Music Reviews- Rufus Harley and Harmonica Shah

RUFUS HARLEY

Ultimately all men are brothers. This is apparent when you listen to a lot of different music. Old English/Scottish murder ballads morph into African American blues songs. Herky jerky funk vamps are echoed in Eastern European dance tunes. Hearing the equivalent of “Take it to the bridge!!” in Romanian or Serbian is amusing.

Afro-Cuban son and salsa both influences and was influenced by Senegalese, Gambian and Congolese music. In some respects music is one big swamp of mixed origins.

This was certainly true of the art of famed jazz musician Rufus Harley, who made his mark not just as a passably good composer and interpreter of other people’s work but as the genre’s primary (though perhaps not sole) bagpipes player. That’s right, BAGPIPES. Harley played an ancient instrument that may have originated in North Africa, the Middle East or Eastern Europe, but has since become almost uniquely identified with Scotland and to a lesser extent Ireland. And he played his pipes in such a manner that one wonders why other jazz or blues musicians haven’t picked them up. The really defining characteristic of bagpipes of course is that the musician is able to produce a drone. 

Drones are quite common in much of Indian music and some other non-Western music, including some traditions from West Africa. In the fifties and sixties as Western musicians in various disciplines began to listen to, be inspired by and perform their own versions of “world” music (especially that of India), drones started to pop up more , often in jazz and rock. And in some forms of blues-most famously the North Mississippi styles-drones never went away.  Harley was already a multi-reed player when he saw the Black Watch perform at JFK’s funeral. Inspired, he bought himself a set of Scottish Highland bagpipes and got to work learning how to play. As the results weren’t very pleasing at first he was the subject of many complaints by neighbors. When the police arrived, having hidden his instrument away, an aggrieved Harley would tell the police, “Bagpipes???!! Do I look Irish or Scottish???”

Over time Harley became a better musician to the point where he led his own band and proved to everyone that he was not just some gimmicky performer. Similar to many people of his era , he definitely showed a Coltrane debt but like most good players he had his own voice. Unlike other reed players, HIS voice just never needed to stop for air. 

He recently passed but his legacy shows us that a talented person can find inspiration anywhere and use just about any tool to make music. If you like post 60’s jazz, you will like Harley. And if you’re sort of leery of the pipes, give him a listen. You might be surprised by how well the tone of bagpipes can fit in to modern jazz music.  The Constitution is amazingly funky for a piece that doesn't feature a bass. Harley was also featured on the Roots “Do you want more?”  

The Constitution   A Love Supreme  

Nobody Knows the Trouble Us People is Done Seen(Live)   

Amazing Grace (Live)

HARMONICA SHAH

Although Detroit doesn’t have quite the place in blues lore that Chicago has there were still quite a lot of blues performers who came out of Detroit-most famously John Lee Hooker but also people like Eddie Burns, Little Sonny, Andre Williams (the dirtiest old man that ever existed) and many others. Detroit is also the home of Harmonica Shah. 

Born in the late forties, Harmonica Shah is one of the last real bluesman in America-people that grew up and survived under some very difficult conditions. Born in Oakland, Shah got interested in the blues while he was living in Texas. He started pursuing music professionally when he moved to Detroit. While he was in Detroit he was also working on the line for Ford Motor Company but after some years departed to perform full time. So organized labor’s loss is the music fan’s gain. Unfortunately for Shah, the popularity of the harmonica as lead instrument has declined drastically since the mid fifties, as has the popularity of blues music in general with black people. So you probably won’t see him featured on Vibe’s cover. And obviously Shah is not white or British so don’t look for him on the cover of Rolling Stone either. 

But he’s probably among the best blues harmonica players still around-definitely in Detroit. For a while Shah had a profitable relationship with guitarist Howard Glazer (heard on two cuts here) that reminded some blues fans of previous celebrated harmonica-guitar duos. Glazer had a somewhat limited blues-rock sound that nonetheless worked well with Shah’s thick “Mississippi Saxophone” tone. 

Sadly someone told Glazer he could sing and he went solo. Glazer can’t sing. Not a note. So Shah lost a decent guitarist. And Glazer lost someone who could tell him to stop playing so loudly all the time. But so it goes. Other guitarists who have worked with Shah include Mel Brown and Little Jr. Cannaday, each of who are very different players and FAR more rhythmically adept than Glazer. 

Shah is a good singer and is fun to listen to. The interplay between his voice and his harmonica is very enjoyable. And when the harmonica and guitar trade off, it’s even better. Shah’s voice drips authority and testosterone; it's a far cry from high pitched bleats from gelded boy band singers or syrupy whimpers from R&B sopranos. This is tough music sung by a tough dude. He’s been there, done that and is still standing.  

Dun Made my Getaway   Guilty

Dirty Old B*****       The Sky is Crying

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McDonald's NY Beatdown

Women start fight and lose badly

Our recent post on battered women syndrome engendered some discussion about when violence is appropriate. I think it's legitimate in self-defense. Unfortunately some people have a rather elastic concept of self-defense and would extend it to such actions as shooting someone while he's shaving or burning his bed while he's asleep.


Self-defense is legitimate while the aggression is taking place and when the force used is proportional to the threat. I can't shoot someone because they stepped on my blue suede shoes. But some citizens, either from their basic nature or bitter experience, have decided that a deliberately disproportionate self-defense response is the best way to discourage further attacks. Two very stupid, drunk and violent women recently discovered that the hard way in a Manhattan McDonald's. 

An argument between a cashier and two irate customers at a Manhattan McDonald’s turned violent, leaving both customers injured and all three facing charges. The entire incident, which was captured on video, happened Thursday morning at a McDonald’s on West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village, CBS 2’s Chris Wragge reports. It appeared to have started when two female customers argued and yelled obscenities at the cashier when he questioned a $50 bill they gave him. One of the female customers then slapped the cashier. A woman is then seen jumping over the counter while the other woman goes behind the register...

Video Below

Both men AND women need to avoid starting fights.You don't know what other people consider to be a "proportional" response to your provocation. If I were moronic enough to walk up to Ray Lewis, Chuck Liddell or Bernard Hopkins, curse them out and slap them in the face, I would expect that there would be consequences and repercussions. Cause, meet effect.

I think some women have learned the wrong message from the modern female empowerment environment we live in. Like those old Dave Chappelle skits, you can decide to "keep it real". But every now and then you're gonna run into someone who REALLY doesn't give a f***. And this was so stupid. Cashiers are often told to verify large denomination bills. It's not something worth starting a damn fight over.

QUESTIONS
1) If two men had cursed a cashier out, slapped her and jumped over the counter with bad intentions before catching a beatdown from the woman, would this story be described as horrific or humorous? Do the women have a legal case against McDonald's?
2) Do you think the man's response was disproportionate? Would you accept an argument from him that he was acting to protect himself or team members? Or do you now have sympathy for the women?
3) Was it news to you that McDonald's is hiring violent ex-cons?
4) Bonus question: What causes the sort of brainlessness shown in this video?

Movie Reviews-Thor,You Kill Me, Reanimator and More

Thor

I am a huge Norse mythology fan. I was less interested in the Marvel cartoon series and comic book featuring Thor. Those were  watered down and rewritten versions of pagan myths made more palatable for children. The original stories were grim and bloody. Unlike the Greek gods or the Christian God, the Norse gods are not all-powerful. They can and do die. They are going to lose the battle at the end of the world and die. And they know this. But they persevere anyway because that's what northern heroes do-be they gods or men. The Norse mythos is the incarnation of It's Grim Up North.

So I was a little wary of the Thor movie. However Marvel has generally done a good job with its comic book adaptations. I was intrigued because this was directed by Kenneth Branagh and included Natalie Portman. So I put aside my complaints and sat down to watch it.

Thor was okay for what it was.  It was thoroughly predictable, even if you neither knew nor cared about the myths behind it. Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the arrogant and eldest son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), king of gods (it's explained in an aside that these are not actually gods but quite advanced extraterrestials) is convinced that the Old Man's gone soft in his dotage. Thor wishes to restart the eternal war against the Jotuns (Giants) who have managed to find a way into Asgard to attempt to steal a relic of great power. Incensed by his father's refusal to act forcefully, Thor leads a punitive expedition to Jotunheim. This is a total failure. Thor is only saved by Odin's timely intervention.
Brought back to Asgard, Thor refuses to admit he was wrong and continues to needle and insult Odin and question his leadership. Finally roused to wrath, Odin strips Thor of (most of) his godly powers and hurls him to earth where, banned, he will be unable to regain his true powers until he has learned humility. From earth this appears to be some sort of singularity that opens and closes. It attracts the attention of scientists Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard). Foster has a more than scientific interest in Thor-especially as the buff Hemsworth appears shirtless in a few scenes. Unlike the comic book, Thor has not forgotten who he is, nor is his hammer altered; he just can't get to it.

Meanwhile back in Asgard, Thor's foster brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), is attracting the suspicion of Heimdall (Idris Elba). When Odin is mysteriously struck down, Loki becomes ruler of Asgard and starts making even more changes.

And you can guess the rest. The movie looks good; I loved the rainbow bridge. But I would still like to see a true rendition of a Norse story-cycle. In the myths, Odin is the arrogant and cruel god. Thor is a friendly, red-bearded, simply dressed rustic who is often mistaken for a plowman or other peasant.  Since Marvel's Iron Man used Black Sabbath's Iron Man, I was half expecting Thor to use Kiss' God of Thunder but I don't think it did.

Trailer

You Kill Me

Movies like this are often described as quirky or offbeat. You kill me fits that description quite well. It makes a few tips of the hat to The Sopranos or Analyze This.
It is about the problematic life of one Frank Falenczyk (Ben Kingsley), a hitman for his Buffalo based crime family. And this is a family- the boss is Frank's uncle Roman (Phillp Baker Hall).

Frank used to be one of the best killers around but lately he's gotten depressed and has a rather serious drinking problem. Frank's family is being pushed out of the rackets by the Irish mob-presided over by Edward O'Leary  (Dennis Farina). Roman knows he's running out of time before O'Leary eliminates the Polish gangsters. So he orders Frank to do what he does best and remove O'Leary from the planet. However Frank falls asleep and does not carry out the hit. Worse, O'Leary becomes aware of the failed plot and Frank's degeneration into drunkenness.

Angry, embarrassed and frightened, after telling Frank that the only reason he's still alive is because of their blood relationship, Roman sends Frank across the country to AA in San Francisco with orders not to return until he's clean and sober. The dour Frank gets a job as a funeral home assistant. He finds this ironic considering that he usually supplies funeral homes. But he comforts himself with the idea that he's still in the death business. After some hesitance Frank becomes friends with fellow AA member Tom (Luke Wilson) as well as a woman, Laurel (Tea Leoni), who attends a funeral and shares Frank's mordant sense of humor. Things are going better for Frank. But AA requires that you share everything. Frank doesn't want to share what his day job is. And without a Frank there to scare them off, back home the Irish mob is digging graves for Frank's friends and family.


The movie turns on what makes Frank happy and whether by attempting to solve his alcoholism and depression, AA and his friends are just making Frank a better killer. The answers may surprise you. Kingsley and Hall are always fun to watch. Farina has played his share of gangsters but they tend to be Italian, not Irish so I guess this was different. Obviously there is also a love story between Frank and Lauren. Leoni is channeling Lauren Bacall here. Bill Pullman has a small role. This was a nice movie but not a must see by any stretch of the imagination. Killers with personal problems has been done to death if you pardon the pun.
Trailer


Reanimator

This is a CLASSIC horror film that is based on a pulpy, viscerally racist HP Lovecraft story.
The movie Reanimator drops the racism but turns up the pulp. This is an EXCELLENT Saturday afternoon movie that over the years became something of a cult hit. Reanimator walks that fine line between too much and not enough in terms of sex, gore and frights.  It was considered over the top when it first came out but it's nowhere near today's torture-porn. It also has a delicious sense of humor.

Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) is your normal semi-impoverished horny medical student at Miskatonic University. He may be struggling now but he has a bright future ahead of him, not only because he's going to be a doctor but because his girlfriend is Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton), a leggy blonde bottle of energy who also happens to be the daughter of the medical school dean (Robert Sampson). Dan's future is so bright he's got to wear shades but he still needs help with the rent (He and Megan don't live together as she has to play "good girl"). Dean puts up a "roommate wanted" sign on campus. At an incredibly inopportune time  (Dean and Megan were just about to play "Doctor and Nurse") a strange, prissy young fellow named Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) shows up to become Dean's roommate. Megan immediately takes a dislike to him. Combs is perfect for this role. He literally brims over with repressed arrogance, pride and anger. He's the Nietzschean Superman made flesh. Evidently West was expelled from European medical schools for his unauthorized experiments and his outre beliefs about the limits of life and death.

West doesn't tolerate fools much. On literally his first day in class he gets entangled in an argument with his instructor,  Dr. Carl Hill. (played by John Kerry lookalike David Gale) Hill is a creepy fellow who is friends with Dean Halsey. Hill has an interest in Megan Halsey that is anything but professional. He's not her father but he'd like to be her Daddy if you know what I mean.

West is obsessed with death. He begins the same experiments that got him previously expelled elsewhere. Only this time he has a (mostly unwilling) accomplice in Dan , who he browbeats, blackmails and begs for help. I really, really liked this movie. In terms of music, pacing, direction, and lighting Reanimator showed that you don't need a lot of money (the film cost less than $1 million) or huge stars to make a great horror film. Stuart Gordon directed and Brian Yuzna produced. Both men have an affinity for Lovecraft stories. If you like short quality horror movies with little flab, lots of scares and by today's standards modest amounts of gore, this could be for you. This was similar  in feel to Evil Dead (1 and 2). The trailer gives away too much imo so no link here. The SFX were quite realistic and scary. This owed a lot to old time comic books and pulp novels. And it showed in every scene.

Fear of a Black Hat

The obvious comparison is to the similar satire film This is Spinal Tap. But honestly Fear of a Black Hat is much funnier. It's also aged surprisingly well. It's a satire of just about every rap group of note from back in the day. 

Fear of a Black Hat is shot in documentary style. It follows the rise, fall and eventual comeback of the rap trio N.W.H.  N.W.H. is led by the sly, extremely verbose and sex-obsessed Ice Cold (Rusty Cundieff). The other two members are Tasty Taste (Larry B. Scott), an angry short man with a fascination for "busting a cap in somebody's a$$"  and Tone Def (Mark Christopher Lawrence) a gentle giant of a man--unless you mess with his money. The documentary director Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons) follows the group around-primarily Ice Cold, who is totally upfront with his desire to get to know Nina on a biblical level.

This is one of the funniest satires ever made. Obviously the director (Cundieff) knew and loved a lot of the then current rap music. Whether it's lampooning the need for rappers to be seen as hardened criminals -a school reading session with rival rappers escalates with each group making ever more outrageous boasts about their criminal past- making fun of the group's seeming inability to keep managers alive (Ice Cold explains that starting out many of their managers got shot in disputes and since then the group decided it would be healthier for the black community and the group's families to only have white managers) or the ripoffs inherent in the music business-the shot at C&C Music Factory is a laugh out loud moment, this movie starts in "Tough Neighborhood, Anytown USA" and doesn't let up for a moment.

The group is never seen without hats because as Ice Cold earnestly explains, during slavery blacks worked all day in the fields without even a babushka to shield themselves from the sun and were thus too tired and hot to rebel. But now they have hats, so watch out!!! N.W.H. wears increasingly ridiculous hats throughout the movie and occasionally even in the same scene.

Ice Cold is particularly adept at coming up with laughably ludicrous justifications to show the alleged hard core social and political meaning behind his lyrics, most of which are relentlessly concerned with sex, violence and partying. A semi-clean example involves a song titled "Kill Whitey" which the group claims is just misunderstood and not a racist ode at all.  Ahem. Supposedly the song was actually about their former manager Whitey DeLuca , who allegedly ripped the group off and was later mysteriously shot to death. Tasty Taste and Ice Cold say they don't know anything about the murder as "they were out of town when it went down". The somewhat slow on the uptake Tone Def contradicts his band members and is telling them " Remember you two said we had to straighten DeLuca out for once and for all" before the tape is stopped and restarted and Tone Def reappears to solemnly agree that no one knows what happened. 
This came out at the same time as CB4, which had a similar theme. But Fear of a Black Hat is a much much tighter satire and about 1000 times funnier. It helps the viewer, but is not necessary to have a passing familiarity with rap and R&B of the late eighties and early nineties.

The Thing

This is strictly speaking a prequel to the 1982 Kurt Russell movie but in actuality it's a remake right down to the music and even the scene progression. This was a mistake. A bad one. The SFX are good but basically if you've seen the previous movie, you've seen this one-only done right.  In fact this was such a disappointment I don't really feel like writing much about it. This might be okay for people who haven't seen the 1982 move but of course any sci-fi/horror fan has already seen the 1982 movie. This is based on a John Campbell pulp story but it's 100% Lovecraft inspired. Sigh. It wasn't a bad movie but looking back I just think it was unnecessary. The SFX are both a homage to and an improvement on the 1982 film but what's missing is the sense of paranoia. There was also more explicit violence and gore, probably because that's what the modern audience is used to seeing. A woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) had the lead role. She does ok. The movie just didn't work for me. Ok that's it. I'm not writing more about this. Here's the trailer and you can make up your own mind.

Battered Woman Syndrome-Real or Not

What does self-defense mean to you?

To me it's a pretty simple concept. Someone is threatening your life, the lives of those you love or of innocent bystanders and the only way to end that threat is to use deadly force against the person or persons making that threat. This means that either you can't leave, you are under no reasonable obligation to leave (i.e. you're in your home or your car) and the threat is imminent or immediate.

This last to me is pretty important. It's not really self-defense in a legal or moral sense of the term in my non-lawyerly mind if someone threatens you on Monday and on Saturday you see them and shoot them in the back while they're unarmed. Now of course they may have deserved it but that's not really self-defense. Or is it?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York jury cleared a woman who shot dead her retired police officer husband of murder on Thursday in a case that had been seen as a test of the battered-woman defense.

Barbara Sheehan, 50, was acquitted of second-degree murder after three days of deliberations by the jury in state Supreme Court in Queens but was found guilty of a lesser charge of gun possession.

Sheehan's lawyers successfully argued that she fired only after her husband threatened to kill her, and Sheehan and her grown children had testified about the violent household ruled by Raymond Sheehan, 49, a former New York City Police sergeant. Both the prosecution and defense said the beatings and bruises came to an end on February 18, 2008, when Sheehan shot her husband 11 times in their Queens home.

Legal experts said the case was a test of the battered-woman defense, in which the history of abuse is explored to explain a woman's mental state at the time she is accused of committing a crime.

Key to the battered-woman defense is the issue of self defense. New York state law justifies the use of lethal force in response to an immediate threat to life. Under the battered-woman defense, lethal force can sometimes be justified even if the threat may not appear immediate. Court documents said the shooting happened after Sheehan refused to go on vacation with her husband. She testified she was scared because he had threatened to kill her if she didn't go.

Prosecutors said Sheehan shot her husband 11 times using two guns the former police officer had at home. Her husband was in the bathroom shaving before Sheehan shot him.

Story

I don't doubt that abuse was going on. Likely these two people didn't need to share the same home any longer. And I have never ever ever understood how anyone can go to bed and sleep if their partner is SERIOUSLY upset. Because after all, sleeping in front of someone who is seething with anger at you just doesn't seem super prudent on anyone's part, no matter their gender.

There was no abuse in my immediate family though I have since known people who were either abusers or abusees and sometimes both. It's a tricky situation. The best rule imo is to say "no hands for any reason at any time". On the other hand I know that people do have fights and each person has the right to defend themselves. Everyone's tolerance for intimate violence is different. I simply can't imagine staying in a situation where someone was verbally, let alone physically abusing me.

That said, I do not like one bit the concept of "battered woman syndrome".

From afar, it appears as if a few of these woman kills man stories aren't about self-defense as much as they are about someone deciding they aren't going to take it any more or being angry over past humiliations and abuse. And I really don't like the idea of any sort of syndrome being available as a defense to someone only depending on their particular inalienable characteristic. The law -especially laws around killing people- should be blind to that sort of thing as much as possible. I've been on the planet a while now and one thing that I know is that although men and women differ in some key ways, morality isn't among them.

Shooting someone eleven times while they're shaving and then saying they deserved it because of previous incidents, I don't know. Is there a "battered man defense"? Would anyone seriously believe or sympathize with a man who killed his wife or girlfriend because he was "battered" and felt threatened? I don't think so. What's YOUR take?

QUESTIONS

1) Do you believe that battered woman syndrome should be permissible as a defense?

2) Is there ever any reason for a woman or man to hit each other?

3) Should abused spouses have to try to leave the situation before they can kill the other and claim self-defense?

4) Should you be able to kill people for what they might do as opposed to what they are doing?

Book Reviews-Fatal Error, Coal to Cream, Prizzi's Honor, Shadows Fall

Fatal Error

By  F. Paul Wilson

This is the penultimate Repairman Jack book. Wilson is very close to wrapping things up before the end of the world as we know it. The story seemed a little rushed.  Don't get me wrong, Repairman Jack remains one of those rare characters who is always fun to read about. It's just that maybe I was a little let down because the story is coming to an end and because the usual bad guys lack a lot of their mystery and menace. Jack is called to help an Arab-American software engineer, Munir, who is being forced to put code on his pc by a 9-11 obsessed nutcase who has kidnapped Munir's wife and child. The kidnapper has sent "proof" of his viciousness and threatened worse mayhem should Munir call police.

Jack doesn't have any more cases that don't touch on the supernatural. He's now a key player in the unending war between two multi-universal entities known as the Ally (indifferent to humanity) and the Otherness (viciously hostile to humanity). The Ally means to turn Jack into a possible replacement for its previous Champion, Glaeken. When tricked into believing that the Otherness was defeated on Earth, the Ally withdrew its powers from the millennia-old Glaeken and let him age normally.

But the Otherness' Champion on this planet, Rasolom, wasn't actually killed. Rasolom is determined to win. He intends to destroy the incarnate Earth spirit, a goddess in human form, known as The Lady.  Should the Lady disappear, the Ally will believe that the planet has no sentient life and withdraw completely. The Otherness can then invade with no opposition. Rasolom works in secret since he still believes that Glaeken is just as powerful as he is and will "kill him" again if he's foolish enough to work openly. 

Thus, Rasolom pursues a very complicated scheme though varied secret organizations (which are obvious parodies of Scientology,  Fraternities, New Age groups, Fight Club and Masons) in order to kill The Lady.  Some of Jack's friends are unwillingly and/or unwittingly involved. When Jack finds out he wants to take the fight directly to Rasolom but he's counseled against this by The Lady and Glaeken, who dare not let Rasolom know just how weakened Glaeken now is. In other events a woman gives birth to a very special and rather disturbing "baby" that Rasolom has plans for.

This was okay but not super special. In the earlier series books I enjoyed reading about Jack juggle normal "fix-it" cases contrasted with those that brushed up against the secret history of the world and magical elements. That's gone. This book can be read on its own. It may get you interested in the previous series installments. It was a quick read.  Jack is a walking libertarian trope who only has compassion for a few special folks-primarily his fiancée Gia and her daughter Vicky. As usual, a few very stupid people attempt to harm those ladies. And as usual they find out the hard way what an insanely bad idea that is. You don't pull on Superman's cape, you don't spit in the wind. You don't pull the mask off the Lone Ranger and you don't mess with Jack's family.

Coal to Cream

By Eugene Robinson

Eugene Robinson is best known today as a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Washington Post and as a contributing voice to various MSNBC shows. He is also an author, as are many talented columnists. Coal to Cream is one of his older books, which is even more relevant today with the demographic and cultural changes taking place in the US.

The book is subtitled “..A Black man’s Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race”.

It is almost de rigueur today to scoff at the concept of race as either a biological or cultural concept. The American one-drop rule (hypodescent-especially for Black people) is under attack, not just by increasing albeit still small interracial marriages but also by increasing immigration from people who do not easily fit into or accept traditional American racial definitions. Robinson examines some of this but does so in a very interesting way.

For a period of time Robinson was a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and lived and worked in various South American countries, including Brazil and Argentina. He looked forward to this for both personal and professional reasons and definitely enjoyed the opportunity to improve his Spanish and Portuguese. A large part of the reason he took this assignment was that he wanted to step away from the poisonous racial atmosphere that he experienced in America. For a short time he found South America to be extremely different. He did not immediately sense racial hostility or feel that he was automatically marked as a Black man. 

However he had to start to revisit some assumptions about racial differences in South America one day on a Brazilian beach , when curious about racial differences and relations he turned to a Black Brazilian woman and asked her what it was like being Black in Brazil. Surprised (and maybe a little offended?) the woman replied she wouldn’t know because she wasn’t Black. This of course was a shock to Robinson as the woman was more than few shades darker than him and had clearly West African features. When he tried to point out that he was Black and so was the woman she responded that as far as she was concerned Robinson wasn’t Black either and that this wasn’t America.

This caused Robinson to go on an internal quest of determining what Blackness meant to him.  He sketches many of his experiences in America, some of which are of course still familiar to black people today-being stopped by the police, receiving either patronizing condescension or barely disguised hostility from white co-workers and bosses , but also more positive things like shared history and cultural affinities. Through his experiences in South America, the Caribbean and the UK, Robinson comes to if not quite an acceptance of the one drop rule, an appreciation of the manner in which different historical circumstances can produce different social experiences. These are “real” to the people invested in them even as they may appear ridiculous to people outside of that culture.

Robinson writes near the end of his book of his experiences in Brazil:

But then I saw what it meant when black people, looking up from the bottom of a society, lived without a sense of racial identity. I came to appreciate the measure of power and pride they were denying themselves. ..I came to see blackness-blackness as an identity, which I once considered an outdated and irrelevant concept-as something deeply important o me and every other black person in America, and as vitally current. It wasn’t yesterday’s news; it was tomorrow’s.

This was a really good book. Robinson is also an U-M alum so of course the book is well-written. 

  

Prizzi’s Honor

By Richard Condon

This book by Richard Condon (who also wrote The Manchurian Candidate) is probably best known for being adapted into the John Huston movie of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner. The movie was relatively true to the short novel but of course in a novel you have a chance to see what’s going on behind the scenes. Ultimately this book is a tragic romance. It’s set in the organized crime genre but that is just window dressing and something of a parody.

The Prizzi’s are the most powerful organized crime family in the United States and possibly the world. The Family headquarters are in Brooklyn. The family leaders include the semi-retired and gently maleficent family patriarch Don Corrado Prizzi, his squabbling sons, Vincent Prizzi (he runs the criminal side), Eduardo Prizzi (he runs the legitimate side), Corrado’s oldest friend and counselor Angelo Partanna (he gives advice and handles payoffs) and Angelo’s son Charley Partanna (he is Vincent’s Underboss and brutally loyal and incorruptible enforcer).

Behind his back, Charley Partanna is called “the All American hood” both for his incredible fidelity to the life and because of his unusual insistence in self-improvement-he got his GED, takes college classes and did the needed market research to launch the Family into the cocaine business. No one calls him this to his face of course as Charley is the human equivalent of a barely restrained Cane Corso. He can make people shudder in fear just by looking at them.

At the wedding of Corrado Prizzi’s granddaughter, Charley Partanna meets a woman who will change his life forever. He falls in love at first sight. This woman’s name is Irene Walker. Unknown to Charley, Irene is actually a contract hitter brought in by Angelo Partanna to do some work while everyone is at the wedding. Later on the fiercely traditional Charley discovers this fact in some unpleasant circumstances while he’s at work. However against everything he’s been taught Charley ignores this portion of Irene’s personality, just as she does with him. The two are in total love with one another and shortly get married.

But Corrado Prizzi has another granddaughter, Maerose Prizzi, Vincent’s daughter. A few years before, she and Charley were supposed to be married. The perceptive and proud Maerose noticed that Charley’s heart wasn’t really in it and she took drastic steps to insult Charley and end the betrothal.  Maerose is the smartest and most vicious of all the Prizzi’s. It’s a source of constant frustration to her that she has to act with feminine wiles instead of masculine directness. Maerose has decided that Charley is the likely heir to the Family throne. She ruthlessly takes steps to manipulate her way back into her father and grandfather’s good graces and onto Charley’s radar screen. Maerose’s actions and the fact that Irene is publicly working in what is considered to be the male arena of contract murder and crime, set up some very tragic events as the story progresses. I liked this book. 

Shadows Fall

By Simon Green

Simon Green is both a favorite author of mine as well as one whom I think has soiled his gift. His later books all read exactly the same, have the same heroes/heroines, thematic concerns and story events almost to the point where you wonder if he’s just doing cuts and pastes and change alls in his novels.

Shadows Fall is one of his earlier novels. It  was originally published in 1994 and was republished in 2005 after his great success with his other novels. It was exciting to read this because you could see some of the themes and character types developing that Green would use in later books. You could also enjoy a very very different writer than what Green later became. Shadows Fall is MUCH more allegorical and high fantasy than Green’s pulp fiction stories. It’s a side of Green that we haven’t seen very often and one which I hope to see again.

Shadows Fall is a town literally in the middle of nowhere. It’s a place where people who are tired of living but not quite ready to die go. It’s a place for losers, misfits, never weres and used-to-bes. But mostly it’s a place where legends and fantasies go to die when people no longer believe in them. So this includes magical toys, talking animals, characters in kids’ stories, rock stars that are losing worshippers, fading demigods, the whole lot. Father Time watches over the town and manipulates the time-space continuum so that Shadows Fall can only be found by those who are supposed to find it. 

However murder has come to Shadows Fall. Something of great evil is killing off these old legends. It’s up to the town’s mayor, Rhea Frazier and her dead but not gone friend, Leonard Ash, to find the killer. Of course the killer is only a pawn in a greater game, though he doesn’t realize it. This book has the best ending of any of Green’s books and it’s a shame in my opinion that he dropped the style of writing on display here.

Book Reviews-A Dance With Dragons, Pest Control, Camber of Culdi, Hitler's Black Victims

A Dance With Dragons

by George R.R. Martin

I finished A Dance with Dragons (ADWD).

How to write a review without discussing specific events or naming who's alive? I could write that it was a good story and stop. Many people have not read the series so no spoilers here. However I can say that whoever your favorite character might be, you are more attached to him or her than Martin is.

ADWD is the long awaited fifth book in George R.R. Martin's (GRRM) planned seven book series A Song of Ice And Fire (ASOIAF).  GRRM has stated that often morally good people can make poor leaders while people who are dreadfully wicked can turn out to be excellent executives. ADWD shows that intelligence, competence and morality are not correlated traits. 

GRRM also tweaks our desire for vengeance. ADWD makes an explicit shout out to Titus Andronicus. A few evil characters who earlier committed savage violent acts encounter people who are so demonically depraved, so psychotically sadistic, so incredibly maleficent that you almost find yourself feeling sorry for the lesser baddies and perhaps a little ashamed of your previous bloodthirst. Some of this was hinted at or even detailed in previous books but here GRRM stomps on the fuzz pedal and turns the amp up to eleven. This is ninth circle of hell stuff. Nightmare Fuel. It's as if GRRM is saying "Oh so you want vengeance huh? Let me show you just what that looks like. Still want it tough guy?" It's an echo of Ned Stark's warning that "If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die".   

ADWD examines if it would be better to have a kindhearted but inept ruler who brought various catastrophes on his/her people or a tyrant who ruthlessly punished dissent and ripped people's tongues out for speaking before s/he spoke to them but otherwise left people alone and created a safe peaceful environment for commerce and daily life.

The royal succession dispute has seemingly been settled-mostly. One legendarily stubborn claimant still battles on without support. Secretly, rival House leaders are still jockeying for power and control. And there are some new Houses on the scene; some old Houses have fallen. Winter has finally arrived. GRRM has expanded the story beyond Westeros and near environs. Magic is more evident. Dead things are walking. Priests have more powers. The dragons and the Stark direwolves are maturing. Both have critical roles to play.

Some characters lose everything in an instant,  just as in real life. The Romanovs didn't foresee the revolution; they didn’t think they’d be executed. How many Africans lived in freedom one day and three months later were sold as chattel in New Orleans? Stuff happens.

ADWD introduces minor characters and gives them POV chapters. We get  new perspectives on things. ADWD strongly implies that some key justifications for Robert's and Ned's rebellion weren't valid. However, ADWD has too many characters. This 1000 page book could use some tighter editing. Some subplots could have been dropped or tightened up IMO. The reader must pay CLOSE attention to details. ADWD gives hints of future events. I will need to re-read this book and some earlier ones.

ADWD ends on a cliffhanger and something of a downer. As usual with GRRM there were times I laughed out loud or cheered and times I wanted to throw the book at the wall. I hope GRRM enjoys life and his well deserved acclaim. I also hope I don't have to wait three years or more for the next installment.

Pest Control

By Bill Fitzhugh

This is in the same genre as work by Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiassen and John Ridley. It’s a slyly ironic book with bursts of chaotic absurdist humor. It’s a very quick and fun read. The protagonist is an exterminator, Bob Dillon (who constantly has to tell people he wasn’t named after Bob Dylan) who lives in Brooklyn with his practical wife, Mary and their cherubic daughter Katy.

Bob used to work for a company but decided that the use of deadly chemicals was not good for him or for the environment. He quit and became an eco-friendly self-employed exterminator. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a lot of success with this concept and his marriage is at risk because of the financial strain. 

Meanwhile the world’s greatest hitman, a fellow named Klaus, has turned down an assignment in NY because it offends his morals. Go figure. The middleman, a Frenchman named Marcel, has to find someone else to do the job and it just so happens that Bob Dillon has taken out a new ad in the very newspaper in which Marcel usually places and looks for coded messages.

When Marcel sees this:

“PROFESSIONAL EXTERMINATOR”  Fifteen years field experience. Gone private with lethal new concept! No pest left alive!!

He assumes that despite what he sees as crudity, this is an ad for a new assassin. A few confused phone calls later and Marcel is convinced that he’s found the right man for the job. And with a few unfortunate coincidences EVERYONE believes Dillon really is a hit man.

Of course all of Marcel’s other usual hires who were eager to do the job that Klaus turned down are rather upset to hear that it’s gone to some unknown. And when people like this get annoyed, other people die. They head to New York to get rid of The Exterminator. The CIA, who heard that Klaus might have a new protégé, sends a team to New York to get The Exterminator. And a notorious drug cartel does some internal housecleaning and you guessed it, blames it on The Exterminator. Hilarity ensues as Bob Dillon, armed with little more than encyclopedic knowledge of insects, tries to keep himself and his family alive. And with all the brouhaha Klaus shows up to see what’s going on.

I liked this book. It walked that fine line between complete slapstick and dry irony. 

Camber of Culdi

by Katherine Kurtz

Although she may not be as well known to some as GRRM, particularly today, Katherine Kurtz is a contemporary of GRRM's and writes the same sort of historically based fantastic fiction that makes ASOIAF so fascinating. Actually her first Deryni book, Deryni Rising came out years before GRRM's A Game of Thrones. Camber of Culdi also features court intrigues, men that are too loyal and honest to understand the danger they're in, grey morality, hidden royal incest, murders that set off wars and new claimants to an uncertain throne.

But aside from a shared deep knowledge of Medieval, Dark Age and Renaissance European cultures Kurtz is a completely different writer than GRRM, in tone, brevity and style. Her world is not as grim, bloody and horrific. The novel Camber of Culdi is an excellent introduction to her work. It is the first book chronologically in her created world but she actually wrote another trilogy earlier than she wrote Camber of Culdi. Most of this story is told through the pov of the wealthy or well-connected; profanity and graphic sex are not part of this book. Camber of Culdi and the two novels that follow it in the trilogy could fit inside A Game of Thones with room left. It's not a long sprawling tale.

In a world and time very similar to early medieval Europe the most powerful country is Gywnedd-a fanciful amalgamation of England, Wales and Brittany. Gywnedd is currently ruled over by a fictional race of humans called Deryni, who though indistinguishable from normal humans and able to reproduce with them, are born with various mental or magical abilities.  The Deryni are very much a minority within Gywnedd, having seized power from the human rulers. In order to keep power their more ruthless or pragmatic leaders severely punish any human rebellion, dissent or even hint of independent action.

The title character, Camber, is a Deryni Lord who is for lack of a better word, something of a liberal. He believes in equality between humans and Deryni. Camber is one of the most powerful Deryni Lords in the country and the previous advisor to two Kings. Camber is not the advisor to the current King, Imre, a vain and arrogant man with an unhealthy interest in his equally vile (though beautiful) sister Ariella. King Imre most definitely does not believe in any sort of racial equality and oppresses humans every chance he gets-high taxes, reduced rights, and retributive executions of innocents for any offenses against Deryni. 

The retired Camber stays on the sidelines and tries to protect humans but after Imre murders one of his family members Camber gets involved with the revolution. He goes on a risky search to find a rumored heir of the previous human dynasty and place him on the throne.

This is a fun book to read if you can still find it. As mentioned, Kurtz sets a swift pace and crams a lot of information into a relatively small story. She knows lot about the medieval Church and its relationship to the secular world. Good stuff.

Hitler's Black Victims

by Clarence Lusane

Some books are exactly what they sound like. This book, by American University Political Science Professor Clarence Lusane, a Detroit native, is one such book. It's often overlooked that Hitler had a long list of people he really didn't like and while Blacks weren't at the tip top of that list they certainly were in the top five.

Dr. Lusane set out to bring some of this forgotten history to light. He researched the black experience in Nazi Germany, via archives, primary source interviews and direct interviews with black concentration camp survivors, as well as with Black POW's.

Many of these people's experiences were obviously pretty bad. But in some cases they weren't. To an extent it's like blind men describing an elephant. One man feels the trunk and declares an elephant is like a snake, another feels the leg and says an elephant is a huge tower, and so on. Although Dr. Lusane has written for the popular audience before I'm not sure this was written in that style. It tends a bit more to the academic. It's rigorously documented. There's a lot here that was new to me , I was ashamed to say. I didn't know that the German genocide of the Herero in what is today Namibia was pretty much a dress rehearsal for the Jewish Holocaust. Some of the colonial administrators or military leaders involved in that genocide of the Herero became quite enthusiastic Nazi theorists and ideologues. 

Dr. Lusane basically does a comparative and internal history of racism against Africans, African-Americans and Afro-Germans within Germany. He examines the love that some African-American intellectuals had for Germany (WEB DuBois) This is dense writing but really fascinating stuff. It's not only worth reading but will be worth several re-readings as the footnotes alone lead one into all kinds of really intriguing side trips. 

The parallel German fascination with black art or sport and the revulsion with blacks made it both easy and surprisingly sometimes difficult for Nazis to put into place all of their racial practices. There were arguments about whether black sterilization was sufficient, what should be done with black citizens and so on. Some black POW's described being treated as no worse by Germans than anyone else while others told of massacres carried out by German soldiers.  Dr. Lusanne also looks at racism within modern Germany and how it still targets Blacks. 

Solid read.