Stormy Sunday

Norway, photo by Nima Sarikhani, posted at the guardian.com:

Born in NYC in 1970, David Benioff is in the midst of a highly successful writing career. He earned an MFA at the University of California, Irvine. He taught for two years at Poly Prep in Brooklyn and served as wrestling coach. Born Friedman, he adopted his mother’s maiden name to avoid confusion with other authors named Friedman. He used his first novel, The 25th Hour, as his thesis. He has written eight screenplays and been involved in six TV projects, most notably Game of Thrones, for which he served as co-creator, director, executive producer and writer of 45 episodes. He has been nominated for 15 Emmys, winning six. He has written a short story collection and one other novel, City of Thieves, which came my way recently. Set in Leningrad in the late stages of WWII, it is the story of two young men, one 17, imprisoned unjustly, who are offered a reprieve by a Colonel who wants eggs so his daughter will have a wedding cake. It is a difficult if not impossible task given the deprivation the city is suffering. Locals refer to the town as Piter, short for St. Petersburg, its former and current name. The two misfits, personalities in stark contrast, head for the countryside, beginning an odyssey that showcases the brutality the war has engendered, and the unforgiving harshness of Russian winter. A first person account of the younger male, it is absorbing from start to finish. The prologue is told from the point of view of a 34-year-old writer who asks his grandfather about his WWII experiences. I was disappointed to learn the work is pure fiction, especially since I was not pleased with one aspect of the ending, although it is not farfetched. It knocks my rating from four to three-and-a-half — as if it matters. More than 16,000 users at Amazon have rated City of Thieves, forging to a consensus of 4.6 on a scale of five. Published in 2009, it is still selling modestly. It is not a smooth read, but only 258 pages. I thought the dialogue better than the prose. Then again, who am I to say? Benioff is as successful as any writer ever gets. A father of three, he is married to actress Amanda Peet. Photo from Google Images:

Government madness redux, headline from nypost.com: “Moving company that touts young, fit staff sued by feds for age discrimination: ‘No idea we were doing anything wrong’.” You weren’t. They are.

From NYP: “Notorious Gambino mob ‘Gemini Twins’ hitman linked to 11 murders, dismemberments paroled after getting life sentence.” He served 35 years of the “life” sentence. Not even multiple killings will keep someone behind bars these days. It would be nice if he doesn’t off anybody else.

From NYP: “California teen passes state bar exam, sworn in as an attorney.” 17. Kudos.

More government insanity, from an NYP editorial, in my own words: There are twelve legal pot shops in NYC, 1500 illegal.

Last night MeTV ran The Raven (1963) on its Svengoolie program. Directed by Roger Corman, I was surprised to find the screenplay was by Richard Matheson, based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem. Although I am far from an expert on the former’s canon, it seems a lot more lighthearted than any of his other works I’ve read or viewed. It is too silly for my taste, but I enjoyed the vivid, colorful production values and effects. The story concerns rival wizards played by Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, with Peter Lorre as an intermediary wizard, and Hazel Court and Olive Sturgess as eye candy. Also in the cast, Jack Nicholson, who seems out of place in such fare, giving no hint of the great actor he would become. I’ve included Court in the blog previously but not Sturgess. Born in British Columbia in 1933, there are 66 titles under her name at IMDb, all but five on the small screen, career spanning 1954-’74. Most of her appearances were on popular prime time series, typically one-shots, although she did 14 episodes of The Bob Cummings Show. Married from ’64 until her husband’s death in 2003, she is a mom of two, still with us. Here she is in character tending to her screen dad, photo from GI:

True love, headline from foxnews.com: “Man declares he still loves girlfriend who shot him in testicle.”

The floating book shop was rained out.

My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza