The front cover of this book says “A novel of Bangkok”, which immediately makes me think of a previous book I read by Hallinan, A Nail Through the Heart. Check out my review of that book here. This book is clearly a sequel to the first one, but, does stand up well on it’s own. Hallinan explains just enough so new readers can follow along, without rewriting the previous book, and boring those who had read it. For me, it was a nice review, and I didn’t feel the need to go back to the first book and refresh my memory.

Bangkok is hot, humid, full of bright colors, and packed with people. I read this book during a freak but vivid heat wave, and felt like I was there, in Bangkok, following around the characters. Hallinan’s writing is quick and dirty, with bite sized chapters that always seem to end with me wanting more, and making me dive into the next chapter, (and then the next). Hallinan also has a gift for creating some really interesting turns of phrase, that had me laughing, despite the context.

A bad perfume is described as “Like if a flower threw up.” Chapters are given titles such as ” Karma is a Soft Drink”, and “Carrots were the Last Straw”, and “It Starts Ugly, and Gets Worse”.

The story is, once again, about Poke Rafferty, an American who went to Bangkok to write travel books about the darker side of life. He never left. He is still with his girlfriend, Rose, who is continuing to run a cleaning business with her friend Peachy. Miaow, his adopted daughter, is becoming a “normal” little girl. She adores the color pink, and loves to send text messages on her cell phone. Rafferty is finally part of a happy family. Naturally, this is when all hell breaks loose.

Rafferty has paid an ex spy to teach him how to do illegal things. He wants to experience some things for himself, so he can accurately write about it in his next book. When the book starts, he is being followed by three guys who he has spotted. Thinking back to one of his lessons, he realizes that there must be a “fourth watcher”, the one you don’t see. Neither Rose nor Miaow are happy about what he is doing.

This book has many complex things going on all at once. Peachy has a problem with counterfit money, and the government has become involved. Rafferty’s father has re-emerged, and wants to talk to him, despite the fact that Rafferty wants nothing to do with him. There are several layers of “family” involved. Then, someone kidnaps Rose, Miaow, and the wife of Rafferty’s friend, (who is a police officer). They want something nearly impossible, and a large portion of this book involves watching Rafferty try and figure out what to do to get them back. This is one intricate plan, and I kept going back and forth on my guess about if he would manage to pull it off or not. Most of the story takes place in just a few days time, and the book is a fast, exciting read.

Erk Pod merch, photos, major heat, bunny news, movie review, TV talk, iPhone?, socio-economic observations, Farmers Market, karaoke, porn, more.

Links:

• “Reminder – Erk Pod Round Table 6″
• “Erk Pod unboxing
• “Too hot for the tropics”
• American Beauty (buy the DVD)
• “Ice Road Truckers” (buy the DVD) (download the show)
• “The Wire” (buy the DVD) (download the show)
• “Bill Gates – ‘using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated’”
• “Apple iPhone declared most porn friendly mobile”
• “Band Releases Single on Chocolate Discs”
• Music heard in this episode: The Johnny Starlings

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Show length: 1:58:38
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You may have seen this one before. It’s just too cute not to include here.

Inside My Head number 60

What is new this week?
Fires in California
Amazingly hot heat wave
Horrible allergies
Even more construction work on my street
For the first time ever, you can listen to a new segment called “Messages to Vanya”.

Today’s Haiku of Frustration is called : “Endless”. I put this one up on my twitter account. Wanna follow me on twitter? Click here.

Podcasts mentioned on this show:
Hyper Nonsense
Erkpod
The Wasting Time Podcast

Music by:
Gene Loves Jezebel
Nine Inch Nails
Joseph Ferrante
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, you’ve likely heard the news that comedian George Carlin has died. Sad news. I’ve been a fan of his since I was a kid. I can actually remember the first time I heard some of Carlin’s work. I was eleven, maybe twelve years old. I was just at that point in my life where my parents felt comfortable leaving me home alone. And during one of those times where I happened to be the only one in the house, the phone rang. I answered it. From the other end of the line, I heard this:

“I had an interesting morning. I got into an argument with my Rice Krispies. I distinctly heard, ‘Snap, crackle, Fuck you!’”

Keep in mind, this was before the days of Caller ID or *69. I figured it was a prank call, but I was only half right. It turned out to be my friend Ronnie from down the street. He was also home alone, and was having some fun with his parents’ record collection. Once the initial surprise of the phone call wore off, I realized that that bit about the Rice Krispies was pretty funny. Ronnie eventually managed to dub all of his parents’ Carlin records onto cassettes. He and I spent many hours listening to those tapes on my crappy Montgomery Ward stereo. I followed Carlin’s career ever since. I watched many of his cable specials, read one of his books, and I even tuned into the fairly mediocre TV show that was based around him. Jen and I got to see him live here in San Luis Obispo on his last tour. He was preparing for his latest special, which was to be taped in Santa Cruz. He pretty much had his set down, but he was still working from multiple pages of notes which he held while on stage. It was a great show. Here’s a couple really bad photos I took during the performance:

And here’s a fitting video tribute to the “Rice Krispies” bit mentioned above.

So long, George.

The title says it all on this one.

San Luis Obispo has experienced record high temperatures over the last few days. It’s been so bad, that our house is literally falling apart. For example, we had a ceiling tile lose its adhesive hold:

A similar thing happened to the ceiling in the back of the house, as well.
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