#019/365
Author: Alexandra
Striking a Chord
Music has and will always been a huge part of my life. It’s been with me from such an early age, helping me escape (like books) into another world, where I could be myself. Away from others and, at times, with others. From huge venues with tens of thousands to small hall concerts in intimate settings that made the music all the more powerful and moving.
I’ve enjoyed it all. From nobodies starting out, to big name groups like Pink Floyd and Abba, to Emerson, Lake and Palmer, to the Rolling Stones before they were mega rock stars. Through the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, I’ve transitioned, changed and grown, along with my choice of music. But have never lost the love for all music be it classical, opera, or middle of the road pop to heavy death metal. I’ve listened to it all and found something that has touched me at every level, whatever the source. Be it the actual melodies, or lack thereof, to lyrics that struck a chord with my then sensibilities.
Music is always there. Be it playing a vinyl record on an old box player I have, to shoving a CD into an antiquated boombox, to these days, digitally on my iPhone. I don’t even shower without singing and yes, still whistle when I think on one is listening.
I can’t imagine a day without music playing. It is so ingrained in our every day lives. I think the colour would drain from my life if music were to stop playing tomorrow. And, like books, no only do I not want to live without music, I don’t think I can. Can you?
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith
This chess-inspired 8th outing of the cranky melancholy police investigator, Arkady Renko, is a fast-paced romp through the underbelly of corrupt police/politicians/media in Putin’s crumbling modern Russia. Where just about everyone has an agenda hustling from the streets to the highest office, for everything from stolen goods to billion ruble contracts. And where Cruz Smith’s cast of well-drawn characters are all doing their best trying to avoid being collateral damage amid the warring factions.
I enjoyed the pace, which is fairly brisk and doesn’t lag, because a lot of the action is split between a number of the characters, not just our world-weary investigator. While Renko is essentially trying to discover who killed investigative reporter, Tatiana Petrovna, and more importantly, why, he connects her murder to that of recently assassinated mafia kingpin, Grisha Grigorenko. And, as he pieces together snippets of information, he stumbles upon a much larger picture than just revenge, or murder, collusion and corruption at the highest levels.
What I love about Cruz Smith’s writing is his seedy bunch of twitchy characters doggedly trying to keep ahead of the action, while also dropping in actual historical events, into the background—events like the sinking of the Kursk in the Baltic and the utter destruction of the city of Konigsberg (in an isolated slice of Russia abutting the baltic sea) and the building of the secret city of Kaliningrad. And thus, Cruz Smith cleverly draws us into a tangled web of secrets, lies, and corruption.
While Renko engages in a game of cat and mouse with mobsters trying to find answers to Tatiana’s murder, his old friend and partner, Victor, along with Zhenya and his girlfriend Lotte, are left behind in Moscow trying to unravel a mystery of their own, never mind survive being murdered. Of course, all the loose ends slowly begin to make connections, leading to a confrontation along with a number of revelations and an open-ending finale that tells us that even Renko cannot bring everyone to justice in a world ruled by corruption.
I can recommend this one if you enjoy a good thriller with plenty of misdirection, well-drawn characters, snappy dialogue, with plenty of grit and background detail that all helped bring this one to life.
TV Shows: The Island
This Scottish drama is set on one of the Hebridean islands and centres on a dysfunctional family with secrets. The head of this family just happens to be the Lord of the Manor whose wife is brutally murder.
What unfolds is a fairly slow, meandering story of lies, deceit, and betrayals all of which lead to an obvious conclusion. That said, the scenery was magnificent. The acting, however, was a tad earnest. Not bad if you have nothing else to watch.
Irises
#018/365