I hate Beniffer, I bought it to see Diane Lane. Even she couldn’t save this dog. Don’t bother.

Thomas Merton is a great thinker. If he had lived longer we may have seen much more dialogue between Catholics and Buddists. I always wondered what the difference between regular prayer and contemplative prayer was. This book lays it out. Contemplative prayer is the deep long term kind of thing that priests and monks are called to do. It has it’s own special rewards. The kind of rewards that only full dedication can bring. Here it is in a nutshell:

“The climate in which monastic prayer flowers is that of the desert, where the comfort of man is absent, and where prayer must be sustained by God in the purity of faith.”

The world is a better place because of Merton.

I rate this book 5 of 5 if you are interested in understanding Catholic prayer life. If you are not, do not read this book.

I remember the previews in the theatres and wanted to see it there, but it was in Seattle for like two days or something. So I was at Best Buy last week and picked it up. For some reason white gang banger pot head movies have a special place in my collection (American History X, Fast times at Ridgemont High, Detroit Rock City, Dazed and Confused, etc.) The intro credit sceens try to convince you these are just neighborhood kids playing cowboys and indians like veryone else. Then you get dropped into the reality of small time drug dealer and his possee and rivals. While that stuff is interesting (especially all the tatoos), the most interesting part of the story is the second part in the relationship between the “stolen boy” and his captors. The drug dealer kidnaps the brother of a guy who owes him $50K and holds him for ransom. But not tied to a chair and tortured as you have seen before. The “Stolen Boy” is broght along to all the parties, he is very much ok with it saying “I don’t want to cause my brother any more trouble”. Stolen boy makes friends with his captors, gets laid, high and has a good time. That makes what the captors have to do in the end all that much harder. There is real drama and soul searching, not expected in a gang banger movie. Very enjoyable. I rate this 4 of 5 stars.

I see Edward Norton in a cowboy outfit with a gun, I want to see the movie. Maybe I am Pavlov dog, but that is how it is. Unfortunately this movie had very little guns and was very slow. A psycological plot without the thriller part. Some moments of insight, but mostly art house wanking. I was not in the mood for arthouse last night. One highlight was the sparseness of the dialogue. Characters said very few words and didn’t try to be smarter than real people. At one point after the sister has been missing, the father is talking to the son:

F: What do you love about your sister?
S: I don’t know. What do you?
F: I don’t know, the whole package I guess.

That is how men really talk about their feelings. Or don’t talk.

If you like Edward Norton, you will like this movie as he is very Ed. But he is not Hollywood Ed, he is complicated arthouse ed. Don’t expect Fight Club or American History X.

I rate the movie 2 of 5 stars.

My father called about three weeks ago, very excited. He had just finished Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and was breathless. I haven’t heard my father so excited about a book in quite a while. He said he was sending it up and I should read it for a better understand of Islam and what is going on in the fundamentalist mid-east. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali born Danish citizen, one of the few Islamic women to escape with their lives from arranged marriages, excision, honor killings of pregnant women, and the general backwarness of the form of Islam taught by the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood. Go to YouTube and search for Submission. Watch the film that caused the Islamic radicals to kill Theo Van Gogh and force his co-producer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, into state security hiding for months. The murderer stabbed a not to Ali in the chesk of van Gogh (after 49 other stabbings). Also watch the clip on You Tube with Ayaan on Bill Maher.

This is very powerful stuff. I put it on my top five books to understand the Mid East and what the West is up against. In here own words “The message of this book, if it must have a message, is that we in the West would be wrong to prolong the pain of that transition unnecessarilly, by elevating culturs full of bigotry and hatred toward women to the stature of respectable alternatives ways of life. Life is better in Europe than it is in the Muslim world because human relations are better, and one reason human relations are better is that in the West, life on earth is valued in the here and now, and individuals enjoy rights and freedoms that are recognized and protected by the state. To accept subordination and abuse because Allah willed it – that, for me, would be self-hatred.”

Read this book. Five of Five stars

I have never been much of a history buff. That stuff is all in the past right? Nor have I been much of a Michale Crichton fan: too Hollywood. But my mother sent me Timeline and I couldn’t put it down. Very engaging concept to time travel through quantum computing (which is a personal interest in the REAL world). The ending is a bit abrupt and seems pasted on, but the plot is very engaging and flows well. I read it mostly on planes, and it is a perfect antidote to the airline movie. I rate 3 of 5 stars.

So yesterday, Sunday, I go into my home gym to work out. First I turn on NPR, but I start out with a half hour on the stationary bike, so I decide I want something visual. Had just received this movie as a gift from a friend. Pop it in. Great concept. A shaper in El Segundo, California, Tyler surfboards builds a single fin long board (9’4”) in the 1970’s style. He surfs it on his home break (El Porto) and sends it to someone in Australia. That guy sends it on and so on until it makes its way back to Tyler a year later. The camera follows. Cool concept, you meet lots of world class surfers and see the board in lots of waves from California to Australia to Japan to Hawaii and back. One crazy guy even takes it out at Pipe on the Northshore of Oahu (where I will be surfing next week). Totally old school. Lots of soul. Filmed in the typical 60’s surf movie style (aka Endless Summer) where there is surfing and voice-over of the people, never any real dialogue, all voice-over. That is a big annoying, but it is the way surf movies are made. The movie got me through my work-out and inspired me to buy a single fin longboard. worth the watch. I rate 3 of 5 stars.

Another airport read. Richard North Patterson says “A gifted writer with a distictive voice.” I say give it a pass. I read it last week and can’t remember what it was about. It did hold my attention through a 5 hour flight, but that is all. Should have been catching up on email. I give it a two of five stars.

OK, so I buy every Walter Mosley book and read it just because I like them. That is what I did in the airport last week when I saw this out in hardback. I read it in three nights and one plane ride. It is called a Fearless Jones novel, but it is really narrated by Paris Milton, Fearless Jones hapless friend. I don’t like second person books like that. If it is about a guy, make that guy the narrator. Or make it fully third person with a nameless narrator. Telling a person’s story from a second person is kinda lame. The “hero” Fearless never really gets a chance to shine. And he isn’t much of a hero anyway, just a bad guy who goes around with multiple women, flashing a gun and beating up people. I would say this isn’t one of Wanter Mosley’s best books. I like the Easy Rawlins series MUCH better. Give this one a pass. I rate it two of five stars.

I buy everything from Karl Haissan. Made the mistake of buying one of his “teen” books which totally missed me. Don’t do that. If you like Haissan, you should buy this book, but don’t think you will get one of his best. His form is getting tired and as I read it I felt like I could tell he was getting bored with himself. Nature Girl just didn’t have life or conviction of his earlier work. Good for a plane ride, but not a mandatory library piece. I rate 2 of 5 stars.