Brick Lane

A young Blangadeshi is sent to England to marry a man older than her, and leaves behind her sister, an irascible father, and memories of her mother drowning herself, and of happy times playing with her sister.

In London she lives with her two daughters and distant husband in an immense block apartment building that houses immigrants and others on the margins of society. After her husband quits his job in a fit of pique motivated by a perceived insult to his character and intelligence, she buys a sewing machine and begins making garments and money.

She lives for the letters her sister writes of her romantic adventures. As she reads such letters, Nazneen is transported back to her youth and her home.

Karim delivers her the raw materials and picks up her finished work is also Bangladeshi. Slowly a friendship develops between them. Her husband's indifference (his only tenderness, if it can be called that, is to take her hand in bed, before climbing on her and discharging his desire) pushes her away, and Karim's tenderness slowly seduces her.

When 9/11 happens the slow radicalization of Asian youth is propelled by the racist backlash of whites screaming invective and threatening violence ("go home, Paki" they scream, but never think that perhaps the colonialism of the homeland is, at least, partly responsible for the immigration of those they loathe).

Subtlety in storytelling renders this film weak; it could use a shot of adrenaline. Yet it is a beautiful film that tells an important and compelling story.

Sherlock Holmes

A modern take on an all-time great. Overdone. Downey did a great accent, but it seemed, somehow, off. McAdams was expendable, her acting mediocre. Critics in Rotten Tomatoes gave it 70%, the public 81%, which makes sense: it is aimed at the popular palette.

Scorpions

Feldman, Noah. (2010). Scorpions: the battles and triumphs of FDR's great Supreme Court justices. New York : Twelve.

A magnificent history of the four great Justices that FDR appointed to the Supreme Court. The narrative moves along, and centers on the four; to a significant degree FDR is a supporting actor. Frankfurter, a self-designated heir to Brandeis and Holmes, was appointed from Harvard Law, from where he had already conducted a correspondence with FDR. Starting out a liberal, he carved out a philosophy of judicial restraint (curious how history twists and turns), only to wind up his career as a conservative. Black was a Senator, a liberal, a former KKK member. Douglas was a Westerner, a prodigy, who had been appointed to the SEC on Joe Kennedy's recommendation; he never gave up his political ambitions, not until Truman beat him out for the VP nomination in 1944. Jackson was the last Justice appointed to not have graduated from law school. He carved out a judicial philosophy based on common sense and moderation. The 4 came from different places, too: FF from Austria; HB from Alabama; WOD from Washington; RJ from upstate NY.

Wonderful book.

One curiosity is how libraries classify it: various libraries have it at 347.7326 (Civil procedure and courts); some at 923.47 (general biography range of numbers); one as 920

Complete dog parenting for baby boomers and beyond

Oy vay.

'Tis autumn

In 1991 filmmaker Raymond De Felitta heard a singer named Jackie Paris on a Los Angeles radio station and began a search that first yielded the fact that Paris had died in 1977. In 2004 De Felitta discovered Paris was alive and making a comeback in a New York City nightclub. This film explores the life of the jazz singer along with an exploration into what it is to live the life of an artist in its least glamorous aspects. Includes interviews with jazz legends including Billy Taylor, James Moody, Anne Marie Moss, Mark Murphy, George Wein, and others.

Outsider Pictures

Paris had a distinctive voice. A tenor, it was pleasant, yet, for me, it lacked something, some quality. One person in the film said that once someone explained Paris's lack of success by saying he doesn't sound like anyone. A valid point. We are so inclined to say that a writer, a musician, a singer, resembles another, as a way of qualifying (and, often, pigeonholing) the talent, that someone who can not be so qualified can suffer thereby.

He also played guitar and tap-danced. Of the latter, there is no recording extant; there was a recording of Paris playing guitar in a trio, and singing: he reminded me a lot of Tiny Grimes (see above).

That he didn't make fame is strange. The film explored and tried to answer that. Perhaps his temper and his ego got in the way, though he would hardly be the first musician to have an outsize ego and temper. Peggy Lee tried to propel his career. Ella liked him. But, clearly, someone didn't.

Abyssinian chronicles

Isegawa, Moses. (2000). Abyssinian chronicles. New York: Knopf.

Found this book by accident:  I was looking for books by Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro (who actually wrote The remains of the day, a book that became a Merchant and Ivory film), and saw this one; intrigued, I took it. Started to read it, and did consider that it would open up into a wonderful book. But it never did. Stopped at page 70. Perhaps I read one too many works of fiction in a row. Whatever the case, I moved on.

A reviewer was ambivalent about the book.