Bewilderment by Richard Powers

On March 7, 2022March 4, 2022 By Rick McIn books, moviesLeave a comment

Wow.

What a fantastic book.

Richard Powers is my age. The main difference between us is that he won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory. 😀

I’m saving that long book for a long outdoors trip.

Bewilderment is his 2021 book set in the near future amid the environmental degradation of the planet.
It follows widowed astrobiologist Theo Byrne and his volatile nine-year-old son Robin, who is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive–compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Theo resists psychoactive medication for Robin, turning instead to an experimental neurofeedback therapy in order to help his son.

It’s part science fiction. Part science. Part philosophy. An important father and son story.

Extremely well written.

The author must have been inspired by Flowers for Algernon.

There’s a character much like Greta Thunberg.

The bad guys are a Trump-like President and his enablers. Anti-science. This time the losing President cancels election results in 6 States he lost and calls a new election.

Black Bear Pictures and Plan B Entertainment acquired the feature film rights.

Click PLAY or watch the author on YouTube.

vocalist Henning May

On March 6, 2022March 6, 2022 By Rick McIn musicLeave a comment

Rockin’ tipped me to Henning May’s band AnnenMayKantereit. (worst name ever?)

What I liked best is May’s vocals. So rough and soulful.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah Maas

On March 5, 2022March 3, 2022 By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Sarah J. Maas writes young adult fantasy.

She got asked to write one book in a series called DC Icons.

This book kept me going. But it’s more of a cartoon than a novel. Action. Action. Action. No real plot.

Catwoman (Selina Kyle) debuted as “the Cat” in Batman #1 (spring 1940), she is one of the Dark Knight’s most enduring enemies.

She’s is a Gotham City burglar who typically wears a tight, one-piece outfit and uses a bullwhip for a weapon.

Eartha Kitt played the role in the 1960s Batman TV series.

Though mostly an antihero, Selina and Bruce Wayne are frequently depicted as having a romantic relationship. In one version, they eventually marry.

This book is Catwoman’s origin story

Two years after escaping Gotham City’s slums, Selina Kyle returns as the mysterious and wealthy Holly Vanderhees. She quickly discovers that with Batman off on a vital mission, the city looks ripe for the taking.

She teams up with Harley Quinn — the Joker’s former girlfriend — and Poison Ivy, her new girlfriend.

As Batman is out of town, their nemesis is Batwing (Luke Fox).

Click PLAY or watch the author on YouTube.

Bombshell (2019 film)

On March 4, 2022March 1, 2022 By Rick McIn GOP USA, government, movies, TVLeave a comment

Great cast. Not much a film, however.
Too preachy. And I felt they tried to include too much. Fewer story lines would have made it better.
Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie star in this film based on the accounts of the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. …
After co-moderating the 2016 Republican debate, Megyn Kelly faces numerous insults from Donald Trump, who is upset because she asked him about his offensive comments toward women. …
Fox eventually paid the victims of sexual harassment $50 million, while paying Ailes and O’Reilly $65 million in severance.
wikipedia

Roger Ailes died age-77 in 2017.

Rupert Murdoch hired him in 1996 to become the CEO of Fox News. In 2016 Ailes was fired, taking a $65 million golden handshake. He was under investigation for sexual harassment from Megyn Kelly and many other women.

Other FOX old men accused of harassing blonde women included:

Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz
Fox Business Host Charles Payne
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly
Fox News Latino vice president Francisco Cortes
Fox News co-President Jack Abernethy

It was the culture of FOX. Hopefully things are better now.

Personally I wish some billionaire would buy FOX News and fire most of the opinion talking heads.

Winterkill by C.J. Box

On March 3, 2022February 28, 2022 By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Book 3 in the Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett series.

Great start to the story:

It’s hours away from darkness with a bitter winter storm raging when Joe Pickett finds himself deep in the forest edging Battle Mountain, shotgun in his left hand, his truck’s steering wheel handcuffed to his right—and Lamar Gardiner’s arrow-riddled corpse splayed against the tree in front of him.
Lamar’s murder and the sudden onslaught of the snowstorm warns: Get off the mountain. …
CJBox.net

This book introduces the most interesting character in the series ➙ Nate Romanowski.

Romanowski is an ex-Special Black Ops soldier for the U.S. military. An the “outlaw falconer” who loves his birds more than anything else.

I learn something about the rural American western culture each book. In this one a group called the “Sovereigns” is camped on Joe’s turf. Government dissenters from Waco, Ruby Ridge and the Montana Freemen standoff.

It’s intense.

Alpha (2018 film)

On March 2, 2022March 2, 2022 By Rick McIn moviesLeave a comment

Wow. I recommend this film for the story and special effects. Inspiring cinematography.

Alpha (2018) is a … prehistorical adventure film …
… a young hunter who encounters and befriends an injured wolf during the last ice age …
… Europe 20,000 years ago, a small tribe of hunter-gatherers prepare for a hunting expedition for the coming winter’s food. …
The hunters eventually reach a herd of steppe bison, which they attempt to stampede off a cliff …
Filming took place in Drumheller, Burnaby, and Vancouver …and in Iceland. …
Rotten Tomatoes, Alpha holds an approval rating of 80% …

The dog was the first species to be domesticated, by hunter–gatherers over 15,000 years ago, before the development of agriculture.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Pandemic must be Over … 😶

On February 28, 2022 By Rick McIn McCharles familyLeave a comment

My brother Rob and his wife Yvonne actually drove across the border for long delayed holidays in California and Arizona.

My brother Randy and his girlfriend Val drove Calgary to Parksville to take up residence in their house for a couple of months.

The nuclear family was briefly back together.

Walk the Beach at Dawn

On February 28, 2022February 28, 2022 By Rick McIn happiness, health & fitness, videoLeave a comment

For the two pandemic years I’ve been working out of my unheated garage world headquarters in Parksville, B.C., I’ve been heading down to the ocean almost evert day at dawn.

Sound boring?

Actually, every dawn has been different. The tides. The weather. The seasons. But I only once saw a bear.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.