Branching out

I was at a dead-end in my genealogy research. I knew my great-grandmother’s name, date of birth, and when she married my great-grandfather, but nothing else. Her name was so generic (the local equivalent of Jones) it was difficult to track anything else down. I found a message board that dealt with family histories from the region and posted a request. This weekend, I was rewarded with the names of her parents, their wedding date and his date of death. Wow—the floodgates opened. In the past two days I’ve added over 70 more names of direct ancestors to my family tree, going all the way back to 1572. And I still have a couple of threads to complete. I had to move some branches on my layout around to make room for the “new growth.”

I watched last week’s Fear Itself on Friday. Geez, it was lousy. It was an episode where the camera and the characters lied to viewers from the get-go. Instead of acting like normal people, they all behaved like they were in on the joke, which was to build toward a “surprise” ending that I guessed about two minutes after the note with its purposefully vague wording was delivered.

We watched a Romanian movie called California Dreamin’ this weekend. It starred Armand Assante as the captain of a NATO force taking much-needed communications gear to Yugoslavia during the Bosnian war. Their train reaches a station at a small, backwater village where the station-master, who has a thing against Americans, decides the train can’t proceed without the proper customs papers. The train is sidelined for five days, during which time the mayor decides to fete the troops and the young women of the town decide to try to hook up with the American troops. The movie was interesting, though overlong. The main reason for its length is that the Romanian director was killed in a car accident before he completed the movie, and they decided to release the rough cut. There were a couple of mysterious details that seemed to serve no purpose—the young woman who delivers electric shocks from time to time and the young man who suffered sporadic nosebleeds. However, the history and the long-reaching impact of WWII on the region were fascinating. The title has no relevance whatsoever (except that it’s shoe-horned in late in the movie), and the Romanian title translates to something like Unfinished or Endless. There’s a Dracula scene in it, too, demonstrating how Romania is saddled with the legend, but willing to take economic advantage of it when possible.

I sent out the short story I was working on last week, along with a reprint for a Canadian-only anthology. Seemed appropriate since tomorrow is Canada Day.

Fear Zone delivered a neat review of Jack Haringa Must Die!. In part: “I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Jack Haringa Must Die is easily the most amusing read I’ve sat down with in ages. If ever I need a text to dissuade me from misplacing my semicolons, or ending a sentence with a preposition, this is it!” The book is still available for the low, low price of $10 (plus S&H).

Last night’s Criminal Intent was interesting. The main character was obviously inspired by Benazir Bhutto, but they relocated her to Sri Lanka and took her story in a completely different direction, as the Law & Order folks are wont to do. Good twist ending. I hear that Christopher Noth is leaving at the end of the season, to be replaced by Jeff Goldblum. Not sure how I feel about that. I prefer the Goran/Eames episodes as a rule anyway.

I’m reading The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow. I’ve never read any of his previous books to know if this book is typical or if the characters are ongoing, but I’m enjoying it. The narrative style is casual, almost conversational. The characters are interesting: they’re a bunch of San Diego surfer types who hold down day jobs: a cop, an ex-cop PI, a Samoan built like a sumo wrestler who works for the Dept. Of Public Sanitation, a lifeguard (aka love god), and a woman who can outsurf the rest of ’em. Plus an annoying but attractive and acrbic lawyer who is the PI’s new client.