David M. Brown's Blog, page 74
January 9, 2013
App Review: Spout
Introducing Spout, the newest way to enjoy news, messages, tweets and comments; delivered to your screen as a beautifully rendered up-to-the-second display of social content.
Instead of spending hours scouring the web, simply ‘turn on the Spout’ sit back and enjoy a steady stream of information specifically meant for you! Relax as a veritable flood of news, messages, tweets and comments pour forth from your Facebook, Twitter, or Google Reader (RSS) feeds.
Words spill onto your device, swirling, twisting, and scrolling across your screen, pooling in the centre momentarily, like a leaf on a pond, before being whisked away as new social messages pour in. Then, poke the surface and a built-in web browser takes you up-stream to the source, without leaving the tranquil and hypnotic Spout app.
Clean, crisp, and fresh, Spout will satisfy anyone with a thirst for the best in passive social reading experiences.
Device: iPhone, iPad
Review: Spout
I was looking for an interesting way to scan my Twitter timeline and decided to give Spout a whirl. I had previously tried Trickle and it wasn’t for me, so I wasn’t sure if Spout would go the same way. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised.
Spout offers a variety of display options, plus customisations of the speed text displays, for how long, how tweets are shown. I often dip into Twitter for small chunks of time, so this is a great way to check through a few tweets.
Allowing you to connect to Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader, you could quickly become overwhelmed with too much information. Thankfully, Spout allows you to switch streams on or off, depending on what you want to see. It’s also great for monitoring a hashtag. Last week I was trying to keep an eye on new tweets for an event and it was great to just set Trickle to display them and glance up periodically to see what was new. Okay, so you can jump onto Twitter and check but this is definitely easier on the eye.
A couple of small improvements I’d love to see are instant RT and Favourite buttons. You can connect to the Tweet in the browser without leaving Spout and/or save it for later but it would be fantastic to share or favorite with just one tap (an area where Trickle does currently have the edge). Also, if you’re keeping an eye on a hashtag that isn’t getting constant tweets, it’d be great to be able to set a ‘ping’ or other sound to indicate a new tweet, so you don’t have to keep glancing up.
Otherwise, I can’t really fault it. For something as simple as scanning a few tweets while the kettle boils, or keeping track of a particular conversation, this is a pretty sweet app. Hopefully it will get even sweeter in the future.
Verdict: 4/5
Source: Reviewer’s own copy
App Review: Spout | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
January 8, 2013
Book Review: Thursday at Noon – William F. Brown
[image error]As “The New Yorker” said, Thursday at Noon is “a thriller in the purest cliffhanger vein. The technique is flawless. It could only have been learned in a thousand Saturday afternoon movie matinees.”
Cairo, 1962. Richard Thomson was already having a very bad day when someone left a corpse lying on the rear steps of his hotel. Its head had been lopped off like a ripe melon and had been posed so it could look back down at its own body. Thomson is a burned-out CIA Agent and the body belongs to Mahmoud Yussuf, a fat, petty thief who tried to sell him photographs of a long-abandoned RAF base in the Egyptian desert. What the photos have to do with a dead Israeli Mossad agent, Nazi rocket scientists, the fanatical Moslem Brotherhood, and two missing Egyptian tank regiments could start the next Arab-Israeli War or stop it.
Alone and on the run, no one believes Thomson’s answers — not the CIA, the US Ambassador, Colonel Ali Rashid of Egyptian State Security, and most assuredly not Captain Hassan Saleh, Chief of the Homicide Bureau of the Cairo Police, who wants to hang Thomson, preferably around the CIA’s neck . Under pressure from within and without, the slums of Cairo are a tinder box of discontent and the first faint whiffs of a military coup against the shaky, new government of Abdel Gamal Nasser are in the air. Thompson and the young daughter of one of the German rocket scientists have five action-packed days and nights to figure it out. Tick Toc, Tick Tock! Something is about to blow up in Thomson’s face at Noon on Thursday.
Like Night of the Generals, this is a murder mystery wrapped inside an international crisis. It is from the author of The Undertaker, with 21 Amazon Five Star! Reviews and Amongst My Enemies, now with 11. This is the e-book edition of his successful hardback, a Joan Kahn Book published by St. Martins and in paperback and foreign editions by Harlequin. In all, he has written 6 international thrillers and four award-winning screenplays.
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Review: Thursday at Noon (2012)
William F. Brown’s Thursday at Noon begins with two men – Landau and Yussuf – infiltrating an abandoned RAF base in Egypt in 1962. The base is awash with activity and while Yussuf waits by the perimeter fence, Landau returns briefly but has to quickly go back, wanting to take pictures of what is happening inside. Despite the Second World War having ended in 1945, there is a German presence at this base but what are they up to?
The novel soon switches to washed up CIA agent Richard Thomson who is often found in the nearest bar. While drinking one night he is approached by Yussuf who is trying to get some photos to a contact within the CIA. He offers to sell the pictures to Thomson who declines, not wanting to damage his career any further. Thomson is later horrified to find he is being linked to the murder of Yussuf who has been beheaded close to the hotel where Thomson is staying. Thomson has to shake off the attentions of Detective Haasen Saleh and get to the bottom of the secret at the RAF base and how an alliance between former Nazis and a Moslem Brotherhood may lead to devastation for Israel. The book’s title is a deadline for when the carnage will ultimately begin and it is a frantic race against time for Thomson.
Brown’s novel is a tense and fascinating journey. Thomson is a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and finds himself in serious danger. The police suspect him of murder, he’s at risk of being deported, hunted and even killed. Throw in a German Rocket scientist, his beautiful daughter and a reluctant joining of forces between Thomson and Saleh and you are left with an exciting thriller filled with action and intrigue.
Thursday at Noon is a well-written and action-packed thriller from the start. Despite being set in 1962 its events are not far removed from the world we live in today. Certainly this kind of scenario is not beyond imagination. This is a thriller well worth a look.
Verdict: 4/5
(Book source: reviewer received a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review)
Book Review: Thursday at Noon – William F. Brown | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
January 7, 2013
Film Review: One Missed Call
[image error] Miike Takashi’s classic cell-phone murder thriller. An assortment of characters start receiving voice-mail messages from their future selves, apparently in the process of being violently murdered. With the exact date and time of their demise logged on their phones, it soon becomes a frantic race against time to solve the mystery.
Starring: Ko Shibasaki, Shin’ichi Tsutsumi, Kazue Fukiishi, Anna Nagata, Atsushi Ida
Directed by: Takashi Miike
Runtime: 112 minutes
Studio: Tokyo Shock
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Review: One Missed Call
Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call is the latest horror from Japan that I have faced. The others have left me unnerved with their eerie and chilling atmospheres and I expected similar with this one. The story begins with a group of students out in Tokyo together. One girl Okazaki Yoko (Anna Nagata) hears her phone ring but does not recognise the ring tone. She is too late answering the phone but a voice mail is left. The call has come from her own phone and is dated two days in the future. Listening to the voice mail, Yoko hears herself talking and suddenly screaming. Not sure what to make of it, Yoko and her friend Nakamura Yumi (Kou Shibasaki) laugh the whole thing off and even tell their friends. Two days later Yumi receives a call from Yoko and the exact conversation heard in the voice mail plays out before Yoko is thrown from a bridge into the path of a train and killed. Her severed hand still clutches her phone and dials a new number! Yumi finds herself up against an unseen force that is ringing random people in a phone’s address book and killing them exactly two days later!
One Missed Call begins well with the frightening phone call Yoko receives. When we see her two days later walking home at night we begin to wonder what will befall her. The fence along the bridge begins to snap mysteriously and when Yoko realises she’s said the same words as in the voice mail it’s too late. After she is killed Yoko’s hand not only dials a new number but she vomits red candy before dying. Yumi and her fellow students are horrified by their friend’s death but this is just the beginning. The moment of Yoko’s death, another student gets a call and a voice mail is left prophesying his death. Yumi is there when he is mysteriously killed and the pattern continues.
The media get hold of this compelling story and when Yumi’s friend Konichi Natsumi (Kazue Fukiishi) is next on the phone hit list the terrified girl is dragged onto live television for an exorcism to be performed but everything goes horribly wrong. Yumi is helped by Hirochi Yamashita (Shinichi Tsutsumi) and the two begin investigating the origins of the phone calls and trace them to a derelict hospital where a terrifying threat awaits as well as a tragic story of a one woman and her two children.
One Missed Call is compelling throughout and manages to leave one uncomfortable in their seat. The demises of the students are quite violent but not over the top. The film doesn’t match up to a horror on the level of say Dark Water or The Grudge but it is still worth watching. I understand there is an American remake which wasn’t as highly favoured as this original. I expect I’ll give it a go at some point but for now I’m content having seen another good Japanese horror.
Verdict: 4/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: One Missed Call | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
Film Review: Solaris
[image error]Ground control has been receiving strange transmissions from the remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to investigate, he experiences the strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his own consciousness. In Solaris, the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev) gives us a brilliantly original science-fiction epic that challenges our conceptions about love, truth, and humanity itself.
Starring: Natalya Bondarchuk, Juri Jarvet, Donatas Banionis, Anatoli Solonitsin, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
Directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky
Runtime: 167 minutes
Studio: Artificial Eye
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Review: Solaris (1972)
Space continues to be the great unknown. There have been many sci-fi films, many speculations about what is really out there but though our knowledge is augmented each year we still know very little. Andrey Tarkovskiy’s Solaris, based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem, deals with space exploration and human contact with extra-terrestrial life. I understand the modern version with George Clooney divided the critics so I was delighted to begin my film journey with the original.
The film follows the progress of psychologist, Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) who sets off into space to stay on a space station that is currently orbiting an ocean planet known as Solaris. Decades of study have left the scientists as emotional wrecks and it is down to Kelvin to try and reach out and restore order. However, something is clearly amiss on the space station and things become very complicated when Kelvin’s late wife, Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk), appears in his quarters one morning. How has she appeared? Is there something sinister at work on Solaris?
Solaris opens with some beautiful imagery as Kelvin wanders the surrounding land of his childhood home, his last few hours on Earth before heading off into space. Prior to his journey Kelvin is visited by Henri Burton (Vladislav Dvorzhetsky) who has been to Solaris and witnessed a child on the surface of the ocean though his claims are dismissed as hallucinations. Kelvin leaves Earth with a heavy heart, his father (Nikolai Grinko) doesn’t expect to be alive when his son eventually returns. Kelvin is a man who is somewhat lost in the wilderness, still grieving for his wife who committed suicide some years before.
When Kelvin comes to the space station the scientists there do not greet him and the whole place is in disrepair and disarray. One of the scientists, Dr Gibarian (Sos Sargsyan), has died while the other two scientists seem distant and confused. Kelvin’s arrival isn’t helped when he begins to witness other people on the space station. What is going on? Perhaps the swirling ocean on Solaris has the answer. When Kelvin wakes in his quarters to find his wife by his side he knows she cannot be real and indeed Hari seems confused about why she is there. Kelvin decides to kill his wife by launching her into space. As you do! He then learns from Dr Snaut (Juri Jarvet) that after the station was first noticed by Solaris, visitors began to appear. Soon after, Hari appears again and begins to live with Kelvin and the scientists. If anything ill befalls her she is soon back again. Kelvin is forced to band together with Dr Snaut and Dr Sartorius (Anatoli Solonitsyn) to try and make contact with Solaris and stop the intrusive presence of the visitors.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with Solaris but I’m pleased to say I loved it. After the stunning opening imagery, our time in space is eventful and intriguing. Kelvin goes through hell with the return of his wife and having to help her confront the reality of their marriage and the tragic suicide that followed. Banionis is great in the lead and Bondarchuk makes for a beautiful but fragile Hari. There is a dilemma waiting for Kelvin at the end of the film and you’ll be kept guessing how it all turns out. This might not be the most action-packed sci-fi film ever made, but it’s fascinating and tense, and for me it takes a lot of skill to pull off a great film with those elements alone. Tarkovsky’s film ticks all the right boxes.
Solaris is an excellent sci-fi drama, dealing with the difficulties of human and extra-terrestrial contact. The relationship between the humans and Solaris is more complicated than malevolent but it makes for a richly rewarding journey.
Verdict: 5/5
Film Review: Solaris | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
January 6, 2013
Tweedlers’ Jukebox Song of the Week: She’s So High
Tal Bachman’s biggest hit should have finished much higher in the UK than the Top 30. It at least fared better Stateside but after his debut album, the music world hasn’t been as kind to poor Tal. It’s a real shame given how good this song is.
Tal wrote She’s So High about a girl he knew in high school who he found himself in awe of. The story goes that he was trying to convince her to date his stepbrother and that she was the best looking girl in the whole school. Being in her company, Tal was simply overwhelmed and the song conveys how she made him feel at the time. I suspect many of us have had those moments when someone has taken our breath away, especially when we’re first falling in and out of love.
Tweedlers’ Jukebox Song of the Week: She’s So High | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
January 5, 2013
Classic Reads: What Makes a Classic Read? #NewClassicReads
First of all, thank you to Christine Nolfi, Molly Greene, Rachel Thompson and Terri Giuliano Long for hosting this fantastic event. From the moment I heard about Classic Reads I have been both excited about it but also dreading it. I wanted to write something, of course, but in conveying what a classic read truly is, well, that’s no easy task.
What Makes a Classic?
Every reader will have their own idea of what constitutes a classic read. Years ago I would have defined a true classic as a book that is [image error]pretty old, the traditional classics like Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice, Don Quixote or The Count of Monte Cristo, those books that have their own section at my local Waterstones store. Age gives one much-needed perspective though and I do now believe that a book published today can be regarded as a classic. It just needs some crucial ingredients.
Rather than offering you a recipe with essential criteria for a classic read, I want to suggest different qualities a book can have to meet my definition of being a classic. To assist me in my endeavours I have called upon who I believe are some truly great authors and their remarkable novels.
First up is the sense of escapism a book can offer. Some books I read and I still feel very much attached to our world. These are not bad books but they don’t have the power to draw me away from reality. The best books completely submerge me in their world, I feel everything that the author shows me about this unfamiliar terrain, I live with the characters and get to the very core of their beings, and when I end my visit for a time it takes me a moment to readjust to the real world. Very often it’s such a shame to have to leave the realm I have escaped to. Books that can do that to a reader are surely classics.
[image error]Characters are important and if the author does their job well with the dramatis personae then a classic read is in their grasp. It’s not just about falling in love with characters, it’s about hating them as well. I’ve mentioned this more than once online but Ian McEwan’s Atonement does an excellent job with the characters. Robbie and Cecilia are great characters as is Briony but I can seldom think of any other character that made me as angry as she did. That a character and their actions can make one so furious is a testament to great writing. Characters that make us feel are essential to a classic read. There are few worse journeys than joining a group of characters you have no interest in. One of my favourite novels, A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz, is full of fun, vibrant and interesting characters that I never wanted to leave behind. They’re the ones that left me.
You can take me to another world, you can put me in the company of a great bunch of characters, but if you want to really please me then give me a good story. Great stories don’t have to be action-packed. I love fantasy with epic quests and battles between good and evil, but I take as much pleasure in a quality crime novel or fascinating character studies such as Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory or J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. I feel the same of films too. There are some films I adore where little happens. It’s what is said that matters, rather than the events that take place, and the same is true of many great books.
Books that don’t leave me even when I have closed them for the final time are also worthy of the classic reads tag. Aldous Huxley’s [image error]Brave New World and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin are just two examples of novels I have pondered for hours, days, weeks, even months afterwards. A book that really makes me think, makes me care, makes me question aspects of the world, that evokes something within me, that is the kind of powerful read that I may consider a classic.
It’s hard for a book to have all of these elements at the same time and that’s why I don’t consider them all to be essential within one book. If I read a book that has some of these features though, then it will not only be rated highly by me but it is likely to be considered a classic too.
Just to round off I wanted to share some of the authors who I believe are worthy names to be breathed alongside the words Classic Reads:-
Haruki Murakami
[image error]Author of my favourite novel, Norwegian Wood, Murakami’s books intoxicate my mind. His is a beautifully simple writing style, like Hemingway, but his prose is magical, making the most mundane aspects of daily life sound interesting. Norwegian Wood is a rare stray into realism for Murakami but its story haunts me to this day, the main protagonist Toru Watanabe torn between the fragile and troubled Naoko and the outspoken but delightful Midori. This book instantly ousted The Lord of the Rings as the finest book I have ever read. I wasn’t sure what to expect with Murakami’s other novels but I read two last year – Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. The latter of those two books was my top read of 2012. In my own writing I try to draw on both Murakami and Hemingway’s simplicity but always fall well short of these geniuses.
J.R.R. Tolkien
[image error]One of the masters of escapism, Tolkien’s Middle Earth is an astonishing place to visit and I have been there in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Tolkien’s world building has often been considered so good that Middle Earth has more character than its inhabitants. There is something about that landscape, how familiar so many aspects become to you. If you asked me where places were in the UK I would know some but not all, whereas with Middle Earth I could confidently pinpoint many of the places in Tolkien’s books. I have those maps imprinted in my mind, that’s how much of an impact the novels have had.
George Orwell
[image error]I studied Orwell’s Animal Farm at school and later tried 1984 which instantly became one of my favourite novels. Orwell’s observations of the developing world around him and his foresight for the future were simply remarkable. Not all of 1984 has come to pass in modern times but some of Orwell’s predictions do ring true. More than just fiction, I consider Orwell’s work to be valuable contemporary records of his period of history, Animal Farm being an allegory of the Russian Revolution and a diatribe against the ideals and later the flaws of Communism. That he could put all of that into a simple story that can be read on a basic level on the surface is nothing short of miraculous. As for 1984, well, it is a dystopian master class, the complete collapse of freedom in society and though I can’t speak for anywhere but the UK, I do feel more and more than Orwell’s nightmare vision is slowly developing around us.
John Irving
[image error]I’m quite new to Irving having read The World According to Garp and Widow for One Year so far. I can already tell from just these two books that Irving is a master at characterisation. The plots are not action-packed but they are always interesting. However, it is the characters that are the most absorbing for me. I haven’t found any of them to be beyond the realms of imagination yet. They are ordinary, everyday people with flaws and difficulties trying to carve their own way through life. Garp was the superior of the two books for me but I have heard from many people that A Prayer for Owen Meany is arguably Irving’s best and I will be acquainting myself with that one in the near future.
These are just four authors who I believe have written classic reads. I could name many more but these four are amongst my favourites. With that I must say farewell and urge you to visit the other bloggers that have taken part in this event. There is never enough time to read every book we might want to but there is always time to discover the next Classic Read.
Hop Sponsors’ Books!
Broken PiecesIn Leah’s WakeMark of the LoonSecond Chance Grill
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Welcome to bestselling author Rachel Thompson’s newest work! Vastly different in tone from her previous essay collections A Walk In The Snark and The Mancode: Exposed, BROKEN PIECES is a collection of pieces inspired by life: love, loss, abuse, trust, grief, and ultimately, love again.
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A Story of Love, Loss, Connection, and Grace
At the heart of the seemingly perfect Tyler family stands sixteen-year-old Leah. Her proud parents are happily married, successful professionals. Her adoring younger sister is wise and responsible beyond her years. And Leah herself is a talented athlete with a bright collegiate future. But living out her father’s lost dreams, and living up to her sister’s worshipful expectations, is no easy task for a teenager. And when temptation enters her life in the form of drugs, desire, and a dangerously exciting boy, Leah’s world turns on a dime from idyllic to chaotic to nearly tragic.
As Leah’s conflicted emotions take their toll on those she loves—turning them against each other and pushing them to destructive extremes—In Leah’s Wake powerfully explores one of fiction’s most enduring themes: the struggle of teenagers coming of age, and coming to terms with the overwhelming feelings that rule them and the demanding world that challenges them. Terri Giuliano Long’s skillfully styled and insightfully informed debut novel captures the intensely personal tragedies, victories, and revelations each new generation faces during those tumultuous transitional years.
Recipient of multiple awards and honors, In Leah’s Wake is a compelling and satisfying reading experience with important truths to share—by a new author with the voice of a natural storyteller and an unfailingly keen understanding of the human condition…at every age.
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What happens when a workaholic serial remodeler falls in love with an old stone cottage built by an ornithologist and his eccentric Irish wife? If you’re Madison Boone, you kick your budding romance with handsome Psych Professor Coleman Welles to the curb and lose yourself in a new project.
Madison renovates distressed homes in addition to her busy real estate sales career. When she hears about a quaint house on a private tract of land overlooking Lake Sonoma, she climbs in the window for a private tour and falls in love with the place. Good fortune enables her to purchase the Blackburne’s property, but far more than a new home and lush gardens await discovery during this renovation.
As Madison works on the remodel, she’s drawn into an old love story with dangerous consequences. She unearths buried secrets and discovers herself in the process. Good thing she has three wise, hilarious friends to advise her along the way! Mark of the Loon is the skillful combination of history, mystery, and romance in a novel that explores deep friendship, choices, and how individuals cope with loss.
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Dr. Mary Chance needs a sabbatical from medicine to grieve the loss of her closest friend. But when she inherits a struggling restaurant in Liberty, Ohio she isn’t prepared for Blossom Perini. Mary can’t resist falling for the precocious preteen—or the girl’s father. The bond they forge will transform all their lives and set in motion an outpouring of love that spreads across America.
Welcome back to Liberty, where the women surrounding the town’s only restaurant are as charming as they are eccentric.
Second Chance Grill is the prequel to Treasure Me, 2012 Next Generation Indie Awards Finalist, which The Midwest Book Review calls “A riveting read for those who enjoy adventure fiction, highly recommended.”
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Classic Reads: What Makes a Classic Read? #NewClassicReads | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
January 4, 2013
Book Review: Why are Orangutans Orange? – New Scientist
[image error]Illustrated for the first time, with eighty full-colour photographs showing the beauty, complexity and mystery of the world around us, here is the next eagerly awaited volume of science questions and answers from New Scientist magazine. From ripples in glass to ‘holograms’ in ice, the natural world’s wonders are unravelled by the magazine’s knowledgeable readers. Six years on from Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005), the New Scientist series still rides high in the bestseller lists, with well over two million copies sold. Popular science has never been more absorbing or more enjoyable. Like Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? (2006), Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? (2008) and Why Can’t Elephants Jump? (2010), this latest collection of resourceful, wry and well-informed answers to a remarkable range of baffling science questions is guaranteed to impress and delight.
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Review: Why are Orangutans Orange? (2011)
Why are Orangutans Orange? is yet another instalment in the popular Last Word series from the New Scientist. I say yet another as this is a series that could go on endlessly, given science never runs out of questions. Thankfully these questions and answers are entertaining and therefore that is no bad thing.
This follows the previous format where a question is provided by a reader and answered by readers, some of whom are experts, some of whom have a layman’s knowledge but some personal experience. A slight difference in the format is this title in the series includes photographs – a nice addition to the book.
They do say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and this applies here. They have the winning format, with a variety of questions on various topics and a good array of answers.
Indeed about the only issue I have with the book is that sometimes the array of answers can create confusion about what the correct answer is, therefore don’t read this book expecting to come away with definitive knowledge. You may be left wondering about the exact answer, given that some of the reader responses go in very different directions. However, that in itself is something that has always been a bonus in the Last Word column.
Science is all about questions and all about questioning answers and nowhere more aptly demonstrates this than in the Last Word. Embracing the culture of constantly seeking to challenge, constantly looking to know more, constantly questioning and welcoming participation, this is a great example of science at its best. Interesting, fun, collaborative and entertaining – another excellent instalment.
Verdict: 4/5
Book Source: NetGalley
Book Review: Why are Orangutans Orange? – New Scientist | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
January 3, 2013
Film Review: Sisters
[image error] A reporter gets more than she bargained for when she tries to prove that a murder has occurred in Brian De Palma’s disturbing thriller. Danielle (Margot Kidder) meets Phillip (Lisle Wilson) on a Peeping Tom shamelessly voyeuristic TV game show and dodging her ex-husband Emil (William Finley), takes him back to her apartment. But Danielle has a separated Siamese twin sister, Dominique, who is not pleased about the overnight guest. Journalist neighbour Grace (Jennifer Salt) sees Phillip slaughtered by one of them through her window; the body vanishes before she can convince a sceptical detective (Dolph Sweet) to take a look. Determined to prove that she’s right (and get a career-advancing story), Grace investigates, assisted by a private eye (Charles Durning), and becomes more involved in the relationships among Danielle, Dominique and Emil than she ever expected.
Starring: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley, Lisle Wilson
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Runtime: 93 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
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Review: Sisters
Brian DePalma’s 1973 psychological thriller begins with model/actress Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) taking part in a TV show, posing as a blind woman entering a set of changing rooms and proceeding to undress. In the background is salesman Philip Woode (Lisle Wilson) who has the option of watching the unsuspecting Danielle undress or being a gentleman and averting his eyes. Philip does the gentlemanly thing and after meeting Danielle on the TV show the two hit it off, going to dinner and then back to her apartment. However, things turn nasty when Danielle’s twin sister Dominique shows up. Danielle collapses in the bathroom and when she wakes she discovers that Philip has been murdered in the apartment with no sign of Dominique.
Danielle is helped by her ex-husband Emil (William Finley) who cleans the apartment and stashes Philip’s body in the sofa. However, prior to his demise Philip had crawled to the window where he was seen by a neighbour, Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt), an inquisitive journalist with a penchant for criticising the local police force. Having to turn to the law for help, Grace accompanies the police into Danielle’s apartment and despite her insistence a murder has taken place there is no obvious evidence. While Emil helps Danielle get rid of Philip’s body, Grace begins investigating the case herself determined to uncover the truth.
It’s hard to say too much about Sisters without giving everything away. Suffice to say Danielle and Dominique were once Siamese twins with Danielle being quiet and shy while Dominique is more assertive and even violent. The background to the sisters’ eventual separation is unravelled carefully and the closer Grace gets to the truth the more she begins to regret the path she has taken.
Sisters is a dark and at times unnerving thriller. Kidder is great in the lead with Salt and Finley providing very good supporting roles as well. You might find some of the violence a bit tame by today’s standards but back in the early seventies this must have been a very tense and shocking film. It still retains a lot of suspense and offers an interesting question about the real murderer of poor Philip at the start. Which of the sisters did it? Was it someone else? What is the truth about the separation of the twins?
A good early effort from Brian DePalma.
Verdict: 3/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: Sisters | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
Film Review: Blazing Saddles
[image error]The railroad’s got to run through the town of Rock Ridge. How do you drive out the townfolk in order to steal their land? Send in the toughest gang you’ve got…and name a new sheriff who’ll last about 24 hours. But that’s not really the plot of Blazing Saddles, just the pretext. Once Mel Brooks’ lunatic film many call his best gets started, logic is lost in a blizzard of gags, jokes, quips, puns, howlers, growlers and outrageous assaults upon good taste or any taste at all. Cleavon Little as the new lawman, Gene Wilder as the wacko Waco Kid, Brooks himself as a dim-witted politico and Madeline Kahn in her Marlene Dietrich send-up that earned an Academy Award nomination all give this sagebrush saga their lunatic best. And when Blazing Saddles can’t contain itself at the finale, it just proves the Old West will never be the same!
Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn
Directed by: Mel Brooks
Runtime: 93 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
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Review: Blazing Saddles (1974)
Time to hang my head in shame once again and inform you that Mel Brook’s classic western satire Blazing Saddles is one of many films that has slipped me by in my time. Only this year did the opportunity come along to try out this comedy with a reputation that preceded it. I was expecting something special given all the praise heaped on Blazing Saddles but how would it stand up to my contemporary and critical viewpoint?
Set in 1874 in the American Old West a group of railroad workers find their plans are scuppered when they encounter quicksand. They have no choice but to take a detour which involves heading through the town Rock Ridge where everyone has the surname of Johnson! State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wants to acquire the land on the cheap so orchestrates a raid on the town led by Taggart (Slim Pickens) involving the devastation of homes, the murder of the townspeople and the raping of horses! The townspeople respond by writing to Governor LePetomane (Mel Brooks), whose only tending to the affairs of state is in liaisons with his secretary! Lamarr persuades the Governor to appoint condemned black railroad worker Bart (Cleavon Little) to become the new Sheriff of Rock Ridge in the hope the white townspeople will prefer abandoning their town rather than have a black man maintain order. Lamarr’s plan is to leave the town abandoned before acquiring the land but he doesn’t count on the ingenuity of Bart and his deputy Jim (Gene Wilder).
Blazing Saddles begins with Bart working the railroads and standing up to the white men that frequently condemn him and his fellow black workers. After narrowly avoiding death in quicksand and finding his boss, Taggart, more concerned about retrieving a handcar from the sand than the two black men whose lives are in peril. Bart manages to save himself and his friend and responds to Taggart’s lack of concern by hitting him over the head with a shovel. This results in a planned execution for Bart but Lamarr intervenes and has him sent to Rock Ridge as the new sheriff. The townspeople have banners of welcome ready but are stunned when Bart rides into town. They want his blood but Bart manages to slip away to the sheriff’s department by pretending to take himself hostage! The townspeople are thoroughly convinced by the deception and Bart soon settles into Rock Ridge though few, if any, of the residents are settled with him!
A key friendship is at the heart of Blazing Saddles and that is between Bart and Jim who was once known as “The Waco Kid” and despite being debilitated somewhat by drinking he still has the fastest hands in the West. Other time this sheriff and his deputy begin to maintain order in Rock Ridge and even the odd townsperson is able to acknowledge Bart, though still with some difficulty. Lamarr sends the ruthless Mongo (Alex Karras) to kill Bart but befriends the black sheriff instead. Lamarr’s next plan is to have the good sheriff seduced by German beauty Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) only for her to be outplayed by Bart. The film builds up to a grand finale where Lamarr and Taggart lead a vast army comprised not just of cowboys but Nazis and bikers as well! Bart’s plans for the raiders are ludicrous but highly amusing including a gate that the raiders need loose change to get through. Rather than just ride round they head back to acquire the necessary change! A fake town is also built with fake inhabitants, which also manages to confuse everyone. This is all utterly silly but that’s the point!
As I neared the end of Blazing Saddles I was disappointed to not have enjoyed it more. Don’t get me wrong it has some great and amusing moments with Little and Wilder both being brilliant but despite an ending as ridiculously brilliant as Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), where the raiders and townspeople carry their conflict off the film set into a neighbouring set where a musical is being filmed and then to a cafeteria, I was left feeling a little let down at the end credits. This is by no means a bad film, it’s a good one, but I think I given all the praise heaped on it I was expecting it to be a lot better.
Blazing Saddles is an undoubted comedy classic that everyone should give a try. It boasts some very funny moments, a memorable cast and plenty of absurdity befitting of Brooks but in the end I was left lamenting that special ingredient that was preventing this being the masterpiece that many fans and critics argue it is today. This is still a film all comedy fans should try but for me it wasn’t as good as I was hoping which is a real shame.
Verdict: 3/5
Film Review: Blazing Saddles | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
January 1, 2013
App Review: Doodle Dandy
Games are hard! Sure, they’re fun — but when it’s all over, what do you have to show for your time and toil? A score?
Art is fun, but creating something truly beautiful on a touchscreen isn’t easy — until now.
Doodle Dandy is addictive like a game — but creative, personal, and productive.
Doodle Dandy gives you the power to create elegant, eye-catching artwork, at your fingertips — no talent required.
No more lame doodles! Fun for all ages!
Device: iPad
Review: Doodle Dandy
Since I got an iPad I’ve been entranced. I’ve had great fun figuring out all the things I can do with it (much more than I imagined!) and, yes, playing a lot of Freecell and Solitaire. Oops. Last week I discovered Doodle Dandy and it has quickly become one of my favourite apps.
I’m not a particularly artistic or creative person. I’ve bought pencils, paints, sketchbooks in the past and quickly become disillusioned when I realise I can’t create anything I’d want to look at again, let alone anyone else!
Well, I won’t lie and say Doodle Dandy has turned me into an artistic genius but it certainly is a) quick and easy to use, b) very relaxing, c) great fun. I’ll share some of my ‘artistic’ endeavours with you if you promise not to laugh! Here’s the Tweedlers’ Doodle Dandy Pinterest board. Yes, we are that hooked…
Hey! You promised not to laugh! I can’t give this anything other than 5 stars. I am not a good relaxer. I find it almost impossible to sit and do nothing. This is as close as I’ll get and for that reason alone, I love it.
Verdict: 5/5
Source: Reviewer’s own copy
App Review: Doodle Dandy | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
