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Monday, September 18, 2017

The Writer's Life 9/18 - Charged

The Chargers' move from San Diego to L.A. has not altered their penchant for heartbreaking last minute losses. Last week a 44-yard field goal attempt that would have forced overtime was blocked. Yesterday another 44-yarder, which would have won the game, went wide. Their kicker, Younghoe Koo, 23, is a rookie. So far he has made only one of his four attempts. It looks like future Hall of Fame QB Philip Rivers, 35, will never get to the Super Bowl.



From Yahoo's Odd News, in my own words: An Indiana man robbed a gas station convenience store, making off with food, drinks and cigarettes. A short time later a state trooper found him stranded by the side of a two-lane highway, his vehicle out of fuel. His blood alcohol level was above the legal limit. Although a authorities have not issued a photo of the hapless thief, it is not either of the two in the pic below:



Although the floating book shop is inundated with inventory, certain circumstances lead me to accept more. Such was the case twice today. A gentleman approached and asked, in a heavy Russian accent, if I wanted books in his native tongue. I was hoping he would bring them to me. No such luck. He wanted me to get them. Fortunately, Herbie was present and agreed to mind the display. Two large bags in tow, I was led to the third floor apartment of a woman who had been placed in a nursing home. I filled each halfway with books and CD's. The guy asked if I wanted anything else. Although everything was clean and in good condition, I wasn't tempted. When I returned to the shop Herbie said that a Russian woman went away disappointed in the selection, which was mostly sci-fi. I spent the next 20 minutes moving stuff around so that I would have a separate box for the new additions. Fortunately, a woman who used to buy large sets of Russian classics from me happened by. I asked - and she was nice enough to give me a rundown on the cache. Only one was fiction, the majority focused on health issues, and a few were handsome children's books. I expressed my thanks by allowing her to take one on herbs. A short while later Luis, the porter of the building where I set up shop most days, approached pushing a handcart that had a large box on it. We laughed. Fortunately, he wasn't miffed when I asked to be selective. All of it was English, and many were marketable. I kept about half, separating many I intended to leave in the lobby of our building. I did the same with the Russian books that were in poor condition and the home-made CD's. I hope they make people happy. My thanks to the donors and to those that bought, especially the hard-nosed Russian gentleman who purchased four of the most recent additions as I was closing shop. The trunk of the old Hyundai is filled to capacity, and there are four large boxes on the back seat. Fortunately, I scored the most advantageous parking spot, so I didn't have far to haul the stuff. Still, my back was fatigued - but uninjured, so I'm still ahead of the game.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
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Sunday, September 17, 2017

The Writer's Life 9/17 - Rich & Shameless



Here's the first paragraph of an article in today's NY Post: "Five New Yorkers in wheelchairs are behind nearly 400 lawsuits brought against small businesses for lacking handicap access." Most of the cases are settled out of court, which makes it seem the filers are more interested in fleecing cash cows than in the rights of the disabled... Another article cites a new NYC trend. "Social media stars are striking deals with real estate developers and managers in which they trade their influence - shilling to show their fans how great their pads are - for rent money or even a place to live." Kudos to these folks who find ways to make the web work so well for them... Barbara Hoffman profiles the "Lifestyles of the Rich & Shameless" through the lens of documentary filmmaker/photographer Lauren Greenfield. There is a great shot of a 100-foot limo no longer in use, and one of the home of one of China's nouveau riche, a replica of the White House. The guy also has one of Mount Rushmore in his back yard. The heads are 20 feet tall! Here's a pic of the house:



My thanks to the woman who bought five novels, and to the elderly woman who did a three-for-two swap of books in Russian.
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Saturday, September 16, 2017

The Writer's Life 9/16 - Toni, Harry & a Cookie

When I noticed the running time, 2:42, on the DVD jacket of Toni Erdmann (2016), I thought about returning it to Netflix unwatched. That would have been a mistake. It is a thoughtful, unusual film, the type more likely to be made overseas than in America. While the story is simple, the emotions, at times the lack of, are complex. Unannounced, a German retiree visits his fortyish, single daughter, who has been assigned to Bucharest, Romania to oversee the downsizing of an oil company. An eccentric given to faux pas, he is concerned, as the ambitious woman is living a shell of an existence, so focused on her climb up the corporate ladder that she is neglecting the experiences and emotions that give life its richness. Realizing he's in the way, he leaves after a couple of days. Undeterred, in a show of fatherly love, he returns having donned a long-haired wig and cheap suit and passing himself off as a business consultant, insinuating himself into her life. This leads to a number of awkward moments, which is precisely his aim, as he tries to restore the life in his beloved. I was sure it was going to be a one-dimensional condemnation of corporate culture. How refreshing that the takeover target needed a complete makeover. Does Erdmann reach his daughter? Yes, but not in a happily ever after way. He leads her to a better place, not total happiness. Is the movie too long? Yes, it could have been trimmed a bit, but it is always interesting. In reading the summary prior to viewing, I expected it to be a broad comedy. It is not. It is grounded in reality, despite the outrageousness of dear old dad. I would have shortened the lone sex scene, which concludes with an action so unusual to a mainstream film that it had me questioning what I thought I saw. If there is broader symbolic meaning to that moment, it went over my head. I usually snicker at nudity in cinema. I find 99% of it gratuitous. In another scene, a party - asexual - it is appropriate, designed to make the viewer as uncomfortable as the attendees. The most memorable scene occurs at another party, where the father, finally getting to his daughter, gets her to sing Whitney Houston's The Greatest Love of All as he accompanies her on piano. I laughed out loud at first, then cringed as she let loose and butchered the high notes. Toni Erdmann was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film. Peter Simonischek and Sandra Huller, both previously completely unfamiliar to me, are outstanding as the leads. Maren Ade wrote the screenplay and directed, her third stint at the helm of a full length feature. 28,000+ users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of 7.5 on a scale of ten. For a change, the disk's subtitles were nice and large. Toni Erdmann is a work worthy of lengthy commentary. Kudos to Ade for challenging the audience. Here is Simonischek as the protagonist:



RIP Harry Dean Stanton, 91, one of Hollywood's all-time great character actors. There are 199 titles under his name at IMDb, including one that will be released posthumously. Although his career began as far back as 1954 with an appearance on Inner Sanctum, and although he did guest shots on scores of popular TV series throughout the '60's, I first noticed him in Dillinger (1973, screenplay John Milius), in which he played cohort Homer Van Meter. I laughed out loud as he said: "Things ain't workin' out for me today." It is criminal that he was never nominated for an Oscar. Well done, sir. Thank you. Here he is as Homer:



My thanks to the kind folks who made purchases on a day when many were complaining about the heat and humidity. Monsey has bought many books from me through the years, most of them of a spiritual nature. This afternoon she mentioned cookies her mom baked every Christmas back in the day when the family was living in Chicago. She was frustrated at not being able to track down the recipe. That reminded me that I had a book, Cooking for Christ: the Liturgical Year in the Kitchen by Florence S. Berger, I'd intended to give away either to her or another of my regulars, whichever arrived first. Published in 1949, it's condition is only fair, its cover in need of cleaning. An hour later she returned saying we must have been brother and sister in a previous lifetime. There was only one cookie recipe in the book - the one her mother used. I was tickled pink.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc

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Friday, September 15, 2017

The Writer's Life 9/15 - Pearls

Brooklyn born S. J. Perelman, 1904-1979, was a prolific voice of the American literary scene, considered the first surrealist humor writer of the USA. Aside from screenplays and plays, he wrote non-fiction almost exclusively. He collaborated on two Marx Brothers films, Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). He won an Oscar for his screenplay of Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Despite those resounding successes, he is best known for the hundred of pieces he contributed to magazines, most notably the New Yorker. Many of those have been compiled into books. One, The Rising Gorge, came my way amidst a massive donation to the floating book shop. It contains 36 short pieces written in the period 1942-1961. The writing is as good as its gets. Very few writers attain such mastery of style and, although the vocabulary is sophisticated, the content is far from pretentious. It is too zany to be so. I'd guess Perelman drew from real life and went off on tangents, assigning facetious pseudonyms and exaggerating to a large extent. At least 90% of the cultural references were foreign to me. I was also frequently puzzled by the circumstances, lost. He earned a degree from Brown in an era when education was infinitely more challenging than today, so his level of intelligence was much higher than mine. I guess I'm saying the book would appeal mostly to really smart folks. I have no idea what the title refers to, as there is no piece under it in the collection. There is a question mark after the last one in the Table of Contents. Maybe it was an inside joke. I ran a search on it and failed to find an explanation. Surprisingly, given his vivid imagination, Perelman attempted only one novel, Parlor, Bedlam and Bath, a collaboration with Q J Reynolds that is regarded as a failure. There are 20 screenplay titles under his name at IMDb, none nearly as significant as those already mentioned. He also wrote at least five plays, sometimes collaborating with his wife, Laura West. He wrote the book for One Touch of Venus. for which Ogden Nash wrote the lyrics and Kurt Weill did the music. It ran 500 performances on Broadway. Here's a telling quote from him: “If, at the close of business each evening, I myself can understand what I've written, I feel the day hasn't been totally wasted.” And here's one from Groucho Marx, cited in a Perelman bio by Dorothy Herrmann: "From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it." Three users at Amazon have rated it, each giving it five stars. They must be a lot smarter than I (me?).

The Cleveland Indians have set the modern standard for consecutive wins in a season - 22. Kudos. The organization and its fans hope the following scene will be repeated at the World Series:



My thanks to the kind folks who purchased books today, and to the lady who donated three handsome, small, hardcover poetry collections and How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You by The Oatmeal and Matthew Inman, as enticing a title as there is.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
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Thursday, September 14, 2017

The Writer's Life 9/14 - Directions

Here's something unexpected from the world of classical music - a robot conductor, which was used in concert by Andrea Bocelli. YuMi, whose name is derived from the phrase 'you and me,' was taught its movements by conductor Andrea Colombani. He held its arms in rehearsals so the computer could memorize the correct gestures. Training it to perform six minutes of music took 17 hours of work. The aria was Giuseppe Verdi's La Donna E' Mobile from Rigoletto. Of course, the traditional vitality of a human conductor keeping tempo with the whole body, the  breathing, is missing from the bot's technique. Bocelli had to remember the tempo it had been taught down to the second. Any unscheduled increase or decrease would have been disastrous for the visually impaired singer, as he had no way to get the conductor to follow his lead. I have no idea how he does it when a human is conducting. I suspect this was a gimmick to attract the young to classical music. I doubt it would ever become permanent practice. Here's a pic from dailymail.com, where I got the info:



From the NY Post, in my own words: Two ex-Google employees are trying to break into the convenience store industry in a unique way. Their start-up, named Bodega, has installed over 50 five-foot-wide pantry boxes filled with non-perishable items shoppers would normally pick up at a store.A person uses an app that charges a credit card when something is removed from the box. Security cameras are in place to  discourage theft. An employee restocks as items are purchased. It uses AI to constantly reassess the 100 most-needed items of a community. The company has been testing the concept in gyms, apartment lobbies and offices. Naturally, this does not sit well with shopkeepers, who fear being driven out of business. Many claim it is desecration for the company to call itself Bodega. Here's a pic:



For the first time ever USA debt has surpassed $20 trillion, testament to the travesty that is congress. President Trump has suggested the debt ceiling be scrapped. Hasn't it already? What purpose does it serve if the slimes keep raising it every time they go on another spending jag? It has done nothing to curb the reprobates from squandering the taxpayers' money.

RIP Frank Vincent, 78. No one played the role of screen wise guy better than he. Born in Massachusetts, raised in Jersey, he will always be remembered for his roles in Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), where his characters butted heads with those of Joe Pesci. There are 81 titles listed under his name at IMDb. The greater majority of the characters' names end in a vowel. He did 31 episodes of The Sopranos. According to his bio, he was a talented drummer, and played on recordings by Trini Lopez, Del Shannon and Paul Anka. Well done, sir. "Go home and get your shine box."



I was curious as to how many books were on display. I counted more than 250, each eminently marketable. Not one sold. I gave away four, a large print book to Madeline, whose eyesight is failing, Hollywood Divorces by Jackie Collins to Herbie, who has donated many popular novels, and The Majority Rules by Eugene Sullivan and The Madness of Love by Katharine Davies, in which Shakespeare is a character, both of which I left in the lobby of our building. My thanks also to the local businessman who donated about ten books, equally divided between fiction and non.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017

The Writer's Life 9/13 - Chicken & Other Delights

It's fashion week in NYC. Last night pop diva Nicky Minaj refused to perform at an after-show party until she got her fix - of Popeye's Chicken! The demand was granted. She took the stage an hour late.

Last night in Minnesota, the Twins set an MLB record by hitting at least one homer in each of the first seven innings. They routed San Diego, 16-0... Also, the Indians tied the AL record, set by the 2002 A's, for consecutive wins, 20, beating the Tigers 2-0 behind ace Corey Kluber and its bullpen. Today they broke that mark, winning their 21st straight, 5-3, again vs. the Tigers. That ties the MLB standard of 21 straight, set by the 1935 Cubs... Also, the Dodgers, who once seemed a lock to cruise to the World Series as the NL representative, broke an 11-game losing streak last night vs. arch rival San Francisco, 5-3. I wonder if a team that had that many consecutive losses during the regular season ever went on to win the championship.

Check out the sign put up by a realtor in Dewitt, Michigan. The pic is from lansingstatejournal.com:



Barry Spunt, professor of criminology at John Jay College and author of two books on heroin and people in the arts, this weekend went to the Warsaw, which bills itself as a Polish community center and popular Greenpoint concert venue with an Elk's Club feel. Security carded everyone, no exceptions. Having let his driver's license expire and not in possession of his passport, Barry, whose longish hair is completely gray, flashed his Medicare card to the guys at the door.



I thought I was home free after Cabbie showed and bought 19 paperback thrillers. Thank you, sir. That eliminated an entire box of the inventory. A short time later the same gentleman who a week ago donated two large boxes filled with fiction and non, dropped off two more. Just about every one of those 50+ books is highly marketable. The problem was hauling everything to my car, which was about 70 yards away. I dreaded the end of the session. I told browsers that all the books were a dollar each. Unfortunately, no one was enticed. It took about a half hour of back and fourth to stow the goods. I'm in good physical condition for a man of 67, but such a task borders on stupidity. Fortunately, it wasn't hot. I made sure to do most of the lifting with my legs, and I was very mindful of not injuring my back. It was hard work. My thanks also to the woman who bought three novels by Jude Deveraux and one by Emily Giffin, and to Angelo, who purchased a paperback on gardening. He escaped his two-week vacation at Disney World just in time.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
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Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The Writer's Life 9/12 - All Good Things

Last night the Heroes and Icons channel, 140 on Cablevision in NYC, ran the series finale of Star Trek: Next Generation, season seven, episode 26, part two of All Good Things.... I was mesmerized as Captain Picard traveled between past, present and future, a puppet of the powerful Q, to solve a problem that threatened mankind. I've always been impressed by this show, its solid story-lines and interesting characters, especially Data and Deanna Troi. It was finally recognized by Hollywood in its last season when it became the first and only syndicated television series to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. In all, through the years, it received 19 Emmys, two Hugos, five Saturns, and a Peabody Award. In a great trivia note,  the finale was ranked #2 among all shows that week, between Home Improvement and Seinfeld. It went out on top of its game. (Facts from Wiki)... As I was brushing my teeth a commercial break, an interesting one aired. A law firm asked to be contacted by users of Viagra and similar products, as there is now evidence that usage may lead to skin cancer. This is not surprising on three fronts - that tampering with the natural process might lead to such a condition, that bottom feeding attorneys would capitalize on it, and that it would appeal to those who wanted their cake, have had their fill of it, and now want to cash in as well.

Since I don't have the patience to sit and watch sporting events anymore, I seek highlights on the web. As I was viewing footage from the Atlanta-Chicago game, rookie Tarik Cohen of the Bears made several big plays. Drafted in the fourth round in 2017, the RB out of North Carolina A&T stands only 5'8" and weighs but 179 pounds. He scored his first NFL touchdown on a pass reception from QB Mike Glennon. He kneeled and blessed himself. An average-sized young man excelled in a land of the giants. A black kid named Cohen made the sign of the cross - I love America!



From Yahoo's Odd News, edited by yours truly: Engineers have launched a war against a giant blob clogging London's sewers. It's likely to take three weeks to dissolve the fatberg. It's 250 yards long and weighs as much as eleven double-decker buses. It consists of congealed wet wipes, diapers, fat and oil. The task is "basically like trying to break up concrete." Eight workers are using high powered jet hoses to break it into pieces that will be sucked out into tankers for disposal at a recycling site. Yuck. Here's a pic:



My thanks to the kind folks who bought books yesterday and today, especially to the elderly woman who purchased two huge pictorials on gardening. A while back she bought A Hitch in Twilight. An infinitely better salesman than I, she talked it up to a woman who was browsing the display - and the woman caved! Here's how the shop looked this afternoon. The picture shows all but my Russian section, which was to the extreme left. That's my old Hyundai in the background.


Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
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