One of the great ones has passed. Here’s an article and some tributes…

Yahoo Obit:
Jonathan Winters, man of many faces, dead at 87

Great pair of Marc Maron stories on JW:
Marc Maron on the Genius of Jonathan Winters and His “Possession of a Comic Muse Perpetually at War With the Darkness In His Mind”

JW and RW goofing around on 60 Minutes

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So finished watching (the original) House of Cards series this past week. These were done in the early/mid-90s (there are three – House of Cards, To Play the King, and The Final Cut) and describe the tale of an increasingly corrupt and ruthless Prime Minister’s rise to power in the UK, Francis Urquhart. All three series have four episodes of one hour each, for a total of 12 hours of delicious evil and political intrigue. The first series describes Urquhart’s rise to power, the second his political battles with the King of England as he consolidates power and eliminates rivals, and the third, his increasing isolation as the wolves circle to drive him from power while he strikes back hard and repeatedly until the end.

Rather than talk about the plots directly and risk spoiling them, it may be of more interest to discuss the character traits seen here at intervals throughout the main players.

First, you have the corruption of power – which even Francis Urquhart admits will overrun and consume literally anything in its path (and in his case, it certainly does). People are attracted to him throughout the series because of it, his earlier, squeaky-clean reputation is what enables him to take fullest advantage of it, and in the end, it makes him over into its ever-more-shrill and strident pawn.

Second, naivete and idealism. Two central characters, Mattie Storin in the first series and then Sarah Harding in the second, most obviously fall victim to it in a number of ways – some of which the cynic might not take seriously, but it’s important to remember that as the viewer, you are getting the inside scoop on everyone’s thoughts and machinations to which the characters don’t have access. But these two aren’t the only ones to end up far differently than they expected – in some ways that can even be applied to old ‘F U’ himself. Even FU’s longtime friend and ally Tim Stamper pays a heavy price for his beliefs, despite cynically playing the game almost (not quite) at FU’s level all the while.

Third, ambition. While this one follows from the corruption of power – this is most notably seen in the third series, where everyone is jockeying for F U’s succession and/or his approval. While there are more benenolent-minded main players in each series (FU himself seems to start out as one, after all) this key trait serves to put nearly everyone at loggerheads fairly quickly, and even the more fair-minded players end up being reduced to the same political games and back-door dealings in the end – Not sure if the series’ are trying to point out ‘everyone’s human, no one is above reproach all the time’ but even if just seeking to entertain, that’s a key takeaway.

Finally, cynicism. To varying degrees, it affects eveyone in all three series, although certainly the paramount character showing this throughout has to be FU’s wife Elizabeth – and certainly she’s just as good, arguably better than FU at the Machavellian gaming by the end.

Each series draws you in for somewhat different reasons, and I was simply unable to stop watching it until the end. Netflix has now redone the first series with Kevin Spacey in an American context – i’m definitely interested in checking it out. But Ian Richardson has set a very high bar in this series as FU, and the supporting cast(s) are equally good, so the Netflix series will have to be very, very good to measure up. I simply hope in the end that this stuff isn’t as close to the truth as I suspect it might actually be…….

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and now the more cynical XKCD take on my previous Voyager 1 post… 🙂

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Daleks make lousy comedians 🙂

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So I finished Matt Polly‘s second book – Tapped Out – a day or two ago. Like his earlier book (American Shaolin, reviewed here), it concerns martial arts and fighting methods – only here, fast forward about 15 years from the earlier book and he’s been assigned to write a book about Mixed Martial Arts fighting, which he deems can be only truly honest if he actually gets in the ring and fights someone as the goal of his training. So over a two year span, he trains in New York and Las Vegas, surveying a number of martial arts methods and known expert coaches along the way. It’s an entertaining read and while I would never follow this course myself, nor have I any interest in MMA, UFC or similar (watching or following), I do enjoy those kung fu movies, so it wasn’t a stretch to enjoy this book.

His ending fight is on YouTube (big surprise) and can be seen below. After reading the blow-by-blow description in the book, the actual video seems a lot more tame, but that ignores the fact that barring reading his books, watching Bruce Lee and other kung fu movies and watching Gina Carano in her recent movie, I know nothing about fighting, so I’m sure being removed from it like this doesn’t convey the full intensity of being IN the ring by any means.

You can also see interviews with him about Tapped Out and an earlier piece with Craig Ferguson regarding American Shaolin too – enjoy!

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Matt Polly vs. David Cexton:

Matt Polly on inside MMA:

Matt Polly on Craig Ferguson (discussing American Shaolin):

Finished reading Dan Brown‘s Digital Fortress last night. Good book! At first I was somewhat skeptical, and I’ve never read his later, more famous novels (Da Vinci Code, etc.) nor seen those movies. But this tale of spies, the NSA and cryptography moves right along up to the end, and has several good twists in it. I’m not going to delve into the plot, save that if you’ve read any Tom Clancy novels, this reads a lot like one, and that’s not a bad thing, if you like these types of books and don’t take them seriously.

Written in 1998, naturally it has a bit more ‘NSA are good guys’ tone to it – as opposed to THESE days. Not terribly unlike the Cliff Stoll book I read last December in that respect, really – but sadly quaint to think they used to act responsibly like that.

At any rate, Mr. Brown sets up multiple discussions about ‘who is watching the watchers’ at key points in the novel, but wisely doesn’t editorialize at length – this is a thriller, after all, not The Thin Blue Line. I’m actually surprised they haven’t tried to make this a movie like his later books, although given its central focus on the NSA, i’m sure they wouldn’t like that, especially now.

At any rate, it’s a fast, entertaining read and I recommend it!

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So this past holiday, I purchased a book for my brother called American Shaolin, and started reading it at the same time myself. It documents the story of an American (barely) twenty-something, Matt Polly, who decides to drop out of college for a couple of years midstream and study kung fu at the famed Shaolin Temple in China. The events in the book take place in the early ’90s. Mr Polly toughs it out over the course of two years in training to ultimately gain considerable skill in kickboxing and in speaking Chinese, despite the intervention of corrupt landlords, dysentery, (some) arrogant Shaolin monks, administrators and local townspeople who are fascinated by and yet often look down him at the same time, and the infrequent nags of homesickness and libido (he was barely 20, after all! 🙂 But he certainly prevails in the end, and despite dramatic differences in culture and mentality, shares several real, human connections with the reader he made along the way.

I liked this book. In part because of the fish out of water aspect, in part because of the ’98 pound weakling’ central character that the vast majority of American males growing up can certainly identify with (especially nerdy males like myself), and in part because over the past few years I have become far more interested in learning a lot more about Asia than I ever was in the past. I have spent some time overseas (Europe) at roughly the same age, and while my experience was in a student group, not by myself, there are definite similarities I could remember while reading Mr Polly’s story.

It’s also interesting to contrast this book with the Tokyo Vice book I read in November. That book takes place in largely the same timeframe, although I think Mr. Edelstein was slightly older, and of course he was in Japan, not China. But some of the same situations occurred, and it’s interesting to see how they both reacted to them, despite one being a reporting job and the other several years of martial arts regimen. The human element across both books has many common points, in other words. And certainly in both cases, it’s an interesting change to see a society that is more open about one-upmanship to each other. Here in the States, we like to pretend that sort of thing doesn’t exist and everyone is on the same playing field and competes with similar opportunities, but it’s simply not true. In these books it’s clear that in Japan and China (at least in the 90’s, may have changed a bit since) – you acknowledge those who may have power over you, but you are also allowed to work towards challenging and eventually replacing that same people. And it’s expected. Now certainly Mr. Polly points out many situations where this hierarchy system works to prevent nearly ANYTHING from getting done, and that’s a bad thing. But it’s still interesting to see how it works in practice vs. how we live here in the USA.

Check it out – you won’t be disappoointed. I think I may have to read Mr. Polly’s next book about MMA soon, too!

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Just finished reading Bill Buford‘s 1990 account of English soccer hooligans, Among the Thugs. This is a very interesting book, if you can stomach the violence and nihilism.

Set in the late 1980’s, Buford takes us through several direct accounts of over-the-top drinking, fighting and (effectively) gang warfare amongst English soccer fans while attending pro games (at home and on the Continent). These ‘hooligans‘ were quickly banned from European contests for many years due to their violent tendencies, and may have had a direct hand in bringing about the far more closely-controlled, iron grip the police and security seem to have on such matches today (notwithstanding the even more overt influence of the later events following Sept. 11, 2001, sadly).

What’s weird is that I was actually in Europe for part of this time as a college student (’86-’87 school year), and remember hearing peripherally about English fans being out of control, but as there don’t seem to have been any major matches (battles) in Austria back then, I must have been otherwise insulated from what was going on.

On the one hand, you can see where people want to let off steam and have some fun, and naturally where better than with hundreds or thousands of others there to do the same thing? And Buford talks to this, about the connection to soccer’s huge, working-class fan base and its devotion to the sport week in and week out.

But the darker, increasingly violent side takes its toll and eventually overshadows whatever joy might have been the starting point. As Buford lays out his experiences, some even as a direct recipient of the violence (e.g. the Sardinia experience near the end of the book) you really lose your sympathy for what’s going on. While I never favor the police treating the population as a convenient punching bag or as cattle to be herded with riot weapons and clubs, I can easily see where these violent hooligans may have (literally) pushed them to that extreme in a number of the confrontations described here. And ultimately the hooligans can only blame themselves for the outcome(s), despite likely most of them escaping accountability, as only the worst, most obvious and devil-may-care of the bunch ever seem to get caught?

The other stories I couldn’t help thinking of here were those told of John Bonham from Led Zeppelin when he got drunk and raged out of control back in their heyday – or even Keith Moon in some cases, even though he was far too much a dandy (and addicted to property damage above all else anyway) to start fights he’d almost always lose (unlike Bonham). Again, you have people with some hidden character issues that alcohol or intense situations really set alight, and then consequences be damned (or at minimum, a lot of money and lawyers are required to fix). It’s safe to say most people in common society never behave this way, and if they do, they are isolated quickly and in the lockup before long – but the precise nature of the ‘crowd’ is what seems to have protected the hooligans from paying the price, at least early on. As Buford notes several times in the book – there was never any underlying ‘purpose’ behind the battles with police and other soccer fans (English or otherwise) – in the end, it was all just a playground revolt that escalated WAY beyond anyone’s expectations, including the participants.

A unique take on a years-long situation that may never occur with such regularity again – and quite honestly, that’s a good thing.

Other reviews:
Amazon

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Came across Tokyo Vice as referenced by a Daily Show interview with its author some years ago, and had the book on a list to get from the library, finally got around to it. This is a very interesting read, although like the author, I was a bit jaded by the subject matter by the end. Jake Adelstein was a reporter living in Japan in the 90’s/00’s and tells many a tale of being on the police beat, and then later, the yakuza (Japanese Mafia) beat in his reporting responsibilities.

On the one hand, it’s interesting to watch his gradual ‘indoctrination’ into the hard-boiled lifestyle of a big-paper reporter in Japan, and as he navigates a culture that doesn’t welcome outsiders easily or consistently. Eventually due to his dedication and commitment to near-complete immersion in the Japanese language and culture he wins out and is accepted by his regular circle, but still relates how many times he’s still considered an outsider ‘gaijin’ by most daily encounters, and this doesn’t change.

On the other hand, as we see Mr. Adelstein move from regular reporting, then the conventional police beat, then into harder-edged vice and sex and drugs-related reporting, it’s clear that he’s been changed, and he admits as much several times throughout the book. But in some cases it’s hard to feel sympathetic, either, given who he spent most of his time with (hookers, drug lords, pimps, etc.) as opposed to his new family and children. He is really drawn into the seedy world and it almost (literally) does him in when his reporting intersects with the Yakuza world directly.

Reading a book like this brings out that age-old tension between regular civilian life – like most of us lead – and the seamy underbelly of most societies. Here Mr. Adelstein is talking directly about Japanese culture but I’m pretty sure there are elements of these issues in nearly every human culture, Asian, Western, or otherwise. There are definite heroes and villians in this book, and Mr. Adelstein arguably becomes a little of both through his travails. I hope the end result wasn’t near as hard on his family as it sounds like it was….

A very interesting read…..

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Ok, so I’m a few months late on this, but, Atari is still 40 years young as of June 2012…! Take a look at that timeline, and chart your own wallet draining of quarters, dollars….. 🙂

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