For the Homophopes

'Song of the Day': "Unexpected Song"

'unexpected song' by lloyd webber from "song and dance". this song has a bucketfull of memories for me. his hebrew name was meir but more commonly called mathew. he will always be meir to me and this song will always be 'our' song.

here's idina menzel in lieu of bernadette peters. i could not take ms. peters two days in a row. once a year is actually more than enough.

The Girl...

Next month the English-subtitled version of the film adaptation of the third and final book in Stieg Larsson's publishing juggernaut Millennium Trilogy, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST hits cinemas at film festivals in the United States.

The always-excellent The Rap Sheet has pointed readers to a new trailer for the film, which you can watch here. For some reason I can't get that trailer to play, so I went looking on YouTube, and sure enough I found both a teaser trailer and a longer trailer for the film, uploaded in late 2009 (I'm not sure how this new trailer differs from either of these older trailers), which you can view below.

On a related point, it seems that the excellent actress behind the pitch perfect portrayal of Lisbeth Salander (The Girl...) has secured her first major English-language role, playing a villain in the sequel to the Robert Downey Jr-starring Sherlock Holmes.

But for now, here is the longer trailer of the third Millennium film, as available on YouTube:



I really enjoyed the first film (see review here), and am looking forward to seeing the other two big-screen versions (I've had a couple of aborted attempts to get to The Girl Who Played with Fire, unfortunately).

What do you think of the trailer(s) for the third film? Have you read the books, or watched either of the first two films? Are you looking forward, or not, to the Hollywood versions? Thoughts and comments welcome.

'Brothers and Sisters' Season Premiere Comes Back With a Vengence: A+

i thought the senator was dead. all summer i thought he was dead. he wasn't dead. he was kept in a vegetative comma by his republican wife. gotta love those republicans. they believe if you feed them they will rejuvenate and grow. not so. so kitty after she is offered the job to run the rnc changes her mind. now she can play god. damn those republicans are good!

but in the meantime...

justin portrayed by the amazing david annable comes home from war again but this time intact mentally and physically. he will get the floundering walker family back from the fog ans malaise and the depression they have fallen into. but first he must get the out of character silent and passive nora back. he gets her back. and together they get the rest of the walkers back to their normal everyday wine drinking argumentative selves. thank you justin.

the night truly beloned to sally field and david annable. the rest all shined but not quite as bright. and hopefully the dreadful balthzar getty is finally gone for good.

i thought this show might be on it's last legs. alas i was and am happily proved wrong. welcome back. better than ever i raise a glass to all of you.

Happy Birthday Sophia

Song of the Day: 'Pearl's a Singer'

'pearl's a singer'

i'm really not crazy about bernadette peters but i like the song. it's different. from another time and place. i hope you enjoy it.

9mm: An interview with Rick Mofina

Welcome to the latest instalment in Crime Watch's ongoing series of author interviews; 9mm - 9 MurderMystery questions put to a variety of New Zealand and international crime, thriller, and mystery authors.

Today I thought I would share my recent 9mm interview with a ‘cool Canadian crime’ writer, award-winning thriller novelist Rick Mofina, who grew up in Bellevue, Ontario and now lives in Ottawa, but has travelled the world in between as part of his pre-novelist life as a journalist. As his website bio says, his freelance crime stories have appeared around the world in such publications as The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Marie Claire, The South China Morning Post magazine and The Moscow Times. He’s also written for the UK’s Sunday Telegraph. His reporting has put him face-to-face with murderers on death row in Montana and Texas. He covered a horrific serial killing case in California, an armored car heist in Las Vegas, the murders of police officers in Alberta, flown over Los Angeles with the LAPD, and gone on patrol with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He has reported from the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East.

Mofina has written 11 thrillers since his debut IF ANGELS FALL in 2000, has won and been shortlisted for several prestigious awards, received high praise from his peers, like Michael Connelly, James Patterson, and Jeffery Deaver, and is a popular panellist at various crime writing conventions. Having kept an eye on some awards lists over the years, I had heard of Mofina, but until recently hadn’t read any of his work.

Canadian crime writers, like their New Zealand and Australian counterparts, are often a little harder to find in overseas markets, no matter how good the quality of their writing and storytelling. Having spent time in Canada in 2008, I know that there are many great crime writers there that I struggle to find on booksellers’ shelves down this way, just as the opposite is true too (ie Kiwi crime writers will be hard to find in Canadian bookstores).

Fortunately, some of Mofina’s books have recently been released in New Zealand, and last week I read his first ‘Jason Wade’ tale, THE DYING HOUR. I picked this up at lunchtime on Wednesday, and ended up finishing it by the next day, immediately picking up the next Wade tale, EVERY FEAR, and reading all of that before Friday morning as well. So the phrases ‘page-turner’ and ‘gripping’ will certainly be top of mind when I write some reviews.

You can read more about Rick Mofina and his books at his website here, and at the Crime Writers of Canada website here.

But for now, Rick Mofina stares down the barrel of 9mm.

The Crime Watch 9mm Author Interview: Rick Mofina

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Well, he's not recurring, but I am fond of Kinderman, the Washington, D.C., detective William Peter Blatty created in The Exorcist, who re-appeared in Legion. Too many people overlook the masterful job Blatty did in breathing life into that guy, who afterall was chasing the greatest villain of all time.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Paddle To The Sea, a children's adventure because took my imagination hostage. I think it was a masterpiece.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I was a fulltime journalist at a newspaper. I sold freelance true-crime stories to The New York Times, Reader's Digest, Penthouse and The South China Morning Post. I also wrote a few short stories.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Kick back and watch movies. I love having a story unfold before my eyes. I am a sucker for 1950s Sci-Fi classics, like THEM!

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Visiting the original jail where they used to hang criminals. It's now a youth hostel in downtown Ottawa, Canada.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Ethan Hawke.

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
All of them because I love them all equally.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
I was with my, wife, our son and daughter when we walked into a big chain books store and saw it on the shelf. It was quiet moving, we all just sort of stood there because well my mother had passed away only a short time before. She never saw the first one, or an advance copy. So seeing it there, took me back to when I was a kid and she'd encouraged me to write, bought me my first typewriter, a portable manual Royal.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
This young man came up to me at my signing table and wanted a signed book to his wife, but wanted me to write: "I'm so sorry for making you mad and and I hope you --"I stopped before I started and said, "I'll sign it and you can make the apologies."


Thank you Rick Mofina. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk with Crime Watch.

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So what do you think of this 9mm interview? Have you read any of Rick Mofina’s books? The Jason Wade series? Tom Reed/Walt Sydowski series (Mofina’s first five books)? The new Jack Gannon series? What do you think? What do you think of Canadian-written crime in general? Which cool Canadian crime writers would you recommend? Thoughts and comments welcome.