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Movie Review: The Rum Diary

( #HunterSThompson, #RumDiary )

If you read this blog (or look on the left panel for “Gonzo Stories”), you could tell pretty quickly that I am a Hunter S. Thompson fan. Outside of his epic drinking and drug abuses, he was a man that understood the fine line between a news article and a story and then he pissed all over it. I read the Rum Diary 5 or 6 years ago and enjoyed it. Hunter had yet to discover the Gonzo form of journalism he made famous, but this book (and Thompson’s alter-ego “Paul Kemp”) was clearly a proto-form of his later style.

All that being said, Johnny Depp does an excellent job of creating a coherent storyline out of a book that does not really have one. All the characters are there, but in the book version, Thompson zones in on the drinking, the hangovers, the parties, and the sweating. It was less about the story and more about feeling what was happening. In the movie version, Depp cleans up the story and makes the antagonists more clear.

The movie also does a great job of explaining Kemp’s dealings with the real estate holdings group and his involvement with Sanderson. In the book, Thompson seemed more focused on screwing Sanderson’s girlfriend, the movie makes the whole situation more layered (and makes Thompson seem a little more gentlemanly). Johnny Depp does not do a balls out Hunter Thompson impression like he did in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but as I said, Thompson was not Gonzo yet. Depp does a very good job at playing a twenty-something Thompson, not once did I think “hey this guy is almost 50.” The standout performance of the movie might have to go to Giovanni Ribisi’s portrayal of Moburg. Ribisi taps into the classic frantic Thompson energy and of anyone, he is the one paying homage to Dr. Gonzo.

I really liked this movie, but I give the warning that it is not for everyone. As the title might indicate, it is about a guy who gets drunk, not in a fun “Arthur” kind of way. It is essentially the story of how Hunter S. Thompson found his writing voice and got really messed up along the way. As Thompson once said, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

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Book Review: The Night Eternal (Strain Trilogy)

( #StrainTrilogy, #vampires )

The Night Eternal is the final book in a vampire trilogy by author Chuck Hogan and director Guillermo Del Toro. You would think Vampires and Del Toro would equal awesome, not so much. The first book was decent but got into Jerry Bruckheimer territory towards the end (explosions, catch phrases, etc). The second book just kept the Bruckheimer vibe going. I was undecided on reading the third book, but I find that trilogies tend to sag in the middle to justify three books and the third usually ends strong. That theory was proven wrong with the Night Eternal.

The book is all over the place. Even at 250ish pages, it seems long and drawn out. Hogan introduces characters that are completely unnecessary to the plot and then discards them with little detail or interest (several members of the Hispanic gangs). Had more of the interesting characters from the second book (like the Lucha Libre wrestler – I know it is odd, but it worked) remained alive, there would have been better emotional payoff in the final book. The book also suffers from the passage of time. Two years has passed since the end of the second book and Hogan has to show the psychological damage the characters have endured during that time. The main character as a broken man searching for redemption is such a cliche it needs a new word to describe it.

The Night Eternal introduces a whole religious element to the origins of the vampires which started off interesting but quickly became… a bit of a mess. Hogan and Del Toro do such a convincing job of stacking the odds against the humans, the only way for them to win is to get God involved at a few key moments. I would not have an issue if there was a clear connection to Christian beliefs made in the previous books, this “revelation” comes out of left field and makes me think the authors didn’t have an exit strategy for the book.

Once again, my beef with trilogies is at the root of my issues with this book. If this idea was contained in one book, it would have been awesome. Instead, it was watered down into three, packed with filler that just detracts from what could have been a fun read in the vein of World War Z, instead it is a failure and makes me feel like a dumbass for buying three books (two of which I didn’t like).

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Concert Review: The Jayhawks @ The Keswick Theater (Glenside, Pa)

( #TheJayhawks )

Opening Act: Tift Merritt
Date: Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
Location: Keswick Theater – Glenside, Pa

The Jayhawks are one of those bands that most people might not know well, but have probably heard a few of their tunes. Musicians like them because they are a band that focuses on harmony and they do it very well. Over the years, I really appreciate what Gary Louris has done with the band after Mark Olson’s departure, but it was a treat to see “classic” line-up…

[Opening Act: Tift Merritt]

Tift Merritt played a short and sweet set, which is considerate of any opening act. I had no prior knowledge of Merritt prior to the concert, so I listened with no expectations. Tift has a strong singing voice that reminded me of Sheryl Crow (that salt and honey sound). She was backed by two solid musicians, one that played pedal steel most of the set. Outside of the natural talent of the whole band, the set fell flat due to material. Most of the songs were downer relationship cliches that put the audience to sleep. The efforts of the pedal steel player gave the tunes a needed brightness, but not enough to keep me interested.

Bottom Line: Tift Merritt has talent and a good ear for musicians but would do well with brighter, faster paced songs that varied from the standard topics of old boyfriends.

[Main Event: The Jayhawks]

The first half of the Jayhawk’s set on Saturday night was sloppy. Somebody was really out of tune the first three songs and the harmonies that I was looking forward too took a while to sync up. That being said, when the band got their shit together, they were very good.

The band did a nice job mixing up older Olson tunes in with Louris’ material after Mark left. The crowd went nuts for “Miss Williams’ Guitar” which produced several whispers stating “they didn’t expect the band to play that song”. A nice surprise was a song sung by the drummer who had a great voice and got the crowd pumped. There was not much banter with the (very animated) crowd and any attempts to do so seemed… confused. Olson kept referencing the fact that they were playing the Keswick Theater and alluded to some history with the stage, but they didn’t let the newbies know what it was (if any reader knows, feel free to share). My buddy assured me that weed most likely played into the equation…whatever gets you through the night.

The band came out for a quick encore and called it a night. In total, they played about 90 minutes. As I mentioned before, once the band was on stage for about a half hour, they started to gel and play much better, but it looked like Louris was a little pissed off until the encore and Olson looked a little out of it.

Bottom Line: Overall, it was a good concert, not great, but definitely good.

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2011 California Vacation

I went on a trip to the California wine country and I found America. I wasn’t looking for her by any means. I wasn’t interested in finding picturesque landscapes that would make pretty post cards, but I found them and in a very American way: in a car and just driving.

As soon as we landed in San Fransisco International, we scrambled to get the rental car and we just went. My wife and I drove almost 100 miles away from the city and then took the whole route back on the iconic Route 1 coastal highway. There are miles of unmolested landscape and ocean. Mountains, fields, and for huge stretches, no people… it was fantastic. We stopped and stretched our legs, checked out some scenic stops and then we kept moving on. We had some authentic Mexican food at little road stop and then we continued to Napa for the night (and got snagged in a few hours of iconic American traffic).

The next morning we headed off to Sonoma for a private tour of MacMurray Ranch. This ranch was owned by Fred MacMurray, star of “My Three Sons”. The scope of this place blew my mind. It is 1100 acres of fields and mountains. The Gallo family purchased the property in the late 1990s after MacMurray died and converted it into a vineyard. Fred’s family is still involved with the property which is a nice touch.

The idea of holding that much property is astounding to me (not in a critical way). Past generations seemed to understand that you can’t over manage the land. Fred MacMurray left hundreds of acres alone (Gallo actually has a policy about that as well which is very cool). After we toured the ranch, we were taken down the road to see one of Gallo’s other non-public vineyards that was massive. I am going to do an actual write up about these places for Drinking Made Easy, but for the sake of this post, just walk away with the idea of land as far as the eye can see with mountains, trees, and in some cases grapes. I think I understand the imperial-land-grabbing-blood-lust of our forefathers.

The primary reason we went to California was to see Ryan Adams. I covered that already (read here). The show was great and the venue was small and intimate. It was a perfect night.

The next day we headed to San Francisco. We spent most of the day walking around the city without an objective. We went to China Town and Little Italy. We ate a nice dinner recommended to us by one of the local bakery owners (Michelangelo’s if you need to know). By the time we finished it was dark, so we took a cab back to the hotel and called it a night.

Tuesday morning we found ourselves on Golden Gate Bridge. We walked across as far as we could but didn’t get to the end because it was closed. We spent some time in the Golden Gate Park, walking up and down hills before it was time for lunch. We wanted to do Dim Sum. We went to an authentic dim sum place. Too authentic. I was excited when we walked in and saw only Asian people – I knew this place was the real deal. But then I noticed no menu and servers walking around with carts. Nobody really spoke English and I didn’t know what I was ordering. I managed to get my hands on some beef soup during the 30 minutes we were in there (one bowl), before we decided to split (paying was also interesting, I don’t think I was supposed to get up and pay myself – oh well). We ended up back in Little Italy which was not the plan at all, but we had a nice lunch at the Stinking Rose and we were served by Count Dracula, who was very nice (no I will not explain any further).

We walked around the city some more to burn off lunch and then went back to the hotel to clean up. I booked dinner reservations at “The House of Prime Rib” and decided that I needed to get in an extra run to burn off what I knew we going to be a calorie fest in the evening. I managed to get the gym completely empty and it overlooked the city in a small panoramic room. It was dusk and I was able to overlook the city which is a nice way to spend time on a treadmill.

Dinner was completely insane. This place served only one thing: Prime Rib. Salad, two sides. That’s it. It was perfect. Going back to my ghosts of America, this place was a call back to another time. Martinis and red meat. Baked potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. Classic.

In the morning, we found a nice little place (Honey, Honey) to get a simple breakfast and got ready for our flights home. Of course the flights were delayed and we ended up in Vegas, but that is all part of travel in the modern age. It is hard to get mad when you look down and see hundreds of miles of untouched landscapes and realize that there is still room to grow.