Tom's Recommended Film of the Week

Tough descision to make this week, as I saw a number of good films, but my recommendation is for The Good Shepard. Robert De Niro has only directed three films, each of which I've seen and enjoyed. He chooses strong, yet simple stories, with compeling themes and crafts them into stylish and intriguing films. The Good Shepard is long, at nearly 3 hours and I have read reviews which suggested severe editing was in order and would not destroy the story. I can't disagree with that, but I will say that in it's present form it has a beautifully artistic quality, which is probably the result of De Niros's directing and Eric Roth's screenplay. When I had finished viewing The Good Sheaprd, my first thought was, a simple yet compelling story crafted into a wonderfully artistic film.

The cast is very diverse, but includes some excellent actors. Matt Damon is always enjoyable, as is Angelina Jolie, who gets a chance to try something different from her ususal fare for this film. Alec Baldwin, William Hurt and John Turturro provide superior supporting roles to give the film a richness not often seen in a spy film. But then, this is not like any spy film you may have seen before. There is less action, more silence, more thinking. If it's an action spy film you seek, I would recommend Casino Royale or The Bourne Identity, both of which I enjoy very much. But if you like history and want to have a sense for how the CIA developed in it's early days post WWII, or have pro/con ideas about devotion to country and want to explore other perspectives, then give The Good Shepard a try.

Geocaching - A Fun New Hobby with it's own Coins

Last week my eldest son graduated from high school. We had a big party and plenty of relatives and friends came by to show their support for my son in his future endeavors. It was great to see that so many people have such respect for him. I guess a parent can afford to take a moment of pride at time like this.

During the many fine conversations throughout the weekend, one topic came up which was completely new to me; Geocaching. Apparently my brother -in-law and his family have taken up Geocaching as a hobby and they kindly took the time to explain the concept and even took a group of family and friends on a Geocaching adventure near our home.

The simplest way of explaining Geocaching is to equate it to a kind of treasure hunt, except that the hunt is of more importance than the recovery of any treasure. At it's most basic form: someone hides an item and a logbook and someone else finds it, using clues and a Global Positioning System (GPS). Once the item is discovered, you record the fact that you found it and move along to another search, or back to daily life.

There are huge numbers of people flocking to this hobby all the time. It's a growing little cottage industry, and to join you really don't need too much in the way of equipment or supplies. It's much easier with a portable GPS, and the use of Geocaching tokens or coins is helpful as well. If fact, while searching eBay for tokens the other day, I noticed that Geocoins have gained their own section under Exonumia in the coins listings. At the time I looked there were over 430 listings for Geocoins, more than for world tokens. Designs were varied, some looked like casino chips, others like Challenge coins or medals. All emit a signal which is picked up by the GPS, making it easier to locate their hiding place in a reasonable amount of time.

For a hobby sport that just got started in 2000, Geocaching is growing at an extreme pace. Using the most popular site, Geocaching.com I read articles about this active hobby from Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, the UK and even Montenegro, so it seems to spreading worldwide very quickly. It's fun, easy to get started in, requires little knowledge, but does become easier with experience. Of course there are websites to assit you with forums and advice, plus clubs to help you enjoy the shared experince with other Geocachers. Best of all, no matter how rural or urban an area you live in, it is a near certainty that there will be a selection of Geocaches within a reasonable distance from your home, so all can enjoy this hobby.

Friday Fix

London pm fixes for 6-01-07

Gold $666.50

Silver $13.53

Platinum $1,290.00

Palladium $371.00

Latvian Politics, Latvian Commemoratives!

Latvia has elected a new president. President elect Valdi Zatlers comes from a medical background in surgery and has had little, if any experience as a politician prior to this office. He replaces Varia Vike-Freiberga who held the honor of being Eastern Europes first female president.

In recent years Latvia has issued several large silver commemorative coins with classic historical themes, along side circulating coinage with some simple yet unusual desings such as the 1 Lats KM#66 struck in 2005 with a pretzel on the reverse, or the 1 Lats KM#58 from 2003 with an Ant on the reverse. Coming in January 2008 Latvia will be issuing their first Euro coins.

Given Latvias recent political changes, one would hope that future coins might exhibit a portrait of Vike-Freiberga as a pioneer of women in high office, or perhaps Zatlers as a man of medicine turned to public service. Don't get me wrong, I love a good pretzel as much as anyone, but when significant current events occur, it is always wise to note them for future numismatic honors.

Spanish Ship Wreck?

Looks like the Spanish government has decided not to wait any longer! They have filed suite in a U.S. federal court of their claim on a recent shipwreck recovery by Odyssey Marine Exploration. Silver and gold coins, presumably of Spanish origin, were recently discovered, recovered and shipped back to Odyssey's base in Florida, without full disclosure of the location of the wreck. Up to this point Odyssey has been using the name Black Swan for this find and have yet to place an historical name on the ship.

Odyssey has not yet released any close-up photo's of the coins, but from the few pictures of open storage bins that Odyssey released to the press last week it did seem clear that these recovered coins were of Spanish origin.

Tom's Recommended Film of the Week

For those of you who like odd films with quirky, yet compelling characters I'm recommending Junebug for this weeks film. Junebug is an extremely character driven film, which offers some great humor brought on by interactions between city dwellers and rural family members, who end up together for a sort of impromptu family reunion. A side story of business negotiations with an ecclectic folk artist adds an almost surreal effect to this wonderfully compelling and bizarre story. The best thing about this film is that you actually see character development unfolding in little ways as you watch. Great performances by Celia Weston as Peg, Amy Adams as Ashley and Embeth Davidtz as Madeleine, plus wonderful support from all the rest of the cast. Phil Morrison won the New Directors award at MoMA in 2005 and Amy Adams won a Special Jury Prize for Acting at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for their work in Junebug. I think screen writter Angus Maclachlan should have been honored as well.