Monday Meadowlands

Driving to the Meadowlands yesterday we had a bit of Juju. In The Final Storm, some or all of the Australian attack will be described via Samurakami, Martinez and the Underlings listening in on the squadron radio net. Yes, we think that's it. Yes. Reminder: we are among the best there is at what we do.

[Why were you going to the Meadowlands?-Ed] 

Did we ever sellout yesterday:

It was Mrs. Stroock's corporate gig. Skybox suite with lots of side talk about REDACTED and the REDACTED industry. The Giants won, 25-3. 

My friend William Katz reports on Barry Soetoro's campaigning for Clinton bagman Terry McAuliffe in Virginia. Bill makes some apt observations with which this blog agrees. We'll believe challenger Glenn Youngkin will win the gubernatorial race in Virginia when we see it. But Barry campaigning for McAuliffe is not only a bad sign, it's a bad idea. The Dems lost over a thousand seats nationwide when Barry occupied the White House. The man has no coattails. What about 2008 you ask? Please. Hillary would have dragged all those candidates into office with her too. Hell, so would Joe.

Bill writes that he believes Barry has 'decisive influence' in the White House. This blog agrees. Joe's White House is staffed with Obama holdovers and nitwits like Pete Buttigieg. It shows the exact same inability to learn from mistakes and adapt as Barry did for eight years.  

On to Dune Week, Day-2.

Let's talk about some of the characters in Denis Villeneuve's Dune. First off, Oscar Issacs gives a wonderful performance as Duke Ledo Atreides. He's the good guy dedicated to service with honor. In no other version of Dune (we'll try to avoid comparisons but in some cases it will be impossible) is Duke Ledo's relationship with his dead father, gored by a bull, so fully realized. Ledo's scenes with Paul are inspiring and touching. 

We had our doubts about Jason Momoa as Duncan, but here he impresses. He's Paul's mentor, played more like an older brother than a distant teacher (see Patrick Stewart in the 1984 version). When Duncan kneels before Paul as Duke for the first time, well, let's just say we had that damn emotional reaction. 

Javier Bardem's Stilgar reminded us of Anthony Quinn in Lawrence of Arabia tinged with weariness and caution. Which is fine, actually. 

Watching Zendaya as Chaney, let's be thankful for the limited screen time. This is not a Disney show. Hopefully she improves in the second film.

Below, Monday Metal redux. Turns out Travelling Riverside Blues is a lot easier to play than we thought. A song at once about sex, the Mississippi and guitars. When one says one is going to Rosedale with one's Rider, one is talking about guitars.:

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 10/24/21

Alec Baldwin picked up a gun and shot a woman. It's not this blog's job to mock Alec Baldwin in this, his darkest moment. It will fall to other blogs to point out Baldwin was petty, vindictive and mean. That he used other's personal tragedy to make political points. This blog would never point out that Baldwin's an gun grabbing anti-2A fascist. Even if Baldwin would, has, and will kick a man down with personal tragedy, this blog won't do it. 

Besides, apt Amazon reviewers have noted that we know little about firearms. Maybe it's appropriate to point un-checked guns at unsuspecting women. We shrug. Whether or not Alec Baldwin is a murderer is not for this blog to say. That's up to a jury. We'll respect their verdict.

At all times a man of the right must play by gentlemen's rules. Always. 

We finished Dune and will  be reviewing it all week. First off, we want to talk about influences. Here's director Denis Villeneuve talking about his influences which unsurprisingly are David Lean and Lawrence of Arabia.  

We start with David Lynch's 1984 disaster. We've seen the film many times. And while Lynch does some visually interesting things, his work is a confusing disaster. In college we read Frank Herbert's novel, which we liked well enough. We've never felt the need to read any more in the series. I 2000 we watched the Sci-Fi Channel's miniseries version of Dune. We re-watched it last year.  It's very British and feels like a lavishly produced episode of Star Trek TNG. This version is easy and sensual. The miniseries is well done within its limitations, about a $20 million budget. Denis  Villeneuve's version is better, of course. Not bad for a Q. 

Sometime yesterday we realized that we have four rough drafts in varying states of rough draftidness. That is, we have four novels written. Four books will be released next year. Remarkable.

The beta readers gave us a chapter of The Great Nuclear War of 1975 last night. It was appropriately marked with red pen. The more red, the better. To show reader(s) the nature of the business, we found a mistake they missed. That's it. That's the gig. 'Sefl publishing'; get fucked. We've found typos in history books put out by big fancy publishing houses. 

We may need to spend November going over 75 one last time. We thought of two small changes we can make. We'll see. Remember, 75 and 76 will come out nearly simultaneous. A six week interval? Maybe eight. There will be a third novel. Maybe that's the summer sneak in? Maybe we should write a chapter during the Christmas break?