Ha

Recently spotted on a bumper sticker:

As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in public schools.

Dropping into another era

Like many of the better Stephen King novels, 11/22/63 engages in a kind of beneficial bait & switch. In this case, readers are buying this book because of the sensational, ambitious premise: a regular guy gets the ability to travel back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination! That's the main reason we as readers think we're going to enjoy the book.

But then, we actually start reading the thing and what we really get is a wonderful, heartbreaking love story; a dozen or so fascinating, very likable characters who we're delighted to visit every time we sit down to read; one of the best dramatizations of the joys and rewards of the teaching profession when the job is firing on all cylinders; and an immersive look at a time that was both simpler and quite unnerving (the latter description fueled by the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and other 1950's and 60's stomach churners of the ongoing and out-of-the-blue variety).

And, yes, you do get a decent little plot, sort of like an extended Twilight Zone episode, about a guy trying to stop the Kennedy assassination, laced with all the familiar but always effective "be careful what you wish for" landmines we've seen in other time travel stories. In fact, I might have been the tiniest bit disappointed if the time travel/changing history plot was indeed all the book was about, because King doesn't add all that much to the kinds of plots, paradoxes, and surprise results we've seen in the plethora of time travel books, movies, and television productions that have come before. In fact, he pretty much just puts his own (admittedly, not inconsiderable) polish on those old classic elements, rather than invent new ones.

But combined with the storylines involving Jake Epping meeting and falling in love with the elegant but clumsy Sadie Dunhill, his helping a football jock unearth his hidden talent for the stage, and seeing multiple, believable examples of the amazing kindness and generosity people are capable of at their best, there was no need to scrutinize the time travel mission too much, which ultimately came off as an added bonus and not the thing we thought the book would hang everything on.

Oh, and though I won't go into specifics, the other thing the book does very well is deliver one of those heart rending, patented "I know the right thing to do but it's going to tear me apart to do it" Stephen King endings. And this one's a doozy, perfect but hard to take. But a final, nicely done grace note at the very end of the novel will at least add a small smile to readers' tears.

In the end, I guess everything I discussed above comes to this: you'll dive into this book for the Kennedy plot, but love it for the wonderful, rich novel about people and the myriad ways they can bring out the best in each other, often in the midst of great tragedy and hardship. Who would have thought that we'd get that wonderful outcome from a novel with the ominous, disturbing, sensational title, 11/22/63?

As far as I'm concerned, with results like this, Stephen King can do the old bait & switch anytime.

11/22/63 is available for $14.99 on Kindle.

Yeah, I like cartoons

Teen Titans- The Complete Fifth Season offers thirteen crisp episodes of terrific, imaginative superhero adventure, and with a minimum of those cartoony excesses (eyes bugging, exclamation points appearing over characters' heads, etc.) that often got out of control in previous seasons. There's also a strong continuity between episodes, making the whole season come off as a kind of meaty novel covering a year in the life of Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg.

Highlights include multiple confrontations with the Brotherhood of Evil (culminating in a great two-parter near the end of the season), a look at Beast Boy's pre-Titans career with the Doom Patrol (another cool group), and an episode showing how the Teen Titans (at least the cartoon version of them) got together in the first place. The season (and series, actually) concludes with a strikingly subtle and heartbreaking final episode starring Beast Boy, that demonstrates that not everything works out in the end, not even for colorful, upbeat heroes.

I enjoyed all five seasons of Teen Titans, which I've watched over the past year or two on DVD. All that's left is the extra-long, movie-style adventure, Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. Once I'm done with that, it's going be a challenge finding another animated series at the same quality level to immerse myself in next.

Curl up with these

My friend Ray (who produces frequent and fascinating e-mails about movies new and old) just sent around a great holiday viewing suggestion, which I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I share with Kindle Taproom readers. The viewing times Ray mentions are all Eastern time, so adjust accordingly if necessary. You have the floor, Ray...

Here's a last minute "heads up" on a new documentary in the series Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is calling "A Night At The Movies". In the past this series has covered epics, westerns, horror, sci-fi, political films, etc., and this month the channel is introducing a new documentary on holiday films. Premiere showing is tonight (Tuesday) at 8:00 p.m., and it will include interviews with people like Chevy Chase, Karolyn Grimes (who played Zuzu in "It's a Wonderful Life") and Margaret O'Brien, who is still alive!

It will be followed at 9:00 p.m. with a showing of Bob Clark's holiday classic "A Christmas Story", starring Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, Peter Billingsly, and the famous Red Rider BB Gun!. One of the stations (TBS, I think) always shows the film for the 24 hours of Christmas day, but always drags each showing out to over two hours with tons of commercials. Here's a chance to see the un-cut, uninterrupted, widescreen version, thanks to TCM.

The documentary will also be repeated several times over the course of the month.

Ho Ho Ho

Thank you, Ray! I'm ready to make the hot chocolate now!

Good question

Recently spotted on a bumper sticker:

How can a cemetery raise its burial costs and blame it on the cost of living?

Love in Italy

A recent discovery, I enjoyed Billy Wilder's 1972 film, Avanti!, a lot. It combines the look and feel of a lush romantic drama of the 50's and 60's with modern, less judgemental sensibilities about sex and relationships. It's also pretty frank in its depiction of adult behavior and the male and female form, but- again- it's all done with the kind of sweetness and kindness prevalent in earlier films covering similar romantic subject matter. Not that there isn't some biting wit throughout.

Avanti! is really quite unique in that regard: You get an old-style lush Technicolor romance laced with gorgeous Italian scenery and light comedy, but without the silly production code elements that prevented the depiction of true romantic heat and adult affection; or, looked at another way, you get a frank 70's romantic drama, which matter of factly depicts nudity, sex, and other adult behavior in a non-judgemental manner (trusting audience members to make their own judgements if they care to), but one that refuses to wallow in the cynicism, coldness, and generally dismissive attitude toward traditional romance that many 70's movies embraced.

Put more concisely, you get an old-movie flavor with newer-movie sensibilities, with the negative baggage of each left behind. And it's all done in the service of two great comedic performances by Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills; a number of cute and funny subplots set in the Italian hotel where the two leads are staying (involving several entertaining supporting characters, especially the "man to see about anything" hotel manager played by Clive Revill); and even a good dose of romantic suspense (we genuinely care how things will turn out for the two lovers).

If, like me, you enjoy discovering terrific movies that had somehow gotten by you over the years, you're in for a treat if Avanti! crosses your path.

Avanti! is available on DVD and various streaming services.

Out of her element

In H Is For Homicide, the 8th entry in Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone/Alphabet mystery series, the author shelves her usual "Kinsey working for a client" scenario and instead presents plot elements that result in Kinsey going undercover, posing as a member of a crime ring specializing in car insurance scams.

The result is a tense, gritty, urban story that disconcerts the reader as well as Kinsey, as both are left wthout the comfort of Kinsey's usual supporting cast (the series' regular faces and trappings are seen only briefly at the beginning and end of the book). But, with its fresh scenarios and different types of plot turns, it's an invigorating kind of disconcerting, at least for one installment in a series that we suspect will return comfortably back to normal next time.

Highlights include watching Kinsey look, act, and dress like a criminal, while trying to avoid actually doing anything criminal (at least anything seriously bad); and watching Kinsey develop a genuine friendship with one of the female scammers, Bibianna Diaz, whose life can possibly be salvaged, if Kinsey can get her away from her psychotic boyfriend and crime-ring leader, Raymond. Oh, there's also a big, growly dog, and we know what Kinsey thinks of dogs. But she deals with him in funny, unusual ways. Eventually touching, too.

Oh, no sooner do things pretty much settle back to normal at the end, than Kinsey and her loyal readers are hit with another disconcerting plot turn: a bombshell & cliffhanger (delivered in the last line of the book, no less) that will stir things up in the next installment, too, but probably only a little, thankfully.

After all, followers of well-liked mystery series like this one actually do want a little cozy predictability along with the thrills and surprises. Anyway, I anxiously look forward to Ms. Grafton's next Kinsey Millhone adventure to see how those various elements are stirred into the batter.

H Is For Homicide is available for $7.99 on Kindle.