THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
03/15/13 -- Vol. 31, No. 37, Whole Number 1745
Simon: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Garfunkel: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
All material is copyrighted by author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent will be assumed authorized for inclusion
unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe, send mail to mtvoid-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send mail to mtvoid-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
The latest issue is at http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm.
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm.
Topics:
Tardigrades (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Let's Be Real (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Math Puzzle (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Supernatural Folktales of Costa Rica (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
"Visit to the World's Fair 2014" by Isaac Asimov (review
by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
CAPTAIN VORPATRIL'S ALLIANCE by Lois McMaster Bujold
(book review by Joe Karpierz)
HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
MAY I BE FRANK (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Fred and Ginger, the ARGO Dilemma, George R. R. Martin,
Style Guide, and LoneStarCon 3 (letter of comment
by John Purcell)
The ARGO Dilemma (letters of comment by Steve Milton and
Walter Meissner)
This Week's Reading ("Waldo" and GODS AND GENERALS)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: Tardigrades (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
A little animal you may never have heard of is jaw-droppingly
amazing:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130306.html
==================================================================
TOPIC: Let's Be Real (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
School children are being told that they can save the environment
by using cloth shopping bages and recycling. Trying to reverse
environmental damage by recycling and using cloth shopping bags is
as effective as trying to fight famine by mailing grapes. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Math Puzzle (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Bill Amend's Foxtrot comic frequently has math content. In the
case of the cartoon below Paige is given a mathematics test that is
supposedly extremely difficult. Of the four "killer" problems one
is actually a simple problem that can be done in your head in under
five seconds. Which one is the simple problem and what is the
reasoning? I will publish the names of people who get a correct
answer.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/images/gifs/FoxTrotMathTest.jpg
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Supernatural Folktales of Costa Rica (comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
On our recent tip to Costa Rica we were going to be spending some
time in the town Guanacaste. Our guide, Fiorella Matarrita told us
that Guanacaste is a town of supernatural legends. This, of
course, interests the horror fans in both Evelyn and me. Fiorella
told us that the folktales came from Guanacaste. Some may have,
but many of the legends of Costa Rica are shared by Mexico and much
of Latin America. I doubt they all came from this one town. Some
of these legends are similar to folk-legends from other parts of
the world. Most of these stories are thinly disguised morality
tales of someone who does not behave the way society says they
should and by misbehaving they are opening themselves to being
vulnerable to hellish demons and supernatural retribution. Also of
the stories I was able to find in other places, there is no
consistent version of any of the stories. Each story-teller tells
the story differently. I guess that is what makes them folktales.
La Segua
This story is reminiscent of some Japanese ghost stories. La Segua
is what appears to be a beautiful woman who looks for young men
traveling on the roads. She attracts these men like a succubus
does. They cannot resist the combination of strong drink and a
beautiful and willing woman. The segua parties with unsuspecting
travelers, all the while getting them drunk and trying to seduce
them. She succeeds and she takes them to bed, but at the crucial
moment her lover will see either her head or her whole body
transform to the head or body of an animal. The traveler finds he
is making love to a female horse. In some versions she has a face
that looks like a horse skull--not like a horse face, but a horse
skull.
La Llorona (The Crying Woman)
This is a famous story I ran into as a Mexican horror film, THE
CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN and later as LA LLORONA. It is a legend
in some ways very similar to the legend of the Flying Dutchman.
Maria is in love with a man who does not want her. In specific he
does not want to be tied down with her two children. But Maria is
obsessed. If her two children were all that stood in her way they
could be removed. She drowns both of them. But still the man she
wanted spurned her, and let's face it, a woman who drowns her own
children might not be a really great marriage prospect. Maria
realizes that she murdered her own children and is heart-broken and
given to crying. Finally she drowns herself, but even heaven does
not want her. Her sin is so bad her spirit is sent back to earth
for eternal penance. She wanders the world as a crying spirit.
La Carreta sin Bueyes (The Ox-Cart without an Ox)
Our magical hour is midnight; in Costa Rica the scary time is 3 AM.
Magical things happen at 3 AM. In this case you can hear at 3 AM
an enchanted ox-cart, which moves without an ox to pull it. (I
guess it is just one of these enchanted ox-less oxcarts.) Actually
the story of a man named Pedro who tilled the soil with oxen and
was unkind to his animals. On the day that the village animals
were to be blessed Pedro tried to bring his oxen directly into the
church where they would do damage. The oxen knew they did not
belong in church and would not go in. Pedro told the priest that
his oxen did not need blessing since they had already been blessed
by the devil. The priest blessed the oxen and cursed Pedro and his
oxcart so that he and his cart to walk the earth with his oxcart
travelling by itself as if under a spell. That may sound a little
too magical so some versions say there is a casket in the back of
the wagon and it is carrying the dead Pedro.
The Mica
[Note: I was not able to find anything about this legend on-line
even trying possible alternate spellings.]
A Mica (pronounced "Meeka") is a demonic dog-wolf combination. He
haunts people and then jumps into ceilings to hide. I guess he
finds ways to hide in ceilings. (This must be considerably easier
in office buildings that have suspended ceilings.) Midnight is the
scary time for Micas. At midnight he does three back flips and
three front flips. Then his skin falls off. That seems horrific.
But it is then that the haunted have an opportunity over the scary
beast. If you take his skin and put in a meat bowl with meat and
add salt he loses the ability to transform back. [I hope I have
that right. It does not make a lot of sense to me. But the legend
is probably why I don't want meat in the restaurants in this town.]
The Two Cadejos
There is not one but two Cadejos. They are big, mean-looking hairy
dog-like creatures. The black cadejo (pronounced "ka-DAY-ho") is
vicious and evil. The white cadejo is angelic and good. (Some
places it is the other way around.) The black cadejo hides in
shadows and attacks the unsuspecting. Usually the attacked person
has recently be lazy or selfish. But the white cadejo comes to
their rescue, but he cannot be counted on to stop the black cadejo.
The Black Cadejo varies in meanness by who is telling the story.
Some versions of the story say the black cadejo is now more
powerful than an angry dog. Some say he is the Devil Himself.
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: "Visit to the World's Fair 2014" by Isaac Asimov (review by
Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
Fresh off my review of the "writers of the future prediction time
capsule" article, I noticed that Asimov had written an article full
of predictions targeted at 2014. As this is only about 10 months
in the future, it seems appropriate to take a gander at his
predications. To help you in finding Asimov article, I note that a
short version of it appears as "Chapter 26: The World's Fair of
2014" in a paperback essay collection titled IS ANYONE THERE? while
a longer version appeared in the New York Times Magazine of August
16, 1964. This longer version can be found on the web at
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/23/lifetimes/asi-v-fair.html.
From 1964 to 2014 is 50 years--a most difficult interval over which
to predict, perhaps at the outer limits of the time period one
could rationally expect a prediction to hold.
For starters, Asimov correctly supposed that there will have been
no world killing war, since if we are around to discuss his
article, this is almost certainly the case. However, he made the
assumption that there would be a 2014 World's Fair. In fact, the
most recent fair was in 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea, and the next
planned one is targeted for 2015 in Milan, Italy. What Asimov
could not have anticipated is how much less significant the World's
Fair would become as a venue for the display of national and
corporate power. Onward to the specific predictions!
"Electroluminescent panels will be in common use"--this certainly
is not the case, although Asimov might be impressed at our
relatively new LED fixtures.
"In a variety of colors that will change at the touch of a push
button"--also not happening although LEDs are available in many
colors.
"Polarized windows"--this technology seems to be widely available,
and often used in cars.
"Degree of opacity of the glass may ... alter automatically ... in
accordance with the intensity of the light"--widely used in
sunglasses and elsewhere in 2013, although personally I don't find
the products that useful.
"Underground houses--should be fairly common"--a miss here--
underground houses are no more common in 2013 than in 1964.
"At the World's Fair of 2014 models of ... underground cities with
... light-forced vegetable gardens"--certainly such models may
appear in a 2014 World's Fair, but it is interesting to note that
so-called "vertical farms" in urban areas are being developed in
many locations in 2013, and not just as models.
"Kitchen units will prepare 'automeals' ..."--this prediction is
more true than not, especially the idea that "Complete lunches and
dinners ... will be stored in the freezer until ready for
processing." My families' kitchen has a "coffee machine" and a
"bread machine" along with two microwaves, and it is by no means
the most automated kitchen current today.
"Robots will neither be common nor very good in 2014, but they will
be in existence."--generally Asimov's vision of the robots of 2014
is accurate, although he might be surprised that the most widely
deployed household robot does one thing--floor cleaning! Rather as
he predicts, we have lab models of towel folding robots and so on.
Still, Isaac might be terrified to find that our real progress in
robotics can be found in a global network of airborne man-killing
drones, and a host of war robots for a myriad of tasks.
"Appliances ... will be powered by ... radioisotopes ..."--a big
miss on this one!!! Asimov both failed to see the turning away
from nuclear power and the widespread fear of radioactivity, not to
mention that the relatively large size of such batteries makes them
prohibitive for all applications except space probes and Mars
rovers such as "Curiosity."
"Fission-power plants ... will be supplying well over half the
power ..."--a reasonable prediction that ought to have come true,
but thanks to Three Mile Island and Chernobyl did not.
"An experimental fusion-power plant or two will already exist in
2014." - a big miss here, as in 2013 fusion remains the power
source of the future, and seems likely to remain so for another 50
years at least.
"Large solar-power stations will also be in operation ..."--I'd
give Isaac 100% on this prediction.
"An exhibit at the 2014 fair will show models of power stations in
space ..."--another 100% hit by Isaac, as SPS (Solar Power
Satellites) remain in the model stage in 2013.
"Long buses move on special central lanes." - the high occupancy
lanes aren't in the center and most buses are longer than in 1964,
but you have to give Asimov 100% on this prediction.
"Ground travel will increasingly take to the air a foot or two off
the ground."--the Ground Effect Vehicle has proved a big bust, due
to the immense amount of fuel it consumes relative to cars, and the
even more immense amount of noise it makes!
"Much effort will be put in the designing of vehicles with "Robot-
brains" ... that can be set for particular destinations ..."--
Asimov is spot on, since such technology might well be demonstrated
at a 2014 fair as he predicts, but not be in wide deployment. As
of 2013, Google has developed a driverless car that is being
trialed, so Isaac's accuracy on this prediction is nothing short of
amazing.
"For short-range travel, moving sidewalks ..."--outside of
airports, you won't see any moving sidewalks in 2013. They don't
function well outdoors, and Asimov probably missed that idea that
we are all in desperate need of exercise!
"Compressed air tubes will carry goods ..."--outside of the movie
BRAZIL, a big miss for Isaac here.
"Communication will become sight-sound ..."--although the video
phone (Skype and others) has never, and probably will never, become
ubiquitous, it is widely used enough, both in business and at home,
to give Isaac credit for this one.
"The screen can be used ... for studying documents and photographs
... and books"--another hit for Isaac on this one. If anything,
Asimov understates the progress made. For example, in 2013 e-
readers have started to cut significantly into the sales of printed
books.
"Synchronous satellites ... make it possible to direct-dial any
spot on Earth, ..."--Isaac gets high marks here, if not 100%, since
satellites are not the only technology that made this possible, but
they are certainly a key part of the mix, allowing you to call a
cruise ship, for example.
"You will be able to reach [call] someone at the moon colonies
..."--this would only be true *if* there were any moon colonies in
2014, which we can say with pretty much absolute certainty will not
come to pass, since there isn't one in 2013, and there are no
concrete plans to build one.
"On earth, the laser beams will have to be led through plastic
pipes ... Engineers will still be playing with that problem in
2014."--here Asimov, failing to anticipate the completely new
technology of fiber optics and laser diodes, scored a big zero.
Engineers are not playing with lasers in plastic pipes because
there exists a world-wide network of fiber-optic cables that
carries most of our information traffic in digital form.
"Only unmanned ships will have landed on Mars ..."--a solid bulls-
eye for Asimov here.
"... a manned expedition [to Mars] will be in the works ..."--Isaac
gets some credit here, as the giant SLS (Space Launch System) is
being built, and we always have "plans" to go to Mars. I think,
however, Asimov would be surprised to find that the only human Mars
expedition likely in the near term is a private trip organized by
space tourist Dennis Tito.
" ... wall screens will have replaced the ordinary [TV] set; ..."--
Isaac gets a good bit of credit here, although I'm not sure how to
define a "wall screen." However, I just went to Costco and got
stuck in line behind two people buying 60-inch flat panel screens!
I may not personally own any "wall screens" but I have shifted to
flat-panel LCDs and a projector system with a sound bar for the
movie experience, so maybe that counts as a "wall screen".
"Transparent cubes will be making their appearance ... in which
three dimensional viewing will be possible "--Asimov gets at least
50% here since 3-D TVs are widely available, but are based on
polarized light/special glasses rather than the holographic
technology he envisioned.
"World population will be 6,500,000,000 and the USA ...
350,000,000"--we'll give Isaac 50% here since the world population
in 2013 is around 7 billion, but the United States population is
about 300 million.
"2014 will see a good beginning made in the colonization of the
continental shelves"--this is a big zero for Isaac!
"Processed yeast and algae products will be available in a variety
of flavors"--another big zero for Asimov.
"A larger portion [of the population] than today will be deprived"-
-generally Asimov feared the population bomb, which has turned out
to be a fizzle, and underestimated the impact of genetic science on
agriculture. He also missed the one-child family in China and the
rise of the Asian Tigers.
"Lifted life expectancy in some parts of the world to age 85"--
taking the 2010 figures from Wikipedia, the peak male life
expectancy was 79.29 years in Japan, and the peak female life
expectancy was 86.96 years, also in Japan. On the other hand, I
think it is safe to say that for the affluent in many countries 85
is a reasonable expectation. Both my parents made it to 86, in
large part due to the kind of technology that Asimov was no doubt
anticipating.
"A worldwide propaganda drive in favor of birth control"--there is
certainly such a drive, but I think Asimov would be surprised by
the large degree of success it has had in the developed countries,
to the point that the major issue in countries like Japan is not
population growth, but massive de-population.
"The world of ... 2014 will have few routine jobs that cannot be
done better by some machine"--I'd give Asimov about 50% here.
There are still a large number of service jobs like barbering that
people just don't want done by machines even if we had machines to
do them. On the other hand, we are in the midst of a massive
replacement of mid-level white collar workers with semi-intelligent
software.
"All the high-school students will be taught ...computer technology
... binary arithmetic ... computer languages"--this is simply not
the case. A more accurate statement would be that any college
student who hopes to work in a technical area needs to have
computer skills, including programming in some high level
languages, but the average high school student needs skills in
popular tools like Excel, Powerpoint, and so on.
"Mankind will suffer ... from the disease of boredom"--a big miss
here, as Isaac failed to anticipate that application of computer
technology to the entertainment industry, and especially
video/computer games. Angry Birds, anyone? If anything, the
poorest person today has more entertainment options than the kings
of old, and to such a degree as to be almost beyond imagination in
1964.
"The most glorious single word ... will have become work!"--here I
think Asimov is 100% right. We seem to be in the grip of an
economy that is becoming more and more efficient while creating
fewer and fewer jobs.
Overall, Asimov did a decent job of predicting 2014, and his
mistakes fall into categories, i.e., over-predicting progress in
space, exaggerating the impact of the population explosion,
expecting nuclear power to continue to grow in importance, etc.
His robotic predictions are highly accurate, perhaps because Asimov
had thought a great deal both about the technology in this area and
how it might evolve. As was the case for virtually every
prognosticator, Isaac has the direction of the communications
revolution right, though with a considerable underestimation of the
speed and strength of the revolution.
Clarke wrote in PROFILES OF THE FUTURE that there were two main
failures in predicting the future, the failure of courage and the
failure of the imagination. Asimov had courage in abundance, and
this allowed him to make a series of reasonable extrapolations,
some of which turned out to be incorrect. However, the failure of
imagination is almost unavoidable, even for as capable a futurist
as Asimov. Here is a list of things that have come along over the
last 50 years that we can be reasonably sure Isaac would not have
expected to be likely outcomes of 1964 technology:
1. Quantum computers
2. Invisibility shields
3. Stealth technology
4. Fiber optics
5. Synthetic biology
6. Quantum dot technology
7. Communication at the Nyquist limit using belief networks
8. Widespread usage of Bayesian prediction
9. Dark energy
10. Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR)/mapping the genomes
11. Epigenetics
12. Quantum teleportation of matter
13. Quantum encryption
14. Exact knowledge of the genetic differences between humans and
Neanderthals
15. Flexible electronic circuits printed on plastic
[-dls]
==================================================================
TOPIC: CAPTAIN VORPATRIL'S ALLIANCE by Lois McMaster Bujold
(copyright 2012, Baen, $25.00, 432pp, ISBN 978-1451638455)(book
review by Joe Karpierz)
CAPTAIN VORPATRIL'S ALLIANCE is Lois McMaster Bujold's latest novel
in the Vorkosiverse. Set before the events of CRYOBURN, the
protagonist in this new novel is not Miles Vorkosigan, but his
cousin Ivan Vorpatril. Ivan has been a fan favorite for a number
of years now, and readers have been asking for an adventure he can
call his own. CVA (it's going to be easier to type CVA than the
full title) is that adventure, and I have to say that it is a
worthy entry into the Vorkosiverse Saga.
As most readers know, Ivan has spent his entire career avoiding all
the kinds of silliness that his more famous cousin Miles gets
himself into. Ivan wants a quiet life, with no political intrigue,
no political alliances, or any of the other things that go on in a
typical Vorkosiverse adventure. He's happy being who he is.
Of course, that's all about to change.
Ivan is on a short assignment on the planet Komarr. Things are
going according to plan (as in quiet and boring), when ImpSec agent
By Vorrutyer shows up at Ivan's apartment late one night to ask
Ivan for a favor. It seems there is a young, attractive lady who
is involved with By's latest assignment, and she may be in trouble.
By asks Ivan to go find her and look after her, keep her safe.
Ivan doesn't trust By, of course, given that a) By is ImpSec and b)
Ivan and By have had a less than stellar relationship in the past.
But Ivan, if nothing else, likes young, attractive women and hey,
she might be in danger. So Ivan agrees.
And thus gets himself in all sorts of trouble. Of course.
He finds her at the shop where she works. He asks her out.
Multiple times. She turns him down. Multitple times. He meets
her at her apartment - and her roommate shoots him with a stunner
and ties him to a chair. Not long after, Ivan finds himself in
trouble with his superiors, the local law enforcement agency,
criminals, and just about everyone else around. Ivan has promised
to keep Tej--the attractive young lady--safe, so, at a crucial
moment, when things are about to go horribly wrong, Ivan marries
her on the spot using a old wedding custom. At that point, Tej is
safe because she isn't just any old young attractive woman, she is
now Lady Vorpatril, and is under Ivan's protection. Her apartment
mate, Rish, is hired on the spot to be a sort of servant to Ivan
and Tej, and they escape unscathed. They agree that this will be a
temporary marriage until everything is all cleared up.
Oh, come on, this is a Vorkosiverse book. Really?
Well, it turns out Tej and Rish are part of a family back in
Jackson's Whole that has been removed from power. The family shows
up on Barryar to retrieve Tej and Rish and indeed something else.
And this is going on at roughly the same time that Ivan has to go
through the ringer with Lady Alys, Simon, and just about everyone
else we've run into in this series.
This book is something of a comedic romp. It's not overtly funny,
where the reader is laughing every page (at least I wasn't). But
the reader at least grins at the references to earlier events and
people, nods his or her head when something from the past pops up,
and in general has a good time. And the image of Gregor tilting
his head to one side to try to figure out what is going on with
ImpSec HQ is priceless.
Ivan grows up in this novel. He's always been the cousin that
hasn't amounted to anything, almost a buffoon that certainly has no
ambition. Now he has a love interest, and maybe life is changing.
There are a lot of cameos by long time characters in the series.
Miles is there for basically a chapter, being Miles. And Bujold
helps the reader who is new to the Vorkosiverse by explaining all
the complex political and personal relationships in the
Vorkosiverse. That explanation is not forced by any means. It's
necessary, just because Tej, as the new Lady Vorpatril, needs to
know all this detail. It's amusing to listen to the explanation
coming from Ivan's viewpoint - it's a bit twisted, I think, but fun
to read.
All in all this is a much better book than CRYOBURN, and one that I
highly recommend. I suspect that the next time we get a
Vorkosiverse book from Bujold, we'll be reading about the aftermath
of the events at the end of CRYOBURN. [-jak]
==================================================================
TOPIC: HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: To Jews the song "Hava Nagila" is more than just a melody.
It is a celebration of Jewish joyfulness. It has uplifted Jews of
three different centuries and in later years has become a sort of
musical ambassador to other well-meaning people around the world.
The song is the Jewish "Ode to Joy". But most Jews do not know its
origins and history. Roberta Grossman's documentary traces its
past and its culture and about two hundred years of Jewish history.
Included are several celebrities, some Jewish, some not, many of
whom performed the song on stage, record, and YouTube. Rating: low
+2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
It happens at a Jewish celebration and gathering--a bar mitzvah, a
marriage, a party, a circumcision. If there is happiness there is
a band. If there is a band, sooner or later it may play "Hava
Nagila". Suddenly there is dancing. But it is not partner dancing
like a waltz. People form a circle holding hands to the right and
the left forming a forming a rung, or multiple rings, and singing
"Hava Nagila". As they dance around some people will drop from the
chain and lift a chair with someone seated in the chair being held
aloft like a king or a rock star. This too is part of the "Hava
Nagila" dance. And the people will sing the song. Here in the
United States most may not know what the words mean, they are in
Hebrew. But they will sing them phonetically as they have heard
the song so many times. ""Hava Nagila". "Hava Nagila"!! "HAVA
NAGILA"!!!! Ve-nismeha." In the United States most will just know
the Hebrew words phonetically. What does it mean? "Let's rejoice.
Let's rejoice. Let's rejoice and be happy."
Director Roberta Grossman inquires into the origins and meaning of
"Hava Nagila" in Israel and the United States in a new 75-minute
documentary written by Sophie Sartain. With it she tells with a
little bit of humor the story of the song and the Jews as they move
from the Shtetls of Eastern Europe to Western Europe to America, to
the suburbs, and to the Internet. As one interviewee says, "It's
been a long, strange journey from Ukraine to YouTube." And, of
course, the real origins of the song are shrouded in a controversy
over who actually wrote it. But in spite of that Grossman is able
to trace the origins to a single Ukrainian synagogue.
The film uses a mass of recordings of the song being performed by
both Jews and non-Jews and in many different styles. The song was
popularized by singers like Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis, and
Glen Campbell, each of whom is interviewed. For a short film the
"HAVA NAGILA" (THE MOVIE) ranges from tragedy to comedy and farce
with a decent amount of kidding. And through it all we hear a
multitude of different versions from all around the world. We hear
it from the above singers, but also variations from Lena Horne, Bob
Dylan, Elvis Presley, a Bollywood production number, and many more.
The film combines documentary footage of Eastern European Jewish
life, with footage of Jews in Palestine and Israel, in New York and
right out into the suburbs. Some of this goes on a little long.
Several pieces are taken from one event because we keep seeing a
man who looks like a Jewish James Gandolfini. The editing could
have been edited a little tighter and briefer, but perhaps it all
adds to the party feel of the proceedings.
The singing of "Hava Nagila" by non-Jews carries a deeper meaning
than just that it is a pleasant melody. It is a statement of
tolerance and even welcome to a people who have known so much pain
over the centuries and into the present. This is a Jewish song
that becomes even more joyful when sung by non-Jews.
Occasionally the editing creates some intriguing cuts. We form
pictures of Jews in the suburbs we are suddenly looking at a piece
of the film TRUE GRIT (1969). What is that doing there? Glen
Campbell put his recording of "Hava Nagila" on the flip side of his
popular 45-RPM record with the popular song "True Grit". I didn't
see that one coming. I guess I never noticed the Jewishness of
TRUE GRIT. As one interviewee says the song "is a melody that
evokes new life, hope, and joy." The song does that and so does
HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE). I rate it a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale
or 7/10. Grossman never explains the meaning of the chair in the
dance. It just seems to be a tribute to the guest(s) of honor at
the party.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2244856/combined
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hava_nagila_the_movie/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: MAY I BE FRANK (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is a documentary account of a morbidly obese man who
gets a last chance at life. Frank Ferrante is an abuser. Most of
his life he has abused food, alcohol, drugs, and his personal
relationships. Along the way Frank ruined his body and his life.
Then one day he wandered in to a vegan, holistic cafe and the three
proprietors offered to put him on a vegan raw food diet for 42 days
to restore his health and his personal balance. His reactions and
his progress, experiences, and reactions are documented. Frank
improves his life using unconventional New Age therapies. The film
is unpleasant at times and also surprisingly honest where Frank is
less than totally successful. But Frank's positive personality
shines through. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
Frank Ferrante and three friends, Ryland, Conor, and Cary, are
trying to save a life. It is the life of Frank Ferrante himself.
Frank is a 54-year-old man who has abused food, alcohol, drugs--
including heroin, but in return they have abused him even more.
Frank has spent a life giving in to every temptation until he
weighs 290 pounds plus, has Hepatitis C, is nearly diabetic, and
has alienated his family. But he also has the three friends whom
he met at Cafe Gratitude, a raw, organic, vegan cafe. The three
who run the cafe have a plan for getting Frank to redeem himself.
They offer to put Frank through a regime of self-love,
affirmations, natural vegan foods, yoga, and colonics. Over the 42
days we see Frank go through pain and effort as he ingests a lot of
things that are not greatly pleasant. Franks diet consists of
obscure concoctions like wheatgrass juice and coconut milk
smoothies. He eats just nuts, fruits, and vegetables. And he
affirms his new attitudes with mantras like "I, Frank, do love me.
I am a perfect human being, radiant beauty and divine energy. I am
divine. I now hold in my mind this new image of myself as a
thriving, flourishing, gloriously beautiful human being." He uses
these affirmations in trying to overcome pangs of guilt over people
that he has hurt over the years.
While his improvement over the 42 days leads to many positive
results, those results fall short of what Frank and the viewer
might have hoped for. Pictures of Frank a few years later show he
as lost a lot more weight and at least appears to be smiling.
What makes the film watchable is the fact that in spite of it all
Frank himself has a winning personality. Whatever Frank has done
before--and it is pretty bad to his siblings, his wife, and his
daughter--Frank comes through as a man who can take his hard knocks
and still laugh at them. He wants to lose weight and to break his
drug habits so that he can redeem himself and fall in love one more
time. He clearly has a way with beautiful women and people who
still love him in spite of himself.
MAY I BE FRANK made in 2010 runs very parallel to Joe Cross's FAT,
SICK, & NEARLY DEAD, also produced in 2010. Cross started out a
bit heavier than Ferrante did. His regimen seemed to have involved
less spirituality though he also depended a great deal on whole,
natural foods. Cross did not have the problem with his
relationships that Ferrante had and at the end of the film Cross
seems to have healthier interactions with his family, though we
cannot tell if that was just an aspect not covered by the film.
Frank is perhaps too frank about matters of defecation. These
sequences run on too long and try the patience of the viewer.
A story of the guilt-ridden overcoming their past and redeeming
themselves will always have an audience. The viewer has to accept
Frank more or less like his family does, not forgetting the ugly
parts of his past, but trying to like Frank in spite of them. I
rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
May I be frank? There are two ways to look at this film. One can
see it as a portrait of Frank Ferrante and how his viewpoint
changes over six weeks as he struggles to redeem himself and earn
release. There may even be something to be learned from his new
attitudes. But if the viewer takes the film as a recommendation
for its unconventional medical views on health, that could be a
mistake. Frank's loss of weight and his spiritual changes are
perfectly consistent with mainstream views on health. Wheatgrass
cocktails are probably a lot healthier for what they are not, e.g.
sugared Coca-Cola, than for anything special that they are. Odd
concoctions like wheatgrass juice have no demonstrated clinical
value. Ryland, Conor, and Cary are not trained medical
practitioners, they just run a cafe. It is not at all clear that
Frank's rapid weight loss is not simply the result of commonplace
dietary improvement. And the spirituality might have just given
him motivation to stick rigorously to his diet. In any study Frank
would be just one datum point, not evidence of any powerful medical
truth.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1474792/combined
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: The ARGO Dilemma (letters of comment by Steve Milton and
Walter Meissner)
In response to Mark's comments on "the ARGO dilemma" in the
03/08/13 issue of the MT VOID, Steve Milton writes:
I think that the James Bond finish to ARGO was not meant to be
taken literally, but to put the audience into the frame of mind of
the escapees in their last minutes in Iran. The sequence as
presented, while exciting, makes no sense; it is the kind of
scenario that was likely running through the escapees' minds as
they sat in the airplane waiting to leave Iran.
Spoiler Alert
The sequence starts when the revolutionary guards at the airport
realize who the escapees are. A squad of guards runs to the gate,
but the plane has already pulled away from the gate. So they rush
to the control tower and run up to the control room. When they get
there they find the plane has already been given clearance for
take-off. So, they tell the control tower to instruct the pilot to
exit the runway and return to the gate. Oh, no, they didn't;
forget that last sentence. In the film, the guards run back
downstairs, jump in their truck and chase after the plane as it is
rolling down the runway for take-off. After the plane takes off it
simply flies away; there is no instruction from Iranian air control
to return to the airport. [-sm]
And Walter Meissner writes:
I just saw ARGO at the local library and then followed your review
and comments.
When I watched the film, I had already suspected that the final
suspenseful "chase" scene did not occur.
As you mentioned in MT VOID, many films bare little resemblance to
reality. One you left out was THE SOUND OF MUSIC featuring the von
Trapp family. The only true facts were there was a family and nun,
they lived in Austria and came to America. The rest is re-written
fiction. The actually leaving of Austria by the von Trapp family
was pre-announced to the town, who met them at the train station
and helped them load their bags. They took the train to Italy, and
boarded a ship to the United States. There was never any
suspenseful "chase" scene. The temperament of the characters was
revised to help out the story line, and the songs were chosen for
audience appeal and not what they normally would sing. Mrs. von
Trapp complained bitterly at this misrepresentation. If the film
had been true to the story, it would never had the appeal that made
it popular.
In the ARGO film, there is one other discrepancy that I am
surprised that the director did not catch. The laws in Iran are
very strict, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, literally. So if a
driver accidentally struck and killed a pedestrian, they would be
tried and put to death. As a result, foreign citizens always hire
"local" chauffeurs to avoid legal problems. Yet the film has the
foreigners and principal characters driving the cars.
Overall, I found the film well done.
I found it ironic that the other embassy personnel were given short
shrift here, since they had to endure 447 days as hostages. [-wm]
Mark responds:
I think in general most historical-setting films get facts wrong.
You just have to accept film as an unreliable medium. The real
trouble comes when you have willful distortion of the truth for
political purposes. Filmmakers have to be aware that viewers can
be influenced by what they put in films and the well-meaning ones
will avoid political distortions. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Fred and Ginger, the ARGO Dilemma, George R. R. Martin,
Style Guide, and LoneStarCon 3 (letter of comment by John Purcell)
In response to the MT VOID of 03/08/13, John Purcell writes:
Good morning, Mark and Evelyn. It is a bit windy outside, so I sit
here at the computer writing the first letter of comment of the
day. With luck I can get a couple more of these done before moving
on to the serious writing: literature review section re-write of my
dissertation. Fun and games.
I have always enjoyed Fred and Ginger's movies. Remember that line
about Ginger Roger's dancing abilities? "She was a better dancer
than Fred Astaire because she did all of her moves backwards." Or
something like that.
I have yet to see the movie ARGO, and the points you raise make the
movie a worthy movie to watch. Now that it is available on DVD,
Val and I will probably rent it someday - once the initial wave of
sales and rentals peters out - and see what all the hoopla is all
about. Anything that piques interest in history, old or recent, is
a good thing in my book. I remember when this all went down, too.
Your point about creating a dramatic ending instead of being dead-
on accurate to what really happened is to be expected about
Hollywood: they're in it for the bucks, so it's not surprising.
Still, ARGO touches on a subject that is reasonably pertinent to
now, so it's worth viewing for that reason alone. Besides, the
American public loves a happy ending, especially one where "we
win." Or something like that.
Lots of reviews this time, folks, and a fine mixture of movies,
television shows and books (oh, my!). Two weeks from today George
R.R. Martin will be in town for two events: the opening weekend of
the "Deeper Than Swords" exhibit at the Cushing Library of Special
Collections (where the science fiction and fantasy collection is
housed) at Texas A&M University, and also Martin will be the
special guest of honor at Aggiecon 44 that same weekend (March 22-
24, 2013). The "Deeper Than Swords" exhibit runs through most of
the rest of this year, and displays works by Martin and other
goodies from the collection. Cushing Library is the home of his
papers, etc., so this is a major coup for TAMU. Here is the link
for the exhibit:
http://deeperthanswords.library.tamu.edu/index.html.
Thank you for explaining the stylistic criteria for MT VOID. I
have never had any problem with your weekly newszine, and
appreciate your producing it. Will you two be at LoneStarCon 3? If
so, we can finally meet since I am hosting the fanzine lounge.
Which reminds me, this coming week--it's Spring Break, so not
teaching Monday-Friday next week--I will hopefully be finalizing my
plans/layout for the lounge and what kinds of things will be
occurring there. Hope to see you folks there.
With that, I believe I shall end this missive. Many thanks, and in
the words of that Canadian philosopher, Red Green, "keep your stick
on the ice." [-jp]
Mark replies:
We had a heavy snowfall yesterday, but the temperature is above 50
today so all that is left is water... LOTS AND LOTS of water.
Evelyn says our back yard looks like a Louisiana swamp.
ARGO is a very enjoyable film, but I have to say it is not worthy
of all the praise it is getting. Even with the real ending on ARGO
it would have been a happy ending with a United States/Canadian
victory. This way it was more exciting than accurate.
It is great to see George R. R. Martin becoming a celebrity after
all these years. He certainly has paid his dues over the years.
Good hearing from you. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
The film discussion group read "Waldo" by Robert A. Heinlein (ISBN
978-0-450-39730-1) in conjunction with the film SLEEP DEALER. The
film deals with the idea of "telepresence," which is just a fancy
name for what Heinlein called waldoes. (And not just Heinlein--the
name has passed into common usage.) Published in 1942, so
presumably written in 1941, it has a lot of interesting references.
Everyone smokes, even in space. It mentions Bell Laboratories.
Heinlein predicts that we will become a nation--or in "Waldo", a
world--of people who are out of shape, who shun physical energy,
and, if not a generation of stamp collectors, at least a generation
of video gamers. (Of course, the reason in "Waldo" is not of the
people's own choosing.) One of the main characters wants people to
go back to the "better" petroleum-based energies instead of the
radiant atomic power everyone is using. (The radiant energy
reminds me of Nicola Tesla's conception of power distribution.)
There is no World War II in Heinlein's projected future (and the
narrative voice refers to "the Great War"), but there is atomic
energy and something called "the United Nations". I assume that
name was being bandied about in 1941 rather than that Heinlein
invented that term as well, but note that Heinlein does not assume
that the League of Nations is just re-energized.
Heinlein also claims that furniture in space can be very fragile
because nothing has any weight, but this ignores the fact that
everything has mass. It is true that a very fragile cage would
hold a supply of clothing (for example) if it were placed there,
but if someone with a mass of 200 pounds moving across the room at
4 miles an hour bumped into it, it would either break from the
impact, or be pushed into a wall that would have the same effect.
The story also veers into fantasy, with people getting energy (and
other more mystical things) from "the Other World." What exactly
constitutes this "Other World" is not clear, but I am somewhat
reminded of THE GODS THEMSELVES by Isaac Asimov, where they are
pulling energy from another universe. In THE GODS THEMSELVES, the
characters are concerned when they discover that their actions are
damaging the other universe. In WALDO, Waldo does not show any
concern about the effect on the Other World. (He does seem to
think it is a real world, not just a conceptual one.) His
unconcern is not surprising, because he clearly does not care about
this world or its inhabitants either.
I was watching GODS AND GENERALS the other day and noticed that
among the many other advantages the Confederates had at
Fredericksburg, they seemed to have used an "assembly line"
approach to firing.
Earlier the film showed the nine steps involved in reloading:
- load (half-cock firelock)
- handle cartridge
- tear cartridge
- charge cartridge
- draw rammer
- ram cartridge
- return rammer
- prime
- shoulder arms
At Marye's Heights, we see the front row of the Confederates
firing, then handing back their rifles to the two rows behind them
for reloading, and being passed a loaded rifle in return. This let
the Confederates use their best marksman for all the shooting, not
just a third of it, but in addition, each of the two back rows only
has to go through four steps.
But my question is, am I right in that they saved even more time by
not restoring the ramrod to the rifle each time? In the film they
do not seem to, and that would speed reloading considerably. The
back row would half-cock, handle, tear, and charge the cartridge,
while the middle row would ram the cartridge, prime the rifle, and
pass the rifle forward to the front row. Because the shooter was
not handling the ramrod, it did not have to be "stowed" before
firing. [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Each writer is born with a repertory company
in his head.
--Gore Vidal