Returns

We’re getting another snow storm today so we’ll see if the snow blower is up for the task.  It’s a carbon copy of this past weekend with snow followed by rain.  Driving into work yesterday I thought my car was coming apart when a long piece of rubber jumped up onto my windshield.  It turned out to be the oft written about auger belt from the snow blower.  I had thrown it onto the hood of my car to make sure I remembered to re-install it before the storm.  This was a more jarring reminder than I was prepared for but at least it didn’t fall off without me noticing.  With Buddy’s determined assistance it’s back on the snow blower now – readying to go into action.

I’ve been so busy at work over the past month that my lunch time reading sessions were seriously curtailed.  I finally finished slogging through The Return of the Black Company by Glen Cook yesterday.  This is the third of four (very long) compendium novels of this sci fi/fantasy series.

I did not enjoy this one as much as the previous two although the book does have its moments.  My biggest problem was the new narrator.  Cook uses the Black Company annalist as the narrator for each of the books.  The previous annalist, Croaker, took over command and passed his duties on to another, the standard-bearer, Murgen. 

I enjoyed Murgen’s account and his depiction of day to day life in a military unit- always Cook’s strongest point.  The biggest problem is that for a large section of the book Murgen was getting yanked back and forth in time, literally.  This made for a very confused reading, especially since I was reading in spurts, when my schedule allowed, instead of continuously. 

The book ends with the evil Soulcatcher triumphant and my guys all encased in some kind of perpetual sleep.  This pissed me off a little bit but Cook does ominous well and I think he’s set up a great sequel.  You know the company will be back and there will literally be hell to pay.  Geeky enough for you?

I’m maintaining the tradition of date night in the absence of the wife (or I could just be a movie fanatic).  Last night I went to see what I thought would be another Rock (excuse me – Dwayne Johnson) action flick – Snitch.  It turned out to be more of a melodrama.  If you’ve seen the preview you’ve seen virtually every action scene. 

I have the sinking feeling Mr. Johnson now fancies himself as a budding thespian and wants to extend his repertoire into actual acting.    He should have picked some other vehicle to do that.  It was totally unbelievable that a bunch of skinny little drug dealers could kick the Rock’s ass and that he would turtle when they do it. 

The supporting cast was solid with Omar Little (Michael Kenneth Williams) returning as, big surprise, a drug dealer.  He’s such a good actor I wish he would get some meatier parts.  Shane (Jon Berthal) from the Walking Dead had a bigger and better part.  He was totally believable as an ex-con trying to put his life together. 

The story involved a guy trying to rescue his son from a long federal sentence by arranging a big drug deal and then turning everybody over to an equally conniving government.  Susan Sarandon played the evil prosecutor (bet she loved that).  The best actor in the movie though was Barry Pepper who can be pretty uneven at times but does a great job as a world weary DEA agent.

I really wanted to like this movie but it was all over the place and seemed to want to indict the government for trying to keep dangerous drugs and drug dealers off the street.  I think the Rock really can act but this was a poor choice of a vehicle to demonstrate it.