THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606210720
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BILL RUEHLMANN
LENGTH: 76 lines
Cows can too fly.
But against their will. It happens in ``Twister,'' one of the summer's most successful cinematic blockbusters. Houses go airborne as well, and gasoline tanker trucks.
Then they come down.
The film, written by Michael (Jurassic Park) Crichton and his wife Anne-Marie Martin, is about storm-chasing meteorologists struggling to launch tracking devices inside the funnels of active tornadoes.
It's like so many ants trying to outsmart a loose Hoover.
Critics rave about lavish special effects but complain of perfunctory plotting and character development. I personally doubt anyone will go to ``Twister'' expecting ``Hamlet.'' It's a ride, not an epic.
On the other hand, if you want both a ride and the real skinny on weather freaks, pick up Storm Chaser: In Pursuit of Untamed Skies (The Weather Channel, 182 pp., $24.95), by Warren Faidley. You'll find it hard to put down.
First, because it's true.
This is the account of a professional tornado hunter who takes pictures for a living.
And second, because of those pictures.
Forks embedded in tree trunks. Upended boats and automobiles. Cloud banks like great invading mother ships, squirting forked fire at the earth.
They're electric.
Faidley's considerably wired himself.
``Winds began to circulate through the car's open window. Every piece of loose paper began to float as if suspended in zero gravity. For a fleeting moment, I was entertained, but my thoughts turned to horror as I realized I was directly under a forming tornado.''
Well, maybe not horror exactly. Would you believe exhilaration? Kansas-born Faidley, 43, started out in childhood seeking dust devils on a bicycle. He grew up wanting to become a fighter pilot, but his eyesight was imperfect, so he raced stock cars instead.
Then he went into photojournalism, a field that also requires strong nerves and a split-second reaction time.
When ``the monotony and office politics of a small newspaper took their toll,'' he quit to become a free-lance specialist in natural catastrophe, ``a man hooked on vortices.''
His dramatic photos have appeared on the cover of Life magazine and inside National Geographic.
The plus side: ``Radio and television talk shows flew me (and my clips) across the country. Reporters from Tucson to Tokyo sought my story. Magazines and tabloids billed me as the `Cyclone Cowboy,' `Lightning Stalker,' the `Fearless Weatherman,' `Flash Faidley' and the `Tornado Man.'''
The minus side: ``I've drunk coffee that spans the consumable pH scale, and I've lost count of the number of times I prayed after eating in roadside cafes. Storm chasing has been hell on relationships. And how many people, in how many towns, in how many accents, have gazed at me like I have five heads and asked, `You do what for a living?''
And, of course, he could be killed.
Faidley was a technical consultant on ``Twister.''
Storm Chaser is a quick read but a lingering look. Faidley's adventures fulfill the pulp promise of chapter headings like ``The Sky Is Falling'' and ``When the Devil Screams.'' The color photographs are stunning, lush in crimsons, purples and greens, documenting the incongruous beauty of disaster.
Faidley's book winds up with a glossary and ``Photography Notes,'' the first of which is worth repeating here: ``I do not advocate storm photography for the lay person.''
Buy Storm Chaser instead, and leave it to Faidley to twist again like he did last summer. MEMO: Bill Ruehlmann is a mass communication professor at Virginia
Wesleyan College. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
WARREN FAIDLEY
A tornado forms near Warren Faidley's home in Tuscon, Ariz. Faidley,
a technical consultant on the movie ``Twister,'' chases storms for a
living. His book is filled with photos of the storms he's followed. by CNB