Cool Bunny

CD - Great blues from an alumni of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.   Good tunes, outstanding blues guitar playing.  Montoya joined legendary British bluesman John Mayall's Bluesbreakers as a drummer, but then took up playing guitar.  It was a brilliant choice as he has become one of the contemporary scenes most talented and expressive blues players.

DVD - For those who were left wanting more after watching "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," check out the A&E series of the Horatio Hornblower stories by C.S. Forester.   The production values, while not quite as good as the movie "Master and Commander," are nonetheless quite solid, the attention to detail is outstanding, and the stories are great.    While it may have the feel of a made-for-television mini-series, they are well worth the effort......and hopefully will fill the gap until the inevitable sequel to "Master and Commander" is made.

DVD - The two most recent adventures in the A&E Horatio Hornblower series, not included in "The Complete Adventures" set mentioned above.

DVD - Outstanding!   This is the story of the man who solved the problem of accurate time-keeping at sea, and thereby permitted ships to correctly determine Longitude.    The tale is told as a story within a story.  The primary story is that of John Harrison (Michael Gambon), the English carpenter and clockmaker who seeks to solve the problem of measuring longitude at sea.   But this is presented as a flashback to the more contemporary story of shell-shocked British WWI veteran Rupert Gould (Jeremy Irons) who, as therapy, is asked to restore the original clocks built by Harrison.     Both stories are compelling, intimate and moving.....and best of all, true.

P.S. Harrison's original clocks, restored by Gould, may be seen at the Greenwich Maritime Museum near London.

DVD - Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a highly trained assassin for an ultra-secret CIA program.   Found floating in the sea off southern France and suffering amnesia, the film follows his attempts to recall his past....not to mention having to figure out who is trying to kill him and why.    Extremely effective, compelling story will keep viewers attention to the end....not because the plot hasn't been done before, but rather because it is well-written, well-acted, and well produced.

A well written, detailed account of the battles for Monte Cassino during the Italian Campaign during World War II.    Done is a style similar to Stephen Ambrose's "Citizen Soldier" and "D-Day," Parker uses a lot of interviews, diaries, letters, and other material provided by the front line soldiers who fought the battles.    Centered around the destruction of the famous monastery on Monte Cassino, the series of engagements fought there in the winter of 1943/1944, were among some of the most difficult and costly of the war on the Western Front.   Highly recommended.

A well written, detailed account of the battles for Monte Cassino during the Italian Campaign during World War II.    Done is a style similar to Stephen Ambrose's "Citizen Soldier" and "D-Day," Parker uses a lot of interviews, diaries, letters, and other material provided by the front line soldiers who fought the battles.    Centered around the destruction of the famous monastery on Monte Cassino, the series of engagements fought there in the winter of 1943/1944, were among some of the most difficult and costly of the war on the Western Front.   Highly recommended.

A fast-reading litany of the current Bush administration’s close relationship with evangelical Christian activists, the culmination of long-term efforts by fundamentalists to force their belief and dogma into the political arena......while simultaneously suppressing anything contradicting their preferred world-view.

Kaplan argues that this represents a grave threat to the future of American democracy.
She outlines how Bush’s evangelical Christian faith dictates his decisions on international and domestic issues.   The book provides plenty of evidence of the administration’s efforts in areas such as the promotion of abstinence only policies (despite the evidence that such policies simply don’t work), the concerted effort to undermine AIDS research and education (thereby pushing it back into the closet and out of sight), the drive to create a judicial system that is submissive to the fundamentalist agenda, and the “holy war” mentality exemplified by folks like Tom DeLay and John Ashcroft.

For anyone who is even the least concerned by the growing influence of religion......and not religion in general, but a particularly virulent brand of intolerant fundamentalist religion......on this nation, this book is as good a place as any to start.

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I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone interested in WWII and especially the war with Japan.   Hasegawa uses  primary sources in the US, Japan, and Russia to put together the story of the intertwined diplomatic and military issues among Russia, the US and Japan during the final months of WWII.   He details the struggle within the Japanese hierarchy, where a small group tried vainly to maneuver the government into surrender, obtaining the backing of the emperor in order to do so....while meeting significant resistance from the Army, which was committed to a final great battle to defend the home islands.    He also shows how even those who knew the war was lost and wanted to bring the fighting to an end failed to come up with a coherent approach for doing so, and how they deluded themselves into believing that Moscow (and Stalin) would be a trustworthy intermediary in negotiations with the US.

At the same time, Hasegawa lays out the diplomatic game played by Stalin, who wanted to get Russia into the war BEFORE the Japanese surrendered, and who was willing to string the Japanese along in their hopes for mediation while he secretly prepared to abandon the non-aggression treaty with Japan and launch an attack against them.    He similarly documents the struggle within the US government, where some officials sought to convince Truman to modify the unconditional surrender demand, as well as Truman's own machinations in trying to bring about a Japanese surrender.....first by bringing the Soviets into the war, then, once Truman knew we had a workable A-bomb, by using the bomb to force surrender before the Russians could get in.

A particular strength of the book is the detailed examination of Soviet military operations against Japan in the closing weeks of the war.   There have been very few studies of these operations, a shortcoming Hasegawa has effectively addressed.

In his conclusions, Hasegawa argues that in the end it wasn't the shock of the A-bombs that finally precipitated the Japanese capitulation, it was the shock of Russian entry into the war.   This shattered the faint hope of the "peace group" in Japan that Moscow would mediate between Tokyo and the allies, and forced the Japanese to face the possibility of Soviet (i.e. communist) forces invading not only near-by Northeast Asia but the Home Islands as well.    The Japanese leaders feared the expansion of Soviet communist influence and power far more than they concerned themselves with the destruction of their cities, which in any event had already been going on for some time.

Anyway, a great book and highly recommended.

Cream - The fabled reunion of the first "supergroup" of the 1960s, Cream.   Cream set the standard for full out, peddle to the metal, blow the audience out through the back wall of the hall jam rock.   In their short-lived career Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker established one of the most legendary sounds in rock history.....and Clapton became one of the first true guitar heros.    They've mellowed (haven't we all) but hearing them play this material, much of it from the three studio albums they recorded, will surely take one back to the days of psychedelia and free-form rock experimentation.    Better than the usual reunion tours of dinosaurs in purple lame, they can be proud of this addition to their catelogue......even thirty five years too late.

Late addition......having seen Cream live at the recent Madison Square Garden concerts, I'm even more impressed with this set.   It replicates the feel and sound of the concert perfectly.  Seeing one of the most legendary bands in rock history live only made me appreciate the album and DVD even more.   One of the things that moved me was how modest and even surprised they seemed at all the adoration they received from the audience, reacting almost as if it were somewhat embarrassing.   THey deserved it, and it was worth waiting 35 years for them.