Puttering in the Study

The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies - Jason Surrell

I picked up the books on the haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, and started this one first.  It's exactly the sort of historical background to the park and its attractions that I like.  Lots of pictures, concept art, construction photos, and explanation of how things were done.  Not real strong on updates through the years (or perhaps it's very strong and there just haven't been many) but overall exactly the sort of thing I like to read.  Makes me want to watch the movie now!

The Aviator - Martin Scorsese

I watched this last night and finished up with the extras this morning (most of them anyway).  fascinating story, and very well told.  I thought everyone did a great job - DiCaprio was outstanding, and Cate Blanchett (after I was in utter disbelief at what a bad caricature of Kate Hepburn she was in the first scene) completely won me over.  I wasn't aware that Hughes' problem was OCD, amnd I thought the movie did a great job of showing that.

Krakatoa - Simon Winchester

I have been wanting to read this book for quite some time, but never had the chance.  I finally got it and started several weeks ago, when it became clear that another book I've reading, Catastrophe, is literally the first verse of this story (an explosion of a prior Krakatoa in 530 A.D. which disrupted essentially the entire planet).  I've known the story well, having read a lot about the eruption in some old encyclopedias when I was nine or so, then knowing well William Pene DuBois's brilliant children's book The Twenty-One Balloons.  But this book, I thought, would bring everything together.
Well, it did, sort of.  It began with that descriptive mishmash of history and science that I really like (when Bill Bryson is writing it) but Winchester turns phrases so many directions that you get a little disoriented.  His story careens through a variety of fields, including European history, geology, and vulcanism (well, obviously).  It's almost as though he's writing in the dark.  He eventually settles into a lengthy story about Dutch colonial rule, and manages to almost conceal the actual eruption in a cloud of minutiae.  The illustrations aren't much help - some maps spectacularly fail to even note where Krakatoa is, and the pictures don't help tell such a grand story.  Fortunately as I was reading this a recent National Geographic documentary on the eruption came on and the dramatization explained many things that the book did not (although it did pretty much skip the tsunami's effects).
The story also zooms alarmingly, from a easy-to-follow narrative about something into personal narratives about chipping rocks in Greenland, and running into six foot monitor lizards on the island today.  It's not that I mind those things - it's just that they underlined the flow of the narrative tremendously.  Right when I thought I understand what he was trying to tell me he zips off to another fact on a totally different level of detail, and loses me for a few pages.  And another thing.  Winchester is the master of asides - he can't help himself from noting every time he thinks a name of something sounds neat, or adding some unrelated piece of trivia.  I can't say that I really mind - it certainly gives the writing flavor, and I enjoy his style (it's similar to what I think I do that probably irritates people, but which makes writing enjoyable for me).  It's just that it seems, well, clumsy.  It's like it hasn't been edited down to tell a cohesive story where everything builds on each other.  Amazingly, the eruption itself and the destruction it caused didn't make a climax book.  It was just another few days in the life of a Dutch colony if you weren't reading the verbs closely.
Anyway, this is the first Winchester book I've been able to find at a used bookstore.  There are several others I'm looking forward to trying.  I'm curious whether my reaction will be similar to them.

Magnificat - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Yarbro is best known as the author of books about "good" vampires who live off of cuddling and watch thousands of years of human history.  Magnificat is her book about something more realistic - the election of a Chinese Communist woman as pope by two unanimous votes of the College of Cardinals.  What the story really is (and an essay available online makes this clear - is a science fiction-type setting up of people and situations to explore what would happen if a non-Catholic with the endorsement of the Holy Spirit became Pope.  It is a fascinating story, and Yarbro's skill at drawing characters is in full force - the protagonist, a Houston cardinal named Charles Mendoza is well-drawn and (amazingly) although Texan to the core never comes across as a caricature. 
The story itself is told as realistically as it could be - assuming that the Holy Spirit did move every single cardinal to write her name - twice - thus triggering a rule of Catholic law that anyone twice elected must serve - the cardinals cannot elect anyone else until they do - what would such a person do, and how far would the Church bend to accommodate her.  Predictably, not very far.  Assassination attempts, some led by cardinals, abound, and the new Pope An's attempts at reform generate intense opposition.
My usual problem with Yarbro is that her plots essentially set up a conflict and then it just lays there until the end, when it goes away.  It's a well-told story, but not a well-plotted one.  And it grated on my nerves the way every cardinal was referred to - almost every time - by their full name, i.e. Charles Cardinal Mendoza.  Once, okay, but after that everyone would think of and refer to the person as "Cardinal Mendoza".  The cardinals would be introduced that way, but after that they'd be title and surname only.  Yet she constantly refers to cardinals who are key players in the book this way.  Maybe I wasn't an altar server at Cardinal Hickey's cathedral very long, but I never heard the cardinal referred to using his first name first, except ceremonially.
But this was a good book - I really enjoyed it.

Midway - Collector's Edition DVD

I have always had a copy of Midway to run in the background while uttering around the apartment or the house, and when I heard 3 1/2 years ago that they were coming out with a expanded edition with features and better image, of course I got it.  But I got a nasty surprise when I tried to watch the feature and couldn't get it to play in stereo - it kept playing only in the center channel, i.e. mono.  Two years of fiddling with the DVD to no avail finally drove me today (when I really wanted to watch it) to look it up on the Internet and see if maybe I just wasn't selecting the right setting.  Turns out that it only comes in mono, not 5.1 channel Dolby Digital, as I thought.  But there's a reason - it is 1.1 mono, with the .1 channel being the subwoofer.  Why?  because the movie was originally released in Surround Sound, so the new release approximates that with one channel sound plus the Surround effect replicated in a subwoofer (which is what it really was - a crude subwoofer channel under the explosions).  Satisfied, I hooked up the subwoofer that I have to this point not used, thinking it wasn't working, and liked it.  It is crude, but the sound never really bothered me.  The picture is better (this is also the first movie I have watched on the new screen in the movie room) and I enjoyed the movie more than I recalled.

As for the movie itself, it is agonizing inaccurate.  The uniforms are right, but that it just about the it.  But once you get used to that, it's really a well told story, well-acted, and with a generally accurate version of events.  It got the intelligence angle right (Joe Rochefort was right and Washington was wrong - something that didn't show up in the history books until the mid-60's) and humanized the story well with Heston's character.  The subplot about the internment of his son's Japanese-American girlfriend didn't annoy me like it does others, although his "don't give me that racial bigot crap" comment is a bit too p.c. for 1942.  It is an unnecessary subplot, although how else could you get a woman into the story?  In addition, I particularly like the Japanese officers - they're so formal and earnest, and if the actors are sometimes a bit melodramatic (and I flat can't handle Nagumo with a mustache or Yamamoto with that horrendous voice-over) they did come across a lot better on the big screen.  Nagumo in particular had a lot more nuance than I'd ever noticed.

Anyway, enjoyed the movie.  Almost made me forget I'm home sick with strep throat.

Nimitz - E.B. Potter

Three weeks ago I was at my favorite bookstore (Beckham's) in the French Quarter in New Orleans when I saw a somewhat worn copy of Potter's thick biography of Nimitz.  The size weighed against it, since I really didn't want to lug it through a couple more hours of walking around.  But by the time I went back a couple of hours later I decided that, at three dollars, it was too good a deal to pass up, so I bought it (and several others).  I started it back at the hotel waiting for my cab, and was hooked - Potter's decision to start the book with Nimitz' assuming command of the Pacific Fleet shortly after Pearl Harbor was just what I was interested in.

One negative of the book was its somewhat suspect origins.  It became apparent in reading the prefatory material that Potter was selected by Mrs. Nimitz to write her husband's biography due in part to the fact that he has collaorated with Nimitz on another project, and that rendered the book suspect almost from the beginning.  Although there is much to praise about Nimitz, and the book does point out some shortcomings, a book about a fleet admiral by a Naval Academy professor selected by his widow is not going to be a flinty-eyed analysis of the man.  But the book never degenerated into hagiography - it told a lot of sympathetic stories, but every so often there was something negative that made clear that it wasn't wholly sympathetic to the man.  And in the end, given the many things that Nimitz had done superlatively well, it probably was about accurate.

There was one other shortcoming and that was the book's devolution into unnecessary detail once Nimitz retired from active duty.  Clearly his schedule wasn't as busy as it had been, but the book recites trips, visitors, friends, and other daily minutiae that seem to have no value.  What seems, at least to me, to be happening is that as Nimitz' life came closer to the time the author knew him, the story gains vast amounts of detail simply because that's the period that had the most sources.  But it inaccurately relates Nimitz' life in that it provides far more detail for this far less important period of his life.  It may be useful to future biographers, but in my opinion it would have been better to have summarized what happened following retirement, and saved the detail for a separate writing of some sort.

But I did enjoy the book far more than I thought I would.  I learned a lot about the man - I knew very little before - and regained my interest in the conduct of the Pacific War.  I have already ordered a new biography of Admiral Fletcher (who commanded the U.S. carriers at Coral Sea and Midway) and have on my list biographies of Spruance and Mitscher.  Plus I watched Midway again (did you know that Henry Fonda, who plays Nimitz in the movie, actually worked as an aide to Nimitz for a few days during the war?) and have ordered the DVD of The Fighting Lady.  And I need to reread Clark Reynolds' The Fast Carriers.  But more on that later.

Hidden Turkey

Watched this last night with Jamie, hoping to learn something about Turkey before we go back in November.  Although it was interesting, it never really told you what it was about, which was a mishmash of information about Turkish culture (cooking more than anything else).  I enjoyed it, but you have to already have a framework to fit the information into.  If you don't, it's just a lot of general information about rural Turkey.

Twins' 4th birthday party

Yesterday we had Collin & Parker's 4th birthday party at the house (they actually turn 4 on the 26th).  We had a "Cars" theme, and had several water play areas out back since they absolutely love playing in the water.  Pictures are posted in a separate photo album (look to the right).

Inflatable Pool

Last weekend we installed the inflatable backyard pool that Jamie's grandmother gave us a year or so ago, when she discovered that we weren't planning on putting in a pool.  (Well, I'm not - I think Jamie has other plans!)  Since we were planning on having a lot of water play things in the yard for the twins' birthday, it seemed to be time to set this up as well.  We cleared the mulch in a corner of the play area and laid it on top of the landscape fabric, then filled it with water from the well.  The boys had a wonderful time playing - they did 1-2 hours before and after their nap.  I'm sure their both coming down with strep throat a day later is a complete coincidence.

Disneyland trip

We just got back from a nine day trip to California so the boys could see Disneyland.  I have finished posting some of the best pictures from the trip into a photo album (look to the right).  Here's a brief rundown on what we did - again, photos are in the album:

Moday June 26 - trip didn't start out so well.  We flew from Shreveport to Dallas, then American Airlines cancelled our flight to LA, so we rerouted to LA via Reno, Nevada on Fred's Airline & Oil Change.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on Highland Blvd, a couple of blocks from Hollywood Blvd, and had dinner at Mel's Drive-In in Hollywood.

Tuesday, June 27 - after breakfast at the hotel, we went to Universal Studios, and rode rides till 5-6.  After we got back to the hotel, we walked to Hollywood Blvd & walked diown to the Chinese Theater looking at the stars.  Had dinner at CPK at the Hollywood & Highland complex.  (Things have come up a lot since I was last there in 1984).

Wednesday, June 28 - we drove to Simi Valley to see the Reagan Library & Air Force One.  We had dinner at Farmer's Market in LA, then changed hotels to Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.  We drove up as the fireworks were going off, which was really nice.

Thursday, June 29 - Day One at Disneyland.  Rode the monorail to park at 7am - stayed at park from 7am to 12:30. Had lunch at Downtown Disney, followed by naps.  Back to park at 7:30 for more rides.  Late dinner at Cafe New Orleans in the park. Rode Haunted Mansion last, then back to hotel around midnight.

Friday, June 30 - Day Two at Disneyland.  Park at 8:15 till 11:30, then lunch at Goofy's Kitchen, then naps. Back to park at 6pm for parade till midnight.  We watched the parade outside It's A Small World.

Saturday, July 1 - Day Three at Disneyland - park at 820 till 1000, then to California Adventure across the plaza at 10 am. Dinner at wine country trattoria in DCA.  Stayed for parades & second ride on California Screamin' then back to Disneyland at 10pm to shop till midnight.

Sunday, July 2 - Today was a bit of a misfire.  We got up and drove to Long Beach, intending to take the ferry to Catalina for two days.  We got to the Queen Mary and decided that perhaps that wasn't such a good idea (couldn't take a car to Catalina, and there was nothing for the boys to do after spending more on ferry tickets than a day at the parks would cost).  Had lunch at The Reef in Anaheim - buffet of the gods.  I toured the Queen Mary while Jamie took the boys to a beach - we decided that both were poor examples of the genre - the QM is rotting away at her anchor, and the beach Jamie found wasn't the best either.  We then drove back to Anaheim and on to LA and located a hotel for our last two nights before deciding on a fourth day at Disneyland and driving back to Anaheim.  Had a very nice dinner at Clearman's North Woods Inn in Anaheim, and spent the night at Anabella's - 1030 W. Karatella - right across from the park.

Monday, July 3 -The Return of Disneyland - Went to Disneyland at 8:20. Lunch at Disneyland Mexican food place. Rode rides till 7 then to DCA for dinner at Taste Pilots Grill. Rode Soaring Over California & California Screamin' till 10 then to Hampton Inn at LAX at midnight to catch flight out the next morning.

Good trip!