In the northwestern part of Michigan's lower peninsula, which is seriously gorgeous although has two flaws. The food is universally midwestern blah food. You might believe you can outthink it, but your order is always foiled by soft bread, too much cheese, too much mayo.From restaurant to restaurant, the same dull menu. Secondly, where the heck are the movies. You have to drive 45 minutes to one. But for sheer beauty, nice beaches, sand dunes, great sunsets, good air, it's tops.
Read On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. Terrific. He never lets me down. Who is your favorite author in terms of consistency? Your favorite director on the same terms (Kubrick) Or is consistency important?
7 comments:
Early Wambaugh--and this may be a surprise-- Alf Wright,a.k.a Scottish veterinarian James Herriot. Anybody that over the course of half a dozen books can consistantly keep me on the edge of my seat over the birth of a calf or make me laugh out loud about a flatulent peckinese[sp] is a master of the craft. [Jeez, that sentence was longer than most of my stories.]
And welcome back, I'd love to make it back up to Sleeping Bear Dunes sometime this summer.
John McAuley
Oh, I'd forgotten those Herriot books. You are so right about them. And Wambaugh,of course, Glad to see him back in form apparently with Hollywood Station.
"Oh, I'd forgotten those Herriot books. You are so right about them. And Wambaugh,of course, Glad to see him back in form apparently with Hollywood Station."
Yeah, Hollywood D. is in my tbr pile.
Sidenote: Conversation late this afternoon-- " Uhh, John, James Herriot was English."
"Uhh, no, he was Scottish, he practiced "vittnery" medicine in Northern England. And by the way, the singer, Tom Jones, isn't English either, he's Welsh."
"Uhh."
We sounded like Beavis & Butthead.
John McAuley
While perhaps not the most consistent, the most consistently interesting and consistently brilliant prose writer who comes to mind is Avram Davidson, film writer/director Ingmar Bergman (Borges, the very inconsistent Welles might be the alternates). The worst work I've seen from either has been acceptable; the frequent best transcendent. Most consistently good...Marcia Muller and Sara Paretsky come to mind among the writers. Another uneven set of works among the undersung directors comes to mind, that of Michael Ritchie, but for consistently good directors, I'll note the film career of Jacques Tourneur.
This is a very esoteric, erudite list, Todd. I have to run to IMDB to check it out.
Well, Borges and Davidson were certainly erudite, but I'm not too sure that these are particularly esoteric! With Ritchie, you should start with THE CANDIDATE, though PRIME CUT could've been a contender (and a fine double-feature with DELIVERANCE, its mirror-image) if the production/releasing company wasn't collapsing and the poor (well, spottily brilliant) thing wasn't rushed out to cut losses before it was properly finished. Tourneur started with odd little shorts and ended with television jobs but his film career included the brilliant original CAT PEOPLE and some of the other RKO/Lewton Unit wonders, a mode to which he returned with THE NIGHT OF THE DEMON, among much other work.
Thanks for the rundown. I have seen the original Cat People and it's amazing. I have seen The Canidate, but not in years. And Prime Cut, I'm pretty sure. I will look into it. Our netflix list is shrinking.
Post a Comment