Odds and Ends

Paul McCartney is now 64 years old. I'll give you a few moments to think about that.

The US tied with Italy this weekend, 1-1. Neither team played very well, especially in comparison to Ghana's performance earlier that day. Ghana schooled the Czechs 2-0, scoring their first goal during the first two minutes of the game. As I watch these and other games in the World Cup, I marvel at the way these players control the ball, plucking it out of the air with their feet. I also marvel at the extraordinary aerobic conditioning those guys must be in, to run around nonstop for 90+ minutes.

Linda and I watched Howl's Moving Castle on DVD this weekend. The story is only loosely based on the book by Diane Wynne Jones but it boasted the most coherent narrative that I have seen in a Miyazaki film. And, as ever, the animation is gorgeous.

We also watched Orson Welles' F is for Fake, a documentary about fraud and con artists. It is not a linear presentation but a amiable meandering through the subject matter. I liken it to a dinner conversation with Mr. Welles, where he can hold you spell bound with his asides and logical leaps while still leading you inexorably to his point. It was pretty challenging but pretty good too.

I read Jeff Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen. It is a lush read about a fantastic city where the people live uneasily with, well, mushrooms and squid. The book is not a single narrative but a series of short stories, excerpts from imaginary historical and scientific essays, and the like. The city is locked in a perpetual war between the human populace and the alien mushroom dwellers, a war that the humans do not realize that they are fighting and losing. As I read each section, the almost cthulhu-like horror crept up on me, hidden by the dark humor and absurdity of the premise. A great fantasy book!