http://www.viewpoints.com/aboutme/Magician Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:03:02 GMT Reviews by Magician http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Godfathers-Revenge-review-42140 Mario Puzo created an American mythology for the Sicilian Mafia with the publication of his acclaimed novel, The Godfather, in 1969.  The novel was adapted into two Academy Award winning movies, The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather, Part 2 (1974).  Puzo wrote three sequels to his novel:  The Sicilian (1984), The Last Don (1996) and Omerta (2000-published after Puzo's death in 1999).  Since Puzo's death, Mark Winegardner has taken up the Godfather Saga with the permission of the Puzo Estate.  Winegardner's latest continuation of the story, The Godfather's Revenge, is his second venture into the world of the Corleone's following The Godfather Returns in 2004. The Godfather's Revenge continues the story from where Winegardner left it in The Godfather's Return.  And that's okay, but with the two-year break between novels, many of the storylines will likely have been forgotten by the reader.  Winegardner makes very little attempt to fill the reader in... Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:03:02 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Godfathers-Revenge-review-42140 Magician 3 http://www.viewpoints.com/Maria-Bamford-How-To-WIN-review-81351 Maria Bamford's CD, How To WIN!, is another of the CDs recommended by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as one the best comedy CDs of 2007.  Maria hails from Minnesota and has appeared on Comedy Central and toured as one of The Comedians of Comedy.  Maria is known for her high-pitched soft Barbie-like voice.  However, on this CD, she wields that voice as a weapon doing impressions of Alicia Keyes, her parents, her bosses, and many others.  Her use of her voice is a weapon that makes her humor and sarcastic bent extremely funny. How To WIN! is a recording of her performances from November 15-19, 2005 at the Gap City Comedy Club in Austin TX.  Her routines cover such topics as working as a temp at a large corporation (Disney), the necessity of a word problem exam in order to qualify for credit, her father's secret stash of powdered donuts, running into her high school arch enemy on a visit home and her goals for a successful life.  Using her voice to impersonate... Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:43:30 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Maria-Bamford-How-To-WIN-review-81351 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Truth-and-Consequences-review-1bf70 Truth and Consequences, Keith Olbermann's latest book, is a collection of his Special Comments from his MSNBC show Countdown with Keith Olbermann.  Olbermann, as many will recall, was a longtime sportscaster and journalist with ESPN.  He is best known for co-anchoring, with Dan Patrick, The Big Show, ESPN's Sunday night Sportscenter broadcast.  After leaving ESPN, Olbermann gained notoriety as a journalist and now has his own show. In his introduction to the book, Olbermann discusses the origins of his Special Comments and the reasons why it is not a regular feature of his program.  All 24 of these Comments are due to some incident or quote from, mostly, the current administration.  Olbermann's passion, fury and anger at the mistakes and abuses of the Bush Administration are not to be taken lightly.  He makes powerful points in calling our leadership to task.  Olbermann is no Bush apologist.  And we really don't need any more apologists for... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:23:51 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Truth-and-Consequences-review-1bf70 Magician 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Charlie-Wilsons-War-review-c0c02 When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December, 1979, little did the Soviets know that it would become their Vietnam and lead eventually to the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Also, little did a relatively unknown US Congressman from the Second Congressional District in Texas realize the part he would play in that collapse.  This wonderful film based on the book by George Crile and directed by Mike Nichols is easily one of the best films for 2007. Not only is the story engagingly and wonderfully told by Aaron Sorkin's (The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) marvelous script and dialogue, but each of the acting performances are spot on from Tom Hanks's portrayal of Charlie Wilson, to Julia Roberts portrayal of the Christian and rabid anti-communist Houston socialite Joanne Herring to Philip Seymour Hoffman's cynical role as CIA agent Gust Avrakotos on the outs with his agency (this is another is a series of great roles Hoffman has been in this year.  See also The... Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:52:23 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Charlie-Wilsons-War-review-c0c02 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Santa-Lives--136500-review-2b5e4 From 1265-1274, the famous Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) worked on his most famous work, Summa Theologica, which remained unfinished at his death.  Within this massive work are Aquinas's five proofs of the existence of God:  there must be a first mover, unmoved; a first cause in the chain of causes; an absolutely necessary being; an absolutely perfect being; and a rational designer.  Whether one accepts Aquinas's arguments or not is not the issue at stake here, it is how Ellis Weiner humorously applies these arguments to prove the existence of Santa Claus. The slim volume, Santa Lives! by Ellis Weiner is appropriately subtitled Five Conclusive Arguments for the Existence of Santa Claus.  In this volume, Weiner provides essentially the same arguments as Aquinas did about God, but used in the cause of Claus, and then expands on these to "prove" his case.  These arguments are fun and his explanations are very funny in most cases.  Weiner... Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:13:44 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Santa-Lives--136500-review-2b5e4 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/The-History-of-the-Snowman-review-32e21 Every year during the holiday season, I feel a need to read one or two seasonal books.   The History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein is a slim volume that purports to tell the reader about snowmen, their history, and their effect on us throughout history.  This is Eckstein's journey in tracing the history of the snowman. The book is broken into two parts:  The Modern Snowman, which starts at the present and moves back to the early 1800s in the United States, and The Renaissance Snowman, which traces, mainly through Europe, the snowman back into medieval times.  Each of the 18 chapters is fairly short, covering a specific theme and/or snowman-related historical incident. — The first section consists of eight chapters:  The Age of Expansion:  The Twenty-first Century, The White Trash Years:  1975-2000, The Hollywood Years:  There's No Business Like Snow Business, The Golden Age of Advertising Since the Early Twentieth Century:  Snow... Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:53:57 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/The-History-of-the-Snowman-review-32e21 Magician 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Brotherhood-of-the-Holy-Shroud-review-967b2 Julia Navarro is well-known journalist based in Madrid.  The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud is her first novel.  For fans of the novels of Dan Brown, this is in much the same vein.  The novel opens with a fire and the death of a tongue-less and fingerprint-less man in the Turin Cathedral, the repository of the famous Shroud of Turin.  The head of the Arts Crimes Division of the Italian police, Marco Valoni, suspects there is more to a mere fire, as two years earlier a thief, also tongue-less and fingerprint-less was caught fleeing the cathedral.  He begins an extensive investigation with his agents that causes severe consequences. The novel, although actually telling the story of the Shroud of Turin, follows two tracks.  The first is a proposed history of the Shroud, while the second follows the modern investigation and the furor that investigation stirs up.  As with many of these types of novels, conspiracies abound.  In this case, there are... Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:39:10 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Brotherhood-of-the-Holy-Shroud-review-967b2 Magician 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Savages-review-819b0 The Savages, a new movie directed by Tamara Jenkins, is a moving and often funny film about the consequences of caring for the elderly.  The film opens in Sun City AZ with Lenny Savage (Phillip Bosco), an elderly man living with his second wife.  She is in need of constant care which is paid for by her family.  Unfortunately, Lenny also needs care as he suffers from a form of dementia.  When his wife dies unexpectedly, her family decides to sell their place and Lenny's adult children are forced to come and care for him. His two children are Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy (Laura Linney).  Jon is a college professor in Buffalo NY, who has a Polish girlfriend he can't commit to, and is trying to finish a book on the writer and playwright Berthold Brecht.  Wendy works for a temp agency in New York City, where she steals office supplies, submits plays based on her life for grants, and is having a dead-end affair with her married neighbor.  Neither... Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:34:56 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Savages-review-819b0 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Mike-Birbiglia-My-Secret-Public-Journal-Live-review-46511 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in their Get Out magazine for the Thursday, December 27 issue had an article in which was reviewed the best comedy CDs and DVDs for 2007.  Since I thoroughly enjoy stand-up comedy, I decided to purchase several of the recommended albums.  This is the first one I've listened to.  Mike Birbiglia is from Shrewsbury MA.  He has released two self-produced CDs and two others CDs on the Comedy Central label.  His most recent release is My Secret Public Journal (Live).  Mike has a blog, called My Secret Public Journal, in which he recounts stories and incidents that have happened to him.  This CD is a live recording of his appearance at the Columbus Funnybone in July, 2007.  Mike's style of comedy is to relate what has occurred in his life, often with very funny twists on the events. The CD starts out with Mike's recounting of his worst appearance ever at a celebrity golf tournament.  His warm and folksy style easily... Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:39:34 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Mike-Birbiglia-My-Secret-Public-Journal-Live-review-46511 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/A-Magnificent-Catastrophe-review-5f950 Presidential elections in the United States have seemed to become angry, contentious, and bitter affairs.  We only have to look at the debacle in Florida in 2000 to see the partisanship.  Whether one agrees with the US Supreme Court's actions or not, the Court did effectively determine the outcome.  Was it always this way?  Many would like to say, "No."  However, any in-depth study of American presidential politics would reveal that campaigns and elections are nearly always contentious and divisive forums for our system of government.  In Edward J. Larson's new book, A Magnificent Catastrophe:  The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign, he returns us to our forefathers' times and ideals to lucidly and clearly explain that once political parties were formed, then the elections became extremely partisan.  Larson takes up the election of 1800 pitting the Federalists against the Republicans for the future of the... Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:40:43 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/A-Magnificent-Catastrophe-review-5f950 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Juno--132967-review-f4900 Juno, the new film directed by Jason Reitman, is one of the freshest movies I've seen this year.  The star of the film, Ellen Page, is a revelation.  I was not able to take my eyes off her.  The crisp, hip dialogue and excellent performances make this a wonderful film for our times.  This film is getting a lot of award talk, and deservingly so, especially for Page's performance. The movie revolves around a young 16-year old girl, Juno MacGuff, who after having sex with her friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) finds she's pregnant.  Knowing that she's not ready to care for a child, Juno originally plans to have an abortion.  However, when she arrives at the clinic, she changes her mind and decides to give the baby up for adoption.  Juno finds a couple looking to adopt in the local shopper newspaper.  The couple, Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Gardner), are affluent and Vanessa desperately wants a baby.  Mark isn't as... Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:43:15 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Juno--132967-review-f4900 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Shape-Shifter-review-16791 Tony Hillerman's latest Navajo mystery, The Shape Shifter, continues his tradition of writing interesting mysteries leavened with a lesson in the Navajo culture and religion.  Generally, these novels feature both the now-retired Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee.  And although Jim Chee and his new wife, Bernie Manuelito Chee, make an appearance, it's mainly as an audience for the story Joe Leaphorn has to tell. The story involves a double murder (the Handys) that occurred many years before.  Three people (Ellie McFee, Bennie Begay, and Tomas Delonie) were caught, convicted, and sentenced for the crimes.  However, the ringleader, Ray Shewnack, escaped.  Several years later, Totter's Trading Post burned down and a badly burnt corpse was found inside.  The body was identified as Shewnack.  This seemed to close the case of the Handy murders.  A couple of years after the fire, the owner of the trading post was reported dead in Oklahoma. ... Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:03:11 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Shape-Shifter-review-16791 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Schulz-and-Peanuts-A-Biography-review-33b31 On February 13, 2000, the final Sunday Peanuts cartoon ran in newspapers worldwide.  In it, Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts and its sole cartoonist for 50 years, wrote a thank you note to all Peanuts' fans for their years of devotion and friendship.  Unfortunately, the night before, Schulz had passed away from the cancer that had caused him finally to stop drawing Peanuts.  Schulz's creation revolutionized and inspired cartoonists the world over.  And although many people associated Charlie Brown as Charles Schulz, this was not completely accurate.  David Michaelis has rectified this misconception in his massive new biography of Charles Schulz:  Schulz and Peanuts:  A Biography.  In writing this book, Michaelis was able to go through Schulz's papers and talk to many of the people who knew Schulz (nicknamed "Sparky" by an uncle while a child).  The biography is thorough and interesting, even though somewhat redundant in places.  ... Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:42:26 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Schulz-and-Peanuts-A-Biography-review-33b31 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Next--133351-review-65950 Next, Michael Crichton's latest science thriller takes the reader on a journey into the world of genetic research.  The main plotline involves the Burnett family (Frank, his lawyer daughter, Alex, and her son, Jamie).  Frank has leukemia which is in remission.  In the course of his treatment, his doctor discovered some remarkable properties of his cells.  These were patented and further research, along with massive profits, resulted.  Frank attempted to legally gain a share of these profits and lost his case.  He also lost control over his own cells.  This becomes critical when a company using his cell lines is the victim of industrial or biological espionage, destroying Frank's cell lines.  Meanwhile, Frank has gone into hiding.  To gain more, the company hires bounty hunters to track Frank's daughter and grandson to gain more cells. This main plot is accompanied by several subplots, a transgenic chimpanzee, a transgenic grey parrot, a... Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:44:38 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Next--133351-review-65950 Magician 3 http://www.viewpoints.com/Amphibian-Conservation-review-12ba1 In the mid- to late-1980s, a phenomenon was being widely reported among professional herpetologists.  This was the severe depletion and/or disappearance of many species of frogs and toads throughout the world.  The most famous species was the Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes) of Monteverde, Costa Rica.  This spectacular toad, often seen in numerous breeding choruses in the early 1980s, was last seen in 1987-1989, and is now believed extinct in a relatively pristine habitat.  These disappearances were discussed at an international conference in 1990 in Irvine CA.  Attending that conference was a journalist, Kathryn Phillips.  Ms. Phillips wrote a well-regarded book, Tracking the Vanishing Frogs (St. Martins Press, 1994), about what she learned there.  This book was, in a sense, the first call of alarm to the general public.  Although the professional herpetological community has been studying the problems involved with the possible disappearances... Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:36:33 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Amphibian-Conservation-review-12ba1 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Born-Standing-Up-review-7f521 Born Standing Up is Steve Martin's memoirs of his development and life as a stand-up comic.  I found the book to be very insightful, not only for the stories and anecdotes he tells, but also for his thoughts and strategies for developing a stand-up act.  He is very reflective on what worked and what didn't.  In many ways, this will serve as a guidebook for anyone interested in pursuing a path in stand-up.  Of course, the caution is that he is writing of a completely different time, the late 1960s and 1970s.  This was before the great explosion in stand-up in the 1980s and 1990s.  In fact, Martin was out of stand-up by then.  He also explains why he got out of stand-up.  Hopefully, he will write a second memoir that picks up on his movie and playwriting career. The book opens with his first performance at the Coffee and Confusion club in San Francisco in the summer of 1965.  Martin records his remembrances of his performance.  Then he... Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:42:42 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Born-Standing-Up-review-7f521 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Mere-Anarchy--140299-review-9931 In the 1970s Woody Allen wrote short humorous pieces that often appeared in The New Yorker.  These pieces were collected into three acclaimed volumes, Getting Even (1971), Without Feathers (1975), and Side Effects (1980).  For many years after that, he didn't publish any short pieces, only his screenplays.  However, at some point in the 1990s, he began to once more write these short comic pieces.  These have now been collected into a volume published this year, Mere Anarchy.  Having just finished it, the sketches and stories often brought a smile if not outright laughter.  Allen is definitely a wordsmith and his use of language is amazing.  This slim volume collects 18 of his recent pieces. The pieces themselves span cults (religious or otherwise), the travails of a little-known character actor with delusions of grandeur, the invention and sale of clothing with unusual properties,  an increasingly vitriolic series of letters from the director of... Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:00:51 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Mere-Anarchy--140299-review-9931 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Strategic-Selection-review-417b0 Strategic Selection is Christine Nemacheck's investigation into how a president selects a nominee to the Supreme Court from a short list of nominees.  In other words, given a short list of possible nominees, what determines the actual choice of the name sent on to the Senate.  Dr. Nemacheck argues that even though the president's personality and style do factor into the process, there is still something more than Justice O'Connor's "luck" involved in the process.  This book displays the results of her research into all the nominees from Herbert Hoover through George W. Bush. Having read several other critically-acclaimed studies on presidential nominations to the Court, I wasn't sure what her book would offer that might be new.  However, she has successfully found an area in the nomination process that there has been, to date, little to no research in.  Dr. Nemacheck researched all the papers of the Presidents available (this excludes Clinton and George W.... Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:06:50 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Strategic-Selection-review-417b0 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Exile-review-477e2 Exile is Richard North Patterson's latest legal/political thriller.  The story briefly stated involves the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minster by a suicide bomber in San Francisco.  One of the bombers survives and implicates a Palestinian professor, Hana Arif, who, along with her husband and daughter, is visiting San Francisco at the time of the assassination.  David Wolfe, an attorney living in San Francisco, is a friend and lover of Hana's from their Harvard Law School days.  After thirteen years of no contact, Hana calls David, a Jew, out of the blue.  Following her arrest for the murder of the Prime Minister, David agrees to be her defense attorney, even though it costs him his rising political career and impending marriage.  David's investigation into the assassination and the politics of the Palestinian and Israeli conflict provide the reader with a very clear view of the complexities of the conflict.  The accompanying trial offers many... Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:53:18 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Exile-review-477e2 Magician 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Terri-Irwin-Steve-Me-Life-With-the-Crocodile-Hunter-review-d1500 Steve and Me is Terri Irwin's memoir of her life with the famed Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin.  Meeting Steve on a trip to Australia in 1991, Terri details their lives together and apart until Steve's untimely death from a stingray in September, 2006. The book opens with their first meeting in October, 1991.  Terri, then 27, was in Australia on a quest to find homes for rescued American cougars.  Obviously, a place called the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park did not seem like a good candidate for her cougars.  Upon entering the park she noticed the cleanliness of the enclosures and the relative freedom of the animals therein.  She noticed the crocodiles before Steve, but after meeting Steve, it was all over for her.  That day, they spent a long time talking and she came to appreciate his passion for crocodiles and other animals.  Shortly thereafter, she returned for a weekend.  The weekend would change both Terri and Steve's lives forever.... Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:46:17 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Terri-Irwin-Steve-Me-Life-With-the-Crocodile-Hunter-review-d1500 Magician 4