Tag Archives: Cool Things

Cool Things: Quintessence

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Some books try to create a cleverly envisioned world that replaces the world we know with a something that is different from everything we know. History, geography and sometimes even physics are totally alien things. Some books replace only the tiniest possible things and painstakingly work to make everything else the same, so that we are struck by the ways the story is like coming home – except not. It’s the rare book that shoots for something in the middle. Quintessence is one of those books.

David Walton gives us the Europe that we know and love, with a history that is mostly the same, with one major caveat: The Earth is flat.

It’s been scientifically proven and everything.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Age of Exploration is playing out a little differently there  than it did here. But it is playing out, regardless. Explorers have discovered a land literally on the edge of the earth full of gold, gems, new plants and animals and a host of other wonders. The problem is, all the explorers who came back slowly sickened and died, most before they could even make it back to England.

Meanwhile, Europe is embroiled in the usual political, social and religious controversies that have defined that continent pretty much ever since the Romans decided it might be fun to conquer it (and perhaps even before.) Before our story is over, mad alchemists, royal surgeons, gentlemen scholars and Protestant leaders will all be involved in exploring the new land and the strange nature of quintessence, the alchemical substance that suffuses it. Also, the Spanish Inquisition makes an appearance (bet you weren’t expecting that.)

Quintessence has a strange charm to it. Most of the characters are ideologues, but perhaps that’s not surprising given the time they come from. A person had to be highly motivated in order to undertake the kind of exploratory journey that is at the heart of the tale, and even today it’s usually idealism that motivates that kind of behavior. And, of course, I have no problem with fiction that’s suffused with ideas.

What’s better is, most of the ideas are given fair hearing. Even Catholicism, which is something of the villain of the book, has sympathetic voices as well. On top of that, the characters are believable in their pursuit of their ideals, not simply cardboard cutouts that spew speeches. They struggle with their motives and make surprising choices from time to time.

At it’s core, Quintessence is a fun adventure story that delivers exactly what you want, strange sights and exciting times, but leaves you with a little extra to chew on and the promise of second helpings to come.

Cool Things: His Girl Friday

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Okay, time for another black and white movie spotlight! This week’s selection is His Girl Friday, another film staring the impeccable Cary Grant as the leading man. This time out, Rosalind Russell takes the leading lady’s role. If you’ve never seen this film, there will be a brief summary in the next paragraph. If you have, feel free to skip it.

Walter Burns (Grant) is the editor of The Morning Post, in an age when newspapers were Serious Business and getting that story justified anything and everything in the eyes of the newspaper man. In fact, Burns has managed to alienate his wife and star reporter, Hildegard Johnson (Russell) with his demanding nature and total devotion to the job. Now they’re divorced and Hildy is looking to settle down with a nice quiet man instead of coming back and remarrying Walter like he wants her too. Worse, the accused murderer that the Post has been defending from it’s editorial page is about to be executed. Sure, he might have shot someone but the only reason to hang him for it is to score the corrupt sheriff and mayor a few political points. Clearly this is a grievous insult to truth, justice and the integrity of the Post’s editorial page! Walter Burns will have to stop the hanging, scare off Hildy’s new suitor and win her heart back – and do it all in one night!

His Girl Friday is a delightful romp. For the most part it enjoys poking fun at people in authority, be they the police, politicians or psychologists, they’re all up for some good natured ribbing. But no one gets it more than the newspaper reporters that form most of the cast. While journalists today seem to view themselves as a very dignified, important profession, the newspapermen in His Girl Friday are just a step above cutthroats, and they know it. I suspect that their two-fisted, winner takes all attitude might still be around in many newsrooms today, just with less of a manic glee for the hunt to go along with it.

Thematically, it’s not a terribly deep movie. Walter suffers from a serious case of misplaced priorities. Yes, his newspaper is a great business and has a clear effect on the people it serves (whether that effect is good or bad is hard to tell). But he’s let his joy in his work override his responsibility to serve the needs of his wife. It shouldn’t take divorce proceedings and her nearly marrying herself to another man to realize her value, but this is Hollywood so that’s what happens.

For her part, Hildy is a bit of an escapist. She flees directly from Walter to a man who’s his total opposite – boring instead of charismatic, stolid instead of ambitious. But she also gives up on using her talents and passions, something that Walter always loved her for and encouraged her in.

By the end of the show, they’ll have learned to appreciate each other again. Even if they haven’t learned anything else.

From a writer’s perspective, His Girl Friday is a study in dialog. The movie is unique in the frantic pacing of the spoke word, with many of the characters simply talking on top of one another. It reflects the lightning pace of the news world that the characters live in, but could also become confusing very quickly. That it doesn’t is a testament to the skills of the writers and director who put the film together. An astute watcher can learn a lot about punchy dialog that informs the listener (or reader) while keeping things moving along.

If you love writing, humor or both, His Girl Friday is a movie for you.

Cool Things: Small World

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Have you ever felt cramped? Siblings leave you with no room to breath? Suffering from cubicle claustrophobia? Ready to break out a sledgehammer and do your best Tony Stark impression, whether you need to create a new element or not? Well hold onto your horses for just a moment! Before you go postal, pick up Small World.

Small World is a game of real estate (but honestly, what isn’t?) Like in many board games, in Small World players  take control of a faction and try to rack up as much territory as the can. There are several twists to Small World.

The first is implied by the name of the game: the map is really, really small. In fact, there are actually three or four different boards in the base game, smaller maps for fewer players and larger maps for more, but none of them so large that your factions won’t be stepping on each other’s toes within the first turn or two. Unlike Risk or other conquest board games that give you a few turns to get yourself established, Small World practically demands that the action start as soon as pieces hit the board so that there’s never a dull moment (set up goes pretty fast, too, so you can get to the action right away.)

Small World’s second quirk is the sheer number of factions. While the game itself is a fairly simple counting game that involves no dice, the catch to it is your faction runs out of resources to expand with very quickly and never gets more than it’s original allotment (with one or two exceptions). A key part of the game is knowing when it’s time for your current group to go into “decline”. When in decline, you still score points for that faction’s pieces but they can’t expand any longer and they don’t have the same resources to stand up against invaders as an active faction. On the bright side, you can pick a whole new faction to go wild with and get right back into the action! Thus, while Small World supports a maximum of five players it comes with fourteen different races which conform to typical fantasy archetypes. You’ll find Elves, Humans, Halflings, Dwarves, Orcs, Giants, Tritons and more to help you on the way to world domination, each with a special trait to help you in conquest or scoring points. This gives everyone enough to play through the game and also keeps things fresh for repeated playthroughs.

But wait! Even with fourteen different races the game could quickly become stale, since you’ll use two or three of them in the typical game. There’s only so much that can be done to make them different and interesting. So a race isn’t all that goes into defining your faction. There are also twenty special powers, and one is paired with a race at random. Thus in one game you could have dragon riding Trolls and sea faring Giants and in the next you’d have to tangle with flying Dwarves and underground Humans. Since there’s more powers than races, repeated combinations are extremely unlikely and you can’t base a strategy on finding and using a specific power, as there’s no guarantee that power will turn up over the course of the game!

In addition to the frantic play of the base game, Small World comes with several small expansions that add more races and powers to the mix for even stranger factions (what do you mean “stout Faeries”?) to keep everyone guessing. Small World is great for parties or just a gathering of friends for a night of board games. If you like either one of those things, it’s worth checking out.

Cool Things: Index (x2!)

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Indexing is a new serial by Seanan McGuire, available from Amazon.com through the Kindle store. I discovered it because I made the mistake of reading one of those periodic e-mails Amazon sends out, you know the ones where they recommend things for you. They’re dangerous, dangerous things and my wallet doesn’t like them very much. In fact, they’re one of the prime reasons that I don’t let Amazon show me pictures in their e-mails.

But the name caught my eye. I’ve already mentioned one of McGuire’s works in this spot before, the very high quality October Daye novels. Indexing plays around in very different headspace, running with themes of self-generating narrative similar to Mercedes Lackey’s 500 Kingdoms series. This is weird, very metanarrative stuff. As far as I know the idea first started with Terry Pratchett but has become more popular over time (or maybe just speaks to the breadth of Pratchett’s influence on modern fantasy). It may only appeal to the literary minded.

The basic idea of a self-generating narrative (or SGN from here on out) is that there are stories out there, and some unknown force causes them to play out over and over again, frequently bending or breaking the laws of nature to create the necessary circumstances. There’s problems with the concept of SGNs and the implications that most authors give to them that the more logically minded might question. But the whole point is not to think too logically and just enjoy the ride.

In short, SGNs offer a chance for fractured fairytales on a grand scale, giving the author license to mix, match, avert and otherwise put their own spin on classic tales. Indexing looks to be no exception. It focuses on members of a special government task force who’s job is to deal with SGNs before they get out of hand. However, since Ive only read the first few installments of the series, gauging it’s exact tone and the level of the story behind the stories, so to speak, is a pretty iffy game. Still, if you like the idea of story on top of stories, McGuire looks to be bringing a pretty good one to the table.

What’s really cool about this, at least to my mind, is the fact that Indexing is really taking advantage of changing technologies to bring readers a good experience. The serial will update every two weeks with a new installment, but you only have to pay for the book once. After that, each installment is synced to your Kindle (or iPad/desktop app) as soon as it comes out and you can pick up reading right where you left off. Neat! Plus, it looks like while it’s running as a serial you get a considerable discount on the final price. It’s worth talking a look at.

——–

Totally unrelated to the above: Indexed is a sort of webcomic, published on Tumblr by Jessica Hagy. It uses simple line graphs and Venn diagrams, and occasionally something a little more complicated, drawn on the back of index cards, to make humorous and sometimes insightful points. It updates most every weekday and is a lot of fun to read. Check it out!

Cool Things: Project Milkweed

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Ian Tregillis‘ Milkweed Triptych is a saga of alternate history, superpowers and Nazis. It focuses on that defining era of the previous century, World War Two, and it weaves a convoluted tale of politics, ambition and the human penchant for evil. If you enjoy any of the the above you might enjoy the series, but if you like them all it’s required reading.

A quick definition: Alternate history is an exercise in world building where you take the established time line and change one thing, be it major or minor, and then wonder how that would make a difference in the resulting historical events. Most alternate history looks at what would have changed immediately after the break with established history is made but sometimes changes are made in the far past but the alternate history narrative still looks at the society that would result in the ‘modern’ era, which is to say at whatever time period the author was living in.

Milkweed belongs to the first category, and it begins with the idea that the Nazis had real, working übermensch with psychic powers at their disposal starting about the time of the Spanish civil war. While these psychics are still highly experimental, they’re dangerous enough that Great Britain becomes concerned when word of their existence leaks out.

In their attempts to learn how the psychics work British Intelligence winds up consulting one of the last English warlocks in existence. A rather foppish young man and good friend of one Raybould Marsh, spy, Lord William was taught the language and dangers of negotiating with Eidolons by his grandfather. Since negotiating with powerful beings of alien nature with cosmically horrific overtones drove Will’s grandfather to becoming an awful drunk, Will himself has ignored the art for many years. There’s also the little fact that the Eidolons are bent on the extinction of humanity and tend to demand payment for their favors in the form of violence and murder.

Never the less, Marsh and his superiors quickly decide that, if Britain is going to stop the German supermen, Eidolons are the only option available. What results is a horrifying series of atrocities on both sides of the conflict. The first book in the series, Bitter Seeds, lives up to its title as men rack up the lives of other men as counting chips. Coldest War brings the butcher’s bill due, and Marsh and William have to face what their earlier actions have wrought.

But anyone could write a series of devastating failures and ideologically motivated missteps. What makes Project Milkweed really shine is the third book, Necessary Evil. After all the wrongs done, Raybould Marsh is given a chance to make things right. And he does it, not by taking the price from others without their consent but by freely sacrificing many of the things he had been willing to murder for. In the end, it will take more than cleverness or power to carry the day. It will take strength of character. Marsh finds it, although he pays a horrible cost.

While I highly recommend Project Milkweed be warned that, since it focuses on a very dark period of history, some of the things that happen in it are dark as well. In particular, a lot of time is spent in the Nazi’s human augmentation research program. While what is described there pales in comparison to some of the real experiments that the Nazi’s ran in concentration camps, and the books never go into gruesome details, it may not be your cup of tea. Also, the use of human lives as fuel for arcane rites is more than a little disturbing.

If you don’t want to hear about those things, then avoid Project Milkweed. But if you’re okay with reading about how sometimes it’s darkest before dawn, then that alone may mean Milkweed is right for you.

Cool Things: 20th Century Boys

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Manga – those comics which we Americans, being unable to produce many visual narratives outside of the comics pages and the superhero genre, import from Japan to help fill out our graphic novel shelves. Whether you love it or hate it, manga is a phenomenon in America today. But if all you’re familiar with is the mainstream stuff you may wonder what the big deal is. If so, I suggest you look into 20th Century Boys. It may broaden your horizons a little.

Naoki Urasawa is a manga-ka, or manga artist, of some fame in Japan. He’s tackled a wide variety of genres and consistently delivered a high quality of art and story, when he was the author of the story (even when he wasn’t, he collaborated with people who knew what they were about.)

20th Century Boys may be one of his most impressive in scope and themes. It is nothing more or less than a tribute to the days when it was possible to save the world.

For Endo Kenji, living in 1969 meant rock and roll, moon landings and a new age for humanity. For a handful of young boys, it was an exciting era. It was a time to dream of growing into successful and impossibly cool adults and, when the turn of the century came in thirty years, it would undoubtedly mean a coming apocalypse that could only be averted by the actions of brave men like they will undoubtedly be by then. Kenji and his friends spent the summer daydreaming about what could be, and writing down their future adventures in crudely drawn and lettered books, buried away to be excavated by their future selves when the time was right. Among them, a story of how the world would end, and how they would prevent it.

For Endo Kenji, living in 1997 meant struggling to keep the family store open, looking after the niece his sister hand unexpectedly left with them before disappearing a few years before and trying to keep in touch with just one or two of his old friends. There’s no time for daydreams. With three people to keep fed and a corporate manager to appease, there’s time for little else. No rock and roll, very little technology and absolutely no heroics.

That is, until one of the family’s long standing customers turns up missing. When Kenji goes to retrieve the last delivery he had made, he spots a symbol that takes him thirty years back. A symbol of friendship between young boys. A symbol that says, ‘we are friends’.

But that’s not what it means anymore. One of Kenji’s old friends never quite grew up. Never put the toys behind him. He’s set out to bring their predictions of the end of the world to life, even if he has to play the villain himself. He’s charismatic and he’s rounded up a cult of followers, calling himself ‘Friend’ and quietly maneuvering himself into a position to wreak havoc. Kenji and his friends, as the only people who know the doomsday plan in it’s entirety and will take the danger it poses seriously, have to figure out who Friend is and stop his plans.

Kenji isn’t the supercool adult he planned to be. He’s not prepared or equipped to fight or persuade. But the world needs a hero, even if his only qualification is convenience store clerk.

The themes that run through 20th Century Boys are at once simple and deep. A typical shonen, or boy’s comic in Japan focuses on themes of friendship, hard work towards goals and eventual victory. Urasawa takes these themes and makes them his own by adding one more: the passing of time.

His story grapples with friendships not just as they are formed but as they grow, falter and sometimes lapse. By covering a span of over fifty years (the manga eventually looks forward into the 21st century) Urasawa gives his characters incredible richness as we watch them age from naïve young boys to struggling and disillusioned men and into grim but purposeful middle age. In spite of the disagreements and distance that often comes between them their deep and heartfelt friendship endures over time, a stark contrast to the superficial charm of their nemesis.

By the same token, the goal Kenji sets with his friends, to save the world, is almost ludicrous in scope. But at the same time, we see what happens to these people when they give in and accept that their ludicrous goals have to be set aside so that they can ‘get by’ in the world. They diminish. They are demeaned. They learn few truly useful lessons and they struggle through day by day, slowly loosing touch with themselves and the people in their lives. Only when their worthy cause is returned to them do they revive, grow and become the men they wanted to be.

It’s tempting to dismiss comics as just frivolity, a few pretty pictures, with no real depth or power to them. And if you transfer them from one culture to another, surely they must loose even more of what little meaning they had. But in 20th Century Boys, Urasawa has written a powerful critique of leaving the big goals behind in exchange for the day to day and remindeds us that friendships are what we make of them. Read it, and it may change your perspective for good.

Cool Things: The Philadelphia Story

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I mentioned a while ago that I do love me some black and white movies. I’ve mentioned Casablanca before, and I figured that I might as well take advantage of this spot to mention a few others that you may not have heard of.

The Philadelphia Story stars Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart, names you’ve hopefully heard of (and if you haven’t, this ain’t a half bad film to watch as a beginner’s primer to their work.) In modern times this movie would probably be considered a romantic comedy, but it has very little in common with the films put under that heading today. A brief synopsis of the story runs something like this:

C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant) and Tracy Samantha Lord (Hepburn), decidedly upper crust Americans with significant privacy issues, get married (not shown) and quickly get divorced again. Fast forward a bit.

Tracy is planning on getting married again, this time to George Kittredge (John Howard). The editor of a major tabloidesque magazine dispatches a reporter, Macaulay “Mike” Conner (Stewart), and photographer, Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey), to cover the wedding, armed with some juicy blackmail to get the family to play along. Dexter goes along, officially to provide an introduction to the family but unofficially with the hope of winning his ex-wife back. What results is a train wreck of conflicting objectives and personalities.

The Philadelphia Story is great for a plethora of reasons. It’s funny. Really funny, the kind of funny that is timeless in the way it relies on strong, believable and openly conflicting personalities. All of the stars, and the supporting cast, nail their parts, giving performances of a quality that many modern day stars seem to only manage once every four or five movies. But most importantly, the story manages to tackle issues without being in your face about it and without sacrificing the story.

Mike is a solid, proud working man. But at his heart he’s an artist. While he spends most of his time pounding out meaningless social drivel for a second rate gossip rag he once wrote a series of short stories that he published – and sold abysmally. (My sympathies, Mike.) Even so, he views himself as a member of the proletariat, solidly against the bourgeois in all forms. Problems arise when he finds himself attracted to Tracy Lord, very much not a member of the proletariat.

Tracy is a strong, confident woman with little patience for people who can’t match her own level of foresight and character – or so she seems to tell herself. In truth, she’s stand-offish and harsh. She has tossed Dexter for his drinking habit, which disgusted her, and she finds Mike’s insight and sharp wit a match for her own standards.

Dexter stands in the middle of the whirlwind. He still loves Tracy, despite her shrewish behavior towards him, and he hopes that some day she will learn that with high standards must come mercy, or she will wind up cutting herself off from humanity and end very, very alone. He never makes excuses for his bad behavior, but he’s dried out since his drinking days and can’t quite understand why he is still being punished for them. So, with grace and humor he has to gently rebuke Tracy’s excessive zeal, finagle some way to get the Lords out from under the blackmail threats with Mike’s help and hopefully walk away with the girl and a few new friends in the end.

The Philadelphia Story is a great story, well told, but more than anything it’s great for the way it shows the ways in which romance continues after a visit to the wedding alter. Thankfully not all relationships are as rocky as Dexter and Tracy’s. But, with this story in mind, it’s a little easier to believe that, with a little grace and a lot of dedication, even the rockiest can turn out fine in the end.

Cool Things: Metropolys

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Okay, board gamers! This one’s for you. Metropolys is a board game that serves as a strange blend of real estate management and creative bluffing. Each player takes the role of an urban developer and takes turns bidding on properties, attempting to acquire districts to build in that correspond to the goals they are given at the beginning of the game.

Of course, some districts have value in and of themselves and developing a large number of some types of districts carries bonuses as well. Since each player has two objectives that can score them points, figuring out who is doing what, and why is more than a little tricky. The game ends when one player has placed all of their buildings.

Metropolys can appeal to your gamersense in a couple of different ways. It has a strong psychological aspect in that it challenges you to figure out what your opponent is up to. The bidding plays into that, since each player has a limited number of high bids and using them early can leave you powerless to stop other players from snatching up properties in the later game.

I have also found few modern board games that encourage long term planning as well as Metropolys. Most games have a fair element of randomness to them, since that helps inexperienced players keep up and enjoy the game along with the skilled players. In Metropolys, that randomness comes from not knowing exactly what the other player needs to do to win and how they’ll respond to a given situation. But, by the same token, you know exactly what you need to do to win and with a little contingency planning it’s possible to plan and execute several rounds of intense bidding that leave you considerably ahead of other players, which gives great satisfaction and makes you feel something like a supervillain in the midst of a masterful heist. (But why would anyone want to feel like that, right?)

Visually Metropolys can seem kind of busy – the colors aren’t quite as distinct as they could have been, especially as regards lakes (which are an important part of some modes of gameplay) and rivers (which aren’t), and the little tokens that mark the values of some districts pose some logistical problems and add to setup time (but since they also add to gameplay value I’m not going  to complain too much). In short, there’s nothing special about the finishwork of the game. But don’t let that discourage you. Metropolys is a fun and fast game and, since the concept and gameplay is simple, it serves as a good game for families as well as parties. If board games are your thing it’s worth the time to check out.

Cool Things: Inspector Lewis

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For whatever reason, there are few people who can do a murder mystery like the British. (Yes, yes, everyone knows Edgar Allen Poe invented the mystery story. The British do them better.) They’ve produced smashing successes in print and TV, and I would presume in film and over radio waves. In fact, the quintessential reasoning detective is Sherlock Holmes, a British detective created by a British author. And let’s not get started on Dame Agatha. Given my love of mysteries and Great Britain’s outstanding presence in the field and it’s no surprise that many of my favorite detectives are British. I’ve already mentioned Peter Grant. Today’s specimen is a little more ordinary than PC Grant, though.

Detective Inspector (DI) Robert Lewis, former Sergeant to DI Endeavor Morse. Like many police detectives, and unlike many private detectives who tend to move around, the kinds of mayhem and death that make up a large part of DI Lewis’ day to day are defined by the place he lives. For Lewis, that means Oxford.

To us American rubes, Oxford is synonymous with higher education and the University of Oxford. There’s more to the city than that – for starters Oxford University is not the only institution of higher learning in town – but when Robbie Lewis gets called out you can be almost certain some kind of brainy, professorial type involved, if only so they can drive him nuts. It also serves the dual purpose of driving home one of the prime messages of the series: Education does not make you a better person. It just means you know things.

People in Oxford can do a lot of damage to themselves and others with the things they know.

The worst part is most of these brainy types are equipped with large amounts of esoteric knowledge and a passion for advertising it, even (especially) when committing murder. So, when it comes time to interview yet another suspect who knows too much about not enough, DI Lewis drags out his own Sergeant, DS James Hathaway, who attended university in that other place (Cambridge) and is more than willing to digest all the scholastic details of the case into something his boss can handle. His career path, from scholar pursuing a career in the clergy to Sergeant who gets little respect from the same kinds of academics who once praised his work, is a stark contrast to Lewis’ long career and clear satisfaction with his job.

In addition to being an excellent foil to Lewis, Hathaway serves to ask the philosophical questions. Does finding and punishing murderers really make anything better? Is it worthwhile? And when then pieces are all in place and the investigation is complete, who picks up the pieces of the lives that have been ruined?

While mystery series are about finding who’s done it, you won’t want to tune in week after week, or pick up title after title from the library or book store, unless you love the people who are solving them. Alone, Lewis’ brusque manner and direct approach to problems could make him a little too abrasive to be truly likable. Alone, Hathaway’s intellectualism and philosophizing could make him a little to cold or wishy-washy to assure us of his commitment. Together, they make a perfect team.

As for the mysteries themselves, Lewis is a police procedural, not to be confused with a detective story. While both of those categories will probably have their day in the Genrely Speaking segment, for now suffice it to say that the emphasis is on watching Lewis and Hathaway tromp around gathering miscellaneous testimony, expert opinion and trace evidence than overly convoluted murder scenarios or brilliant leaps of logic. Rarely will our heroes put all the pieces together before we do. In fact, the scripts are usually designed to have viewer and detective arrive at the solution at once. The entertainment is less about the puzzle and more about the fun in watching it solved.

And since the puzzles are put together by people from Oxford, you’ll even gain a greater appreciation for culture thrown in! Unless you’re like Inspector Lewis, in which case you can just shake your head and wonder how anyone managed to build Western Civilization when they had scholars like this around. It’s a mystery in and of itself, isn’t it?

Of course, we already know the answer to that. After all, where would we be without men like Lewis?

Cool Things: The Beams Are Creaking

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In keeping with tradition, I come with news of the season’s fourth and final all for One Productions play, The Beams Are Creaking.

First, a quick disclaimer: I’m not in this production. So if that’s been keeping you away please consider coming to this show!

Wait, you want to know what the show is about? Well, to put it simply it’s about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor who lived in the first half of the twentieth century. He opposed the Nazi party and their takeover of the German churches and worked with Abwehr (a German Intelligence organization) as a part of the many attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler during the Second World War.

The Beams Are Creaking is a play about a hard time, when choosing to live well was not easy. Then again, living right is never easy and there’s much we can learn from people who have given their all in pursuing that end. Hopefully this production will have lessons for us all.

Shows are May 3rd – 5th and 10th – 13th, and will be at the Main branch of the Allen County Public Library. Ticket information can be found on afO’s blog.