Saturday, February 23, 2013
This Should Work Out Well for Everybody
Homeless New Yorker sues parents for making him feel ‘unloved and beaten by the world’: Bey’s suit calls for his stepfather and mother, Bernard and Vickie Manley, to mortgage their home in Bedford-Stuyvesant in order to open a Domino’s Pizza franchise.
Insane City -- Dave Barry
And of course because he's a nice guy, Seth immediately gets involved in a series of events that escalate into wild insanity by the end of the novel. The ingredients include Haitian immigrants, a stripper and her huge boyfriend, Seth's parents and their brownies, Seth's wedding posse, Tina's dope-smoking sister, an orangutan named Trevor, police chases, a guy with a pet python, a nice young woman who wants to change her life, revenge-seeking bodyguards, the Miami police force, a sky-high billionaire, and a pirate ship. I may have forgotten a few things. Things never slow down for long. Also, it's very vulgar. I expect people will either find this hilarious or hate it. I found it hilarious.
PaperBack
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Leslie Charteris, The Saint Meets His Match (aka Angels of Doom and She was a Lady), Fiction House, 1962
Cleotha Staples, R. I. P.
SFGate: In a family of vocalists, it was Cleotha Staples' smooth and velvety voice that helped set apart the sound of the influential and best-selling gospel group The Staple Singers.
Staples, the eldest sister and member of the group her father Roebuck "Pops" Staples started in the 1940s, died Thursday at age 78. She was at her Chicago home and had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for the past decade, said family friend and music publicist Bill Carpenter.
Staples, the eldest sister and member of the group her father Roebuck "Pops" Staples started in the 1940s, died Thursday at age 78. She was at her Chicago home and had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for the past decade, said family friend and music publicist Bill Carpenter.
Collecting Film History
AbeBooks: Collecting Film History: “Movies have owned the 20th century,” claimed screenwriter and director Paul Schrader. “It will not be so in the 21st century. Cultural and technological forces are at work that will change the concept of ‘movies’ as we have known them.” Historians and film scholars may look back at 20th century cinema as a unique art form. It also will be a discrete field for a collector interested in printed film literature.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Here's the Plot for Your Next Big Heist Novel
CBS New York: Gold nuggets worth nearly $1 million were stolen from a mineral museum, CBS 2’s John Slattery reported.
On the site of a zinc mine dating back to the 1700s is the Sterling Hill Mining Museum, where crystallized gold and nuggets, 20 of them, were stolen while the museum was open. They were large specimens, from all over the world.
On the site of a zinc mine dating back to the 1700s is the Sterling Hill Mining Museum, where crystallized gold and nuggets, 20 of them, were stolen while the museum was open. They were large specimens, from all over the world.
Songwriters Hall of Fame Update
Tyler, Perry lead Songwriters Hall of Fame class - Yahoo! News: The Songwriters Hall of Fame is saluting 1970s and '80s rock 'n' roll with its 2013 induction class.
Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner will join the hall of fame this year along with the writers of iconic rock hits "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Heartache Tonight." The ceremony will be held June 13 in New York.
Aerosmith and Foreigner will get the attention here, but inductees Holly Knight, JD Souther and Tony Hatch also have distinguished careers that helped define the sound of rock 'n' roll.
Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner will join the hall of fame this year along with the writers of iconic rock hits "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Heartache Tonight." The ceremony will be held June 13 in New York.
Aerosmith and Foreigner will get the attention here, but inductees Holly Knight, JD Souther and Tony Hatch also have distinguished careers that helped define the sound of rock 'n' roll.
Free Today for Kindle
The Hunted (The Hunted Series): Dave Zeltserman: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Will you be able to figure out the mind-blowing secret of THE HUNTED? From the author of the groundbreaking 'man out of prison' noir trilogy (Small Crimes, Pariah, Killer) comes an exciting new novella series mixing hardboiled crime with government conspiracy. In this first explosive novella, THE HUNTED, Dan Willis is unemployed and desperate when he is recruited by The Factory. Trained to hunt down and kill insurgents hellbent on destroying the country, Willis methodically and efficiently performs his job. But there's a dark secret behind The Factory, and when Willis discovers it no one is safe...
Law Enforcement Can Be Fun
FBI agents caught sexting and dating drug dealers - Telegraph: Dating drug dealers, harassing ex-boyfriends with naked pictures, and pointing guns at pet dogs: these were just a few of the offences committed recently by serving FBI agents, according to internal documents.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
www.daytondailynews.com: A local business leader, Waynesville’s Citizen of the Year in 2006, was arraigned Thursday on an assault charge accusing him of spanking a 29-year-old male tenant in a dispute over more than $2,000 in overdue rent.
Paging the Guinness Book
Bloods Gang Member Found With 100 Bags Of Heroin Hidden In His Anus
At least this guy used a larger rear end: Half-ton of marijuana found in truck at Texas border
At least this guy used a larger rear end: Half-ton of marijuana found in truck at Texas border
Incredible Caverns Beneath NYC
East Side Access Project | Incredible Caverns Beneath NYC
Annoying slideshow warning.
Hat tip to John Duke.
Annoying slideshow warning.
Hat tip to John Duke.
Magic Slim, R. I. P.
AP Coverage: Magic Slim, a younger contemporary of blues greats Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf who helped shape the sound of Chicago's electric blues, died Thursday. He was 75.
Paging Clint Eastwood
Louis Vuitton and Kenzo Blankets are Street Style’s Newest Trend: During Pitti Uomo and New York Fashion Week, blankets emerged on the necks of some of the fashion industry’s most stylish men. Misty White Sidell reports.
Forgotten Books: And Be a Villain -- Rex Stout
A long time ago, probably something like 50 years now, I realized that I'd never read any of the Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout. I thought it was time I did, so I went to look for one. In those days, the Rex Stout section of most used-book stores held a long line of volumes, and I grabbed the one at the head of the line, And Be a Villain. Flash forward to the present, when not long ago I was in a thrift store and saw several volumes of the Wolfe Series. I couldn't just leave them there, so I bought them. One of them happened to be And Be a Villain, and I figured it would be appropriate to reread it. I think we call all agree that the cover of this 1979 edition is pretty bad. It's at least related to a scene in the book, but you have to look closely to be sure. I do kind of like the back cover portrait of Wolfe, though. (The artist isn't credited.) By the way, the writer of the blurb on the back cover clearly hadn't read the book.
The book was originally published in 1948, and Stout didn't do any updating. Which I think is a grand idea. Part of the fun in reading older books is the obscure references and the obsolete technology. The setting of the first murder is a radio broadcasting studio, and one of the guests on a morning talk show (a very different thing from current radio talk shows) is poisoned during the program. Nero Wolfe is just about broke, so Archie Goodwin badgers him into taking the case.
During the course in the investigation, Wolfe receives a phone call from the mysterious Arnold Zeck. When I read the book, I had no idea who Zeck was (nor did readers of the book in 1948, as it was, I believe, Zeck's first appearance). I didn't know about a lot of things that I learned of as I read: Wolfe's yellow pajamas, his routine with the orchids, the kind of meals he had (thanks to Fritz Brenner), what a fine narrator Archie was, and on and on. I must have liked all of that and more, as I went on a Wolfe binge, returning to the store and picking up several more books. When I read those, I was hooked for good and went looking in that store and others for all the books I didn't have. I got them, and I still have them, beaten and battered as many of them are.Rereading this one, I've come to the conclusion that it's not one of Wolfe's better cases, but it's great fun just the same. I'm not sure I read the books for the mystery, anyway, but for Archie's narration and the familiar characters and details. I'm glad I picked it up back in the '60s, and I hope that the Mysterious Press' recent decision to reprint all the Wolfe books in e-book format will make sure that Stout isn't a forgotten author.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Here's the Outline for Your Next Big Las Vegas Thriller
CNN.com: Three people were dead and at least three others injured after a shooting and fiery six-vehicle crash along the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada early Thursday, police said.
The incident began about 4:20 a.m. at a stoplight on Las Vegas Boulevard, when someone in a black Range Rover fired into a Maserati that also had stopped at the light, Las Vegas police said.
The incident began about 4:20 a.m. at a stoplight on Las Vegas Boulevard, when someone in a black Range Rover fired into a Maserati that also had stopped at the light, Las Vegas police said.
"The Raffle" -- Wayne Dundee
A young couple, drenched from walking in the rain, shows up at a little out-of-the way country bar. They seem to have money problems, and the guy comes up with an interesting way to get some cash. (The title is a clue.) But in this tight, nasty little tale, nothing is quite what it seems to be.
The story's well written and suspenseful, and Dundee manages to spring more than one surprise. Check it out.
The TSA Continues to Win Friends and Keep the Country Safe
www.wftv.com: Toddler in wheelchair heading to Disney cries during run-in with TSA agents
When Did Schools Stop Teaching the Principal Parts of the Verb To Drink?
'The water did have a funny taste': Body is found in water tank at 'cursed' Cecil Hotel: Guests at hotel, notorious for having hosted serial killers, are likely to have bathed, drank and brushed their teeth using water from the rooftop tank
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
And now it's the . . .
Furby Attack: Police report says "The woman picked up a Furby an electronic robotic toy that looks like a cross between a hamster and an owl, and hurled it at her boyfriends head while he was sitting on the couch. He suffered injury to the right side of his face. She then picked up a PlayStation remote control and hit him on the left side of the face with it."
Furby Attack: Police report says "The woman picked up a Furby an electronic robotic toy that looks like a cross between a hamster and an owl, and hurled it at her boyfriends head while he was sitting on the couch. He suffered injury to the right side of his face. She then picked up a PlayStation remote control and hit him on the left side of the face with it."
Elspet Gray, R. I. P.
Mail Online: Actress and charity campaigner Elspet Gray, who appeared in TV shows including Fawlty Towers and Blackadder, has died aged 83.
The Scottish-born actress, formally known as Lady Rix after her husband Brian was made a life peer, died in hospital on Monday.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
The Scottish-born actress, formally known as Lady Rix after her husband Brian was made a life peer, died in hospital on Monday.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Update
Sorry, the short story boom is bogus: The New York Times touts the Internet's role in reviving interest in short fiction. Too bad it's not true
Here's the Plot for Your Next Supernatural Thriller
RT News: A new application will soon allow users to keep posting Twitter updates from beyond the grave, independently using intricate knowledge of your online character to create a virtual continuation of your personality after you die.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
You Know You Want One
Songbird (A Rancho Diablo Novel): Colby Jackson, Bill Crider, Mel Odom, James Reasoner: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: When Songbird came to Shooter's Cross, she brought trouble with her. Not there was a shortage of trouble in town already. Bank robbers, gunmen, martial arts, singing, and saloons: If you're looking for western action in the grand tradition, you'll find it here and in all the books in the Rancho Diablo series.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
And now it's the . . .
Country Club Rumble: Fists, chairs fly at Rancho Mirage country club meeting.
Country Club Rumble: Fists, chairs fly at Rancho Mirage country club meeting.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
And you thought they didn't make covers like this anymore!
The Raffle: Wayne D. Dundee: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Milo had a sweet scam going. Aided by the luscious Angie, whose face and curves could fog the brain of any man, it was almost too easy to fool the local rubes as they traveled across the country from one rural gin joint to the next. They always moved on holding a fresh wad of cash and left the suckers slack-jawed and unsuspecting. But even the sweetest scam can turn sour eventually, and even the slickest con man can get the tables turned on him …
I Have Nothing to Say about This
Why Women Talk More Than Men: Language Protein Uncovered: Previous research has shown that women talk almost three times as much as men. In fact, an average woman notches up 20,000 words in a day, which is about 13,000 more than the average man. In addition, women generally speak more quickly and devote more brainpower to speaking. Yet before now, researchers haven't been able to biologically explain why this is the case.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Free Today for Kindle
THE SUBWAY COLLECTION-Dark Stories to Read On the Go: BILLIE SUE MOSIMAN: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: A collection of four dark short stories from master storyteller and Edgar and Stoker Nominated Billie Sue Mosiman.
Mosiman is the author of more than 50 books being sold worldwide.
Texas Led the Way
‘The Kidnappers Foil,’ a Local-Talent National Treasure - NYTimes.com: Beginning in the 1930s the Texas-born filmmaker Melton Barker spent nearly four decades scurrying across America with a script and a camera, methodically making and remaking the same two-reel film. This might seem like a story of creative obsession — a compulsive monomaniac so intent on achieving aesthetic perfection that he became subsumed by his work — but Barker, one of at least several itinerant filmmakers working in the first half of the 20th century, was more huckster than auteur.
Link via Boing-Boing.
Link via Boing-Boing.
Overlooked Movies: I Want to Live!
Barbara Graham is depicted as a woman who loves a good time, a prostitute who falls in with a couple of bad companions and gets involved in a robbery gone wrong. When the three are arrested, the two men swear that Graham killed the robbery victim so they can get their own sentences reduced. Graham is sentenced to death.
The last part of the movie is set on Death Row as the preparations for Graham's execution go forward, with Graham claiming innocence all the way. Protestations of innocence don't do much for convicted killers, and Graham goes to the gas chamber.
When I saw this movie as a kid, I thought it was great. I didn't know the term "film noir" then, but I'm sure this is one, albeit a late one. Susan Hayward gives a knockout performance, and the rest of the cast isn't bad, either, though most of them are largely forgotten now. There's also a jazzy score that was popular at the time. You can hear some of it in the trailer below. Gotta love those bongos!
Monday, February 18, 2013
Barnaby Conrad, R. I. P.
The Santa Barbara Independent: Barnaby Conrad, the San Francisco-born author who founded the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, died on Tuesday morning at his home in Carpinteria. He was 90 years old.
Born in 1922, Conrad became a mid-century renaissance man, enjoying boxing, painting, and a brief career in civil service for the United States government in Spain, which led him to bullfighting. As the only American to ever battle bulls in Spain, Peru, and Mexico, Conrad was well equipped to pen Matador, which John Steinbeck declared the best book of 1952.
Born in 1922, Conrad became a mid-century renaissance man, enjoying boxing, painting, and a brief career in civil service for the United States government in Spain, which led him to bullfighting. As the only American to ever battle bulls in Spain, Peru, and Mexico, Conrad was well equipped to pen Matador, which John Steinbeck declared the best book of 1952.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
SeacoastOnline.com: Two women got into a fight over the sale of beauty products during a game of bingo for seniors at Feaster Apartments on Friday, police said.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Wonderful book. You'd be crazy not to get it.
Fish Whistle: Little Short Essays by Daniel Pinkwater: Daniel Pinkwater: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: A compilation of the best of Daniel Pinkwater's short commentaries and essays. Originally published in 1990, this new Kindle edition features an updated introduction and Pinkwater's own selection of favorite material from NPR's "All Things Considered" and beyond.
Richard Briers Dies: Good Life Actor Aged 79 | Orange UK
Orange UK: Actor Richard Briers - known to millions for TV's The Good Life - has died at the age of 79.
The star, who was also known for his Shakespearean roles, had been battling a serious lung condition for a number of years.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
The star, who was also known for his Shakespearean roles, had been battling a serious lung condition for a number of years.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Now Available for Kindle!
Songbird (A Rancho Diablo Novel): Colby Jackson, Bill Crider, Mel Odom, James Reasoner: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: When Songbird came to Shooter's Cross, she brought trouble with her. Not there was a shortage of trouble in town already. Bank robbers, gunmen, martial arts, singing, and saloons: If you're looking for western action in the grand tradition, you'll find it here and in all the books in the Rancho Diablo series.If the cover model looks familiar, there's a good reason for that. You'll have to read the book to find out more in the Acknowledgements.
Short Stories Are Selling
A Good Fit for Small Screens, Short Stories Are Selling: Story collections, an often underappreciated literary cousin of novels, are experiencing a resurgence, driven by a proliferation of digital options that offer not only new creative opportunities but exposure and revenue as well.
Alamo Update
Alamo letter doesn't begin to spell out the whole story of Travis: This week's return of Travis' famed “victory or death” letter for the first time since he wrote it in 1836 is historic on its own terms. It will be placed in the Alamo chapel Friday, for display Saturday through March 7.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Mindy McCready, R. I. P.
Country music star Mindy McCready commits suicide: report - NY Daily News: Country music star Mindy McCready has reportedly committed suicide.
The 37-year-old singer has died Sunday night, her brother confirmed to the Daily News.
The 37-year-old singer has died Sunday night, her brother confirmed to the Daily News.
Tandyn Almer, R. I. P.
Tandyn Almer, enigmatic composer of ‘Along Comes Mary,’ dies at 70 - The Washington Post: When Tandyn Almer was 23, he wrote a catchy pop song that topped out at No. 7 on the Billboard charts. Great things were expected of him as a songwriter, and some thought he might even become a star in his own right.
But in all the decades that followed, there were few triumphs, and certainly nothing like the acclaim he received for composing the words and music of “Along Comes Mary.”
Hat tip to Fred Blosser.
But in all the decades that followed, there were few triumphs, and certainly nothing like the acclaim he received for composing the words and music of “Along Comes Mary.”
Hat tip to Fred Blosser.
Tony Sheridan, R. I. P.
Examiner.com: Tony Sheridan, an English singer who sang on some of theBeatles' earliest recordings including “My Bonnie,” died Saturday in Germany. He was 72. His friend Dave Humphries, who arranged for him to appear in San Diego at Beatlefair late last year, sent us the news.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
SOLOMON vs. LORD (Solomon & Lord Series): Paul Levine: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Victoria Lord follows all the rules...
Steve Solomon makes up his own...
When they defend an accused murderer, they'll either end up in ruin, in jail...or in bed. Steve Solomon is the sharpest lawyer ever to barely graduate from Key West School of Law. Victoria Lord is fresh from Yale, toiling for an ambitious D.A., before Solomon gets her fired. And Katrina Barksdale is a sexy former figure skater charged with killing her very wealthy, very kinky husband. With all three tangled in Miami's steamiest trial of the century, the case is sure to make sparks fly, headlines scream - and opposites attract.
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Free Today for Kindle
Vin of Venus: David Cranmer, Paul D. Brazill, Garnett Elliott: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Vin, bereft of half his limbs and his memory, struggles between two worlds--the mist-shrouded, verdant hell of ancient Venus and the mean streets of modern Europe--battling both alien monstrosities and underworld villains on his quest to recover his identity. Along the way he is aided by an unlikely cast of allies, as well as the mysterious, ruby-encrusted bracelet that serves as the only link between his heroic past and grim present. Written in classic pulp-style, VIN OF VENUS mixes Hardboiled and Sword and Planet elements in a genre-bending series of action tales.
Free eBook by Stephen Gallagher
Top Suspense Group: Free eBook: In the years following the Great War, a skeptical conjuror and a spiritualist medium merge their interests to tour the regional lecture halls of the United Kingdom.
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