Steffan Piper's Blog, page 10

This could've been fantastic ...

I had heard about this book about the time I heard that legendary screenwriter Brian Helgeland (look it up if the name is unknown to you) was writing the adaptation to it. I was intrigued, but I didn't rush right out and read it. I think I first heard about the adaptation back in 2004, so that tells you a lot.

Recently, I saw the movie and was impressed by the quality of the story and found it interesting, so I bought it on Kindle and finally read it.

I had prepared myself for this book because over the last 9 years since it was released, a lot of people have said much about the quality of the writing and how contrived and poor it was, almost disabling the ideas and the world created by Shan. In his defense, a lot has also been said to the positive about his writing ability in all the subsequent books that followed, even as the storyline seemed to wane.

Obviously, this is a very early work that probably would've been made into a masterpiece had it been reworked a few times and developed. The story is strong though and very lucid even if the writing drags it down.

To the point, there is an excessive use of exclamation marks for one. The characters, especially Darren, come across as shallow and underdeveloped, while the other characters around him are much better and fleshed out in greater detail. It's really hard getting a peg on Shan as he reads like a 'tabula rasa' -- don't worry, I hate when other reviewers use that word to describe a main character as well. The dialogue sounds the same regardless of who's speaking it, and some of the ideas are: "Oh, yeah ... and then ..." which is incredibly disconcerting.

I had no problem with Shan using his own name and I didn't translate it as something the author was doing to boost his ego or because of low-self-esteem. I think that notion is just beyond absurd. Why not write a nouveau-style Vampire memoir? In 2001, it seemed more plausible and was really ahead of the curve. I can't fault the guy for that at all.

The story is strong enough to hook me and I'll read the next three books with an open mind, because I'm willing to give the writer a pass "if" the writing develops. From what I've read, it has and so I have high hopes.

Here's to another film adaptation in the future. 


...

The Original Gangster ... Being Ice aint Easy ...

I'm probably one of the few people that have read and reviewed Ice's other book The Ice Opinion and this book was as equally informing and true as the previous. Being honest, after having read that book a few years back, the thought occurred to me to ask: "what more could this man say that he hasn't already spoke about?" Let me just clear the table and confirm that nothing in these two books is material that's been repeated or regurgitated. Without doubt, this is a solid and eye-opening read.

First, you might not know that Ice was an Army Ranger and an incredibly solid and dedicated soilder while he was doing his time in service. Yes, he did end up having to stand up in front of the C.O., but who hasn't? Legendary Marine, Chesty Puller once said that "the best soliders are often found in the brig." In Ice's case, he wasn't kidding. Ice never got involved in drugs or alcohol and never squealed on anyone either. In historical and mythical terms, he's a pretty honorable character, but the reality that you come away with from reading this book, is that Ice is anything but a character, he's a real person with his survival instincts ratcheted up on high. Ice, born Tracy Marrow, is probably the best example of social darwainism that I've ever heard about. Working your way up from the bottom, parentless, financially 'out', being bussed from one social tier to another for school, trapped in a warring culture on the brink of a social apocalypse -- you name it. "Just hold your ground and be true to yourself." That's his message and he has the life behind him to prove it. Hmm. Who also said that, about 400 years ago? I wonder. "To thine own self ..."

A few days ago, I was at Zales looking at something with my wife. At that time I was about half-way through this book, and while I was standing at the counter, all I could think about was Ice-T and his team of smash-and-grab jewelery thieves doing 'licks' all over Los Angeles and later nationwide. The story he tells isn't about ego, it's not romanticized and he's not telling you to score points with the reader or with the history books in general. This is just how it was. The funny thing is, is that there's probably a lot of us who grew up during this period of time, like myself who can absolutely relate. Even from the criminal tip. He never got caught, never went to jail, never carried a gun in those days and never had to hurt anyone innocent. I can't say the same for a lot of thugs on the street or even the white-collar criminals out there today. Ice talks a lot about his military training, how it made him disciplined and how the military mind in the civilian world is often implemented. You either become an Officer, or you become a criminal. Notice I didn't say Cop.

The amazing thing was that Ice was making a boatload more cash before he got into the rap game and was trying to manage both his criminal career and his ascendency into Rap all at the same time. Being surrounded by both Crips and Bloods on all sides, he emerged as the spokesman for both sets and was like the nuetral Switzerland. He had respect from all the big time guys and worked hard to maintain it. One of the more interesting tidbits is how he ended up over at Warner Brothers and being close with a lot of folks who had much respect for him there as well as a musician and as a person. Ice also had a lot fo respect for the law, even though some, who might remember this, might not think so. He tells it like this:

"There was a line and it was their job to enforce it and it was my job to cross over and back and not get caught."

When his musical career broke, I remember hearing him when I was living all the way up in Alaska and thinking how raw it was. It was incredibly clear to see that everything that came out after Ice, was inspired by Ice, because nobody had rapped about such a hard game before. When Ice Cube hit with his Amerikkkas Most Wanted album and NWA casettes were circulating, people everywhere couldn't get enough. By then though, we all knew where it started and Ice had already moved on to something else - Body Count.

The book is harrowing in places and deeply engrossing. Never for a moment does any of it come across as contrived, unrelatable or 'not real'. Ice's mantra always seems to seep from these pages to just be you and I'll be me. For that, you know this isn't going to read like a lot of the celebrity biographies do where there's just ego oozing out from the seem of the book. Forgive me if I don't care to name names, but too many of them are like that. Ice can easily tell you how when he bought a brand new Ferrari and Flava flav smashed into the back of it, you never think for a moment that he's bragging. He tells it like a young man, excited and jazzed about something cool that just landed in his lap -- and that's unflinchingly sincere in all aspects.

This isn't a white-washed version of his life, reading it you can tell. He's not holding anything back here either as he admits to many things that many people in position just wouldn't.

Regarding Law & Order, I'm one of those people that originially tuned into that show because of Ice-T and I've always felt that I'd always prefer to see more episodes centered around his character. But he has a different position on this. Like he says in the book: "I'm number five on the roster and that's a good place to be."

Through the years, I've come to appreciate Ice more and more for a number of reasons. Ice (obviously -- if you're paying attention) is a huge fan of Robert Beck, as am I, and the life that Robert Beck lived and wrote about is the story of a lot of us, myself included. When I read Mama Black Widow, I finally had found someone who was writing about the facets of my own life. Later I read Airtight Willie & Me and quickly read everything else.

For the record, this review is on the Advance Review version of the book and thus I was sadly without any of the cool pictures that will be in the final print edition or other things that are promised in the details. This book is going to get some good circulation and he deserves it.

As a side note: If you're one of those folks that like to read books like this in one sitting, which is typically fine, I would suggest not doing so with this. I would read this in stages and really spend some time thinking about what's here. I would read this book in 80 page increments so you don't just glass over the details. This is a very good book and deserves consideration. 

"I've never read any Dickens." ... Really, Oprah? ...

Last December I was a little shocked to discover that Oprah Winfrey had selected two Charles Dickens novels for her book club. She chose Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities as "great Christmas reading," or "hot cocoa reading," even though neither book has anything at all with Christmas or hot effing cocoa. Ever heard of A Christmas Carol or The Chimes? She also said in the same breath that she's never even read any Dickens. Wait a minute. What? I was immediately put off by this and spoke about it to several people, in real-time and online, and was semi-castigated in both instances. The response I got back from both parties was essentially this:

"Why are you upset that Oprah would promote Charles Dickens? All it does is bring new readers to great literature. Sounds like Sour grapes to me."

My response was this:

"No, it's not sour grapes as I do not ever expect Oprah Winfrey to ever utter my name. But instead of promoting a well-deserving unknown author and giving that person a shot, she selects a writer that most people either have little interest in or should be reading in school. And what does it say to people to promote something that you've admittedly never even read?"


Again, I don't have any mixed feelings about this because I have no expectation whatsoever about Oprah and anything I've written, and I didn't even bother to send her a copy of Greyhound either, because as is evinced by the news that SHE NEVER EVEN READ ANY DICKENS, I was suspecting this to be the case much of the time with the majority of her suggested reading. And let's be honest, after reading a handful of the titles, most of them are just insipid, lazy and forgettable -- and thus it becomes clear that she was just another marketing tool for the Big 6 publishing houses and I get the feeling that she only chose Great Expectations because she liked the movie version with Gwyenth Paltrow. Groan. As if we didn't already have enough outlets pushing the same 20 books all over the place. Please, people. You folks should be finding better scouts for your reading material. That much is abundantly clear.

But back to our man Dickens.

I've read Dickens. I've read almost everything the man every wrote and I love Dickens. And despite what you may have heard: "Oh, Charles Dickens is difficult reading!" That notion is about as far away from reality as is possible. Dickens is actually very easy reading because if you understand that he wrote most of his stories as segments in newspapers, then you can better get through them when reading it. Just about every chapter reads in a very compartmentalized fashion and the work of reading Dickens isn't work at all, it's just something that takes time because he wrote a lot and it's far from tedious. Most of what he wrote still resonates today too, especially Oliver Twist . Twist is a book I read every winter, without fail, and have done so for about the last fifteen of them. Any reader with any wherewithal can quickly grasp that Charles Dickens is:

1. social commentary above all else.
2. solid, enjoyable reading.
3. relevant and educational.
4. forces you to makes comparisons with his world and yours.
5. always leaves you with a desire to read more.

In 2010, I read a total of four Charles Dickens's books and I hope to read an equal or greater number this year, which is much more than I can say for whatever Oprah is reading.  Unfortunately, I get the feeling the bulk of her reading will likely be consisting of material in her own magazine. She should have her reading suggested to her for awhile instead of the other way around.

And if you're still reading the paperback versions and not the eBook versions, I thoroughly recommend reading the Norton Anthology versions, or a version that has critical essays accompanying in the back of the book. Dickens wrote several different introductions to most of his books through the years and reading some of his essays and what others have had to say over the vasty milieu is equally fascinating.

...

I've heard the Chimes at Midnight, Master Harry ...

There really isn't much more to say once you see this film. You should be mad and actually downright on the verge of taking up arms and forming community 'groups' for lack of a better term to do something about some of this, but ... 

you won't. 

And that's the saddest reality and the most painful message in all of this. Add in that the folks that Michael Moore is talking about have successfully turned his name into a symbol of the ultimate pariah making this very clear message even harder to be acknowledged, injested and acted upon. 

The infrastructure that Moore is reporting upon used to run in fear that this kind of information would be privvy to the mainstream media, but these days they've already figured where everybody stands, how much stomach most people have to fight and by keeping everyone hard at work, it'll make it harder for them to seek out the barest amount of respect in the world for themselves and their families. They know that - for you - the viewer, it's just more consumable media that you'll entertain yourselves with so that you can sleep in a numb haze at night and forget that this place is really in for darker times in the near short term. 

I read most of the negative reviews of this film and it really is hard to nay-say the information or try to GOP coat-tail and uphold the 'dead peasant' insurance policies, the massive lay-off's during economic booms and the out-right unethical looting that took place by Wall Street ... unless of course you're Tucker Carlson or some other emotionally detached human being with a huge trust-fund or just grossly uneducated in common sense or basic ecomonics. 

The fact that this film has been out for some time and a lot of people have never even seen it, or wanted to see it, should be an indication as to what's really going on around us. Yes, I finally included myself in this. 

There's a scene where a little dog is jumping up and down at the dinner table hoping for some food scraps from their owner to fall their way and Moore equates those folks struggling for their vision of the American Dream to be that dog, and the bankers and corporations are the people looking at the dog and doing everything they can to keep the dog in its place. Quite fitting and quite simple. 

It doesn't matter how you feel about Michale Moore, because you should put that aside and watch this film. You'll learn that he, too, is an American and his father worked in an American factory his whole life giving Michael and his siblings the ideal American life. Michael started his life in film-making by trying to document what went on in the Automobile industry during the Reagan years and which now, has come full circle and fully played itself out - and in the worst possible scenario imaginable. 

This is a really difficult film to watch because Ronald Reagan isn't the hero, Jimmy Carter becomes the voice of doom, the death of FDR becomes the turning point in American History for the worst, Bill Clinton sets up some of the pieces of the puzzle that makes the nightmare possible and George Bush just doubles down on all of it multiplying our troubles ad infinitum. This is not a happy film and you're left to just hate the situation and all those involved and there is no answer at the end. This whole thing goes down like Henry V, but with a horrible outcome where Scroop, Grey and Westmoreland actually succeed in selling out the country for loose coin. 

The film is like the Chimes at Midnight. Some say "Well, then why watch it?" Because you must. 




...

Greyhound Giveaway on Goodreads ...

  

    .goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;

      font-style: normal; background: white; }

    .goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }

    .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }

    .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }

    .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }

    .goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }

    .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important; 

      text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;

      border: 1px solid #6A6454; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;

      background-image:url(http://goodreads.com/images/layout/gr... background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;

      outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;

    }

    .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(http://goodreads.com/images/layout/gr...

      color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;

    }

  


    Goodreads Book Giveaway
  


  
  

    
        
    
    
  
  

    

      
          Greyhound
      
      
    

      
          by Steffan Piper
      
      
    
    

      
        

            Giveaway ends January 25, 2011.
        

        

            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
        

      
      
    
  

  
  
      Enter to win
  
  
  

GalleyCat lists Greyhound as one of the best YA books of 2010 ...

Galleycat listed Greyhound as one of the best YA books 2010. Caught me by surprise, but I'm thankful.

Be Advised ... I'm Mean, Nasty and Tired ...

I'm a huge fan of this film as I remember seeing it in the theatres and also seeing it on VHS many, many times. This is a film that can either strike you as a 'made for TV movie' or a very serious piece of film about military life that hasn't been this accurate in a long time.

The main thing to know about this film is that:

1. It has some of the best and most incredibly imaginitive military dialouge ever put on screen.
2. There is a strange realism in this film about the true nature of being a human being while also being a soldier that is grossly absent in just about every other war film ever made.

I would love to quote some of the dialogue, but Amazon forbids a person from placing expletives in a review. However, maybe I can just bullet point some of the big scenes to watch out for, or listen to when you watch this. It starts:

1. Gunny Hiway (Eastwood) is in a jail cell story-telling, surrounded by other convicts, drunks and punk kids. An altercation ensues between Hiway and would-be Motorcycle gangster. Hiway hurts the guy pretty bad and probably hurts his ego more than the man's body.
2. After being released from jail by the judge, Gunny Hiway is accosted by the arresting Sherrif. Wow. Classic film dialogue.
3. While Sleeping on a Greyhound Bus, Gunny Hiway shares a beer with 'Stitch Jones' (Van Peebles)
4. Gunny Hiway meets, haranges and demoralizes his new Recon Platoon all in a fast moving three minutes which is powerful.
5. Going to meet his ex-wife at her new job as a waitress in a bar (owned by her new boyfriend), Gunny Hiway gets into a direct altercation with this guy who offers to wrap a wooden bat around his head and Hiway offers to 'bend him over and nail him in the keester' (good grief - it get's gripping right here for sure).
6. Meeting his men once more in th eearly morning before a run and demoralizing them by name.
7. The false deployment scene where Hiway utters the now famous word on film: Clusterf ...
8. Any scene where Gunny Hiway and Sgt. Major Choozoo laugh and growl about what they've done. Classic.

The strongest aspect of this film is the dialoge and it's no misunderstanding, when you read the script, which I have, why Eastwood not only chose to star in this film but also Produce and Direct it. What's interesting is that when you examine this film and Eastwood's career, one can easily surmise that it was this film that possibly made Eastwood direct more and have a tighter control over his projects ever after. Had he made that decision before hand, this probably would've had the culteral impact of a 'Shawshank Redemption'. A year later though, Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket' premiered, supposedly setting the standard. I think it lowered it actually, even though it's an epic and masterful piece of film. It's a subtle point, but an important one. Heartbreak Ridge doesn't romanticize Marine Corps life as badly as many other films out there.

While Heartbreak Ridge really is a good film, and not just a good movie (notice I said it's a film and not a movie, which is a big difference) some of the things that really lay waste to it, is obviously the third act, which sends them into action in the historical retelling of Grenada, rather than just honestly documenting military life, which is what the true story of this film is and should've stayed focused on.

Some of the characters come across thinly and pretty much the same as some of the others, failing to stand out. Some of Van Peebles scenes in this are honestly unwatchable and cringe-worthy, while some are very gripping. It's inconsistent, and one the first things the viewer notices. 'Stitch Jones' strikes this viewer as an attempt to be a vehicle for Van Peebles to do other movie work, and insincere. Historically, for a short period of time, it seemingly was, as he did a handful of movies directly after this, none of which really stood out. I'm sure he'd disagree though.

Marsha Mason's character 'Aggie' isn't really given her moment to shine in this, but you can almost feel that it's just about to explode across the screen. Unfortunately, we never seen this because either it was never written and shot (which I doubt) or it never made it past the editing because of run-time (which I can believe). The relationship between the hardened, aging Marine and the military wife is incredibly touching, very deep and without need of exposition. Eastwood probably never had a woman on screen with him with so much workable chemistry before or after. Just saying. It comes across as a missed opportunity.

You can tell that there are musically a few touches of Eastwood in this, but not many. One wonders why such a possibly monumental film just really fell apart, whether it was in the planning, the writing, production, or post-production, we'll never know. Honestly, though, I wish I did. The DVD offers no documentaries, commentary, extras, deleted scenes, nada. A lot of people loathe that stuff, but I eat it up.

I really adore this film for the realism that it conveys about military life. Nothing is romanticised, nothing is exaggerated, the uniforms are spec and mannerisms are accurate. I applaud the production people or the military liason to this film and woven into this wonderful film, that unfortunately - and ultimately fails - is an incredibly honest telling of military life. Failed relationships, failed deployments, failed expectations and aspirations, failed careers, failed engagements, all of it.

Military life, for a lot of people who go in and serve 2,4 or 8 years, experience this as an indelible transition in their lives that effects them ever after. Gunny Hiway serves as the Boatman through this for both the young men he's entrusted to train, and for us, the observer. You leave this film with much more than you go in with.

I actually find this film to be Eastwood's most memorable, as it seems as though his cold stare and gravelly voice were made specifically this film and this film alone. 

Where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes.

picture to change


Currently, all over the united States, simultaneously, people are engaged in their local elections. Signs are sprouting up everywhere trying to seat their name in your mind as deep as possible so that on election day, November 02nd, you'll remember it and then punch the box for their name. Even if they're the absolute worst person for the job or the last person who will protect your interests. In fact, many of the people who will be running for the most innocuous of these positions have the most to gain and equally cause you, the voter, the most harm.
I read earlier today a remark that said that the appearance of people like Christine O'Donnell and Sarah Palin was a deeper plot to overturn the 19th Amendment. To be fair, I can also think of several Democrats that fit that description as well. While the remark was definitely tongue-in-cheek, the point was pretty clear. We really do elevate fools into rich heroes in this country as Charles Bukowski remarked many years ago. The real power of office is through voting, but as a collective body we seem to have zero skill in electing decent, or even passably safe politicians. All of them, lately, seem to be turning into some nuevo version of Scroop, Cambridge and Grey from Henry V who would've sold their country into ruin if they hadn't met with intervention. Gone are simpler times of politics. Good luck chasing these people down and 'pinning it on them', because direct culpability is unlikely.


Locally, we already have "regular people" running for political seats in the Coachella Valley whose first act is to defiantly break the law. The city code specified a date for the proliferation of Campaign signage across the Coachella Valley where I live, but these signs went up and started appearing all over three weeks before they were allowed. If you're running a campaign of honesty and integrity, I would say you just lost.
The weekend before the signs were allowed to be posted, I saw city workers from both Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City going around throwing these signs into the backs of their tracks to dispose of them. It's probably no big deal to some of these candidates blowing twenty thousand dollars on signs as the money that paid for those signs likely came from a business interest that runs opposite to the voter. Like someone who currently has the backing of the Farming Industry in the region, and who has already raised the rates on your water bill twice already. But hey, it's no big deal, you can all afford it. Right?

If there's one thing that's been made clear in this era, it's that we seem to be incapable of governing ourselves appropriately. Self government looks to be the biggest failure of Western civilization because there just is no incentive to bring prosperity to the those around us. People who run for office often say they're running for the good of the people, but statistically it just seems not to be true. Gordon Gecko and his 'Greed is Good' mantra has become the mainstream norm. If you're not in it for yourself, then you probably need to check yourself. While there is no substitute and total control is never good, it is the only system we have. As long as people chose to remain uninformed or find their direction through people and businesses that would rather drag you, and everyone you know, through the muck, rather than correctly inform, it's going to be longtime before most politicians can sleep easy at night.
But hey, I only got one vote, right? Hahaha ...
...

Where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes ...

picture to change


Currently, all over the united States, simultaneously, people are engaged in their local elections. Signs are sprouting up everywhere trying to seat their name in your mind as deep as possible so that on election day, November 11th, you'll remember it and then punch the box for their name. Even if they're the absolute worst person for the job or the last person who will protect your interests. In fact, many of the people who will be running for the most innocuous of these positions have the most to gain and equally cause you, the voter, the most harm.
I read earlier today a remark that said that the appearance of people like Christine O'Donnell and Sarah Palin was a deeper plot to overturn the 19th Amendment. To be fair, I can also think of several Democrats that fit that description as well. While the remark was definitely tongue-in-cheek, the point was pretty clear. We really do elevate fools into rich heroes in this country as Charles Bukowski remarked many years ago. The real power of office is through voting, but as a collective body we seem to have zero skill in electing decent, or even passably safe politicians. All of them, lately, seem to be turning into some nuevo version of Scroop, Cambridge and Grey from Henry V who would've sold their country into ruin if they hadn't met with intervention. Gone are simpler times of politics. Good luck chasing these people down and 'pinning it on them', because direct culpability is unlikely.


Locally, we already have "regular people" running for political seats in the Coachella Valley whose first act is to defiantly break the law. The city code specified a date for the proliferation of Campaign signage across the Coachella Valley where I live, but these signs went up and started appearing all over three weeks before they were allowed. If you're running a campaign of honesty and integrity, I would say you just lost.
The weekend before the signs were allowed to be posted, I saw city workers from both Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City going around throwing these signs into the backs of their tracks to dispose of them. It's probably no big deal to some of these candidates blowing twenty thousand dollars on signs as the money that paid for those signs likely came from a business interest that runs opposite to the voter. Like someone who currently has the backing of the Farming Industry in the region, and who has already raised the rates on your water bill twice already. But hey, it's no big deal, you can all afford it. Right?

If there's one thing that's been made clear in this era, it's that we seem to be incapable of governing ourselves appropriately. Self government looks to be the biggest failure of Western civilization because there just is no incentive to bring prosperity to the those around us. People who run for office often say they're running for the good of the people, but statistically it just seems not to be true. Gordon Gecko and his 'Greed is Good' mantra has become the mainstream norm. If you're not in it for yourself, then you probably need to check yourself. While there is no substitute and total control is never good, it is the only system we have. As long as people chose to remain uninformed or find their direction through people and businesses that would rather drag you, and everyone you know, through the muck, rather than correctly inform, it's going to be longtime before most politicians can sleep easy at night.
But hey, I only got one vote, right? Hahaha ...
...

Look up ... what do you see? ...