So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[JD]

I started reading Star Trek: TOS: Cast No Shadow by @James Swallow. I've been pretty curious about this one for a while, The Undiscovered Country is one of my favorite Trek movies, and I'm really interested in taking a more detailed look at Valeris.

 

[Stevil2001]

Today I finished reading Ralph Macchio’s recently released memoir, Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me (2022). (Checked out from the public library.)

I really enjoyed this book. A relatively short book (241 pages), I think this is one of the quickest reads I’ve had in awhile (twelve days of off and reading, alternating with another book I am also still reading, which for me is quick).

Now, first off, this is one of those kinds of books that goes like this: “if you really like X, then you’ll really like this book about X”. In other words, if you are the right age to have grown up with (as I am) or just generally love (even if you are older or younger than that demographic group) the Ralph Macchio-Pat Morita The Karate Kid movies (1984-1989), then you will probably also really enjoy reading Waxing On. Likewise, if you are a fan of the current “Karate Kid” universe sequel series, Cobra Kai, you will probably also enjoy it.

If you’re not into either of those, I don’t know. You might still enjoy it for Macchio’s friendly and engaging writing style. And also as another perspective on Hollywood filmmaking of the 1980s and 90s.

The thing I like best about this is that Macchio starts off right with his attending a “sneak preview” screening of the first Karate Kid movie (the very first time he saw it; no advance screenings for him) at a local New York movie theater on May 19, 1984 (the official full U.S. release was on June 22). He was very anxious going into seeing the movie with an audience (his only prior big movie he had been in at that point being Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders (1983)).

That experience of the audience’s complete embrace of the film and its characters (especially his young Daniel LaRusso and Pat Morita’s Mr. Miyagi), became one he would never forget. The audience cheered at moments like when the big payoff of all of those chores Miyagi had been putting Daniel through (“Show me wax on, wax off. Show me sand the floor. Show me paint the fence.” Etc.) And, of course, the big climactic moment in the tournament when the “crane kick” became a universally recognizable thing (one he saw the audience members emulating as the left the theater).

Macchio then moves back to how he got the part (including his recollections of scriptwriter/creator Robert Mark Kamen, director John Avildsen, and producer Jerry Weintraub). Then separate chapters on meeting and working with Pat Morita (Miyagi), Elizabeth (“Lisa”) Shue (“Ali with an I”), and William (“Billy”) Zabka (Johnny Lawrence).

Then a chapter on the famous “crane kick” (and how it was impossible for anyone, even professional martial artists brought in to train Macchio, Morita, Zabka, and the others, to actually *do* the kick as described by Kamen in his screenplay. (Kamen had Daniel kicking up on his plant leg as seen in the film—his other leg, the lifted one, being his injured leg—striking Johnny with the plant leg and then landing back on the same leg. No one could do it. Eventually, they had to “cheat” a bit and have Daniel (Macchio) land briefly on his injured leg and quickly shift back over to the good leg.

There are subsequent chapters about the two Macchio-Morita Karate Kid sequels and other work he did during the rest of the 1980s. (Why did he do the much less well regarded Part III? Because he had to. They insisted he sign a three-picture deal to do the first one. And it ended up costing him the River Phoenix part in Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty (1988). Although, he does say that while he himself has always had issues with The Karate Kid: Part III, it did eventually provide them with a wealth of backstory to mine later on in Cobra Kai.)

One thing I didn’t know about was that he did a Broadway show with Robert De Niro called Cuba and His Teddy Bear in 1986 (the same time that The Karate Kid: Part II was in theaters).

He talks about getting typecast in the Daniel LaRusso part, and being cast in 1991 in the Joe Pesci comedy, My Cousin Vinny. (Words of a studio exec to the filmmakers when they inquired as to Macchio’s availability: “You don’t want him, he’s the Karate Kid”.

He discusses his reactions to learning of both of the Karate Kid films that he was not a part of: Pat Morita and Hillary Swank’s The Next Karate Kid (1994) and the Will Smith produced, Jaden Smith-Jackie Chan The Karate Kid remake (2010).

He goes into how he resisted suggestions and half-baked ideas to return to the Daniel LaRusso part, and then how eventually he began to consider it, especially after a memorable guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother (the comedy series in which Neil Patrick Harris’s character insists that Johnny Lawrence is the true hero in the original Karate Kid movie and that Daniel LaRusso was the villain who moved to town, stole Johnny’s girl, and beat Johnny with an “illegal” kick in the tournament). Macchio and Zabka would go on to guest star on the series.

He goes into how, after resisting it for so long, the creators of Cobra Kai were able to sell him on being part of their Karate Kid follow-up series. (He was the last one they approached after every one else had agreed because they had heard that he had always been hesitant.)

He talks about reconnecting with Zabka (who he really wasn’t close with at the time of shooting the first film or for decades after, not until just a few years prior to Cobra Kai).

He talks about enjoying working with both the “OG” original actors like Zabka, Martin Kove (Kreece), Elizabeth Shue (in a noteworthy guest-appearance by her), Yugi Okukoto (Chosen, from The Karate Kid: Part II, and Thomas Ian Griffith (from The Karate Kid: Part III) again as well as with all of the younger teenage and twenty something actors. How he would find himself now playing a version of the Mr. Miyagi character now to the younger actors, some scenes and situations very similar to the ones Pat Morita played with him back in 1983.

He talks about some things he wishes he could get a “do over” on, the biggest one being turning down being a presenter along with Morita at the 1984 Academy Awards. He said no, but later greatly regretted it because Morita was one of the actors nominated for best supporting actor for his part as Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid. He realized, sitting and watching it at home with his girlfriend (later to be his wife, who he is still married to today) and his parents that he should have been there in support of Morita.

He later got a chance to make up for it, though, decades later, when he got to introduce Morita at the Asian Excellence Awards in New York City where Morita received a lifetime achievement award in 2006. They had a great time, he says, reconnecting after having not seen each other in a couple years (and not together at a public event in around a decade or more). One year later (almost exactly to the day, Macchio says), Pat Morita passed away.

There is more I could go into, but I shouldn’t spoil everything. Again, I highly recommend Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me to all fans of The Karate Kid films and “Cobra Kai” Netflix streaming television series. I gave it five out of five stars on GoodReads.

(Brings me to having read 27 books this year. My GoodReads yearly challenge goal for 2022 is 35.)

— David Young

P.S. (added later): A couple other things I meant to mention:

1) Macchio goes into how the first film’s producer, Jerry Weintraub, and the studio didn’t want Pat Morita to play Mr. Miyagi because they only knew Morita as a stand up comic and as having played “Al” on “Happy Days”. It wasn’t until they saw his screen test alongside Macchio that they realized that Morita was perfect for the part.

2) Macchio debunks any rumors that he turned down the part of Marty McFly in “Back to the Future”. He gives the story about how soon after “Karate Kid” came out, he had a meeting with Bob Zemekis and Steven Spielberg, who were considering him for the part. He describes how that meeting went. (Welk enough, it seemed.)

Not long after that, though, he got the confirmation that Sony was picking up his option for a Karate Kid sequel (Part II). At the same time, Zemekis and company over at Universal apparently had second thoughts as to if he was right for the part. They offered for him to come out and test for it. It, like “Karate Kid”, would have been a three film commitment, and since he was already committed to two more Karate Kid films at Sony, things didn’t go any further.

Ralph Macchio was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! a few weeks ago, and as someone who has never seen the Karate Kid or its spin-offs, I was mostly disappointed it was, as far as I am concerned, the wrong Ralph Macchio.

 

[indianatrekker26]

i just started the Star Trek: Vanguard series.

 

[Smiley]

Muppets Meet the Classics: The Phantom of the Opera

Imagine the Muppets putting on a production of the famous musical in the Muppet Theatre, and you will have a fair idea of what this book is like. The story is still set in the early 1800's, but there are numerous pop culture and technology anachronisms, such as Piggy eating things like Funyuns and characters using cell phones. I enjoyed reading it, but I have no real desire to read it a second time. 3.5 stars

 

[Reanok]

Star Trek That Which divides by Dayton Ward

 

[Smiley]

A couple of rereads:

Holes by Louis Sachar: This one still holds up. It's got some great characters, beautiful nonlinear storytelling, and the best nicknames this side of Top Gun.

Fate of the Jedi: Vortex: Saba and Tahiri's storylines are the best. The rest have their moments but can wear out their welcome after some time.

 

[Christopher]

I'm working my way through the second Star Wars: The High Republic novel. I thought I might like these, since they're basically Star Trek in the Star Wars universe, with the Republic at its most optimistic and Federation-like. But I've had trouble getting into them, since there are just too damn many characters to keep track of and the chapters jump between them too quickly. I felt the first novel didn't really give the characters much depth, and while the second one is doing somewhat better, it's still told in way too scattered and staccato a fashion to really engage me. Although the third one is by Claudia Gray, and I've liked her other SW novels, so I'm hopeful that I'll like that better.

Also, SW books have an annoying tendency to assume the reader already knows what the species look like, so they keep referring to the characters by species and giving only a cursory description at best. I have to read them with the book's Wookieepedia article's "Appearances" section cued up on my phone so I can click on the character names to see what they look like (or remind myself of who the hell they are because there are just too many names to keep straight). In retrospect, given how much of the character art shown on the wiki comes from the comics, maybe I should've started with those.

 

[Greg Cox]

I

Also, SW books have an annoying tendency to assume the reader already knows what the species look like, so they keep referring to the characters by species and giving only a cursory description at best. I have to read them with the book's Wookieepedia article's "Appearances" section cued up on my phone so I can click on the character names to see what they look like (or remind myself of who the hell they are because there are just too many names to keep straight). In retrospect, given how much of the character art shown on the wiki comes from the comics, maybe I should've started with those.

To be fair, I don't usually bother explaining that Vulcans have pointed ears because I assume that goes without saying.

Meanwhile, I just started reading an anthology, The Best American Mystery and Suspense (2022). A gift from my sister.

 

[Christopher]

To be fair, I don't usually bother explaining that Vulcans have pointed ears because I assume that goes without saying.

I think that even for a lay audience, that's more likely to fall under "general knowledge" than the fact that an Aqualish looks like a walrus man or that a Sullustan is the species of Lando's puppet copilot from ROTJ. I mean, most of these species names were never even spoken in a Star Wars movie or TV show, so it can be hard to know which is which, even from the brief text descriptions.

And part of the problem, as I said, is just the sheer volume of different characters and species to keep track of. That kind of diversity is cool to see onscreen or in a comic book, and a nice concept in the abstract, but in prose it can be confusing if it's overdone.

Also, a number of your books have Spock on the cover anyway, so...

 

[USS Firefly]

The Dresden Files White Night. Every Dresden files book is getting better and better

 

[bdub76]

I'm reading the Enola Holmes books right now. They're pretty fast reads. Then, I have to knock out Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow for book club.

 

[RonG]

Finished Harm's Way by @David Mack and moving on to Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore

 

[Ron M]

Finished my read-through of L. Frank Baum's non-Oz fantasy books which I started earlier this year; more specifically, a read-through of all the books with characters that later appear in his Oz series. Here's a one-sentence review of each, from my most to least favorite:

-Sky Island: Fun story with lots of interesting twists and turns.
-Queen Zixi of Ix: Entertaining, with thought-provoking moments and a healthy dose of satire.
-Dot and Tot of Merryland: Simplistic plot, but enough clever ideas and fun characters to make up for it.
-John Dough and the Cherub: The plot is all over the place, but John Dough (a gingerbread man) has some surprisingly deep philosophical moments as he contemplates his purpose after being brought to life.
-The Magical Monarch of Mo: A collection of short stories, including some surprisingly dark comedies featuring dismemberment and body horror.
-The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus: Creative ideas here and there, but things work out so easily for Santa that it makes for a pretty bland read.
-The Sea Fairies: Basically a string of bad fish puns, with almost no plot or character development to speak of.

I find it interesting that Baum was an early adopter of the "shared universe" concept--characters in his various fantasy series cross over with each other regularly--though I know, of course, that it didn't originate with him.

 

[Christopher]

I find it interesting that Baum was an early adopter of the "shared universe" concept--characters in his various fantasy series cross over with each other regularly--though I know, of course, that it didn't originate with him.

I've long considered the myth of Jason and the Argonauts to be the Ancient Greek equivalent of The Avengers, the big epic crossing over all the local mythic heroes in a big team-up adventure. Indeed, pretty much any polytheistic pantheon is a shared-universe crossover of local deities and myths.

 

[Ron M]

I've long considered the myth of Jason and the Argonauts to be the Ancient Greek equivalent of The Avengers, the big epic crossing over all the local mythic heroes in a big team-up adventure. Indeed, pretty much any polytheistic pantheon is a shared-universe crossover of local deities and myths.

Hmm, good point. I was actually just trying to think of what the very first "shared literary universe" would have been; off the top of my head, the earliest example I could come up with was Twain (Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer appearing in each other's books). I guess the ancient Greeks had him beat by two millennia.

 

[bdub76]

Finished my read-through of L. Frank Baum's non-Oz fantasy books which I started earlier this year; more specifically, a read-through of all the books with characters that later appear in his Oz series. Here's a one-sentence review of each, from my most to least favorite:

-Sky Island: Fun story with lots of interesting twists and turns.
-Queen Zixi of Ix: Entertaining, with thought-provoking moments and a healthy dose of satire.
-Dot and Tot of Merryland: Simplistic plot, but enough clever ideas and fun characters to make up for it.
-John Dough and the Cherub: The plot is all over the place, but John Dough (a gingerbread man) has some surprisingly deep philosophical moments as he contemplates his purpose after being brought to life.
-The Magical Monarch of Mo: A collection of short stories, including some surprisingly dark comedies featuring dismemberment and body horror.
-The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus: Creative ideas here and there, but things work out so easily for Santa that it makes for a pretty bland read.
-The Sea Fairies: Basically a string of bad fish puns, with almost no plot or character development to speak of.

I find it interesting that Baum was an early adopter of the "shared universe" concept--characters in his various fantasy series cross over with each other regularly--though I know, of course, that it didn't originate with him.

Thanks. I'll be sure to read Sky Island. These are all in public domain now and available via Project Gutenberg. Lots more Agatha Christie novels will be hitting soon too.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=frank+baum&submit_search=Go!

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=agatha+christie&submit_search=Go!

 

[John Clark]

Started on the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.

 

[Stevil2001]

Finished my read-through of L. Frank Baum's non-Oz fantasy books which I started earlier this year; more specifically, a read-through of all the books with characters that later appear in his Oz series. Here's a one-sentence review of each, from my most to least favorite:

-Sky Island: Fun story with lots of interesting twists and turns.
-Queen Zixi of Ix: Entertaining, with thought-provoking moments and a healthy dose of satire.
-Dot and Tot of Merryland: Simplistic plot, but enough clever ideas and fun characters to make up for it.
-John Dough and the Cherub: The plot is all over the place, but John Dough (a gingerbread man) has some surprisingly deep philosophical moments as he contemplates his purpose after being brought to life.
-The Magical Monarch of Mo: A collection of short stories, including some surprisingly dark comedies featuring dismemberment and body horror.
-The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus: Creative ideas here and there, but things work out so easily for Santa that it makes for a pretty bland read.
-The Sea Fairies: Basically a string of bad fish puns, with almost no plot or character development to speak of.

I find it interesting that Baum was an early adopter of the "shared universe" concept--characters in his various fantasy series cross over with each other regularly--though I know, of course, that it didn't originate with him.

I would agree with this ranking, except I'd drop Dot and Tot below Magical Monarch; I read all of these except John Dough over the past year or so with my son.

Hmm, good point. I was actually just trying to think of what the very first "shared literary universe" would have been; off the top of my head, the earliest example I could come up with was Twain (Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer appearing in each other's books). I guess the ancient Greeks had him beat by two millennia.

Ignoring stuff that's not really relevant to modern publishing practices, it's something that took off during the middle-to-late nineteenth century. A lot of Victorian authors would have major characters from one novel turn up as minor characters in another (e.g., Hardy, Disraeli, Grand, Trollope). Wells does it in his non-sf novels, but also The Sleeper Awakes includes The War of the Worlds as part of its backstory.

 

[Smiley]

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now (4/5 stars)

Ryan North's writing is all about caring, empathy, and supporting each other making the world a better place. His SG series is full of positivity, fun facts, and jokes, and it does not take the comic universe of Marvel overly seriously.

 

[Greg Cox]

Proofreading my new fantasy story for Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022, coming soon.

Only found two typos so far!