I am aware that most people aren't going to be jonesing to read this book, but I have been to Janesville, Wisconsin, several times and there are people there that I like. Therefore, for me, it was an easy pick. Janesville was the home of one of the General Motors auto plants that closed in 2008. Thousands of workers were laid off. This book is their story.
There is another reason this tale of economic hardship and disruption resonated with me: in 2009, in the middle of the Great American Recession, I lost my full time job in West Marin. I knew the economy was in bad shape but I had never worried about finding a job, I interviewed well, had a good resume, was multi-talented, and on and on. But, like so many in Janesville and all over America, there were no jobs to be had. People with skills that far surpassed mine were also out of work, vying for the same jobs at Whole Foods and Macy's. They got hired; many of us did not.
"Janesville" is a really good read. The author approaches the city's economic travesty via people who worked for GM and who lost their jobs. Therefore, instead of reading about corporate decisions, you read about families and how this changed their lives, how they had to adjust (and many didn't) and the toll this economic disaster took on them. There are moments of grace and honor, and moments of sadness and resolute anger. And there are passages about Paul Ryan and his devious political schemes. Ryan is from Janesville and you might think that would have made him empathetic, but since he was one of the rich guys who didn't suffer from the plant closure, his political fortunes just kept on rolling along.
If you are a library fan, I suggest you take this book out of the library and experience how a really nice city like Janesville bore the brunt, not only of the GM plant closure, but of the subprime mortgage fiasco as well. It's a story well told and worth reading. It's part of our American history and history is always worth investigating.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Monday, March 19, 2018
David Chang: "Ugly Delicious" on Netflix, all about the joys of food.
If you can stream Netflix, you should check out "Ugly Delicious" which is a peek into David Chang's food life, real life and restaurant life. You can google him and see where his restaurants are but this short series is about him, not so much about his commerce.
Watch the first episode and then, please, watch the second one and the third one. He is all about the food, all about cooking, not about the glamour of it all. The second episode is about tacos, tacos around the world, how almost all cultures have food wrapped in some kind of bread, be it the crepe, white bread, tortilla, pizza dough, nan, dumpling, and on and on. How this street food has become a constant in every place in the world.
The third episode is about Thanksgiving, going back home, sucking it up, dealing with family and loving it all. There is one line in this episode that says something like this: The amount of extra cooking at Thanksgiving is part to fill the hours that could otherwise be filled with emotional connection with your family members. Which is so true, we all often sequester ourselves in the kitchen at holidays because we do not want to have any emotional connection to those we invited to sit at our Thanksgiving table! Which is rather perverse but very understandable. Too much emotion, let's let that go. Just let me cook. My daughter might raise a glass to that sentiment.
David Chang appears to be just a regular guy in this series. He swears a lot, says fuck a lot, is irreverent and yet gets teary when he is around his Mom. He loves food, the culture of it, the preparation of it, the simplicity of it. He has a great smile and he has seductive dimples! His faith is in food, not in the preciousness of it, not in the perfection of it, just in really good food. If you like food, even a little, watch this show. David Chang makes me laugh and makes me want to get back to my stove and cook. And I know that whatever I make, if I like it, then it's good. "Ugly Delicious" is good watching, it will make you laugh, think and want to cook.
I regret that I did not visit one of David Chang's restaurants when I was in NYC last year. I might need to remedy that later this year.
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Watch the first episode and then, please, watch the second one and the third one. He is all about the food, all about cooking, not about the glamour of it all. The second episode is about tacos, tacos around the world, how almost all cultures have food wrapped in some kind of bread, be it the crepe, white bread, tortilla, pizza dough, nan, dumpling, and on and on. How this street food has become a constant in every place in the world.
The third episode is about Thanksgiving, going back home, sucking it up, dealing with family and loving it all. There is one line in this episode that says something like this: The amount of extra cooking at Thanksgiving is part to fill the hours that could otherwise be filled with emotional connection with your family members. Which is so true, we all often sequester ourselves in the kitchen at holidays because we do not want to have any emotional connection to those we invited to sit at our Thanksgiving table! Which is rather perverse but very understandable. Too much emotion, let's let that go. Just let me cook. My daughter might raise a glass to that sentiment.
David Chang appears to be just a regular guy in this series. He swears a lot, says fuck a lot, is irreverent and yet gets teary when he is around his Mom. He loves food, the culture of it, the preparation of it, the simplicity of it. He has a great smile and he has seductive dimples! His faith is in food, not in the preciousness of it, not in the perfection of it, just in really good food. If you like food, even a little, watch this show. David Chang makes me laugh and makes me want to get back to my stove and cook. And I know that whatever I make, if I like it, then it's good. "Ugly Delicious" is good watching, it will make you laugh, think and want to cook.
I regret that I did not visit one of David Chang's restaurants when I was in NYC last year. I might need to remedy that later this year.
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Sunday, March 18, 2018
A movie about holograms of dead people but in a good way: " Marjorie Prime"
No one will read this given the title but I have no other way to introduce this movie...... "Marjorie Prime" is rather odd, to say the least but it's actually pretty good and worth watching, has a good cast and a good premise and is less strange than so many other movies out there right now. Seriously, the Oscar winning movie of 2017 was about a mute woman who falls in love with a sea creature. Yes, it was a nice fairy tale but tell me how that's any different than "Marjorie Prime" which just imagines that there could be holographic people who invoke memories of the past for soon to be dead people. Seems OK to me.
And it is OK. As this film moves on, more dead people seem to appear but you don't really know that until they say something that outs them as dead. But it is never a negative thing, all the holograms are kind and they just want to help. Wouldn't it be nice if that could be the reality once our minds start to deteriorate? That a clear copy of someone from our past was there to help us?
Maybe this is a movie that resonates with my generation: we have all buried our parents (or will in the next couple of years) and don't want to be left out on the closeline to flap in the wind when our time comes. It would be nice to have a stand-in for someone we loved to help us go gently into that other goodnight.
I liked this movie, I liked the cast, the characters and the idea that the past and the present don't have to be so far apart. As Faulkner said "The past is not dead. It isn't even past." That's part of what this movie tells me.
It's on Amazon Prime now. Check it out.
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And it is OK. As this film moves on, more dead people seem to appear but you don't really know that until they say something that outs them as dead. But it is never a negative thing, all the holograms are kind and they just want to help. Wouldn't it be nice if that could be the reality once our minds start to deteriorate? That a clear copy of someone from our past was there to help us?
Maybe this is a movie that resonates with my generation: we have all buried our parents (or will in the next couple of years) and don't want to be left out on the closeline to flap in the wind when our time comes. It would be nice to have a stand-in for someone we loved to help us go gently into that other goodnight.
I liked this movie, I liked the cast, the characters and the idea that the past and the present don't have to be so far apart. As Faulkner said "The past is not dead. It isn't even past." That's part of what this movie tells me.
It's on Amazon Prime now. Check it out.
.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
"The Woman in the Window" by A.J. Finn
Oh, well, gosh. This book is now on the bestseller list, and good for A.J. Finn. What a coup! A book about a crazy woman who drinks a couple of bottle of Merlot (right there you know she's crazy, right?) a night and takes a lot of prescribed drugs of all sorts and then she sees, what? A murder take place in the house across the street from hers, on about the third floor? Wait, did I mention she is an agoraphobic so she won't venture outside?
What a really novel plotline, don't you think? Is it all in her head or is it real? On the pre-release copy I have (thanks to my bro and sis-in-law from SF) it says "it isn't paranoia if it's really happening...." and that sort of sums it up. Is it real? Is she just a wino drug addict who has a doctor who keeps upping her meds? A woman who has, we discover, has had an incredibly traumatic life changing event in the past year, and could that be clouding her judgement, her memories, her visions?
OK, I did read this entire novel in about 4 hours. It shouldn't take anyone more than about 6 - 8 hours to finish the thing, so maybe two days, three if you don't have a lot of time. (I am a very fast reader of this ..... genre ..... and I was hanging out with a knifed knee, so had the time.) It's a book you take on an airplane for a long flight and LEAVE IT THERE. It's a book you read on the beach and LEAVE IT IN THE SAND. It's a book you do not buy in hardcover because that is simply dumb.
Oh, my. And it's on the bestseller list. Sigh. Again. Have at it.
.
What a really novel plotline, don't you think? Is it all in her head or is it real? On the pre-release copy I have (thanks to my bro and sis-in-law from SF) it says "it isn't paranoia if it's really happening...." and that sort of sums it up. Is it real? Is she just a wino drug addict who has a doctor who keeps upping her meds? A woman who has, we discover, has had an incredibly traumatic life changing event in the past year, and could that be clouding her judgement, her memories, her visions?
OK, I did read this entire novel in about 4 hours. It shouldn't take anyone more than about 6 - 8 hours to finish the thing, so maybe two days, three if you don't have a lot of time. (I am a very fast reader of this ..... genre ..... and I was hanging out with a knifed knee, so had the time.) It's a book you take on an airplane for a long flight and LEAVE IT THERE. It's a book you read on the beach and LEAVE IT IN THE SAND. It's a book you do not buy in hardcover because that is simply dumb.
Oh, my. And it's on the bestseller list. Sigh. Again. Have at it.
.
Update on the fake knee, like you really want to know.
Six weeks after surgery and my knee is doing well, at least that's what the PT guy and the surgeon say, both whom I saw yesterday. How would I know? The fake knee could have disintegrated in there and I would have no idea except for the pain, of which there is plenty. (Well, it didn't, I saw the x-rays.)
Last week there was no pain for three days. And then I worked it pretty hard and then there was pain for a week! What to do? Work it for the cause of "range of motion" as they say or let it languish for the cause of "pain free" as I say? I am not sure. Why do I care about the range of motion? It's not like I need my leg to karate kick someone's shoulder. It's not like I need my knee to make that extra point at the football goal. If the knee's range of motion is five degrees smaller than optimal, should I care?
When I go to Kaiser for the PT, they measure the angle of my "bend." (It's the only reason I go there because they charge $17 for me to have PT there, which is pathetic since I am there for about 20 minutes. The other 2 or 3 days a week I go to the YMCA of which I am a member and therefore it isn't a $17 copay every time. Duh.) So, the PT guy measures the angle and for the past three weeks it has been stuck at 110. Last week I painfully worked it enough so that the number jacked up to 120. That is huge, so he says, the final result they expect is 125.
But no wonder my friggin leg hurt for a week, I was really working that bend! I felt happy that I got to 120 but I also was pissed that it hurt as much as it did. This hurting knee thing has got to stop. I am done with the pain, I don't care that it's only been six weeks since the surgery, I want it all to be perfect NOW! Not in a month or three months. Now.
Sigh. The cool thing was the surgeon showed me the current X-rays of the knee with the fake "bones" they implanted and that was actually pretty cool. They photograph very differently than real bones so the fakeness really stood out, it was like gray bones juxtaposed with new, clean white bones. Very nice.
OK, a boring lesson, yes. But there you have it.
Last week there was no pain for three days. And then I worked it pretty hard and then there was pain for a week! What to do? Work it for the cause of "range of motion" as they say or let it languish for the cause of "pain free" as I say? I am not sure. Why do I care about the range of motion? It's not like I need my leg to karate kick someone's shoulder. It's not like I need my knee to make that extra point at the football goal. If the knee's range of motion is five degrees smaller than optimal, should I care?
When I go to Kaiser for the PT, they measure the angle of my "bend." (It's the only reason I go there because they charge $17 for me to have PT there, which is pathetic since I am there for about 20 minutes. The other 2 or 3 days a week I go to the YMCA of which I am a member and therefore it isn't a $17 copay every time. Duh.) So, the PT guy measures the angle and for the past three weeks it has been stuck at 110. Last week I painfully worked it enough so that the number jacked up to 120. That is huge, so he says, the final result they expect is 125.
But no wonder my friggin leg hurt for a week, I was really working that bend! I felt happy that I got to 120 but I also was pissed that it hurt as much as it did. This hurting knee thing has got to stop. I am done with the pain, I don't care that it's only been six weeks since the surgery, I want it all to be perfect NOW! Not in a month or three months. Now.
Sigh. The cool thing was the surgeon showed me the current X-rays of the knee with the fake "bones" they implanted and that was actually pretty cool. They photograph very differently than real bones so the fakeness really stood out, it was like gray bones juxtaposed with new, clean white bones. Very nice.
OK, a boring lesson, yes. But there you have it.
Friday, March 9, 2018
James Lee Burke's novels
For me, there is no reading a James Lee Burke novel straight through. His earlier novels, yes. But not the last few. This newest one, "Robicheaux" is so intense that I can only read it for 30 minutes and then I need a break. I WANT to read it all the way through but my thoughts and emotions get weighed down.
It isn't because the subject matter is so intense, it's a detective novel, one of a series, and as brutal as the killings Dave Robicheaux investigates might be, they are no more brutal than what happens in our daily lives, what we read in the headlines every day. No, the reasons I need to put the book down and walk away for a bit are because of the intensity of the writing, the focus on what happens in his characters' minds, the directness of the insight into the emotional and psychological workings of the evil in our society, the angst and terror and sometimes joy that coexist within everyone.
Just this: "Like an early nineteenth-century poet, when I have melancholy moments and feel the world is too much for us and that late and soon we lay waste to our powers in getting and spending, I am forced to pause and reflect upon my experiences with the dead and the hold they exert on our lives. This may seem a macabre perspective on one's life, but at a certain point it seems to be the only one we have. Mortality is not kind, and do not let anyone tell you it is. If there is such a thing as wisdom, and I have serious doubts about its presence in my own life, it lies in the acceptance of the human condition and perhaps the knowledge that those who have passed on are still with us, out there in the mist, showing us the way, sometimes uttering a word of caution from the shadows, sometimes visiting us in our sleep, as bright as a candle burning inside a basement that has no windows."
OK, if that doesn't make you want to read it a couple of times and then look up from the page and just.... stop and think about life, death, mortality..... well, you aren't ready for James Lee Burke.
He is one of my favorite writers and I do a little dance whenever a new book is released. It isn't often but I treasure his prose. The detective story genre isn't usually thought of (by those who are neophytes of the genre) as a literary gold mine but Burke is one of those whose prose transcends the genre. I have written about him several times in the past but he continues to amaze me. He lives in Montana. Seriously, his writing makes me want to drive there tomorrow and find him and shake his hand.
That's all..... just wanted to toss that in there. I will be finished with this novel before the weekend is done and it will stay in my mind for a while. His books always do.
.
It isn't because the subject matter is so intense, it's a detective novel, one of a series, and as brutal as the killings Dave Robicheaux investigates might be, they are no more brutal than what happens in our daily lives, what we read in the headlines every day. No, the reasons I need to put the book down and walk away for a bit are because of the intensity of the writing, the focus on what happens in his characters' minds, the directness of the insight into the emotional and psychological workings of the evil in our society, the angst and terror and sometimes joy that coexist within everyone.
Just this: "Like an early nineteenth-century poet, when I have melancholy moments and feel the world is too much for us and that late and soon we lay waste to our powers in getting and spending, I am forced to pause and reflect upon my experiences with the dead and the hold they exert on our lives. This may seem a macabre perspective on one's life, but at a certain point it seems to be the only one we have. Mortality is not kind, and do not let anyone tell you it is. If there is such a thing as wisdom, and I have serious doubts about its presence in my own life, it lies in the acceptance of the human condition and perhaps the knowledge that those who have passed on are still with us, out there in the mist, showing us the way, sometimes uttering a word of caution from the shadows, sometimes visiting us in our sleep, as bright as a candle burning inside a basement that has no windows."
OK, if that doesn't make you want to read it a couple of times and then look up from the page and just.... stop and think about life, death, mortality..... well, you aren't ready for James Lee Burke.
He is one of my favorite writers and I do a little dance whenever a new book is released. It isn't often but I treasure his prose. The detective story genre isn't usually thought of (by those who are neophytes of the genre) as a literary gold mine but Burke is one of those whose prose transcends the genre. I have written about him several times in the past but he continues to amaze me. He lives in Montana. Seriously, his writing makes me want to drive there tomorrow and find him and shake his hand.
That's all..... just wanted to toss that in there. I will be finished with this novel before the weekend is done and it will stay in my mind for a while. His books always do.
.
Thursday, March 1, 2018
"Call Me By Your Name"
Rotten Tomatoes had a 98% approval rating for this movie. I am in that other 2% of people who did not love it.
There is nothing wrong with this film except that it is so, so slow, way too pastoral and couched in such a dreamy quality that it almost put me to sleep. Long scenes of swimming holes, trees, sky, small Italian village, nothing happening. Oh, then, wait! We see two guys pedaling their bikes through the village and then more pastoral and more skies and more trees. Not even cows to provide some action. I would have liked cows.
Yes, it is probably sensitive and thoughtful and yes, it is no doubt my cynical, impatient and mean spirit that simply wanted the two guys to get it on, to stop with all the slobbery kissing and have sex. Stop with the underwear on the head, stop having sex with fruit. (The peach lobby should be heard on this, peaches were hurt in the making of this film, so sad.)
I like lustful movies and there was enough lust in this movie to fill a swimming pool. I also like sex in a movie and there wasn't enough sex in this movie to fill a thimble. Again, too much kissing, too much groaning and not enough naked bodies. Hey, just saying.
But it is beautiful to look at (while snooze inducing) and the two men are lovely. It is the old trop coming of age story, and perhaps I am tired of that. However, the movie "Lady Bird" was a coming of age movie as well and had some kissing and some sex and was so much better. It was much more real, less bucolic, had sarcasm and wit and at the same time love and longing and lust. It had no cows but no one missed them. And no peaches were hurt in the making of "Lady Bird".
Hey, just my opinion...... but I still feel bad for the peach.
.
There is nothing wrong with this film except that it is so, so slow, way too pastoral and couched in such a dreamy quality that it almost put me to sleep. Long scenes of swimming holes, trees, sky, small Italian village, nothing happening. Oh, then, wait! We see two guys pedaling their bikes through the village and then more pastoral and more skies and more trees. Not even cows to provide some action. I would have liked cows.
Yes, it is probably sensitive and thoughtful and yes, it is no doubt my cynical, impatient and mean spirit that simply wanted the two guys to get it on, to stop with all the slobbery kissing and have sex. Stop with the underwear on the head, stop having sex with fruit. (The peach lobby should be heard on this, peaches were hurt in the making of this film, so sad.)
I like lustful movies and there was enough lust in this movie to fill a swimming pool. I also like sex in a movie and there wasn't enough sex in this movie to fill a thimble. Again, too much kissing, too much groaning and not enough naked bodies. Hey, just saying.
But it is beautiful to look at (while snooze inducing) and the two men are lovely. It is the old trop coming of age story, and perhaps I am tired of that. However, the movie "Lady Bird" was a coming of age movie as well and had some kissing and some sex and was so much better. It was much more real, less bucolic, had sarcasm and wit and at the same time love and longing and lust. It had no cows but no one missed them. And no peaches were hurt in the making of "Lady Bird".
Hey, just my opinion...... but I still feel bad for the peach.
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