Reading list

I've been unable to get Blogger to upload my photos this week so l jettisoned my little piece on James Bay, Victoria's original 'village.' I didn't feel like writing anyway, but I like taking pictures of Victoria. She's quite an attractive old gal. Our weather suddenly warmed up and when that happens my appetite for writing always cools down- but I can never stop reading. The St. Augustine book is one of those that sends me off in all directions. I'm reading Plato again and maybe trying harder to understand the nuancess of his thinking than I have before. And then there is Plotinus, the fountainhead of Neoplatonism. Although I've never read any of the Neoplatonists I've learned to recognize their influence in just about every aspect of Western thought. That whole era of the Late Roman Empire was a seething ferment of religious and philosophical ideas that affects us still.
And I'm reading the Koran, although I'd rather not, with the intent of comparing
I so enjoyed the "Out of the Past" DVD with Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming that I exceeded my budget and bought Volume Three of a Film Noire series. Arghh. It's not very good. Particularly disappointing was "Lady in the Lake," an adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel. MGM massacred it. One of the attractions of these thrillers, as I prefer to call them, is that many of them had Southern Cal location scenes. Small towns, old cars when they were new, and a general feeling of how the world felt in those days. It's something hard to convey in words but there was a wholesomeness to people then, along with a mental toughness that is instantly recognizable in these scenes. One of the best examples for that is "Suddenly," a movie where Frank Sinatra plays a psychotic hoodlum with a plan to assassinate the president. Frank Sinatra played a great hoodlum, but even he seemed almost wholesome compared to the kinds of psychopaths we hear about now. And everybody was presumed to be patriotic. Anyway, MGM had not a single location shot in this film, a real shame since so much of the novel takes place in sites in and around LA in the '40's. Yikes, no freeways! It was pretty obvious the script writers and producers didn't think much of the book.
Another one with Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell and Vincent Price was better but nowhere near as good as "Past". Vincent Price made it worth the admission and Jane Russell looked pretty hot. Raymond Burr played an Orson Wells-like villain. I still have a few more to watch in this series.
PS Got a couple snaps uploaded, of Fisherman's Wharf and Heather St. in James Bay.