Monday, April 22, 2013

Misplaced Perspective Causes Neville's “Collusion” To Fail To Reach Elevated Expectations





“If he won’t tell me, why in God’s name would he tell you?”
“Fegan said, ‘Because I’ll ask harder.’”

There’s no question that Northern Ireland is fertile ground for crime fiction, and renowned author Stuart Neville revisits that territory in his highly anticipated novel “Collusion,” which is peppered with references to the political dealings that continue to dominate a generation after the Troubles.

A sequel to the much-heralded “Ghosts of Belfast” (which earned the No. 4 spot for the 2011 Scooties Awards), this book has a plot that follows three different stories: troubled copper Jack Lennon (“Some said that when you’re on your deathbed, it’d be the things you didn’t do that you’d regret. Lennon knew that was a lie.”); the Traveler, an unstoppable assassin; and Gerry Fegan, who represents what passes for an Irish superhero. Unfortunately, the otherworldly Fegan is relegated to the background through most of this story, and in my estimation, this book is never quite able to overcome that editorial decision.

Fegan’s old nemesis, Bull O’Kane, has managed to track down the elusive Fegan Stateside (“ ... he loved New York ... This city had no memory. No one cared who he was, what he’d done. He could walk through the crowds, as clean as the next man, his guilt buried.”), where our hero has escaped to allow would-be girlfriend Marie McKenna and her daughter Ellen to live their lives in relative peace and security. Enter the ominously named Traveler, who threatens all of that, plus Lennon, who had a bit role in the first book as McKenna’s former husband.

Along the way, the Traveler repeatedly gets the best of Fegan, resulting in an eye-opening bit of myth-busting. It’s a bit difficult to see a more vulnerable, weakened Fegan at work, though it is hinted that the exertions of the first book and his isolation have taken some toll on him.

“I can’t,” Fegan said. “I’m tired. I want to sleep. That was all I ever wanted. To sleep.”

Without giving away too much, one of the key characters makes a not-very-believable miraculous bid to cling to life, perhaps paving the way for a third book.

This novel features short chapters, and as a result is a rather quick read. However, that makes for less time to explain the intangible and emotional connections between Fegan, Marie and Ellen. One of the unexplored areas, to me, was the psychic connection between Fegan and Ellen, which seemed to me a bit of a lost opportunity on Neville’s part.

“She was safe.
“That was the most important fact in his world now, the one thing that made tomorrow better than yesterday, and he clung to it like a pillow in his sleep.”

While “Collusion” made for entertaining reading, it simply didn’t have the breadth, deeper meaning or resonance of “Ghosts of Belfast.” The lack of soul, for lack of a better word, within this novel made it more “just” a crime mystery story—though Neville’s writing talents make that work to a more-than-passable extent.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Limerick Friday LXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX: A Masters Finish For The Ages, Plus Pete Campbell Is No Don Draper



Adam Scott avenged a British Open gag
Cabrera had his son on the bag
He swung hard, then smoked a heater
And Tigger was outed as a cheater
But Scott finally raised an Aussie flag

A race of self-affirmation
On a day of celebration
‘Til cowards ruined the day
And forced innocents to pay
Who are we now as a nation?

The final few days before 40
For this honorary Geordie
Yet the beach beckons
All worth it, I reckons
Don’t feel it, thank the lordy

Plenty of options for the ‘Fins
The draft has me on needles and pins
A tackle for the line?
A corner would be fine
Even a pass rusher (just no Ted Ginns!)

Flashbacks to Don’s preggers Mom nailed
Pete tried to be suave and failed
Megan had a miscarriage
Then confided in Sylvia about marriage
Heinz and Jag accounts may have sailed


Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Deep Thoughts By No-Look McFadden: Episode 64





#1
Just in case you wanted some hugs (and tears) to go with your burger and fries, I present Tim’s Place.



#2
Cottonwood has long been my favorite North Carolina brewery, and they hit another one out of the park with Frostbite Black IPA. Highly recommended if you’re so inclined.

#3
Do the Baltimore Ravens have a linebackers coach named Wink Martindale?!

#4
I’ve never seen Dane Cook and Skylar Astin (of the movie “21 and Over”) in the same place at the same time. And if I did, I’m sure Astin would not be laughing at one of Cook’s bits.

#5
So there’s a Walking Dead drinking game called, appropriately enough, “Walking Drunk.” That is all.

#6
The “30 for 30” special on Chicago hoops legend Ben Wilson, titled “Benji,” was raw and powerful. The stark way in which it was shot and his story told really ramped up the emotional attachment to the story itself.

#7
So maybe life could pass you by while you’re tap-tap-tapping ...

#8
This guy is like my new personal hero and I would elect him the free and true leader of anything and everything. #drivinginrussia

#9
Just in case you thought the whole cops-at-Dunkin-Donuts thing is played out, here’s a tremendous story. Only a policeman could get away with the ol’ “I thought that cocaine was doughnut powder” defense. At least it’s not like cops get adjudicated differently or anything ...

#10
This story has it all: a perverted UNC professor, cocaine, a triple-D glamour model, almost incomprehensible arrogance and a catfish” of epic proportions. This dude makes Manti T’eo look like Don freaking Juan.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Inspired Scotsmen “Frightened Rabbit” Channeled Energetic Crowd to Rock The Cat’s Cradle



What happens when some Scottish dudes find themselves in some small town in the middle of North Carolina in the midst of a U.S. tour?

One of my favorite bands, the Glasgow-based group Frightened Rabbit, made their way some 4,000 miles to Carrboro, N.C.—where they promptly drew on the energy of a passionate crowd in trying their best to burn down the venerable Cat’s Cradle.

The crew got off to something of a slow start, with the appearance of some sound issues and lead singer Scott Hutchison switching guitars several times. Unfortunately, the iffy beginning came at the expense of the first few songs, which included two of my favorite tunes. The band kicked off the set with “Holy,” the best song off their most recent album, “Pedestrian Verse,” then followed with “The Modern Leper” before leaping into my second-favorite Frightened Rabbits tune, “Old Old Fashioned.”

But every stellar show has a holy-shit moment, and this one came with a stomping “Nothing Like You” that represented the true beginning of the concert.

The band also rolled out a much-slowed-down version of “My Backwards Walk” and a solo acoustic take on “Good Arms vs. Bad Arms.” Both struck me as evidence of a group finding ways to stay fresh, exploring some what-if territory in the midst of a lengthy tour in a foreign land.

Other highlights included a bouncy “The Oil Slick,” a stirring “Head Rolls Off,” an emotional “Poke”, a haunting and underrated “State Hospital” and a manic “Acts of Man” to conclude the set on an eardrum-shattering note.

The standout of the three-set encore was “Living in Colour,” and the last song of the night, “The Loneliness and the Scream,” featured Wintersleep (the opening act, a Canadian band whose music isn’t my cup o’ tea, but they had a good sound and were well-received) accompanying in a memorably boot-stomping version of that song.

In the category of “minor quibbles,” I did notice that the set lists from the U.S. tour have essentially been the same night to night, which I usually don’t care for, as I’d like to believe that bands leave themselves freedom to open up the catalog if the moment or the audience inspires them. And on another personal note, I felt like the absence of “The Greys”—perhaps the band’s signature song and my personal favorite—was a huge omission.

But overall, Hutchison seemed genuinely, pleasantly shocked at the outpouring of energy and emotion stemming from the crowd—even on a Monday night—which led to some “top bants” (as my Brit colleagues would say) between he and the audience. He even engaged the audience in a bit of harmonizing toward the end of the show, and especially in the latter half of the set, you really got a sense of the band responding to and rewarding an unexpectedly boisterous crowd.

In the closing moments of a searing show, Hutchison promised that Frightened Rabbit would “definitely be back” at the Cat’s Cradle. Cheers, mates; I’ll be there.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Limerick Friday LXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXIX: Cinema Loses An Icon, Plus Don Draper Critiqued Season Debut With Vomit




R.I.P. Roger Ebert, sad days
Had a fortitude that did amaze
Much more than a movie critic
Wasting time on “G.I. Joe” and “Riddick”
Became a social conscience in some ways

Has-beens and fired coaches, you know
Broadcasting has reached a new low
Tools like Dan Dakich
Equivalent of verbal jockitch
Either add value, call the game or go

Storylines, the title game didn’t lack
Refs didn’t know a carry from a hack
At the end of a so-so NCAA tourney
Louisville stood alone on the journey
Then Pitino celebrated in a booth in the back

All the way from Scotland they came
Frightened Rabbit, what’s in a name
Rocked like a college kid
Sang and drank beer, I did
For one night at least, unlame

Don finally made a friend
Then bedded his wife in the end
Roger seeing a shrink
Peggy too driven to think
Puking at a funeral is so Mad Men-ed


Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Surreal “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Tackled Huge Issues Through Small Eyes





“Sometimes you can break something so bad it can’t get put back together.”

“Everybody loses the thing that made them. It’s even how it’s supposed to be in nature. The brave men stay and watch it happen; they don’t run.”

When Katrina hits, an already upside-down society is turned inside-out to boot, paving the way toward the movie’s central questions: What can truly grow amidst the debris? What is possible against the backdrop of nothingness? And does the primitive, idyllic lifestyle yield more happiness than our fast-paced, sophisticated culture?

Set against the backdrop of these questions and more, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” packs an emotional punch, following a community called the “Bathtub,” the fictional Isle of Charles Doucet, which is modeled on the very real Isle de Jean Charles. Outcast from society and technology, the Bathtub is a living, breathing community, one giant family intent on partying its way through all ordeals (much like New Orleans itself).

We view the trials and tribulations of the Bathtub through the lens provided by Hushpuppy, a small girl making her way without much parental authority, breaks or guidance. It was a monumental role for a wee girl, but the mesmerizing Quvenzhane (and no, I didn’t just fall asleep and bang my head on the keyboard) Wallis’s eyes captivate you and reel you in, not only offering her unique perspective, but imprinting the themes of resolve and girl power along the way.

Just 6 years old at the time of filming, Wallis pulled it off, lending stark understatement to the gut-wrenching tale of her life. Her father, played by regular New Orleans dude Dwight Henry as Wink in an underrated role, is sickly. Interestingly, there is no physical affection between the father and Hushpuppy until the former is faced with his own mortality.

It’s also not always easy to discern what is occurring in the mind of a 6-year-old child and what is actually taking place in reality. In a sense, it’s all seen through the perspective of Hushpuppy, as pointed out in a sublime New Yorker review. Indeed, it’s “a piece of realism from the point of view of a six-year-old,” director Benh Zeitlin told The Atlantic.

“Beast of the Southern Wild” was the pet baby of the 26-year-old Zeitlin—his first feature film—and became the darling of Sundance, winning the Grand Jury Prize. Powered by Court 13, a collective of artists and filmmakers, it garnered an astonishing four Oscar nominations.

In a bit of foreshadowing of some of the ecological issues detailed in the film, on the first day of shooting, the Deepwater Horizon blew. And in his research, the director kept coming back to a singular question: Why would anyone choose to live in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina?

Zeitlin immersed himself in the culture and community, using Isle de Jean Charles as inspiration for his vision. He would go on to spend two years just editing the film, making a conscious decision to tap into bayou/Cajun myth and folklore extensively. And he elected to breathe the story to life by leaning on Louisiana natives—his decision to cast “real” people in lieu of actors added to the film’s feeling of authenticity. Zeitlin also had the cast and crew live and shoot in the bayou for nearly half a year.

The result is a well-rendered depiction of the lives of a community living on the edge of catastrophe and existing at Mother Nature’s behest—and the impact that atmosphere means to a sense of community. Bolstered by the tremendous music and unique cinematography, there is a sense of being flung directly into the Bathtub yourself, to scratch and claw your own way into being.




Admittedly, I found the description and introduction of the auruchs a bit hard to follow initially. The story also wanders a little bit, especially as Hushpuppy’s search for her mother brings her to a floating crab shack/whorehouse (are they the same thing?) in what resembled a sort of dream sequence, in which it’s never made clear whether the cook is actually her mother or not. Hushpuppy wants her to be her Mom, which I believe is kind of the point (as evidenced in the heartbreaking scene where Hushpuppy dances with her, holding her close and whispering, “This is my favorite thing”). And within this mother/not mother role, the cook dispenses life lessons, telling Hushpuppy, “One day it’s gonna all be on you. Everything on your plate gonna fall on the floor.”

I know that some have decried the film as glorifying poverty and a lack of sophistication, but I think that is reading way too much into the story. Criticism in some quarters has also centered on the movie’s depiction of government as oppressive and intrusive, but beyond the obvious acknowledgment that the government ignored an entire region in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I didn’t glean an anti-government vibe or any political bent at all.

Instead, the Bathtub survivors come to see their “rescue” as simply another way of institutionalizing them and indoctrinating them into the ways of the rest of the world—leading to a revolt and escape.

Zeitlin himself waved away criticisms of his depiction of poverty, arguing instead that these people aren’t poor, but instead experience the “ultimate freedom” in their everyday lives.

“The whole idea of the bathtub is that it’s a society where all the things that divide people have been removed,” he told The Atlantic. “So there’s no religion, no politics, no money, no one sees race, there’s no rich and poor because there is no currency.”

However, I do agree that “Beasts of the Southern Wild” can be experienced as a rejection of the norms and pace of a too-modern world. This relatively short film (93 minutes) depicted a Bathtub family that has, in essence, chosen isolation, then set about creating and defining its own distinct world.

In the sense that everything that dies simply becomes part of something new, the Bathtub embraces the ideas of rebirth, recycling, reuse and repurposing as a quasi-litmus test for a globe succumbing to technological and environmental failures. Even young Hushpuppy seems to grasp this, as she quietly tells the auruch when they finally meet, “You’re my friend, kind of.”

All in all, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was some type of bouillabaisse of “Mad Max,” “Waterworld” and “The Champ.” And like all good Cajun food, it includes a spirit, a vibrancy that allows it to go far beyond something just to be digested—this flick screams out for your immersion.



Monday, April 08, 2013

Not Exactly A Leisurely Paddle ...




For those of you who would like to kayak in a freaking volcano someday.

Friday, April 05, 2013

Limerick Friday LXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXVIII: The Metsies, Because Baseball, Plus “TWD” Wraps Up A Season Of “Meh”



Another season? Sure, let’s
The Amazin’s give me Tourette’s
Baseball is back with a whimper
Expectations we must temper
What’s the magic number for the Mets?

Got fans cryin’ and heavin’
Cause a coupla dudes leavin’
Coming off 24 wins
Recruiting season re-begins
Relax and start believin’

Ed Rush a lying skunk
Mike Rice a bullying punk
One put a bounty on Miller
The other dodgeballed like Stiller
Kick both to the curb like shitty junk

Connecticut sent out a release
Harsh gun laws passed with ease
A promising day for common sense
Not bowing to NRA dollars and cents
Who’s the next state to choose peace?
 
The Governor went Jim Jones and how
But why abandon Woodbury now?
Andrea joined the dead not risen
“Cocoon” is coming to the prison
A season finale without a factor of wow