University of Michigan: ONE GAME LEFT....

Michigan Wolverines Defeat Syracuse Orangemen 61-56

Louisville...you're in the way bub..

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Movie Reviews-Killing Them Softly, GI Joe: Retaliation, Justified Season One, The Possession

Killing Them Softly
directed by Andrew Dominik

This is a quiet little gangster movie and can be completely enjoyed (or not enjoyed) on that level. It's inspired by the novel Cogan's Trade by noir novelist George Higgins. But if you scratch the surface a little bit (the story has been moved to take place during the 2008 financial crash) it's as much about capitalism, failing masculinity, corporate politics and just general bleakness as it is about stereotypical gangsters. President (then Senator) Obama's speeches are often used as ironic backdrop for the gangsters' conversations. Indeed the hoodlums themselves comment on what they're hearing. There's a claustrophobic desperate feel here , which strangely enough reminds me of Glengarry GlenRoss, probably because similar to that movie, this film has no female leads. In fact there are only one or two women who even speak in this movie, if memory serves me correctly. No this film depicts a man's world and a very dark ugly one.

You get the feeling watching this film that the characters are just going through the motions. There aren't necessarily explicit references to glory days long gone but the constant squabbling over small amounts of money and a few asides about how someone wouldn't normally do something, but you know, the economy, set the stage perfectly.


In New Orleans a small time hood named Squirrel (Vincent Curatola) decides that the time is right to set up a robbery of a mob affiliated poker game. He gets two other low level scrubs, Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), a junkie and Frankie (Scoot McNairy) to perform the actual robbery since Squirrel thinks himself above such things and also is known to some of the people at the game.

When Frankie shares his doubts about the wisdom of robbing a game backed by the biggest sharks in the ocean so to speak, Squirrel tells him not to worry because everyone will assume that Markie (Ray Liotta) did it. Markie runs the game for the mob and some years ago set up a robbery of his own game. However, people liked Markie and though he admitted his crime in a moment of drunken candor, the powers that be pretended they didn't hear it and gave him a pass. But if the game is robbed again, well all bets will be off. Markie will be hit and Squirrel, Frankie and Russell will be in the clear. That's the plan anyway.

But stupid plans rarely work out because after all they're put together by stupid people. After the robbery Russell can't keep his mouth shut and a fixer for the mob named Driver (Richard Jenkins) arranges things with Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) a cynical, well read, well dressed and world weary hitter. In no short time Cogan knows everyone that was involved and knows what he has to do. I say he's cynical because even though Cogan knows that Markie didn't actually pull this job, he still votes thumbs down on Markie because everyone will assume Markie did it. And assumptions can be deadly. Look for James Gandolfini as an exhausted and out of shape hitman who would rather drink and bully prostitutes than do the work he no longer has the heart for. Pitt and Gandolfini play well off each other.
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GI Joe: Retaliation
directed by John Chu

This was an amazingly silly movie. You can take that in either a good way or bad way. If you enjoy action movies you can turn your brain off and enjoy this. In fact you might not even wonder how Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) can lead all two of the remaining Joes (Lady Jaye-Adrianne Palicki even says to him "You're our leader now") but at the end he is still an enlisted man while Lady Jaye gets a promotion from Lieutenant to Captain. Uh, if she was already an officer why wasn't she leading the team? And if Roadblock was leading the team and he was, shouldn't that have been worth a battlefield promotion? But I'm no expert in military protocol.

This takes up where the last movie left off but drops any romance and most sex appeal. Adrianne Palicki is no Rachel Nichols or Sienna Miller and besides a brief appearance in an evening gown and short shorts is more or less one of the guys. There is no Ripcord (Marlon Wayans).

Cobra Commander (Rex Lewis) and Destro have been captured and put in a secret "black" prison. But their subordinate Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) has successfully impersonated the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce). When a revolt in Pakistan raises the possibility of Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into the hands of non state actors Zartan sees an opportunity to get rid of the GI Joes. He orders them all in to secure the nukes. Led by Duke (Channing Tatum) the Joes do just that. Zartan then orders Cobra air strikes and ground troops in to kill all the Joes. Weeping crocodile tears Zartan goes to the airwaves to claim that the Joes were attempting a coup and thus he had to terminate them. Having tortured the President to find out where Cobra Commander is imprisoned, Zartan sends Firefly (Ray Stevenson) and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) to break the boss out. Destro is not so lucky. Walter Goggins plays the penitentiary warden with his typical flash.

Things are proceeding nicely from Cobra's point of view but unless you kill ALL the Joes you still have a problem. As mentioned Roadblock, Lady Jaye and Flint (D.J. Cotrona) are still alive and just a tad bit upset. They make it back to the states and get in touch with Snake Eyes (Ray Park), who either wasn't on that last mission or who also escaped. I can't remember and it's not very important. Snake Eyes has been sent by his clan leader Blind Master (RZA) to capture Storm Shadow. The Joes aren't necessarily the sharpest knives in the kitchen drawer but they figure out that the President might not be who he says he is. They approach retired General Colton (Bruce Willis), the original GI Joe, for assistance.

Obviously lots of things get blown up, cities get destroyed, multitudes of people get shot and there are plenty of fights. Special effects are good. The standout scenes might be ninja swordfights on Himalayan mountains. The movie is loud but not devastatingly so. I'm not a huge GI Joe fan but I liked the first one better than this. That's not saying much though. Johnson did a good job with what he had here.
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Justified: Season One
created by Graham Yost

This is an FX series that I had heard good things about. It's based on some stories by famous Detroit area crime novelist Elmore Leonard. I haven't watched it on TV but I did get the DVD for season one and two. Let's just get one thing straight upfront, this is not in any real way related to The Wire or The Sopranos, though there are definitely some characters who are shades of grey. This is set in Kentucky, a place to which I've never been and judging by this show probably wouldn't want to visit. Justified does play a bit fast and loose with stereotypes directed at the people known, fondly or not, as hillbillies. But all the same it also creates some strong interesting characters who will surprise you from time to time.

The outline of this season is that US Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) is assigned to the Miami office. In a tense showdown he shoots a Miami mobster, who he was assigned to bring in and who was trying to kill him. In a nod to the series title Raylan tells his office boss that the public shooting was justified. But his boss doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't hate Raylan but feels that Raylan just brings too much heat. Raylan has been involved in too many shootings. And bigger bosses feel the same way.

So Givens is unceremoniously sent packing back home to Kentucky. His new boss Art (Nick Searcy) is an old friend whose primary concern is just making it to retirement. Don't give him any problems (like lots of shootings) and he won't give you any problems. Although he will occasionally tear his subordinates a new one behind closed doors he zealously protects them from higher-ups or other agencies. Raylan doesn't like Kentucky. He's assigned to the Lexington office which has jurisdiction over Raylan's old stomping grounds of Harlan County.

Raylan really really really didn't want to go home. He's got history there and most of it's bad. It starts with his very close friend Boyd Crowder (Walter Goggins), a combat veteran who once worked with Givens in the mines and saved Givens' life. But now Boyd has become a white supremacist and fallen in with the rest of his criminal family. When he's not blowing up black churches or murdering possible snitches, he's making a play for criminal domination of Harlan County. Givens and Crowder have a love-hate relationship. If it comes to it they will kill each other but they would be damned before they let anyone else try. Ava Crowder (JoElle Carter) is Boyd's sister-in-law. She just killed Boyd's brother after a long string of abuse. Some of the other Crowders, possibly including Boyd's Daddy Bo Crowder (M.C. Gainey) feel that abuse or not, Ava might need to pay for that. Both Raylan and Boyd have complex (or maybe not so complex) feelings for the leggy Ava.

Raylan has a complicated relationship with his own father Arlo (Raymond Barry) who abused him as a child and was just generally a horrible parent, even absent the abuse. Arlo is a small time criminal who wasn't always as down and out as he is now. He may have some plans for a comeback. Arlo is now married to his former sister-in-law, Raylan's aunt. Raylan adores her but can barely speak civilly to his father. Raylan also runs into his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea) who despite being remarried to a more financially stable and successful man can't seem to stop dropping by Raylan's office to tell him how much she doesn't miss him.

But even with all the new frustrations and challenges in Raylan's life the Miami Mob has not forgotten about him. And it's not that far from Florida to Kentucky. And of course there is plenty of criminal activity unrelated to Boyd or the Mob to keep Raylan busy.
Although Olyphant is the lead of the show I'd say the very strong second or possibly even co-star is Walter Goggins. He's a good actor and his Boyd has an incredible amount of charisma. You don't even know when he's acting. The show plays with this across the season as after a life changing event Boyd suddenly drops the racism and criminal behavior and finds God, leading an interracial group of men in good deeds and prayer. It is a source of constant frustration to Boyd that neither his family nor Raylan believe that he can change or has changed. And Bo Crowder might have some things to teach Tywin Lannister about cruelty.
I can't say if this show got Kentucky right or not but from what I can tell it did do a good job capturing some southern gentility, belligerence, faux politesse and general aversion to using contractions or short sentences when long flowery speeches are available. Boyd is a master of this. Lithe, soft spoken and extremely dangerous, Boyd is a man who uses language in a way which is simultaneously quite precise and abstruse.
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The Possession
directed by Ole Bornedal

Look the only reason I bothered to watch this movie was because Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) produced it AND it had Jeffrey Dean Morgan aka John Winchester from the Supernatural tv series. Morgan was playing a version of that character. Unfortunately he didn't have much to play against in this movie. I got bored with it very quickly. I kept waiting for him to say "I need my boys" and make a phone call. Then Sam and Dean Winchester would show up in their (his) 67' Impala ready to kick some spirit a$$ for Dad. Well unfortunately that didn't happen. No, I'm afraid John Winchester Clyde Brenek was on his own in this movie. Clyde is recently divorced from his wife Stephanie Brenek (Kyra Sedgwick). He and his ex share custody over their two daughters Em (Natasha Callis) and Hannah (Madison Davenport). Stephanie is a bit of a stick in the mud whose primary complaint seems to be that Clyde was working too hard (he's a high school basketball coach) instead of listening to her screech about whatever was running thru her head at the moment. Ok, that might be a little harsh but geez just about every time the two talked, Stephanie eventually went into full "Everything's your fault and you're an d***!!!" mode. So it's probably a good thing they aren't living or sleeping together any more. I think this could have been slightly better written. Presumably Stephanie was the party that initiated the divorce. She's kept the house. And she hasn't wasted any time into moving the oleaginous Brett (Grant Show) into her life, her home and her bed. As you might imagine Clyde isn't overly fond of Brett, who is apparently more financially successful than Clyde. Clyde still carries a torch for Stephanie. I imagine that would be a bit of a pain having to watch another man raise your children and touch your wife places that used to be off limits to anyone except you. Just ask Seal.

Anyway, either being a high school basketball coach must pay better than you think or old Clyde had some funds that weren't found by Stephanie's divorce team because he's just bought a new home that is just a tad smaller than his old one. And it's his turn to have his daughters. He brings them over for pizza and fun. But Dad and daughters stop at a garage sale where Em is able to get her Daddy to buy her an old box with Hebraic lettering. Now the viewer already knows this box is bad news because in the opening segment a woman tried and failed to destroy it. And just to make sure we get the point the woman, who can no longer talk, sees Em with the box and tries to warn her against it.
Of course the box turns out to.. well heck it's not much of a spoiler. This IS a horror movie. What do you do with boxes? You put things in them. And what was put into this box is something that never ever should be let out. Of course there's no movie if the box is not opened and Em does just that. And I'll give you one guess who gets possessed.

In many of these types of films it's usually the Catholic Church who is presumed to have the inside info on demonology. I don't know why that is. Several religions and mythologies have stories of malign supernatural entities who roam around looking for ways to harm humans. In this film it's not Catholics who will be the experts but rather Jews. The expert in this case is Tzadok (the reggae singer Matisyahu who in a nice little nod to his real life career is shown listening to reggae and rap).  Unfortunately as an actor, Matisyahu is a great musician. Also the demon or rather dybbuk isn't quite malevolent or creepy enough for my tastes. When Clyde starts saying there's something wrong with Em and hinting at supernatural events Stephanie and Brett get restraining orders. But with the exception of a late night confrontation in the kitchen between Stephanie and the being wearing Em, I just didn't get a real feeling of danger from the dybbuk. I thought it would have been more effective if for example, we saw the dybbuk DO something to someone or had one of the parents wake up in the middle of the night and have the dybbuk looking at them or... (see the movie Orphan for more creepy dangerous kids.)

Scenes of bodily mutilation and general weirdness abound along with insect plagues that come out of nowhere but all in all this just wasn't a scary movie to me.
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Atrocity in Africa: Children murdered in front of mother!!!!

There is nothing a mother will not do for her infant but even she cannot protect it from bullets. About a year ago, killers attacked a family in central Africa. The surviving witness of the attack told us that the family's guards were completely outgunned. In the end, the mother, riddled with bullets and crying with pain and fear, was left to use her body to shield her baby. Her sacrifice was for naught; the baby was also killed. 
The above is from an article that I will link just below. Unfortunately this atrocity didn't get the media attention that it deserved in no small part because it's become too common in Central Africa. I was outraged and angered beyond belief when I read about it. Murdering a mother and her baby is beyond foul wouldn't you say. The kinds of people who would do such a thing need to be hunted down and either imprisoned for a long period of time or slowly and painfully permanently removed from the planet so that anyone else who would even think of committing such a crime can look at the corpses of those who did carry out this crime and hopefully take the proper and intended object lesson.

I mean how can you just shoot down a mother and her child. Where is your humanity? Why weren't the killers apprehended and tried in court? This needs to be stopped ASAP. I feel every strongly about such things. Don't you? You probably do feel that way having read what I just laid out. Most moral or normal people would. No one or at least no one who's not cartoonishly EVIL likes to read about the killings of a mother and her baby. That link between mother and child is fundamental to mammalian existence. 

But there's a twist here that may change your thoughts. What if I told you that the mother and child who were each murdered were not in fact human but rather elephants? And they were killed not to feed people or because they had threatened or killed humans but because some humans halfway around the world had a sick desire to use ivory for casual trinkets or displays of wealth. Would you say so what and click on another post? Would you think that the death of intelligent animals was worth this? Because I don't. I don't think it's worth it at all. And I think it must be halted. By what right do we kill an animal for fun? Is that something we ought to be doing? Do you think God gave you this right? Does God look kindly on the slaughter and sexual mutilation of creatures He created?

There is nothing a mother elephant will not do for her infant, but even she cannot protect it from bullets. About a year ago, poachers attacked a family of forest elephants in central Africa. The biologist who witnessed the attack told us that wildlife guards were completely outgunned. In the end, an elephant mother, riddled with bullets and trumpeting with pain and fear, was left to use her enormous body to shield her baby. Her sacrifice was for naught; the baby was also killed.

Such is the reality facing African forest elephants today.This mother and child were just two of the tens of thousands of forest elephants that have been butchered over the past decade. A staggering 62 percent vanished from central Africa between 2002 and 2011, according to a study we have just published with 60 other scientists in the journal PLoS One. It was the largest such study ever conducted in the central African forests, where elephants are being poached out of existence for their ivory.

In China and other countries in the Far East, there has been an astronomical rise in the demand for ivory trinkets that, no matter how exquisitely made, have no essential utility whatsoever. An elephant’s tusks have become bling for consumers who have no idea or simply don’t care that it was obtained by inflicting terror, horrendous pain and death on thinking, feeling, self-aware beings.

One of us recently came face to face with this horror while walking through a forest in central Africa. The sickening stench provided the first warning. As the smell grew more pungent, the humming sound of death that surrounds the body of a dead elephant became more pronounced: thousands of buzzing flies, laying eggs and feeding on the corpse. The body was grotesquely cloaked by white, writhing fly maggots; the belly was swollen with the gas of decay. The elephant’s face was a bloody mess, its tusks hacked out with an ax — an atrocity that is often committed while the animal is alive.

LINK

Now I'm from Michigan. Hunting season is huge here. Growing up I spent my summers down South, where hunting was also a cherished pastime. So I understand it. But I don't like it. I've never had interest in shooting something helpless. I take no joy in snuffing out a life. And there is a HUGE moral difference between killing an animal for your own survival or food, or because it's become numerically excessive and killing an animal strictly for fun, killing an animal which is intelligent enough to grieve and killing an animal which is already endangered and flirting with extinction. I think it's savage and immoral beyond words to murder an animal simply so you can have ivory jewelry. I am not a PETA member. But PETA isn't wrong on everything. You don't need to make deliberately offensive comparisons to slavery or the Holocaust to recognize that morally something is deeply wrong when humans kill rare animals for knick knacks. 

Although I do not like hunting and think it often morally problematic, deer in Michigan are a renewable resource. Deer are not being hunted to extinction. There is a department of natural resources which theoretically attempts to manage the deer population and identify and arrest poachers. When stray dogs and cats are taken into shelters and eventually euthanized I'd rather not think about that animal's last moments. But neither dogs nor cats are in danger of extermination. What the Africans and Asians are doing to the elephant species and for that matter the rhino population is something different in both intent and scale. The continuing existence of these species, among others, is at risk. 

Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment; but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way for you to survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern... a virus.

I think Agent Smith was on to something. It is is increasingly difficult for 7 billion humans to live in balance with other life forms. What is the moral reason that we have for making distinctions between humans and animals? I'm no longer sure there is one. Perhaps if someone were hunting the poachers and their customers, they might understand that killing living creatures for fun isn't really a nice thing to do.

China, similarly to the US and maybe even more so, has some very ugly cultural traits. These were tolerable perhaps when China was poor and limited in its impact. But with China's increasing wealth and power there will be more conflict between China and everyone else over the world's natural resources and various flora and fauna. Just like with carbon emissions, the world may not be able to survive an unhinged and unchecked Chinese demand for natural resources. China has a lot to answer for and must play a more responsible role in future resource utilization. We can not  remove China as a player no matter how much that might help save the elephants so we must find a way to  force China, help China to alter its behavior, even as we change our own.

You would think that since in historical terms, African nations have only recently thrown off the chains of centuries long European resource exploitation via colonialism and imperialism, African nations would be a bit more wary of entering into more or less the same relationship with China. Unfortunately this isn't always the case.

In 30 years of fighting poachers, Paul Onyango had never seen anything like this. Twenty-two dead elephants, including several very young ones, clumped together on the open savanna, many killed by a single bullet to the top of the head.

Some of Africa’s most notorious armed groups, including the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Shabab and Darfur’s janjaweed, are hunting down elephants and using the tusks to buy weapons and sustain their mayhem. Organized crime syndicates are linking up with them to move the ivory around the world, exploiting turbulent states, porous borders and corrupt officials from sub-Saharan Africa to China, law enforcement officials say. 

But it is not just outlaws cashing in. Members of some of the African armies that the American government trains and supports with millions of taxpayer dollars — like the Ugandan military, the Congolese Army and newly independent South Sudan’s military — have been implicated in poaching elephants and dealing in ivory. Congolese soldiers are often arrested for it. South Sudanese forces frequently battle wildlife rangers. 

The vast majority of the illegal ivory — experts say as much as 70 percent — is flowing to China, and though the Chinese have coveted ivory for centuries, never before have so many of them been able to afford it. China’s economic boom has created a vast middle class, pushing the price of ivory to a stratospheric $1,000 per pound on the streets of Beijing. 

High-ranking officers in the People’s Liberation Army have a fondness for ivory trinkets as gifts. Chinese online forums offer a thriving, and essentially unregulated, market for ivory chopsticks, bookmarks, rings, cups and combs, along with helpful tips on how to smuggle them (wrap the ivory in tinfoil, says one Web site, to throw off X-ray machines).Last year, more than 150 Chinese citizens were arrested across Africa, from Kenya to Nigeria, for smuggling ivory. And there is growing evidence that poaching increases in elephant-rich areas where Chinese construction workers are building roads. 

“China is the epicenter of demand,” said Robert Hormats, a senior State Department official. “Without the demand from China, this would all but dry up.”He said that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who condemned conflict minerals from Congo a few years ago, was pushing the ivory issue with the Chinese “at the highest levels” and that she was “going to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to address this, in a very bold way.” Foreigners have been decimating African elephants for generations. “White gold” was one of the primary reasons King Leopold II of Belgium turned Congo into his own personal fief in the late 19th century, leading to the brutal excesses of the upriver ivory stations thinly fictionalized in Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness” and planting the seeds for Congo’s free fall today. Ivory Coast got its name from the teeming elephant herds that used to frolic in its forests. Today, after decades of carnage, there is almost no ivory left...

LINK
Now why does this matter? It matters because elephants are rare, intelligent animals. Killing them for trinkets is profoundly morally depraved and filthy. It also matters because removing elephants from the ecosystem may have unforeseen effects. Fewer or extinct elephants means fewer forests means higher carbon emissions means greater climate change. And when that occurs some of the same nations engaged in or underwriting this slaughter will be making pious UN speeches blaming the US for climate change and begging demanding more money. It matters because we simply cannot stand by and allow an atavistic Chinese and East Asian desire for ivory wipe out an entire species. And finally it matters because the violence and corruption endemic in poaching inevitably and literally bleeds out into African societies. How can you have a lawful or peaceful society when well armed criminal organizations or corrupt armies and police feel free to ignore the law and kill those who try to uphold it? How can Africa grow and thrive if it continues to serve primarily if not solely as a natural resource provider to The West and increasingly to China? 

It can't. It won't.

For short term profit, Africans will slaughter the wild animals that live in their countries. Three decades from now when the animals are all gone those countries will probably still be impoverished. If you're interested in getting more information and learning what you can do to help combat this disgusting slaughter please visit these sites.
http://www.cites.org/
http://www.bloodyivory.org/stop-the-ivory-trade
http://www.stoprhinopoaching.com/register.aspx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/06/ivory-poaching-sanctions-cites?CMP=twt_gu

Rutgers Basketball Coach Mike Rice Fired!!!

It's important for each coach to be able to run his team as he sees fit. Some coaches are easier to get along with than others. Some coaches are famously intolerant of the slightest mistakes while others are more soft-spoken and try to teach via example instead of humiliation. Still, unless a coach happens to have recently won a national title or be related to or have embarrassing pictures of the Athletic Director and/or university President or Regents, there is usually some consistent pressure to "get things done".  Nobody has time for hurt feelings or thin skin. Results count.

This can make coaches act in disturbing ways and do things they might not have done if they knew the public would get a look at them. On the other hand, coaches are also supposed to teach character and leadership. And I was always taught that character is revealed by how you act when there is no one else around to see you or how you treat people over whom you have power. By those standards, Rutgers' basketball coach Mike Rice failed. Rutgers is joining the Big Ten next year. Rice was fired because of this video (and others) and the words and actions he displayed within. I could never allow any man not my father or a police officer exercising a lawful warrant to lay his hands on me without retribution but that's just me.

What do you think?

 

HBO Game of Thrones Recap : Valar Dohaeris

And here we go. We open in darkness and storm beyond the wall. I have mentioned before how amusing I find it that Sam's brethren booked up and split leaving him to face the White Walkers and walking dead on his own. Sam finds a dead Night's Watch's man who been decapitated. Sam is attacked by a zombie. But Ghost is there to pull the zombie off Sam. The rest of the Night's Watch, led by Lord Commander Mormont, make quick work of the zombie. The Commander wants to know if Sam sent word out and is disgusted to find out that he didn't. Now everyone has to go back to the Wall.

Along with the Lord of Bones aka Rattleshirt, Ygritte cheerfully leads Jon Snow thru the wildling camp. Not everyone is happy to see a Night's Watch member. Jon sees that there are giants in the wildling camp. They arrive at Mance Rayder's tent where Jon mistakes Tormund Giantsbane for Mance and bows to him. This breaks the ice a bit and Mance reveals himself telling Jon that kneeling is not required. However he still wants to know why Jon is switching sides. And after dismissing Jon's first answer it's subtly shown that Mance will kill Jon if he's not convinced of Jon's sincerity. Well the best lies always have some truth mixed in them. Jon shares his anger at Craster's incest and sacrifice to the White Walkers and the Lord Commander's refusal to do anything about it. He says that's what led him to leave. Well that's good enough for Mance and he accepts Jon for now. He's also noticed that Jon and Ygritte are making puppy eyes at each other.

In King's Landing Bronn is in a brothel trying to do what all soldiers with time on their hands and a willing woman do but he's interrupted by Tyrion's squire Podrick who tells Bronn that Tyrion wants him right now and won't take no for an answer. Cersei comes to visit her brother who is of course suspicious of her intentions. Cersei wants to know why Tyrion wants to see their father and if he's gonna be tattling on her. Tyrion reminds her of long ago cruelties but all Cersei can remember is that Tyrion told on her. Cersei has trouble hiding her amusement at the turn of events in Tyrion's life. Bronn arrives and engages in some macho insults with Ser Meryn Trant, pointing out that Trant isn't good for much besides beating up Sansa. Violence is averted when Cersei leaves. Bronn tells Tyrion he wants double the money he's been getting, whatever that is.

Davos is alive! He's been burned. He's picked up by boats belonging to his old friend Salladhor Saan. Salladhor is quite embittered by the loss and worried by Stannis' depression and habit of burning alive those that he (or Melisandre) thinks are heretics. Davos begs and calls in every chip he has to convince Salladhor to take him to Dragonstone.  Once he gets there Stannis doesn't appear to be too happy to see him. He's like whatever. Stannis won't send Melisandre away so that they can talk in private. Davos chides Melisandre and Stannis for their executions. Melisandre (and is that some nice cleavage or what) blames Davos for convincing Stannis not to take her to the battle. When she talks about Davos' son's death Davos loses it and tries to kill her but is stopped and imprisoned. 

Roose Bolton and Robb and northern forces arrive at Harrenhal to find it abandoned and several Stark and Tully POW's and Harrenhal staff killed. This was likely the work of The Mountain. Robb is still po'd at his mother for letting Jaime Lannister go and it seems that his men are as well. They find one survivor, a maester named Qyburn.

Tyrion finally gets in to see his Daddy who is busy writing letters and doesn't appear to wish to be bothered. After Tyrion's pitiful attempts at small talk fail Tywin abruptly asks him what does he want. Tyrion points out all the good deeds he did and says a little credit/gratitude might be a start. Tywin scoffs and said he heard about all the fun Tyrion was having with prostitutes after specifically being told to stop that. Tywin also says that whatever good Tyrion did that's what he was supposed to do and he gets no extra credit for that. Tyrion gathers his nerves and says that since Jaime can't legally inherit that he should get Casterly Rock. Tywin can't believe this. He says he might try to give Tyrion a slightly better position and arrange a reasonable marriage for a dwarf but there's no way in hell he's ever getting Casterly Rock. Almost all of this dialogue is taken directly from the book and is probably the most powerful scene this week. Tywin goes OFF on Tyrion. Tywin kicks him out, tells him not to ask about Casterly Rock again and to stay away from prostitutes unless he wants Tywin to kill them. You can see that Tyrion is really hurt. It's not just about Casterly Rock of course. It's about seeking love and recognition from an emotional abuser. 

In King's Landing Sansa and Shae watch ships leaving and make up stories about where they are going. Littlefinger shows up to talk with Sansa (looking and sounding EXACTLY like someone from To Catch A Predator) and tells Sansa he MIGHT be able to get her home. He also says he saw Catelyn and Arya. Roz tells Shae to watch over Sansa and watch out for Littlefinger.

Staying in King's Landing there is a nice contrast between Joffrey and Margarey. Both are being carried in litters. Joffrey hates the stink and is grimacing, with a handkerchief to his nose. Margarey gets out of her litter and visits a religious orphanage bringing cheer, food, and toys. She tells the head of the orphanage to come to her directly if she ever needs help. Later that night there is a dinner that includes Margarey, Joffrey, Loras and Cersei. Both of the Tyrells remain softspoken but Cersei is in a bad mood. She makes fun of Margarey's revealing outfit and Margarey politely does the same to Cersei's severe masculine one. Before a full blown catfight can develop tensions erupt between Joffrey and Cersei. It also comes out that House Tyrell is now supplying most of the food in King's Landing. 

There is a great shot of Daenerys and her followers aboard a ship bound to Astapor. Her dragons are much larger, about as big as a midsize dog. They hunt for fish. They are still not large enough to use in military applications. Danerys needs an army and intends to get one in Astapor. Astapor is a slave city. Once Daenerys arrives in Astapor the wealthy slaver Kraznys, bursting with financial, ethnic and sexual contempt for Daenerys, explains thru his slave translator Missandei (and this woman is wearing yet another high cleavage quotient outfit) that The Unsullied are slave soldiers who have been trained since birth by very brutal and evil methods to follow orders and fight no matter the odds or pain. To prove this point he slices off the nipple of an Unsullied man who makes no protest or cry of pain. Danerys doesn't know about the morality of buying slaves, even if she intends to free them. Jorah is uncertain of their fighting prowess as after all they have all been castrated. But before they can discuss it further Daenerys is distracted by a child playing with a globe. She lets the child get too close and the globe is shown to contain some sort of magical insect or scorpion. The warlocks of Qarth have sent an assassin. But her life is saved by Ser Barristan Selmy, who having been forced out of Joffrey's service, is eager to enter hers.

*This post is written for discussion of this episode and previous episodes. If you have book based knowledge of future events please be kind enough not to discuss that here. Most of my blog partners have not read the books and would take spoilers most unkindly. Heads, spikes, well you get the idea....

Book Reviews-Pardon Me, You're Stepping On My Eyeball, Blood on The Leaves

Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball
by Paul Zindel

As I mentioned in the review of Zindel's book The Pigman, Paul Zindel was an author who primarily wrote for young adults, but really didn't write down to them. Although his characters didn't always have mortgages, resentful ex-spouses, demanding bosses, ungrateful kids or more typical adult concerns, the books generally have characters, who despite not being adults do have concerns that adults often have- whether or not they're having sex, if they're normal or not, the relationships they have with their family and friends, and how much they hate their obligations, which instead of being paid work is usually school and doing what their parents tell them.
So you probably shouldn't be put off by the young ages of the main characters. It doesn't really matter. On the surface this has some similarities to The Pigman. There's two teenage misfits, a houseparty that goes drastically wrong and some quirky kids and bullies but that's pretty minor. It's a much darker tale and one that surprised me in some ways. There's very real anger and even some ugly domestic abuse that came out of left field. If this book was being written today that last would almost certainly be handled differently. I hope so at least.

This book tells the tale of two high school weirdos and their encounters with each other, their dysfunctional families and their struggles to move forward in life. It's dramatically not a love story although there are some hints of that. Both the hero and heroine are in a special needs class.

Louis Mellow, or as he prefers to be called, Marsh, is an intelligent high school student who spends his days writing down lists of all the things he hates and why he hates them. He idealizes his absent father, whom he calls Paranoid Pete and hates his whiny mean drunk mother, whom he refers to as Schizoid Suzy. Marsh always carries a baby raccoon that he rescued in his jacket pocket.  Marsh can be quite disruptive in class. He enjoys telling people outrageous stories about his adventures with his father and their supposed lecherous dalliances with women and girls all over the continental United States and beyond. According to Marsh Paranoid Pete is locked in an insane asylum and about to be executed! Marsh doesn't tell this part to most people and can be cruelly dismissive or insulting to anyone who doesn't believe his stories. 

Edna Shinglebox is a girl at Marsh's school that Marsh decides he likes, just because anyone who has the nerve to walk around with a name like Shinglebox must have some heart. Edna actually suffers from social anxiety and gawkiness. Her hair gets caught in escalators and she makes involuntary head jerks when she gets nervous, which is often. Her parents think she's going to die an old maid. Her mother is extremely sarcastic and cutting. Her mother is trying to fix Edna up with anything of the male persuasion, weird or not. Marsh wants Edna's help to rescue his father. Edna's not sure if she likes Marsh but after he insults her a few times she finds the backbone to stand up to him and change how she approaches life in general. She also rather quickly figures out the truth behind Marsh's stories and must decide if she wants to help. I can't say for sure of course but from the outside looking in I would think that Zindel wrote an extremely realistic young girl character. The common humanity that we all share shines through.

Everyone has problems here, whether it's the overweight diabetic teacher who also knows why Marsh has issues and refuses to tell Edna or the rich girl who knows that the football player only likes her because she lives in a large house suitable for parties, or the malodorous psychic who wants to give Edna advice. The ending is at best bittersweet but also leaves room for growth, which is all you can ask for in life. Worthwhile reading. Edna's anger is awesome to see. This is also a very funny book. The title comes from the advice Marsh got from his father to not let anyone step on his eyeball.





Blood On The Leaves
By Jeff Stetson

Is justice delayed justice denied? Honestly what do you feel when you read about a 85-90 year old man being arrested and charged with war crimes for what he supposedly did in World War Two? Do you think the soldiers in the Mahmudiyah  or My Lai rapes and massacres got off easy? Does someone today have the right to hold someone accountable for what they did 50 years ago? What do you think when you read about someone suing an insurance firm or art gallery for actions they allegedly took during the Holocaust? Often people's feelings about this depend on whether they are the party seeking justice or the party with something concrete to lose, whether it be money, liberty or life. That's just human nature. 

One thing that is unfortunately true is that there were and are a great many people walking around, primarily but not exclusively in the South, who enforced segregation not reluctantly but with relish. And some of these people used violence to do so whether under color of law or on their own, albeit with the silent assent of a great many racist whites. Many of these people were never brought to justice and likely never will be. The FBI is closing the books on several of these cases. And let's be honest, for years the FBI did not consider these cases to be major priorities anyway.

But imagine if there were someone who felt that there was a debt that must be paid, no matter how much time had passed or whether the criminal had started a family and moderated his views. This is the premise of Blood on the Leaves, a book of fiction that is much a mystery and action set-piece as it is an essay of what true justice means. 

In Mississippi a number of elderly unrepentant white racists who were suspected or acquitted of killing Black protesters or citizens during the civil rights movement are all winding up dead often in the same way that their victims did. A black professor, Martin Matheson, just happens to be giving lectures on various people that escaped conviction for their crimes during the sixties and seventies. He gets national attention. Matheson includes graphic photos of their victims along with pictures, names and current addresses and phone numbers of the perpetrators. The powers that be try to shut this project down but nothing stops Matheson for long. Nothing that is until there is some physical evidence linking Matheson to one of the murders. Matheson will be prosecuted by Mississippi's only black deputy district attorney, James Reynolds, who both understands and resents his role here. Matheson will be defended by Todd Miller, an old school white liberal with his own demons to exorcise. This is a surprisingly good courtroom drama with the requisite number of twists and turns. This was Stetson's first novel. At one point this was going to be made into a movie starring Jaime Foxx. I don't know if that's still a possibility.

HBO Game of Thrones: Season Two Recap and Season Three Anticipation

HBO Game of Thrones Recap-Season Two

Another year has come and gone. Hopefully you're a little bit wiser, a little bit wealthier and ready to watch the 9 PM Sunday premiere of HBO's Season 3 of Game of Thrones. If you don't watch the show and are curious all I can say is that the show combines a feeling of The Sopranos meets The Wire in Middle Earth with a very strong Shakespearean/Dickensian/Dune overlay. There are scores of characters. The good guys don't always win and your view of who the good guys are may change dramatically over time. There are fantastical elements (walking dead, clairvoyance, ice demons, dragons, scarily intelligent and huge guardian direwolves which reflect and anticipate their human partner's emotions) but the magical elements don't dominate the story though they will become more important later. No this story is really about the ugliness and glory of humanity. 

A war of succession, called the War of Five Kings, has broken out on a continent quite similar to Europe at the Middle Ages and Renaissance level of development. A Lannister King unjustly executed the head of House Stark so Houses Stark and Tully (they're in-laws) have risen in revolt. House Baratheon claims (correctly) that the Lannister king is a product of incest and thus has no right to the throne. It also launched a war against the Lannisters. House Tyrell once supported the younger rebel Renly Baratheon but when the elder Baratheon brother Stannis had his brother Renly murdered, the Tyrells threw in with the Lannisters. The Arryns and Martells are staying out of the war. House Greyjoy spurned an alliance from House Stark and attacked House Stark, for whom it holds a special disdain. Across the sea, House Targaryen, recently deposed and thought virtually powerless is reconstituting itself around the leadership of a teen girl, the last Targaryen. She has dragons. She thinks herself the rightful Queen. Unknown to everyone, powers in the North are stirring. Both the wildling hordes and the more dangerous White Walkers intend to invade the realms of Westeros. They are opposed only by a ragtag bunch of outcasts, criminals and disinherited sons known as the Night Watch.

As of the end of Season Two this is where some of the major characters found themselves.


Robb and Catelyn Stark

As the eldest son and wife of murdered Ned Stark, it's safe to say that these two took Ned's death as hard as anyone, maybe harder. Both had thoughts that immediately turned to bloody vengeance. Robb gathered an army, challenged any doubters to come and have a go if they thought they were hard enough, and proceeded to kick Lannister behind up and down Westeros. He's known as The Young Wolf, which is a pretty cool nickname if you think about it. Despite usually being greatly outnumbered, Robb has defeated every Lannister army he's faced. He's made Tywin Lannister, the top general and leader of House Lannister, look like a tired old man. Rumble young man rumble!!!  But no one's perfect. Robb thought that Theon Greyjoy was his friend and sent him to parley with his father Balon Greyjoy. But Balon Greyjoy had already decided to attack the North. Feeling threatened by his father's preference for his sister Yara, Theon decided to prove himself to his family by attacking and taking Winterfell, the Stark home. He also killed two children and claimed that he had killed Robb's younger brothers. Winterfell could not be held though and Theon's men turned on him. Winterfell was burned and its people slaughtered.

Catelyn gave Robb advice and tried to broker a peace between the feuding Baratheon brothers. This didn't work and Catelyn had to escape with Brienne, a supporter of the late Renly Baratheon and Westeros' only female knight. Brienne swore loyalty to Catelyn Stark, and NOT the Starks in general. This came in handy when Catelyn, worried about the safety of her daughters, Sansa and Arya, in Lannister captivity, released Jaime Lannister, Tywin's favorite son, into Brienne's custody with orders to trade Jaime for her daughters. This didn't go over very well with Robb or his followers.  Catelyn fretted about Robb's marriage to Talisa, a foreign nurse he met. Robb was supposed to marry the daughter of Walder Frey, a bannerman to Catelyn's father. Frey has been supporting Robb's war. Robb put Catelyn under house arrest and sent men to retrieve Jaime and Brienne. But Brienne showed she's no slouch in the warrior department, killing three Stark soldiers with ease. Jaime Lannister is likely the realm's most dangerous swordsman. He can't believe that a woman, especially one as ugly as Brienne, can do the things he does. He spends his days thinking up new insults to call Brienne. 



Arya Stark

Everyone's favorite left-handed action girl, Arya Stark avoided the bloodbath in King's Landing when her father Ned was captured and executed. She left with Yoren, a rough Night's Watch recruiter who swore to take her home. But Yoren's group was attacked by Lannister troops looking for Gendry, King Robert's illegitimate son. Yoren was killed. Arya and her friends were taken into custody. Arya was taken to Harrenhal (for obvious reasons she did not disclose her identity). At Harrenhal Arya ran into the mysterious man named Jaqen H'ghar, whom she had previously saved from a burning wagon. The strange man with the odd diction told Arya that he owed her three lives. She used him to kill two of the people who hurt her or her friends but before she could use him on Tywin Lannister and possibly change the war's outcome, Twyin left for King's Landing. Arya convinced H'ghar to help her, Gendry and Hot Pie to escape. He did this by somehow killing a multitude of guards simultaneously and silently. He then altered his features and told Arya that if she wanted to learn his skills, come with him to Braavos. For now, Arya declined, being eager to rejoin her family. Arya witnessed a fair deal of torture, murder and brutality and believe it or not this was actually toned down somewhat from the books. She also got to match wits with Tywin Lannister.




Bran and Rickon Stark
They have hidden in the crypts with loyalists Hodor, Osha and their two wolves. They have thus survived the burning of Winterfell and are heading North. Bran is still having strange dreams that seem to hint at future events and make it seem as if he is seeing things through the eyes of his wolf, Summer. Both of the younger Stark boys are having to grow up much faster than they should. 




Tyrion Lannister, Cersei Lannister and Stannis Baratheon 

Reluctantly given Hand authority by his father Twyin with orders not to let Cersei or Joffrey muck things up any worse than they already had, Tyrion saw highs and lows in Season Two. Despised and mocked by everyone for being a dwarf, Tyrion showed real leadership ability and even fearlessness in limiting Joffrey's abuses, publicly correcting Joffrey, trying to eliminate the more openly venal administrators around him and successfully defending King's Landing against the Stannis Baratheon onslaught. Unfortunately someone on his own side tried to have him murdered during battle. Although his squire saved his life, Tyrion awoke from his recovery to find that his authority was gone. Tywin was in charge now. Tyrion was once again out of favor.

Cersei Lannister kidnapped and abused the woman who she thought was Tyrion's paramour. She may or may not have given the order to kill her brother. She was on the verge of murdering her son Tommen, believing all was lost, when her father saved the day. Cersei had a strange relationship with Sansa Stark, despising her and bullying her but occasionally giving her what she saw as useful or realistic advice about being a woman.

Stannis Baratheon, despite seeing much of his fleet destroyed by Tyrion's ingenious use of wildfire (napalm) was in the front lines serving up butt-kickings, Baratheon style, to the Lannister soldiers. He was on the verge of victory when he was attacked from behind by the combined Lannister/Tyrell soldiery and forced to retreat. Back at Dragonstone the depressed Stannis demanded to know why he had lost but was shown a vision in fire by his sexy and profoundly weird religious advisor Melisandre which seems to have mollified him somewhat. If there's one thing we know about Stannis though, it's that he does not quit. Ever. 



Sansa Stark and Joffrey Lannister

Sansa Stark spent most of Season Two being Joffrey's outlet for frustration over the fact that Robb Stark was beating Lannister armies like rented mules. Joffrey is more interested in hurting and humiliating women than in having sex with them and regularly had the teenage Sansa beaten and stripped by grown men. Tyrion Lannister was the only man who stopped this. But the fearsome Lannister bodyguard The Hound, never beat Sansa, subtly attempted to protect her from Joffrey and rescued her from a would be gang-rape. Sansa is on the verge of womanhood. She might have been able to tell that the Hound didn't do those things because he's a nice guy. The Hound is most emphatically NOT a nice guy. Despite this, Sansa refused to leave with the Hound when he quit Lannister service and offered to take her home. This decision looked wise when Joffrey renounced his betrothal to Sansa in favor of Margaery Tyrell. But as the shifty Littlefinger explained to Sansa, this doesn't mean that Joffrey has given up interest in Sansa. Without the title of wife to protect her she may be in even worse danger.

Joffrey Lannister continued to be the Lannister we hate the most. When he wasn't mutilating bards for fun, murdering his putative half-siblings, or ordering massacres because peasants laughed at him, he was beating and insulting Sansa Stark. When that outlet was temporarily denied him he transferred his psychosis to prostitutes. When war came he talked a good game but when stuff got real he ran home to his mother and left the leadership to Tyrion. Season Two saw a realization on both Joffrey's and Cersei's parts that Joffrey was truly dangerous and had no qualms about hurting anyone. Varys and Littlefinger continue to plot from the shadows.



Daenerys Targaryen 

The would be queen of Westeros didn't have much of an arc in Season Two. That will likely change in Season Three. In Season Two her dragons were small and more exotic playthings than dangerous pets. Danerys and her retinue spent all season in Quarth, a democratic city run by a council of merchants. Those merchants were intrigued by the dragons but had zero interest in backing Danerys' longshot to retake the Iron Throne. One merchant, Xaro pretended romantic interest in Danerys and claimed wealth. But he, along with the wizard Pyat Pree really just wanted the dragons. Pyat Pree made the critical mistake of forgetting that any dragon is more loyal to its owner/trainer than to the weird looking guy who dragon-napped it. After Danerys had Pree burned alive she discovered the treachery (and penury) of Xaro and had her remaining loyalists lock Xaro and his lover in his empty vault. And her friend who would be more, Jorah Mormont still hasn't made his move. Better go for it in Season Three, Jorah. Faint heart, fair lady, you know the rest.



Jon Snow

Jon Snow joined the Night Watch because he thought it was an honorable thing to do and because he wanted to get away from Catelyn Stark, who hated him. Well he jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. Not only has Jon learned that many of the Night Watch men are hoodlums, thieves, exiles and all around bad guys but that Night Watch leaders must make deals with even worse people for information. One such man is Craster, a man who gives information and food to Night Watch members. In return they turn a blind eye to Craster's rape of his daughters and granddaughters and sacrificing of male relatives to the White Walkers. Jon spoke out of school about this and gets the Night Watch team kicked out of Craster's home. He also got a beatdown from Craster. Heading further north Jon joined with a small group of Night Watch rangers who intended to infiltrate the wildling army and assassinate the wildling king Mance Rayder. But the mission went wrong when Jon gets lost and confused by his raunchy redheaded wildling captive, the beautiful and loud mouthed Ygritte who leads him into a trap. Trying to save the mission, Qhorin Halfhand, the ranger leader manipulated Jon into killing him. Now slightly trusted, Jon is taken to meet the wilding king. Jon's best bud Sam, witnessed what looked like a full scale southern march of White Walkers and the walking dead.

I was just recently part of an E! Entertainment circle discussion and interview about Season Three. Spoilers were avoided as much as possible and you know my policy about spoilers here. I can say that the creators have publicly stated that this is the season they were hoping to reach. I can also say that Season Three will continue deviations from the books. In any event I'm really looking forward to this season. There will be tons of new characters introduced. Blink and you'll miss something important. This is HBO's flagship show and in my opinion one of the better shows on television. Of course I don't watch much television so take that with a ROCK of salt. Enjoy the trailers below.


TRAILER    THE BEAST TRAILER

EXTENDED TRAILER  ALL OF US TRAILER

ENEMIES TRAILER  Game of Thrones Pickup Lines (Mildly adult humor)

RAINS TRAILER

*This post is written for discussion of season two and unspoiled anticipation of season three.  If you have book based knowledge of future events please be kind enough not to discuss that here. Most of my blog partners have not read the books and would take spoilers most unkindly. Heads, spikes, well you get the idea. Don't be THAT guy.