Photo copyright Jon Crispin 2011. www.joncrispin.com

Photo copyright Jon Crispin 2011
www.joncrispin.com

Friday, March 30, 2012

Happy Birthday, Marge Piercy

You are an amazing writer: novelist, poet, memoirist, essayist. Your works shine with a brilliant light. I wish I had time to sit and read everything you ever wrote. I'm working my way through your works and dread the day I run out of your material. I'm reading slowly to make them last.

Whose work do you read slowly?

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Summer blockbuster

Last fall I saw a trailer for a movie coming out this summer. Remember the game called Battleship? My father taught me how to play when I was about eight years old. It involves pencils and graph paper. You draw ships in the little squares and call out coordinates to find your opponents ships and destroy them. Nothing could be simpler. No moving pieces to lose, no strategy, just search and destroy. Great game for a kid. Two pencils, two pieces of paper, two players, and you're in business.

Well, Hollywood has taken this simple concept and turned it into a special effects extravaganza due to be released this summer, and my heart rejoices.

Is it because of the fond memories I have of playing with my father? No.

Is it because Hollywood has turned it into a thing of beauty and a joy forever, fleshing out the simple game with memorable, three-dimensional characters? No.

Is it because of the quality of the casting? No.

The reason?

When it's been 100+ degrees for two months, and the heat rash is attacking me, and I can't touch any of the metal parts of my car for fear of second-degree burns . . . then it is I desire to sit in an air-conditioned movie theater and watch things blow up. I particularly enjoy watching things come out of the ocean to be blown up, although watching things blow up and then sink into the ocean is also good. I couldn't care less who is the the movie so long as lots of things blow up and/or sink. I saw a trailer for this movie last fall and felt the thrill of the promise of the perfect summer movie.