"Warning Shadows" by Gary Giddins

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a movie studio in possession of a fortune must be in want of Great Books."

This is just one of many brilliant,eccentric and elegant chapter introductions in collection of magazine articles published between 2005 and 2009 (mostly in "The New York Sun") and now nicely preserved under title "Warning shadows: home alone with classic cinema" by Gary Giddins . Giddins, who is an excellent music critic shows that he is not limited on just one territory: he writes about classic movies with the same fair and wit,often pointing at lesser known gems (1967 soviet "Anna Karenina") and offering his view on works by Kurosawa, Bergman, Tati and everything from "Blade Runner" to "Ben Hur", amusing his readers with riches of anecdotes along the way. I actually have his celebrated biography of Bing Crosby (that covers first part of Bing's career, hopefully there will be a sequel) so was no surprised that Crosby somehow found the way even in this book, as he left his mark in the movies as well. Giddins is a true wit, a man who knows how to engage a reader with a funny touch and often pointing at quality or lack of it in the classic movies - his opinions often suggest re-viewing and surely I am not the only one who noted few names down during the reading of this collection. Because it's basically collection of essays, it can be enjoyed slowly - myself,I was initially browsing trough some of my favorite pieces, going backwards and forwards, until eventually I read the whole darn thing from cover to cover once again with the biggest pleasure.

Touching not only the selected movies and giving intriguing informations about actors,directors and producers, Giddins also writes about the movie industry and the way audience perceive movie entertainment - he writes about nickelodeon days and muses what a long way we crossed from watching the movies trough the hole in a machine until present day when (again) movie watching is solitary business,often confined to a electronic notebook gadgets. In a way, this book is a love letter to countless cinema theaters that are now a thing of the past and in fact there is a heartfelt tribute to long-gone New York cinemas listed at the beginning of the book. Combining his knowledge of movies and music,Giddins is in my opinion in the same league as equally gifted Will Friedwald (author of "Jazz singing") and hopefully this work will inspire others to continue in the same league. Excellent reading that surely invites re-visits and it shows how wonderful and sincere the work can be when is done with love.

True Blood TV show

The pleasure of my "dry dock" of 2012. was to enjoy a room for myself only - as opposite to having to share this tiny place with somebody who smokes,farts,burps and leaves a mess everywhere - so I was alone, cleaned everything until every trace of my messy ex-roommate was erased and than relaxed with my books and music. As usual, my colleagues were wondering why i don't spend evenings drinking with them in a crew bar, but I am doing this way too long so can't even be bothered to explain that I've seen it all a million of times and I prefer to stay alone instead of spending time off with the people I work the whole day long.

First I was busy reading but at certain point I decided to explore my movies collection. I watched several very interesting documentaries and than somehow I started to look at all these TV shows collected - mostly because friends suggested something, I am in the middle of the sea so feeling like working out of space, have no idea what's new in the world.

A friend back home gave me his copy of "True blood" (first season) saying it's entertaining and different from usual TV shows - "if you don't like it, you can always erase it" he said very nonchalantly. So I gave it a try and could not stop watching it - got really hooked on it and even turned my friends on it, my colleagues also started watching it without a pause. I really enjoyed this first season very much and was sad when everything finished - this evening I have mentioned this to someone and the guy immediately gave me several more seasons, so I'm actually very thrilled now, guess what I am going to do tonight!

Just for those who have no idea what "True blood" is - the story is placed in a little fictional town around Louisiana where a group of local people are shocked with recent murders and the first vampire is moving in the town. This two things are not really connected but people of course talk - a lot - and if they don't talk loud, a telepathic waitress Sookie can hear them anyway, since she can hear what people are thinking. There are lot of major and minor characters involved in a story and the best thing about "True blood" is that it cleverly balances scary and comical episodes - just as something becomes serious, in the very next moment we laugh. At the end of the season one,I really liked some of the main characters and couldn't believe that season could end with such a cliffhanger - luckily now we watch this trough boxed DVD sets,otherwise I think in a good old days of "real" following I would drop everything and stop breathing just to enjoy next episode.

Dry dock

Since February 01,my ship is docked in so-called "dry dock".

In a technical jargon, "dry dock" is the time when ship is docked - without passengers - and all the water taken underneath so various work can be done properly,like painting, re-monting, carpets and furniture are changed, everything cleaned and basically people around the ship have hundreds things to do even though passengers are not around.

This is also time when more often than not, life is not comfortable since electricity, air condition and water are regularly switched off - thankfully this time everything was fine (more or less) since this is a new ship,built only in 2010 and going trough "dry dock" only because of insurance rules. My colleagues were all expecting some horrible survival but it turned out fine - I am working on cruise ships for more than eight years now,so of course for me this is nothing - in earlier times I had "dry dock" in both summer and winter and on both occasions lack of air condition/heating was nasty, however this time everything was fine - except usual side effect of having all the carpets covered with nylon: after walking on nylon,one always gets shock from static electricity when touching a door handle. So we walk around the ship and get electric shocks all the time!

I don't have a clue what other teams on the ship do - cleaners clean and housekeeping departments have full hands of things to do, my team used this time to do complete inventory starting from a scratch, we took lists and locked ourselves in different corners,started counting and checking every single item we have in shops, from pens, key chains and t-shirts to perfumes, handbags and jewelry. Everything. It is a kind of work one can't do with passengers around anyway, because passengers like nothing better than to disturb you in the middle of counting and to check what is it you have in that pile. So we counted and counted but it wasn't really difficult because days passed fast + working hours were far more pleasurable than what we usually do - compared with our regular 16-hours daily, this "dry dock" was relaxing experience. Best part of the day was dinner when we suddenly discovered red wine that was always there,but no one drank it earlier because we work,after all - so we started enjoying this long dinners with relaxed conversation and lots of red wine and it was true team-bonding.

Some of the guys in my team complained they don't know what to do with themselves in the evenings - its too cold to enjoy going outside, we even stayed several days in Venezia and nobody bothered to walk in a storm - I didn't have that problems because I enjoyed very much the unexpected pleasure of having a cabin for myself alone and relaxed, read, watched movies and slept a lot. Maybe its the lack of air or light,who knows, but the moment I return to my cabin after the dinner (and red wine) I am ready to sleep immediately - one evening I actually slept from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. next morning without a break. Obviously I needed it!

Also I used this time to watch TV show "True blood" which turned out to be far more interesting than I expected, I actually enjoyed it very much!

Bess of Hardwick

Having read books about Mary,Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I (and than about both of them by Jane Dunn) I was thrilled to finally put my hands on a book focused on a very important character who was standing in the shadow of these two famous historical characters and also played important role in the story: Bess of Hardwick, unwilling "hostess" to imprisoned scottish queen, who found herself as much imprisoned as her royal guest. The wealthiest woman in Tudor England right behind Elizabeth herself, Bess was forced (along with her husband) to always keep a watch over her unlucky visitor and her servants, which meant not only providing luxury for a huge group of people but also to always be close to scottish queen and stay in sort of house prison as her guards. If Bess and her husband always desired royal visit that would bring them patronage and favors, they did not count on such extended (15 years!) visit that would drain their finances and ultimately destroy their marriage.

Mary S. Lovell did excellent research into life of this formidable lady but the huge wealth of historical documents never stands on the way of the gripping story - instead of potentially boring list of informations, Lovell inspiredly portraits unusual person behind the facts: Bess started with nothing except her brain,charm and determination - she was no beauty,neither she had privileged background but somehow trough several marriages she accumulated wealth and connections,fighting the law and protecting interests of her ever-growing family with ferocity that was out of character for a meek and mild ladies of her time. Just for example,it was typical for widowed women to always have someone's "protection" and "guardians" when it came to estates and financial questions,well not Bess of Hardwick who took care of the business herself and nobody questioned her decisions as she invested left and right, balanced her unruly flock, political intrigues and court ups and downs.

Thought she might be chiefly remembered for her role in Mary,Queen of Scots story today, this book shows that this was just one of the many interesting chapters in the life of this interesting lady - there were lots of fascinating stories before and after scottish queen - amusing anecdote: when new Queen (Anne of Denmark) arrived in England,she was invited as a visitor to Bess palace but the Queen graciously declined,knowing her reputation as "hostess" to another Queen.