"A Night To Remember"- Book Review.

A GEOFF CRENSHAW BOOK REVIEW

A few days after the Titanic struck ice in the mid Atlantic on April 14th, 1912, a United States Senate committee lead by senator William Alden Smith summoned as many passengers and crew as they were able, and had them testify about the wreck of the Titanic, and why, exactly this once thought "unsinkable" ship foundered. Back then, audio recording equipment was still in the experimental stages, and certainly didn't have the stamina to record an entire senate investigation. So the proceedings were furiously written down by stenographer- and published nearly a century later as: The Titanic Disaster Hearings: The Official Transcripts of the 1912 Senate Investigation. While I will not give a formal review of this book today, and probably won't in the future- I will say it is worth a read. All of the survivors of the Titanic seem to come to life out of the pages and the effect is quite haunting. There are probably more stories in the actual testimony of those who were fortunate enough to make it out than that of James Cameron's slightly fictionalized (though fantastic) multimillion dollar blockbuster.
The transcripts- were instrumental in Walter Lord's Research when he wrote A Night To Remember in 1955. Lord takes the testimony from the 1912 senate investigation, and includes elements he conducted with real survivors, and paints a stark, realistic picture of what it was like the night Titanic went down. There are many stories from the point of view of the crew, and passengers from all 3 of the classes that truly paint the complete picture.
Lord's book was the first publication where all walks of life aboard the ship recieved equal representation. Even in the senate hearings, only two third class passengers testified, because as Lord did everything but say outright in his book- Nobody cared about the third class passengers. They didn't have the mystique of John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest man aboard Titanic and part of the prominent American Astor familym Benjamin Guggenheim who declined passage on a life boat and a life jacked (refered to as life belts then) because he was "dressed in his best and prepared to go down like a gentleman." or Thomas Andrews, the man who designed Titanic and felt so responsible for her sinking that he didn't seek escape. Third class was not as interesting as first class, and they didn't have the liability of the crew members. They were simply non-entities.
Almost every detail of the ship going down is explained- the book starts with the two crewmen in the crows nest looking for icebergs- and finding one a little too late. Then it proceeds to weave a tapestry through the accounts of the passengers and crew- right through the Titanic's dramatic finish to when the survivors were picked up by the R.M.S Carpathia.

All in all, I have to say the book is worth reading. Anymore, it is a little hard to find. If you can find a copy- (which I know you can, since I posted a link to Amazon.com) I suggest you grab at the chance to read it. You won't be disapointed.

Books I Have Read

Book Reviews After This Important Message From Our Sponsor.

As a new blogger, I have to decide what exactly I should blog about. In my last blog, I talked about my "aspirations" of achieving the presidency. I want this blog to be somewhat interesting to people, so I have to come up with a nice healthy stock of useless, hopefully entertaining things to talk about. Some bloggers talk about Politics and current events, some talk about philosophy and religion, some (incredibly annoying ones) talk only of celebrities and their relationship and/or rehab scandals. Some get on just to vent to an unseen audience about how bad their day was.

After painful, and intense deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that I will talk about...


Hmmm... lets see...


Whatever I damn well please!

It could include any of the following: Art, Film, Cuisine, Books (Which will be covered later in the post.) Authors or said books, filmmakers, maybe the occasional tidbit from my own life that I feel like sharing with the public at large. (Don't expect too much on that score.)

This blog will have some variety to it. If you were looking for a blogger to drone on and on about a specific subject- then you probably will be disapointed. (Disappointment isn't guarenteed.)

And Without Further Ado- We are pleased to present what you have all been waiting for!

THE GEOFFREY M. CRENSHAW BOOK REVIEW

The first book I would like to talk about today is one written by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez called Rebel Without A Crew. Some of you film buffs may be familiar with Rodriguez's name or with his work. There is a distinct possibility that you know both. He is the man responsible for the El Mariachi and Spy Kids series. Don't let the fact that he made the Spy Kids series fool you, the man is a damn good artist. If you are unfamiliar with the El Mariachi series, (El Mariachi, Desperado, and Once Upon A Time In Mexico) Then you might be familiar with one of the following titles: Grind House: Planet Terror, From Dusk To Dawn, Sin City (Which he co-directed with Frank Miller.) The man has seen considerable success.
The autobiographical account, delivered in a mostly diary format, paints a picture of what life for Robert Rodriguez was like before his success. He was so desperate for money to fund his first full length motion picture, that he spent a month in a medical research hospital going through humiliating tests, and an excruciatingly boring stay. When he left, they gave him $10,000. $7,000 of that was spent on making the film. He had the undeveloped film converted to video tape. He edited his film entirely with the videotape on an old system in a Texas T.V station. He had originally intended for the film to be released straight to the spanish video market, but, by miracle, he lent his only tape to an hollywood agency, and they were highly impressed with it.
The buzz in Hollywood grew so loudly that stars like Steve Bucemi and Cheech Marin started requesting spots in his films. There is a particularly tense part in the book where he is at a screening of his film with film critic Roger Ebert in attendance. According to one of his agents, Ebert never talked to filmmakers after the screenings. It was a tough couple of day for Mr. Rodriguez to wait for the review that would make or break him. Considering what his career is today- you can only guess what Ebert's opinion was.

Second on the list is quite a macabre book called Bones Of Betrayal by two authors who operate under the pseudonym "Jefferson Bass" Seperately, their names are Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass. Dr. Bass isn't a doctor in the traditional sense of the word. He does not make sick people well- his patients haven't a prayer of survival with him. It isn't that Dr. Bass is a bad doctor, it is just that the patients he gets are beyond saving. They are not only merely dead, they're really most sincerly dead. (Note the slight nod to The Wizzard Of Oz) Dr. Bill Bass specializes in a special postmortem practice that only those of steel stomachs can handle- he studies the way bodies decompose in various elements. His findings have given law enforcement agencies around the country the ability to tell how long an individual has been dead by the extremity of their decay. I know what you are thinking- and no, he does not operate this task out of his back yard. He does it at the University Of Tenessee. Right next to the main campus, he has a piece of acerage. It is widely known as "The Body Farm". The Body Farm is fenced off from the public (for obvious reasons.) For the casual viewer, the sights within would be terrifying beyond belief. But for Dr. Bass, it is a living. (ha ha) He places bodies in all sorts of places- underground, where he studies their decomp. with sonar, under water, even strewn over the surface of the ground where he can study them first hand. When the bodies are finished decomposing, Bass gathers the bones, and places them in cardboard boxes. The boxes are stored under the football stadium there. Considering the absolutely disgusting (though quite interesting) nature of his job, I doubt if anything can make Dr. Bass lose his appetite.
After many years of experience on the Body Farm, Bill Bass has teamed up with Author Jon Jefferson to write a series of books about it. In the books, the roll of Bass has been replaced with a fictional character named Bill Brockton. Bones Of Betrayal isn't the first book in the Body Farm Series. It was preceded by the books Carved In Bone, Flesh And Bone, and The Devil's Bones. They are all enjoyable, but I shall only review Bones Of Betrayal today.

When Dr. Bill Brocton is called to Oak Ridge Tennessee to investigate a case about an old man frozen in an old hotel swimming pool, he is startled to find that the man was a professor instrumental in planning The Manhattan Project. Just in case you don't know what "The Manhattan Project" was, it was the code name the Government used for a covert operation to design the atom bomb during WWII. We wanted to have it made before the Germans and the Japanese had theirs made- for an obvious reason: If they had made theirs first- we would have been bomed. I am not sure if the Japanese persued this technology, but there is evidence that the Germans tried creating the A-bomb, but failed at it. Thank god.
When he takes the old man to his medical examiner friend to be eximined- they find a pellet of highly radioactive material inside of the old man, powerful enough to burn his insides- and powerful enough to destroy the Medical examiner's health.
In order to get answers, Dr. Brockton has to dig into the past and find out what happened back in the 1940s, that finally got the bomb researcher killed in 2009.

I praise the plot of the book, and the wit and charm of the characters. My main qualm is that some of conversations don't seem realistic. There is a part where the Dr. and his assistant Miranda randomly start debating the legitamacy of creating the bomb. It played out like a high school history class debate. For the most part though, the book is a winner.






I read one more book recently- Walter Lord's A Night To Remember about the Titanic disaster. But I am afraid I don't have the energy to write another review tonight. Perhaps tomorrow.

Thank You, And Let's Keep 'Em flying.

First Blog- Introduction

My name is Geoff Crenshaw. This is my first time blogging. If you think the blogs will be interesting, then prepare to be deceived. I think pretty much anybody can read this, so I should be careful about what I write on here. It is a public forum, and perhaps whatever I write here will haunt me in my future quest of a political career. Yes. That is right. I here by, announce my unofficial canidacy for the Presidency Of The United States in the year 2060. Assuming I am still alive by then, I think I will make a great President. If I am a corpse, then I will put the interest of the country ahead of my own ambitions and settle for a cabinet secretary posistion.

As a potential voter, (assuming you are still alive by then too) you might be asking yourselves, "What gives this tricky little upstart the impression that he can lead the free world?"

My answer: "Absolutely nothing."

That is right. I am not qualified to run for President Of The United States right now.

The Constitutional minimum age requirement is 35 years old.

I turn 20 next month.

I have no experience or skills at all needed to be the president of the united states. Well, people like me. And I have been called "Deceptively intellegent" by one of my friends who engages in backhanded compliments. That's about it.

But by 2060, I intend on being a lean, mean 70 year old American Diplomatic powerhouse.

By November of that year, here are the list of accomplishments that I wil have achieved:

REASONS THAT GEOFFREY M. CRENSHAW
WILL QUALIFY FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

1. I will effectively lead a campaign that will earn women their constitutional right to vote freely in any of our fine elections.

2. I will make the best choclate chip cookies this side of the mississippi.

3. I will strongly support legislation that will effectively ban discrimination against minorities in the work place.

4. I will have amassed enough sports cars by then, that my collection will be sufficent to evacuate an entire city in the face of a nuculear attack.

5. The experience I will have in film directing, will give me leadership skills necessary in manuvering a democracy.

6. I like camping, so I will be extremely hesitant to let all of the paradise to be paved into parking lots.

7. I will have re-established the fashionability of mink coats.

8. I will have lead a succesful mission to take construction matierals underwater to rebuild, and raise the wreck of the RMS Titanic. It will become a succesful resort in New York Harbor.

9. I will have taken the Kremelin and refashioned it into a youth waterpark.

10. Because I'm Smart, People tell me I'm funny, and I assume they like me.

11. I will have fashioned a plan to place Helvatia Taverns strategically all over the united states- With that alone, I get tickertape parades, and I am a national hero.

12. Same as 11. Only this time, with Mad Greek Deli.

13. I will have a ranch that has swans walking across the grounds. This will give me a princely aura, and I will inspire people just like the Kennedy's did.

14 I will make a proposal to bulldoze a white house, and rebuilt it made out of gingerbread. This would irradicate hunger in the Washington D.C area.

15. Two Words- Free Soup



That is about it.

At this juncture, you might be asking yourself "Why in the hell did I waste my life reading this rambling nonsense? I feel disinfranchised. Disinfranchised, Damn it!"

Well, the answer is simple- in the future, I will write more interesting blogs than this. It will br random, but it will hopefully give you a glimmer of hope in your otherwise desolate existance.

Good luck making it to 2060. It is every man, woman, and child for themselves.

That is all for today.

Thank You, And Keep 'Em Flying.