September 11, 2001. Or, as it’s better known today, “9/11”. The day four commercial jet airlines were commandeered by several people loyal to Al Queda, and its leader Osama Bin Laden, and were used as weapons against the two World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. The fourth plane wound up crashing into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The people on that final flight were aware of the hijacking and fought back but ultimately lost their lives in the crash.
I watched the event as it unfolded way back when and, frankly, the whole thing was beyond surreal. If my memory serves, I started watching the coverage only moments before the second airliner hit the World Trade Center.
Yeah, I watched in horror as it hit the building.
I watched on, in growing horror, as the two buildings’ top floors were engulfed in fire.
I watched in horror as the announcer -I believe it was the late Peter Jennings- was talking about the situation and was unaware as the first building fell.
It was hard not to throw up.
Grim and horrible as those events were, the time immediately after 9/11 had the country, and the world, coming together in a way we hadn’t seen in a very long time. Despite the deaths, despite the destruction, despite the madness and fear, there was a feeling we could do well and come out of this -as a nation and a world- better and stronger.
It was not to be.
Sadly, George Bush, perhaps egged on by VP Dick Cheney, used the tragedy to demand an invasion of Iraq, a nation which had nothing at all to do with Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda, who were stationed in Afghanistan.
Even more sadly, too many on both sides of the aisle felt invading Iraq and ridding it of Saddam Hussein was a worthwhile goal despite the questionable intelligence presented to justify it. George W. Bush, whose father was involved in the first invasion of Iraq and who was targeted subsequently by Hussein for assassination, was even quoted at one point stating he wanted to do this because of what Hussein tried to do against his father. One couldn’t help but wonder how much of that war was a result of a personal vendetta.
The Bush administration, riding high on the polls, got their war but the public would soon enough turn against it. George W. Bush lost faith in Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. When Bush left office, his approval ratings, sky high immediately after 9/11, were in the toilet and even the Republicans didn’t mention his name much in the subsequent Presidential election.
And today, we’re still dealing with the repercussions of 9/11.
The loss of life and horror of 9/11 should never be forgotten.
The heroism of those who lost their lives, including the fire fighters who climbed the stairs of the World Trade Center and lost their lives in its collapse, must never be forgotten.
The evil perpetuated by people like Osama Bin Laden must be fought and eradicated.
For those living ’round the parts I’m living in, September 10 represents something pretty big. The below graph shows you why…
This graph, as you may surmise, shows the average number of hurricanes/storms encountered during a hurricane season. September 10, today, looms quite large because this date is often referred to as the “peak” of the hurricane season.
And, ho boy, is that turning out to be the case this year. After a very tranquil hurricane season 2018, things have gone into a super-overdrive these last few days, with a whopping THREE active hurricanes in the Atlantic as of this morning…
Yikes.
In the United States, the one that’s of particular concern is Florence. She’s projected to hit along the South/North Carolina coast by a the end of this week:
She’s also predicted to be a MAJOR hurricane when she does hit. Her wind speeds are projected to be in/around 140 mph.
Ladies and gentlemen: This is a VERY dangerous storm. If you’re living in the general areas predicted to face it, please, please, please take this storm very seriously.
Be very careful and pay particular heed to any information and updates.
And though its only words, good luck out there. As someone who’s lived through too many of these things, I feel for anyone who has to face these nasty events.
Wow, been a while since my last update (from 8/2/18, a little over a month ago! You can read it here) of the latest book in the Corrosive Knights series, Book #7…
At that time, I finished up all revisions of Draft #7 of the book and today I’m here to tell you I’ve finished the read through and pen/ink revision of Draft #8 and, starting very soon (either tomorrow, Sunday, or Monday) I’ll start putting all those revisions into the computer. I expect this will take at least two weeks and then, you guessed it, it’s on to Draft #9.
Now that I’ve finished up this first stage of Draft #8 of the book, things are coming more and more into focus. The book has pretty much all the elements it needs inside it. Things “make sense” and all bits and pieces introduced are dealt with/concluded appropriately.
The book and the story I’ve presented, to my mind, absolutely rocks.
But… its not quite done yet.
There is still at least one section in particular which needs work, but otherwise some 80-90% of it now requires I make sure all the grammer/spelling is correct and the way these parts are presented is as crisp and propulsive -and poetic!- as I can make it.
Which brings us the next question: What’s the ETA of the release of this book?
For a very long while I was hoping to get the book released by November and, if that’s still possible, I very much would like it to happen.
But the reality is as follows: It’s September the 7th and for at least two more weeks, possibly a little more, I’ll be finishing off Draft #8 on the computer. That will take us to close to the end of September.
I start reading the book again and doing the revisions on Draft #9 and, at best, that’ll take another two weeks followed by another two or so weeks to transfer the pen/ink revisions to my computer. So, we’re looking at getting Draft #9 done near the end of October and, what comes after October?
Yeah.
I believe I’ll need to do a Draft #10 and, its quite possible, a Draft #11. Maybe even a Draft #12. My previous books took that many drafts but I believe this one is farther along and may not require quite that many. That, however, is nothing more than an educated guess and until I get through the next two Drafts, I just won’t know for sure.
Regardless, even going by the most ambitious/hopeful prognostication, it looks tough to believe I’ll be done with this book by November. Even if we’re talking very, very late November.
So… possibly a Christmas release? If not that, a New Year’s release?
I wrote already about my interest in the new David Bowie Box Set coming out in October and focusing on his mid-late 1980’s output, specifically in the fact that it features a completely redone version of his album Never Let Me Down, which many, including Bowie himself, viewed as his worst album. (You can read my previous ramblings about that topic here and here)
Slowly, tantalizingly, reworked songs from that album have been released. You have the inspiration for reworking those songs with the release, a number of years ago, of the song Time Will Crawl, which I thought was incredibly good in its remade version.
Then, after the announcement of the reworked album, we got to hear the reworked version of Zeroes, which I very much liked as well. Today, we have a third song, Beat of Your Drum. Here is the reworked version which will appear on the upcoming boxed set:
As a comparison, this is the version which appeared on the album originally…
Ok, so far I’ve been very much impressed in each new remade version of the songs from Never Let Me Down but this time… I dunno. I like the new version quite a lot but I have to admit: I’m not all that down on the original, so while this new version is interesting I find the difference not quite as startling as that with the previous two songs.
I’m still looking very much forward to the full album, though!
If you’re like me, and getting really old, you may remember the 1970’s and 80’s.
If you do, you can’t not know actor/director Burt Reynolds, who it was announced yesterday passed away at the age of 82.
Mr. Reynolds rose to prominence in the earlier 1970’s, specifically with his fantastic performance in 1972’s Deliverance as Lewis, the would-be alpha male outdoorsman who takes a group of fellow city folk friends to a nature/river weekend trip which rapidly spirals into horror…
The movie was incredibly faithful to the James Dickey novel it was based on, so much so it even had the author play a small but vital role in the movie’s closing minutes!
Reynolds’ Lewis is, IMHO, the most fascinating character in the film, someone who is outwardly virile, charismatic, and clearly the “leader” of his pack. He’s the one who gets his friends into the woods and when things go bad, he looks to be the one who will deal with the dangers and get everyone out. Deliverance, to my mind, is like an Americanized version of Joseph Conrad’s wonderful book Heart of Darkness, which was the basis of Apocalypse Now. We have “civilized” people venturing into the wilds of nature, where the rules of a polite society no longer apply and where the danger is very real.
Here’s the thing that makes Lewis so damn fascinating (MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW!): He’s ultimately not all that different from the others in his group and something of a paper tiger. In less capable hands, Lewis could have been presented as the movie’s villain, someone who dragged his friends to near doom and, when the going gets really tough is taken out of action.
But this performance and this character is far more nuanced. Yes, he’s a man who got himself and others in over their proverbial heads, but Reynold’s performance following one of this movie’s pivotal sequences, after he kills a man, shows some incredible acting on his part. Lewis kills one of the mountain men/rapists, but as the man dies from the arrow shot through his heart, one is riveted by Reynold’s acting here. He is tough at first, but then, as the man slowly, agonizingly, dies, the look on his face changes to horror, to a realization of the trouble they’re in and how he, the alpha male, is also in over his head (pay particular attention to his facial expressions from 1:44 seconds or so):
Unfortunately, this clip ends before what I consider the best bit, where Lewis says, almost in a whisper, that he hit the man with a “Center shot”. His whisper is the sound of a man’s soul dying.
Here’s a funny bit from the Conan show, where Burt Reynolds talks about that famous scene and how one of the roles was cast:
Here’s the thing: By the time Burt Reynolds appeared in Deliverance in 1972, he had already racked up a LARGE number of roles, dating back to 1958 (14 years!), in numerous TV shows and movies and including roles in Gunsmoke, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone (the original!), Hawk (a detective show starring Mr. Reynolds), Navajo Joe (a “spaghetti” type western from 1966 which starred Mr. Reynolds), Sam Whiskey (another movie, from 1969, where he was the protagonist), Dan August (another TV series featuring Reynolds in the starring role), and, just before the release of Deliverance, he starred in Fuzz, a movie based on the famous Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter) 87th Precinct novels and also featured Raquel Welch and Yul Brynner.
So Mr. Reynolds, following years of hard work and appearances in a number of roles, was suddenly “hot”. He would follow up Deliverance with mostly starring roles in movies during the rest of the 1970’s. Some movies fared better than others, most were interesting, including White Lightening (the first of his two “Gator” films), Gator (the second of the, you guessed it, Gator films), The Longest Yard, and Nickelodeon.
But Reynold’s biggest hit was to come in the year 1977…
Smokey and the Bandit was a HUGE hit, a film that was second in the Box Office that year, beaten by this long forgotten film called Star Wars, and it was a freaking delight.
The movie featured Reynolds, Sally Field (cute as a button!), Jerry Reed, and a spectacularly foul mouthed Jackie Gleason as the main cast in what amounts to a comedic full length car chase film. It was wonderfully light-hearted and never had a dull moment and Reynold’s charisma was on full display.
From that point on Reynolds would continue working hard, appearing in films that were quite good if not quite as memorable as those that came before. I loved The End, a movie Mr. Reynolds directed, though today people don’t remember it that much…
… and Hooper, a return feature with Smokey and the Bandit director Hal Needham (I reviewed that here). He had a hit with The Cannonball Run, a sorta/kinda reworking of The Gumball Rally, but the film wasn’t as good as one would have hoped, though Roger Moore, of all people, was quite hilarious in it…
He would direct and star in the 1981 film Sharky’s Machine, which I feel is one of Mr. Reynold’s last great movies before he seemed to “lose it” with audiences…
He lost it, unfortunately, due to a number of middling films like Stroker Ace (back together with director Hal Needham), Cannonball Run II (though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original, it was a masterpiece of comedy compared to the sequel), Stick, Heat, and Malone.
Though it wasn’t a great film, it was fun to see Reynolds paired with longtime friend Clint Eastwood in City Heat…
Mr. Reynolds, going into the later 1980’s and into the 1990’s, looked like his time had come and gone. Yet he still worked, quite frequently, appearing in roles both large and small on the big and small screen. And then in 1997 he appeared in Boogie Nights and, after too many years, received great kudos for his acting…
Sadly, Mr. Reynolds, in his later years, suffered from a number of health problems and, for the last decade or so, has looked increasingly frail.
So it wasn’t too big a shock to hear of his passing yesterday but, as you can tell by the length of this posting, I admired the hell out of him and his work.
Yesterday was even crazier than usual, if you’re the type (like me at times) to follow U.S. politics.
Yes, beware, kind folks… what follows is…
POLITICS!
First up and the day before was the revelations of Bob Woodward’s upcoming novel, Fear: Trump In The White House, painted a -surprise, surprise!- picture of extreme dysfunction in the Trump administration.
So you figure: That’s going to be the big news of the day. I mean, Woodward is a very prestigious journalist. He’s 1/2 of the team that wrote All The President’s Men, which painted a grim picture of Richard Nixon and no doubt led to his presidential demise.
Naturally, Trump had plenty to say, negative naturally, regarding the book, but as it turned out that book was nothing compared to the bombshell that appeared yesterday in The New York Times.
A current, senior White House official, writing anonymously, wrote an OP piece wherein s/he offers a chilling glimpse behind the curtains at the Trump White House, and his/her message is that they are part of a “resistance”, adults in the room who are trying to contain Trump and his negative impulses. Here it is:
There followed immediate reaction from the pundits, those who wondered about the ethics of presenting an “anonymous” op-ed piece. There were those who were happy to hear someone -anyone!- within that administration finally admit what is all too clear for all to see.
I’m of two minds here: I think people should speak out on what is so freaking clear to anyone who even casually looks: This administration is run by someone who, putting it most kindly, is waaaaaaaay out of his depth. A man who should never have been elected county dog catcher, much less President of the United States of America.
On the other hand: Don’t be a coward. You don’t like what’s going on? Quit.
Publicly, with this opinion piece being your resignation letter.
Too many people are being too damn meek about pushing back against Trump and, sadly, this goes for both Democrats and, most especially, Republicans.
It’s frightening to think that there are people working for Trump who ignore his directives or, as the op-ed piece states, even remove papers with Presidential policies from his desk before he can make them official and/or implement them.
…or perhaps its one of those “road to hell is paved with good intention” type stories.
A woman named Kate McClure was driving along an interstate and her car ran out of gas. A homeless ex-Marine named Johnny Bobbitt approached her car and offered to go out to get her gas, which he did.
A friendship was made and McClure posted her appreciation for the man’s help. She set up a GoFundMe page to help the man and, along with her husband, kept in touch with him.
People reacted positively to the heartwarming story, contributing $400,000 to help the man get himself off the streets.
Then, things went bad.
The McClures, it is alleged by Mr. Bobbitt, kept those funds mostly to themselves, giving Mr. Bobbitt only a fraction of the money he was entitled to. Lawsuits followed and now it appears the money is all gone, allegedly spend by the McClures.
From gizmodo.com and written by Rhett Jones, the whole sordid saga:
After an unexpectedly stormy Labor Day weekend due to what became Tropical Storm Gordon (take care up there in the coast!), we turn our attention to what is for me the biggest love/hate relationship I have:
Football.
I like the game. Quite a bit. It’s emotional, draining, perplexing, and surprisingly strategic given it is also a show of force/speed.
On the other hand, a part of me notes that its a brutal game that is proving itself to be more than just something that wears and tears athlete’s bodies: It hurts their brain as well and, I do feel, in time this sport will face a reconning in this respect, and who knows if it will survive.
Having said all that, I first became a fan of the sport during Dan Marino’s first year with the Dolphins (don’t look that year up… I beg you, I’m that old!) and have been a Dolphin fan ever since.
Sadly, once coach Don Shula left and Marino retired (another very long time ago), the Dolphins have been stuck in a mediocre cycle. They usually win just enough games to get a mid-first round pick, but are never quite awful enough (though there was that one year) to get some really good picks. And when they do pick, it seems like the football Gods are against them and the people they pick may be OK or terrible, but rarely really, really great. Of course, there are exceptions, but it is what it is.
So with Football season about to begin, one looks at the prognosticators and, if you’re a Dolphin fan, you check out the Dolphin’s place compared to all other teams for this year and, if you’re on CNN’s Bleacher Report you find…
