Carnegie Library & Regent Hotel
aprox km 1745 Hastings @ Main
Today's Book: The Cruel Stars Of The Night(2007, Kjell Eriksson)
First came Wahloo & Sjowall. Then Henning Mankell. Now Kjell Eriksson. First it was just Maj Sjowall who brought the human element to Swedish crime fiction. I read a pre-Sjowall Wahloo and it lacked any of the details of family life and concern for the characters that the Wahloo/Sjowall novels were noted for. Then Mankell took it even farther and the private lives of the detectives were almost as big a part of the novels as the crime solving was. And now we have Eriksson who appears to be a Mankell clone.
There is one cheap plot devise here that shouldn't have been used. Even so, this ranks right up there with the very best crime novels.
Today's Movie: Borderline(1950, William A Seiter)
I'm usually a sucker for road pictures. And having the two leads be Claire Trevor and Fred MacMurray is also a plus. But they botched it. Too much switching between drama and comedy removed this from the ranks of the fairly entertaining and moves it to the ranks of the humdrum.
Today's TV Show: TV Reader's Digest/The Brainwashing Of John Hayes (1955, Harry Horner)
I couldn't resist this one since I had just watched a couple of Chinese Communist Party propaganda movies. Here we have a USA propaganda TV episode concerning the Chinese Communist Party. Needless to say, you cannot decern any similarities between the communists depicted in these opposing films. The interesting thing about the American film is that the Chinese Communists are not blamed. The real villain is Joseph Stalin. Mao is mentioned only once and that was to comment what a shame it was that Stalin played a greater role in shaping Chinese policy than did Mao.
Today's Tune: In Care Of The Blues
I've never been a big Patsy Cline fan. The first record I had of hers was "Walkin' After Midnight". Then I bought a Greatest Hits CD but I wasn't too impressed - also the fact that it was mastered at such a low volume didn't help. Then just a few days ago I got a batch of MP3s of her 50s material. What an eye opener! Now I agree with everyone else, Patsy was a great singer. And she made great records. At least in the 50s she did - I'll have to go back to that other CD to see what the problem was. Along with Patsy, we have another lady who's no slouch at vocalizing either, Toni Price.
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