Random Little Library

Back in the days of sunny skies and breathable we were on a walk around the neighborhood when just a couple blocks from home we stumbled on a couple boxes of books on the front wall with a sign that read “Free. Take Some.”

It was a varied assortment of kids to young adult books. Donna picked through and selected several books that she thought were appropriate to send along to the nieces and nephew in Washington and I selfishly picked out three books, that spanned 3 centuries in publication dates, I might like to read. All of them were made into movies, only one of which I have seen, so maybe I’ll read the books, then watch the movies, just to compare them.

Published in 2010 was I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore and all I knew of this book was that it had been made into a movie. A not very successful one if I recall correctly. It was fairly entertaining book about an alien race that looks just like us living on earth until they can return to their home planet and reclaim it. But it turns into teen romance with monsters and hero aliens. Because it turns out to be the first book in a series of seven it doesn’t so much as conclude, buts just stops. The movie is available on IMDB for free (with adds), but after I watched the trailer, I won’t watch the movie because I’m not a teenager any more.

Published in 1968 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick, AKA Bladerunner, was the source material for one of my favorite movies of all-time, but I have never read the book on which it was based. I am a voracious sci-fi reader and have actually never read anything by PKD. Though I have seen more than a half dozen or so of the movies or TV shows based on his writings. While the book is different from the movie in many ways, the core plot is the same and I can see where the cinematic choices made for a better movie.

First published in French in 1864 A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne wasn’t translated into English for publication in 1871. According to IMDB there are three movie versions, 1959, 1988 & 2008 to go along with numerous TV series, TV mini-series, TV movies and a video game based on this material. I have seen none of them and I have also not read the book. Now is my chance. Wow. I couldn’t read it. The language was, well, different. Was it the translation, was it the language of the time, was it a combination of the two? I don’t know, but I couldn’t finish through the second chapter.

But as I was hungry, I sallied forth to the dining room, where I took up my usual quarters. Out of politeness I waited three minutes, but no sign of my uncle, the Professor. I was surprised. He was not usually so blind to the pleasure of a good dinner. It was the acme of German luxury- parsley soup, a ham omelette with sorrel trimmings, an oyster of veal stewed with prunes, delicious fruit, and sparkling Moselle. For the sake of poring over this musty old piece of parchment, my uncle forbore to share our meal. To satisfy my conscience, I ate for both.

The old cook and housekeeper was nearly out of her mind. After taking so much trouble, to find her master not appear at dinner was to her a sad disappointment-which, as she occasionally watched the havoc I was making on the viands, became also alarm. If my uncle were to come to table after all?

Probably not going to watch this movie either. The 2008 movie with Brendan Faser is three bucks to rent on Amazon and the 1959 movie with James Mason & Pat Boone is a dollar more at $4. The 1988 version is free on Amazon, it has 3 one-star ratings only because they couldn’t give it a zero. But to top it off, here is a quote from the listed director, Rusty Lemorande: “Only the first eight minutes of this film were directed by me. The rest of it is the sequel to the Kathy Ireland vehicle Alien from L.A. (1988) directed by Albert Pyun, which was tacked on by the producers and renamed “Journey to the Center of the Earth” in order to fulfill contracts with foreign distributors.”

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Smoke Edition of SORT.
In honor of the smokey skies surrounding me tonight,
every car will be a shade of silver or gray.
As of Monday, September 14, 2020 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2004 Honda S2000 1995 Land Rover
Defender 110 300Tdi		 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing
The up-sized Miata for the slightly bigger folks. Perfect for my upcoming private SWAT Team. If I’m going to dream,
might as well dream big.

Track 18 – Apache

Part of the appeal of Radio Paradise for me are the interesting cover tunes that show up unexpectedly, like this one, the early 60’s The Shadows hit which itself is a cover of an earlier British version.

Another thing that you sometimes get on Radio Paradise is mini string of themed music, this song was usually followed by the John Anderson song, Seminole Wind.

Football is Back

We watched the Kansas City Chiefs play the Houston Texans last night. It was a slightly toned down version of their AFC Championship game from last year, the Texans scored first then the Chiefs racked up an insurmountable lead and basically cruised to the win.

One thing was really different though, the crowd in the stands. Early in the third quarter when the game was still kind of close, Al Michaels comments on a shot of the stands by saying, “It looks like it is late in the 4th and the home team is up by 50 points.” Later they announce the actual attendance at fifteen thousand something, or roughly 1/5 of capacity.

The broadcast had added some piped in noise to make it almost sound like a full house. I want to know was it the just NBC adding it, or was it piped into Arrowhead Stadium too? And if they did, what was it like for the 20% in the seats to hear the fake sound?

She Looks Familiar

On Saturday when I finally gave up on watching Californication with mere minutes to go in the Season 5’s final episode. I once again tried on Hulu for something worth watching and received the same results (what is that quote about trying the same thing over and over again?) My best option now was to open up Plex and pick a movie I own digitally because if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have a copy of it. Ooh, here is one I love and haven’t watched in a while, Ronin. Foreign locales, international intrigue, gun fire and car chases.

Natascha McElhone in Ronin

Early on when the team of mercenaries is gathering a bar in Paris, in walks a woman who is going to be the leader their mission. Hey, she looks familiar. I’ve seen her in something I’ve watched recently.

Natascha McElhone in Californication

I hit pause and open up IMDB page for Ronin, dang, no wonder I thought I recognized her, she is the same actor who plays David Duchovny’s girlfriend/soul mate/baby mamma in Californication, Natascha McElhone.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Just Another Edition of SORT.
As of Monday, September 7, 2020 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1968 Datsun
2000 Roadster		 1991 Nissan
Safari Patrol		 2015 Mercedes-Benz
E63 S 4MATIC Wagon
If you don’t want to own this car after watching the drive video, the sports car section of your soul is missing. Another quirky Japanese 4×4. It is even right-hand drive. The LED fog lights have to be replaced by sealed beam units. Because it is the AMG version with 577 HP and all-wheel drive this will sub in the Sports category on rainy days too.

If you are Miata shopping there is quite a selection on BAT right now:

  1. A low-mileage stock, much sought after, 1995 M-Edition.
  2. A nicely turbocharged silver first gen car.
  3. A very early 302 V-8 swapped NA in blinding green.
  4. A 6.2 liter LS3 in a second generation NB car.

Californication

I stumbled on this decade old Showtime series on Hulu and thought I’d check it out, solely on the merits of my favorite FBI guy, Agent Mulder. In this show Mr. Duchovny plays a writer named Hank, who tries unsuccessfully to balance his drinking, drug use and philandering ways with his on again off again relationship with his family which consists of a longtime girlfriend and their daughter. In traditional pay cable channel the show includes a lot of profanity, nudity and simulated sex acts.

The first season was pretty good fun, the second had an interesting story line weaved through it and season 3 had an absolutely filthy mouthed guest star turn from Kathleen Turner, but after 36 episodes I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch anymore. This Season 4 Episode 1 review on IMDB by user mtrodeomom pretty much summed up my feelings:

I’ve gagged my way through this series. The premise was somewhat intriguing and the first few episodes were watchable. But with the beginning of season four, I think I’m done. It’s obvious, the writers are only going for as much gratuitous nudity as they can shove into this show. The main character is disgusting. There aren’t any redeemable qualities in him. And frankly, I can’t understand why any woman would crawl into bed with him. He’s semi-famous. But he’s a washed up old writer. He isn’t that attractive, and he doesn’t offer these woman anything. He says he loves Karen and Becca, but he can’t keep his dick in his pants. So, his words are empty. Every time he’s with yet another woman, I want to throw up.

But I was sort of invested in the some of other characters, and hell, I’m still reading Dagwood on the funny pages long after they have have become cliches, so I watched season four, vowing to not go any further. As it turned out that that last show was intended to be the series ender, so it wrapped up all the story threads nicely and as a bonus was a very good episode.

So, you know what happened right? Yep I started watching season five. Why? See Dagwood line above. I got 3/4 of the way through the season yesterday afternoon and told Donna I was done watching for good now. After hunting around Hulu this afternoon looking to find something different I might watch, I caved and told myself I’d just finish the season out and quit. I didn’t make it, got close, but I shut off the season ending episode out with like 10 minutes to go. The twist at the end, in hindsight, was telegraphed throughout the episode, but it was just too much to watch. The initial screw-up in the show was not really Hank’s fault, but since then his bad decision making skills have been the root of all his troubles. Until this one, where it is his ex-New York girlfriend who slips him a Mickey Finn, that seemed to me too a cheap trick.

I’m running out of things to watch…

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