Short Story Wonders

Gladiator...DVD Review

2012-02-11T11:25:00.000+11:00

Therewas a dream that was Rome.

This is a massive film.It begins in Germania, the final frontier. The barbarian hoards are nearlydefeated. Maximus, General of the Roman army commands his men. The messenger hesent to ask for surrender comes back on a white horse, decapitated. And thenthere’s this really odd line, one of his lieutenants says,

“People should knowwhen they’re conquered,” and I thought it was more like something that BruceWillis would say in Die Hard but after that it’s full on entertainment and that's the only bad note the screenplay by, David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson, hits.Something is happening all the time. Crowe, as Maximus, is outstanding and asupport cast that includes, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounson andDerek Jacobi round off the brilliance.

Joaquin Phoenix and Connie Nielson, asbrother and sister of the murdered Caesar turn up the heat at all the righttimes.

Maximus wins his finalbattle and Richard Harris, as Caesar, asks him to take control of Rome becausehe is sick and about to die and he can’t trust his son, Codemus (Phoenix), butPhoenix kills his father, the great Caesar, before he can tell the Senate ofhis plan to put Maximus in charge and Codemus gives the order to kill Maximus andone of Crowe’s soldiers, a trusted friend, plays the Judas card and tellsmembers of the Praetorian Guard to take Maximus and ride for a day and thenexecute him. Codemus also gives the order to kill Maximus's wife and youngchild and the big journey begins. Crowe outwits and then violently murders thePraetorian Guards but he can’t make it back in time to save his family and inbrutal scenes we see their death and Crowe, exhausted, is captured and soldinto slavery to become a gladiator destined for the Colosseum.

I want to emphasiseagain how huge this film is in terms of scale. The way in which the battles areshown; if you think of Braveheart it would give you an idea but I think this isbigger, grander. When Crowe and his bunch of gladiator slaves enter Romeit’s truly brilliant and it takes your breath away. One of the greatscenes is also Codemus entering Rome flanked by his sister. I’m not sure howthey do those crowd scenes and the buildings, how they can take you back to anidea of what ancient Rome must have been. You just have to take your hat off tothe vision of the director, Ridley Scott.

This is Russel Crowe's film, make no mistake, and he deservedlywon the Oscar for his great performance but I thought that Joaquim Phoenix wasjust wonderful as the creepy, disturbed, Codemus, who love his sister in a waythat he shouldn’t. Connie Nielson, as his sister, deflects his attentionssuperbly by flattering him and she fears for her life unable to grieve for herfather for fear of what Caesar’s son may do to her.

I also thought that, DjimonHounson, as a gladiator slave, next to Crowe, got to deliver some nice lines.He wants to meet his family again and Crowe tells him that his own family isdead and Hounson tells him that he’ll meet them again but ‘not yet’, ‘not yet’.There’s serious business to get done, a Roman Emperor to get rid of and thereturn of Rome to a republic.

The scenes in theColosseum are out of this world and once again I return to the scale of thefilm and I make the point because this isn’t a sci-fi film where you can go madand wild on the special effects because you’re creating some kind of 'otherworld', thishas to be real, we have to believe that there are great battles going’son and that there are 60,000 people screaming,

“Maximus! Maximus!”

Crowe gives a wonderfulspeech in the middle of the great arena, as Codemus discovers who he is,

“I am Maximus,” he saysas he takes off his helmet to reveal himself and I won’t give you the wholething and spoil it and I want to add that the ending is pitch perfect.

Great film, on yes, a huge scale.

If you want more DVD reviews just type in DVD review in the search engine above 'my profile' in the left hand column and you will get links to all DVD reviews on this blog.

And here is the trailer for Gladiator....

Best Cartoons....Music from Sniff'n The Tears.

2012-02-09T07:25:00.000+11:00

I'm not an expert on these cartoons. I just thought if you'd never seem then you might get a kick out of them or try and get them on DVD if you like them or...whatever right?

Number One...Batfink

Number Two...Hong Kong Phooey

Music break with....Sniff'n The Tears...Driver's Seat

Number 3...Gargoyles...

Number 4....SPIDERMAN (the original)

novel extract...MESMERISE!...novel extract...

2012-02-08T07:20:00.000+11:00

MESMERISE...

At the gym he feels OK.Still he has the fear, a boy among men, but they know he can box, they knowhe’s a real fighter. He unloads bombs, he says to himself, and he always will.Manny Cupido still trains in the gym under sufferance from Gus, who would kickhim out but Tony Lamont’s memory lingers and he couldn’t face it happening again. Cupido comes up to Cameronwhile he’s unloading bombs on the heavy bag and he says,

“You want to bring thatinto the ring, spar with me a little?”

Cameron goes to that dark place in hismind and can see himself unleashing a ‘Hands of Stone’ shot right into MannyCupido’s face and he’d be thinking it was Seb and Gus has gone out for a littlewhile so Cameron says,

“Just a few rounds withheadgear.”

Cupido smiles,

“Yeah, a few rounds; getyour headgear and a protector, Tommy Carter can referee. Yo, machine gun,” and Cupido says it withsome curry in it. "You referee the gold medallist and me, three rounds of threeminutes.” Tommy looks at Cameron and he doesn’t try to change his mind becausehe reckons the kid can go with Manny, but he’s been out of the ring for a fewmonths and he says,

“You sure about this,Cameron? Gus wouldn’t want you...” And Cameron fires up; he doesn’t do whateverGus asks him too,

“Yeah, I’m sure, I’mfucking sure.” And Cameron never swears and Tommy smiles to himself and inthree minutes they’re in the ring and they’ve attracted a crowd. A conditionedpro fighter, the Australian champion up against...well no-one wants to missthis.

They feel each otherout for thirty seconds and then Cameron steps inside Manny’s leading left handand pops him twice with his jab and then unleashes a right shot and it brushesManny’s temple who looks up and thinks shit, and he gets on his bike and staysout of reach, sizing up Cameron who suddenly looks a little bigger and strongerand Cameron feints with his left, mesmerises Manny, who watches it like he’shypnotised and boom! Cameron hits him and that headgear shifts and sweat fliesand Manny’s crew start screaming at him,

‘”Kill that kid! What’refucking doing, Manny! Box! Throw something!” And Manny gets on his bike againand wheels around the kid and starts playing him a little at his own game, justcoming in to pop the kid with some left hand jabs but Manny’s jabs sendCameron’s head snapping back, pop! AndCameron’s head snaps back again, jab again! And Cameron knows it’s real now andManny doesn’t jab with the left this time, he switches to southpaw and hammersCameron with the left and he goes down and someone rings the bell and Tommygoes to Cameron and says,

“You can stop now, youproved a point.” Cameron shakes his head,

“Three rounds, we saidthree rounds.”

“Watch him closely whenhe switches to southpaw.” Tommy says. Cameron drinks some water, holds hisboxing trunks out and Tommy pours some cold water down them and he squats andthinks, I can go with this guy.

Round two and they’reboth gliding, scouting around and throwing jabs but nothing’s connecting andthen they slowly draw each other in and Manny throws a big right hand and stopsCameron in his tracks, it hurts him, a body shot just under the ribcage andCameron thinks about what Gus said, the genius defence of Roberto Duran, andthe best defence is attack. But he backs up for ten to twenty seconds, gets hisbreath back and Gus walks into the gym and sees them in the ring and he yellsout,

“What the hell’s going on?Tommy, you should know better.” And Cameron ignores him, it fires him up morenow, he’ll show Gus the break hasn’t affected him, he can turn pro now. He moves around Manny with that mesmerisingleft feint and Manny follows it and steps inside it to hit Cameron and Cameronsees it and slips the punch and unleashes an uppercut bomb right on the chin ofManny and it rocks him and Cameron follows up with his own body shot andanother one and Manny goes down on his knee And Tommy yells stop! Cameron backsup and Manny can’t get up and Tommy appreciates the moment and starts astanding eight count and Gus yells out and gets into the ring and says,

“That’s it, it’sfinished.” Cameron sees the small smile on Gus’s face and Tommy stops the eightcount and everyone looking on is staggered and Manny’s crew go to him and Mannystands up and says to Cameron,

“You got this round butnext time, it’ll be a pro fight. You’re ready, Lyons, you’re ready for a profight and I’ll be ready when you make your way through the ranks and I’llremember.” Cameron goes to that dark place again and knows he’ll remember too.

Ali Vs Foreman...Rumble in the Jungle...Round 8...Watch Ali come off the ropes to deliver the knockout!

Oh, and I mentioned the music from He Got Game, the Spike Lee film. well here it is...

Public Enemy...He Got Game...

Dubliners by James Joyce...Book Review...and Steve Winwood

2012-02-06T06:51:00.000+11:00

It’s difficult toreview a book that’s hailed as a classic of literature but in an earlier reviewin this blog I referred to a Tolstoy short story as dirge so onward we go.

When I think of greatshort story writers I think of Jay McInerney, Frank Moorehouse, David Gates andMandy Sayer. Dubliners is a wonderful short story collection but to me it’s abit dated. I just don’t buy into the old fashioned manners and quirks and whathave you. Some of the writing takes my breath away and other stories just seemto be a list of events.

In ‘An Encounter’ twoboys take off from school and have great adventures but in a park they areapproached by an older man, perhaps in his forties or fifties, the story doesn’tmake it clear. In today’s language, he’s an old perv but we see this man fromthe point of view of one of the boys. Take this quote, the older man said,

“Every boy,” he said, “hasa little sweetheart.” And the boy narrating the story says,

“His attitude on thispoint struck me as strangely liberal in a man of his age. In my heart I thoughtwhat he said about boys and sweethearts was reasonable. But I disliked thewords in his mouth...” And isn’t that sentence telling us exactly how he felt,perhaps a little scared and most definitely he doesn’t like him.

“But I disliked thewords in his mouth...” It’s great and this story, ‘An Encounter’, is myfavourite.

‘Sisters’ is about ayoung boy and his friendship with an old priest who dies. We don’t get to knowthem or the relationship between them too well but I could see it meant a lotto the young boy even though he doesn’t let on too much. The ending to this story hasthe priest's two sisters talking about him and the last few lines turn the storyon its head when one of them says that she saw the priest not long before hedied in the confessional and he was,

“Wide-awake andlaughing to himself...So then, of course, when they saw that, that made themthink there was something gone wrong with him.”

And it just changes the wholestory and you think hang on, what is this really about. And there are two orthree other stories in this collection where everything goes along quite welland then at the last paragraph or sentence the whole story gets a new meaningor I just thought this is weird what’s going on here. I’ve given you an example with‘Sisters’ so I don’t want to give any more away but look out for it if you readthis collection.

I mentioned that one ortwo stories just seem to be a list of events happening. I thought his was thecase with ‘After the Race’. It details the goings on of a very well to do youngman who gets caught up with a couple of Frenchmen and a musician, a piano player.The rich young man has agreed to finance the opening of a restaurant and thetwo Frenchmen are the beneficiaries and they drive him around in a flash car andshow off and introduce him to a man who owns a boat and they go aboard and startplaying cards and they’re basically giving the rich guy a going over, feedinghim drink, and they start playing cards and he loses money and writes I.O.U’sand ho hum I thought. It was pretty predictable and then I thought OK, it’skind of clever. They drive him around in a flash car to impress him and youcould say that the whole story is about taking this rich young man for a rideand you’d be right but it still didn’t impress me much. In fact when Joyce iswriting about ‘well off' people I don’t find it as interesting as his otherstories. Case in point is the story, ‘The Dead’, which I’m afraid I didn’t evenfinish. It’s I think a class morality tale but it just takes so long to getgoing I had to leave it even after skipping through to find out what mighthappen.

And I hope I’m notbeing a little maudlin here because as the Irish say, there’s great gas inthese stories Good craic indeed.

‘Eveline’ is about a younggirl who has had a very hard life. Her mother died when she was young and shebrought up her two younger brothers and looks after her father and now she hasthe chance, finally, to live her own life. She’s met a dashing seaman who haslanded on his feet and bought a house in Buenos Aries and her father isstarting to threaten her with abuse and physical harm and she sees this as herchance to get out of Dublin and away from her overbearing, perhaps brutalfather, but will she do it, will she get on that boat and give herself a lifeand Joyce writes absolutely beautifully here,

“The boat blew a longmournful whistle into the mist. If she went, tomorrow she would be on the seawith Frank, steaming towards Buenos Aries. Their passage had been booked. Couldshe still draw back after all he had done for her.’

And this,

“A bell clanged in herheart. She felt him seize her hand: Come!

All the seas of theworld tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drownher. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing.

Come!

Eveline! Evvy!”

Does she go?

There’s just too muchbrilliant writing in this collection to ignore it. It says more about me thanthe writing that I found some of it a bit dated and my dictionary is so crapthat some of the older words no longer used regularly did not appear in it whichpissed me right off.

New dictionary? Yes!

The longer I got intothis review and the more I looked back at the writing the more I realised howgreat it was and I’ll keep dipping into it and re-reading and probably get more and more appreciative of the collection. What I'm saying is read it, read it again, again.

Steve Winwood...Higher Love.

He Got Game...DVD Review

2012-02-04T07:09:00.002+11:00

This is a Spike LeeJoint. He writes and directs this ode to basketball and family ties. Americamakes absolutely brilliant sporting films. I’m talking about, ‘Somebody UpThere Likes Me’, ‘The Natural’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘Rocky’, ‘Field of Dreams’ andyeah, now I’m adding this film to that list, and oh, you may as well throw inthe ‘Basketball Diaries’. Why? Because the filmmakers understand that baseballor basketball is more than a game and the filmmakers also love the sport. LikeKevin Costner in Field of Dreams. How much does this guy love baseball? AndSpike Lee loves basketball. We know that because we always see highlights ofhim at the game with jack Nicholson and we also know it now because we see itclearly on screen how much basketball means to him.

Denzel Washington is injail for the murder of his wife but more correctly you might say thathe accidentally killed his wife during a family argument. He coached his boy,Jesus, to play basketball. Trained him hard, probably too hard, before he endedup in jail and now his son is rumoured to be the number one draft pick.

If youfollow AFL here in Australia, you understand the pressure that comes with beingthe number one draft pick, well, multiply that by two hundred and you’regetting close.

Alright so what is theset-up? Denzel as Jake, gets called into the warden's office and the warden (NedBeatty) tells Jake that The Governor is an old Big StateUniversity man and that he wants Jesus to go to his alma mater as his choice and if thathappens then Jake will get a cut in his sentence and Jake gets released forseven days to try and convince his son to go to Big State.

Then we begin to seethe pressure that Jesus is under. Everyone has an angle. Everyone knows thatsoon enough Jesus is going to be very rich and they all want a slice of thatpie and it gets damn serious. His girlfriend played by the beautiful, RosarioDawson, gets paid by an agent, who she also screws, to get Jesus to sign upwith them. He doesn’t.

His coach offers him 10 grand simply for the informationabout what school he’s going to pick. His uncle wants payback because he raisedthe boy when his father went to jail and through all this we have to look atJesus and wonder how he keeps his head on straight. Not only that he moved outof his uncle’s place as soon as he could and raised his little sister and man,he’s tough on her like his old man was tough on him. And the man to play Jesusin this film is Milwaukee Bucks basketball player, Ray Allen, and wow! Heconvinces me and maybe he must have went through the whole circus himself.

Jake wants thatreduction in his sentence but he also wants what is best for his son. There are sometough decisions going on all around and at one stage when Jake gets hold ofsome alcohol we see the temper that caused the death of his wife and you knowif he doesn’t drink most likely he wouldn’t be in jail.

This isn’t all doom andgloom though. Spike Lee has a roll call of real basketball coaches doing a rundown on the fictional, Jesus. Starts like Reggie Miller and Shaquille O’Neiland Michael Jordan delivers the line about Jesus, ‘He Got Game’. And Lee haschosen an inspired name for his basketball hero because the media is all overit. Jesus is the salvation! Deliver Jesus to Us etc. And Spike Lee regular,John Turturro does a great turn as a college basketball coach who tells Jesusthat he got down on one knee and prayed that he’d come and play basketball on histeam.

This is terrificviewing because it’s got that duel thing going on. The sporting film thing andthe moral dilemma in Jake’s story and Spike Lee puts it all togetherbeautifully and the whole time I kept thinking that Jesus had it all worked outand when he says to his girlfriend, La La , played by Rosario Dawson, ‘Good Riddance’ it justconfirmed it for me.

And I have to mentionthat the theme song (for want of a more hip term) by Public Enemy, ‘He GotGame’, well, it’s brilliant and I know absolutely nothing about rap but I knowthis is great music.

MONDAY AND TUESDAY...THE DUBLINERS by JAMES JOYCE....BOOK REVIEW

And here is the trailer for ...He Got Game.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead...DVD Review

2012-02-03T07:24:00.002+11:00

Mayyou be in heaven half-an-hour before the devil knows you’re dead.

This film didn’t winany major awards and I’m wondering why the hell not. Sidney Lumet directing,Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as two brothers who feel like they gota bad deal in life. At one point Seymour Hoffman as Andy cries out, ‘It’s notfair! It’s not fair!’

And yeah life isn’t fair buddy, especially after you setup your brother to rob your parent’s jewellery store and it goes wrong and yourmother gets killed in the farcical robbery and Ethan Hawke as his squib of abrother goes into meltdown and your father...more on that later, which includesa virtuoso performance from Albert Finney.

This is just such a greatand original premise for a story. Andy the older brother does cocaine before hegoes into business meetings and is served heroin in the apartment of his gaydealer who may or may not be servicing him sexually. He dreams of going back toRio to live so he and his beautiful wife, played by Marisa Tomei (lookingamazing) can live the high life.

The only problem is that he’s an accountant ata medium size business and he’s ripping them off left, right and centre to payfor his ‘habits ’and he comes up with the crazy scheme.

No-one gets hurt is hismantra. Mum and dad are covered by insurance so they lose nothing in therobbery. No-one gets hurt, use a fake gun he tells the weirdly neurotic Hank.But old Hank he decides he can’t go through with it so he gets one of his losermates to commit the burg for him while he sits in the car and then everythinggoes to shit.

This a wonderfulscreenplay by Kelly Masterson because it goes all over the place, back and forwardsin time, and Sidney Lumet shows us some scenes twice from different angles andat long intervals in time so we can see the set-up and how looking at these scenesfrom different angles and also knowing more about what has gone before or whatis coming later can change our perception of the characters and alter thetension in the story.

This is a very simple example. In one scene wesee Ethan Hawke’s character at his front door and the glass where the list ofoccupants is kept behind has been smashed. At this point in the film we knowthat at least three people may have done it or it could be random. We don’tfind out until half-an-hour later that it was Andy, his brother. But we’ve alsoseen why and how the pressure is building up on Andy and he then takes it out on theglass. In another film or with another director we might have seen it beforeBen got home and he would wonder what happened but the audience would alreadyknow. This kind of thing is happening all the time and I loved it.

I’m not getting theevilness of this film across just now. But it boils down to what people will dofor money. In this case, Andy and Ben. Because they won’t face up to theirproblems and they cause the death of their mother and Albert Finney as thefather, well, when he finds out. I have to also mention also that SeymourHoffman as Andy is quite brilliant. Once he crosses that line into true evil,he just keeps going and Ethan Hawke as Ben is dragged along into the awfulnessby Andy and it’s destroying him and although he is rather pathetic, in some wayto me, he seems like the conscience of the film and the father played by Finneyis like some mystical figure from the old testament coming down hard with vengeanceand yeah, wow!

I guess you can tell I’m totally blown away by this film and Iam.

And I like to add acouple of extracts, as you know, from other reviews so there’s some balance. Thisis from A O Scott of The New York Times talking about who would do such a thingin regards to the robbery in the film,

“Whatkind of people would do such a thing? Mr Lumet, who has been directing moviesfor 50 of his 83 years, has the wisdom to leave the answer mainly to his actors.Andy and Hank are not explained, dissected or excused. They speak their lines andcarry out their actions, and, by the time the film is over, we know then insideand out.”

And I really likethis from Louise Keller of film website urbancinefile,

“Theexplicit opening sex scene between Hoffman’s Andy and his trophy wife Gina (MarisaTomei) gives us a taste of heaven. But the journey into hell is not far away.”

For more DVD Reviews type in DVD in the Google Search Engine for links to all the DVD reviews on this blog. The search engine is just above 'My Profile' in the left hand column.

And here is the trailer for...Before theDevil Knows You’re Dead.

MESMERISE...Coming Next Wednesday! 8/2/12

2012-02-02T10:08:00.002+11:00

Mesmerise...Extracts coming in the next three weeks!

Fifteenyear old private schoolboy, Cameron Lyons walks into Gus Lewis’s gym, in onceworking class, now middle class, Richmond. He has a dream to become theMiddleweight World Boxing Champion. Two years later he gets picked on theOlympic Team but an old rival of Gus Lewis, Tony Lamont, a man who doesn’tforget, sets two of his men onto Cameron and they bust up his hand and end hisOlympic dream. Cameron Lyons comes back from it and turns pro. His idol isRoberto Duran, ‘manos de piedra’, the ‘hands of stone’, and that’s who he triesto emulate. Tony Lamont follows Cameron’s career and he controls, Manny Cupido,the boxer standing between Cameron and his final goal.

And here is Roberto Duran in action against 'Sugar' Ray Leonard...one of the greatest rivalries in boxing history!

TOMORROW...DVD Review

Before the Devil Knows Your're Dead!

I hope you make it to heaven half-an-hour before the devil knows you're dead.

And that was Bangkok Time....

2012-02-01T23:23:00.001+11:00

That's the last episode of Bangkok Time (3) I'll be filing on-line.

I'm enjoying writing it so much and it's better than Bangkok Baby! Soooo....

To the publishers I send it on completion...long way off that but....

Next Wednesday...an extract from...MESMERISE...The story of a young kid seaking his dream of becoming the World Boxing Champion.

And here is The Cars with Let's Go!....I love the nightlife baby!

Bangkok Time...Episode Three...Thai Pop Music

2012-02-01T07:27:00.000+11:00

“I forgot,” he says, “itdoesn’t open until 7pm.” Richard takes his arm and leads him down Thanon Mangkonto Maitrichit Rd and to his favourite Thai restaurant, Nai Sow.

Nai Sow

Jao doesn’t speak and Richard waits patientlyfor a waitress. A beautiful Thai woman dressed in a long, electric green, bodylength sarong, asks for their orders, Jao looks to Richard, the tourist, forhelp. Richard says,
“Anything is good.” And Jao asks for Pad Thai, Richard orders shrimp soup, veryspicy, and a Massaman Beef Curry and he asks,

“You have Tiger beer?”The waitress shakes her head and he says,

“Singha, two.” Jaosmiles and Richard wonders if he’s ever even had a beer in his whole life. Jaosits still and doesn’t talk and Richard’s patience now ends and he asks,
“Where is your mother, Jao?”

“She lives in ChiangMai, separated from my father,” he says softly.

“Is she Chinese or Thai,or maybe from a western country? You have, um, uh...I don’t know how to say it;you just don’t look Thai or Chinese. I mean you do but...”

“She is Thai, fromChiang Mai but her father was an American.” Richard wonders how old she is. He’sforming a list of questions in his mind about this student of his and again hewaits patiently and says nothing hoping that Jao will suddenly open up. Thefood and the beer come and Jao eats and drinks without talking. It’s now 6pmand Richard works out that’s another two beers until the other place opens and Richardasks Jao if he wants another beer and he just smiles and nods. At 7pm they walkback the way they came and into the now open Nai Yong, restaurant.

Jao approaches thecashier at the front of the restaurant and he shows her a photo of Phi and thecashier looks at it and smiles in recognition at the photo and says,

“How can I help?”

“This is my sister,”Jao says, “Have you seen her recently?”

“Ah, yes, maybe threeor four nights ago. A group of six or seven. She always comes and always happyand smiling it’s easy to recognise her.” Jao looks at Richard and doesn’t knowwhat to say next. Richard approaches the cashier,
“Hello,” he says and attempts a very bad wai but the Thai cashier appreciatesit and wai’s back and Richard asks,

“Will you call us ifyou see her come in again? He gives his cell phone number to her and Jao doesthe same and says,

“Please call me if yousee her, it’s very important. She needs; she’s missing.” And the Thai cashierwai’s again and smiles and says in English,

“I’m sorry. Yes, I’llcall you”

They leave therestaurant and Richard says,

“Where to now, chum? Doyou know the name of the bar in Khao San Rd?”

“I’m not sure, she goeswith Orapan and I can’t get in touch with her.”

“Call the other girl,Saeng, again.” Jao looks at Richard and says,

“I might go home. I’llcheck with her when I get home. I think I have to call my father now. Nothingelse I can do.”

“Alright, Jao, go home,call your father and your mother and call me if you’re worried and come toschool, it’ll take your mind off it.” Jao nods and Richard puts his hand on hisshoulder and says,

“Take care.”

Richard gets into a tuktuk and waves goodbye. Jao stands for a while, watching the tuk tuk career downthe street and then walks to a waiting taxi.

Richard gets out of thetuk tuk at his apartment entrance. He and Duan have an apartment near LumphiniPark on the corner of Silom and Thanon Rama 1V. They both love the park and even though it’s in the middle of Bangkok,somehow it always seems like there’s less pollution and the heat doesn’t seemso intense. They live on the first floor and have a small courtyard/balcony andRichard’s pretty happy.

Richard Moore arrivedin Bangkok eighteen months ago highly stressed out and instantly met a strangeDutch/American woman named, Stacy. He didn’t think much of her but somehow sheembedded herself into his life and this lead him into meeting the crazy ex CIAguy who dealt in drugs. The whole thing was like a crazy nightmare as Richardhad returned to Bangkok hoping to purge the end of his marriage and regain hisconfidence but he’d been lured into the drug deal.

In the end it was adeal he struck with detective Areya Sanasgarn of the Thai police that saw himlure Stacy into a deal that saw her and the other drug mules into jail in theBangkok Hilton for the rest of their lives. The ex CIA guy had big connectionsand as previously mentioned he’s still in SE Asia somewhere, a free man.Richard did get that confidence back and he and Duan went to Australian forthree months but decided Bangkok was where they wanted to live. He’d met andfallen in love with Duan when she was working as a receptionist in the hotel hewas staying in and he thanks Buddha for that every day.

Now, he greets her ashe enters the apartment and she says,

“How was your talkabout football and your boring cricket?”

“Come out into thecourtyard,” he says, “I want to smoke.” She follows him out and he says,

“I didn’t meet, Colin.I was with one of my students. The student I told you about.”

“The missing girl.”

“Yes,” Richard says andlights a Mild Seven.

Don't smoke

“And?”

“And we didn’t findher. He called some friends and we went to a restaurant that she likes inChinatown, Nai Yong, we’ve been there before. Jao says Phi, his sister, hasbeen missing for a week but the cashier there said she was in three or fourdays ago with a group of six people. So, it’s now 3-4 days that she hasn’t beenseen, maybe next time we’ll find her.”

“Next time?” Duan asks.

“Jao won’t tell hisparents. Hang on, he said when we left Chinatown he was going to call them, sofor now, I won’t be helping unless he asks. I told him to keep coming toschool. He’s a very shy kid and he’s on his own. His mother lives in Chiang Maiand his father is on business in Singapore. I...I don’t want to leave him towork this out on his own.”

“It’s alright, Richard.Just don’t get too involved. His parents should be the one’s...”

“I might call,Sanasgarn.”

“I don’t think youshould.”

“I told you, Jao calledthe police. They said his sister is eighteen, nothing they can do, maybeSanasgarn can help.”

“Anything else?”

“Jao was talking toSaeng, one of Phi’s friends and they were speaking in English. He had his cellphone on speaker but she didn’t know that. Do you and Dao speak English whenI’m not around?”

“No, you’re right.Anything else, detective Moore?”

“Jao gave me a list offour friends only. Now, Jao is shy and for him four friends would seem aboutright but the concierge at his building said Phi was happy and outgoing. Thecashier at Nai Yong, she said Phi was always happy and smiling, easy torecognise. I don’t know about you but an eighteen year old girl who went to a goodschool, who has an allowance, who is outgoing and happy. It’d be more like alist of forty not four friends.”

“No,” Duan says, “Ithink you might go to big parties with a hundred people or to big nightclubs,like HIso people but not famous, but you still have only three or four closestfriends.”

“Yeah, that might beright. HIso, you told me, doesn’t matter. Jao hasn’t called his mother either.I had to practically drag it out of him that she lives in Chiang Mai, separatedfrom his father, who he also said, oh nothing. I should forget it, forget itall.” Richard lights another Mild Seven and Duan shakes her head and says,

“Put that out and cometo bed.” And he does.

And here is some Thai Pop Music

Video Bar is Back...New Search Engine...Yothu Yindi

2012-01-28T14:03:00.002+11:00

Another Gadget...

Video Bar is back...sponsored by Youtube and just below Archives to the left....this features 'Live Readings' of my work.

I have a new Search Engine sponsored by Google and it only searches this blogspot....

You can find it just below the Bangkok Time Announcement and above My Profile...yeah...to the left of this blogpost

As an example..Type in Tim Winton in the search engine and get links to three reviews of his books.

You could also type in...Blondie...and you might get something like a short history of the band or just type in idiot and see what happens...

And now, given the happenings on Australia Day...Yothu Yindi...TREATY!

Best Australian Stories 2011....Book Review (2)...Music from Do Re Me

2012-01-28T06:56:00.001+11:00

Continuing on from yesterday...

TheRoad to Nowhere...Russell King

This is a really funny story. The big retirementtrip in the ‘Willebago.’ Ray aka Raymondo is preparing for the long drive inthe Motorhome but things definitely do not go to plan. I simply don’t want tospoil the fun by giving anything away but Nambucca Heads in schoolies week is abig no no.

Shelter...KateRotherham

Young man with a mental illness. Hey, I can relateto that. His sister reminds him in a note to take his medication. Right on. Hehas the use of her fabulous house while she and hubby and the kids are away.The house is described almost in a sardonic manner by the young man, like it’sgreat staying there but how gauche. He goes back to the ‘shelter’ to eat. Thehomeless shelter where he keeps his head down and doesn’t say what he’sthinking. I didn’t really care about this guy even though I know his experiencewell.

StrawberryJam...Penny O’Hara

What a little furnace blast this is. Vey short andsharp and to the point. Frank’s going to explode. It has been building all day.He’s got a stall at some farmer’s market and sales are not good and he’sthinking about his wife who has cancer and this kid is annoying him and ohshit!

FiftyYears...Stephanie Buckle

I don’t think I’m capable of writing anything thisgood or maybe it’s the subject manner that I find intimidating. A dying wifeand mother who can’t express herself after having a stroke. The husband feelinguseless at her bedside. The daughter seeing her mother turn her eyes away andshe feels like her mother is saying about her husband,

“Can you believe the rubbish that comes out of hismouth?”

They were married for fifty years and the daughter sees her motheralmost pleading with her eyes to get her husband away, he’s driving her mad.The husband talks about the fiftieth wedding anniversary, friends make all theright noises and I really enjoyed reading this and what it does for me is tomotivate me to try writing about different subjects. I don’t want to take awayfrom this story though; it’s so well written and moving.

Do Re Mi...Man Overboard

The Best Australian Stories 2011...Book Review...Deborah Conway...Live

2012-01-27T01:03:00.000+11:00

I’m not going to reviewall the stories in this anthology, that would be crazy but I’m going to have ago at a fair few of them. So...some reviews today and some tomorrow.

Dutyof Care...Joanne Riccioni
Revenge is a dish bestserved cold. Indeed it is. We see the gentleness and kindness of a young Indiannurse. In contrast we see an overweight, over it, self centred femalenurse taking care of a dying man in a world where, ‘do not resuscitate forms’ arepart of the daily grind of the job. Butlucky nurse, she ends up caring for Mr B, a teacher who used to sadisticallycane her. Indeed it is.

Matter...MiriamSved
This is great. Veryunique. A cyclist gets knocked down in Inner city Melbourne. A footy legend,Ranga, feels compelled to help even though it seems he doesn’t really want to.It’s just if people see him not helping it’ll come out like, Ranga was therebut he did nothing. From this premise we move to pre-season footy training.There’s a new kid, ‘Mike or Mick’, a red head too, and the old Ranga is forcedinto a decision not unlike the one that he faced with the cyclist. Fantasticdescriptions of life, football and the universe. Loved it.

SpaceUnder the Sun...Liam Davidson

This is about a femaleIndian doctor, Sanghmitra, who comes to Australia with her son to so she canget further training and qualifications. She does this at the behest of herhusband. It’s made clear in this story that, Sanghmitra’s husband and in-lawsand her own parents believe that her becoming a doctor is far overshadowed bythe fact that she gave birth to a son. Her husband went to England earlier onto get extra qualifications in marketing and finance and he uses this knowledgeto set up clinics where the female patients can find out by ultrasoundwhether they are pregnant with a boy or girl and what they do with thisinformation is up to them. The inference I got was that if it was a girl theyabort the pregnancy and this is the moral dilemma that will face Sanghmitra whenshe returns to India. I’m not sure if I enjoyed it or not. I just presumed itwas well-researched or well thought out, one of the two, and it is a conundrumthat’s for sure and I did care and that’s the litmus test, am I right.

WhereThere’s Smoke...Chris Womersley

Is this guy the bestshort story writer going around or what! A fully mature woman, not an elf,found in the garden by a youngster kicking a football around (difficult anglefor goal). She tells him she knows he broke Mrs Miller’s window and he nearlyshits himself. Weird, wonderful and just bloody good stuff. I...nah, just readit.

EverybodyWins on Kid Planet...Nick Smith

This story is just socool. I reckon nearly everyone has seen the main character before and thatcharacter is a machine at a theme park and the humans are but mere mortals. Iwill say no more except the twenty year old uncle is surely the biggest kid ofthem all.

MoreTomorrow...and Oh, it's edited by Cate Kennedy.

Deborah Conway...It's Only the Beginning! Live!

And remember Bangkok Time every Wednesday...25/1/12 and Epsiode 3 on...1ST FEB

Bangkok Time...Episode Two...Music from The Beatles

2012-01-25T07:26:00.000+11:00

Richard calls, Duan,who works as a receptionist in a hotel. And he hears her say,

“A-roon-sa-was.”

“Good morning to youtoo,” Richard says.

“Hi, what are youdoing? I have to stay until 5pm.”

“I’m going to meet,Colin, you know the teacher from Perth.”

“You don’t even likehim.”

“I never said that, hecan be annoying but he’s alright. I miss talking about the football and cricket.”

“You and your boringcricket.”
“Anyway, I’ll probably be home before you.”

Richard walks down toSiam skytrain station from the school while smoking. The heat takes some of theenjoyment out of smoking, something to do with the humidity and the pollution;it’s already difficult to breathe but he can’t get his head around giving up.

...The apartment blockis five minutes walk from the station. In the foyer there’s a concierge in animpressive uniform and he greets Richard with a, ‘Good Morning, Sir,’ andRichard asks him about finding Jao, he can’t think of his surname but theconcierge knows who he means and calls Jao and then gives Richard directions.Up the lift to the tenth floor. Asok is only one stop from Nana but Richardcan’t see Jao at the bars in Nana and he thinks of that ridiculous cliché, it’sthe quiet one you have to worry about. He rings the doorbell and Jao smiles andlets him in. The apartment is huge with massive cream coloured lounge suitesand two big black leather armchairs. In the middle of the room is a big,circular, glass coffee table and off to the left, a dining table for six withhardwood chairs and the kitchen shines bright and large and Richard sees acoffee machine—the full espresso deal and he moves into the kitchen and Jaohasn’t spoken and it’s all stainless steel bench tops, one marble cuttingboard, incredible looking near new oven and Richard turns and smiles and saysin his understated, Australian way,

“Not bad, Jao.” Jao’snot sure what to say now, so Richard says,

“Why don’t you make mea coffee? Can you use that thing?”Now Jaolaughs and says, ‘please sit down, I’ll turn the air conditioner on.’ Richardgoes to an armchair and he sinks in what feels like two feet of cushion andsmiles at the damn comfort of the thing. Lights a cigarette as Jao goes to workon the coffee. He brings a perfect looking latte over to Richard, who says,

“Not looking for aflatmate are you?” And he’s been seduced by the apartment and forgotten whyhe’s here but Jao’s expression brings him back.

“Sorry, that was badtaste. Now, let’s get down to business. See how we can find your sister, if shewants to be found.” Jao smiles nervously and says,

“I made a list of herfriends, her close friends, only the ones who have been to thisapartment.” He hands the four names on apiece of paper to, Richard.

Two of the names herecognises as Thai, girls names, and the other two are English, Andy and Vincent.The Thai girls have surnames but not the guys.

“How does she knowthese western guys, which one is her boyfriend?”

“She doesn’t have aboyfriend and those two boys are Chinese, they just have western names.”Richard knows Jao told him he did have a boyfriend but decides not to sayanything. See what else he may lie about. The guys are, Andy and Vincent. TheThai girls have surnames but not the guys.

“You don’t have theirsurnames?”

“No. I know their cellphone numbers though and also the building where they live."

“What exactly, have youdone to find her, Jao? Apart from calling the police, can you let me know whatyou’ve done? And what is her name.

“Her name is, Phi. Itold you I called her other friends, not these four. I tried but can only leavemessages. These four are her best friends.”

“Not a boyfriend?”

“No” Jao says, "noboyfriend.” Richard doesn’t say anything again, just smokes and rinks hiscoffee. Neither of them says anything for a few minutes and then Richard says,

“Call these four, now,while I’m here and if you can’t contact them, then call your father, there’s noother option. Where is he, anyway?”

“He’s in Singapore onbusiness and he has his own apartment near Chinatown.”

“Jao, that’s a Thainame?”

“Yes.”

“But you’re telling meyour father lives in Singapore. Is he Chinese/Thai?”

“No, he lives here inThailand but does a lot of business in Singapore and yes, he’s Chinese/Thai.

“I’m confused but callthese four people and if you can’t get them, we’ll go and check where sheusually hangs out. You must know where she goes.”

“She has a favourite restaurantin Chinatown and she shops at Siam and she does go to a bar on Khao San Rd.”

“Now, you’re talking.Call these people, Jao. And he calls the guys and puts his phone on speaker andboth calls go to voicemail. He calls the girls and the second call goes throughand Saeng answers,

“Hello.”

“Hi,” he says quietly,“this is Jao.”

“Hi, Jao, what are youcalling me for? Phi isn’t with me.” Jao looks at Richard and Richard nods and Jaosays,
“I can’t find her."She hasn’t been home for a week. Do you know where sheis?”

“No, I’ve been inChiang Mai. I had a holiday and only got back, yesterday. What do you mean, youcan’t find her?”

“She hasn’t been home.”

“She’s not like that.Did you call Orapan?”

“Just now, it went to voicemail.Could she be with her for a whole week?”

“Yes, easily. Did youhave a fight with her?” Richard wonders why they’re talking in English.

“No” Jao says and hesighs like it’s all getting a bit too much.

“Don’t worry. Trycalling your father. She’ll be alright. I have to go. I’m back at work now.Call me later.”

Jao looks at Richard, who shrugs and says,

“Let’s go to that restaurant in Chinatown andstart looking.” Jao nods and sighs deeply again. He’s stressed right out and hesays,

“I think I’m going tocall my father now, do you mind waiting downstairs.” Richard doesn’t mind andhe lets himself out and goes down the lift to the foyer. He asks the concierge,

“Have you worked herevery long?”

“For five years.”

“Do you speak to Jaoand his sister, Phi?”

“Yes, he’s very shy butPhi is a wonderful girl, very happy.”

“Have you seen her inthe past week?” Richard asks.

“Not lately, maybe,five, six days ago. She came home very late, 3 or 4am, and then went straightback out fifteen minutes later. She didn’t say anything; she was in a bighurry.”

“Uh, huh, alright, thanks.”Richard puts this together with the lie about Phi not having a boyfriend andwonders why. The concierge could be wrong; five or six days or a week, not muchdifference but these guys see everything. Jao could just be stressed and makingmistakes, five or six days could easily be a week. He sits and waits and Jaocomes down in five minutes. Jao is thin with jet black hair and he’s wearing awhite short sleeved shirt and blue chinos with sandals on his feet. Hisfeatures are more Eurasian, not really traditional Chinese looking. Perhaps hismother? Richard thinks and makes amental note to ask him about the unmentioned mother. Jao says,

“I couldn’t contact myfather, so let’s go to the restaurant.” Richard is beginning to doubt Jao moreand more but nods and follows him out the door.

There’s a tuk tukwaiting so they get it instead of a taxi and Richard’s still enjoys the crazyrides, the novelty hasn’t won off. Thedriver smiles and they agree on 50baht but Richard gives him 100baht and offthey go.

It’s too noisy to speak and Richard’s startingto regret coming, maybe the whole thing is a wild goose chase. Richard’s prettyfamiliar with Chinatown. He and Duan and her friend, Dao, they often go to eatthere. Richard likes food stalls but the two local Thai girls go more forrestaurants. Dao was engaged to a really nice Thai guy but he flipped out aftergetting a yaa baa habit. It only took about three months and he was dead, notthrough the drugs, shot by some mad dealer he’d got involved with. The three ofthem never talk about it, it never happened. Richard wonders if Jao can raisehis voice loud enough to direct the tuk tuk driver but he simply taps him onthe shoulder and points. They get out on Yaowarat Rd, in the middle of the longcurving road and Jao touches his hand and leads him to Nai Yong, a Thairestaurant, not open.

The Beatles....Paperback Writer

Search This Blog...NEW GADGET!!...and Barracuda!

2012-01-24T13:29:00.000+11:00

Good Afternoon,

Announcing a new gadget to this blog.

A search engine for blog posts on this blog.

It's just under the Bangkok Time announcement and above my profile. Just to the left here.

As you know I review books and films, maybe you're looking for a DVD review...just type it into the search engine and it will give you the link to the blog post.

Try it by typing in JAMES MANGOLD and you'll get a review of Walk the Line and an article on James Mangold.

And because I made you read this, type in Edwyn Collins and you'll get a link to his music clip, I Never Met a Girl Like You Before.

And if you want to follow online novel Bangkok Baby it will give you the links to all the episodes!

AND TOMORROW...EPISODE TWO of BANGKOK TIME. And now if you miss an episode you can ...yeah...type in Bangkok Time and get all the episodes!

How cool is that!

And now music from...Heart with Barracuda

A Good Year...DVD Review

2012-01-22T08:35:00.000+11:00

Ridley Scott andRussell Crowe team up again. This time in a romantic comedy set in England andFrance. I have to say I was a bit wary. Russel Crowe in a romantic comedy didn’tquite fit somehow and early on he has some scenes where he’s kind of goofingoff an and he gets trapped in an empty swimming pool and there’s some slapsticktype stuff and I though oh no and then I thought nah, this is cool, just gowith the flow. It’s not going to win an Oscar but that’s not the point. It’s afeel good movie and it made feel good.

At the very beginning wefind Crowe in a stockbroker’s office leading his fellow brokers and callingthem lab rats, something they appeared to like as he was making them all richand then his uncle dies and leaves him the villa in France and the movie isabout watching him change. Watching him learn to relax and stop working 24-7and being an asshole. And I have to say one thing of interest in this film iswho says arsehole and asshole and bum or whatever. Crowe, as the Englishmansays arse, the French guy who looks after his vineyard says asshole and anEnglish mate of Crowe’s, a real-estate agent, says, bum. I always liked assholemyself, so much more descriptive I feel.

Oh, also, Australian actress, AbbieCornish (with the bum in question) turns up and does a damn fine acting job asthe mystery American daughter of Albert Finney (dead uncle) and therefore claiming the house andshe says, asshole, by the way. She calls Crowe cuz though, as in cousin, and Ithought hmm, maybe that’s an Aussie thing?

The love interest isplayed by French actress, Marion Cottillard and she’s very sexy but real anddown to earth and in the end it was really nice to see Russel Crowe as this ‘lostin love’ guy and it is rather romantic and feel good and well, nice.

AlbertFinney, in flashbacks, is the dead uncle who leaves Crowe the estate and heplays him as an old Casanova wine freak and all round great uncle to the young Crowe.

I do have one complaint and that is themusic, the soundtrack, it’s truly awful but maybe it’s on purpose. I mean doyou put a French cabaret version of Jimmy Hendrix’s, ‘Hey Joe’ in a filmexpecting people to like it and there’s some other really bad music but that’sa small complaint and get yourself along to your local DVD or video store and rentit out.

Oh, and derriere gets a mention too.

And here is the trailer for A Good Year

The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy...Book Review

2012-01-20T06:43:00.000+11:00

This is a wonderfullyrical book full of beautiful language but it’s also coarse and a littlerisqué and best of all, it’s hilarious. Nothing or no-one is sacred: notCatholics or Protestants; nor yanks or the Irish. The English also get it rightbetween the eyes and Donleavy does it with verve and utter delight through themost wonderful main character. The madman; the one and only, SebastianDangerfield.

Surely this book wasthe inspiration for the film, ‘Withnail and I’, or at the very least that filmowes a nod in the direction of, The Ginger Man. Except this book is far betterand much funnier. Throw in some exhilarating stream of consciousness and theoddest punctuation and as the Irish say, this is great craic (crack). It’s bloodybrilliant. Read on!

We meet Dangerfield inthe pub with his friend, O’Keefe, a shocking man who sometimes goes under thepseudonym of the, Duke of Serutan (Hunter S. Thompson anyone?). They’re sittingon stools talking and O’Keefe says,

“First. I broke my asswashing my underwear and in those damn rooms at Trinity nothing will dry...Backat Harvard I could nip into a tiled shower and dive into nice clean underwear.”These two, O’Keefe and Dangerfield, are students at Trinity but they hardlyever go there and both of them are in their late twenties. O’Keefe isn’t thebest looking man in the world. Only one working eye and Dangerfield is quitethe dandy but rough too, a contradiction. They’re both always broke and at thisstage Sebastian is married but his wife and baby are away. Dangerfield obtainscredit from the local shop in Balscaddoon and buys up big with alcohol and achook to cook and it’s post World War Two, though I’m not sure exactly when.The two of them retreat to Dangerfield’s wreck of a house that has a wild animal(feral cat) in the ceiling and they drink themselves stupid. This is a patternfor Dangerfield as is promiscuity.

Dangerfield makes ahabit of pawning everything in sight when he has no money and dresses himselfin odd way to keep up appearances, for instance he chops an old blue rug up towear as a scarf and tells O’Keefe,

“Put this around theneck like this, tuck in the ragged edges and presto. I’m now wearing Trinity’srowing blue.”

O’Keefe disappearsafter taking on the feral cat and losing and Dangerfield’s wife comes home andfinds nothing in the house to eat, the milk money spent and Dangerfield lyingprostrate on the kitchen table. They are forced to move because he’s rung up somuch credit around the place and they move to a dump of a house back in Dublin. Ijust want to quote from the first few lines of chapter five because Donleavyhas this great knack of setting up a situation and I’m not describing that aswell as I should, it’s just simply beautiful description.

Springwarmed into summer. In Stephen’s Green, actors were sitting in three pennychairs getting a bit of tan. Here there are great rings of flowers and duckssliding around the sky. And citizens riding the late trams to Dalkey for aswim. On this June morning, Dangerfield came in the front gate of Trinity andwent up the dusty rickety stairs of no. 3 where he stood by the drippingrust-stained sink and banged on O’Keefe’s door.

I mentioned the oddpunctuation at times and Donleavy also switches between first and third personand he also doesn’t write, ‘Oh’, but uses ‘O’. For instance something like,

“O, he went to theshop.” And I like it and I’m sure it’s perfectly acceptable and grammaticallycorrect.

Dangerfield cheats on his wife, destroys thenew rented house and screws, Miss Frost, the boarder, he and his wife rentedthe extra room out to. His wife leaves him and takes the baby and old Sebastianhe doesn’t miss a beat and he nearly destroys a pub one night when he goes on abender, taking on all comers in a fight and somehow escaping. This is the man,Sebastian Dangerfield, he just manages to get out of real trouble at the righttime. His dead beat friends are also a joy and Donleavy also writes of howstrange Ireland seems to the American, Dangerfield. Chemists want to throw himout of their shops for asking to buy condoms and Miss Frost who commitsadultery with Sebastian is petrified that the priest will find out. Shecommitted adultery once before and the priest, in the confessional, made hertell him who the man was and there was hell to pay. Donleavy at times, writesscathingly of the Irish and Ireland but you can also tell that he loves Irelandand the people and how does he do that. I don’t know he just does.

And just when you thinkSebastian is a total waste of a man he tells the reader something wonderful or lends one of his friends a pound when he really can’tafford it and he treats women badly but this passage from the book, maybe itsums up why he is the way he is. He’s taking about a girl he loved back inAmerica when he was much younger.

Ginnylaughed and laughed, white saliva on her teeth lighting up the deep red of hermouth, fed the finest food in the world. Ginny was afraid of nothing. She wasyoung and old. Her brown arms and legs swinging in wild optimism, beautiful inall their parts. She danced on the hood of her crimson Cadillac, and watchingher, I thought that God must be female. She leapt into my arms and knocked me downand screamed into my mouth. Heads pressed in the hot Indiana soil and pinned melike a cross. A crow cawed into the white sun and my sperm spurted into theworld.

And then this.

Ginnyhad driven her long Cadillac through the guard rails of a St Louis bridge and her car shone like aclot of blood in the mud and murk of the Mississippi. We were all there in thesummer silence of Suffolk, Virginia, when the copper casket was gently placedin the cool marble vault. I smoked a cigarette and crushed it out on the blackand white squares of the tomb.

And I could go on andon but I won’t. In fact I’ll leave the last word on this book to J.P Donleavyhimself.

Iset out one June near the sea in Co. Wicklow, Ireland, to write a splendid bookno one would ever forget. I knew then that the years would come and go and thebook would live. It has taken more years that I could ever imagined and morebattles than I ever felt I’d have to fight but the fist I shook and the rage Ispent has at last blossomed and before it should fade I’d like to say that I amglad.

U2...The Sweetest Thing

Bangkok Time...Episode 1

2012-01-18T06:46:00.000+11:00

To begin I just want to say that I have been to Bangkok twice and both times I had a brilliant time. I have never had anything to do with the Thai Police and all references to them in this novella are fictitious and I have never encountered any, nor do I have any knowledge of corruption in the Thai Police Force. And if you haven't been to Bangkok you must go...at least once.

Please see the copyright notice below.
1

“Richard, the schoolrang, they want you to ring them. I think they want you to cover for anotherteacher.”

“Thanks Duan. Did Itell you I ran into Detective Sanasgarn, yesterday?

“No, what did he say?”

“He was friendly enoughbut you remember what he was like. You say something to him and he doesn’treply for a while and you wonder what’s going on and then he finally talks. I’mstill a westerner I guess because Thai police still scare the hell out of me. Ican’t get the Bangkok Hilton out of my head and we went through a lot withhim...and he has all that information about us.”

Richard Moore kissesDuan goodbye after calling the English Language School where he works. He hasto take two extra classes. Colin, another Australian, called in sick. Somethinghe does on a regular basis. Richard teaches boys only, a blessing. They’re allextremely diligent. So diligent it drives Richard a little crazy. He has to beso prepared. By the time they graduate they’ll be speaking and reading Englishto the same standard as most western children who have completed twelve yearsof schooling and they cram it all in, in three years.

At the end of the lastclass of the day, Jao approaches him in the hallway and says,

“Mr Moore, I have aproblem.”

“What is it, Jao?”

“I can’t come toclasses anymore.”

“Why?”

“My sister has gonemissing.”

“Gone missing?”

“My father works a lot.He bought my sister and me an apartment near Asok skytrain station. She hasn’tbeen home for a week. She has a boyfriend but he told me he hasn’t seen her. Icalled the police and...And they told me they can’t look for her because she’seighteen, an adult.”

Richard looks into Jao’sface and sees the worry is real but the girl is eighteen and he asks him,

“Does she have accessto money? Does she work?”

“My father gives bothof us a good allowance. She doesn’t have to work...I feel like I have to searchfor her.”

“Her cell phone, haveyou tried, I mean obviously you have but what happened?”

“It doesn’t ring. Nomessages, nothing.”

“Can you tell me truthfullywhere you think she might be? Is she a party girl? A drinker?”

“Not really.”

Richard can’t think ofanything else to say. An image of Detective Sanasgarn goes through his mind buthe also thinks, a week for an eighteen year old girl in Thailand. One who hasaccess to money and then he asks the most obvious question.

“Have you told yourfather?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Jao looksdown and whispers,

“I’m supposed to belooking out for her.”

“You’re younger thanshe is?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“So, your father, he’sstill paying her allowance.”

“Yes.” Richard thinksabout it some more and says,

“Try and not thinkabout it too much. A week isn’t so long but you have to tell your father. Keepcoming to classes, it’ll keep you occupied and you know what, tomorrow afterclass I’ll go with you. We can check all the places she usually goes, contactall her friends, deal?”

“Deal and thanks, MrMoore.”

Richard catches a taxihome from Siam, gets caught in traffic, which is standard operating procedurehere in Bangkok.

He carries a book with him at all times, never drives himselfand tries to engage the taxi drivers in conversation but the English teachercan only speak in halting Thai but most taxi drivers, most Thai people ingeneral, see he’s trying and they smile and wait patiently for him to get outthe words and he still carries a notebook with Thai words and expressions. Duanstill calls him a tourist.

At home he explains to Duan about Jao and shesays,

“You didn’t promiseanything did you?”

“I...I said I’d helphim look for her.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s seventeenand he hasn’t told his father, so, I told him to make contact with his fatherand that’ll be it hopefully.”

“Hopefully,” Duan says.

Richard doesn’t say anything more to Duanabout it but it occupies his thoughts all evening. They watch a movie togetherbut he can’t concentrate. If he was Jao’s father he’d stop her allowance,that’d bring her home but maybe there’s more to it. Did Jao have a fight withher? Even for an eighteen year old, a week is a long time and the city ofangels is full of troubles as is every big city. Duan knows the look on hisface and she doesn’t like it. She can see Richard’s trying to work it out andshe gives up and goes to bed and Richard goes out into their tiny courtyard andsmokes cigarettes and thinks about...what is her name?

Richard only has threeclasses in the morning and Jao didn’t show up. He calls him at 1pm,

“Hello.”

“Jao, this is RichardMoore from school, you didn’t turn up.”

“I...I’m worried. Ican’t tell my father.”

“Do you want to meet?” Jaodoesn’t talk. Richard hears him inhale and exhale and he asks again,

“Do you want to meet?Are your friends helping you?”

“No...I mean, yes, canI meet you and no, not my friends, I’m doing it alone.” Jao gives Richard theaddress and says,

“Just get the skytrain to Asok.” Richard hangs up and wonders whether he needs to get into this thing.After the trouble that crazy American woman put him through—the drug deals andthe extra crazy ex-CIA guy, who still roams free in Thailand. This isdifferent, Jao is a good student and shy to nearly the point of it beingdebilitating. What could happen?

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Most episodes won't be this long...1000 words mostly...next EPISODE on Wednesday...25/1/12

novel extract...Falling Star..extract...Yothu Yindi

2012-01-17T08:02:00.004+11:00

EXTRACT

“Let’s go out,” shesays, “please.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know, Jackson.You get boring sometimes. I love you but you could easily stay at hometwenty-four hours a day with your writing and music and films and books. Andnow you’re like a fifty year old guy doing power walking on the beachfront.”And she laughs at this and I know she’s taking my mind away from all the Ronnystuff.”

“A fifty year old powerwalker, huh?”

“Worse, more like asixty year old dude.” And she laughs again.

“Alright, where? To dowhat? When?”

“Now. To the Espy toplay pool and get drunk.” It does sound good.

“I’m one hundredpercent with that.” I say and get up, “c’mon, let’s go then. Maybe we can scoresome grass later.” And as walk out the front door, Katrina rings me.

“Hey, what are youdoing? Me and Alicia want to catch up with you.”

“About to play pool atthe Espy. Meet us there in twenty minutes?”

“Who are you with?”

“Sarah.”

“Um, alright. See you in twenty minutes.”

“Alicia and Katrina arecoming.”

“Well, you don’t see me getting upset, do you?” She says andlaughs.

Katrina and I againstSarah and Alicia in the doubles tournament to end all tournaments. Katrina andI lead three games to one but my girlfriend is shooting the lights out in thisgame.

She lines up the eight ball and hammers it home. Looks at me and says,

“Here we come. We’recoming for you.” Katrina laughs and mumbles something I can’t make out andAlicia says,

“She’s right, three allcoming up.” Sarah’s mobile phone rings and it’s Ronny, again. She tells himwhere we are and I just shrug at her and say,

“Cool.” They do win thenext game and we all take a break. A now rainy Tuesday afternoon means the pubis pretty empty, we can take a break and not lose the table. I go to the barand on the way back Ronny walks straight by me without saying hello. I see himtalking to Sarah and she’s shaking her head and when I reach them she says,

“Alright, just give mea second.” And I know what she’s going to say to me.

“I have to go.” shesays.

“Go where?” I ask herand feel Katrina and Alicia’s hot looks on my back.

“Our friend, Angelo.He’s in trouble.”

“What do you mean? Ourfriend, Angelo. You’ve never mentioned him ever before.” I tell her.

“Before your time.” Shesays and it stings me.

“Go...go.” I say. “Noneof my fucking business, right.” And they leave and I turn to Katrina and Aliciaand shrug again. What the hell can I do about it?

“Let’s keep playing,”Katrina says, “American doubles. Me and Jackson versus the ex-girlfriend.” Andit brings a smile to my face and I take a big gulp of my ice cold CarltonDraught and nod my head.

“I’m getting drunk.” Isay. So much for the sixty year old power walking dude.

“That’s the spirit!”Katrina says and laughs and Alicia breaks and pots the thirteen. It’s not goingto be easy.

We drink like fish fortwo hours and I don’t hear from Sarah. Nobody knows the finals score. We keepstopping and changing partners while singing along to our juke box selectionsand got out into the beer garden during a break in the rain and smoked a joint.We’re sitting down talking at a table when Alicia’s Ben Harper boyfriend callsher and she says her goodbyes and takes off. Katrina and I have a few morebeers and one final game of pool and she says,

“Do you want to come back to my place?”

Yothu Yindi...Djapana: Sunset Dreaming

IT ALL STARTS TOMORROW...BANGKOK TIME

short story extract...Talking...extract...Music from I'm Talking

2012-01-13T06:58:00.002+11:00

Vicky sits staring out the window as all forms of life go past; human,ghosts, spirits and reincarnated dungbeetles. She adds that last one to her thoughts for some amusement andbecause she may half believe it. That would be some guy, the reincarnated dungbeetle that is, in his fifth reincarnation since he walked around some palacein England with a big codpiece, wearing girl’s tights etc. Where and how doesher mind come up with this stuff?

The Gypsy Bar onBrunswick St, circa 1998, that’s where she’s at. Vicky looks at the girl behindthe bar at 10.00am on this possible changing day. The barmaid is skittlingalong, cleaning glasses, emptying ashtrays. She has long, thick, rope-like,dark brown hair pulled back high on her forehead and tied with a bright purpleribbon between her shoulder blades. Luscious, Vicky thinks. The barmaid is anex-private school girl, light tan, big shiny bright white teeth. She wearsblack socks under little black elf boots, lacy black panties under black tightski pants, black cashmere sweater. Yes, cashmere, private school. Vicky thinksthat she’s impossibly good looking and the way she smiles at her manager andthe guy eating poached eggs just along from Vicky, means she’s also impossiblyhappy. Vicky wants to be impossibly happy. You won’t be allowed to smoke incafes soon. What the hell will she do?

Ethan just got offthe 86 tram at the corner of Gertrude St and Brunswick St. What’s he here for?He got the train from Richmond station, got off at Parliament because he wantedto have a coffee at The European. It’s a Melbourne institution. When he gotthere he saw that everyone drinking coffee and eating seemed happy and relaxedand let’s face it, rather well off. Today, they were too happy and he justcouldn't see himself sitting there.

He turned back andwalked to Burke St. The 86 tram was there so he got on. He thought aboutgetting off at Carlton Gardens because it’s autumn and it looked, ‘quiet walkwith take-away coffee’ inviting. He didn’t. Smith St. Lots of different typesof people he can look at while he drinks tea or coffee or eats or all three. Hegets off at the corner of Gertrude St and Brunswick St, lights a cigarette andstarts walking away from the city down Brunswick St towards the Gypsy Bar.

He walksinto the Gypsy Bar just as Addy gets up to pay the luscious barmaid. Ethanlooks at Addy not Miss Luscious. Attractive like Juliette Lewis but she’sshorter, kooky clothes she’s got on. All that colour. Addy pays, smiles atEthan and doesn’t register that he’s checking her out. Half brushes past himand opens the door to bright sunlight but feels cold as the wind picks up.Ethan is right about the colour, even her beanie is orange. Weird kind of greenknitted tights/pants, with a striped sailor top and a blue cardie. Maybe she’sall Molly Ringwald-retro-eighties or maybe she just didn’t care this morning.She turns and walks, looking at Ethan sitting in the window and he’s smoking. He smiles and puts his hand on the glass, she gives him alittle wave, almost checks her stride but keeps walking. Wow. She’s wackythinks Ethan and shakes his head but smiles too. Barmaid Luscious asks him ifhe wants to eat too. ‘Just an ashtray and my coffee.’ He says.

I'm Talking...Featuring Zan

Bangkok Time is coming....Music from ELO

2012-01-09T11:31:00.004+11:00

Bangkok Time...the sequel to Bangkok Baby...is coming in one to two weeks.

Here is another extract....

Sanasgarn takes the armof Benjamin Lee,

“Mr Lee?”

“Yes.”

“Come this way.”Sanasgarn leads them upstairs and he stops outside a paint peeling white door,unlocks and says,

“Please,” and motionswith his hand for them to go in. Lee and Logan walk into the room and sit attwo black, plastic chairs, obviously placed there for them. Sanasgarn takes hisseat behind the desk, a rusted air-conditioner, stuck into the wall, barelycranks out cold air and both parties say nothing. Benjamin Lee begins to talkbut Sanasgarn puts up his small hand and he stops what Lee was about to say andsays,

“I‘ll look at the case.I won’t spend a lot of time on it, sorry. I’ll interview your son and yourdaughter’s close friends. Check her usual hang outs, try and locate her. Nomore.”

“That’s a start atleast,” Benjamin Lee says.

“That’s all I can do. Ineed to explain to my superiors, I’m only a lowly detective, why I’m spending timeon this case when the girl is eighteen. Of course I can see the concern in yourfaces that’s why I’m doing this small investigation for you and my hope is wecan find her.” Areya Sanasgarn leans back in his chair, seemingly exhausted bythe small speech he’s made.

“Thank you, detective,”Orchara Logan says, “Can we do anything to help, anything at all.” Sanasgarnsays nothing.

“Detective, please...”Benjamin Lee says.

“Please allow me tospeak in my own time, Mr Lee. I work on Bangkok time, my time, and I find ithelps not to rush into life at full speed, one needs to take a deep breath toexamine all the possibilities.” Mr Benjamin Lee is sweating profusely in thishot little room and he stands up and opens the door behind him and says,

“I’m sorry, that aircon barely works and the air is stale I can’t...come Orchara let’s go.” Orcharaflinches at his request, still ordering him around but gets up and says todetective Sanasgarn.

“Thank you, detective.Should we bring our son to see you?”

“I’ll make allenquiries in my own time, thank you, Mrs Logan.” And Sanasgarn gets up and thetwo parents leave and walk down the stairs past the now bustling with activity,front desk, and emerge into the overcast, heat and humidity of Bangkok andBenjamin Lee and Orchara Logan take separate taxis.

***

Detective Sanasgarnwalks into the reception area of Jao’s building on Soi 19. The concierge isnowhere to be seen but he knows to take the lift to the tenth floor. When JaoLee leads him into his apartment the detective can’t help but feel a twinge ofjealousy as he thinks of his own small apartment. He’ll ask Buddha for help onthat one.

“Can I have a list ofPhi’s close friends,” Sanasgarn asks Jao and hands him a pen and a littlenotebook open on an empty lined page. Their phones numbers and addresses too ifyou have them.?” Jao writes out the same four names that he gave, Richard Moorewith the cell phone numbers and the names and addresses of the buildings theylive in and hands it back. The detective reads the information and then asks,

“You don’t know whereyour sister is?”

“No.”

“Why did you wait aweek to report her missing? She’s a good girl. At the most in the past shemight stay at her friend (he looks at the list) Saeng’s place for two nightswithout telling you. Am I correct?”

“Yes.”

“So, where is she?”

“I...I don’t know.”

“I believe you, Jao. Ithink your sister Phi has found love and will be back or she may never comeback, that’s the truth of it.” Jao doesn’t know what to say he just looks up atthe ceiling and then he says,

“You think she’s dead?”

Music from...Electric Light Orchestra

COMING SOON....INTERVIEW WITH THE EDITOR!

Want to know how to get your short story published in a literary magazine?

An interview with David Gilbey...editor of FourW...21...SOON

CACTUS...DVD Review...and My Reading

2012-01-08T17:03:00.002+11:00

Cactus is the firstfeature film for writer/director, Jasmine Yuen-Carrucan and what a good job shedid. Outback thrillers aren’t exactly new to Australians. The landscape isfamiliar to them but Yuen-Carrucan has put a whole new twist on it.

Travis McMahon (we don’tlearn his name) is terrific as the put upon guy who kidnaps David Lyons as Eliand takes him to the outback where he is to be delivered to we don’t know whom.A cop, Brian Brown as Roscoe, stops Travis McMahon after he nearly ran off theroad and he warns him that he’s caught him in a good mood.

He begins giving up smokingthe next day to please his wife and he won’t be a nice person to be around. So,we have the warning.

The film starts in Sydney, I recognised thenight time skyline but it could be any city. We see Eli slammed around andshoved into the boot of car and given an injection of something or other. We seethe odometer of the car wound back to zero and we don’t meet Eli again until hewakes up in the back of the car in the outback and the odometer reads something like two thousand miles on the Ford GTS.

The soil is red/ochre in colourand the director gives us big, long, clean shots of the outback. A moonscape ifyou are unfamiliar with this part of the world and we have the set-up. Why didTravis McMahon kidnap him and who is he delivering him to and for what purpose?

David Lyons is an actorI haven’t seen before and he’s terrific as Eli. He’s a gambler and he keepsgoading McMahon’s character, trying to get any kind of information he can out ofhim. He doesn’t know who wants him or why but he knows the end is coming. Allthe same he’s a smart arse and I kind of hoped he was going to get what hedeserved. As mentioned ,McMahon drives a GTS Ford and Eli gives him shit about it and we seeMcMahon’s character lose his cool for the first time when he says,
“Better than your baby blue, Beamer, poofta mobeel.” And that’s how he said it,‘mobeel’. I mention it because the brand of car you drive makes a bigdifference in this part of the country.

If I’m making it soundstraight forward it isn’t and I mean that in the best way. You’re never quitesure what’s going to happen but this is tough country out here. An eye for aneye and that’s how it plays out and we find out the real reason why McMahon isdoing this strange thing and it changes the complexion of the film. It altersEli’s view of him and gives the film a real heart.

At the second lastscene I thought, and I’m not giving it away, I thought, oh this would be a coolway to end the film and it looks like it will but I have to absolutely agreewith the director as she takes us to onelast scene in the suburbs of Sydney.

Brian Brown istypically excellent as the outback cop, Roscoe and Shane Jacobsen turns up as atruckie who changes the shape of the film. Brown also acted as ExecutiveProducer. For a slightly different perspective, Andrew Urban from film website,Urbancinefile wrote,

Thefilm is flawed in parts, sagging about the hour mark and with minor mistakesand some lack of experience, but they are not flaws that bite into the film's overallsuccess - even though the screenplay doesn't stack up to probing logicalanalysis. It has great 'feel'.

I didn’t really see anyglaring faults in ‘Cactus’. I just sat back and enjoyed the ride

And here is the trailer for...Cactus

What am I reading?

I'm getting into, 'Best Australian Stories', edited by the talented, Cate Kenendy. Also I just received Wetink, Issue 25, and it's as cool as ever and I've been dipping into the wonderful and at times, filthy, 'The Ginger Man', by the great, J P Donleavy. Look out for reviews of these books.

Oh, and I read the screenplay to, 'Sex Lies and Videotape'. I started reading and just couldn't put it down. Read it in an hour and thirty minutes and loved it. I was fascinated by how the ideas in the screenplay ended up in the finished film. Just the opening was wonderful, when Graeme (James Spader) drives into town. The one key and the way he's dressed and...it was really cool.

new extract...Mesmerise...new extract...Music from Emerson, Lake and Palmer

2012-01-07T07:21:00.001+11:00

...Gus is preparingCameron for the fight. They’re in the change rooms at the North Melbourne TownHall. He’s taping his hands and he’s about to give him his last minuteinstructions.

“Remember when yousparred with Manny in the gym and he turned southpaw on you?”

“Yeah, you’ve had mepractising that move to mix it up but you said not...”

“I know what I said butthis is it, if he starts getting difficult to handle then you change it up,start jabbing with your right and feint and jab. Your right is your best shotat the moment, you keep hitting him with jabs that bomb and he’s gonna getfrustrated but don’t overuse it, in fact don’t use it at all unless you haveto, it’s a change up, You got it, Cameron.” Gus puts on his gloves and ties themand says,

“C’mon dance around abit, kid. Let’s get moving, that’s your thing, you move all the time and youmesmerise him with that feint, orthodox or southpaw. Don’t give him a sniff.Check his punching power on the jab, if you can take a few jabs and it givesyou the knockout punch then do it. No more talk, no more instructions. Youwin.”

The ring announcermakes the call and there’s a few ex-champs in the front row to see what all thefuss is about and Robert Norton is there to check on his investment and so isElla Milford. Sally can’t watch his fights, she came to one fight but shecouldn’t stand it. The boxers touch hands and the referee examines the glovesand says, ‘fair fight’. They go to their corner and the bell rings and theycome at each other.

Simpson moves in closeand Cameron throws out a couple of left jabs and one of them hits and Simpsoncomes inside the other one but he can’t land a punch so he clinches and he headbutts Cameron and the referee yells ‘break’ and Simpson won’t let go and thereferee yells, ‘break’ again and they separate. Cameron doesn’t lose his coolbut he takes up Gus’s advice straight away and takes a southpaw stance and hefeints with his leading right hand and Simpson straight away can’t work outwhat happened and those right jabs hurt, they’re sledgehammers and Simpson getsrocked a bit and Cameron feints with the right, swirling it in front of Simpsonand Simpson loses control and throws a couple of haymaker bombs and putshimself off balance and boom! Cameron hits him with a left uppercut followed bya straight right cross and the boy goes down and the referee moves in andstarts the count. Simpson is knocked around but he gets to his feet only forhis legs to turn to jelly and the referee says, ‘ten’ and the fight is over.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer...Fanfare for the Common Man...Nine Minute 70's Epic

Bangkok Time...Coming Soon

2012-01-04T18:33:00.002+11:00

Bangkok Time...the sequel to Bangkok Baby...coming in two to three weeks.

Here is an extract....

Bangkok Time

...The apartment blockis five minutes walk from the station. In the foyer there’s a concierge in animpressive uniform and he greets Richard with a, ‘Good Morning, Sir,’ andRichard asks him about finding Jao, he can’t think of his surname but theconcierge knows who he means and calls Jao and then gives Richard directions.Up the lift to the tenth floor. Asoke is only one stop from Nana but Richardcan’t see Jao at the bars in Nana and he thinks of that ridiculous cliché, it’sthe quiet ones you have to worry about. He rings the doorbell and Jao smiles andlets him in. The apartment is huge with massive cream coloured lounge suitesand two big black leather armchairs. In the middle of the room is a big,circular, glass coffee table and off to the left, a dining table for six withhardwood chairs and the kitchen shines bright and large and Richard sees acoffee machine—the full espresso deal and he moves into the kitchen and Jaohasn’t spoken and it’s all stainless steel bench tops, a wooden cuttingboard, a new, modern oven and Richard turns and smiles and saysin his understated, Australian way,

“Not bad, Jao.” Jao’snot sure what to say now, so Richard says,

“Why don’t you make mea coffee? Can you use that thing?”Now Jaolaughs and says, 'please sit down, I’ll turn the air conditioner on.' Richard goesto an armchair and he sinks into what feels like two feet of cushion and smilesat the damn comfort of the thing. Lights a cigarette as Jao goes to work on thecoffee. He brings a perfect looking latte over to Richard, who says,

“Not looking for aflatmate are you?” And he’s been seduced by the apartment and forgotten whyhe’s here but Jao’s expression brings him back.

“Sorry, that was badtaste. Now, let’s get down to business. See how we can find your sister, if shewants to be found.” Jao smiles nervously and says,

“I made a list of herfriends, her close friends, only the ones who have been to thisapartment.” He hands the four names on apiece of paper to, Richard.

Two of the names herecognises as Thai, girls names, and the other two are English, Andy and Sam. TheThai girls have surnames but not the guys.

“How does she knowthese western guys, which one is her boyfriend?”

“She doesn’t have aboyfriend and those two boys are Chinese, they just have western names.”Richard knows Jao told him she did have a boyfriend but decides not to sayanything. See what else he may lie about.

“You don’t have theirsurnames?”

“No. I know their cellphone numbers though and also the building where they live.”

“What exactly have youdone to find her, Jao? Apart from calling the police, can you let me know whatyou’ve done? And what is her name?

“Her name is, Phi. Itold you I called her other friends, not these four. I tried but can only leavemessages. These four are her best friends.”

“Not a boyfriend?”

“No” Jao says, "noboyfriend.” Richard doesn’t say anything again, just smokes and drinks hiscoffee. Neither of them says anything for a few minutes and then Richard says,

“Call these four, now,while I’m here and if you can’t contact them, then call your father, there’s noother option. Where is he, anyway?”

“He’s in Singapore onbusiness. He lives in Bangkok but not in thisapartment, he has an apartment near Chinatown.”

“Jao, that’s a Thainame?”

“Yes.”

“But you’re telling meyour father lives in Singapore. Is he Chinese/Thai?”

“No, he lives here but does business in Singapore qute often.”

“I’m confused but callthese four people and if you can’t get them, we’ll go and check where sheusually hangs out. You must know where she goes.”

“She has a favourite restaurantin Chinatown and she shops at Siam and she does go to a bar on Khao San Rd.”

“Hello.”

“Hi,” he says quietly,“this is Jao.”

“Hi, Jao, what are youcalling me for? Phi isn’t with me.” Jao looks at Richard and Richard nods and Jaosays,
“I can’t find her. She hasn’t been home for a week. Do you know where sheis?”

“No, I’ve been inChiang Mai. I had a holiday and only got back, yesterday. What do you mean, youcan’t find her?”

“She hasn’t been home.”

“She’s not like that.Did you call Orapan?”

Phi

Good Will Hunting...DVD Review

2012-01-03T13:23:00.000+11:00

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won the AcademyAward for best screenplay for this film and I bought right into from the firstframe. It shows a twenty-year-old, Matt Damon sitting in a room surrounded bybooks.

He’s an orphan who was abused by his stepfather and he tells hispsychologist, played by Robin Williams, that he was given the choice of awrench, a belt or a stick and he chose the wrench because ‘fuck him, right’.But we don’t learn this until much later.

In the meantime we findhim working as a cleaner at a university and Stellan Skarsgard is a mathsprofessor who puts a, ‘maths problem’, for want of a more sophisticated term on ablackboard and no-one can solve it or prove until the cleaner, Will Hunting,proves it but no-one knows until Skarsgard finds him one day after schoolcompleting another ‘problem’ and he’s been outed. Problem is, Will Huntinglikes hanging out with his mates and drinking and getting into fights but hegoes too far, he hits a cop. The magistrate runs down a list of his priors andhe’s always got off, defending himself, if you don’t mind but this time themagistrate says, you hit a cop you go to jail.

This is where Skarsgardfinds him and he manages to do a deal to get him out if he works with the mathsprofessor and agrees to see a psychologist or as he says, a therapist. This isthe set up for this brilliant movie. I kept asking why does it work? It worksbecause they wrote a great script, got the right director, Gus Van Sant and bothAffleck and Damon are passionate actors and hey, they’re delivering their ownlines and Robin Williams tops it all off as the psychologist, Sean Maguire, whofinally gets Will Hunting to see his potential and oh yeah, Minnie Driver isbeautiful as the love interest and she tells a great dirty joke too.

Robin Williams is madefor his role. He has a beard and wears ‘Kramer’ shirts and tells jokes andshouts at Damon and swears like a trooper and eventually opens Will up. I’veseen the film once before and I was surprised watching it again by, Damon. Heswears too much hoping it will make him tough and falls for, Skylar, MinnieDriver’s character but he’s too scared to move out to California with her. Hecan’t trust anyone except his mates and Affleck had a bigger part in the filmthan I remembered and his performance is quite nuanced. He wants the best forhis friend, wants him to forget about working on building sites because he’s agenius. He run rings around the ‘maths professor’ and what the hell, Affleckwants him to go, take off, be the best he can be and in the end he does and youhave to love that.

And what ever happened to Minnie Driver and do those two guys still write scripts?

James Mangold...Writer/Director

2011-12-31T19:22:00.000+11:00

I was prompted to writeabout James Mangold because I listened to his director’s narration over the topof his film, ‘Walk The Line’, and what got me, apart from it beung fascinating wasthe generosity of spirit. He didn’t appear to be ‘holding back ’information.

You want to know how I did it, well, here it is, take notes. If you were a filmstudent or someone wanting to know how to write a script, and this is whatinterested me, he gave you a real heads-up. I was particularly interested inhim talking about the ‘set-up’ of the movie because I think that’s so importantin a novel too.

He also mentioned inthe voice-over that he’d directed, ‘Girl Interrupted’ and “Copland’, so thatfurther intrigued me because they’re two great films and very different to,‘Walk the Line,’ although, ‘Girl Interrupted’ is a biopic too, and he also directed‘Heavy’, which really surprised me. So, here is, James Mangold.

James Mangold studiedat the, California Institute of the Arts, where he came under the influence ofhis first mentor, Alexander Mackendrick, he graduated in 1985 and immediatelyscored a gig with Disney Studios and to put it bluntly, he screwed up, but inhis own words he saw it as,

“I had the idealism of a 21-year old looking mediocrityin the face and not being able to understand how they could sleep at night."

They being the Disney executives. He changed tack completely and decided to bea novelist but gave it up quickly and returned to film school at, ColumbiaUniversity, where he found his second mentor, Milos Foreman, the director of,‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.

His first film was theabove mentioned, ‘Heavy’, and I did mention it in an earlier blog post onDeborah Harry, who has a role as a barmaid. Taylor Pruitt Vince starts in this offbeatfilm about an overweight guy in a small town and Mangold was able to get, LivTyler to play a big role and there’s also a small role in it for Evan Dando.

It’s a really sad little film and I liked it very much and it won Mangold thedirecting award at the 1995, Sundance Film Festival.

After his Sundancesuccess he went onto write and direct, Copland. A tough, character based filmset in suburban, New Jersey where nearly the whole suburb is full of cops orex-cops and he gets the most inspired performance out of Sylvester Stallone asa bumbling local sheriff who basicallydoes what he’s told until he decides to make a stand and I’m not going to tellyou what happens.

Stallone acts in this film with Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro and he’s quite capable of holding his own anddoes indeed put in a great performance that unfortunately wasn’t rewarded. AndLouise Keller from film website Urbancinefile says,

“James Mangold’s wellconstructed and compelling script gives plenty of opportunity for this starpowered cast to shine.” And this,

“Sylvester Stallonegives a startling performance as Freddy, the paunchy, lost soul who lives hislife in submission and complacency. His character development is totallycredible.”

After this he wrote anddirected, ‘Girl Interrupted’. And this is what I like about him, he writes alot of the films that he directs, he also wrote ‘Heavy’.

Winona Ryder played therole of Susanna Kaysen, a young womanwho spent eighteen months in a mental institution in America in 1967/68. Ryderalso produced the film and Angelina Jolie won the Oscar for Best SupportingActress. My own view is that Ryder should have won for Best Actress, she’sterrific and strong willed and also plays spoilt but she underplays it and lets Jolieget on with the histrionics. I’m not entirely without some insight into mentalinstitutions as I’ve twice made appearances in the psych wards of two hospitalshere in my home town of Melbourne. Ryder, as Kaysen isn’t the mentally sickest person inthe ward but she works well with the other actors and Whoopie Goldberg as a nurse isreally excellent and in my reading for this blog spot one thing that does comethrough is that all the actors who work with Mangold seem to like and admirehim. ‘Girl Interrupted’ is in no way a ‘female’, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo’sNest’ , and it doesn’t try to be.

Mangold also wrote anddirected the remake of, '3:10 to Yuma', the Elmore Leonard short story that was originallyfilmed in 1957 and starred Van Heslin and Glenn Ford. This time around Mangoldgave the roles to Christian Bale and Russel Crowe and when asked why he didn’temploy Americans in the lead roles he said,

“Best guys for therole. I didn’t have an Affirmative Action plan for American actors. You’remaking a western and you need men of power and physicality, and who carry aninnate masculinity, in order to be able to just step into this genre.”

And Iagree, he chose really well. In the original film the character played by VanHeslin was a lot weaker and this time around Christian Bale makes this role alot tougher and the way that Bale’s sonis attracted to the notoriety of Crowe’s character, Wade, well, it reminded mea little of the film, ‘Shane’, but I haven’t seen any reference to it byMangold anywhere and it’s probably because I’m a bit obsessed with ‘Shane’.

And now we’ve come thefull circle and I only did a review of ‘Walk the Line’ on this blog maybe twoweeks ago so please go and read it. I mentioned right at the start about JamesMangold’s narration and if you get the DVD extras, also listen in to what he says aboutwhat the actors brought to the roles. He's particularly effusive about, Robert Patrick, who played the role of JohnnyCash’s father and the ideas he brought to the film and it reminded me a littleof Ridley Scott and the way that he often uses the same actors over and over.I’m thinking primarily of Russel Crowe but there are others. And check out allof the films that I have mentioned, they’re all just really well made films.

James Mangold is also the writer/director of, 'Kate and Leopold' and 'Identity' and he's also an actor and that's it...I think.

And here is the trailer for Copland

Tirra Lirra by the River...Book Review

2011-12-30T10:17:00.001+11:00

TirraLirra by the River... By Jessica Anderson...Book Review

Just so you know, the titleof this novel comes from a book of poetry that, Nora, the main character readas a child and this is the poem,

“From underneath hishelmet flowed

His coal-black curls ason he rode,

As he rode down toCamelot.

From the bank and fromthe river

He flashed into thecrystal mirror,

‘Tirra lira,’ by theriver

Sang Sir Lancelot.” AndNora tells us she already had her Camelot with this poetry because,

“...that landscape hadbecome a region of my mind, where infinite expansion was possible...”

I started with thesequotes because I thought it might help readers place what type of person Norais. I hope it does.

This book won JessicaAnderson the 1978, Miles Franklin Award. At 140 pages it’s a small book, a shortnovella, but it delivers big time. I read a short story collection by JessicaAnderson (reviewed on this blog) called, Stories from the Warm Zone and SydneyStories and I liked most of it, she can certainly tell a great story I thought and thisnovel not only confirmed that it changed my whole perception of her, she writesquite brilliantly. And now I’m messing about too much, so to the book.

Nora comes home to Brisbane picked up at the station by, Jack Cust, a manshe should remember but initially doesn’t and this is one of the joys of thebook, the way her remembrances come back and how she describes the way the memoriesare formed or return to her. She’s back from London via Sydney where shevisited her nephew and took the long train trip north to the old family home.Her father died when she was young, she lost a brother in World War One,her sister is dead, the house left to Nora. Nora’s had a fascinating lifewhether she thinks so or not.

The thing that gets me about this novel is that Nora lies in bed, in ahouse in Brisbane and she’s quite ill after the long trip and people she knowsfrom a lifetime ago, kind neighbours who remember her and her sister, herfamily, they come in and out of the house and deliver food and company and oldmemories and make Nora happy. The front door is left open. This is the 1960’s,in a Brisbane suburb, close to the river. It simply couldn’t happen today, youwouldn’t feel safe. You couldn’t leave an elderly woman alone in a house withthe bloody front door open, amazing, but Nora feels safe and it delighted me noend.

Nora can’t wait to get out! To leave small time Brisbane and to escapeand she tells us that she was ‘artistic’ and of course this led to peoplesaying, ‘who does she think she is’. Her sister and she have endless fights. Hesister, Grace, thinks she’s a snob, ‘what’s wrong with it?’ she asks when Noracomplains about life and she gets saved, at least that’s what she hopes whe she marries Colin Porteous and thet move to Sydney and take some rooms ina house in Potts Point. Nora falls in love with Sydney and I've done that too, fallen in love with a city, it can happen easily.

This is where innocent Nora finds like minded souls. Fellow artists whoshare her passion for dressmaking and colour and light. She makes friends witha young gay man, Lewie but her husband is black and white in mind, no shades ofgrey or colour, he doesn’t like these people and they eventually move back tohis Mother’s place.

Colin is an insufferable bore and he won’t let Nora work and she has toplead with him to get an allowance but she still goes back to visit her friendsand particularly, Lewie. Nora tells us she has many Lewie’s in her life, gaymen she befriends. She eventually gets a divorce from Colin and with theseparation money takes off for London.

The book tells the story from Nora’s point of view and the narrationchanges from the present day and back to wherever her thoughts are flowing. Shehas a terrible time of it London. She lives there during World War Two and youget an idea of how horrific it must have been for people. A woman sheknows loses her husband and three sons but still people just battle on, memoryfades and Nora’s health suffers and she loses her looks. And this is where Ilove this book. Jessica Anderson writes tiny little sentences, mentioning thatNora for instance is at one stage in an abortionists clinic with her friend in London and shementions she has a facelift and that just pricked my interest and I keptthinking when, when am I going to find out what happened and slowly, slowly,she reveals the truth and I don’t want to give anything further away.

Nora when young is a ,walker, shewalks the streets, searching, and she finds in later life all kinds of troubleand she deals with it. She’s had a very tough life and when shereturns to the lovely old Queenslander house of her youth and the neighboursand the doctor and so kind to her and she talks of sitting peacefully in hergarden, the garden that her now dead sister so lovingly looked after, well, Ithought, good luck to you Nora, you had a tough life and now you can relax.

Please go and look for this book in libraries or wherever you can findit. Buy it and treasure it, it’s just wonderful, really wonderful and sad andbeautiful.

BIG TIME...part two,,,music from Warren Zevon

2011-12-28T09:25:00.002+11:00

“Then do it soon. Nowor tomorrow.” And Milos puts the heat on Mikhail. “I need it fixedbecause...the Old Testament...an eye for an eye.” Milos orders food from aTurkish restaurant. They eat with little talk. Milos is still agitated but hegradually calms down and Mikhail asks him,

“The girl you sent lastnight.”

“Yes.”

“Who was she?”

“Who was she? She was ahooker my friend. Did you fall for the whore, Mikhail?” Mikhail stands up,laughs with his friend but inside him he feels something else. He feels thebeginning of hatred.

“Can you send heragain, tonight?” Mikhail asks.

“Sure, sure,” Milossays, “screw your little whore girl.” And laughs again and Mikhail leaves. It’searly and Milos decides to go to The Griller after all. Surprise Perry and hisstaff. He calls for the girl, Katrina. Tells the receptionist at the brothel tosend her to Mikhail again. He needs to fix his drug distribution for the clubsin Kings Cross. Perry needs two more dealers. He gets into his black Mercedesand drives to The Griller.

Mikhail opens the doorand the girl walks in.

“I didn’t ask your namelast night. Normally I’m a happy friendly guy, last night too much thoughts forme. You are?” He asks with the big smile and those steel blue eyes flashing.

“I’m Katrina,” she saysand sits on the end of the bed.

“Real name or workingname.” Mikhail asks gently.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, tonight itmatters.” He says with the smile again

“Yeah, it’s my realname and you’re Mikhail and should we dance now?”

“Yesterday morning...”And then he thinks better of it. Katrina takes her little black dress off andsits down again in her black bra and panties and plays with her wavy brown hairand Mikhail, he tells her,

“You’re beautiful.” Andshe believes him.

In the morning aftersex and long talks Katrina kisses him goodbye and he has her mobile phonenumber and they agreed to meet for a late lunch. Mikhail is going to kill thatson of a bitch, Kellerman, today and the girl, Vera Redonika, tomorrow.

Antonia who has beenpaid for her silence and who was paid to rat on her friend, Vera. She’s havingsecond thoughts, thoughts of escaping and taking her three girls but they lovetheir father so much. Perhaps she can convince Vera to come with her. She doesn’tthink she’s brave enough or strong enough to do it on her own. She calls Vera.

Mikhail walks past thecafe in Bondi where he sat yesterday and looks down the driveway of the blockof flats.

At the top of the drive, almost to the street are the row of mailboxeslined up and he sees the name of the Real Estate Agent on the top of themailboxes, a small metal plate with the name and he looks across the road andup to the right and sees the sign for the agent. He crosses the road withpurpose and walks quickly to the Real Estate Agent and in the door. He tellsthe receptionist that’s he’s in Sydney for three months he saw the sign on themail box,

“Do you rent by themonth?” He asks with the big smile and he’s wearing black jeans and a stripedshirt with a black sports jacket and the receptionist says,

“We do but I don’tthink you... I think you might want something a bit more upmarket. We haveserviced apartments by the month in Curlewis St, which is not far away.” Hethanks her and says,

“Maybe, I like it herethough, plenty of action,” he says taking in her cleavage.

“I’m sure.” The girlsays and he leaves. He goes back to the block of flats. Walks down the lanebehind the underground car park and finds Mr Kellerman’s flat. No way in from this entry. Front door, fastand heavy and when he answers, at midnight tonight, Wednesday night. He’ll doit. If he doesn’t answer he’ll open the door with a skeleton key if thatdoesn’t work he’ll jimmy it. These places the locks are a joke. Now VeraRedonika, not today, that’s maybe two more days. He’s meeting Katrina in two hours. He goesback to the apartments in Boundary Rd, Darlinghurst.

Katrina and Mikhailmeet outside his apartment and they walk to a cafe right at Taylor Square, onSouth Dowling Rd, opposite the big traffic island they call Gilligan’s Island.Mikhail tells her,

“I want you to stopworking.”

“Look,” Katrina says,“I really like you but we just met. “ It’s the answer he expected and he shakeshis head and says,

“I’m saying not justfor me but for your own good. How old are you? Twenty-eight or thirty, how muchlonger have you got in the game?” She does some head shaking of her own.

“Not today, not rightnow. Please don’t talk to me about my life like that.” She says and Mikhailbacks off.

“I’ve been in Melbournefor five years,” he says, “What is it you Australians say about Melbournepeople? I was a Mexican!” And he laughs uproariously and Katrina can’t helpherself and she laughs too and says quietly,

“Not all Australians,just Sydney people, we call them Mexicans because they’re from south of theborder.” Mikhail waves to the waitress and she comes over and he says toKatrina,

“Now, order anythingand as much as you want. I’m starving,” he says laughing and lighting acigarette. “I’m going to eat for an hour, big time.” They eat and talk and hequietly mentions her leaving her job again and then changes the subject quicklywhen she looms at him crossly from across the table but he’s just going to keepputting the thought in her mind. They won’t see each other tonight. Both ofthem are working.

Antonia calls Vera andas the phone rings she concentrates hard, she has to get this right, scare herenough to leave Sydney, to get away, ask her if they can leave together, tellher someone is coming to kill her soon.

“Vera.”

“Antonia, hello, areyou in Sydney.”

“Please, Vera, you haveto leave Sydney. Milos knows what you’ve done. I’m leaving I can’t face ithere. No more...”

“You told him.” Verasays.

“No,” Antonia lies,“somehow he found out, please we have to leave.” And Vera sits down slowly,hangs up the phone, starts shaking while she punches the phone number of JosephKellerman into her phone.

At 11.30pm, Mikhailputs his hunting knife in his jacket, in a scabbard, but loose and ready. Hailsa taxi on Oxford St but gets out at Bondi Junction and waits for the bus. Takesthe 380 to Campbell Pde at the bottom of Hall St. Slowly walks up the hill andreaches the top of the drive. Walks straight down the drive and up one flightof stairs, along the balustrade, comes to the last flat, knocks gently. JosephKellerman opens the door just slightly and Mikhail puts his shoulder to it andKellerman opens it wide and simply puts his foot out and big Mikhail smashesonto the wooden floor unsure of what the fuck just happened. Kellerman closesthe door, there are no lights, Mikhail sees blackness and Joseph Kellermanstabs a sharpened ice pick straight through his upper thigh.

Mikhail cries insilent agony, “Jesus! I...what the fuck!” Kellerman switches on the light.

“That’s it, quiet.Scream in silence,” he says and he has a handgun and the little runt is sosmall and then he sees the woman, Vera Redonika, in the long black leatherjacket. She sits inthe far corner of the room on a chair, there’s no bed, just the one chair thatshe sits in. Mikhail sweats and his mindtries to find an escape route, a possibility. Kellerman walks around behindhim, lets Mikhail feel the cold metal of the gun on his cheek and reaches intohis pocket and takes the knife and flings it across the floor under the chairof Vera Redonika. They both just keep looking at him lying on the floor andfinally Kellerman asks,

“Did you enjoy yourcappuccino next door the other morning?” Mikhail doesn’t say anything.Kellerman walks past him and sits on Vera Redonika’s lap and the two of themlaugh together and Vera says,

“He went down fast forsuch a big man.” Mikhail doesn’t look at her and Kellerman brushes his thinhair over his balding scalp and smiles and jigs up and down on Vera’s kneeagain.

“Does it hurt big man?”He asks. Mikhail doesn’t look at him or talk. Kellerman gets up, walks pastMikhail and Mikhail sticks his right arm out fast and low and hard and gets hisankle and yanks it hard. Kellerman loses balance and swings the handgun atMikhail and strikes him a glancing blow to the head. Mikhail grunts and somehowpulls himself upright swinging his fist at the same time he knocks the gun fromKellerman’s hand. Vera gets up and stumbles and scratches for it on the ground,gets it and hisses at him,

“I’ve got the gun onyou.”

“Use it.” Mikhail saysevenly and walks methodically toward Kellerman, the ice-pick stuck in his leg.The big Russian unit has eyes only for the small man, Joseph Kellerman. He comes for him and Kellerman surprise himwhen he hits him above the right eye with a straight hard left hand, it rocks Mikhail,the power comes from nowhere and doubt goes into Mikhail’s mind. Who is thislittle shit! He manages to just clip Kellerman with his fist across the ear butit’s enough to rock him and he grabs Kellerman in close who manages to free hisarms and slaps the Russian giant with two hands across his ears and thensmashes them again while Mikhail tries to squeeze the life out of him with abear hug and it’s working, he can feel the little man dying and then fuckingthump! On his left shoulder Vera hit him with the butt of the gun, he swingsaround with Kellerman in front of him and charges at her and crushes heragainst the wall with Kellerman. He pushes her and crushes Kellerman at thesame time for what seems like forever and then it’s done. He drops Kellerman tothe floor and Vera Redonika drops down the wall the life crushed out of her.

Mikhail calls Milos,

“The two of them deadbut I need a doctor.”

“A doctor? They’re dead,both of them.”

“Yes,” Mikhail says,“both dead. I need a doctor, now.”

“Come to my house.”Milos says and hangs up and Mikhail feels the hatred again that startedyesterday. He goes through the cupboards, finds rags and some bandages. He stuffshis mouth with some rags and slowly pulls the ice pick out screaming in hishead. Done, he bandages himself up. Takes Vera Redonika’s coat from her andholds it out in front of him as he limps along the balustrade and back out thedoor and he finds a taxi that takes him to Leichhardt.

Milos has a doctor waiting. He cleans Mikhail up,tells him he should be in hospital. Gives him everything he needs to look afterthe wound himself, explains what he must do to keep it from getting infected,then leaves and it’s Milos and Mikhail alone. Milos looks at Mikhail,

“This is the first timework has caught you out.” He says.

“So be it.” Mikhailsays. “The doctor said I’d be alright. Can we drink now? Some vodka straight with ice.” Milos smiles but he doesn’t like being toldwhat to do even by his friend.

“I’ll drink at the clublater,” he says, “Do you want your whore girl again tonight?” He asks andlaughs. Mikhail remembers when he would have laughed with him. Maybe he didn’tthink long enough and hard enough about coming back here. He changed inMelbourne. Nobody’s a whore girl, whether Mikhail likes them or not. We all dowhat we have to do to survive in the world.

“Get your drink,” Milossays, “I’ll call the whorehouse and a taxi. You can leave and meet her at theapartments.” Mikhail nods and gets up slowly, goes into the kitchen, pours atriple vodka into a short glass. Opens the freezer but it’s frozen over. Hegoes to the kitchen drawer and takes out the ice pick.

Warren Zevon...Excitable Boy

BIG TIME...Full length short story...Music from Jackson Browne

2011-12-27T09:31:00.002+11:00

BIG TIME is over 4500 words, so I'm splitting it...Part Two Tomorrow

Milos is waiting forhim. The job has been spelt out to him.He killed people for Milos and many people all strangely connected to Milos. Inone year, a terrible year. Milos handedhim the black ace card seven times. Seventy Thousand dollars, plus all the drink andthe drugs and the girls and the guilt. Yes, even a man like, Mikhail, hasguilt.

Yet, he was the one whorang Milos. Two months ago it was and now he’s back. Mikhail is thirty- eight;he started to kill people for a living when he was thirty-five. Three good years forMilos. Milos who treated him like a brother.

Some breakfast he thinks, not at The Griller.He wanders away from Oxford St toward Glebe. It’s 7.30am. He walks under the station andunder Broadway in the maze that the tunnels are and pops up across the road onBroadway at a row of cafes. He sits downand thinks of, Swanson St, Melbourne; the cafe that has a mini juke box on the Formicatable top. The waitress stops at his table. She’s Lebanese he can tell straightaway and she gives him a weak smile,

“Breakfast. Everything. Eggs, bacon, steak, tomatoes, mushrooms, etcetera, etcetera...” he saysand her smile turns into a little laugh. Mikhail with the cropped blonde hairand steel blue eyes and the muscles showing through his winter clothes andlaughs too.

“And a cappuccino,” hesays, “See, nobody orders cappuccino anymore.” And they both laugh at his joke.And the big Lebanese guy behind the counter actually looks up to see what thefuss is all about. Mikhail gives him a different type of look and his head goesback down to his chopping board.

She brings hisbreakfast and smiles and says,

“I’ll be back with thecappuccino.” The plate is filled with grease and food and that’s exactly whathe wants. He starts churning through the food not worrying about any etiquetteand the cappuccino comes with no talk and no break in his eating. He finisheswith a Kent cigarette, another cappuccino. Now he’s ready for Milos.

Big old psycho, Milos, as they say about himin whispers behind his back. He allows it because it suits him, emboldens themyth. Mikhail jumps in the back seat of a taxi, he can tell the driver’s nothappy with the small fare. Both of them say nothing. Mikhail calls Milos to askhim to open up. At The Griller he gets out, shoves a twenty in the drivers handfor a five dollar fare; makes them both feel good. Mikhail is back is what itmeant. Mr Big Time.

He calls Milos again toopen the door. The Griller is a twenty-four hour party people club and Monday’sbetween 6am and 11am is the only time it’s closed all week. Cleaning needs tobe done and Milos likes doing business early. The door opens. Mikhail smiles and Milos grabs Mikhail’sstrong forearm and pulls him in the door. A huge bear hug from Milos andMikhail slaps his back hard and they kiss each other on the cheek. Milos leadsthe way to the back stairs and up to his office. Sound proofed and decked outin the best furniture money can buy. Milos loves this room and Mikhail isslightly envious because he knows how much money goes through the safe.

“You sure you want backin?” Milos asks. “You’re the only person I count as a friend in my business. Idon’t want you messed up.”

“I called you. It’sjust business, we continue as if nothing happened. I didn’t go to Melbourne forfive years.”

“That’s done.” Milossays. “Here are the details.” And he hands him a folder. Asks him,

“Where are you staying,Mikhail?”

“I haven’t sorted itout yet.”

“Where do you want tostay? I’ll pay for a week in a hotel or...”

“I like apartments. Canyou put me in a Serviced Apartment? Something four or five star.” And he looksfor a reaction from, Milos. Doesn’t get it. Milos picks up the phone and makesa booking for him at a Serviced Apartment in Darlinghurst, close to TaylorSquare. They both get up again and bearhug. A show of strength between the two big Russian giants. Mikhail gets ataxi, another small fare but he doesn’t press a twenty into the drivers handthis time. They have a room ready straight away. He takes two sleeping pills,showers and crashes to sleep.

He wakes and orders astrong cappuccino from room service. Vows to get groceries, buy a small coffeemachine with part of the money that sits inside the folder, his advance. Aftershopping he’ll sit down and go through the file of the victim. This issomething he enjoys. Getting to know what kind of person he’s soon to kill canoften determine the method of the kill.

When he’s showered andchanged he takes a walk up to Taylor Square, familiarisation with the area onceagain. His hotel is down Boundary St, next to where they used to hold thebiggest drag night in the city at the Albury Hotel. Even homophobic Mikhail wasimpressed by the drag shows. He dismisses the thought now and walks over BourkeSt along Oxford to the supermarket. Loads up with all his favourite foods,crosses the road to a small Asian grocery and gets the right ingredients for aMassaman Curry. The Russian hit-man cooks Asian food and his choice of women isthe same, mostly. But right now he’s not fussy and he’ll call Milos later tosend a girl to his room. Simple pleasures provided for. He checked the name of the hit. Milos wantsit done within two weeks. The woman’s name is Vera Redonika and it’s going tobe the first woman he’s killed and this is why he likes Milos’s folder. Whatcould this woman have possibly done to deserve her fate. He’ll know soonenough. After the Massaman Curry and a cold glass of beer.

He opens the folder,lights his cigarette. Exhales and smiles a little smile. Runs his free handthrough his short blond hair. What did you do, Vera Redonika? Vera is the wifeof Nathan and Nathan died suddenly. An ice pick through his heart. A very Russian death that was paid for byVera. Milos knows the man who was hiredto do the job and Mikhail now understands that this is a $20,000 dollar job.Two killings.

The photo shows Vera isan attractive woman. She has short redhair and her eyes are black. Mikhail believes that black eyes tell a story—nosoul, no heart. He understands this because he’s seen it time and time again.Vera is standing at her front gate in Clovelly, a nice federation house thatbecause of the location would make Vera a millionaire if she sold it. She’swearing a long grey cardigan and high heel boots. She looks like she’s waitingfor someone to pick her up.

What did you do, VeraRedonika?

The killer of Nathan isa surprise. A small man, balding with milky brown eyes and he’s sitting at a tablein a cafe with a bottle of water and a coffee in front of him. Bland. That’sthe word that forms for Mikhail. He likes the shots to be full length of the person.Someone like this man, Joseph Kellerman, so small and bland sitting at the cafe table, Mikhail can’t get a true handleon him. A mistake could be made. He calls Milos.

“This photo of the man,Kellerman. I could mistake him for many other people. I need a clear shot ofhim standing up, like, the woman, Vera Redonika.”

“I’ll get it to youtomorrow. Two people first up. You don’t mind?”

“No, I don’t mind. Agirl for tonight?”

“What time?”

“Two hours.” AndMikhail goes back to his study.

In the morning the girlperforms another service and then leaves. Mikhail gives her a $100 note on topof whatever Milos has paid her. She leaves and they kiss at the door. This ishighly unusual, Mikhail knows this. Kissing isn’t work, it’s a sign ofaffection. Nevertheless she leaves, done.

Kellerman lives inBondi, a small studio flat, a dump on Hall St. Milos will get him the photo buthe decides to have a look for himself. He has the street and flat number andthe block of flats is next to a cafe. He takes a taxi to Bondi and tells thedriver to stop at the bottom of Hall St. He pays the driver and walks back upthe street and sits in the cafe next door to bland, Mr Kellerman’s flat.Mikhail truly isn’t a vain man but he knows he sticks out, people remember him.He acts big time so they do remember. That big blond, Russian guy, alwayslaughing, such a nice man. He sitsoutside even though it’s cold and he greets the waiter with enthusiasm andjokes about the cold and his cappuccino comes and he waits hoping to see hismark. He orders one more cappuccino and when he’s nearly finished, he sees himcoming up the drive of the block of flats, he can’t be positive that’s why heneeds the photo but this Mr Kellerman orders tea, not coffee with some water onthe side. Mikhail leaves.

He hails yet anothertaxi and decides he’ll drive by Vera Redonika’s place in Clovelly. She lives inSurfside Ave. Even Mikhail, who only swims in heated pools, could tell thatVera definitely wasn’t surfisde. Maybe this was the problem with her husband, Nathan,the area they lived in. People have been murdered for less but tonight he’smeeting Milos again and perhaps he’ll talk about Vera Redonika, usually hewon’t talk about the hits but a woman, maybe. He calls, Milos.

“Mikhail, I’m stillgetting used to you being around again. Tonight, you come to my place.”

“What time?”

“After 7pm. Perry islooking after the club tonight.” Milos’s number one drug dealer and MrTrustworthy guy, Perry. Mikhail doesn’t talk to him. Milos lives in Leichardt.The only Russian in little Italy. From the outside it’s a nice little house.Inside he can see what’s happening in The Griller on Oxford St on screens inhis bedroom and the kitchen. The furniture is beautiful and all the latesttechnology in entertainment and electronic toys is spread through the house. He has a small theatre built for four, for histhree daughters when they come to him from Avalon, where their mother lives.Every modern convenience known to man in the kitchen. Small outside, biginside.

Mikhail thinks it’lltake him about a week to work out how to do it. He needs to ask Milos aboutkilling both of them so close together. And this guy, Kellerman, he worries himabout him because he’s so non-descript. He could be a serious player or justsome trash she found to do the job because Nathan was doped before the ice-pickwent in. Either Vera Redonika doped him or Joseph Kellerman did it all,professionally. Once he confirms these things and some other little bits andpieces tonight with Milos then he can act. He’s not going to think about ituntil tonight. He feels like calling Milos back, that kiss this morning isstill lingering with him and he could get her back. She was, he doesn’t know,probably just an Australian. He laughs at himself, just an Australian, like shewas nothing. Like being an Australian in Sydney, Australia means nothing. Shewas beautiful. Long wavy brown hair, small pert breasts, he can smell her.Tonight.

From his room Mikhailstarts making calls trying to lease an apartment, make the move back permanent.

Milos sits in the veryback booth of The Griller, at 3pm. He’s glad to have Mikhail back. The only onehe can call friend and do business with. This Vera killed one of his businesspartners. Nathan was a very shrewd guy.How could he not see it coming? Never trust women. He wanted kids, he paidAntonia to be the mother, she’s a good mother, the best. A solid workingarrangement. Vera told Antonia what happened, how she and this, Kellerman,planned it. Milos will make sure all is set back to order when both of themdie. He has paid a lot of money for Antonia’s loyalty and this is part reward.He calls Perry and spells out what he needs to be done, what has to happenwhile he’s not there tonight. This Australian, Perry, he’s confident too, likeMikhail. Not too cocky though. Milos has to put him back in lineoccasionally. At 7pm Perry walks in andcomes and sits next to Milos, they talk briefly and Milos leaves.

Milos explains toMikhail,

“I don’t know who thisKellerman is only that he did it. Antonia, I told you already, just before, sheknows Vera and...Well, I have the story and you have your work.”

“Do you know how longKellerman has lived in that dump? Does he have a lease or pay by the week ormonth. He could be leaving at any minute....cont’d tomorrow...

Jackson Browne...The Loadout/ Stay...Nine minute 70's ode to Roadies...Cool.

Blues for a Boy...Discontinued and music from Steve Miller Band

2011-12-26T12:00:00.000+11:00

23

Blues for a Boy...is now discontinued.

There'll be the usual book and film reviews and at least four blog posts a week.

Extracts from my shorts stories and a novel (s) I'm working on plus music clips and stuff.

This Wednesday will be 'Big Time', a full length short story.

I put an extract up from this story a little while ago...

BIG TIME...Wednesday...28/12/11

And here is...The Steve Miller Band

The Wonders of the Invisible World...Book Review...Music from Martha and The Muffins!

2011-12-24T13:54:00.000+11:00

There's an earlier blog post on this book quite a while back but skip it for this review.

THE WONDERS OF THEINVISIBLE WORLD BY DAVID GATES...BOOK REVIEW

The first thing I wantto point out is the quote at the beginning of this short story collection. It’sfrom the Bible and it is,

“For he said unto him,

Come out of the man,thou unclean spirit,

And he asked him, whatis thy name?

And he answered,saying,

My name is legion: forwe are many.”

And I point it outbecause in one of the stories there is discussion of a book called, ‘TheWonders of the Invisible World’, and one of the characters asks, what are thewonders of the invisible world and he’s told they’re demons. So, is this bookabout demons that lurk in the underworld? In a word, no. And that’s why itpuzzles me. The characters in these stories do bad things to; and wish badthings of; and want bad things to happen to: their lovers, friends andrelations, but demons, nah. So I wonder why he chose that quote? Beats me is theanswer and I also point out that this quote is also used at the beginning ofanother work of fiction and that is, ‘Jolie Blon’s Bounce’, which is a crimefiction book by the great, American crime fiction writer, James Lee Bourke, andsweet Jesus, let me tell you, the man he calls, “Legion’, a character in hisbook, is indeed a true devil, a demon of the worst kind.

And now that’s out ofthe way, let’s get to the book—the shortstory collection, which is one of the truly best collections that I’ve everread.

Ten stories:

In this collection, there’s a theme of people moving or changingto improve their lives. Having said that it doesn’t run through all thestories. But there’s that cliché of moving to the country to write, ‘a novel’and then not writing a damn thing or freelance writers or book binders or whathave you moving from in these instances, New York City (so harsh and cold), andthen not actually doing very much work at all. Or one person works and theother one feels guilty so they lie to their partners about the quantity of workthey’re doing and bills get shoved in top drawers and people smoke and drinkwhen they've told their partners that they’ve quit and then go to extraordinarylengths to cover up their indiscretions.

I’ll just do a quickrun through of the best of the stories. Starting with the last story, ‘The MailLady’. There’s a really unique voice to this story, it’s that of an old manrecovering or rather enduring the consequences of having a stroke, he’s also a ‘born again’ Christianfor want of a better term. He quotes from the Bible and the thing is, I reckonhe is a good man because when he points out the bad traits of other people healmost always qualifies it with pointing out his own foibles and you have tolike that...or I do. The thing is, ‘The Mail Lady, she’s too masculine orthat’s what he thinks.

He also talks about hiswife, Alice, and how she’s coping with all this. She has to help him a greatdeal and the biggest thing he does is make it into the lounge room every dayfrom upstairs. It’s important though; otherwise he’d be stuck in bed all dayand fading away. He talks lovingly about his daughter, Wylie, but that doesn’tmean he agrees with the way she lives her life or her choice of husband. Thisis a quote from one of his ramblings,

“She’s become one ofthose people who put bumper stickers on their automobiles—at one point, Irecall, she had replaced VISUALIZE PEACE with TEACH PEACE, which seemed to meat least a small step away from delusion—and who we believe we can communicatewith the plants and the dolphins....And I imagine Jeffrey (Wylie’s husband)encourages it. And I love this bit, he says he told her,

“You’d best forget thedolphins and learn to talk to your saviour.” And he likes the Bible quotes (asdoes Mr Gates),

Everyman’s work shall be made manifest. And, The night cometh when no man can work.

Our recovering strokevictim also worries about the young people who play the metal music and thepeople next door live in a trailer (very well kept mind you) with a statue ofJesus in a bath outside. He and Alice(his wife) didn’t think they’d end up in a place like this and ‘The Mail Lady’extracts some measure of revenge, though of course she doesn’t know what hereally thinks of her ( or does she).

My favourite story in the collection is,Saturn, named after the type of car that the main character, Holly, drives.It’s a sensible car, good mileage and all that and that’s what Holly wants tobe it seems to me. Reliable, sensible, quit smoking weed. She was having anaffair but she stopped that and then right at the end she decides to revisitit. Her father-in-law is this weird guy who comes for a visit. He drinks toomuch and says totally politically incorrect things to his daughter-in-law andhe borrows her car to go boozing in the afternoon. Holly can’t handle it andher husband, she tells him, spells it out clearly, that she no longer wants tosmoke dope anymore because it makes her anxious and paranoid amongst otherthings and he doesn’t get it, he says to her,

“I have to tell you,”he says, “I don’t think weed per se is the problem” And they banter back andforth and then he says,

“I’d say the solution isto look at what’s going on.”

“Right. Well, what’sreally going on is, I get to high when I smoke.”

He sighs. “Look, youknow yourself best. I thought it was a fun thing for us. Sort of us against theworld.” And I hate the guy. Why? Because he’s successful at what he does and hesmokes weed and doesn’t get paranoid or anxious and he’s just too bloody happyand no wonder she had an affair. There’s lots to love about this story,especially the ending.

Oh shit, I just wantedto do a few quick reviews but this book gets to me and that’s only two storiesdown and I’ve written so much and if you’re like me and yourblog-post-interest-limit is 1000 words then hang on it won’t be much longer. So,here we go with a very quick run through of what else is on offer in thiscollection.

In, ‘Star Baby’, ayoung, single, gay man has to look after his young nephew because her mother, hissister, is a recovering drug addict and I have to say he’s doing a damn finejob but he worries about what people will think of him, ‘if they knew’. Stufflike he doesn’t want his nephew having play dates because if ‘they’ found outhe was gay, well, bathing a young boy...and I hope it’s not really like that butsomething makes me think it is. The young mother in question eventually asks forher young son back. The uncle doesn’t think it’s the greatest idea in the worldand this reader had to agree but what could he do, she’s the mother.

I mentioned peoplemoving away from the city to work on ‘a novel’, well, that’s, ‘The Bad Thing’,where the female worries about her partner, she’s the younger woman and they’rekind of up in the sticks and she’s pregnant. The deal is she doesn’t drink whenshe’s pregnant but she does and her partner, he doesn’t smoke but he sits in his‘office’ and smokes nearly a full packet of cigarettes. She tries to cover upher drinking by buying a new bottle of whatever it is she drank and re-fillingthe old one back to the level it was at and he confesses to the smoking andthere’s a whole lot of other shit going on too.

In the, ‘Vigil’ that’sexactly what we have. A young wife and mother is in a car accident and the husbandand father wait in the hospital but the thing is, the young mother was pullingout of a motel when she got hit by the car. What was she doing there?

David Gates writes oldercharacters really well or maybe it’s that I like the older people he createsin his fiction. I’m talking about the father here. He’s Mr. Reasonable. There’sa good explanation for everything. Like his daughter was making a phone call inthe motel and not having an affair, which is exactly what the husband knows she was doing. The father's first wife lefthim (the girl's other) and well, shit happens, is practically what he’s saying but hang on, Iactually believe him. I really think he wants the best for people. His wife ishappily re-married and he’s fine with that and his ex-wife, mother of theinjured girl in hospital, flies in and all kinds of shit goes down.

No more from me on thisand this is a wonderful collection from a really great storyteller!

And completely unrelated here is...ECHO BEACH

William Hurt...Actor

2011-12-17T14:10:00.000+11:00

William Hurt has never seemed to me to be aHollywood Star but he is a damn fine actor. I don’t mean he doesn’t appear inmainstream American films but he does make interesting choices. Vincent Canby,the New York Times reviewer said of his character, Nick, in, The Big Chill,

“The most complicated member of the group is Nick(William Hurt) a Vietnam veteran who once enjoyed some fame as a psychologiston a West Coast radio call-in show but who now lives an aimless, rootless lifesupported by drugs.”

And that’s it; William Hurt might not be the biggeststar in this ensemble piece but he’s the most interesting and in most of thefilms he’s in; he’s the most interesting character. The Big Chill was LawrenceKasdan’s second film after his remake of, Body Heat, which yes, starred,William Hurt. Kasdan also wrote the film script for both films. For somecuriosity value, Kevin Costner played the dead friend in The Big Chill but was chopped out ofthe movie and boy did he go on to make some wonderful films.

The first time I saw William Hurt was in, The BigChill and we see him at that great opening sequence at the funeral where theseven friends come together to say goodbye to their old friend and the RollingStones song, You can’t Always get WhatYou Want, plays and Hurt rocks up in his Porsche smoking weed and yes, he’sthe most interesting character in a pretty bloody good film. And Jeff Goldblum is also revoltingly good.

I did a quick run through of his film biography andthere are just so many good films: Kiss of the Spider Woman; Broadcast News;Smoke; Until the End of the World; Children of a Lesser God; Gorky Park. The list goes on.

The most recent film I’ve seen in him in was, AHistory of Violence, and he’s only in the film for ten minutes but he deliversthe weirdest, off-beat gangster, that you’ll ever see. He looks at ViggoMortensen who plays his brother and wants to kill him but he looks at him andsays,

“Joooey.” And then hugs him and plants a disgustingkiss on his cheek and if you’ve seen William Hurt in, The Accidental Tourist,you’re not going to believe it’s the same guy and by the way, The AccidentalTourist won the New York Film Critics Circle (1988).

So let’s go sequentially through some of his bighits of the 1980’s. Gorky Park in 1983 was a success and I mentioned it abovebut at the time it didn’t really work for me. If there is a knock on some ofhis performances, it’s that he can appear wooden but I think that’s more to do with the characters he plays infilms like, The big Chill and The Accidental Tourist, where the men he plays arejust sort of drifting along in life not part of it.

In this adaption of MartinCruz-Smith’s novel he’s supposed to be Russian, Arkady Renko, of the MoscowPolice but he doesn’t have a Russian accent and just thinking about this filmnow it might be one of those that I go back to and think, why didn’t I like it.It happens to me all the time. I see a film and hate it and go back to it tenyears later or something and love it. Weird. Anyhoo, once again referring tothe New York Times review of the time by Janet Maslin, she says,

“William Hurt’s performance as Renko is themainspring of the movie and also its most riveting strange element.” Onceagain, Hurt is slightly strange but she says, riveting. Ah, but she also goes on to say,

“Mr Hurt, for some reason affecting the voice of anadenoidal Briton...” So, he’s not totally loved but it’s a pretty solid reviewoverall and just to put his performance into perspective with the film as a whole, Janet Maslinof Gorky Park,

“ Mr Apted’s approach to the material is archlyeffective, making for a crisp, intricate thriller, well able to hold anaudience’s interest."

Next came in, 1985, The Kiss of the Spider Woman andthere’s absolutely nothing wooden about this performance by Hurt as theflamboyant gay prisoner next to Raul Julia’s revolutionary man.

These two sharea cell and I’m not sure how to put it but Hurt seduces Julia, not physicallybut emotionally, with the stories he tells and I just thought wow! Hurt justlet himself go and gives the viewer all he’s got and it’s made seem all themore crazy against the seriousness of the character played by Raul Julia. RaulJulia played the role of Hunter S. Thompson’s, 'attorney’ in a version of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' so to play this role is quite a change up forhim too.

Yes, I’m going to give you the view of the New YorkTimes on this performance. Janet Maslin is the reviewer and she says,

“Mr Hurt won a well-deserved best actor award at theCannes Film Festival for a performance that is crafty at first, carefullynurtured and finally stirring in profound, unanticipated ways. What starts outas a campy, facetious catalogue of Hollywood trivia becomes an extraordinaryfilm about heroism and love.”

In 1987, he played a not so smart or rather a not sointellectually smart newsreader in, Broadcast News and the film was a smash hitand that’s the thing when he’s doing his best work the films he’s in get greatreviews. He's not really a great actor in shit films, he tends to lift thewhole film with his performances, After Broadcast News he went on to do thepreviously mentioned, The Accidental Tourist and just for something differentand a view which crushes my just stated argument, Janet Maslin from the NewYork Times isn’t overly impresses bythis film and she writes,

“ The Accidental Tourist, which was unaccountablyvoted the film of 1988 by the New York Critics Circle this month is about a manwhose professional life defines his psyche: Macon Leary (William Hurt)” ...andthis,

...directed by Lawrence Kasdan, is the kind ofliterary adaption that forgets that films have a language of their own.”

So, it’s not all good and what, apart from, AHistory of Violence, is William Hurt up to today.

He's currentlythe lead actor, along with, Isabella Rossellini, in, Ages of Love, released here inAustralia last month and The Age says,

Rossellini and an equally aged William Hurt playthis central couple with authenticity—wear, tear, joy and tenderness.

Sounds interesting!

And here is the trailer to....The Kiss of the Spider Woman...

short story extract...BIG TIME...short story extract

2011-12-15T13:51:00.001+11:00

BIG TIME... EXTRACT

...............Thewaitress stops at his table. She’s Lebanese, he can tell straight away and shegives him a weak smile,

“Breakfast. Everything. Eggs, bacon, steak, tomatoes, mushrooms, etcetera, etcetera...” he saysand her smile turns into a little laugh. Mikhail, with the cropped blonde hairand steel blue eyes and the muscles showing through his winter clothes, helaughs too.

She brings hisbreakfast and smiles and says,

“I’ll be back with thecappuccino.” The plate is filled with grease and food and that’s exactly whathe wants.

He starts churning through the food not worrying about any etiquetteand the cappuccino comes with no talk and no break in his eating. He finisheswith a Kent cigarette, another cappuccino. Now he’s ready for Milos. Big old, psycho, Milos, they call him inwhispers behind his back. He allows it because it suits him, emboldens themyth. Mikhail jumps in the back seat of a taxi and he can tell the driver’s nothappy with the small fare. Both of them say nothing. Mikhail calls Milos to askhim to open up at The Griller. Mikhail gets out, shoves a twenty in the drivershand for a five dollar fare; makes them both feel good. Mikhail is back is whatit meant. Mr Big Time.

He calls Milos again toopen the door.

The Griller is atwenty-four hour party people club and Monday’s between 6am and 11am is theonly time it’s closed all week. Cleaning needs to be done and Milos likes doingbusiness early. The door opens. Mikhailsmiles and Milos grabs Mikhail’s strong forearm and pulls him in the door. Ahuge bear hug from Milos and Mikhail slaps his back hard and they kiss eachother on the cheek. Milos leads the way to the back stairs and up to hisoffice. Sound proofed and decked out in the best furniture money can buy. Milosloves this room and Mikhail is slightly envious because he knows how much moneygoes through the safe.

“You sure you want backin?” Milos asks. “You’re the only person I count as a friend in my business. Idon’t want you messed up.”

“I called you. It’sjust business, we continue as if nothing happened. I didn’t go to Melbourne forfive years.”

“That’s done.” Milossays. “Here are the details.” And he hands him a folder. Asks him,

“Where are you staying,Mikhail?”

“I haven’t sorted itout yet.”

“Where do you want tostay? I’ll pay for a week in a hotel or...”

He wakes and orders astrong cappuccino from room service.

Vows to get groceries, buy a small coffeemachine with part of the money that sits inside the folder, his advance. Aftershopping he’ll sit down and go through the file of the victim. This issomething he enjoys. Getting to know what kind of person he’s soon to kill canoften determine the method of the kill.

He opens the folder,lights his cigarette. Exhales and smiles a little smile. Runs his free handthrough his short blond hair.

What did you do, Vera Redonika?

The photo shows Vera isan attractive woman. She has short redhair and her eyes are black. Mikhail believes that black eyes tell a story—nosoul, no heart. He understands this because he’s seen it time and time again.Vera is standing at her front gate in Clovelly, a nice federation house thatbecause of the location would make Vera a millionaire if she sold it. She’s wearing a longgrey coat jacket and high heelboots. She looks like she’s waiting for someone to pick her up.

What did you do, VeraRedonika?

TO BE CONTINUED... in amagazine, on this blog...on another blog...somewhere....

And here is....Beasts of Bourbon.

Walk the Line...DVD Review

2011-12-11T12:08:00.001+11:00

This film, directed byJames Mangold and starring, Joaquin Phoenix and Reece Witherspoon, is a biglove story with a great: no, an amazing soundtrack. It’s based on the book,‘Man in Black’, written by the man himself, Johnny Cash.

A friend of mineintroduced to me Johnny Cash, ‘Live in Folsom Prison’, many years ago and I’llalways be grateful to him because he changed my narrow mind about CountryMusic. Johnny Cash is a king and this is a great biopic about one of the modernday greats of music and as I said it’s also a powerful love story.

We meet Johnny Cashwhen he’s working with his family as a cotton picker and his older brother, Jackand he, are great mates, hanging out together and sticking fast when theirfather comes home drunk shouting and carrying on and young JR spends most ofhis time with his ear stuck to the radio listening to gospel music. Tragedy strikes and Jack gets killed while cutting wood and JohnnyCash’s father lays the blame on him, which is pretty heavy duty for a youngsterwho watches his brother die in hospital. It seems like Johnny’s in mourning forJack most of his life and perhaps that’s why he dresses in black.

Johnny Cash grows up andenlists in the army and ends up in Germany, where he starts to write his ownsongs and it’s where he wrote, “I killed a man in Reno, just to watch himdie.” Not a bad lyric. We also see the romantic side of him as he proposes overthe phone to his girlfriend, Vivian, and she accepts and on his return to TheStates he and Viv move out to Memphis and he works a as a door to door salesmanand until he finally auditions for Sun records. The same Sun records where hemeets a young, Elvis Presley and his career takes off and he starts touring andhe meets the love of his life, June Carter.

But, June Carter, like Johnny Cash,is married and has children and this is the beginning of a very tempestuousrelationship between Cash and Carter and the movie catches it all ratherbrilliantly against the backdrop of Johnny Cash taking drugs and spirallingdownward even with all his success and the breakdown of his marriage and theturbulence of his dysfunctional relationship with his father.

We hear, ‘Ring of Fire’, written by JuneCarter and sung by Johnny Cash and we hear the classic, ‘Jackson’, and we seeJohnny Cash fall apart and get it back together and June Carter marries a stockcar racer and Cash continues the cycle of rise and burn and they continue to battle each other andflirt and laugh and hurt each other and we see it all through absolutely knockoutperformances by Phoenix and Witherspoon. It’s a tough call for anyone to tryand catch Johnny Cash and his huge presence but when Phoenix strides onto stageand takes the microphone and says,

“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”.

Well, I defy you not to get goose bumps, it’s amazing, and if you listen to,‘Live in Folsom Prison’, one of the joys of the album, aside from the brilliantsongs and singing, is the stage banter of June Carter. She is just out of thisworld and even if you didn’t know what she looked like you’d want to listen to herall day.

Apart from being a damnfine film with great music there’s a lot of interesting ‘music trivia’ goingon. Cash tours with, ‘The Killer’, Jerry Lee Lewis and of course there’s theSun Records connection, which I already mentioned and he starts taking speedpills after a dealer tells him, ‘Elvis takes them.’ And at one stage when he gets rejected byJune Carter, he meets up with the famous Country singer, WaylonJennings, and they hnag out and both go about trying to kill themselves with drugs andalcohol and there’s mention of Bob Dylan going electric, 'everyone’s goingelectric’, the guy from the record company tells him when Cash comes up with theidea of recording in Folsom Prison, because he gets letters from the inmatestelling him how much his music effects them.

Something thatsurprised me was how, ‘Rock and Roll’, Cash was but I guess if you’re touring with,‘The Killer’ and Elvis you have to be.

I may even slip thisfilm into my top eight or ten films of all time.

Enjoy this clip ofJohnny Cash singing...

And here is the trailer for...WALK THE LINE

WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY....

BLUES FOR A BOY...THE ON-LINE CRIME NOVEL RETURNS WITH...EPISODES 19 AND 20

Blues for a Boy- is an on-line novel started on 17/8/11.Please go back through archives and follow the whole novel.

Blues for a boy is fiction. Any similarity to anyone livingor dead is purely coincidental.

Darlo Rd Nights....Book Trailer...Music from Rockmelons

2011-12-09T09:03:00.001+11:00

Please enjoy this book trailer, which features songs from Perry Keyes and Models.

And this is the Rockmelons from 1987...'New Groove'...in the neighbourhood and my neighbourhood was 3/98 Coogee Bay Rd

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

2011-12-08T14:24:00.001+11:00

This is a deeplypersonal account of a migrant (refugee) family arriving in Melbourne from arefugee centre in Thailand via China the jungles of Cambodia and Vietnam. Escaping from the modernday Hitler—Pol Pot, to a weatherboard house in Footscray. Cue every single clichéthat you can think of and then dismiss them on the spot.

Grandmother never stopspraising, father Government, who gives her money every week (the Pension) and Alice’sparents look at escalators and crossing signals as things of wonder.Supermarkets are amazing places full of incredible food and life is good. Thisis a good country they’ve come to and yes, they name their daughter, Alice,after Alice in Wonderland because of this wonderful country (Australia) thatthey’ve come to.

And just because it’s adeeply personal account does that make it a worthwhile book. Certainly it does,simply by reminding us just what a tortured existance it was under the man shecalls, Brother Number One (Pol Pot) in Cambodia and simply amazing it is thatthese people survived and came and found a new life here in Australia. AlicePung gives us all the gritty details. I heard her father wasn’t too happy whenhe found what the book was about and you couldn’t blame him after passages likethis,

“She stares down at herhusband, her mother-in-law and her sister-in-law, who have already arrived atthe bottom. “Ahhh. I’m scared.” My father initially steps on, growing largerand larger as he approaches the top with a smirk pasted on his face, like aslow zoom in a cheesy Chinese film. “Just step between the yellow lines,” he instructs,“Come on, you’ve gone up before, so you can come down too.” Weee, wahhh, seewhat fun.” Up and down the escalators at Highpoint Shopping Centre—this 32 yearold man, his eight months pregnant wife, his twenty seven year old sister andthe old Asian grandmother in the purple woollen pyjamas.”

I put in that ratherlarge slice from the book because that’s the tone of the book for the firstthird or so and it's also interspersed with the dreadful accounts of life (not all) inCambodia and China but the overwhelming feel of the book is that selfdepreciating look at her family and to a lesser extent herself because sheseems at times to want to distance herself from these cheesy accounts. I lovethe book, mostly.

I got really boggeddown when Alice Pung was talking about the stressful feelings she had. Like a comatose depression or something, while studying for her VCE exams andwaiting for the results. She seems to have been in a very bad way and the doctor andthe psychiatrist prescribe medication for her, which she doesn’t actually take—hidesit under her tongue but she does get through the ordeal. So well in fact thatshe gets into Medicine/Law at Melbourne University and gets a scholarship fromMonash. I just felt like I would have died if all that pressure had been placed onme. I did something called the, Tertiary Orientation Program, it was the equivalentof the then HSC (now VCE) and I did it at Holmesglen TAFE and it was one of the bestyears of my life but anyhoo, Alice gets through and she wrote this wonderfulbook. The pressure came from her parents and of course she put pressure on herselfand I felt great relief for Alice Pung when she learned those results becauseher parents then told her she could go out and ‘have boyfriends’ and enjoy lifeand what a bloody relief that must have been.

She dearly loves herfamily and in particular her grandmother, who, when she was alive, told hergreat stories and protected her from the world. They slept in a double bed togetherand Ms Pung tells us that it was always warm and how wonderful to be so loved.

I also really enjoyedthe stories that Ms Pung told of babysitting her younger siblings. She took themon walks through the suburbs and turned these walks into great adventures for her youngersisters and brothers and she loves them that’s for sure. The tales of her motherand how hard she worked—I couldn’t really understand it but I did enjoy readingabout it and she’s a real tough cookie too. I also read somewhere that herfather turns up to all her, ‘readings’; maybe it’s to see that she doesn’t tellany more tales out of school so to speak.

Great book. Published by Black Inc, who do that wonderful , 'Best Australian' Series.

And now for something completely different..The Cruel Sea...This is not the Way Home!

A History of Violence...DVD Review

2011-12-04T14:04:00.001+11:00

We meet two serialkillers checking out of a small motel, somewhere on the road inno-where’s-ville-America. They blow a couple of holes in the manager of themotel and the housemaid—who is probably his wife—a little girl of five or sixpeaks out of the office door and sees the destruction of life. The younger ofthe serial killers blows a hole straight through her. Violence

We then meet ViggoMortensen as Tom Stall, husband to Maria Bello, as Edie, his wife and twobeautiful children—the perfect family, living in Milbrook—perfect small town,somewhere in middle America, both in location and actuality.

These two lots ofpeople are on a collision course and that’s only the beginning of this DavidCronenberg film, adapted from a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vincent Locke.This is a difficult film to review without giving away too much but I’m goingto give you the set-up because it doesn’t ruin the plot.

The two serial killersdrive into town. They’re bored and looking for easy cash. They come to thesmall town diner owned and run by Tom Stall and demand money. Threaten to rapethe waitress as part of the deal. Tom doesn’t like it too much but he’s just asmall town guy, right. Tom throws the hot pot of coffee into the face of theolder killer and shoots them both when the gun flies free of the killer and does it with style.Violence.

Tom got stabbed in thefoot for his trouble but the way he did it. Killed those men like he wasshelling peas; like he’d done it before maybe. News crews from all over thecountry turn up to do the story on the small town hero who killed the mentrying to rob his little diner. His son, who is getting bullied at school,looks at his old man in a whole new light and Edie, his wife, thinks he’spretty cool too. There are some neat scenes with Tom and Edie and they clearlylove each other dearly and his young son seems to get inspired because he turnshero at school and kicks the asses of two boys who were persecuting him.

An ironic scene follows where his father chastises him for using violence. Thisfilm is building to something.

Ed Harris, an extremelyunderrated actor, turns up in Milbrook and comes into the diner. He tells Tomhe saw him on TV and then he tells him he knows who he is. Tells, Tom that’s he'sJoey from Philly and that he took his eye out with barb wire and we see the scartissue and the dead eye and we start to look at Tom Stall a little differentlyand this where the film really heats up.

The local cop does acheck on Ed Harris and his two accomplices and they’re heavy duty criminalsfrom Philadelphia and this guy, Joey, who they say, Tom Stall is, his brotheris a mob connected guy and Tom’s wife and his son, they start to look at himdifferently. Who is this guy that Edie loves. Jack, his son, demands to knowthe truth and still the film builds and creates doubts in the viewer as to whatis the true identity of Tom Stall. Ed Harris doesn’t go away. The film buildssome more but I won’t give any more of the plot away.

Viggo Mortensen is verygood as the nice guy who turns violent and he really performs the violence asthough it’s second nature to him. He began his career brilliantly as the wildboy in Sean Penn’s directorial debut, ‘The Indian Runner’, and he’s pretty muchdelivered in everything since. He does romance and adventure and violenceequally well. Maria Bello as his wife is a delight. At one stage she dresses upas cheerleader for him but it’s not done as sleaze it’s done with humour andlove.

Look out for William Hurt as a gangster, he does psycho pretty good andhe always has a big screen presence in whatever he does.

It’s the perfect castin a pretty damn violent film, that’s also well constructed and the violencedidn’t worry me at all. Maybe because the film is adapted from a graphic noveland I‘ve hardly ever read a graphic novel but just the idea lends it towardcartoon violence and I don’t mean that in bad way, never in a bad way. MickeyRourke in Sin City, that was also from a graphic novel and it was also a violent andsexy film, just as this is. Having said that, A History of Violence, is verymuch a more a mainstream film that Sin City was.

I checked out thereview of the day by Urban Cinefile, that nifty Australian film website,and Louise Keller said,

“A tantalisingexplosive film about inner conflicts and secrets, A History of Violence is asublime psychological thriller in a western setting.” Hey, I guess she liked itand there is something of the Western about it and I mean Western as in genreand not reality, some ‘man with no name’ to it if you like.

And here is the trailer to, A History of Violence.

And Lonnie, the private eye with a heart of gold who likes a bit of violence too, returns to this blog tomorrow in my on-line novel...Blues for a Boy...Episode...17

Blues for a Boy- is an on-line novel started on 17/8/11.Please go back through archives and follow the whole novel every Wednesday and print it out.

Blues for a boy is fiction. Any similarity to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental

LOLA...Short Story Extract....and music from Edwyn Collins

2011-12-03T11:21:00.001+11:00

LOLA

Perry meets Lola in2001 in a bar in Kings Cross, Sydney. Tall and angular, Perry dominates theroom and when he sees Lola, he recognises immediately that she knows what thatfeels like. He watches her from a stool at the bar. Pushes his back tight upagainst the steel back, drinks his vodka and ice real slow takes her all in.The way she stands, how she reacts to each person in the group. She plays withsome of the guys, laughs with the women and gets people to back off with just alook. Her eyes fly around the room at least three times in the thirty minuteshe spends watching her and he knows she saw him but couldn’t tell if itmattered. It matters to him.

Lola is tall and slimwith a shock of bright red hair, freckles on her amazingcheekbones and those eyes, blue like a china doll. Twenty-four and the world ishers as only it can be for a beautiful young woman.

A lawyer, charity worker,engaged to Brian, a lawyer too; prone to having a few cigarettes (a joint) whendrunk which happens usually once a week. A good citizen who got a little boredsometimes and she did take Perry in on one of those flying trips around theroom.

Perry thinks he's across between Johnny Cash (I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.) andNicolas Cage. He has the jet black, just receding hair of Nic Cage, a widowspeak and his muscular build. Johnny Cash because he dresses in black and thinkshe's an outlaw. Twenty and a full time dealer in whatever it is you wanted. Thebar they were in was called The Dugout. Perry's base camp.

Lola leans her head onBrian's shoulder,

"I'm going to geta drink and I think I know that man sitting at the bar, he's a friend ofTessa." Brian just nods, he's tuned into a conversation going on betweenLydia and Frankie and he's a bit pre-occupied with Frankie's breasts. Lolaturns and works her way slowly towards the bar and Perry watches as she comes.He starts to feel like, yeah, she did notice him and something could bepossible. She orders a beer, Stella Artois. Perry's impressed. This girl, thisclassy beautiful girl goes to the bar and orders the best beer in the world.

Heswings around to face the bar; she plants herself down on a stool right besidehim.

"Would you like aglass?" The barman asks.

"No. I'll drinkfrom the bottle." Lola says and takes the beer up to her lips and drinksslowly.

"That's thebest." Perry says.

'Excuse me."

"Stella, best beergoing around. I love it."

"And youare?" Brian switches his attention from Frankie and looks to the bar wherehis fiancé sits.

"I'm PerryHarrington."

"My, what animpressive name. Perry Harrington. And you're all dressed in black. Are you abad boy, Perry?" He doesn't feel so dominating. Lola squeezes his hand andslips him a little piece of paper with her work number on it and says,

"Tuesday.” Walksoff.

Perry's not sure ifhe’ll ring or not but he likes her style. He calls to Linda, the barmaid, andsays,

"What can we dofor the staff tonight? Orders please. And feel free to point people in mydirection unless you think they're suss. I can weed out most people I don'tneed but…"

"Enough Perry, youtell me the same thing every second night. How about some sweetness for a change?"

Linda rolls her eyesand smiles at the same time. Perry starts working his way up and down the twolong rooms that make up The Dugout. He slides into booths to conduct businesswith people he's never met before then moves around the dance floor with an oldflame, talks and walks and touches people. Deals drugs. Keeps checking in onwhere Lola is until she walks out at 10-30pm. He clocks Brian with his armaround her waist, touches the bit of folded paper in his pocket and knows hewill call her on Tuesday.

Around midnight TheDugout changes, conversations have to be in tight and close or loud shoutingmatches, music takes over. The two rooms turn into sweatboxes. The barmen andbarmaids start running, working their arses off and Perry glides out into thenight. He crosses the lights opposite the El Alamein Fountain, walks alongDarlinghurst Rd;

crosses the road at the Korean restaurant, next to themuscular Asian man giving massages on the street to people sitting on milkcrates. Walks past the Aussie Rules Club, then as he reaches the corner ofDarlinghurst and Roslyn St he thinksabout getting an ice-cream but continues on past the strip clubs and spruikers,grabs two slices of vegetarian pizza at two dollars apiece and walks under thehuge Coca-Cola sign. Crosses over the overpass, thinks of Lola's boldness andBrian as he walks past Andiamo Cafe, he'saiming for the Griller Bar located on Oxford St just before it reaches the CBD.

He cuts through the park on the right justpast the Paddington Green Hotel. He walks along the footpath beside thenotorious wall, keeps his head down, turns right into bustling, neon lit, supersexy, big city Oxford St on a Friday night. His mood pulsates; he smilesbroadly as he walks down Oxford St until he touches down at The Griller at12-30am, which is early, it hits full tilt power from 3-30 to 4-00am onwards.

Lola's walking aroundher Paddington apartment wearing tight fitting track pants that cost her waytoo much, white socks on her little feet and a tight white t-shirt. Brian'sgone to pick up a pizza they ordered after smoking a joint and she's trying toput the thought of having a cigarette out of her mind. She goes to her neatlystacked CD collection, chooses the SingleGun Theory, presses play and crashes onto the big, soft, black leathercouch she just recently purchased and they talk/sing, 'The time is now. All limitations are self imposed.'

Perry takes a seat at asmall table back in the darkest corner of The Griller and a minute later he hashis vodka and ice and just after that Milos sits down opposite him.

"Perry, you needto ring me every day," he says, "this is the arrangement we havemade. The arrangement I made."

"I rang you onWed…" The way Milos looks at him tells Perry to shut up and he immediatelytries to drill it into his brain, must ring Milos every day, can't be coolabout that.

"So, business isgood, you've done well, Perry. Targets set," he starts to laugh,"Have been achieved, everyone is happy." Perry takes an envelope fromthe inside pocket of his soft, black leather jacket and hands it to Milos.

"You need to get yourselfa woman, Perry," Milos tells him "a permanent girl. I need a way toget at you if you screw up." Milos gets up and Perry shakes his hand,tries to give it the full power but backs off when Milos cranks it up a touch.

'Tomorrow," Milossays. Perry watches him leave. Big old psycho, Milos walks though the bar andout the door. Perry gets up and goes to the toilet, pisses his fear out at theurinal, pulls his zip fly up and back to business and pleasure he thinks. Hehas a hole in the wall office, one floor above the bar. A desk and chair, aphone and an open window that looks onto a back alley. A monitor on the deskflits between four different sections of the bar. He's searching for newcustomers but it's too damn anti-social for him. Milos wants him in there fortwenty minutes every hour, wants him to check on the bar staff too. See ifthey're pocketing any cash. He doesn't put any staff into Milos; he lets themknow he's seen them, their choice after that.

Perry's a friendly guybut he can blow a gasket, usually happens once every two months. Shit justbuilds up, someone says something stupid and he blows. He's hit a few of thesejokers, put one guy out of action for months but he's not a career hard mananimal like Milos. Hell, he's making fifty thousand a year tax free, freedrinks, mostly trouble free. The protection of the bar owners and Milos, it allworks out.

***

Brian walks in with twopizzas and garlic bread. They have coke in the fridge. Lola changed the musicto the Rockmelons, a pretty specific taste.

"Did he know,Tessa?" Brian asks.

'What?"

"That guy at thebar. Was he a friend of Tessa's?"

“No, it was a mistake.Don't worry about it. Oh God! I'm starving." She says. Brian gets up andchanges the CD.

"You know I hate it,"he says

"Ok, Ok. Just noDoobie Brothers."

"I don't even owna Doobie Brothers CD." Lola's laughing, stoned, snorting coke out her noseand coughing.

"Oh yeah, that'sfunny." Brian says and theatrically places his Nick Cave CD in theplayer. Chilled out he thinks and Lola just grins and gets stuck into thepizza.

Tuesday morning. Perrydoesn't work Monday and Tuesday but he knows it's getting to the stage whereMilos might ask him or get someone else to do it. He doesn't want that, couldeventually cut him right out. He rings Lola. Someone takes a message. It's oneof those amazingly great Sydney days. Winter and it's twenty-two degrees,bright blue skies are in action, cloudless. Perry decides quickly. Jumps intohis Triumph Stag and he's driving down Bondi Rd. Black jeans and T, blackboardies wrapped up in a deep red towel. Stag's red. Red cars go faster.

He parks in the beachcar park. Walks down the big central stairs onto the beach, changes in the openand runs straight into the surf and under a wave. Balls freezing as he catcheswave after wave. The ocean; world's greatest cure for anything. He rings Lolaagain, gets through,

"You have thelife, swimming at Bondi. Meet me at the Long Bar for a drink at four. Two hoursfrom now. Say you will." He agrees and wonders what he's in for. He packsup his gear, gets changed in the Pavilion toilets, smokes a cigarette anddrinks a latte looking out at the crashing waves.

He makes home it home to Darlinghurst infifteen minutes. What type of black clothing to wear? Even Perry thinks it's alittle ridiculous. He's sitting at a table just inside the door at the, The LongBar, nursing his vodka when Lola walks in with Brian. She walks straight pastand Perry decides to leave straight away.

He feels like a fool.'Are you a bad boy, Perry?’ He hasn't felt this way since he was fifteen whenLana Turner dropped him. 'You're so up yourself.' She said. Lola rings him.

"I'm so sorry,Perry. I told him I was coming here to meet a friend, he insisted on coming.I'm in the loo," She laughs, "I'll call you tomorrow, promise."

CONT”D SOMEWHERE SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE...HERE OR IN A MAGAZINE!

I Never Met a Girl LIke You Before...YES! AGAIN!