Angel Time

On Sunday, doing my usual routine of watching football while browsing for book articles on the web, I came across a promotional video for the new Anne Rice novel “Angel Time”. I was a little surprised because I can’t think of another time when I’ve watched a video to promote a novel. I mostly find out about new releases from web sites like Amazon.com or newspapers like The New York Times.

The interesting thing about the video is the emphasis of drama over what the novel is actually about. There is some info, but the video comes across as more a Hollywood blockbuster movie than a novel. Welcome to the world of new media I guess.

Here is the publisher’s description of the novel. The video follows:

“Anne Rice returns to the mesmerizing storytelling that has captivated readers for more than three decades in a tale of unceasing suspense set in time past—a metaphysical thriller about angels and assassins.

The novel opens in the present. At its center: Toby O’Dare—a contract killer of underground fame on assignment to kill once again. A soulless soul, a dead man walking, he lives under a series of aliases—just now: Lucky the Fox—and takes his orders from “The Right Man.”

Into O’Dare’s nightmarish world of lone and lethal missions comes a mysterious stranger, a seraph, who offers him a chance to save rather than destroy lives. O’Dare, who long ago dreamt of being a priest but instead came to embody danger and violence, seizes his chance. Now he is carried back through the ages to thirteenth-century England, to dark realms where accusations of ritual murder have been made against Jews, where children suddenly die or disappear . . . In this primitive setting, O’Dare begins his perilous quest for salvation, a journey of danger and flight, loyalty and betrayal, selflessness and love.”

Cake!

Take a look at the photo above. I’m not showing you this to entice you to risk money on roulette or run way to Vegas with me. Although if you have a lot of money to waste on blackjack and need someone to lose it at the tables with you, I am more than happy to tag along.

I wanted to post the photo above because that entire roulette table is actually a cake. The whole thing. Even the roulette wheel part, which actually spins, is made out of cake. The creation is from the talented hands and mind of Buddy Valastro, owner of Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. (Granted, he doesn’t do it all alone. His family and co-workers help execute the ideas he comes up with.)

The reason I know about Buddy is the show “The Cake Boss”, which just started its second season on TLC. I saw this season’s first two episodes this past Monday, plus some last season repeats, and felt myself drawn to the show just to the sheer spectacle of it. In fact, I found it more enteratining than 99% of the fictional shows on tv. I enjoy watching creative people who are very good at whatever craft they work in, and each episode seems to be leading towards an even more complex and difficult cake than last time.

“Cake Boss” is definitely worth checking out if you are tired of the same old sitcoms and cop shows. Just don’t watch it while you’re hungry. It’s like being tortured for a half hour.

Lack of reality

Another day, and there he is again: Jon Gosselin. Never has one man who has accomplished so little gathered so much media attention. Aside from being the father to 8 kids and a verbal punching bag for his ex-wife Kate (who I’m no big fan of either), Jon hasn’t done anything to warrant this focus of our news media. But every media outlet I turn to lately seems to have his mug there, with that small weird smile, looking like a frat boy who is trying not to laugh after getting drunk and pooping on his best friend’s pillow.

This may seem like an odd topic for a blog that is supposed to be about books and writing (well, in theory anyway). But due to my job loss in February, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do for my next job, and have been watching what other people do for theirs.

Like the media people who have to follow this guy around. This is really your job? To follow this dorkasorous? It’s not like you’re going to be there when he discovers a cure for cancer or creates a workable peace agreement for the Middle East. At best he’ll choke on a donut, and you’ll get some usable footage of the ambulance arriving. 

I’m not a snob about reality television. (Even though I think the term is incredibly misleading.) I watch “Hell’s Kitchen,” and it’s not for the cooking. Week after week, I watched Tennille yell at the top of her lungs even if she was talking about the weather, and felt a slight twinge of glee when Robert waddled around the kitchen, throwing one of his temper tantrums. I never missed an episode. But I don’t want to see any of these people outside the show, or learn anything personal about contestants like lunkhead Van or crazy Amanda. Once they are pulled out of the show’s context, they don’t hold any interest for me. They are merely fillers for a show that I enjoy. Next season will be the next crop of chefs and I’ll be on to the next group. (As a side note, if you owned a restaurant, would you really want any of these people to run it?)

I propose a new show where the public votes on which one of the “reality stars” we never want to see again, with the losers being deported out of the country. I’ll even drive Gosselin to the airport myself. The news reporters following him will have to buy their own plane tickets if they want to tag along.

Blogging

I don’t make a very good blogger output-wise because I tend to mull over ideas too long and don’t feel a pressing need to share anything. By the time I think, “Hey, I should finally write about that…” about a month has gone by, and the idea seems rather stale. Keep in mind, I should probably change my middle name to “procrastination” anyway, because I’m not one of those folks who gets up before dawn to get cracking on their “To Do” list. Or, on the weekends, one of those folks who gets up before noon. (Kidding…sort of…)

So, I’m back at this again, and will try to be somewhat more regular on the posts, at least for the writing practice. Because there are a whole lot of blogs out there trying to get people’s attention, and even if I wrote every day, my chances of getting any sort of large audience would be pretty slim.

What have I been doing since my last post? Reading some, but watching a lot of things, including:

1)      Mad Men

2)      Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen

3)      The end of the Red Sox season

4)      Cameron Diaz running around outside my office building

5)      The stack of notebooks that is supposed to somehow transform into a finished novel.

See? I’m done writing all ready. I can’t even be bothered to explain 1-5. This week though. Really! I promise!

Book Review: Shutter Island

One could argue that good mystery novels respect their audience more than books of any other genre. When functioning properly, the plot is fairly and clearly laid out, giving the reader has a chance of solving the mystery. But in the process of giving the reader a chance to figure things out, the author can’t bore the reader either. Each page should fly by as the reader is tracking clues and weighing evidence in their own mind. The book should create a two-person race as the character tries to unravel the mystery and the reader tries to match them to the finish line, or get there a little earlier if possible. But not too much earlier. There isn’t much worse than reading a mystery where the reader figures out what is going on halfway through and then feels compelled to slug their way through to the ending.

Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Islandisn’t one of those dull novels. The novel opens in 1954 as U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniel and Chuck Aule take a boat to Shutter Island, outside of Boston. They are going to track down Rachel Solando, an escapee from the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Teddy and Chuck have never worked together before but by the time the boat gets to the island, they have already developed a short-hand way of joking with each other and understand where the other guy is coming from; both are ex-soldiers who have survived World War II, and while their outward personalities are different, they form a quick bond before getting to the island.

But there is also a symbolic third person on the boat: Teddy’s dead wife who was murdered when an arsonist burned down their apartment building. Her memory, and the guilt and rage associated with it, burns darkly in Teddy’s core and, as becomes apparent throughout the investigation, is Teddy’s real reason for wanting to take the Solando case. He believes he has a score to settle with someone on the island.

The mystery quickly proves more complicated than the marshals expect. Not only has Rachel escaped, but she has done it in a way that would make Houdini proud: out of a locked room in the middle of the night, and past hallways full of locked doors and armed guards. In addition, one of the key witnesses, Dr. Lester Sheehan, has left the island for vacation, which is troublesome because he was one of the last people to see Rachael. Unfortunately, as in any good horror story, a hurricane-level storm blankets the island preventing and boats or radio signals from coming in or out. This leaves the marshals on an island with secretive doctors, armed guards, and the most psychotic criminals in the country. Teddy is dangerous in his own right, due to possessing a sharp mind and fighting abilities honed by war and combat. On the one hand, Teddy seems the perfect marshal to crack the case. But as the story goes along, the reader begins to wonder if he might be totally out of his element. It is not clear until the end of the book.

The book has plenty of mysteries, from missing patients to rumors of unethical psychological testing. I’m not saying a smart reader won’t figure out what is going on; some of the mysteries are much easier to figure out than others.  But Lehane takes the story of an escaped mental patient and stretches out in a variety of directions, only to bring all the threads back together expertly in the end, and ultimately provokes larger questions about the human brain and just how far people will go to avoid admitting the truth about themselves.

Jazz and football

So I’m back in the working world. For the indefinite future, I have a freelance contract job proofing travel catalogues and brochures at a company about two blocks from my old office. Too early to see what the long term future will hold, but for now, things are going well.

I’ve been much more relaxed lately because my brain isn’t constantly running over ideas of how to make money and pay bills. After losing my job in February (it still feels odd to say that) I had a running dialogue in my head which sounded something like this:

“Money.Work.Bills.Mortage.Future.Career.Resumes.Interviews.
Money.Work.Bills.Mortage.Future.Career.Resumes.Interviews.
Money.Work.Bills.Mortage.Future.Career.Resumes.Interviews.
Money.Work.Bills.Mortage.Future.Career.Resumes.Interviews…”

You get the idea.

So, even though I am keeping my eyes open for permanent work, I have time to read and study what I want without feeling like I should be searching job listings. The two things I’ve been reading about lately are jazz and football, subjects I enjoy tremendously but don’t fully understand the mechanics of.

I’ve been listening to jazz a lot lately on the train and while I’ve been proofreading. While I don’t have a huge jazz collection, I do have some of the major Miles Davis CDs (Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool) and John Coltrane CDs (A Love Supreme, Giant Steps). In addition I have just finished a book on John Coltrane and am currently working my way through Miles Davis’ autobiography. I’ll write reviews of those once I get done with Davis’ book, but I will say it has been quite an education and I’ve enjoyed seeing the contrasts of musical styles and how the history of jazz unfolded.

For football, I’ll be watching a lot of football as usual, but I am also trying to learn more about the strategy of the game. I was at Borders yesterday looking for books on football strategy, but aside from Football for Dummies and The Idiot’s Guide to Football, I didn’t find much. This is interesting in itself. Apparently people are interesting in reading more about the legends of the game than the actual strategy.

More on all this later.

Back to Business

Tom Brady and Randy Moss share a fist bump

The New England Patriots training camp is open to the public over the next few weeks, with most days having a morning and afternoon session the public can attend. Tired of starting my mornings by staring bleary-eyed at online job postings, I drove my un-air-conditioned 1995 Mercury Sable up 495 to Gillette Stadium on Wednesday.

I attended the morning session, which started at 9:30 and ran until 11:00 or so. I didn’t know what to expect as far as turnout. Granted there are plenty of Pats fans around but the forecast was for the low 90s and the open practice fields behind Gillette Stadium have almost no shade to offer. (And to make you feel even hotter there is a huge inflatable Pepsi bottle located at the far end of the field.) But that didn’t deter the Patriots faithful. I got there right at 9:30 and while there were a few places to sit, mostly on a grass hill overlooking the practice fields, the good seats were long gone.

Attending a training camp practice is 180 degrees different than an actual game. Everyone there is sober for one thing, which greatly cuts down the amount of inane comments, face painting, and overwhelming rowdiness that football fans are known for. Well over half the people there were children, most clutching a ball or picture in the hopes of getting an autograph at the end of practice. Like most people, I was there to see what shape Tom Brady was in. With the loss of Matt Cassell to the Kansas City Chiefs during the off-season, another season of injury for Brady could spell disaster for the team. But Brady was there, moving okay and throwing great, especially to Wes Welker, and he received large cheers from the crowd when his group moved down to our end of the field to run some drills.

As I sat there sweating in the sun, unwilling to pay the $3.75 for the small bottles of water that the vendors were selling, I wondered how anyone could make any judgments about the team from training camp. Granted, I never played football in school, and didn’t even start watching much of it until around 10 years ago. So I might be missing something. Maybe reporters who have sideline access could see something in the faces of the players, hear something in between the lines of the words they were saying. Or if you go year after year, maybe you get a sense of when a team is on to something special for the upcoming season. But it was a good reminder to take training camp news stories with a grain of salt, especially when planning for my fantasy football draft at the end of August.

So I watched the Patriots catch, pass, block, and run in the boiling heat. And I was quite happy to do so. Very few things are free now, especially regarding organized sports, and getting to see your favorite team fairly easily is a great deal. When 11:00 clicked by, Randy Moss caught a final TD pass from Brady in the end zone, and he celebrated by giving a loud yell and playfully punting the ball into the crowd. Sensing that the session was nearly over, wave after wave of children pressed themselves against the fence and waited with hands full of hats, pictures and footballs in hopes of getting an autograph. When I began to make my way back to the parking lot, nobody had received a signature yet. But I knew they would wait as long as they needed to.

The health care debacle

A lot of people are getting their blogs, emails, and Web sites busy discussing the current health care debate. I’ve been browsing through articles lately, trying to understand what the new health care bill would look like, but there is so much misinformation flying around on the issue that it’s easy to get frustrated and just give up and go back to watching Sportscenter on ESPN.

I did come across this opinion piece in The New York Times by Paul Krugman, who recently won the Nobel Prize for Economics. He discusses the fact that most people don’t want to have government interference in health care. His counter to this is something I hadn’t really thought of: the current health care system is only functioning because of government involvement.

An interesting, short opinion piece worth checking out.

Where did my e-book go?

Earlier this week, some owners of Amazon’s Kindle who had downloaded copies of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984″ were very surprised to find that the books disappeared off the devices. At first thinking it was technical glitch, many of the customers were surprised to find that Amazon had remotely removed the books from their Kindles.

Amazon did this because the publisher that had sold the e-books to Amazon apparently didn’t have the right to do so. Not only does this story show the copyright problems that will be much more rampant now that books will be sold electronically, it also raises questions for me about what “owning” a book will mean in the future. If Kindle-like devices become the norm, will companies like Amazon be able to edit passages, delete pages, or add new chapters to books I’ve already bought? Will a book no longer be something that has a final version, but is evolving and changing after you’ve bought it, like mold growing in a Petri dish? If you read a good book and want someone else to read it, will they have to read it soon after you do to guarantee you will be reading the same version?

I don’t collect anything except for books, but the books I do own are very important to me. It’s a private collection that I own and the thought that in the future someone will be able to stick their hands into it and change and delete things against my will bothers me to no end. Maybe I am not ready for the digital world of books that is rapidly coming my way?

The Road trailer

I read Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” about a year ago, and I can’t even begin to emphasize how phenomenal the book is. The story stuck with me long after I had put the book down, and I found myself thinking about it over and over again. One of the best novels I had read in years.

So when I heard that Hollywood was making a movie version, I had my doubts. My big concern is the relationship between the father and son, which is the heart of the book, would be toned down to make way for explosions, gunfights, and wierd bad guys with ugly teeth. Which is what the trailer looks like.

Click here for the trailer.