tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23121616935053894172024-02-21T04:30:27.898-05:00Temporary KnuckslineCharlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comBlogger579125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-60120075346300717192018-11-20T13:57:00.001-05:002018-11-20T14:00:44.262-05:00Book Reviews: The Last Woman in the Forest ... In the House of Wilderness ... Ten-Seven ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong><em>The Last Woman in the Forest</em></strong>, Diane Les Becquets … I probably learned more about the wilderness and endangered wildlife, the rescue dogs used to work the territories, and several other science-based tidbits of life in the wild from this one novel than I’ve known over my collective 62 years, all of it fascinating, but it is the story that turns the pages.</div>
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Marian Engström, a woman already familiar and in love with wildlife, works with rescue dogs in the upper reaches of Alberta. She’s there to help preserve and save wildlife, taking samples of droppings for analysis. It’s no walk in the park. Between the weather, the snow, the treacherous terrain, it can be as dangerous as mountain climbing with toothpicks to both the dogs and the people doing the work. She’s paired up with a guy who knows his business and is a solid teacher. Marian is attracted to his knowledge and demeanor, and eventually winds up in a relationship with him. Tate is his name, and he’s a man with a somewhat mysterious past. Marian loves Tate before long, but then they are separated by their jobs, each getting a different assignment. It’s during their time apart when she learns of his sudden death from a bear attack.</div>
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She’s overwhelmed by the news, but she soon learns about a few unsolved murders of women that may or may not have been committed by the man she loved. When she begins to do her own research, Marian learns that much of what Tate had told her about his past requires further investigation.</div>
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The more she pokes and prods into Tate’s background, in her attempt to clear his name and free her mind of what or who she might’ve been in love with, the darker things become. Consumed by the thoughts she’s having about what Tate might have been, she approaches a retired forensic profiler who is already familiar with the missing women.</div>
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Nick Shepard is the retired profiler, a man suffering from cancer. He knows the profiles of people, especially women, vulnerable to the kinds of manipulation serial sociopaths prey on. They are often trusting and eager for love, to give and be loved. Marian fits the profile, but there’s the chance Tate isn’t a killer, and she goes from wanting to know to having to know.</div>
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We’re also provided with the individual stories of the missing women and what happened to them. A composite profile is there, but can Nick survive long enough to inform Marian? Can Marian survive? Was Tate the killer?</div>
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Her pursuit of the truth is a compelling read, as is the back and forth frames of reference. Marian’s story is told in varying time references, including the stories of the missing women, from before she first met Tate to her present-day struggles with what happened and who he might’ve been. It’s clever writing that keeps one engaged throughout. </div>
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Les Becquets’s last novel, Breaking Wild, was a wonderful book, one of my favorites the year it was published. This one is a terrific chaser. You’ll turn the pages and investigate side-by-side with both Marian and Nick.</div>
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I suspect women especially will appreciate the strength and determination of Marian’s struggle to find the truth, but make no mistake, this man enjoyed every page of this thriller.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Woman-Forest-Diane-Becquets/dp/0399587047">Get <strong><em>The Last Woman in the Forest</em></strong> here</a>: </div>
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<strong><em>In the House of Wilderness</em></strong>, Charles Dodd Wright … One of the very best books I’ve read this or any other year. Charles Dodd Wright is a brilliant author, and although the terrain he offers his readers couldn’t be more foreign to a city boy like myself, the cadence and rhythm of his writing kept me mesmerized. </div>
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His novel here involves three drifters constantly on the move. Their home is wherever they can find refuge. Their possessions are what they can carry. Rain is the woman we follow. She is caught in a triangulation of survival within the closed family. She was once mesmerized by the survivalist, Wolf. Rain isn’t her real name. It is her chosen name. Rain is one wife, the “Little Bit,” but there’s another wife, an older woman named Winter, a woman who’d been with Wolf before Rain. The family of three struggle to survive off the grid, except when desperation requires a quick hit back onto the grid. Whether seeking shelter, coin, or a victim who might help them sustain their chosen way of life, desperation exists around every corner. Their life on the move is an extra raw deal for both Rain and Winter, because Wolf will put them on the street to secure coin for food and/or temporary lodging.</div>
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One day Rain is sent on a sustenance errand to town for groceries and beer. She is looking to hitch a ride back to the family campsite and winds up taking a ride from a man named Stratton Bryant. Although she’s initially suspicious, Rain finds his offer to drive her a measure of kindness. It is a kindness foreign to the world Wolf has created for her; a kindness he’s purposely shielded her from. Unfortunately, the desperation of surviving the wilderness leads the family of three to the house where Stratton lives while he is away. Wolf and his wives take what they can, but Rain doesn’t partake in any of the excessive damage Wolf seems to enjoy. Rain does take a photo Stratton’s wife had taken and keeps it close.</div>
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Stratton is a recent widower and a professor. His wife was a photographer of significance and he’s been asked to give her works away. He’s a man with the same insecurities and desires as most men, and when Rain returns to the scene of the crime, apologizes, and then offers to help him around the house as reparation, Stratton takes her in and offers her what she’s never had, a semblance of stability. </div>
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Stratton’s world involves other people, the connections necessary to life. They are connections Rain has yet to experience, and those Wolf has avoided at all costs. Rain sees Wolf’s tiny world for what it is, for what it has been, and when the timing is right, she escapes.</div>
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The eloquence of the author’s narrative is a marvel. It is a pleasure to read his words, the cadence and poetic fluidity keep one’s eyes moving forward. Within a few paragraphs of the book’s opening, I felt I was there, in Appalachia, in East Tennessee, in a world I’m completely unfamiliar with, yet drawn to word by word, sentence by sentence. </div>
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There’s more to the novel as Rain’s life takes a turn for the better, meeting friends of Stratton’s, a girlfriend at the school she’s enrolled in, and a young man she has a relationship with, a young man ultimately too young to handle her past, but it is a turn outside of the world Wolf can accept. Their stories run a parallel line that eventually meet yet again.</div>
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No spoilers here, but this writer has the chops guys like me can only wish we were born with. He easily vaults to a category of author I consider top of the line. He joins a group of new favorites and old: Chris Offutt, Joseph Haske, Cormac McCarthy, Lynn Kostoff, etc., writers I wish I could be. I’ve ordered a collection of White’s stories and intend to read everything he’s penned.</div>
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In the House of Wilderness is an excellent read by a brilliant author. Under no circumstances should you pass this one up.</div>
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And thanks to Gonzalo Baeza for reading recommendations that never fail.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/House-Wilderness-Charles-Dodd-White/dp/0804012105/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542740087&sr=1-1&keywords=In+the+house+of+wilderness">Get <strong><em>In the House of Wilderness </em></strong>here</a>: </div>
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<strong><em>Ten-Seven</em></strong>, Dana King.</div>
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With an opening chapter that sets the hook deep, Dana King maintains the streak of Penns River successes with Ten-Seven. The old gang is back: Ben “Doc” Dougherty; his boss, Stush Napierkowski; and the kid he helped saved a few books back, Wilver Faison. So is perennial pain the ass bureaucrat, Deputy Chief Jack Harriger, and a slew of references that make knowing the prior books all the more pleasurable, although not necessary to enjoy this one.</div>
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That opening chapter (the hook) is set with a sudden and brutal murder. There were witnesses, two women friends of the victim who were sitting in his car, when Doug Stirnweiss bought it in the parking lot of the casino they’d just left as a group. Both recall an incident at the blackjack table where Doug was sitting with another man and breaking his balls. Could the guy at the table have been the murderer? Could a police case come together that easily?</div>
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Good old police grunt work, questioning those inside the casino and out, provide leads that quickly go nowhere. An incident involving drugs changes their direction and maybe puts Doc and his fellow law enforcement on the right track, but overzealousness can lead to tragedy and does.</div>
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And then there’s Mike Mannarino, the local made guy with connections to New York. His crew is down to two wiseguys and a few spinoff associates, but there’s trouble Mr. Mannarino didn’t account for, and he becomes the intended victim of an attempted hit. </div>
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Or was he the intended victim? Was it from New York? Someplace else? Should he flee the area or try and dupe the big boys back East, and maybe flee to Chicago?</div>
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In the midst of a rough week, Doc has to deal with a bridge jumper, an experience that can only go one of two ways, leaving an attempted rescuer euphoric for saving a life or dejected for losing one.</div>
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Consistently one of the best in the business. As good as any I’ve ever read. Dana King, to quote Don Kirkendall of the blog Men Reading Books, is “top shelf entertainment.” Ten-Seven keeps that ball rolling.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Seven-Penns-River-Crime-Novel/dp/1946502650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542740163&sr=1-1&keywords=10-7+dana+king">Get Ten-Seven here</a>:</div>
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- Charlie Stella<br />
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Anna Federova … <br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-58822633537865510772018-05-23T07:48:00.000-04:002018-05-23T07:48:21.778-04:00Book Reviews—Books by Jennifer Egan, Katherine Faw (2), Willy Vlautin, and William Boyle—and the Holocaust Card.Amici: Reviews, not necessarily in the order I read them, and certainly not in any other order. I enjoyed them all, except for one, and even that featured some excellent writing.<br />
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<strong><em>The Lonely Witness</em></strong>, William Boyle … A fun trip in and around Brooklyn that brought back many memories, including a “go shit in your hat” by an elderly lady (that was Momma Stella’s favorite retort to pretty much anything I teased her about). The lonely witness is Amy Falconetti, a woman lost between the two lives she’s lived since her breakup with her partner, an actress from the same Brooklyn neighborhood now living in L.A. Amy witnessed one murder when she was younger, and when the stars align shortly after the start of this story, she witnesses another murder. She’s been doing good deeds as a Eucharistic Minister for the elderly in her neighborhood, a 180 on her old life as a party-loving bartender. She hasn’t given him up. In fact, she did worse after the witnessed murder—she took the knife and was with the victim, a guy she’s had an issue with earlier over his possible stealing from one of the elderly ladies Amy spends time with. Amy winds up stalking the killer until he recognizes her and a new dilemma presents itself. Two bolts from her past increase the drama: her long lost father shows up, a guy who abandoned her and her mother, and her old girlfriend, the L.A. actress. No spoilers here. Boyle is an excellent writer, and his knowledge of Brooklyn and a street life is obvious. Real good stuff from the author of Gravesend, his debut masterpiece.</div>
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<strong><em>Young God </em></strong>by Katherine Faw … I enjoyed this one even more than her second novel, which I read first (see below). Her style is staccato, narrative and dialogue, and the story moves quickly, yet is revealed with just enough spacing not to confuse. It compels instead, and you won’t want to put this one down. Nikki is 13 years old when we meet her, a point at which her mother commits suicide. She flees social services and finds her father, fresh out of the joint. Their relationship is raw, especially when Nikki learns her father has switched careers. He was once a fairly big cocaine dealer. Now he’s a pimp, with a sidetrack of dealing drugs and financing the buys by ripping off other dealers and pimps. When a new recruit to the world of pimping becomes a rape and murder victim of Coy (Nikki’s father), Nikki decides the black tar heroin business Coy has dipped his toes in is a business she needs to incorporate on her own. It’s a dark read, but if you’re into dark, this one is brilliant.</div>
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<strong><em>Manhattan Beach</em></strong>, Jennifer Egan … A wonderful start to what I wanted to remain a wonderful novel. The historical aspect and information was brilliant. The mixture of two forms of corruption—political and organized crime, when neither had to fear social media—was also brilliant. The characters were terrific … and then something happened that killed it for me. I won’t provide spoilers, but I was not a happy camper by an author’s decision that made me question it for several days. Why ______? Why?</div>
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Bottom line: It didn’t work (for me). Others might disagree, but national book award finalist? Please. Award nominations are more a testament to the politics of the publishing industry than anything else.</div>
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<strong><em>Ultraluminous</em></strong>, Katherine Faw … Reviews of this book comprised of vignettes, some as short as a sentence or two, intrigued me. I was upset when I started reading, but found myself drawn in little by little. The protagonist is a heroin addict and expensive prostitute with a cache of big money clients as arrogant as one might think. One likes to smack her around. She takes it. Another wants to own her for a year. She considers it. Another wants to hang on but might be losing his extracurricular cash. Her non-customer is a former veteran of Afghanistan who keeps a real cache of weapons in a locker in his shitty room. Our protagonist goes with him for free. This one has a mind-blowing ending that enhanced the investment tenfold. Very worth the coin you’ll spend … and it proves there’s more than one way to write a book. Great stuff.</div>
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<strong><em>The Motel Life</em></strong>, Willy Vlautin … A moving piece of fiction that inspired this writer in many ways. Straight writing, a story within a series of stories. Vluatin takes us on this journey through Frank and his hard luck brother, Jerry Lee. Frank works when he can and drinks more often. He’s blood loyal to his brother, a general fuck-up but a good artist. When Jerry Lee kills a kid while driving drunk, he’s devastated and terrified of winding up in the joint. He’s lost a leg jumping from a train, an injury that gets worse with the constant on-the-run life they lead. Frank takes them out of town and on a motel life journey that includes babysitting Jerry Lee with stories with happy endings, no matter how absurd. Brilliant start to finish. Need anything more to read this book?</div>
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If Manhattan Beach was an award nominee, The Motel Life should’ve won.<br />
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<strong>In current events … </strong><br />
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<strong>The End of the Holocaust Card …</strong> There were no rockets. No tunnels. No weapons outside of rocks, Molotov cocktails, and kites soaked in gasoline. What they faced were walls of razor wire and sniper rifles perched all along the wall and in towers, as well as drones dropping tear gas. The excuse that videos were “edited” and/or “spliced” no longer carried credibility. Neither did the never-ending excuse to maim and slaughter, the U.S. and Israeli word for the justification of war crimes, Hamas. These were Palestinian people protesting the insult of an embassy move by the United States, the longtime ally and accomplice of Israeli war crimes.</div>
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No, this time Israeli’s IDF was exposed for the murderous army they are. They killed an infant with tear gas, young teenagers with bullets, a legless man in a wheelchair (his legs below the knees lost from the last intifada). They shot a doctor aiding the wounded once in each leg. Some of the wounded and dead were shot in their backs.</div>
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No, there’s no excuse anymore. The holocaust Jews suffered during WWII, when the world watched too long before acting, is now being perpetrated in Gaza by Jews against the Palestinian people. There are no ovens, but there are firing squads and gas attacks, and an open air ghetto/prison where 97% of the water is poisoned. </div>
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<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/gaza-strip-unlivable-years-earlier-than-predicted-says-un-1.3153792"><strong>The UN warns conditions in Gaza are deteriorating more rapidly than forecast and the narrow coastal strip has reached the point of being unlivable three years earlier than predicted</strong></a>. </div>
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What Norman Finklestein has been preaching forever has now been confirmed for all to see. </div>
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Here Finklestein, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, refused to play the Holocaust card.</div>
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So “let the word go forth,” to quote an American president from the 1960s. Israel is engaging in crimes against humanity and no longer gets to use the holocaust as an excuse to commit genocide against the Palestinian people. It is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, and the United States is supporting that same genocide.</div>
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The holocaust card is now dead, unless you’re going to use it in defense of the people being exterminated today. As Finklestein says: “If you had any heart in you, you would be crying for the Palestinians …”</div>
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Further, calling critics of genocide and war crimes anti-Semitic holds the same credibility as calling the slaughter in Gaza last week “IDF restraint.”</div>
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- Knucks<br />
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Speaking of National Book awards and politics … Tom Waits … <em>Step Right Up.</em></div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-52627261637888908872018-02-18T11:36:00.000-05:002018-02-18T23:29:58.728-05:00Book Reviews … Bad Samaritan (Dana King), Jack Waters (Scott Adlerberg), Nothing Ever Dies (Viet Thanh Nguyen).Amici: A set of long overdue reviews ...<br />
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<strong><em>Bad Samaritan</em></strong>, Dana King … Right in time for the #MeToo movement, this brilliant Nick Forte novel starts with the protagonist providing a much needed lesson for a Rob Porter-like clown who slaps a woman. Then a successful female author writing under a pseudonym for the purpose of having a quiet, private life, shows up in need of an investigation into a series of letters she’s received that portend her being exposed as the novelist she actual is (Desiree d’Arnaud). The investigation into the potential blackmail letters introduces the wild and whack-job world of men’s rights activists, a collection of Neanderthals who believe they’re the ones getting the short end of the equality stick. Needless to say, it’s not the kind of activism with which Nick can relate.</div>
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Another investigation features a former hooker being blackmailed with a video from her prior life. Nick feels guilty for the death of the former hooker’s mom, and thus takes on Lily O’Donoghue’s case. After handling what appears to be the blackmailing scheme, Nick finds himself tangled with a Chicago gangster. Although Nick and the boss of the local syndicate have a past, it may not be enough to save himself from the mess he’s stepped into. There’s more to Lily, her past and present, than meets the eye.</div>
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Nick’s practice has become a bit more successful than we’re used to seeing in previous novels. The usual cast of characters (Sharon, Goose, Delbert, Sonny, Jan, and daughter Caroline) are back and as entertaining as ever.</div>
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In the midst of his investigations, Nick seeks to expand the office space. A stodgy tenant he shares the floor with is a bit of an ass and wants a favor for a bargaining chip.</div>
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The dialogue is sharp as a razor, and the action is what we’ve come to expect from one of the best in the business, Dana King. Bad Samaritan comes highly recommended. As Don Kirkendall of Men Reading Books told me the night we went to dinner in Perth Amboy a few months back, “That Dana King is just great.”</div>
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Listen to me: Don knows what he’s talking about. Go get this book.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Samaritan-Nick-Forte-Mystery/dp/1946502383"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>You can get Bad Samaritan here:</strong></span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<strong><em>Jack Waters</em></strong>, Scott Adlerberg … A professional gambler with a determined sense of honor. If you cheat Jack, you may wind up with a knife in your chest. Adlerberg’s history novel takes place almost forty years after the Civil War. It begins in Jack’s home state of Louisiana, where Waters is known as a respectable gambler who keeps to himself, but after catching a young man cheating at poker in Waters’s home, a fight erupts and ends when Jack kills the young man with his knife.</div>
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Forced to flee the states, Waters hops a boat that leaves him in a fictional Caribbean Island run by a sleazebag of a president, a military man, General Hernandez Garcia Napoles. Napoles is also a gambler, but he doesn’t like to lose, not ever, and especially not ever to a Gringo. Jack is mixed race, but not enough for some on the island to accept as one of their own. Warned not to play cards with the general, Jack gets too comfortable and makes the mistake of playing anyway. He wins big, but the general finds a way of not paying his debt, accusing Jack of supporting the rebels in the mountains.</div>
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Napoles finds his other pleasures with virgin women on the island, some as young as thirteen.</div>
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There’s a U.S. diplomat on the island, a drunk with a beautiful wife who finds her carnal pleasures outside her own home. When she finds one of the girls Napoles has disgraced, because the girl couldn’t stop bleeding, she takes issue with the general as well.</div>
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In the meantime, after first refusing to help the rebel guerillas because he’d rather play cards, Waters seeks their leader, Raoul, and joins their army.</div>
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He’s no Che, that’s for sure, but Waters does have a strong sense of right and wrong. What happens is some exciting stuff told in some smooth narrative and dialogue. A pleasure to read, start to finish.</div>
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Here’s a line I circled from page 205 because I really liked it a lot. “History was the word people used when they hoped to lend meaning to the arbitrary workings of chance…”</div>
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Also highly recommended. Go get this book, too. </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Waters-Scott-Adlerberg/dp/1940885426/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518971043&sr=1-1&keywords=Jack+Waters"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>You can get Jack Waters here:</strong></span></a> </div>
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<strong><em>Nothing Ever Dies,</em></strong> Viet Thanh Nguyen. Just finished (Chapter 6) listening to this audiobook … I suspect those interested in this book will feel somewhat in tune with where Nguyen moves the discussion about war and the military industrial complex and how people perceive “their” side—as those in the right, the human, the victims or saviors. Perhaps this is best exemplified by how America (and every other nation state) insists on calling its police and military “heroes”: those who sacrifice their lives for the greater good (although I’m sure the nationalist brand would prefer “the rest of us” rather than something as socialist as “the greater good.”)</div>
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In any event, I felt it was restating the obvious regarding how we as Americans, those who are Vietnamese, Korean, etc., perceive our roles in wars. The suggestion that those of us on the left here (i.e., Americans who didn’t see glory in the American intervention in Vietnam) do a better job of realizing the humanity of our soldiers alongside whatever inhumanity we may have perceived or assumed or were confronted with as fact; again, not all of us on the left blame American soldiers. While there’s no excuse for what happened at My Lai, and is believed to have happened in several more Vietnamese villages, and although it is difficult to see any humanity in those involved in the mass slaughter of 500 Vietnamese (men, women, children, and infants), I suspect most can understand how such nightmares occur during war without removing any accountability from the crimes.</div>
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Check that, my bad. I do know of people (Americans) who defended Lt. Cally and his men from the crimes they committed, which confirms the author’s point. But, let’s face it, those blind faith “America right or wrongers” are NEVER going to read this book … and if forced to at gunpoint, would likely say “Liberal subterfuge.” </div>
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Anyway, it’s a fine study loaded with philosophical name dropping and quotes, and it does a terrific job of delving into American cinema (and the propaganda it reinforces), which has been mirrored by South Korea as they have become more Americanized. </div>
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More to come down the road.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Ever-Dies-Vietnam-Memory/dp/0674979842/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518971084&sr=1-1&keywords=NOthing+Ever+Dies"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">You can get Nothing Ever Dies here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong><em>Politics … </em></strong>What’s left to say about it anymore? We’re a country that has gone from Vietnam War protests that eventually brought the war to an end, to a society that completely ignores war. Meanwhile, the disparity in incomes in America has turned us into a true banana republic. The government is owned by corporate interests. Lobbyists get to vote in one party’s presidential nomination process, and when we learned Congress has a fund for the defense of sexual assault charges against them (paid for with taxpayer money), it was a two or three day flash in the pan bit of news, and then voters quickly returned to their sides of the two party duopoly and the congressional scam that should have anyone involved put in chains was forgotten. Unions have been crushed, pensions eliminated, and the bulk of the population scurries to make ends meet in a race they can never win.</div>
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How this population doesn’t vote for a third party, whichever one fits its political profile, is as baffling as the fact a despicable human being won the presidency and may well win it again.</div>
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So it goes.</div>
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—Knucks</div>
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Yesterday my granddaughter sang God Bless America for us. I figure it’s a good time for her to learn another song.</div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-20184006742630039252017-12-14T19:22:00.000-05:002017-12-14T19:22:15.535-05:00It's Bill Crider day ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Amici: <strong>Bill Crider</strong> has been an incredible force of energy for writers everywhere, including those of us condemned to the minor leagues. He never let anything about any writers that I know of get in the way of helping them, to include politics, and lord knows I push that envelope petty far. It takes a lot of time and effort to pen book reviews, but Bill has always made the time and given the effort to do so. I once tried to review books at the same pace at which Bill turned them out, but frankly, I was too selfish to maintain the effort beyond a few months. </div>
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His Dan Rhodes series is brilliant and a lot of fun.</div>
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Bill has penned, literally, hundreds of his own books and stories. Those I read and reviewed were wonderful. I suspect they are ALL wonderful. Check out his webpage here: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.billcrider.com/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-size: large;"><strong>http://www.billcrider.com/</strong></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span> </div>
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I wish I could’ve met the man to personally thank him for the decency he showed me and my works. Bill is also a total humanitarian and will be missed for that even more than all he’s done for the writing community.</div>
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- Charlie StellaCharlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-54099608206572764462017-10-04T06:59:00.000-04:002017-10-04T06:59:18.557-04:00Ken Burns Vietnam … Book Reviews … Hillary’s Perpetual Blame Game … Angelina Jolie’s Gem … President Bozo … Amici:<br />
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<strong><em>Ken Burns Vietnam</em> …</strong> I watched the first episode and was hooked. I had assumed I knew most of what went on before, during, and since the Vietnam War (undeclared war though it remained), but I didn’t. Not near enough. And I fell for the same lies 40 years later with Iraq. Until I realized the lies of the Iraq War, I had been as manipulated as every other sucker who believed in our government as the “do-gooders” in the world.</div>
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I missed Vietnam by a year or two … so my luck began at a young age. Everyone should see this documentary, especially those who won’t because they refuse to uncover their eyes and unplug their ears. Their blind faith precludes logic, but so it goes. Fuck them for being stupid. I highly recommend this be viewed by every high school student in the country. It should be required viewing … as should American History X and a few other films/documentaries. It is essential viewing. This government, under both political parties, lied through its teeth about Vietnam the same way it has lied about the wars in the Middle East. They are war crimes wherein the bulk of the blame lies with those we elect to public office. They are war crimes.</div>
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<strong><em>The Power of the Dog</em></strong>, Don Winslow … my second Winslow book in a row, and it’s been fun. Winslow offers so much well done research, it’s a wonder any of the America First crowd (the crowd that refuses to acknowledge any portion of the absolute evil this government forces onto other cultures) can stand to read Winslow. The war on drugs and all the underpinnings of governments (Mexican and American) every bit as corrupt as the cartels they claim to chase is exposed in this Winslow offering. Moved by his apparent honesty in the two Winslow books I’ve read (I recently read the sequel to this one, The Cartel, with a much different opinion), I watched a few YouTube interviews of the author and enjoyed what I heard.</div>
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Subplots abound, but it’s the characters you’ll follow with enthusiasm, and at times great anxiety.</div>
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<strong><em>Field of Girls</em></strong>, Martin Krist … it’s a multi-perspective thriller and page turner from the prologue to the end, with police, former police, a broken marriage and all the issues of parenting that brings, plus a spooky old lady walking the grounds at night in a small German burgh. The storyline rapidly develops and engages. Genetics and socialization crash into one another in the form of evil. Ex-police officer, Alex Lindner, has a past that bleeds into the present. A number of storylines are masterfully unwrapped a tease at a time as this reader grew more and more anxious to continue turning pages.</div>
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<strong><em>Hillary’s Perpetual Blame Game …</em></strong> it started with Russia, found some extra life with James Comey, then Jill Stein voters, misogyny, Bernie Bros., et al. Ultimately, Hillary Clinton went after the man and his supporters who obviously gave her the most agita during the 2016 Democrat Primary, Bernie Sanders.</div>
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Without going through the laundry list of her flaws (and utter lack of humanity regarding those killed in the wake of her war votes and regime change architecture) and why not enough people liked and/or trusted her enough to elect her president, the constant drone of her excuses have driven a wedge within the Democrat Party some of us (i.e., Progressives) can’t enjoy enough. We think too many people disliked (and/or hated) her as a choice for president. We think she was disliked and/or hated so much that enough people opted to vote for Jill Stein, or stay home and watch television.</div>
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Whatever the reason(s), Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 Presidential Election … to Bozo.</div>
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Please, never forget. She lost to Bozo.</div>
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And the DNC, in all its arrogance, seems to not have learned a single thing about the number of seats they’ve lost over the last 10 years (1,048 and counting). They seem content on the “we’re not Trump” campaign that lost them the White House in 2016.</div>
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Good luck with that.</div>
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<strong><em>First They Killed My Father …</em></strong> I did a massive thesis on the Khmer Rouge some 40 years ago for a political science graduate course … back when we had typewriters (oy vey) … anyway, I used Chomsky and Shawcross as my two main references, but also several other books as well as magazine articles. I still believe that the bombs we dropped during Kissinger the war criminal’s operation breakfast, that eventually turned into menu because we had expanded the bombing zones from sanctuaries along the border to the middle of Cambodia and beyond, was the most significant factor that led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and their Year Zero insanity (an offshoot of Mao’s cultural revolution). Thanks to Terrill Lankford for pointing this one out. Angelina Jolie did a terrific job. A must see … because dropping bombs on foreigners who haven’t done a thing to you or yours NEVER worked and NEVER will.</div>
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<strong><em>President Bozo </em></strong>… his fight with NFL players couldn’t be more comical. Yet not one single journalist or media clown has pointed out to his surrogates that Bozo is a five-time draft dodger. He had a bad foot, but couldn’t remember which one. </div>
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His behavior in Puerto Rico, while no longer a surprise, says more about this country (yes, all of us) than it does about the clown in the oval office. That doesn’t place blame on Trump voters alone, because the fact ANYONE could lose to this moron says a lot more about the Democrat Party, the DNC, their candidate, and their voters who sat back and watched from the sidelines (rather than hold their party to account) while the worst possible candidate had “her turn” and thus lost to Bozo.</div>
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Yes, he’s Bozo and there’s nothing else to say. He’s a clown … and the DNC delivered him to us.</div>
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Third Party or Bust … again.</div>
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—Knucks</div>
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Wanna know what Colin Kaepernick was kneeling for? This kind of shit. It hasn’t stopped. Jail or dead. Not the best options … for being black in America 100 years ago, 50 years ago or today. Make no mistake.</div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-36085326964080998052017-08-07T09:56:00.000-04:002017-08-07T13:06:35.748-04:00A review of Netflix's Last Chance U … Pay to play college football. Is it time to reverse who pays and for what?Amici:<br />
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This is perhaps the longest post in TK history: a review of the Netflix series, <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Chance_U"><strong>Last Chance U</strong></a></em>, and a list of questions to consider. So before lulling yous to sleep, here are the questions this blog post will eventually ask. </div>
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Should college football players be paid? If so, how much?</div>
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What about a national minimum wage for the hours they dedicate to their sports (to include training)? </div>
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What about medical coverage that extends beyond their playing days? </div>
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And are educations really necessary at institutions where athletes are hustled for the sake of eligibility? </div>
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Why not treat college football the way MLB treats its minor league affiliates? </div>
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Since the NFL gets most of their players from college football, can’t they pay for the salaries/health costs at the college level?</div>
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Please post comments on the FB page where it appears (i.e., mine).</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Last Chance U …</b> is a Netflix series about a dominant junior college football team, East Mississippi Community College. They won back-to-back national championships, and the series begins with their attempt to turn it into a three-peat. EMCC (East Mississippi Community College) is a JUCO (junior college) with an excellent “football” reputation that takes players from Division I and II teams who have had problems (i.e., personal, educational, and legal) and have been released for the sole purpose of getting their acts together (i.e., becoming “football eligible”) again, so that they can return to bigger programs. I’d call it a football factory coached by a man who has ZERO business anywhere near a football field, except to maybe water the grass.</div>
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But that is my opinion and it is not the popular one. I tend not to fly with flocks, but I’d rather see your opinions.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Netflix Season I … </b>We are presented with a very successful (i.e., winning) head coach who curses more than myself (that’s tough to do). He is a tyrant and has very little control of his temper. His team consists of what I would call ringers from Division I programs. They are GREAT athletes who were released by the bigger programs. Some have attitude issues, drug issues, educational issues, etc., but they all have undeniable athletic ability and football talent. The team (EMCC) dominates league play by rolling up scores, which is what the head coach feels gets the voters for National Championships attention. What he ignores, and seems to enjoy, is how the same roll-up policy also pisses off every other team in the division (and probably those same voters he’s so desperate to impress). His vocabulary is not only loaded with vulgarities, it is also thuggish from the word go. He likes to “beat people to sleep” … it is his mantra. He uses many other violent phrases to motivate his team. The argument that football is a violent game isn’t a good one, I don’t think. Nobody questions whether football is a violent game or not.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: lime; mso-highlight: lime;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKmnXhPF0pHGVfQklHbq-4QgDtHqksh4ADhMCG8Qrpk6-ywBOhO-2rh9aSUCWoFfh5Bzfbj8Oo2mAqph6KzDZfzFKns3fwrgrALdnB9kO0Xm7YTFJFoDzwoLqYvH3GpQ1EksIG5k7YecP/s1600/Brittany+penciles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="662" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKmnXhPF0pHGVfQklHbq-4QgDtHqksh4ADhMCG8Qrpk6-ywBOhO-2rh9aSUCWoFfh5Bzfbj8Oo2mAqph6KzDZfzFKns3fwrgrALdnB9kO0Xm7YTFJFoDzwoLqYvH3GpQ1EksIG5k7YecP/s320/Brittany+penciles.jpg" width="264" /></a></span></b></div>
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The series also highlights the other coaches and the team’s guidance counselor, Brittany Wagner, a single mom who puts everything she has into attempting to help the kids stay educationally eligible, as well as emotionally stable. She and a few of the assistant coaches (and the vast majority of kids) are the positives I took from this series. Everything else seems to me to be a case study for shutting down any junior or major college program that entrusts their kids/players to a head coach like Buddy Stephens. I say “shut it down” because if the college president and board of trustees is willing to ignore this guy, then they’re equally guilty as the absolute disgrace this man is. In my opinion, they should all be fired.</div>
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<a href="http://www.emccathletics.com/sports/fball/2015-16/schedule">Without going game by game (the blowouts featuring upwardsof 50-69 point wins—the next season they will beat a team 73-7),</a> there comes a point when the head coach becomes so out of control, he pushes one of his players more than once on the sideline. It’s something I think is an automatic suspension and possible termination, but I know some people won’t agree with that. If I were the president of that college, he would have been gone immediately after that game … which would have saved that school a ton of embarrassment and two future national championship shots.</div>
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The head coach’s body language is very telling, I thought. He’s a cheerleader when a play goes right and looks like a dejected madman (picture Hitler in his bunker with the Russian army surrounding him) when things don’t go right, and it’s almost play-by-play.</div>
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I’m not sure if it’s the same game, or if it’s one of the next two games, but eventually the head coach has a fist fight (literally) with one of the referees after a sideline curse fest. I don’t know who created the video above (labelling it Ref hits coach), but it really doesn’t make a difference who threw the first punch. Both the ref and the head coach were so out of control, at that point there isn’t a doubt both should’ve been retired.</div>
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What happened was both the ref and the head coach were ejected from the game. The head coach was then suspended for the next two games. Needless to say, he should’ve been fired after that as well. Once again, the fact he wasn’t suggests to me the entire governing board of EMCC should’ve been fired.</div>
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Before I forget to mention it, the town EMCC plays in has a population of 700, but the facilities for football look like what one might expect at a Division 1 program. One has to wonder how much coin EMCC gets from the Division 1 programs using the school to better their own programs. Wherever they get their money from, it is obvious that winning is the motivating contributor (pun intended), and perhaps why the governing board of EMCC permits a lunatic to coach their team (i.e., that age old American theme of profit over people).</div>
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Fast forward to the last game of the season, which will guarantee EMCC a very high national ranking, and I think an undefeated season. It is a game being played against one of the weaker teams in the division. However, the weaker team has a bad history vs. EMCC because of losing past blowouts. What Stephens (head coach of EMCC) doesn’t seem to realize is just how demoralizing and classless rolling up a score can be, but he seems to knows it enough so as to warn his players before the game not to fall for the cheap shots, etc., and to walk away from any kind of extracurricular trash-talking etc., to keep them from getting ejected and suspended for their next game (which would be the first round of the playoffs). What the other team does is exactly what Stephens warns against, except they take it a bit further than just cheap shots and begin to mug an EMCC player while he’s on the ground. Eventually, both teams’ benches empty and a full scale brawl takes place. The refs stop the game and afterward, Stephens berates his players for being thugs. The constant comment from players has to do with how Stephens had gotten himself suspended for two games when he had brawled with a ref. Paying attention EMCC president? </div>
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Of course, probably because he realizes he’s been on camera and he’s heard the rumors about what his players said, the head coach tells his team he’s sorry for what he called them (“thugs”) and thinks what they did was exactly the right thing (brawling) because, like some hockey fights, they were looking out for one another. It’s a crock of shit apology and a worse message. There are 12 players on the ice at a time in hockey, and even if benches empty, it is not a 110 man (two 55 man rosters) brawl. A team brawl should never be applauded. Not ever.</div>
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The end result of that brawl was a double forfeit and a 2 game suspension for all the players on the field when the benches emptied. It means EMCC is eliminated from the playoffs and will have to start their next season by playing only the new players on their roster for that season (i.e., freshman and new transferees).</div>
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There were several hard cases (players) highlighted during the first Netflix season and most seemed to have moved on (as we’ll learn at the end of the second Netflix season). One in particular, Ronald Ollie, was five years old when his father shot and killed his mother. Ollie was brought up by other family members. Ms. Wagner and Ollie had a special connection and there’s no doubt in my mind that she kept several dozen players from walking away from the program on her own, via her total devotion to them, and not just football, although football is their true “last chance” at attending college on football scholarships.</div>
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That’s a rap on Netflix season 1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the life of me, I don’t know how that coach was permitted to continue, but he does.</div>
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The offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator and quarterback coach and defensive line coach all did fine jobs and seemed to at least provide both the tough love and emotional support when it was necessary, with Ms. Wagner taking up any slack (as well as doing her normal job of saving souls). The defensive coordinator moved on, while the offensive coordinator rejected other offers and remained at EMCC.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Netflix Season II</b></div>
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Head Coach Buddy Stephens quotes from the Bible and the Dalai Lama. It is his effort to “change.” He’s a new man, at least he’d like the cameras to believe it. He’s trying to be a better person and he starts off with a very determined effort to quit cursing and to keep his temper in check. Game 1 is that 32 man roster vs. a 55 man roster (due to the brawl at the end of season 1). The freshman kids and transferees put up a good effort but fall short, giving EMCC a one game hole to work out of, as well as a possible excuse for voters to keep them out of the national championship, no matter if they run the table, which they will do.</div>
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In this season we see more of Ms. Wagner’s efforts to keep kids in school/from quitting and/or giving up on themselves, but her discontent with Head Coach Stephens becomes obvious with each passing episode.</div>
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Season 2 also features several players, some I wouldn’t have put up with myself, but Ms. Wagner is a far more patient and better person than I am. The assistant coaches are also featured, including the new defensive coordinator, Ed Holly, who appeared to be a bit out of his league coaching wise. The defensive line coach, Davern Williams, is a consistent tough love coach who I came to respect more and more as the season progressed. An excellent coach, I thought. His philosophy is a simple, no nonsense, obey the rules approach, but when one player is pushed to the limit (the head coach had his mother removed from the stands because she was heckling him), Coach Williams handled it in the locker room the only way possible. I didn’t think it was possible, but he managed to keep the player in check.</div>
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The offensive coordinator, Marcus Wood, his Bible study classes for players aside (I’m not big on that shit), was the most reasonable coach on the staff. He proves there is no need to be an asshole, and he will pay for being a good coach by end of season.</div>
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We learned more about Quarterback Coach Clint Trickett in the first season (forced to stop playing due to concussions), who seemed fine, although we never really watched him actually coach (he was the coach assigned to the press box).</div>
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Of course after the limited roster first game loss, EMCC wins out, but their defense isn’t close to up to par with their offense. They have a few very close calls where the offense had to bail out the defense. Lots of points given up and the defensive coordinator didn’t seem to have an answer for it (and actually says that at one point on the sideline—ouch!).</div>
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They make it to the playoffs, of course, but there’s a lot of bad stuff going on with the players. Some have ZERO respect for their head coach. One has ZERO respect for everybody, it seems, except Ms. Wagner. As a coach, I wouldn’t have tolerated his shit, but this is a program built to be a football factory for bigger schools, so no players were ever kicked off the team. In fact, a literal babysitting service was provided for players who sleep through team/position meetings. A coach actually drove a golf cart to wake them up and drive them to the practice facility/meeting rooms.</div>
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The highlight of season 2 (football wise) was learning the worst team in the league, a team made up of walk-ons and whose weight room was a bench outside the building, won their last game of the season. They were a TRUE junior college team with a long losing streak who had no shot against EMCC. It was a merciful 42 or 48-0 loss for them against EMCC, but a new and allegedly improved Coach Stephens used his “Buddy Rule” and didn’t run it up any further.</div>
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What you will see in season 2 is a lot of close scores, even if only for a half or a quarter, wherein the head coach forgets his new image and continues to lose it time and again, reverting to cussing and acting like a four-year-old throwing a temper tantrum.<br />
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And, yes, he seemed very happy Trump won.</div>
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The head coach FINALLY takes a hard stand on a player late for a meeting. Shuts him out. The problem, of course, is what went on all season long—no consistency, so maybe the player tried him one last time (with a terrible excuse—he didn’t have his phone). The player bumped heads with several coaches during the season and was wrong to continually try to have the last word. Not a good idea. Another player put it best: “Sometimes you need to know when to keep your mouth shut.” Of course, the same player was allowed to play in every game he was physically fit to do so (making some dumb mistakes and getting into it with the head coach on the sidelines again and again).</div>
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The first round of the playoffs goes as planned in the second half, but the head coach loses it a few times during the first half. It’s difficult to see why anyone would want to play or coach for this asshole.</div>
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State Championship Game: The head coach goes from mocking the defensive coordinator on the sidelines to berating him. One has to wonder what in the hell the president of this college and/or athletic director (assuming they have one) do to justify their salary.</div>
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It gets better when the head coach argues with a fan, the mother of one of his players who drove to Mississippi from Atlanta to watch her son. He has someone try to quiet her and/or throw her out. She is forced to watch from the back of the end zone. This is where Coach Williams (Defensive Line Coach) handles the player the only way possible and it turns out okay.</div>
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EMCC is not voted into the championship game and is forced to play in some kind of state bowl instead. During this game, the head coach humiliates the offensive coordinator and makes the coach in the press box come down to take the OC’s place. It is unbelievable to watch this shit transpire. He continues to berate the OC with cameras rolling and makes a punk comment about how “that sniveling shit may have worked with your ex-wife, but not me.” The OC does EXACTLY what he should by telling his players, “Don’t worry about me. You just focus on the next play.”</div>
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Ms. Wagner. Who cannot love this woman? Before the state championship she voices her problems with the head coach (working against each other). She couldn’t do more for the kids, and the head coach just hasn’t changed, or changed enough, for her to continue fighting what too often is a losing battle for the kids. She is ready to take another job for another school, and it will be a tremendous loss to EMCC.</div>
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Highlight of this final episode for me is Ms. Wagner taking a picture of the tag on her office and then pulling it down. She’s done with this asshole and is going into business to provide counseling.</div>
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The defensive coordinator left to coach high school football. The offensive coordinator is now on EMCC’s administrative staff. I hope it was his own decision. The defensive line coach stayed and would like to be a head coach some<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="mso-comment-date: 20170805T2231; mso-comment-reference: SK_3;">time</a><!--[if !supportAnnotations]-->. I hope he makes it there.</div>
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But they lost Ms. Wagner, so the program suffered immeasurably.<br />
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Players from previous years attend one of the games. Ollie, the kid whose father killed his mother when he was just five years old, was there. He went on to a smaller D-2 school and is doing very well (it appears).</div>
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Ollie’s opinion of the EMCC head coach: “Fuck that boy. I’m gonna give you the honest truth about that boy there.”</div>
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I couldn’t agree with Ollie more. Good on you, kid.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Injuries … </b>It is football, and its being played at a very high level, so you know there are injuries. A few concussions and leg/foot injuries where the head coach questioned whether they were being faked (hey, he was a very well rounded asshole). Since the entire purpose of the program has NOTHING to do with the kids’ education, except to get them Div-I eligible (i.e., a 2.5 grade point), and EVERYTHING to do with winning, each player knows the story (they need to get as many reps on camera as possible for scholarships). So, why not let the player determine the injury? If he says he has a concussion and can’t practice, then he can’t play. It’s as simple as that. If he says he hurt his ankle, same thing. No practice, no play in game. Doctors should ALWAYS be consulted, but if a doctor clears a player and he still says he has an injury, if he doesn’t practice and doesn’t play, he’s hurting his own chances. If he’s truly injured (and there’s no reason to think otherwise, no matter how “suspicious” you may be), he shouldn’t play anyway. The head coach at EMCC … well … what can I say?<br />
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Just a thought here: When attempts are made to reduce injuries, especially head injuries, that doesn’t “pussify” the game, but it does piss off some who’ve played under less injury-conscious rules and are paying the price for it today (the list is too long to post) and many have died or killed themselves.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Religion</b> … I’m not very big on rah-rah shit, especially off the field, so the Bible study stuff doesn’t belong (for me). I don’t mind it the same way I don’t mind the national anthem being played. I wish neither was done, but if the players are comfortable enough to attend, so be it. And to be fair, the show never asked whether it was a requirement or not. My guess, especially since it was the Offensive Coordinator, Coach Wood’s program, is that it wasn’t a requirement. That man seems too reasonable for it to be required.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Politics</b> … Oy vey, Trump wins and the players express their feelings against him (“Make American White Again”) and Hillary … they were smart enough not to like either. Who says they’re dumb?</div>
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Okay, so now you’ve read my opinion, let’s see some of yours. I am truly interested in how this series is perceived by any and all, to include former coaches, players, fans, parents of players, etc. I think it revealed a horror story of football in American football factories today. My experience in a small school in North Dakota was nothing like it, and we sent two players to the NFL. We had our issues as well, but even reflecting back on it (42 years now), it was nothing like what this series presented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that’s what football is today, I’m glad I’m a hockey fan.</div>
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And to be fair, the Netflix show has received way more positive messaging than negative, but that has more to do with the popularity of it than anything about football. Not many people fell in love with Buddy Stephens … whereas almost all fell for Ms. Wagner.</div>
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Should college football players be paid? How about starting with a minimum wage for the hours they dedicate? And how about medical coverage that extends beyond their playing days? What about their educations? Are they really necessary? Lots of us know that for many programs, the education factor is a joke. Since the NFL gets most of their players from college football, can’t they pay for the salaries/health costs at the college level?</div>
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Fire away, amici …<!--[if !supportAnnotations]--></div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-48784287595267801802017-07-06T07:40:00.000-04:002017-07-06T10:13:32.940-04:00Book Reviews: The Road to Matewan by William Trent Pancoast and Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by William Kennedy … Movie Review: Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation … Keep it in perspective, please.Amici:<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Road to Matewan</i> </b>by William Trent Pancoast … imagine communities living the pastoral life, in tune with their environment and at peace with their neighbors. It existed in the mountains of West Virginia prior to coal mining, prior to the industrial progress that ultimately destroyed both the land of those same mountains and the lifestyle of their communities. Pancoast’s fine novel begins mid-destruction, when Thomas Greene’s family is confronted with the onslaught of coal mining progress and the decay of life as he knew and enjoyed it. An intelligent man, Thomas sees the writing on the wall, and before his ultimate fleeing the land he so loved, circumstances put him in contact with a manager of one of the mines where the company not only houses its labor, it provides them with script, their only source of income, which is useless off company grounds. It is to be spent in company stores, and is far worse than any form of welfare known to man. Script is earned with blood, sweat, and tears, and can be taken away for no more an infraction than getting injured on the job or mentioning the word union. It is that level of greed that is the road to Matewan and the massacre that occurred there in 1920.</div>
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Company housing and script are forms of slavery making a comeback today as our economy drifts closer and closer to a modern form of feudalism where West Coast truckers are experiencing a similar fate (i.e., where companies finance or refinance the trucks and later repossess same as drivers fall further into debt). Matewan is the town where the coal miner wars of 1920 began, and the novel provides a wonderfully graphic overview of the conditions that lead to the coal mine strikes as the United Mine Workers Union attempted to gain support in the western most portions of West Virginia.</div>
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Thomas Greene’s family suffers, but not nearly as badly as so many of those beholden to the jobs they signed on for, including a life under script conditions and the brutality of non-regulated capitalism (what America seems determined to return to today). Ultimately, as conditions worsen for mine workers and the abuses of the employers increase to include hiring professional thugs (Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency) as muscle, the natural occurrence of a revolt is imminent. Thomas Greene makes the move away from life on the mountain, makes sure his children are educated, and although they prosper, he and his wife long for the life they knew and loved best.</div>
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An engaging read start to finish … and if your blood doesn’t boil for the conditions heaped up on workers doing such a dangerous and self-destructive job, check your pulse.</div>
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The story behind this book is best described by the author himself: “Appalachia, its coalfields, and especially the Tug Valley, are an American tragedy. When the liars and thieves representing the land and coal companies set about stealing the land from its pioneer owners, no one could have envisioned the feudal state that would be imposed upon the mountaineers of West Virginia. I know how important the history of the Tug Valley is to me, and I have seen how important that history is to the people who were uprooted, and to the descendants of those who stayed. Therefore, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Road to Matewan</i>.”</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Road-Matewan-William-Trent-Pancoast-ebook/dp/B06WGMLVQX">Get <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Road to Matewan</i> here:</a></b> </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes</i></b> by William Kennedy … this has to be my favorite William Kennedy novel (and that’s saying a lot). A brilliant touch of Cuban-American history, with a touch of Ernest Hemingway at the Floridita and some Santeria, the Cuban revolution (Batista vs. Fidel), Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, the race riots of the late 60s, and so much more. From Albany, the protagonist Quinn’s stomping ground, to Cuba and back, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes</i> is the master, William Kennedy, at his very best. Cynical, comical, emotional, raw, violent, sensual … you name it, you’ll find it in this exciting trip through some of the most clever dialogue ever penned, as Quinn (the journalist) falls for Renata (the gorgeous revolutionary who worships Santeria and desires Batista’s death) and the sparks fly.</div>
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Kennedy is quick and clever and sophisticated and exciting to read, especially when he blesses us with a page or two of straight dialogue that is so witty and tight, we long for more as we turn each page. The history lessons you get from this one are a bonus.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Changos-Beads-Two-Tone-Shoes-Novel/dp/0143122045">Get <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes</i> here:</a></b> </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ezWiUTXB11A" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>Birth of a Nation</strong></i> by Nate Parker … I guess I wasn’t aware of the controversy regarding the director/writer/actor’s sexual assault case during his college years, but maybe that’s a good thing, because I was able to watch the film without those lingering thoughts. I thought the film was very good and will likely watch it again. I thought the title couldn’t be more appropriate. It makes one wonder how African-American families today aren’t arming themselves for some of the blatant injustices heaped on them by law enforcement that simply go unpunished if not rewarded. When videos aren’t enough, one has to wonder what the hell is.</div>
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I thought this movie about 10xs better than the Oscar winner from a few years ago, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">12 Years a Slave</i>, the one the academy felt was a good choice to be the token bone thrown to the black community as Best Picture. Then again, there’s something about a revolutionary movement, whether it’s quelled or not, I find much more alluring than happy endings reinforcing the institutions to blame for some many of society’s ills.</div>
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<strong><em>Don’t blame the tweets</em></strong> … that’s right, amici, it isn’t the tweets that are the problem. We know what Trump is. We knew it before he was elected, so let’s KEEP IT IN PERSPECTIVE, PLEASE. <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/30/the-case-of-syria-and-the-bleeding-women/">Read the article here:</a> </div>
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From the article: <em>“Despite Trump’s own warning a mere two years ago that ‘we should stay out of Syria,’ he now finds himself hip-deep in Syrian blood with no apparent aversion to his predicament. I’m not sure about the percentage of bleeding women amid the daily carnage in Syria, though it seems to be enough to whet Trump’s appetite for destruction.”</em></div>
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The above article reflects pretty much what Democrat loyalists did for eight years under Barry. They ignored everything, maybe because they felt they did the right thing electing a mixed-race president? He was good-looking, he said the right things, he had charisma up the wazoo, and his family was something special to root for. Ignored was the politician he proved to be by not taking positions 131 times as a senator. Ignored was what he didn't do while president. I think it is more that Democrat voters were happy enough it was their party in power and that's literally all that mattered to them. Pathetic really, but that's where we are. I don't find Trump’s "blood" tweets all that offensive as I do funny, but funny because this is what our government is comfortable with, a bad joke. Hillbots ignored her war crimes the same as they ignored Barry's the same as Republicans will ignore this moron's killing. Very frustrating.</div>
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Too many of us (Americans) have become VERY complacent with the killing our military is ordered to do across the globe. Where are the anti-war protests? Where is the shared angst at a war that has gone on for fourteen years and expanded dramatically over that time? Where is the angst at all the disasters we've caused? Is it because our kids are no longer drafted and there is a wealth of unemployed to volunteer? Is it because Covfefe's tweets are more offensive?</div>
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He's an asshole. We all know that. Those who defend his actions are lost causes, so don't bother arguing with them. They're beyond ignorant. They wear their ignorance with pride (and think they're tougher for it---how pathetic is that?). The much more relevant issues are the killing we continue to do in the Middle East, the meddling WE do everywhere, and the economic protections being put in place to secure the wealthy their stranglehold over our government.</div>
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I don't "hate" America, so if you're that fucking stupid to believe so, move on, please. Americans need to do some serious self-reflection. Whether you're Christian, Muslim, Jewish, whatever the fuck ... think about what we ignore and what enrages us. Think about how bad off we as a nation are to have just gone through an election between a criminal and a con-man. Think about where we're headed.</div>
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It's time to give up on the lesser of two evils bullshit. It's time to DEMAND more from ourselves and those we elect to represent us.</div>
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—Knucks</div>
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What a GREAT Band … and song. The Allman Brothers Band … <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Not My Cross to Bear</i>.</div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-67170012133068784172017-06-03T17:04:00.003-04:002017-06-03T17:33:47.458-04:00Book reviews: Craig McDonald’s The Running Kind … Joseph Haske’s North Dixie Highway … Politics: The AfterBern …Amici:<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8looiQpG6gJ0laOsDVdP_K52zJhSbkxLir_gKdY9hHqLmzDCxUvYmrA0jpzua4mYuBE0UejwMq-QJtfr5iIwQTwv677GL6N1FuVZQ-DvbX65q7WR0kVKdMP4-Ge8ME16VUsjHW7UOryO9/s1600/running-kind-175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8looiQpG6gJ0laOsDVdP_K52zJhSbkxLir_gKdY9hHqLmzDCxUvYmrA0jpzua4mYuBE0UejwMq-QJtfr5iIwQTwv677GL6N1FuVZQ-DvbX65q7WR0kVKdMP4-Ge8ME16VUsjHW7UOryO9/s1600/running-kind-175.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Running Kind</i></b> by Craig McDonald … crime novelist Hector
Lassiter is reunited with an old mate from prior adventures in the Lassiter
series, Jimmy Hanrahan. It’s 1950 and too close to Christmas when Hector and
Jimmy (a cop) are huddled indoors from an Ohio blizzard and a young girl
approaches Hector with a plea for help. Her mom and aunt are in danger because
one of them is a Cleveland mafia boss’s wife and the other his girlfriend (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">comare</i>—pronouced <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Goomarr</i> if you’re from the East Coast). Hector’s been having a few
with Jimmy, but there’s no way he’ll deny the young girl’s request for help. A
battle quickly ensues, which is the start of a cross country adventure that
involves several notables, to include Elliot Ness and J. Edgar Hoover (and his
G-men), still ambivalent about this so-called mafia thing (which is about to
hit the television airwaves). There’s also an appearance by a young Rod
Serling, and by adventure’s end, old Blue eyes himself, accompanied by the
woman he couldn’t wait to own (and never would), Ava Gardner. Frank is there
with a message from Momo (Sam Giancana).</div>
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As it turns out, the mom and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">comare</i> have something on the mob boss and are looking to turn
witness, which is a tough sell when there are so many in law enforcement
enthusiastically on the mob’s payroll. It’s one treachery after another, until
it becomes the safer play to head out of town. It is in Missouri where Hector,
who’s already had a little fling with one of the two women (the mother or the
girlfriend?), and winds up falling for the mother of the mother, as did this
reader, has to draw battle lines.</div>
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It’s a raucous ride wherein Hector is eventually matched up
against a hitman with a scary nickname and mad tracking abilities. Seems
everybody is running in this terrific read, and one can only hope Hector can
make it back alive for the life he’s often dreamed of, and with a woman he’s
always hoped he’d fine.</div>
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It’s a start to finish thriller featuring honorable men in a
dishonorable world of corruption. Hardboiled and ready to burst, with a
wonderful touch of Americana and celebrities. One more from a wonderful
series—a hell of a read.</div>
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An extra bonus (at least for me) was the dedication.</div>
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<a href="http://www.craigmcdonaldbooks.com/books.php"><strong>Visit the author’s website here:</strong></a> </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Craig-McDonald/e/B004MUEE60/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1"><strong>Order The Running Kind here:</strong></a> </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">North Dixie Highway</b>
by Joseph Haske … This one quickly became one of my favorite reads of the year,
and I look forward to this author’s future works. Buck Metzger is back from the
conflict in Bosnia and he’s having problems with the changes that happened at
home since he left. Sleep doesn’t come easy, even when he drinks himself into a
stupor in his car. He’s haunted by a life he no longer recognizes, and he’s unsure
of what his world is supposed to be now that he’s home—home being the Eastern
Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Home is as rural as it gets, except a lot colder
in the winter. From an initial ride with family men to a casino where copious
amounts of liquor are consumed and tiny stakes of coin are lost (a great touch
because it shows just how poor these people are), we are drawn into an
unforgiving world where steady employment has fled the scene, and living off
the land and/or what swims in the river is more often a must than not. And
booze, of course, there’s always booze where employment suffers most, and
Buck’s people are no slouches when it comes to consuming alcohol.</div>
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Metzger’s story is told in flashbacks from his youth, with
lessons learned from hard men living hard lives. It is family loyalty over all
else, with whatever is necessary to maintain the code, be it feuding, drinking,
and/or promises of revenge. Buck loves his family, no matter the makeup. He’s learned
much from his grandfather, from survival skills to a code of honor that offers
no excuses. He’s also learned much from his Vietnam veteran dad, including a
cruel-to-be-kind slaughter of wild animals when they show up in the wrong place
at the wrong time. The bear scene alone was worth the price of entry into this
state of nature world that exists alongside and within two centuries of
progress.</div>
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Buck reads to sustain his sanity, and although his friends
and family can’t understand the point in doing so while living in a world where
it seems to serve no purpose, it is a form of salvation for a man trying to
find himself. The old family feud involving the death of his grandfather often
consumes his being, but there’s a lesson learned in that dilemma as well.</div>
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Ultimately, Buck tells the story of his family and the
community they live in, where cold-heartedness and compassion do not mix well.
It is not a world devoid of compassion, however, and the men and women (women
every bit as hard as the men), provide it in doses when necessary.</div>
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Comparisons to Cormac McCarthy and Daniel Woodrell are
justifiable, although I was also reminded of <a href="http://www.bonniejocampbell.com/"><strong>Bonnie Jo Campbell’s</strong></a> wonderful
works. There’s a special place on one of my bookshelves at Casa Stella for
novels like North Dixie Highway, and Haske’s debut takes its proper place
there. Simply put, it is a wonderful read, recommended and sent to me by
Gonzalo Baeza. Haske’s debut novel is an intriguing read at least equal to the
best of his contemporaries, to include McCarthy, Woodrell, and Campbell.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/North-Dixie-Highway-Joseph-Haske/dp/1937875261"><strong>Get North Dixie Highway here:</strong></a> </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Feeling the Bern …</b>
Assuming Herr Drumpf survives the various investigations seeking to topple his
never ending buffoonery, assuming he makes the Over in a 2 year Over/Under,
what comes after Trump? Will there be a Trump II?</div>
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I’m afraid this is where progressives and/or socialists like
myself are feeling the worst of the AfterBern. After the fiasco that was the
2016 Democrat presidential primary, with all that was exposed, and all that is
being covered up in a Florida courthouse where former Berners are seeking
restitution from the DNC in a FRAUD case for being robbed of our coin, we’re
left wondering what might have been. Not if Sanders had won the nomination and
then presidency. I’ve never been sure Sanders would’ve beaten the Clown currently
occupying the White House, mostly because patriotism, with our collective ignorance,
is an easy sell. What troubles those like myself most about the Sanders
revolutionary retreat was the missed opportunity for a viable third party.</div>
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There’s no denying the strength of the Sanders’ influence in
the political arena last year. His message woke up a population used to
sleeping through the process, but his eventual capitulation to a party that
rejected him to the point of cheating was something many of his new and old
supporters have yet to digest. Sanders supporters were selflessly loyal,
reaching into their own pockets to fund his campaign over and again, so when
the Wikileaks dump exposed how unfairly his campaign was treated, and just how
corrupt the entire process is, many Sanders supporters rejected his plea to
back the establishment candidate. Some didn’t vote. Others voted Green. And
some voted for her opposition. Protests votes all, but all very effective in
rejecting Hillary Clinton.</div>
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What is most disconcerting about the Sanders capitulation is
what might have been. Had Sanders joined the Greens, or went solo and formed a
Labor Party, any third party, I’m pretty sure at least half of the 14 million who
voted for him in the primary would’ve gone with him. At the very least, he
would’ve had a place on the debate stage where he could’ve gone after both
Clinton and Trump without DNC handcuffs. At the very least, there would be a
viable third party to push forward now, when it is obviously most needed.</div>
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In retrospect, I have to believe he was never serious. His
reluctance to be another Ralph Nader, what he’s stated, is a pathetic excuse
for people seeking political revolution.</div>
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While none of us know what will happen down the road, so far
the DNC doesn’t look any more interested in shifting to the left now as it did
during their fake primary. Those who supported Sanders remain on the outs.
Those who supported Clinton cling to the nonsensical Russian conspiracy as the
reason for her loss.</div>
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In the meantime, Progressives like myself dig our heels
deeper. There will be no more a compromise in 2018 or 2020 than there was in
2016. The DNC has retained its corrupt super delegate format, allowing
lobbyists to vote alongside establishment politicians to overturn the voice of
their own electorate. How does anyone stay with a party that ignores its
voters?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCZHC4t_01ZPpvJXfl_KdrZ_O0hsHDbAYMri1sCm2yxGS9NVJ9aXJiNehTLZurSkbkpLwXCEFr8jz7fndjcgCUaDaxOqWn6UngHTk_eemutfrRQjcSzfwCyLPD4blg-IlOwCvj-P4ieUVl/s1600/RIP+DEM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCZHC4t_01ZPpvJXfl_KdrZ_O0hsHDbAYMri1sCm2yxGS9NVJ9aXJiNehTLZurSkbkpLwXCEFr8jz7fndjcgCUaDaxOqWn6UngHTk_eemutfrRQjcSzfwCyLPD4blg-IlOwCvj-P4ieUVl/s320/RIP+DEM.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Make no mistake, we’ll be around to remind the public how
voters in several states might as well stay home come the next Democrat
Presidential primary, when super delegates get to ignore wins as big as 12%,
22%, or 88% of the registered democrat voters within each state.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_LBoA0a3jC7c4Npl-dlXzJArh3PpKysWLch3WE9drCxRcDGvwmKFJ3cQWLSbRgjeVGfNTX7bJkX2xW3XW7UcpYcx3jLcJWhdB0iOIdPNSCZ0DRsg4sop3fqekLeHQRkI5-dxBrMVQ21i5/s1600/Nina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="640" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_LBoA0a3jC7c4Npl-dlXzJArh3PpKysWLch3WE9drCxRcDGvwmKFJ3cQWLSbRgjeVGfNTX7bJkX2xW3XW7UcpYcx3jLcJWhdB0iOIdPNSCZ0DRsg4sop3fqekLeHQRkI5-dxBrMVQ21i5/s320/Nina.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I offered a compromise the DNC so badly needs, but I suspect
it too is in vain. Rather than exile Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, how about
embracing her efforts to do the right thing during the primary and excuse
herself from her co-chair position with the DNC rather than hand off debate
questions to the DNC’s choice for nominee? How about one giant apology for the
scathing letter sent to her by the DNC for her support of Sanders? (Thank you,
Wikileaks.) How about backing off the attacks on Nina Turner (who would be my
choice to reform the sewer that is the Democrat Party)? How about a Turner-Gabbard
or Gabbard-Turner ticket? Do you really want to shatter glass ceilings? Well,
there it is.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: lime; mso-highlight: lime;"></span><o:p></o:p></b> </div>
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Pretty much everyone outside of Sanders sycophants feels as
though the Bern left us scorched for all our efforts and coin. Bernie, while
continuing his political revolutionary rhetoric, no longer retains our faith or
support. We know Bernie talks a great game, but to many of us, he’s proved
himself just another good democrat. We can only hope that people like Nina
Turner and Tulsi Gabbard leave the mess that is the Democrat Party to establish
a third party with the help of former Berners. We were generous with the
Sanders campaign only to get doubly screwed. Many of us on the left have
pledged to never give our money to any Democrat candidate again. Not while the
party maintains super delegates and operates like a third rate, desperate,
mafia family waiting for the other party to fall apart.</div>
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There’s nothing about the current Democrat Party that
inspires. Leaving it seems the way to go, and with Hillary Clinton continuing her excuse/blame tour (currently having the nerve to attack the very organization that rigged the primary for her -- the DNC), it seems her latest round of "Me, Me, Me" will continue to tear the party apart.</div>
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<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-the-democrats-need-a-new-message-w484569"><strong>And if you don't believe that, check out what Matt Taibbi has to say about the Democrat Approval rating dropping 5% SINCE President Covfefe won the White House.</strong></a></div>
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—Knucks</div>
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RIP, Gregg Allman … The Allman Brothers Band …</div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-2426093866660713642017-03-18T12:02:00.000-04:002017-03-18T12:02:25.070-04:004 Book Reviews … Peckerwood by Jedidiah Ayers … Rubdown by Leigh Redhead … American Static by Tom Pitts … and Hunger Knut Hamsun …Amici: <br />
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Before the reviews, TK regrets to inform its millions of followers that we’ll be taking a temporary break from Temporary Knucksline book reviews for a few months. I’m simply overwhelmed with projects of my own. We’ll do one from time to time, I guess, but please do not send requests or ARCS or books until we announce we’re back in action. Okay, so here are four real good ones in the meantime … </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_7vPWmyQmnJRKY61drcKaFgSyjTwWkpTSA9YtSInjQFZToOZAe9pgq5c8G2V_O25O1qpDgTPZEnhD6Xci2oVMaUY44bxy0zDuPa88uwdk0muECaQz-RIH6Z1pcUeRD3Wmr2yvAXoxU-t/s1600/Peckerwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_7vPWmyQmnJRKY61drcKaFgSyjTwWkpTSA9YtSInjQFZToOZAe9pgq5c8G2V_O25O1qpDgTPZEnhD6Xci2oVMaUY44bxy0zDuPa88uwdk0muECaQz-RIH6Z1pcUeRD3Wmr2yvAXoxU-t/s320/Peckerwood.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Peckerwood </em></strong>by Jedidiah Ayers … Charles “Chowder” Thompson is a rural crime lord, a big fish in a small but secure pond. He has the local law, Sheriff Jimmy Mondale, on his side, along with a couple of cohorts, one of which is feeling ambitious enough to reach toward the bigger fish in the bigger Kansas City pond. Chowder has a daughter rough and tough enough to avoid like the plague. So does Sheriff Jimmy, and although his daughter might be able to spell, she’s also a bit wilder than your average college kid (she likes to fire a gun while getting laid). </div>
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Then there’s Terry Hickerson, a supreme fuckup if there ever was one. He also has a cohort, Cal, and when they two aren’t robbing liquor and/or convenience stores, they’re plotting the next great American score, except they may well have pulled one off already. It involved a televangelist preacher, his proclivity for men, and blackmail. Not to be outdone in the family bowl, Terry also has a child, a boy named Wendell, and the author waxes some very humorous parenting via Terry.</div>
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Then there’s the apparent gum in the works of a town that has run smooth enough, minus a body or two (including those found burnt to a crisp in their cars) … He’s an assistant state attorney looking to make a name for himself, and he’s rattled the main players on this wonderfully dark rural stage.</div>
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What’s a father to do when he learns his daughter has been sexually active with someone they’d rather see dead first? What’s he to do when he also learns his partner’s daughter might’ve had something to do with it?</div>
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No spoilers here … <em>Peckerwood</em> features excellent writing, humor, dark that makes so-called “noir” look more albino than black, and some of the most engaging characters you’ll meet on the page. They’re not just mean, cruel, and vicious. Truth be told, you’ll like them, or at least respect them, because they exist in a world where blood comes first, loyalty second, and everything and everybody else are what they sort out, the wheat from the chaff. </div>
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Side note: When I first started reading <em>Peckerwood</em>, I thought: These guys make the mob look like cub scouts. It had to do with a particularly brutal scene. By book’s end, I’m forced to reconsider my original thought about rural gangs vs. the more formal mobs. To wit, in the end, they’re all the same. Where they’re successful, corruption holds fast … where they breakdown is where corruption is exposed. The violence, like ISIS beheadings, may be tough as a visual image, but in the end, dead is dead. Whether your head is cut off, you’re burned to death, somebody cracks your skull with a tire iron or Louisville Slugger, or a pair of bullets find their way behind one of your ears, dead is dead.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Peckerwood-Jedidiah-Ayres-ebook/dp/B00HGLBQDG"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Peckerwood here:</span></strong></a> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1AsITqGQhsECgSL5lGcm9hyphenhypheneu7JP-_FWcTbC8-AN6JWkNEWQUz3UwdRiqiEbGYFRBpkpyOvZWhDMV2hzaC3hLUr2xfihHBGwF3Hc72w5qgKKshv8ga0zyhy_5bOaiRiz-WXs2oNI4bVsb/s1600/Rubdown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1AsITqGQhsECgSL5lGcm9hyphenhypheneu7JP-_FWcTbC8-AN6JWkNEWQUz3UwdRiqiEbGYFRBpkpyOvZWhDMV2hzaC3hLUr2xfihHBGwF3Hc72w5qgKKshv8ga0zyhy_5bOaiRiz-WXs2oNI4bVsb/s320/Rubdown.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Rubdown </em></strong>by Leigh Redhead … In an age of political correctness that precludes bad habits when speaking and writing (and probably thinking), it was a pleasure to see the word “gash” on the page again. Now, before you lose your shit and hurl “misogynist book reviewer” my way, calm your jets and think context, MFers.</div>
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I remember the first time I used that word on the page after meeting my wife. She was horrified (Catholic school girl, you know) … She said to me, she said, “That’s horrible. Do people really talk like that?” Even though she was brought up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (not nearly as tough as Canarsie, obviously), Ann Marie kept her distance from the kinds of crowds I associated with, so she really did draw a blank. “Yeah,” I told her. “Not often, but it’s out there. It’s a niche word, I guess.”</div>
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Then she called me an idiot.</div>
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By now you’ve figured out <em>Rubdown</em> features said controversial word on the page. It does, and it was a pleasure to see it again. The fact it was used by a female author makes it twice as nice. There’s quite a few politically incorrect words bandied about in this fine, fast, and funny PI crime novel. There’s a touch of the master, Vicki Hendricks, and some wonderful surprises (as those down under words go). It’s another language at times, but easy enough to figure out, and because the character, Simone Kirsch, is a former stripper and doesn’t have much of a filter, it’s a beautiful thing.</div>
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The other take I had on this book was, FINALLY, I’m reading a crime novel written by a woman that deals with the kinds of worlds I’m familiar enough with NOT to be offended by so-called misogynistic dialogue. As I stated in a tribute to my favorite crime writer, George V. Higgins, the men AND WOMEN of those worlds (including the Rubdown world) speak another language and are NO LESS men or women for it. It is the Rome they exist in and the language, you better believe, is Roman.</div>
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I guess this was the second in the Simone Kirsch mystery series, but it works fine as a standalone. Simone has a PI boss named Tony (the tough as nails type) and they get involved in the search for a missing supposed-to-be debutante (of sorts). The daughter of a high profile lawyer (they call them barristers) is off the reservation, possibly dealing with drugs and the sex industry. Simone is on her tail, except not inside the flat where she apparently kills herself. There’s an ex-boyfriend and his frustrations at failing to get down Simone’s pants/skirt/jogging shorts, etc., and when his current girlfriend gets pissed off enough, well … it’s some of the fun that continues throughout, to include witty sarcasm, some strong sexual tension, and an Aussie-China sex trade connection. The characters that inhabit the sex industry are as sympathetic and/or disturbing as the well-to-do lawyers and their quirks. It always depends on from which angle you get to see them. Ms. Redhead does a GREAT job of making all the peripheral characters in this book interesting, which lends even more credibility to Simone. The fact she has a tongue as sharp as a razor makes it fun to boot.</div>
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The author does a wonderful job with the sexual tension (ready, fellas?) … turns out women have the same lustful desires as men, and Simone isn’t shy about them. She’s also fallible, so when she comes very close to being a victim herself, we get to remember she’s one of the good guys (so to speak).</div>
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No spoilers here, not ever, but take a bite of this apple and you’re on your way to an entertaining start to finish read. I heard Ms. Redhead read at the Philadelphia Noir at the Bar, and she had the place in stitches at times. She knows how to weave a storyline that draws a reader onto the next page through to the end.</div>
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Rubdown is a fast-paced romp through the sex trades of our times, with a dynamic woman armed with witty cynicism and oozing sexuality. Readers are guaranteed to want more of Simone Kirsch as the pages turn with both anticipation and fear. <em>Viva la Ms. Redhead!</em></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rubdown-Simone-Kirsch-Leigh-Redhead/dp/1741149770"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Rubdown here:</span></strong></a> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWET2Uu6aP4iIjERet6pugaOeLLFAwAm7bGJyfmL_8LXCwgKQLMc-22dYH3aP-8YWRUu7SgKPfyqQ4WCegSUTUblFIdhqyuNREjVATx03cL_QCZN3Q04zfbl9VNBuetFTWVI69e8xAWux/s1600/American+static.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWET2Uu6aP4iIjERet6pugaOeLLFAwAm7bGJyfmL_8LXCwgKQLMc-22dYH3aP-8YWRUu7SgKPfyqQ4WCegSUTUblFIdhqyuNREjVATx03cL_QCZN3Q04zfbl9VNBuetFTWVI69e8xAWux/s320/American+static.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>American Static </em></strong>by Tom Pitts … it’s a thriller from very early on straight to the end, with a sadistic SOB (Quinn), a former dirty cop (Trembley), and another former cop, a guy we’d all like to be our grandfather (Carl). When Quinn picks up young Steven after the kid was robbed and left for broke, he takes him for a ride to San Francisco, where the action goes 100 mph to the end. There’s lots of bodies left in a wake of bad blood, and it all has to do with revenge.</div>
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Theresa is the woman of the moment in American Static; the daughter of a bad guy[(s)?] with enough clout to make bad things happen. The top dog claiming parental rights is no father of the year, but for some reason he wants his daughter back. Is it because she’s become drug addicted and basically homeless? Is it because he seeks to re-bond with a kid he never bonded with in the first place? Or is it something else? Or is it a combination of all of the above? </div>
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Orrrrr, is it politics?</div>
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Let's face it, most politicians "would crawl over their mothers to fuck their sisters" (or vice versa). Okay, but what about why the other guys are after her (her non-fathers ... or are they)? What can this poor kid mean to so many mean sons of bitches? And poor Carl, he’s lost his friend and partner on this wild ride … Can Carl save him? Can Carl save Theresa and Steven? Can he save himself? You’ll have to read to find out, but you’ll take a wild ride from the valley to the streets of San Francisco and wind up in the bowels of Oakland. </div>
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American Static is a missile on a rollercoaster of a ride, dripping with blood from blades through the hearts that are lost in San Francisco. You’ll turn the first few pages and won’t stop. It’s as simple as that.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/American-Static-Tom-Pitts/dp/1943402841"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get American Static here:</span></strong></a> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkseRdhSWm3x7H_UnwjsYOcWa4THDZZFPFCePb15fjg-5z7pcQWCRYMQMiaTpODsj5qJc9Xx76-p_qrdVfPG3vcOSWL6bFshqOCQjBcvv3vnc9EAp61ll2yMFuHKl2iNRYxmNvSGb1fZWk/s1600/Hunger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkseRdhSWm3x7H_UnwjsYOcWa4THDZZFPFCePb15fjg-5z7pcQWCRYMQMiaTpODsj5qJc9Xx76-p_qrdVfPG3vcOSWL6bFshqOCQjBcvv3vnc9EAp61ll2yMFuHKl2iNRYxmNvSGb1fZWk/s320/Hunger.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Hunger </em></strong>by Knut Hamsun … It’s difficult to say exactly why this novel took me in and refused to let me go. Is it because I’ve gone through similar states of emotional confusion? Is it because my wheels have often turned too fast for the mind to allow rest (i.e., thinking taking the place of sleeping?) … Was it the good me countered by the bad me feeling guilty the good me wasn’t good for the right reasons and therefore was the bad me after all?</div>
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Confused? You might think so, but that’s how much of Hunger reads, minus the tirades, dizziness from lack of food, the vomiting from eating too fast after not eating for too long, etc. All I know is I read a book without a plot that I couldn’t put down, and I’ll likely read it again someday. My Facebook hero, Gonzalo Baaeza, recommended it, and it gets a super star review from me. There was more than a touch of Dostoevsky with our protagonist in Hunger, and the self-torture of a mind at battle with itself was every bit as real as caffeine headaches that last for hours (or days) at a time … but in a good way. In such a good way.</div>
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I’ll be revisiting Hunger again, but first I’ll want to read some more of what Hamsun wrote, and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, before dying in disgrace for being a Nazi.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Penguin-Twentieth-Century-Classics-Hamsun/dp/0141180641/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1488913025&sr=1-1&keywords=hunger+knut+hamsun"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Hunger here:</span></strong></a> <br />
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—Knucks<br />
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Please Note: <strong><em>Temporary Knucksline</em></strong> will be taking a temporary break from book reviews for a few months while I catch up on some projects of my own. We’ll be back, so stay tuned … </div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-71992617913407613542017-02-09T07:09:00.001-05:002017-02-09T07:18:38.871-05:00Book reviews … McFetridge, Krueger, Kalteis, and Frankson … Cheatriots, Greatest Ever …Amici:<br />
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<strong><em>One or the Other </em></strong>by John McFetridge … Tensions are running high for the Montreal police a few weeks before the 1976 Summer Olympics. The law is expected to keep the peace for appearance/tourists’ sake, and do their jobs (not just for show). John McFetridge incorporates history, Canadian and world history, like nobody else. There’s some great references to the world that was (1976) throughout this third in a series of Eddie Dougherty mysteries. When a writer can get one to want to do some research on their own, whether it’s because what they just read is interesting or they want verification, it’s a win-win, both for the writer and his reader. McFetridge manages that big time (or is it Big League or Bigly?). Eddie is bucking for detective, and although he’s often put on cases as an acting one, he takes any opportunity to advance to heart. When the bodies of two teenage lovers are discovered on the banks of a river (St. Lawrence), the head honchos in the police department want it off the table as fast as possible. The best way to do that is label it a murder-suicide. Easy enough, except Eddie Dougherty isn’t buying it. Nor is his partner for the case, Sgt. Francine Legault of the Longueuil police (not to worry, I can’t come close to pronouncing Longueuil either). They work the case as best they can, with Eddie stretching the limits of his authority and proper police procedure while his partner (mirroring his girlfriend in many ways) prefers the up and up. Speaking of Eddie’s girlfriend … she’s the lefty, he’s the establishment in their give and take about where to live and when to marry and how much good having a bleeding heart can do in the real world, etc., and it all makes for interesting dynamics.</div>
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When Eddie and Legault are pulled from the case, they decide to work it nights/after policing hours, pissing off some of the upper echelon and other police districts. No spoilers here, but if you want a great sense of history, to include Janis Joplin, KC and the Sunshine Band, Idi Amin, labor on strike, an Olympic athlete or two looking for asylum, and the Baader-Meinhof gang, <em>One or the Other</em> is ripe with those bands, incidents, radical causes, and more. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, AMICI, a terrific read.</div>
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<a href="http://ecwpress.com/products/one-or-the-other"><strong><span style="color: red;">Get <em>One or the Other</em> here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong><em>An Ordinary Grace </em></strong>by William Kent Krueger … This is a terrific read. Forty years down the road, after a particularly bad year (1961) in a small town in Minnesota, Frank Drum, a minister’s son, tells the story of the strange and tragic happenings of that awful year. It is wonderful writing start to finish, something I immediately passed on to my wife (and she’s loving it as well). The tragic death of a young town boy is soon followed by another death, albeit an itinerant nobody knows. Frank and his younger brother, Jake, discover the body of the itinerant and a Native American who they can’t be sure might’ve caused the death of the itinerant. There’s some small town prejudice against the Native American that is heightened because of a policeman who speaks before thinking. The Drums also have a daughter, Ariel, a virtuoso destined to attend Julliard in New York, but suddenly she’s no longer sure it’s what she wants. Mother Drum was once engaged to her daughter’s music instructor, Emil Brandt, a world class musician severely disfigured in the war. Ariel is also transcribing her instructor’s memoir and dating his nephew. Frank catches Ariel leaving the house in the middle of the night and returning in the early mornings. Where is she going? Who is she with? Father Drum, the minister, has a friend who lives in the church basement. Gus and Father Drum went through the Korean War together, and they hold secrets never discussed, although each went in a different direction after the war; Drum to the church and Gus to drink.</div>
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No spoilers, but this wonderfully written novel is a pleasure to read. It comes VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Grace-William-Kent-Krueger/dp/1451645856"><strong><span style="color: red;">Get An Ordinary Grace here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong><em>Ride the Lightning </em></strong>by Dietrich Kalteis … Karl Morgen is a bounty hunter. When he finds his prey, Miro, a drug dealer, having his way with an underage girl in Seattle, Karl goes a bit over the top and winds up losing his license. And of course Miro gets off with a suspended sentence.</div>
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Karl heads north into the wonderful world of Vancouver, process serving. Ah, Vancouver, “where people settle things with middle fingers instead of guns.” While in Vancouver, he meets his kind of woman, PJ. The two hit it off, but PJ has a daughter who can make one’s head spin, but for all the wrong reasons (like her allegiance to a knucklehead boyfriend).</div>
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His old nemesis, Miro, is involved in other drug dealing and wants to set up his old buddy Karl for the embarrassment of being dragged out of a bar (what caused Karl to lose his license). Miro wants a bit more revenge, especially since he’s having to work with people he hates. </div>
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It’s a double-edged tale of revenge, because Karl isn’t exactly happy being a process server and would love nothing more than to take Miro down on more time. There’s also an old time gangster, Artie, who prefers spending his waking hours roasting his balls on a beach, but he’s got the clout to do some damage. Miro and Karl want at each other. Artie wants to operate without the law on his back. Vancouver gets the rough and ready treatment, in a tale told by a voice very similar to Elmore Leonard. It’s a fun read with clever dialogue, lots of action, and an intro to that other foreign country on one of our borders (the one without the wall). A fun read, start to finish.</div>
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<a href="https://49thshelf.com/Contributors/K/Kalteis-Dieter"><strong><span style="color: red;">Get Ride the Lightning here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong><em>Dark Introductions and Party Girls </em></strong>by Martin J. Frankson … A series of short stories that take dark to a new level, invoking ironic humor at every turn of the page. “Dark Introduction” alone is worth the price of admission, and the stories that follow only enhance the experience. My favorites were “Meet the Parents” (Hannibal Lecter has nothing on this one) and “Stigma and Memory” (the perspective of a plant). You’re into dark, you’ll want to read these. Real good stuff.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Introductions-Party-Girls-Martin-Frankson/dp/1499112084"><strong><span style="color: red;">Get Dark Introductions and Party Girls here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong>Cheatriots, Greatest Ever </strong>… “The horror. The horror.” Yep, that pretty much sums up most NFL fans’ feelings about the Cheatriots’ absurd comeback in Super Bowl LI. How does a team with a 25 point lead blow the game? Easy, they get cocky and make incredibly stupid play calls (remember the Sea Pigeons?) … and that’s what ultimately cost Atlanta their Super Bowl win.</div>
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And the truth of the matter is there’s only one team in the NFL that could’ve pulled that off and they are (as I swallow humble pie) the greatest team in NFL history with the greatest coach in modern NFL history and the greatest quarterback in modern NFL history. If I had to assign a rating to the great QBs in NFL history, Brady would get the 10 and Montana and anybody else you want to put there starts at an 8. And, yes, there is a very valid argument that rule changes since Montana’s playing days dramatically help quarterbacks, but Brady has done it with different teams almost every time.</div>
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I can only assume that the Cheatriots are the karma for all my Hillary/DNC hating, and/or there is a God and she/he is making me pay for past sins via the Cheatriots.</div>
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They are the greatest ever … and now I hope they all get diarrhea.</div>
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—Knucks<br />
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Mozart’s Requiem for my hockey team? Oy vey …<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rMVhpyJePAk" width="560"></iframe><br />Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-36828493251681302412016-12-18T17:11:00.000-05:002016-12-18T17:11:10.126-05:00Book Reviews: Cemetery Road, by Gar A. Haywood … Family Portrait with Fidel, by Carlos Franqui … Jewish Noir, from PM Press. Movie Non-spoiler Review of Fences, by J.R. Jarrod … The Tweeter in Chief … The Democrat Party’s Suicidal Contortions … Happy Holidays!<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Amici:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEZbsobofGA_SIi81RRffXw5sZoK6LfumL5KxCMQSHH_GOYfoGTF5r_VxXKwY5dqi1BNf0r8jo0_JGQP9mQTZwdO7BPMmxfI0ii-8HO58v1AH67prQRaZlqAdZaf35nUAJk5U6p3ySrMH/s1600/Gar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEZbsobofGA_SIi81RRffXw5sZoK6LfumL5KxCMQSHH_GOYfoGTF5r_VxXKwY5dqi1BNf0r8jo0_JGQP9mQTZwdO7BPMmxfI0ii-8HO58v1AH67prQRaZlqAdZaf35nUAJk5U6p3ySrMH/s320/Gar.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Cemetery Road</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> by Gar A. Haywood … Although originally published in 2009, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cemetery Road</i> and its author turn out to be one of my best finds in 2016. Character introspection isn’t something I usually favor, but when it’s done with grace and sophistication, it is wonderful.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The protagonist and narrator, Errol “Handy” White, tells a tale of guilt and the tragic consequence of best intentions. As a young man, Handy ran with two best friends, R.J. Burrow and O'Neal Holden (a.k.a. O). As young men will sometimes do, they engaged in petty thefts that were as harmless as they were dumb. When a young girl, Olivia, takes one of those regrettable first hits of cocaine, the kind that kill, an act of vengeance via theft becomes a bloodbath of far-reaching proportions. Handy’s brother Chancellor was in love with Olivia, but it was Handy who took her death to heart and felt the person responsible for the cocaine, Excel Rucker, should have to pay. Handy puts a plan of fairly simple vengeance into play, but the unintended consequences affect more lives than Handy or his two best friends could ever have imagined.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the years that have passed, Handy’s background includes a move to Minneapolis and a marriage that bears a daughter, neither of which event has worked out all that well. The author does a wonderful job of teasing the reader while peeling the onion a layer at a time. Handy has issues with his daughter, who has fallen victim to substance abuse and has a burning desire to know who her mother was and where she might be. Handy also has a trip to make, which after a prologue, starts with a return to L.A. for the funeral of one of his two best friends. J.R. was murdered, but over what is the question. J.R. also had a daughter and wife, and although his murder has thus far been deemed a drug incident, J.R.’s wife refuses to accept the assumptions. J.R.’s daughter is a reporter who also has questions, so when Handy shows up and is also unconvinced about the effort the police are making to find his friend’s killer, he does some investigating of his own.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Nobody likes politicians, and throughout the novel, we’re not quite sure about O’Neal and/or his role in anything that has happened. He’s become a local mayor with more than old friendships to concern himself with, never mind the cause of one of their deaths. It all has to do with the plan of vengeance Handy proposed to his two friends back in the day. Has it come back to haunt them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No spoilers here, but the trip the author masterfully takes us on is compelling. Just as Handy’s background issues with his daughter and her mother, the act of vengeance is similarly revealed in stages that will keep readers glued to the page. Handling guilt and searching for some measure of redemption are powerful emotional trips to engage. Haywood takes us on such a trip through his wonderfully articulate and soul searching protagonist, Handy White, but perhaps the genius behind this novel for me was the empathy I felt for Handy’s hot-headed friend, J.R. The ghost of guilt that haunted his entire life was ever present, and it lent all the credibility necessary to understand Handy’s seemingly suicidal quest for redemption.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Cemetery Road</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> is smart, sophisticated writing. The collection of starred industry reviews and high praise from newspapers were well deserved back in 2009. Trust me, this baby has staying power. I don’t keep every crime novel I read on the shelves in my writing room at Casa Stella, but this one will take its place on the top shelf along with some of my other favorites.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Road-Gar-Anthony-Haywood/dp/0727879146"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Cemetery Road</span></strong></a></span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Road-Gar-Anthony-Haywood/dp/0727879146"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"> is a terrific read, start to finish. Get it here:</span></strong></a> </span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Family Portrait with Fidel</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">by Carlos Franqui … some background on the author is necessary before a review of his sometimes sad and often times hilarious take on Fidel and the revolution that was, then quickly wasn’t. Franqui was born in a cane field and was a member of the communist party. He joined the 26<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> of July movement headed by Fidel Castro and co-edited the movement (and later the revolution’s) official newspaper, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Revolución.</i> Franqui was a writer, poet, journalist, art critic, and political activist who eventually fell out of favor with Castro due to the abandonment of all principle when it came to human rights and democratic power. Forced to leave Cuba, in 1968 he broke ties with the Cuban government (Castro) with a letter condemning the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Family Portrait</i> was recommended by author Scott Adlerberg, and I had a fun time reading Franqui’s take on everything that went wrong under Fidel Castro and his much more vicious brother, Raul. Franqui’s take also reveals what a horse’s ass Fidel was when it came to doing the right thing and defending the principles of his revolution. What he did was consolidate all the power under an almighty, but not nearly as bright as he needed to be, God—Castro himself. He allowed his thug brother free reign of the military, and it was used just as horribly as can be imagined. Settling scores by taking lives is never a good idea.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Nor was Fidel nearly as smart as he was charismatic (i.e., Barry and The Donald?), but he was clever enough to play off the superpowers and retain his grip on his country. Surviving 11 presidents is no small feat. Still, his revolution was more a convertible one, unfortunately driving with the top up while destroying any sense of transparency. A thug when it came to culture of any kind, Fidel chose unwisely in repressing the poets and other artists of his culture, along with homosexuals. It is what cost him someone as obviously valuable as Franqui, a true voice of reason, but power is a nasty aphrodisiac and Fidel certainly showed no signs of being immune to it. It is obviously what cost him Che Guevara as well, someone Franqui felt was much more the true revolutionary than Fidel.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A wonderful passage to this informal memoir takes place at the end of Part IV, subtitled “Was Fidel a Communist?” Here’s the passage:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><em>“In effect, did the revolution change anything? Yes, everything in the highest echelons of Cuban society changed: the Party-state was the new ruling class. But nothing changed below. Those of us—almost two million—who have suffered through this process know that the monster is not socialism. The word just has no meaning any more. Each side has its buzzwords. Pinochet and Videla always talk about the “free world,” while Kim Il Sung, Teng Siao-ping, Husak, Pan Van-don, and Brezhnev talk “the proletariat,” “popular democracy,” “communism,” “internationalism,” and “free territory.” No one believes these words anymore because everyday reality gives them the lie. The socialist world is not socialist; it’s a world where the people are forced to work and to endure permanent rationing and scarcity, where they have neither rights nor freedoms. If they are taught to read—an essential prerogative if the wall of ignorance is to be destroyed once and for all—they are deprived of the freedom to read what they like. The increase in literacy is more than offset by the increase in the new elite above. There is no equality in education, because the new elite give special attention to the children of Party members and state officials. The same applies to labor. There is no unemployment, because people are made to work at forced labor, in reeducation camps, and in military service. Salaries are not equal and are insufficient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This goes as well for housing, medical attention, transportation, and food.</em></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><em>“Those above enjoy privileges. So there are no more old bourgeois around, so what? There are plenty of bureaucrats who administer, control, and enjoy wealth. Above, everything is different, while below it’s the same old thing. In Cuba, we call this system socialismo.*</em></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><strong>*There is a pun in which the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">socio</i>, meaning “partner” or “buddy,” is blended with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">socialismo</i>, or ‘socialism.’”</strong></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Family-Portrait-Fidel-Carlos-Franqui/dp/0394532600"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Family Portrait with Fidel here:</span></strong></a> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Jewish Noir</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> …</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> from PM Press. I haven’t read all the stories, so I can speak to only those I read and enjoyed. Suzanne Solomon’s use of 2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> person in her story, <em>“Silver Alert</em></span><em>,”</em> was wonderful. <em>“Twisted Shikse”</em> by Jedidiah Ayers is probably my favorite in the collection thus far. David Zeltserman’s <em>“Something’s Not Right”</em> was a story (fantasy?) I’m thinking most writers can appreciate, and S.J. Rozan’s <em>“The Flowers of Shanghai”</em> was a history lesson (at least for me) regarding how one might think there couldn’t have been more anti-Semitism in a world gone crazy (WWII). I learned it was prevalent in Japanese-occupied Shanghai as well. Nancy Richler’s “Some You Lose” very effectively deals with the difficulties of summing up one man’s life in a eulogy.</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Noir-Contemporary-Tales-Crime/dp/1629631116"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Jewish Noir here:</span></strong></a> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fences</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>a non-spoiler review by J.R. Jarrod … Unlike many of his peers whose marquee status has faded, Denzel Washington can still “open” a movie. He’s one of my favorite movie stars, hands down, and I’m always eager to see his latest directorial endeavors. As if that wasn’t enough, add Viola Davis and material by August Wilson, and it was enough to get me into the theater, but was it enough to keep me riveted … ?</div>
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The Oscar buzz for this film is not without merit. The performances in this film are densely crafted, utterly humanizing, compelling and worthy of a stride along the red carpet. Standouts are of course Denzel Washington as Troy Maxson – a man haunted by opportunities that might have been – and Viola Davis as his indomitable, selfless wife Rose; among the rest of the cast, Stephen Henderson (reprising his Tony-nominated role as Bono) and Mykelti Williamson (as Gabriel) provide the most engaging supporting performances. (Williamson often steals scenes;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>his climactic final line of dialogue is no exception.)</div>
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Structurally, however, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fences</i> plays like a throwback to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Masterpiece Theatre</i> or a made-for-HBO movie of the past. This is primarily because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fences</i> is truly a filmed stage play, substituting real brick & mortar interior and exterior locations for their stage counterparts. We are teased by possible flashbacks, dream sequences and the like, but they never materialize, nor do the walk-ons or other juicy supporting roles evinced in the characters’ lengthy diatribes and soliloquies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’d hazard a guess that Denzel Washington speaks more words in this one film than he has in his entire cinematic career.) With no dam in sight, I found myself quickly drowning in the endless rivers of bombastic dialogue. Any event even remotely dramatic is simply referred to as having taken place off-screen, and the principal cast is never truly untethered from the two-story house, backyard, or locked-down camera. In this respect <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fences</i> inadvertently becomes an experimental film (that just happens to boast a stellar cast), but is hardly the cinematic experience I think many are expecting.</div>
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In cinema, the writer and director must assume their audience is unfamiliar with the world being depicted onscreen; therefore the filmmaker’s duty is to educate as well as to entertain. An example of where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fences</i> fails to educate can be found in Troy’s tirades to his son Cory (Jovan Adepo) about 1950s race relations. Since the screenplay never provides any three-dimensional malevolent, let alone benevolent, white characters (or outsiders of any other race, for that matter), Troy’s rants seem targeted at straw men. Thus, rather than compelling the filmgoer with this tale of Black family life in the 1950s, such narrative and structural deficits serve to distance if not disenchant the filmgoer.</div>
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Having seen the <u>screen</u>play, I can attest that it is indeed, for all intents and purposes, still formatted like a <u>stage </u>play, with copious runs of dialogue throughout. While August Wilson’s Pulitzer-prize winning genius can’t be contested, it seems this early stage-to-screen adaptation of his own work was deemed by contemporary producers as too sacrosanct to edit. (There is no other screenwriter credited in this production.) Unfortunately Wilson’s material is revered to a fault. Leaving the screenplay untouched (and the footage most likely minimally trimmed in post-production) was a decision by the producers which resulted in a film that mimics the award-winning play but never uses the semiotic tools necessary to dissect, translate or interpret the play for the cinematic medium. This yielded, in my opinion, an extremely claustrophobic movie going experience.</div>
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I wanted to love this film … I did. Yet rather than unpack or elevate the material, the artifice of this production undercuts verisimilitude and unintentionally breaks the fourth wall with its lack of cinematic dexterity. Fans of the stage play will find some solace, I’m sure, since they’re essentially getting a stage play redux, albeit in high-definition. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Antwone Fisher</i> (2002) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Debaters</i> (2007) are evidence that Denzel Washington is a fine and nuanced director, and though the performances in this film are flawless, I left the theatre feeling that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fences</i> The Movie is unduly haunted by the ghost of August Wilson.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Tweeter in Chief …</span></i></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> or maybe the prestidigitator in chief is more appropriate. While the Orange Blowhard tweets, the media and other Democrat sycophants crack jokes and/or predict a new apocalypse based on the Blowhard’s cast of greedy capitalist/nationalist characters for his cabinet and staff, people who just might remake America in a way the Founding Fathers would most appreciate.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">nd, no, that isn’t a good thing, certainly not for the lot of us.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve been waiting for the tweets that hint of appointments to whoever might be in charge of the evacuations of the cities and herding of the populaces into feudal land parcels, but even that might be an improvement on where the Blowhard seems to be taking us (somebody say 14 hour workdays, no vacation time, sick time, and/or unions?). Okay, that might be a bit dramatic, but no less so than Democrats seem to think.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Maybe he’ll leave those in the cities alone, especially those who can afford the subtle and/or not so subtle gentrifications.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What we should be afraid of, it seems to me, isn’t World War III, whether with China or somebody else nuclear capable. It seems to me the economy is about to take a big league boost for those who can afford it most, while the rest of us get used to lower wages for more production and less value. That seems to be were Herr Drumpf is headed with cabinet picks and staff appointments that defy even a hint of income gap control.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And let’s not get into the environment. Let’s face it, we were doomed a long time ago on that front. Trump will expedite the end of life on planet earth via the further ignoring of climate change. On the other hand, for those of you who might have a few years left before the climate apocalypse of hot air (pun not intended), poisoned water, rising sea levels and unbreathable air, you can always enjoy the time you have left. At least he’s giving you a good reason to go hedonistic.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Democratic Party’s Suicidal Contortions …</span></i></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> and over on the other side of the political aisle are the losers in the 2016 run for the power minus the glory. The Democratic Party and its never ending search for someone to blame for their own misdeeds (i.e., what was exposed in WikiLeaks) seems determined to hold fast and ignore progressives yet again. This week they’re back to blaming Vladimir Putin and his Russian team of hackers for wanting Trump to beat Hillary so bad they forced the DNC to sabotage Bernie Sanders’s campaign.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Just think about the shape-shifting that line of logic requires.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In any event, it is amusing watching Democratic lemmings twist and turn over Trump and all the projections about what the Blowhard will do next, although I sometimes think they forget who actually still is president. Then again why not? They certainly forgot Barry was president the last 7+ years. They were so drunk on the prediction that Trump would kill the Republican Party for good, and/or that they could do whatever they wanted (i.e., DNC sabotaging its own candidates), they didn’t see the train headed straight for their collective power. Well, the train has struck and the power is gone, at least for the next two years. We shall see if the contortions they continue to undertake will leave them any better off in 2018 and/or 2020 than they are right now, which is in the proverbial shitter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Viva la</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Revolución!</i></span></strong></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Happy Holidays …</span></i></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> give the gift of Stella. Need something to buy for one of yours? Give the gift of reading about a progressive thinking hit man who has zero respect for organized thugs and (or is it the same thing?) the government in general.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tommy-Red-Charlie-Stella/dp/1933586966"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Tommy Red here:</span></strong></a></div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-28572551236137509912016-11-20T08:25:00.000-05:002016-11-20T08:25:27.577-05:00Three Book Reviews … Post Election Blues … Amici:<br />
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<strong><em>Resurrection Mall</em></strong>, by Dana King … Doc Dougherty is back. The author’s Penns River series is a winner, and the latest installment, <em>Resurrection Mall</em>, tops the list. Penns River is pretty much everywhere in America, a town down on its luck from manufacturing that has flown the coop to foreign shores. It is an economically devastated town with the usual problems that follow: a rising crime rate that includes real estate carpetbaggers seeking a quick property flip or cheap investment and the concomitant crime. Last time we visited Penns River in <em>Grind Joint</em>, a Russian mobster had staked a claim on a casino operation. Casinos are often sold because of all the well-paying jobs they will bring to the community. No matter the same idea is draining money from those with jobs. Now that the casino is up and running in Penns River, the petty crimes have begun to up and run as well. Homes are being ripped off. Tool sheds are missing tools. Citizens are hanging on in what’s left of the good areas but are starting to feel the pinch as burglars look to score a quick fix and expand their territory. </div>
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The unavoidable drug trade that is always present in wealthy and/or depressed neighborhoods has staked a claim in Penns River. A Minister Lewis has invested in a mall for the sake of the community and his flock. It is called Resurrection Mall. Lewis is a busy man and requires help in administering all the responsibilities involved in running a church, never mind the reconstruction of an abandoned mall. While malls usually bring the kids in for whatever forms of entertainment are popular at the time, it also brings in the dealers looking to score a new user or ten.</div>
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Meanwhile, back at home, Doc’s father is giving him shit about the stolen tools from a friend’s shed and all the other petty crimes going on in the community. Doc has his own official issues to deal with, including the in-house fighting at the department and the influence the casino has with the mayor and the police. Cars are being stolen from the casino lot. Not a good thing. Whether a gambler has won or lost, the last thing he wants to deal with is an empty parking spot where his car used to be.</div>
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The in-house Dougherty exchanges are classics. King’s dialogue is top of the line. You quickly latch onto Doc and his family and friends and never want to put the book down.</div>
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Shortly after his Sunday night dinner with his parents, Doc is confronted with a big mess, the result of an apparent drug war. Five are killed, but somebody close to Doc, somebody from Grind Joint (<a href="http://temporaryknucksline.blogspot.com/2013/05/grind-joint-dana-king-intouchables-so.html">see review here:</a>), Wilver Faison, saw the entire thing go down. Doc wants to protect Wilver, but the kid, now 16, is terrified at least one of the hit team saw him.</div>
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No spoilers here. Trust me on the author’s ability to write a brilliant novel. Doc Dougherty is the cop we all want in our communities. A veteran at his trade, Doc is smart and disciplined, but not over the top. His best personality trait is the fact he’s reasonable. He’s willing to listen and isn’t easily maneuvered by the powers that be. In Penns River, his immediate boss is a family friend and someone Doc respects, but everybody has to deal with the politicians overseeing the police and those willing to serve the politicians ahead of the community. There’s usually more than one in every precinct, the brown noses, the by-the-book sycophants, and it’s no different in Penns River.</div>
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This is a terrific novel you’ll want to read, and if you haven’t read King’s other Penns Rivers novels, you’ll want to read those also.</div>
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<a href="https://downandoutbooks.com/title-list/">Check out Down and Out Books here:</a> <br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dana-King/e/B005J5BU5K">Check out Dana’s works here:</a> <br />
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<strong><em>Eileen</em></strong>, by Ottessa Moshfegh … You like dark? You like funny? You like funny-dark? Then get this baby. Eileen is a single 24 year old living with her father, an alcoholic retired cop. Dad verbally abuses Eileen a dozen times a day and for a dozen different reasons. He cracks nasty about her looks, her inability to find a man, and the disparity between her and a more attractive sister who has flown the coop and has her own life. Dad also sees gangsters where they’re not. Eileen tells us she is unhappy and that she hates everything. She’s telling us this some thirty plus years removed from her life with Dad and her job at a prison for boys in Massachusetts. Her alcoholic mother has been dead for five years, but she often recalls lying in bed with the corpse the night Mom died. Her life seems analogous to coexisting alongside the living dead.</div>
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She has issues with her body—“I hated my face with a passion”—but she isn’t immune to sexual attraction. There’s a guard at the prison she often stalks on her days off, just to get a look at Randy, and to spark another fantasy or two. She is mostly invisible to everyone, except her father and his abuse. She’s happy to run out to the liquor store and purchase his daily bottle of gin for the sake of peace and quiet once he passes out. She can take some solace in her room in the cold attic because it’s as far away from Dad as possible. Dad tends to fall asleep in a broken recliner in a filthy kitchen neither of them have any intention of cleaning.</div>
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It’s a dour look at life, and it reminded me of Bukowski’s <em>Barfly</em>, where one might substitute the sale of a short story and a fling with a publisher for a newfound friendship with a new hire at the prison, somebody who not only sees Eileen, she befriends her. Rebecca is a hot redhead with a Harvard degree and a screw or two loose of her own, albeit for altruistic reasons. That has to do with an ending that is a wonderfully dark surprise. The novel takes course over a seven-day reflection of Eileen’s mostly miserable life in 1960. It’s a PEN/Hemingway Award winner (whatever the fuck that means, but I’ll assume I should always mention a writing award … and so Eileen has also been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize). Bottom line: If you’re into a dark dose of life with some great humor, this baby is something you’ll want to read. I loved it.</div>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eileen-Novel-Ottessa-Moshfegh/dp/0143128752">Get Eileen here:</a> <br />
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<strong><em>Earthquake Weather</em></strong>, Terrill Lankford … Want to know something about Hollywood? Read this baby. It’s a dark but humorous trip to and through Hollywood portraying all the jealousy, deceit, greed, lust, and vengeance required of the players seeking a seat at the table. Mark Hayes is a creative executive with a dream of making his own movies. He works for a top notch scumbag, Dexter Morton, who takes pleasure in his ability to do as he pleases since his recent success with a movie that has earned enough to make him relevant in the industry. Dexter is the big boss man of Prescient Pictures. </div>
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The aftermath of a serious earthquake leaves the town in tatters as Mark’s known but not neighborly neighbors filter out of the building where he lives. They are all in an immediate quest for survival from the rubble of aftershocks. Neighbor meets neighbor, and coincidences emerge. A party thrown by the boss man, Dexter Morton, brings some of the coincidental people into play, but when the host is found floating face down in his pool, hairpiece askew, the following morning by Mark, he becomes a prime suspect in Morton’s sudden demise.</div>
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The hot girlfriend, Charity James, of the dead man took issue with him the night of the party and stabbed him in the ass. A few others in attendance mentioned how they wouldn’t mind it so much if the boss didn’t wake up one morning, but it’s Mark who found him, so it’s Mark the police are interested in speaking with. And they do, a few times, but in the meantime there’s shenanigans aplenty, including the appearance of a rattlesnake intended to end Mark, a few tussles with gangbangers of consequence (you don’t spit into the wind or insult Bloods or Crips), and there’s the issue of the minor starlet/former girlfriend (Charity) of the dead guy, who has managed to embed herself in Mark’s life because he was told to get her out of there (the party) after the stabbing incident. Of course Mark brought her home, but without ill intentions. Still, she became comfortable with Mark’s roommate, and eventually comfortable in a one-timer with Mark, but her follow-up act was with gangbangers, and nothing good was going to come from that.</div>
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The author takes us on a dark but fun trip through the Hollywood subculture of movie makers and shakers. Mark is self-deprecating enough to win our sympathy, even when he does nasty stuff, but we’re with his better angels throughout, including his wanting to help that overthrown starlet. No spoilers here, but the ending occurs just after the O.J. alleged double murder (alleged my ass), and it’s a lot of fun getting there. So much so, I’d intended to write the review for a December post, but wasn’t willing to put this one down long enough to wait.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Earthquake-Weather-Terrill-Lee-Lankford/dp/0345467787">Get Earthquake Weather here:</a> <br />
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<strong>The Electoral Blues </strong>… never let it be said that Knucks can call a Super Bowl winner … or an election. The shocker on November 8 was met with great joy at Casa Stella, although we had no idea it would happen. Now, to clarify, we weren’t celebrating the Orange Blowhard’s victory. No sir/No ma’am. We were celebrating the temporary death of the Clintons’ presidential aspirations. I say temporary because we all know Chelsea’s “turn” will be coming along soon enough. We’re in no hurry for that spoiled brat (“earning” $600,000 fresh out of college? Really?) to make her way to center stage. Now that the DNC has taken one in the chops, maybe it will clean the sewer it has become and reform itself.</div>
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No, we won’t be counting on it. My Demexit remains in place until further notice.</div>
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What I’ve found comical (yes, comical) since the election result is the amount of high drama expressed by those who voted blue no matter who (Democrat lemmings) and/or Hillary loyalists. The world is coming to an end. Racism has been validated … Hell, some claim bigotry has been mandated, as if it not only never existed before, but it now has an official call to arms. None of what occurred under Obama’s tenure, much the same way as any of his decisions and/or indecisions, is either remembered or called to account. How could it be? He was the cool president, no drama Obama. It’s a nice crock of shit if you want to swallow it. Sure, some of the yahoos are feeling their oats these days, but how long does anyone really think that’ll last before they’re caught and have to pay the price for being assholes? I’ll go out on a limb and say things will settle down from whatever peak they’ve reached, and I’m not so sure it’s all that much higher than what is normal in our institutionalized racist America.</div>
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The bottom line is Progressives will continue the fight for a voice in our government on domestic and foreign policy. We will not capitulate to the corrupt powers all too willing to sellout to corporate and Wall Street interests. We will not buy into the nonsense about the lesser of two evils, which is exactly how the Democrat Party become so powerful and corrupt. Ultimately, it’s how the party shot itself in the foot. The incremental change we’ve been told to swallow for three decades has gone in one direction, and it hasn’t been in the interests of the middle class, the poor, or minorities.</div>
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—Knucks</div>
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Here’s what we believe has happened to Democrat voters over the years. Carey Wedler seems to have nailed it pretty good. So, hopefully yeah, welcome back to the resistance, bitches.</div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-87866415018598618112016-11-06T06:57:00.000-05:002016-11-06T07:05:30.666-05:002 Days to Armageddon … Kyle Carey Kickstarter … J.R. Jarrod reviews Dr. Strange … The Case for Unaccountable Power … RIP Ed Gorman …Amici:<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">2 Days to Armageddon …</i></b> while early voting has been going on for a couple of weeks, the rest of America goes to the polls on November 8. The two entries from the two major political parties have the lowest approval/trustworthy numbers in history. One has a huge resume, but a horrendous performance record. Oh, she’s made plenty of decisions, but they’ve mostly turned into monumental disasters (i.e., Iraq, Libya, Syria). The other major participant is a throwback to vaudeville, and that’s being nice. The GOP nominee is without a doubt the most unqualified presidential candidate in my lifetime. He knows little, if anything, about the office he seeks (i.e., what it entails, its constitutional limits, etc.). What Donald Trump does have is a celebrity name at least equal to his main rival, Hillary Clinton. People recognize him and his brand and they aren’t interested in the background details of that brand. Nor do they care that hardly anything that comes out of his mouth is a truth. So what he’s stiffed workers at every opportunity? So what he buys cheap from China and Japan? So what he has more lawsuits pending than, as my Aunt Josephine used to say, Carter has pills?</div>
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Clinton is likely to win because Trump is atrocious to people in general. Also, her political machine, exposed as corrupt as the Gambino crime family this past year, is on the ground and running at full speed. She has the big name surrogates pleading her case, even if they hate one another, because the Obama legacy tour is in deep trouble should Clinton lose. If she wins, however, it’ll be because of Trump and all his horrendous behavior. I suspect it’ll be his behavior that trumps, so to speak, his incredible lack of knowledge about pretty much everything.</div>
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On the other hand, should Clinton lose, she’ll have nobody to blame but herself. Not the 1-4% of Jill Stein voters like myself, nor James Comey and the FBI. Hillary Clinton is a magnet for scandals of her own doing. Between the emails and her and her husband’s foundation, there are probably 3 or 4 RICO indictments ready to fly. If Trump is the next president (try hearing yourself say that a few times), Clinton is likely to face a genuine prosecution. For now, between Obama and the Justice Department she so sloppily ran while secretary of state, she has built in protections better than the juries John Gotti rigged in two of his criminal trials.</div>
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The other candidates, Gary “Aleppo” Johnson and Jill Stein, will be nowhere to be found come election night. Those of us voting for either do not kid ourselves about the votes we’ll make. Neither has a chance in hell of winning, but that’s the way the system is set up: two major parties representing the interests of the corporate elite perform a sideshow election for entertainment and venting purposes. People get to YELL at one another in social media as they argue their candidate’s cases, although this year, the only case to be made for either of the two major candidates is an attack on the other.</div>
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But what if Trump wins? He’s stupid and crazy.</div>
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What if Clinton wins? She’s corrupt and vindictive.</div>
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Frankly, I look forward to next week’s election, and not because it’ll finally be over. I hope for a Clinton loss because of what the DNC did to my candidate of choice and all the money and effort I gave to his campaign. I also think it’ll be a blast if Trump is the winner because he really is kind of what this country deserves, and for obvious reasons. I don’t see the political revolution Bernie Sanders championed before he turned lapdog going anywhere should Clinton or Trump win. On the other hand, under Trump I believe the left will not only survive, it will likely thrive as an obvious response come 2020. Under Clinton, I see the left being ground into dust.</div>
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So it goes. Let the best worst candidate win!</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kickstarter for Kyle Carey </i></b>… we’ve done this before and are proud to do it again. Kyle has a gorgeous voice and we look forward to her next album. She sings beautiful Gaelic songs. We donated … you should too. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kylecarey/the-art-of-forgetting-kyle-careys-new-album"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kylecarey/the-art-of-forgetting-kyle-careys-new-album</span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Strange </i>…</b> non-spoiler review by J.R. Jarrod.</div>
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As a comic book fan I was always a D.C. (Detective Comics) guy, and even then it was pretty much just Batman and The Flash, with an occasional Superman binge. In my teens I began dabbling in Marvel tales like Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Punisher, Alpha Flight and a sprinkling of X-Men. I still have the long boxes at home. However, I always glossed over Doctor Strange on the comic book rack. The reason? Whereas there was something easily digestible about D.C. heroes and their origin stories, aside from Spider-Man, Marvel’s heroes seemed mired in a complex miasma of psychological, astrological, astrophysical, geopolitical and psychedelic undergirdings that were just too daunting for a Saturday morning read. I’ve said all that to underscore how much I now love and embrace Marvel Studios’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marvel Heroes for Dummies</i> approach to their movies. It just plain works, providing an entry point for both the neophyte and the aficionado.</div>
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As a self-proclaimed Marvel Dummy I couldn’t wait to finally enter the universe of Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange, created by the legendary Steve Ditko and who first appeared in Strange Tales #110 (July 1963). My wife and I even coughed up the loot to see it in 3-D, since that was part of director Scott Derrickson’s overall design for the film. The movie did not disappoint. Easily the most unabashedly visually complex and indulgent of all the Marvel films, this tale is a feast for the eyes. Within the first ten minutes any lingering questions about “to 3-D or not to 3-D” are laid to rest. Cinematically this flick is equal parts <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Matrix, Inception</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harry Potter</i> with a tonal sprinkling of TV’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">E.R.</i> (don’t ask, just go see it). And wow <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">… </b>just <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">… </b>wow.</div>
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Albeit the requisite superhero origin story, the movie benefits from the “everything’s better with Benedict Cumberbatch” recipe, and he oh-so subtly chews the scenery with aplomb. Though other reviews have compared the arrogant Dr. Stephen Strange to Marvel’s other haughty bad boy Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), I found Strange arguably more sympathetic. Whereas Stark saved his own neck and turned his fortune to the service of others, he never truly underwent a lasting catharsis; Strange, however, loses everything, and in his vehement quest to restore his world he is both abjectly humbled and ultimately truly repents. When given the choice later in the tale to use his newfound abilities to regain what he’s lost, Strange <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">… </b>well let’s just say he’s the Marvel hero we deserve and the one we need right now. Honestly I haven’t had this much fun at the movies in a long time.</div>
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I as a writer love science-fiction and the supernatural because those genres allow for a very blatant, if not metaphorical, exploration of the true nature of good and evil. In that way <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Strange</i> leads Marvel’s cinematic pack by delving into the bittersweet nature of man’s unending quest for immortality and the subsequent woes man endures in attempting to grasp the eternal with hands of clay. Kaecilius, the villain of the film played by Mads Mikkelsen (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hannibal</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Casino Royale</i>), is the embodiment of that ill-fated quest and, as such, is one of Marvel’s more sympathetic antagonists. The film also benefits from key performances by the other-worldly Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo, Benedict Wong, a slightly underused but ever-effective Rachel McAdams, and a fantastic cameo by none other than Benjamin Bratt.</div>
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Shot on both film and HD, special effects and production values are top-notch, and the musical score by Michael Giacchino is one to remember. With a screenplay by Jon Spaihts, C. Robert Cargill and Scott Derrickson, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Strange</i> effectively distills decades of the character’s comic book history into a sturdy cinematic template. Stan Lee, former president and chairman of Marvel Comics and creator of many of Marvel’s signature heroes, has his requisite cameo, occurring, as always, when you least expect it. (I’m sincerely hoping that Marvel Studios has had enough foresight to create a digital body double of Stan so that his cameos will continue for the next 200 years!) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Strange</i> features both a mid-credit and a post-credit scene, both of which contain key plot and character payoffs for subsequent MCU tales, so stay for that extra 10 minutes (you won’t regret it).</div>
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As much as I loved D.C. Comics as a kid, Marvel Studios has once again taken D.C.’s parent company Warner Bros. to the woodshed, providing another burnished (though admittedly workmanlike) superhero popcorn flick for the masses. When will it ever stop? Given The Ancient One’s revelation of the multiverse, chances are: never. But fear not, Strange will undoubtedly be there to guide us from his Sanctum Sanctorum. As Stan Lee would say: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Excelsior</i>!” Indeed.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Case for Unaccountable Power …</i></b> there is none. Remember Richard Nixon? Well, since Tricky Dick we’ve had scandal upon scandal out of the White House, from Iran-Contra to Monica to Katrina to Fast and Furious, but nothing close to the fiasco going on these days. One candidate has two ongoing FBI criminal investigations. The other should have a few himself. The difference, of course, is the Democrat-selected candidate has a love affair with Nixon’s secretary of state (remember the secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia?) … and she’s yet to find a war she didn’t like. Tough, yeah, but her draft-dodging husband and non-volunteer daughter aren’t the ones who will fight the next war, and that one may well be with Russia. Since she’s publicly stated she’d nuke Iran, I’m not feeling as secure with her having the nuclear codes as I am with someone who probably would fight a war with tweets.</div>
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Unaccountable power is NEVER a good thing, unless you’re into monarchs, I guess. We’re close enough now as the oligarchs rule America, and if you add up the years of Bush-Clinton, it’s pretty fucking frightening. Twenty years of family rule does not a democratic Republic make.</div>
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All that said, most people will vote along lemming party lines and then make believe their either conservative or liberal the day after the election.</div>
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So it goes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4DMjIliHI2EMEx2XUE4oZntMtaKW5RvgNiGxFZif7NEypnb2nllz1aZ7INw4jYwDA-GPsZwO5P949Ir5_b7G0Ic4pO7KOqwEeNwwd1SPH3Og8iSiUDfg1S2PVyTZkPz7Co_JWsfFUTwY/s1600/Ed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4DMjIliHI2EMEx2XUE4oZntMtaKW5RvgNiGxFZif7NEypnb2nllz1aZ7INw4jYwDA-GPsZwO5P949Ir5_b7G0Ic4pO7KOqwEeNwwd1SPH3Og8iSiUDfg1S2PVyTZkPz7Co_JWsfFUTwY/s320/Ed.jpg" width="202" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: lime; mso-highlight: lime;"></span><o:p></o:p> </div>
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<strong><em>Ed Gorman … </em></strong>We all know about his prolific and wonderful writing, but this is about the man. Ed, who didn’t know me outside of crime writing, learned I was seeking a new publisher back in 2009. I was close to falling into the crime writing abyss when Ed read my novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Johnny Porno</i>, and suggested Greg Shepherd of Stark House Press take a look-see. Until 2010, Stark House Press published reprints of classic noir novels. Greg liked <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Johnny Porno</i> enough to take it on as Stark House’s first original crime novel. What Ed did was save me from the abyss, but there’s more to the story.</div>
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Most of yous know I’m not a shy guy. My politics, too left for most, tends to ruffle feathers. To his credit, even when he didn’t agree with me, and Ed was a true liberal, he always tried to counsel me to take a lighter tone in my political rants. So while Ed couldn’t perform miracles, he never turned his back on me.</div>
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Ed did more for new and previously published writers than anyone I can think of, and it has been his example that is the driving force behind my doing the same. I’ve been fortunate enough to help a few people get published, but that has everything to do with their talent and me being able to suggest their work—all born of Ed’s never ending generosity.</div>
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He is sorely missed within the crime writing community and to those, like myself, who owe him so much.</div>
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RIP Ed.</div>
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—Knucks</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Last Internationale</b> … <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Workers of the World Unite …</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dgaJb0lQJ84" width="560"></iframe></span><br /></div>
Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-78983178453790182002016-11-02T06:02:00.002-04:002016-11-02T06:07:31.160-04:00A tribut to Ed Gorman ...Ed Gorman …<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihI9x0-fgxDjzPiSWdQLHd4sbRa7WanEkzOcCjtwXm7VGoDzrZkqfnMkmG4Kz5BlvI0IHuZWsurEuewZmDG-Dn79peMcPd8-UcKTZzEZs5s4KRLbip6DMkCpe0OA20PpmymUrwcdIpFRKP/s1600/Ed+Gorman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihI9x0-fgxDjzPiSWdQLHd4sbRa7WanEkzOcCjtwXm7VGoDzrZkqfnMkmG4Kz5BlvI0IHuZWsurEuewZmDG-Dn79peMcPd8-UcKTZzEZs5s4KRLbip6DMkCpe0OA20PpmymUrwcdIpFRKP/s320/Ed+Gorman.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>
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We all know about his prolific and wonderful writing, but
this is a tribute to the man, Ed Gorman. Except for some very kind reviews he
wrote for my novels, Ed didn’t know me outside of crime writing. When he learned
I was seeking a new publisher back in 2009, when I was close to the crime
writing abyss, Ed asked to read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Johnny
Porno</i>, and then suggested Greg Shepard of Stark House Press also take a
look-see. Until 2010, Stark House Press had published reprints of classic noir
novels. Greg liked Johnny Porno enough to take it on as Stark House’s first
original crime novel. What Ed did was save me from the crime writing abyss, but there’s more
to the story.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Most of yous know I’m not a shy guy. My politics, too left
for most, tends to ruffle feathers. Even when he didn’t agree
with me, Ed tried to counsel me to try and calm some of my political passions. So, he couldn’t perform miracles. Ed never turned his back on me.</div>
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Ed also did more for new and previously published writers than
anyone I can think of, and it has been his example that is the driving force
behind my attempts to do the same. I’ve been fortunate enough to help a few people get
published, but that has everything to do with their talent and me being able to
suggest their work—all born of Ed’s never ending generosity.</div>
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He is sorely missed within the crime writing community and
to those, like myself, who owe him so much.</div>
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RIP Mr. Gorman<o:p></o:p>Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-24591281402411172792016-10-10T08:19:00.003-04:002016-10-10T08:19:58.483-04:00Reviews: Rosario Tijeras by Jorge Franco and Killing Pablo by Marc Bowden … The Donald and the “P” Word … Misogyny, it's such a Presidential word ...Amici:<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rosario Tijeras</span></i></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> by Jorge Franco.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The recommendation came from Gonzalo Baeza, my personal Facebook hero. I’d mentioned to him that I was doing a lot of research on Colombia before and during the Escobar years. The political situation of a country that would yield to a drug kingpin fascinated me. The conditions on the street and lives of those most affected by the war that raged between Escobar and the government were equally fascinating.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Lost in all the violence, however, was the individual lives of those who share the same life’s issues we all share. Antonio, the narrator of Franco’s wonderful novel, is the guy in love with the girl he can’t have. Struck by the lightning bolt early on, Antonio has to suffer a double dose of humiliation when his best friend from childhood, Emilio, winds up as Rosario’s lover. Although the novel tells the story of a woman fighting her way through life, it is the narrator who breaks our heart at every turn. He considers himself a coward for never telling her how much he loves her and wants to protect her. When the time comes and he finally has Rosario sexually, it is quickly shot down by her ability to suspend emotions and replace them with a steel-like resolve.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rosario is a beautiful woman born into poverty, raped by one of her mother’s boyfriends at a young age, and then kicked out of her mother’s house for castrating the man with a pair of scissors. Although we’re unsure of her real surname, she’s known from that point on as Rosario Tijeras (Tijeras is Spanish for scissors). Rosario has a brother, Johnefe, she moved in with after her mother kicked her out. Johnefe is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sicario</i> (killer/hitman) for one of the cartels (there are hints throughout the book it’s for one of Escobar’s crews). The two are close and dedicated to religion and one another, except in Johnefe’s world, the world of a drug cartel, women are playthings to those with the power. There are times when Rosario disappears from both Antonio and Emilio’s lives for days or weeks or months at a time because she’s with “them.”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rosario is more than a plaything, something she at times resents and other times appreciates for all being a cartel plaything provides. She’s also a killer, a hit woman, so to speak, but whether she’s operating as a private contractor, killing men who fail to respect her, or if she’s performing work for the cartel, she never reveals.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Both Antonio and Emilio are kids from the other side of the tracks. They come from fairly wealthy families who scorn Rosario’s world, but the two are in love with her just the same, no matter the social divide.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The novel starts with a very dark and violent opening. Antonio reflects on his and Emilio’s times with Rosario, telling their stories in vignettes from the past. Franco takes us back and forth in time, and when the action returns to Antonio, shortly after the start of the book, it is compelling. Simply put, this novel has left me in awe.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There is a movie by the same name on Netflix, but I wouldn’t watch it until after reading the book. The movie stays very close to the book until the ending. Worth the watch, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading the book first.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One of my favorite passages (Antonio describing the pain of being in love with Rosario): <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He who is silent assents, and I had to be silent. It pained me to recognize it, but it was true. I didn’t have the courage to ask them how you cured yourself of that habit, what the treatment was, where, who could help me, and I thought that if a place didn’t exist that offered some kind of therapy, humanity had been negligent of humanity not establishing one because one thing I was sure of was that I wasn’t the only one. There are millions of us shiteaters who have to cure ourselves in silence or, has happened so many times, we die of a fecal overdose.</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“So much shit must be good for something,” I consoled myself, nevertheless. “It’s used as fertilizer for a reason.”</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://catalog.sevenstories.com/products/rosario-tijeras-eng"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">I acquired <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rosario Tijeras</i> at Seven Stories Press.</span></strong></a> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Killing Pablo</span></i></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> by Marc Bowden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frankly, I didn’t like it. I’d done some research before and since reading the book by the best-selling author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blackhawk Down</i>, but I found it sketchy at times, and way too patriotic (i.e., fawning American patriotism) to take it as seriously as I would have liked. It’s a thin book that ignores a much bigger and better story. While Bowden does present some of the anti-American sides to the story, it seems as though he couldn’t help himself by bragging about American capabilities. Delta Force snipers were either “the best in the world” or “among the best in the world” depending on which page you read the passage. That may well be true, but the hints that it was a Delta Force sniper who fired the kill shot seems a stretch. To be fair, Bowden believes it was an up-close shot fired by Colombian police, what seems to make the most sense, but shades of American influence, as valid as it might have been, seemed forced. Overall, I agree with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Guardian’s</i> review of the book. A lot crammed into clichés, and thus missed. (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/jun/17/biography.features'"><strong>click on the link here:</strong></a>).</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The upside is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killing Pablo</i> forced me to look deeper into the period when Pablo Escobar was born, during Colombia’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Violencia</i>, a ten-year civil war in Colombia from 1948 to 1958, between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party. The amazing things about Escobar continue to fascinate me. He was elected to congress as an alternate, mostly due to the housing he built for the poor in Medellin, the soccer field and teams he built and supported, and the cash he handed out to those living in tin shacks. Once he was shamed out of office due to the public disclosure of a prior arrest for drug smuggling, Escobar had the minister of justice, Rodrigo Lara, killed.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Escobar killed a lot of people, including 3 presidential candidates, judges, journalists, lesser politicians, police officials, and police. The numbers are staggering. He used bombs against enemies real and imagined, but it was the downing of an Avianca commercial jet with a bomb, in an attempt to get the man who would become president, that turned at least some of the public against him. Escobar also managed to back down the Colombian government as regards extradition (they literally rewrote their constitution to negate extradition—what the cartels feared the most, American prison cells), and eventually persuaded them, via that unimaginable violence, to allow him to set up his own prison with his own guards and his own rules. Until he started to kill other dealers within the prison walls, those he felt were cheating him, Escobar was pretty much home free. His escape from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Catedral</i> was the beginning of his end, however, although his street philosophy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">plata o plomo</i>, money or lead (i.e. bribes or bullets), proved extremely effective through most of his reign of terror. Before his end, like most megalomaniacs, Escobar overreached and brought the fury of not only the government, backed by the CIA, DEA, FBI and Delta Force, but also Colombian paramilitary outfits and other drug cartels both within Medellin and out (i.e. Cali).</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyway, there are enough details and research to get a good overall picture, but if you want an in-depth, less romanticized American slant, keep looking. I am.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Donald and the “P” Word … so it finally happened, although it was probably in place for months already. Wait for the latest Wiki dump and then nail the public with the Orange Blowhard being the Orange Blowhard. It worked, too. This election is over. Crooked Hillary Clinton is already picking out her inaugural Kim Jong-Un outfit. She’s rattled her saber back at Russia and China, put her TPP people in place, and will soon be taking the oligarchic oath of office.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Of course hers will remain an illegitimate presidency. Democrat Lemmings may look the other way, but independents aren’t as forgiving about the rigged primary.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Still, it’s The Donald all by himself who gave away this election to a career war criminal, so we’ll just have to wait out her first four years with the hope she doesn’t make good on her threats to nuke Iran and/or any other nation state, whether they nuke Israel first or not.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One has to wonder how the Trumpster will turn this fiasco of a campaign into BIG LEAGUE coin once the fiasco is over. Some claim it’ll be a new television network. Trump TV? What else?</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rightwing whack-job Marc Levin has his own little television show. Maybe the two can call one another and fight via phone.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“You’re an idiot!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There I said it.”</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“You’re a LOSER, and your wife is a dog!”</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hey, why not? It’s not like America doesn’t have an appetite for the absurdity of reality television. If Kim Kardashian can burst onto the scene via a sex tape and stay there via inanity, imagine what Levin and Trump could do?</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As to the media’s outrage at the Bloward’s comments, especially the male pundits, one has to laugh. Those clowns have probably used the same language, perhaps not bragging like idiots, but the same language, on dozens if not hundreds or thousands of occasions. Unfortunately, the American male, like most males throughout the world, have yet to preen themselves of what always passes, like it or not, whether it’s boasting or dumb shit, as comfortable conversation among themselves.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Whether the GOP can save some of itself and convince the Bloward to step aside will be interesting to watch. So far it isn’t working. Trump is back on Twitter being the fighter he wasn’t during the Vietnam War. Somebody say keyboard warrior? Chances are, he’s too arrogant to quit, and he’ll always have an excuse for losing, so he’ll probably stay for the drubbing he’ll get, whether it’s genuine or as rigged as the DNC primary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outside of myself, and for purely comical reasons (and/or just rewards), nobody really wants Trump to be president. I think this country deserves him. I think it would be hilarious. I think this country is already in much deeper trouble than it likes to admit and that Trump would be much less dangerous than people think, because nobody would take him seriously. Hillary, on the other hand, is a warmonger and corporate shill, and that combination is deadly in this country at this time.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But, let’s face it, it’ll be her, as the illegitimate president. If you accept that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, wait’ll you see the shit that’s coming down the road.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Misogyny, it’s such a Presidential Word …</b> (this first appeared on my Facebook page) … So, the fusillade of holier than thou comments about what men say about women was what I suspected it would be when I posted about this a couple of days ago. Suddenly, whether categorized as “normal” or “good,” men never talk the way the Orange Blowhard popped off on God knows how many occasions. Really?</div>
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Let’s clear this up front in the hope I don’t have to respond to emotional rants. This is NOT a defense of anything Trump said/says or does, but to assume that men do not talk about women in what can clearly be labelled misogynistic terms is absurd. Frankly, it’s total fucking nonsense.</div>
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Let me be clearer: Not only is that NOT a defense of what Trump said/says or does, it is also NOT condoning misogynistic comments, but who’s kidding who about what MOST men often say, whether it’s about women in general or a specific woman?</div>
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I was in a discussion about this last night and I found it funny how “saying that a woman has a great ass” was acceptable to one woman in the discourse, but how that wasn’t the same thing as “having a man grab a woman’s vagina whether she wanted it or not.” WTF? Yeah, no shit, it’s not the same. But since when does saying “that woman has a great ass” not count as misogynistic? Some women might not mind hearing they or someone else has “a great ass,” but I do not think a comment like that gets to be semi-misogynistic (i.e. okay, acceptable).</div>
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What Trump said, and probably says way more often than not, is perhaps beyond what might qualify as, dare I say it, “normal” misogyny, but it’s not different than his many other massive exaggerations about everything from crowd sizes to his income and/or his penis size. To suggest normal or good men NEVER use what qualifies as misogynistic language is about as nonsensical as his net worth being $10 billion dollars and/or Hillary Clinton’s claim to Scott Pelley that she “always tries to tell the truth.”</div>
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Look, like it or not, we remain a culture imbued with misogynistic lingo. I’d say it’s much more prevalent in younger men than older, but make no mistake, it reaches pretty high up there in age brackets. And here’s a fucking newsflash, it reaches the professional ranks too, and is at least at par with blue collar men and athletes guilty of same. The other night on Bill Maher’s show, the entertainer Pitbull couldn’t control his use of the word “pussy” and I’m pretty sure I saw Maher cringe a time or two, which appeared uncomfortable as he was trying to kiss Pitbull’s ass.</div>
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Face it, we remain a culture that reflects misogyny in all forms, from music to screen to literature, etc. That doesn’t make it right, but it certainly doesn’t make it invisible the way some holier than thou(s) are trying to paint the picture.</div>
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I tried to think of the men I’ve known in my life who NEVER said something misogynistic and it’s a pretty thin list. Of those I’ve spent some reasonable amount of time with, I can honestly say it has to be somewhere in the 1% range. I know of a few religious men I’ve never heard speak badly about women. A few, but certainly not all, of those involved in academia I’ve been around, and maybe one or two I’m not remembering, but that’s it. The VAST majority of men I’ve known or have spent a reasonable amount of time with have uttered something I suspect most women, and/or society at large, could or would find fault with, and/or qualify as misogynistic. And yes, that includes me. And for those who claim any woman who puts up with that kind of talk, whether it’s in a joking or insulting manner, are equally as guilty as the men who say such vile things, I’d say that’s a pretty small planet the accusers seek to live on.</div>
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To repeat: This is not a defense of the Orange Blowhard … nor is it a defense of misogynistic language or actions. It is simply a refutation of the male camp who now claim they don’t know any men who talk like Trump did, whether it was in a lesser or greater offensive manner.</div>
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But, bringing it back to politics, as is my wont, I do have to wonder where was the angst from these males, mostly democrats, when Bill Clinton was being accused of rape or having to admit to having sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinski?</div>
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And let’s not get into what he was doing with his cigars in the Oval Office. Seems to me the angst was directed at the GOP for harassing poor Bill, with the women being damned.</div>
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Oh, and one more thing ... VOTE FOR JILL STEIN.</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">—Knucks</span><br />
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">BOOM!</span></em></strong><br />
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">And Jill says …</span></em></strong><br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-69643260003128639182016-09-11T20:44:00.002-04:002016-09-12T07:25:26.893-04:00Interview with author Dana King … Half a Karamazov review … 9-11, Remember it, the why’s too … Terrific Netflix Series Review: The Get Down, by J.R. Jarrod<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Amici: </div>
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He’s one of my favorite people, favorite writers, and one-half the cause of my hockey addiction … he also turned me onto Mahler’s 2nd, <em>Resurrection</em>. His wonderful novels have now been nominated for a Shamus back-to-back years, and the fucker’s team won the Stanley Cup this past year. Not bad. <strong>Here’s my interview with Dana King.</strong></div>
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TK: You’re piling up well-deserved award nominations, so congratulations on those. Nick Forte turns a darker page in your last one, <em>A Dangerous Lesson</em>. Do you have plans for him to spiral further into darkness or does he find his way out in the next one?</div>
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DK: Thanks. Frankly, I was shocked both times, but I guess two Shamus nominations in three years implies I’m doing something right.</div>
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As for Forte, I’m not sure how thing are going to play out with him. A lot depends on what I choose for the next story idea and how I think that would logically affect him. I finished the fifth Forte novel in May, and his limits and frustrations get pushed pretty hard. </div>
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TK: You write some of the cleverest lines I’ve read in a long, long time. I was literally highlighting them and had to stop because much of the manuscript would’ve been in green, pink, blue, and yellow. Does it take you long to come up with those jewels or are they just there as you write them?</div>
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DK: Thanks again. My stories can get pretty dark and I make a conscious effort to leaven things a little. I’m glad you think it’s working.</div>
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You’re good at this, too, so you probably have a pretty good idea of what I’m going to say. When I’m lucky, good lines pop into my head as I’m at the keyboard, though they’re always subject to some tidying up as edits progress. What happens most often, though, is that scenes—or even bits of scenes—hang around in my head in the days before I actually sit down to write them and different lines come to mind. Try enough of them and discard the ones that don’t work and pretty soon there are some that work. I’m also a natural and unrepentant smart ass, so there’s that. I also have the luxury of a remarkable patient wife who lets me test drive lines around her all the time.</div>
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TK: You delved into a serial killer in this one. I know you outline, but was a serial killer something you wanted to pursue? Was that idea pre-planned before you sat down and started outlining? Was it someplace you wanted to go?</div>
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DK: I don’t like serial killer stories in general, and I never really planned to do one. To be perfectly honest, it’s been long enough since I wrote A Dangerous Lesson, I really don’t remember what inspired me to go with that idea. The original germ focused on the grandmother who wasn’t happy with her granddaughter’s boyfriend. I had a bit from an earlier unfinished novel I really liked and wanted to salvage and a serial killer seemed to be the best way to do it. Once I opened that plotline it played into Forte’s increasing darkness so I ran with it.</div>
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By the way, I’ll never write another serial killer story. I’m happy with how the book came out but I didn’t enjoy the experience of writing it as much as I usually do.</div>
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TK: Sonny Ng is a wonderful character and I want a book about him. Either his past or something just Ng. Do you think about spinning off the Forte series? I ask, because the accompanying characters are truly wonderful. Same question for Jan Rusiewicz. I think there’s some gold in her character as well.</div>
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DK: Sonny is one of the few characters I actually have backstory notes on, so at least a short story with him as the protagonist is not out of the question. What will probably hold me back is I don’t have time to write all the stories I’d like to, and I already have a series of cop stories going with Penns River, so my Chicago cops may need to get used to their subordinate positions. </div>
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I have toyed with the idea of Goose going to Penns River to ask Forte’s cousin Ben Dougherty to come to Chicago to help Nick, which could open the door to seeing all these characters through someone else’s eyes. That has some potential.</div>
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TK: Speaking of time. How much time, literally, a day to you dedicate to writing? And if you skip days, how many hours a week?</div>
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DK: An hour to an hour-and-a-half on workdays and two to three hours in weekends. It’s not the time spent I worry about. It’s the work done. I have a set goal each day and I can’t quit until that’s finished. For example, when working on a first draft, I have to write a single spaced page on workdays and two on Saturday and Sunday. I can write more, but no less. However long that takes is how long it takes. For edits I have a set task laid out before I start, often a week in advance, and that’s what has to get done.</div>
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That gets to be a grind, so I take from Memorial Day through Labor Day off as much as I can to recharge. Works great. I have energy pent up to start the next book in a couple of weeks, as opposed to trudging into it.</div>
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TK: Do you ever pen or type out the dialogue prior to the scene? Is there a pecking order to it?</div>
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DK: Because I outline, I know what’s coming before I sit down to write. Even a couple of days out I can see what’s coming, so it’s not unusual for bits of dialog to have formed in my head in advance. I think my best dialog comes when I have the first few lines ready when I sit at the keyboard and then the characters just start talking and it’s all I can do to type fast enough to keep up. First drafts sometimes have whole single spaced pages of nothing but dialog. No attributions, no beats, no stage business, just strings of dialog. I’ll go back later and make sense of it, but when it’s coming, everything else has to wait.</div>
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TK: What about at bedtime. I can’t attempt going to sleep without at least thinking (usually my last thought) about the next scene in whatever project I’m working on. Do you have that going on or can you shut it off and return without an issue the next day?</div>
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DK: I never write before bed. Well, okay, I always write before bed, but not immediately before. It’ll take me forever to get to sleep with things still churning away. I always read or watch a ballgame or something to get away from the book before I turn in.</div>
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TK: Once you’ve begun writing, assuming you’re following your outline, does an idea hit home partway through, and does that make you re-outline, so to speak? If so, which books has it happened with?</div>
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DK: Oh, sure. The next Penns River book, <em>Resurrection Mall</em>, was outlined to be a Forte story. I probably wrote 30,000 words and I still didn’t like it, wasn’t satisfied the ending I had in mind was worth the effort. One day it occurred to me the problem was that this was more of a Penns River story. I re-wrote the outline in a week or so and ripped right through it after that.</div>
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I sometimes throw away endings right at the end. <em>A Dangerous Lesson</em> is a good example. The ending of <em>A Small Sacrifice</em> is nothing like what’s in the outline.</div>
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TK: You’re a hot item in crime fiction these days. Do you ever play with non-crime material? Is there ever a desire or thought to try something outside of so-called genre fiction?</div>
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DK: I have the germ of an idea for a Western. Picked up some books in Deadwood and Dodge City on our trip out west in July. I’d like to get to that in a few years, even if it’s only a part time project between other things.</div>
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As for something outside of genre fiction, I think all fiction is genre. Literary is just another genre. Having said that, the answer is no. I like books where shit happens.</div>
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TK: I agree regarding all fiction being genre, and it’s something that bums me about MFA programs being so stuffy. I enjoyed the program I was with big time, but there was/is that bit of horseshit that goes on regarding looking down one’s nose. I know you were in writing groups. Were they strictly crime groups or was it an open atmosphere/learning experience?</div>
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DK: I’ve been very lucky with writing groups. Both have been open to anything, and the one that was more literary fiction focused was very welcoming to my genre stuff, which helped me to learn a lot from what they were doing, as well. This was a group made up of people who’d been in John McNally’s workshop at George Washington University in the spring of 2002. Before my first bit was passed out, John told them I wrote genre fiction and asked if anyone knew the difference between genre and literary. (One woman chirped out, “His will sell,” which everyone thought was pretty funny.) John’s explanation: in literary fiction the plot is driven by the characters. In genre the plot drives the characters. We spoke later and he mentioned to me that the mark of the best genre fiction is to make it not seem that way. I’ve always thought that distinction and caveat are good guides.</div>
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TK: I know you read a ton of crime fiction and are very helpful to writers with reviews and interviews. What are you reading habits? Do you take a break from crime and read other literature/genre fiction? Non-fiction?</div>
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DK: Aside from crime I read mostly non-fiction. How much of it depends on my mood and what’s going on at the time. I’m prepping for a moderator gig at Bouchercon right now, so I’m reading all crime fiction, getting to know the panelists. I’m also behind on new books by writers I make an effort to keep up with, so I’ll be crime fiction binging for a while. After that I expect non-fiction reading will pick up.</div>
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TK: I can’t thank you enough for those occasional Al Swearengen quotes. I often laugh out loud at them and always smile. He’s the essence of hardboiled, yet there’s a heart somewhere in his chest. Do you see yourself writing someone that dark? Might Forte wind up there?</div>
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DK: Forte could. He’s there now in some ways, though he’s not as overt about it as Al. That’s a big part of what the book I just finished is about, how he’s struggling with that, and will it be his darker side that wins?</div>
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TK: I know you post favorite movies, etc., on your blog. Do you have a top five all time? If so, what are they? I won’t ask the same about books. We all get that one way too often.</div>
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DK: Top Five is tough, but there are movies I come back to over and over, so let’s see how those fit. In no particular order, <em>L.A. Confidential, The Big Lebowski, Get Shorty, Monty Python</em> and the <em>Holy Grail</em>, and <em>Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.</em> Next tier is probably <em>Animal House</em>, <em>The Maltese Falcon, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The French Connection, and The Princess Bride.</em></div>
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TK: You’re a musician, even studied music. You’ve made some suggestions to me I’ve come to love (especially Mahler’s 2nd, <em>Resurrection</em>). You’ve written that into the Forte character, plus your love of sports. I love that Forte has that Renaissance man mystique about him. Will there be prequels where we can observe his growth?</div>
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DK: I think it was Elmore Leonard who said, “Get into a scene as late as possible and get out as early as possible.” (If he didn’t, he should have.) The same is true of novels, and, I believe, of series. The Forte series started at the point where he was interesting enough and faced substantial enough conflict for him to be interesting. What might have happened to him before wouldn’t measure up.</div>
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TK: On top of the award nomination, your Pipsqueaks were a hurricane in the second half of the season, and then throughout the NHL playoffs. Can they repeat? Can they repeat without that Slue-foot-Motherf—I mean, Crosby?</div>
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DK: Why would they have to repeat without Crosby? He’s not going anywhere.</div>
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TK: I was referring to an injury. They have a ton of talent, although I do think he does a lot more than score goals for them. We made it to the conference finals without a lot of our players throughout the playoffs (Stamkos, Bishop, etc.) and some playing very hurt (Cally was forced to get a hip operation immediately after the series and will be missing until sometime in November). Do you think your guys would’ve/could’ve gone as far without Slu—Crosby?</div>
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DK: No one wins if their best player is out. Stamkos’s loss probably doomed the Bolts last year. They took Pittsburgh to seven games with him missing the first six. He had to be worth a game in that half-dozen somewhere. I don’t count Bishop’s injury. He’s overrated, and Vasilevskiy was at least as good as Bigfoot would have been.</div>
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TK: The Callahan-LeTang hit. Dirty dancing or academy performance?</div>
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DK: I was disappointed in Callahan. He’s better than that. It was a Flyers kind of hit.</div>
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TK: Oh, man, LeTang saw him coming and played it for all it was worth. I thought Palat’s hit later in the game was much worse. But even the refs said they saw LeTang knew it was coming.</div>
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DK: Everyone knew a hit was coming. The Bolts’ best chance was to keep Letang’s head on a swivel and get reluctant to go into the corners. That’s part of the game. Cally took the head. That’s what I object to. It’s like in baseball. I don’t mind pitchers sending the occasional message with a hit batter, but that’s what asses are for, not heads or hands.</div>
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<strong>Post-script …</strong> If Cally had gone for LeTang’s head, LeTang would be headless. He went for the back of LeTang’s shoulder. (To be fair, I didn't give Dana a comeback on this one.</div>
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<a href="http://danaking.blogspot.com/"><strong>Visit Dana’s website here:</strong></a> </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dana-King/e/B005J5BU5K"><strong>Get Dana’s books here:</strong></a> </div>
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Half <em>The Brothers Karamazov </em>… no, not 1.5 of the brothers, just the first half of the book reviewed. It’s one of my favorites all time and something I’d been reaching for on my bookshelf again for the past few months for inspiration. I finally grabbed it and began rereading (this is the 4th time I’ll read it cover to cover), and as soon as I started, I was re-hooked.</div>
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Look, I know I’m a lunatic about politics and sometimes religion … okay, a lot of shit, but Dostoevsky does it for me like few others can. You’re gonna devote a gazillion hours to one book, it’s Karamazov, Crime and Punishment or Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (for me).</div>
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I’ve just come off editing one book, working on two others, and reading new novels from up and coming crime writers for reviews, etc. … so I wanted a break and I didn’t want to fuck around with something I might or might not like. Besides, I’ve gone back to working on my MFA thesis, adding new wrinkles and much more fiction to the fictional memoir I’ll probably re-title at some point. I’m also working on a crime novel called Joey Christmas but may also be called Ybor City Blues … who knows? Not me.</div>
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Okay, back to Karamazov … the names are too long to transcribe, so for those who aren’t familiar with the novel, I’ll change the names to protect the innocent. There’s Moe (Papa K, because Moe was the mean stooge) … there’s Larry (Dimitri—the oldest son, a bit too wild for his own good) … there’s Shemp (Ivan—like Bob Saginowski, you never see him coming) … and Curly (Alexie) because I’m fat and I’m making the fat guy the hero.</div>
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Moe is one greedy MF’er. He’s also as mean and cruel as the day is long, and like Donald Trump, a total buffoon. He’s fallen for the same girl his oldest son, Larry, is in love with, except Larry is off the rails about any number of things, but most of all his conscience (he’s clipped some rubles from a woman [Katarina] who loves him, and he needs to return the fazools to her before he loses his mind. So, Moe and Larry want Grushenka, but Grushenka wants neither of them (she thinks). Enter Shemp (actually he’s already on the scene), but he’s kind of got it for the woman, Katerina, who has it for Larry. Shemp is the intelligent son/brother. He’s got pretty damn good anti-religious arguments. A realist/nihilist who seems to have his shit together. Seems to, mind you. And then there’s Curly, the youngest brother, extremely religious and naïve. What happens next? What am I, Charlie Cliff Notes?</div>
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Read the book. It is well worth the effort, even with all the religious angles. I’m at the crucial ending to Part I (some 400+ pages into the nearly 800 pages) … something really bad happens and all the evidence is pointing to … wouldn’t yous like to know?</div>
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But talk about the ability to drop an end-of-chapter hook. Old Fyodor, the fucker, knew how to write.</div>
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<strong>NEVER FORGET</strong> … While the attacks on America 15 years ago remain a horrific moment in time to all of us, let’s not forget how and/or why those attacks came about.</div>
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Yeah, I’m stirring the shit again. American foreign policy since our inception has been based on self-interest, as are all nation state foreign policies. Nothing new there, but what brought about the attacks on 9-11-01 have much more to do with our mingling and/or interventions, covert or otherwise, in the affairs of other nation states. On 9-11-01, 19 men determined to strike a blow against whom they perceived to be the great Satan caught America asleep at the wheel. The carnage they inflicted was horrific. It was also the opportunity of a lifetime for those hell-bent on perpetual war, including war profiteers, defense contractors, and every other private interest that stood to profit.</div>
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Fifteen years later, we’re not only still fighting the same war we engaged in Afghanistan as retaliation for 9-11, we’ve managed to create six new wars (or one more full scale war [Iraq] and five other enemies [Syria, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen] to bomb).</div>
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The problem, of course, is that all seven wars are illegal in the eyes of international law. All seven wars have killed, and continue to kill, far more innocents than bad guys. And, of course, all seven wars are giving justification to more attacks against the Great Satan, as opposed to winning hearts and minds.</div>
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So, yes, we should take the time to grieve the tragic events of 15 years ago. Nobody killed in those attacks deserved to die. It remains a horrific imprint on all our lives and memories. It is also important to realize that much of the mess in the Middle East, and the world for that matter, is a direct result of our reactions to those attacks, and the fact we continue to bomb away without a logical game plan moving forward. All of which does little to appease our worried minds.</div>
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Do not think for a second that this is placing blame on our military and/or those who died or suffered immeasurable loss because of the attacks on 9-11. If you think that, then I did a lousy job of making my point. Nobody deserves what happened that day … or for the last 13 years since we invaded Iraq in 2003.</div>
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Peace, it makes so much more sense than war.</div>
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<strong><em>THE GET DOWN</em></strong> … (NON-SPOILER) SERIES REVIEW by <strong>J.R. Jarrod</strong>. This review is for those who’ve seen the series, and for those who haven’t and may be considering whether or not to take the plunge. Either way, there isn’t enough room here to do justice to creator/director Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down, which was released on NETFLIX in August. Best known for Strictly Ballroom (1992), his vivid reimagining of Romeo & Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001) -- a satirical ode to and deconstruction of American musicals -- visual stylist Luhrmann directed The Get Down’s inaugural 93-minute episode and it indeed contains all the depth and flourishes of a feature film. Having established the tempo and template in his “pilot” episode, Luhrmann passes the reins of Episodes 2 through 6 to veteran TV directors Ed Bianchi, Michael Dinner and Andrew Bernstein (The Wonder Years, Mad Men, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire) who neither miss nor skip a beat, literally and figuratively.</div>
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The Get Down is to hip-hop what Moulin Rouge! was to pop top 40. Whether mining, subverting or deconstructing urban cultural references, the series is a nested doll, if not an exhaustive panoply, of vintage callbacks, political throwbacks and love letters to a bygone era of straight talk which eschewed ‘political correctness.’ I’ve gorged on all 6 episodes twice now, to ensure I luxuriated, pondered and savored its hypermythological urban chrysalis-splitting splendor. To misquote the Nolan brothers’ The Dark Knight, this is the cinema we both need and deserve right now.</div>
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The series is rife with winks and nods to ‘70s cinema such as The Warriors, Saturday Night Fever, Cooley High, Sparkle, Enter The Dragon and even some of the tomfoolery of caper films like Uptown Saturday Night. There’s also subtle homages to ‘80s cinema spawned from hip-hop’s growing commercial viability; Krush Groove, Breakin’ and Beat Street come to mind. Though NETFLIX’s new limited series does little to eliminate the standard drug and crime-addled urban genre tropes, its creators and the magnificent cast do soar at crafting indelible 3-dimensional characters we can empathize with, cheer and cross our collective fingers for. For those of you wondering how explicit the series gets, there are frequent drug references and depictions, some mild sensuality (primarily limited to Fat Annie’s club Les Inferno and a brief montage (in episode 6) in a gay club in Chelsea), a bevy of R-rated language, and the use of the ‘N’ word like it’s going out of style. (I “get” that the writers want to contextualize the “N” word as part of the then-burgeoning lexicon of hip-hop, and they at least limit it to slang usage within the Black community, but honestly I don’t recall that word used that prevalently when I was growing up around that time, albeit in Southeast Washington, D.C.)</div>
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To their credit the writers and filmmakers imbue this 6-episode arc with all the street raw American dream cravin’ mystical lyricism those of us weaned on hip-hop have relished ever since “Rapper’s Delight” hit the airwaves in 1979. The Get Down succeeds as entertainment due in large part to the creators’ diligent efforts to textually decode hip-hop as yet another form of contemporary American mythbuilding (effortlessly epitomized in Shameik Moore’s inspired and charismatic performance as urban legend SHAOLIN FANTASTIC, a.k.a. graffiti artist ‘SHAO 007’). To this end the creators employed legendary hip-hop DJs Grandmaster Flash and Kool Herc initially as consultants, but went one step further by making them actual characters within the storyline (played by Mamoudou Athie and Eric D. Hill Jr. respectively) in order to add a further sense of historicity to the fictional narrative. (The series contains characters known as the ‘Fantastic Four Plus One,’ which is a nod to the real-life ‘Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five.’) They’ve indeed done their homework, as evidenced by allusions to real-life hip-hop firsts, such as the sampling of Chic’s hit “Good Times” by The Sugar Hill Gang for “Rapper’s Delight” -- a first of its kind merging of disco and rap, echoed in Episode 6 when The Get Down Brothers confiscate a certain starlet’s disco hit for their epic DJ rumble. The creators have also walked a delicate balance, never allowing the in-your-face mythic inferences to cross into satire. Lines like “In order to fly a DJ must first trust his wings, grasshopper” would seem laughable in the hands of lesser filmmakers and performers.</div>
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<strong>THE TALE</strong></div>
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1996. The year Tupac was murdered. A bleak year for hip-hop. Madison Square Garden: ‘Mr. Books. The Repossession Tour.’ On stage: the adult version of series protagonist EZEKIEL “BOOKS” FIGUERO, an intellectually shrewd bi-racial (Black & Puerto Rican) son of the “burning” Bronx. FUTURE ZEKE (or ‘Adult Books’ as he’s listed in the imdb credits) is played with lyrical intensity by none other than Hamilton’s Tony Award winning Daveed Diggs. His omniscient narrative rap serves as our time machine roadmap through his younger days in the ‘70s. Although we get this glimpse of Future Zeke, himself now a rapper of mythic proportions, it never undermines the suspense regarding the perils of his younger misadventures. Yet in a series this presciently constructed, the viewer should have apt suspicion as to whether the past may come back to claim Future Zeke at some point. Flashback to 1977, courtesy of stock footage of the Son of Sam, etc. An elevated subway train creaks by and the journey begins. . .</div>
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<strong>THE CAST</strong></div>
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The nearly 7-hour story successfully pulls off the rare feat of designing dual protagonists: the young EZEKIEL, as played with warmth, daring and quiet intensity by Justice Smith (no, not Jaden Smith (no relation)), and MYLENE CRUZ as played by Herizen F. Guardiola, each with wholly-complete fully satisfying story arcs, their characters being twin planets in a shared orbit of desperation around the glistening sun – a beacon reassuring them there is life beyond the “burning” Bronx. Justice and Guardiola brim with on-screen chemistry, charm, swagger and well-crafted naiveté. Guardiola’s stunning vocal range and haunting physical resemblance appear to be a deliberate homage to an unforgettable ingénue of the ‘70s/80s: Irene Cara which, along with many other ‘easter eggs’ embedded in the series, cements The Get Down as an adept intertextual and metadiegetic commentary. Certain moments of Zeke’s and Mylene’s interactions teased recollections of Irene Cara’s “Coco” and Lee Curreri’s “Mr. Bruno Martelli” from Fame (1980). (See minute 1:32 of the attached sizzle reel). </div>
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The producers seemed intent on evoking other Blaxploitation-era doppelgängers. Skylan Brooks, as Zeke’s ever-present relationship guru and business mastermind RA-RA evokes a young Robert Townsend; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the nimble, predatory CADILLAC recalls Teddy Pendergrass or even Georg Sanford Brown; Yolonda Ross as Zeke’s school teacher MS. GREEN channels veteran actress and former Freedom Rider Margaret Avery (The Color Purple), and the twitchy, volatile LITTLE WOLF, as played by Tory Devon Smith, feels like the angry space alien twin brother of Al Green.</div>
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The stellar cast boasts an impressive array of talent: Giancarlo Esposito and Zabryna Guevara as Mylene’s dutiful, conflicted and secretive parents PASTOR RAMON and MRS. LYDIA CRUZ; Kevin Corrigan in his scenery chewing turn as the weaselly yet put-upon record producer JACKIE MORENO (a fox who’d hustle you into subletting him your chicken coop and making you think it was your idea). And Jimmy Smits, a formidable presence as the suave yet deadly FRANCISCO ‘PAPA FUERTE’ CRUZ -- Mylene’s uncle -- a local Bronx civic leader with an undying vision to build a complex of homes for underprivileged families. Always celebrating life with food, we find it an apt metaphor for the emptiness of Papa Fuerte’s soul, once the narrative reveals what he’s sacrificed along the way.</div>
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Not to be outdone, other players include the often critically maligned Jaden Smith, who shines in the role of DIZZEE KIPLING, drawing viewers in with a subdued nuanced performance that reminds you what a savvy capable actor he has become. Rounding out the Brothers Kipling are the afore-mentioned Skylan Brooks, and Tremaine Brown Jr. as rough-and-tumble/ready-to-rumble little brother BOO-BOO, a born performer (who also goes by the stage name Boo Nasty -- revealed in a scene that is one of the comedic highlights of the series).</div>
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Girls just want to have fun too, and Mylene’s crew includes ‘right hand’ Stefanée Martin playing YOLANDA KIPLING, savvy, no-nonsense big sister to her devious brothers, and a standout performance by newcomer Shyrley Rodriguez as Mylene’s spirited ace and indispensable ‘left hand,’ REGINA. When onscreen together these 3 actresses display a cohesion, verisimilitude and synergy that transcends the scripted drama.</div>
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Evan Parke also brings his trademark unflappable intensity to the small yet pivotal role of WOLF, nephew of the infamous FAT ANNIE (played with devilish aplomb by 1997 Tony Award winner Lillias White) and lieutenant of her many criminal endeavors. (Whenever Annie talks, pay close attentions to Wolf’s eyes – Parke’s nuanced performance tells you more than the script ever will.)</div>
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<strong>TECHNICAL</strong></div>
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Although I hoped the series would be shot on film, it was shot on the Red Epic Dragon, causing the high-def video footage to stand in sharp juxtaposition to the vintage stock film footage from the era. Although I will always vote for film, the high-def video does facilitate a quasi-contemporary immediacy that the artifice of celluloid perhaps could not. The lush production design pops and the mise-en-scene is replete with warm hues, dazzling light, candy-colored bric-a-brac and bodies in motion. Exquisite set pieces like the clandestine Christmas-lit salon party, the candlelit recording studio session, and the sunlit Get Down Brothers debut DJ battle are all examples of the series’ fabulous visual panache. Also of note are the ‘Set Me Free/Get Down Brothers’ flash-forward montage of Episode 5, and the ‘Power’ montage of Episode 6, both of which are worth the price of admission. Pay close attention to the use of the color red, used deftly in various frames, or worn by various characters (Shao and Jackie Moreno especially) to portend both Ezekiel’s and Mylene’s perilous journeys towards their idyllic futures.</div>
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The filmmaking is exquisite, and the framing is full of lush wide shots replete with period extras and sets, intimate heart-breaking close-ups, dollies, swooping crane shots, hand-held and Steadicam sashays, and hyper-visceral editing. Though there are a few uses of the era’s rear-projection techniques, make no mistake -- this is decidedly 21st-century filmmaking, eschewing the cinematic conventions of the ‘70s while referencing the genre playbooks of film noir, neo-realism, Blaxploitation, and musicals to capture the larger-than-life bravado of the times.</div>
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<strong>CONCLUSION</strong></div>
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The Get Down could have very easily lost its way or spiraled into camp, yet it manages to keep its two young star-crossed lovers, Zeke and Mylene, front and center. Having first died a thousand deaths upon enduring Mylene’s rejection, Zeke comes to learn it is not heroic to deny his gifts, no matter what the code of the street says. He reinvents himself as the man with goals and a plan Mylene so desperately encourages him to be. Though their love arc feels a bit rushed at times, it fits the mold of precocious teens seeking safe haven as the world literally burns around them. There is a haunting refrain in the lyrics of Mylene’s breakout disco hit “Set Me Free” which says “And I will ascend above the highest clouds and make myself like the Most High.” Any student of the scriptures worth their salt knows this is high blasphemy, but given the care with which this series was crafted, perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps in their quest for fame and liberation these young music pioneers and the loved ones they hold dear may soar too high and ultimately be undone. Perhaps. Nevertheless, one can only imagine what Season 2 has in store. If you haven’t watched it, it’s time to get down!</div>
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<strong>FAVORITE EPISODE</strong> </div>
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Episode 3. The recording studio session is one of the most beautifully photographed scenes in the entire series. Also in this episode certain revelations come to light which touch the soul and provide an excellent layer of subtext to certain character’s motivations within the narrative. </div>
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<strong>FAVORITE DIALOGUE</strong></div>
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“If I f--- up my pants I’m gonna kill you twice.”</div>
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“So kill me all you want to. Stab your hate into my love.’</div>
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“I’m gonna knock you to Sunday wait for you on Tuesday.”</div>
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‘But we go together. . .like pancakes and syrup. / Pancakes don’t just get syrup whenever they want. Syrup’s got standards.’</div>
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‘Pure disco? Forget it. Go die.’</div>
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‘I’ve been a man of my word . . .I sleep alone . . . .Every night since 1960. . . .And I will close my eyes when my heart is crying’</div>
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“He should love me less and respect me more.’</div>
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‘You forget that you became a man of God in prison. / What did [he] just say? / He said sh*t’s about to get real.’</div>
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‘Diablo! / No that’s you. . . .But you forgot that right? You blacked out!’</div>
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‘You can’t be a rebel if you don’t rebel.’</div>
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<strong>ANACHRONISTIC SLANG</strong></div>
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next-level</div>
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sh*t the bed</div>
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duckets</div>
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sucks</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">J. R. Jarrod</span></strong></div>
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—Knucks<br />
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Yep, I’ve gone full blown hippie …<br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-7917680738136975022016-09-11T20:44:00.000-04:002016-09-11T20:44:25.743-04:00Interview with author Dana King … Half a Karamazov review … 9-11, Remember it, the why’s too … Terrific Movie Review: The Get Down, by J.R. Jarrod<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Amici: </div>
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He’s one of my favorite people, favorite writers, and one-half the cause of my hockey addiction … he also turned me onto Mahler’s 2nd, Resurrection. His wonderful novels have now been nominated for a Shamus back-to-back years, and the fucker’s team won the Stanley Cup this past year. Not bad. <strong>Here’s my interview with Dana King.</strong></div>
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TK: You’re piling up well-deserved award nominations, so congratulations on those. Nick Forte turns a darker page in your last one, <em>A Dangerous Lesson</em>. Do you have plans for him to spiral further into darkness or does he find his way out in the next one?</div>
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DK: Thanks. Frankly, I was shocked both times, but I guess two Shamus nominations in three years implies I’m doing something right.</div>
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As for Forte, I’m not sure how thing are going to play out with him. A lot depends on what I choose for the next story idea and how I think that would logically affect him. I finished the fifth Forte novel in May, and his limits and frustrations get pushed pretty hard. </div>
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TK: You write some of the cleverest lines I’ve read in a long, long time. I was literally highlighting them and had to stop because much of the manuscript would’ve been in green, pink, blue, and yellow. Does it take you long to come up with those jewels or are they just there as you write them?</div>
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DK: Thanks again. My stories can get pretty dark and I make a conscious effort to leaven things a little. I’m glad you think it’s working.</div>
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You’re good at this, too, so you probably have a pretty good idea of what I’m going to say. When I’m lucky, good lines pop into my head as I’m at the keyboard, though they’re always subject to some tidying up as edits progress. What happens most often, though, is that scenes—or even bits of scenes—hang around in my head in the days before I actually sit down to write them and different lines come to mind. Try enough of them and discard the ones that don’t work and pretty soon there are some that work. I’m also a natural and unrepentant smart ass, so there’s that. I also have the luxury of a remarkable patient wife who lets me test drive lines around her all the time.</div>
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TK: You delved into a serial killer in this one. I know you outline, but was a serial killer something you wanted to pursue? Was that idea pre-planned before you sat down and started outlining? Was it someplace you wanted to go?</div>
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DK: I don’t like serial killer stories in general, and I never really planned to do one. To be perfectly honest, it’s been long enough since I wrote A Dangerous Lesson, I really don’t remember what inspired me to go with that idea. The original germ focused on the grandmother who wasn’t happy with her granddaughter’s boyfriend. I had a bit from an earlier unfinished novel I really liked and wanted to salvage and a serial killer seemed to be the best way to do it. Once I opened that plotline it played into Forte’s increasing darkness so I ran with it.</div>
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By the way, I’ll never write another serial killer story. I’m happy with how the book came out but I didn’t enjoy the experience of writing it as much as I usually do.</div>
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TK: Sonny Ng is a wonderful character and I want a book about him. Either his past or something just Ng. Do you think about spinning off the Forte series? I ask, because the accompanying characters are truly wonderful. Same question for Jan Rusiewicz. I think there’s some gold in her character as well.</div>
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DK: Sonny is one of the few characters I actually have backstory notes on, so at least a short story with him as the protagonist is not out of the question. What will probably hold me back is I don’t have time to write all the stories I’d like to, and I already have a series of cop stories going with Penns River, so my Chicago cops may need to get used to their subordinate positions. </div>
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I have toyed with the idea of Goose going to Penns River to ask Forte’s cousin Ben Dougherty to come to Chicago to help Nick, which could open the door to seeing all these characters through someone else’s eyes. That has some potential.</div>
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TK: Speaking of time. How much time, literally, a day to you dedicate to writing? And if you skip days, how many hours a week?</div>
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DK: An hour to an hour-and-a-half on workdays and two to three hours in weekends. It’s not the time spent I worry about. It’s the work done. I have a set goal each day and I can’t quit until that’s finished. For example, when working on a first draft, I have to write a single spaced page on workdays and two on Saturday and Sunday. I can write more, but no less. However long that takes is how long it takes. For edits I have a set task laid out before I start, often a week in advance, and that’s what has to get done.</div>
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That gets to be a grind, so I take from Memorial Day through Labor Day off as much as I can to recharge. Works great. I have energy pent up to start the next book in a couple of weeks, as opposed to trudging into it.</div>
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TK: Do you ever pen or type out the dialogue prior to the scene? Is there a pecking order to it?</div>
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DK: Because I outline, I know what’s coming before I sit down to write. Even a couple of days out I can see what’s coming, so it’s not unusual for bits of dialog to have formed in my head in advance. I think my best dialog comes when I have the first few lines ready when I sit at the keyboard and then the characters just start talking and it’s all I can do to type fast enough to keep up. First drafts sometimes have whole single spaced pages of nothing but dialog. No attributions, no beats, no stage business, just strings of dialog. I’ll go back later and make sense of it, but when it’s coming, everything else has to wait.</div>
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TK: What about at bedtime. I can’t attempt going to sleep without at least thinking (usually my last thought) about the next scene in whatever project I’m working on. Do you have that going on or can you shut it off and return without an issue the next day?</div>
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DK: I never write before bed. Well, okay, I always write before bed, but not immediately before. It’ll take me forever to get to sleep with things still churning away. I always read or watch a ballgame or something to get away from the book before I turn in.</div>
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TK: Once you’ve begun writing, assuming you’re following your outline, does an idea hit home partway through, and does that make you re-outline, so to speak? If so, which books has it happened with?</div>
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DK: Oh, sure. The next Penns River book, <em>Resurrection Mall</em>, was outlined to be a Forte story. I probably wrote 30,000 words and I still didn’t like it, wasn’t satisfied the ending I had in mind was worth the effort. One day it occurred to me the problem was that this was more of a Penns River story. I re-wrote the outline in a week or so and ripped right through it after that.</div>
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I sometimes throw away endings right at the end. <em>A Dangerous Lesson</em> is a good example. The ending of <em>A Small Sacrifice</em> is nothing like what’s in the outline.</div>
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TK: You’re a hot item in crime fiction these days. Do you ever play with non-crime material? Is there ever a desire or thought to try something outside of so-called genre fiction?</div>
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DK: I have the germ of an idea for a Western. Picked up some books in Deadwood and Dodge City on our trip out west in July. I’d like to get to that in a few years, even if it’s only a part time project between other things.</div>
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As for something outside of genre fiction, I think all fiction is genre. Literary is just another genre. Having said that, the answer is no. I like books where shit happens.</div>
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TK: I agree regarding all fiction being genre, and it’s something that bums me about MFA programs being so stuffy. I enjoyed the program I was with big time, but there was/is that bit of horseshit that goes on regarding looking down one’s nose. I know you were in writing groups. Were they strictly crime groups or was it an open atmosphere/learning experience?</div>
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DK: I’ve been very lucky with writing groups. Both have been open to anything, and the one that was more literary fiction focused was very welcoming to my genre stuff, which helped me to learn a lot from what they were doing, as well. This was a group made up of people who’d been in John McNally’s workshop at George Washington University in the spring of 2002. Before my first bit was passed out, John told them I wrote genre fiction and asked if anyone knew the difference between genre and literary. (One woman chirped out, “His will sell,” which everyone thought was pretty funny.) John’s explanation: in literary fiction the plot is driven by the characters. In genre the plot drives the characters. We spoke later and he mentioned to me that the mark of the best genre fiction is to make it not seem that way. I’ve always thought that distinction and caveat are good guides.</div>
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TK: I know you read a ton of crime fiction and are very helpful to writers with reviews and interviews. What are you reading habits? Do you take a break from crime and read other literature/genre fiction? Non-fiction?</div>
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DK: Aside from crime I read mostly non-fiction. How much of it depends on my mood and what’s going on at the time. I’m prepping for a moderator gig at Bouchercon right now, so I’m reading all crime fiction, getting to know the panelists. I’m also behind on new books by writers I make an effort to keep up with, so I’ll be crime fiction binging for a while. After that I expect non-fiction reading will pick up.</div>
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TK: I can’t thank you enough for those occasional Al Swearengen quotes. I often laugh out loud at them and always smile. He’s the essence of hardboiled, yet there’s a heart somewhere in his chest. Do you see yourself writing someone that dark? Might Forte wind up there?</div>
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DK: Forte could. He’s there now in some ways, though he’s not as overt about it as Al. That’s a big part of what the book I just finished is about, how he’s struggling with that, and will it be his darker side that wins?</div>
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TK: I know you post favorite movies, etc., on your blog. Do you have a top five all time? If so, what are they? I won’t ask the same about books. We all get that one way too often.</div>
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DK: Top Five is tough, but there are movies I come back to over and over, so let’s see how those fit. In no particular order, <em>L.A. Confidential, The Big Lebowski, Get Shorty, Monty Python</em> and the <em>Holy Grail</em>, and <em>Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.</em> Next tier is probably <em>Animal House</em>, <em>The Maltese Falcon, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The French Connection, and The Princess Bride.</em></div>
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TK: You’re a musician, even studied music. You’ve made some suggestions to me I’ve come to love (especially Mahler’s 2nd, <em>Resurrection</em>). You’ve written that into the Forte character, plus your love of sports. I love that Forte has that Renaissance man mystique about him. Will there be prequels where we can observe his growth?</div>
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DK: I think it was Elmore Leonard who said, “Get into a scene as late as possible and get out as early as possible.” (If he didn’t, he should have.) The same is true of novels, and, I believe, of series. The Forte series started at the point where he was interesting enough and faced substantial enough conflict for him to be interesting. What might have happened to him before wouldn’t measure up.</div>
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TK: On top of the award nomination, your Pipsqueaks were a hurricane in the second half of the season, and then throughout the NHL playoffs. Can they repeat? Can they repeat without that Slue-foot-Motherf—I mean, Crosby?</div>
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DK: Why would they have to repeat without Crosby? He’s not going anywhere.</div>
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TK: I was referring to an injury. They have a ton of talent, although I do think he does a lot more than score goals for them. We made it to the conference finals without a lot of our players throughout the playoffs (Stamkos, Bishop, etc.) and some playing very hurt (Cally was forced to get a hip operation immediately after the series and will be missing until sometime in November). Do you think your guys would’ve/could’ve gone as far without Slu—Crosby?</div>
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DK: No one wins if their best player is out. Stamkos’s loss probably doomed the Bolts last year. They took Pittsburgh to seven games with him missing the first six. He had to be worth a game in that half-dozen somewhere. I don’t count Bishop’s injury. He’s overrated, and Vasilevskiy was at least as good as Bigfoot would have been.</div>
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TK: The Callahan-LeTang hit. Dirty dancing or academy performance?</div>
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DK: I was disappointed in Callahan. He’s better than that. It was a Flyers kind of hit.</div>
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TK: Oh, man, LeTang saw him coming and played it for all it was worth. I thought Palat’s hit later in the game was much worse. But even the refs said they saw LeTang knew it was coming.</div>
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DK: Everyone knew a hit was coming. The Bolts’ best chance was to keep Letang’s head on a swivel and get reluctant to go into the corners. That’s part of the game. Cally took the head. That’s what I object to. It’s like in baseball. I don’t mind pitchers sending the occasional message with a hit batter, but that’s what asses are for, not heads or hands.</div>
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<strong>Post-script …</strong> If Cally had gone for LeTang’s head, LeTang would be headless. He went for the back of LeTang’s shoulder. (To be fair, I didn't give Dana a comeback on this one.</div>
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<a href="http://danaking.blogspot.com/"><strong>Visit Dana’s website here:</strong></a> </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dana-King/e/B005J5BU5K"><strong>Get Dana’s books here:</strong></a> </div>
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Half <em>The Brothers Karamazov </em>… no, not 1.5 of the brothers, just the first half of the book reviewed. It’s one of my favorites all time and something I’d been reaching for on my bookshelf again for the past few months for inspiration. I finally grabbed it and began rereading (this is the 4th time I’ll read it cover to cover), and as soon as I started, I was re-hooked.</div>
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Look, I know I’m a lunatic about politics and sometimes religion … okay, a lot of shit, but Dostoevsky does it for me like few others can. You’re gonna devote a gazillion hours to one book, it’s Karamazov, Crime and Punishment or Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (for me).</div>
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I’ve just come off editing one book, working on two others, and reading new novels from up and coming crime writers for reviews, etc. … so I wanted a break and I didn’t want to fuck around with something I might or might not like. Besides, I’ve gone back to working on my MFA thesis, adding new wrinkles and much more fiction to the fictional memoir I’ll probably re-title at some point. I’m also working on a crime novel called Joey Christmas but may also be called Ybor City Blues … who knows? Not me.</div>
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Okay, back to Karamazov … the names are too long to transcribe, so for those who aren’t familiar with the novel, I’ll change the names to protect the innocent. There’s Moe (Papa K, because Moe was the mean stooge) … there’s Larry (Dimitri—the oldest son, a bit too wild for his own good) … there’s Shemp (Ivan—like Bob Saginowski, you never see him coming) … and Curly (Alexie) because I’m fat and I’m making the fat guy the hero.</div>
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Moe is one greedy MF’er. He’s also as mean and cruel as the day is long, and like Donald Trump, a total buffoon. He’s fallen for the same girl his oldest son, Larry, is in love with, except Larry is off the rails about any number of things, but most of all his conscience (he’s clipped some rubles from a woman [Katarina] who loves him, and he needs to return the fazools to her before he loses his mind. So, Moe and Larry want Grushenka, but Grushenka wants neither of them (she thinks). Enter Shemp (actually he’s already on the scene), but he’s kind of got it for the woman, Katerina, who has it for Larry. Shemp is the intelligent son/brother. He’s got pretty damn good anti-religious arguments. A realist/nihilist who seems to have his shit together. Seems to, mind you. And then there’s Curly, the youngest brother, extremely religious and naïve. What happens next? What am I, Charlie Cliff Notes?</div>
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Read the book. It is well worth the effort, even with all the religious angles. I’m at the crucial ending to Part I (some 400+ pages into the nearly 800 pages) … something really bad happens and all the evidence is pointing to … wouldn’t yous like to know?</div>
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But talk about the ability to drop an end-of-chapter hook. Old Fyodor, the fucker, knew how to write.</div>
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<strong>NEVER FORGET</strong> … While the attacks on America 15 years ago remain a horrific moment in time to all of us, let’s not forget how and/or why those attacks came about.</div>
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Yeah, I’m stirring the shit again. American foreign policy since our inception has been based on self-interest, as are all nation state foreign policies. Nothing new there, but what brought about the attacks on 9-11-01 have much more to do with our mingling and/or interventions, covert or otherwise, in the affairs of other nation states. On 9-11-01, 19 men determined to strike a blow against whom they perceived to be the great Satan caught America asleep at the wheel. The carnage they inflicted was horrific. It was also the opportunity of a lifetime for those hell-bent on perpetual war, including war profiteers, defense contractors, and every other private interest that stood to profit.</div>
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Fifteen years later, we’re not only still fighting the same war we engaged in Afghanistan as retaliation for 9-11, we’ve managed to create six new wars (or one more full scale war [Iraq] and five other enemies [Syria, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen] to bomb).</div>
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The problem, of course, is that all seven wars are illegal in the eyes of international law. All seven wars have killed, and continue to kill, far more innocents than bad guys. And, of course, all seven wars are giving justification to more attacks against the Great Satan, as opposed to winning hearts and minds.</div>
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So, yes, we should take the time to grieve the tragic events of 15 years ago. Nobody killed in those attacks deserved to die. It remains a horrific imprint on all our lives and memories. It is also important to realize that much of the mess in the Middle East, and the world for that matter, is a direct result of our reactions to those attacks, and the fact we continue to bomb away without a logical game plan moving forward. All of which does little to appease our worried minds.</div>
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Do not think for a second that this is placing blame on our military and/or those who died or suffered immeasurable loss because of the attacks on 9-11. If you think that, then I did a lousy job of making my point. Nobody deserves what happened that day … or for the last 13 years since we invaded Iraq in 2003.</div>
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Peace, it makes so much more sense than war.</div>
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<strong><em>THE GET DOWN</em></strong> … (NON-SPOILER) SERIES REVIEW by <strong>J.R. Jarrod</strong>. This review is for those who’ve seen the series, and for those who haven’t and may be considering whether or not to take the plunge. Either way, there isn’t enough room here to do justice to creator/director Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down, which was released on NETFLIX in August. Best known for Strictly Ballroom (1992), his vivid reimagining of Romeo & Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001) -- a satirical ode to and deconstruction of American musicals -- visual stylist Luhrmann directed The Get Down’s inaugural 93-minute episode and it indeed contains all the depth and flourishes of a feature film. Having established the tempo and template in his “pilot” episode, Luhrmann passes the reins of Episodes 2 through 6 to veteran TV directors Ed Bianchi, Michael Dinner and Andrew Bernstein (The Wonder Years, Mad Men, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire) who neither miss nor skip a beat, literally and figuratively.</div>
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The Get Down is to hip-hop what Moulin Rouge! was to pop top 40. Whether mining, subverting or deconstructing urban cultural references, the series is a nested doll, if not an exhaustive panoply, of vintage callbacks, political throwbacks and love letters to a bygone era of straight talk which eschewed ‘political correctness.’ I’ve gorged on all 6 episodes twice now, to ensure I luxuriated, pondered and savored its hypermythological urban chrysalis-splitting splendor. To misquote the Nolan brothers’ The Dark Knight, this is the cinema we both need and deserve right now.</div>
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The series is rife with winks and nods to ‘70s cinema such as The Warriors, Saturday Night Fever, Cooley High, Sparkle, Enter The Dragon and even some of the tomfoolery of caper films like Uptown Saturday Night. There’s also subtle homages to ‘80s cinema spawned from hip-hop’s growing commercial viability; Krush Groove, Breakin’ and Beat Street come to mind. Though NETFLIX’s new limited series does little to eliminate the standard drug and crime-addled urban genre tropes, its creators and the magnificent cast do soar at crafting indelible 3-dimensional characters we can empathize with, cheer and cross our collective fingers for. For those of you wondering how explicit the series gets, there are frequent drug references and depictions, some mild sensuality (primarily limited to Fat Annie’s club Les Inferno and a brief montage (in episode 6) in a gay club in Chelsea), a bevy of R-rated language, and the use of the ‘N’ word like it’s going out of style. (I “get” that the writers want to contextualize the “N” word as part of the then-burgeoning lexicon of hip-hop, and they at least limit it to slang usage within the Black community, but honestly I don’t recall that word used that prevalently when I was growing up around that time, albeit in Southeast Washington, D.C.)</div>
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To their credit the writers and filmmakers imbue this 6-episode arc with all the street raw American dream cravin’ mystical lyricism those of us weaned on hip-hop have relished ever since “Rapper’s Delight” hit the airwaves in 1979. The Get Down succeeds as entertainment due in large part to the creators’ diligent efforts to textually decode hip-hop as yet another form of contemporary American mythbuilding (effortlessly epitomized in Shameik Moore’s inspired and charismatic performance as urban legend SHAOLIN FANTASTIC, a.k.a. graffiti artist ‘SHAO 007’). To this end the creators employed legendary hip-hop DJs Grandmaster Flash and Kool Herc initially as consultants, but went one step further by making them actual characters within the storyline (played by Mamoudou Athie and Eric D. Hill Jr. respectively) in order to add a further sense of historicity to the fictional narrative. (The series contains characters known as the ‘Fantastic Four Plus One,’ which is a nod to the real-life ‘Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five.’) They’ve indeed done their homework, as evidenced by allusions to real-life hip-hop firsts, such as the sampling of Chic’s hit “Good Times” by The Sugar Hill Gang for “Rapper’s Delight” -- a first of its kind merging of disco and rap, echoed in Episode 6 when The Get Down Brothers confiscate a certain starlet’s disco hit for their epic DJ rumble. The creators have also walked a delicate balance, never allowing the in-your-face mythic inferences to cross into satire. Lines like “In order to fly a DJ must first trust his wings, grasshopper” would seem laughable in the hands of lesser filmmakers and performers.</div>
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<strong>THE TALE</strong></div>
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1996. The year Tupac was murdered. A bleak year for hip-hop. Madison Square Garden: ‘Mr. Books. The Repossession Tour.’ On stage: the adult version of series protagonist EZEKIEL “BOOKS” FIGUERO, an intellectually shrewd bi-racial (Black & Puerto Rican) son of the “burning” Bronx. FUTURE ZEKE (or ‘Adult Books’ as he’s listed in the imdb credits) is played with lyrical intensity by none other than Hamilton’s Tony Award winning Daveed Diggs. His omniscient narrative rap serves as our time machine roadmap through his younger days in the ‘70s. Although we get this glimpse of Future Zeke, himself now a rapper of mythic proportions, it never undermines the suspense regarding the perils of his younger misadventures. Yet in a series this presciently constructed, the viewer should have apt suspicion as to whether the past may come back to claim Future Zeke at some point. Flashback to 1977, courtesy of stock footage of the Son of Sam, etc. An elevated subway train creaks by and the journey begins. . .</div>
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<strong>THE CAST</strong></div>
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The nearly 7-hour story successfully pulls off the rare feat of designing dual protagonists: the young EZEKIEL, as played with warmth, daring and quiet intensity by Justice Smith (no, not Jaden Smith (no relation)), and MYLENE CRUZ as played by Herizen F. Guardiola, each with wholly-complete fully satisfying story arcs, their characters being twin planets in a shared orbit of desperation around the glistening sun – a beacon reassuring them there is life beyond the “burning” Bronx. Justice and Guardiola brim with on-screen chemistry, charm, swagger and well-crafted naiveté. Guardiola’s stunning vocal range and haunting physical resemblance appear to be a deliberate homage to an unforgettable ingénue of the ‘70s/80s: Irene Cara which, along with many other ‘easter eggs’ embedded in the series, cements The Get Down as an adept intertextual and metadiegetic commentary. Certain moments of Zeke’s and Mylene’s interactions teased recollections of Irene Cara’s “Coco” and Lee Curreri’s “Mr. Bruno Martelli” from Fame (1980). (See minute 1:32 of the attached sizzle reel). </div>
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The producers seemed intent on evoking other Blaxploitation-era doppelgängers. Skylan Brooks, as Zeke’s ever-present relationship guru and business mastermind RA-RA evokes a young Robert Townsend; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the nimble, predatory CADILLAC recalls Teddy Pendergrass or even Georg Sanford Brown; Yolonda Ross as Zeke’s school teacher MS. GREEN channels veteran actress and former Freedom Rider Margaret Avery (The Color Purple), and the twitchy, volatile LITTLE WOLF, as played by Tory Devon Smith, feels like the angry space alien twin brother of Al Green.</div>
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The stellar cast boasts an impressive array of talent: Giancarlo Esposito and Zabryna Guevara as Mylene’s dutiful, conflicted and secretive parents PASTOR RAMON and MRS. LYDIA CRUZ; Kevin Corrigan in his scenery chewing turn as the weaselly yet put-upon record producer JACKIE MORENO (a fox who’d hustle you into subletting him your chicken coop and making you think it was your idea). And Jimmy Smits, a formidable presence as the suave yet deadly FRANCISCO ‘PAPA FUERTE’ CRUZ -- Mylene’s uncle -- a local Bronx civic leader with an undying vision to build a complex of homes for underprivileged families. Always celebrating life with food, we find it an apt metaphor for the emptiness of Papa Fuerte’s soul, once the narrative reveals what he’s sacrificed along the way.</div>
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Not to be outdone, other players include the often critically maligned Jaden Smith, who shines in the role of DIZZEE KIPLING, drawing viewers in with a subdued nuanced performance that reminds you what a savvy capable actor he has become. Rounding out the Brothers Kipling are the afore-mentioned Skylan Brooks, and Tremaine Brown Jr. as rough-and-tumble/ready-to-rumble little brother BOO-BOO, a born performer (who also goes by the stage name Boo Nasty -- revealed in a scene that is one of the comedic highlights of the series).</div>
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Girls just want to have fun too, and Mylene’s crew includes ‘right hand’ Stefanée Martin playing YOLANDA KIPLING, savvy, no-nonsense big sister to her devious brothers, and a standout performance by newcomer Shyrley Rodriguez as Mylene’s spirited ace and indispensable ‘left hand,’ REGINA. When onscreen together these 3 actresses display a cohesion, verisimilitude and synergy that transcends the scripted drama.</div>
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Evan Parke also brings his trademark unflappable intensity to the small yet pivotal role of WOLF, nephew of the infamous FAT ANNIE (played with devilish aplomb by 1997 Tony Award winner Lillias White) and lieutenant of her many criminal endeavors. (Whenever Annie talks, pay close attentions to Wolf’s eyes – Parke’s nuanced performance tells you more than the script ever will.)</div>
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<strong>TECHNICAL</strong></div>
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Although I hoped the series would be shot on film, it was shot on the Red Epic Dragon, causing the high-def video footage to stand in sharp juxtaposition to the vintage stock film footage from the era. Although I will always vote for film, the high-def video does facilitate a quasi-contemporary immediacy that the artifice of celluloid perhaps could not. The lush production design pops and the mise-en-scene is replete with warm hues, dazzling light, candy-colored bric-a-brac and bodies in motion. Exquisite set pieces like the clandestine Christmas-lit salon party, the candlelit recording studio session, and the sunlit Get Down Brothers debut DJ battle are all examples of the series’ fabulous visual panache. Also of note are the ‘Set Me Free/Get Down Brothers’ flash-forward montage of Episode 5, and the ‘Power’ montage of Episode 6, both of which are worth the price of admission. Pay close attention to the use of the color red, used deftly in various frames, or worn by various characters (Shao and Jackie Moreno especially) to portend both Ezekiel’s and Mylene’s perilous journeys towards their idyllic futures.</div>
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The filmmaking is exquisite, and the framing is full of lush wide shots replete with period extras and sets, intimate heart-breaking close-ups, dollies, swooping crane shots, hand-held and Steadicam sashays, and hyper-visceral editing. Though there are a few uses of the era’s rear-projection techniques, make no mistake -- this is decidedly 21st-century filmmaking, eschewing the cinematic conventions of the ‘70s while referencing the genre playbooks of film noir, neo-realism, Blaxploitation, and musicals to capture the larger-than-life bravado of the times.</div>
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<strong>CONCLUSION</strong></div>
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The Get Down could have very easily lost its way or spiraled into camp, yet it manages to keep its two young star-crossed lovers, Zeke and Mylene, front and center. Having first died a thousand deaths upon enduring Mylene’s rejection, Zeke comes to learn it is not heroic to deny his gifts, no matter what the code of the street says. He reinvents himself as the man with goals and a plan Mylene so desperately encourages him to be. Though their love arc feels a bit rushed at times, it fits the mold of precocious teens seeking safe haven as the world literally burns around them. There is a haunting refrain in the lyrics of Mylene’s breakout disco hit “Set Me Free” which says “And I will ascend above the highest clouds and make myself like the Most High.” Any student of the scriptures worth their salt knows this is high blasphemy, but given the care with which this series was crafted, perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps in their quest for fame and liberation these young music pioneers and the loved ones they hold dear may soar too high and ultimately be undone. Perhaps. Nevertheless, one can only imagine what Season 2 has in store. If you haven’t watched it, it’s time to get down!</div>
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<strong>FAVORITE EPISODE</strong> </div>
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Episode 3. The recording studio session is one of the most beautifully photographed scenes in the entire series. Also in this episode certain revelations come to light which touch the soul and provide an excellent layer of subtext to certain character’s motivations within the narrative. </div>
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<strong>FAVORITE DIALOGUE</strong></div>
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“If I f--- up my pants I’m gonna kill you twice.”</div>
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“So kill me all you want to. Stab your hate into my love.’</div>
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“I’m gonna knock you to Sunday wait for you on Tuesday.”</div>
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‘But we go together. . .like pancakes and syrup. / Pancakes don’t just get syrup whenever they want. Syrup’s got standards.’</div>
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‘Pure disco? Forget it. Go die.’</div>
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‘I’ve been a man of my word . . .I sleep alone . . . .Every night since 1960. . . .And I will close my eyes when my heart is crying’</div>
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“He should love me less and respect me more.’</div>
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‘You forget that you became a man of God in prison. / What did [he] just say? / He said sh*t’s about to get real.’</div>
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‘Diablo! / No that’s you. . . .But you forgot that right? You blacked out!’</div>
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‘You can’t be a rebel if you don’t rebel.’</div>
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<strong>ANACHRONISTIC SLANG</strong></div>
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next-level</div>
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sh*t the bed</div>
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duckets</div>
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sucks</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">J. R. Jarrod</span></strong></div>
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—Knucks<br />
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Yep, I’ve gone full blown hippie …<br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-51135453168844067282016-08-14T14:03:00.002-04:002016-08-14T14:03:39.961-04:00Book reviews … A movie review from J.R. Jarrod … TK’s final verdict on Bernie Sanders …Amici:<br />
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<strong><em>The American Girl </em>by Kate Horsley</strong> … Quinn Perkins is a 17-year-old American girl living in France with the Blavette family (minus the father) as an exchange student. It is far from a peachy living arrangement. The Blavettes have issues, which are revealed in a blog, and later in video journals, made by Quinn before and after she’s found in a comatose state after being hit by a car. She’s been taken to a nearby hospital where her situation remains a mystery until Molly Swift, a journalist posing as Quinn’s aunt, tries to solve the mystery. Molly finds a friend in a local inspector, Valentin, just in time for the Blavette family disappearance. </div>
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What is going on in the small town of St. Roch? </div>
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The novel is told in short journal-like chapters that go back and forth in time and intertwine the dual protagonists, Quinn and Molly. While Quinn supplies a video blog, something suggested by the doctor treating her amnesia, Molly pursues the story like a good journalist, lying about being Quinn’s aunt and setting herself up for public condemnation. Quinn provides us screen shots of what’s going on in the hospital as she slowly recovers and remembers the bits and pieces of what happened to her and the Blavette family. Early on we know it involves the woods she felt she was being chased through, and some very weird messages and pictures sent to her iPhone just prior to the accident. There’s also the caves at Les Yeux. There are also men in her life: Freddie, the seemingly sadistic French boy and a close friend of the Blavette family, and Raphael Blavette, the stud-son home from college. The women are more complex, it seems. There’s Noémie Blavette (Ralphael’s sister) and Émilie (the mother) who appears to be much more than a woman scored by an ex-husband. (Poppa Blavette disappeared a few years back, leaving a once wealthy family in ruins—which is why the Blavettes take in exchange students, for the extra coin.) There’s a Blavette benefactor of sorts, a wealthy woman named Stella, who’s maybe had an affair or two with the Blavatte men. There’s also something strange about the police situation and some former exchange students, the Dutch Girl, the German Girl, the Russian Girl … leading to <em>The American Girl</em>.</div>
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It’s a terrific read, start to finish. Horsley is at the top of her game. A British author with an incredible ear for American dialogue and knowledge of our sometimes stunted culture. This is a truly professional and gifted author, with expert insight into a world beneath all the coziness we see and want to believe is real. Horsley takes us under the skin of postcard family life and behind the picturesque postcard towns. <em>The American Girl</em> reminded me of my all-time favorite movie, which also exposed the underbelly of a postcard life—David Lynch’s <em>Blue Velvet</em>. Horsley’s novel, <em>The American Girl</em>, is simply that good.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/American-Girl-Novel-Kate-Horsley/product-reviews/0062438514"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get <em>The American Girl</em> here:</span></strong></a><strong><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></strong></div>
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<a href="http://www.katehorsley.co.uk/"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Visit the author’s page here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong><em>Alfheim </em>by Gary Nilsen</strong> … Timothy Brennan is an usual child, but not because he’s awkward or may suffer autistic tics at school, where he’s often the victim of bullies and their crude comments. He’s different because he’s the 7th son of a 7th son in a parallel world (I guess it might be called) where elf and fairy and the like exist, except they look just like you or I (but have lives as long as those in the Bible).</div>
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Normally mystical novels aren’t my preference, but this one had so many twists and turns and well-developed characters, it was a pleasure to read. Early on, Timothy is struggling to deal with the nasty uncle he lives with since his mother died, as well as his being bullied at school. He has a best friend who tries to steer him away from approaching a girl Tim has been secretly in love with for a few years. She’s one of the untouchables to boys like Tim, however, and a lot more style than substance. When things go terribly wrong, the first in a series of both interesting and dynamic plot twists occurs. Tim tries to kill himself but is saved by a special girl, Aenya, who had appeared to him just a few days earlier when he somehow healed a bird that had fallen to the ground apparently sick and about to die.</div>
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Lots more plot twists ensue, with Timothy having a Jason Bourne moment at an airport before leaving for Ireland, where a mystical clan lives in a constant state of near-war with the evil Cadwaladr (there’s a pronunciation index at the back of the novel). You’ll catch a major plot twist every few chapters and those will keep you focused and turning pages.</div>
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The treachery and war going on beneath the human world turns the politics of everyday life asunder as Timothy learns to grapple with his familial genetics. Like humans, the elves can be good or bad, and genetics aren’t always a predetermining factor. </div>
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Over time, and a few attempts on his life, Timothy learns about the Sword of Connleodh and how, in order to save his brethren elves, he must defeat the evil elf Cadwaladr. He’ll need the sword, but he must choose wisely or die. No spoilers here. <em>Alfheim</em> will keep you glued to the pages and anxious for the sequel.</div>
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A fun read start to finish, <em>Alfheim</em> will leave you wanting more. </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Alfheim-Tales-1-Gary-Nilsen/dp/0983518041/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471084139&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Alfheim%2C+Gary+Nelson"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Alfheim here:</span></strong></a><strong><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></strong></div>
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<a href="http://www.garynilsen.com/alfheim.html"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Visit the author’s page here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong>Movie Review by JR Jarrod</strong> … <strong><em>SUICIDE SQUAD</em></strong>. As much as I differed with critics’ opinions on Batman v Superman, I just came from a screening of Suicide Squad, and I have to say it’s as bad as they say it is. But that’s mostly because the script never takes the time to develop the characters. To be fair, director David Ayer does manage to get some great visuals. And I do think the actors have managed to capture the essence of their comic book characters (Croc, Deadshot and Harley especially), but there’s just no ‘there’ there.</div>
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The first 15 minutes introduced a bit of style and visual flair, and I was hopeful for a neo-noir featuring metahumans, but it went downhill fast. The only bright spot was the Batman stuff. SPOILER: For those Batfans hoping for a mano a mano and a “Death in the Family” flashback -- save your money. It’s not here.</div>
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Jared Leto’s Joker amounted to high end cosplay. Will Smith made the most of what he had to work with and served as the film’s “spark of redemption.” Margot Robbie pretty much ripped Harley Quinn straight out of Batman TAS, and was a sole high point, but one dimensional nonetheless. Unfortunately this film can’t even get nihilism right. Plotwise there is also a lot of supernatural darkness that hasn’t been advertised.</div>
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And please save yourself the headache of 3D. A good hour of this film’s action takes place at night and would probably be intolerably incoherent and ultra-muddled in 3D. </div>
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Another miss for DC unfortunately. It’s NOT because DC is trying to emulate Marvel, it’s because DC doesn’t yet seem to know what makes DC work. There is a mid-credits scene that’s decent. But that’s all folks. If you were hoping for some meaty drama to be unpacked between those iconic moments you see in the trailer, unfortunately the film plays like an extended trailer -- wall to wall music, flashbacks instead of dramatic tension, etc. etc. Sigh. Once again story is key... and it ain’t here. Kenneth Turan of the L.A. Times said it best: “<em>Suicide Squad</em> is a concept in search of a story worth telling.”</div>
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<strong>TK’s Final Verdict on Bernie Sanders </strong>…<strong> </strong>With enough time and reflection on the 2016 sabotaged Democrat presidential primaries behind us, TK has come to a decision regarding Bernie Sanders. Fair warning, some Bernie loyalists aren’t going to like and/or agree.</div>
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<em>Sanders sucker-punched us …</em> When push comes to shove, no matter his intentions and/or his aspirations, Sanders sucker-punched his supporters. For one thing, his attempt to play a clean game of politics against arguably the all-time dirtiest politicians of our lifetime was either naivety on steroids, which his 36-year involvement in politics precludes, or it was intentional. Sanders never went after Hillary Clinton on her judgment regarding her emails, something she may well be impeached over after she wins the presidency. TK feels Sanders was clearly protecting both the Democrat brand and the person he knew the DNC would never permit him to eclipse, thereby sucker punching us into forking over money to a cause he never intended to pursue to possible fruition.</div>
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Our guess is that Sanders began his campaign with ZERO expectation he’d win and was quickly surprised by the response of so many who had either had enough of the Clinton brand or who opted for the more progressive policies Sanders was championing. For a while, we think Sanders started to believe he might pull an upset, but that’s something we’ll never know might’ve happened, because as WikiLeaks proved, he never had a chance. The game was rigged from the get-go and the sabotage was ongoing. Voter obstruction and fraud was rampant, and the elimination of exit polls prove the DNC feared an actual accounting of their primary results. Even before WikiLeaks exposed the DNC’s corruption, most Sanders supporters either hoped or expected he’d walk away from the dirty politics he claimed to have been fighting.</div>
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He didn’t. Instead, when the WikiLeaks emails proved there was collusion, corruption and sabotage, Sanders remained loyal to the DNC and its corruption. Sorry, Mr. Sanders, but no revolutionary leader capitulates as fully as you did. Frankly, it was a disgrace, and although you’ll have sycophantic supporters going forward, TK won’t be one of them. Endorsing the DNC-rigged nomination choice, Hillary Clinton, was nothing less than shitting the bed.</div>
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There was a brief moment of forgiveness when Sanders left the Democrat party immediately after the fiasco (the Gestapo-like) convention in Philadelphia. Some of us thought it was a gesture for his more militant supporters (i.e., Bernie or Busters, etc.). I know I felt a little better for a day or two, and then when Jill Stein and the Green Party again extended an invitation to join their ranks, Sanders ignored the gesture, and all forgiveness for him evaporated.</div>
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The fear of an ass-clown like Donald Trump will never satisfy progressives. At this point in the game, it is too weak an argument. Elections based on fear of the other party have allowed the Democrat Party to not only become fully corporatized, they have also become fully militarized and totally unaccountable to their electorate (or why do they have to cheat?). They have destroyed the middle class and ignored the poor no less than their counterparts in the pay-to-play world of American politics. Our government has become a bidder’s paradise: the Republicans have the Koch Brothers, et al, and the Democrats have Wall Street, et al. Having Democrats hiding behind social issues with lip service platitudes does nothing for those without and/or those struggling to survive.</div>
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How do public servants become so wealthy so fast? Ask the Clintons … they claim to have left the White House “dead broke” and are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Does anyone really need to research why?</div>
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The facts of this 2016 election cycle are these: American Exceptionalism requires a makeover, and it can no longer come from either major political party.</div>
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The bottom line is this: Bernie Sanders could’ve either run as an independent after the WikiLeaks dump and/or joined the Green Party, something they’d been calling for him to do since 2011. Jill Stein went so far as to tell her supporters in California to vote for Sanders during that state’s primary. She then extended the invitation to take the top spot on the Green Party ticket, but Sanders not only didn’t accept, he ignored the offer. Sanders joining the Greens would’ve provided instant viability, a guaranteed spot on the presidential debate stage, and a progressive third party. He opted to endorse the party that sabotaged his election, and thus flushed many, if not most, of his supporters’ hard-earned contributions down the toilet.</div>
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In the end, Bernie Sanders proved he’s just another “good Democrat” and no longer deserves the undying loyalty and support we here at TK gave him both in passion and coin. We only wish the coin we gave up for his aborted revolution could be transferred to Jill Stein and the Green Party, because when all was said and done, Ms. Stein proved to be the one with the stones a political revolution requires.</div>
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So, sorry, Bernie, we won’t be voting for your congressional supporters come November, not if they’re part of the Democratic Party. If we want to vote for fascists in the future, then we’ll return to the Democratic or Republican Party, but don’t hold your breath. You’re a footnote to a year of exposed corruption in politics, and within that footnote cite it’ll read: In the end, even after the DNC was exposed sabotaging his campaign, Bernie Sanders capitulated and endorsed corruption.</div>
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—Knucks<br />
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<strong>The Greener pastures Sanders ignored</strong> … the Greener pastures we’ve move to … <strong>JILL STEIN FOR PRESIDENT</strong>. Notice how Progressives now have to turn to FOX News for coverage due to the DNC controlled media like CNN, MSNBC and the network channels (as proved in the WikiLeaks emails).</div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-29204174217131666302016-07-23T06:53:00.000-04:002016-07-23T06:53:52.435-04:00Book Reviews: Mad Dog Barked, Rick Ollerman … Jungle Horses, Scott Adlerberg … The RNC Convention … Hillary’s Wikileaks Problem …Amici:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhym71b3SIc0fQcnCV4BRpxjqPG4UvfEZF6Xic_l0GPF4wgP6zh0T6FERopNAcYECjJlMuG5FDuNm0zY-I7if-qYC1J_iQpFgZygU2jpRPxJCTER5UZeZwsMjpVH0VmFtTcXa7cuENt1p6M/s1600/Ollerman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhym71b3SIc0fQcnCV4BRpxjqPG4UvfEZF6Xic_l0GPF4wgP6zh0T6FERopNAcYECjJlMuG5FDuNm0zY-I7if-qYC1J_iQpFgZygU2jpRPxJCTER5UZeZwsMjpVH0VmFtTcXa7cuENt1p6M/s320/Ollerman.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Mad Dog Barked, by Rick Ollerman …</em></strong> There’s a lot going on in this baby, including protagonist Scott Porter’s being the owner/boss of his private-eye business and having more than a crush on one of his operators (Trudy) … one problem with that relationship is Trudy’s husband, a cop who doesn’t do right by his beautiful and very smart wife, but does provide the occasional police research for the agency to stay in his wife’s good graces.</div>
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Problems evolve and keep the thriller ball rolling when a client comes in, lays down a fat check, and then hands an original Edgar Allen Poe book with a handwritten letter inside that reads like jazz scat. Then the client takes off and winds up dead. So does his personal secretary, a guy watching his house (his head gets caved in) … and so the carousel of thrills and dangerous liaisons begins. There’s a hitman from up New England way, a guy working for the mob up there named Gallo. He’s after the letter more than the book, and he’s willing to kill for it. There’s also an employee or two who aren’t as dedicated as Porter is to his work/business (or theirs). Deals are made, people die, and then enter the FBI. There’s a touch of the Whitey Bulger story that comes with the FBI and although Porter could just hand over the letter and walk away from everything, paid in full, he’s one of those types who doesn’t like to skim on a job.</div>
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There’s a lot of action between the very clever dialogue and it flows fast and furious as we speed toward a major confrontation.</div>
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Ollerman has the goods and this one could make a few best-of lists, including some award nominations, if the cards are dealt fair and square.</div>
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Mad Dog Barked is a clever ride of a thriller that will keep you reading start to finish. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mad-Dog-Barked-Rick-Ollerman/dp/1944520090"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Mad Dog Barked here: </span></strong></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.ollerman.com/"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Visit the author’s blog here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong><em>Jungle Horses, by Scott Adlerberg …</em></strong> Arthur has dreams of wild horses running through jungles … these are some of the thoughts he has since he’s gone impotent and can no longer service and/or enjoy sex with his wife … it isn’t a problem for her (Jenny), she’s got a lover (Vaughn) … he’s wealthy and he lives across the street … Arthur has been cuckolded; he accepts the life arrangement he finds himself in … Arthur likes horses more than sex, especially thoroughbreds, almost as much as the horses in his dreams … those dream horses, by the way, are what once excited his life in a very sexual way with Jenny … but now all he does is gamble on horses (and it was here that I was reminded of my own horse-betting quirks on Sunday mornings before leaving for Manhattan and stopping off at Belmont on the way back home; Arthur has all the gamblers quirks) … Arthur’s wife doesn’t know he’s gambling (she assumes he’s just a drunk hanging out in pubs all day), so when he loses big, he borrowers from a bookie/loan shark … and when he gets in over his head, as all inveterate gamblers eventually do, the muscle shows up … but a deal is struck, and although Arthur wonders whether his wealthy friend Vaughn (who is having quite a life with Arthur’s wife, Jenny—they also go to the opera, dinners, etc.), is just looking to get rid of him when he offers to pay the freight on the gambling debts and send Arthur off to a topical island to tend to some other kinds of horses. Arthur leaves his wife and Vaughn and the thoroughbreds behind in London and it’s at this point we get into the mystic. Although I’m not usually a fan of the mystic, it was the absolutely smooth and beautiful pros of the author that kept me engaged throughout. Adlerberg writes smooth, elegant narrative. No spoilers here … but I was genuinely enthused each time I picked up the book to continue reading. Real good stuff, amici, and Highly Recommended.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Horses-Scott-Adlerberg-ebook/dp/B00NAGZK88#nav-subnav"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Jungle Horses here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<a href="http://scottadlerberg.blogspot.com/"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Visit the author’s site here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong>The RNC Convention … </strong>well, we’ll hear their platform is about as medieval as it gets, but let’s face it, nobody pays attention to party platforms, least of all the election winner. If I’m not mistaken, the winner takes the party platform list into the bathroom the day after the election and wipes his/her ass with it … and what the Orange Blowhard had on stage in Cleveland the last night, cheering for a man proud to be gay … cheering for new trade agreements … cheering for a black employee of the Trump organization … well, I guess they were going to wipe their asses with the platform list way in advance of election night.</div>
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So it goes.</div>
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I watched bits and pieces of all four nights, most of the big speakers (minus Chachi and the Italian fella from some soap opera—oy vey). I’m pretty sure most Republicans, and most voters in general, kind of wish either of the Trump boys were running rather than their father. Both rich brats were completely polished and apparently knowledgeable (at least about what their father obviously is not knowledgeable of). The most striking part of either speech was Eric Trump alluding to a blue collar billionaire with a degree in common sense. Now don’t get crazy on me, I haven’t lost my mind. I don’t agree with 75-90% of what either Trump boy had to say, but how they said it was impressive vs. any political speech I’ve heard, including some of Bernie’s … and there’s no denying that it’s the Harvard & Yale degrees that have us where we are right now. That FACT is just undeniable, like it or not.</div>
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I’m writing this Thursday night (as the convention progresses), so I’m still waiting for the Orange Blowhard … and let’s face it, he can blow it “big league” tonight, so let’s wait and see.</div>
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One can only hope he doesn’t come down from the ceiling on a cable (ala fart man)… or if he does, that the cable snaps and one of his two rich brat sons do get to take his place.</div>
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All the controversy over Melania’s plagiarized speech was okay the night she spoke and some of the following day, but eventually the Trump campaign managed to find a scapegoat (I wonder how thick her envelope was). Nobody was fooled by the screw-up. It was outright plagiarism.</div>
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Last night Pence was Pence, and a bit of a surprise regarding his humor. It was delivered well, but CNN kept running his most infamous statements along the bottom of the screen while he spoke. One has to wonder if that same methodology of media agenda will be present when the Democrats meet next week. I’ll be watching, that’s for sure. I can think of some pretty good Bernie lines about Hillary Clinton I wouldn’t mind seeing along the bottom of the screen (to be fair, of course) … and now that wikileaks has left a huge turd in the DNC’s cereal … well, we shall see.</div>
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So, until later tonight, I’ll say they get a grade of B. Not for the bullshit they were selling, but strictly for the presentation and how I think independents will react to their convention and candidate.</div>
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Okay, it’s started … so far the two openers are losers (Falwell’s son and Sheriff Joe the maniac). Bad, bad, bad, but you’d never know it from the reactions of the yahoos.</div>
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<strong>Casa Stella Time out …</strong> we went out to the Jacuzzi to help my sore back, but we’re back in time for Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee … she’s actually talking about Trump uniting the American people … I’m guessing she smoked a crack pipe before she stepped on the stage … another bad, bad, attempt at a Trump makeover.</div>
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Another dud, Mary Falin, Governor of Oklahoma, speaking religion … don’t mind the religion so much, but it’s boring right now. At least she’s addressing minorities, but the crowd doesn’t seem as enthused about that at all.</div>
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The Make America One Again convention has a distinct pale to it (i.e., they’re mostly white) … I guess they didn’t notice there weren’t enough token minorities in the crowd. On the other hand, next week America will be presented as “forget what I said about Barry in 2008, I love him now … and he loves me … and I love all of you people—ah, I mean African-Americans and Latinos.”</div>
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Reince Preibus … oy vey … NEXT?</div>
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Finally, PETER THIEL ... okay, I don't believe in capitalism, but THIS GUY IS GREAT ... he's kicking HRC's incompetence all over the place. How do we get him to go GREEN?</div>
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Tom Barrack … very good speaker … good stories … true? Untrue? I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.</div>
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Who better than Mickey Donovan to introduce the Orange Blowhard! You gotta love it ... in a comical way.</div>
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Ivanka … good presentation, except for calling Daddy “honest” … oy vey.</div>
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The Orange Blowhard his own bad self … it’s not a speech most pundits will care for, but middle America and many independents will eat it up. He stayed mostly on script, and although it went long, the blowhard delivered to those who accept him and probably to those who want something other than another Clinton and/or a Clinton who recently should’ve been indicted.</div>
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Hillary’s Wikileaks problem … well, let’s just say the next week will be very, very, very interesting. </div>
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—Knucks</div>
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Interview with a Charlie Stella … The Pulse’s, Ken Cail interview the Ugly One (moi) … Part I …</div>
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Part II<br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-58882856448614675832016-07-16T09:23:00.000-04:002016-07-16T09:30:10.614-04:00Bill Maher, the ultimate Ivory Tower Bubble Boy …Amici:<br />
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<strong>Bill Maher gets on my nerves.</strong> Even when I agree with him, which is probably 65-80% of the time, his arrogance, enforced by his <em>Real Time</em> bully pulpit, often makes me want to reach out and smack him. When he cuts people off, and/or pulls his rich boy tough act, I find myself thinking: <em>This punk must’ve been tortured as a kid in high school.</em></div>
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And I could be wrong about whether or not he was tortured in high school … so it goes.</div>
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Maher loves to castigate those of us who refuse to accept the rampant corruption within the Democrat Party, especially <em><strong>Bernieorbusters</strong></em>. I wrote a response to one of his childish rants against Bernieorbusters (<a href="http://temporaryknucksline.blogspot.com/2016/03/in-response-to-bill-maher-drumpfs-punch.html"><strong>click on this link</strong></a>), because taking advice from an Ivory Tower liberal just doesn’t cut it for me. </div>
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That was then, and this is now … well, last night anyway.</div>
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Last night Maher became the ultimate <em>bubble boy</em>, a derisive term he uses to describe Republican supporters (i.e., they’re living in a bubble and do not deal with reality). While I probably agree with him about that at a much higher percentage than average (85-95%), I’ve come to conclude that so does Maher live in a bubble. </div>
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Last night Maher not only defended Hillary Clinton on her email fiasco (without ever mentioning the lies she was caught telling—that was NEVER discussed as a possible reason most people (67-70%) don’t trust her), he also said something like this:<em> “And liberals who say they have to hold their nose to vote for her are wrong.”</em></div>
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Really? I guess living in an Ivory Tower, and shielded by the bubble of sycophants in his audience, precludes him from smelling the stink of her allegiance to every special interest under the sun (to include Monsanto and oil companies just wild about fracking). Isn’t Maher supposed to be big on the environment and/or the labelling of GMO’s?</div>
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To be fair, he did say she wasn’t his first choice (he too was a Bernie supporter), and that she isn’t perfect. On the other hand, he defended her as if her track record on everything, including her countless political flip-flops, was something any liberal voting for her shouldn’t hold their nose about. </div>
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Really, Bill?<br />
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Ever hear about her support for wars ... all wars? How about her regime change fetish that has much to do with the chaos the world now experiences? Is she EVER going to release her Wall Street transcripts?</div>
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Maher is also of the opinion that <em>“third party candidates will never win a presidential election.”</em> Another naysayer who insists we should live with the corruption that best suits our purposes, as if there are no other choices. The problem with that opinion, of course, is that Bernie Sanders just proved that not only do we not need corporate control of campaign financing, millions (13+ million without counting caucus states) of people are ready to make the change. Now, had Bernie walked away from the Democrat Party last week (or if he does so after next week), Maher and the rest of the naysayers would get a taste of a true political revolution. Since Sanders endorsed Clinton, a large percentage (I don’t have the exact numbers) of Sanders supporters have switched (or intend to switch) allegiance to Jill Stein and the Green Party. Her donations went up over 1000% over a 24-hour period. And, yes, I’m one of those who donated … twice so far.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxtVsTSpidOXudfdDezi98uJ-oFPk7ETf4H1yCpJJ_hyphenhyphenvu7vbV0ipSeAIW3FcboKHCjtgWflmRMXg24JT3cE2YhyQCytLsInoXQVRsrjPofkiSKrOhdPV393wukjLUxe2bFzfwvl7sVfql/s1600/Jill+Stein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxtVsTSpidOXudfdDezi98uJ-oFPk7ETf4H1yCpJJ_hyphenhyphenvu7vbV0ipSeAIW3FcboKHCjtgWflmRMXg24JT3cE2YhyQCytLsInoXQVRsrjPofkiSKrOhdPV393wukjLUxe2bFzfwvl7sVfql/s320/Jill+Stein.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My anger at Bernie remains in his reluctance to continue a true political revolution by leaving the counterrevolutionary party that sabotaged his campaign. The Democrat Party, no matter how thick the bubble you choose to envelope yourself within, is a corporate party that has become corrupt to the core. If you can’t see that, you don’t want to see it. If you’re fine with that, then it should be the party of your choice, but to suggest that the Democrat Party is the lesser of two evils, and that’s why you should vote for a person 56-60% of people polled last week believe should have been indicted under the Espionage Act, is to not only sit inside a bubble, it’s closing your eyes while doing so.</div>
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In any event, why vote for something that requires you to hold your nose when there are people running for office you can actually support with passion? Why assume that either of the two counterrevolutionary parties be embolden (with your vote) to forever suppress a third party candidate? Why accept the shit being thrown in your face year after year after year?</div>
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—Knucks<br />
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<strong><em>Fight for the Greater Good … don’t be a Lemming …</em></strong><br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-16538703368711640202016-07-10T11:09:00.002-04:002016-07-10T14:43:17.574-04:00Book Review: A Murder of Crows … Speaking of Cally … She wasn’t under oath? … The Bernie Sanders Blues …Amici:<br />
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<strong><em>A Murder of Crows</em></strong>, by Terrence McCauley … espionage, baby, espionage … think the Bourne stuff … or James Bond … but notch it up a little to present day terrorism/anti-terrorism and the infighting that goes on between government agencies (is that why the FBI didn’t put the principal defendant in a criminal investigation under oath?) … but any disassociation with reality, which is my won’t to do when it comes to espionage and/or sci-fi, was quickly put aside because of the recent research I’ve done in regards to a possible project of my own. The technology available to the various agencies are extremely sophisticated and all too real.</div>
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So, there’s a secret/not so secret organization a step or two ahead of the CIA, DIA and NSA and the Mossad, except it’s like a private Mossad that often finds itself up against players with the same goal, but playing for a different team. It’s like when NHL players are involved in international tournaments and somebody like Steven Stamkos can find himself playing against Victor Hedman or Ryan Callahan (but normally, they’re playing for the same Stanley Cup Championship as members of the Tampa Bay Lightning).</div>
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James Hicks works for The University (that secret/no so secret organization) … and he’s recently captured a real bad guy, Moroccan terrorist, Bajjah—responsible for a biological attack in New York City. Unfortunately, the Barnyard (the CIA), the DIA and the Mossad know about the capture, which took place in Philadelphia. Hicks and his rather hedonistic partner, Roger, have Bajjah ... and they’re busy interrogating him. They get him to give up a few names, (or do they?), but the Mossad and the CIA want him also. Deals have been made, but deals are often broken under the guise of national interest.</div>
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Hicks is after Jabbar, a Bin Laden type of leader in the terror hierarchy … but Jabbar has been expert at ducking the laws of all the major nation states and their national security agencies. So, how does this secret organization (The University) stay a step or two ahead of the game (and all those other agencies)? OMNI, a super high-technology communications/ research/hacking tool. It’s the kind of thing you NEVER want in your enemies OR friends hands … </div>
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<em>A Murder of Crows</em> takes the reader to different locations with different versions of top notch tension. I was never a big espionage fan, but I enjoyed this one start to finish … and I’m enticed enough to want to read the prequel, Sympathy for the Devil, when Bajjah was hitting New York with his special form of terror. A wild ride that deservedly earned a Booklist Starred review.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Crows-Terrence-McCauley/dp/1943818010"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get <em>A Murder of Crows</em> here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<a href="http://www.terrencepmccauley.com/"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Visit the author’s website here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong><em>Speaking of (Cally) Ryan Callahan …</em></strong> our favorite player played most, if not all, of the 2015-16 season with a hip injury that required surgery immediately after the playoffs. Because of the surgery, Cally will have to miss playing for team USA in the World Cup of Hockey. Cally has been on two USA Olympic teams and won a silver medal in 2010. News of Cally playing injured was no surprise to most. Last year in the Bolts Stanley Cup run, Callahan was forced to get emergency appendectomy surgery and was back on the ice after missing just 1 game. The hip surgery, however, will sideline him for five months, so not only will the Bolts’ ultimate warrior miss the World Cup, he’s projected to miss two months at the start of the 2016 season. <a href="http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=886687"><strong> Read about his hip surgery, which was successful, here:</strong></a> </div>
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Get some rest and heal, Cally. </div>
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<strong><em>The Scales of Justice …</em> </strong>The FBI criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email debacle seemed a bit odd when Director Comey stated that Hillary Clinton hadn’t lied to the FBI (after listing a bunch of lies she’s told the public) because, well, she was never under oath. </div>
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Say what?</div>
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Yeah, we were a bit confused about that one too. So her “interview” with the FBI was nothing more than that … and although it is reported that the fellow who set up the personal email server at casa Clinton-Westchester pleaded the Fifth 125 times, the "no legal harm/no legal foul" FBI recommendation has left a nation stunned at what was supposed to be going on.</div>
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Investigation or dog and pony show? The fact the FBI found her statements to be out and out lies, and those same statements had been made under oath to the Benghazi committee (i.e., lying to Congress) should leave the Teflon Diva stuck with a perjury or two indictment, but let’s face it, the scales of justice tip heavy to one side when it comes to money and power, and when we’re talking about Crooked Hillary Clinton, it’s like dropping an anvil on the money and power side of the scale.</div>
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In any event, the fiasco called a democratic election continues … and although so many on both sides of the aisle fear what the rest of the world will think of an Orange Blowhard Presidency, the fact that the nomination and election process has been a total sham doesn’t seem to bother them at all.</div>
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So it goes.</div>
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We’ll be around to poke fun at the entire mess moving forward.</div>
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<strong><em>Berned, baby Berned …</em></strong> well, you all know where I’ve stood regarding the Bernie Sanders campaign. I wasn’t happy he chose to ignore Hillary’s emails during the nomination process (they were serious errors in judgment {committed over and over and over again} at best/and criminal is {what most believe} at worst), so he let her off the hook for that and barely touched on the Clinton Foundation scandal at the very end of the sabotaged nomination process. To be fair, Bernie always said he’d honor his promise to support the DNC candidate (long before anyone had a clue it would be Donald Trump—so, so much for it is Trump that has to be defeated—like I always say, once it comes to the actual election, lemmings on both sides of the aisle shit their pants and vote the party line no matter who is running), but Bernie really is letting us down. We, his supporters, are angry for all the abuse Bernie has taken from a corrupt party. The DNC made it impossible for him to win, and HRC couldn’t stop reminding everyone how Bernie was only a Democrat for a few months. Hmmm, it seems to us, he should remind them of that fact at the convention, and maybe add to it: “I tried it, I didn’t like it, so shove it. I’m going Green.”</div>
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Bernie achieved two major successes: he was able to expose the corruption within the Democrat Party and he also proved a candidate need not sell themselves to the highest bidders. On the other hand, his call for a political revolution is now fading into yet another call to be just another lemming after all … and for that, I’m extremely pissed off. </div>
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So, Bernie, if you’re reading this, take the coin I gave to your campaign and transfer it to Jill Stein and the Green Party. The truth of the matter is, if you really did want a political revolution, you wouldn’t cave and endorse the antithesis of a revolution. </div>
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I fear Bernie left his balls in Brooklyn when he headed north to Vermont.</div>
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—Knucks</div>
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Yesterday I re-watched The Big Short … it’s a reminder why the last person we want in the White House moving forward is someone OWNED by Wall Street … </div>
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-71104567935991988342016-07-04T14:17:00.000-04:002016-07-05T05:48:45.696-04:00Bill and Hillary’s Raskolnikov Problem … a fine short story by Stanton McCaffery ... Run Boy Run (movie review) ... About that nationalism fever ...Amici:<br />
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So, Bill met up with Attorney General Lynch at an airport in Phoenix and we’re supposed to believe the lie Hillary told when she stated it was a “chance meeting” … of course it wasn’t a chance meeting if Bill held his flight from leaving Phoenix for as long as 40 minutes … but hey, they’re the Clintons.</div>
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Raskolnikov used Napoleon as justification for the actions a “great” man/person might take that precludes him/her from the laws that bind mere mortals. Raskolnikov whacked a loanshark and her innocent invalid sister, who happened to be at the crime scene at the exact wrong time.</div>
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Now that, the invalid sister's murder, for what it’s worth, was a chance meeting. </div>
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Bill and Loretta Lynch’s meeting? Not so much.</div>
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Immediately after announcing the three-and-a-half hour FBI interview of Mrs. Clinton, the leaks hit the corporate owned newsrooms: No indictment.</div>
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Surprise, surprise … or maybe just, “Duh.”</div>
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It's an amazing phenomenon how Bill and Hillary survive their assaults on decency. The voter fraud and Clinton Foundation pay-to-play deals with foreign countries continues to boggle the mind ... because there never seems to be a genuine consequence ... or a response outside of allegations eventually swept under the rug. The corruption in this election cycle, especially from the Democrat Party, has been stunning, yet nothing has been done about any of it. Could a Donald Trump win in the democrat primaries? Apparently not ... thus, the DNC proved themselves even more corrupt than the RNC (not that the RNC hasn't flirted with overwriting their own rules to dump their outsider).<br />
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In any event, obviously the Clinton think themselves above the rest of us mere mortals. They don't answer to the same rules and regulations, nor do they care what we think about it. And lord knows, their party faithful have been turning a blind eye since Slick Willy perjured himself and was disbarred.<br />
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In any event, the two things Bernie Sanders proved beyond any doubt this election cycle were these: 1) there’s absolutely no need for corporate coin to run an election campaign (assuming, of course, the people can trust the politician they’re donating to) … and 2) the Democrat Party is corrupt beyond what anyone could have imagined prior to 2016.</div>
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Whether or not Bernie actually follows through on his political revolution is another story. Those who’ve supported him with coin and passion are anxious for him to break away from a party that treated him like a pariah, but we’re not so confident he’ll do it. His promise to support the Democrat nominee, especially in light of what the DNC did to his campaign, is nothing short of rewarding corruption and many of us are appalled at the thought he’d support and vigorously campaign for Hillary Clinton. And if he does, his political revolution turns to dust before his and our eyes, especially if she wins the general election. Sorry, Bernie, but the lesser of two evils doesn't fly when it comes to revolution. If Bernie folds and she wins, what possible need would the DNC ever have of the left after making a mockery of Sanders and his campaign? They’ll be stronger for their corruption, end of story.</div>
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And if that’s the case, make no mistake how TK (and Charlie) will feel: Fuck you, Bernie, and please transfer my donations to you over to Jill Stein and the Green Party. At least Jill stands for what she says. If Bernie folds, he turns lots of private campaign donors like myself into the same cynics who say: <em><strong>“Why bother, it’s all rigged anyway?”</strong></em></div>
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And isn't in interesting how George Carlin's <strong><em>"The Big Club"</em></strong> routine remains so prescient today?</div>
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<a href="http://www.betweenworldszine.com/body-vacation-stanton-mccaffery/"><strong>A fine short story by Stanton McCaffery here … a boy bored with his brother’s choice for a day out with the family turns his life inside out … click on this link</strong></a>. It's called <strong><em>Out of Body Vacation </em></strong>...</div>
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<strong>Run Boy Run …</strong> a Jewish boy on the run from Nazi persecution in Poland … you’ll get angry and you’ll cry … and then you should stay angry for the barbaric acts of National Socialism and the blind faith that turned half the world upside down. The movie is based on the true story of Yoram Fridman. Maybe extra appropriate viewing after the very recent death of Elie Wiesel.</div>
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And remember, amici ... regarding nationalism? Above and below ...</div>
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—Knucks<br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-6103923019979283052016-06-25T07:56:00.002-04:002016-06-25T08:05:12.275-04:00Book Review: GRAVESEND (William Boyle) … A Convention Game Plan for BERNED Berniecrats …Amici:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTLGLKSOn1ocqcBeDtTON7_i6tcQEoDGRibMe_SMN0aWgzMZYf93NQH1Y3OIEvYX640qlxW0Ftjz8xgR0iKUmWnFdcrVsYQAt0bitAP2ZK_DEz1TvjWU1jNbORL9Fem0kuILcdEtPfUdt8/s1600/gravesend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTLGLKSOn1ocqcBeDtTON7_i6tcQEoDGRibMe_SMN0aWgzMZYf93NQH1Y3OIEvYX640qlxW0Ftjz8xgR0iKUmWnFdcrVsYQAt0bitAP2ZK_DEz1TvjWU1jNbORL9Fem0kuILcdEtPfUdt8/s320/gravesend.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Gravesend</em></strong>, by William Boyle … once again, bouncing around some of the writers’ pages I haunt on Facebook pays off … and this time it pays off big time.</div>
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So far this year, at least for me, <em>Gravesend</em> is one of the very best reads I’ve come across. The staccato narrative and the introspective grit of characters trapped in the mores of anachronistic familial and neighborhood mindsets are simply brilliant. </div>
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Ray Boy Calabrese is fresh out of the joint for his participation in the killing of a gay kid chased onto the Belt Parkway at the Plum Beach exit in Brooklyn. Ray Boy has just finished a 16-year bid, no easy shakes, but he’s out and just not the same guy he used to be. He’s a man now, but only sure of one thing--he deserves to die. Ray Boy has a nephew, Eugene, a kid enamored with his uncle for all the wrong reasons. He lives the typical punk fantasy all too familiar from watching movies about bad-asses ruling the roost. This genius wants to take on a local mobster’s card game to declare his bona fides as a criminal worthy of his uncle’s respect.</div>
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The gay kid Ray Boy chased onto the Belt 16 years ago, Duncan, had a brother who seems to live for revenge. Conway is the classic underachiever. He has a shit job in a pharmacy and lives a shit life with his father. He hangs out with a guy who fuels his desire for revenge. So Conway drinks and dreams of vengeance. He also dreams of women, especially a girl from the neighborhood who left for Hollywood, but who has also returned at the same time Ray Boy was released. Alessandra hasn’t made it in La-La land and her return to the neighborhood is a depressing one. She looks up an old friend and the two couldn’t be more opposite, but she needs someone to use to get out of the house where her mother’s recent death is a dark cloud her father can’t shake. Alessandra winds up ditching the old friend to head into Manhattan where she meets a movie director-producer seeking an actress and coin for his masterpiece. It just might be a scam, but we won’t find out because Alessandra winds up bedding down a bartender.</div>
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It’s the author’s writing that kept me glued to the page and anxious to discuss <em>Gravesend</em> with my wife. She was so intrigued with my enthusiasm, she’s reading the book also now. No spoilers in TK, but the ride you get in Gravesend is well worth the price of admission. It’s a brilliant piece of writing by Mr. Boyle.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PYSihu-cfbcJ7m0r1GKURqBReCxd7uwUQM3uynoBGZeOs90ExIPTPKsEP_rG_ShpT4nDqWO2PsaYlvXWBX-9omWDgiRpjhFHfjnUd5pT0u0pES4u68C3mZ01tWH6-KziZaaZjpkzaLYi/s1600/Plum+Beach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PYSihu-cfbcJ7m0r1GKURqBReCxd7uwUQM3uynoBGZeOs90ExIPTPKsEP_rG_ShpT4nDqWO2PsaYlvXWBX-9omWDgiRpjhFHfjnUd5pT0u0pES4u68C3mZ01tWH6-KziZaaZjpkzaLYi/s320/Plum+Beach.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Although I was born a Manhattan boy, I was raised in Brooklyn—Canarsie, specifically. Plum beach, so essential to <em>Gravesend</em>, was/is the closest beach to Canarsie. Not only did I go there as a kid, so did my kids, and as it turned out, so did my Mom and Pop back in the day. That’s three generations of Stellas hanging out at Plum Beach. The hate-crime Ray Boy and two of his friends committed when they chased Duncan into parkway traffic is incredibly visual to me. I know the turf well.</div>
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If you were born or lived in Brooklyn, pretty much any part of Brooklyn, you’ll want to read <em>Gravesend</em> for the sheer familiarity you’ll feel. If you’re looking for some brilliant writing, Boyle provides it, start to finish. If you’re looking for a read that will keep you turning pages, <em>Gravesend</em> is it. One of the best reads of 2016, if not the best. A truly brilliant novel. </div>
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<a href="https://wmboyle.wordpress.com/"><strong>Visit the author’s page here:</strong></a> </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gravesend-William-Boyle/dp/1940885035"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get Gravesend here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaIRyCgtsAlHsqwr5ozh2rNz29Z743eYF9iCZWyNUuzXcJhSvneOIuy7MxVMgQc1f6xPtHi44rdkTS20j5TVKGrWJByHkov9bek1_TGpg90PJ_4l-T-XVVKblMgwODcLKhOUmIS_b7iIcn/s1600/Disappointment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaIRyCgtsAlHsqwr5ozh2rNz29Z743eYF9iCZWyNUuzXcJhSvneOIuy7MxVMgQc1f6xPtHi44rdkTS20j5TVKGrWJByHkov9bek1_TGpg90PJ_4l-T-XVVKblMgwODcLKhOUmIS_b7iIcn/s320/Disappointment.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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By now it’s all over the place, Bernie Sanders’ answer to an MSNBC question: <em>“Will you vote for Hillary Clinton?” “Yes,”</em> he said.</div>
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If that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is.</div>
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The way Bernie proved the election process does not require corporate coin, and the way he exposed the DNC’s corruption, top to bottom, with that single “Yes” … he’s likely undone pretty much all that he achieved.</div>
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I’m out a substantial amount of coin and effort for supporting a guy who said he'll vote for the person I wasn't backing--not with a gun to my head. The passion is still there, but it’s no longer holding to a cause gone bad. Think about it. How many of his supporters are going to fall for this shit again and contribute to an “outsider” who “claims” he or she is fighting the establishment from within the establishment? And think of the laugh the establishment he claims he was fighting (and who he just announced he was voting for) must be having today. His was the most significant challenge to the DNC I can remember. Ten plus millions voters. Where do they turn now if they remain dedicated to the cause Bernie just abandoned?</div>
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Well, most of us who will hold to our beliefs will likely seek the Green Party. I already have, but if too few do the same, the likelihood is that the DNC’s corrupt choice will win the Presidency ... and then you can kiss your “political revolution” from the left good night for a minimum of 4 years, because if you think HRC is going to yield to the left, you’re taking some serious hallucinogens. Already the DNC has shot down the $15.00 minimum wage Sanders was calling for … as if the DNC was going to listen to anything Sanders has to say after they rigged the process so he couldn’t win.</div>
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Sanders claims he promised the Democrat Party he would endorse their nominee. After the sabotaging of his campaign by the DNC, I don’t know how he holds to his promise. Yet some of his supporters cling to a fantasy that he’ll still win the nomination. Hallucinogens, I guess.</div>
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And speaking of hallucinogens, the amount of flak I took from die-hard Bernie supporters (a.k.a., blind-faithers and quite possibly brand new lemmings) was comical. “How can you abandon Bernie so easily? Bernie didn’t endorse her! Bernie will win the nomination!”</div>
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Sweet Jesus, come off your fucking clouds.</div>
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Yesterday I proposed the following, to give Sanders (he’s no longer Bernie to me) one last chance to do the right thing by the millions of people who forked over their coin, time and passion for him. I say protestors to the convention take two shirts with them—a Sanders shirt and a Jill Stein (Green Party) shirt. And if or when Sanders endorses Hillary Clinton, his supporters remove their Sanders shirts and put on their Jill Stein shirts to send a clear signal to the DNC. To wit: He may have jerked us off, but you (the DNC) won’t get the same chance.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTgMUbjuCnzm3hR_NykYD3Zv4u0S8EK8RYgS5vwTeBamYRlnskqw2avUfoQDhYh3R1OW_izgOxhaYq9D2emUC2WdCvs9CnCW5t-zPKJQJLhf4qUpOQ8MDRCQe04X4K_thvMCb7n7IwBQE/s1600/Keep+Calm+and+Vote+Green.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTgMUbjuCnzm3hR_NykYD3Zv4u0S8EK8RYgS5vwTeBamYRlnskqw2avUfoQDhYh3R1OW_izgOxhaYq9D2emUC2WdCvs9CnCW5t-zPKJQJLhf4qUpOQ8MDRCQe04X4K_thvMCb7n7IwBQE/s320/Keep+Calm+and+Vote+Green.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>GO GREEN, AMICI </strong>… if Sanders can’t see what he’s doing to a viable third party, he doesn’t want to see it. Rewarding the DNC after what they did to him and to US is no better than stealing our money and efforts. Nice guy, but in the end, just another Pol.</div>
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He can do the right thing come the convention or not. That’s up to him. But all that bullshit about a political revolution? Well, action speaks louder than words, my Brooklyn friend. Action speaks louder than words … and talk is always cheap.</div>
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—Knucks<br />
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Jill Stein invited Bernie Sanders to join the Green Party … he could bring his supporters there and make them a viable third party overnight … so far he hasn’t responded to their requests.<br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-27488368986227066372016-06-18T07:38:00.001-04:002016-06-18T07:39:48.673-04:00Guest Blogger: Patti Abbott … TK’s review of Shot in Detroit (Patti’s latest) … and is/has Sanders BERNED OUT?<div style="text-align: justify;">
Amici:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7leiGOovea5S9qloeUanlsmEAMh-VJ_9Kc3BlOr6zM8BZgKFiIKmDN7v7SdnEUPMrsyimhWNjbejDftP2b8hN2pUOrmAHTL91rgCZjKfYmPHjD8_HUbSSnNffN6VEeVuAYvJDZpKx9WYH/s1600/shot+in+detroit_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7leiGOovea5S9qloeUanlsmEAMh-VJ_9Kc3BlOr6zM8BZgKFiIKmDN7v7SdnEUPMrsyimhWNjbejDftP2b8hN2pUOrmAHTL91rgCZjKfYmPHjD8_HUbSSnNffN6VEeVuAYvJDZpKx9WYH/s1600/shot+in+detroit_.jpg" /></a></div>
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Today we feature author, Patti Abbott (her take on her latest, <strong><em>Shot in Detroit</em></strong>), and our review.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Here’s Patti …</span></strong></div>
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<strong><em>Shot in Detroit</em></strong> is the story of Violet Hart, a photographer, nearing forty, and eager to find artistic success. Through her relationship with a mortician, she comes up with the idea of photographing young black men who have died in Detroit over a six-month period. The novel takes place entirely in Detroit and its near suburbs. Violet Hart is ambitious, a loner, a pest in getting what she wants. She's an artist in other words. </div>
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“Photography was a license to go wherever I wanted and to do what I wanted to do.” Diane Arbus </div>
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Almost any African-American Detroiter that picks up <em>Shot in Detroit</em> will probably tell you that this is not the real Detroit. That I didn't get Detroit right from my vantage point as a suburbanite. That I didn't get them right. And this was the thought that reverberated in my head through the years I spent writing and rewriting my book. The Detroit in my novel might be one filled with violence, despair and poverty, but it was, and always would be, the view of an outside looking in--someone not, at heart, affected greatly by what was happening inside the city limits in most cases. I might work in Detroit, but I lived elsewhere. </div>
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The things I didn't know about Detroit included what the inside of a Detroit public school looked like; how underfinanced and antiquated the fire stations were; what it was like to stand in long lines to cash a check, pay a utility bill, pay a parking fine, see an representative at a Social Security office or at the Secretary of State's office. The hardship of waiting on a cold street corner for a DDOT bus that doesn't come; watching the depopulation of the street you live on, Then watching the houses come down due to arson, neglect, scrapping, mischief. I'd never know the difficulty of grocery shopping in a city with no grocery store chains. No full-scale pharmacies. And being without a car to take you outside city limits. (Most Detroit citizens have no car and this in a city with scant public transportation). City services were shoddy; a mayor was found guilty of many heinous crimes. You only had to look to Chicago or D.C. to see how these issues played out in other cities. But unlike these cities, Detroit had no glamour attached to it. </div>
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I conceded these facts. I knew my story would never tell the same story as someone writing from a depopulated street only a mile or two away from me. Other writers faced the same dilemma. Did Elmore Leonard mislead us to some degree with his gift for dialog, his colorful characters? Didn't his entertaining plots serve as the magician's trick of getting us to look at the wrong thing while he performed his magic? His home in Birmingham was as far removed from Detroit as mine. </div>
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Of the more than 100 stories I wrote before finishing my first novel, only five were set in Detroit--that's how much I feared getting it wrong. Each of those stories was grim and yet when I look at them now, they share the possibility of redemption, of finding a better life: two children escape their harridan mother, a criminal awakes to find two growths on his back and takes on the duties of an angel; an elderly man enjoys a day with the grandson he never knew he had. None of these stories state their characters are black although you can reasonably assume it. </div>
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I have tried to take this on in <em>Shot in Detroit</em>. To confront of fear of being the white outside. In the very first chapter, Violet Hart runs into two cops on Belle Isle. They accuse her of exploiting the people she is photographing. She responds by saying she's an artist. That perhaps her pictures tell their story. Various characters in the book throw this accusation in her face. She does the best she can to respond to it.</div>
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And perhaps I did too. </div>
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<em>Patti has penned more than 125 stories in all the various venues—on line, in print journals and in various anthologies. She is also the author of two ebooks, MONKEY JUSTICE and HOME INVASION and co-editor of DISCOUNT NOIR. She won a Derringer award for her story "My Hero." She lives outside Detroit. Patti has also authored two terrific novels, Concrete Angel and now Shot in the Detroit.</em></div>
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<a href="http://pattinase.blogspot.com/"><strong>Patti is also about one of the kindest writers in the community as she features authors and their works on her blog, Patti Abbott (Pattinase). Visit her blog here:</strong></a> </div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shot-Detroit-Patricia-Abbott/dp/1940610826"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get <em>Shot in Detroit</em> here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our Review of <strong><em>Shot in Detroit</em></strong>, by Patti Abbott</span></div>
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Violet Hart is a photographer seeking a project that excites. It can be weird, unusual, dark … but it has to be that special something that can stir the creative juices and that makes life, or at least life as it relates to one’s chosen profession, worth living. While she loves her profession, she’s dependent on the usual photographer fare—weddings, bar and bat mitvahs, birthdays, etc., so she’s living hand to mouth while hoping to put together something for a gallery. The works she currently has showing aren’t selling and she’s catching grief for it.</div>
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On one of Violet’s trips to Belle Isle to search for that special something, after one trip that ended with police questioning her presence there, she spots something unusual, and then an unusual person, and a young one at that. Derek Olsen is a kid who creates his own sculptures out of weird stuff and then puts them on display along the beach. The two accidentally meet on Belle Isle. Violet initially thinks of Derek as “crazy guy,” but there’s more to this kid than meets the eye.</div>
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Violet has a lover, Bill, who owns a funeral parlor and does a respectable business from his years of service in the neighborhood. When Bill asks Violet to photograph one of the bodies he’s prepped for a funeral, a rugby player from London who was killed by an aneurism, she finds the experience more exhilarating than she imagined it could be. The requested photograph came from the family, a simple picture of their loved one in a casket to be shipped home. Developing the film later on in her darkroom, Violet realizes there’s something more to the picture she’s taken … and creative juices flow.</div>
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She strikes a deal with her lover and begins taking pictures of young black males he preps for their funerals. Bill makes it legit by ascertaining permission from family members, but he isn’t fully comfortable with the new arrangement he’s agreed to with Violet.</div>
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Very much into her new project, filming dead black males in their caskets, Crazy guy (Derek) calls with something extra weird he thinks Violet might be interested in … and oh, boy, is it weird … body parts he’s created a sculpture from. It’s not something Violet is comfortable with, although she takes a number of photographs of the body parts and the sculpture Derek has created from them.</div>
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She’s continuing her project filming the young dead black males at her lover’s funeral parlor, but then the scene on the beach involving Derek, his sculpture, and the body parts, comes back to her via the police. She’s told Derek to let the police know about the body parts he’s found and he’s done as she suggested, except the police are now at her doorstep asking questions. Derek called his work “installation art” … but the police have to wonder if maybe Derek and/or Violet provided their own material for the body part project. She did, after all, take pictures of it.</div>
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The complications are increased when the guy who owns a gallery showing her stuff, a guy she’s been intimate with for more pragmatic than romantic reasons (even while a noisy neighbor directly upstairs exercises on his bike), sees her growing gallery of dead black males and wants to run with it. This is something she’s also excited about, but there are legal issues involved that may well threaten her relationship with her true lover, Bill, and it’s a relationship that seems to be on the wane of late.</div>
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There are chapters with newspaper articles describing the latest deaths of young black males Violet will get a crack at photographing. It’s a very effective way to keep the pace of the novel moving. Violet is an interesting character not only for her photographic talents, but because she’s flawed in the most artistic way. Let’s face it, there’s an extra dose of selfishness many (most, if not all) artists share, and Violet is no exception. She’s an independent woman unwilling to live by social mores that might preclude her quest for creative expression. It’s a fine line she walks, because the idea of photographing dead males can be viewed as more exploitive than creative … but that’s for the naysayers to deal with. Violet is willing to cross lines some feminists might balk at, and like those living with writers undoubtedly come to realize—nothing is safe around an artist.</div>
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Violet is also naïve about a particular family secret involving the musician father who abandoned her and her mother years ago, and when she spots Bill with another woman, one with his racial profile, Violet experiences the jealousy a potential rejection inevitably leads to. There are a couple of plot twists and turns in this very interesting novel that strike like sledgehammers, so readers beware. Like most novels worth reading, it’s the journey toward plot twists that keep us interested in what happens next. Violet is a vibrant character. She will keep you interested to the very end, making the plot twists all the more powerful. <em>Shot in the Dark</em> is a wonderful read with an exceptionally interesting female lead, and it is much more than a murder mystery.</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shot-Detroit-Patricia-Abbott/dp/1940610826"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Get <em>Shot in Detroit</em> here:</span></strong></a> </div>
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<strong>Is/Has Sanders BERNED OUT?</strong></div>
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It’s perhaps the most asked question going back and forth in social media these days: Will Bernie Sanders abandon the cause and get behind Crooked Hillary Clinton (sorry, but no sincere Sanders supporter and/or progressive can call her anything but Crooked Hillary).</div>
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I’ve had my doubts going back to the Arizona debacle, where hundreds of polling locations were reduced from over 200 in 2012 to 60 in 2016. I was pretty sure early on that the Democratic Party would never allow Bernie Sanders to represent them; a party owned by corporate coin wasn’t about to allow someone who refused it take the top spot. Yet, hopeless romantic I am, I was hopeful the huge crowds Bernie was drawing, as opposed to the tiny ones surrounding Crooked Hillary, meant something.</div>
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And I did my best to remind myself how in 1960. scores of dead people voted JFK into office in Illinois; if they could do that then and hack into the Pentagon now, what were the odds it wouldn’t happen to voting machines in an election being run by millionaires and billionaires?</div>
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Post Arizona, there was no longer a doubt as to what would happen. The question remained, however, would Bernie make the move his supporters so desperately want him to make—would he defy the corruption of the Democratic National Committee and its star corrupt candidate, Crooked Hillary Clinton? Would Bernie start a viable third party with millions of supporters behind him, or even join one already in existence, the Green Party, and help to make it the Progressive Party his supporters want so badly? Or, in the end, would he wind up rewarding the corruption and endorsing Crooked Hillary?</div>
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I fear it’ll wind up being the latter, but that doesn’t mean we have to follow suit—not his supporters. Most of us are well aware of the consequences for progressives should Crooked Hillary win the Presidency. First off, we’ll be ignored over the next four years—as if we never existed. Why wouldn’t they ignore us? After what they did to Sanders’ campaign, should he still endorse her, why the hell would the Democratic Party bother giving us lip service, never mind a genuine acknowledgment?</div>
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Secondly, nothing changes within the party itself and/or their policies. Absolutely nothing.</div>
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Thirdly, everything we feared about Crooked Hillary and her flip-flops will come to pass, to include TPP legislation authored by the same corporate owners who own Crooked Hillary and Barry Obama. She’ll forget $15.00 an hour, her pledge to reduce education costs, single payer health insurance, and we’ll be led right back into the Middle East quagmire via her regime change fetish and love of perpetual war.</div>
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So, if Bernie bolts, most of us are with him. If he caves, he does it alone.</div>
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We can still love the man for what he tried, but we cannot dismiss the end result. For Bernie to get behind Crooked Hillary is to REWARD the corruption of the party against himself and his supporters … something I’ll never digest.</div>
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So, go the convention, Bernie. Show up and let them have it in a much more direct way than they fought you throughout this campaign (as exposed in the latest hack of the DNC server). Take the microphone at center stage and announce that after more than a year of fighting the corruption of the DNC, you’re taking your talents to the GREEN PARTY and establishing a formal Progressive Party to not only challenge for the Presidency, but to establish as a viable political party at every level of government, from local organizations to Governorships.</div>
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YES, GO GREEN, BERNIE … it’s where we need you most now.</div>
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—Knucks<br />
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Jill Stein on the differences between Trump and Crooked Hillary … and <strong>the myth of the lesser of two evils</strong>.<br />
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Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312161693505389417.post-51345586941272999092016-06-15T10:11:00.001-04:002016-06-15T10:32:28.815-04:00Interview with Ross Gresham (White Shark) … Book Review: Kill Anything That Moves … The Trump Implosion … Amici:<br />
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I first met Ross Gresham, his brother Kyle, and sister Nicole, some 42 years ago. Their parents were professors at the college I attended on a football scholarship (Minot State College, now a University). Their father is the guy I mention in every book dedication. He’s definitely the person most responsible for me ever getting published, and probably the person most responsible for me not being in jail and/or dead.</div>
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Now, some 42 years later, I get to interview Ross (or, as I call him, Rossman). Like his parents and both siblings, Ross has some serious education chops. He’s also a terrific author with a new book out <a href="http://temporaryknucksline.blogspot.com/2016/03/white-shark-by-ross-gresham-childrens.html"><strong>(reviewed here), White Shark (click on the link for our review).</strong></a></div>
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Ross is the author of the mystery novel <em>White Shark</em> (Gale / Five Star, May 2016). It's the first book in his Jim Hawkins series. His short stories have appeared in Indiana Review, Theaker's, and Front Range Review. Gresham's first book, <em>Andre Dubus Talking</em> (Xavier Review Press, 2003), collected together for the first time all available interviews with Dubus. Gresham is Professor of English at the United States Air Force Academy and fiction editor for the journal War, Literature & the Arts. He lives in Colorado Springs with his family.</div>
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<em>1. Where did the idea for Jim Hawkins come from?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> Years back a guy told me the basic story of Lawrence Rockwood. Rockwood was a US soldier stationed in Haiti who was appalled by the inhuman prison conditions. He kept complaining through official channels but that worked about as well as you’d expect. Finally he put on his kit and marched in…. Recently the NYT ran a nice piece about one of our soldiers who was sickened by the fact that our Afghan ally kept a little boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. The US soldier kicked the guy’s ass for him (and of course was fired for doing so). I’ve heard a dozen similar stories. Just because it’s the rule doesn’t make it the right thing to do. Perfect kind of character for a crime book.</div>
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<em>2. Tell us about old money vs. new. Why did you choose that as one of a few backdrops to what Hawkins unwittingly comes up against?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> That’s a great question. I have no idea. In real life I haven’t met that many people with old money, but I’ve liked every single one of them. I wish I had some old money myself. </div>
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<em>3. This was one of my favorite passages in the novel, especially the last line, which I believe is a humbling fact for most (if not all) of us. “Now, you may think, Rich Lady! She orders you around like a servant! That wasn’t the situation. Yes, Sarah had her ideas about how things should be. This is the trap of money and Sarah wasn’t immune. No one is. A lady with extensive property makes a decision every ten minutes—which car? Which restaurant? Which house?—and the habit becomes a trait. Authority rewires the brain. You forget what people are for. That happens to everyone.” Has this been your experience? Do people with major coin have rewired brains because of it?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> Yeah, authority rewires the brain. Regrettably. A line in a favorite book haunts my life: “Have you ever known a schoolmaster fit to associate with grown men?” I’m a college teacher, prating at college students ten months a year. I go home every night and prate to my poor kids. I’m fated to become an unbearable jackass (what’s that the wife is saying? I’m already…?) Every May, at the end of the school year, I fantasize about moving to a monastery with a vow of silence. I am so fucking tired of my own voice: blah blah blah. What a dick.</div>
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<em>4. Picking up on some of the passages I loved, here’s another statement from on high (money): She spun me a theory about great men. It was different for great men. All we could hope for was to be of some assistance. I immediately thought of Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov. Is that what you were aiming at?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> Again, great question. I didn’t have Raskolnikov in mind—I don’t know the Russians as well as I should—but I’ll take the Dostoevsky comparison all day long. </div>
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<em>5. As much as I hate to admit it, especially since he took a major misrepresentative cheap shot at Bernie Sanders in the Miami paper he writes for, I was immediately comparing White Shark to the Carl Hiaasen environmental novels. Humorous, cynical, clever and cool … very cool. I think I preferred White Shark because of the depth of your cool vs. Hiaasen’s cool. I especially enjoyed how your protagonist was so much more innocent than I remember Hiaasen’s star. Hawkins crept up on me, his military background/prowess, etc., and I thought that was very effective. Even in affairs of the heart, Hawkins was a very reasonable dude. Hiaasen supports a fracking queen, which negates his environmental angst for me. Hawkins doesn’t seem all that concerned with the environment per se, and is more concerned with how people treat one another. Was that a conscious decision you made for him? I like it, because there’s more reality to it (than we’d all like to admit about ourselves). We don’t root for environmental disasters, but we don’t do much to avoid them. Hawkins is focused on people. Is that because of his background experiences in Africa, or is it because there’s only so much room and time for a particular cause/crusade?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> Jeez I like your reading of Hawkins. He wouldn’t pay attention to any “-ism,” even a virtuous one like environmentalism. None of them register. </div>
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<em>6. White Shark is a page turner, and a fun one at that. It’s also extremely smart writing. The dirty retired government official was all too credible, especially with the shit we see day-to-day from our illustrious government and the clowns holding office. Land development vs. environmental concerns loom in the background of White Shark. Was this all a master plan or did it come about as you progressed in the story. I guess this is a process question. Was it outlined with those ideas in your head or did it come as you wrote?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> The choice of bad guys probably reveals my own biases (except they’re not biases but sound political wisdom). I didn’t plan the book very well and had to revise a lot. I went to years of writing school but we wrote short stories and didn’t talk about plotting. Or maybe I wasn’t paying attention. Anyway, no master plan, though I did know the essential crime from the start.</div>
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<em>7. Where does Hawkins go after his stint on Nausset Island? Is there another Hawkins novel in the works? I hope so.</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> One more in the oven. How on earth did Jim Hawkins end up as a substitute Sheriff in rural Wyoming? At least nothing can go wrong in a boring place like that….</div>
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<em>8. You grew up in a very literary family, not to mention the ultimate Renaissance man environment. When did you start writing? What age, subject matter, etc.?</em> </div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> I do come from a reading family. Growing up, everyone had a book going—your book—as in, “it’s going to be a long drive, grab your book.” Another nice thing about my family background was that being a writer was about the best thing you could be. Really. Most families would love their kids to be an astronaut or play quarterback for the Cowboys. Or get rich—maybe that’s the most common thing we want for our kids, so that we never have to worry. But my house was wall-to-wall books. I loved everything about them—the musty smell, the covers—these worlds were out of reach.</div>
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<em>9. You have an MA and from Southern Mississippi and a PhD from the University of Denver. What are your thoughts on graduate writing schools?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> I know that people complain about writing schools, but those years certainly helped me. Going in, my work was terrible. Coming out, my work was somewhat less terrible. I also had a good time. I liked all the people and teachers. I’ll try a New York accent: C’mon, what d’ya want? (forgive me.)</div>
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<em>10. Should they entertain genre fiction or continue to exist with a pickle up their asses?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> Ha! You know what’s a common phenomenon? You get on an airplane coming home from a big professor conference—MLA or something—and all these scholars are reading Stephen King or Fifty Shades of Grey. Anybody who reads books reads some kind of genre fiction. It’s true that some professors stop reading altogether. On the airplane they’re re-watching The Matrix on DVD.</div>
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<em>11. Two Harvard graduates (you and your sister, Nicole), and an Air Force Academy graduate (your brother, Kyle). That’s some seriously impressive parenting. I think I remember your Dad saying he used to pay you guys to read based on the size of the book. X amount for so many pages, etc. Which book was your biggest payday? Did you enjoy it or was it something to bring to the labor board?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> I know I didn’t get any money for Elmore Leonard. I got twenty bucks apiece for the Will Durant history series. The whole policy made a lot of sense. My friends were flipping burgers for three bucks an hour. If you were a parent, and you could afford to, who wouldn’t make that deal?</div>
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<em>12. Your kids … are you following the free market coin for books approach with them or have you altered the program? If so, how have you altered it?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> My kids? They don’t know what books are. They just steal the money out of my wallet when I’m asleep.</div>
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<em>13. Your favorite novel and why?</em></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> How about Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim? I’ve read it thirty or forty times and each time I’ve laughed aloud.</div>
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<em>14. How in the world did you and your brother, two kids growing up in North Dakota (where the closest NFL team was the Minnesota Vikings) wind up Dallas Cowgirl fans? Was it strictly jumping on a winning team bandwagon or was it a romanticized version of rooting for a team full of felons (i.e., the underdogs make good)? And please tell me that you and Kyle haven’t brainwashed Nicole into being a Dallas fan as well.</em></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3aWyd8xbKosalc6It3GVwAxCxM5nr0cBPRfbdhSjyxHeEHMxK_kpSzcnphcp4A0rwMIEbQC44xnx1JZ4Nn6eUgiY0seuvvmE1K7R6aXFs8bmF98Wwk4UaGf9Kr1CMBb8HxInEr3zman6/s1600/Dallas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3aWyd8xbKosalc6It3GVwAxCxM5nr0cBPRfbdhSjyxHeEHMxK_kpSzcnphcp4A0rwMIEbQC44xnx1JZ4Nn6eUgiY0seuvvmE1K7R6aXFs8bmF98Wwk4UaGf9Kr1CMBb8HxInEr3zman6/s1600/Dallas.jpg" /></a></div>
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<strong>Response:</strong> To some people, I know, it is odd to be a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. I understand that. But remember my childhood was different. I was born here in America.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/White-Shark-Jim-Hawkins-Mystery/dp/143283181X"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">We thank the Rossman for giving us his time and answers. Go get White Shark here, amici. You won’t be disappointed.</span></strong></a> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3mbWtjU1_DStXcIzGODuJ-4HyObWuaQV2Hef-2IKYcdAiTyarjB0h1avvUXHJztlUQDP3vKWZ7Qp52pEjb-RUjYQLCmzxNZTiDK7j_CpgfP5wyUDNJo96V7Nc0mHGROx2Q04vtPNnmn3c/s1600/Kill+anything.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3mbWtjU1_DStXcIzGODuJ-4HyObWuaQV2Hef-2IKYcdAiTyarjB0h1avvUXHJztlUQDP3vKWZ7Qp52pEjb-RUjYQLCmzxNZTiDK7j_CpgfP5wyUDNJo96V7Nc0mHGROx2Q04vtPNnmn3c/s1600/Kill+anything.jpg" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Kill Anything That Moves</em></strong>, by Nick Turse … An important book, especially to those partway through high school, but also to pretty much everyone else, because it rips away the bloated super-hyped glory of going to war, being in war, and surviving war. It remains a very tough book for me to read. That’s right, I haven’t finished it yet.</div>
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So, how do you review it, Knucks?</div>
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Calm your jets and I’ll tell you … a little at a time, because the non-stop documentation of the hundreds, maybe thousands of My Lai Massacres that took place over the course of the “conflict in Vietnam” are very tough (at least for me) to comprehend. I don’t intend or want to browbeat the soldiers involved in these massacres, because although there were war crimes pretty much constantly committed, the war crimes themselves were U.S. Military policy. The soldiers, often caught in terrified situations, especially after one of their own was wounded or killed, reacted the way none of us might imagine, yet can understand (if we take the time to visualize the mess). So, yeah, the Lt. William Calley fucked up, but so did all those behind the scenes, from higher-ups in country to the assholes running things in Washington D.C.</div>
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I’ll eventually finish reading the book, but I really had to take a break because the documentation of devastation and murder and rape and pillage was just too much to handle straight through. Like I said, it’s an important book … and especially for those young men who think it’s all for glory and honor they’re shipped overseas to kill people who never did a thing against them.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqwiOrFYR2K2FRr6eVOgiYW0zRvYmDeDSR_2tjRMGN3sSEPDpX8XHWZUY3pMOyY1kMNiK_u_3n-iqxqNvwsNh9lfwrMvNCKk3OLfvpSFXWRN2i3V7Q7jy1YKBHF888O9aL1u6lxgeAjL0L/s1600/Implosion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqwiOrFYR2K2FRr6eVOgiYW0zRvYmDeDSR_2tjRMGN3sSEPDpX8XHWZUY3pMOyY1kMNiK_u_3n-iqxqNvwsNh9lfwrMvNCKk3OLfvpSFXWRN2i3V7Q7jy1YKBHF888O9aL1u6lxgeAjL0L/s320/Implosion.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>The Trump Implosion … </strong>I suspect nobody is more disappointed than me in the Orange Blowhard’s (a.k.a. The Donald’s) self-implosion. Not because I supported this lunatic, but because I believed, and still do, that he’s just a big blowhard with nothing to offer or accomplish if ever elected President. I also thought it would be great for America to be exposed -- how absurd our political system/culture has become—the fact a complete buffoon can win a major party nomination is bad enough, but top it off with the Presidency? Man, that’s just entertainment. Frankly, as a country that can’t manage to achieve (or maybe doesn’t want to) more than 50% of the public to even show up to vote, we deserve the fiasco we’ve sowed.</div>
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<em>Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump</em> … a congenital liar, war hawk, bribe-taking, criminal versus an absolute clown. There’s “American Exceptionalism” for you.</div>
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As a Bernie supporter, I’ve already turned to the Green Party … I can only hope Sanders doesn’t cave and wind up endorsing the very kind of corruption his campaign fought against. Should he do so, he loses my support and winds up being just another pol in my book. I could care less about best intentions. You don’t endorse what you claim you were fighting (pay attention Mika Brzezinski—your constant complaining about GOP officials supporting the Orange Blowhard are getting old—try asking Elizabeth Warren why she dodged a simple “yes”/”no” question regarding whether or not Hillary Clinton should release her Wall Street transcripts?).</div>
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Speaking of Warren, Bernie should pay attention to how unfavorably she’s been received by progressives since her sellout. She’s hated now, and deservedly so.</div>
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If Bernie really wants to generate a political revolution, he’d hustle his ass over to the Jill Stein and the Green Party, which has been begging for his presence for years now.</div>
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—Knucks</div>
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One from Column A and one from Column B …</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8XOocb-DId4" width="560"></iframe><br />Charlieoperahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08876755029099726686noreply@blogger.com