Month: March 2021

I finished a book. As in I finished reading a book. Be nice if this happened each week, but not yet for me. (By the way, I understand you should not start a piece with “I” but I did and do it today.) But yes I finished reading a book and what makes this one special is it is/was a Kindle book. I have not finished a Kindle book since . . . I do not recall how long it has been. Well, in reality, I have finished reading a couple of other books. De La Vaca Al Queso y De La Flor A La Miel. are the two of them. They are also children’s books. I got them from the library to work on my Spanish. Right? If I do not understand all of the vocabulary intended for kids around five years old. Well, I need to learn some more. Which I have. Do you count these books in the list of what you have read? Spoiler: they talk about milking cows and making cheese and transporting it to stores. If you wanted a surprise when you read one of these, or that book, sorry. I could have let you hang in the suspense of the book. I have three of the six in the series. I need to order Del Tomate A La Pizza, that one has to be a thriller. Perhaps it will bring back memories of pizza my wife and I had in Buenos Aires. They are, I swear, half Italian there in Argentina. But, in truth, their pizza is not like what you will find in Italy. There was one in a place called “Kentucky Pizza” we ordered a pizza for the two of us. And, oh my, CHEESE half an inch deep with an olive embedded on each slice. The big thing about their pizza was an offering for extra cheese. We saw it with our eyes, eat as much as we could eat and that was less than half a pizza and we still don’t believe in extra cheese. My wife has made a “cheese” pizza with a full pound of cheese on it, not often, but once in a while, and those pizzas were New York style in comparison to what Kentucky Pizza serves to people. Lucky for us pizza is an international word. They offer something called pizza and you are in for a good time. It may not be like what you are used to eating but it will be ready to enjoy. This is getting too deep in memories here.

More Later.

-— MichaelRpdx
mlr:rkmm

Interrupted while reading a special good passage I looked for a bookmark. Nothing was at hand, so I stuffed another book into the book. I remember my mom having bookmarks, I recall getting cardboard ones from bookstores. What else have I used? Bookmarks are important for the reader who does not want to be hunting around looking for where they left off. Or for someone how had to do something else right then and the book was not at a place to leave a book. Recently I have used the call slips, the ID that I had a book on hold, that went home with me. They made for dandy bookmarks. For a book that is mine and if it is one that I am writing in, as I have taken to doing lately, a pen makes for a dandy bookmark. Or a pencil if I am using one of those if I am uncertain about what I am writing in the book. A paper clip, especially if it is one that has something attached to it, like a skull from Dia del Muertos, like one I received in the mail. If the newspaper is handy, when one is handy, which it is less and less often nowadays, tearing a section from it is a fine marker, especially if you get the date or a comic or something else to signify what you ripped it from. If a magazine is handy an advertisement for subscribing makes an even better one. Fits the book nicely, has some nice heft to it, yes that one is pretty nice. With a fancier one that comes with a covering that has enough, (what is that thing called?), it goes well with a hardbound book. And it is also very nice to have something made for the purpose. Maybe of leather or sewn-up stuff with your name embroidered onto it. If you can find the thing.

— MichaelRpdx
mlr:rkmm

This comes from an entry in my journal on 2020-11-21. I had looked all over for it. Is it in my list of lists, one of those books you can and should write? No. What it in a file on my computer somewhere? No. Did I put it into my Wiki where I put things that stores many things of varying values? No. I decided to look for it in a journal I keep with pens and paper. It just needed to be found. It needs an index kept along with it. Um, yeah,

Do you remember the 20-second drawing thing? Here I go with five sets of one-minute bursts and 1O seconds between each of them? Well, counting down …

No scotch at hand, so I am making do with a glass of wine. I get to have a sip between each of my sprints. Each one of these is a thing I get to do. Yeah, like …

I have some wine at hand, in my mouth, and well what did you expect for each thing? To gurgle it down  OK let’s see what you have.

Not a tough guy here, I am utilizing the wine, like Hemingway and his writer pal did while out in the rain and fishing and drinking drinking a bottle each oh those…

Utilizing the wine that is what they did on that day, in the 20s was it? They utilized it all right. That they did I am not as drunk drunk yet. Where they?

A whole lot of happenings as we wondered about the lost manuscript and the lost bell. And the lost innocence. Yes, yeah, innocence. They had plenty of it then. As much as they could…

It would be good to have remembered the name of the other writer. Was it Fitzgerald, F. Scott? I think so. Judging by his biography in Wikipedia, he is the guy who I wanted to name earlier. He died at 44 due to alcoholism. Damn, that took a lot of work. To die in such a manner at such a young age. It is not like ODing on drugs. Much easier way to die young.

Utilizing white wine, who remembers that reference? Cooled in a stream. Not like the red wine I have at hand, room temperature. A couple more sprints before I go for the night.

Ah, Italy, a home to a barrel in the way serving red wine, and it was kinda fizzy. And it was served out of the barrel. That was a way to go. Along with the food…

But Spain, well at least in southern Spain where they serve tapas along with your drink, A beer, a glass of wine and they provided you with a snack. Sliders for one ….

We hope to return to Spain this fall. We have friends that will be there then. OK, so you don’t get tapas with drinks in Madrid but, the food is cheap so what the heck …

We will enjoy it and the company will make it all the more enjoyable then. (where is the damn bell on this typewriter? errrr )

We perhaps will end up in Mexico, Though with all the Frequent Flyer miles…

Well, that kinda seems like we will get vaccinated. And with that
ready to go. We can travel again.

— MichaeRpdx

A couple of weeks ago a Boulder City Council unanimously passed a ban on assault weapons, high capacity weapons, bump stock … and immediately a gun rights organization took them to court on the basis that only the state could implement such a law and a state judge agreed. Boulder was banned from enforcing their waw. Less than two weeks before the shooting. Unanimous decision on the part of the City Council.

At last word, Kent was passing through Havre, Montana, and trying to get his One Typed Page submittenéd. Not great WiFi along all of the Empire Builder 1 ine. I do not have much hope for the North Dakota section of the line either. I also think he needed to get a Spot Tracker so we could know where he was, just like he did on the Great Mountain Bike Race. I am sure he is typing a page a day, if not more, and we will hear more from him when his connectivity is restored.

“Writers on Writing” aires from 9:00 to 10:00, Soucks, I should have checked on that earlier. Well, next week will be here soon enough.

Oh, memories! The lead page yesterday referred to Idaho in the mid-seventies, I was living there then. In the first halfway between Boise and Spokane, almost to the mile. The second half in the Treasure Valley, from Caldwell to Boise in my case. I intend to get back there again. Boise and Grangeville. There are friends and relatives in both areas. Boise no longer has Desmond and Mollies, a bar that was formative for me. I added “Wait for me here. – Godot” as a bit of graffiti. Responses to it covered three walls in length. I watched belly dancing including a woman who vowed to be the ”first female CEO of Idaho Power. And beers for a quarter. Those days just are not anymore. On the other hand, there is Pengilly’s which does still exist. I turned 21 there. I intended to return after 40 years. Instead, I spent the time in the start of a long hospital stay. I think I will go off and have some other memories.

— MichaelRpdx
mlr:rknm

I did, just last night, talk about Vicki Hendricks and her novel Iguana Love. You should be aware that in addition to being the Queen of Noir She also writes erotica. And Iguana Love is full of it. Lots. You are forwarned.

And back to my normal, um what?

On the distinctions between Noir and other types of things to read, there is Hard-Boiled Crime. And a lot of people lump the two together. Me included. I need to watch it again or read it again since both types are here for consideration. That thing to re-read No Country for Old Men. My only memory of it involves killing and mysteries and it was a damn fine movie and I read the book as a result. Cormac McCarthy is the author. And the movie, you will like this, was done by Ethan and Joel Coen, a fine pair of directors. So fine I think I need to arrange a bunch of their films and have a mini film festival right here. Yes, that would be a great way to finish out the pandemic cooped-up time.

23 Years? What a run from Barbara. And still going strong. ((I do not name names bere. Yes, we have a celebrity in our midst. So I really did not name a name.)) Now, about memories, umm I do not remember how I found Writers on Writing or you or whatever. I explored, I found. That is how I find things. And, as to podcasts, podcasts, and podcasting, all of that word dates back to 2004. This I know how I found it, I went to Wikipedia and read up on it. Although it was suggested by Ben Hammersley of The Guardian I imagine it was a couple of years before the term got into use. And, yes there is a section on History, But I don’t really care enough to check or read it.
Barbara: When did you switch from weekly radio programs to podcasts?

When we are not in the mood for Noir one of the niches of things to watch are whatever comes out of Australia and New Zealand. Such small countries, such nice video/movies/series. Lately, we have been watching The Strange Calls. It involves a new cop living in a caravan (trailer) and is in charge of taking calls overnight. They are strange. Very strange. We get access via Acorn TV, which supplies BBC type, well all the non-United States English speaking countries and Spain and Mexican TV series and movies. I am going to watch another episode, it is fun.

— MichaelRpdx

Books. We have a bunch of them. Stacked up in rooms. In boxes in the basement and attic. And still, we get books from the library. So many to read. Including the two I cannot find. Two from the library. If you know of an incantation to find books, please tell.

On the subject of Noir, if you have not seen Touch of Evil you should. If nothing else the opening sequence. A long shot as you watch a car with a bomb in the trunk snacking through the town, a border town in Mexico, three and a quarter minute waiting, waiting as the camera follows it to a newlywed couple’s kiss and the bomb goes off. Ahhm what a shot. Watch it. It gets better from there.

We did talk about Noir movies. So many of them were based on books. Jim Thompson, to name one. I discovered another one today. Vicki Hendricks. I have started with Iguana Love, something I could get as a Kindle thing. I found out about her on “Writers on Writing” a weekly podcast and scrolling back through the history and found this, well it, a Hendricks interview from January 20, 2021. I started listening and as my wife put it, “you were in Michael land” when it was over I looked down to discover a package next to me —- I was totally unaware that absorbed by the interview. Damm it was good. There are hundreds (thousands??) more to listen to. And, Hendricks is called the “Queen of Noir” If you are off riding a train across the country or have time to listen to it, or I am sure others, check em out, “Writers on Writing”

I am off to wonder and hopefully find my two books for the library. They are here someplace, among all the other books.

-— MichaelRpdx

Almost here. The days and more importantly the nights are warming. Equinox happens today. After I type this, as, perhaps, you read this we will pass into longer days than nights. At last! We have the warm days upon us every day. Equinox! Hooray!

Why do I use a typewriter?

Long habits, I was typing some 45 years ago. My only lapse was when Steve Jobs decreed that there would be no typewriters at Apple. And while I have never been an Apple or a Mac user the logic of his statement held for my new to computing “yes!” enthusiasm. So I ditched typewriters. And I lost the sound of it – keeping it for years with the keyboards that clicked. Keyboards that kept the depth of keypresses and a sound, not THE sound but a sound.

Odd, getting keyboards that most replicate the characteristics of a typewriter. But I came back. Which echos the question, Why?

I do like the sounds of typewriting, when it is going well, when I am typing something and in the flow and making things on the paper. When I don’t the sound is faltering, going silent for batches. Sometimes for reflection sometimes for searching out the words I am after. On an enjoyable day, I like the sounds of the typewriter. The rhythm of the keys echoing my pressing fingers. Echoing my movement of fingers to create whatever it is.

In recent years the typewriter does not interfere with my thinking and writing with autocorrect or red lines indicating when I have typed something that other people will not. Am I mistyping? Is it some mistake or is it a word twisted to amplify the meaning. Please get out of my way, just like a typewriter does. Every time all the time.

It waits for me and my thoughts and my right or wrong text for me to read later it waits patiently.

And sometimes I feel poetic, and only a typewriter can fill that void,

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm

So Barbara (and William?) are asking about our favorite Noir movie. Favorite? A singular answer? I don’t have one. There are So Many at the top of my head. So here is a list.

the Big Sleep with Bogart with the girl that cannot find his lap to sit on, Martha Vickers who has other problems with guys who have drugs and cameras. Great pacing and plotting.

For a much longer form, Berlin Babylon set in the late 20s Berlin and a deceptive attempting to get his drug habit under control and several other issues, like the rise of Nazis. The multiple sub-themes keep it going.

In other recent years, we had The Killer Inside Me, a Jim Thompson novel made into a movie in 2010. I did not expect such a good Noir in 2010, but there it was. Or from 1987, Angle Heart FROM New York to New Orleans. It received mixed reviews and a poor box office showing. Too bad as people missed out on it.

Vertigo anyone? Blade Runner? Pulp Fiction? House of Games? Dial M for Murder? Bullets or Ballots? The Usual Suspects? Devil in a Blue Dress? Double Indemnity? Sin City? The Glass Key? You Only Live Once? (Fill in the bland by any Jim Thompson)?

Yes, there are so many titles to choose from. Depends on your mood, the weather the ones I have forgotten and will be going “what about?” series. Now I have a bunch of holds at the library.

— MichealRpdx :: rkmm

Oops, I forgot to send this last night. cest la ca ca