Holiday Gift Guide
till shopping for that civi- lized (okay, semi-civilized) person in your life? If you are a giver with unlimited resources, the musical gift of the millennium is the R O BER Edition...
...It's made of \@tually indestructible anodized aluminum mad tough ABS plastic for years of rugged use...
...No matter, the music is magic...
...Appropriate to her Edwardian setting and Peters's chosen literary form, the puzzle mystery, Amelia is both modern and traditional...
...The Episeope:', only 2" long, was developed in Wetzlar (Germany), the home ~ of world-famous Leica cam- magnification qf3Ox, eras...
...It has the capacity to become as much a part of one's mental furniture as a ShakespeareShakespeare himself was often not well-served in the decade, but Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night ($17.99) of 1996 is one of the half-dozen best versions of Shakespeare ever put on film...
...Erato Classics has reissued the only recording of this piece in a bargain Ultima >CD package (3984-z4239-2), the second CD of which features Pieme's very fine . ~:' . ~ . : ~ Philharmonique . de Radio France, i butmaj~ step in this J portrays the nativity i through the eyes of a child...
...The Christmas book for the musical Scrooge on your list 36 December 2o0o / January 2oo r " TheAmerican Spectator touching, faith-filled music I have heard...
...The performances of Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain as his beloved nymphet could scarcely be better, and Frank Langella's sinister Clare Quilty is more effective in this version than Peter Sellers's prankster was in Stanley Kubrick's of 1961...
...The only, ! ~ release is that the i dunderheads at i...
...With its red gel, the Night ?iercer//" can be a lifesaver in any emergency...
...The Arrowmont Prison Riddle" is an audacious impossible-crime story about a man escaping from prison during his own execution...
...It's packed v`jth ~ ces...
...Giving the French a run for their mone~ in the 199o's x~ ere the Iranians and the Australians...
...Cyrano de Bergerac (517.99) by Jean-Paul Rappeneau of ~991 (unfortnnatel?, Rappeneau's equally, thrilling Horseman on the Roof of 1996 is not available...
...Even better is longtime English solicitor Michael Gilbert (b...
...In place of a mouth parallel to the chin, he would chisel a perpendicular mouth...
...These are The Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy The end of the Cold War at its beginning could be said to have Slightly less uproarious, perhaps, but with a more serious 38 December 2000 /January 2ooz" TheArnerican Spectator ed as being unavailable as of mid-October, but it has been until quite recently obtainable at $13.99, and I hope it will soon be again...
...If you have scope was ~Iiade of brass...
...They are well worth hunting up...
...If you treat her right, she might even let you sleep in your own bed, having already claimed it as her own...
...Do not age-old problem...
...The Hallelujah of Creation may not reach Haydn's exalted level, but this is a major work that no Mozart lover would want to miss...
...But there are many guilty, pleasures in this book for those willing to nod secretly to themselves and say, yes, he was right: Beethoven is crude and boisterous...
...Admiral Nel- comes with a~ extendible tripod...
...19z5), whose fourteen mystery novels deal with modem-day Navajo life...
...If conditions aren't right for a real dog, a mini-dauchshund will do just fine...
...Just a series of logical progressions...
...Fellow Englishman Reginald Hill's long-running Dalziel and but The ComelI Woolrich Omnibus pro(collected in Game Without Rules and Mr...
...Just make sure your lap has room for the ultimate lap dog...
...Pronzini's other series detective, the 189o's San Francisco sleuth John Quincannon, has appeared in two novels and several short stories colvices (1998) . Pronzini's great advantage over other contemporary PI writers is his respect for the puzzle form...
...So send music for Christmas and save someone...
...Yes, I know that $:,36o is still a lot of money and that the NASDAQ has fallen forty percent, but the person receiving this gift will never forget you...
...It needed no startling, visionary leap from ignorance to enlightenment...
...who like Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries can find new paperback editions of se> Other notable eontempora U British puzzlers are the horseeral...
...That, of course, is why most readers have not heard of him--he has written only five novels, none of them a big seller...
...he includes a perplexing riddle in every story, thus combining the genres more effectively than any other writer since the end of the pulps...
...The music alternates between raucous splendor and a childlike simplicity...
...watch the Iate TV shov`' v`dthout disturbing your par'arer...
...s good and interesting as all these works are, in it...
...Most of his books augment a traditional puzzle with real and fictionalized historical characters, a good deal of action, and uncanny, apparently supernatural phenomena...
...It consists of a :72-CD set of all of Bach's :,:z6 compositions, performed by first-rate artists like HelBooks muth Rilling and his Bach Ensemble...
...There is a far more modest gift available and one more in tune with the end of the world...
...While presenting plausible The Skull Beneath the Skin novel, The Last Bus to Woodstock Most of James's books featuring Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh investigate modern political and social institutions, including psychiatry (Cover Her Face, 1963), medicine (Shroud for a Nightingale, 1971), science (Death of an ExDert Witness, 1977), the church (A Taste for Death, 1986), a nuclear power plant (Devices and Desires, 1989), publishing (Original Sin, 1994), and the law (A CerLike his classic predecessors, Morse solves the crimes through 41 The American Spectator - December 2000 / January 2oo z by the ordinary passions of love and hate and greed and jealousy...
...She may belong to the kids, but you'll be the one taking her for walks...
...Greban apparently never suffered from writer's block...
...The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression by six European scholars gathers the grisly facts of Soviet bloc archives to catalogue the carnage of Communism in this century...
...Nov,, comes -Mole-Ex VI'" protects about 1,000 sq...
...The search for truth explicitly develops into a quest for justice, and the solution to the puzzle brings satisfaction by restoring reason and the social order, as the criminal is exposed, brought to justice, and expelled from S,T...
...But don't judge her by her looks...
...For the layman, Scruton spends entirely too much time establishing the metaphysics of sound per se, before moving on to how composers deal with it and why...
...Morse's assistant, Sgt...
...Definitely one of the best DVD releases of the year...
...Hillerman began a new series in 198o with the excellent People of Darkness, featuring Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Jim Chee, who is younger, more impulsive, and more headstrong than the thoughtful, worldly Leaphorn, but also more at home with the violence of the world they inhabit as lawmen...
...Scruton shows that, to the extent that it still functions as music, atonal music works despite, not because of, the procedures by which it is composed...
...His Nick Velvet tales comprise an unusual fusion of the murder mystery and the heist story, and the Ben Snow yarns merge the mystery and the Western...
...It comes with a plastic "tripod" for extended observations at 15x or 30x Episcope '~ #1062F823f magnifications...
...The Book REIL L I7 of the Seven Seals was completed in :938, several months before the Anschluss...
...In addition, I should mention Mike Leigh's unexpectedly charming Life Is Sweet (59.98) of 1991 and one of the half-dozen best war movies ever made, though not originally made in this decade, Das Boot by Wolfgang Petcrsen, which was re-released recently in a director's cut, on two cassettes for only.' 5z2.46...
...I ; of Creation, composed by Friedrich L.A...
...Washington Square ($17.99) from 1997 It is easier for most of us to believe that postmodern hyper-cleverness is more at home in pure comedy, and three of with its terrific performances by Albert the best comedies of the decade have about them something of the pomo delight in simply showing off their own cleverness...
...And who can deny the French antiWagnerite Gasperini's prediction in 1865 that the Music of the Future would resemble that of a crazed sculptor, who would do "exactly the opposite of what had been done before him...
...James is another serious novelist whose books just happen to include murder mysteries...
...gerous jumper cables (and strangers...
...Both adapters are included, of course...
...Majidi's immensely moving Color of Paradise of earlier this year is only available on VHS at 598.99, but you can get in on DVD for only, 520.96...
...That was then, this is now: Most oftoda\"s mysteries depict a world of perpetual disorder in which chaos is the norm and murder is iust another manifestation of the general horridness of the human condition...
...193o ) is nearing the end of a long and distinguished career...
...It - it, you are a musical Scrooge...
...He has worked a mind-boggling number of variations on the lected in Carpenter and Quincannon: Professional Detective SerMany of Hoch's stories deal with locked-room mysteries or other impossible crimes, and he is a master at presenting--and hidi n g - clues so that the reader always has a fair chance of solving the puzzle but almost never succeeds...
...If Mary sang to her Newborn, it must have been with music like this...
...a rewarding career...
...Chee, in fact, is studying to become a shaman...
...Car hoods---or are dependent Starter IF: measures 8.5" x on the kindness of 2"x2"and ,e@so y27 strangers, who might not oz...
...Eybler's Requiem (CPO 999 z34) demonstrates that he had the gravitas to address the gravest subject matter, but the Christmas Oratorio, subtitled "The Shepherds at the Crib in Bethlehem," shows that he also possessed great good cheer...
...Spencer Norcross, Production Manager This is a great Holiday CD for all those twenty-somethings who never got into "The Material Girl" of the 8o's...
...Even agnostics love Christmas, as proven by Ralph Vaughan Williams's cantata, Hodie Chris- t tus Natus Est...
...II comes with a This powerful si!pe...
...Kunzen's oratorio was premiered before Haydn had written The Creation, which became the point of comparison for it...
...intent (I am trying to avoid the word "message" here) are Galaxy Quest (39.99) by Dean Parisot and Blast From the Past ($13.99) by Hugh Wilson, both from 1999, and Waking Ned Devine ($13.99) by Kirk Jones III of 1998...
...Most of them would abandon their parents, not their profession...
...Numerous books by Cart, Christie, and Chesterton remain in print, and Erie Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason books are available in handsome new 44 December 2000 / January 2ooi " The American Spectator paperback editions...
...For the person who has everything, rest assured that this set contains a number of works newer before recorded...
...In The Ghostway (1984), the federal Witness Protection Program secretly lets a dangerous thug loose on the reservamines an FBI investigation, putting his career in jeopardy...
...James, born in 19zo, has regularly combined tradition and innovation in her writing...
...although suitably realistic, his stories are more optimistic and pleasurable than most modem mysteries...
...Here are sonre of the otiaer ~eat feaVozes of this breakfl~muglr perso~al digital radio: [] PLLSynthesized ]\ruing [] Buflt-InSpeaker [] Nice-Styled Silvertone Case [] S~ate of-the-Art Design [] FM Directional Antelma 9 AutomaticScazming Stereo Persoaal Digital Radio TM Get "sl~ttx,wket" AM/FM recep~on as you never had before...
...It, too, is distinguished by many terrific performances, particularly those of Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne, and John Turturto, but it is chiefly notable for being that rara avis, a good postmodern film...
...Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the mystery used to present a world in which justice, though sometimes society...
...Joe Whistler, Circulation Director The Triumph of Liberty: A 2,ooo-Year History, Told Through the Lives of Freedom's Greatest Champions by Jim Powell (Free Press, $3~) would make a great gift for anyone interested in history or biography...
...In this category, too, should be classed Shall We Dance ($17.99) by Masayuki Suo of 1997 and the three great films that Whit Stillman produced during the nineties, Metropolitan ($17.99) of 199 o, Barcelona ($13.99) of 1994, and The Last Days of Disco of 1998...
...Rdgis Wargnier's EastWest, released in the U.S...
...It is most distinguished from other genres in its explicit grounding in a search for truth...
...Hardly any of the Nameless books are still in print, but several of his non-series suspense novels and the short story collection Spadework (1996) remain, and a new Nameless novel, Crazybone, was released in August of this year...
...Two recent releases from the CPO label prove that this was good advice, as does the fact that Eybler eventually rose to become kapellmeister to the Austrian emperor...
...And my nominee for the must underrated mystery novel of all time, The Red Right Hand, by Joel Townsley Rogers, originally published in 1945, is, by some mysterious miracle, still available in paperback...
...Hillerman researches his books thoroughly, to portray the real Navajo society rather than the "drunks and the draggles," as he calls them, and to dramatize accurately the conflict between traditional ways and the modem world...
...You or they are probably feeling financially pinched and in more of an apocalyptic than holiday mood...
...Pronzini's writings present an understated but definite religious sensibility...
...Videos at that time still priced for the rental market--that is at $9 o or $1oo-I generally treat as unavailable on the assumption that the price will come down to something more reasonable in a matter of weeks or months...
...Joel Coen in private life), Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, and William H. Macy...
...Lewis says, "You mean you know...
...Not that I'm quite sure what it is...
...He is best known, however, for his series of twenty-six novels and numerous short stories featnring the San Francisco private eye known as the Nameless Detective...
...in 1999, Erick Zonca's thrillingly beautiful Dreamlife of Angels ($*3-99)- Anyone seriously interested in cinematic art, or in life itself, should buy it at once...
...Don't leave home without it order it today...
...The other versions of classic literature that I would recommend for the library include Agnieszka Holland's of Henry James's Finney and Jennifer Jason Leigh and three of the decade's four Jane Austen adaptations, listed here in descending order of merit: Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility ($13.99) and Roger Michell's Persuasion ($16.96), botl~ of 1995, and Douglas McGrath's Emma ($17.99) of 1996...
...Like almost all modern mysteries, his books are largely humorless, but at least they aren't grim or depressing...
...This is American history in painterly, luxuriant, empathic detail, it is visually stunning...
...IZa1~NICK is editor-in-chief of the bimonthly magazine American Outlook, published by the Hudson Institute...
...This format, perfected by Ngaio Marsh in the 193o's, can sometimes become rather pedestrian, but James infuses it with greater psychological depth and complexity than most, without the wallowing in perversity common among contemporaries such as Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters...
...Sam Hawthorne...
...Josh London, Deputy Editor Favorite gadget--ever...
...His treatment ot-the nature of atonality in is the newly reissued Lexicon of Musical Invective, by the late Nicolas Slonimsky (paperback, W. W. Norton, $14.95), which contains many happy hours of critical tirades, written over the last two centuries by people like me...
...A good nayste O- puzzle exercises the reader's reasoning ability and, because of the nature of the subject matter (murder or some other important crime), also engages the emotions...
...Pascoe series updates the puzzle mystery with a good dose of modern gloominess and mrtiauthoritarianism (including subject matter such as snuff films and animal-rights protests), but the ~,o police detectives are likable despite themselves, and the puzzles are usually grati~dng...
...MR-318TAMIFM/TV #1074F823d Ahnost a s b r i g h t a s t h e s u n . . . Night Piercer I I 1 Million CandlePo~ er Halogen Spotli~lt ~r ~i...
...Perhaps the best fihn about life in Russia in the late Soviet period is a comedy, Yuri Mamin's Window to Paris, of ~99~, but it is only obtainable in an inferior French version at 996.99 . everthelcss, the French are still, man for man, the best film-makers in the world, and I list herewith some of my fa\ orite French fihns of the decade ~ fth their American release dates...
...The connoisseur might also notice how close Kunzen came to lifting some of his themes out of the last part of Mozart's Don Giovanni...
...Almost as prolific as Hoch is Bill Pronzini (b...
...The stunning performance by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under Franz Welser-M6st on two EMI CDs (5 5666o 24), is, well, revelatory...
...Eric Roell, Art Director The Limey is a fun and intriguing fihn with great performances from Peter Fonda and Terence Stamp...
...Is that too much to ask of a small slice of popular fiction...
...You can probably stand to lose the weight anyway...
...Calder and Mr...
...that each event was the logical successor of the one before it...
...He has published close to 8o0 since the late 195o's , including at least one in every issue of EIlery Queen's Mystery Magazine for the past two decades...
...and music to gain the most the chapter on Tonality is one of the best dissections of the problem presented by Schoenberg that I have ever read...
...The book really requires a snbstantial background in both phiout of it, but much of it is comprehensible to the general reader and contains profound insights into our general cultural predicament...
...Martin extracted twelve scenes from Greban's play that neatly encapsulate salvation histoh, from the leall up to the Presentation in the Temple...
...masterpiece of its own kind...
...Peters is one of the cheeriest of modern American mystery writers, and all of her detective novels are still in print...
...and Simon Ark, a man who claims to be 2,000 years old and seeks to hunt dow~n Satan and defeat him...
...The CDs are available separately at a reasonable $13 each, but if you buy the whole package before New Year's Eve (hear that clock ticking...
...His main detective, Lt...
...You'lI get belt-looped vinyl carrymany years of good use and m~u~ting the scope enjo~aent from it...
...Like Dexter and James, the American author Edward D. Hoch (b...
...Another mystery author known for exotic locations is Tony Hillerman (b...
...Too seriShe presented one of the first modern female private investigators inAn Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972...
...Leaphorn is a rationalist who respects but does not share the traditional Navaho beliefs and culture that Chee adheres to...
...This can n e v e r happen to you w i t h Car Starter II'% a portable power source that will c h a r g e y o u r car b a t t e r y in i 5 minutes or less just by plugging it into your cigarette lighter...
...It's important to note that the pleasure we derive from old-fashioned mysteries is intellectual and profoundly moral...
...Each of the books contains a solid puzzle, an interesting evocation of the British Empire at its height, and a spirited, jaunty ~one...
...Anyway, I've enjoyed it...
...His other Cribb mysteries deal with bare-knuckle boxing, spiritualism, boating, anarchist bombings, and other fads and fixations of the era...
...Nearly as good is Pavel A s p y g l a s s i n t h e g r e a t n a v a l t r a d i t i o n . . . Adm Nelson's "Telescope (with table tripod) just s593~ ~-_2 / ~ hIoratio Nelson when fought thebattle of /;.~ / ~ , / t * 1 ~ ' :. :,;., . Trafalgar, Ire "ttsed a telescope just ; ' , ~ / i t like ti~is to molfitur the nqove- " " / # i * " ments of the French-Spanish " ' i ~ fleet...
...In this, he was aided by his teacher and friend, Mozart, who advised Eybler to specialize in church music...
...Rarely do I find that a band continues to get better with each outing, and once again XTC has surpassed its last mark...
...in place of the nose, he wou~d put a cheek...
...Finally, I can't leave without mentioning once again one of the truly scariest films I have ever seen-so scary that I can hardly even describe it as good...
...It is accompanied by two more very Mozartian works, a substantial Symphony in G minor and an Overture on a Theme by Mozart (from The Magic Flute...
...Hoch uses numerous engaging series detectives: British secret agent Jeffrey Rand, upstate New York police detective Captain Leopold, Western gunslinger Ben Snow (who is rumored to have been Billy the Kid), Manhattan public-relations officer Susan Holt, and small-town New England general practitioner Dr...
...Fortunately, some foreign writers and directors were alert to the possibilities, particularly those who had themselves lived under Soviet rule...
...Several years ago, ~ the Marco Polo label created a } splash with its Dacapo release of " i...
...an intellectual adventure portraying an orderl~ world plunged into chaos by the most heinous of crimes -- murder- and restored to order bv tion of human reason...
...Austrian composer Franz Schmidt's oratorio, The Book of the Seven Seals, is the most comprehensive setting of St...
...James's other Gray novel, (1982), contains numerous trappings of the classic whodunit-the Old Dark House, deadly booby traps, death threats in the form of Shakespearean quotes, the theatrical setting, etc.--a fine fusion of the familiar and the new...
...If you are seeking an even more recent work on the Christmas theme, the very finest [ can suggest is Swiss composer Frank Martin's Le Mystere de Ia Nativite, an hour-and-forb,minute oratorio composed in 1959...
...Amelia's sense of propriety, and Ramses's recklessness land the trio in story lines worthy of an Indiana Jones movie...
...You could show these two movies to a Martian-or to a 23rd-century American--and they would provide him with a better understanding of our life and times than any number of social surveys or history books...
...turn-of-the-century Egypt and England and featuring archaeologist Amelia Peabody...
...It is a substan- ~., tial, but ethereal work...
...The poetry-writing police detective Dalgliesh can be a bit of a bore, and her books tend to be rather gloomy and depressing, like most modern mystery fiction, but James often repays with depth of characterization and real insights into human nature...
...So why not books on music...
...The learning is impressive...
...When people lose their faith, and cease to experience their social membership in sacral terms, the culture begins to wither, like the leaves on a tree that has been felled...
...more elegance and artistic exu...
...On the opposite end of the hardness continuum, all of the Rodcrick A1]eyn mysteries by Ngaio Marsh are available in spiffy new paperback editions, as are numerous books featuring fellow English sleuths Albert Campion, created by Margery Allingham...
...2," the band once again pushes the limits of its music, while still managing to work in hooks reminiscent of their earlier albmns...
...It has to be read to be believed, and should be...
...Appearing for years on NPR's Performance Today, author Libbey is one of the few arguments for public broadcasting...
...In Last Bus, Dexter makes this explicit: "[Morse] knew that whatever had taken place on Wednesday evening had its causation in the activities of certain persons, and that these persons had been motivated ous, some might say, as her novels have become increasingly Long and Significant during the past decade and a half, but her books are nonetheless interesting...
...The starting point of all this trouble is a familiar one, lust, which brings on anguish, adultery, jealousy, breakups, suicide, and murder...
...You telllperahlrr conditions...
...This ieplica is heaviI!l 9 ing case Fo~ permanent 9 " ever v`,anted to own a fine tele- &rome plated for extra scope, but fotmd prices a little beauty and prutectk~n...
...Unforttmatel> Jar1 Sverak's Kolya of 1997 is not currently available...
...And perhaps authors, editors, and publishers will respond by going back to what has always worked best in the genre--solid stories with satisfying puzzles...
...Finally, for fiction remember the master storyteller of modern moonshine, Tom Wolfe, and his A Man in Full (published in paperback by Bantam...
...and Donald Westlake is a seasoned pro-but significantly more English authors are worthy of note...
...The criticism under which ~ 1[ ~ ~ ~ this composition came from a j ~ contemporary critic is its best rec- ; I ; ~ ommendation: "one finds in it...
...Although modern critics and academics tend to deride plot and story, and the mystely has suffered because of the denigration of this essential feature, some current mystery writers still soldier on, breathing new life into tee form by complementing the classic puzzle approach with contemporary subject matter...
...In TeIecosm (published by Free Press) he analyzes its future that is unfolding daily...
...and the Brother Cadfael mysteries of Ellis Peters...
...The fusion of classical structure and modern content is impressive...
...And for fact remember Bill Buckley's anthology of 5 o years of lectures and diatribes, Let Us Talk of Many Things (published by Forum...
...Like his creator, Nameless is an avid collector of pulp magazines, and his stories reflect the adventurous, basically wholesome spirit of that bygone medium...
...reason, employing deductive logic and concentrating on universal motives rather than individual psychoanalyzing...
...Sir John Appleby, created by Michael Innes...
...Despite these positive signs, the mystery genre has, as Notable examples are Satan in St...
...As he noted in his recent story collection Night Freight, an editor rejected one of his stories as "'too biblical for our readers,' which is my nomination for the single most asinine reason on record for rejecting an author's work...
...the bad news is that Dexter has released his final Morse novel, The Remorseful Day (2ooo), and intends to write no more...
...As for the future, [ recommend George Gilder's TeIecosm...
...4 , on,y .9.9" The Night Piercer H I casts a focused . beam that can be seen f . . . . . . y lr'dles...
...And that i s n ' t all: You can also use Car Starter II:' to operate any and all 12-volt appliances, such as small TV sets (up to 16 hours), p o r t a b l e fridges, celluIar phones (up to 100 h o u r s ) , camcorders, and much more...
...his studies of lowbrow crime fiction, Gun in Cheek (198z) and Son of Gun in Cheek (1987), are he short story, however, is arguably the best form for the puzzle mystery--the one, in fact, in which the genre was established (Poe) and first popularized (Doyle)--and Hoch is its foremost current practitioner...
...I Runs lln ultrasound) in 30 sec...
...Julie Taymor's Titus from earlier this year is in some ways even better, but it is still priced at $1o3.99 as I write...
...Bailey, Anthony Boucher, Norbert Davis, S. S. Van Dine, and Hugh Pentecost...
...r The features that We you mal, er of the MR-318T receiver is o~le crisp reception over oft ez,o fs e ?"s ttepmiuctim theentireAMand FM of advallced radio equipinelit [] Headphones Included 9 25MemoryPresets: 10 AM, I0 FM, 5 TV [] Bat~eriesIncluded baaads and the audio portion, s of alIVtJF TV d~aamels~2 to 13...
...In the interests of fall disclosure, I should mention that Libbey was my editor for have category are the two best Englishlanguage films of the nineties, the Coen brothers' Fargo of 1996 and Adrian Lyne's Lolita of 1998, both selling for $13.99...
...Most of the stories have intimations of the supernatural-the witches in Skinwalkers, the ehindi spirit in The Ghostway, tion, and in The First Eagle (1998), Chee deliberately underEmerson's arrogance, A few other American authors have written high-quality puzzle mysteries in recent years-Jane Haddam has her good days, 43 TheAmerican Spectator 9 December 2000 / January 2oor bank (1975) , The Mummy Case (1985), and The Last Camel Died at Noon (1991...
...Escaping from what he described as the "iron straight jacket" of Schoenberg's dodecaphony, Martin went on to write some of the most profound religious music of our time...
...Nameless solves all three while enduring the crumbling of his own romance and suffering harassment by city bureaucrats intent on taking away his PI license...
...Tracy Robinson, Deputy Editor Let me suggest books that summon up the past and those that look to the future...
...It ing, but much less emits short, high-pitched sophisticated and less shrieks (at tire threshold of powe@d, units...
...the average price comes to less than $8 per disc...
...berance than many a connois- i seur might wish...
...John's Book of Revelation ever attempted...
...Ma~'s (1986), The Grail Murders (1993) , By Murder's Bright Light (1994) , and Ghostly Murders: The Priest's Tale of Mysten' and Murder As He Goes on Pilgrimage From London to Canterbury 0998...
...Nothing really works...
...Cribb novels set in Victorian Britain, starting in 197 o ~ith Wbbble to Death, a puzzle set among the six-day endurance foot-races popu]ar in Iate-Victorian England...
...Gilbert has written excellent espionage stories racing stories of Dick Francis, Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford mysteries, Peter Dickinson's diverse and off-beat narratives, the late Sarah Caudwell's wonderfully zany legal mysteries, Antonia Fraser's Jemima Shore series, Peter Tremayne's whodunits about seventh-century Irish la~3.er-nun Sister Fidehna, and David Williams's wi~: series featuring London banker Mark Treasure...
...The soon die out altogether or change further into something very different, jettisoning the outmoded search for truth that still, however shakily, underlies it...
...Its only rival was the late Krzysztof Kieslowski's great trilogy, Three Colors: Red (1994), White (1993) , and Blue (1993) , each of which can be bought for $17.99...
...v`,herever you are...
...Catch the audio portion of your favorite TV sho'~x...
...Many of the writings excerpted here come from a time when audiences still had the courage to throw rotten fruit at off-key opera singers and open- ly boo bad music or, simply, music that they didn't like...
...Uranus (517.99), also of 1991, and Lucie Aubrac (513.99) of 1999, both by Claude Berri...
...I have seen this movie several times, and I never tire of it...
...The good news is that Dexter has shown admirably how to write a masterful modern mystery...
...If Vaughan Williams as an agnostic could write music like this, what would he have written had he believed...
...To compound the problem, countless highly worthy mysteries are out of print, most notably those of Ellen/Queen, Nicholas Blake, Edmund Crispin, Patrick .Quentin, Melville Davisson Post, Earl Derr Biggers (creator of Charlie Chan), Anthony Abbott, H.C...
...a loving relationship with her mischievous son, Ramses...
...The Swiss label, Cascavelle, has finally released in the United States the only recording of this masterpiece, on a two-CD set that includes a shorter oratorio, Pilate (VEL zoo6...
...Still, these appalling injustices not~ ithstanding, many fine mysteries from the past are still available...
...Those bone Deceased (195o), The Black Seraphim (1984) , and the stories collected in The Man Who Hated Banks (1997...
...emove the Episcope '= from II ~Lits fitted leather case and it's a 30-power microscope...
...Ponder this question as you listen to the magnificent performance by various soloists, the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, under Richard Hickox, on an EMI import CD (CDC 541z8...
...Alexander Swift, a spy employed by General George Washington...
...The Palm IIIxe...
...That point aside, those of you with elementary-age children or grandchildren may appreciate my holiday pick: Music Ace--music education software from Harmonic Vision...
...Bill even cites George Tyrrell...
...N i g h t Piercer II': #1088F823b Get r i d o f m o l e s , gophers and o t h e r b u r - rowing p e s t s , w i t h only $592 ~" ~ )[:i~ ~ . . ~ >;~;f,;,)i~2 / D cells (not inchtded...
...Almost all of suspense master Cornell Woolrich's best books and short stories are out of print, noted earlier, fallen prey to narrative slackness, emphasis on bizarre subject matter, and concentration on abnormal psychology rather than universal human motives...
...No problem...
...But let us save Picasso for another and less festive time...
...The combination of a fascinating story and masterful perfo> mances by all makes this movie unforgettable for me...
...Everything ,,,ill a['an~25v30"" ~ulTJcll appear twenty-five tinres lager tio~ and the ,great light than it would to tire naked eye...
...Honorable mention should go to the Daues, some of whose "Dogma 95" films are well worth owning...
...Seai~ershot (1987), perhaps the best Nameless book, features not one but three impossible crimes, each centering on money problems and a troubled romantic relationship...
...I know that no one reads anymore, but here you are with this magazine, or perhaps you are seeing this on the Internet, which is more like reading TV...
...Among the best of the series are Crocodile on the SandPeters's most successful series has been her mysteries set in cy...
...Lewis, balances his superior's irascibility with humility and decency...
...For sheer puzzle-solving pleasure, Hoch's short mysteries are among the very best ever written...
...Spike Mole- confuse this advanced device with similar look Ex V I ' into your lawn...
...inter- ~ vals...
...Mole-Ex VI ', the revolution- against moles, gopl~ers, ary electTonic solution to this and other pests...
...In Le Mystere, Martin chose a lyrical, deliberately naive and occasionally archaic s~Ie to capture the spirit of a medieval mystery play, written by Arnoul Greban around ~45o...
...Keeping information and staying organized has never been so much fun...
...N pact disc, music lovers on your Christmas list may need a guide to weed through them, especially as there are well over one hundred different recordings of Beethoven's Fifth Symfter ten years as the Spectator's movie critic, both on VHS ($89.95) and DVD ($63.99) and would be a great bargain at twice the price...
...Though Gardner's puzzles are only passable, Mason is a highly interesting character--unlike the stodgy fellow of the long-running TV series, Gardner's Mason is a hard-nosed, relentless crusader for whom nothing less than justice is acceptable...
...Also evident is Hillerman's lack of fondness for the federal government's policies toward Native Americans...
...76) of1998...
...defined the decade just past--as, for that matter, could Hollywood's politically inspired lack of interest in that singular struggle's moral lessons for our times...
...In the end, Dr...
...Hoch is a human miracle: the only person in the past half-century to make a living as a full-time, freelance writer of mystery short stories...
...The prices which follow are all for VHS cassettes as quoted on Amazon.corn at the time of writing, in mid-October...
...tain justice, 1997...
...The DVD release is jammed with special features and audio tracks that add substantially to the fihn...
...his mystery play contained 35,000 verses, and his next one, 60,000...
...and enough wild escapades to satisfy even the most ravenous craving for adventure...
...OI~RT REILLY z8 author o/The Final CD ~ u i d e , forthcoming from Morley Books...
...Sam Hawthorne (1996), The Ripper of Storyville and Other Ben Snow Stories (1997) , and The Velvet Touch-Nick Velvet Stories (2000), but there are hundreds more still waiting to be republished...
...Since becoming a full-time writer in 1967, Pronzini has churned out admirable work in a wide variety of genres including mystery, suspense, horror, and the Western...
...With the release of this year's "Wasp Star, Apple Venus Vol...
...If yon don't mind subtitles, any of these will afford hours of pleasure: The May Fools (517.99) b\ Louis Malle of 199o...
...Cordelia Gray is young and competent and refrains from the sort of physical confrontations rather unrealistically common among later female PIs created by Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafron, and the like...
...Buy them a puppy...
...The riddles are just as complex in Hoch's other series...
...iii i at its highest resolves as distinctly as any Iaboratom/ microscope, yet it is only 2" long...
...I begin with the undeservedly obscure Christmas Oratorio (:784) by Joseph Eybler, a work for anyone in danger of being institutionalized if they have to listen to Handel's Messiah again...
...1936) spurred a revival of the historical inysten, with his Sgt...
...Get Mole Ex VF': It will get rid of that annoying pest problem once and for all[ Mole-Ex V I " #1056F823e only 569/~" ~ - ~ ~ - ~ h e r e is absolutely lk notl• like it...
...Kunzen 076> . 1817), court composer to the ~ Danish king...
...Both K. Chesterton once noted that the nlvsterv story is a form of romance...
...Spoil the kids this year...
...If you are a giver with unlimited resources, the musical gift of the millennium is the R O BER Edition Bachakademie from the German CD label, Hanssler Classic...
...both insightful and hilarious...
...Mole Ex Vf" is the state of the art in the control of hurray,dr G rodents...
...1927), an American Egyptologist and author of numerous mysteries under the name of Elizabeth Peters and romantic suspense novels written as Barbara Miehaels...
...Yes, I do remember it's Christmas and have a number of recordings to recommend...
...James's Dagliesh books usually follow the classic police-inspector model: a fairly long introductory section presenting the characters and impending conflicts, a long middle sequence in which Dalgliesh investigates the evidence and interviews suspects, and then the wrapup, usually including some suspense and a surprise or two...
...Kasie Kelley, Office Assistant TheAmerican Spectator 9 December zooo / Jarz~ary 2ooi Saint Etienne's latest CD "Sound of Water" is an album of pop turned inside out, mellow, cool, and modem...
...F lelit!/ ~ as ~ fishi ~,, in ~oth loudspeaker aild earphoile lnod~'s...
...It must have been a much less litigious society back then, because, of all things, Eybler turned to music for his new income stream...
...The single most literate and insightful guide out of this dilemma is The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection, now available in its second edition from Workman Publishing Company ($15.95...
...In the first Sam Hawthorne December ~ooo / January 2ooi 9 TheAmerican Spectator 42 story, "The Problem of the Covered Bridge" (1974), a man drives his horse and buggy through the snow into a covered bridge and never comes out the other end, seemingly vanishing offthe face of the earth...
...can be...
...The 1987 i ,~ live performance i beautifully done by the Orchestre 1 [ under Michel de i Lasserre Rozel...
...form by dressing familiar structures with interesting variations...
...He has been called "one of the world's greatest musicologists" by Mstislav Rostropovich and proves it in his introductory essays to a repertory of 35 o basic works that go to the heart of each composer's contribution...
...It even updates the Challenge to the Reader from the early Ellery Queen novels, where the author states that all the clues are in and the mystery is about to be solved...
...According to the 1889 Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, one of my more recent reference works, Eybler (i765-:846) was a lawyer who took the extraordinary career move of aban- doning his profession when his parents became poor...
...Later he is found several miles away in his carriage, shot in the back of the head...
...ploring unknown territory and for any contingencies at night, in plane, boat, truck, or car...
...Remember, Emperor Theodoric's secretary, Cassiodorus, wrote in the 6th century that "when we sin, we are without music...
...37 The American Spectator 9 December 2ooo / Ja'n~ary 2oo ~ phony listed in the current Schwann catalog...
...Of the Aussie films, Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom of ~993 (not currently available) and P.J...
...At its price, this has to be one of the best stocking-stuffers for the music lovers on your list...
...Is it any surprise that such a period produces music that sounds like a buzz saw biting into a tree trunk...
...E p i s c o p e ' : (the complete v e s t - p o c k e t optical s y s t e m / still only S59...
...It includes, of course, Bach's marvelous Christmas Oratorio...
...She enjoys a healthy love life with her handsome but irascible archaeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson...
...With concise essays about people as diverse as colonial agitator Thomas Paine, science-fiction writer Robert Heintein, economist Milton Friedman, and Raonl Wallenberg, the heroic rescner of tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis, there's something in here for everyone...
...There's got to be something wrong with you if you like this movie, but then I often think that there's got to be something wrong with you if you're a movie critic...
...The stories are told in first person, and we never hear the detective's name...
...In addition, Simon Langton's version of Pride and Prejudice for the BBC, which may be the best of the bunch, is now available on six cassettes for $47.96...
...Let's say that either you or the person for whom you are shopping had large positions in the forty percent of the NASDAQ that is no longer there...
...Her Vicky Bliss series follows the comic, suspenseful adventures of a tall, intelligent, buxom American art historian in a variety of European settings, and her Jacqueline Kirby books involve a middle-aged Midwestern librarian in romance and murder in Rome, London, and other picturesque locations...
...Order it today...
...An optical lniracle...
...Our manufacturer has ereated a faithful replica of this / ~ famous scope...
...z V 2:2Z : "i i 00 This ou~n&~g per- ~ ' sonat receiver fits in ~ \ ~ 9 9 9 ,~ Q your shirtpocket or ~'a,' ~ ,,~ . . . . . . . . ~ MR 318T works on two AAfits inconspicuously batteries (inchded) It measures only 5 on YOUr desk or night x 2.5 iaches and weighs less than six table...
...even my restaurant French is much help in Pt understanding many of the words...
...All are delectably performed by various soloists, the Danish National Radio Choir, and the Danish Radio Sinfonietta, under Peter Marschik (Dacapo 8.zz4o7o ). . . , : piern4 Gabriel Piern, In 19o7, F r e i ~ ~"--,-a ~ ~ ~""posed Les Enfants a ''~ Bethleem, an utterly . . . . charming hour-long work for narrator, soloists, and children's chorus...
...Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo tribal police, debuted in 197o in The Blessing Way, in which he finds a corpse that seems to have been killed by a WolfWitch, a creature from Navaho mythology...
...It could well be that most people have a G.K Chesterton, and the brilliant surrealism ofElle U Queen are out of fashion and seem unattainable...
...Pronzini has done much useful work as a critic and anthologist...
...Seen in that light, one might think that the genre must however, few capture the full essence of the form, their predecessors' sense of adventure and spirit of optimism and confidence...
...It is tire Austrian Michael Haneke's Funny Games (917.99) of 1998...
...Just, well, impressive...
...In today's crime fiction, nearly the opposite is true...
...193o ) . The Cambridge-educated former schoolteacher's erudition and love of wordplay are evident in his thirteen novels featuring Oxford homicide detective Inspector Morse, which evoke the eccentric, crotchety Great Detective of the past, but with greater depth and complexity of characterization...
...The prolific Paul Dohe~' deserves special mention, ha> ing written several innovative series of historical mysteries under a varie~ ~ of pen names...
...Don't ever again worry about a dead battery and a stalled car--give convenience and safety to yourself and ),our loved ones and order your Car Starter I f TM unit(s) today...
...One who does so quite explicitly is the British author Colin Dexter (b...
...If you are the hero of one of Al Gore's sob stories and you have to choose between eating and owning this video, choose the video...
...Madonna has re-created herself once again with "Music," and I think this time she's outdone herself...
...Even if you don't read and this journal is in your home for house guests, your interior decorator may call for a spray of books to be flung around the domicile to lend it a certain, let us say, tone...
...Also highly welcome is Pronzini's sense of humor...
...Age-wise, the manufacturer states the software is geared for ages 8 to adult...
...Among his more unusual detectives are Gypsy king Michael Vlado...
...Here is a taste of Scruton's superb closing chapter on Culture: "A culture is grounded in a religion, develops with the religion, and grows away fiom it only to mourn its loss...
...Also in the mustIn fl~e case of Eric Rohmer's series of guts, the other deeply pessimistic, in spite four masterpieces, Tales of the Four Seasons, two (A Tale of Winter and A SumJAMES BOWMAN is The American Spectator's movie critic...
...Chukbraj's The Thief(S19...
...Shortly thereafter, Dexter continues as follows: "He was tormented by the thought that a sequence of events, not in themselves extraordinary, had taken place...
...Lonnie Rewis, Executive Assistant My Christmas pick is the latest album from one of the seminal, but less well known bands of the British New Wave, XTC...
...After use, you can recharge the unit a g a i n r i g h t through t h a t same c i g a r e t t e lighter...
...As a cumulative achievement, this series was the highlight of the decade, as Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" was of the 198o's...
...Martin barely eluded the clutches of the major musical gear-stripper of the 2oth century, Arnold Schoenberg, under whose influence he fell for a period...
...l Eratoomitted, in l...
...ulars whid~ We you only 6x or Admiral Nelsou's tele8x magnification...
...His oratorio is an enlivening, charming, and wonderfully melodious work that will brighten any music lover's season, especially in the lovely performance by I Febiarmoniei, directed by Wolfgang Helbieh, on CPO 999 667Another excellent work from the same era is The Hallelujah...
...The answer comes in hushed wonder...
...It is 2 0 - , ~ ~ tirnes b r i g h t e r t h a n automobile headlights, . . . . lumi . . . . . . Night Pi . . . . . II" is t h a n a i r c r a f t constructed of heavy l a n d i n g lights, duO...
...Much as I loved the Tale ofAutumn, I have no doubt that the I think it a good opportunity to look back over the last decade and to pick the movies I have reviewed in that time, now available best single picture of the nineties was another French film that came to the U.S...
...Last year's Tale of Autumn is for sale at 313.99, and I urge you to snap it up...
...Mysteries used to linger fondly over the details of characters' movements, motives, and personalities, and the books included maps and diagrams, all to ensure that the reader had sufficient clues to solve the puzzle ]o and Capitaine Conan (8al.99) of 1998 by Bertrand Tavernier...
...A bargain...
...All are, at the same time, strikingly original and brilliantly conceived, though only Rushmore seems to have been conceived with any purpose other than to show off its own brilliance...
...bright lO0-watt halogen l i g h t is il~dis- bulb and red gel for i!se as warnp e n s a b l e for in 2 light...
...if he happened to be as brilliant as the detective, which hardly anybody was, of course...
...Setting the Apocalypse and the Millennium to music is a supreme challenge that Schmidt met magnificently...
...Then he rose to become one of the most competent analysts of the Computer Civilization...
...A lot of Slmlg folk will read this book in a self-congratulatory mood, condescending to those rubes who had the temerity to trash many of the composers considered great today...
...Behrens), and among his most notable mysteries are Smallvides a small sampling of his work, and several of his excellent puzzle mysteries are avaitable in various anthologies...
...They can barely see, but their hearing is fine-tuned...
...Today such stuffis considered old hat, and abnormal psychology replaces universal motives as the new Great Pursuit...
...Some of Hoch's best stories have been collected in Diagnosis: Impossible--The Problems of Dr...
...Hogan's MurieI's Wedding (92~.49 only o;~ DVD) ofi995 arc probably the best known...
...Fargo combines visual splendor, a witty script, and moral profundity and offers truly unforgettable (a word too often used untruly) performances from Frances McDormand (Mrs...
...Spun from musical gossamer, Les Enfants is the kind of lighter-than- '; air work that only the French can write...
...The last was listan comedy, perhaps because it resembles a Shakespearean comedy in its perfect balance between a sense of the absurdity of life and love and a belief, in spite of it, in the essential seriousness of both...
...You might keep that aspect of this music in mind, depending on how your friend feels about the election results...
...Lyne's Lolita is in my view much less troubling as a portrait ofpedophilia than the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, widely regarded as one of the greatest of the century, and a better and more revealing look at the moral collapse of mid-century America...
...It'll turn out neither of you will have it any other way...
...panache of John Dickson Cam the audacitz, of Agatha Christie, the intellectual power of Or maybe not...
...Never l e t a dead c a r b a t t e r y s t a l l you again--go w i t h . . . Car Starter I ~ _ . - - - ~ t h a n only $ 4 9 . "~" The sickening " c l i c k - " ~ " ~ ~ l . click" of a dead c a r - - Car S~arfer I2 will keep its battery is the most dis- chaixe tar years and will work couraging sound a in the most extreme hot/cold motorist can hear...
...Peter Lovesey (b...
...The NPR Guide is simply the best thing of its sort on the market...
...There are wars, stolen treasures, anonymous threats, sinister strangers both European and Egyptian, angry gods, cults, spiritualists, mysterious messages, rumors of lost civilizations, murderous mummies, vengeful ghosts, curses, spooky tombs, and, of course, lots of mystifying murders...
...Nick Velvet, a master thief-for-hire who steals only worthless objects...
...lids...
...The Coen brothers' other films of the decade are all smart (often too smart), funny, and well made, but only Miller's Crossing of 199o is worth spending 313.99 to own...
...It would certainly be fun to find out...
...The Episcope' is the first choice of geologists, biologists, numismatists, philatelists, engineers, and just anybody who likes to see the il~finite detail in his/her surroundings...
...110-volt and 12-volt tracking and ex- rechargers are also included...
...The most extraordinary tome I have recently essayed is The Aesthetics of Music, by English philosopher and composer Roger Seruton, now out in paperback from Oxford University Press...
...Bright, alert, and sweeter than honey, she'll take over your life soon enough...
...Both are films about America, the one essentially optimistic, for all its blood and of its humor...
...Un Coeur en Hirer (listed under the French title on ,~rlazon.com and for sale at 59.98 ) of1993 and Nelly et Monsiet~rArnaud of 1996, both by Claude Sautet...
...The 1959 mono sound of the live premiere performance, with star soloists and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, under ErnestAnsermet, is a little murky, but through it shines some of the sweetest, most losoph...
...Such a development, it follows, would be good not just for mystery readers and writers but for the entire society...
...It is amazingly robust...
...This is not to say that it is a mere souffi4...
...Colonel Chabert (813.99) of199 ~ by Yves Angewrenching studies of life in a traditional societw-are Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Chef O, (826.99) of 1998 and Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven (517.99) of 1999...
...Morse nods slowly, thereby warning the reader to get busy and figure it all out...
...Wlady Pleszezynski, Executive Editor Naturally, I'm partiaI to most of the products and services advertised in each edition of The American Spectator...
...The angel Gabriel's and Mary's songs are ineffably moving...
...Kieslowski was also a contender for director of the decade in the eighties, and the series of short films he made for Polish television then, The Decalogue, is now available years at High Fidelity and Musical America...
...There is a pagan-like swagger to the music for chorus and orchestra that reminds one that it was a pagan world into which Christ was born...
...son's Telescope'" #1069F823a table-top A breakthrough in audio t e c h n o l o g y . . . MR-318T AM/FM/TV Stereo Personal Digital Radio /.~-~ Mole-Ex VI I t's annoying to see your beautiful lawn being mined by burrov,4ng pests...
...This is my second Christmas with this work and it will be the musical centerpiece of all my future celebrations...
...And could the shepherds have heard anything more beautiful than what Gabriel sings to them here...
...Spend a December afternoon with songs like "Downey, CA" and "How We Used To Live" and even though it may be winter outside, inside it will always be spring...
...Kunzen's opera, Holger Danske, ~ II which was favorably compared ~:: ~ .~ with the best of Mozart...
...The best of these are kaldrei Konchalovsky in The Inner Circle ($17.99) of 199z and Nikita Mikhalkov in Burnt By the Sun ($13.99) of1995, both of which are almost unbearably poignant...
...and in place of the generally accepted two eyes, a single eye in the middle of the forehead...
...As a Catholic, Hillerman is understandably sensitive to the pressures modem life places on religious faith, a concern that lends his books great depth and poignanetc.--though in the end all is explained rationally...
...The Night Piercer IF should be your companion on all your travels...
...listen to fire con~nentator v`,hen you watdr the ball game or easy sporting even~ and nruda more...
...mer's Tale) are now available at $89.99 and one (A Tale of Springtime) is not available at all, so it is not clear if they will ever be issued at a popular price...
...The optics are superb: briIliant luminosity, needle-sharp focus, absolute planarity, total chromatic correction, and fully anastignratic...
...He gives several recommended recordings for each work and explains why they merit top ranking...
...Still the best of the decade's comedies with some sort of meaning and purpose, however, has to be Harold Ramis's Groundhog Day (311.99) of 1993, which is like The DreamIife of Angels in being, among other things and without any obtrusive, Western Union-style telegraphy of its message, a guide to how to live your life...
...1912), one of the true grand masters of the form...
...If you are not beguiled by t Piano Quintet Violin I and Sonata...
...Both series are competent and interesting, often delving knowledgeably into religion and history...
...Its ollta r e stranded--some- put is an astonishing 7.5 ampt i m e s for h o u r s or in hs., inconlparabIy higher than dangerous n e i g h b o r - any competing unit...
...Understandably, there is a good deal of tension between them when they first meet, in Skinwalkers (1986), one of the very best of the series, but they also complement each other well, and both appear in all the subsequent novels...
...25x mag~(ficaWhen vou extend the four sec '~-., ~ [ions to full length, the scope will ~ , ! be thirteen inches long and .The optics of Admiral focused to infinity v`dtir n~Ktle Nelson's Telescope:' sharpness...
...According to his wife, Ursula, i Vaughan Williams "drifted into a cheerful agnosticism" at some point in his life.Unde~s terred by his own beliefs or lack t h e r e q ~ , ~ ; I then-octogenarian composer undertook this work in the early 19~o's...
...He is patient and methodical but also displays flashes of inspiration...
...Once they get a blast of Mole-Ex Vf", they'll scmnper away and will never reeurn...
...At the end of Part Two, Sgt...
...Admiral Nelso1(s Telescope"measuresaboutfive ? " ~ e indaes in its "collapsed" position...
...The investigation in his first (1975), turns on a perplexing letter containing a coded message, and the book attempts to present all the clues fairly so that the reader can solve the puzzle...
...high impact poly propl/lene...
...Other books in the series contain multiple solutions, clues based on anagrams and train schedules, alibis, Morse as "armchair detective," false identities, drawings, maps, literary allusions, diary entries, printed lists and other documents, and clues hidden in a poem sent to the Oxfordshire police...
...This amazing book is simultaneously nightmarish, puzzling, brilliantly narrated, and entirely fair to any reader hoping to solve the mystery...
...He also clearly delights in the conventions of the classic whodunit...
...With some 5o,ooo classical music titles available on comon video, which I have bought myself and which you might also want to buy--either as Christmas presents, or just to add to your libraries...
...The moral reasoning of the book is quite clear, as is typical of the Morse stories...
...Lovese?/s two other series feature the Victorian-era Prince of\Vales (the future King Edward VII) and modern-day detective Peter Diamond...
...Throughout, Hodie is charged by a profound joy that is sometimes touched by a kind of giddiness: Can this be true, this Light in the darkness...
...If the timing is right for a child or grandchild in your life, by all means give this program a try...
...Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., Editor-in-Chief 45...
...A few small American films, some by foreign directors, which have lodged in my memory over the years as particularly worth seeing, though I have not seen them again, are One False Move (513.99) by Carl Franklin of~99 z, What's Eating Gilbert Grape (913.99) by Lasso Hallstr0m of1993, Red Rock West (513.99) by John Dahl and The Professional (913.99) by Lue Besson of 1994, ClueIess (513.99) by Amy Hecker]ing of 199 % Big Night ($17.99) by Stanley Tucci of 1996, and Unmade Beds (926.99) by Nicholas Barker of 1998...
...Music Ace teaches your kids the fundamentals of music theo D, through a variety of lessons and games all under the able leadership of the software's cyber-conductor, Maestro Max...
...With critics and scholars increasingly questioning the notion that there are any truths at all, modern audiences might well become ill-disposed toward the kind of goal-oriented intellectual adventure the mystery embodies, with its explicit search for a single truth behind the murky circumstances it depicts...
...The texts are taken from three of the Gospels and various poems by Milton, Thomas Hardy (another agnostic), and Ursula...
...Car S t a r t e r 11 '~ #1080F823c More t h a n j u s t a t e l e s c o p e . . . m o r e just a microscope...
...gathering capacit!/of a Compare that to s~mdard bmoc- 30 mm objective lens...
...At times you'll think she's a mixture of pelican, pterodactyl, and chihuahua...
...Some of the best of the Iranian-made films--highly visual, understated but emotionally are great, but my persona] favorites are three from the annus the persistent applica- de]aye& was seldom denied...
...All of them are still in print, and most have been best-sellers...
...They are barely audible to humans, but they are calibrated to be totally distressing to moles, gophers, and other burrowing pests...
...As if 2~'1~Sig the end of the world is not bad enough, some have chosen to hear in this work premonitory rumblings of Hitler's catastrophic rise...
...1943...
...His unique setting, interesting characters, and clear, straightforward prose have made his books immensely popular...
...it's now being made by the Episcope' one of Asia's finest lens makers...
...Morse is somewhat stoical and often enigmatic, but passionate beneath the surface, as evidenced by his frequent outbursts of anger...
...last spring, is still only available at 998.99, but the price will come down eventzMIy...
...stories in a realistic setting, Dexter largely avoids the explicit sex and violence so common in today's crime fiction...
...Yo~ should always keep it even have jumper cables, in the glove compartnlent of And you know how dan- every one of your cars...
...till shopping for that civilized (okay, semi-civilized) person in your life...
...The celestial music is radiant, while the devils fall into an hilarious, cacophonous parody of it whenever the?: attempt to sing...
...steep, Admiral Nelso~(s ~,lescope The scope comes with a shou!d bevour droice...
...favor of econo- :. my, any libretto at all, so that not i i T-ITI II :i;i,~ .2...
...Dexter's fellow Briton P.D...
...Maybe, then, readers seeking to understand and fulfill this powerful and persistent need will increasingly find sustenance in the mystery story...
...If they do, you can send them the complete works of Thomas Aquinas next year...
...Fargo is a movie for the ages, a great film in any period, but Miller's Crossing is worth having because it shows us that even the debased currency of the postmodern style of our time, a style that produces movies about movies rather than movies about real life, is worth something and can throw up the occasional ($13.99) of 1996, Rushmore ($17.99) of 1998, and Being John Malhovich ($13.99) of last year, all of which are so funny that they should come with a health warning...
...The unit contains two sealed heavy d u t y lead-acid b a t t e r i e s and can be recharged either through your household current or through the cigarette lighter socket of },our car, RV or boat...
...December 2000 / January 2 o p t " The American Spectator 40 mirabilis of 1997: Cosi by Mark Joffe and Love Serenade by Shirley Barrett, both available at 917.99, and Kiss or Kill by Bill Bennett at $13.99...
...Ted Libbey to the rescue...
...It is ~ [ ': ,,, : Mozart who immediately springs ~ii ~. > ~. :,: to mind in hearing this work, ~ , / which like Mozart's religious ~ works, has a strong operatic char- ; acter...
...The mystery, after all, is something of a social rite, one that confirms our sense of the ultimate rationality of the cosmos and our place real hunger for truth and a craving for intellectual security...
...I didn't know there were lawyers like that...
...One of libertarian-conservatism's most prescient minds, George analyzed the intellectual riot of feminism and the welfare state in the 197o's and ~98o's...
...Although Hillerman does not plan out his plots in advance, each of his books includes a reasonably complex puzzle, and the solutions rely on deductive reasoning, an essential component of the mystery form...
...The best of these are The Celebration ($13.16) by Thomas Vinterberg of 1998 and Miftme (only available at $98.99 on VHS but obtainable on DVD for 320.96 ) by Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, released here earlier this year...
...Sam explains both how the crime was done and why...
...A w.q.b, ~ t'wist of the wrist converts it to a 3x telescope, or a unique 3x t e l e s c o p e - l o u p e . Another :. ~; twist, and you have a choice of magxdfiers and Ioupes: 5x, 10x, and 15x powers...
...The Simon Ark stories are especially interesting for their indications of this Catholic author's ideas on spiritual matters...
...You may have fried pouring poison dov`m their holes or getting rid of them with other nostrums...
...imilarly prolific is Barbara Mertz (b...
...John Funk, Associate Publisher, Advertising My recommendation for Christmas gilt-giving is the video Snow Falling on Cedars...
...James reminds many readers-and sympathetic reviewers-of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, and her detailed settings, plots, and characterizations actually do merit such comparisons...
Vol. 33 • December 2000 • No. 10
