A modern day literary legend left us over the weekend;memoirist Frank McCourt died this past Sunday at the age of 78. Most of his life was not in the limelight,but he did reach out and touch many lives even before his books made bestseller lists worldwide. He was a high school English teacher for over 30 years,first at Ralph R. McKee Vocational School on Staten Island and then later at Stuyvesant High in Manhattan.
Part of his success as a teacher was due to his storytelling skills,which not only encourage his students to express themselves more creatively but eventually lead to McCourt writing about his own struggles in life.
His first book,Angela's Ashes,was a major success,staying strong on bestseller lists for over two years and being so popular in hardcover that the paperback release was delayed for quite awhile.
The tales of his hardscrabble childhood during the 1930s in Limerick,Ireland,where his family returned to live after finding little opportunity in America(mainly due to McCourt's father alcoholism)earned him a National Book Critics Circle Award as well as a Pulitzer Prize.
Angela's Ashes eventually became a major motion picture,with Emily Watson playing Frank's mother,the Angela of the title. The movie received mixed reviews but I thought it showcased the harsh realities of the book very well. While the film didn't get as many accolades as the memoir did,it still makes for a remarkable visual companion to the McCourt story:
His follow-up to Angela's Ashes was Tis,which went into his life as a young man going back to America and setting up a home in New York. I was still a new employee at the indie bookstore where I once worked when Tis came out and it was the first major book event that I participated in.
The shop had done a signing for Angela's Ashes,which was before my time there,making it easier for them to get a booking for Tis. People were excited at the thought of a new book by McCourt and even as they were heading for their seats in the auditorium we were using for his talk,copies of the books were selling like hotcakes fresh off the griddle.
He gave a wonderful talk,and generously signed many copies,including my own. When I went up on line with everyone else,my boss mentioned to him that I was one of the booksellers that night. He replied,"Ah,yes,she must be the salt of the earth." The good humor behind that comment charmed me and while my encounter with him was brief,it was one of the truly memorable moments of my literary life.
While Tis and his later book,Teacher Man,didn't have the same pop culture impact as Angela's Ashes did,both of those titles did help to round out McCourt's life story and bring forth his bold,warts and all approach to discussing both personal and public matters of concern.
McCourt was given a lot of criticism over the years,by folks who either doubted his word or wanted him to join lockstep in their overview on things. He,however,stuck to his guns and spoke from his heart. McCourt was a man who always seem to keep true to himself,not an easy thing to do for anyone in any social sphere:
McCourt also made the Irish experience come alive for many like me who are Americans of Irish descent but never really considered it to be anything unique or special. While Angela's Ashes was certainly not a rosy picture of a typical Irish childhood or cast the same reflection for everyone,it did open up interest for younger generations as well as encourage those who went before us to share their memories and history.
He helped to re-instill pride in teaching,a profession that doesn't always get the respect that it deserves. McCourt had to leave school at an early age,yet he had a fierce love of learning that drew him back to pursue a formal education. His passion for words and language served him well as a teacher and set a fine example for others to follow:
So,it is with a heavy heart that we say our goodbyes to Frank McCourt and send our heartfelt condolences to his loved ones. Mr. McCourt was an amazing individual,even if he had never put pen to paper about the details of his extraordinary time on this earth,and his influences on literature and life will be long remembered and cherished. Thank you,sir,for sharing your stories with us:
Out of the many Jane Austen related original novels that have come out over the past several years,author Laurie Viera Rigler has chosen to share her literary love of Austen's work by blending her own unique take on the genre with a dash of fantasy and clever social satire into the bargain.
Her first novel,Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict,had it's modern day heroine Courtney Stone trade bodies and places with a young woman in 18th century England named Jane Mansfield. The only connection either of them seemed to have in common was their devotion to Pride and Prejudice as the perfect pick-me-up prose for their troubled lives.
Over the course of the story,Courtney saw the other things that she and Jane shared,such as choosing who each of them truly loved and finding their own path to happiness,regardless of social conventions.
The book was so well received by critics and Austen fans alike that there was true joy when the follow-up to Confessions was released this summer. Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict shows us Jane Mansfield's journey thru the 21st century looking glass of Courtney's world and the touchingly humorous bouts of future shock that she experiences along the way.
In addition to collaborating with others,along with writing her own books,Laurie V. Rigler also teaches the craft in workshops set at Vroman's,one of the oldest and most respected independent book shops in Southern California.
She holds a B.A. in Classics from SUNY in Buffalo,NY,where she graduated summa cum laude and has been a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America for many years. She also shares her Austen love at her blog featured on her Jane Austen Addict website.
I was very honored to be part of Laurie's blog tour for Rude Awakenings and delighted to have a Q and A with her about not only the book but other Jane Austen hot topics as well. She was not only gracious enough to give me her time,but to offer both Rude Awakenings and Confessions as giveaways to the LRG readers. More on that in a moment,but first,let's chat with Laurie a bit:
1)Rude Awakenings is a follow-up to your previous novel, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. Which book gave you the most challenges as a writer?
First may I say how happy I am to be here on Living Read Girl? Thank you so much for inviting me!
CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT was somewhat easier to write, because I could very naturally put myself inside the mind of Courtney, my twenty-first-century protagonist going back in time with everything she knows (or thinks she knows) about Jane Austen's day.
After all, I'd spent a lot of time myself fantasizing about going back in time to Jane Austen's world, and I read a great deal about the period. It was more challenging to imagine the perspective of Jane, my nineteenth-century protagonist in RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, going forward in time to the twenty-first century and having no concept of modern technology and morals:
2) In doing research for both novels, what similarities between Jane Austen's time and our own did you find?
That is a fascinating question, because we usually focus on what's different about the two time periods rather than on what is similar. What hasn't changed at all since Jane Austen's day is the human heart and all of its flaws, beauty, and potential for self-awareness and self-mastery.
One of the things that completely confuses my protagonist in this novel is love. She is falling in love with a man in the modern world and has no idea how to deal with it. That is a major similarity between our time and Jane Austen's day.
Although in our contemporary world we are supposed to have absolute freedom to declare our feelings, we play as much of a guessing game about who cares for whom and how much as people were forced to play in the highly regimented and restricted social world of Regency England, when couples were not even allowed to correspond unless they were engaged. You'd think between cellphones, text messages, email, and Facebook we could work that all out, wouldn't you? But now we simply have multiple technological avenues for miscommunication.
3) Are you planning on writing any more Jane Austen related stories?
I'm not quite sure yet, because my next project is in a very early stage. But in any case I do believe that what I love best about Jane Austen will always inspire my work.
4) What is your favorite romantic comedy(book or film)?
Do I have to choose just one? With books, Jane Austen's come to mind first—no surprise there! PERSUASION is my favorite Austen novel, but I could not exactly classify it as a romantic comedy, even though there are some very funny moments.
I'd have to say that of all her novels, the ones that best fit the bill of romantic comedy are EMMA and NORTHANGER ABBEY. As for my favorite film romantic comedies, I'd choose LOVE, ACTUALLY and two of the Emma adaptations, the 1996 one with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam, and the brilliant CLUELESS:
5) If you had the chance to adapt any one of Austen's novels into a screenplay, which one would you choose and why?
NORTHANGER ABBEY for a couple of reasons. It's one of the lesser known Austen novels and often not appreciated as much as it should be. It's a lovely coming-of-age story about learning self-reliance and how to discriminate between false friends and true friendship, and it's got an adorable love story between a charmingly naïve and innocent girl with an overactive imagination and a young man with an irresistible sense of humor.
The girl is constantly reading Gothic horror novels and lets her imagination run away with her to the point that she is convinced that her friend's father either drove his wife to her death or keeps her locked up in a disused wing of their home. For her the lines between fiction and reality are blurred. The whole book is a defense of the virtues of reading fiction and at the same time a send-up of the Gothic horror novels that were so popular in Jane Austen's day.
I think a screenwriter could have a blast giving this story a modern spin. Perhaps the heroine could be someone who is so immersed in the vampire books and graphic novels she's always reading that she is starting to see evidence of vampires everywhere in her real life. And at the same time she is falling madly in love with her friend's brother, who loses no opportunity to tease her gently about her obsession.
6)What modern day innovation do you think someone from Austen's days would appreciate the most?
Hot showers, electric lights, the Internet, and all the other wonders of modern technology are innovations that anyone from Jane Austen's day would likely appreciate. But the aspect of modern-day living that would be most appealing, especially for someone like my protagonist, would be freedom of choice.
For Jane, a thirty-year-old unmarried woman in Regency England, her future was basically a choice between living with her parents or entering into a marriage of convenience if a love match didn't come her way.
Having already had her heart broken, and at 30 years old, the prospects of that happening were slim. So what were her options? As an unmarried gentleman's daughter, she could not live alone, travel alone, or earn her own money—except perhaps as a paid companion or governess, neither of them appealing prospects. So being in the modern world and having the ability to choose her career, her living situation, and even her daily activities would be a revelation.
7) Pride and Prejudice has been the most remade and reimagined book of Jane Austen's canon-which of her other five novels should future Austen adaptors turn their attentions to?
Aside from my thoughts about NORTHANGER ABBEY, I also have this idea that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE could do with yet another adaptation—also a contemporary one. This idea came about when I saw the film "Talk to Me," starring Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Chiwetel Ejiofor's character reminded me so much of Mr. Darcy that I decided he should actually play Mr. Darcy. He'd be perfect.
And I would like to see another filmmaker give MANSFIELD PARK a try; of the three adaptations I've seen, the one I enjoyed the most was the least faithful to the book. This is not an easy book to adapt, but I'd like to see if someone can get it right.
My thanks to Laurie for sharing her thoughts with me(I would love to see a better version of Mansfield Park made as well),and if you would like to either check out Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict or go back to the beginning with Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict,we will be giving away a copy of each here at LRG.
Just leave a comment mentioning your favorite Jane Austen book,movie or reimagined version at this post and please state your preference for either Confessions or Rude Awakenings. The deadline is Thursday,with the winners being announced on Friday and asked for their mailing info so that the good folks at Penguin can send out their prizes as quick as can be.
Good luck to all who enter(this contest is open to both the U.S. and Canada) and I hope you get to enjoy these stories of what it would be like to live in the dreams of Jane Austen's world:
This latest round of Top Chef Masters had Michael Chiarello,Nils Noren,Rick Moonen and Lachlan Patterson dealing with a classic Quickfire from Season 1,which was to make a fine dining version of a traditional "junk food" delight. Lachlan's take on hot dogs lead to this prosciutto dish with pork sausage,which the tasting panel(lead by the infamous Jeff of Flipping Out)seem to like.
Sadly, Rick Moonen was not able to have his food ready on time(a first for this series),which made the victory for Michael Chiarello's swordfish meatballs,as a fancy style of fishsticks,all the easier to obtain.
The Elimination challenge was to create a three course dinner in miniature,as cocktail party food for some Top Chef fans(a couple of former TC contenders were in the crowd as well,Sweet P and Jarell). Rick started off strong with a opakapaka and barramundi ceviche that won over the party people and the judges alike.
Nils was no slouch,as his salmon with napa cabbage and chorizo entree went over like gangbusters. Salmon and cabbage are not on my Top Ten list of Most Desirable Foods,but the vividness of the colors that he brought out on the plate sure made it look tempting.
His only misstep was in the dessert,a chocolate and goat cheese ganache with orange gel. Sounds great,right? Unfortunately,Nils chose to give it a smoky flavor that pretty much repulsed everyone's palate. One of the guests actually said she didn't want to take a second bite and considering that it's a chocolate dessert,that's a sure sign of badness there
Chiarello won the Elim,even managing to convice Gael Greene that the basil(which she kept calling "lawn shavings") in his stawberries with goat milk gelato and chocolate hit the spot. Once again,the QF winner in TC Masters becomes the final champion at the end,almost eerie there,folks.
Speaking of finals,we have one more round to go before the big showdown for that $100,000 for charity and the last group up has to pack mystery boxes for their competitors to use in the Elimination Challenge. Should be something to see:
Big controversy brewing on The Next Food Network Star,as Devious Debbie struck again. The big challenge this time was a team one,where everyone had to make two dishes for a cocktail party on the beach(they went to Miami as the setting for the final rounds)and Debbie's job in the kitchen was to be the in charge person to get the food out,due to her catering experience.
Well,all she did was take care of her own two plates and pretty much ignored everyone else,making her food the best of the bunch. Melissa really showed some character this week,as she not only made an extra dish for vegetarians to enjoy but helped out her fellow chefs as well,plus called Debbie out at the Judges' Table for pretending to be "selfless". I think she got confused with her terms,as her actions were more selfish and self serving.
Michael was sent home this week,due to his wavering performance in front of the cameras and his food that lacked in flavor(since Debbie was the one who was supposed to be serving his stuff while he tended the bar,I smell sabotage). While it's probably true that he would've been off the show anyway,Debbie's bad behavior should have made her first in line for the exit.
According to Bob Tuschman's blog(FN head honcho and judge),Bobby Flay and Ted Allen were the ones who insisted on her staying,due to how good her food turned out. Hey,fellas,that was her whole strategy and you totally know it-you do have video tape to prove it,hello! Character and quality of food are equally important components in selecting a new FNS and if by some fluke,Debbie wins,it's ratings you will be losing:
True Blood returned this week,with Sookie and Bill going to Dallas on vampire business,which has a myriad of complications like an attempted kidnapping at the airport of Sookie and the presence of Jessica,taken along last minute to keep an eye on her before she gets too out of hand with Hoyt.
Bill is trying to be a good vampire mentor to her,thanks to Sookie's encouragement,but Jessica is still your average teenager let loose from a repressive household and therefore prone to pulling juvenile pranks whenever she can get the chance:
Eric is keeping close tabs on those two,even after giving Lafayette a much needed dose of his blood to fix his wounds(glad to see Lafayette back in fighting form again). He headed for Dallas pretty quick when Bill called him about the Fellowship of the Sun's involvement in Godric's disappearance and the failed airport grab.
Clearly Eric is playing his cards very close to the vest here,and since the plot lines of this series tend to stray slightly from the source material,I can't fully speculate on what the real deal is just yet. I do hope that Sookie's new psychic friend Barry also gets more of a buildup on the show than in the books,that would be very cool:
Meanwhile,back in Bon Temps,Tara's move to Sookie's house hasn't kept Mary Ann out of her hair,as she and her merry gang invade the place to give Tara a birthday party. Sam shows up to bring Tara a present from her mom that Mary Ann finds a way to toss out just before she heads into the woods to work some serious mojo on the party goers that gets downright vicious and nasty.
What her ultimate agenda is,I don't know,but she is not of the good and either Sam or Lafayette needs to be ready to help Tara get out of her clutches before the point of no return shows up there. Sam is getting rather distracted by Daphne at the moment,but he needs to be on full alert,if his threats to Mary Ann are to be taken seriously there:
RANDOM NOTES:
THE FASHION SHOW: Part One of the finale starts tonight,with one of the Final Four to be eliminated before viewers get the chance to vote for the winner. If Reco is given his walking papers,I refuse to participate. He's been my favorite for awhile now and has proven his skills time and time again. Don't give up on him,Bravo!:
One of the surprise hits of the literary season was Pride & Prejudice & Zombies(which is being reissued in an "Heirloom Edition" in time for the holidays this fall)and the folks at Quirk Books are not letting the gory grass grow under their feet by any means. The next entry in the Quirk Classics series is a tale of two sisters and their trials in love as well as giant lobster attacks. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters(co-authored by Ben L. Winters) brings the Dashwood girls far from their childhood home to take up residence on a mysterious island surrounded by all manner of vicious underwater creatures.
While they are still able to call upon their neighbors such as Colonel Brandon,who happens to be only half human,and be pursued by the likes of Edward Ferrars and Willoughby,being sociable has more dangers attached to it than the usual risks of the heart:
S&S&SM is set to be on sale at a bookseller near you on September 15 and the deluxe hardcover version of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies will be available this October,making it a rather elegantly frightful time for Austen fans and monster lovers alike. I give plenty of credit to the folks at Quirk for not simply churning out another P&P&Z2 and for thinking of sea monsters to revive as a menace.
Sea monsters are particularly suited to Jane Austen,given that she had a great respect for the Navy due to her two brothers who were in the service and two of her later novels had sea faring connections. While some would have preferred to add those denizens of the deep to either Persuasion or Mansfield Park's inner circles, I do believe that they will liven up the love lives of Elinor and Marianne quite interestingly.
I'm also glad that they decided to hold off on vampires for the moment,especially since there are a number of Jane Austen bloodsucker blended stories about to hit the market shortly,such as Mr. Darcy,Vampyre by Amanda Grange.
Don't get me wrong,I'm a huge vampire fan and would gladly check out any new take on the theme with some Regency flair,but you do have to worry about burnout. It's happened to vamps before and could easily pop up again,despite the new wave of nosferatu on the scene. Not to mention the fact that some remixes don't always lead to a happy ever after for the leading men and ladies of the story:
Also,I really don't think there is a need for Mr. Darcy to be a vampire. Pride and Prejudice is not the only Austen novel with a brooding male love interest and in my opinion,Mansfield Park makes for much better hunting grounds in that sinister sphere.
Henry Crawford is just as predatory as any other eternal lady killer,including Dracula himself and it would certainly give more potency to Mary Crawford's refusal to accept Edmund Bertram's taking of holy orders,plus that key moment when Fanny Price shows up at the ball with her brother's cross on would be even more intriguing.
All I'm saying to future Austen horror reimaginers out there is to not limit your creative horizons and to boldly branch out to the other novels in her cannon,just ready to be artfully updated. Emma,for example,would be made more delightful with some witchcraft thrown into the mix and many Jane Austen/horror genre devotees are eagerly willing to be spellbound by such vividly revised retro delights,so have at it,why don't you?!:
Recently released on DVD,a new set of Mystery Science Theater 3000 hosted films includes one that I have been longing to see again called The Girl In Lover's Lane. What's so special about this particular MST3k offering you might ask? Is it as horribly humorous as Overdrawn at the Memory Bank,Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,etc,or just plain horrible,like Manos:The Hands of Fate?
Actually,The Girl in Lover's Lane is just your standard awful in a good way MiSTie feature,but it's memorable to me because it was the first MST3K episode that I ever saw. The one that got me hooked and made me a fan for life. You never forget your first time,as they say(wink,wink,nudge-saying no more!).
One of the best bits from TGILL was the made up theme song sung by Joel and the bots at the start of the film,setting the stage for what was to come:
That got me to thinking about other impromptu or planned musical moments by the MST3K crew and putting a few of them together to share with folks,who are either full fledged fans already or wondering what all the fuss is about.
The Girl in Lover's Lane had such a bad ending that the Bots made up a better one to cheer themselves up with and in the case of Tormented,Joel and friends were so downhearted after the film that they had to sing to bring back their "happy thoughts":
Old school film shorts are a frequent target on MST3K and one of them was gloriously bad enough to be adapted as a mini musical by Joel and pals for an in between bumper in the Bride of the Monster episode. Almost eerie how "Hired!:The Musical" reflects some of our current day woes in the auto industry:
Most of these clips have been very Joel based but there were plenty of good bits in the Mike era,too. A personal favorite of mine is from Overdrawn at The Memory Bank,where the villianess Pearl Forester holds a PBS telethon scam and even performs a duet with one of her henchmen(known fondly as "Brain Guy")that is a perfect parody of sappy song styling:
No list of MiSTie musical numbers would be complete without the should-be-a-holiday-classic "A Patrick Swayze Christmas". Yes,this is one more Joel bit,but how can you deny the chance to hear Crow T. Robot's moving tribute to both the most wonderful time of the year and Roadhouse?
Featured appropriately enough in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,this crazy little carol may seem to be rather violent in it's sentiments,but as Crow points out, a good action sequence never hurts any genre:
As I wait for Netflix to bring The Girl in Lover's Lane to me,let's wrap this up with a viewing of the end credits of Werewolf,where Mike and the Bots toss out random song lyrics to fill up the droning noise of the soundtrack's monotonous medley. All good things must come to an end,especially those with a load of bad attached to them as well:
Over the weekend,my sister and I checked out the latest Sascha Baron Cohen farce,Bruno,and while it was shockingly entertaining(certain images are going to haunt my imagination for quite a long time),I have to admit that Bruno is no Borat.
Yes,both films have that in-your-face open mockery of social mores and the popular comedy cliche of seeing just how annoying you can be to someone until they go off on you(or not), yet the impact made by Borat was much greater.
Part of the reason for that may be the vivid shallowness of the character who is meant to throw a glaring spotlight on the glory seeking celebrity obsessed culture,which is a great big target to aim at. Only trouble is,at times the jokes were as affective as a mirror set up to reflect another mirror-the sharp barb bounces off and leaves not even a whisper of a mark behind.
For example,one of the things that Bruno does on his quest to regain celebrity status is to follow the trend of adopting a child from Africa. Considering all the coverage and ethical debate surrounding Madonna's attempts to do that,plus Angelina Jolie's forays into the field,a pretty ripe pop culture crop of jokes ripe for the plucking there.
However,one of the bits from that is a casting call for a baby photo shoot in which Bruno screens prospective candidates by asking the parents all sorts of off the wall questions about what their child can handle on set. It's sort of amusing,but stage parents have been pretty much been mocked from there and back again,making them less of a surprising target and more of a concern to the folks at Child Protective Services instead:
Even the talk show bit meant to follow up this segment of the storyline had mixed results;while the audience reaction was most likely authentic,talk shows are so well orchestrated for hijinks that it wasn't hard to see where this was going:
Also,this is the third time that SBC has brought one of his TV show characters to the silver screen and like many of the Not Ready for Prime Time players in America,stretching out a persona that fits neatly into a small skit into a longer format can quickly wear thin.
Don't get me wrong,I did have a few laughs and the audience we were with enjoyed themselves,but like the song says,the thrill is gone,baby. SBC does fully commit to his characters and to the situations they're put in,to the humorous hilt. His type of satire may not be to everyone's taste but you have to give the man credit for daring to pulling some of these stunts(whether staged or not),especially in public.
Maybe it's time that he tries to go another route to get the laughs or go off in a completely other artistic direction. His brief role in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd showed that Cohen has some slick acting chops that he can call upon and it would be interesting to see him in a different venue.
While Bruno did well at the box office this weekend,movie trend setters are saying that the film clearly isn't going to be the major moneymaker that Borat was. If you're really in need of some seriously politically incorrect humor,Bruno is one stop shopping. Otherwise,you can get the same effect by renting some of SBC's earlierwork which ,like most fashion staples,never goes out of style:
One of the books I was able to get at this year's BEA was an advance copy of James Ellroy's September release,Blood's a Rover. This book is intended to be the final part of his "Underworld U.S.A." trilogy,which started with American Tabloid and continued with The Cold Six Thousand.
All three of them are set in the 1960s and interweave such real life figures as J. Edgar Hoover,Howard Hughes and Sal Mineo into the lives of the troubled schemers and behind the scenes players of his deadly dark vision of L.A. and American corruption.
This is the first time that I've read any of Ellroy's work;like many other lit fans out there,I enjoyed the film adaptation of L.A. Confidential but didn't really get into his books. They've been described as intellectual noir pieces,with no holds barred language and style. While the no holds barred part is correct(if you have any lingering P.C. qualms regarding your reading materials,consider any of Ellroy's cannon to be NC-17 and move on)and that while his writing is clever and clearly well thought out,it's not as inaccessible as one might have expected.
I'll have more of a full review of the book later this summer,but my main reason for reading it right now was the need for a change of pace. Just as I'm sure that some of the fellas out there like to read a romance novel or two to mellow out,I occasionally get a craving for an action packed,guns a-blazing,cool as Antarctic ice,tough with a slight chance of tender on the side,manly book,or as I like to call them, a Red Meat Read.
Most of my Red Meat Reads come when least expected. I took a chance on Dirty White Boys by Stephen Hunter when it came out in paperback and was pleasantly surprised by the raw impact it made.
Hunter is also a film critic(a great collection of his essays on that subject that I wholehearted recommend is Violent Screen)and the tale of three desperately dangerous men who break out of prison and the tormented cop who doggedly hunts them down has a strong cinematic flow to it.
In fact,if Rob Zombie is looking to make another movie that's not another horror movie remake,this book might be picture perfect for his off the wall talents. Lamar Pye and his cousin Odell would get along well with the twisted Firefly clan or have one hell of a fire fight(spoiler alert for the following clip for those who haven't seen Devil's Rejects-you have been warned):
Clockers was a crossover literary sensation,taking Richard Price into more mainstream territory with his novel about Strike, a young drug dealer who strove to maintain his tough guy image to survive the streets and the homicide detective who was headset on proving that Strike had a hand in the murder of his more law abiding brother,Victor.
While the Spike Lee film version made too many deviations from the source material,it did bring many of the pivotal characters in the book to vivid life such as Rodney,Strike's charismatic mentor who may be a father figure one minute but can turn into a man of undiscerning menace in the next:
Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games takes an epic and international approach to the genre,as the dark underbelly of Mumbai's criminal kingdoms gets exposed to full view. Think of it as a Bollywood Godfather,only with more twists and turns than a minotaur's maze.
The most dominant players in the game are Inspector Singh,an honest and unappreciated police office and Ganesh Gaitonde,a crime boss who built his brutal empire with his own dark determination and ruthlessness. One of the best parts of the book is a confrontation between the two as the authorities are attempting to break down Gaitonde's stronghold,where he has isolated himself as a last resort. It's as classic as any gangster moment from a Bogart film:
You can't get any more red meat than a good old fashioned Western and Lonesome Dove fits the bill nicely there. While Larry McMurtry is still best remembered for such female friendly fare as Terms of Endearment,his saga of the dying days of the Old West showcases a rough and ready sensibility that can throw a sure handed sucker punch when called for.
Despite the numerous sequels and prequels written,Lonesome Dove always seemed to be just fine as it was already,without any other helpings of this old school story stew required. I'm sure that some of them are good reads,but that doesn't mean I need to read them. No disrespect intended,especially since Augustus McCrae is not someone you should be trifling with if you value your health:
No doubt some folks believe that stuff like this only appeals to our baser natures and should be avoided like the plague. While overdoing anything is not a good thing,I don't think that taking a dip into murky fictional waters is a bad idea from time to time. Examining that taste for the warrior instinct is the only way to deal with those rampaging energies and channeling them into something positive. Not to mention that kicking a little ass every now and then totally rocks:
Top Chef Masters returned this week,with Douglas Rodriquez,Anita Lo,Mark Peel and John Besh up at the plate,so to speak. Their Quickfire challenge was to cook an egg dish with one hand behind their back(oven mitts were worn on the "forbidden" hand)and only John Besh failed to make four servings of his slow cooked egg.
Besh's egg was half done,to boot,which made it all the easier for Anita Lo to win here for her scrambled eggs with shiitake and oyster sauce,served up in the shell. One of the folks who chose the winner for this round was Gail Collins,one of the regular TC judges,and she also took a seat for the Elimination challenge,which was to cook a meal for Neil Patrick Harris and friends at the Magic House in L.A..
The chefs had to use an element of magic as their inspiration for their dish and Douglas Rodriguez had "spectacle" as his. He served up duck three ways,with his big showpiece being the coconut that he had the duck soup in being lit on fire. Fortunately,the flames weren't too dangerous and the food was good,but not great.
Mark Peel was a big contender for the win,with his "mystery" course being tai snapper cooked in a parchment and served with sake and lime glaze on the side. The whole mystery bag concept was pretty cool and everyone at the table seemed to really enjoy the flavors of the foods combined here.
Anita Lo took the top honors,however,for her "illusion" entree. She made what looked like a giant scallop,but was actually a daikon stuffed with steak tartare. Her plate had other surf and turf trimmings,such as rice krispies crushed up to resemble beach sand and a shellfish broth to suggest the seashore. Nice work,Anita,and congrats to you!
Next week should be rather tricky,with a main challenge of preparing a three course meal for a hundred people solo and a classic Quickfire that demands a more down to earth take on familiar food:
While there wasn't an official winner on The Next Food Network Star this week,there were plenty of folks who did well. Unfortunately,Jamika wasn't one of them.
She took too long with her cooking demo for kids and then froze up for most of the main challenge,which was to present a grown-up version of a kid favorite on Rachel Ray's talk show. Part of the problem was Jeffrey,who didn't click with her during the food prep and then hogged the spotlight for as long as he could. Not cool,Jeffrey!
Jamika wound up on the chopping block,along with Michael,who sees the cameras as "very judgey" and speaks to them as if he was approaching "the depths of hell." I like them both,so I hope they do better soon. As I predicted last week,Katie was sent home for her lackluster performance skills and a bone dry chicken made for the Rachel Ray demo.
Every time someone on a cooking competition show who is either a dietitian or a healthy food advocate comes on board,he or she never makes it to the final round. The reason for that,in my opinion,is due to those folks focusing too much on pushing the health benefits of eating properly instead of making healthy food taste good. You catch more flies with honey,that's all I'm saying:
To round things off,let's watch a few choice clips from The Soup on E!,which never fails to score major points on the pop culture comedy scale. Their well placed hits on the silliness of social trends,reality show madness and celebrity hijinks are a much needed relief for these troubled times. Host Joel McHale will be getting a sitcom next fall(The Community)but hopefully,he'll still be bringing us the laughs every Friday night:
HI, HONEY,WHAT'S FOR DINNER?
NICK LACHEY,GO AWAY
TWITTERBUG INVASION
RANDOM NOTES:
IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA: As part of the promotion for the return of the show this September,F/X put together a ad with clips of fans doing their own versions of the cult classic tune "Dayman" created by two of the characters. Congratulations to everyone who got their bit of business chosen for this commercial and props to the Sunny crew for acknowledging their audience this way:
One of the much touted summer movies this season,Public Enemies takes a seriously stylized look at the legend of John Dillinger,an American icon of crime who is considered pretty much the poster boy for gangster chic of the 1930s.
While this film looks and acts like an above the board straight shooting drama,I do wonder about the possibility of gangster parody flicks rearing up their goofy heads if Public Enemies leads to a revival of period crime films. It's a good subject for satire to be sure,but many times the results are a mixed bag of mirth.
A prime example of that is 1984's Johnny Dangerously,starring Michael Keaton as the title bad guy with a kid brother in the DA's office ready to take him down. To say that the humor is broad in this movie is an understatement;every cliche of a 30's crime saga is ponied up for not so subtle laughs.
It does have it's moments and one of the more amusing supporting characters is Danny Vermin,played with gleeful delight by Joe Piscopo. He's actually pretty believable as an ambitious henchman,so much so that any casting director looking for a career to bring back to life should think of him for a sturdier crime movie:
Sylvester Stallone tried his hand at gangster comedy in 1991 with Oscar,that had a crime boss promising his dying father that he would become a legitimate business man. That,of course,leads to plenty of hijinks that can be summed up by the most memorable line from Godfather III-just when he wants to pull out,they keep pulling him back in.
I actually saw the movie when it first came out in theaters and while it was entertaining enough,Oscar is really one of those comedies that you just have to be in the mood for. Otherwise,it may not strike you as all that funny. Stallone does give it everything he's got,but comedy is harder than it looks,folks:
The only successful gangster satire I know of is Bugsy Malone,written and directed by Alan Parker who took a bold approach to the material. He made the typical old school gangster movie into a musical and had it cast entirely with kids,featuring such future child stars as Jodie Foster and Scott Baio.
Bugsy Malone's criminal antics were made more family friendly as well,with cream pies as weapons and sarsaparilla taking the place of bootleg gin. This is such a silly sweet movie that it's a crying shame that it's not yet available on DVD(at least in the U.S.). There's no need for a remake but the original should be given some TV time for newer generations to see how musical parodies can be at their very best:
Public Enemies was number three on the box office list last weekend,and while it may be overshadowed by more gaudier film fare,the movie still has a chance at pumping up gangster style. With the increase from five to ten nominees to be chosen as Best Picture in the next round of Academy Awards,Public Enemies might make a strong comeback for the fall film season and if it does garner some Oscar gold,Hollywood will jump on that bandwagon quicker than TMZ on a Lindsay Lohan rumor.
If that happens,gangster parodies are sure to follow and for future reference, the jokes need to be well thought out and not simply based on suits and set design. The satirical devil is in the details,after all:
