Miscellaneous: Links

The backlash against Lynne Truss’ EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES begins.

TV: 10.5

Thanks to the magic of special effects, the Space Needle topples. And lands in downtown Vancouver.

TV: The Sopranos

After a few meandering episodes, we get a brilliant show that pulls every plot thread together. An out-of-left-field twist involving a minor character sets up the rest of the season. Meadow’s 4AM argument with her boyfriend could practically stand on its own as a short play. Gandolfini’s work in his closing scene in Dr. Melfi’s office was a bravura piece of sustained acting. No word at post time from the Mafia experts at Slate if a guy’s nickname ever ended up on his headstone by mistake.

Book: Redemption Street, by Reed Farrel Coleman (2004)

The second in a series about Moe Prager, an ex-NYPD cop turned sort-of P.I. In this story, set in 1981, Moe investigates a 1965 fire in a Catskills hotel that claimed the lives of seventeen people, including Moe’s first crush. Moe is a great character, and this outing is a solid, low-key effort with a last page that strikes a perfect, heartbreaking note of melancholy.

Video: Detour (1945)

I watched this again in tribute to Eddie Muller’s DARK CITY DAMES. Sixty-eight minutes of pure nightmare. The shabby quality of the print only adds to the overall sense of doom, and the ending is more of a fervent wish than a resolution. Edgar Ulmer made this movie in six days. Ann Savage only worked on it for thirty hours. But in that short span of time they touched something primal. Something that refuses to die.