Greetings to all! I hope you'll join us for the next installment of
the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, an online gathering of bloggers who love
books. The next meeting is set for Friday, June 26th. If you're
interested, please sign on to the link list at the end of this post.
The
idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best
book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers
doing the same. In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share
our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers. Please join us:
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.
In the 1980s, soccer's popularity in the United States was growing by leaps and bounds. With the simultaneous rise of youth soccer and cable television, more Americans than ever were becoming aware of a sport with which much of the rest of humanity was already dangerously obsessed. Exposure to the world's game - known by most as football - brought knowledge of its darker side: hooligans, especially English hooligans. Football-related violence in England was, we were told, epidemic and uncontrollable. No American journalist - indeed, perhaps no journalist of any nationality - went to greater lengths to learn about English hooligans than Bill Buford.
Buford spent most of the decade embedding himself in hooligan culture, particularly the Manchester United "firm" known as the Inter-City Jibbers. Among the Thugs was the end result, a highly disturbing chronicle of the excesses of an unchecked mob. Buford endured riots and police beatings in his quest to understand the mentality behind the phenomenon. As upsetting as the gory details frequently are, the book's ultimate power lies in Buford's startling conclusions about the group psychology of the crowd. In essence, the rioting mob is not the other. It is us.
This was my second Buford book. Heat, his exploration of the culinary world, is far less gruesome. In both cases, his commitment to the project is uncompromising.
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 June's tomorrow. Meetings are the last
Friday of each month. Next gathering is June 26th.
My friends and I are embarking on a new journey to watch all 22 episodes of Star Trek's animated series. We'll be posting on Wednesdays. All are welcome to join us for all or parts of our adventure.
Episode: "The Ambergris Element"
Series: Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season 1, Episode 13
Original Air Date: December 1, 1973
In this week's story, our heroes visit the water world of Argo. Kirk and Spock are captured by the native Aquans and subjected to genetic mutation, becoming water-breathers. Ambergris refers to a substance derived from Earth's sperm whales, similar to one found in the Aquans' bloodstream. Writer/producer D.C. Fontana has frequently cited this episode as Exhibit A for a story that could never have been produced for the live action show.
My sage friend Geo. often points out Trek's allusions to the inter-generational conflicts of its era and "The Ambergris Element" is an excellent example. The older Aquans harbor deep-seeded prejudice against surface dwellers and would have been perfectly happy to let Kirk and Spock drown. Meanwhile, the younger generation strives for greater tolerance and understanding.
Rila is a Junior Tribune on the Ruling Tribunal of the Aquans. She is our friends' most important advocate, speaking on their behalf publicly and aiding them secretly when they are left on the surface to die. She was voiced by Majel Barrett.
If you would care to join us for all or part of our travels, sign on to the list below. Please visit the other participants. Next week: "The Slaver Weapon."
With summer approaching, we have resumed our Family Book Swap. Castle in the Air was my daughter's book for me. Diana Wynne Jones is her favorite author, her devotion reaching the point where her teacher had to encourage her to try other books for the sake of variety. I read Howl's Moving Castle a couple of years ago and was curious about this companion story so I was delighted she chose it for me.
Abdullah is a carpet merchant. One day, a man sells him a magic carpet, one that not only flies but has an uncanny knack for making Abdullah's daydreams come true. He is whisked away to a beautiful garden where he meets Flower-in-the-Night, the Sultan's daughter (though he doesn't learn that bit until later). The two fall in love. The trouble begins when she is kidnapped by a djinn and Abdullah is compelled to run after her.
As it turns out, the djinn and his brother have nabbed a whole slew of princesses, though clearly without fully considering the implications of trying to control 30 willful women together in one room. The Howl characters do turn up over time but it takes a while. The energy of the story certainly picks up once they do, perhaps even drowning out the Abdullah adventure. Even so, I did enjoy the book and am curious about the third volume of the Howl series, House of Many Ways.
Raina Telgemeier wins again. The author/artist of Smile and Drama is a superstar among the preteen set. Not long ago, one of my students - a twelve-year-old girl - expressed surprise and snarky amusement that I knew these books. Granted, as an adult male, I am not the target demographic. But I do appreciate quality. Telgemeier's work is top notch and always a big hit with my daughter, too.
Sisters is her latest release, an autobiographical account of a family road trip from her childhood. As the title implies, the story focuses on Raina's relationship with her younger sister, Amara. But of course, that dynamic exists within a broader family context and not all is well between mom and dad.
For me, the main selling point of Telgemeier's work is the believability of her characters. Few writers possess the skill to present children, particularly adolescents, as the nuanced entities they truly are. Yes, we all know they can be moody, bratty, insecure, shallow and it's easy enough to write them that way. But the basic frustration of being in between and neither is more elusive. The kids in Telgemeier's books always feel like people I have known, or even people I have been.
The sibling relationship was central to my own adolescent experience. In the global sense we were peers but the difference between 13-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy was a yawning gap indeed. By the time my own pubescent journey began, hers was essentially over. And just as in the Raina/Amara tale, the differences were never more keenly felt than during a family vacation - in our case, a trip to Europe. Interestingly, in both their trip and ours, a teddy bear played a memorable role.
If you don't know Telgemeier's work yet, you should really get on that, especially if you have preteens milling about your home or classroom. And don't get duped into thinking they're "girl books." I don't think it matters which one you pick first. Smile is also autobiographical but the two stories are independent of one another. I was less impressed by her adaptation of the Baby-Sitters Club series but my daughter enjoys them.
Ladies and gentlemen, my friend Andrew Leon and I are embarking on a new adventure: an exploration of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Every Tuesday, we will be featuring an episode from the series which began in 2008 (as opposed to the one that started in 2003). We'll begin on June 2nd with "Ambush." As with my Star Trek TAS project, others are welcome to join us for all or parts of the fun. The sign up list is below.
This requires a bit of housekeeping on my end. In an effort to avoid blogger burnout, I try to limit my posts to a reasonable weekly number. As such, I'm going to take a break from my family adventure posts on Sunday nights, beginning this coming week. With Mock Squid Soup going well, I'll still have a hand in movie reviews - just on a monthly basis rather than weekly.
My friends and I are embarking on a new journey to watch all 22 episodes of Star Trek's animated series. We'll be posting on Wednesdays. All are welcome to join us for all or parts of our adventure.
Episode: "The Time Trap"
Series: Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season 1, Episode 12
Original Air Date: November 24, 1973
During a tumble with the Klingons, the Enterprise stumbles into Saragasso Sea, a cosmic Bermuda Triangle. Over centuries, dozens of other ships have been drawn into this graveyard and the survivors' descendants have built their own idyllic, multi-species society, governed by the Elysian Council. One of the Klingon ships fell into the vortex with them. Our friends and their adversaries find they must work together in order to escape back to their own dimension.
Much of the fun of this story is in revisiting several of the alien races the Enterprise encountered in the original series. The Elysian Council includes an Orion (first seen by viewers in "The Menagerie, Part II"), an Andorian ("Journey to Babel"), a Tellarite ("Journey to Babel") and a Gorn ("Arena") among others. "The Time Trap" also sees the return of the Klingon Commander Kor ("Errand of Mercy"), voiced here by James Doohan. The reluctant cooperation between Federation and Klingons is well in keeping with the moral compass of the franchise.
Commander Kuri heads one of the Klingon ships in the early tussle. His image was reused footage - a common Filmation trick - of Koloth from the TAS episode "More Trouble, More Tribbles." He was voiced by George Takei.
If you would care to join us for all or part of our travels, sign on to the list below. Please visit the other participants. Next week: "The Ambergris Element."
I loved the Paddington books as a child. How could one resist a polite, unassuming, marmalade loving bear who makes both friends and trouble with equal ease? I got a boxed-set of five volumes for Christmas one year. They were read aloud to me before I read them myself. I have a particularly fond memory of my mother not being able to make it through the chapter about Paddington on a game show ("Paddington Hits the Jackpot") because she was laughing so hard.
Most of the basic elements of the movie are familiar to any fan of the books. A bear from Darkest Peru finds himself at Paddington Station in London. He is taken in by the Browns, a respectable family who live in Windsor Gardens. They name him for the place where they found him. While it would have been perfectly acceptable to me for the film to reflect the episodic mishap adventures of the books, the filmmakers saw fit to add some padding. The movie includes a more extensive back story for Paddington (unnecessary but acceptable) and a dark subplot of a museum taxidermist in pursuit of our furry friend (unnecessary and unacceptable). But even with the extra material, the film achieves a touching sweetness as the Browns gradually come to accept Paddington as a member of the family.
The film's animation is wonderful. An animated bear among live action humans is not exactly revolutionary in the post-Gollum world but there are other dazzling elements. A tree painted on the wall of the Browns' staircase changes with the seasons, both narrative and meteorological. A dollhouse in the attic opens to reveal the entire family home in miniature. On a toy train in Mr. Gruber's antique shop, we are witness to a formative moment from the proprietor's childhood. The music's great, too, much of it supplied by D Lime featuring Tobago Crusoe, a very well dressed Cuban street band.
I'm not a huge fan of the extra material but I enjoyed the movie anyway. I'd probably be up for a sequel, too, even though I'd still be hoping against hope for a closer reflection of the original work.
My friends and I are embarking on a new journey to watch all 22 episodes of Star Trek's animated series. We'll be posting on Wednesdays. All are welcome to join us for all or parts of our adventure.
Episode: "The Terratin Incident"
Series: Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season 1, Episode 11
Original Air Date: November 17, 1973
"The Terratin Incident" is an homage to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. While approaching an unknown planet, the Enterprise is attacked with an energy beam. The beam damages the all-important dilithium crystals and, even stranger, causes the crew to shrink. Thankfully, our friends discover in time that the transporter can help them revert to their original size. When Kirk beams down to the planet, he encounters a colony of Terratins, Earth descendants who, due to radiation, only grow to a sixteenth of an inch in size. Turns out, they were just trying to get the Enterprise's attention.
The shrinking is fun. My favorite part of the episode, though, is when the entire Terratin city is beamed aboard the ship, then picked up with one human hand.
Lieutenant Frank Gabler is one of Scotty's best engineers. "The Terratin Incident" marks the third of his four appearances in The Animated Series. Alan Dean Foster gave him his first name in a short story adaptation of "Once Upon a Planet." Gabler is voiced by James Doohan.
If you would care to join us for all or part of our travels, sign on to the list below. Please visit the other participants. Next week: "The Time Trap."
The Han Solo Adventures trilogy concludes with Han Solo and the Lost Legacy. In this tale, our favorite space cowboy and his companions embark on a treasure hunt, suggesting another popular character Harrison Ford played in the early '80s. Fights and chase scenes abound.
In the previous book, Han Solo's Revenge, Han had a run-in with a master gunslinger named Gallandro. The first encounter ended without a showdown but Gallandro is still on the hunt for our friend in this later book. He is, in many ways, a secondary character in both stories but ends up playing pivotal roles in both. While these are the only two Star Wars stories in which he appears, he is mentioned in several others. Plus, he had a daughter, Anja, who factors in the Young Jedi Knights book series.
Creating action figures for licensed material characters is, evidently, a significant sub-hobby within the Star Wars fandom. Here's one I found for Gallandro, by Kambei:
The Han Solo Adventures have been a lot of fun. Not a lot of Jedi hocus pocus on offer here, just good old-fashioned adventure tales. The Lando Calrissian Adventures await in my TBR shelves...
I was 13 when Roxanne first hit theaters and already a hopeless romantic. I didn't know a thing about Cyrano de Bergerac, the French play by Edmond Rostand upon which the movie is based. I was won over by the wit, the sweetness and the idea of wooing a woman with beautiful words. And, of course, there's that great scene with the 20 insults - worth the whole film.
Charlie (Steve Martin, also the screenwriter) is the fire chief in the small town of Nelson, Washington (actually British Columbia). He falls in love with Roxanne (Daryl Hannah), an astronomer spending the summer in town. Charlie, however, has a comically enormous nose that undermines his confidence. Scared off of pursuing Roxanne himself, he aids the advances of young, dim, hunky Chris (Rick Rossovich) by writing letters and feeding him lines. The proxy plan works only too well.
It had been years since I'd watched the movie. I have seen Cyrano in the meantime so I have a better understanding from that perspective. Fred Willard and Damon Wayans both have minor roles. It's fun to see them in younger, less famous days. However, the main thing I gained from this latest viewing was a greater appreciation for the location. The BC scenery is absolutely stunning as is the architecture of the town. Martin insisted on using the town's actual fire house interior and it's quite charming.
MOCK!
and The Armchair Squid are proud to present Mock Squid Soup: A Film
Society!
This month, everyone gets to throw a movie of
their own choice into the
pot. The trivia challenge worked out well so we shall do it again this month. The week
before our gathering, on Friday, June 5th, everyone
is invited to post three clues about his/her movie for others to guess.
Our next regular meeting is Friday, June 12th. No need to sign up
twice. I'll use the same link list for both. If you are interested in
joining us, please sign on to the list below.
MOCK! and The Armchair Squid
are proud to welcome you to Mock Squid Soup: A Film Society, meetings on the second Friday of each month. Last week, society members posted three clues as to their chosen film for the month. Today is the big reveal. A reminder on my clues:
- The director has directed over 20 movies from a variety of genres.
Perhaps his most enduring films are a couple of musicals from the early
1970s. This, however, is not a musical from the early '70s.
-
One of the actors was in the midst of a career transition from
television to film. While he wasn't quite there yet, in a few years, he
would become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. He wouldn't work
with the director again until 14 years later. But when he did, he was
nominated for an Oscar.
- The film's
score composer is a jazz titan. After dropping out of a fine liberal
arts college in rural Iowa, he caught on with the Miles Davis Quintet in
the 1960s. Over time, he became one of the world's premier electronic
jazz musicians.
Drum roll, please...
Title: A Soldier's Story
Director: Norman Jewison
Original Release: 1984
My Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Like many beautifully written movies, A Soldier's Story is based on a play: the Pulitzer-winning A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller. In 1944, Captain Richard Davenport (Howard E. Rollins), a JAG lawyer, is sent to investigate the murder of an African American sergeant on a segregated, Deep South army base. Davenport himself is the first black officer most of the soldiers have ever seen. The initial assumption is that the sarge (Adolph Caesar) was killed by the Klan but, of course, the truth proves more complicated.
The story gets right to the heart of the racial dynamics of late-War America. Expectations are high for civil rights prospects after the War but opinions diverge on how to achieve it, indeed even on what it means to be a black man. In the platoon, being on the wrong side of the issue meant being on the wrong side of the sarge and the potential price was high.
The writing is fantastic. The film is fraught with tension filled confrontation, often turning violent. Yet the most chilling scene finds the sarge staring at himself in a bar room mirror, telling tales of his World War I service.
Regarding the clues, several of you correctly guessed the composer, Herbie Hancock. And yes, he did drop out of Grinnell on his way to jazz greatness. Naturally, the school gave him an honorary degree years later anyway. My clue for the director was admittedly vague but I had hopes some might figure it out once they guessed the actor. Denzel Washington played a small role by his standards but a crucial one. In 1984, he still had four years to go on St. Elsewhere but the big screen accolades would come soon. His first Oscar nomination, for Cry Freedom, would come in 1987. His first win, for Glory, came in '89.
By request, we shall do the trivia teaser again for June. Choose your own movie. Post three clues the week before: Friday, June 5th. The next regular meeting is Friday, June 12th. I'll post the sign up list
tomorrow. In the meantime, please visit this month's participants:
My friends and I are embarking on a new journey to watch all 22 episodes of Star Trek's animated series. We'll be posting on Wednesdays. All are welcome to join us for all or parts of our adventure.
Episode: "Mudd's Passion"
Series: Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season 1, Episode 10
Original Air Date: November 10, 1973
I am not a fan of Harry Mudd. "Mudd's Passion" is the third and final Star Trek episode to feature the interstellar scoundrel/pimp/pusher/con man. The two TOS episodes - "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd" - and this one were all written by Stephen Kandel. This time, Mudd is hawking a love potion that actually works... or so it seems. The story has amusing moments but I had a hard time getting past the unappealing guest star.
*****
TAS's main title theme was composed by Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael. Both of those names are pseudonyms.
Yvette Blais was born Ray Ellis on July 28, 1923 in Philadelphia. His varied career included arranging and producing for the likes of Billie Holiday, Johnny Mathis and Bobby Darin. His television credits are extensive. As the main composer for Filmation, the studio which produced TAS, he provided music for such Saturday morning fare as The Brady Kids, Shazam! and Fat Albert. Yvette Blais was actually his wife's name. Ellis died in 2008 from complications due to melanoma.
Jeff Michael began life as Norman Zachary Pransky, though professionally, he used the name Norm Prescott. He was born January 31, 1927 in Boston. Primarily a television producer, he was actually one of the co-founders of Filmation. Jeff and Michael were the names of his sons. As Norm Prescott, he also occasionally provided his voice talents to TAS. He and co-producer Lou Scheimer won a Daytime Emmy for the show, the first such award claimed by any Star Trek series. Prescott died in 2005 from natural causes.
If you would care to join us for all or part of our travels, sign on to the list below. Please visit the other participants. Next week: "The Terratin Incident."
Title: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Directors: Larry Morey, David Hand, Ben Sharpsteen, Wilfred Jackson, Perce Pearce and William Cottrell
Original Release: 1937
Choice: Mine
My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5
By 1937, animation had already been a part of the film industry for a long time, a news reel and a cartoon serving as standard appetizers to the main feature. But Snow White was a revolution, the world's first full-length cel animated feature. The movie, very briefly the highest-grossing picture of all time, kicked Walt Disney and his studio up to the big leagues.
In 2015, we are deep into the Pixar Age in which computer animation continually strives for hyper-reality. One might expect an older, slower relic like Snow White to disappoint. Guess again. From the opening frame of the castle atop a mountain, the audience is drawn into a lush fantasy world of soft focus and brilliant color. The only sharp line is the one between good and evil. Reality was grim for most people in the late '30s. The dreamworld strove to provide an escape from, not an enhancement of, that reality.
The story is well-known, based on the Grimm fairy tale. An evil queen is jealous of her pure and beautiful stepdaughter, Snow White. The queen commands a huntsman to kill the princess but he cannot bring himself to do it. The girl escapes to a cottage inhabited by seven bachelor dwarfs. While in hiding, Snow White dreams of love but the queen is hatching a new plan.
Disney's Snow White owes much of its legacy to the songs, all written by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. "Heigh Ho" and "Whistle While You Work" are both classics. The crown jewel is "Some Day My Prince Will Come," a well-established jazz standard. I'm not a huge fan of Adriana Caselotti, the uncredited voice of Snow White - rather shrill, an example of an unfortunate style of the era. More satisfying is Harry Stockwell, the uncredited voice of The Prince.
Today, as an added treat for this month's edition of Mock Squid Soup, all society members are invited to post three hints about their film choice for the month. All are welcome to guess, of course. Here are the three clues for my movie:
- The director has directed over 20 movies from a variety of genres. Perhaps his most enduring films are a couple of musicals from the early 1970s. This, however, is not a musical from the early '70s.
- One of the actors was in the midst of a career transition from television to film. While he wasn't quite there yet, in a few years, he would become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. He wouldn't work with the director again until 14 years later. But when he did, he was nominated for an Oscar.
- The film's score composer is a jazz titan. After dropping out of a fine liberal arts college in rural Iowa, he caught on with the Miles Davis Quintet in the 1960s. Over time, he became one of the world's premier electronic jazz musicians.
Any guesses? Society reviews will be posted next Friday, May 8th. See you then. Meanwhile, please visit my fellow cinephiles today:
