The Raven

by Edgar Allan Poe

Summary from wikipedia.

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,^[1][2] is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.

I love this poem and is one that I read over and over as it colours the slow transition towards madness very well. The pacing is beautiful. Everything about is wonderful. Nothing will ever come close to how wonderfully dark it is. Nevermore.

The Mysterious Stranger

by Mark Twain

This story is about three boys in a small village who stumble upon a stranger in the woods one evening. This, the mysterious stranger, turns out to be an angel and when questioned what his name was, he replied that his name was Satan. Following this encounter the boys' life are changed and so too the whole village as the stranger stays in the town and meddles with the affairs of the villagers. He does this to highlight the Moral Sense of humanity and how trivial the sense of right and wrong and how hypocritical the human race really is.

A full synopsis of the story can be found here on wikipedia.

It really is an amazing story and surprising how relatable this story is even though it was written about 100 years ago. It is the sort of story I hope to write in terms of the theme and plot. It also shows me that books do not really need to be scenic and full of descriptive prose to fully-colour the world. Twain here has very efficiently created his world in broad strokes and allow the reader to fill their own worlds with their own details, I would analogize this to a minimalist artist but still not cause a wanting of more description.

What The Dog Saw and other adventures

by Malcolm Gladwell

This is a strange book for me because I have never read anything like it. It is a non-fiction book that reads so much like fiction. It is a collection of short pieces that Gladwell wrote in The New Yorker magazine. They span a wide range of issues from the Dog Whispere, as you might have seen on TV, Mr. Cesar Millan, to the Heinz ketchup story, to the crash of Enron, and breast cancer imaging scans. As you can tell, it makes for strange reading.

Here is a synopsis from wikipedia.

What the Dog Saw is a compilation of 19 articles by Malcolm Gladwell that were originally published in The New Yorker which are categorized into three parts. The first part, Obsessives, Pioneers, and other varieties of Minor Genius, describes people who are very good at what they do, but are not necessarily well-known. Part two, Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses, describes the problems of prediction. This section covers problems such as intelligence failure, and the fall of Enron. The third section, Personality, Character, and Intelligence, discusses a wide variety of psychological and sociological topics ranging from the difference between early and late bloomers and criminal profiling.^[3]

I just read article after article because what is amazing is not the story persay, because truth be told. some of the subject matter could be quite dry, the stuff found in medical journals or government documentation. What makes it exciting is the angle and the prose used by Gladwell. He is certainly a masterful writer and journalist who knows how to use the human angle. You feel you are taken along the ride with why these issues matter and their consequences on everyday life.

Overall, it is a great book with insights into areas that one would never think of even thinking about. Certainly broadens your mind on common issues and be more open to other perspectives of social norms.

Zastrozzi

at the Melville Theatre

Summary of play from Melville theatre website.

Zastrozzi tells the story of an amoral and charismatic criminal mastermind and master swordfighter who cuts a swath of destruction across Europe in the 19th century.

Zastrozzi relentlessly pursues revenge against Verezzi, a naïve and disturbed artist who has been one step ahead of Zastrozzi for the past three years thanks to his tutor, Victor. But Zastrozzi, with his not too bright sidekick Bernardo, and Matilda (the greatest seductress of Europe and lover of Zastrozzi), have finally caught up.

Now, it is time for all to meet, and what is left to do is decide if you on the side of goodness and purity, or evil… or like Julia, being simply thrown into world you know nothing about and hope to land on your feet!

This is a play adaptation of the classic story of Zastrozzi by  Percy Bysshe Shelley. The first half of it was pretty good but the second half seemed a little hastil wrapped up. At the end of it I felt the characters deteriorated from the plot, in that I did not have a clear idea of why the characters do what they did. Their dialogue seemed slightly off character and in the end I do not see the purpose of what Zastrozzi as done. If Zastrozzi was as smart as he claims, more should have came from how things ended. If one were to bank on wit and charisma to be his strong points, I would have liked to have seen this being brought through to the end. Overall, it was average. Plot could have been better developed, maybe keeping to the original story more would have been better.

Darkness Comes

by Dean Koontz

A short summary. This book is about a police officer, Jack Dawson who is assigned to a case investigating the strange deaths of the Caramazza mob family. Their deaths were very peculiar with their whole body seeming to be bitten by small creatures and bleeding to death. One by one, the Caramazzas are dying, and although they are scum Jack must solve the case before more people die. And even worse, it seems these creatures are going to come for not only Jack but his young son and daughter. The tiny creatures are coming, they are coming for them all...

I loved the first chapter of the book, where it was a scene of Jack's daughter in the dark with the creature coming from who knows where, the fear and anticipation was electrifying. Then after that scene it was pretty much flat all the way through. The whole story was predictable and all the characters were very corny. It seems the story was written like a cheap movie production; stringing along one horror scene to the next horror scene and some of these were decent but it all felt too rehearsed. Like okay I will scare you now a little, then we will have a little break, then I will scare you again. And by the end I felt there was some glaring holes in the plot. But I finished the book nonetheless. There are some good moments in the book, but overall I think it is not that worth reading. Koontz is said to be comparable to King, and I can see at moments his style works. However, based on this piece of work, I think King is much better story telling wise. I perhaps need to read a couple more of Koontz's books to have a better idea of things. But definitely will hold off buying any of his books until I have read a few more from the library.

Red Rose on Piano: Pen Sketch

in pen and marker

This is based on the photograph Red Rose on Piano by yhdenenkelinunelma

It took me 2.5 hours to do. Preliminary sketch with pencil then used black ballpoint pen to draw the outline, and shading too. Used a marker to colour the keys. Used a water-based pen to do darker lines and of course red ballpoint and water-based for the rose. From this I got a feel of how the the pens and markers work and what they can do.

Rue de Orfevres

in Pen and Marker

I did this in about 4 hours. It is based on a photo by Gimpy-Dexter. This was done using pencil and then a ballpoint pen to draw the main lines. Used marker to shade in the areas. Then I went a bit crazy with the pens and the marker, but I think it turned out alright. The joys of experimentation...Also, the quality of the picture is crap because I only have crappy mobile camera and that's what I used to take the picture. Couldn't scan it, was drawn on an A0-sized paper, so it's quite big.

                                                   photograph by Gimpy-Dexter

The Eyes of the Dragon

by Stephen King

This is a dark fantasy book set in a sort of medieval age, of castles and wizards. It is a story of a young prince, Peter who is framed by Flagg, the magician/advisor of King Roland, Peter's father. He is then sent to live out the rest of his life in the top of a tower that overlooks the whole city, called the Needle. In the meantime, Peter's younger brother Thomas takes over the kingdom and being so young and not very bright, Thomas is simply a puppet to Flagg's will. In all this while, Peter sets about setting things right and starts to hatch a plan to escape and reclaim his throne and clear his name. All this Peter must do before Flagg causes the whole kingdom to riot in arms from the high taxation and injustice of the courts he has imposed.

I think this is not one of King's best works. It seems to simple and the world's coloring and texture is very thinly veiled. The concept are also not explored into much depth. I felt there was very little to make this story have any sort of fantasy feel, or is it not supposed to be fantasy but just set in medieval times. I wonder. Anyways, it is also not dark and scary enough.

With other King books I have read, I always felt sick to my gut about how mentally disturbing it is. For instance, when I read Rose Madder, even thought the overall plots was not very well put together, the depth and substance of the characters are enough to make you feel and sick with everything, which is where I set the bar for King's fiction.

Overall, the story is decent and the characters are likable but at the end of it I felt it could have been so much more and I did not feel particularly horrified by any of it.

Hay Fever

at the Garrick Theatre

This is the synopsis from their website.

Hay Fever, a luminous and entertaining comedy, introduces you to the Bliss family: a retired acrtess mother, a novelist father and two children for whom all the world, literally, is a stage. Their outrageous antics alternately infuriate and astound their hapless weekend guests, all of whom have been individually invited for a weekend tete-a-tete.
Rousing fights, surprise engagements and fevered declarations of love drive the poor guests from the house, leaving the family happily bickering and playing amongst themselves as this stylish comedy bounces to it's inevitable and intoxicating end.

It was quite funny and light hearted. They were absolutely the most melodramatic family I have seen and their acting was very good. I especially liked the mother and the 2 children, they played their roles well. Start to end, it was quirky and a really off-beat sort of comedy. It you do not get wit, you probably won't get this. Quite peculiar sort of humour.