Week-In-Review 7-29-11

Oh Hell, this has been a crappy week. You'll notice in the paucity of articles that have been posted.  However, I've been doing some research, and I've got a good start on articles for the week to come.

Okay ... to start with, I did two Examiner.com articles this week.

One was on the trials of Dominique Simone-Khan, the Frenchman from the IMF, and Rape. It is a subject I am very touchy about.

Levi Aron, Leiby Kletzky, and "stranger danger".  It's a local event. If you don't know about it, you'll soon know ... well, enough.

Anyway ...

My first blog of the week was another list, the Writers blogs of A Pius Man ... thus far.
I did a little article on the terrorist attacks in Oslo, Norway.  An article that already has a follow-up.
And, the Worlds of Jim Butcher.... in which I explain some of the genius that is the creator of Harry Dresden.


Enjoy

Books to Enjoy: The World of Jim Butcher.

Jim Butcher wrote the books which loosely inspired the short lived sci-fi channel series "The Dresden Files" ... let's just say that he was so thrilled with the way the tv series turned out, when the SciFi channel became the Syfy channel, he referred to it as "the syphylus channel."

And, when asked at the DragonCon Panel about when the rights revert back to him, he rattled off a number down to the days and the hours left.

Not that he's bitter or anything ... though he might have a countdown app.

The premise of the Dresden File novels: think of one parts Philip Marlow and one part Gandalf on meth; Wizard as Private Eye.



The series starts with a serial killer in Chicago who kills people by magic ... and lightning.


So, of course, the title has to be Storm Front.

To be honest, I wasn't very thrilled.  It was fun, that was certain, but it seemed a little ... lacking.  It may have just been me.  However, I got a 3-in-1 volume, so I figured I would give it until the end of the volume and see exactly where Butcher thought he was going with the entire series.

It turns out that I chose wisely.

The next book in the series is Fool Moon.

If book one was the evil, magic-using serial killer that uses the lightning as a weapon, the sequel must have werewolves, right? Logical progression.

Anyway, this one was definitely more interesting, with a suspect pool that relies on knowing several varieties of werewolf, and ends with a three-way shootout.

And Butcher does a nice job of recreating parts of the Terminator in a police station, only with a werewolf.

Now, if book two has werewolves, book three must have vampires ... okay, that is a logical progression.  This one develops an interesting little world war with vampires.  Over the books to come, Butcher slowly builds every single aspect of his little world, and he develops a good, solid story arc that fits together surprisingly well.  The character of Harry Dresden has developed from a magical Jim Rockford who gets beat up a lot, to a strong leader who can unify various and sundry hostile groups against a common enemy .... and Dresden still gets beaten up a lot.


Apparently, Dresden is building up to an “apocalyptic trilogy” for a finale that will probably involve wizards, vampires, the fae, skinwalkers, werewolves, demons, advanced assault weapons, aikido, and Excalibur-level swords.

And his most recent novel is called Ghost Story, out now.

Jim Butcher's second series is The Codex Alera—fantasy, Lord of the Rings style. The hero is the only person in the world who can't use magic, but he can use his mind to do more damage than any spellbook. It starts with political intrigue and espionage, and turns into a sweeping epic against, well, your standard end-of-the-world types. It's the second time I have seen a novel use magic as a well thought out tactical weapon. There is no “massive fireball inflicts +100 damage, kills everyone” versions of magic.

It's some nice, solid tactics and strategy, and good character too.  If you don't believe me, ask my friend Jason.

Who, by the way, will not shut up about Ghost Story.  :)

Anyway, that's all for the day.  Enjoy

Oslo ... Nazis, I hate these guys.

I'm sure that many of you thought the same thing that I did when I heard that someone bombed Oslo, and shot up a retreat in a little island off the coast of Norway.

Who would want to blow up Norway?

Okay, so maybe we all didn't have the same reaction.  My first thought was to write a column for Examiner.com.

Also, it was to analyse the whole situation. Seriously, who would want to blow up Norway? It had all the hallways of an Al-Qaeda operation: coordinated strikes, but still missing the target.

But, still, why Norway?  If AQ, then it would be because .... well, it was there ... or because Norway supported a Danish cartoonist several years ago during European-wide rioting.  But even those felt sort of weak.

All in all, it was just weird.

So, of course, the perp turns out to be ... a blonde-haired, blue-eyed fascist.

Do you remember when I mentioned the Europe has problems?  I said that Europe seems to have two settings, cower in a corner, or go fascist. Their idea of a Left and a Right are not America's.  Their Left is Socialist. Their Right is Fascist.  They don't really have a middle.  Well, not much of one.

Consider politics as non-linear.  Politics is not a straight line.  In France, they have their parliament set up in a horseshoe-like arrangement, for each of their two hundred political parties. Because it is a curved horseshoe, the extreme right and the extreme left are very, very close to each other.  The end result of the fascist and the socialist systems of the 1930s and the 1940s are the same -- they killed more of their own people than they ever did of the enemy.

Unfortunately, I'm waiting, just waiting, for some utter and complete idiot to say that this fascist schmuck is the symbol of everything wrong with the right, therefore it must be destroyed. All of them.  Which is in itself its own kind of fascism.

I should probably rewrite that -- since there are people on the internet who are already doing just that. However, they don't count, because the Internet seems to be a gathering place for the loudest and the most ignorant. And the person who screams the loudest is the one who gets all of the attention.

So, a rewrite: I'm waiting, just waiting, for some utter and complete important idiot to say that the right must be destroyed.

However, right now, I'm going to make a bet. Someone is going to read the above, and they will dub me a right-wing extremist of some sort or another. No matter how many times I've noted my hatred for politics, politicians, and that my own politics depends on where the jury is sitting.

But, being a cynical SOB, right now, I want to see how the investigation goes. Because, as I noted above, this had all the earmarks of an AQ attack ... and there was talk some time ago about AQ having links to the Oklahoma City bombing.

I could just be paranoid, but I'll be interested to see where the trail ends. 

The Writers Blogs of A Pius Man ... so far.

Over the past year or so that the blog has been up, I've put together a lot of thoughts on writing in general.  This is, more or less, the summary of that work.

To start with, there was how the book came to be.  Including the inspiration, the writing, how to sell a bloody book, as well as the fact that there's a love story in there.

There's another blog on the Mind of the Maker .... better known as "characters are a bastard to control."

There is also, the dreaded question: "Oh, where do you get your ideas from?"  This is the answer.

And, I did a two part essay ... one on sex, the other on violence.

I also had one or two issues on other people's writing ... namely Marvel Comics, and their former Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada

And, I had one nice little discussion on blowing up public places. ... In novels, of course.

There's one on writing philosophy in a novel, and one on Conspiracy theories around Catholics.

Then I took a hammer on writing cliche's that just flat out annoy me.

And then there's how to be a cynical romantic. 

Be well all

Week-In-Review 7-23-11

Well, this week has been interesting.

Monday
The week started with Killing Captain America ... again! Those bastards.  Let's just say that I expect a movie tie-in is at work.

The music blog was all about flying cars and Babylon 5.  You'll see.

I also did a nice little article over at Examiner.com about martial arts and childhood obesity.  I'm told it's quite good.

Tuesday

This was the day I learned the good Muslims can't be good Americans ... well, if you believe one army private. I don't, but what can you do?

It also came the same day that Hollywood once again has proven to me that if I ever do a film on A Pius Man, I'm going to take the money and run very, very far.

And music blog for the day was Harry Potter, Pirates, and Mass Effect. Long story.

Wednesday

The music of the day was taken from the soundtrack of Mass Effect.  Enjoy  It's really rather neat.

Thursday

The day that, once again, all my irritation of politics is justified, as someone at Salon.com tries to examine the Politics of Captain America.

A note o n this one: The author of the article tripped over my blog post, and insists that the whole "fiscal policy of Captain America was all tongue-in-cheek."  Read it yourself. See what you think.

The Politics of ... Captain America?

I don't think words can really convey how much I hate politics.  Even though I've done at least two blogs on the topic, around the Ground Zero Mosque, and the politics of my novel, and I would like politicians to just shut up already.

But now, someone had to go putting their politics into my comic book movies.

Before I continue, this is nothing new. Every time a superhero movie comes out, it must be metaphor for modern politics. The Dark Knight was seen by some idiots at the NYTimes as a commentary on the War on Terror.  Which is odd, I thought it was merely "the Joker is evil, and if we're going to catch the bugger, we're going to have to break a few laws to do it."

The Times were also instrumental in discussing the Lord of the Rings as metaphor as well, with the theatrical release of Return of the King's absence of Saruman being likened unto a missing Osama.  Instead, everyone who saw the Return of the King, special edition knows that Saruman was deleted from the film because of time issues.

Spoiler alert:

Saruman the White is dead.

So is Grima Wormtongue.

So is Osama bin Laden.

The end.

Now, somebody at Salon  has decided to make Captain America into something ... else.

After the July 22 release of the summer blockbuster "Captain America: the First Avenger," we'll probably see even more Captain Americas waving placards at protests for all parts of the political spectrum. The Red, White and Blue Avenger is and always has been a potent political image, but whose side would Captain America be on? Would he be a New Deal Democrat slinging his mighty shield for new public works programs or would he be rallying with the Tea Party to lower taxes on billionaires and gut Medicare? Whose Captain America is he anyway?

I can't make this up.

Captain America with an economic policy? Really? Doesn't he have enough problems with facing the forces of darkness every other day?  "Captain America, what's your stance on -- oops, this just in, Hydra's trying to take over the world again ... and Captain America just ran away from our reporters' questions!  How dare he!!!"

Anyway, the quote above is taken, as noted, from Salon.com. Someone sent me a National Review Online newsletter, with an interesting, non-political stance.

 Must he have a position on entitlement reform? Can't he spend most of his waking hours fighting the Red Skull, Crossbones, Hydra, and Avengers' management issues? (Picture him working out the schedule: "Can't leave Iron Man and Thor working the Friday night shift together; they'll take a Quinjet on a beer run and before the night is over, some building will get leveled, some villain will be pummeled and filing an excessive force suit, and some innocent bystander will touch some mystic artifact or advanced nanotechnology and 'have an origin.'" )

I may just be easily amused, but I find it funny that the National Review writers are nerds.

I'm a little embarrassed that someone has to write this down. And the sad thing is, the Salon writer seemed to be in deadly earnest. Argh.

But, seriously, someone has got to go on their meds.  Now.

Music Blog: Video Game Music Mass Effect.

I decided to take a little break from Tom Smith's amusing filk songs, and figured I'd go for some nice, quick action music clips from the video game Mass Effect.

So, sit back, relax, and if you're at work, get the headphones. It's going to be fun.

Music blog: Tom Smith Does Harry Potter, Mass Effect 2

Apparently, JK Rowling made the birthday for one of her characters the same day as "Talk like a pirate day."

Guess which one it is.

And, as you've probably noticed, I have a great respect for Video Games lately, especially with voice acting, and particularly music. 

So, Mass Effect 2 makes it on today.

Jack Reacher, Lee Child, and Why I hate Hollywood.

A while ago, I mentioned how I thought that Hollywood was improving in the adaptations of novels to films.

I'm certain I've mentioned author Lee Child a few times on the blog.  His main hero is Jack Reacher, a former Military Policeman who specialized in arresting special forces operators who committed crimes, also a homicide detective.  And, considering that this is the army, Jack Reacher is built like  amiddle-weight wrestler ... if a middle weight could be 6'5" and 280.

Now retired from the army, after a live of rules, regulations, and fitting into a rigorous bureaucracy, Reacher has become a drifter. He lives off of his army pension and his savings, hitching rides, taking buses, wandering through middle America, with the occasional trip to New York. He's done the math, and figures that buying cheap and disposable clothes and living on the road is cheaper than living in a house with a washing machine, et al.

And Reacher thinks.  Good God, does he think. A fight scene that takes about ten seconds requires two pages to describe, because he thinks out every, last, move. His deductive abilities rely on heavy analysis, and quiet, thoughtful diligence.  If he were less conspicuous, he would be the quiet man in the corner who solves the crime by quietly moving around in the background, just listening.

Now, Hollywood is considering looking at making a Jack Reacher novel, One Shot, into a movie. Even though it's book number nine in the series. Probably because they have a Gulf War sniper veteran accused of being a killer.  Right now, I'll be happy if they keep the ending to the book, as opposed to going for the Hollywood's popular "crazy veteran" plot device.

So, who would you cast for the massive, silent, thinking man's detective?

I like Adam Baldwin .... he's tall, built like a brick wall, and has played military men for practically his entire career.  I can see Adam Baldwin playing a man who has put in his twenty years, and who just wants to be left alone.  I've seen him do more with a glare than some people who speak only in rants. He's not 6'5", but he'll do.

And Adam Baldwin is a thinker. At least in real life. He maintains his own political blog, and every argument is well reasoned, and thoroughly thought out.

So, he'll do.

And, Hollywood being Hollywood, they took Jack Reacher, and they cast ....

Wait for it ....

Muslims Can't Be Good Americans ..... Huh?

A long while ago, I discussed one Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter. He was, at the very least, one of the candidates most likely to be kicked out of the US Army, having given a June 2007 PowerPoint presentation that discussed “adverse events” that would occur if the Army did not accept the precepts of Islamic Shariah law and grant Muslims serving in the Army conscientious objector status.

I'm sure Maj. Hasan would be quite, quite happy to learn that the US Army has now taken his advise.

Enter Pfc. Naser Abdo, 21, a member of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. He refused to deploy to Afghanistan, claiming that Sharia law prevented him from killing other Muslims.....

Ahem ....

Let's start with the fact that Sharia is the sort of thing used in Sudan to justify hacking off limbs for theft, stoning for adultery, and crucifying members of other religions.  This is the sort of thing that makes you arch an eyebrow and wonder "What the....?"  

All in all, this is a generally Bad Idea.

 Not to mention that it is pure and utter garbage.[More below the break]