Da Vinci's Demons – reviewing a tv-show

I came across this show while channel surfing at my parents house. I ended up watching the sixth episode of the first season and found it so good that I decided to watch the whole series. The first season was good enough to raise a few thoughts.

Da Vinci's Demons is set in renaissance Florence – the cradle of enlightenment, democracy and liberty. Whether you really believe that this was the case, Florence was actually quite advanced compared to rest of Europe at that time. Florence had become extremely wealthy from trading with fabrics and , most of all, banking. The city was full of palaces and had quite a few towers, the towers were so numerous that at one point it was forbidden to build towers higher than 19 meters. What made renaissance Florence become a legend was it's ruling family the Medicis. The family Medici is well known as supporters of art and science. Under their protection and patronage worked some of the most brightest renaissance geniuses – most brightest of them all was Leonardo Da Vinci.

The basic plot of the series is as follows: Da Vinci meets a Turk who tells him about a mythical artefact called “Book of Leaves” it is supposed to hold all the knowledge, I mean everything. Being the curios type he is Da Vinci sets out on a quest to find the Book of Leaves and during his quest he find out that the Vatican is also after it and to hide the artefact into Vatican's secret archives since it might bad for their business if people would find out that the church does not hold ultimate truth about the origin of the universe.

Usually some familiar invention made by Leonardo appears in the episodes that he utilizes to solve a problem or challenge he faces. Most of the time the inventions and plots are quite entertaining and funny but there is one episode that is just simply brain dead.

///SPOILER///

In one of the episodes Da Vinci's enemies come up with plot that is sure get him executed. With the help of a bribed victim and judges they accuse Da Vinci of sodomy, a crime punishable by death, even tough no-one has been found guilty in Florence for years (that's because the city is so liberal and civilized, get it). Okay, so Da Vinci gets framed and locked up in prison. Everybody is worried since he seems to be making no effort to get out and escape. This is were it gets fucking retarted. With the help explosions coming from bombs made of bat shit and delivered by bats, Da Vinci and his friend switch places in the prison. Da Vinci now free goes to the corrupted judge responsible for his case and knocks him. When the judge wakes up he finds himself tied to a pig (what?!?) and Da Vinci near by with contraption that can record the judge engaged in activity far worse than sodomy – bestiality. With this rudimentary camera Da Vinci takes a picture of the judge with pig and projects the image to the clouds for the whole Florence to see. After taking the picture Da Vinci returns to his cell and in the next session of the court all charges against him are miraculously dropped and he walks free.

///SPOILER ENDS///

In some cases the show pushes a bit too much Da Vincis innovations, the ideas of liberty and democracy and how the catholic church is totally corrupted and evil. However, the main plot line where Da Vinci and allies of Vatican fight to find “ Book of Leaves” is very entertaining. I also like the characters of the corrupted Pope and the ruthless count Riario. They have also woven in some interesting subplots that slowly unfold during the series.

Despite the brain dead bits this show offers entertaining stories so give it a look.

Bleergh - I am the devil

Murakami - Kafka on the Shore

This was the second novel by Murakami that fell on my hands. Actually, there was nothing accidental in that I chose to read this book. After reading one of Murakami's newer novels "Sputnik Sweetheart" I was quite impressed by how Murakami was able to paint such a mysterious story line that felt very intimate and distant at the same time. I went to the library to aiming to get my hands on Murakami's latest novel to be translated to Finnish. Unfortunately, all copies of "Norwegian Wood" were taken so I decided to give "Kafka on the Shore" a try.

Kafka on the Shore cover

This book was just amazing. The two story lines intertwine in the most wonderful manner. The book is at the same time very open, but leaves some key details untold and there is this some mysterious thing leave the characters somewhat distant, but that's good. Then there are just some silly scenes in the book that make it even more charming. Was Colonel Sanders Murakami who intervenes to get the story back on  track?

Compared to "Sputnik Sweetheart" this book it's in a league of its own. If you want to read something by Murakami give this one a read.

You can listen to the Archduke trio online at the Petrucci Music Library. It is actually a very nice piece of music and very approachable. Give it a listen.

http://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Trio_in_B-flat_major,_Op.97_%28Beethoven,_Ludwig_van%29

Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart

During the weekend I finished reading Haruki Murakami's book "Sputnik Sweetheart". In the back of Murakami was compared to the likes of Paul Auster. That is a very good comparison. Having read several books by Auster I can say that is a very good comparison. However, I feel that Murakami writes less but says more than Auster. Also, at least this book was, more mystical compared to Auster.

The story was something different. First I thought that the story was rather dull and ordinary but as I read on I became impressed by his story telling skills. Somehow he appears to be telling everything but leaves the crucial bit behind a curtain. This strange love story was very appealing. I recognised the same kind of feelings of being alone and lost as the characters in the book had. I think rarely have I read a book that raises this kind of intimate and sensitive feelings in me.

I must read another book by Murakami before I can say if I like his writing. The next one I will read will probably be "Norwegian wood" if I can get myself a copy.

Decision Points - Memoir Of George W. Bush

This Christmas Santa brought me the memoirs of George W. Bush. The book is called Decision Points and it covers Bush's journey to the White House and his time as the 43rd president of United State of America. Bush's presidency was very eventful time in the world and I was keen on knowing what Bush himself thought of his own decisions. (Yes, yes. I know it is almost summer, but I had a lot of other things to do and wasn't able to read the book directly after Christmas).

This wont' be a traditional book review because I won't just evaluate the book as a piece of literature. I also want to evaluate the way the Bush writes about himself and how (and if) it corresponds to his public image and I will also without any hesitation put up my own opinions about Bush's political choices. This might be a bit unfair, but Bush is a prominent political figure and his a big boy so I think he can take a few critical opinions from one anonymous blogger. ;)

The way this will work is I will go on reading the book and write opinions about each chapter I read. So let's start.

Quitting

This chapter mainly deals with Bush's story before presidency. It was very informing and opened his personal history. The name of course derives from his drinking problem and how he got over it and finding faith. Still I do not understand how Bush can and was able to pull off the regular guy image. He is the son of a president, educated in the best schools in the country, fighter pilot and a business man. Tell me what part of that is regular. I will tell you. Nothing. This guy must be quite talented and intelligent. Nobody can get this far in life with just the help from his dad. The chapter features quite personal story of how George and Laura struggled to get children.

Running

Bush has taken part in many elections before his own presidential campaign. Of course there are his own gubernatorial races, and maybe most important campaign that he has followed was his fathers presidential campaigns. Bush knew what he was doing when he ran for president and he had experience about how it is to run for president. Also he had the connections needed to be successful. This chapter was rather boring.

Personnel

The name of the chapter tells a lot about this chapter. It might be interesting to someone who has followed White House for a living, but for us normal folks it does not provide anything that interesting. However there is one exception to the rule. Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell apparently were not the best of pals. That is quite interesting. The second big issue in this chapter is the recount fiasco that took place after the elections. Bush writes rather briefly about this very important event. In the end the supreme court decided that there would be no time to count all the votes and that the result would stay as it is. Does this mean that the democratic process was disregarded just because the country needed a new president?

Stem Cells

Before the book jumps to 9/11 and such the memoir focuses on what Bush was up to in the first half of 2001. Stem cells was such a heated topic in U.S. Again, I must admit that I had a bit of a wrong picture of the situation and the decision Bush made. Having read the chapter you could almost be of the opinion that Bush with his conditional and conservative decision regarding stem cell research could have pushed the scientific community to search alternative ways for creating stem cells.

Day of Fire

I remember when I came from school and started to watch BBC World and saw that a passenger plane had hit one of the WTC towers. How can a passenger plane go astray and hit skyscraper? What kind of technical malfunction could cause this? Aren't planes equipped with technology that should avoid this kind of things? I never even imagined that it could be terrorism. Then I saw as the second plane hit WTC. Little by little information started to come that a third plane had crashed to Pentagon. The shock and confusion was just gigantic. How can some one do this? Bush has been criticised for what he did during on 9/11. The situation was potentially extremely dangerous and reading this made my understand how unexpected the events were. There was not that much new information the events of 9/11 in the chapter. The chapter is more of a narrative in style. Most of the interesting stuff is still classified could can not be published. The only somewhat interesting piece of information was the fact how bad the communication equipment of Air Force One were. Funny that nobody realised that the president may want to give someone a call while he is being evacuated.

War Footing

It is just completely impossible to imagine how terrible the situation was 9/11. All the time you would get reports on new possible terrorist plots. How do you react to that? Again, this helped me better understand the circumstances in which Bush made decisions. Another Bush's decision that was criticised during the time was the creation of Department of Homeland Security. Again based on what Bush writes on this book it was perfectly logical decision. 9/11 revealed that different departments of the government responsible for security were unable to exchange intelligence data due to legal restrictions. This section of the book also cover the extremely controversial subject of special CIA interrogation tactics. Especially water boarding got unanimously condemned. I always thought that water boarding was widely used as an interrogation method. Bush states that out of the roughly 1000 terrorists caught after 9/11 only 100 were subjected to CIA's interrogation tactics. Out these hundred around one third were subjected to the hardened interrogation methods. According to Bush in the end only three people were subjected to water boarding. I do not know if these numbers are correct (how could I) and they only cover numbers from CIA. What I would really like to know is what the army and army intelligence have done to gather intelligence. Remember the photographs taken in Abu Ghraib.

Afghanistan

Again this chapter is more of a narrative piece of text. Bush tells what he did and how difficult it was to make the decisions, which of course is the case. There were couple of points that I still found very odd. Bush claims that he was able to turn Pakistan ally in four days. Did they have a choice. Secondly he mentions as an achievement that after initial bombings of Afghanistan US dropped 37 000 meals to the civilians. 37k meals is really not that many. It is better than nothing, but compared to suffering that the war caused it just seems a bit pointless. Not to deny the progress Afghanistan has experienced after the overthrow of Taleban. I was very surprised about how openly Bush tells about the strained relationship between Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf. So far this has been the most revealing bit I've read in the book.

Iraq

Unsurprisingly the longest chapter of the book is dedicated to Iraq. It is impossible to forget the controversy that preceded the war. Does Iraq pose a threat? Is Saddam manufacturing weapons of mass destruction? What ever you may have thought about the war Bush did have one very good point for starting the war. Iraq had been ignoring UN resolutions for years. They denied UN inspectors access to suspected production sites of WMDs. Bush writes in the book that he saw the situations also as a question of UNs authority and that is a very good point. Bush admits that the intelligence reports on Iraq's WMD-programs were partly inaccurate. I am just wondering how that can be. Bush also writes that several other intelligence agencies had reported that Iraq potentially has weapons of mass destruction. How can the whole intelligence community fail in such a monumental manner? Are they just guessing. Could it have been that some agencies fed disinformation in order to advance the political aims of the country it represents and this misinformation was cited and re-cited in many reports.

Leading

In this chapter Bush writes about his efforts on trying to reform education, health care and the pension system. It was fun to read about these projects but I am afraid all of it was just surpassed by the was on terror.

Katrina

I really appreciated the fact that Bush quite openly tells about how he saw the rescue efforts after Katrina. Basically Bush waited a week before he decided to send in troops from the National Guard without permission from the state's governor. I think he was rather swift in his decision although for some victims of Katrina it was too long.

The Lazarus Effect

I had almost forgotten Bush's AIDS programme. It seems to have done lot of good. The Wikipedia article I read states some irregularities in the reporting activities and states that some of the funds may not have gone to helping people suffering from AIDS. Bush did do a lot to help AIDS patients and made large contributions to the fight against aid. Nobody can deny that.

Surge

As the violence in Iraq grew Bush was thinking of ways to quench the violence. His solution was to send in more troops even though it was a highly unpopular move. Most people thought that it would have been better to pull out troops from Iraq and let the Iraqis sort things out amongst themselves. David Petraeus, who Bush appointed to command and lead the surge, did pretty good job. The acts of violence decreased dramatically and people in Iraq felt at least a bit more safe. The surge worked and probably prevented Iraq from falling in to state of total civil war. I agree with Bush that quitting would have been the least responsible thing to do.

Freedom Agenda

This chapter cover wide range of topics. It covers most of the initiatives Bush made on solving the conflict between Isreal and Palestine, trying to end the North Korean nuclear programme and expansion of Nato. I must say that my appreciation for Bush grew as I was reminded that it was him who at least tried to introduce an independent Palestine and encouraged the Palestinian people towards democracy. Sometimes I feel that it might have Bush who sowed the seeds for Arab spring by over throwing Saddam Hussein and showing that people in middle east do not need to be ruled by cruel dictators. Of course, in Tunisia the uprising was more about high food prices and unemployment, but still. What surprised me most in the chapter was the very harsh criticism towards Vladimir Putin. I did not expect that he would criticise the leader of one nation so much. The criticism is, naturally, has it's reasons and is not unfounded.

Financial Crisis

Bush's last term ended in 2008. It was also the year when US was hit by the worst economic crisis since the great depression of 1930s. Bush explains that the decisions he made were purely pragmatic. He would have preferred that the companies that got in trouble would have gone bankrupt. He's main argument seems to be that he did not want to see tax payers suffer from the mistakes and neglect of some few Wall Street executives. That is a very respectable principle. He also lays out evidence that he was aware that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could potentially cause trouble and his administration had warned these companies about their risky practices.

Even though Bush argues that the economic down turn of early '00 and the direct economic impact 9/11 had eaten away the surplus that the previous government had left him the fact to the matter is that Bush's government took enormous amounts of debt and the trade imbalance of US was at all time high as he left office. As he was focusing on the war on terror (two front wat) the economy of United States was left to survive on it's own.

Final words (my words not his)

Reading this book made me respect some of Bush's decisions and understand in what kind of situations he made them and how he saw them. The language of the book was not the most flexible and polished as I had expected. 

I recommend that you give this book a read it gives an opportunity to understand what happened during 2000-2009. Quite a lot of happened during those years, to say the least.

Barbara Demick: Nothing to Envy - Ordinary Lives in North-Korea

Recently when I was browsing in the book store I came across with this book about North Korea. The book was written by Barbara Demick and titled "Nothing to envy - ordinary lives in North Korea". Since it was available as a paperback at reasonable price I decided to pick it up. The book was written on the basis of series of interviews of North Korean defectors that Demick made in South Korea while she was there as the correspondent of LA Times.

The book was extremely interesting to read since it was written from the view point of ordinary North Koreans. I particularly enjoyed the fact that I got a glimpse of different kinds of people with different social status. I got to know how a doctor, a teacher, a college student and ordinary mothers struggle to survive in the disintegrating economic situation.

Nothing to Envy - ordinary lives in North Korea

It is just horrifying to read how the situation got gradually worse during the 90's and again in the 2008. Reading the book you start to feel anger over the situation in North Korea. The people of North Korea suffer from constant hunger, oppression and fear. It is just inhumane and I do not understand how the country is still able to function (in large part it does not function at all). For the past twenty plus years the average North Korean citizen has been fighting for their next meal. The situation can not go on any longer. It must end. Sooner the better.

I started to think of different scenarios how the situation could be solved. Basically what I was thinking how the regime in North Korea could be changed or what will happen when and if the government will fall.

1. Collapse

If the regime would collapse uncontrollably, there probably would be no choice but to close the borders and send in food. I do not think any country would be able to absorb the presumably large masses of refugees. The next step would probably be to put in a temporary UN government that would oversee the transfer and eventual unification of Korea. It would probably take at least twenty years to get the country on it's feet.

2. "China"

The second option would be that the leaders in Korea opt for taking the same route that China has taken for the past 30 years. The biggest problem will most likely be how the foreign companies will find a way around the fact that human rights situation in NK is beyond appalling. Would you like to buy something that was produced in North Korea? This route would require many decades and in order to succeed NK regime would need to prove that the humanitarian situation is getting better and they are no longer pursuing to obtain nuclear weapons. Somehow that just seems unrealistic, at least at the moment.

I'm pretty sure that the slow collapse of NK regime is underway since so much chinese goods are already flowing in and people have (illegal) chinese cell phones that they use to call to their relatives living in China. The people are starting to know how life is outside the closed bubble of NK. I just hope that the collapse won't end up in situation where the North with it's last remaining power will launch an attack to South Korea.

Jobs.

What would you say of a guy who believes that by eating fruit he does need to use deodorant, is an admires zen meditation and practices, but explodes every now and then at work, and can not furnish his house because he is such a perfectionist that he can't find suitable furniture that meet his criteria. Do you think this kind of a guy has any chance of succeeding? Well that was how Steve Jobs was. Still he managed to create a company that has shaken up the market of consumer electronics throughout the past decade or so. The pace has been especially furious since the launch of iPhone in 2007.

If you have not noticed, Steve Jobs died on 5th of October 2011. After his cancer diagnosis in 2005 Jobs wanted a biography written. while he was still alive and in 2009 Walter Isaacson started working on the book. The book was scheduled to be released in March 2012, but the release was moved to October since it became clear that Job's health was declining.

The life story of Steve Jobs is, of course, very interesting and inspirational, but what kind of picture does the book paint of Mr. Jobs and is there something missing from the picture. In this review I try to focus on evaluating the book and not Steve Jobs's persona which is naturally a bit challenging taking into account the topic of book.

As Literature

As a piece of literature biographies rarely are remembered for their literary excellence. The text flows nicely and is very easy to read. At times it feels that Isaacson underlines too much of Jobs's character traits. One good example of this is the way Isaacson brings up how Job's father taught him to pay attention to things that where not visible while two were building a fence. This is brought up quite often when Jobs's perfectionism comes up, like in the case of the power source of original Macintosh.
It could have been a better choice to structure the book around discussions that Isaacson had with Jobs. It would have created a more intimate feel to the book. A feeling that Jobs is talking himself. Of course this is not what the book tried to achieve. Now the book goes with content and objectivity first which is a very good choice.

Apple

The book captures well the main points of Apple's history. It is especially interesting to read about the early stages of Apple and home computing. There was really something special happening in Palo Alto and Silicon Valley in the 1970s. How can such a small area become the synonym for innovations and hightech?

Opening up how the creative process worked in Apple when Jobs was still around is one of the most interesting points in the book. Well let's make one reservation, the book is not good at telling how the others teams actually worked. It just simply gives a glimpse on how the teams tried to manage with Jobs's way of leadership. The role of Jonathan Ive in the creative process and the fact that Jobs almost blocked 3rd party apps from iPhone prove that Jobs wasn't the only creative and brilliant individual at the company.

At times it feels that the book is all about marketing Apple products. Especially when you read the story on how Jobs tries to confuse Siri on the new iPhone 4S. Maybe this is inevitable.

Steve

In my mind the only way to evaluate a biography is to try and determine if the the biographer has been able to shine light on all the sides of personality of the biographee. Jobs wanted the biography to be realistic. His wife also admitted that Steve's personality, to put it politely, is complicated and wanted it all to be in the book. Clearly, work was number one for Steve Jobs and the book describes mostly his professional personality. I would have wanted to know more about the private side of Steve Jobs. We get to know that Jobs liked walking, photography and was a picky eater, which in my mind isn't that much. I would liked to know a bit more if he had any hobbies, what he did with his kids. The book tells a little about Jobs's relationship with his children. Mostly quite negative things. Of course his kids are still young and it would have been a bit unethical to make young children to evaluate their relationsship with their father.

Without ever having met Steve Jobs or having spent any time with him it is hard to say if the biography is accurate representation of his personality. In order to write a book you need good stories and usually good stories emerger from situations where there is a conflict or problem to solved. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs is portraid as a manic personality. While the book depicts the mercurial personality of Mr. Jobs, it seems to hide the everyday guy and how he was when things went smoothly.

What I kind of miss in the book is Steve's opinion on social media. Did he think it was important or driving for of technological innovation?

Conclusions

The book leaves your opinion about Steve Jobs swinging back forth. Why was this very strange guy able to create two extremely successful companies? What was his magical touch that enabled Apple to grow in to the most valuable technology company during the past ten years? Even though Steve Jobs's personality was flawed he must have had a clear vision of what he wanted. On one level I can understand Jobs. He barely 25 when he suddenly noticed that he had a fortune of 250 million dollars. It is next to impossible that this much money would not affect you at all.

Give it a read and tell me what you think.

Moomis

Since I was a child I've been a big fan of the Moomin animated series produced in Japan in the early nineties. The manga style animation was so beautiful and the stories were so well adapted to TV. Even though the stories in the animated series were quite different from the original Moomi books, the animated series has educated several generations to appreciate the Moomi way of life.

Moomi books are wonderful and exceptional pieces of literature

I felt that I wanted to know a bit more about the original stories and I also had herd that the original Moomi books are great literature and have philosophical side to them. I chose three books that I thought had the most interesting titles except for Moominpappa at Sea (Pappan och havet, 1965) which I knew to be very good novel. The two other books I read were Moominland Midwinter (Trollvinter, 1957) and Moominvalley in November (Sent i November, 1970). The second reason why I chose these two books was that I thought they might help me get ready for winter and all the darkness of autumn, or so I thought.

It is amazing how different the stories in these books are compared to the stories in the animated series of my childhood. The animated series lacks most of the gloomy atmosphere and philosophical reflection of the books. The world of the animated series is happier and more carefree. That is how it was when you were a child.

One theme that rose up in all three books was how the Groke symbolises what happens when you are forgotten, not seen by others and left without love. The Groke represents everything scary and Moomis are scared of Groke, but I can't help feeling a bit sorry for the Groke. Groke is left out of everything and has to live all alone outside of the Moominvalley. Of course, in the book Moominpappa at Sea this changes quite a bit.

It is quite funny when you notice that you are reading about your own problems and weaknesses from a children's book. Sometimes it feels that do these books even give anything to children. My mother read Moominsummer Madness to me and my sister when we were little but I can't remember how the story really progressed. All I remember is the feeling. That is probably the strongest quality of Moomi books.

Reading these books was a really great experience. My favourite book of the three was Moominvalley in November and how it portrays what keeps people from being happy and the different mentalities and life philosophies of people. If you are looking for happy-go-lucky children's stories the Moomi books might not be the thing for you.

I can't see you

Once again a book by Paul Auster has found a way to hands. This time I read Auster's newest novel titled "Invsible". It was first published in 2009. This was the third book by Auster I've read. The other two being "Mr. Vertigo" and "Brooklyn Follies". The links guide you to the blog entries that I wrote about those books.

Auster: Invisible (Photo by the author)

Unsurprisingly the book takes place (where else but) in New York with a French connection. It tells the story of Adam Walker and what happend to him during 1967. Auster is a brilliant story teller no doubt about it. He writes in a way that makes the story flow with ease and unexpected twists and turns are placed perfectly. "Invisible" is a thriller, love story and a growth story all at the same package and it is  executed with great precision.

Let it be emphasized, I did enjoy reading this book.

Auster has found the winning formula that goes without saying. When you compare "Brooklyn follies" and "Invisible" I found some points that I find a bit of annoying, mainly because my own world view is compatible with these points and I know Auster has written these points in because he knows people like me enjoy them. This only means that he knows his audience very well. The most prevailing of these points is the intellectual East-Coast university sentiment that is so overwhelming that is hyper analytical and self-concious.

The second point that annoys me is sex and how Auster always needs to put some of it in his books. Yes, yes it is part of being human and quite large part. (The fundamental part?) Sometimes it just seems that the sex is there to get a reaction. In this book there is a sexual relationship that annoyed me. First I was disgusted. Then I tried to explain why the characters did what they did based on their tragic childhood. After that I wanted to kill myself for trying to explain the thing out. Maybe it's just my own problem. Why do I need to analyse everything?