clock … watching time, the only true currency

My capsule review of Curse of the Pink Panther may be found here.

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I thought I owned Watchmen, but couldn’t find it on the shelf. So, with all the building hype about the imminent film, I decided to buy and read the graphic novel ahead of the movie’s release. Quite a tale. Follow the first link if you want a summary, but flip through a print copy for [...]

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Pat Cadigan earned a recommendation and cover blurb from William Gibson for Tea from An Empty Cup, but the book failed to match expectations. A police novel at its heart, the creative note is the imaginative setting, bridging virtual reality and the real world. But that’s not enough.

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Richard Morgan entertains me, darkly, with each of his books. Broadly within the cyberpunk genre, or an evolved variant thereof, Thirteen evokes Bladerunner in print, without the (at times boring) atmospheric scene-setting of Ridley Scott’s vision. The number 13 refers to the chromosome where the aggressive instincts which propelled humanity forward (however brutally at times) [...]

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With Frost/Nixon, I once again dove into a movie based on history. Third one in a row, I realize now. Of the unrelated trio, Frost/Nixon was the most fun. As with the movie Milk, the mid/late 1970s come to life. A surprising combination of hustle and mostly-hidden grit surfaces in the form of a talk-show [...]

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Saw Milk earlier this month. I was alive during these events, but knew nothing of them. (Of course, I was not yet 10 years old.) Curious now to know which facts were true and which were added for extra drama…especially Sean Penn as Harvey Milk narrating his memoirs in his kitchen in the event of [...]

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I caught an early preview of Defiance a few weeks ago. Shortly after seeing Daniel Craig as James Bond in Quantum of Solace, the quiet Brit plays Tuvia Bielski, leader of a Jewish resistance group in World War II. One more story I never knew, and well told. The most amazing part? The Bielski brothers [...]

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After many Wallace Stegner novels, finding his non-fiction Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil at the library saved me money at Amazon. First noted last year, Discovery! was written in 1956, but the Selwa Press edition from 2007 is the first time it’s been published in America. A straightforward, somewhat glossy take on history, written [...]

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For the 8th year in a row, I ran a race in Golden Gate Park on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The “Run to the Far Side” fades deeper into memory, but Run Wild continues as a satisfying routine for many in San Francisco. I did the 5K distance, finishing in 18:38, for 11th place overall, [...]

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