A comment thread on Peter Rozovsky's site Detectives Beyond Borders has finally driven me to take action about something that's been bothering me since my move to Australia. Bagels. Here in Melbourne they are sold by a man called Mr. Glick who foists a baked roll with a hole in the middle of it on an unsuspecting populace. Mr. Glick is a master of the challah, but his bagels are an insult to the name. They have no density or chewiness or crunchiness or any of the qualities that make up a decent H&H or Zabar's NY style bagel. They are imposters, frauds, sorry excuses even for a roll. I haven't wanted to rock the boat since I moved here, but I have been silent too long. As Edmund Burke famously said "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Mr Glick (or Glicks Junior) if you can't make a decent bagel please stop selling those cheap knockoff ones which sully the name of a fine food. As my old grandmother never used to say: "Dershtikt zolstu veren!"Saturday, March 14, 2009
I Am Your Bold Deceiver
A comment thread on Peter Rozovsky's site Detectives Beyond Borders has finally driven me to take action about something that's been bothering me since my move to Australia. Bagels. Here in Melbourne they are sold by a man called Mr. Glick who foists a baked roll with a hole in the middle of it on an unsuspecting populace. Mr. Glick is a master of the challah, but his bagels are an insult to the name. They have no density or chewiness or crunchiness or any of the qualities that make up a decent H&H or Zabar's NY style bagel. They are imposters, frauds, sorry excuses even for a roll. I haven't wanted to rock the boat since I moved here, but I have been silent too long. As Edmund Burke famously said "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Mr Glick (or Glicks Junior) if you can't make a decent bagel please stop selling those cheap knockoff ones which sully the name of a fine food. As my old grandmother never used to say: "Dershtikt zolstu veren!"
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70 comments:
and of course the usual moral superiority prize for the person able to ID the post title without looking it up.
I've already posted more than my competence level about bagels, and I can't win the moral superiority prize either. But I can remember an LP (!)from my childhood with Burl Ives singing 'Whiskey in the Jar' and 'bold deceiver' was certainly in the lyrics. So maybe I'll at least get some moral adequacy points for identifying some antiquated source material behind something.
"Musharingum doom dah, whackfall to daddy-o, whackfall to daddy-o, there's whiskey in the jar."
Yeah. Now I've got an earworm on top of everything else.
Mush-a-ring-dum-a-doo-dum-dah to you, too. Glad to see you are finally posting about a serious subject.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
The only good bagels I have found in Melbourne are in Fitzroy, from here http://beansandbagels.com.au/
And they are gentiles over there.... perplexing
Well of course we knew what the title was from.
'Stand and deliver, for I am the bold deceiver', as Seanag has identified already - Whiskey in a certain container... but the versions I know are Clancy Bros and the Pogues? (not together of course).
I see Peter has a video, I'll go look now.
And such a shame about the bagels.
Seana
Right out of the gate. And I thought you said you never get these things?
I like that phrase as a book title actually but you know what the publishers would say: too long, too weird for a crime book.
Peter
Very nice. The Dubliners are great. However the version I grew up on was Thin Lizzy who of course are just as much Dubliners as the Dubliners.
Clare
You know what I'll check them out this week. And eventually I will get to The Wire.
Genevieve
Well at least no one thought it was Adam Ant.
The one time I saw Shane McGowan (not with the Pogues) he played a version of WITJ but it wasn't very good.
Poor Shane
A...
In that Dubliners video, though, isn't he saying that Farrell is the bold deceiver?
"Bold Deceiver". They would like that one.
Didn't mean to imply that Burl Ives was the first singer,by the way. Just that it's an old album
"In that Dubliners video, though, isn't he saying that Farrell is the bold deceiver?"
Seana, in that way that old songs have, "Whiskey in the Jar" exists in multiple versions. In some, the highwayman accusess Farrell of being a bold deceiver. In others he proudly claims the honor for himself. And this song is old, with roots that go back as far as 1650, apparently.
Adrian, I've always thought there's sociological interest in your and Declan Burke's preference for Thin Lizzy's version. To my mind, it's nothing more than an adequate, even good rock song, whereas Luke Kelly (especially on "Rocky Road to Dublin") is possessed and transcendant.
But I'm coming from the outside, and you guys grew up with this music. Thin Lizzy must have been a breath of fresh air for you guys amid all that "old" music.
In re the many versions of the song, I first heard WITJ just a few months ago at a pub in Dublin, just as I first heard "Peggy Gordon" and many others at other pubs in Dublin and Belfast. (My first acquaintance with "Rocky Road to Dublin" came with the High Kings' performance at halftime of the All-Ireland hurling final at Croke Park in Dublin -- a fine rendition until their pre-recorded backing track conked out near the end. They scurried off the field like cartoon mice.)
Anyhow, my point is that these old, old songs are decidedly still part of a living tradition in Ireland. Of course, all those pub singers incorporate John Denver and similar shite in their performances, so it's not all good. But pub sings were among the trip's highlights.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Er, make that pub songs, not pub sings. I don't want to imply that I joined in -- except once in a while.
Peter
Also as big part of it is that Phil was cool. The Dubliners and Clancy Brothers, bless their hearts arent cool, never will be. In the Dylan era they were still wearing thick Aran sweaters under those raging studio lights.
That sounds hilarious BTW - the Croke Park half time show.
Irelaned is playing all its home rugby games at CP so I hope the entertainment has improved some.
It's funny. To me Thin Lizzy's version is a possessed and transcendant rock song, while the Dubliners version is just an adequate, competent standard folk song like countless others
Wonder if there's a sociological interest in that ;)
Though Thin Lizzy's version hasn't got the line in question. Which means that, for the purpose of the assignation of the moral superiority prize, it was indeed a bold deceiver.
This is not just adequate and routine, and I'll disagree in the strongest possible terms with anyone who says otherwise.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Some of those guys may not have been cool, but Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew were. But your fashion critique supports my guess that younger people might have found in Thin Lizzy a freshness that their Aran-sweater-wearing elders lacked.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Let us not forget that Metallica have also done a "Whiskey in the Jar." Though their take is a fair departure from that of tradition. After all, I don't think the Dubliners would have girls stripping and making out in their video...I could be mistaken however.
This is not just adequate and routine, and I'll disagree in the strongest possible terms with anyone who says otherwise.
A bit defensive?
As Irish folk songs go I prefer this one
Let us not forget that Metallica have also done a "Whiskey in the Jar."
The Lord knows I've tried. And I used to like Metallica.
That's a good one, Marco. So is this -- Scottish, but sung also by many Irish singers.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I'm not sure if the Waterboys ballad was originally an Irish or Scottish folk song. Scott is a Scot, but the Waterboys were strongly influenced by Irish music. Let's just say Celtic folk.
I've no comment on the bad bagels of Australia, but I herewith offer up my St. Patrick's Day Mix, assembled as I listen to the excellent audiobook of The Bloomsday Dead, which musical bouquet is not heavy on songs of deep spiritual devotion, more Chicago green beer and river than church-day, less high mass than mass murder:
1. "Touched" by My Bloody Valentine.
2. "Blown a Wish by My Bloody Valentine.
3. "Dirty Water" by The Dropkick Murphys".
4. "Death Trip 21" by Ash
5. "Bad Baby" by Brian Jones Massacre.
6. "Hyperventilation" by Brian Jones Massacre.
7. "Emerald" by Thin Lizzy.
8. "Hypnotized" by The Undertones.
9. "The Face of Love" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Eddie Vedder.
10. "Keya Rinia" by Ali Baba.
11. "Whiskey in the Jar" by The Pogues.
12. "Didgeridoo" by Aphex Twin
13. "The Irish Keep Gate-Crashing" by The Thrills.
14. "Gunshy" by Liz Phair.
15. "Into Action" by Tim Armstrong.
16. "Inner City Violence" by Tim Armstrong.
17. "Echoes of Harlem" by Cootie Williams and His Rug Cutters.
18. "Murder" by Giles, Giles and Fripp.
19. "Fast Blood" by Frightened Rabbit.
20. "Butter" by the Bloody Beetroots.
21. "Baba O'Reilly" by The Waco Brothers
22. "How Long Before I Change My Clothes" by Alvin Youngblood Hart
23. "Another Bloody Day" by Albert Castiglia.
24. "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" by Bob Dylan.
25. "Block Rockin' Beats" by the Chemical Brothers.
26. "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" by Bettye LaVette
27. "What Makes the Irish Heart Beat" by Jerry Lee Lewis and Don Henley.
28. "Hector the Hero" by Kevin Burke.
29. "The Fiddler" by Ricky Jay and Richard Greene.
30. "Bold Marauder" by Richard and Mimi Farina.
31. "Dead Man Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers
32. "Hole In Her Belly" by Pig In A Can.
33. "Clampdown" by The Clash
34. "The Grip of Love" by Tom Verlaine.
35. "One Week of Danger" by the Virgins.
36. "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" from the Young at Heart Soundtrack.
37. "Gone Daddy Gone" by the Violent Femmes.
38. "Cocaine Cooked the Brain (Guns and Bombs Remix)" by Neko Case
39. "Love You Till the End" by The Pogues.
40. "Nature Boy" by Chris Whitley
41. "Ballpeen Hammer" by Chris Whitley.
42. "Guns and Dolls" by Chris Whitley.
43. "Tombstone Blues" by Ritchie Havens.
44. "Hellhound Blues" by John Hammond.
45. "Whammer Jammer" by the J. Geils Band.
46. "Evil is Alive and Well" by Jakob Dylan.
47. "Tail Dragger" by Link Wray
48. "Done With Bonaparte" by Niamh Parsons.
49. "Give Out But Don't Give Up" by Primal Scream.
50. "Too Tough To Die" by The Ramones.
51. "It's Quite Allright" by Rancid.
52. "Sex And Gasoline" by Rodney Crowell.
53. "Weapon Conflict" by the Refugee All-Stars
54. "Don't Be So Strange" by Joey Ramone.
55. "Funeral Bell" by A.J. Roach.
56. "In My Life" by Ben Lee.
57. "Lake Marie" by John Prine
58. "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by Joan Osborne.
59. "Bustin' Up a Starbucks" by Mike Doughty
60. "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash.
Happy St. Pat's, AK and yer loved ones, and to MF wherever he is tonight.
PKL
PKL, I really wish we could all just download your mix tape.
Adrian, I think your generation is just a bit defensive about the Aran sweaters, et al. Aran knitting is a dying art, and it's a manly thing to do to wear one under those sweltering spotlights. Or, as RLS would have it, the 'birstling' spotlights, as I have just gotten done where Davie and Alan are frying like eggs on top of a rock.
The Dubliners version was the only one I've bothered to download on cursed dial-up, but I have to admit that WITJ makes a great mental soundtrack for Kidnapped. I know it is another isle entirely, but rugged country, pistols and loot do figure into both. Haven't come across a betraying woman in RLS, though. In fact, haven't come across many womenfolk at all...Hmm.
Seana: Seeing as you are a Santa Cruz neighbor, and given the sympathy I feel for anyone having to live with dial-up, I'll just turn it 'way up this Saturday night, and you should be able to hear it down there in Wonderland
Did you know that the guy who wrote the Elephant Man script lives in Santa Crus? I think that's way cooler than T. Pynchon.
PKL
Thanks, PKL. I think I'm already hearing faint strains...or maybe I'm just under a faint strain, I really don't know. Where are you again?
Actually, I'm trying to download that Thin Lizzy version of WITJ at the moment to make a comparison.
I understand your vitriol against the reviewing/tastemaking class, but on the other hand, I don't really know how a writer, such as our illustrious host here, is going to get more play without them. Would that we all had more clout, but since we don't, I guess these things matter.
The scriptwriter for Elephant Man lives here? No, I had no idea, and you are right, that is way cool. I loved that movie. What is his name if you remember it?
Seana:
For the scriptwriter's right to privacy, I will not tip the name, but there is always IMDB, where all things about all films can be gleaned. This guy also wrote, substantially, the Francis script.
As to the well-deserved success of our host, that's what publicists are for. Now this is a profession I value, since the great promoter is an artist. He lauds the great and the poor. He finds the best in everything and seeks to win it's audience. It is noble.
PKL
I'll do the IMDB research on Elephant Man. Thanks. I'm not going to stalk the person. But if they ever come in to Bookshop and hand me something with their name on it, like a check or a credit card, I would just like to know. I mean before I say "Could I see a second piece of ID, please?" (Actually, we never say that.)
I understand the whole publicist vs. reviewer idea, I think. But isn't a publicist's whole aim to get their author or artist or whoever into the limelight via the 'tastemakers'? Most publicists would feel that they should be so lucky as to get their author on Oprah, for instance. And in terms of money, they are right. But what is the culture coming to when Oprah is one of the tastemakers supreme? Sorry, Oprah, I know you read this blog regularly and all, but...well, just 'but'.
Did I mention yet how pleased I am to have won the moral superiority prize? I almost just turned that into the 'morel superiority prize', which wouldn't be bad, just a whole lot different.
I'm living it up, because it ain't ever going to happen again.
I listened to the Thin Lizzy version of WITJ and I think I like the Dubliners version better. At least at the moment.
Please don't vote me off the island. Or at least, not this round.
Seana:
Love that prize, win it all the time.
Oprah's opinion is a good as anybody's. Especially O'Reilly's, or Hannity's, or Buchanan's. These guys should be locked up for the good of society. These guys should be freed in a terrorist action, thwarted by Mr. Forsythe. Anything, as long as they stop talking.
I'm in the East Bay.
I don't get to vote anyone off the island, as we're all equal in the eyes of the Xtabay.
PKL
Oh, Oprah's taste is definitely as good as anybody's and I don't doubt that it is more wellfounded than mine. What I do question, though, is the 'Oprah Effect'. I mean, it is good for business, even an 'independent bookstore' such as the one I work in moves a lot of copies on anything she chooses to promote, so why complain? But I guess that to disapprove of print reviewers when there is this much larger mass phenomenon at work--not just Oprah but all the big media talking heads,some of whom you've mentioned--seems sort of, well, it's probably charitable towards the print reviewers to notice their opinions at all. At this late stage in the game.
"Bold Marauder" by Richard and Mimi Farina.
Richard Farina to whom Pynchon (the one you think is less cooler than the guy who wrote Elephant Man) dedicated Gravity's Rainbow?
Man, you're really a treasure trove.
because I'm procrastinating:
my playlist, a genre crossing endeavor mostly depicting the ruins of alcohol and other illicit substances....enjoy responsibly.
1. The Tossers: The Pub
2. " ": No Loot, No Booze, No Fun
3. " ": Siobhan (this always sort of make me think of that other siobhan we all know when she grows up lol)
4. " ": Good Morning Da
5. Flogging Molly: Float
6. " ": Drunken Lullabies
7. Dropkick Murphys: (on the theme of dirty) The Dirty Glass
8. Against Me!: Pints of Guinness Make you Strong
9. Dusty Rhodes and the River Band: Dear Honey
10. The Pogues: Streams of Whiskey
11. The Stranglers: Golden Brown
12. Cold War Kids: We used to Vacation
13. Mike Doughty: I'm still Drinking in my Dreams
14. The Clash: Rudie Can't Fail
15. Kimya Dawson: The Beer Song
16. The Ike Reilly Assassination: When Irish Eyes are Burning
17. Sham 69: Hurry Up Harry
18. Sublime: 40oz to Freedom
19. Von Bondies: Not that Social
20. Big D and the kids Table: She Knows her Way
21. River City Rebels: Drunken Angel
22. The Mountain Goats: See America Right
23. The Dead Pets: Mother's Ruin
24. Charlie Parr: Cheap Wine
25. Modest Mouse: the Good Times are Killing Me
26. The Hold Steady: Killer Parties
Roisin: Thanks! This goes on my ipod as "Stab City Mix," and may you escape soon.
PKL
PKL,
NP. glad to be of service.
yes, may I escape Stab City and return home to Murderapolis where the streets are much safer ;)
But on the whole I like Limerick. If only because everyone else hates it. I wish they were more clever with the nickname though.
Limerick was my first Irish City, after sleeping in the mist at the Cliffs of Moher, in the summer of 1969.
Thanks also for the lovely Charlie Parr vid of "Cheap Wine"!
Here's Paddy's Day payback for ya,
straight from just outside the STAX theatre on Beale St., Memphis, the cigar-box guitar playing street genius Richard Johnston. Judging from your playlist, you should appreciate this, Roisin.
http://patrick-othervoicesotherrooms.blogspot.com/
PKL
Patrick
Great list. Some I've got, some I know, some I've never heard of. Aint that like life though?
If you turn up the stereo loud enough I'm sure it'll come drifting across the Pacific too.
MF? He's in Port Jefferson with wife and kid, off the drink, off the smokes, going to the driving range three times a week to better his swing and wondering whether it was really a good idea to a season ticket to the New York Islanders. Bored out of his mind? Of course. Ready to get himself mixed up in more shenanigans? Nope.
Christina
Another nice playlist. Thanks for that.
I hadnt heard the Metallica version of Whiskey. I dont really know how I feel about Metallica. I liked some of their early material but Lars especially is such a dick its hard to get on board with them.
But then again my brother and sister in law still get royalties from Metallica orchestra CD/DVD so I shouldnt be so pissy.
When are you going to make it up to Belfast in your Irish soujourn? Or have the recent riots etc. turned you chicken?
Marco
Wait a second...for once you are on my side? Whats happening this weekend? Ireland won the rugby, Marco's not eviscerating me and Liverpool beat Man U 4:1. Strange times.
Seana
Now I'm convinced that everybody lives in SC. In fact I wonder if the rest of California is not just some projection of hippies living in SC - oh no wait a minute I think that was a Philip K Dick novel I read once.
The last three book readings I did in California were all in San Mateo. I think next time (if there is a next time) it'll have to be a little further down the coast.
Peter
Taking a leaf out of your book I visited the local mystery bookstore here in Hobart. It was ok, I bought a used Graham Greene biography and left. No pictures though.
I'm in Tasmania for a couple of days. I have learned much. It rains a lot here. No, really, it rains a lot. And last night someone told me that "map of Tazzy" is slang for a piece of female anatomy.
Ok I'm off to take some pics of the Sea Shepherd Ship "Steve Irwin" in Hobart harbour which is painted black and, rather creepily, is flying the skull and crossbones.
Marco's not eviscerating me and Liverpool beat Man U 4:1. Strange times.
Go to Crime Always Pays. I've done my Pool-ManU 4-1 eviscerating there.
I'm sure when you will read it you'll feel that the world is back in order again.
And I'm not against you just because, you know.
You're often wrong,that's all.
I'm in Tasmania for a couple of days.
Already buying the farm?
PKL,
I'm sure the city hasn't changed a bit.
I'll check it out.
Charlie Parr is amazing. I don't know if the video is still available, but Possessed by the Devil is probably my favorite of his.
Adrian,
the Metallica version is shit. You're probably better off. Unfortunately, they played it everyday on the local hard rock station for god knows why.
I'd love to go back to Belfast. We stayed in the Europa when i went with a study tour two years ago. There was some sort of shin dig going on and the lobby was full of Elvis impersonators. We even got to sit in on a session at Stormont. The teacher that took us has a lot of friends up there from the Poet's House. His last name's Olson, born and raised in Wisconsin, but now he shuffles through the hallways with a Northern accent.
Unfortunately, time and money constraints aren't going to get me up there. Spending easter break in a hostel in Leenane and taking a budget trip to Dublin over the public holiday in May (the whole trip costing me only 25 euro if you can believe it).
Marco's probably going to yell at me for still not knowing how to provide links but here's a site that has the entire playlist of Parr's at the gig in question. Possessed by the Devil is called Blessed by the Devil...i don't think we know exactly which one it really is.
http://www.archive.org/details/CharlieParr2008-01-27.matrix.flacf
Marco's probably going to yell at me for still not knowing how to provide links
No, but my eyebrows arched momentarily in a frown
(a href="link")description(/a)
and change the above parentheses to < and >
(a href="http://www.archive.org/details/CharlieParr2008-01-27.matrix.flacf")Charlie Parr (/a)
Changing ( ) with < >
Charlie Parr
Marco,
keep up the good fight.
"Taking a leaf out of your book I visited the local mystery bookstore here in Hobart. It was ok, I bought a used Graham Greene biography and left. No pictures though."
Too bad no pictures. You could have won free books.
It rains a lot in Tassy, does it? I hear the same about Ireland.
Am reading Ken Bruen's Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice and listening to an ill-tempered colleague, who claims to have some Irish "blood," whine that tomorrow's "news" story about St. Patrick's Day is offensive and that he hates Irish music.
Eejit.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Marco,
I guess we must just accept it if he is buying the farm, so long as he hasn't 'bought the farm'. Adrian, I realize that this puts you into an Alice in Wonderland sort of conundrum...Good luck.
No playlist, but here's the paragraph I've just read from Kidnapped, which will have to do (No spoilers):
"Seemingly he was well pleased, and he must certainly have judged us out of earshot of all our enemies; for throughout the rest of our night march, he beguiled the way with many tunes--warlike, merry, plaintive; reels that made the foot go faster; tunes of my own south country that made me fain to be home from my adventures; and all these, on the great, dark, desert mountains, making company upon the way."
Marco:
I'm going to figure out how to post a link today, working from your concise advice, and I do appreciate very much your tutelage.
I think Mr. Gravity's Rainbow is very cool, and bought a drink for TP and Spalding Gray on Front Street in Santa Cruz once upon a time, part of my outreach program to artists far more talented than I. I expected to sit quietly and listen to those two spill a fountain of brilliant conversation.
But mostly, they just asked me about my own boring life.
I don't think that the scripter is cooler than TP, I just think it's cooler that the scripter lives in Santa Cruz, with a library card instead of a computer, working on his next script, which I think has something to do with performance magic. At a party recently, he recommended to me a book called "Net of Magic," which turns out to be an excellent first-person gonzo account of street magic in India written by U. of Hawaii prof. Much cooler than anything I've seen on the web lately.
As to Mr. Farina, he's just way up there in my pantheon. Nothing obscure about him.
PKL
I think Mr. Gravity's Rainbow is very cool, and bought a drink for TP and Spalding Gray on Front Street in Santa Cruz once upon a time,
Very envious. To think Seana maintains nothing happens in Santa Cruz...
part of my outreach program to artists far more talented than I.
;)
I expected to sit quietly and listen to those two spill a fountain of brilliant conversation.
But mostly, they just asked me about my own boring life.
And nice chaps they are too.
I've looked up the book on Amazon. It seems interesting indeed.
I say obscure b/c I've only encountered Mr.Farina through Pynchon- so his records at least must have been pretty rare to come by
Marco:
The Farinas music has been in print, on the Vanguard label, continuously since it was originally released. It is really great stuff, and unlike much of the folk-era gloss, is pretty well timeless and wonderful. Dulcimer and smart words and harmonies. You can get it anywhere, and can download the MP3s directly from Amazon. Or other sources. Heartily suggest you hear these songs.
PKL
Marco --
Neglected to tip you to R.Farina's beautiful book "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me," which, in it's most recent printing, has an Intro by TP. Also available at Amazon or through your local bookseller. Seana will be glad to take yer money in return for a copy.
PKL
Patrick
I'd also rec Been Down So Long. And the edition I got from the Strand also had a TP intro. Excellent book. Proved that he could have been one of the all time greats if he'd lived a little longer.
On a post from last year I mentioned that I had read that TP, Salman Rushdie and Don Dellilo attend Mets games together.
You know I'm a NYY fan, always will be, but thats a much cooler set than the Hollywood types who go to the Bronx talk on their cell phone for the whole game and sneak away during the seventh inning stretch.
Christina
A plague of Elvis Impersonators in the lobby of the Europa Hotel Belfast - The Most Bombed Hotel in the World. Come on girl, if thats not a short story you're just not trying.
Peter
I took a photograph of their chalkboard outside which I hope comes out. It, er, boldly declared "ALL NEW KNITTING BOOKS! COME INSIDE!"
Marco
The moment all of us learn how to do hyperinks I bet the internet gods change the protocols.
Seana
I take it you're liking Kidnapped then?
Adrian, do not knock knitting. I mean, I wouldn't know how to do it for the life of me, but it is the hottest craft going right now, so that bookstore is being very savvy to advertise their wares in such a way.
Yes, I'm really enjoying Kidnapped. On a storytelling level, it's a rollicking good yarn. But I'm also quite impressed with RLS's ability to write what isn't really much more than a sketch of a moment, and have it come real. There's a moment where there's a sudden, surprise death by gunshot, and it's only a tiny, though catalytic, scene about a minor, minor character, and yet the death is real, in that moment. The shock of death is in it. And he manages vivid, and I mean really vivid, moments like this time and again. I do not actually see how he does it--he's a magician.
It may be a hard sell with the bookgroup, though. I ran into one of my friends in it tonight and she said that she wasn't much into buccaneering right now. I guess she hasn't gotten all that far, and we meet tomorrow night.
While on this subject, and since Tasmania has entered the picture, has anyone here read the marvelous English Passengers, by Matthew Kneale?. It features Manx smugglers, plenty of seafaring action and the tragic history of Tasmania, and somehow manages to meld this all together.
Here is one of the secret joys of bookselling. The highest moments are not when your own taste prevails over someone else, but when someone comes in and prevails over you. This book was recommended to me by a woman who walked in the door and just sold me on it because she loved it so much, had no ax to grind but just pressed it upon me. She told me in detail that it was a mix of the comic and the tragic, but she told me nothing that spoiled the read for me.
It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, it is sublime.
Marco, I don't think I ever meant to imply that Santa Cruz wasn't an interesting place. Didn't I tell you all about the Chocolate Festival? And really, there is something like that going on all the time here. I just meant that my own life is not a particularly interesting sample, though of course, rather pivotal to me.
"but it is the hottest craft going right now, so that bookstore is being very savvy to advertise their wares in such a way."
I saw a woman knitting on the subway in Philadelphia today. And I noticed a few years ago that younger woman were knitting in public. Knitting was no longer something that just mothers and grandmothers did. And I see how fast those needles move when a knitter gets in a rhythm. It's easy to imagine the activity leading to a state of Zenlike detachment.
=============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter, I went to lunch with a couple of people yesterday, and one of them was a Philadelphian who was out on the West Coast for a conference. She teaches at La Salle U. and has taught at Temple and is actually very attached to Philadelphia, but here family is there. She mentioned a big used book store that she loves, which is in an old train station, but she didn't remember the name. Sound familiar?
Seana, the store is called Walk A Crooked Mile, and it's a wonderful place. The owner had a big beard and a cat, and he'll serve you tea. And the store makes for marvelous exploration, with all kinds of rooms giving onto rooms. It's like a giant attic full of books.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
If she's at La Salle, she might know Ed Pettit, the Philly Poe Guy.
Seana
Yes RLS is a genius and Kidnapped and TI are his masterworks, but I love Kidnapped the best. Davie and Alan seem so real and believable.
The Tasmania connection of course is that Errol Flynn starred in a couple of RLS adaptations.
There hasnt been a good Kidnapped one I think. THe BBC did one a few years ago but instead of the Highlands they filmed it in New Zealand thinking no one would notice. I did.
I read English Passengers and quite liked it. It was funny if I recall or had funny moments.
Peter
The Economist is raving about some Cezanne exhib in Philly this week.
Its only Spring Training but the NYY cleaned the clock of the world champion Philadelphia Phillies. I'm not gloating or jinxing just making an observation.
Adrian, I'll have to see that exhibit, though I like Cezanne better than his followers.
So the Yankees are spring-training juggernauts? A bunch of Mr. Marches, the Boss might say.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Marco, regarding PKL and Adrian's recommendation of the Farina book, yes, it's still in print here, and though Bookshop would happily take your money for it, as it's Penguin currently publishing it, I suspect you will already have some sort of cheaper access to it. I haven't read it, but it's one of those books I'm always coming across. I'll add it to my list.
Peter, that bookstore sounds great. I will ask my friend if she knows Ed Petitt, and you're right she probably should as she's in the English department.
Adrian, Yes, the friendship between Alan and Davie is really the backbone of the book, and it just keeps getting better and better as the book goes on. I mean more interesting, because of course, sometimes it actually gets worse--as friendships will.
One of my friends at work saw me reading Kidnapped in the break room and told me that she had a soft spot for it because it was the last book her mother read aloud to/with her. Not that her mother is dead, it's just that they had come to the end of that era. I guess it was one of her mother's favorite books too.
I've been thinking as I've read that it is time for someone to make another stab at the movie. Because, really, the friendship feels very modern, perfect for some sort of buddy flick. So maybe either PKL's screenwriting friend, who shall be nameless, or Gerard Brennan, who shall not be, could write the script. Or maybe you, Adrian, perhaps in combination with one of the others.
Seana
Theres a bit in the bad BBC version where he's walking along that mountain chain in NZ which features heavily in Lord of the Rings and I kept expecting armies of Hobbits to come running at him.
Peter
Your sarcasm is noted. But no one's going to deny that the AL East is the toughest division in baseball right now. Got to feel sorry for those Baltimore fans.
Since you mention hobbits, do you happen to know whether Tolkien was much influenced by Stevenson? It seems easy to imagine. In fact, it's sort of easy to imagine that a couple of your books may show some of that influence as well.
Adrian, reserve some pity for Fetch's Blue Jays. The AL East was by common consent baseball's best division even before those Rays came along.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
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