August | 2013 | Grumpa Joe's Place

Tell Me It Isn’t True

Posted on 28/08/2013 by Grumpa Joe

After a twenty week layoff, Peggy and I went to see a movie. She is suffering from hot weather cabin fever, and I am happy being outside. She won, I lost. This was opening day of a suspense film called “Closed Circuit.” She loves mysteries, but she came away from this one totally befuddled, and I came out explaining it to her.

I learned an important Senior Citizen rule today, don’t go to see a movie on opening day. It cost me double the usual norm. I picked up another clue when the description included words like heavy on dialogue. That means there is little to no acting required, but the actors do have to know how to speak. It also means reading the book is probably just as good or even better. This film is from England and the actors Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall were totally strange and new to us. I enjoyed that, in that I didn’t have to leave the film to puke after watching some über liberal Hollywood type spew his communist propaganda in the name of art.

The people we watched might have been the English counterparts to the likes of Matt Damon, or Kevin Spacey, but I didn’t know, so it was a pleasure.

The story remotely centers around England’s love affair with close circuit video cams watching every move of every citizen. I got the impression the Brits have raised “Big Brother is watching you” to a new level. The second peculiarity involved their judicial system which assigned two advocates to side with the accused, I believe it was one from the prosecutors side and one from the defense side, there lies the story. The court assigned a couple who were friends (lovers) before to serve as advocates. The former lovers, now advocates, were not allowed to talk to each other nor meet with each other during, or after hours during the investigation and the trial. The need to remain silent and away from each other allowed some unusual body language and discomfort to occur between the two.

The case deals with an act of terrorism that involved National Security so everything the advocates did had to be behind closed and locked doors. They had to lock any notes they made on paper, or a computer in a safe before leaving the office.

The suspense occurs when the advocates independently realize a government cover-up involving their notorious M I 5. The mystery ramps up as the two begin to meet and plot ways to expose the government without becoming murder victims themselves. I give the Brits some credit, I did not see a gun on any of the characters throughout the story. I did see them use the old-fashioned mafia weapon of a cable strung around a neck from behind. It is quite effective, and less messy than a bloody gunshot wound. I wonder if they are marching to ban cable in England.

This story kept me riveted to my seat, because I did not want to miss a word of dialog. Not even my lousy hearing aids nor my bursting bladder got me to move. The actors did a fine job of convincing me of their humanity, and the bad guys did an effective job convincing me of their evil intentions.

The feeling I came away with after this film was that British writers are just as uneasy about their government and agencies as I am about mine. I felt the story could have been true and very real. It also made me wonder how many times the good old USA has covered up similar phony incidents.

Since I am a conspiracy theorist I loved this story, however, I believe Liberals will hate it because it exposes the dangers of big government and Big Brother.

MEEK AT THE MOVIES – -CLOSED CIRCUIT ( 3 stars ) (hereandsphere.com)
Rebecca Hall Talks CLOSED CIRCUIT, Working in and Around London, and What Attracted Her to TRANSCENDENCE (collider.com)
Closed Circuit (2013) (dtmmr.com)
Movie review: Closed Circuit (with video) (o.canada.com)

Filed under: family, Government, Movie Review | Tagged: Closed Circuit, Conspiracy, Cover-up, England, Eric Bana, Kevin Spacey, Matt Damon, National Security, Rebecca Hall, Security Cams, Techno Devices, Thriller (genre), United States | Leave a comment »

Flavia, Feely, and Daffy?

Posted on 26/08/2013 by Grumpa Joe

The system I use to select reading material at the library has steered me into murder mysteries. For the second time in a row, I selected a book based upon its cover art, and both times the stories were mysteries.

I don’t really like murder stories, but I read this one because it was good. The premise is a little far-fetched, but entertaining. The book I selected this week is “Speaking From Among the Bones” by Alan Bradley. What I found a little suspect is the character who solves the mystery. In this story, Flavia de Luce is a precocious girl of eleven years who is the detective who out shines the local constabulary to solve the crime. I found the read somewhat Harry Potter like in that the central character is dauntless.

The story takes place in a small town in England during the nineteen fifties. The characters surrounding Flavia like her sisters with names like Feely, a nickname for Ophelia, and Daffy, a nickname for Daphne all have unique English names, and add to the entertainment of the story.

The story centers around the discovery of a dead body during the exhumation of a local Saint Tancred who is buried under the church named after him. What ever, the stretch of the imagination is Saint Tancred being uncovered on the five hundred anniversary of his death. The reason, to collect relics and to determine the condition of the body. Rumor has it that true Saints do not decompose and emit a heavenly scent when exhumed. The surprise comes when the committee exhuming Saint Tancred discovers the recently disappeared church organist in the chamber immediately above that of Saint Tancred.

The story becomes more involved when Flavia uncovers that an ancient monk left notes in his diary describing a huge diamond known as the Heart of Lucifer set into the Shepard Crook that lay with him.

As I said above the idea that an eleven year old is so astute to solve this crime is somewhat unbelievable, I have a ten-year old grand-daughter who is smart as a whip but cannot compare to Flavia de Luce.

One of the factors which drew me to this book is the bicycle on the cover art. I am a bicyclist and must admit that cycling reigns supreme above my old car fetish. In the story, Flavia rides a bike she named Gladys. Gladys is a character, but thankfully not a principal.

Author Alan Bradley did an outstanding job of creating the character of Flavia and I never imagined her as anything except a brilliant (genius) girl. The setting for the story is perfect for the year and the characters involved. Bradley’s descriptive writing made me see the story in my mind as it unfolded. Flavia and Harry Potter are similar, although Flavia is not a witch or a sorcerer.

My assessment of this book, is that I spent my time wisely, and it left me wanting more.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (nutsaboutnovels.wordpress.com)
Review of Speaking From Among the Bones, by Alan Bradley (sonderbooks.com)
narfna’s #CBR5 Review #65: The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley (cannonballread5.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Book Review, family, Writer | Tagged: Alan Bradley, Character (arts), Crime fiction, England, Flavia, Flavia de Luce, Harry Potter, Ophelia | 10 Comments »

Hacked?

Posted on 22/08/2013 by Grumpa Joe

Behind the ear aid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A strange thing happened to me yesterday which drove me crazy. Since I recently reached middle age, I can admit that one of my physical deficiencies is poor hearing. My love-hate relationship with a pair of world renown Siemens hearing aids began three and a half years ago. I love my aids when they work, and I hate them when they do not, or are marginal at best.

This day, they worked. Peg and I sat having lunch within a few feet of our TV listening to news as we usually do. The house was cool, but not cold, while the outside temperature stood at ninety-two degrees. I spent the morning working on the 2013 Monet Vision and came in rather sweaty, but by the time we had lunch I felt dry.

My aids sent me a string of tones of unusual sequence. The electronics will send me a set of four notes running down the scale when a battery dies, but this one was entirely different it went up and then flat. Within a few seconds of the alarm, the aids shut down. I didn’t panic immediately, I just pressed the button on the right aid and turned them back on. The two devices respond to each other wirelessly. Within a few seconds I got another set of tones and a shut down. Oh, oh I thought, this is not good. This time I pushed the button on the left side and they turned back on, but without the usually tonal ping that says ‘I am on” yet in deed, both aids were on. The signal tones and shut-downs lasted for a good ten minutes as I played with the buttons and the aids continued to communicate with each. Peggy thought I was going crazy. I left the table to install a new set of batteries. Nothing changed, they continued to shut down after sending tones from one ear to the other in various notes.

I removed the faulty aids and installed my new MSA30X sound amplifiers that I bought from a TV ad for $47.95. WOW! They do amplify. They do such a good job, I could hear every sound 30 times louder than normal even though I had them turned down to low. Background noises are the worst, and Peg’s voice still unintelligible. I couldn’t take these new aids either.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading in wonderful silence. By the evening hour I decided to try using one aid alone. Since the right one seemed to respond more normally, I put it in and turned it on. It worked, and I didn’t get the Mexican Hat Dance playing before shutdown.

This morning I reversed the order and used only the left unit, it worked. After two hours of trouble free function, I installed the right unit. I turned them both on, and experienced wonderful stereo sound again. So far, they are still functioning (knock on wood), and I am back in the “love” phase.

All I can deduce is that the NSA read my boring e-mails, and because they didn’t find anything incriminating they went one step further to hack into my head through my hearing aids. What other explanation can there be?