are all about.  I particularly enjoyed the way the character of Thora Grey was presented.  MILD SPOILERS In the end, the character was revealed to be a gold-digger and her plans fell by the wayside.  I suspect in other author’s hands the character would have been presented as much more nasty but Agatha Christie manages to show us the relative good in her even as she’s revealed to be a calculating woman.

Unfortunately and as I mentioned above, being familiar with Agatha Christie’s writing style, some of the bigger surprises the book offers didn’t surprise me as much as I would have hoped, though I would easily recommend this book to anyone interested in sampling Mrs. Christie’s novels.

To get into that, I’m going to have to get into some bigger…

SPOILERS

Still there?  Again, if you want to read the novel, I strongly urge you to look away from what I’m going to talk about.  Beware!

Still there, redux?

You’ve been warned!

The A.B.C. Murders tries to make us think we’re dealing with Hercule Poirot going up against a mad serial killer yet almost from the very first page I knew there had to be more to the story.  Again, I may have read the story before many, many years ago, so maybe its not so much that I’m clever but rather that I had details of the plot buried deep in my subconscious.

Regardless, from the moment we deal with the idea of a possible mad serial killer taunting Hercule Poirot, I somehow knew the murders he’d face were a distraction and that this whole effort to present the idea of a serial killer was, in reality, an effort to hide one particular murder.

Once you’ve put yourself in that frame of mind, as I did early in the novel, it was clear which of the murders (there are four in total), was “the” one.  It was easy to figure out as it was the murder that others had the most to gain from.  As in money.  Three of the victims came from simple means and one was a wealthy person who would leave behind quite a bit of money.

Once I determined the murders were a diversion, and this was well before that victim was named, I started looking for the clues to whodunnit and why.  It became a simple bit of deduction on my part and there were only two possible candidates for the role.  However, this was also where parts of the novel started to stretch credulity.

The idea of presenting us with a bogus “mad” killer is all good and well, but when you have an actual character presented in the book who is being framed for this, a character who is absolutely perfect for the frame (he’s a WWI vet who suffers from blackouts and therefore isn’t even certain if he committed some of the crimes), you begin to wonder just how much free time the real murderer had to a) find the patsy, b) plan out the elaborate charade, and c) commit the actual murders without being found out until getting to the one that was the true victim.

As entertainment, The A.B.C. Murders is nonetheless an enjoyable, entertaining novel whose biggest flaw is that it hopes readers will accept all the above and not question it…at least not too much.

While at times preposterous because of this, The A.B.C. Murders is nonetheless worth checking out.

Movies

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016) a (mildy) belated review

Confession time: I love the Absolutely Fabulous (or AbFab) TV series which originally ran from 1992 until 2012.

Like most British TV shows, the episodes presented each season were fewer than those found on U.S. TV shows.  AbFab’s first season, for instance, featured 6 thirty minute episodes.  Subsequent seasons ran between 6 and 9 episodes each, with the final “season” being a mere 3 episodes long.

After that last season, I figured that was it for Absolutely Fabulous.  Not so, as the above headline clearly makes obvious.  Here’s the trailer for the 2016 film…

Now, if you’re not a fan of Absolutely Fabulous and have no idea what the heck it is about…I suspect the trailer won’t do much for you.  Heavens knows, I’m a fan of the show and the trailer didn’t do all that much for me.

Alas, this trailer is, unfortunately, a pretty good indication of what you’re getting with the movie.  Let me reiterate: I’m a fan of the series.  I loved the misadventures of the ditzy Edina (Jennifer Sanders, who created and wrote most of the series episodes and wrote the screenplay to the movie) and her best friend, the spectacular vampiric Patsy (Joanna Lumley in the role of a lifetime…and several more!).

So, clearly, I hated the film, right?  It’s not worth it at all, right?

No.

There are funny moments to be found in the AbFab film and many of the cameos are quite funny.  But the problem is this film never really hits the “hilarious” stride I was hoping for.

While I’m glad to see the whole gang again -and then some- this movie moves along at a rather slow pace and some of the comedic set pieces work (the flight to France, a rather unique karaoke club, and the fate of Kate Moss) while others (Patsy dressing as a man, as seen in the trailer) absolutely…don’t.

The film’s biggest problem ultimately is that as good as the good stuff is, it simply isn’t enough to offset both the leisurely pace and the many parts that don’t work as well.

By the time the film reaches its climax and you expect things to get frantic, the film seems lost and, curiously, decides to crib its climax from The Return of the Pink Panther.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the AbFab movie trailer above and pay particular attention to the scenes where Edina and Patsy are in a very small red car…and what happens to them in it.

Now check out the scenes presented below from The Return of the Pink Panther.  Pay particular attention to what happens between the 49 second mark through approximately 1:50…

Strange.

Anyway, if you are a fan of Absolutely Fabulous, the TV show, you’ll probably like the film a lot more than if you’re a newbie.  However, even fans of the show, I suspect, will be surprised at how (by the Gods, I’m turning into Donald Trump!!!) low energy this movie is.

While the AbFab film is not a total disaster and there are some very amusing scenes, one nonetheless can’t help but feel this was a missed opportunity.

Too bad.

Computers/Electronics

Consumer Reports vs the new MacBook Pro, part deux

A little while back there were shockwaves released in the tech world when Consumer Reports did not endorse the new MacBook Pro, citing very inconsistent battery life as a main problem.

Apple took the report very seriously and, together with Consumer Reports, apparently worked things out and now the venerable customer watchdog has issued the coveted “recommended” for the latest Apple product.

Consumer Reports changes mind recommends new MacBook Pro

However…

Despite getting the recommendation, it appears there remains ..friction… between Consumer Reports and Apple.

After issuing the recommendation, and according to the article above, Consumer Reports stated the problem with the MacBook Pro’s battery life was a result of a “bug” in the programming which Apple fixed.

Apple, on the other hand, stated the following:

Consumer Reports’ testing did “not reflect real-world usage”…(and) that Consumer Reports used a “hidden Safari setting” in its testing that consumers don’t typically turn on.

Interesting, though obviously very insider-type stuff.  Both sides essentially are arguing they were in the right and the other in the wrong.  Consumer Reports blames the problem on a bug Apple missed.  Apple, on the other hand, states the problem was a Consumer Reports screw up in the way they used the laptop.

As I said, interesting.  Very interesting.

No hard feelings, right?!

General

As if 2017 weren’t nerve wracking enough already…

Really scary news found on the Telegraph and written by David Lawler concerning…

U.S. woman killed by superbug resistant to every available anti-biotic

Though not directly related, I’m reminded of Newton’s famous third law of motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In the case of anti-biotics, they have saved countless lives and helped the sick get well.  Unfortunately, their broad usage has had unintended side effects.  Using another famous scientist’s ideas, Charles Darwin’s in this case, it would appear when you create anti-biotics to kill “bugs”, you also, perhaps inevitably, leave behind the bugs most resistant to these anti-biotics.  Thus the bugs survive via a form of natural selection.  While we kill all the bugs we can, those that survive are more and more resistant to the drugs used against them and the big fear is that they will not only live on, but multiply.

The only good thing to be gleaned about the above report is the following:

According to the CDC, “pan-resistant” bacteria are very uncommon, and “infection control contact precautions” are important in such situations, meaning patients will be isolated.

A different superbug was found in at least four patients in the US last year. It was found to be resistant even to colistin, considered the last resort among antibiotics because of its harmful side effects.

Fortunately that bug, known as mcr-1, was not found to be highly contagious.

So these highly resistant bugs are uncommon and, it appears so far, not highly contagious.

The big concern is: What if that changes?

And you thought having a President Trump was your biggest concern.

Movies

The Jackal (1997) a (very) belated review

Way back in 1973 there was a thriller released to theaters and adapted from a best-selling novel by the name of The Day of the Jackal.  It starred Edward Fox as the mysterious “Jackal”, a highly skilled and deadly killer for hire who is charged with eliminating Charles de Gaulle, the president of France.

I loved the film.  It had a near documentary presentation and despite the fact that the “Jackal” was clearly a nasty, nasty man, you couldn’t help but admire how he pieces together the elements of his plan while the law slowly, inevitably, nip at his heels.  The climax of the movie was incredibly gripping and audience manipulation at its finest: You root for the good guys to stop the “Jackal” even as a dark part of you wishes, after witnessing all this planning and activity, he actually finish the job.

Here’s that movie’s trailer.  Pardon the “Harry Palmer Movie Site” lettering…this appears to be the only available YouTube listing featuring this trailer…

Many years later and in 1997 a powerhouse cast consisting of Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Sidney Poitier would star in a remake of that film, entitled The Jackal…

I saw the film years before, though I doubt in theaters when it was originally released, and recalled not thinking all that much of it.  Again, I loved the original film and this remake felt so very…inferior.

The years pass -as they inevitably do- and The Jackal was on cable last night and I started watching it almost from the very beginning (I think I missed the first few seconds or, at most, about a minute of the very start) and found myself curiously drawn to it.

Seeing the film again from essentially the beginning to end and with the memories of The Day of the Jackal not being quite as strong as they were when I first saw this remake, I found myself far more engrossed in this film than I was before.

Mind you, the film remains far from “great” but my feelings for it have moved up quite a bit.

The plot of The Jackal is essentially the same as the original film, though it does sport some big differences.  You have a shadowy group of people who hire the Jackal (Bruce Willis) to kill someone and his target is…well, I won’t get into spoilers here but let’s just say that reveal is part of the story versus the original film which gave us who the target was from the beginning.  We then have, like the original film, a “split” movie, alternating between the Jackal and his preparation(s) for the kill and our heroes’ attempts to find him.

On the good guy side, Sidney Poitier plays FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston.  His character is in league with Russian Major Valentina Koslova (Diane Venora), a tough as nails operative, and when they get wind of the Jackal and the fact that he plans to commit a very high level assassination, they get in touch with Richard Gere’s Declan Mulqueen, an IRA “terrorist” currently in prison and the only person they know who has had contact with the Jackal.  After a bit of bantering, they offer him vague promises of a better/lighter prison term to help them hunt him down.

Turns out they really do need him as Mulqueen reveals he has actually seen the Jackal and, in their group, is the only person who can identify him by sight.  Later still it is revealed Mulqueen isn’t interested in hunting down the Jackal just to reduce his prison sentence.  He and the Jackal have a history…and Mulqueen has very good reasons to want the Jackal taken down.

So, returning to my overall view of the film this time around: The Jackal entertained me far more than it did the first time I saw it all those years ago and, as I stated before, it could be because my memories of the original film have faded over time and therefore I’m not comparing both films head on anymore.

The Jackal was a good suspense film but, as I also stated before, not quite great.  There were several problems with the overall story, things that happen that make no sense or aren’t adequately explained.  For example, the Jackal at one point paints a van with a removable white paint and, using a high pressure hose, times how long it takes to wash that paint off.  This is an intriguing bit of plot and, if memory serves, it was used in the original film, but in The Jackal the use of the wash-off paint is pointless.  I won’t spoil things but when the Jackal finally does wash the paint off, it is for no real reason and, given what happens, it might have been smarter for him to just leave the original paint!

Later on in the film, toward the climax (MILD SPOILERS), we have Richard Gere’s Mulqueen chasing the Jackal through the streets and eventually into a subway but its never really explained why his character would think the Jackal went that way.  Given the large amounts of people running to and fro, it strains credibility to think he would spot his target among so many people.

Another problem with the film, at least to me, was that the movie’s makers got a little too pleased with showing off Bruce Willis in various disguises.  While the idea of him changing his looks made sense, after a while it felt like overkill.  Perhaps that’s just me.

Still, the movie nonetheless moves nicely and the star power gathered together is fun to watch, as is spotting cameos by some then up-and-coming actors in early roles (J. K. Simmons and Jack Black both appear in the film and you can spot them, if you look hard, in the trailer above).

The bottom line: While no classic, I came away with the impression The Jackal was a better film than what I originally thought, though it still doesn’t quite reach the levels of a really great suspense film.  If you’re in the mood for a decent action/suspense film with some major star-power, you could do worse than watch The Jackal.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights Book #7, a 1/11/17 Update

Yesterday George R. R. Martin announced, via his blog, that the latest book in his HUGELY popular Game of Thrones series might well be released this year.

Some fans were very quick to note Mr. Martin’s said similar things before and, while I can certainly understand the frustration of these readers who no doubt are very eager to get to the books before the HBO series finishes off (which it will do in the new season, beating Mr. Martin’s final novel in the process and potentially spoiling material he may have been building towards), I have quite a bit of sympathy -perhaps even more- for Mr. Martin.

For you see, though my novels aren’t nearly as popular (or well known) as Mr. Martin’s, I’ve “been there” with books in the process of being written which I’ve thought would be ready at a certain time and, alas, they simply were not.  In fact, my most recent Corrosive Knights book, Foundry of the Gods (#6 in the series) I originally thought I could finish by February of 2016 but didn’t get it done and released until November, nine full months later.

Trust me when I say I would have loved to finish the book in February and be nearly a full year into Book #7 of the series rather than a little under two months.  Sadly, sometimes it takes longer than you’d like to finish something and, while my novels don’t feature the virtual army of characters present in Mr. Martin’s series, the story I’m laying out in Corrosive Knights is intricate and requires many pieces to fit together.

Rushing Foundry of the Gods’ release would have done no one any good, neither me -I would have been very disappointed with the book- nor those who have read it, who no doubt would have been just as disappointed reading what amounted to a “rush job”.

So for those impatient for Mr. Martin’s latest Game of Thrones novel, I urge patience.  Hopefully the book(s), when they are eventually released, will prove worth the extra wait.

Having said that and as should be obvious by the header above, I’m presenting an update on Book #7 of the Corrosive Knights series.  As should also be obvious, this book follows Foundry of the Gods and, more importantly, is the conclusion to the Corrosive Knights series.

Perhaps it is because the book finally reveals/focuses on events I’ve had swirling in my mind for many, many years that the writing of this novel has progressed quite well.  Even though I had little chance to write for most of the end of December (vacation and daughters come home and enjoyable distractions abound!), as of today I’m roughly 33,000 words into this book.  As my novels tend to run around 100,000 words, it means I’m in/around 1/3 of the way through this story, an incredibly quick pace compared to other works.

Even more thrilling is the fact that yesterday I laid out the outline for the material that fills the remaining 2/3rds of the novel, which means that for much of that material I simply have to write it out and not sweat the plot details.

That’s not to say, however, that the book is “just about” finished.

There are still story gaps to be dealt with, specifically in the middle section of the book.  This, by the way, is very typical of the way I work.  While some writers have trouble finishing a novel (a complaint I’ve heard often of the books of Stephen King) or beginning one, I seem to have the least amount of difficulties coming up with my novel’s start and finish.  It is the middle sections, the glue that joins my story’s beginning and end, that tends to cause me the most “hard” work.

Still, there’s reason for optimism and while I cannot guarantee the book will be finished before year’s end, I can absolutely guarantee that if it isn’t done by the later part of 2017 it will be finished and released by early next year.

Let’s see how things go.

General

It ain’t sexy…

…but I really enjoy checking out recommended products presented in the various websites under what used to be Gawker.  Personally, I tend to check out i09.com or Gizmodo.com or Deadspin.com (a sports related website) but, as stated, they often check out/review products available on the internet and offer their recommendations…especially when said products are on sale.

Over at lifehacker.com (another of their websites), they offer a year end review of the products they’ve recommended and which ones sold the best…

The 16 Most Popular Products of 2016, as purchased by you

While the vast majority of the products listed I did not buy, there is one I would heartily offer an endorsement to, one that I didn’t even consider until seeing the review on one of those sites above and being intrigued if the product is as good as the reviewers stated.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Delta 75152 Shower Head:

Again, we’re not talking about “sexy” new products or anything, but seeing this shower head and hearing what it does intrigued me.  If there’s one thing I like when showering it is a strong stream of water and the reviews stated this shower head offered a great stream.

So I ordered the Delta 75152 when it was on sale (I believe it was on sale for something like $17.  Its normal price is a little north of $20), got it, installed it (you can do this with your own two hands), and…wow.

At first I thought “Well, its an improvement but not really that big a deal” but as I used it more and more I realized: This is one hell of a shower head.  I wound up liking it so much I ordered a second and installed it in the guest bathroom!

So, again, we’re off the beaten path for things I usually discuss here but if you’re looking for a new shower head, one that delivers water in a strong, steady stream, check out the Delta.

You won’t be disappointed.

Music

David Bowie’s finale…?

Yesterday, January 8th, would have been the 70th Birthday of David Bowie.  Last year tomorrow, on January 10th, Mr. Bowie passed away.

Last year Mr. Bowie released his final new album, Blackstar, on his 69th Birthday.  For his 70th Birthday, No Plan, a four song EP, was released to mark his passing and give fans the last music the artist worked on before he passed.  Though the songs aren’t really “new” -they can all be found on the Lazarus soundtrack and the actual song Lazarus, the fourth on the EP, was part of the Blackstar album- this is the first time you can buy them on their own and outside of that Broadway soundtrack.

Since I truly didn’t care to buy the entire Lazarus soundtrack -sorry but I like to hear David Bowie singing David Bowie- I didn’t bother getting the Lazarus soundtrack but jumped at the chance to buy the EP (for those wondering why I didn’t just buy the other songs on their own, the three “new” songs could not be purchased separate from the full soundtrack).

Anyway, the EP was released, I believe, on Friday though the Amazon listing states its release is for tomorrow, January 10 (I guess they wanted to keep with the David Bowie birthday theme).

I picked up the EP yesterday and, if you like Blackstar, you’ll like the three new tracks presented.  It’s hard to point out which of the three is the best (and if I were to consider all four, I’d probably tilt toward the already released Lazarus, a song that feels like an eerie coda to David Bowie’s life and then upcoming passing).

Of the other three, No Plan is pretty damn good.  So much so they even made a video…

I suspect in the near future we’ll see more “unreleased” David Bowie material appear.  There is apparently quite a bit of it -excluding, of course, the vast amount of live shows that were surely recorded.

I know I’ve written before about some of the better never “formally” released David Bowie songs (at least songs that weren’t part of any of his actual albums), but of those songs I’m familiar with my favorite remains the alternative version of the song Candidate…

As can be seen in the graphic, this song was created for what eventually became the Diamond Dogs album.  Originally, Mr. Bowie intended to create a musical version of George Orwell’s 1984 but the late author’s wife refused to give him permission to make the album and therefore he was forced to make some changes (no pun intended) and, viola, Diamond Dogs.

There are still hints to the unmade 1984 album in Diamond Dogs, including…

There’s a Big Brother song as well and the Sweet Thing/Candidate medley (very good stuff but I have to say, I prefer the unreleased version of Candidate to it!).

Anyway, those who are fans of David Bowie, the bottom line is this: There’s a “new” EP out there and you get one more taste of what David Bowie was up to just before his untimely passing.

Perhaps other buried treasures will be found among his previous recordings and “new” and interesting Bowie songs will also appear in the near future.

I’ve got my fingers crossed.