stuff what i read

I finally finished Best Served Cold, Abercrombie's stand-alone swords and soldiers and revenge book, set in the same world of his more famous book series, of which I've read none. Cormacaroni gave me the whole series, so I will read it, because everyone seems to agree that it's better than this. BSC was not bad by any measure, but the characters were not, by and large, likable, and the whole thing is either humorless, or so dry in its humor that it sailed past me. Except for the poisoner and Cosca. I liked it, but I'm going to wait a bit before starting The Blade Itself.

Just wrapping up Monster Hunter International. After enjoying the alternate history in Hard Magic so much, I figured MHI would be a slam dunk for popcorn fare. Instead, I feel like I'm reading through some gun-fan, fantasy-geek libertarian's wet dream. It's the story of a large, angry man who was trying really hard to fit into normal society after a long dark history of fringe violence (illegal street fighting, bouncing) but turns out that he's not meant to be an accountant, and instead finds a group of licensed monster hunters (HENCE THE TITLE) who share his repressed need to enact violence, also love their guns (but he's just a little bit better than they are), and accept him for who he is! Also, dispersions are cast against the government at just about every turn. The main character also falls for a girl who is going out with the badass Camaro jerkface captain of his group, who she can't see is just a prideful asshole Who is Afraid of The Main Character.

Yeah... NONE of this was present in the Hard Magic book, which was a lot more fun and felt much less like one long Freudian slip. I'll continue reading the latter series, but I may be done with MHI.

documentaries

I watched two documentaries which were available briefly on iTunes for 99¢, and my one-month rental period was about to run out. I watched them on consecutive days, and I'm happy that I watched them in this order:

The Motivation
This documentary tells the story of six skateboarders competing in the winner-take-all Street League championship of 2012. Street League itself is the product of Rob Dyrdek, himself a hardcore skateboarder. There's a skinny kid from Long Beach who has been put on a skateboard by his dad, Tiger-Woods-style, since he was 6. There're a couple guys who are making sick, sick money from Nike and Monster, living in big houses with their hangers-on and entourage; I just hope they have been investing. There's a couple older guys (30s) who are capable of winning, but are less likely to win each year, due to the harsh cocktail of injuries and age. There is a wide range of difference between the skaters, in age, background, outlook -- but not ability. The whole thing really comes down to each of them being, in their own way, the best skater in the world, and the contest itself takes them beyond their comfort zone, pushes them to their limits, making the finals less of a question of straight up ability, and more a matter of handling psychological pressure. Fun, well-produced, and quite tense as it ramps into the Street League championship.

Dirty Wars
Jeremy Scahill, independent reporter frequently associated with The Nation, recounts his investigation into America's "War on Terror," and the indiscretion with which attacks are being carried out in more countries with less oversight and public awareness. It starts with an investigation into an American attack which mistakenly kills a number of guests at a wedding party in the Afghanistan countryside, which is denied, journalists disavowed and blacklisted, before finally having the official version reflect the mistake -- and continues through the same group, Joint Strike Operations Command, beginning to make strikes into Syria with drones and missiles, and JSOC's eventual move into the mainstream limelight and public praise with the assassination strike on Osama Bin Laden. Later, we find that the kill-list for JSOC includes Anwar al-Awlaki (wikipedia), an American citizen who has essentially been publicly targeted for assassination by his own government, without any attempt for capture or trial. Reading his wikipedia entry, Awlaki is painted as a through-and-through Al Qaeda supporter, though sermons in the documentary make it clear that his shift to radical Islam was later. Not only was Awlaki killed, but his 16-year-old son, also an American born citizen, was later killed by a US drone strike in Yemen while he was returning from searching for his father. Just amazingly tragic.

Interviews with officials and ex-JSOC personnel make it clear that we're operating outside our publicly defined rules for warfare, and that we're also inadvertently creating more enemies as we strive to make the world safer for the USA through violent intervention. From a technical standpoint, the documentary uses a bit too much flashy editing, moody shots, and re-created sets for Scahill's office and research, which look too self-consciously constructed to be believable. Scahill's narration tone seems timid and unsure; this is sad, because it's almost certainly a performance issue, and not one of his own confidence in the problems he is presenting.

As a liberal who has a sheaf full of concerns about the military industrial complex, corporate lobbying, corporate-funded news reporting, I was surprised and saddened that this wasn't a spot-on perfect, undeniable, shake-this-in-the-neocons-face piece of work but, then again, our self-awareness and self-questioning are hallmarks of what separate us from those who make decisions and then never reexamine the evidence.