Saturday, March 10, 2012
Yet Another Freebie for the Weekend!
Amazon.com: The Feedstore Chronicles eBook: Travis Erwin: Kindle Store: Welcome to Pearl's Feed and Seed Most coming-of-age stories are fraught with symbolism, hidden metaphors, and a heaping mound of other literary devices. Not this one. Not mine. You see, I came of age while working at a dusty Texas feedstore. A place where To Kill a Mockingbird involved a twelve-year-old and a BB gun. Of Mice and Men was a problem easily solved with rat poison. And David Copperfield was nothing more than a dude that made shit disappear. In the spring of 1989, I went to work at Pearl's Feed and Seed for a man named Doyle Suggs. On the surface Doyle and I had little in common: I was a rosy-cheeked boy of sixteen; he was a twice-divorced, thirty-year-old high school dropout. I had yet to go on my first date; he was trading sex for horse feed in the back room. Sure, Doyle was a lout, a liar, and a lecherous derelict. To this day, he remains the most morally bankrupt man I've ever met, yet my life wouldn't be half as blessed, had I missed out on his misguided education. The Feedstore Chronicles is a mostly true account of those days and when murderous ex-wives, well-hung bulldogs, and feed room fornication were all part of a normal day at Pearl's.
Leonardo Cimino, R. I. P.
Leonardo Cimino, a Distinctive Actor, Dies at 94 - NYTimes.com: Leonardo Cimino, who once thought his singular appearance would make an acting career improbable but who ended up spending more than 60 years as an in-demand character actor whose roles included gangsters, grandfathers, the pope, Vincent van Gogh and “Scary German Guy,” died on March 3 at his home in Woodstock, N.Y. He was 94.
Free for Kindle this Weekend!
The investigation grinds to a halt when he discovers that the young murderers have fled to Somalia to fight in the rebel army. He's at his wits' end when the father of one of the boys, an ex-gang leader named Mustafa, comes looking for answers, wanting to clear his son's name and refusing to take no for an answer.
Bleeker and Mustafa form an uneasy alliance, teaming up to help bring the boys back home to stand trial. But little do they know what Somalia has in store for them.
Murder, warfare, piracy, love, betrayal and revenge. ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS is an epic thriller that will have you white-knuckling your eReader all through the night.
Free for Kindle this Weekend!
8700 words. Originally published in RETRO PULP TALES, Joe Lansdale, ed., Subterranean Press, 2006.
Free for Kindle -- 3 Days Only!
Amazon.com: The Bone Polisher (Simeon Grist Mystery) eBook: Timothy Hallinan: Books: 2011 Edgar and Macavity nominee Timothy Hallinan's sixth and final novel featuring erudite Los Angeles private eye Simeon Grist takes place in the West Hollywood of 1995, where the community is shaken bu the brutal killing of an older man who was widely loved for his generosity and kindness. In a time when the police were largely indifferent to crimes against gay people, Simeon is hired to catch the murderer—and finds himself up against the most dangerous adversary of his career, a man who kills his victims one once, but twice: once physically and once in spirit. The story's climax takes place at a memorable Halloween-themed wake, but there's a big plot twist yet to come.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
CBS Detroit: A man was shot and killed Friday night after an apparent dispute over the price of condoms at a Detroit gas station.
Jean Giraud (aka Moebius), R. I. P.
BBC News - France comics artist Jean Giraud - Moebius - dies at 73: Jean Giraud, one of France's leading comics artists, has died in Paris at the age of 73 after a long illness.
He drew for more than 50 years, under various names, but was most widely known as Moebius.
He was popular in the US and Japan, working with legend Stan Lee and manga artists, as well as in his homeland
He also worked on design concepts and storyboards for a number of top science fiction films, including Alien, Tron, The Abyss and The Fifth Element.
He drew for more than 50 years, under various names, but was most widely known as Moebius.
He was popular in the US and Japan, working with legend Stan Lee and manga artists, as well as in his homeland
He also worked on design concepts and storyboards for a number of top science fiction films, including Alien, Tron, The Abyss and The Fifth Element.
And Keep Off His Lawn!
petoskeynews.com: Elderly farmer near Bois D'Arc pulls gun on 3 thieves who came back for more
Friday, March 09, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
Latest entry in a fine series. Pecan Springs is always fun to visit.Amazon.com: Cat's Claw (A Pecan Springs Mystery) (9780425245279): Susan Wittig Albert: Books: Police Chief Sheila Dawson believes the death of Pecan Spring's computer guru, Larry Kirk, to be a suicide, perhaps triggered by his painful divorce. Further investigation reveals that Kirk's death wasn't self-inflicted. And the truth is reinforced by her friend China Bayles' news-Larry recently asked her for legal advice in regards to a stalker.
As a police chief in a male-dominated force, Sheila meets many challenges, especially when her theories rock the boat in high profile cases like that of George Timms. He was caught breaking into Larry's computer shop to steal his own computer back because of dangerous personal information it contained. Now that Larry is dead, she's sure it's connected to the burglary. And she's also sure she'll get plenty of resistance on her assessment...
Timms's time to turn himself in to the police comes and goes, and he's nowhere to be found. In her investigation, Sheila uncovers secrets, terrible secrets that would drive anyone to kill. So who then? It's up to Sheila to prove she's got what it takes to hunt down the predator that's loose on the streets of Pecan Springs...
James T. Ellis, R. I. P.
James T. Ellis Dead: The Trammps Singer Dies At 74: James T. "Jimmy" Ellis, who belted out the refrain "Burn, baby burn!" in a 1970s-era disco hit that's still replayed in modern sports arenas, has died. He was 74.
David Turner of Bass-Cauthen Funeral Home in Rock Hill, S.C., said the frontman for The Trammps died Thursday at a nursing home in the city. A cause of death was not immediately known.
The Trammps released "Disco Inferno" – the song with the popular refrain – in 1976. The song was featured in the iconic movie "Saturday Night Fever," its soundtrack winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. "Disco Inferno" soared up to No. 11 on Billboard's Hot 100 on May 27, 1978.
David Turner of Bass-Cauthen Funeral Home in Rock Hill, S.C., said the frontman for The Trammps died Thursday at a nursing home in the city. A cause of death was not immediately known.
The Trammps released "Disco Inferno" – the song with the popular refrain – in 1976. The song was featured in the iconic movie "Saturday Night Fever," its soundtrack winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. "Disco Inferno" soared up to No. 11 on Billboard's Hot 100 on May 27, 1978.
Peter Bergman, Firesign Theatre founder, dies at 72 | 89.3 KPCC
89.3 KPCC: Peter Bergman, founder of the surreal comedy group Firesign Theatre, died Friday morning. He was 72, and had been suffering from leukemia.
Hat tip to Todd Mason.
Hat tip to Todd Mason.
John Carter
The reviews I'd read of this movie, some of them by SF fans, had me a little concerned. I needn't have worried. I've never been happier in a theater than I was for the couple of hours of John Carter. I'm not going to look back over the reviews to see what others didn't like or quibbled about. I'm just going to say that the Barsoom I remembered from my reading the Burroughs novels was all right there on the screen in front of me. Tars Tarkus and the Tharks, Woola, Dejah Thoris, Kantos Kan, you name it. I wouldn't have minded if the movie had been a hour longer. If I'd seen it when I was a kid, I'd have just have stayed in my seat to see it again immediately. In fact, I felt for a while as if I were a kid again, and the old Sense of Wonder was tingling through me as it hadn't in a long time. Maybe I'm the only one who was affected this way, but whatever they spent on this movie was worth it as far as I'm concerned. A winner all the way.
This Is Great
You have to sit through a commercial, but it's worth it.
msnbc video: From the Archives: Spring Break 1962
msnbc video: From the Archives: Spring Break 1962
Sheriff Rhodes Doesn't Have the Fire Power to Do This
AZCentral.com: Deputies suspected that Llovera, who had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of being present at a cockfight, still had roosters and chickens on his property, a violation of his probation. They also suspected he was raising them to fight, a Class 5 felony.
[. . . .]
The Sheriff's Office insists in court documents that the use of a tank, a bomb robot and 40 deputies was part of its normal course of duties.
[. . . .]
The Sheriff's Office insists in court documents that the use of a tank, a bomb robot and 40 deputies was part of its normal course of duties.
Unmarked
Unmarked: Ordinary Scenes With Unsettling Stories: These seem like perfectly quiet — beautiful, even — landscapes. But read the titles and you might start to second guess how beautiful they are. The images are scenes where disposed bodies were discovered. The titles are the victims' names. That's the unsettling experience Stephen Chalmers is trying to evoke because that's the experience he had.
Forgotten Books: The Mammoth Book of New World Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1960s -- Presented by Isaac Asimov
Although the cover says that Isaac Asimov "presents" the contents, there's no evidence of it inside: no to the book itself, no introductions to the stories and no afterwords. Maybe some other edition has them. The copyright page also lists the ubiquitous Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh. If you're looking for a solid collection of famous novellas from the '60s, here it is. The Zelazny story forms part of My Name is Legion," in which a man who's kept evidence of his existence from being put into the worldwide computer network that tracks everyone. He's sort of a p.i. of the future who can adopt many guises. I'm a Zelazny fan, and I liked this one. But then I'm a fan of all the writers here, and of all the stories. The Farmer tale became part of the first Riverworld novel, and the Laumer is a BOLO story, one of the first, if not the very first. McCaffery's Weyr Search became part of the first Dragonriders book. Silverberg has a good one about a guy who dumps lethe-like drugs in the L. A. water system and about what happens when people begin to forget their pasts. I could go on, but why bother? If you haven't read these and the others before, they're all highly recommended. And they're highly recommended for re-reading, too.
The little snowman on the back cover is a sticker someone put on this used copy that I bought a good while ago, in case you were wondering.
The little snowman on the back cover is a sticker someone put on this used copy that I bought a good while ago, in case you were wondering.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
CBS Charlotte: Florence police say a 9-year-old girl stabbed her grandmother after they argued about whether she could watch television.
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Texas vulture study upends forensics - Houston Chronicle: What they're finding at the research facility debunks some of what they and other experts believed about estimating time of death for a person whose remains are found outdoors and exposed to the environment.
Link via Jayme Blashke.
Link via Jayme Blashke.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
Detective Martin Bora is back, this time in Verona, Italy, in 1943. A literary historical mystery worth your time.
Q and A with Steve Brewer, author of PARTY DOLL
Q. PARTY DOLL is the ninth adventure for private eye Bubba Mabry. Why bring back Bubba now?
Couple of reasons: 1) My wife and I recently moved back to Bubba's stomping grounds -- Albuquerque, NM -- after nine years in Northern California, so it felt good to get back in the swing of things here via a Bubba story, and 2) I wanted to drive traffic to the other Bubba books, which are all now available as e-books.
In PARTY DOLL, Bubba is hired to search for a missing stripper who goes by the stage name Joy Forever. But his investigation uncovers the sort of public corruption which regularly make headlines in New Mexico.
Q. Why a novella?
I set out to write a short story, but the story kept growing and getting more complicated, and it eventually weighed in around 37,000 words. That's about half the length of a regular Bubba novel. Thanks to e-books, there's a market again for novellas, so I published it at a price of $1.99.
Q. You seem to have embraced self-publishing on e-books. Why is that?
My traditional publisher killed its mystery line not long after CUTTHROAT was published in late 2007. After that, it became increasingly difficult for me to find a traditional publishing outlet (though my agent continues to shop manuscripts around New York). I continued writing at my regular pace, and soon had several manuscripts ready to go, including the standalones LOST VEGAS, CALABAMA, FIREPOWER and THE BIG WINK. Meanwhile, I acquired the electronic rights on my backlist books from the original publishers. I self-published all these books (about two dozen!) as e-books over the past year, and they're doing well. The nicest thing about self-publishing, to me, is that I can write the stories I want to write without worrying about impressing some junior editor in New York.
Q. Will we ever see another movie starring Bubba?
While it was great fun (and quite profitable) to see LONELY STREET made into a Hollywood comedy, I doubt that Bubba will make it to the big screen again. However, another of my books remains under film/TV option in Hollywood. That book, BOOST, also is being considered for a Bollywood film in India. I don't know how that would work out -- the book is about car thieves in Albuquerque -- but I'd love to see it made into a movie, one way or the other.
Q. What are you working on now?
I've just started writing a standalone about bank robbers. They knock over an Albuquerque bank and make a huge haul because the bank holds the weekend desposits from an Indian casino. Once word gets out, the robbers are pursued not only by the FBI and the cops, but by other bad guys who want that cash.
And Keep Off His Lawn!
Key West man accused of sitting on his cockatoo: A Key West man has been charged with felony animal cruelty, accused of squeezing, sitting on and flipping the bird.
Police say Douglas Kutney, 67, ripped out several feathers and attempted to sit on his pet cockatoo, shocking more than 20 onlookers near Mallory Square, where tourists gather to watch the sun set each night.
Police say Douglas Kutney, 67, ripped out several feathers and attempted to sit on his pet cockatoo, shocking more than 20 onlookers near Mallory Square, where tourists gather to watch the sun set each night.
Ngaio Marsh: New Zealand's Mistress of the Macabre
Ngaio Marsh: New Zealand's Mistress of the Macabre on AbeBooks: Ngaio (pronounced NIGH-oh) Marsh was a woman ahead of her time. Born Edith Ngaio Marsh in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1895, she displayed a fervent love of the arts. She was gifted and passionate with a paintbrush, and intended for sometime to become a professional artist. She also had talent for acting, writing and the theater from early childhood. In fact, at St. Margaret's College, a school in Christchurch she attended from age 15-18, the school put on a production of The Moon Princess, a play Marsh wrote.
Marsh moved to England in her early thirties and had a brief flirtation with interior decorating, but the itch for the arts wouldn't let go. When she moved to New Zealand, her first novel followed soon after - A Man Lay Dead was published in 1934. It was the first step in a long and illustrious career that left Marsh holding her own among the finest mystery writers of all-time, often mentioned in the same breath as fellow female mystery greats such as Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell and Dorothy L. Sayers.
Marsh moved to England in her early thirties and had a brief flirtation with interior decorating, but the itch for the arts wouldn't let go. When she moved to New Zealand, her first novel followed soon after - A Man Lay Dead was published in 1934. It was the first step in a long and illustrious career that left Marsh holding her own among the finest mystery writers of all-time, often mentioned in the same breath as fellow female mystery greats such as Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell and Dorothy L. Sayers.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Yes, I Believe "Imaginary Banjo" WBAGNFARB
Mail Online: Commuter accused of sex act on train walks free from court after telling court he was strumming an 'imaginary banjo'
No Comment Department
wusa9.com: The State Fire Marshals' Bomb Squad examined the coconut and determined it was safe.
Free Today for Kindle
Amazon.com: Croaker: Tequila Mockingbird eBook: Paul Bishop: Kindle Store: The third Detective Fey Croaker L.A.P.D. novel.Paul Bishop is one of Los Angeles's most respected cops. For over thirty five years, he has played hardball on the streets for one of the toughest police departments in America. As a result, he brings the kind of authenticity to his Fey Croaker novels only an insider could achieve.
When Croaker: Tequila Mockingbird opens with a blistering start, the murder of a highly decorated detective assigned to the L.A.P.D.'s clandestine Anti-Terrorist Division appears to be an open-and-shut case of domestic violence turned deadly.
However, nothing is what it seems – as Fey Croaker discovers after the chief of police removes responsibility for the investigation from the department's elite Robbery-Homicide Division and assigns it to her. But the price of truth is high – maybe even higher than Fey can pay.
Another Freebie for your Kindle
Small Crimes: The Hunted: Free!: The Hunted is free for the next 2 days on Amazon. And if you're an Amazon Prime customer you can also borrow The Dame for free.
Maybe They Should Call that Bob Guy
Zoo tries to drum up alligators’ interest in sex | The Raw Story: A Japanese zoo has turned to rhythmical banging on traditional drums in a bid to encourage some enthusiasm for sex among lust-lacking alligators.
Guest Post by Simone St. James
While writing The Haunting of Maddy Clare, I found plenty of inspiration in real-life ghost stories. It was all in the name of research – though I tried not to do my research while alone in the house at night!Here are some fascinating tidbits I came across:
In Deane House in Calgary, Canada, there is a bloodstain in the attic that reappears no matter how many times it has been washed. The stain resides in a closet that won’t stay locked, despite the staff’s repeated attempts to lock it.
When centuries-old Leap Castle was renovated in the early 1920s, a walled-up dungeon was discovered, littered with human bones. The castle is not only reportedly haunted by a long list of spirits, but also by a demon-like creature called an elemental that is small, gray, and “smells like a corpse”.
Borley Rectory has been termed “the most haunted house in England.” Until it was destroyed by fire in 1939, the house was subject to a series of paranormal investigations and media stories – which reported ghostly sightings, knockings, writings on the walls, and objects being thrown. It has been hotly debated for decades afterward whether these phenomena were real or fake.
I didn’t use a haunted castle in The Haunting of Maddy Clare – though there is a decidedly creepy barn. But ghosts have always fascinated me. I have never encountered one myself. Is it possible to prove their existence? If so, why would one person remain to haunt after death, and not another person? What makes a ghost wish to haunt a place, and what might make a ghost leave?
Answering these questions is one of the great pleasures of writing ghost stories. I set my heroine, Sarah Piper, a girl working for a temp agency, on an unexpected path to meet a very real ghost – and to learn a lot more than she bargained for. I hope readers enjoy it!
The Way We Live Now
CBC News: A man accused of holding Labrador police in a standoff for more than a day asked his friends for advice on Facebook while the confrontation was underway.
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
The 'Lipstick Killer,' dead
William Heirens, known as the 'Lipstick Killer,' dead - chicagotribune.com: Heirens, 83, who spent 65 years in custody and was one of Illinois’ longest-serving prisoners, died Monday at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
Amazon.com: Party Doll (The Bubba Mabry Mysteries) eBook: Steve Brewer: Kindle Store: Bubba Mabry returns in a new novella guaranteed to thrill and amuse fans of the series featuring the Albuquerque, NM, private eye.Bubba bumbles back into action when he's hired to find a missing stripper who goes by the stage name Joy Forever. Joy's boss says business has been off since she disappeared, owing him money. He wants Bubba to find Joy and find her fast.
But there's more here than meets the eye. A federal prosecutor is interested in Joy as well, and Bubba's wife, newspaper reporter Felicia Quattlebaum, is working on a crusade that seems to be entangled with the case.
Laced with Steve Brewer's trademark humor, "Party Doll" is chock full of action and plot twists.
Get a Rope!
The Denver Post: Children who cop an attitude at school might want to think twice. A sixth-grader at Shaw Heights Middle School, was handcuffed and taken to a holding facility for disobeying the orders of an assistant principal during lunch and being "argumentative and extremely rude," 9Wants to Know has learned.
Free Today for Kindle!
Amazon.com: Easy Innocence (Georgia Davis Series) eBook: Libby Fischer Hellmann: Kindle Store: From Booklist: In this fast-paced mystery, the author of the Ellie Forman series introduces suspended cop and now PI Georgia Davis. Georgia is hired to help clear a mentally ill man, Cam Jordan, who is accused of killing a teenage girl, Sara Long, in a local forest preserve.
You Can't Go Wrong with This One
'Casablanca' returning to the big screen - UPI.com: "Casablanca" is returning to 450 U.S. theaters this month to mark the screen classic's 70th anniversary, organizers of the screenings said.
Free for Kindle -- 3 Days Only!
Get it free. Bargain of the day!Amazon.com: Becoming Quinn (A Jonathan Quinn Novel) eBook: Brett Battles: Kindle Store: From award winning author Brett Battles comes the new Jonathan Quinn thriller BECOMING QUINN.
Most careers begin with an interview and a handshake. Others require a little … something more.
Meet Jake Oliver. The day will come when he's one of the best cleaners in the business, a man skilled at making bodies disappear.
At the moment, however, he’s a twenty-two year old rookie cop, unaware his life is about to change.
In a burning barn a body is found—and the fire isn't the cause of death. The detectives working the case have a pretty good idea about what went down.
But Officer Oliver thinks it’s something else entirely, and pursues a truth others would prefer remain hidden—others who will go to extreme lengths to keep him quiet.
Every identity has an origin. This is Quinn’s.
BECOMING QUINN is a 57,000 word novella, and includes the bonus first chapter to WATCH ME DIE by Lee Goldberg.
PaperBack
Zelda Popkin, The Journey Home, Pocket Books, 1946
I don't know when or where I picked this book up. I probably bought it because of Popkin's reputation as a crime writer, but this was her must successful book as far as sales go. My copy has obviously never been read. On the flyleaf in neat cursive is the following notation: Olivia L. Wilson, March 30, 1946, Palestine, Texas. I find little things like this interesting. Who was Ms. Wilson, and why didn't she read the book? Was it a gift? Or a purchase that got laid aside for some reason and never picked up? It's possible that she's still alive, and I wonder where she is now. Wherever she is, I'll bet she doesn't remember this book or know that some guy in Alvin, Texas, is thinking about her.
Women At Work During World War II
Women At Work During World War II: March is Women's History Month, so let's celebrate by looking at 30 full color photographs of American women who went to work in factories during World War II.
The Verb
The Verb: It was early in 1969, and William Morris had a language to fix. On his desk, at 72 West 45th street in New York, was a stack of ballots, letters and interview notes from 104 of America's most important users-of-words. A writer for the New Yorker had written to campaign against the use of "senior citizen." The editor of Harper's magazine was lobbying for the use of "escalate" as a verb. Isaac Asimov had emphatically expressed his deep hatred of "finalize"; David Oglivy, the father of modern advertising, said of "hopefully": "If your dictionary could kill this horror, and do nothing else, it would be worth publishing."
There's more at the link. Check it out.
Robert Sherman, R. I. P.
Mary Poppins songwriter Robert Sherman dies - Telegraph: Songwriter Robert Sherman, who composed classic Disney tunes including "It’s a Small World (After All)" and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," died in London yesterday at the age of 86.
Robert Bernard Sherman, who was born in New York on 19 December 1925, won two Oscars, a Grammy and was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1976.
Robert Bernard Sherman, who was born in New York on 19 December 1925, won two Oscars, a Grammy and was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1976.
Overlooked Movies -- They Might Be Giants
They might be giants. To Don Quixote they were giants, but not to Sancho. So what's real? Yes, I'm familiar with the "I refute it thus" approach to Beelzy, but perception and reality are something to think about when you watch this movie. Our reality is real to us as the reality of others is to them. Who's to say what's really real? By the way, if that's not a misleading poster there on the left, I never saw one.George C. Scott plays a man who, because of an incomprehensible loss, develops a new way of dealing with the world. He thinks he's Sherlock Holmes, and he collects newspaper clippings that lead him to the conclusion that there is indeed a malevolent force in the world, and that force is Moriarty. Naturally everyone thinks he's nuts, but his analyst, Dr. Watson (Joanne Woodward) is gradually drawn into his world. Scott's character also goes to Randolph Scott movies exclusively because the Good Guy always beats the Bad Guys in the black hats. I can't see anything wrong with that.
I haven't seen this movie in awhile, but I really do like it. Just about everything in it worked for me (I'm in a minority here, so be warned). There's a great cast, and not a weak link in it. The ending really bowled me over. I can still run it in the theater in my head, and I do, now and then.
Monday, March 05, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
Amazon.com: COUNTERPUNCH (Fight Card) eBook: jack tunney, mel odom, paul bishop, wayne d. dundee: Kindle Store: Danny Dugronski has been a fighter all his life.As an orphan at St. Vincent's Asylum for Boys, he first learned the "sweet science" of boxing from Father Tim, the battling priest. Then the Marine Corps taught him far more lethal fighting tactics before shipping him off to do battle in the hell of the South Pacific.
Now, with World War II over, Danny "The Duke" has returned home and earned a respectable ranking as a regional heavyweight in the Milwaukee area. But his record, free of KO losses, is jeopardized by a mob front man who tries to push him into a series of rigged fights.
When Danny refuses, hard push comes to deadly shove, and he must call upon all his fighting skills to stand his ground. And when Danny comes out swinging, he’s determined to put the mob down for the count.
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
NYTimes.com: Machine Guns Vegas — an upscale, indoor shooting range complete with skimpily dressed, gun-toting hostesses — opened last week a half mile from the Strip, with an armory of weapons and a promise to fulfill the desires of anyone wanting to fire off an Uzi or a vintage Thompson submachine gun. With its provocative mix of violent fantasy (think blowing holes through an Osama bin Laden target with an AK-47) and sexual allure, it is the latest example of how the extravagances and excesses that have defined Las Vegas are moving beyond the gaming table.
Hat tip to Walter Satterthwait.
Ronnie Montrose, R. I. P.
AP Coverage: Rock guitarist Ronnie Montrose, who formed the band that bore his name and performed with some of rock's heavy hitters, has died.
Blindside -- Ed Gorman
I'm a big fan of Ed Gorman's work, no matter what the genre, so it's not surprising that I got such a big kick out of Blindside. It's a helluva book. Dev Conrad's a political consultant, and this is his third appearance. This time an old friend asks him to help out with the campaign of his son, Jeff Ward. Dev is reluctant, but he agrees because he owes the father big-time. Ward's a liberal, running against a staunch conservative, and he's running behind. Dev is even more reluctant to help after he finds out that while Ward believes in the same causes Dev does, Ward is a consummate asshole, with a messier personal life than even Bill Clinton could dream up for himself. And when one of Ward's top people is murdered, Dev discovers that things are even worse than he'd thought.
Like most of Gorman's books, this one is compassionate, funny, suspenseful, and highly readable. It's also biting, bitter, and so cynical that there's practically acid dripping off the pages. Gorman knows politics, and he knows all the tricks that consultants use. He doesn't hold anything back here. You're going to find a lot of characters on both sides that are as amoral as they come.
If you're as old as I am, you'll remember when Charles Colson (I think it was Colson) said he'd walk over his own grandmother to get Richard Nixon re-elected. Well, the characters here would do the same, and kick her teeth in while they were walking. It's a sad commentary, but don't let that stop you from reading the book. It's terrific. Just don't give a copy to your Tea Party friends. They won't thank you for it.
I Like These Guys
Internet Archive’s Repository Collects Thousands of Books - NYTimes.com: “We want to collect one copy of every book,” said Brewster Kahle, who has spent $3 million to buy and operate this repository situated just north of San Francisco. “You can never tell what is going to paint the portrait of a culture.”
Hat tip to George Kelley.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
Coming at the end of March. Very funny stuff. Check it out.Scouts! | Ape Entertainment: What do you do when your parents sign you up as a member of the most unlucky “Shrub Scout” troop on the planet? Well, if you’re Mike Manly you do everything you can to get out! As Mike quickly discovers the only way out of the “Weasel Troop” is to earn all of the merit badges needed to graduate… wish Mike good luck cause he’s gonna need it!
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
Amazon.com: The Book of Ancient Bastards: 101 of the Worst Miscreants and Misdeeds from Ancient Sumer to the Enlightenment (9781440524882): Brian Thornton: Books: When it comes to bastards, you can't beat the good old days of the Egyptian pharaohs, the Roman Empire, or Europe during the Dark Ages. The bastards of old abound--and they come in every color, creed, gender, and sexual preference.From the cross-dressing emperor Elagabalus of Rome, who was assassinated by his own grandmother, to the icon-worshipping fanatical Empress Irene of Byzantine, who gouged out her only son's eyes, you'll find the most malevolent malcontents who have truly survived the test of time.
The Book of Ancient Bastards: Because when it comes to bad, it really is ancient history!
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