"December's Thorn" sticks the imagination into a fraternity of dreamers and successfully blends chaos and confusion into a delectable cocktail of magnificent madness.
Award winning novelist Phillip DePoy's January release of the book "December's Thorn" marries fantasy with reality in a three star fashion. "December’s Thorn" is the seventh book in the Fever Devilin series. In DePoy’s latest tail, Devilin dwells in a fugue state; a state in which a person can move and talk, but is not completely aware of the real world.
Devilin has been in a coma for three months. Over the course of eight or nine years he claims he has been killed several times, legally dead twice, seen ghosts, witches, time travelers, racist murders and an Albino dwarf.
Devilin knows none of the above is true. Before his fiancee Lucinda Foxe can celebrate her man’s sanity, he claims a ghost women is visiting him. Issie, the ghost woman tells Devilin of their past life and marriage together. Issie also claims they have a son whose still alive. Foxe brings her friend Dr. Ceridwen Nelson to live with Devilin for psychiatric observation.
With just Nelson and Devilin and his house a young boy fires real bullets through the kitchen window. The local sheriff, Skidmore get’s involved. Nelson also starts seeing the ghost Issie. As DePoy’s words swirl swiftly page after page the questions mount. Is Nelson a real psychiatrist? Are Nelson and Devilin both whangdoodled? Are they falling in love? Is reality fiction and fiction reality?
If you haven’t already guessed "December’s Thorn" is a story that would have made Rod Serling, the creator of the 50s and 60s television show the "Twilight Zone" very proud.
The conclusion is neat and tidy and for everything that went on in this Novel, that’s very impressive. As the story thickens, the reader is engulfed in curiosity. Should or does Devilin leave his wife for her best friend foxe? Is the boy who shot at Devilin really his son? Is Devilin simply imagining all this? For the record, the story is not a dream and the conclusion is succinct and well executed.
Like most books it was slow in the middle with pointless details, but it's compellingly and unique story along with solid character development made it a fantastic read. I never read any of the previous six Devilin novels and "December's thorn" was still easy to comprehend.
For more details on "December's Thorn" and the author DePoy you can check out his web site; www.phillipdepoy.com.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Latest "Die Hard" Movie is a Miserable Mess.
The fifth installment of the the "Die Hard" movie series, "A Good Day to Die" is mediocre at best, earning a one star rating.
I haven't seen any of the previous four "Die Hard" movies, but if those movies are anything like the Valentines Day release of the futile fifth, I haven't missed a thing.
Supposedly this movie is an action comedy. The comedy is drab and disastrously dry. The action is redundant and over the top with extremely bad camera work. I've seen better film on teeth. I got that line from the movie "Get Shorty."
John McClane (Bruce Willis), a New York cop leaves the Big Apple to find his son Jack (Jai Courtney), who's living in Moscow. His son Jack is a spy working undercover to protect Komarov (Sebastian Koch) who has a hidden file to bring down the ones who covered up the 80s Chernobyl disaster.
The pathetically predicable plot yields one unique twist, but by this point the movie is a perfect sleeping aide for insomniacs. As I stated earlier the action is over the top. A military war head is fired into heavy traffic with no injuries nor fatalities, the two McClanes are both pounded hard in the face with the butt of a rifle and feel no pain. Without ducking the two run threw machine gun fire from a Russian military helicopter. As countless bullets hurl through glass and other debris, the two jump out of a sky scraper falling several floors through scaffolding and surprise, just a few minor cuts a scrapes.
The unavailing sentiment between father and son is as believable as a truthful government.
Astonishingly, the bad guys lose and the good guys win. The best part of this movie is the end credits with the Rolling Stones song "Doom and Gloom" announcing a much needed conclusion to a movie that should have never been made.
I haven't seen any of the previous four "Die Hard" movies, but if those movies are anything like the Valentines Day release of the futile fifth, I haven't missed a thing.
Supposedly this movie is an action comedy. The comedy is drab and disastrously dry. The action is redundant and over the top with extremely bad camera work. I've seen better film on teeth. I got that line from the movie "Get Shorty."
John McClane (Bruce Willis), a New York cop leaves the Big Apple to find his son Jack (Jai Courtney), who's living in Moscow. His son Jack is a spy working undercover to protect Komarov (Sebastian Koch) who has a hidden file to bring down the ones who covered up the 80s Chernobyl disaster.
The pathetically predicable plot yields one unique twist, but by this point the movie is a perfect sleeping aide for insomniacs. As I stated earlier the action is over the top. A military war head is fired into heavy traffic with no injuries nor fatalities, the two McClanes are both pounded hard in the face with the butt of a rifle and feel no pain. Without ducking the two run threw machine gun fire from a Russian military helicopter. As countless bullets hurl through glass and other debris, the two jump out of a sky scraper falling several floors through scaffolding and surprise, just a few minor cuts a scrapes.
The unavailing sentiment between father and son is as believable as a truthful government.
Astonishingly, the bad guys lose and the good guys win. The best part of this movie is the end credits with the Rolling Stones song "Doom and Gloom" announcing a much needed conclusion to a movie that should have never been made.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Romantic Novel "Shiver" Delivers Delicous Desires
The novel "Shiver" is a three star first class romantic thriller which thrusts evil upon the wholesome at heart, casting the emotions of love and lust into a theater of tension and joyous wonder.
Author Karen Robards has written more than 40 New York Times best sellers, why "Shiver" released in December is not one of them is a mystery to me. "Shiver" illustrates human natures thirst for success, yearning for love and desire for passionate pleasures.
Samantha Jones is a 23-year-old single mom working the mean streets of her town as a tow-truck driver. Jones is a repo woman who repossesses autos to support herself and her four-year-old son Tyler. While taking back a BMW she finds 32-year-old Daniel Panterro in the trunk with a gun shot wound in the thigh. Within seconds of encountering Panterro, Jones is knocked unconscious by an unsavory thug and thrown in the trunk with Panterro.
Panterro is in the witness protection program and has been found by the nefarious soul he crossed, Army Veith. Veith and his hoodlum crew are taking Jones and Panterro to the outskirts of town to kill them both. Jones was simple in the wrong place at the wrong time. This all happens in the first 18 pages of the book.
Jones and Panterro manage to escape from the killers. Conflict continues to mount when Veith and his men find Jone's house with the intent to kidnap her son Tyler. Jones, her son and Panterro manage to get in the protective custody of the FBI.
Is someone in the FBI tipping off Veith to help kill Panterro? Can Panterro get into a serious relationship with Jones, thus putting her and her sons life is jeopardy? Who and how many innocent people are killed by Veith and his gangsters? What twists are harbored in this story? Read the book if you want to find out.
The middle of the novel tends to be sluggish and boring until the sexual tension of Jones and Panterro kicks in. The simple facts are there. Panterro is an intelligent, suave and buff gentleman. Jones is tough yet sensitive, smart and a natural beauty with hips that sway in the dirty dreams of men. The emotional and physical attraction these two feel for each other is “Romeo and Juliet” style all the way. Panterro knows if he makes Jones his lover, Veith and his depraved crew will kill her and her son given any chance.
To experience cerebral and physical love the two must overcome a sea of obstacles as big as the national debt. "Shiver" is romantic without being hokey and action packed without being ridiculous.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Mark (Izzy) Schurr, Reviews and Opinions...: No End in Sight for the Corruption of Big Oil
Mark (Izzy) Schurr, Reviews and Opinions...: No End in Sight for the Corruption of Big Oil: Big Oil companies soulless practices are as vast as time and the universe itself, dwelling in destruction and deceit. The explosion on De...
No End in Sight for the Corruption of Big Oil
Big Oil companies soulless practices are as vast as time and the universe itself, dwelling in destruction and deceit.
The explosion on Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 BP employees in April 2010 is just a small fraction of the evils of Big Oil.
From its infancy in the late 1800s and early 1900s, oil companies have been driven primarily on immorality, greed, corruption and most likely murder. Gasoline fueled engines have been obsolete since the 1890s, however big business diminished pollution free and economically sagacious motors for the almighty buck.
In my mind Rudolf Diesel was murdered in 1913. In 1893 Diesel invented an engine that ran off peanut oil. His body was found in the ocean in 1913, a death described as a mystery then and now. Apparently he fell off a ship while sailing across the English Channel. Shortly after his death, the oil companies denied his engine ever ran off peanut oil and that diesel fuel was the only thing that would run his engine. Ninety years later, Diesel was publicly proven right. For more detailed information watch the documentary "GasHole" or check out the wed site;
http://mendonews.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/henry-ford-and-rudolf-diesels-vision-of-a-hemp-diesel-revolution/
"GasHole" released in 2008 talked about another potential murder by a major oil company. Tom Ogle a mechanic in the 70s invented a car engine that got 100 mpg according to a 1977 El Paso Times article on the following web site; http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/morgue/2008/04/200-miles-on-tw.html
Ogle had offers from major oil gurus to buy his patent; he declined and sold his patent in 1978 to a small company in Seattle, Advanced Fuel Systems Inc. Six months later the Securities Exchange Commission slapped an injunction on the Seattle firm claiming fraud provisions of federal securities laws, this according the above web page.
Ogle was found dead, news sources claiming suicide by a drug and alcohol over dose while other sources from "GasHole" suggested murder by a well known oil company.
"His (Ogle) invention was sophisticated enough to get him dead," Ernest Pearce a retired mechanic said in "GasHole."
Ogles widow Monica refused to talk to the film makers of "GasHole," because she was freighted to talk about his story with them.
Solar powered vehicles, biodiesel and electric cars are not being used effectively because Big Oil has the power and money to hinder sound ideas from the general public.
In "GasHole" retired shell scientist David Blackmore said that Shell scientist had the technology for automobiles to achieve 1000 mpg in the 70s.
The book "Fuel Economy of the Gasoline Engine" written in the 40s claims Shell had the technology for cars to get a 149 mpg in 1947. "GasHole" claims the book is now out of print and has disappeared from the library of congress. I found some copies of the book on Amazon.com; new ones were going for more than $1700. Used copies were more than $170.
The fatal blunder of BP which killed 11 people could have easily been averted had BP spent less than $60,000 on upgrades for Deepwater Horizon. "Drowning in Oil; BP and the Reckless pursuit of Profit," a book written by Loren C. Steffy illustrates how high rollers at BP spent extremly large amounts of money on cocaine and hookers instead of Deepwater Horizon upgrades which was still using 50s technology.
In the second quarter of 2011 BP profited 5.6 billion dollars according to the article "Big Oil Companies Post Huge Profits on High Gas Prices;" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/big-oil-profits_n_913452.html. For those of you who don't know, a quarter is three months in the business world.
There will be a time when gasoline engines become extinct, maybe even in this life time, but dollar signs and insanely large political campaign contributions will continue to rule over solar, electric and biodiesel for decades to come.
The explosion on Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 BP employees in April 2010 is just a small fraction of the evils of Big Oil.
From its infancy in the late 1800s and early 1900s, oil companies have been driven primarily on immorality, greed, corruption and most likely murder. Gasoline fueled engines have been obsolete since the 1890s, however big business diminished pollution free and economically sagacious motors for the almighty buck.
In my mind Rudolf Diesel was murdered in 1913. In 1893 Diesel invented an engine that ran off peanut oil. His body was found in the ocean in 1913, a death described as a mystery then and now. Apparently he fell off a ship while sailing across the English Channel. Shortly after his death, the oil companies denied his engine ever ran off peanut oil and that diesel fuel was the only thing that would run his engine. Ninety years later, Diesel was publicly proven right. For more detailed information watch the documentary "GasHole" or check out the wed site;
http://mendonews.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/henry-ford-and-rudolf-diesels-vision-of-a-hemp-diesel-revolution/
"GasHole" released in 2008 talked about another potential murder by a major oil company. Tom Ogle a mechanic in the 70s invented a car engine that got 100 mpg according to a 1977 El Paso Times article on the following web site; http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/morgue/2008/04/200-miles-on-tw.html
Ogle had offers from major oil gurus to buy his patent; he declined and sold his patent in 1978 to a small company in Seattle, Advanced Fuel Systems Inc. Six months later the Securities Exchange Commission slapped an injunction on the Seattle firm claiming fraud provisions of federal securities laws, this according the above web page.
Ogle was found dead, news sources claiming suicide by a drug and alcohol over dose while other sources from "GasHole" suggested murder by a well known oil company.
"His (Ogle) invention was sophisticated enough to get him dead," Ernest Pearce a retired mechanic said in "GasHole."
Ogles widow Monica refused to talk to the film makers of "GasHole," because she was freighted to talk about his story with them.
Solar powered vehicles, biodiesel and electric cars are not being used effectively because Big Oil has the power and money to hinder sound ideas from the general public.
In "GasHole" retired shell scientist David Blackmore said that Shell scientist had the technology for automobiles to achieve 1000 mpg in the 70s.
The book "Fuel Economy of the Gasoline Engine" written in the 40s claims Shell had the technology for cars to get a 149 mpg in 1947. "GasHole" claims the book is now out of print and has disappeared from the library of congress. I found some copies of the book on Amazon.com; new ones were going for more than $1700. Used copies were more than $170.
The fatal blunder of BP which killed 11 people could have easily been averted had BP spent less than $60,000 on upgrades for Deepwater Horizon. "Drowning in Oil; BP and the Reckless pursuit of Profit," a book written by Loren C. Steffy illustrates how high rollers at BP spent extremly large amounts of money on cocaine and hookers instead of Deepwater Horizon upgrades which was still using 50s technology.
In the second quarter of 2011 BP profited 5.6 billion dollars according to the article "Big Oil Companies Post Huge Profits on High Gas Prices;" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/big-oil-profits_n_913452.html. For those of you who don't know, a quarter is three months in the business world.
There will be a time when gasoline engines become extinct, maybe even in this life time, but dollar signs and insanely large political campaign contributions will continue to rule over solar, electric and biodiesel for decades to come.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
"Stand Up Guys" Al Pacino and Christopher Walken's Latest Movie Stands Tall
"Stand Up Guys" is a refreshingly witty gangster comedy that relies on solid acting and screen writing rather than bombastic special effects, over the top violence and explicit sex.
The movie is a dry comedy wetting the soul with laughter. "Stand Up Guys" is sentimental without being sappy and its conflict is sagaciously perplexing. Kill a life long friend in cold blood or have a very dear family member murdered by your foe is quite the conundrum indeed.
Doc portrayed by Christopher Walken picks up his buddy Val; Al Pacino after being in prison for 28-years. Val and Doc catch up on old times with chat, a night on the town complete with hookers, booze and drugs. The two chums then get their friend Hirsch; Alan Arkin out of the old folks home well after 1 a.m. Arkin's arrival in the movie jump starts the plot while adding more flair and comedy to the already funny flick.
Hirsch wants to have a threesome with hooker Nina; Julianna Margulies and the receptionist Wendy; Lucy Punch. When Wendy says she doesn't have sex for money, Val replies, "We won't pay you."
Val, Doc and Hirsch are lovable thugs bent on doing what's right, particularly when they find Sylvia; Vanessa Ferlito naked and in the trunk of a car they have stolen. Turns out Sylvia was gang raped by some serious low lives. Val and his two pals with the aide of Sylvia seek out the guys who raped her for a little pay back visit.
"My favorite ballet was the Nutcracker," Sylvia said to the rapists while yielding a baseball bat.
I can't say much more without giving up the entire story which screen writer Noah Haidle so wonderfully wrote. When the conflict hits its boiling point and the credits roll after the conclusion there is an unlocked window of wonder as to what really went down in the very end.
If you want to see a movie with high-tech special effects, air brushed nude women and gory violence, "Stand Up Guys" is not the movie for you. If you like cunning dialog with adult themes and a smart plot, the movie is a three and a half star gem which is the rating I gave it.
Val, Doc and Hirsch face the uphill battle of time and the dangers of being real gangsters with true heart and humor.
The movie is a dry comedy wetting the soul with laughter. "Stand Up Guys" is sentimental without being sappy and its conflict is sagaciously perplexing. Kill a life long friend in cold blood or have a very dear family member murdered by your foe is quite the conundrum indeed.
Doc portrayed by Christopher Walken picks up his buddy Val; Al Pacino after being in prison for 28-years. Val and Doc catch up on old times with chat, a night on the town complete with hookers, booze and drugs. The two chums then get their friend Hirsch; Alan Arkin out of the old folks home well after 1 a.m. Arkin's arrival in the movie jump starts the plot while adding more flair and comedy to the already funny flick.
Hirsch wants to have a threesome with hooker Nina; Julianna Margulies and the receptionist Wendy; Lucy Punch. When Wendy says she doesn't have sex for money, Val replies, "We won't pay you."
Val, Doc and Hirsch are lovable thugs bent on doing what's right, particularly when they find Sylvia; Vanessa Ferlito naked and in the trunk of a car they have stolen. Turns out Sylvia was gang raped by some serious low lives. Val and his two pals with the aide of Sylvia seek out the guys who raped her for a little pay back visit.
"My favorite ballet was the Nutcracker," Sylvia said to the rapists while yielding a baseball bat.
I can't say much more without giving up the entire story which screen writer Noah Haidle so wonderfully wrote. When the conflict hits its boiling point and the credits roll after the conclusion there is an unlocked window of wonder as to what really went down in the very end.
If you want to see a movie with high-tech special effects, air brushed nude women and gory violence, "Stand Up Guys" is not the movie for you. If you like cunning dialog with adult themes and a smart plot, the movie is a three and a half star gem which is the rating I gave it.
Val, Doc and Hirsch face the uphill battle of time and the dangers of being real gangsters with true heart and humor.
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