Will iconic images recorded in the grooves of an ancient vase unite the Holy Land or rip it further apart?

THE VASE

A novel by Mark M. DeRobertis

Muhsin Muhabi is a Palestinian potter, descended from a long line of potters. His business is run from the same shop owned by his ancestors since the day his forebears moved to Nazareth. The region's conflict saw the death of his oldest son, and rogue terrorists are in the process of recruiting his youngest in their plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian at Nazareth’s Bethel University. He is also a Shin Bet operative on special assignment. With the help of fellow agent, Captain Benny Mathias, he plans to destroy the gang responsible for the death of his wife and only child. He puts a bomb in the ancient vase he takes on loan from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.

Mary Levin, the charming assistant to the director of Shin Bet, has lost a husband and most of her extended family to recurring wars and never-ending terrorism. She dedicates her life to the preservation of Israel, but to whom will she dedicate her heart? The brilliant professor from Bethel University? Or the gallant captain who now leads Kidon?

Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses, is a Hollywood TV host whose reality show just flopped. When a Lebanese restaurant owner requests his ghost-hunting services, he believes the opportunity will resurrect his career. All he has to do is exorcise the ghosts that are haunting the restaurant. It happens to be located right across the street from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.




Tuesday, April 5, 2022

I'm No Reviewer

I may not be a reviewer, but that doesn't mean I don't have opinions of what I think is good writing and what isn't. And what I think is a good idea, and what isn't.

TV shows have been sinking in quality, imo, for the last several decades. I'm referring to the years since what I call the golden age of TV, which was the 60s. Back then, you had great TV shows. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Wild, Wild West, Lost in Space, Star Trek, and even The Time Machine. Of course, the list goes on and on. I can't even count the number of great shows from the 60s.

The TV shows back then were great ideas for shows. The characters were great, and the casting for the characters was spot on. I mean James Arness as Matt Dillon was spot on. Lorne Green as Ben Cartwright was spot on. Robert Conrad as James West was spot on. Guy Williams as Professor John Robinson was spot on. And William Shatner as Captain Kirk was spot on. Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock was spot on. It seemed that the 60s was the golden age of TV.

I might concede that TV was okay in the 70s, but I was not sitting in front of a TV during that decade. Unless it was a football game. And that continued through the 80s too. Of course had there been a show worth watching, I would like to think that I would have. Alas, to me, at least, there weren't. Not even the return of Star Trek, (as in TNG) made me interested again. I'll admit I gave it a chance. At first I thought the older captain of a larger starship with a larger crew made sense. But at about half way through season one, I realized this new version of Star Trek sucked.

To be clear, I still had a deep affection for Star Trek TOS. And I had high hopes for TNG version. But those hopes were dashed by the portrayal of a starship captain who was always second-guessing himself, and who always needed the counseling of a much younger woman who actually had a position on the bridge as part of the command crew... It was like....what?

Can you imagine a captain of a battleship in our modern navy having to consult with a younger man or woman sitting next to him before he made command decisions? I don't think so... And so I stopped watching Star Trek, TNG before season one even concluded. I was glad I did. As for the subsequent editions of Star Trek shows, I'll admit I watched them on and off, with mixed opinions.

Which brought me into the 90s. Those shows were a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. There was the Babylon 5 show which I thought was pretty good. I never got into Cheers or Seinfeld, or any of those sitcoms. I wasn't much of a sitcom type of person. I didn't even appreciate All in the Family from the 70s. I thought it sucked actually. Which is my overall opinion of all sitcoms.

And now, in the 21st century, things aren't much better for me, as my most watched TV remains football games. The NFL in particular, and even that has suffered with the kneeling protests and the racially motivated lawsuits and such. It's a distraction and a detriment, imo.

Football was always a place, for me, at least, where race did not matter. First of all, skin color to me never mattered. Not when I was a kid growing up, not when I was a teenager and not now as an adult. A man was a man no matter what color was his skin, or what country was his origin. And a woman was a woman, regardless of any ethnic background.

But in the 21st century, race seems to be the issue that is on everyone's mind. Most people anyway, since it's always in the news and in TV shows and in the movies. Race and LGBTQ issues. It seems like TV and the movies are force-feeding these issues down our throats. And I don't appreciate that. I don't need Hollywood preaching to me. I don't need anyone preaching to me. Never did.

So I write what I like. Meaning I write my own books, I write my own music, I create my own art and my own stories. I don't expect anyone to appreciate what I write, nor do I need them to. If they have an opinion, even a bad one, that's their right. But life is too short to care about petty things like that. It's like I said many times, it doesn't matter to me. I have better things to do. 

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