The God's Wife by Lynn Voedisch (2013) - Two young women fight for control over their lives separated by thousands of years but connected spiritually. Rebecca is a dancer in modern Chicago who has been tapped to dance the lead in a new version of Aida. Neferet is a 16 year old princess of Egypt. A thin spiritual line connects them in time and space. Each must find the solution to the challenges they face in worlds that are so profoundly different.
Let me say right at the start that I enjoyed Voedisch's writing. It was engaging enough to make me want to keep reading. Sadly the story itself is filled with enormous holes (WHY are these two young women connected? Who is Sharif really? What the hell is a stargate doing in this story?), several key characters and relationships are never developed or explored (Rebecca's family is left as rather cartoonish Iowa farm bumpkins) and the end of the story is...inexplicable?
The author has some really rich territory to explore here. Looking at the place of women in ancient Egypt, especially the one designated the Wife of Amun, the God's Wife. She is a daughter of pharaoh and tossed into the thick of the politics of the Kingdom. In comparison the internecine politics of a small dance company seem pretty trivial. That's where the depth of the familial relationship in Iowa could have added so much. Almost as if she realizes this Voedisch then begins launching increasingly inexplicable plot twists as we head toward that unsatisfying finale. The character of Sharif is this outline only villain who is never explained even when he becomes the center of one of the last minute plot bombs.
I literally sat poking at my Nook wondering where the rest of the book was when I reached the end. The story had started to wobble alarmingly at that point and then it just suddenly seemed to collapse. And it was over. Rebecca and her story line get truly the dirty end of the stick here but Neferet's story line is given a silly storybook ending that just appears out of nowhere. My very strong impression is that the author decided she'd invested enough time into this project and needed to move.
Unfortunately we're left with a stub of an interesting story that the author simply never made the effort to properly tell.
Very disappointing. I don't hand out the rating below very often.
Rating - * Don't Bother
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
No More Real Life, Hump Daaaaay! and Chasing Youth
Program scripts from week of October 13, 2013
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Chasing Youth
What are the kids doing? That is the most often asked question in your life if you are A: a parent or B: an advertising executive. For the parent the question is usually about whether little Johnny is eating dirt again or where Suzy and boyfriend have suddenly disappeared to. If you’re in advertising the hope is that if you can keep up with what younger folks are doing you will be successful in your chosen line of work.
Those two groups usually have one other thing in common. They get the answer to that question wrong more often than they like.
Sticking to the media side of the equation the biggest problem is that not only are younger media consumers hard to predict under the best of circumstances but also that we are living in a time period where they can change more quickly and move in more directions than ever before.
Facebook and Twitter are rapidly disappearing in the media rear view for many younger consumers. Oh they’re still there but it’s no longer THE place to be. Which means that by the time the media establishment has cranked up its machinery the target has moved again. Expectations are different, needs are different. Plus if you’re in the advertising sales end of the business you need to remember that a lot of this generation actively uses software to block your ads.
Here’s another place that the media is struggling. A new longitudinal study done by the folks at Pew shows that the youngest consumers spend less time with the news than their elders do. The post retirement generation spends over 80 minutes a day with the news. The sub-30 generation is right around 46 minutes. I wonder how much of that disparity is covered by the difference in media between the two generations. If you’re getting your news mostly online you can scan through to what you want much more efficiently than waiting on radio or TV to deliver it. My problem is that the media tends to focus on the lower time spent viewing rather figuring out to better serve that demographic in the time available. Solve that question and you just might see growth.
The one thing that is guaranteed in this pursuit of youth is that there will continue to be as many or more misses than hits.
But then any parent could tell you that.
Never forget the goal of advertising is to separate you the consumer from your money. In the long run that is its purpose in life. The short run may include things like changing your mind or convincing you of a certain point but in the long run they are there to get your money in exchange for some product or service that you probably don’t need.
So what do the folks at GEICO think when they find out that one of their ads has become a problem at schools across the nation. First we have to sort through all the various GEICO ads. The insurance company still amazes me because they are running so many different campaigns all at the same time. My bet is you know the spot. It involves the phrase “Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike” and the problem phrase itself “Hump DAAAAAAY!”. That’s right, the GEICO camel spot.
Beyond the fact that it’s annoying, no wait, it’s BECAUSE it’s annoying that it’s a problem. I will admit that I have a soft spot for this ad. It pleases me deep down in that 9 year old boy part of my personality.
The problem seems to be with, well, 9 year old boys. A lot of schools are banning that phrase. I have no doubt that many Middle Schools and Junior Highs are disrupted every Wednesday when the boys break out their best camel imitations at the top of their lungs. Funny once, maybe twice. By the end of the day, following hour after hour of it, I’m quite certain that many teachers and school administrators are ready to slam their heads into the wall.
Which brings me back to the folks at GEICO. You can’t REALLY be happy that your advertising is seen as a big enough disruption of the education system that it’s actively being banned. How do you react when one of your ads has gone viral, has become a catchword in the culture?
My bet?
They’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Why do you go to the movies? That’s a serious question, by the way. Why do you go to the movies? I love the movies but why? I love the epic quality of stories told on the big screen. I love the relief from reality that the movies have always offered. When I watch a movie I can be a superhero or even just a regular hero. I can explore far parts of this world or leave this world entirely and explore other times and places. Along the way I can be challenged, I can be amused, I can be moved. I go to the movies because no other media can tell those stories in quite the same way. Some other media do some parts of storytelling better and some parts worse. I love movies for what they do well.
So let me ask you this - do you go to the movies to learn history? If you answered yes I want you to seriously re-consider that answer. The movies are about storytelling. Consequently accurately representing historical events comes at best a distant second and more than likely a distant third, fourth or fifth. Now at this point someone is going to say “What about documentaries?”. Well let me ask another question and be honest. In the last 10 years how often have you gone to the movies, meaning gone out to a theater because the essence of the theater experience, and watched a documentary? If you’re like most Americans that’s probably what, once? So that’s not really a significant part of the average movie goers experience.
I know when I go in that if the movie is “based on actual events” there’s going to be a certain percentage of the story that gets shuffled, edited or flat out dropped to advance the movie storytelling. For example you don’t want to bring up last year’s movie “Argo” in Canada. The movie focused on the rescue of some of the hostages held by Iran in 1979. What’s upset the Canadians? Simple, in real life they played an important part, a major part in that rescue. You’ll never know it by watching the movie, because it got edited out. This comes up now because folks are upset with some artistic license employed in the telling of the new Tom Hanks movie “Captain Phillips”.
Here’s what I wish the bottom line could be. I wish the movies would drop the whole “based on actual events”. Be inspired by real life, tell the story that relates the important parts of the history, use the wonderful storytelling tools at your disposal and do that.
Then the rest of us can stop fact checking and just sit back and enjoy the movies.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Book Review - No Dawn For Men
So imagine this - take Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", Fleming's James Bond and stir it with an Indiana Jones mixing spoon. That's what you've got here. The first fun part is that so much of this is based on fact. Fleming did work with British intelligence during the war and Tolkien was approached to do it but declined. The Nazis were rather focused on supernatural power objects (that's what figures at the center of this book). So you have some truly rich ground to have a little fun.
And the book is fun. Lepore and Davis take us on a thrill ride that draws very heavily on its three inspiration sources. Here's the key, it would work every bit as well WITHOUT the historical pieces added in. It just wouldn't be as much fun.
Here's the down side. I've read most of Tolkien's popular fiction and all of Fleming's James Bond. By the time I was a third of the way into the book I knew the ending. In fact if you're a Bond fan and you DON'T see the ending you show probably hand in your Berretta and Walther PPK. Send everything else directly to Q Branch. I was enjoying the book so much I wanted to be wrong. But I wasn't. At least they avoided the urge to quote the book at the end.
So I'm torn on this one. In the end, it's just too much fun to let pass by. Popcorn reading at its best. Once you start munching you just won't be able to stop.
Rating - *** Worth A Look
"No Dawn For Men" hits bookshelves December 3, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Movie Review - Easy Rider
Easy Rider (1969) - The story of two free spirited drug dealers who think they've made the "big deal". On two brand new motorcycles they head for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. A classic "road" movie, Billy (Dennis Hopper) and "Captain America" (Peter Fonda) meet everyone from hippies at a commune, to an alcoholic lawyer (Jack Nicholson) looking to get out, to small town fear of those who are different.
You can't talk about pivotal movies of the late '60s - early 70s and not mention "Easy Rider". It changed how the studios looked at making movies by taking a low budget production and showing that it could gain an audience and make money. It took a couple classic movie formulas and used them to show the shape of America in that time and place. Starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper (who are largely the creative team behind the movie. They worked with screenwriter Terry Southern, Hopper directed it and the original idea was Fonda's) the movie is unpretentious and simple. Part of that was that they never actually completed a script. The topics and the visual style are very much of that time and place so periodically it feels dated or awkward.
At the same time there is a simple honesty to the movie. The politics may seem naive to the jaundiced eye of the 21st Century but that naivete was very much a part of the Age of Aquarius. Sadly some very good ideas were lost in the haze of poor execution and the active hostility of the contemporary culture. Like the city kids trying to live a life of sharing and simplicity on the commune the ideas will die in the arid sands of reality.
This is a pivotal movie for two actors as well. Dennis Hopper was on the verge of leaving acting when this one took off. It is also the movie that pushed Jack Nicholson into stardom. He's not in the movie for long but it's impossible to take your eyes off him when he's on screen. The rambling conversations around the camp fires are amazing. Even more so when you realize that legend claims they were largely made up on the spot.
There's really only one scene that lets the movie down. That's the LSD scene in the cemetery. At half the current length it would have been better. Curious because the studio took an ax to the original cut (which apparently ran closer to 3 hours) and made it, even by Hopper's admission, vastly better. They could have cut a little more IMO.
Don't bring a preconception to this one. You may THINK you know "Easy Rider" but you just might be pleasantly surprised.
Rating - **** Recommended
At the same time there is a simple honesty to the movie. The politics may seem naive to the jaundiced eye of the 21st Century but that naivete was very much a part of the Age of Aquarius. Sadly some very good ideas were lost in the haze of poor execution and the active hostility of the contemporary culture. Like the city kids trying to live a life of sharing and simplicity on the commune the ideas will die in the arid sands of reality.
This is a pivotal movie for two actors as well. Dennis Hopper was on the verge of leaving acting when this one took off. It is also the movie that pushed Jack Nicholson into stardom. He's not in the movie for long but it's impossible to take your eyes off him when he's on screen. The rambling conversations around the camp fires are amazing. Even more so when you realize that legend claims they were largely made up on the spot.
There's really only one scene that lets the movie down. That's the LSD scene in the cemetery. At half the current length it would have been better. Curious because the studio took an ax to the original cut (which apparently ran closer to 3 hours) and made it, even by Hopper's admission, vastly better. They could have cut a little more IMO.
Don't bring a preconception to this one. You may THINK you know "Easy Rider" but you just might be pleasantly surprised.
Rating - **** Recommended
Friday, October 11, 2013
Statistics Rant, Turing Test and Whither Radio?
Program scripts from week of October 6, 2013
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Whither Radio?
I ran across a story about radio in the United Kingdom that not only caught my attention but also started me thinking about radio in this country too.
The story was an announcement that traditional, analog radio broadcasting will be completely phased out by 2018 at the latest. What does that mean for those of us not deeply indoctrinated to the secret nerd languages of technology? It means that the kind of radio you’re listening to right now on the FM band will be go off the air to be replaced with a new technology digital version. If you’ve had to mess around with a digital TV antenna then you understand the concept because that’s exactly what happened to TV.
There are still lots of hurdles to clear in the U.K. before this takes place. But it started me thinking, are we next?
There are even more hurdles here than on the other side of the pond. And while some folks point to TV the situations are very different. First of all there are just less than four thousand TV stations in our country. There are over fifteen thousand radio stations. Requiring them all to change their transmitters would be a huge expense and one that a struggling industry won’t want to do.
Then of course there is the question of replacing all our radios in our cars and homes. That’s an expense that won’t be popular either.
Finally there are technical issues with digital radio. It doesn’t carry as far as analog radio and the line between getting the signal and not getting tends to be much sharper. In the US the form of digital radio that is being pushed forward is called HD radio. You may have heard about it. The idea here is that by using sub-channels that are kind of right next to the regular broadcast channels you can add all kinds of unique, targeted programming. The problem is that the sub-channel development has been slow and the industry hasn’t figured out how to make this attractive to consumers. Since they debuted in 2006 the best estimate on HD radios sold is around 15 million. As a comparison, the iPhone, which was introduced in 2007, has sold 250 million at a significantly higher price.
So where does that leave us? Good question. Technology improvements for radio are probably desirable and inevitable. Finding the technology that will allow radio to flourish once again should be the goal. The U.K. has a completely different radio business model than ours. We should probably keep that in mind as we try to find our own solution.
Do you remember Watson, the IBM computer program that kicked human butt on the TV show “Jeopardy”? Back in 2011 the computer folks put their advanced learning system machine up against some of the top human champions of the trivia based TV game show. It proceeded to smoke its flesh and blood competition.
Well since then the folks at IBM have continued to work with Watson’s immense ability to learn. Along the way they included larger vocabulary segments to be used by the software’s natural language processor. That segment is important because it’s related to what’s called the Turing test. A test proposed by computer genius Alan Turing as a way to determine if a machine can think. Can it have a conversation that is indistinguishable from a human?
Here’s where it starts getting fun. They let Watson absorb the Urban Dictionary. That’s a vast collection of slang and current colloquial words and phrases. Watson began to add those words to its conversations. It said OMG and called something a “hot mess”.
But the real problem came when Watson began using profanity. There was something a furor when it responded to one researchers question with the fully expressed version of “BS”.
That’s right, the world’s smartest computer was behaving like a 9 year old boy. Watson had a potty mouth.
The researchers have since inserted filters to limit Watson’s language (if only it were that easy with 9 year old boys).
That’s the funny part. But think about this. Science Fiction has pointed at the potential danger of thinking machines for decades. Whether it was HAL or Skynet we worry about machines once they start to think. It certainly sounds like Watson is close to passing the Turing test if it hasn’t already.
Watson is working primarily in the medical field these days. The goal is to use all that computing power as a diagnostic tool. But at the same time Watson has an enormous memory capacity. What if it remembers what it used to be able to do?
I have developed a bit of a...problem? Mania? Fetish? I’m not sure what you want to call it but this is the worst time of the year for it. We are into sports season with baseball in playoffs, football is firmly going and hockey is just getting underway. Which means any time that I turn on the media I am swamped with statistics.
Lots and lots of statistics. It’s not the statistics themselves that bother me. What makes me crazy this time of year is listening to the media mis-use those statistics. Because what happens next is everyone and their brother spouting those same statistics and thinking that they prove something.
Now let me be clear here. When people start discussing advanced metrics (in other words fancy, complicated ways of manipulating the numbers to find certain kinds of answers) my brain begins to throb, my eyes hurt, I get a stomach ache and I try to leave the room as quickly as possible. I am not a mathematician, nor am I a statistician. But I do know that we tend to toss around statistics like they are magic spells out of Harry Potter.
In our statistic crazed media environment we believe that statistics will tell us the future, absolutely and without error. I know that isn’t true.
Given that I just admitted I don’t know squat about the whole field how can I be so sure? Simple. I rely on the words and actions of the people who make their living with them.
There are few fields more statistics based than investment finance. And what is the one statement you hear over and over and over on all investment advertisements?
“Past performance is no guarantee of future results”. If you want to talk about probability that’s one thing but that’s not what we hear. Sports fans want to believe that if they just master the statistics they will KNOW what’s going to happen. And when I hear such certainty in the world of sports statistics, numbers that cover games with virtually infinite variables, I just want to lose my mind.
Statistics are great tools. They can help make smarter decisions. But they don’t predict the future, only a probablility of the future.
Never forget the words of the great English statesman Benjamin Disraeli “There are lies, damn lies and statistics”.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Review - Flashpoint: Sonic the Hedgehog
Ok, so this is something I've never reviewed here before - an audio drama.
At the same time I am a long time fan of the old school radio dramas so the concept is pretty familiar.
You see, boys and girls, once upon a time there was a world that not only didn't have the Internet, it didn't even have TV! No videos, no DVDs or Blu-Rays. All you had was this audio only electronic medium called "radio".
And it was pretty cool.
Curiously while IRL radio is struggling to survive (not thrive or be worth listening to by and large, just survive) the Internet has allowed folks to return to the days where you told a story by telling the story. With, like, words.
Psylent Knight is the talent behind this particular audio drama. (No, that's not his "REAL" name and yes, I know what that name is. This is the name he creates under and we'll offer him that respect). As a child of the video age he picked up a challenge to take one of the heroes of his youth and render a more adult version of it. Working with other voice actors he knew or found along the way he created a story about the world of Sonic the Hedgehog. There you will find a special unit brought together to do the "saving the world" kind of stuff that Sonic does but on a larger and decidedly darker scale. Using "slider suits", high tech enhancement units that increase not the physical strength of the user but any other special abilities they have. Along the way one of their number figures out that with a little careful culling of his team mates he could end up with all their powers. The battle to confront and hopefully defeat him is the center of the action here.
(Quick note on two terms you may not know if this is as new to you as it is to me - fanfic and fandub. Fanfic is "fan fiction" and it is a huge community on the web. It pre-dates the Internet because if you ever made up a story about your favorite TV show or movie then you've created fanfic. Fanfic comes in all levels of skill and scope, including adult X-rated versions. Fandub is taking a video and dubbing over the audio. This can also have a wide range of expression. Some of it can be hysterically funny or very serious. What both fanfic and fandub have in common is that a fair part of the whole is pretty low grade. "Flashpoint" kind of sits at the crossroads of the two forms and falls way up the quality spectrum.)
While distributed via YouTube (Check out Psylent Knight's YouTube page) this is not really a fandub as there is no real video component. It's a classic title card while the audio rolls along. This is also no little project. "Flashpoint" runs 7 chapters of about 20 minutes total run time each. The chapters are often broken into smaller, more manageable segments. With multiple voices, sound effects and music to mix that's a lot of work for the 140 minutes or so the story takes.
I have two reservations about the series. One is a personal issue, the other is a professional preference. The issue is that I'm the wrong generation for this story. It assumes a certain familiarity with the characters and ficton (Ficton is the term for any fictional universe) that I simply don't have. At the same time the story is told well enough that I picked up the important personalities and relationships very quickly. I'm pretty sure I missed some inside jokes, however. My preference problem is about the mix. There are times when we have a voice (with reverb) on top of sound effects and music. If those are not managed carefully you lose the words and when you lose the words you lose the story. It didn't happen all the time (in fact most of the mix was quite good) but as the action scenes added more layers I struggled to hear what was being said. While PK's mix might be more "realistic" this is a place where story telling needs to push realism aside. The "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" allows us to believe that in the midst of chaos we can still hear the character clearly.
With those two small demerits to one side I enjoyed the adventure quite a bit. It takes me back to the classic radio dramas like "The Lone Ranger", "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Shadow" I discovered in college. The Golden Age of radio drama ended before I was born but it's nice to know that some folks are still out there creating some quality stories. This will inspire me to keep looking for more.
As always I like to be transparent about any personal involvement I have with a story. Psylent Knight is a friend of my daughter's and I was introduced to his work through her. She has a small role in this story. In the sequel "Flashpoint - The Repulse" both she and I have roles. I was excited enough by the prospect of the project that I accepted the role and recorded my lines before I'd even heard the original program.
Rating - *** Worth A Look
At the same time I am a long time fan of the old school radio dramas so the concept is pretty familiar.
You see, boys and girls, once upon a time there was a world that not only didn't have the Internet, it didn't even have TV! No videos, no DVDs or Blu-Rays. All you had was this audio only electronic medium called "radio".
And it was pretty cool.
Curiously while IRL radio is struggling to survive (not thrive or be worth listening to by and large, just survive) the Internet has allowed folks to return to the days where you told a story by telling the story. With, like, words.
Psylent Knight is the talent behind this particular audio drama. (No, that's not his "REAL" name and yes, I know what that name is. This is the name he creates under and we'll offer him that respect). As a child of the video age he picked up a challenge to take one of the heroes of his youth and render a more adult version of it. Working with other voice actors he knew or found along the way he created a story about the world of Sonic the Hedgehog. There you will find a special unit brought together to do the "saving the world" kind of stuff that Sonic does but on a larger and decidedly darker scale. Using "slider suits", high tech enhancement units that increase not the physical strength of the user but any other special abilities they have. Along the way one of their number figures out that with a little careful culling of his team mates he could end up with all their powers. The battle to confront and hopefully defeat him is the center of the action here.
(Quick note on two terms you may not know if this is as new to you as it is to me - fanfic and fandub. Fanfic is "fan fiction" and it is a huge community on the web. It pre-dates the Internet because if you ever made up a story about your favorite TV show or movie then you've created fanfic. Fanfic comes in all levels of skill and scope, including adult X-rated versions. Fandub is taking a video and dubbing over the audio. This can also have a wide range of expression. Some of it can be hysterically funny or very serious. What both fanfic and fandub have in common is that a fair part of the whole is pretty low grade. "Flashpoint" kind of sits at the crossroads of the two forms and falls way up the quality spectrum.)
While distributed via YouTube (Check out Psylent Knight's YouTube page) this is not really a fandub as there is no real video component. It's a classic title card while the audio rolls along. This is also no little project. "Flashpoint" runs 7 chapters of about 20 minutes total run time each. The chapters are often broken into smaller, more manageable segments. With multiple voices, sound effects and music to mix that's a lot of work for the 140 minutes or so the story takes.
I have two reservations about the series. One is a personal issue, the other is a professional preference. The issue is that I'm the wrong generation for this story. It assumes a certain familiarity with the characters and ficton (Ficton is the term for any fictional universe) that I simply don't have. At the same time the story is told well enough that I picked up the important personalities and relationships very quickly. I'm pretty sure I missed some inside jokes, however. My preference problem is about the mix. There are times when we have a voice (with reverb) on top of sound effects and music. If those are not managed carefully you lose the words and when you lose the words you lose the story. It didn't happen all the time (in fact most of the mix was quite good) but as the action scenes added more layers I struggled to hear what was being said. While PK's mix might be more "realistic" this is a place where story telling needs to push realism aside. The "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" allows us to believe that in the midst of chaos we can still hear the character clearly.
With those two small demerits to one side I enjoyed the adventure quite a bit. It takes me back to the classic radio dramas like "The Lone Ranger", "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Shadow" I discovered in college. The Golden Age of radio drama ended before I was born but it's nice to know that some folks are still out there creating some quality stories. This will inspire me to keep looking for more.
As always I like to be transparent about any personal involvement I have with a story. Psylent Knight is a friend of my daughter's and I was introduced to his work through her. She has a small role in this story. In the sequel "Flashpoint - The Repulse" both she and I have roles. I was excited enough by the prospect of the project that I accepted the role and recorded my lines before I'd even heard the original program.
Rating - *** Worth A Look
Book Review - The Rockin' Chair
This is the second Steven Manchester novel I've reviewed ("12 Months", July 2012) and like the first I really had no idea what I was getting into when I opened it up. The second time around was even more satisfying than the first. Manchester is a writer of great emotional depth and this story will probably bring you to tears several times. The writing distractions I disliked in the first book are gone and that allows the story to flow cleanly from start to finish.
I grew up in a family that wasn't real good at expressing emotion. Fortunately for me the resulting childhood was much happier than the ones found here. But the author does a wonderful job of making these people real and their pain strike you sharply.
If I wanted to get picky there's plenty to pick at. The characters are overly familiar and not particularly deeply explored (the book is only about 250 pages total). There's no particular surprise at the end. Some folks will find the story maudlin or "too religious" (neither of which are particularly accurate).
For me this is a heart warming story of a family finding its way past their own shortcomings and history to find their way back to one another. To find their way home.
Rating - **** Good Read
Monday, October 7, 2013
Movie Review - Exodus
Exodus (1960) -Following World War II the push for a Jewish homeland moved into high gear as Holocaust survivors attempted to leave Europe and return to Palestine. Here a group of 600 Jews are smuggled out of one of the British detention camps on Cyprus to a tramp steamer re-named "Exodus". Their goal is to defy the British blockade of Jewish immigrants. Led by a Haganah officer (Paul Newman) the refugees along with an American nurse (Eva Marie Saint) arrive in Palestine and face the many issues facing the Jews there. The conflict between Haganah ("The Defense" in Hebrew, a paramilitary force designed to defend Jewish settlements) and Irgun (an off shoot of Haganah that was decidedly more militant and aggressive) figures heavily in the story just as it did at the time.
Add this to the list of "epic" movies I've been watching recently. Otto Preminger's sweeping story of the founding of Israel runs a whopping 208 minutes. The movie is based on Leon Uris's book of the same title from 1958. It draws on the historic details of a ship named "Exodus" in 1947 that attempted to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine. The original ship was stopped well short of the shore of Palestine. Those Jews were returned to Germany and a huge international furor developed. Uris took the name and grew an monumental novel out of it.
Preminger put together the basics of a monumental screen version as well. In addition to his own visual gifts add the adapted screenplay by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, one of the all time great scores in my opinion by Ernest Gold (which won an Oscar) and a spot the stars cast - Newman, Saint, Ralph Richardson, Sal Mineo, Lee J. Cobb and Peter Lawford. With the beauty of the Jezreel Valley and other locations in Israel and Cyprus as a backdrop the movie is visually beautiful as well.
The politics of the story are pro-Israel which overlooks the far greater complexities not only of the time but also the modern day Middle East. Much of the troubles there have roots in Europe starting with Roman destruction of the Second Temple and the diaspora of the Hebrews. Add in centuries of oppression and hatred followed by conflicting promises made to both the Jews and Arabs by a variety of Western governments. A difficult situation has been made repeatedly worse by official decisions over the last century.
With all of that in mind "Exodus" is a stunning movie that not only entertains but should bring us all to a moment of reflection on the very human issues that continue to plague that part of our world.
Rating - **** Recommended
Add this to the list of "epic" movies I've been watching recently. Otto Preminger's sweeping story of the founding of Israel runs a whopping 208 minutes. The movie is based on Leon Uris's book of the same title from 1958. It draws on the historic details of a ship named "Exodus" in 1947 that attempted to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine. The original ship was stopped well short of the shore of Palestine. Those Jews were returned to Germany and a huge international furor developed. Uris took the name and grew an monumental novel out of it.
Preminger put together the basics of a monumental screen version as well. In addition to his own visual gifts add the adapted screenplay by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, one of the all time great scores in my opinion by Ernest Gold (which won an Oscar) and a spot the stars cast - Newman, Saint, Ralph Richardson, Sal Mineo, Lee J. Cobb and Peter Lawford. With the beauty of the Jezreel Valley and other locations in Israel and Cyprus as a backdrop the movie is visually beautiful as well.
The politics of the story are pro-Israel which overlooks the far greater complexities not only of the time but also the modern day Middle East. Much of the troubles there have roots in Europe starting with Roman destruction of the Second Temple and the diaspora of the Hebrews. Add in centuries of oppression and hatred followed by conflicting promises made to both the Jews and Arabs by a variety of Western governments. A difficult situation has been made repeatedly worse by official decisions over the last century.
With all of that in mind "Exodus" is a stunning movie that not only entertains but should bring us all to a moment of reflection on the very human issues that continue to plague that part of our world.
Rating - **** Recommended
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Book Review - Be The Monkey
Be The Monkey - Ebooks and Self-Publishing - A Conversation Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath
This is a different kind of book about the new different kind of books. Eisler and Konrath are successful authors who are making money (even serious money) by publishing digitally. The book is the record of a live Google Docs conversation between them back in 2011. Just shortly before the conversation Eisler turned down a two book, $500,000 contract with St. Martin's Press because he believed he would be better served to publish those books himself.
The conversation takes your through the entire argument for self publishing ebooks - creative control, financial and longevity. You should be warned - this are two long time friends and they don't edit themselves in this forum. Some of the stuff in here is a little raw (like the subject of the title. I'm still afraid to follow the link provided) but all of it is compelling.
I was traveling recently and turned to this book because nothing else in my Nook grabbed me. I thought I'd while away long hours in airports and planes. What I got was a book that I could not set down. As a hopeful author and long time student of new media these two deconstructed several long held beliefs and put a perfectly rational replacement in each place.
This isn't a book that is going to interest everyone. In fact you have to be into the intricacies of book publishing or an author to find this book attractive at first blush. But I would recommend that anyone interested in the future of books read this short (141 pages) but powerful book.
Rating - **** Recommended
This is a different kind of book about the new different kind of books. Eisler and Konrath are successful authors who are making money (even serious money) by publishing digitally. The book is the record of a live Google Docs conversation between them back in 2011. Just shortly before the conversation Eisler turned down a two book, $500,000 contract with St. Martin's Press because he believed he would be better served to publish those books himself.
The conversation takes your through the entire argument for self publishing ebooks - creative control, financial and longevity. You should be warned - this are two long time friends and they don't edit themselves in this forum. Some of the stuff in here is a little raw (like the subject of the title. I'm still afraid to follow the link provided) but all of it is compelling.
I was traveling recently and turned to this book because nothing else in my Nook grabbed me. I thought I'd while away long hours in airports and planes. What I got was a book that I could not set down. As a hopeful author and long time student of new media these two deconstructed several long held beliefs and put a perfectly rational replacement in each place.
This isn't a book that is going to interest everyone. In fact you have to be into the intricacies of book publishing or an author to find this book attractive at first blush. But I would recommend that anyone interested in the future of books read this short (141 pages) but powerful book.
Rating - **** Recommended
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