In a Sea of Ks

This is a complete departure for this blog, but ... this was frustrating me to no end. I bought this cool audiobook with a great cast. I went to look up the cast members names, but had a heck of a time matching the names to the characters in the book. The cast rocked, Alan Alda, Paul Sorvino, Carl Reiner, Bruce Boxleitner, Jeri Ryan, Henry Rollins, etc. I *knew* that one of them was Nathan Fillion and one was Simon Pegg, and one was Rob Reiner. (I immediately recognized some of those, but Simon Pegg I had no idea.)

Remember this is an audiobook of interviews -- I don't own the paper copy, and I downloaded, so do not even have the CD cover -- the names of the characters are only mentioned once or twice at most. As you listen they become, "The Russian soldier," "the Chinese doctor," stuff like that, and the chapter names are the places the narrator talks to them, not the place the action in the chapter happens (Meteora, Greece, is the chapter that has the Canadian soldier).

So, I made a list that includes the chapter place, the character name, and the voice actor, plus what I called the character in my head and some annotations about each chapter to jog a memory or two. (The ones without parenthetical character names I haven't listened to yet.) I tried not to be spoilery, but there may be some hints in the following...

World War Z Complete Audiobook – Chapters, Characters, Cast

Introduction Max Brooks as The Interviewer

WARNINGS

Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China [Patient Zero/The First Case] -- Steve Park as Kwang Jingshu (the Chinese doctor)
Lhasa, the People’s Republic of Tibet [Smuggler seeing signs] -- Frank Kamai as Nury Televadi (smuggler)
Meteora, Greece [Bandits in cave/Canadian soldier's account] -- Nathan Fillion as Stanley MacDonald (Canadian soldier)
The Amazon Rain Forest, Brazil [virus-infected heart transplant] -- Paul Sorvino as Fernando Oliveira (corrupt doctor)
Bridgetown Harbor, Barbados, West Indies Federation [South African slum outbreak] -- Ade M’Cormack as Jacob Nyathi (Black South African)
Tel Aviv, Israel [Gathering Evidence/The Warmbrunn-Knight Report] -- Carl Reiner as Jurgen Warmbrunn (Israeli spy)
Bethlehem, Palestine [Militant Son/Family Move to Israel] -- Waleed Zuiater as Saladin Kader (Rebelling son)

BLAME

Langley, Virginia USA [CIA director/CIAs non-response] -- Jay O. Sanders as Bob Archer (CIA guy)
Vaalajarvi, Finland [The Military/America’s response] -- Dennis Boutsikaris as General Travis D'Ambrosia (military brass)
Vostok Station, Antarctica [Capitalist who marketed vaccine] -- Martin Scorsese as Breckinridge "Breck" Scott (moneymaker without remorse)
Amarillo, Texas, USA [Former White House chief-of-staff] -- Simon Pegg as Grover Carlson (White House spin doctor)
Troy, Montana, USA [Zombies attack family in suburbia] -- Denise Crosby as Mary Jo Miller (suburban mom)

THE GREAT PANIC

Parnell Air National Guard Base: Memphis, Tennessee, USA [Highway traffic jam/zombies] -- Bruce Boxleitner as Gavin Blaire (derigible pilot)
Alang, India [Ship Scrapyard] -- Ajay Naidu as Ajay Shah (Indian refugee)
Topeka, Kansas, USA [Feral children; church attack] -- Nicki Clyne as Sharon (4-year-old)
Khuzhir, Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, the Holy Russian Empire [Russian army experiences/decimation] -- Jeri Ryan as Maria Zhuganova (Female Russian Soldier)
Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies Federation [Famous Millionaire’s Haven] -- Henry Rollins as T. Sean Collins (merc)
Ice City, Greenland [Iran & Pakistan] -- Maz Jobrani as Ahmed Farahnakian (Iranian pilot)
Denver, Colorado, USA [The Battle of Yonkers] -- Mark Hamill as Todd Wainio (Army infrantry)

TURNING THE TIDE

Robben Island, Cape Town Province, United States of Southern Africa [The Redeker Plan] -- Eamonn Walker as Paul Redeker and Xolelwa Azania (South African plan)
Armagh, Ireland [Hamburg, Germany, Army withdrawal] -- Jürgen Prochnow as Philip Adler (West German soldier)
Yevchenko Veterans' Sanatorium, Odessa, Ukraine (Kiev bridge blown to prevent zombies crossing) -- David Ogden Stiers as Bohdan Tara Kondratiuk (Kievian soldier)
Sand Lakes Provincial Wilderness Park, Manitoba, Canada [Family Flight to Canada] -- Michelle Kholos as Jesika Hendricks (little girl flees)
Udaipur Lake Palace, Lake Pichola, Rajasthan, India [General Raj-Singh; monkeys and blowing the pass] -- Kal Penn as Sardar Khan (Indian soldier with the monkeys)

HOME FRONT

Taos, New Mexico [DeStRes, talent and tools] -- Alan Alda as Arthur Sinclair (DeStRes guy)
Burlington, Vermont [Vice President, capital punishment] -- Rob Reiner as "The Whacko" (VP)
Wenatchee, Washington [Wheelchair Home Watch; quizlings] -- Dean Edwards as Joe Muhammad (wheelchair neighborhood watch guy)
Malibu, California [Countering suicides with success stories] -- Frank Darabont as Roy Elliot (director)
Parnell Air National Guard Base, Tennessee [Pilot of downed plane] -- Becky Ann Baker as Christina Eliopolis (Downed pilot)

AROUND THE WORLD

Province of Bohemia, the European Union [Castles, She wouldn’t leave] -- Eamonn Walker as David Allen Forbes (Englishman)
Ulithi Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia [Radio Free Earth] -- Parminder Nagra as Barati Palshigar (Radio translator)
The Demilitarized Zone: South Korea [North Korea mystery] -- Brian Tee as Hyungchoi Choi (South Korean)
Kyoto, Japan [Okatu, hacker escape] -- Masi Oka as Kondo Tatsumi (Japanese hacker)
Kyoto, Japan [Blind monk] -- Frank Kamai as Sensei Tomonaga Ijiro (blind monk)
Cienfuegos, Cuba [Defending Cuba] -- John Turturro as Seryosha Garcia Alvarez
Patriot's Memorial, the Forbidden City, Beijing, China [Chinese submarine] -- Ric Young as Admiral Xu Zhicai
Sydney, Australia [Space station] -- Alfred Molina as Terry Knox
Ancud, Isla Grande de Chiloe, Chile [Saratoga Conference of Nations] -- John McElroy as Ernesto Olguin

TOTAL WAR

Aboard the Mauro Altieri, 3000 feet above Vaalajarvi, Finland [Total War] -- General D’Ambrosia
Denver, Colorado [The First Fight – Hope, New Mexico] -- Todd Wainios
Ainsworth, Nebraska, USA [K9/soldier teams] -- Common as Darnell Hackworth
Siberia, the Holy Russian Empire [Russian tactics; priests' role] -- F. Murray Abraham as Father Sergei Ryzhkov
Aboard the USS Holo Kai, off the Coast of the Hawaiian Islands [Fighting undersea zombies] -- Brian Tee as Master Chief Petty Officer Michael Choi (Diver)
Quebec, Canada [Paris tunnels] -- René Auberjonois as Andre Renard
Denver, Colorado – A Day Later [The Road to New York] -- Todd Wainios

GOODBYES

Burlington, Vermont -- The Whacko (VP)
Khuzhir, Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, the Holy Russian Empire -- Maria Zhuganova (Female Russian soldier)
Bridgetown Harbor, Barbados, West Indies Federation -- T. Sean Collins (merc)
Sand Lakes Provincial Wilderness Park, Manitoba, Canada -- Jesika Hendricks (fleeing child)
Troy, Montana, USA -- Mary Jo Miller (suburban mom)
Chongqing, China -- Kwang Jing-shu (Chinese doctor)
Wenatchee, Washington -- Joe Muhammad (Wheelchair neighborhood watch artist)
Taos, New Mexico, USA -- Arthur Sinclair (DeStRes guy)
Kyoto, Japan -- Sensei Tomonaga Ijiro (blind monk)
Armagh, Ireland -- Philip Adler (West German soldier)
Tel Aviv, Israel -- Jurgen Warmbrunn (Israeli spy)
Aboard USS Tracy Bowden -- Michael Choi (diver)
Denver, Colorado -- Todd Wainios (Army infantry guy)

Resources used:
My own listening plus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z
http://www.scribd.com/doc/907037/World-War-Z-TOC-CrossReference-to-CD-tracks
http://postapocal-book.clan.su/World_War_Z.pdf

There's a pell in my backyard.

While I was mowing around it earlier (with "Wynn-power" -- a push mower), I was thinking about it and laughing at myself. It's one of *those* things. Somehow, I don't think the guy who my mom is encouraging me to meet at the book club or the singles group at church or the dude Dad wants me to pick up at the local cowboy bar would truly get that.

"Oh, that? That's a pell. My ex-boyfriend put it up so that he could practice ... ummm ... hitting people with sticks. Y'know to do more precise combinations faster, with less thought... Oh, yeah, that ... I have a lot of friends who do it. They put on armor and use practice swords made of a wood-like material. What? Ummm... Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's over me. Ummm, about 6'4", ~245? ... Oh, you have to go now, really? ... Well, I'll talk to you later? Call me?"

There really should be a special dating site for SCA people. I really can't put the pell on Match.com:

"Countess and Laurel (that means I can sew) who's not that jaded -- with long blond hair, and, well, I think I have dainty ankles, but everyone else says my best feature is my smile -- seeks male fighter, for mutual support... I'll watch you fight, make sure you drink enough, and cheer you on at all the right times (I'm good at this, I have references); you let me watch you fight (you don't even have to be that good) and be there to tell me it will be alright when things go bump in the night; please be either over your mid-life crisis or have a few good years left before it starts. I own a car that will carry a 9-foot spear -- on the inside, and did I mention I have a pell in my backyard?" :o)