Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Friday, August 08, 2008
 
Book Report: Phantom Prey by John Sandford (2008)
A bad John Sandford book is better than any Ridley Pearson book I've read. Of course, I've only read one Pearson book, and this isn't a bad book, just not Sandford's best. However, I got to deploy hyperbole, and that's what matters to a Web log.

This book delves into Goth subculture, something mocked on Saturday Night Live when Will Ferrell was still on it, for crying out loud. When I founded a magazine in 1994, my art editor was a Goth. So he's not exactly delving into a cutting edge subculture here. Now, death amongst the Disco Revivalist Cults, that would be cutting edge. So an old white dude delving into a subculture of whom I've known members sort of made me wonder if he knew what he was talking about in writing it. Then, of course, I thought maybe he knew more than I did since I only knew goths a long time ago.

Ah, well. I figured some of it out early, clued in by the fact that the person above suspicion and the suspect both had really good asses. Yes, that's how they were described. This book struck me as more tawdry of Sandford's work, wherein he enters Parkerian territory of the main character being irresistable to all attractive members of the opposite sex, he imagines it, and then he goes home to his significant other (wife in this case). But the discussion of sex and the bawdy talk sort of sticks out in this one.

So there looks like there's going to be a plot twist, but ultimately it takes the Chandlerian plot turn into interconnected crimes of the rich and the insane, and the one saving twist I was expecting wasn't there. Finally, we get to the end, where someone who could have gotten clear decides to kill Davenport, leading to the ultimate climax that also makes a major unrelated subplot relevant in that it explains how Davenport survives.

So it's not the best of Sandford, but it's good enough. It moves along and works in ways that Pearson does not, and sometimes an attempted writer (me) ought to see the good and the not good in stark relief like this.

And this book, since I got it from the book club, is fresh and it only cost me $.20 plus $30 shipping and handling, so it was a steal so long as I don't do the math.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:01 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
 
Disco Redeemed
The only thing nearly as cool as Ript doing "Suspicious Minds", we have a metal tribute to the Bee Gees:



(Link seen on The Sniper. Finally, that blog is good for sumpthin.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 3:07 PM   0 comments
 
Leaping Women Now A Sex Crime
Story's lead:
    A Lebanon man has been arrested for sexually assaulting his neighbor after bounding her in a filthy camping trailer on Monday.
What's next? Making hurdling a woman a sexual assault?

(Memo to the Post-Dispatch Journalists with English as a Second Language program: bound is the past tense of bind.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:41 AM   0 comments
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
 
Slightly Adulterated
You know the song "Love Machine" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles?



It just doesn't sound right to me without sighing hens.



My old school R&B credibility takes another hit, simply because I saw the commercial before I heard the song on its own.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:47 AM   0 comments
Monday, August 04, 2008
 
Rain Without Rainmakers
Instapundit links to a story about falling oil prices:
    Oil prices plunged to a three-month low Monday, briefly tumbling below $120 a barrel in another huge sell-off after Tropical Storm Edouard seemed less likely to disrupt oil and natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico.
Brothers and sisters, this is why Congress must act now! It's not important what action they take, whether it's foolish rule against oil speculators or more sensible plans to allow off-shore drilling or oil exploration on public lands.

What is important is that our ruling political class realize that unless it acts, citizens might get the impression that market forces alone can cause declining gas prices, and that sometimes the rain falls without the dances of the rainmakers on the floors of the House and Senate.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:23 PM   9 comments
 
Converts Are Always The Most Zealous
Right now, my beautiful wife is watching the live news conference where Packers coach Mike McCarthy talks about bringing back Brett Favre.

UPDATE: I mean to say she sat and watched ESPN news for a half hour waiting for the press conference.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:17 PM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."