The Impending Collapse of Islam

David Wood has spent more than a decade exposing the inconsistencies of Islam.  He does this by quoting the Quran or the various authoritative Hadiths.  He started down this path because his best friend in college happened to be a Muslim.  Though once an atheist, David had converted to Christianity and pursued a doctorate in theology.  By the time they graduated, his friend was also a Christian.  As he had spent time converting his friend, he expanded that to YouTube.

In his latest video, he details the quandary that Islamic countries are now in.  An alarming number of Islamic youth have abandoned Islam while still observing the rituals of Islam.  Many have watched videos by Act 17 Apologetics, driven there by the constant denunciations hurled against Wood.  Really, I first watched Alex Jones after he was called out for something in the MSM.  It's that Barbra Streisand Effect.  The leaders know that a sizable portion of the flock no longer believes in Islam, but maintains the fiction to escape apostacy.  Apostacy is a death penalty offence.   What to do?  To address it openly might expose to all just how widespread it is.  Not to address it allows it to spread further.  Neither option is good.  However, the second option provides the appearance that all is well.

I have long complained that our leaders have failed to understand who we are fighting when Islamic terrorists attack.  Always they would tell us that Islam is a religion of peace and the terrorists are just bad apples who misinterpret the Quran.  While Western leaders have deluded themselves as to who we fight, David Wood knows the truth.  Like sappers digging under a castle wall during a long siege, he and his fellows have undermined the ideology.  As he has used the Quran and the Hadiths to dig his tunnel, Islamic apologists have no defense.  To deny his arguments is to deny Islam.  To accept his arguments is to demolish Islam.

Recommended.

The Madness of Crowds

Peter Robinson interviewed Douglas Murray about his latest book, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity.  During the discussion, Murray outlined four issues that have been tearing at the foundations of America.  First, feminism.  Though initially a movement to provide equality to women, it has morphed into an excuse for misandry.  Hatred and revenge against men who are long dead is now the desire.  Second, civil rights.  Like with feminism, the initial goal of equality has given way to a desire for payback.  Again, those who committed the misdeeds against blacks are almost all long dead.  Third, gay rights.  As with the prior two, it is no longer acceptable to be equal under the law.  Churches must stop teaching against homosexuality.  Religion must tolerate us, but we do not need to tolerate religion.  Lastly, there is the trans-rights movement.  Murray was more circumspect with this one as it is in its infancy.  However, he notes that it has already had clashes with feminism.  Murray describes these four movements as a new ideology, a new religion.  With the vacuum created by the flight from religion, this has taken its place.  Unfortunately, they are not compatible with traditional Western values of the Enlightenment.  Is Western Civilization going to give way to this new ideology that embraces new prejudices?  Murray is on the fence.

His previous book was The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.  That was touched upon in the discussion.  He brought up the murder of a French teacher by a recent Islamic immigrant.  President Macron reacted very strongly, seeking to defend the secular values of France against Islamist radicalism.  He was denounced by the leaders of Turkey and Pakistan.  Not surprising.  However, he was defamed by Western editorials in The New York Times and the Washington Post.  He saw this as very revealing that France was framed in the wrong for seeking to maintain the secular values.  If Islam were to gain control, there would be no tolerance the other way.

At one point, Murray likened the United States to an elephant being taken down by small predators.  If the elephant had just stomped them as they arrived, it could weather the attack.  He had recently toured America, notably Portland, Seattle, and Washington DC.  To him, the outlook is grim.

Peter Robinson is an excellent interviewer who does a great deal of preparation.  His Uncommon Knowledge interviews are highly recommended.  In fact, he has some of the best exchanges with one of my favorite economists, Thomas Sowell.

The Third Man (1949)

Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) is an American pulp novelist who has arrived in Vienna, Austria, to stay with his friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles).  In 1949, Vienna is a divided city, having English, Russian, American, and French sectors, very like Berlin.  No sooner does he arrive at Harry's flat than he learns that his old friend died in a car accident only a few days prior.  He finds his way to the funeral.  Afterwards, he is invited for a drink by an Englishman named Calloway (Trevor Howard).  Holly eventually realizes that Calloway is a policeman probing for information.  Indeed, Major Calloway announces that Lime was a criminal who escaped arrest by his untimely death.  Unsatisfied, Holly starts investigating the death.  He meets Harry's girlfriend, Anna (Alida Valli), an actress.  She was not there when Harry died, but Holly finds that he is attracted to her.  He meets the two men who were with Harry at his death.  Still looks accidental.  However, a local says that he saw a third man on the scene.  Now, Holly believes his friend was murdered and Calloway is blind to it.  Before Holly can learn more, the witness is dead, and he is being accused of the murder!

Cotten is terrific as the clueless American who doesn't realize he's in a foreign country that follows different rules.  Despite being clueless, he is persistent.  Welles is excellent as Harry Lime, a thoroughly charming rogue who rationalizes misdeeds with witticisms and offers a what-can-I-do shrug about the ill fate of his allies.  He can threaten death in one breath and abiding friendship in the next.  For such a small role, he does a lot with it.  Howard is his usual commanding self.  I can't recall a role where he wasn't the stern commanding type.  However, his back and forth with Cotten provide some amusement.  Alida Valli plays a surprisingly deep role, possessing loyalty to Lime, affection for Holly, and reasons to avoid the authorities.  A conflicted character that is well-portrayed.

The classic thriller, one of the all-time great Film Noir movies.  Not only does it have Welles, Cotten, and Howard, it also boasts two future leaders of MI-6.  Bernard Lee (M from 1962 to 1979) appears as the tough yet genial Sgt. Paine.  Robert Brown (M from 1983 to 1989) appears as a nameless policeman.  The assistant director was Guy Hamilton, who would go on to direct four Bond films, notably Goldfinger (1964).  Another Bond director, John Glen, was only a teenager when he worked as an assistant sound editor on this film.  He went on to be editor of three Bond movies and directed every Bond film in the 1980s.

Highly recommended.  In fact, Roger Ebert listed it among the 10 best films of all time.

Nothing to See Here. Move Along

Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman who procured minors for Jeffrey Epstein, has been found guilty.  Good news.  On a related topic, the guards who notably failed to prevent Epstein's suicide and sought to cover up their failure by falsifying records were also in the news.  Yes, the charges against them have been dropped.  Nothing to see here.  I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but really?

Was Epstein the only person who engaged in sex with the minors that Maxwell acquired?  Epstein had dealings with people high up in government, academics, and even British royalty.  Some names - Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew - have been revealed.  These are people of power and it is likely that they would want this case closed.  That the case against the guards has been dropped gives the impression that the Epstein Scandal is being swept under the rug.

Move along.  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Starship Grounded

The FAA had initially planned to finish its Environmental Assessment on December 31st.  Nevermind.  It is now scheduled to finish on February 28.  Of course, government bureaucracies are always slow, but one wonders how the Boca Chica site was approved 7 years ago for rocket launches but now needs more studies to approve rocket launches.  Huh?  Or is this payback?  Has Senator Warren contacted the FAA and put some pressure on this freeloader who mocker her on Twitter?  Or, now that his latest lawsuit against SpaceX was dismissed, has Jeff Bezos lobbied for a new delay so he can make up some ground with his New Glenn rocket?  Whatever the case, it is sad to see that progress and innovation are being slowed by government.  I can guarantee that China is not putting roadblocks in front of its space program.  Heck, the Chinese have boosters falling on remote villages almost every launch.

We are in a space race to see who will dominate: the China or the West?  China understands the stakes.  Apparently, the US government does not.

History Debunked

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."

- George Orwell

Recently, I happened upon a YouTube channel: History Debunked.  The host has written several books on history that cover unusual subjects: The Suffragette Bombers, British Concentration Camps, The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam, and many others.  He discusses these topics on his channel.  However, most of his recent videos - which are numerous - touch upon the rapidly changing demographics of the UK and efforts to convince the populace that it has always been thus.  To hear him tell it, Winston Smith is working diligently at the BBC to convince the voters that populations of African and Indian people have been present since Roman times.  This is absurd.  However, three years ago, I watched Mary, Queen of Scots and was annoyed by the anachronistic casting.  Was this just another effort to convince the viewer that the British Isles had been multicultural for centuries?  That strikes me as crazy.  Then again, I have a degree in history and read history books for entertainment.  Most people only learn what is taught through high school, which is very basic.  I have often been amazed at how little history many people know.

History Debunked mostly discusses England and the English, but, as the center of the Anglosphere, that has had ripples throughout the world.  Definitely worth a look.  Recommended.

Barbarella (1968)

It is the distant future and Barbaralla (Jane Fonda) strips off her space suit in Zero-G.  No sooner is she naked than the President of Earth contacts her.  She must go to Tau Ceti and find the missing scientist, Durand Durand.  He explains that the scientist has created a positronic ray that could lead to war, something unknown in the current era.  She sets course and soon crash lands on Lythion, where she is promptly captured by delinquent children.  After tying her to a post in the ruins of Durand Durand's ship, the children (multiple sets of twins, oddly enough) unleash a mob of razor-toothed animated dolls upon her.  Luckily, she is rescued by Mark Hand the Catchman.  It is his job to catch errant children and send them to the city of Sogo.  The Catchman tells her that Durand is likely in Sogo and suggests she look there.  He has made repairs to her ship.  She once again wrecks her ship but this time in the labyrinth that surrounds Sogo.  Here she meets Pygar (John Phillip Law), a blind angel.  He introduces her to Professor Ping (Marcel Marceau in a speaking role), who offers information on Sogo and the Great Tyrant.  Most notable is that the city rests upon a living lake called the Matmos, a being that feeds on evil.  Serving as eyes for Pygar, she flies over the labyrinth and infiltrates Sogo.  Both she and Pygar are captured by the Concierge and the Black Queen, aka the Great Tyrant.  Sentenced to death, she is locked into a glass cage and set upon by swarms of birds.  Before she is finished off, a secret door opens and she is spirited away to the secret lair of the resistance where she meets Dildano (David Hemmings).  Dildano provides the means to enter the Black Queen's private chamber in exchange for weapons from Barbarella's ship.  Once again infiltrating Sogo, Barbarella is again captured by the Concierge.  He tries to kill her with his excessive pleasure machine, but the machine is no match for Barbarella.  Infuriated, the Concierge ponders some new fate for her, but, upon learning that she has a means to enter the Black Queen's chamber, he has a new plan.  He locks both Barbarella and the Black Queen in the chamber then crowns himself the new tyrant.  However, Dildano has launched his rebellion.  The Concierge, who is in truth the missing Durand Durand, uses his positronic ray to eliminate the rebellion in a flash.  The Black Queen has a secret weapon of her own: she can unleash the Matmos to destroy Sogo.

The film is thoroughly 1960s.  The effects are all psychodelic and the costumes outlandish.  Barbarella mostly proves to be a hapless heroine more reminiscent of The Perils of Pauline.  The big selling point for the film is the nudity and sex kitten nature of Barbarella.  She uses sex as a reward for the Catchman, an incentive for Pygar, and for humor with Dildano.  Her seemingly insatiable sex drive is what destroyed the excessive-pleasure machine.

A goofball sci-fi adventure that is more an excuse to have Jane Fonda in various sexy outfits or no outfit at all.  Of particular note, Fonda was married to the director, Roger Vadim, at the time!  Definitely a movie to see once.

China's Ghost Cities

A few years ago, I watched a video by a couple of guys on a channel called ADVChina.  They were touring a building and poking fun at the poor workmanship and declaring that this was quite common.  Winston had moved to China from South Africa while Matthew was from the United States.  Both found jobs as language teachers.  They both had an interest in motorcycles and touring the country, which led to their channel.  Both fled China in 2019, which coincided with the Hong Kong crackdown.

Here is a recently reposted video that provides some on-the-ground evidence that China has a serious real estate bubble that is popping.

If that looks interesting, check out some of their other videos.  Each spent more than a decade in China and married Chinese women before returning to the West.  Here are Chinese-speakers who can untangle the cultural differences.  In addition to their combined channel, Winston has an individual vlog as serpentza and Matthew has laowhy86.  Highly recommended for an inside look at China.

China's Coming Collapse

I have read articles and watched programs that declared China was headed for disaster.  However, to look at the news, one would conclude that China is on the brink of being the lead economy of the world and likely to replace the US as the top superpower.  I follow the space industry fairly closely and China is proving to be more energetic than NASA or the ESA.  If not for SpaceX, there is no question that China would be winning the current space race.  Are rumors of impeding doom just wishful thinking from envious competitors or is there something to it?  Here's an interesting take:

This does sound grim.  Has China trod the same path that Japan took 30 years ago?  Will their housing bubble be more destructive than ours from 2008?  As China has tended more and more toward a totalitarian state in recent years (e.g. Uigur concentration camps, Hong Kong takeover), I would not be unhappy for it to crumble.  Unfortunately, China will take the world down too, much as the USA did in 2008.

The Amazing Spider-Man II (2014)

The film opens with Richard Parker - Peter Parker's father - fleeing the country with his wife.  It goes badly and his private jet is plummeting toward the sea as he finishes sending a file called Roosevelt to an undisclosed server.  Switch to Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) plummeting between New York skyscrapers and joining a police chase of Russian Gangsters, most notably Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti).  During this harrowing action scene, he takes a call from girlfriend, Gwen (Emma Stone), who warns that he is going to miss graduation.  As an aside, he saves goofy nerd Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) from being run over.

Sometime later, Norman Osborn - CEO and founder of Oscorp - dies of a rare disease but not before telling his son, Harry Osborne (Dane Dehaan), that it is genetic and Harry is doomed to a similar fate.  Thanks, dad.  Max, who is a brilliant engineer but a social basket case, is treated very poorly by Oscorp.  Sent to fix an electrical failure in the building, he gets electrocuted and falls into a conveniently placed tank of electric eels.  Though apparently dead, he revives in the morgue as a human taser.  Though he is worshipful of Spider-Man from his earlier rescue, he turns against him when Spider-Man joins the police to stop his rampage.

Peter Parker is also a basket case.  He is wracked with guilt over dating Gwen.  Gwen's father (Dennis Leary) died in the previous movie and asked that Peter leave Gwen out of his superhero antics.  Peter regularly sees him scowling, a disapproving ghost.  Nonetheless, he can't help himself.  Then there is the issue of his father, who by all accounts was a criminal.  His efforts to unravel the Roosevelt mystery are thwarted until he gives up hope.  Whenever Andrew Garfield is playing Peter Parker, he's this pathetic oaf who is lost without Gwen.  By contrast, he's this happy-go-lucky, unflappable go-getter when he's in his Spider-Man suit.  Rather than being funny in his Peter Parker awkwardness, it was more often cringy.

All the villains were shallow.  Electro goes from meek introverted nerd to extroverted lightning bolt with little explanation beyond feeling betrayed by Spider-Man.  The bond between Harry and Peter is poorly done.  Unlike in the previous trilogy where they had been friends through high school, this Harry was sent to Europe at age 10 and the pair haven't seen each other since.  Now, they are best buddies.  Weak.  Also, Harry is in a panic to 'cure' his genetic ailment.  Dude, your father died in his 50s or so and you're just 20.  Hey, how about I take this experimental drug and see if that works.  Sigh.  Weak.  Then there is the return of Aleksei at the end of the movie.  Hey, he's an over-the-top Russian gangster and now he's got an armored suit that looks like a rhino.

I am unsurprised that the Andrew Garfield series of Spider-Man films were canceled in favor of the Marvel reboot with Tom Holland.  I had seen all of the Toby Maguire Spider-Man films in the theater but only just now saw Garfield's second outing, 7 years after the film's release.  However, as Garfield appears in the latest Spider-Man, it seemed like required viewing to understand his return.

The Whistle Blower (1986)

Bob Jones works for British intelligence as a Russian interpreter.  On account of recent scandals in British intelligence, the workplace has become a low trust zone where everyone is encouraged to rat out any suspicious behavior.  Bob finds this difficult and discusses it with his father, Frank (Michael Caine).  Frank is a former Navy officer who has had a difficult time since leaving government service.  He encourages Bob to muddle through.  He's even a bit disappointed in his son's apparent lack of patriotism.  Soon after their conversation, Bob is dead and Frank doesn't accept it.  He thinks his son was murdered and he starts poking around.

A run of the mill spy thriller in which the West is killing its own agents in order to prevent the public exposure of a high-ranking and unprosecuted traitor.  Imagine how embarassing that would be.  Yes, better we kill some low-level intel officers and a pesky journalist.  Sure, the Soviets are bad but we're just as bad, maybe worse.  Mostly disappointing.  Not one of Michael Caine's better movies.

Skip.

Elon Musk & Babylon Bee

The noted innovator and world's richest man joined the creative team of the satirical Babylon Bee for an interview.  I was unaware that the Babylon Bee did interviews.  At more than an hour and a half in length, it covers a wide variety of topics, from his youth in South Africa, his philosophy on going all-in for any of his businesses - even when that might risk bankruptcy, views on the role of government, his recent clash with Senator Elizabeth Warren, perspective on Woke-ism, where things stand with Neuralink and what he hopes to achieve with it, and many other subjects.  For a satire site, it is not the interview one expects.

In one humorous exchange, the hosts asked if he considered becoming Batman or Iron Man.  No, but he did propose Irony Man.  "Defeat villains by the power of irony."  Ha!

Check it out here: Elon Musk Interview

Amazon Documentaries

Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World: Here is a documentary about Thomas Sowell, PhD economist who studied at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Chicago.  Jason Riley outlines his career and interviews various friends and associates of Sowell.  As a longtime fan and avid reader of Thomas Sowell, I was already familiar with most of what the documentary covers.  This is a good primer for Sowell, but only scratches the surface.  There was not enough of Sowell himself in this documentary about him.  A search on YouTube will provide some great videos of Sowell covering a wide array of topics.  Recommended.

Val: The life and career of Val Kilmer, narrated by his son, Jack.  The story is told both in the present with a dramatically diminished Kilmer (he has survived throat cancer) and in the past through home movies.  Val had carried a video camera with him throughout his career and had captured a great deal of behind-the-scenes video, both on the sets of his movies and of his home life.  Val Kilmer has always seemed like the coolest of the cool, but his autobiography is one long tragedy interrupted by moments of joy.  At least, that is how the documentary paints it.  Well-made but depressing.  Proceed with caution.

Shatner in Space: On October 13, 2021, William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk, went to space on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.  Here is the background of how he met Jeff Bezos and then launched into space to become the oldest person ever (90) in space, surpassing the previous record holder, Wally Funk (82), who had flown on the first crewed New Shepard.  Shatner is astonishingly spry for a man his age and still mentally sharp.  He does not seem 90.  Though sometimes saccharine sweet and occasionally preachy about the environment, it is mostly fun and worthwhile.

Finch (2021)

It is the post-apocalypse and Finch Weinberg (Tom Hanks) lives in St. Louis, MO.  He spends his time salvaging what food he can find at the ransacked stores.  As the ozone layer was destroyed by a solar flare, he must wear an environmental suit to protect him from UV radiation.  Upon returning to his base, he greets his dog, Goodyear.  It is almost immediately clear that Finch is dying from radiation poisoning.  As he does not want to leave Goodyear alone, he has built a robot caretaker.  Before the robot is completely ready, they must flee St. Louis to avoid a superstorm.  So begins a roadtrip to California and the education of Jeff the Robot (Caleb Landry Jones).

The story is mostly boring.  Finch is usually in a panic or frustrated with Jeff.  He has little time left and it doesn't look like Jeff is working out as hoped.  Jeff follows Finch's instructions too literally at times and causes trouble.  Of course, the time period is the near future and a robot with Jeff's abilities and capacity to learn are quite impressive.  Too often, Jeff is comic relief.  What kind of story is this?  Finch is particularly wary of people, declaring that it is a kill or be killed world.  When they are followed by car, Finch breaks out a revolver.  Despite his great distrust of people, he does not offer any lessons to Jeff on how to deal with them.  Yeah, don't want to create a terminator.

Mediocre.  If you like Tom Hanks, you'll probably enjoy this.

Cowboy Bebop (1998)

Thinking I would watch the live action reboot of the series, I decided to watch the original Anime.  Before I finished watching all the episodes, word came that the reboot was canceled.  Hmm.  Maybe I won't be watching the reboot.  Anyway, the original was some really good stuff.

Spike and Jett are a pair of bounty hunters in the year 2071.  Bounty hunters are colloquially called 'cowboys' in the future.  The pair travel the solar system on the Bebop - Jett's ship - to capture various criminals.  Along the way, they recruit Ein the Corgi, Faye Valentine the femme fatale, Radical Edward the computer hacker.  In their adventures, they visit Venus, Earth, Mars, the moons of Jupiter, various space stations, and asteroid colonies.  Most of the time, the bounty gets away and the crew often goes hungry.  Food, or more often the lack of food, is a regular facet of the show.  Though they all call the Bebop home, they often work against one another, most especially Faye.

Spike Spiegel is the central character, a man with a dark past.  He had been part of a crime syndicate on Mars and that history regularly rears its head.  He has a talent for sleight of hand, is a skilled martial artist, and a daring pilot.  He has a single-seat craft - the Swordfish - that he frequently uses in dogfights.

Jett Black is a former cop who lost an arm when he got sloppy.  Though flesh and blood arm replacement was available with the future tech, he has a mechanical arm to remind him not to be careless.  In contrast to Spike's lithe build and lightning speed, Jett is muscular and blunt.  He is called the Black Dog for his tendency not to let go of something once he sinks his teeth into it.  He is the father-figure of the crew despite only being 36.

Faye Valentine loves to gamble and usually burns through any money she has in short order.  Of particular note, she was born in 1994.  She was frozen in 2014 in the wake of the gate accident and not unfrozen until 2068.  Therefore, she is 77 years old in one sense and 23 in another.  To make matters worse, she has amnesia about anything prior to waking from cryogenesis.  She wears hardly anything and lives for today.

Edward is one of the great computer hackers of the solar system and she is a thirteen year-old girl.  She joined the Bebop by hacking the computer and having it come to her, much to the others dismay.  She is a ray of sunshine among this gloomy group, a happy though often incomprehensible member of the crew.

Ein is a Corgi.  Though outwardly a normal dog, he shows insights beyond that of a normal dog.  In one episode, he managed to hack a system that had frustrated Edward.  Most of the time, he's just a dog.  He bonds to Edward when she joins the crew.

The show is noted for the music and style.  It is very unlike the usual fare in the anime genre.  It is not surprising that this anime had been selected for a live action reboot.  It is also not surprising that Netflix failed to capture the magic of the original.

Highly recommended.

Blow-Up (1966)

Thomas (David Hemmings) is a successful photographer.  He is working on a collection of his photos with a publisher, works with top models such as Veruschka (as herself), and has young would-be models offering sexual favors for a chance to pose for him.  One morning, he drives to an antique shop that he is interested in purchasing.  He notices a nearby park and decides to wander with his camera, taking pictures of random things that catch his eye.  Then he spots the couple.  The pair are flirting and walking up an incline.  Thomas is entranced and moves to intercept.  Hiding among the bushes and behind trees, he snaps a series of photos.  Spotted, he decides to leave but the woman (Vanessa Redgrave) purses him, demanding the film.  She even tries to steal his camera.  She runs away and he snaps a few more photos as she goes.  Later, she shows up at his studio, again demanding the photos.  He gives her a bogus roll of film and commences to develop the shots.  As he looks at the shots, he sees one where the woman is gazing off to stand of trees.  Blowing up that section, he sees a figure hiding.  Further blow ups show a gun.  In one of his later shots of the woman running away, he notices a figure on the ground.  Is that the man who had been with her?  It is hard to tell, the picture has been blown up beyond recognition.  When he goes back to the park that evening, he finds the man lying dead.

The movie does not go where one expects it to go.  It is not a murder mystery but an exploration of Thomas' grasp of reality.  In person, he saw lovers in the park.  In first developing the film, he saw the woman constantly urging the man to a particular spot in the park.  In blow up, he saw a figure in the woods.  In further blow up, he sees the outline of a body?  Maybe.  When discussing it with others, he repeatedly says he saw nothing.

The film is scattershot.  There does not appear to be a central narrative.  Best described as a character study of Thomas himself who has an eventful day.  He is not a likable man.  Though clearly wealthy (he drives a Rolls Royce) and successful, his life is empty.  He lies pointlessly (e.g. he claims he has no time then sits idle, he claims to have a wife, and then modifies that it is the mother of his children, then says they have no kids).  What is the point of it?  His first reaction to realizing he has photographed a murder is that he'd like to get clearer photos of the corpse.  Though advised to call the police, he doesn't.  In the end, he goes back to take pictures of the corpse, but the body is gone.  Dejected, he wanders the park and finds mimes playing tennis.  He joins the game and fades from reality.

An artsy film that probably gained its fame more from the full female nudity (a first at the time) than the story.  Mediocre.

Chaos

As a longtime reader of Bernard Cornwell, I have seen Patricia Cornwell novels on the shelves of book shops since the 1990s but had not read one of her novels until now.  I was given Chaos, which is the 24th novel in the series.  The story opens on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge.  Kay is walking across the campus and noting the extreme heat when she is contacted by longtime colleague, Pete Marino.  Pete is upset and demands to know where she is.  She is on her way to meet her husband for dinner.  Marino intercepts her and discusses a complaint call about her.  Both seem to make a lot of this call, giving the impression they are paranoid.  Kay has hardly sat down for dinner with her husband, FBI Profiler Benton Wesley, when she gets a call about a dead woman in a park by the Charles River.  Kay is a medical examiner and leaves to investigate, again joined by Pete Marino.  Eventually, Kay examines the body and determines the woman died from electrocution.  She heads back to her facility and performs an autopsy in the wee hours of the morning, confirming electrocution but now finding traces of an unusual alloy that lead her to decide it was murder.  She arrives home to find her archnemesis, Carrie Grethen, in the backyard of her house, holding family members hostage by means of an electrified drone that is hovering nearby.  Kay uses a nearby fishing pole to bring down the drone and save the day.

It took almost 350 pages before Kay was examining the corpse by the river.  During all this time, she, Marino, Lucy (her niece), various dunderheaded policemen speculated one what could have happened.  Kay was constantly curious if the dead woman was the same one she had met twice that very day.  When she finally arrived on scene, the reader is happy for this to be resolved so Kay could stop obsessing over it.  Conversations were hard to follow as Kay would think about her history with the person in the conversation.

"Good to see you, Doc," random character says.

Kay thinks about how she met random character, how well she knows random character, and various events in their shared history.  She ponders how random character is unusually talented in their field and Kay knows that and has always known that.  She would not want anyone else working in this position.

"Good to see you," she replied.

By the time she gets around to the next part of the conversation, one has to go back and see what was being said.  Worse, there are times when characters provide information that both know, but it gets provided nonetheless for benefit of the reader.  For example, when talking to Lucy, she mentions that Carrie supposedly died in a helicopter crash off the coast of North Carolina.  In addition to the constant rehashing of previous novels in the series and the excessive character sketches and location descriptions, the narrative is further muddied by the impending arrival of Kay's sister.  As with everything, Kay obsesses about her younger sister who is shallow, vain, and dimwitted.  To listen to her thoughts, Kay finds her sister to have no redeeming qualities and yet she is going out of her way to welcome her.  Ugh.

The characters are all unlikeable.  Kay is arrogant, paranoid, obsessive, unfocused, and self-conscious.  She frequently thinks about how she is going to upbraid someone for their temerity and then doesn't.  There is what she thinks she should do and then what she actually does.  That both are revealed give her a wishy-washy personality.  Despite constantly demanding that no one jump to conclusions or speculate on what might have happened, she spends much of the lead up to her initial examination speculating what might have happened based on the secondhand reports she has received.  Heck, she has already decided that Carrie Grethen is involved before examining the corpse.  Pete Marino is always either angry or frustrated.  He liberally seasons his conversation 'damn' to show how angry he is.  He was a blowhard who, like Kay, couldn't keep his speculation and conjecture to himself.  By contrast, Benton was unflappable and cold.  Of course, the endless character backgrounds tell us that Kay had an affair with him while he was married to his first wife.  Oh, great.  She later mentions how she had a fling with a colleague.  The more I learned of Dr. Scarpetta, the less I liked her.

Most of the novel is repetitive filler.  The novel could have been cut in half and still dragged.  Too much inner monologue from Kay and not enough events.  The villains are taken down with ease but promise to return in a future novel.  Not that I'll be reading it.

Hard pass.  Do not read this book.

The Late Show

Renee Ballard is an LAPD detective who works the night shift, colloquially called the late show.  She had been on a good career track in RHD on the Special Homicide Unit until she lodged a harassment complaint against her superior.  He kept his position, while she was transferred.  She and Kurt Jenkins, her partner, are the only 2 detectives on the night shift and mostly just take notes before handing investigations to the day crew.  On this particular night, a mass shooting occurred at a local club, resulting in several deaths.  The day shift was summoned, but she and her partner arrive to assist.  Leading the investigation is none other than her former supervisor and unpunished harasser.

Though she had come to like working the late show, Ballard longs to work cases from start to finish.  As such, she offers to pursue an assault case on a transwoman.  Kurt is against the idea; he is on the late show because it allows him to spend days with his cancer-stricken wife.  She is also keen on running her own investigation of the mass shooting, a potentially career-ending move.

Ballard is single and in her mid-thirties.  Her father was a surfer from Southern California who moved to Hawaii and married a native Hawaiian.  She has some casual relationships and a dog name Lola.  Her job is her life.  She is similar to Harry Bosch, but more reckless.

Though a good yarn, I found Ballard off-putting.  She was only too happy to repay a parole officer's favor with sex.  He's got a good body, after all.  Um, okay.  She also reveals that she has a sexual relationship with a lifeguard at the beach she frequents.  In fact, she usually sleeps in a tent on the beach.  She drives a van with a surfboard on top and changes of clothes inside.  The closest thing she has to a home is her grandmother's house up the coast from LA where she does her laundry on the weekends.  She sometimes treats herself to a hotel with room service.  Maybe this should have been called The Homeless Detective.  This lifestyle seems more like a man than a woman.

With simultaneous cases running and a constant chip on her shoulder about the sexual harassment incident, the story is scattered.  With a new character, maybe limit the number of threads to follow.  While her private investigation of the mass shooting is well-handled, her clashes with the rapist are inexplicable.  So much of the mystery here is left unsolved.  A lot is made of her confronting men who are much bigger and yet she wasn't able to handle a drunken supervisor.

Not a bad read, but certainly not on the level of Harry Bosch or the Lincoln Lawyer.  Maybe about like Jack McAvoy's first outing.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye

The story opens in Vietnam as several men race to a helicopter for evac.  The chopper has hardly risen into the air when snipers shoot it down.  As the helicopter plummets, the medic whispers, "Vibianna."  It crashes in a rice patty. leaving a flaming wreck.

Harry Bosch works as a private investigator, but only to keep himself busy.  He has been summoned to a security firm office by a former colleague and offered $10,000 just to meet with a noted local billionaire.  He accepts.  The billionaire is in his eighties and in poor health.  He never married and his vast fortune has no heir.  Or does it?  He asks Harry to find out what happened to a girl with whom he had an affair when he was in college.  She was pregnant when they parted ways.  Perhaps he has an heir?  The girl's name was Vibianna.  In addition to PI work, he also has a part-time job working cases for San Fernando PD, a tiny jurisdiction within Los Angeles.  He mostly works cold cases.  His search for Vibianna distracts him from the rape case he was working with Detective Bella Lordes at SFPD and she has suddenly gone missing!

An excellent Bosch story with two engaging mysteries to solve.  Recommended.