My Outline

9/5/10; 10:56:12 AM by Kentompkins
  Sweet Film
    The film is "Touch of Spice". A greek grandfather teaches his grandson about spices, cooking and life. Set in Constantinople and Athens during the Turkish/Greek struggles. Much discussion of family, love, cooking and the effects of spices.
9/4/10; 5:02:21 PM by Kentompkins
  Fascinating But Inevitable Film
    A Netflix Instant Watch Film
      The film is "Flame and Citron" -- based on actual events -- which is about two Danish resistors in WWII. Basically, they are assassins killing Danish Nazis and collaborators in cold blood. The film starts with a rather black and white, them and us sort of morality but drifts into a world of gray choices.
      It is beautifully acted with English sub-titles.
Patrick O'Brian Novels That I Have Read
  Master and Commander
    The first clue you have that Master and Commander is not a typical sea adventure is when a sailor is hanged in the opening pages for sexually molesting the ship's goat. This kicks off a gritty, realistic, and scrupulously-researched historical adventure that smashes C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels like a broadside from a seventy-gun frigate.
  Post Captain
    As the first sentences of Post Captain roll off actor Robert Hardy's tongue, you know you're somewhere you've never been before: the high seas in the early 19th century. Hardy's rich rendition of Patrick O'Brian's 1972 novel, a follow-up to Master and Commander, starts with series heroes Captain Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin enjoying a brief period of peace. Soon enough, though, the Napoleonic Wars resume, and the seafaring adventures continue.
  H.M.S. Surprise
    The stakes are high as HMS Surprise opens, and actor Robert Hardy's sterling reading never lets you forget them. Hardy makes Patrick O'Brian's third novel of high-seas adventure--written in 1973 and set mainly in 1805 on the waters surrounding India and the Orient--seem as immediate as an overdrawn checking account. Money plays a big role, and Captain Jack Aubrey stands to make a lot of it. All he has to do is find Napoleon's fleet--and take their gold away from them.
  The Yellow Admiral
    At last! Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are back as Patrick O'Brian provides his indomitably loyal fans with another adventure, this one by land as well as by sea. Lucky Jack Aubrey finds himself not so lucky as his troubles amount ashore, his prospects of admiralty dimmed and Sophie's affection waning. At sea, he fares little better: in the storms off Brest he captures a French privateer ladden with gold and ivory at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. And worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out...
    Fortunately, Maturin returns from a mission in Chile with news that may help restore Aubrey to good favor with both his beloved navy and wife. Then, off to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba.