Book Review: Breakfast with Buddha

Posted on January 5, 2013 by B Gourley

Merullo’s “Breakfast with Buddha” is a classic road-trip / odd couple tale. I found it to be engrossing and engaging. It is a book that attempts to convey life lessons as it entertains. In my opinion, this type of book succeeds best when the lessons do not draw too much attention to themselves, but rather subtly plant a seed. In some cases Roland Merullo’s book succeeds on this regard, and in other cases his middle-of-the-road protagonist comes across as a bit preachy and holier-than-thou.

The set up is a road-trip from New Jersey to North Dakota in which a spiritual but only vaguely religious skeptic is joined by a Tibetan Buddhist Rinpoche. The Rinpoche conveys life lessons, largely of a Buddhist nature but somewhat non-denominational, to the protagonist — often at breakfast (hence the title.)

Merullo does a great job creating a character who considers himself spiritual, but who is not so comfortable with spiritualism that is out of line with western rationalism or which expresses religiosity in the doctrinaire Western tradition.

The protagonist, Otto Ringling, undergoes a sort of transformation that is satisfying –though some may find it to have gone a skosh too far.

Those who my Religious Studies professor called Homo religiosis will likely find the book objectionable, but atheologists (not atheists, but those not believing in religion, though believing in god / God / gods) will probably relate to it quite nicely.

I recommend it.

View all my reviews

2013 Martial Arts Movies

Posted on January 4, 2013 by B Gourley

Chinese classic literature will make a major appearance in martial arts cinema this year, with movies entitled The Monkey King and Journey to the West. Both movies will likely featuring the staff-wielding monkey who made mischief in heaven and on earth. You may be familiar with the tale from Jet Li’s portrayal of the Monkey King in the 2008 film The Forbidden Kingdom. Readers can get the jist of the tale by reading the book.

Japanese classic literature will also be addressed, sort of. In the tradition of The Last Samurai, Keanu Reeves will star in movie that has no business having an American lead. It will be some sort of take off on the famous tale, 47 Ronin.

There will also be another iteration of the life story of Ip Man. Ip Man was a Wing Chun grandmaster who, as one can tell from the pile of films about his life, lived a fascinating life. While his fame is eclipsed by that of his most famous student, Bruce Lee, Man was a police officer who had to flee China to Hong Kong because of his support for the Kuomintang.

The sequel to the Tony Jaa film Tom Yum Goong (Ummm, Tom Yum) is due out this year. It will be entitled The Protector 2 in the west. The Thai star is continuing to give Chinese Kung fu cinema a run for its money.

The Grandmaster

Journey to the West

The Monkey King

Tom Yum Goong 2 (aka The Protector 2)

47 Ronin

New Year’s Resolutions: Going to the Place that Scares You

Posted on January 3, 2013 by B Gourley

Harajuku Huggers

I took the picture above one Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2008 at Harajuku in Tokyo, Japan. For those of you who aren’t familiar, there’s a bridge between the Harajuku rail station and the Meiji shrine where crowds gather on Sunday afternoons to –for inexplicable reasons– dress up in costumes. It’s a festive environment with a mix of cos-players, travelers taking photos and reveling in the weirdness, and conservatively dressed visitors heading to the nearby shrine.

I digress. As I was thinking about New Year’s resolutions, this moment popped into my head. I was thinking about how a good resolution involves going to a place that scares you. That’s how one grows. When I thought about the place that scared me, FREE HUGS leapt to mind.

What if random strangers start hugging you?

What if they don’t?

And I wouldn’t even have to worry about a third issue that the two comely lasses in the photo did (i.e. What if some creepy jerk lingers, reeking of impure thoughts and Old Spice aftershave?)

Does one have to give up one’s clean-cut, god-fearing, Midwestern, conservative club card in favor of a granola-munching, dreadlocked, ganja-smoking hacky-sack club card?

This will sound insane to many because everybody’s scary place is different. I should note that I was in Japan for martial arts training. Having my body subjected to all manner of beatings –I must say– was not nearly as intimidating.

2013: The Year of Post-Post-Apocalyptic Sci-fi

Posted on January 1, 2013 by B Gourley

If the sci-fi movies of 2013 reflect a zeitgeist, then we’re shifting from a people who think bad things await the Earth to a people who think we’ll have to abandon the planet altogether. That’s a prevailing theme in the upcoming big box-office movies of the genre. In Oblivion, Tom Cruise plays a drone repairman who at least believes himself to be one of the last people on the planet. In After Earth, Will Smith and his son (in character and real life) return to an Earth devoid of humanity. In Elysium, not everyone has left Earth, but everyone who is anyone has.

There are still a few of the traditional dystopian visions in which some dire fate confronts humanity on Earth. World War Z is a movie adaptation of Max Brooks’ novel that brought the Zombie back to life (admittedly bad pun intended.) It features Brad Pitt battling an ever expanding horde of “fast zombies.” Pacific Rim envisions giant alien monsters coming through a dimensional portal at the bottom of the ocean, and the giant robots humanity creates to battle them. The movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game, while largely about the training of the genius Ender Wiggin, also imagines an Earth in peril from an alien threat. Even the new Star Trek movie at least partially abandons frolicking in deep space in favor of confronting an evil genius who threatens Earth.

Oblivion

Star Trek Into Darkness