Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
09/20/19 -- Vol. 38, No. 12, Whole Number 2085
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Kasha (Part 2) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
AUGGIE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Classical Music (letters of comment by Paul Dormer,
Keith F. Lynch, Gary McGath, and Dorothy J. Heydt)
This Week's Reading (TYPEE) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Kasha (Part 2) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Last installment I was discussing how Evelyn was facing the
contents of a can of kasha with gravy.
So here Evelyn was. I had told her from hard experience that I
refused to eat any of the stuff, so she started fixing it for
herself. She pushed it out of the can into a heating dish and it
stood there, a mottled brown-and-white cylinder. It looked a lot
like the dog food I used to serve my dachshund and smelled only a
little bit worse. It not only smelled worse than the dog food, it
smelled worse than the dog, and believe me, that's going some.
Probably the reader most likely to remember kasha will know it or
will remember or knows it from the early Alfred Hitchcock thriller
THE LADY VARNISHKES, so she sort of trowels the stuff flat in the
dish and heats this paste up in the microwave. I looked away for a
moment to recover my composure. By the time I looked back the
kasha was out of the microwave. (Aren't microwave ovens great? I
want to get a new one that doesn't smell of kasha). So I am
sitting here with a helpful I-told-you-so look on my face and
watching as Evelyn takes a bite. Do not go gently into that
contrition. Rage, rage against the admission of an error.
Evelyn looks at me with this sweet and sour look on her face and
says, "I wonder what I can put on it to make it better?" "How do
you feel about eight feet of topsoil?" I think to myself.
A few minutes later I am looking at what she has in front of this
dish of kasha. I kid you not, there is a jar of barbecue sauce.
"Hey, podner! Ya want ta try some good old-fashioned kasha
barbecued TEXAS-STYLE?"), a jar of jalapeno sauce ("Si, back home
we call it Kasha Mexicali."), a bottle of jalapeno sauce ("Si, back
home we call it Kasha Juarez."), a bottle of A-1(TM)*.
* A-1 is a trademark of someone.
Steak Sauce ("That's not just ordinary kasha--now it's *steak
kasha*!"), some sugar, and a jar of instant coffee (well, I'd
rather not think about these).
Evelyn's first comment was, "Well, canned kasha is probably not as
good as fresh kasha." "Even worse?" I thought; I'd only had the
fresh stuff. The mind boggles! And then after a few more bites
she says, "Maybe I'll just have a salad."
(Uh, sorry, I'll have to finish this story some other time.
Someone's at the door to complain about the bad smell coming from
our house.) [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: AUGGIE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Spoiler Warning: This review includes comments that could
potentially be movie spoilers.
CAPSULE: As a going-away gift at his retirement party Felix is
given a virtual reality generator that creates for him an image of
a stunningly beautiful young woman. He finds himself forming an
emotional attachment to the computer-created image. The self-same
story could have been told without any science fiction. Directed
by: Matt Kane; written by: Matt Kane, Marc Underhill. Rating: +2
(-4 to +4) or 7/10.
What is Auggie? It is the nickname of the technology to create
"augmented humans." An Auggie is also a virtual reality
person/image created by that technology. It is ideal for
companionship for the lonely. We have here what may (or may not)
become a story of marital infidelity given a science fiction twist.
Richard Kind plays Felix, who in his 60s had become a sort of a
nonentity to his business, his friends, and his wife. He is
fascinated by the beautiful computer-image generated image of
Auggie (Christen Harper). Felix changes under the influence of
Auggie, much to the annoyance of his controlling wife Anne (Susan
Blackwell). Felix is far from being unique in his situation, and
he is sorely tempted to upgrade his Auggie to equipment so that it
can handle virtual sex. This is a story about marital infidelity
given what may be a science fiction twist.
Kind plays Felix with the kind of looks that are unlikely to lead
to real romance, but with software nearly anything is possible.
Will his loneliness overpower his objections?
AUGGIE apparently takes place in a science fiction world that has
no difference from our world except for the presence of the Auggie
technology. An Auggie is a virtual reality image of a human that
appears. It can read the information it needs from the user's
subconscious.
AUGGIE was written and directed by newcomer Matt Kane. This is his
first time in the director's seat or in writer's seat. That is not
surprising since he is only 28. In the end we are left only with a
platitude. The theme of it all is "Life is short, don't waste it."
I rate AUGGIE a +2 on the -4 to +4
AUGGIE opens in theaters on September 20, 2019
Film credits:
What others are saying:
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Classical Music (letters of comment by Paul Dormer, Keith
F. Lynch, Gary McGath, and Dorothy J. Heydt)
In response to various comments on classical music in the 09/13/19
issue of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:
Now that's interesting. I've never heard of "On, Wisconsin",
although I've just googled it.
However, I do have an interest in the music to THE BATTLE OF THE
BULGE, or rather, its composer.
When I was getting into classical music in the late sixties, a
composer I heard occasionally on BBC Radio 3 was someone called
Benjamin Frankel. He wrote 8 symphonies and I heard a number of
these and quite liked them. He died in 1973 and those of you of a
superstitious nature should note he was working on his 9th at the
time.
Alas, his music fell out of favour after his death but I did spot
his name in the credits for British films on the Fifties. He wrote
the music for THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT and a version of THE
IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST among others.
Then, in the nineties there was a minor revival. It didn't get as
far as any of his symphonies being programmed in London concert
halls, but his symphonies were all recorded, as was some of his
other orchestral music and some of his film scores.
It would appear that he used the money from his film scores to help
finance writing his less popular concert music. He also got
interested in Schoenberg's serial techniques, and this seems to
have started with his 1sr symphony of 1958. Many British composers
of this period got the serial bug.
Frankel kept on writing film scores, and his score to THE CURSE OF
THE WEREWOLF (1961, with Oliver Reed) is reckoned to be the first
British film score using serial techniques. (I could try and
explain serialism, but I'm not a musician and it gets quite
technical.)
Frankel was Jewish--his violin concerto of 1951 is dedicated to the
memory of the six million. THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE was his final
film score and the producer was insistent that he included in the
music the Panzerlied, written in 1933, which Frankel was reluctant
to do. However, he did so, and the disc of the complete music that
was released a while back has it, complete with foot-stamping male
chorus.
So, by the main theme, do you mean the Panzerlied? It appears in
the prelude to the music, so I assume it appears over the opening
credits. (I must admit I prefer the music without the film, and
it's a long time since I watched it.) There might be a slight
similarity to "On, Wisconsin"--I've just played one after the
other--but it doesn't leap out at me. [-pd]
Mark replies:
He did use the Panzerlied theme, but that is not the part that
sounds like "On Wisconsin". I do not have a good way to point out
specific parts of the music. [-mrl]
Keith F. Lynch responds:
"On Wisconsin" and "Panzerlied" don't sound anything alike to me.
[We all agree on that. -mrl]
However, "Bright College Years" (Yale) has the same tune as "Die
Wacht am Rhein". The latter is probably best known as the tune
that's interrupted by "La Marseillaise" in CASABLANCA.
Also, listen to "Stand Columbia" and see if the tune doesn't sound
kind of familiar. [-kfl]
Paul answers:
We used to sing the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" to
that tune in morning assembly at school back in the Sixties. (In
those days, a morning religious service was mandatory in British
schools.) [-pd]
Gary McGath adds:
Tune by Joseph Haydn. The classics are always the best. [-gmg]
Dorothy J. Heydt responds to Paul:
I've never encountered ["Stand Columbia"].
The tune was, of course, "Gott Erhalte Franz den Kaiser", by Haydn.
And it's said (we have this from his servant) that when Haydn was
very old and no longer composing, he would sit at the fortepiano and
play "Gott Erhalte" over and over. It's a nice tune, whatever its
positive and negative connotations. [-djh]
Keith adds:
Columbia was, prior to The Revolution, King's College, and founded
by Anglicans, so having a song that mirrors a CofE hymn isn't odd.
[-kfl]
And in response to Gary, Keith writes:
Now listen to "Himno de la Agrupacion de Commandos". [-kfl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
TYPEE by Herman Melville (ISBN 978-1-515-38744-2) is a semi-
fictional account Melville's desertion of the ship "Dolly" on Nuku
Hiva and his experiences living with the natives there. The book
implies he was there for four months, but he was actually there
only one, and the island's actual geography is not as Melville
describes. It is generally agreed that Melville drew from various
travelogues of his time for many of the details. One geographical
detail that rang a bell was his travel down a river to try to find
a village. At times he would come to a place where the river
became a waterfall and there were only vines to climb down at the
sides, if that:
"From the narrowness of the gorge, and the steepness of its sides,
there was no mode of advancing but by wading through the water;
stumbling every moment over the impediments which lay hidden under
its surface, or tripping against the huge roots of trees. But the
most annoying hindrance we encountered was from a multitude of
crooked boughs, which, shooting out almost horizontally from the
sides of the chasm, twisted themselves together in fantastic masses
almost to the surface of the stream, affording us no passage except
under the low arches which they formed. Under these we were
obliged to crawl on our hands and feet, sliding along the oozy
surface of the rocks, or slipping into the deep pools, and with
scarce light enough to guide us. Occasionally we would strike our
heads against some projecting limb of a tree; and while imprudently
engaged in rubbing the injured part, would fall sprawling amongst
flinty fragments, cutting and bruising ourselves, whilst the
unpitying waters flowed over our prostrate bodies. ... [It] was
not long before we were arrested by a rocky precipice of nearly a
hundred feet in depth, that extended all across the channel, and
over which the wild stream poured in an unbroken leap. On each
hand the walls of the ravine presented their overhanging sides both
above and below the fall, affording no means whatever of avoiding
the cataract by taking a circuit round it." [-hm]
This reminded me of John Wesley Powell's greatest fear in rafting
down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon: that they would
come to a waterfall where the water came right up to the rock walls
and there was no way to portage around the falls, while the current
would be too strong to allow them to go back upstream, and they
would be trapped there to starve to death.
Apparently one reason Melville deserted was the food:
"The owners, who officiate as caterers for the voyage, supply the
larder with an abundance of dainties. Delicate morsels of beef and
pork, cut on scientific principles from every part of the animal,
and of all conceivable shapes and sizes, are carefully packed in
salt, and stored away in barrels; affording a never-ending variety
in their different degrees of toughness, and in the peculiarities
of their saline properties. Choice old water too, decanted into
stout six-barrel-casks, and two pints of which is allowed every day
to each soul on board; together with ample store of sea-bread,
previously reduced to a state of petrifaction, with a view to
preserve it either from decay or consumption in the ordinary mode,
are likewise provided for the nourishment and gastronomic enjoyment
of the crew." [-hm]
He was also unimpressed by the rest of the crew: "Her crew was
composed of some venerable Greenwich-pensioner-looking old salts,
who just managed to hobble about deck."
When he deserted, he knew he would be searched for as a deserter,
but with typical Melville humor expresses it thusly:
"I knew that our worthy captain, who felt, such a paternal
solicitude for the welfare of his crew, would not willingly consent
that one of his best hands should encounter the perils of a sojourn
among the natives of a barbarous island; and I was certain that in
the event of my disappearance, his fatherly anxiety would prompt
him to offer, by way of a reward, yard upon yard of gaily printed
calico for my apprehension. He might even have appreciated my
services at the value of a musket, in which case I felt perfectly
certain that the whole population of the bay would be immediately
upon my track, incited by the prospect of so magnificent a bounty."
[-hm]
"A regular system of polygamy exists among the islanders, but of a
most extraordinary nature..." Yes, but that is because it is not
polygamy, but polyandry.
TYPEE was a big success when it came out, and even though we know
now much of it was fictional, it's still an enjoyable travelogue.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
I have always thought of a dog lover as a dog that was in
love with another dog.
--James Thurber