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"What I need is a program to defrag my heart" - Brittta Persson

Can't believe it has been almost a week since I went and I still haven't written about my trip to Paradise! Actually, it's a local rock 'n' roll joint called the Paradise and my fav new artist, Anna Ternheim was playing there. She opened for someone I had honestly never heard of, Joseph Arthur, who I guess is some kind of critical darling. A couple of quick plays on his last.fm page didn't really do much for me, but who cares? I wanted to see Anna!

Traffic was remarkably heavy for nearly 8pm and no Red Sox game to worry about, but I made it inside before 8pm and sat in the back row. Of course, there were only three rows of folding chairs set up in front of the stair, so it was no great drama :) I'd say there were about 50 chairs in each row as it wrapped halfway around the stage. Then a couple of other levels with tables and chairs.

I settled in and waited, but Anna didn't come out until nearly 8:20. And as her set wrapped up before 9pm, it was a very short and sweet show. As she did in her previous show, she opened a Capella then segued into a couple of new songs. Her rendition of Girl Laying Down was done on the piano and really came out nice, as did her "stalking" song, I'll Follow You Tonight. She looked spectacular in black jeans and a white dress shirt over a black body suit. Despite her voiced complaints about having problems with her hair out, it looked great to me!

At one point towards the end of the show, she asked the audience, which now numbered 150 at least, who had heard any of her songs before. To be honest, I was surprised when only a small handful responded. They were all here for Arthur, I guess. Then the show ended, despite my pleas for China Girl!

I hung around for a bit afterwards, as Anna said she would be signing CDs again. I heard the first few songs of Arthur's set and remained nonplussed. Sort of a Dylan wannabee, right down to the funky beret and harmonica. I did briefly talk with Anna when she came out, but she declined my offer of a drink and then went back into the dressing room. At that point, I decided to call it a night, but not before getting the Anna Ternheim poster that was up. So it was a good night, if too short. I hope she could get her own show at a smaller folk venue, like maybe Passim's or Tupelo. That would be truly worthwhile.

I enjoyed Dead Reckoning via my Roku Netflix box last night. A solid Bogart film noir, it featured some snappy dialog, a femme fatale and nicely ambiguous ending.

Bogart plays Capt. Rip Murdock, fresh from the paratroops in WW II, trying to figure out why his sidekick, Sgt. Johnny Drake, slipped out before getting the Congressional Medal of Honor for his war time heroics. When he turns up dead, Murdock swears to get to the bottom of it.

Of course, "it" involves a femme fatale, this time a slinky blonde named 'Dusty' Chandler, played by Lizabeth Scott, a relative newcomer to the film scene. Confusion reigns, as her part in the plot that implicated her star struck lover Drake is never quite clear. Drake took the fall for the death of Chandler's husband and went on the lam, joing the Army. By the time Murdock gets to the bottom of it, things have swung around several times.

Like I said, a pretty solid 40s film noir, although I don't feel that Scott is a particular standout as the prototypical femme fatale. She only appeared in a few more movies, then rumors of her lesbian tendencies ended up forcing her out of the biz. But Bogart was excellent (as usual) as the bulldog friend, and there are several excellent repartees, especially with the head detective and some of the slower cops.

Some recent books:

Hidden Empire by Kevin Anderson - the first book in a long sci-fi series called Saga of Seven Suns, it was recommended in the Audible.com list. It tells the story of the humans and the Ildirans, who are an ancient alien race who helped the ten colonist ships sent out by a dying Earth to find homes (one was never found). The Klikiss are an extinct(?) race represented by robots they left behind. A human experiment with a Klikiss artifact gives rise to the Hydrogues, a race bent on destroying human and Ildirans alike.

Told in the now typical fashion of each chapter coming from a different character, this is a fairly interesting book that labors under the usual problems of the first book of a big series, in that there is a lot of 'splaining going on. Much like GRR Martin, Anderson isn't afraid to kill off story telling characters, which is fun. A few things are hard to swallow (like a human / Ildiran child?), but the book was interesting enough to have me check out the second book in the series.

Also from the list, I tried Death Qualified by Kate Wilhelm, but unfortunately I could only get about 1/3 the way through this "mystery of chaos". Never could get into the writing or the characters.

I have barely begun Annals of the Former World by John McPhee, which is a trilogy in the Audible.com list but comes all bundled together in one gargantuan book these days. It's nearly 700 pages is daunting, as is the prolix prose. Telling the story of North American geologic history, it is pretty fascinating stuff, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and all. A solidified collection of his trilogy, New Yorker articles and over 20,000 new word, this is quite the heavy tome and I'm just not sure I am up for it. But perhaps some day...

The Downhill Lie : a hacker's return to a ruinous sport by Carl Hiaasen is a hilarious book about golf. Hiaasen, who played a lot with his dad as a teenager, gave up the sport until he got into his 50s and started back. All of us hackers will appreciate his sublime humor as he quests for the perfect equipment and shots. Given my scores lately, his complaints about his scores ring a bit hollow, although they are hard to compare. He says that if you fill out for a handicap, you can't take any score over a 7, which makes it impossible to compare his scores with mine, as I keep the 7s (and above!). But still, a short, funny read.

Hidden River by Adrian McKinty is his second book, after Dead I May Well Be, although it isn't a sequel at all. Still a mystery, as a disgraced Irish cop tries to find redemption and the killer of an old flame in Denver. As well written as his first, with some great turns of phrases (and using quotation marks this time), it still didn't feel as good. The main character was a bit of a whiner and complainer (as well as a heroin addict). And the final chapter solution felt dumb and tacked on. Still, a solid read and one that makes me want to get the second in the Dead trilogy ASAP.

A couple of movies have been watched around here, although the craziness that is summer kind of cuts down on the viewing time:

Rivers and Tides : An pretty amazing documentary about Andy Goldsworthy, a British artist who does ephemeral sculptures using natural objects like sticks, hay, and rocks. I know, it sounds boring but it is simply remarkable what he can create. The passion and patience Goldsworthy exhibits is also pretty amazing. The film shows his creations which can sometimes only last until the tide comes in. Goldsworthy  "specializes" in these egg-shaped rock cairns, which of course can last much longer. Well worth tracking down this documentary (I watched it on Netflix Instant via my Roku box).

Starship Troopers : A very schizophrenic "rah rah" military movie by Paul Verhoeven, of Robocop fame. Based on the Robert Heinlein novel about a futuristic war against bug-like aliens, bent on destroying the human race, it follows a trio from high school graduation through a climatic battle to capture a Bug queen. I call it Schizophrenic because I don't think he could decide if war was a Good Thing or a Bad Thing. The movie certainly didn't shy away from showing us gruesome and graphic deaths (particularly when the bug sucks out the brains), but mostly the militaristic mindset was glorified.

The movie, which I watched in HD (with, sadly, only stereo sound) on Comcast OnDemand for free, sure looked good anyway. Denise Richards, as the hot shot pilot love interest, sure was easy to look at as well. The technology sure didn't make much sense though, at least as far as the infantry was concerned. Here it is, hundreds of years in the future, and they are still firing fancy automatic rifles, shooting projectiles with almost no killing power, sadly undergunned against even a single Bug. But all in all, the movie wasn't a total waste of time and fit the bill perfectly, as I was just looking to veg at the end of a long week.

The latest joke to come over the email transom:

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la Casa.'  'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer should be a masculine or a feminine noun.  Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for Possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself Spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be

Masculine ('el computador'), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won.

Just added this to my Best of 2008 muxtape:

Very funny (and geeky) NSFW video:

My girls loved the movie Matilda so much, they watched it two days in a row on the Roku box. Next, I'll grab the Roald Dahl book it is based on. I asked them to write up their impressions of it, so here's their capsule reviews:

R (almost 9):

I liked the movie 'Matilda' because Matilda had a nice teacher and in the end they became a family because Matilda's family let Miss. Honey adopt Matilda. I also liked the movie because Matilda and Ms. Honey got out of Ms. Trunchbul's house before she found them. I didn't like the movie because Matilda's parents and Ms. Trunchbul were very mean. That is what I liked and didn't like about the movie.

A (almost 8):

I liked the movie Matilda. I liked it because it was funny and scary at the same time. The school did not look so great and it had a mean principal. Matilda had parents that did not care about her. She liked to read but her parents insisted to watch T.V. She finally became a daughter to her very nice teacher.

THE END

I fixed a few easy typos but otherwise these are their words. A also did hers in color, which I replicated for her. So if you have kids, this sounds like an excellent movie to watch.