Rebecca

Rebecca

1940
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Producer: David O. Selznick



My Friend Amy's The Summer of Hitchcock

Rebecca, Hitchcock's first American film, is based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier. It was an Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Cinematography (George Barnes). Although described as a psychological thriller, the movie doesn't quite create the same feeling of tension and suspense as other Hitchcock films. This could be because Selznick had the final cut of the film, which apparently was quite different from Hitchcock's edit. I wish we could see Hitchcock's version for a comparison of the two.

I'll have to admit that, although I enjoyed Rebecca in the end, I became very tired of Joan Fontaine's unnamed character. I kept wanting to tell her to buck up, take some control, and stop letting Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) push you around. I know that would be playing against the character type, but the wide-eyed timidity was starting to greatly annoy me. Laurence Olivier was quite handsome in his day, wasn't he, and I thought he did an excellent job.

Tying down the Wind

Tying down the Wind by Eric Pinder
hardcover, 280 pages, including glossary and appendix
Penguin, 2000
ISBN-13: 9781585420605
nonfiction, meteorology

Highly Recommended

From the Publisher:

Where can you find the worst weather on earth? This book's surprising answer is: everywhere. You don't need to climb Mount Everest or voyage to the icy desert of Antarctica to witness both the beauty and the destructiveness of weather. The same forces are at work in your own backyard.
Tying Down the Wind takes readers on a journey of discovery through the atmosphere, a swirling ocean of air that surrounds and sustains life. The adventure begins in a sunny New England wood lot and ends atop the polar ice of Antarctica-where we learn, remarkably, that the two extremes are not so different after all.
What triggers changes in the weather? How are tornadoes, thunderstorms, heat waves, and blizzards all related? Tying Down the Wind supplies the answers. It will appeal to fans of nature writing and outdoor adventure, as well as anyone interested in understanding the weather that surrounds us. Illustrated with some b&w photographs

My Thoughts:

I thought Pinder, who is a weather observer on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, did a nice job discussing extremes in weather, even though he often reverted to a prose style while doing so. Using poetic descriptions along with explaining meteorology is good for me, but it might turn some readers off, especially those who prefer a more fact based scientific book. For those in the general population who are interested in weather but perhaps don't want a textbook and who might enjoy some flowery descriptions, Pinder's book would be an excellent choice. I'll admit that some of his weather stories are not exactly true (Isaac Cline for example) but I still enjoyed the book. This is for weather watchers who have an artistic side. Highly Recommended

Quotes:

Mark Twain always had plenty to say about the weather, particularly New England weather. "Cold!" he once wrote. "If the thermometer had been an inch longer we'd all have frozen to death." opening

"It won't be long before you get hammered by a hundred-mile-an-hour blast," meteorologist Mark Ross-Parent shouted, cupping his hands to his mouth like a megaphone.... The two of us were standing - or trying to stand - in sustained gale-force winds on top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. The land around us crested and dipped with blue and brown mountains, fading on the horizon at the limits of vision. pg. 5

In taking this job at the observatory, I hoped to go beyond a mere textbook knowledge of the mathematical intricacies of weather. I needed to acquire some hands-on experience. Literally. pg. 7

The Coriolis effect or "force" is not really a force, but rather an effect created by the Earth's rotation. Weather books often oversimplify the matter, stating the Coriolis effect causes wind to veer from a straight path, when in fact, it's more accurate to say that the apparent curvature of the wind is the Coriolis effect. pg. 30

The average cloud weighs approximately 25 tons. pg. 35

A comment in the logbook describes the night's activities: "Superb thunderstorms tonight: low-IQ observers play with fluorescent tubes in the tower. If they aren't plugged in, how come they're glowing?" pg. 46

In the case of TV meteorologists, "they're all using the same products. They all get the DIFAX charts from the National Weather Service," Sarah [Curtis] explains. DIFAX stands for Digital Facsimile Service. "That's the main tool....I think the difference you get is from the instinct and people's experiences. I tend to lean toward people who've been in the business the longest." pg. 98

Snow and ice kill more people in the United States and Canada each year than hurricanes, droughts, earthquakes, or wars. Yet no one truly fears winter. pg. 103

In New York and New England in the eighteenth century, colonial Americans....invented a way to keep warm and find a future spouse at the same time. They called it "bundling." Rather than send a suitor home - a long and difficult journey on a frigid winter night - his fiancee's family often invited him to spend the night in the arms of his belle. Naturally, bundling raised a few hackles.... Sometimes anxious parents attached bells to the bed to make sure the young couple shared nothing but pillow talk while fending off the chill with body warmth. pg. 107

Coroner's Journal

Coroner's Journal by Louis Cataldie
trade paperback, 352 pages
Penguin, 2007
ISBN-13: 9780425213551
forensics/memoir

so-so

From the Publisher

During Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Louis Cataldie remained in New Orleans in dangerous and often unbearable conditions to attend to the sick, the injured-and the dead. As chief coroner of Baton Rouge, tending to the dead is Cataldie's job. A little town with big-city problems, Baton Rouge means "Red Stick"-and lives up to its bloody name. Cataldie has faced unusual and disturbing cases, from tracking three serial killers on the loose simultaneously while working the scene of a Malvo/ Muhammad Beltway Sniper shooting, to helping apprehend Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee in a controversial case that was featured in an ABC Primetime Live special with Diane Sawyer and Patricia Cornwell.

Cataldie's maverick ways have made him a favorite target of the media, but he offers no apologies, and speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. Graphic and frank, this is his unique, up-close look at his life spent stalking death in the Deep South. (Patricia Cornwell wrote the foreword.

My thoughts:

Your interest in reading about a coroners various cases may influence how much you appreciate this book. It is truly feels as if it is written like a journal and thus the entries come off as matter-of-fact, depressing, and often hopeless. The cases are all briefly presented. There seems to be an underlying assumption that the reader will know procedural steps of a coroner. Adding to that is the fact that there is no resolution to many of the cases included. If you are hoping for an informational book about what a coroner does and how he does it, you may want to look for another book. The first part of the book where Dr. Cataldie was working as the coroner after Hurricane Katrina while heartbreaking is very incomplete. It really reads like bits and pieces were directly taken from his journal entries. Although I appreciated some of his observations and honesty, actually the quality of the writing itself may be what turned me off to the book. This should be required reading for someone was considering a career with or as a medical examiner. It was simply too depressing for me and became hard to finish. So-So - for me

Quotes:

So while the press deserves credit for arriving at the disaster scene before the federal government did, I nonetheless fault the national media for not following up more aggressively on any of these rumors. Too often they simply accepted rumor as fact. As I told one reporter, "It's not consistent with the highest standards of journalism." In total, ten corpses were recovered from the Louisiana Superdome - contrary to urban legend, not one was a homicide. pg. 12

...I've kept a personal journal, starting in the coroner's office of East Baton Rouge Parish in 1993. I wrote whenever it struck me, jotting notes in the field and later sketching images on a small pad as I remembered them. These were not sketches of any forensic value, but nuances that stayed with me for some reason. I wrote in my journal mostly at night, especially after a particularly troubling autopsy or a visit to an unsettling crime scene, when neither a soft pillow nor the comfort of DeAnn, my loving wife and partner, could induce slumber. The journal is about how the lives - and untimely deaths - of the people I investigated crossed my path, and I tried to bring order and integrity to the aftermath. pg. 17

As coroner, I have served as the state's official witness to the worst that humanity has to offer. I've investigated some of the most despicable crimes and violent deaths imaginable.....Nothing....can compare to the sheer devastation of Katrina and Rita. pg. 18

I don't think little snippets on CSI really make much of an impact on criminals' behavior. For one thing, criminals don't understand the foundation of the science of forensics and therefore tend to make stupid mistakes. pg. 62

Don't Be A-Hatin' Amendment

I'm really looking forward to starting the Critical Monkey Contest but we have come up with a twist that is going to make it even more interesting.

It's the Don't Be A-Hatin' Amendment where my daughter Just Me, a college sophomore, is going to pick out the books for me, her critical monkey mother, to read.

Think about it. She knows exactly what I read and enjoy. She also knows exactly what I would avoid, and be snobbish about, saying "I don't read _______." Plus she is allowed to assign up to 11 books, one book a month from August 2009-June 2010, rather than the official 7. As she so succinctly pointed out, "You read a lot. It won't kill you."

In this scintillating line up will be:

Pride and Prejudice. I've avoided reading this for years, whining "I don't read romance novels." I'm 50 years old. Exactly when do I think I will make the time to read it? Just me said, "It is ridiculous that you haven't read it yet, especially since you know it is Hipee's favorite book and movie and has been for years." She may assign some Bronte sister too.

Some Harlequin-type Romance. She's going to pick it out based mostly on the cover art and title. Just Me is going to look for a cover with some hot, sexy, shirtless man on it that promises everything a romance novel should be and maybe a little more. She will also consider the synopsis; if it sounds boring, she'll keep looking. This will be found at the used book store clearance area. Although I will pay for it, I am not allowed to see the book until it's home, waiting for me to read it. (My greatest fear is that she's going to find and assign more than one of these gems because she's rather excited about this selection and she has the power.)

A western. Just me will pick this out the same way she does the romance novel. Perhaps she'll be able to find something in the romance department. (shudder) Just Me doesn't know much about westerns, but she likes the idea of picking something out based on the cover art.

Some sort of fantasy novel. I often get snobbish about liking hard science fiction over almost all fantasy (with a few notable exceptions). She's going to look for a fantasy for me to read - something maybe with trolls, elves, and fairies that I would never pick up on my own.

There may be some sort of Star Wars book, something with Ewoks, Yoda, or Wookies. Wonder Boy said maybe she could find something like Star Wars: Vader Rising or Revenge of the Ewoks.

Just Me says she knows for a fact that I will not like Twilight, so she would rather save that allotted book for a more challenging selection, probably something with a hot, sexy man on the cover. The Snack King is going to start wondering what's up if he sees the covers of some of these books.

The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles
January 1980
Director: Michael Anderson
Cast: Rock Hudson
3 day TV mini series

The mini-series did a good job representing the book. There are a few unintentionally funny moments, especially when you get the 70's disco back ground music. Yes, the special effects by today's standards aren't good, but what you need to do is view this as a play adaptation of the book.

Critical Monkey

A literary contest for all us haters

From Shelf Monkey:

"I, as I assume most people who read this blog are, am somewhat of a book snob. I don't pretend to read only the 'classics' of the Western canon, but there's a lot of crap out there I go out of my way to avoid. See? Right there, snobbery. Bad monkey! Bad!

So I have decided to launch Critical Monkey, a little contest designed to make us confront our fears, and read those we otherwise actively ignore. These do not have to be authors who are typically derided in literary publications; choices can be books you simply have never wanted to read for whatever reason. Never read a Charles Dickens, but always felt bad? Now's your chance to try him on for size. Have you avoided Margaret Laurence because a lousy teacher force-fed you The Stone Angel and squeezed everything good out of it (guilty!)? Time to make her acquaintance. Anything you like. Even Harlequin romance novels. I double-dog dare you to try."

"I chose a nice lesser number of seven, graded by the seven stages of grief:
Shock (one review)
Denial (two reviews)
Bargaining (three reviews)
Guilt (four reviews)
Anger (five reviews)
Depression (six reviews)
Acceptance (seven reviews)

By the end, those who have finished this grueling course will find themselves spiritually cleaner, and emotionally more well-rounded."
July 2, 2009 - July 2, 2010

This is the challenge that may actually have me reading Twilight. After all, it is a double-dog dare!

Vertigo

Vertigo

1958
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes

My Friend Amy's The Summer of Hitchcock

I really think Vertigo requires viewing more than once to fully appreciate its brilliance. Like many Hitchcock movies, a one time viewing may mean you will miss some important brief glance, quick scene, or small nuance that will later become important. It is a mystery entangled with the themes of obsession and loss. Stewart did an amazing job showing the complexities and flaws of his character, Scotty Ferguson. We don't always like to see Jimmy Stewart playing a dark role, but this role really showcased Stewart's acting ability. Novak skillfully played two very different personalities. Like all the other characters, Scotty's good friend Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) also experiences loss.

I noticed that Bernard Herrmann was, yet again, the score composer. His score really has been an integral part of every movie. Consider the time on film spent with Stewart tailing Novak, with the only sound being Herrmann's score. He actually created a gentle, haunting "Madeleine's theme" that you associate with the character.