The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: January 2014

Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the tomes they enjoyed most over the previous month.  Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun.  If you wish to add your own review to the conversation, please sign on to the link list at the end of my post.

Title: Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story
Writer and Artist: Peter Bagge

via Drawn & Quarterly

As discussed previously (here), I generally try to avoid both politics and religion on my blog.  However, the intersections of those spheres with the arts are numerous and inevitable.  If I can write about Israel/Palestine without ruffling too many feathers, surely I can manage the same with birth control, right?

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) opened the first birth control clinic in America.  She was an outspoken international advocate for women's reproductive rights and many of the organizations she established eventually evolved into Planned Parenthood.  While current public perception of that entity might lead one to expect otherwise, Sanger was firmly anti-abortion.  Her mission was preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place, especially for women in poverty.

I will admit upfront that I'd never heard of Margaret Sanger before My Wife bought this book, a biography in graphic novel form.  While I certainly found her to be an admirable person, I have issues with the comic book treatment of her life.  For starters, the story moves too quickly, decades covered over the course of a few pages.  There are extensive notes at the end of the book for those eager to learn more but 20 pages of footnotes for a 72-page story is bassackwards by my reckoning.  Also, Bagge's artistic style is too caricature-esque for the serious subject matter.  Comics can work for darker topics - Maus, Palestine, Louis Riel - but matching the style to the content is crucial, just as it is with any book.

My petty gripes aside, I do think it's a good book and well worth reading.  Any frank discussion of responsible sex that's accessible for young readers is fine by me.  While Bagge's book only scratches the surface of the issue, it does provide a meaningful introduction.

Please join us and share your own review of your best read from the past month.  This month's link list is below.  I'll keep it open until the end of the day.  I'll post February's tomorrow.  Meetings are the last Friday of each month.  Next gathering is February 28th.

Star Trek: This Side of Paradise

Episode: "This Side of Paradise"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 1, Episode 24
Original Air Date: March 2, 1967

via Memory Alpha

One criticism of Star Trek's original series, particularly from Trekkies who prefer The Next Generation, is that characters are not as well developed as in later series.  Few of the episodes provide insight into our heroes' back stories or deeper motivations.  However, from time to time, the unusual circumstances of a given narrative pull the players out of their usual elements and reveal well-guarded truths about their basic natures.  "This Side of Paradise" is such a story.

The Enterprise visits the planet Omicron Seti III, site of a recently established Federation colony.  Unbeknownst to the original settlers, the planet is flooded with deadly Perthoid rays.  As such, it is assumed that the colonists had all perished but the landing party discovers survivors - and darn happy ones at that!  Apparently, they are living under the controlling influence of plants which also protect them from the rays.  I expect the story was a less than subtle dig at the counterculture/flower power demographic of the era.

One by one, crew members are sprayed by the flowers and submit to their influence.  When Spock is sprayed, we see the First Officer smile for the first time since the pilot.  As an added bonus, one of the settlers happens to be an ex-girlfriend (!!!) of Spock's, played by Jill Ireland.  Our half-Vulcan friend proves to be quite the romantic at heart.

Before the power of the plants is fully understood, a few specimens are naively transported back to the Enterprise, where they infect the crew.  All but Kirk abandon ship in favor of a blissful existence on the planet's surface.  The episode's most poignant scene finds the captain alone on the bridge, coming to terms with his dire situation.  He sounds almost like an empty nester when he says "I'm beginning to realize just how big this ship really is."

*****

via Memory Alpha

Jill Ireland was born April 24, 1936 in London.  For better or worse, most of her high-profile work came starring opposite her husbands.  She married David McCallum in 1957.  The two appeared together in several episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  In 1967, the couple divorced.  The following year, Ireland married Charles Bronson, with whom she appeared in several films.

Ireland was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 and became a strong public advocate for the American Cancer Society.  She published two books about her struggle and testified before Congress.  The disease claimed her life in 1990.

Family Movie Night: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Title: Breakfast at Tiffany's
Director: Blake Edwards
Original Release: 1961
Choice: Mine
My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Breakfast at Tiffany's was almost certainly Audrey Hepburn's most famous movie.  Her image on the poster in the slinky black dress with the 20-inch long cigarette holder is one of the greatest icons in all of film.  Yet she considered Holly Golightly to be one of her most challenging roles.  A natural introvert, the larger than life Holly took Hepburn far beyond her own comfort zone.

Based on Truman Capote's novella of the same name, Breakfast at Tiffany's is hilarious and heartbreaking all at the same time.  Holly is a society girl in New York, living off of the generosity of her dates - not quite a prostitute and not quite a kept woman either as she never seems to sleep with any of them.  Paul (George Peppard), most definitely a kept man himself, moves in upstairs. The two become friends and gradually fall in love. 

My favorite scene is the only one that actually takes place inside the jewelry store Tiffany's.  Out on a day of adventure, Holly and Paul are in search of a $10 gift.  The exchange with the store clerk, played by John McGiver in a brilliant dead-pan, is hysterically funny.

The story and characters are tied together wonderfully in the movie's musical theme, the song "Moon River" by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer.  I'm a sucker for Huck Finn references and the song is dripping with them.  Are Holly and Paul equal to Huck and Jim on the raft?  Well, no.  But the lonely romance of life's journey is certainly a shared theme for the two stories.

Multi-generational considerations:

• Mickey Rooney's portrayal of cranky neighbor I.Y. Yunioshi is obnoxious, offensive, ridiculous, inappropriate, insensitive and just about any other negative adjective you could heap on to the pile.  There's just no getting around it.  It was wrong in 1961 and it's wrong now.  We stopped the movie to talk about offensive stereotypes when he first came on screen.
• We also warned Our Girl ahead of time that Holly is not always very nice to her cat.

Australian Open 2014: Wawrinka!

via Wikipedia

Stanislas Wawrinka (8th seed, Switzerland) is the Australian Open champion.  There shall be no asterisk.  He was dominating the final match even before Nadal's back problems.  Stan played the tournament of his life, the first man in 20 years to beat both of the top two seeds at a Major.  For the first time in over four years, a man outside the Big Four has won a Slam.  Perhaps most amazingly of all, on Monday, Roger Federer will be only the second-ranked Swiss player in the world.  Tennis has a new story.

Nadal missed this chance to catch Pete Sampras on the all-time Slams list but he seems likely to take care of that in Paris in June.  He missed last year's Aussie entirely so his trip to the final secures the top ranking for the foreseeable future.  Hopefully, the back situation isn't serious and he'll be ready to go in time for Indian Wells in March.

via Wikipedia

All famous athletes, perhaps all famous people, should be like Na Li (4th seed, China), the women's champion.  Please enjoy her post-final speech here.  She is the most likeable player on tour, no contest.  This was her second Slam title, virtually ensuring her enshrinement in the Hall of Fame one day.  Tennis is booming in Asia and the sport could not ask for a more charismatic ambassador.

On the Coffee Table: The Joy of Rice

Title: Oishinbo: A la Carte - 
- Volume 5: Vegetables
- Volume 6: The Joy of Rice
Writer: Tetsu Kariya
Artist: Akira Hanasaki

via Paper Chimes

I have always loved rice.  Growing up with parents who had spent most of their young adult lives in Asia, I suppose it's not surprising that the starch of choice at the dinner table was frequently steamed white rice.  From an early age, I could never get enough, soy sauce my favorite dressing, though I've learned to appreciate other options over time.  We got a fantastic rice cooker as a wedding present and it is one of the most frequently used appliances in our kitchen.

Rice is the heart of Japanese cuisine, period.  The olfactory connection between my love of the food and my love of the place is very powerful indeed.  As such, Volume 6 of the Oishinbo: A la Carte series was a very easy sell.  (I have previously reviewed installments of this long-running food manga both here and here.)  The stories in this collection explore the broad impact of rice on Japanese society: economic, cultural, historical, environmental, etc.

The most mouth-watering tale for me is the three-issue long Rice Ball Match, in which onigiri are explored.  I think of onigiri as train food.  I'd usually grab one or two at the station convenience store before a long train ride.  The salmon ones were my favorite.  I didn't care so much for the other popular option, umeboshi (pickled plum).  My Wife read this book first and was inspired to try onigiri.  Fortunately, there's a relatively new restaurant in Burlington, called Bento, that specializes in Japanese comfort foods: onigiri, miso soup, bento boxes and so forth.  It's not quite what I remember from Japan but it's not half-bad for northwest Vermont.

via Amazon

Last summer, I read Volume 5 - Vegetables.  I wasn't as impressed by that one which is why I didn't blog about it.  Part of the problem was personal taste.  I'll eat vegetables but they're not usually the inspiring part of a meal for me.  Also, the protagonist's rival and father played a more prominent role in that collection and that aspect of the story grows tiresome for me.  I am, however, very excited to read Volume 7 - Izakaya: Pub Food.  While the thing I miss most about Japan is the trains, second place would definitely go to the bars and the food is an essential aspect of that culture.

Star Trek: A Taste of Armageddon

Episode: "A Taste of Armageddon"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 1, Episode 23
Original Air Date: February 23, 1967

via Memory Alpha

"A Taste of Armageddon" is a dystopian narrative.  The Enterprise travels to Eminar VII in hopes of establishing diplomatic relations.  Upon arrival, our heroes learn that the Eminans are at war with the nearby planet of Vendikar.  However, the war is fought entirely by computers - essentially an interplanetary video game.  Here's the catch, though: citizens of each world must submit to execution in order to meet the resulting casualty totals.  To complicate matters further, the Enterprise has been caught in the virtual crossfire and Captain Kirk is expected to turn over his crew for sacrificial disintegration.

*****

via Memory Alpha

David Opatoshu played the role of Anan 7, leader of Eminar VII's planetary council.  He was born David Opatovsky on January 30, 1918 in New York City.  His father, Joseph Opatoshu, was a Yiddish writer.

The younger Opatoshu had a television career which extended for over 40 years, first appearance in 1949.  In 1963, he co-starred with Trek's James Doohan (Scotty) in a Twilight Zone episode entitled "Valley of the Shadow." He won an Emmy in 1991 for a guest appearance on Gabriel's Fire.

He had an interesting and varied career on the big screen as well.  He performed in 1939's The Light Ahead, filmed entirely in Yiddish.  In 1958, he had a supporting role in The Brothers Karamozov alongside William Shatner.  As a writer, he adapted one of his father's novels, Romance of a Horse Thief, for the screen.

Family Movie Night: An American in Paris

Title: An American in Paris
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Original Release: 1951
Choice: Our Girl's
My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

As discussed in my Singin' in the Rain post, Our Girl is a big Gene Kelly fan.  We had introduced An American in Paris to her a few years ago, just as her interest in dance was starting to take off, though we hadn't watched it in quite a long time.  A winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture, An American Paris is a dazzling film both visually and musically. 



The story is inspired by the music of George Gershwin, particularly his great orchestral composition of the same name. Jerry Mulligan (Kelly) is an ex-GI who stayed on in Paris after the war to pursue an art career.  He's got woman troubles.  Heiress Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) is an enthusiastic champion of his work but is clearly interested in more than just his brushstrokes.  The object of his own pursuit is Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron).  Alas, Lise is involved with another man, eventually revealed to be Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary), a successful singer and a friend of Mulligan's.  Meanwhile, mutual pal Adam Cook (Oscar Levant) mopes as he burns his way up and down the keyboard.

The love story's cute enough, but not the main selling point for the film.  That said, one refreshing difference with An American in Paris is that the romantic rivals, Milo and Henri, are both appealing and sympathetic.  They deserve happiness as much as the two leads do and one hopes in the end that they might find each other.

The strengths of the film are aesthetic - visually stunning, snatching up Oscars for art, cinematography and costumes.  Colors are vibrant and meaningfully implemented.  The music, of course, is top notch with the three men all applying considerable talent to the Gershwin classics.  Kelly choreographed the dancing, the highlight of which is a 16-minute ballet in the movie's final act.  Unlike Debbie Reynolds in Singin' in the Rain, Caron is perfectly capable of holding her own with Kelly on the dance floor.