Saturday, October 07, 2017

The Month That Was - September 2017

I've decide to use hexadecimal for my birthday which makes me 39 years old as of 9/13. What that means in the more common, crude decimal system I'll leave as an exercise for the reader (or the reader's access to Google). That would make me 3A next year, which look weird on internet forms and such.

Lots of reading this month, and I began the revision process of the first half of my next novel. I'm hoping that revising the first half will make the second half come into focus in my head.

Unlike last month I have no sense of the month as "lost", but it was personally and professionally frustrating, and I haven't been sleeping, and I am exhausted.

[Movies] Flick Check: Bad Heroes
[Tech] Technology Check Up
[Books] Book Look: Sputnik Sweetheart and Men Without Women

[Movies] Flick Check: Bad Heroes

Wonder Woman captured a lot of girl-power fancies, but it's simply not very good. This is of course not the fault of the girls in power; it's a DC film and so contains extended sequences of dull exposition, punctuated by plodding, ham-fisted action pieces. Honestly, it's a wonder they keep trying when even the weakest Marvel offerings clean their clocks.

In the interest of finding something good to say, I would point out the quasi-buddy-cop combo of Chris Pine and Gal Godot had its moments. Chris Pine is that rare thing in a DC film: an actor who can deliver comedy if needed. And Gal Godot is easy on the eyes, for sure. But there's little beyond that that isn't pure formula -- blockbuster by committee. Yawn.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is also disappointing, but it's disappointing for a Marvel film which means it's still a cut above most other action movies. Lost was the organic storyline of the first film with the misfits coming together into the Guardians. The arc here is more forced, and therefore less fun. The Guardians are already the Guardians -- wisecracking, anti-hero buddies -- so efforts are made to mix them up into different combinations, but no special chemistry forms. Starlord gets his origin story via Kurt Russell as his father, but it is clearly contrived to forward the overall Marvel Universe narrative. All in all, it feels much more like a product, than a work of inspiration. The music selection is worse than the original, the writing dropped off, the snappy dialogue falls flat for the most part, and there is a certain clash of tone. Still it never descends into the level of suckitude of the DC films. The troop are still a strong comic ensemble and their sharp readings and personal charisma come through despite the poor script, although the only one I laughed out loud at this time was Dave Bautista.

The next superhero flick for me will be Spiderman: Homecoming, which I have high hopes for, then Thor: Ragnarok, then more Avengers will follow. It really is a treat getting to relive all these characters and stories from the comic books of my adolescence. Now that I am barrelling down on 60 these stories have officially lasted a lifetime. I don't know if it means adults today are more immature or adolescent nerds back then were sharper than we were given credit for, and I don't much care really, just glad I lived long enough to see an unfashionable devotion of my early teen years bubble up to the cultural top.

[Tech] Technology Check Up

Technology manages to simultaneously improve everything while pissing me off more and more.

Google Fi is a mixed bag. Despite the fact that I should have access to the strongest signal of T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular, the coverage does not match Verizon. Also, the algorithm for choosing which signal is strongest may be wacked. I seem to always end up on Sprint when I could get more bars from T-Mobile. (For $1.99 I have bought an app that allows me to switch on my own, at least temporarily.) But there are holes in coverage. Driving through the northern Lower Peninsula there are tons of dead spots even along I-75. And in the little park just a couple miles from my house (say 10 miles outside Ann Arbor) connection is unreliable, making steaming music while running a problem. Still I rarely get a monthly bill over $30. Verizon unlimited is $75 before fees and taxes, a 2GB plan is $35 before fees and taxes. A "data-boost" on the fly to 3GB would be an extra $15 -- so all in let's say $50/month to go back to Verizon. When I am ready to upgrade my phone, the question will be if the $20 extra a month is worth it for solid coverage. I think it will be. But as with all my other expenses I think the phone will have to wait until next year. After all, I lived well over a half a century without streaming audio at my fingertips. I can hold out another few months.

I'm down on Google anyway having read this: A Serf on Google's Farm. Also, Android is still a usability dumpster fire.

Oddly enough, being a Drone in Amazon's Supply Chain doesn't bother me. (Believe it or not, I still get a trickle of royalties from my kindle books on Amazon.) I've been on Prime since forever, but I bought both a Fire Phone and a Fire Tablet -- both were utter failures, so it might seem strange that when I pick a music streaming service I selected Amazon Unlimited. Well, it was a couple bucks a month cheaper than Google Play Music or Spotify. Also, I'm down on Google, remember, and I used up my free trial on Spotify only to discover issues with their streaming -- playlists would just stop for no reason. Near as I can tell, they all have roughly the same size song library. Amazon Unlimited lacks the extensive playlists and radio stations of Spotify, but they are growing slowly. If I outgrow Amazon, I may try Spotify again, but for now it'll do.

The last annoyance is my car, the 2014 Acura TL. It still has the problem with vibrating at highway speeds that no one can seem to figure out. And the bluetooth has failed. Interestingly, apart from that it is a remarkable car -- as well constructed as any I have owned and I owned XV10 Camry (1992 to be exact), the high water mark for automotive quality to this day. The butter smooth V6 is an impressive combination of economy and power. Still, I came close to trading it in. It is not practical for an Exurbanite who needs to haul bicycles and bags of mulch on occasion. And since my commute went from 5 to 40 minutes last year I could handle something a even more economical -- like a hybrid.

Sadly, everything is going to have to do until after the first of the year. I've poured way too much money in the house this year to make any more big purchases -- especially with a couple of trips still ahead. Unless my laptop finally fails (and it seems to be holding up OK) I think I'm status quo for a while.

[Books] Book Look: Sputnik Sweetheart and Men Without Women, by Haruki Murakami

I seem to have serious inconsistencies in my taste. That's OK. I contain multitudes. Last month I expressed how dissatisfied I felt about David Lynch's Twin Peaks work. I found it vague and opaque to the point of inscrutability. I ended up being impressed by the atmospherics but rarely able to figure out the ultimate point. Haruki Murakami''s writing does the same thing to me, yet I love it. (I have previously pondered my uncharacteristic appreciation for Haruki-san.)

This month I happened to read a couple of his works. Sputnik Sweetheart was one of his mid-career novels, I believe it came just after his opus and the book that would make his reputation, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The second was Men Without Women, his latest book of short stories. Though separated by nearly 20 years, both books are about men dealing with the loss of loved women. In fact, I would find it very plausible if you told me that the stories in Men Without Women were unchosen plots from a Sputnik Sweetheart brainstorming session.

For the most part, the characters described are either misfits or loners -- to some extent they are all alienated -- and the love of a certain woman is the most powerful force in their lives. It takes many forms -- requited or unrequited, conventional or illicit -- but the love they feel is not really joyful, it's more of a haunting; a connection that, though deeply desired and needed, releases the fear and desperation in their souls. Although there is hope at the end of Sputnik..., Men... is darker and sadder. These are no Jay Gatsbys; their fates are emptiness, irresolution, and confusion and they accept it.

Haruki-san is wonderful as portraying withdrawn and lonely people without making them pitiful. So good that one suspects he is drawing on his own innate personality for archetypal feelings. Others, have suggested that he is trying to portray the overly conformist society of Japan, but that doesn't ring true to me. This feels very personal, not cultural. Naturally, since men and women are the principals there is the topic of sex to deal with. The sexual moments are told with a frankness that robs them of eros. There are some very erotic moments in these books, but they are not the directly sexual moments. Mostly, we are tracking the actions of people who in some sense are adrift, then they arrive at some sort of self-discovery, for better or worse. Occasionally they will be prompted to positive and direct action, but mostly they stroll through life, in a fog of self-misunderstanding, if not in outright fear.

Should you read Sputnik Sweetheart or Men Without Women? Yes. Although there are still mystical aspects (parallel worlds, dreams intruding on reality) they are not dominatingly front-and-center like they can be with Haruki-san. These stories are thoroughly relatable. Unless you require action and clear resolutions you'll find a lot material to stick with you. I would suggest starting with Sputnik Sweetheart as it has a fuller narrative, then follow up with Men Without Women if you want more.