Bryce Moore's Blog, page 294

My First Professional Book Review: The Magician King

That's right, folks. I've graduated. I'm now officially an Elitist Book Reviewer. How do I know this? Because my first review was published over at Elitist Book Reviews. I've always wanted to start doing official book reviews, and this marks my first foray into the fray. No, I didn't receive any money to do this. I got something even better: Free books. As in, I got to read this book before everyone else, and I didn't have to pay for it. This feels like stealing, but I've been assured it's legal. (It also helps that the publisher gave the book to me.) In any case, I love getting the ARCs. It makes me feel very elitist.



Here's the start of my review. Head over to the site to read the whole thing in all its glory. It's much longer and more detailed than my normal reviews. And check out The Magician King sometime. It's a great read.

Many people have strong feelings about Lev Grossman's 2009 book THE MAGICIANS. It's inspired no small amount of passion—both for and against. For those of you who aren't familiar with the book, it tells the tale of Quentin Coldwater, a young man who's about as diehard of a Narnia fan as you can get. (Except of course Narnia isn't actually Narnia. It's called Fillory—but the parallels are too strong for there to be any doubt in the reader's mind.) He's a genius, extremely gifted, and kind of a major self-obsessed jerk. You know—like a lot of teenagers you know, except Quentin really is a genius. But he hates his life, and he wishes more than anything that Fillory were real, and that he lived there, instead.

Spoiler alert for those of you who haven't read THE MAGICIANS already: Fillory is real, and Quentin ends up living there, instead.



Of course, it isn't that simple. THE MAGICIANS is best described as a realistic Harry Potter. Quentin goes to a school for wizards, he befriends a group of like-minded self-obsessed teens, and they end up kind of saving the world. (continue reading . . .)

Tennis Anyone? A Good Old-fashioned Ramble about Childhood, Team Sports, Second Languages and More

I took a break from work today to head down to the tennis courts and watch TRC in his last tennis lesson. We signed him up for tennis this summer, mainly because it was one block of lessons that didn't start until after we got back from Europe. He's been looking forward to it ever since, and he really enjoyed the experience.



(Full disclosure: I'm not exactly pro-team-sports. I was a band and drama geek in school. I had few friends who were on a high school team, and most of what I saw of the team sports players didn't exactly leave me with a favorable impression. Thus, as an adult, I tend to want to steer TRC away from football, soccer, baseball, and basketball. I've since met some people who played team sports in high school and emerged as good, nice, quality individuals in the process (even if they are Red Sox fans), but on the whole, I don't really relish the idea of TRC going whole hog into team sports. I played little league for one miserable season, and I've successfully managed to block that memory (more or less). Why would I do it to my son? That said, if TRC ever expressed a heartfelt desire to play team sports, I would let him. I'm not going to force my personal biases on him. But if I can nudge him away from something that I think could prove problematic for him later in life, I will--whether or not other people agree with me. It's the same thing with skateboarding. He's expressed desire for a skateboard. I doubt I'll buy him one. I'm raising a geek, not a skater.)



Anyway, it was fun to watch  TRC have such a great time playing tennis, or trying to at least. There were only three other kids there, and they would take turns trying to hit the balls the teacher was lobbing their way. Out of fifteen or so sent his way, he probably connected with 7 of them, and got 3 of them over the net. The great thing? He didn't care. He was just out there playing and having a good time. Enjoying the experience of learning something new. Doing something different.



That's something I think we forget how to do--at least most of us. How many experiences do I pass up because I don't want to look stupid or foolish? Take speaking German, for example. It's been 12 years, but I can still talk quite well when I want to. I forget the genders of some nouns, and formal and informal speech trips me up, but as long as I don't worry about it, I do fine. Until I'm faced with a real live German, and all my German ability flies out the window. I'm worried I'll sound stupid or make mistakes, and so I morph into a wallflower, instead.



The same thing's true with Slovak, of course--only worse. Talking to a stranger in Slovak? Forget about it.



Which leads me to another thought. So often as native speakers, it's easy to dismiss non-native speakers as ignorant or stupid. After all, if they were smart, they'd speak English, right? I know I've encountered that mindset a lot, particularly when I was in Utah and talking to some of Denisa's ESL speakers. These were bright, talented people, who were lucky if they could get a fair shot at a decent job. The bias and sentiment against them was too strong.



Folks, I'm a fairly well-read, intelligent person (or at least I'd like to think so). I can go on for pages and pages on a blog, and I can talk your ear off on any number of subjects. But get me in a foreign country, speaking a language I don't have full control of, and I turn into a different person. Timid. Hesitant. Willing to make the lamest jokes--and laugh at them myself.



I guess I'd rather appear mute and shy than stupid.



My point is this. Part of the problem is mine: I need to be more willing to stick my neck out. To be like TRC and throw myself into the experience. Forget about what other people think. And at the same time, part of the problem is other people's: we need to avoid making judgement calls about a person based solely on their command of a language. People who haven't spoken a second language have a hard time understanding that. (It's also one of the many reasons why I'm continually amazed by my wife and her ability to do everything she does--in a second language. Crazy.)



Anyway. That's all I have time for today. And all of that was inspired by watching one seven year old do his best to hit a few tennis balls. Good job, TRC. I'm proud of you.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation: July 19--In Search of the Seven Dwarves

When last we met, I was in Banska Stiavnica. We stayed the night there in a nice little place that was done up in traditional Slovak style. The food (which I sadly can't let you taste) was incredible. They had this poppy seed dessert which was fantastic. Slovaks do a lot more with poppy seeds than we do here. They buy them in huge quantities and then grind them up to make fillings for pastries and strudels and stuff like that. It's got an interesting taste that I haven't had anywhere else. Tasty tasty. Here's a couple of pics:



Anyway, we headed off to a mine that dates back some 700 or 800 years. Finding it wasn't the easiest thing we've done. There are some mines that run under Stiavnica, but they're fairly touristy and newish (done in the past few hundred years, that is). I wanted something more . . . authentic. a place where you could actually imagine creepy crawly beasts from folklore lurking around the corners. In one of the guide books in Slovak, we found it.



It's a mine that's slowly being converted into a museum, but they're still working toward that goal. In the meantime, they have it open for private, small groups. Appointment only. There's no sign to say what it is. From the outside, it looks like two normal houses in a village close to Banska Stiavnica. There's a small entrance to the mine in the yard of one of the houses:



I can't imagine a more authentic mine from the middle ages. They gave us hard hats and some portable lights, and there were maybe 7 lights total in the mine, but other than that, the place hadn't been changed at all. No railings. No warning signs. Slick floors. Rocks falling on people's heads. It felt like the mine in Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, except real. The tour was all in Slovak. Thankfully, I married a translator. It was really one of the coolest things I've ever seen--and I've got some claustrophobia in me. Toward the end of that tour (two hours down below, in corridors two feet wide in places and maybe three or four feet tall), I was very ready to be done with authenticity. Great experience for a future book . . .



I'm 6'2". This is how tall the passages were in some stretches. Those beams are authentically o-l-d.



Medieval miners would use the rubble from their excavations to support the mine as they went, building these elaborate arched passage ways. Pretty cool. And no mortar in them at all. It was all done with weight.



We went and did some gold panning afterward. We didn't get anything.



After the mine, we headed to the old castle. It dates back to the 1200s, when it was converted from a cathedral to a castle. The tour guide there was quite possibly the most boring woman on the face of this planet. At least the runner up. But it was full of original details, including a dungeon that still had the original manacles: (I'm not sure how old the rack is. Very, at least.)



Overall, the trip to Banska Stiavnica was a resounding success. Just what I'd been looking for on the trip. If you ever get a chance, you should totally visit.

If You've Been Looking for a Good Deal on a 3DS, Read On . . .

[image error] If you've been wanting a good time to buy a 3DS, want no longer. You've probably already heard about the price drop coming next week on the 12th: the 3DS is going from $250 to $170. You might also have heard about Nintendo doing its best to placate people who already bought a 3DS for $250: they're starting a "3DS Ambassador Program," where they're giving 20 free games to everyone who already had a 3DS before the 12th. Games like the original Zelda, Mario Bros, Ice Climber and the like.



With me so far? 20 free games if you paid $250 for the system, buy the system for $170 starting this Friday. To get the free games, you need only register your 3DS online before midnight this Thursday--to prove you had the system for the earlier price.



But Walmart just started selling the system for $170 today. Four days early. So . . . go to a Walmart (in person--the deal's not online). Buy a 3DS for $170. Register it online before Thursday at midnight, and qualify for the 20 free games.



If you've been waiting for a good time to buy a 3DS, that time is between now and Thursday. Just sayin'.

The Blindside: Manipulating History for the Sake of the Story

Not enough time to do a vacation post today, so you're stuck with a movie review of The Blindside. You've probably already heard of it. Heck, you've likely already seen it. I'm more than a little late to the party on this one. It won Sandra Bullock the Oscar for best actress, and it was nominated for best picture, even. (A prime example of why there shouldn't be a requirement for 10 best picture nominees.) It was a good, feel-good movie. That's what it was designed to be. It's got the requisite "based on a true story" element going for it, to make people feel like there really are good, selfless acts in the world. The plot? A rich white woman takes a poor, mentally challenged African American under her wing and gives him the foundation he needs to become a fantastic football player. If that sounds more than a little racist, you're right. But the movie means well, and it tries to justify its "white people can save minorities from themselves" undertones with some half-hearted attempts scattered throughout the movie.]



But I'm feeling generous, and the movie was technically based on a true story, so I'll ignore the racism card for this review. And really, the movie isn't about race. It's about privilege. The characters could both be white, and it would still work as a story. (Of course, if they'd whitewashed the thing, that would have been even worse--hence the "get out of racism free" card I'm issuing for the moment.)



It's a good movie. Three stars, and if you want a feel-good sports movie (and decide Hoosiers, Rudy, Remember the Titans, Rocky, We are Marshall, The Rookie, Miracle, League of Their Own, Chariots of Fire, and Field of Dreams aren't meeting that need), you'll enjoy yourself.



But one quibble. (Okay, so there have been a lot of quibbles--but I liked the movie. Honest.) The movie portrays the main character as being totally clueless about football, and it's up to the other characters to explain it to him in terms he can understand. One thing, though. It's based on a true story, remember? And in that true story, the main character knows all about playing football and is already very good at it before all the white people in the area show him how its done. (See how that racism card just keeps popping up, no matter how I try to avoid it?) This causes more problems with the plot, but I can't get into those, since they delve into spoiler territory.



In the end, I understand why they did it. There are a lot of ways they manipulate the "truth" in this movie, and it all does make for a better story. All "historical" movies do this to one extent or another. It's just when they do it so blatantly--and in the process make the main character the story is based on seem like a total idiot--that I get uncomfortable.



It was a good movie. Best Picture worthy? Don't make me laugh.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation: July 18--Banska Stiavnica (More Pictures!)

Time to return to my What I Did on My Summer Vacation series (now with yet another pic--surely you can guess what the theme is to these pictures by now, yes?). As I've said before, I was multi-tasking on this trip. One thing I really wanted to do was go to a place I'd never gone before, where I could potentially set another book in the Vodnik series. I was pretty specific in my "checklist" for a perfect spot: it had to be old, it had to be a place with a more significant Roma population than Trencin has, it had to be uniquely Slovak, and it had to have a lot of history and folklore for me to drawn on. Thankfully my brother-in-law Milos came to the rescue, finding the perfect spot: Banska Stiavnica.

I'm not kidding, folks. This city is a hidden gem. Hidden for good reason--it ain't easy to get to. I wouldn't be surprised if I went to some places that less than 100 Americans have seen. Maybe less than 50. (More on that tomorrow.) There are no real highways to get there: you have to take windy back roads that are steep enough to make you wonder how in the world anyone survives a single winter there. The area's smack dab in a dense forest that crowds in on the city from all sides, like the place is under siege. You finally get out of the switchbacks, and all of a sudden you see this:



This little town draped over steep hills (that make walking around it a real joy, let me tell you). It has a history that goes back to 9500 BC. Legend has it, a guy was out hiking and took a nap. When he woke up, there were two salamanders sitting there, watching him. One was coated in gold dust, one in silver dust. He followed them back to their homes and discovered the jackpot of all gold and silver mines. Where there's gold, there's interest. Once, Banska Stiavnica was the second largest city in Slovakia. It Then the mines dried up. It was visited by kings and was even the site of the first technical university in the world: a university devoted to mining. (They have a mural in town that commemorates the legend. It's pretty cool: here are a couple of pieces of it)





One of the hallmarks of the city is a series of reservoirs (called Tajchy) that were devised to help the miners work better. At one point there were something like 60 of them around the area. Now there are only 20 or so left. (We visited a couple. They're more places recreation spots these days, although Denisa was overjoyed to see that skinny dippers love to take advantage of them, too. She and I were sitting there talking, and a completely naked old man started lounging around next to us. Ah, Europe . . ) Here's a picture. (Of a tajch, not a naked old man. Sorry to get your hopes up.)



While we were there, we first went to a chateau in the neighboring town of Svaty Anton. This place as absolutely incredible, but they didn't allow any pictures of the interior. Remember, I'd just gotten through touring Vienna, so it wasn't like I was going to be blown away by just any old building. But where in Vienna, all the old buildings have been restored (and updated with some modern amenities), Svaty Anton felt like the rulers had just left the room a few minutes before. It felt so much more authentic. (They have a website--check out the virtual tour in particular--but it doesn't do it justice.) It just felt more real to me, and that's the only way I can think of to describe it. Here's a pic of the outside:



We then headed into the town. Milos had gone to school in the city, so he knew the place pretty well. We didn't have a whole lot of time left for the day, so we mainly toured the outside of the city. (We did take a tour of the town, which boasted all about the "7 Wonders of Banska Stiavnica": check 'em out here online). So I'll leave you now with a few last shots of the city, and then some random people pics.



That's the "new castle" in the back there. The old castle is from the 1200s. The new one is from the 1500s. And we wonder why Europeans look at us Americans as being such whippersnappers.

This is a church. Interesting story, actually. They set this church up as part of a complex for pilgrims. If you walk up and down the hill, it has a series of sculptures and reliefs that are supposed to recreate the life of Christ. For more info, check here. I was particularly surprised this made it through Communism. In fact, the whole city emerged from Communism pretty much unscathed, due in large part to the fact that since no more gold was there, the city didn't draw much attention to itself.



Here's a pic of the Mormon branch in Trencin. That's about every active member, plus the missionaries and my family. Not very big.

Milos is a sucker for these pics. I took one:

And so did he:

Auditioning to be the 8th dwarf.



I might be a bit big for the role:

Thoughts on Understanding Cultures: Bryce Starts Watching Mad Men

Netflix just added Mad Men to its streaming options the other week, and I'd heard so much about it that I couldn't resist diving in to see what all the fuss was. (One of the nice things about not having television? The world is my guinea pig. I usually don't start watching shows until I know they're worth my time in the long run.) Anyway, I told Denisa about the premise, and we were skeptical (60s advertising office? Really?) but we gave it a shot.



First off, my thoughts on the show in general: it's a strange beast, but I can't stop watching. Hardly any of the characters are really appealing, and yet I root for them anyway. Maybe that implies some sort of a moral flaw in my own personality. I mean, the main character is a drinking, narcissistic adulterer--and I want him to succeed. Why is that? Mainly because he's better than 90% of the other characters portrayed in the series. And he's got a wife I really want to be happy. She deserves him stepping up and being a better man.



There are overarching plot lines and character developments, and those are all fascinating, but in the end, this show succeeds so well because it presents us with a slice of life that's totally foreign to what we're familiar with. And that's what I wanted to write about.



So often, I think we make the assumption that other cultures and civilizations can be understood by us with relatively little exertion. People are all people, after all. They want the same things. Breathe the same air. There are universal constants, right?



But then I watch a show like Mad Men--which occurs in America just 50 years ago, and I completely don't understand the people in the show. They might as well be in another country. Their values are not my values. The way women are treated, the way men are basically lords of whatever they feel like doing, the blatant racism, (the constant drinking and smoking, which--while foreign to me--I assume still happens today in some circles). It's hard for me to believe that our culture has come so far in such a short time. I mean, these are basically my grandparents. The ones who spoiled me and were always genial and funny.



Was this really how life was like then?



In some ways, I'm sure it was. All the smoking, for one thing. It's so easy to look at it now and sort of scoff at their attitudes to cigarettes. Even the doctors are puffing away at them in the examination rooms. But then again, what will people fifty years from now think about some of the things we do today? Things we all assume are just fine and dandy, but which prove to be really dangerous. Lead paint used to be the bee's knees, after all. Now if you find any of the stuff in your house, you practically have to call in a hazmat team. Are cell phones like that? Wifi signals? Artificial sweeteners? Who knows. We shouldn't forget that science is all too eager to jump in feet first in the name of "progress" and "innovation."



But I digress.



In other areas, I'm not sure if Mad Men does a good job portraying an era. But they put in details from that time period that make you believe it, whether it's true or not. I loved how in one episode, one of the secretaries has just seen The Apartment, in which a secretary is used by her boss--just for sex. She's being used in the same way, and it makes her reevaluate her relationship. Using pop culture of the time to inform actions of the plot? Fantastic. Then there's the constant Kennedy/Nixon references, all of which take on layers of meaning because we as viewers know the future of these people already.



True or not, the show's brilliant.



What I'm trying to get at is that in the space of two generations, life has fundamentally shifted in America. Yes, there are certainly chain smoking, drinking, chauvinistic, racist alcoholics out there today, but I'd like to think that they're not as uniformly accepted as these characters are. And this is in the same country, in less than half a century. How in the world can anyone pretend to understand a culture that lived a thousand years ago? You can study it, you can know as much as you want to about it, but until you see that culture living and breathing in front of you, I don't imagine you'll really have a clue about it--and even then, good luck understanding it.



It's really easy to sit back and cherry pick what a culture is doing "wrong." But that's using your own worldview to evaluate someone else's. They'd have just as easy of a time pointing out the flaws in what you do. Being richer doesn't make you right. Being more technologically advanced doesn't make you better.



And . . . I'll get off my soap box for now.



In any case, I'd be interested in hearing from any Mad Men fans out there who actually were alive in the early 60s and remember what it was like. How true to life does Mad Men feel?

The Promised Medieval Pictures

As promised, I have a slew of professional-quality pictures of the fam in full medieval regalia. Denisa and I have taken pics dressed up at Trencin Castle every time we've been there. (It helps that her brother is a member of Wagus, a group that does historical reenactments and battles at the castle--they're awesomely incredible. So there's always a wealth of costumes to choose from, and I'm a close fit with my brother-in-law--I'm just missing about 100 pounds of muscle. :-) But yes--always costumes available.)

This time while we were at the castle taking my author pics (thanks BTW to all who have commented and made suggestions thus far. I've narrowed it down quite a bit. Mainly choosing between two or three at this point. I want to think about it some more before I make my final call, though.), the photographer wanted us to wait for a while until the sun was in a more convenient spot. We'd planned on taking the dress up pictures, anyway, so we thought we'd just do that then. And since he was there, anyway, and it was something interesting to shoot, he took pictures of us for free. (Truly, the man in a scholar and a gentleman.)

I've got 60 or 70 to choose from now. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are 19. First comes DC:









Then TRC:







Me:



Denisa:





And various family pics:









I have no idea why I enjoy these pictures so much, but I do. It's probably the rapier.

A Review of Spotify: Meh

(*NOTE*: This is from my library blog's posting for today--a place where I'm much more library-centric. Step over there to check it out sometime.)



A new (in the United States) music streaming service launched a bit ago: Spotify. I've downloaded it and put it through its paces, and I thought I might share my thoughts with you, the general public.





We've come a long way from the days of the CD. Now, most people have their music on everything from their computer to their cell phone. But all that music takes up a fair bit of space on a hard drive. That's where the cloud comes in. The next big thing in digital music is being able to play songs directly from the internet--no need to store all the music on your own device. Some services (like Amazon) let you upload your songs to their servers. This takes a lot of time, but it can be effective. Others (like Pandora) let you stream "radio stations" online for free--songs that are similar to a certain artist or song.





Spotify is a service that's been going gangbusters in Europe for the past while. I essentially lets you listen to any song for free--regardless of whether or not you own it. You have to have an internet connection and a computer, but that's the only requirement. (You can, of course, purchase the song to be able to listen to it without a connection, and for a fee, you can be a premium Spotify member, which lets you stream your music to an iPhone or other device). It's taken forever for it to come over to America (mainly due to music licensing issues), but it's arrived at last. I signed up right away.





How is it?





I'm honestly not blown away by the service. In theory, it should be really cool. The ability to share music with friends on Facebook, post public playlists, listen to your music on any computer--all very nice. But the sharing seems like the biggest offering, and its execution is clunky at best. When you share a playlist, not everyone can see all the songs on it. They can only see the songs in it that they already own--unless the subscribe to the playlist, at which point the songs become visible.





I think.





That's the thing--I'm not sure. The user interface leaves much to be desired. I've used it, read about how to use it, experimented with it, and I'm still not sure I'm doing everything with it that I can. That's frustrating, especially in an age where I'm so used to having something made in such a way that it's so intuitive, the manual seems redundant. Not so with Spotify. It doesn't help that their online help section leaves much to be desired, too.





It seems to me I should be able to add music freely to my library--the one I can listen to on a computer for free. I guess you can, as long as you add them to a playlist first. I'm sorry for seeming so confused--it's just a reflection of my frustrations working with the program.





In the end, I'm not sure how much I'll use Spotify. It feels to me like an over-hyped summer blockbuster. You hear and read so much about it, that by the time it's released and you get to see it, you can't help but be disappointed.





How about you--anyone out there already use Spotify and love it? What am I doing wrong? Do share . . .

Help Me Pick an Author Photo

Derek Zoolander: Well I guess it all started the first time I went through the second grade. I caught my reflection in a spoon while I was eating my cereal, and I remember thinking "wow, you're ridiculously good looking, maybe you could do that for a career."

Matilda: Do what for a career?

Derek Zoolander: Be professionally good looking.

As promised, today's the day where I show you the various candidates I feel would be good for my author photo. I'd initially planned on having just a standard head shot taken locally, but once the trip to Slovakia was firmed up, I reconsidered. Why have a boring normal photo when I could get one of me with Trencin Castle? Way cooler. My brother-in-law recommended some good photographers, Denisa called them up, we looked at samples and chose one: Peter Stolarik (his website isn't bringing anything up at the moment. He's got a Facebook page, too--but I think you have to be his friend to see the photos.)



The actual photo shoot felt really strange and bizarre. I'm just not used to getting my picture taken--certainly not when it's just me that's the subject. Large family group shots? Okay. At least it's a shared misery. All by my lonesome? Very weird feeling. Peter wanted to know what I wanted as an end result, and I was purposefully vague. I told him I wanted me in it and Trencin Castle--ideally recognizable as Trencin Castle. Other than that, it was up to him. He took something like 60 shots. Maybe more. Various poses all over the castle. We jumped fences, climbed up where only goats were supposed to be, and basically went wherever he thought he might get a good shot.



Anyway. Here are my top eleven (because I go to 11). There were many others I liked--he's a great photographer, and I highly recommend him if you're in the Trencin area.



What I'd like from you is feedback. Which picture do you like the most? Any you really dislike? Any input is welcome--including "I like them all." I'm mainly looking for opinions. You've surely got one. Share it with me here, in the comments section on Facebook, or drop me an email.



In no particular order:

1

 2

 3

 4

 5

 6

 7

 8

 9

 10

11