E.R. Torre's Blog, page 71

The Annotated Big Sleep (2018)

There are writers and there are writers.

Raymond Chandler, to me, is one of the best writers there ever was: A man who could make his noir mystery novels absolutely sing.  Almost every line in every one of his books, of which he wrote a mere 7 if them (an eighth novel was in the works when he passed away in 1959), were fascinating, hilarious, and eminently interesting.

Mr. Chandler turned to writing relatively late in life and his first stories appearing in “pulp” magazines such as Black Mask.  When he made his jump to novels with The Big Sleep (his first novel) he took elements from these stories and reworking them.

The Big Sleep, which was originally released in 1939, is one of my all time favorite Chandler novels (though Farewell, My Lovely and The Long Goodbye are nothing to sneeze at!) and anyone with any interest in great mystery novels should check it out.

Now, I’m not pointing out this novel just for the heck of it.  I’m pointing it out because a few days ago The Annotated Big Sleep was released both in Paperback and Kindle and I’m not going to beat around the bush: You should get it.

Here’s my Amazon review of the novel:

Love Raymond Chandler’s novels -he is one of my all time favorite authors- and love The Big Sleep in particular and the Annotated Big Sleep is a truly wonderful peek behind the curtain at what makes this novel tick. We get a wealth of information regarding the creation of this book, particularly interesting being the short stories -and samples offered- of how Chandler “cannibalized” some of his short stories in the creation of this book.

We also get some wonderful history of L.A. back in the 1930’s, a guide to the slang Chandler used (much of this, of course, has become well known through books and films), as well as some very interesting insight into Chandler himself.

Having read the novel a few times before, this Annotated Edition was truly eye-opening, especially when it comes to some of the novel’s sexuality. I was always aware of it, but when pointed out in the Annotations it became clear to me that Mr. Chandler had some serious hang ups regarding sexuality, whether “straight” or otherwise. Still, after all this time one must be cautious to draw too many conclusions, though the inference of the author’s possible sexuality presented in one of the notations is certainly intriguing.

I have the Kindle edition of the book and it is incredibly easy to read the book and switch to the voluminous amount of footnotes. You read along and when you find a footnote you simply tap on it and are instantly transported to the information presented. Sometimes its offered with beautiful illustrations, often with very informative explanations, and once you’re done reading the footnote, you just tap the footnote number again and you’re back to where you were reading. Couldn’t be easier!

So if you’re a fan of Raymond Chandler’s works as I am and, as I said before, want to get a damn good peek behind the curtain regarding this novel, you absolutely must have The Annotated Big Sleep.

More music…

…though I’m going to avoid David Bowie!

First up, as I’ve been reviewing my latest Corrosive Knights novel (the concluding Book #7!), I’ve been listening to some mood music.

Nothing better than John Carpenter movie scores…  Among my all time favorites are these two, from Escape From New York and Assault on Precinct 13:

There is something so gripping about this music and so appropriate to the movies they come from.  This is something that makes John Carpenter’s movies (many of them) so unique: The director is also the writer (or co-writer) and also created some of the music!

Before I go, and apropos of nothing at all, the Talking Head’s music video to their song Road To Nowhere.  While I’m not a big fan of the video (it does, IMHO, get pretty silly), the lyrics and message behind the song is incredibly touching and sobering…

Here are the full lyrics to the song:

Well we know where we’re going

But we don’t know where we’ve been

And we know what we’re knowing

But we can’t say what we’ve seen

And we’re not little children

And we know what we want

And the future is certain

Give us time to work it out

Yeah

We’re on a road to nowhere

Come on inside

Taking that ride to nowhere

We’ll take that ride

I’m feeling okay this morning

And you know

We’re on the road to paradise

Here we go, here we go

We’re on a ride to nowhere

Come on inside

Taking that ride to nowhere

We’ll take that ride

Maybe you wonder where you are

I don’t care

Here is where time is on our side

Take you there, take you there

We’re on a road to nowhere

We’re on a road to nowhere

We’re on a road to nowhere

There’s a city in my mind

Come along and take that ride

And it’s alright, baby, it’s all right

And it’s very far away

But it’s growing day by day and it’s all right

Baby, it’s all right

Would you like to come along

You can help me sing the song

And it’s all right, baby, it’s all right

They can tell you what to do

But they’ll make a fool of you

And it’s all right, baby, it’s all right

There’s a city in my mind

Come along and take that ride

And it’s alright, baby, it’s all right

And it’s very far away

But it’s growing day by day and it’s all right

Baby, it’s all right, yeah

Would you like to come along

You can help me sing the song

And it’s all right, baby, it’s all right

They can tell you what to do

But they’ll make a fool of you and it’s all right

Baby, it’s all right

We’re on a road to nowhere

We’re on a road to nowhere

We’re on a road to nowhere

We’re on a road to nowhere

 

As with everyone else, I imagine, I experience days that are sunny and bright.  There are days that are frustrating/annoying.  There are days that are rainy and sad.  Sometimes, you have days which are a combination of all of the above.

To me this song encapsulates those emotions and life in general.  Time flows and ultimately the end will come to all of us.  In two hundred years, will anyone remember you or I and the gamut of emotions we experience in our lifetimes and, most importantly, will they matter all that much?

They probably won’t, so make the best of your day and, in turn, life.  This is not a dry run and this is not a rehearsal.  This is the real deal.

You need to make the most of the time you have while you can.

David Bowie’s Never Let Me Down remake, redux redux

Ok, third time I’m (over) dwelling on this topic that likely few care about outside of myself, but I stumbled upon this interesting article by Kory Grow and Andy Greene on RollingStone.com concerning…

How David Bowie’s biggest “disappointment” became a posthumous, reworked album

To those (1 or two out there, at least?!) curious, the article offers a history of Never Let Me Down, David Bowie’s 1987 album which he, and many fans out there, feel was his “worst” album, yet one that he also felt could be reworked/saved.  This was done with the album, albeit posthumously, and the reworked album, along with a remastered version of the original, will be released in October along with plenty of other stuff in David Bowie’s mid-1980’s Loving The Alien box-set.

What I found most fascinating about the article is they go into what exactly was done to “rework” the album, essentially stripping down everything until all they had was Bowie’s singing and then adding things to it to create these new versions of the songs.

Equally fascinating is the fact that, inevitably, there would be those who are not happy with the fact that the album is as badmouthed as it is and, further, that it “needed” any fixing.

And in this case that individual would be… multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kızılçay, who in the article offers this nugget, found in the above article:

“(Never Let Me Down, the original release, is) like 80 percent me.  I’m playing bass. I’m singing background vocals. I’m playing guitar. I’m playing acoustic guitar, keyboards, viola, trombone, trumpet, everything. And I had to arrange them and put some harmonies and (David Bowie) loved it. He really loved it. He was so proud of that album. That’s why he called me his ‘Invincible Turk.’ He praised it until the minute the reviews came in. Then he said, ‘It wasn’t me. It was the other people on the record.’”

Ouch.

I’ve noted before my love for David Bowie’s albums and further the fact that I would consider him my all time favorite musician… but as a person, I’ve read bits and pieces here and there about him which paints a picture of David Bowie -the person- as this: An almost otherworldly talented musician but something of a cutthroat when it came to relationships and projects.

Niles Rodgers, who was called in by David Bowie to produce Let’s Dance, polished the work and helped create what was David Bowie’s biggest selling album which launched him into what was his most successful era.  Yet when it came time to produce the album’s follow up, I recall an interview (hope my memory isn’t faulty!) with Mr. Rodgers where he said he was willing and eager to get back into the studio with Mr. Bowie on his next album… but Bowie snubbed him and never called.  He felt he was essentially dumped despite working so well with him.

Similarly, David Bowie famously dumped the “Spiders of Mars,” the band he had his first big hits with, and retired the “Ziggy Stardust” character while in a concert and to the shock of not only his fans but most of his band mates.  This was their bread and butter and he didn’t feel the need to inform several of his band mates this would be it until announcing it for all in concert!

Further, when he grew bored with a style of music and/or it didn’t succeed as well as he hoped (and the above quote certainly hints to that), he was quick to dump it and move on to other things.  This served him well at times, when he transitioned from the Glam Rock era to Soul to the “Berlin” trilogy but, again, it often involved cutting people he worked with -and who were making money/earning a living doing these projects- out.

He famously worked with Iggy Pop for a long time in the mid to later 1970’s, producing albums for him and, later on, doing cover songs of several of his (and Bowie) compositions, the most famous of which was China Girl.  To be clear, he did this for the nicest of reasons: To help Iggy Pop get some residuals for his works.

And yet I recall an interview given by Iggy Pop a few years ago (and well before Mr. Bowie’s passing) where he was asked about his current relationship with David Bowie and he noted there essentially was none: that they hadn’t spoken in a number of years.  I got the impression (again, if my memory isn’t faded/wrong) that Iggy Pop felt like Bowie dropped him and that was that.

The album 1. Outside, my favorite Bowie album from the later part of his career, was intended to be the first of at least two, perhaps three albums dealing with the turn of the Century.  While the album has come to be looked upon as one of Bowie’s best by some such as me, the fact is it didn’t do too well when it was originally released, both critically and commercially, and Bowie dropped the project and any possible future albums involving this subject.  For his next album, he moved right along to the electronica heavy Earthling (also quite a great album).  1. Outside was in the rear view mirror.

What does this all mean?

In the end, I suppose it is a source of curiosity if little else.

Erdal Kızılçay, in that same article, feels the remake of Time Will Crawl is awful -I don’t share that opinion- and I strongly suspect he’ll not like the remake album at all.  He’s understandably proud of the work he did on the album even if many don’t like it all that much.  Further, he states that if he doesn’t receive the proper credit for his work, even on the remade version of the album, he intends to sue.

Clearly, the man is angry about the whole thing and who am I to tell him he shouldn’t be.  I wasn’t there during the recordings and I take his words at face value.

Still, it is a fascinating look behind the curtain and, if you’re as interested in these type of things as I am, you may want to give the article a read.

About the upcoming David Bowie Box set, redux

A few days ago (you can read it here), I noted the latest David Bowie Box Set (#4) to be released in October covers his mid-1980’s work, focusing in particular on Let’s Dance, Tonight, and the album many -including Mr. Bowie himself- considered his worst album, Never Let Me Down.

But, as I noted, Never Let Me Down’s main problem, at least to me, was the fact that it was waaaaay overproduced.  It seemed too many songs had too much going on in them and noted that Mr. Bowie felt there was still a good album underneath the clutter of the production.  This was proven, at least in one respect, by the reworking of the song Time Will Crawl in 2008, which to me was a BIG improvement over the original found on the album.

Anyway, to make a long story short, this upcoming box set will not only include a remastered version of the original Never Let Me Down, but also a complete REWORKING of that album, something I’m salivating over.

Welp, the first reworked song has appeared online for people to check out and, once again, it represents to me an improvement over the version presented on the original album release.

The song is Zeroes and here’s the original version of the song…

And now, the reworked version of the same song which will be found on the upcoming Box Set release…

Once again and as with Time Will Crawl, I’m pleased with the reworking of the song, which seems to be based on the “less is more” philosophy.

Good stuff and I can’t wait to hear the rest!

Star Trek: City on the Edge of Forever (2015) a (mildly) belated review

Of late and, at least to some extent, due in part to the San Diego ComiCon, there have been a number of sales on graphic novels/comic books via Amazon or its sister-company Comixology.

One of the books on sale is one I didn’t know existed: The graphic novel adaptation of the late (RIP) Harlan Ellison’s famous original Star Trek screenplay The City on the Edge of Forever. (I’ll abbreviate the title to CEF from here on)

For those unfamiliar with the episode, CEF is considered by many to be one of the -if not THE- best Star Trek episode ever created, and with good reason.  The episode was the penultimate which aired in the show’s first season (it would air in April 6, 1967) and here’s it’s promotional trailer:

Consider me among the ones who feel CEF is easily among my top 2 favorite episodes ever aired from that series (#1 on the list is tough… I feel CEF is on par with the wonderful season two episode The Doomsday Machine, which to this day I feel is easily the most suspenseful episode of the original -and any subsequent- series).

So here’s the thing: Harlan Ellison created the story and wrote the initial screenplay but changes were made to it and, the episode that eventually aired, had plenty of the Ellison story in it as well as plenty of deviations.  If you’re at all familiar with Mr. Ellison, you’ll know this didn’t sit well with the author.

A number of years ago Mr. Ellison released a book which included his original screenplay:

I have this book and have read the screenplay but found it difficult to envision/compare in my mind the actual episode and Mr. Ellison’s screenplay.  One simply outshone the other because the aired episode was so familiar to me and it was tough to get that same “visual” experience out of reading a screenplay.

What I didn’t know, until a few days ago, was that in 2015 IDW published a 5 issue comic book adaptation of this screenplay.  It was collected into a single graphic novel and, as of today, is available via Kindle for a mere $1.99 if you’re interested.  Here’s the book’s cover:

The original teleplay was adapted by writers Scott and David Tipton and illustrated -quite well!- by J. K. Woodward and, finally, I had a way to compare, almost one-on-one, the Star Trek episode with Mr. Ellison’s original screenplay.

And it was a curious thing!

To begin with, and with all due respect to Mr. Ellison, I still feel the original episode as aired is better.  The differences between screenplay and aired episode include the participation of Dr. McCoy (he plays a big part in the episode and doesn’t appear at all in the screenplay), the climax involves action taken by Kirk in the episode versus Spock in the screenplay, the appearance of a crippled WWI veteran (one thing I would have really liked to see in the episode but was cut out entirely), and a more cerebral conversation between Kirk and Spock in the screenplay’s conclusion.

Without going into too many spoilers, I feel the inclusion of McCoy in the episode was a stroke of genius and made us more engaged in what was to happen versus the character Mr. Ellison introduced, a drug dealer/murderer, who sets the actions in motion.  Further, I feel the climactic resolution resonates more in the episode by having Kirk act versus Spock.  It delivered an emotional gut punch that no other episode in the series was able to deliver.

And yet, as Spock would say, it is fascinating to see the original screenplay presented in graphic form.  It offered this reader the closest approximation to what the episode might have looked like had the producers used Mr. Ellison’s script more faithfully.

Would it have made for a better CEF?  To this reader, not quite.  But having said that, if you’re a fan of Star Trek and CEF in particular, do yourself a favor and give the graphic novel a look.  Recommended.

Sketchin’ 84

Second Metropolis (1927) piece. It’s based on one of the many posters created for the movie way back when!

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Corrosive Knights, a 7/22/18 update

Last posted an update on 7/13/18 (you can read it here) and figured it was time to post another update.

I was hopeful I could make it through the computer corrections of the latest draft of book #7 in the Corrosive Knights series in a matter of two weeks or so.

[image error]Things are moving along but perhaps a little slower than I was hoping.  Right now I’m on page 128 of the draft and, given the total page count is 233 pages (single spaced, 10 point font size), it means I’ve got 105 pages to go.

On the plus side, I’m more than halfway through the whole thing.  On the minus side, it’s been nine days since I started and there remain those 105 pages left to do and currently I’m in a sticky point that will require some creative thought/story reworking.

As I get closer to getting a novel “done”, I start to pay really close attention to the various details that make the book’s story “work”.

If you’ve read any of my novels, they tend to have complex (but hopefully not complicated!) plots that require a lot of moving parts to mesh together and make sense when all is said and done.

Book #7 is no exception and as I get further and further along in the drafts, I not only question the pace and story’s unfolding, but also make sure that the various story elements are logical.

It’s a frustrating stage to be at yet one that one has to work through to get the novel done.

Don’t get me wrong: Though it may be a frustrating time, overall I’m happy overall with the pace.  Yeah, there’s work being done on my house and, by that very nature, total concentration on this book isn’t always possible, and there’s also the sticky plot points to deal with, but I know that by the time I finish getting all the material into the computer and formally finish off Draft #7 of Book #7, I’ll be that much closer to being done.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

This is kinda cute…

From the Conan Show and presented without further ado…

The Batgirl Audition Tapes.

David Bowie’s Mid-Eighties Box Set…

I’ve noted it before and I’ll repeat it here: David Bowie, for me, is my personal favorite musician.  His albums, almost all of them, hold a special magic to my ears, and I love just about all of them.

With one notable exception.

Released in April 27, 1987, Mr. Bowie’s album Never Let Me Down has to have the most ironic title of any of his albums for there are many, including myself and, reportedly, Mr. Bowie himself, who consider it his worst album.

Never Let Me Down?  How about: A complete let down, amiright?

Well… not so fast.

While I stand by my statement and do feel that, as released, Never Let Me Down is Mr. Bowie’s “worst” album, there is nonetheless plenty on it to like.  The problem I had with it back when it was released and the problem I have with it today is that the album feels… wonky.

It’s like Mr. Bowie, after the mega-success of 1983’s Let’s Dance and decent reception/sales of 1984’s Tonight, an album some critics felt Mr. Bowie was “coasting” on with too many cover songs, felt he needed to re-establish himself -as he was wont to do- and create something truly great and more personal.

Never Let Me Down featured 10 songs and all but one of them were original to the album (the song Bang Bang was a cover of an Iggy Pop song).  Compare that to Let’s Dance which had 8 songs and of those, 3 were remakes/covers and especially Tonight, which had 9 songs but of those a whopping 5 songs were covers/remakes.

Clearly Mr. Bowie was trying to do something great and more fully “Bowie” at the time but, ironically, the end result felt like he was trying a little too hard.  The album was all over the place -overproduced and, IMHO, overcooked.

And yet… and yet… it fascinates me.

I felt there was a good album hidden in the clutter and buried under the production.  Curiously, in subsequent interviews before his passing Mr. Bowie himself noted the same thing and, further, his desire to one day go back to the album and rework/reproduce it.

A few years back, the possibility that something good could be made of something considered so bad was made clear when Mr. Bowie released a remake/reworking of one of my favorite songs from the album, Time Will Crawl.  This is the original version of the song (and music video!) from the Never Let Me Down album:

And here’s the reworked version from 2008 and released on the iSelect album…

I find the later version an incredible upgrade from the original and, having heard it, any doubts that Never Let Me Down could be a more successful album were gone.

Which brings us back to what I wanted to talk about here: The fourth David Bowie Box Set album, titled Loving the Alien, will feature a -surprise, surprise!- re-working of Never Let Me Down!

That’s right, folks, not only will we get remastered versions of Let’s Dance, Tonight, and the original release of Never Let Me Down, along with two live shows and a bunch of b-sides/singles, we’ll also get a complete re-working of that much maligned album.

If it winds up sounding like the Time Will Crawl re-working, I’m so there.

But a word of caution:  The re-working of the album was created, it is stated, in 2018, which is obviously following Mr. Bowie’s passing.  Clearly Mr. Bowie wanted to do this but one has to wonder how much -if any!- of the album’s re-working was done and approved of by him before his passing.

Still, of the now four boxed sets of Bowie’s work released, this is the one that has me the most curious.

Perhaps something many consider very bad might just get another critical look… and prove itself better than it originally was.

October, the boxed set’s release date, can’t come soon enough.

If you want to read more about the boxed set, including what exactly will be on it, here’s a link to an article by Daniel Kreps and found on RollingStone.com:

David Bowie’s Mid-Eighties work collected in massive Loving the Alien boxed set

P.S. UPDATE:

Interestingly enough, I realized -belatedly and after originally posting- that the Never Let Me Down album, both as originally released and the 2018 version in the upcoming box set, does NOT include the song Too Dizzy, which was on the original album’s release.

Why?

It’s been said that of the songs on Never Let Me Down, Mr. Bowie really, really hated Too Dizzy and decided, after originally releasing the album, that it would be banished from any future re-issues.

So what does the song that Mr. Bowie hated enough to strike from Never Let Me Down album sound like?

Glad you asked:

Yup.  I can see why he wouldn’t want it back.  Pretty generic pop and certainly not up to the level of other Bowie works.

Tomb Raider (2018) a (mildly) belated review

I know little about the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider games, other than the fact that the character appears to be a female version of the Cliffhanger action heroes of yesterday and Indiana Jones, more specifically, of recent vintage.  I also have seen the Angelina Jolie films based on the character/games and they certainly looked nice and Angelina Jolie made for a beautiful hero, but the films themselves…?

Kinda average.

As is (sadly) the case with the passage of time, Ms. Jolie is no longer young enough for this franchise and in 2018 it was rebooted with in the titular role and…

…the more things change…!

The 2018 incarnation of Tomb Raider aims for a more grungier “look” versus the two previous film’s almost James Bondian look.  If memory serves, the previous films also had more of a “fantastic/supernatural” element, which this movie hints at but ultimately tries to be more grounded.

The same essential plot elements from the first films are there: You have your young hero, her lost -and perhaps deceased- father (), and trip to find the (possibly) supernatural whatzit while dealing with a villain.  In this movie’s case, the villain is played by the usually reliable  who here looks like he was told by the director to act as if he’s sleep walking.

Ms. Vikander’s Lara Croft is aided -eventually- in her journey by Lu Ren () but, like pretty much all the characters presented in this film, he’s another cardboard cutout pretending to be a human being.

It’s a real head-scratcher to watch something like Tomb Raider because all the essential elements to a good film are there: Good budget, handsome production and effects, and for the most part usually reliable actors in the titular roles.

And yet to me the film never seems to hit any sort of spark despite all this.  The movie starts with a too long bit involving who Lara Croft is, including the fact that she doesn’t want her missing father’s fortune.  Despite being a zillionaire she lives hand to mouth and works for a restaurant delivering food.  We are presented precious minutes of screen time showing how one of the family members of that restaurant, a younger man/son, is clearly smitten with Lara but doesn’t have the courage to ask her out.  These good folks appear in this one scene and are never shown again and you’re left wondering how the hell this got put into the film proper and not left on the cutting room floor, where it deserved to be.

But that’s not all!

Even when we get to the actual story, one fairly dull sequence, action or not, is presented after the other until, voila!, the movie ends and, frankly, I was left wondering how something with so much going for it could wind up so dull.

Needless to say, I cannot recommend Tomb Raider.  But, for what it’s worth, my wife liked it a lot more than me.

Take that as you will!