I was never much of a party animal even in my youth. But there was that one time... It wasn't long after I moved here from London & a local friend took me out to a club. We ended up leaving around 5am and ended up at a late night/early morning breakfast place for a fry-up. Then it was home to clean my teeth, spray myself with deodorant and get to work. I'm not sure if anyone noticed that I hadn't slept for 36 hours or saw the club's entry stamp still on my hand but I felt very "rock n roll" for the rest of the day.... [lol]  

Happy Birthday: Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s, and later an essayist. She is regarded today as an icon of the flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.

Aged 15, Brooks began her career as a dancer and toured with the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts where she performed opposite Ted Shawn. After being fired, she found employment as a chorus girl in George White's Scandals and as a semi-nude dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies in New York City. While dancing in the Follies, Brooks came to the attention of Walter Wanger, a producer at Paramount Pictures, and signed a five-year contract with the studio. She appeared in supporting roles in various Paramount films before taking the heroine's role in Beggars of Life (1928). During this time, she became an intimate friend of actress Marion Davies and joined the elite social circle of press baron William Randolph Hearst at Hearst Castle in San Simeon.

Dissatisfied with her mediocre roles in Hollywood films, Brooks went to Germany in 1929 and starred in three feature films that launched her to international stardom: Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Miss Europe (Prix de Beauté) (1930); the first two were directed by G. W. Pabst. By 1938, she had starred in 14 silent films and 10 sound films. After retiring from acting, she fell upon financial hardship and became what she termed "a kept woman" to three wealthy men. For the next two decades, she was alcoholic and suicidal. Following the rediscovery of her films by cinephiles in the 1950s, a reclusive Brooks began writing articles about her film career; her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim. She published her memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, in 1982. Three years later, she died of a heart attack at age 78.

BRILLIANT....!

Just Finished Reading: Everything Must Go – Why We Are Obsessed with the End of the World by Dorian Lynskey (FP: 2024) [399pp] 

There is nothing quite like the end of the world. So much so we have been obsessed by it, written about it and filmed it, largely for entertainment, for a century or more. The variation of ends is impressive – from giant rocks falling from the sky (be they asteroids or comets), Nuclear war, killer robots and AI's, economic or social collapse, pandemics or climate disasters there's something for everyone and that's before we get to the more fantastical alien invasions or zombie outbreaks. Personally, these are some of my favourite stories in book or film format. I'm always drawn to the initial conditions as we anticipate whatever is going to splat humanity into paste (or leave cities untouched but empty) and have always enjoyed the initial post event recovery. The long haul back to some kind of normality doesn't interest me as much and I tend to get bored with that aspect of things. 

Here we have a Wide-ranging look of the End of the World as portrayed in popular culture mixed in with a lot of historical and scientific background on subjects like the development (and use!) of atomic weapons [probably the largest section in the book], how societies (and individuals) reacted to world changing events like the Black Death or the Spanish Flu, the idea of the dinosaur killing asteroid and the concerted pushback at the very idea and, of course, the 'debate' over Climate science and what it means for all of our futures. 

If you've ever wondered about the disaster genre (again in films or books) you'll get LOTS of ideas of what to read/watch here! The author looks at all kinds of genre classics most of which I was gratified to have least heard of and a great deal I've either read or watched. Each section gets a 'star' turn with the nuclear war section heavily referencing On the Beach for example as well as Dr Strangelove. Interestingly throughout the author compares and contrasts both the original book and the movie adaptations pointing out differences and why they happened. He certainly knew his stuff and I enjoying learning background bits to movies I've enjoyed in the past and will watch again with fresh eyes. 

One of my favourite movies is Colossus: The Forbin Project where an American AI – dedicated to defending the West without messy humans getting in the way. Naturally it decides that humans are TOO messy and not fit to run the world so takes over in conjunction with its Soviet counterpart. It's a very clever (and prescient) movie which deserves more attention that it's had so far. So, I was impressed by the amount of attention it got here. 

This was an unexpected highlight of the year for me. This definitely pushed ALL of my buttons, and I enjoyed it a great deal. The author had definitely done his homework; I found very little to argue with (without being bored by the fact that we were in agreement so much of the time) and I learnt quite a few little bits I was previously unaware of. I call that as result. Definitely recommended for anyone interesting in the many ways the world could end or any Sci-Fi apocalypse fans out there. 

I can't believe that I haven't already posted this...!

Just Finished Reading: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (FP: 2011) [359pp] 

They had escaped the Maze. They were safe... Or not. For one thing Terresa was missing and had been 'replaced' by Aris who told a story of a second Maze and a second escape. It wasn't long before everything fell apart and they discovered that they had 'escaped' into a strange and much more deadly world. A world dominated by 'the flare', a virus that slowly sent those infected mad, in a world scarred by repeated solar flares that had made Earth uninhabitable anywhere near the equator. So, where did that leave Thomas and his fellow Maze Runners? First, they were infected and it was only a matter of time before they began to show symptoms of madness. Second, a cure existed but would only be provided IF they could navigate 'the Scorch' to a safe-haven 100 miles away. Time was short and they needed to get running... 

This was the sequel to the original Maze Runner novel that I'd read back in 2016 (nothing quite like taking my time about progressing a series). I actually thought that both the original novel and the movie adaptation were reasonably well done and certainly entertaining. Not so here! I should have been warned by the lacklustre movie adaptation and by the fact that they never bothered to film the third book. But I am trying to finish a bunch of book series that have been languishing for far too long. So, what was wrong with the book? 

Part of the issue I thought, being generous, is that it's the middle book in a trilogy (although a prequel was added later). This means there's little actually resolved with just bits of information dropped from time to time 'explaining' the background and some of the "evil organisation's" motivation – calling it WICKED was a step too far I think... So, not much happening overall. Added to this was the quality of the writing. I'm aware that this was a YA series, but I didn't really expect it to have been produced by a teenager too. Generally, the dialogue was terrible, the character structure and development was equally bad, and I lost count of the cliff-hangers used, I'm guessing, to keep the readership 'engaged'. It was quite the drag!  

There was one creepy/tense moment which I thought was actually competent, but this really didn't compensate for the rest of this VERY padded novel. As it's taken me 10 years to read part 2 and how unimpressed I was by it I'm not sure when/if I'll be reading part 3. Personally, I'd stick to reading the first book and ignore the fact that the story limped on afterwards. Not recommended. Hopefully there's some better Sci-Fi in my future!