March: What I'm reading, watching & listening to.
Books: The Fellowship of the Ring: The Lord of the Rings Part One - J.R.R Tolkien
I've read The Hobbit a few times but have yet to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've read about 150 pages of The Fellowship. Tolkien is an expert storyteller who takes his time spinning this tale into an epic of modern literature. In his foreword, Tolkien writes that he didn’t draw on current events or life experiences while writing the books and that the story has no meaning or explanation in the present. Rather, he wanted to try his hand at writing a long story, which he has done masterfully, through his words, songs, languages, and drawings.
Music: Road to Knowhere, Tommy Guerrero.
Though I discovered Road to Knowhere a few years ago, I finally downloaded the album and have had it on repeat this month. Tommy Guerrero, legendary California skateboarder, has recorded several albums featuring his genre-bending guitar playing. The album is comprised of guitar-driven instrumentals and blends latin, african, jazz, funk and surf music. Road to Knowhere evokes road trips along dusty desert highways to forgotten places with Guerrero's guitar guiding us on our journey.
Movies: The Rum Diary
“I wanna make a promise to you, the reader. And I don’t know if I can fulfill it tomorrow, or the day after that. But I put the bastards of the world at notice: that I do not have their best interests at heart. I will try to speak for my reader. That is my promise. And it will be a voice made of ink and rage.
While looking through papers in writer Hunter S. Thompson's home, actor Johnny Depp discovered Thompson's manuscript for The Rum Diary and helped to get the novel published and adapted into a film. Largely autobiographical of Thompson's time in Puerto Rico, Depp plays failed novelist Paul Kemp who gets a job working for the local newspaper San Juan Star. As Kemp explores the island in a series of alcoholic adventures, he gets caught up with businessman Sanderson who tries to lure Kemp into his plan to turn a beautiful island into a tourist hellhole. Kemp's boss wants him to play by the rules while Sanderson wants Kemp to publish fiction as fact about his development plans. Kemp learns by the end of the film that he must use his voice to keep the 'bastards of the world' in line. I enjoyed the film and I look forward to reading the book.
Podcasts: SYSK Operation Northwoods episode
Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know always find a way to break the tension and inject some quirky humor into their episodes, even into topics as diabolical as the hare-brained schemes of the United States government. In 1962, with tensions growing between the U.S. and Cuba's communist government under Fidel Castro, the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed Operation Northwoods- a false flag operation designed to justify U.S. military intervention in Cuba. Ultimately rejected by President John F. Kennedy, Jr., Operation Northwoods included plans to target Cubans traveling to Florida, to sabotaging/destroying U.S. ships in Guantanamo Bay to staging mock attacks on U.S. fighter planes. Tensions increased in October 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis and covert operations in Cuba ceased thereafter. This podcast is an interesting insight into the dark annals of American history during the Cold War.
Til next time,
KW