Please, please, please click on his photo and come to a campaign event for him next Saturday afternoon.  I have persuaded the campaign to include a low dollar donation and I know that if you take the time to hear Anthony you will be as impressed as I am.  He is that rare thing: an honest, hardworking, and effective politician.  We will be proud to have him representing California on The Hill.   I hope you have the time to peruse all the other great content which makes the mundane business of connecting people a lot more interesting.  I thank my family and friends for this as well – as my daughter Diane for her amazing tech support. P.S. Make sure you watch the brilliant Eve Gordon SHINE in Episode 6 of her web series “Versailles.” She’s kind of a cross between Anthony Perkins in “Psycho” and well, any beautiful, sweet blonde.

Here’s a comment from one of my readers about last week’s column.  It’s nice to have readers.  But, as you’ll see, it’s best when they remain readers. If, as Oscar Wilde said, “criticism is the sincerest form of autobiography,”  my correspondent must have a small, bitter, angry life.  Still, he took the time to write, and as I haven’t written anything this can fill the space. Just like garbage does:

What’s with the Michael Connelly rave?  Can I have some of the drugs you’re on?  Then maybe I can read all the Nicholas Sparks novellas and become a better person.

I was a HUGE fan of the early Bosh novels.  He was a compelling character and the books were filled with insightful details. But that ended years ago (with the minor exception of The Lincoln Lawyer).  Connelly and Bosch have become sloppy, lazy and the books marred by exaggerated plot devices and action sequences.  The dialogue is sometimes so bad it feels as if he scribbled the entire book on the red-eye from New York so he could make his guest appearance on CASTLE.

I might have simply laughed to myself until you compared Connelly to Elmore Leonard.  Put the Meth down for a minute!  Here is a scene from Connelly’s latest piece of crap,  The Reversal…

The door opened and Bosch turned. Mickey Haller steps into the room. Bosch did a double take. Not because he didn’t recognize Haller. They were half brothers and he easily knew him on sight. But seeing Haller in the DAs office was one of those images that didn’t quite make sense. Heller was a criminal defense attorney. He fit in at the DAs office about as well as a cat did at the dog pound.

“I know,” Haller said. “You’re thinking, what in the hell is this?”

… Bosch was completely confused.

“Wait a minute. You’re not a prosecutor. This doesn’t –”

“I am not an appointed independent prosecutor, Harry. It’s all legit. I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t. We’re going after Jessup and we want you to help us.”

Stilted, yes.  But the best part of that on-the-nose piece is that WE ALREADY KNEW ALL THAT INFORMATION 10 pages earlier.  I’d love to send that scene to Leonard and see what he’d do with it (he’d cut it or accomplish it in a line or two).  You’d be better off recommending great books like the Richard Stark The Outfit by Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) books or anything by Thomas Perry.  Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry Those are great writers.  Connelly has simply been fulfilling his one-a-year contract with books that offer little in craft or surprises.  And that’s too bad because his early Bosch novels were excellent.

Stay off drugs!

Your pal,

richard wenk

COVET
Shannon South Mink Accessories
What: Furry protectors ($89-$285) for your fancy gadgets. The handbag designer constructs made-to-order (each one takes two weeks) clutches, pouches, and sleeves from fur repurposed from vintage fashions.
Why: Treat your smartphone the way you want to be treated.
Where: Online at shannonsouth.com.

Fred’s answer to the question “who wrote Shakespeare’s plays,” elicited the following response from poet/novelist Carol Muske-Dukes.  Fred completely agrees with her.

I have a lot to say re Fred’s point about Shakespeare — it’s important to know who Shakespeare was, not for “middle class” reasons (Will Shakespeare himself was a member of the middle class – he was a Latin scholar in the fine school he attended and there is evidence that his father was a secret Catholic (anathema at that time) and thus the “coded”  Rome-isms in his work. Fred probably has read Stephen Greenblatt – but Bloom’s little book on Hamlet is brilliant on how lucky we are to know that Shakespeare was an actor  (as well as a married bloke, property owner, father of twins, one of whom was called “Hamnet” and that when he died he left his wife, Anne, his “second best bed”).

The fact that Shakespeare was an actor as well as an author — gives rise to the perfect “Hamlet” sensibility -  the balance (and conflict) between the actor consciousness and the authorial consciousness – I have lots of interest in this and have poems about it in my book, Sparrow.  David (my David) was trained as a Shakespearean actor and we each focused on what the other knew re that sensibility – actor, poet.

Dear Ms. Coote,

My name is Walter Graves and I am writing on behalf of Mr. Cohen period   we are terribly sorry about the inconvenience we are causing you and regret to inform you that we are not able to locate the photo of your sister Shayna.  Please allow me to explain (insert colon here)

It seems we had a bit of an accident here at the office last week when Mr. Cohen forgot to turn off the Mr. Coffee machine before  taking his usual nap in his office for 9 or 10 hours.  Well, you can see what happened. He is recovering well and we are told that his eyebrows and eyelashes will grow back but unfortunately the photo of your sister Shelia has disintegrated in the flames.

Please accept our apologies and know that steps are being taken to insure this never happens again but if we can just ask you to please send another photo of Susan we promise that this time we will lock it in our fire prof vault.  Please share this apology with your sister as we know the difficult situation we are putting her in and hope that she can push the appropriate buttons again and resend the image.  Our technical team can be made available for consultation if she requires help.  Thanks very much for your understanding and we hope you like the barking dog.  It was Mr. Cohen’s idea.

Best,

Walter Graves

The list is endless.  But my contact list is not; it’s extensive, but I could do better.  I could also save myself a lot of time. So the idea behind this blog is to streamline requests.  In this way, if all of you on my list, register your name and email address and then forward this blog to those on your lists and ask them to register and forward, the next time you need me to round up flutes for the Philipines, I will only have to update my blog including that information and hit “send.”

And when you tell me that you desperately need “wristwatches for nurses and doctors in Haiti,” you can send the request to me through my blog.  If all goes well, I will eventually send this blog out weekly and so requests will still be handled in a timely manner. As you can see, my family has jumped in as initial contributors to give (herownsociety.com) a bit more flavor. Think of it as “Craig’s List meets Daily Candy with a small dose of the HuffPost.”  Or think of it as unique.  Just think of it.
I’ve given the top spot this week to my “Blog Designer.”  He’s depressed and needs the attention.

Thank you,

Carolxx

PROMETHEUS LIVRES


Perhaps the best piece of writing advice ever offered professional and amateur alike comes from the great Elmore Leonard: “Try to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip.” Who knows if Michael Connelly is aware of Leonard’s edict, but he is in strict compliance nevertheless. His novels are models of plotting, economy and a relentless forward thrust; they sit on your shelf not so much as books, but rather as cars, tanks full and just waiting to be started.

In Connelly’s nineteen-year career, he has born three distinct heros, all citizens of Los Angeles and each one deep, rich, and real enough to support the entirety of a lesser author’s retirement. You may think of them as three points on a triangle, each offering a different perspective on Los Angeles and its seedy underworld. There’s crime journalist Jack McEvoy (The Poet, Scarecrow); Detective Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch (City of Bones, Nine Dragons); and, my favorite, criminal defense attorney, Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer, The Reversal).

Haller harbors no illusions about his clients – in fact he finds nothing so difficult, or dangerous, as an innocent client. His office is the back seat of a Lincoln Town car, usually chauffeured by some ex-client working off a debt to Haller. Los Angeles County’s criminal courts are flung far and wide, so Haller knows that the successful defense attorney, as with other sharks, needs to be in constant motion.

Yet Connelly’s latest book, The Fifth Witness, finds the formerly successful Haller on tough times. To survive (and Haller is nothing if not a survivor) he branches out to foreclosure defense, defending clients about to lose their homes. The subject is timely, and Connelly seamlessly weaves the details of Haller’s new world into the flow of his plot. But neither we nor Haller stray from criminal defense for long. A killer hammers a bank officer to death, and the evidence leads to Haller’s latest client. Haller takes on the criminal defense, striding confidently through familiar ground. But surprises hide in the periphery, surprises too shocking for his experience or our imagination to anticipate.

This look says a lot about fashion the way it should be, elegant and uncomplicated. The colors of the blouse and trousers are deep and lush and the fabric sways with the model. There is no break in the flow between top and bottom. She looks smooth, lithe, and agile, from head to toe. Great posture and maintaining a line is what it’s all about.   

Of special note is the choice of a tropical pink lipstick with blue undertones, which pick up the blue of the pants, distinct from the shirt. This coupled with the shoes is the only “jewelry” she needs. A great bag or clutch is “jewelry” in the same sense. I would add a nice, standout ring in glass. Such a ring on short nails polished in a similar hue as the lipstick completes the idea of organic accessories.

Personally I think the plunging neckline is nice in the photo, but less exposure would be more practical. Otherwise, it is a perfect spring outfit.

If Google doesn’t know, and WIkipedia is questionable, trust me, Fred is your guy.  If it’s something he cares about.  Really, try it.

For example, if you were to ask him, “Who wrote Shakepeare’s plays?”  He will answer:  ”Shakespeare.”   Then he will probably elaborate that class prejudice is the reason this is even a question. He explains, “It’s actually similar to the ‘Birther Movement.’  Shakespeare was a man of the people and that is the only reason that the nay-sayers feel the need to question the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays because of his middle class origins.

Oxfordians are now the dominant anti-Stratfordians, but they are still just one of many absurd suggestions put forth as alternatives to Shakespeare.