Cats Won't Say No

Bored to Death is sort of um.. boring?

Bored to Death is a pretty simple series.  Jason Schwartzman is a writer who isn't writing that much and is just out of relationship.  He drinks too much white wine and smokes too much weed.  So in the middle of a self made wasteland he puts up an ad in Craig's list as an "unlicensed Private Investigator."  Now his life is more interesting as he juggles the odd case as he deals with a mercurial Ted Danson and his comic book drawing pal Zach Galifianakis.

It is certainly a well written series, and Ted Danson is obviously having a swell time.  Still, there is always the danger that a series about bored people getting high on weed will sometimes result in a rather negative contact high.  That is, sometimes it is too slow.  Sometimes, I don't give a rat's patootie about the main character.  Also, not being a New York intellectual doesn't help my love for the series since it worships that subset of a subset of americana.  Still, there was enough to keep my interest.  I just wish HBO would do a series about the OTHER jewish detective/artist.  Come on HBO, I dare you, I double dog dares you to do a Kinky Freidman show.

Carry On Camping

I'm told the "Carry On" series was a very popular series of films from the UK.  One assumes they must have been popular with someone since there were so many made.  Generally they are smirkfests along the lines of Benny Hill. 

Carry On Camping was made in 1969 and I believe it was late in the series.  I would assume so many of the characters are on the oldish side for what amounts to a teen romp.  We got two fellows who are very keen on nudist movies.  Their girlfriends are understandably less keen.  They hatch the hare brained idea to arrange their camping holiday at a nudist resort without telling their girls.  Also at the same time a girl's school is going out on holiday as well being chaproned by helpless staff.  Both groups of course come together and presumed hilarity results.

It's a very interesting artifact, both of leering comedy that promises a lot heat without really delivering and of an older, quainter Britain.  As far as the actual comedy goes, it's rather hit or miss but there were points I had a little smile.  Some parts reminded me a bit both of the already named Benny Hill and Austin Powers, so you can sort of see a family tree of comedy being formed with this being somewhat like the wheezy Uncle who comes for Christmas.

Carry on...

"On the Keys to A Darker Kingdom."

An interesting book about author Kylie Poole who wrote the celebrated "Shadows from the Sun," the first of what critics called the Inconstance series.  Author Derrick Moone has done a lot of research and has come up with something interesting.

It seems that before being a published author Kylie worked the rare book room at the Library of Londonium.  These she was exposed to a singular book written by an 8th century alchemist who wrote under the name of Rey de Lun.  The book entitled merely "Six," was a very complete dissection of Rey de Lun's theory. 

Basically, everything in the universe is the result of the intersection of prime forces.  Imagine these prime forces are like sides of a geometic object, in this case a hexagon.  There are six hexagons representing each "family of forces," and each side represents a different force.  Now arrange the hexagons so there is a whole in the middle of the arrangement.  A side of each hexagon will define this hole and in fact it will look just like a hexagon. 

Rey de Lun's belief was that everything in the universe we interact with was one of these holes defined by different arrangements of the prime forces.  The book went on to describe these forces and their more esoteric interactions, but that's not important.  I'm sure anyone who has read "Shadows from the Sun," can see how Rey de Lun's idea infected the novel and the author.  Even her last letter before going missing, "I am nothing, and I dream still," gains meaning from this insight.

Truly a masterful work of forensic criticism.

Today's Secret Code for October 23, 2010

"They all float down here."  Again:  "They all float down here."  Today's Colour is not black because black is not a colour.  Today's author is not an author, nor is he a hellish clown thing.  That is all hopefully, maho maho.

My take on Wonder Woman

One thing I think about Wonder Woman is for the most part she has been very rarely given the representation she deserves.  I'm not talking about a new jacket or anything like that, but rather just the overall feel.  Here, I think I've made her a more distant, mythic figure.  I could imagine seeing this wonder woman on top of the building after an epic battle looking down at all the destruction that had been wrought because men won't stop fighting.

Is That Halloween coming?