Whatta Fiasco

I thought Charlie Stross did an acceptable job at writing science fiction, but I may end up liking his fantasy even more. This first book in a series (sigh… and yes, it ends abruptly, be forewarned, but the second book is out) manages to combine corporate intrigue, medievalist economics, the war on drugs, alternate universes, and corporate restructing into one coherent whole. And then some. If you’re a fan of Zelazny’s Amber series, do check this one out.

[amazon]

This isn’t a proper review at all. I just like this book. It has great ideas and some interesting characters. It gets too far into action for action’s sake territory for me to be in love with it, but it’s quite entertaining in the process. And it has a nice twist or two.

[amazon]

Yes, we paid the extra money (about a 50% premium) in order to see this film on a small IMAX screen. Was it worth it? I don’t know. It did look good on the screen. And the film itself was better than I had let myself expect. Really, quite enjoyable and as edgy as you’d expect from Burton and Depp. This is one of those rare cases where I like the remake better than the original movie version. And yes, Grandpa Joe (David Kelly) should look familiar. You may remember his as the nude motorcyclist in Waking Ned Devine.

I had run across mention of this book a few times, and it sounded intriguing. A fantasy peopled by dragons with a plot inspired by Anthony Trollope? It could be very good or very bad indeed, but as a fan of Trollope, I knew it was just a matter of time. The prefatory notes admit that the book owes a lot to Framley Parsonage, and the debt is very deep indeed. It’s been a few years since I last read that one, but it was amusing and disconcerting to find how much of it (and much of the rest of the Barsetshire Chronicles) came to mind again as I was reading this adapatation featuring a society of cannibalistic dragons instead of English gentry. The thought of a London clerk dealing with office politics by threatening to eat his rival is topped only by the mental image of a twenty foot dragon wearing millinery. As a Trollope fan, I was delighted to see the amount of detail she managed to pack into the book, including allusions to the famous land draining projects and the conflict between high and low church. Lack of a detailed hunt description not withstanding, this book is a hoot. Now I want to go reread some Trollope. Will you enjoy this book if you’re not a fan of Victorian literature? But if you do like the book and haven’t ready any Trollope yet, I suggest you give him a try. Even if his clerks don’t eat each other.

[amazon]

Dark and David Cronenberg sort of go together. This one is quite dark. Sex and violence. Lots. And so very well done. He coldly takes us thorugh the process of fetishizing automobile crashes, with a a careful commingling of the damage caused to both cars and bodies. Disturbing.

[greencine]

The day finally came, and after a bit of an odd bobble on a photographer that fell through, hubby offered to do the photography as a wedding present. At the last minute he got a second camera body as insurance, and then drafted me to take pictures as well. That was a strange experience and an interesting way to view the ceremony. I walked around with a lens sufficient to get close up shots from across the room as people were standing around waiting. Lots of cute kids.

For the ceremony itself I went up on the balcony overlooking the wedding party. More pictures, although it was harder to get interesting pictures that didn’t include the backs of people’s heads. At one point hubby nearly knocked over the huge candelabra that was the backdrop to the ceremony, but I was too busy cringing to get a photo of it not falling over. Everything else went just fine.

Then it was off to the banquet hall for the reception where we saw the very personification of the self-assured bride. There are few things as impressive as seeing a bride in her bridal dress eating barbeque ribs. Yes, she used a napkin bib, but even so. Chutzpah! They were good ribs too. (And yes, we got a picture.)

All too soon we made our exit and headed over ot the Dragon lady’s summer party where we got to meet the latest Baby Maggie. Such a sweetie, only three weeks old. Mom is doing well. Dad is still glowing. And then it was amazingly late so we ran away home.

Today was a sleep in late day. Today was a sleep in so late that we skipped breakfast/brunch and went straight for lunch. Then it was back into the car to head for Fremont and an expedition to Fry’s Electronics. It wasn’t high on my list, but it made hubby happy, and driving around looking for it was pleasant when I wasn’t worried about how much gas we had left. And once at Fry’s I decided to settle in at their cafe with a cup of iced coffee and my book so that hubby didn’t feel rushed. Nice idea, and even worked. But first I had to persevere through nearly fifteen minutes of managerial incompetence and watching a Fry’s supervisor get flummoxed by a point of sale computer. If I hadn’t been thirsty and tired, it would have been a lot more amusing than it was.

Then we doubled back to a coffee shop, Mission Coffee, a favorite stomping ground of another old friend. It’s a large but comfortable space with plenty of tables, wireless access (which we didn’t use) and decent coffee. We called our friend and he happened to be in at work (oh, the joy of working for an ISP) but had time to take a break so he met us over there and we took some time to chat and catch up.

This friend is one person who always maanges to remind me of just ho much I’mnot getting done and how much of my life involves just getting by. I feel so amazingly lazy around him and don’t even have the excuse of having kids at home anymore. It’s a good reminder to make sure that I remember to pay attention to what’s most important to me.
In the evening I took a walk along the marina, watching the sun going down and figuring out that there was another restaurant we could walk to and was open late. So we went to a Chevy’s on the water front for our last evening in town.

The bed was terribly hard and the linens were scratchy and the air conditioning was too efficient and the wasn’t any breakfast at the hotel. Welcome to a grumpy me, but the weather was, once again, gorgeous. First we did a little of Berkeley after driving past rows of shops selling sarees and salwar kameez and Indian music. A little walking around was nice but the lack of food was seriously affecting my ability to enjoy anything and my value as a traveling companion. We finally settled on a gaudy and brazen looking food stand called the Brazil Cafe. The music was loud and cheerful, there were (occupied) tables on the sidewalk, and plenty of people standing around waiting for food. This is not a bad sign. I had the Crunchy Tuna sandwich and hubby had the Trip-tip sandwich. Both were excellent, but the bread my sandwich came on (covered in crunchy sunflower seeds) was divine when paired with the spicy tuna and shredded crunchy veggie filling. I highly recommend the place.

Then it was time to head into San Francisco proper to find something. At the time I wasn’t sure just what it was. I kept hearing things like, I’m looking for the Civic Center, followed by I’m looking for eighth street, only to end up at 14th and Folsom at the home of American Fencing Supply. It’s not terribly fancy and most of their stock was still in Sacramento at Summer Nationals, but they let us look around their armoury. I got the chance to see what a left handed Russian grip of an appropriate size feels like in my hand with a blade attached. Interesting. So was the large size plastic Tick doll on the counter. When we left it was abundantly clear that having a car in SF was just nuts, and trying to park in SF on a game day was even crazier. Back to Berkeley we go.

That’s where we met up with an old fencing buddy who relocated to the area several years ago. (Can I blame him for not coming back to Kansas after art school? No, I cannot. Not at all.) We did a little more driving around and did the walk through Telegraph, about as stereotypically Berkeley as you can get. Although to my eyes, through an accident of history, it looked like an imitation of State Street in Madison, complete with a dead end on campus. We made a quick run through Cody’s Books where I realized how many books I want to read have come out this summer already, and how little space I had left in my luggage. And then we ran away before the crowds overwhelmed us. It really wasn’t all that bad, but the entire areas can feel so very small and crowded. The upside is that it tends to be at a very human scale. The downside is that it’s darned near claustrophobic.

Anyway, after that our friend showed us the proper way to BART into SF: park in the lot at the West Oakland station. One noisy ride (and all the restrooms in the stations were indeed closed for security because of the London bombings earlier in the week) and we were back in the city, experiencing it on foot as it was meant to be seen. We did a drift through China Town. Tacky and crazy. Playing spot the knockoffs is fun. I liked the clever variations on the Coach logo (especially after walking past the brightly lit windows of a Coach store on the way there) but the Dolce and Gabbana purse that had only the “D” purse charm instead of having both the “D”and the “G” was amusing for some reason. And if you’re looking for truly outrageous little silk purse confections for under fifty bucks apiece, I can point you in the right direction. Much wandering. Some good food. A nearly empty restaurant that quickly filled when a party of roughly one hundred young Asian men arrived. (And finished eating before we did!)

Then we made the mistake of going into the City Lights bookstore. Oh my. And I had thought Cody’s was bad. City Lights is wonderful. I wanted to wrap up the entire store and take it with me. No kidding. But I didn’t have enough room in my luggage. (Look! A Georges Perec book!) There was no way I was going to be able to pick just one book, so I left empty handed. We consoled ourselves with coffee and tiramisu while sitting at a sidewalk table and people watching as the sun went down. And although the night was yet young, hubby and I were both bushed party-poopers, so we dropped our friend off and headed back to the hotel.

My events were all over and now it was hubby’s turn to fence in the Veteran 50+ men’s epee event. He won three bouts and lost two in his pool, but lost his first direct elimination bout. It would have been nicer to have him go further, but he had fun and was pleased with the day. Then we got to watch one of his Coach’s College buddies make it to the final four in Vet 50 epee. (Yay, Emilio!) And in the middle of hubby’s DE, another friend came up looking for a left-handed epee to borrow. We had plenty, so he took it and won his DE, and then went on to lose the gold medal bout to take second. (Way to go, Chris!)

Then it was time to pack up the car and head south to the bay area.There was a little bobble in the very last part of the mapquest directions to our hotel in Alameda, but we found it, right on the marina. Crummy little hotel but the location was oozing in charm. And we found a gorgeous cloth service pasta restaurant with paper napkin prices overlooking the water. We stuffed ourselves on sourdough bread served with a mound of garlic big enough to choke a horse and weren’t able to eat any dessert. The big boats go by and the little boats go by. And the big boats moored right below us with the digital TV satellites were bobbing around. And we watched the fog roll in over the bay as the sun set. And the puttanesca was, appropriately, anything but subtle or insipid. Wow. Bits of the little salty fish werehiding in the kalamata slices. If you’re looking for a reasonably priced pasta place just inside the Webster tube in Alameda, check out the Pasta Pelican.

Another morning breakfast of waffles in the La Quinta breakfast room, this time spiced with the television news of the bombings in London. Ouch. We made a mental note to get to the airport earlier than usual when it came time to leave.
Day two was Division II women’s epee. More surprising than the size of the Division III field was finding that there were even more people signed up for Division II. Not a lot more, 141 versus 137, but still. I had another pool of seven. I (mostly) fixed most of the problems from the day before, but didn’t win any bouts. But no one flat walked on me either and my fencing was even better than the day before. And then in my DE, I had weapon problems. It cost me a few touches but didn’t materially affect the outcome. Unlike the day before, even after losing my first (and only) direct elimination bout, I was quite happy with the day overall. And I didn’t finish last, which shouldn’t matter at all, but it’s hard for it not to.

Dinner that night was at Brew It Up! another brew pub in Sacramento, only this one was in the town proper. And had both wonderful beer and great food. And it was still crowded with people waiting to be seated after happy hour was over in the middle of the week. A good sign. The interesting twist here is that they have a whole row of small brewing vats sitting along one wall of the main dining area, so the whole place is filled with that warm malty smell of brewing. We also happened to be there on the one day of the month that they offer brewing parties, where you and a group of friends come in and work with one of the pub’s brewers to brew and bottle your own beer. Very cool, but our waitress was also helping out with two brew parties and tried to get us to order dessert before our dinner had come out of the kitchen. But she made everything just fine. And when I tried to order a rootbeer float (they brew their own rootbeer there too) only to discover that they had run out of rootbeer, the waitress was the one who suggested substituting their vanilla stout to make a float instead. It worked very well indeed. Two mugs up!