My goal in hiking is to ENJOY the experience as much as possible.
High altitude mountaineers suffer — the opposite.
I finally got around to watching Meru, the 2015 documentary film about climbing the Shark’s Fin route in the Indian Himalayas.
Mainly because I really admire Jimmy Chin, the best climber of all-time who can ALSO film his adventures.
In 2008 Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and new guy Renan Ozturk almost made the first ascent of the infamous Shark’s Fin. It was harsh. They suffered physically and psychologically.
Before their next attempt in 2011, both Chin and Ozturk (separately) suffered horrific climbing falls. Somehow Jimmy popped out of a monster avalanche suffering barely a scratch.
Watching the movie, everyone agrees Renan should not be going back to Meru. He suffers a minor stroke during the second climb.
Jimmy’s master work was the Academy Award winning Free Solo. (2018)
This one is no Free Solo. But it did keep me gripped from start to finish.
“Meru is the anti-Everest,” says mountaineer and author Jon Krakauer. “This climb has seen more attempts and more failures than any peak in the Himalaya.”
Krakauer commentary throughout was a highlight for me.
On October 21, 2020, it was reported that Purdue had reached a settlement potentially worth $8.3 billion, admitting that it “knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with others to aid and abet” doctors dispensing medication “without a legitimate medical purpose.” Members of the Sackler family will additionally pay US$225 million and the company will close.
Arthur Sackler (born 1913) was an impressive person in many ways. The eldest son of Jewish grocer immigrants in New York.
“No single individual did more to shape the character of medical advertising than the multi-talented Dr. Arthur Sackler. His seminal contribution was bringing the full power of advertising and promotion to pharmaceutical marketing.”
He did many, many things. But the Sackler empire was mostly built on how Arthur popularized dozens of medicines including Betadine, Senaflax, Librium, and Valium through direct marketing to physicians during the 1960s.
At times it was edited more like a YouTube video than a Hollywood blockbuster. That was a brave choice. A modern twist on an American icon.
It is long at 2-hour-and-39-minutes. But they started with a four-hour cut including scenes of Presley with his first girlfriend, Dixie, and his meeting with President Richard Nixon in 1970.
I suspect the next future Elvis biopic will be darker. More realistic. And the role of Colonel Parker will be less prominent.
The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who is accidentally transported to the Land of the Dead, where he seeks the help of his deceased musician great-great-grandfather to return him to his family among the living and to reverse his family’s ban on music.
The concept for Coco is inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. …
It was ME New Year’s Even crashing off the dance floor, knocking down the drums at the Calgarian Hotel. The pogo dancing was fierce.
I threw up in a Volkswagen Beetle — woke up in a closet atop all the winter boots.
CBGB is a 2013 film that follows the story of Hilly Kristal‘s New York club from its concept as a venue for Country, Bluegrass and Blues (CBGB) to what it ultimately became: the birthplace of underground rock ‘n’ roll and punk.
East of Edenis a novel by American author and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Published in 1952, the work is regarded by many to be Steinbeck’s most ambitious novel …
Steinbeck stated about East of Eden: “It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years,” and later said: “I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this.” …
I liked it less well than the author, but am still pleased to have made it through the lengthy, rambling saga.
Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. In fact, he appears as himself as a small boy in this novel.
Racism is a fact in this era. But one of the two smartest and best characters is Lee, an American born Chinese servant.
The other character you want to spend time with is Samuel Hamilton, the patriarch of one family.
Steinbeck books frequently explore the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everymanprotagonists. For example, Of Mice and Men.
The female characters are not nearly as important or well drawn as the men and boys.
The title comes from Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 16. The story of Cain and Abel.
Two sets of brothers are the main characters in this book. And one of the four is named Adam.
There are weird love triangles complicating both sets of brothers.
There’s something of a reimagining of the biblical story woven into a history of California’s Salinas Valley.
My two highlights reflecting back on this epic:
the STORY telling is memorable and entertaining
the philosophical discussions
James Dean played in one of the movie adaptations.
Rick McCharles 