When Donald Sutherland was working on Casanova Fellini cooked him a meal and asked what his favorite Canadian dish was to prepare. Sutherland didn’t know what to answer. What he should have said was, Maestro, Anglo-Saxons have no cuisine apart from meat and potatoes. The British and the Canadians make fish and chips, which can be good, but we don’t cook it ourselves. And there’s Yorkshire pudding, which you don’t even want to know about. When we want to dine well we eat Italian, or Chinese, or Indian—unless we can afford French. Otherwise it’s cowboy food.
Seeing a Head:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As your doctor, I do not recommend believing in anything beyond oneself. Of course one does believe in things beyond oneself, but I don’t recommend it.
Nevertheless, my wife’s daughter, an astrologist (though I continually press her to develop her vibrant academic career, and especially her reach as an author), and an astrological consultant for businesspeople, has made an astounding prediction on her site, which I cannot but share with you.
This was written a month ago (as of 18 July 2024):
And so we arrive at a rather radical, shocking, combustible moment mid-July, when Mars meets Uranus in Taurus. The last time Mars and Uranus met was August 2022, a volatile moment.
Now they meet again, close to the fixed star Algol, the Medusa's head in the constellation of Perseus. This star is often associated with losing one's head (literally, figuratively, or as in a 'head of state'.) The Medusa's head is also famous for turning people into stone (literally "petrified") and suggests a form of paralysis - perhaps from shock.
This is no time to mess with nature - or heavy machinery for that matter. There is a real revolutionary vibe to Mars-Uranus too.
Whatever happens, Mars-Uranus uses the element of surprise - or 'shock tactics' - to get us out of any complacency.
Just sayin’.
Robert MacLean is an independent filmmaker. His The Light Touch is on Amazon Prime, Tubi and Scanbox, and his 7-minute comedy is an out-loud laugh. He is also a novelist, a playwright, a blogger, a YouTuber, a film reviewer, a literary critic, and a stand-up comic poet. Born Toronto, PhD McGill, taught at Canadian universities, too cold, live Greece, Irish citizen. Committed to making movies that don't matter. No brains, but an intellectual snob.
Film review: Kinds of Kindness
Greek Island Murder
A Romantic
Thriller
in the
Hitchcock-
Cary Grant
Tradition
Greece’s favorite playboy and a beautiful young assistant district attorney, chased by murderous policemen and a CIA assassin, narrowly escape from an island.
When
one of their engineers is found hanged in his apartment it shakes
Telnet Communications in Athens to its base. Suicide or murder?
A rapidly emerging conspiracy implicates the CIA and anti-terrorism software on government phones. Some of the most important people in the city are upset, and the media jump on it.
Proposed: Billy Zane
A rapidly emerging conspiracy implicates the CIA and anti-terrorism software on government phones. Some of the most important people in the city are upset, and the media jump on it.
Proposed: Billy Zane
George
Papas, the CEO of Telnet for Eastern Europe and the Middle East,
though living on an island, finds himself in the eye of the storm and
suspected of the murder of one of his engineers.
George
has the Balkans too—he’s as big as the prime minister—so rather than calling him into Athens for questioning the
Justice Department send someone to the island to take his
statement, someone no one will notice—
Proposed: Tess Spentzos
—Assistant
DA Constance Constantinou, a young employee with an American law degree on
her first assignment, to the island to question him. Why have they
assigned a novice to such an important case?
The
smoothest of playboys, and a star personality in Greece, he works his
charm on her and introduces her to everyone he suspects could be
involved in this political maneuver. What more natural than taking a
beautiful woman to a party?
Proposed: Antigone Kouloukakis
Proposed: Nia Vardalos
And
George? It’s not clear whose side he’s on. He’s a wheeler and dealer
in the Middle East—how innocent can he be? Though she’s high on his
attention to her, she fears him. But they must help each other if they
want to get off the island alive.
Originally published in paper as Home from the Party:
“In Home from the Party MacLean has created a fast-paced, witty novel that pushes the murder mystery in exciting new directions.”—Keith Maillard
“This is a most entertaining and satirical tale in which black humour and farce are brought together with real acuity.”—Reference West (Vancouver)
“Considering the price and scarcity of potable water on an island suspiciously like Hydra, the discovery of a beautiful teenage corpse floating in a cistern is no laughing matter. But almost everything else is lively and fun in this mystery of political intrigue and sexual abundance in the Argosaronic.”—The Athenian
“Home from the Party is a slow-fused but explosive thriller set on an imaginary Greek island, presented in all its artsy glamour and glittering corruption….if you like epigrams, knowing insights into failed relationships, evocations of la dolce vita, Hydra-style, this is for you. MacLean… has published a previous novel, Foreign Matter, with Atheneum Press, New York. Although Foreign Matter was very well received, Home from the Party suggests that MacLean would be well-advised to undertake a series of mystery novels, using ‘Captain Costa’ and the Greek setting he evokes here with such skill and obvious joy.”—Edward Winston
“Featuring his usual comic touches, the book manages to skillfully intertwine a murder, a greek investigator, showbiz celebrities, drug dealers, artists, gigolos, the CIA and the junta, in a fast-paced, entertaining web of entangled connections.”—Angelika Timms, Athens Week
“MacLean is able to develop an interesting combination of characters in his novel. Each character is displayed with his/her own unique style and Konstantinou’s adventures are different and very funny.”—Rosanne Papadopoulos, Greek News Weekly
“Home from the Party is a fast-paced murder mystery laced with humor.”—The Athens News
“The roller-coaster ride begins....”—Chris Maverick, Greek News Weekly
“In Home from the Party MacLean has created a fast-paced, witty novel that pushes the murder mystery in exciting new directions.”—Keith Maillard
“This is a most entertaining and satirical tale in which black humour and farce are brought together with real acuity.”—Reference West (Vancouver)
“Considering the price and scarcity of potable water on an island suspiciously like Hydra, the discovery of a beautiful teenage corpse floating in a cistern is no laughing matter. But almost everything else is lively and fun in this mystery of political intrigue and sexual abundance in the Argosaronic.”—The Athenian
“Home from the Party is a slow-fused but explosive thriller set on an imaginary Greek island, presented in all its artsy glamour and glittering corruption….if you like epigrams, knowing insights into failed relationships, evocations of la dolce vita, Hydra-style, this is for you. MacLean… has published a previous novel, Foreign Matter, with Atheneum Press, New York. Although Foreign Matter was very well received, Home from the Party suggests that MacLean would be well-advised to undertake a series of mystery novels, using ‘Captain Costa’ and the Greek setting he evokes here with such skill and obvious joy.”—Edward Winston
“Featuring his usual comic touches, the book manages to skillfully intertwine a murder, a greek investigator, showbiz celebrities, drug dealers, artists, gigolos, the CIA and the junta, in a fast-paced, entertaining web of entangled connections.”—Angelika Timms, Athens Week
“MacLean is able to develop an interesting combination of characters in his novel. Each character is displayed with his/her own unique style and Konstantinou’s adventures are different and very funny.”—Rosanne Papadopoulos, Greek News Weekly
“Home from the Party is a fast-paced murder mystery laced with humor.”—The Athens News
“The roller-coaster ride begins....”—Chris Maverick, Greek News Weekly
Pretentious
Pictures Presents
a Romantic
Thriller
Robert MacLean is a bad poet and an independent filmmaker. His The Light Touch is on Amazon Prime, Tubi and Scanbox, and his 7-minute comedy is an out-loud laugh. He is also a novelist, a playwright, a blogger, a YouTuber, a film reviewer, a literary critic, and a stand-up comic poet. Born Toronto, PhD McGill, taught at Canadian universities, too cold, live Greece, Irish citizen. No brains, but an intellectual snob.
“I was beastly but never coarse. A high-class sort of heel.”
The Light Touch on Amazon Prime
The Natural Wish to Be Robert MacLean
Robert MacLean is a bad poet and an independent filmmaker. His The Light Touch is on Amazon Prime, Tubi and Scanbox, and his 7-minute comedy is an out-loud laugh. He is also a novelist, a playwright, a blogger, a YouTuber, a film reviewer, a literary critic, and a stand-up comic poet. Born Toronto, PhD McGill, taught at Canadian universities, too cold, live Greece, Irish citizen. No brains, but an intellectual snob.
“I was beastly but never coarse. A high-class sort of heel.”
The Light Touch on Amazon Prime
The Natural Wish to Be Robert MacLean
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