Author: Lynn

The Armchair Traveler – I Love L.A.

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Iconic movies  about Los Angeles are:

L.A. Confidential, based on the book by James Ellroy. 1950’s Southern California in all it’s noir glory. Three cops are drawn into a complicated web of crime involving prostitutes and plastic surgery. Heavy hitters like Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe are fun to watch, even as the plot gets more and more challenging to follow.

The Player, based on the book  by Michael Tolkin. In typical Robert Altman fashion, the film is jam-packed with movie actors playing themselves (over 65 of them). Part of the fun is spotting them as they pop up in the background. Tim Robbins is “the player”  – a movie executive who is in constant negotiations with screenwriters and actors.

L.A. Story, screenplay by Steve Martin. One of Sarah Jessica Parker’s breakthrough performances; she plays a bouncy, free-spirit named SanDeE*, who has a life-altering effect on weatherman Steve Martin. Like The Player, this is a satirical look at the L.A./Hollywood lifestyle, though more affectionate and celebratory.

The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

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Have you zipped through Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series? Are you looking for a heroine as tough and scarred as  Lisbeth Salander? Well, look no further.

The titular Informationist, Munroe (aka Michael and Victoria) is a very high-priced gun-for-hire. Because of her facility with languages and insight into the politics and economics of other countries, she acts as a quasi-spy/private eye for governments and corporations.  She grew up in Cameroon, the daughter of missionaries, and rebelled against their religion and neglectful parenting, by going to work for a local cartel of criminals. There she learns many survival skills, useful in her current line of work.

The most interesting aspect of the book are the settings of Equatorial  Guinea and Cameroon. Munroe and her minder navigate the bureaucracy, politics and culture of these countries trying to find the daughter of a billionaire oilman.

Her job as an “informationist,” is to get the information her employer requests. In this case, whether the missing girl, Emily, is dead or alive. Such a remote part of the world is fascinatingly revealed – the climate, history, and customs are incorporated naturally into the story. The pages nearly drip with the heat and humidity.

The author herself grew up  very non-traditionally, in a “communal apocalyptic cult,” as she says. It wasn’t till she was in her twenties that she escaped. The cult traveled all over the world, including West Central Africa, which accounts for her gifted depiction of this area.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a series of Victoria Munroe books in the near future.

Want to be Hip? Get a Typewriter!

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Years ago, some Davenport Public  librarians saved one of the last of the library’s typewriters from the auction pile. It has been in steady use ever since – for forms, envelopes and for those who  apparently just like to type!

Library formats  and databases have come and gone;  but the little-typewriter-that-could remains in the corner of the Main library’s first floor.

A New York Times article, “Click, Clack, Ding! Sigh…” describes a movement of typewriter enthusiasts who “appreciate tangibility, the object-ness of things.” Advantages include the timelessness of the machine, “unlike laptops and smartphones, which become obsolete the moment they hit the market.” In contrast to these delicate devices,” old  typewriters are built like battleships ” and are easy to repair.

They also serve to focus a writer on writing; there’s only one thing you can do on a typewriter. You can’t have several windows open – multitasking on Facebook, email and Twitter.

So, bring the kids and grandkids by the Main library to see an actual, working typewriter. They’ll be amazed.

Earthquake DVDs

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Earthquake in the Heartland hits the closest to home. This History Channel show focuses on the New Madrid fault in Missouri that threatens the midwest and southeast. In 1811 and 12, an earthquake actually caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards. There were multiple tremors that probably reached 8 on the Richter scale.

Earthquake Storms is a Discovery Channel program that addresses the tendency toward multiple earthquakes occurring in a short period of time, in particular the effect this would have on a large city.

Nature Unleashed: Earthquake /Avalanche The first movie in this set  turns out to be  timely. An American engineer goes to Russia to inspect a nuclear power plant. While he’s there, a huge earthquake occurs that cripples the plant and threatens a meltdown. The engineer and  his ex-wife who works at the facility race to save their daughter who is caught in a subway. As part of the disaster movie genre, it’s not bad.

Tornado DVDs

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Tornado Hunters Video footage of F4 tornados taken by amateur and professional storm chasers in Tornado Alley.

Twister The (modern) classic tornado flick starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as the battling “storm-obsessed lunatics.” (All Movie Guide). There’s a complicated plot about “Dorothy,” a machine that will gather vital data about tornados as they pass over the device, and an evil competitor with a similar gizmo.

Which leads us to The Wizard of Oz , the (traditional) classic twister flick.

The tension of the brewing storm’s destruction  is built up carefully – with everyday, realistic touches. Everyone who sees this as a child can imagine themselves in Dorothy’s shoes (ha) – worrying about the darkening skies but having to go about their business. Even after 72 years, this film holds up, IMHO, as the film best able to instill a lifelong fear of storms.

Flood Footage

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Want an idea of how bad floods can get in this area? Take a look at some of these dvds and videos….

Fighting the Floods WQAD’s coverage of the June 2008 floods has footage of the floods in Iowa and Illinois, including Davenport, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

Illinois Valley, Historic Flood of 2008 footage of the September 16th flood along the Illinois River.

’93 Flood This video was aired live during the flood and aftermath; it contains aerial footage of the flooded Mississippi River.

Fatal Flood A 1927 Mississippi River flood killed more than a thousand people and destroyed the homes of millions from Cairo, Illinois on south to New Orleans. This a PBS American Experience program – which are uniformly excellent.

Tsunami DVDs

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Discovery Channel’s dvd, America’s Tsunami, explores the impact of the wave that hit Thailand 7 years ago. Scientists attempt to find out why it happened, and to predict where the next one would happen (see if they were right). They have gathered fascinating footage of divers exploring a seabed that is larger than the Alps.

The Wave That Shook the World is another dvd about 2004’s Indian Ocean tsunami. This Nova production explains why this event was so destructive.

Tsunami: Killer Wave by National Geographic covers the risk in Hawaii, Japan and California. See how the recently famous Pacific Tsunami Warning Center operates.

Tsunami: The Aftermath is actually a drama about several people who were affected by the Thai tsunami, including a Thai survivor who lost his entire family, a reporter, a meteorologist and a relief worker. Tim Roth and Toni Collette star in this HBO miniseries.

Cleaning Nabokov’s House by Leslie Daniels

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The pleasure in reading a book like Cleaning Nabokov’s House is to enjoy vicariously the survival and ultimate triumph of an average (well, maybe not so average) person.

Barb Barrett is a wife and mother in a small town who loses what she loves most (her father, cousin and children) in relatively quick succession. When she is at her lowest point, she is unemployed and more or less homeless – living out of her car and reduced to watching her children from afar. She lost custody because the judge, lawyers, and social workers in the small, upstate New York town is allied with her husband, a hometown boy. A meal may consist of boiled lettuce; she has one pair of good pants.

Her luck begins to change when she buys a house formerly occupied by Vladimir Nabokov. She finds a manuscript presumably written by the author of Lolita. The reader picks up bits about Nabokov’s life and works and, I, at least, wanted to read more of his actual novels.

Leslie Daniels, in her first novel, creates a character who is endearingly quirky and self-reliant. We root for her success and hope for her former husband’s (the ex-person’s) downfall.

Following Polly by Karen Bergreen

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Alice Teakle grows on you. In the beginning of Following Polly by Karen Bergreen, I thought Alice was pathetic and weird; I wasn’t sure I liked her. Her preoccupation, not to say, hobby, is following an old school mate, who is now a major celebrity. She seems particularly adept at sabotaging herself and any success she might achieve in work or family life.

As Alice’s  life starts to fall apart and she is the prime suspect in first one then another murder, I really began to respect her resourcefulness. Alice turns out to be amazingly adept at hiding from the police, and surviving on the streets.

No matter how bad things ge, Alice is funny and smart (she also has a photographic memory). She is definitely not a stereotypical heroine and the plot’s trajectory is not predictable.

A Spider on the Stairs

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A Spider on the Stairs is a “contemporary reimagining of the classic English mystery.”  It is refreshingly old-fashioned in its absence of gore and forensic razzle-dazzle.

This is part of a series featuring Scotland Yard Sergeant Jack Gibbons and his best friend, Phillip Bethancourt. Bethancourt is an upper-class dilettante who tags along with Gibbons while he investigates first one, then several murders around the beautiful, yet tourist-clogged town of York. Chan does a marvelous job of evoking the cozy atmosphere of the bookshop, York’s warren of streets and the countryside during a particularly rainy spell.

Phillip’s social connections  provide Jack with  insider knowledge that help to solve the case. Because he doesn’t have to work and has no real family obligations, Bethancourt can devote whatever time and energy he has left over- after  socializing late into the evening and romancing women.

The book begins with a murder in Mittlesdon, a charming old bookshop. There is a feeling of calm, unhurried serenity  as the bodies stack up – even the bad guys remain polite and civilized.