essentialsaltes: (eye)
 
Darwin's Blade by Dan Simmons

An action-thriller focusing on an accident investigator. Kind of trashy with a strong element of gun-porn. Some of the technical aspects of the accident scenes are interesting, but veer off into minutiae and improbability (though allegedly all are based on real world events). Our protagonist gets wind of large scale fraud going on, backed by Russian bad guys. While I didn't exactly enjoy it, I'm sorry Simmons apparently didn't manage to sell the rights to make a film, because it would make a successful (albeit bad) action thriller.

Machinehood by S.B. Divya

OK, something written more recently. A Sci-Fi action thriller focusing on a professional bodyguard. In the future, bioengineering and drugs give people almost superhuman powers. Soft AIs handle a lot of work in concert with people, but one group is working to make a greater fusion of man and machine (and AI). Cyberpunky, bio-futurism, explosions. It rollicks along quite explodingly, but the climax and conclusion seemed very incomplete, unmotivated, tacked on. Author didn't know how to stick the landing, so just walked away.

I'm about 80% of the way through Jake Arnott's The Long Firm, the first of a trilogy of works about fictional 1960s London gangster Harry Starks (who happens to be gay NTTAWWT). Really liking it so far. I liked his The House of Rumour, and this is making me a fan. It's told in a somewhat strange way, in a half dozen sections, each narrated by a different person who comes into Harry's orbit for a greater or lesser time -- some coming to bad ends, while others manage at least a temporary exit. Apparently there's a TV miniseries with Derek Jacobi, but it doesn't appear to be streaming, and the DVDs are region 2.

Lastly, I'm a fair way through Jason Sheehan's Cooking Dirty: A Story Of Life, Sex, Love, And Death In The Kitchen. Turns out I don't need to write a review, because the AV Club has already hit it on the head:

"Sheehan protests several times that his book is the antidote for the artificial, antiseptic world of celebrity chefs and the Food Network, but because he has to out-Bourdain his unacknowledged predecessor, the excesses he chronicles often stink of playground boasting and general bullshit." 

Having read and enjoyed Bourdain's book, certainly I hoped for something similar. And I got that in spades, but it's only believable because I believe Bourdain, and Sheehan takes things to extremes that not even "well, it got a little better in the retelling" can excuse. And what use is a memoir when you think the guy is lying (sometimes)? But some of the writing is amusing (even if things didn't necessarily actually happen as described). 



essentialsaltes: (Default)
 I am probably the weirdest possible advocate for mental health, since my subject knowledge comes almost entirely from research for role-playing games, but... given what looks like the cruelties of Bedlam centuries ago, or the shock treatments and lobotomies of the early 20th century, at least the doctors were trying to be doctors... the current criminalization of the insane is almost certainly worse in many respects. 90 minutes of often painful reality. Luckily for you, it doesn't seem to be streaming at the moment. But it's well made and affecting.
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/bedlam/
essentialsaltes: (Eye)
Yeah, we moved. I may get around to journaling about it the whole thing, but it's too big a topic, and I'm too tired.

But more importantly, the digital antenna seems to really work like a charm. I was so happy the setup was so easy, and the results so good. I know we're probably weirdos for only having basic cable before, but we've stopped paying Time Warner a buttload, and we get more channels. Sure, half of them are foreign language (including like a dozen in Armenian), but my mind boggled when the initial scan dredged up like 158 channels. OK, some turned out to be just beyond the antenna's range, but still.

So if you only want basic channels, and you don't need cable for internet, and you have a line of sight to Mt. Wilson, ditch your cable.

[The internet thing may be a bigger pain point; we've yet to get U-verse set up for internet, but I wasn't encouraged by the CAPTCHA when I tried to check on the order:

I'm worried AT&T may be no better than Time Warner.]

For the interested, the antenna is a Mohu Curve. Since our TV is older, we also needed a digital tuner, so I just picked a top seller on amazon, which can also function as a DVR if you plug in a USB hard drive or even a flash drive. Total cost = less than 1 month of our Time Warner bill (for TV & internet).

Plug antenna into tuner, plug HDMI from tuner to TV, turn it all on, and then the tuner was raring to go scan for channels. After that, I cruised through Armenian, Vietnamese, Khmer, Spanish, Chinese, and a dozen variations on the Home Shopping Network (including several in those preceding languages) and stopped on some random channel (Get TV) showing the Caine Mutiny. Jackpot.

ETA: LA TV Stations.

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