Iconic songwriter Hal David dies at 91 in Los Angeles | Fox News: Hal David, who along with partner Burt Bacharach penned dozens of timeless songs for movies, television and a variety of recording artists in the 1960s and beyond, has died. He was 91.
David died of complications from a stroke Saturday morning in Los Angeles, according to Jim Steinblatt, spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. David was a longtime member and former president of ASCAP.
Bacharach and David wrote many top 40 hits including "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," "Close to You" and "That's What Friends Are For."
Saturday, September 01, 2012
I Wonder How They Taste . . .
. . . with maple syrup.
Silobreaker: A group of thieves worked hard for its haul this week in eastern Austria, picking a plantation's entire crop of elderberries without the owner noticing. The smooth robbers made off with an estimated 11 tonnes of berries, worth about 6,000 euros ($7,500).
Silobreaker: A group of thieves worked hard for its haul this week in eastern Austria, picking a plantation's entire crop of elderberries without the owner noticing. The smooth robbers made off with an estimated 11 tonnes of berries, worth about 6,000 euros ($7,500).
And Keep Off Her Lawn!
CBS Los Angeles: An 82-year-old woman with a rap sheet dating back to 1955 has been arrested on suspicion of burglarizing at least eight doctors’ offices throughout Torrance.
Hey, I Can Quit Any Time I Want To
Addicted to the internet? It could be all in your genes - Telegraph: Dr Montag said that, biologically speaking, internet addiction had the same genetic cause as smoking addiction.
It's a Sticky Situation
Police investigate massive maple syrup theft
Hat tip to Art Scott, who's not to blame for the blog post headline.
Hat tip to Art Scott, who's not to blame for the blog post headline.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Detroit Breakdown -- D. E. Johnson
Detroit Breakdown is a historical mystery set exactly 100 years in our past. The city is Detroit, naturally, but a big portion of the novel is set in Eloise, a sanitarium or, less politely, an insane asylum. Inside the asylum there's a serial killer who's patterning the murders on those in The Phantom of the Opera.
The story is told in alternating first-person sections by Will Anderson and Elizabeth Hume, who have considerable history from the first two volumes of this series. Don't worry if you haven't read the others. I hadn't, and I found that history adroitly filled in as the novel progressed.
Elizabeth has a special interest in stopping the murders because one of the inmates at Eloise is her brother. Will comes up with the idea of having himself committed to the sanitarium to investigate from the inside. As you probably know, that never seems to work out so well.
The horrors of the asylum are depicted very well, and some of the "cures" Will is subjected to are frightening. Elizabeth turns out to be as kick-ass as you could hope for, and Detroit Breakdown turns out to be a fast-moving and entertaining book.
The story is told in alternating first-person sections by Will Anderson and Elizabeth Hume, who have considerable history from the first two volumes of this series. Don't worry if you haven't read the others. I hadn't, and I found that history adroitly filled in as the novel progressed.
Elizabeth has a special interest in stopping the murders because one of the inmates at Eloise is her brother. Will comes up with the idea of having himself committed to the sanitarium to investigate from the inside. As you probably know, that never seems to work out so well.
The horrors of the asylum are depicted very well, and some of the "cures" Will is subjected to are frightening. Elizabeth turns out to be as kick-ass as you could hope for, and Detroit Breakdown turns out to be a fast-moving and entertaining book.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: Revenge: A Mick Murphy Mystery (9781463578091): Michael Haskins: Books: Journalist Mick Murphy is walking across Harvard Yard when his name is called out. He turns and sees the woman of all his sexual fantasies. Under the spell of the pretty Filipina, Murphy is led into her search for the men that abused her brother while he was at Harvard. On the flight back to Los Angeles area, Murphy agrees to put her in contact with some of his old Harvard classmates and they soon begin showing up brutally murdered. His desire for his fantasy girls has him in jeopardy of losing close friends - including his on again/off again romantic interest. When he finally confronts his Filipina about the murders she admits her family is involved in the killings to revenge her brother's suicide. Before it's over Murphy's life is threatened and he learns that his fantasy is more of a nightmare. In the climatic ending Murphy faces the possibity of losing more than friends and a fantasy love.
I Thought This Was Legal In Texas
myFOXdfw.com: A 21-year-old man from southeast Texas is behind bars after police spotted him carrying a loaded AK-47 in downtown Dallas.
American Realism: A Dose of Reality
AbeBooks: American Realism: A Dose of Reality: The American Realism cultural movement began to catch on after the American Civil War and was a reaction to, and rejection of, Romanticism. Driven by the desire to depict the enormous industrial, economic, social and cultural changes taking place in the United States during the early years of the 20th century period, artists, writers and musicians exchanged fantasy for reality. Readers were presented with a host of literature that detailed everyday life in America, including some of its harshest aspects.
Forgotten Books: Amazing Stories, the Anthology -- Kim Mohan, Editor
The items in this volume are, for the most part, from the mid-'90s incarnation of Amazing Stories. The two exceptions are the Bloch story and the Bloch essay. The story is from 1953, and the essay (which I remember having read in the original magazine) is from 1984. The essay is very entertaining, with Bloch recalling any number of things, such as his first WorldCon and meeting David H. Keller, PhD. Bloch has some fun with a few other writers, too, including Robert Silverberg. The only story that I recall having read previously is the hilarious "Linda and Phil," a dead-on pastiche/parody/homage of the works of Philip K. Dick by Paul de Flippo, in which Dick winds up living in Arizona and married to Linda Ronstadt. You should read it.
Steve Davidson has acquired the Amazing Stories trademark and has done, I believe, a couple of "pre-launch" issues, so it might be returning soon.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Trust Your Eyes -- Linwood Barclay
Trust Your Eyes is one of those high-concept thrillers that can be summed up in a few words: Rain Man meets Rear Window. Thomas Kilbride is a guy who sits at his computer all day looking at Whirl360 (think Google Earth) while in the process of memorizing every street in the world. You want to know what's at a certain address? If he's been down that street, he can tell you exactly and in precise detail. Then one day he notices something strange in a window, zooms in, and discovers that it's someone being murdered.
Thomas' father has recently died in what appears to be a bizarre accident, so brother Ray is home to settle the estate and to figure out how to take care of Ray. When Thomas tells him about what he's seen, Ray's skeptical. Who's going to believe someone like Thomas?
But Thomas is right, of course, and thus begins a story that has plenty of twists, turns, and surprises. What I've mentioned is the merest outline of part of the setup. Buckle up for a wild ride.
Thomas' father has recently died in what appears to be a bizarre accident, so brother Ray is home to settle the estate and to figure out how to take care of Ray. When Thomas tells him about what he's seen, Ray's skeptical. Who's going to believe someone like Thomas?
But Thomas is right, of course, and thus begins a story that has plenty of twists, turns, and surprises. What I've mentioned is the merest outline of part of the setup. Buckle up for a wild ride.
Free for Kindle for Next 4 Days
Bullet For A Virgin! (The Adventures of the Rio Concho Kid): Peter Brandvold: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: ALL THE PULP WESTERN ROMANCE AND VIOLENCE OF YESTERYEAR MADE NEW AGAIN BY MEAN PETE PRESS!
In this first of a new series of spicy pulp western stories (roughly 50 printed pages) written exclusively as ebooks by Peter Brandvold and published by his own Mean Pete Press, the Rio Concho Kid must save a young Mexican girl from the savage intentions of the lusty General Constantine San Gabriel, who forced her into marriage.
On their wedding night, Tomasina De La Cruz sticks a stiletto in the General’s guts and flees his sprawling hacienda with the help of the half-Apache drifter, Johnny Navarro, a.k.a., “the Rio Concho Kid.”
The Kid and Tomasina race toward a rendezvous with the young man to whom Tomasina’s heart really belongs. In so doing, Tomasina and the Kid must avoid a deadly trap set by the man whom the dishonored General hired to bring his young bride back so he could have her tortured and gunned-down by firing squad.
That man is the infamous, deadly bounty killer known only as El Leproso, the Leper!
Can the Kid prove victorious over his fiercest enemy and avoid falling in love with Tomasina, who is as beguiling as she is beautiful but who also harbors a bizarre, bone-chilling secret?
In this first of a new series of spicy pulp western stories (roughly 50 printed pages) written exclusively as ebooks by Peter Brandvold and published by his own Mean Pete Press, the Rio Concho Kid must save a young Mexican girl from the savage intentions of the lusty General Constantine San Gabriel, who forced her into marriage.
On their wedding night, Tomasina De La Cruz sticks a stiletto in the General’s guts and flees his sprawling hacienda with the help of the half-Apache drifter, Johnny Navarro, a.k.a., “the Rio Concho Kid.”
The Kid and Tomasina race toward a rendezvous with the young man to whom Tomasina’s heart really belongs. In so doing, Tomasina and the Kid must avoid a deadly trap set by the man whom the dishonored General hired to bring his young bride back so he could have her tortured and gunned-down by firing squad.
That man is the infamous, deadly bounty killer known only as El Leproso, the Leper!
Can the Kid prove victorious over his fiercest enemy and avoid falling in love with Tomasina, who is as beguiling as she is beautiful but who also harbors a bizarre, bone-chilling secret?
Steve Franken, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Steve Franken, a character actor specializing in comedy who appeared in films with Peter Sellers, Jerry Lewis and others, but was best known for playing the wealthy and snobbish Chatsworth Osborne Jr. on the hit sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 80.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Forgotten Music: Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train
A friend sent me this video yesterday after we'd discussed the song "Freight Train" that we remembered from our long ago youth. This is worth a watch if you're interested in American folk music. Or even if you're not.
Re: Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train - YouTube:
Re: Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train - YouTube:
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Savage Slaughter: Jack Martin: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: The civil war had ended, the country was being rebuilt, the railroads extended. Men whose names would go down in history - Goodnight, Chisholm, were driving thousands upon thousands of wild longhorn cattle across treacherous trails. Gold was discovered and scores of whites ran rampant over grounds that had been promised the Indians by the Great White Father, the vast plains once the preserve of the Indians now rumbled to the sound of the iron horse.
Stan Schmidt Retires from Analog
Locus Online News: Dell Magazines announced the retirement today of Stanley Schmidt, editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Schmidt will be succeeded by Trevor Quachri, who has been the managing editor of both Asimov’s and Analog for the past two years.
Gene Thomas, R. I. P.
American Top 40 Fun & Games Site: Gene Thomas, one-half of the duo of Gene and Debbe, passed away Sunday (August 26) in Houston, presumably from lung cancer, at the age of 74. The Palestine, Texas native began performing in Houston while still in his teens. His recording of "Sometime" (later cut by Sir Douglas Sahm) scored him a recording contract with United Artists.
Stormy Weather
Having gone through a couple of hurricanes since moving to Alvin in 1983, I can sympathize with folks in Louisiana today. I hope everybody's safe and secure and that the damage isn't too bad. The photo is one I took in Galveston a short while after Hurricane Ike in 2008. Ike, Isaac, I'm not fond of those names. Stay dry, everybody.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Black Orchid Novella Award
May 31 is the
Submission Deadline
for the 2013
Black Orchid Novella Award
Submission Deadline
for the 2013
Black Orchid Novella Award
[Please pass this on to anyone who might be interested.]
Call for novellas! Please submit your novella for the seventh annual Black Orchid Novella Award (BONA). We are looking for original works of fiction in the tradition of the ratiocinative detective, as exemplified by Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe. Your entry must:
- Emphasize the deductive skills of the sleuth
- Contain no overt sex or violence
- Not include characters from the original series
Entries must be 15,000 to 20,000 words in length, and must be postmarked by May 31, 2013. The winner will be announced at The Wolfe Pack’s Annual Black Orchid Banquet in New York City, December 7, 2013.*
Please visit www.nerowolfe.org for official rules and procedures to submit your novella. For questions, contact the Awards Chair, Jane K. Cleland, jane@janecleland.net.
* If no acceptable candidates are received, AHMM and The Wolfe Pack reserve the right to declare no winner in any given year.
Copies Still Available!
That's right. Still available, and you can get a signed copy right here. Or if you prefer the more valuable unsigned copies, well Amazon's got 'em. They have the eBook, too. So get 'em while you can, and the sooner, the better.
Forgotten Memoirs: Life is Never Ordinary
AbeBooks: Forgotten Memoirs: Life is Never Ordinary: Many memoirs, highly rated at the time of publication, slip into obscurity and fade away. You can find them gathering dust in the corners of secondhand bookshops. But many of these books are worth dusting off. This trip around memoirs from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s includes a few famous names such as poet Cecil Day Lewis, author Gavin Maxwell, publisher Stanley Unwin and French crooner Maurice Chevalier. However, the majority of authors on this list will be unfamiliar to most people.
And Keep Off His Lawn!
Customer shoots robber dead: Instead of saving money at a Northside dollar store, a 57-year-old grandfather ends up saving the day.
Out of this World: Carl Sagan’s Books
Out of this World: Carl Sagan’s Books on AbeBooks: There has been no-one else quite like Carl Sagan in the world of literature. Dedicated to the heavens and the search for life beyond Earth, Sagan (1934-1996) was a scientist first and foremost – his books merely crowned his various day-jobs and achievements in science. Perhaps the lasting legacy of his writing is that it helped to popularize science.
Overlooked Movies: Hearts of the West
I like this movie a lot, but I don't know many others who do. It does have its problems (it's a little slow sometimes), but the problems are small compared to the rewards (at least for me).
This is the movie that made me a Jeff Bridges fan, and his performance as an aspiring pulp writer who becomes a B-Western star is one of the best things about it. So is the performance of Andy Griffith, a far cry from Sheriff Taylor, as a conniving actor who seems to be a friend to Bridges but isn't. Blyth Danner's very good as the Kid's romantic interest, and Alan Arkin as a bottom-tier director is dandy.
My reference to the Kid, by the way, comes from the character that Bridges creates for his pulp stories, and the lines he comes up with for the stories are another highlight of the movie.
There's a subplot about some money hidden in a car that Bridges has stolen (with perfect justification), and that has its moments, too.
Before you start thinking you might like to see the movie based on what I've said, you should check out Ron Scheer's review of a few months ago. He's not as fond of it as I am. As for me, though, I'll still think of Bridges every time I hear the word "Bullwhacker!"
This is the movie that made me a Jeff Bridges fan, and his performance as an aspiring pulp writer who becomes a B-Western star is one of the best things about it. So is the performance of Andy Griffith, a far cry from Sheriff Taylor, as a conniving actor who seems to be a friend to Bridges but isn't. Blyth Danner's very good as the Kid's romantic interest, and Alan Arkin as a bottom-tier director is dandy.
My reference to the Kid, by the way, comes from the character that Bridges creates for his pulp stories, and the lines he comes up with for the stories are another highlight of the movie.
There's a subplot about some money hidden in a car that Bridges has stolen (with perfect justification), and that has its moments, too.
Before you start thinking you might like to see the movie based on what I've said, you should check out Ron Scheer's review of a few months ago. He's not as fond of it as I am. As for me, though, I'll still think of Bridges every time I hear the word "Bullwhacker!"
Monday, August 27, 2012
I Report, You Decide
NYPOST.com: The controversial kiddie pageant show starring 6-year-old Alana “Honey Boo Boo Child” Thompson is turning into ratings bonanza. . . .
666?
666?
I Report, You Decide
Neil Armstrong dies . . . .
On the same day: Snooki gives birth to a son . . . .
666?
On the same day: Snooki gives birth to a son . . . .
666?
Kings of the Trivia World
Frequent commenter Scott Cupp (center), Sandi Cupp, Tracey Davis, Shawn Lauderdale, Doug Dlin, Wes Hartman, and Sanford Allen (not pictured) are the Boxcar Frogs, and they are the Kings of the Trivia World, having proved it by winning Big Bucks in San Antonio this week. Congrats to the Frogs!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Smart meter installations stir rowdy response from gun-toting, cage-building Texans - The Washington Post: “It’s Gestapo. You can’t do this,” said Shar Wall of Houston, who attended the Public Utility Commission meeting wearing a large red “Texas Conservative” pin. “I’m a redneck Texas girl and I won’t put up with it.”
Archaeology Update
Fox News: Fresh excavations near the tomb of China’s first emperor have revealed 110 new terra-cotta warriors that have been covered up for 2,200 years, archaeologists said -- adding to the army of over 8,000 solders.
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