Lazy Thoughts From a Boomer

Saturday, November 7, 2009

G

Banks, as institutions, serve a purpose in our financial establishment that involves withdrawals, deposits, loans, investment, and exchanges of currency. Yes, like just about everyone else, I hate them, too. Principally, for their collusion in the de-regulation crisis they helped build, and the resulting recession that caused so many anguish in lost jobs and the like. But also, because every so often, they'll remind me just how fragile my secrets really are. Case in point, the ad my checking account firm mailed to my house yesterday.

Typical of today's money lenders proposals, it offered me a chance to earn 20% cash back for shopping online. I don't mind it, really (most of them will go into the shredder). However, they used my first name in the address! ARGH!

This post has been moved and updated to my current blog, which can be found here.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Trigger City

One of things I dislike most (besides lame Hollywood film remakes) is reaching the tail end of a book series that I really enjoy. While there are always other books to read (or in my case, listen to), a great novel series brings the kind of stories that blend the new right along with the familiar - all the while leaving the reader yearning for more. That's great when you start such a series, or are in the midst of one. It's not so good when you hit the wall, so do speak, and there's no next chapter in the string just sitting there... patiently waiting on you to get to it. This only goes to show the reader (me) that he's now hooked - relegated to waiting for that next novel fix. You end up trying to squelch that hunger by doing things like scanning the inter-tubes for any word of a publishing date for that next novel. Then, when you get the news you've waited on so desperately, you're counting the days down till the publishing date arrives. Not that I'm complaining... much. Although, this Crais-head really welcomes the autumn slide into January next because it'll deliver The First Rule come the 12th (there, I said it). Only now, however, I have to contribute another series-jones to my list of addictions (I'm excluding all things golf, for the sake of argument). I found myself taking stock of that fact yesterday morning when I finished Sean Chercover's Trigger City.

I've already noted how much I admired the author's debut novel, Big City Bad Blood, in an earlier post. The next in the series did not disappoint, at all. As well, the audiobook by Audible was just as solid as the first. This time, I had the benefit of some history with the P.I. character of Ray Dudgeon. Besides having the first book under my belt, Corey clued me in to the author's short story contribution in Killer Year (edited by Lee Child), One Serving of Bad Luck (which I consumed rather quickly after BCBI). The exemplary voice work done by audiobook narrator Joe Barrett (and the Audible studio directors) had his tones and inflections in my head as I read it (not a bad thing at all). The second novel added welcomed new layers to Ray, while he continued his painful recovery from what was meted out in the first book. Add to this, Trigger City included a timely and relevant plot to boot. The secondary characters (and I very much include the Second City here) Mr. Chercover used in the novels were a force multiplier with their impact on the series. Moreover, whatever the work experiences he gathered before he became a writer, seem to bring a certain reality to his story-lines. Like author Robert Crais, Sean can deftly build out and construct a character universe through his books (this one squarely centered on Chicago). He really made it easy to get immersed in the day-to-day lives of the characters, and grow comfortable with them (it has to be some sort of gift to be so habit-forming). I don't know what it is about the mystery/crime fiction genre that seems to draw this causing dependency reaction in its readership. The Horror and Sci-Fi lit I've read over the years rarely did that for me (Frank Herbert's Dune series being an exception). Even my Tom Clancy years never had this affect, either. Nevertheless, here I am... once again.

Hello. My name is Michael... and I'm a crime-fic series addict.

I never did smoke cigarettes (even in high school), chocolate no longer loves me, and I can't drink alcohol anymore (dammit). Great... All I have left is this series condition. All thanks to my dealers, the C-brothers (Crais & Chercover). I guess I can take the edge off by reading the Gravedigger Peace short, A Sleep Not Unlike Death, from the Hardcore Hardboiled collection, or the Ray Dudgeon piece in Chicago Blues (The Non Compos Mentis Blues) while I wait word on the next book. That, and cross off another day on The First Rule calendar I keep.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

November Prints

Image by le0pard13 via Flickr

During a span in my life, I carried an 35mm SLR camera (Canon AE-1, and later, an A-1) just about everywhere I went. Photography filled a hole in whatever artistic bent I had in me. I shot color slide or black & white print film at whatever points in the city I traveled to, or at various sporting and musical events I attended. It seems I had to have at least one hobby/interest going on as an adult. [wife: "Substitute the word obsession."] And during the late-70's / 80's, this was it. Over the years, I had collected a number of slides and negatives--most of which I've likely now lost (if I'm lucky at today's yard sale, I might find some). Only some of the prints that were created years ago have found a way to remain with me into this century. So, I've decided that if I can't find the original film or slide sources, I might as well scan what I have to form an archive of sorts. The images in this post represent a prime example from that era, and they have a connection to the present.

This post has been moved and updated to my current blog, which can be found here.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

"I just as soon leave him home by himself."

Image by Furldman via Flickr

With kudos and credit to blogger/artist Fooksie for creating a graphic (left) that was the perfect visual to go along with this Halloween post, I share with you my all-time favorite Bill Cosby routine from childhood (it's the most liked by my kids, too). From his 1966 Wonderfulness album, it includes the immortal lines:

This is before babysitters, when parents did not believe in babysitters, at all. The philosophy was, 'What! Let some stranger look after my kid?!? I just as soon leave him home by himself.'

Enjoy.

Chicken Heart

Monday, October 26, 2009

Miscellaneous Monday

Not that it means anything special, but this is the last Monday for the month of October, already. We're sliding, alright. Halloween on Saturday and November (along with the return of Daylight Standard Time) comes Sunday. Plus, I've got a newly minted 14 year-old who still wants to trick or treat (and says he needs a costume), a 9 year-old (who can't wait for next month to arrive so she can turn 10) who desires pumpkins for sculpturing and spider webs for decorating the house with, and a wife who is juggling so many projects at work and at home that the last thing she wants to see is any ghoulish creature coming to our door, at the moment. Add to this that she-who-must-be-obeyed cares little for the time change (winter blues), and we (kids and I) have our work carved out for us as the light wains. Good to know that it's another normal October at the insane asylum that is my home during this time of year. So, let's mention a couple sundry items and get them out of the way.

First, the author of Big City Bad Blood and Trigger City, Sean Chercover, is having a diverting giveaway. His READING@WORK CONTEST:

I'm giving away prizes for the best pictures of people reading Trigger City in the workplace. So take a picture of yourself reading the book at work, and send it in.

Prizes include Trigger City lapel pins, t-shirts, signed books, and one-year subscriptions to Crimespree Magazine. You might even win your name used as one of the characters in my next book. You could end up as a cop, a corpse, or even an arch criminal.

Send your photo to the author to get in on this. I sent mine in this morning (I should have shaved, though):

Since I'm in my seasonal movie mode (Silent Hill and 1963's The Haunting, already), there are a couple still I'm looking forward to teeing up on the DVD player. The new one is (from what I hear) the highly unrated werewolf movie, Bad Moon (1996). Eric Red (the writer of The Hitcher and Near Dark) directs this tale of a man coming to visit his sister and her son at their home. What intrigued me to this film is that it's told from the perspective of the protective family German Shepard (yes, I'm a sucker for these kinds of stories):

Of course, Halloween wouldn't be Halloween for me without my annual viewing of Tim Burton's Sleep Hollow. Whether it's how the director handles this period horror film, the startling visuals he employs throughout, the Hammer films that provided the inspiration for the design of it, and favorites like Christopher Lee and Christopher Walken giving chilling cameos in it, I have to have this fix this time of year (that and candy corn):

Who knew that my children would continue to amaze their father (and hand out gray hairs to their parents like it was candy on a certain holiday). I don't know if it's related to the solar system sculpture he recently completed and turned in for his 8th grade science class, but this is what my son wants his old man to play (and re-discover) in the car as we make our way to school:

And my daughter is no slouch as to enforcing her will on to my iTunes library. She's got her father scratching his head as to how he ignored (or missed entirely) this song:

I'm definitely getting too old too fast.