Fox Creek by William Kent Krueger

On November 29, 2022November 27, 2022 By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Fox Creek is the 2022 book in the Cork O’Connor series set in Minnesota.

I’ve read them all — and now have to wait at least a year for the next to arrive.

My favourite character is Henry Meloux, the Ojibwe healer who is well over 100-years-old.

Each book, we fear might be his last.

Fox Creek follows Henry non-stop for the first half of the book — so is excellent.

The second half tries to wind-up the mystery. And is less good.

Too convoluted. Too many characters.

Krueger:

“It’s really Henry’s book, although he is not the one speaking,” Krueger said in a recent interview.

… The last contemporary novel in 2019 left Henry in a precarious situation. Both he and Stephen had envisioned his death. I had to think about what I would do with that.”

Krueger said this book needed to focus on Henry, but he had never told a story from Henry’s perspective. To do that, Krueger uses other characters to unfold the mystery and describe their connections to Henry. …

19 books into Cork series, and author says he’s still growing

meh 🤔 – Contemporary Art

On November 28, 2022November 25, 2022 By Rick McIn Art and beautyLeave a comment

I visited the Museu Coleção Berardo in Lisbon, one of the best collections of modern and contemporary art in the world.

As my brother said, anything that he could recreate given the materials, is NOT ART.

For example, Voice of Fire by Barnett Newman.

It’s 2 cans of paint, 2 rollers, canvas, and less than an hour.

Not art.

Here’s the instillation at the Berardo that appealed to me most.

It’s called Nespresso.

There are a couple of artists with potential, however.

Picasso was a great artist

On November 28, 2022November 25, 2022 By Rick McIn Art and beauty1 Comment

Looking at some of his later work, you might guess Pablo Picasso was a over-rated bum. Drunk. Or mentally ill.

Fact is, he was a childhood prodigy. Brilliant from the start at age-13.

Here’s Science and Charity, oil on canvas, 1897. Picasso was age-15.

His abstract work came much later.

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

He’s best known for co-founding the Cubist movement.

He shocked the artistic world with Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, five nude female prostitutes in a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyó, a street in Barcelona.

The shocking part was the angular and disjointed body shapes. The slightly menacing aspect.

This was new.

His best work, for me, is his anti-war painting exhibited in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Guernica (1937).

Picasso opened his morning newspaper on April 27th to find images of the destruction of Guernica. It had been bombed by the Nazis at the request of Francisco Franco.

All that said. Much of Picasso’s hundreds of pieces of sculpture, ceramics, drawings and paintings hold no appeal for me. He worked fast. Had fun. Loved to be contrary. And many of those experiments didn’t work.

I saw many of those failed experiments in the Picasso museum in his hometown Málaga, Spain.

Here’s one that did work. Bull’s Head.

One day, in a pile of objects all jumbled up together, I found an old bicycle seat right next to a rusty set of handlebars. In a flash, they joined together in my head. The idea of the Bull’s Head came to me before I had a chance to think. All I did was weld them together…

Don’t be fooled. This man was one of the great artists.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Visiting Málaga, Spain

On November 27, 2022December 3, 2022 By Rick McIn Art and beauty, travelLeave a comment

I came to Málaga mainly as it’s the jumping off point for the nearby Caminito del Rey hike.

It’s just another city on the Costa del Sol (Coast of the Sun) attracting tourists from everywhere with worse weather. Everywhere. 😀

I was surprised to find it’s another city in Andalusia well worth visiting — though Granada is best of the best.

The Cathedral — the one-armed lady — is very impressive, especially the interior.

FREE —for tips — City Tour here is excellent, as they all are in Andalusia.

I did take a speed walk through the Museum of Malaga.

I like Pablo Picasso and learned a lot about him at the Picasso Museum. Very prolific. Very experimental. A super talented painter, a childhood prodigy. He was born in Málaga.

The Phoenicians originally came here to mine salt. And found it easy to defend from the Gibralfaro, a 130 m (427 ft) high foothill, from which the Gibralfaro Castle [es] and the Alcazaba fortress overlook the city.

It’s a great spot to watch sunset.

Here’s the Alcazaba, down below.

When the Romans got here, they built in an amphitheatre.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I stayed at two excellent hostels in Málaga. Hostels are terrific all over Andalusia.

One night we had all you can eat tapas at Jungle Hostel, Málaga. 10€.

Here are a few more random photos.

P.S. I did make a side trip tour to Gibraltar. A fail. I wished I’d not bothered.

Ink Black Heart by … Robert Galbraith

On November 27, 2022November 25, 2022 By Rick McIn books, ethics, human rights, TV1 Comment

Meh.

The Ink Black Heart is a crime fiction novel by the English author J. K. Rowling, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

It is the 6th novel in the Cormoran Strike series. …

Of the six, for me this was worst. Too long. Too slow paced. And WAY too much hateful back-and-forth text messaging.

Skip it — and hope for better with #7.

As a Kirkus reviews put it, by the time you get to page 1462 you no longer care who murdered who.

I made it about half way through before giving up.

Foolishly, the billionaire author engaged in online debate on the topic of transgender people and related civil rights. These have been criticised as transphobic by LGBT rights organisations and some feminists, but have received support from other feminists and individuals.

As a person of wealth and power, Rowling’s inevitably punching down when she engages with critics.

Rowling does a lot of charity work. Is a good person. And should simply stay quiet online — like MacKenzie Scott.

As a big fan of Rowling’s books, this one wastes too much time describing the good and bad of online fandom. Not enough on the painful but entertaining relationship between lovely Robin Ellacott and gruff, unlovable Cormoran Strike.

My best guess is that her mind was not on Robin & Cormoran while writing — but on personal grievance.

And after all this — I still don’t understand her position on those few individuals (0.1% to 0.6% of the population) born with gender identity or gender expression that does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth.

Personally, I don’t care if you are trans, from Transylvania, or choose to medically transition to another sex.

Everyone should have equal opportunity.

OF COURSE when it comes to what sport to play there should be rules. And each sport should set those to be as fair as possible to all participants.

The TV series Strike has 4 seasons as I post. It’s quite good.

Christmas Lights MÁLAGA, Spain

On November 27, 2022November 27, 2022 By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

Every 2 years Málaga tries to out-do the last Christmas spectacular. It’s a big deal.

Here’s how it was launched last night. The street was literally impassable.

More photos.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

And here’s the concept. A row of 4-metre-high angels along the Main Street of old town.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There are a LOT of poinsettias in Spain. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America, it grows well here.

Severance – season 1

On November 26, 2022November 27, 2022 By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

I’m sure film students will be studying this TV series for decades to come.

Cinematography and design original.

The weirdly slow pace is still compelling. Literally no work actually gets done at work.

But is it worth watching?

Critics love it. Awards have been heaped on the show.

Rotten Tomatoes: “Audacious, mysterious, and bringing fresh insight into the perils of corporate drudgery.”

The cast is fantastic.

Best of the best might be Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick.

Talk about getting creeped out by someone trying to be perfectly normal! He’s uncanny valley.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Count me in. I’ll be there for season 2.

I was punched in Spain 🥊

On November 25, 2022November 25, 2022 By Rick McIn health & fitness, travel1 Comment

I can’t recall being in a fist fight since elementary school. I’m no a fighter.

Walking at night on a crowded pedestrian street in Málaga I sidestepped to avoid running into a guy.

He deliberately shouldered me — for no reason.

I did the wrong thing, reflexively giving him an equal shove back. And calling him a Fuckwad.

He punched me, but not that hard. More than a slap. Less than a punch.

It didn’t hurt but happened to draw blood as my glasses cut me and were knocked to the ground.

At that point I did the right thing. I stepped into the crowded outdoor restaurant and sat down beside a waiter.

My opponent had still said nothing. But started removing his jacket as he’d seen toxic macho actors do on TV. Ready to fight.

It would have been difficult at that point to drag me out of the restaurant. I was confident the fight was over.

Finally another big guy, another local, intervened as peacemaker, and convinced him to move on.

Travel is easy in 2022 with the internet and map apps. But there’s still some adventure to be had. 😀

Here’s the damage done. Do I look scared enough?

CARRIE SOTO IS BACK by Taylor Jenkins Reid

On November 25, 2022November 22, 2022 By Rick McIn books, sport - proLeave a comment

I’m no particular tennis fan, but this book did keep me going.

“The Bitch Is Back,” one of Carrie’s anthems.

It’s simplistically written. Something like a Young Adult novel.

But the pace makes for good storytelling. I do recommend it.

Carrie Soto is the best tennis player in the world, and she knows it. Her father, Javier, is a former tennis champion himself, and he’s dedicated his life to coaching her. By the time she retires in 1989, she holds the record for winning 20 Grand Slam singles titles.

But then, in 1994, Nicki Chan comes along. Nicki is on the verge of breaking Carrie’s record, and Carrie decides she can’t let that happen: She’s coming out of retirement, with her father coaching her, to defend her record…and her reputation.
Kirkus Review

Themes of how women in sport are treated — compared with men.