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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

So Wrong

I was driving and listening to an audio version of  'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Steig Larsson on the way home from work and an inspirational critical thought about the series came upon me like a light bulb. 

I had read the book once before, and seen the Swedish version of the video series via Netflicks , so I would say I knew the series fairly well. So when the inspiration dawned on me, I thought it would make a great blog. I thought I had suddenly gained a unique and crucial insight into the mind of the deceased author, something blogdom would find interesting enough to read.

I knew, to make the case for the inspirational idea, I'd have to do a little research to back up my suppositions with some supporting facts.

But as I dug into various details about the author, the series, and other related facts...it quickly became apparent that I was....

WRONG!!!!

Yeah, after researching various items, it became very very clear.....


So, I still had the idea, and I could still find enough facts here and there to provide support for my thoughts, but I knew for sure...

Now, my blog audience is very small, so the chance of someone in the audience catching my mistakes and pointing them out to me was astronomical.

But, then again, like I said before, deep down...I knew that I was...


I had to eat my humble pie, discard my 'brilliant' idea as if it were some moldy cheese I'd find at the back of the crisper drawer in my fridge.  My idea was shot down like a Hugh Hefner at a GLP parade.

Oh yes, blogee, I have been wrong before, sure. And I will be again, and again...more times then I even want contemplate. I can move on, no problem.

My comment on this is, I think about how easy it is to use a few strategic facts to justify just about anything. Without restraint, without minimal ethics, without self policing, facts can be used with pinpoint precision to back up even the most outrageous claims and beliefs.


Cheers, nca

P.S. "Three Hamlets walked into a bar, and so the bartender asked   'what will it be?'".  Salohcin

Friday, November 11, 2011

MAX RELOAD

  Today during lunch hour I drove down through Papago Park, past The Hole in the Rock,  the National Guard Armory, turning on Oak, then Thomas, finally driving down into my childhood neighborhood.


Everywhere I turned the sights and sounds stirred up memories long forgotten from the weight of 52 years living in this Valley of The Sun, 52 years living.

Landscape is memory and architecture is memory and youth and family and school and church and scouts and baseball all memory crowed together and trapped and freed when needed or when called upon or just seeping forth unbidden.

The blinking radio Towers of South Mountain like the beacons of Gondor calling forth memories like men upon horses. Were those towers always there? In my memories they were and a time when they were not only exists outside my memories and therefore outside of time and outside of being, separated from the me of my existence.


The weight of memory is heavy within my heart this day, weight carried upon my shoulders, of guilt and regret, and mulligans, and do overs. Good memories too, and just plain old memories un-judged, unplugged, swirling around in the synapses waiting to be recalled.  The road led me back down to Amelia Street  to that place where all my memories first sprung, that wet watering hole, the cradle of my youth.

Back then to work, then home to family, my journey to the past complete, I now contemplate upon the weight of the memories I carry with me now, of memories yet to be, and of memories lost or soon to be. What of these memories? I do not know. I'd say I know something of this place I live, this Valley of the Sun, but I'm not sure I know my place in it or what purpose I have served or if I served my purpose well.  Time will tell.

Cheers, nca

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Page Eight

Masterpiece Contemporary had a good one this week. Page 8 starring Bill Nighy , Michael Gambon, Rachel Weisz, Judy Davis, and Ralph Feinnes. Sort of a Harry Potter reunion cast with Michael Gambon and Ralph Feinnes. Nice plot with a bit of intrigue, and the acting was really swell. I particularly liked Bill Nighy in this one. I had recently seen him in Glorious 39, which I also enjoyed a bit.

Cheers, nca

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Two Real Quick Observations

1. I like the dedication at the end of 'Cities of the Plain' by Cormac McCarthy:

I will be your child to hold
And you be me when I am old
The world grows old
The heathens rage
The story's told
Turn The Page.

2. Dream sequences in book annoy me. I like reading a book front to back, no cheating, no skipping forward. But an annoying dream sequence is like a fly buzzing in my ear, I just want to swat it away. I have started a novel of my own (barely started, not making terrific progress) where I actually make fun of dream sequences in novels. Why would that annoy me so? I don't know. Similarly, I don't like dream sequences in movies either, and those Nightmare on Elm Street films annoy me too. Now, I don't know why dreams annoy me so much...do you know there actually is a phobia of dreams...Oneirophobia. Is that what I have?

I do think that it is sometimes a writer's crutch, and even just a space filler in books. Perhaps the author is trying to add the subconscious to a story the lazy way, but I'm just not interested in the wack vapor within a story, I'm about the story itself. Like when someone tells you  a good story, great...but who wants to hear about a dream someone had...yawn.

Cheers, nca