Armageddon in Retrospect is an interesting collection of stories and articles about war and conquest and the like. The audio book of Kurt Vonnegut’s Armageddon in Retrospect is read by Rip Torn, the gravel voiced actor from Men in Black. This is a clear case of a well known film actor getting a bit of Voice Over work when almost anyone else on Earth would have been a better choice. Rip Torn has an extremely unpleasant voice and not surprisingly, he has a hard time doing voices for women and children. The stories are standard issue Kurt Vonnegut. Great stuff.…
Category: great stuff
Hi, I’m a Marvel . . .and I’m a DC
There are about 27 of these little bits of business about Marvel and DC and how many movies they each have in the works and who is better. Batman is still bitter about Adam West and George Clooney. Iron Man is pretty happy, but still can’t resist zapping Spiderman. Superman is bummed out that he isn’t what he used to be. Lex Luther thinks too much. The Hulk is a bit confused about his new remake-sequel-reboot-whatever. And DC just doesn’t seem to have as much going on as Marvel. These are all fun little films-especially for all the nerds like…
God Bless Tiny Tim
Never hit your grandma with a shovel,It makes a bad impression on her mind. -Tiny Tim It’s hard to image a stranger person than Tiny Tim hitting the big time, but he did. He became an icon of the sixties when he got married on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show and he was a one hit wonder with Tip Toe Through the Tulips. I found this LP when I was in high school and a huge fan of The Beatles. There was a story that Tiny Tim was mad at Capitol records for signing the Beatles and not signing him. He…
New Dr Who Season Three
BBC’s Dr Who and Torchwood have been fun shows to watch. This last season of Dr Who was the best of the new series so far. Three episodes in particular were exceptional, Human Nature, The Family of Blood, and Blink. These shows were written by Paul Cornell, and they were just great. With all due respect to Russell T. Davis for his usual in-your-face Doctor, Paul’s Doctor is a little more down to Earth and little less of a smart ass. The stories were really good, really self-contained, and really emotional. It has been the small details that have made…
A Few More Tudor Thoughts
The last episode of the first season starts out with Henry hunched over a servant and making loud groaning noises. It is a common theme in the show that the King has a couple of servants standing around at all times, even while he is in the mist of very loud sexual activities. I am guessing that Henry is masturbating to stay true to his one love, Anne. I am a bit baffled as to why he needs a manservant close to hand to get the job done.This season has really been about Cardinal Wolsey and his fall from power.…
The Infinite Mind
Glenn Mitchell was a radio host on KERA in Dallas for many years. Then he died. Very sad. All talk shows are only as good as the person talking, and Glenn was very good. Easy to listen to and very smart. His death left a bit of a void. So KERA spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out what to put in the spot where his show had been. At first they just had The Talk Show, which didn’t work out too well as the person (or was it persons?) they got to replace Glenn couldn’t quite do…
Showtime’s The Tudors
This is a very pretty show to watch. The costumes all look brand new and the actors are all scrubbed and beautiful beyond words. I know they are all supposed to be royalty and high members of the Catholic Church, but it still seems a bit odd that everything is as pretty as a freshly minted coin. I grew up watching all the classics in PBS with my dear old mum, so I watched The Six Wives of Henry the VIII at an early age and found it baffling, but entertaining. I feel much the same here.For starters, I was…
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
I don’t eat at fine restaurants, but that didn’t stop me from throughly enjoying Ruth’s book on being a critic. Being a food write, as with most jobs involving writing, has been one of my passing fantasies. But it takes only a casual listen to this wonderful book for me to realized that I am out of my depth. My favorite foods are pizzas and BBQ, not truffles and foie gras. Also sad to say I had never heard of a sommeil before, which seems to be someone who knows a lot about wine. Of course, I don’t drink wine,…
Made to Stick
Walking around the library I find my way to the new books shelve and start scanning the titles. It’s the usual suspects, latest bestsellers and graphic novels, stuff for the restless mind that wants to get away from it all. Then there is a book with a fairly convincing bit of duct tape on the cover. Why some ideas survive and others die. Hmm, sounds like my kind book. And it is. Covering everything from the urban legend of the stolen kidney to the success of the Jared Subway commercials, this is really way cool stuff. Ok, saying really way…