Saturday, October 25, 2014
Jack Bruce, R. I. P.
BBC News: Jack Bruce, bassist from 1960s band Cream, has died aged 71, his publicist confirms.
Legendary supergroup Cream, which also included Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, are now considered one of the most important bands in rock history.
Legendary supergroup Cream, which also included Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, are now considered one of the most important bands in rock history.
Friday, October 24, 2014
No Comment Department
NME.COM: An author who began her career writing One Direction inspired fan fiction has signed a six-figure book deal.
Who Said It?
I found this very interesting. The guy who gets credit was the subject of my master's thesis, but I didn't know this about him.
Don’t Like to Write, But Like Having Written
Don’t Like to Write, But Like Having Written
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%2BScream%2BBloody%2BMurder%2BGM%2B1960.JPG)
Frank Mankiewicz, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Frank Mankiewicz, a writer and Democratic political strategist who was Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s press secretary, directed Senator George S. McGovern’s losing 1972 presidential campaign and for six years was the president of National Public Radio, died Thursday at a hospital in Washington. He was 90.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
FFB: Rider from Wind River -- Marvin H. Albert
I've expressed my enjoyment of Marvin H. Albert's work in several genres before, so it will come as no surprise to anybody that I really liked Rider from Wind River. I liked it a lot. In fact, it's my new favorite Albert western. Why? Because it's only 128 pages long, and it has everything.Everything? You might think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. It has a man wrongly accused of murder who's searching for the real killer so he can clear his name. It has a love story. It has a cattle drive. It has a well-drawn setting. It has a stampede. It has one of the best fist-fight scenes I've read in years. It has the expected climactic gun battle, and it's really done well. It has any number of little twists in the plot along the way. It's pure entertainment and highly recommended.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Carnosaur Weekend (Kyler Knightly and Damon Cole Book 1) eBook: Garnett Elliott: Kindle Store: It’s a dirty job ...
Policing the timelines has always been dangerous, but the brave agents of Continuity Inc. have arguably the most important job in human history. Protecting human history.
Newly promoted agent Kyler Knightly teams up with his uncle, Damon Cole, to stop unscrupulous developers from exploiting the Late Cretaceous. A luxury subdivision smack-dab in the middle of dinosaur country threatens not only the present, but super-rich homeowners looking for the ultimate getaway.
Policing the timelines has always been dangerous, but the brave agents of Continuity Inc. have arguably the most important job in human history. Protecting human history. Newly promoted agent Kyler Knightly teams up with his uncle, Damon Cole, to stop unscrupulous developers from exploiting the Late Cretaceous. A luxury subdivision smack-dab in the middle of dinosaur country threatens not only the present, but super-rich homeowners looking for the ultimate getaway.
Happily Ever After: B. K. Stevens | Trace Evidence
Happily Ever After: B. K. Stevens | Trace Evidence: In this post, B. K. Stevens offers insights and reflections on the bittersweet prospect of wrapping up a long-running series. Stevens has long been adept at juggling multiple series, and several of her recurring characters have appeared in AHMM, including P.I. Iphigenia Woodhouse and academic amateur sleuth Leah Abrams.
Emissary -- Chris Rogers
Ruel is an emissary from the Szhen, a planet on the brink of destruction. Ruel and his kind have a lot to offer to humans, but getting this across is tricky. Ruel is more or less pure energy, and he can reside in human hosts without their knowledge. His first host is the president of the U.S., Addison Hale. She's involved in a tricky situation in Africa, and things get even worse. Ruel changes hosts, but the results are far from what he'd hoped. He saves the situation, but gains nothing for himself.
Meanwhile in Houston, Kirk Longshadow, a cop, shoots and kills a woman, saving the life of man. Longshadow has lost everyone he cares about (wife, child, brother), and the shooting further damages him. He's on a downward alcoholic spiral. I won't spoil things by telling you how these two stories come together, but Longshadow becomes Ruel's host, and they go off to Mexico to find the solution to a serious crime. When Ruel makes himself known to Longshadow, Longshadow believes Ruel is just some crazy voice in his head. It takes some serious action (including torture) for the cop to figure out that Ruel is real and that his help is needed.
Rogers writes with confidence and authority about everything from African politics to Houston police procedure to Mexican drug gangs. There's plenty of action, and the book is populated with interesting characters from political figures to tattoo artists. At the end, there are enough loose ends to ensure that Longshadow and Ruel will return, something that readers will be looking forward to. Check this one out when you're looking for a real slam-bang change of pace.
I Want to Believe!
Daily Mail Online: What is the world's oldest wooden statue trying to tell us? Etchings on haunting seven-faced Shigir Idol 'could hold a message to modern man'
21 Books with Psychedelic Covers
21 Books with Psychedelic Covers: Picking up a book in the 1960s and 70s was a real groovy trip, and that was before cracking it open. Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick were at the height of their game, and far out science fiction was as popular as ever. Imaginative stories set in fantastical universes opened the door to creative book design, resulting in mind-bending covers depicting beautiful supernatural women and optical illusions bursting with every color in the spectrum.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
The 50 best celebrity Halloween costumes of all time
The 50 best celebrity Halloween costumes of all time
Sure, it's an annoying slideshow, but you have to click only a few times to get to the star of the show.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Sure, it's an annoying slideshow, but you have to click only a few times to get to the star of the show.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Nelson Bunker Hunt, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Nelson Bunker Hunt, the down-home Texas oil tycoon who owned a thousand race horses, drove an old Cadillac and once tried to corner the world’s silver market only to lose most of his fortune when the price collapsed, died on Tuesday in Dallas. He was 88.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
I Taught at HPU for 12 Years
But not when these two were there.
Paul and Paula to Return to HPU for Homecoming 2014: In the early 1960s, excitement swept the Howard Payne University campus when two students achieved international fame. Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson Landon – known around the world as Paul and Paula – recorded their smash hit “Hey Paula” which spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1963. The pair will return to campus this Friday for a concert and unveiling of a Texas historical marker in their honor.
Raphael Ravenscroft, R. I. P.
BBC News: The musician behind one of the most recognisable saxophone solos - on Gerry Rafferty's hit Baker Street - has died.
Raphael Ravenscroft, 60, who found fame almost overnight following the release of the 1978 track, died following a suspected heart attack early on Sunday.
Raphael Ravenscroft, 60, who found fame almost overnight following the release of the 1978 track, died following a suspected heart attack early on Sunday.
Time to Form PETP
Modern Farmer: Eating a leaf off a plant may not kill it, but that doesn't mean the plant likes it. The newest study to examine the intelligence (or at least behavior) of plants finds that plants can tell when they're being eaten -- and send out defenses to stop it from happening.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Honoring Jerry Healy's Memory
By Brendan DuBois:
I'm so very pleased to announce that through the efforts, suggestions and recommendations of Sandra Balzo, Andi Malala Shechter, SJ Rozan and her terrific sister, Deborah B. Rosan, that a means of commemorating Jeremiah Healy's works and life has been established. Besides his work as an attorney and an author, Jeremiah Healy was a U.S. Army vet, and was also a lover of dogs. We have therefore reached out to a service dog organization in Maryland that trains dogs to assist wounded veterans, and they will be thrilled to receive donations in Jerry's name.
The group is called Hero Dogs, and is based in Maryland. Their website is listed below. They are an IRS approved 501(c)(3) organization and operate entirely on donations. You can donate via their website, or by sending a check to Hero Dogs, P.O. 64, Brookeville, MD 20833-0064. But please ensure either by writing on the memo section of your check, or using the form on their website, that you're making this donation in Jerry's name. That way, Hero Dogs can track how many donations come in, so that they can be used in some way to keep Jerry's memory alive in years to come. Please donate what you can, and please share this link. Thanks to all of you who were friends or fans of Jerry's. http://www.hero-dogs.org/
I'm so very pleased to announce that through the efforts, suggestions and recommendations of Sandra Balzo, Andi Malala Shechter, SJ Rozan and her terrific sister, Deborah B. Rosan, that a means of commemorating Jeremiah Healy's works and life has been established. Besides his work as an attorney and an author, Jeremiah Healy was a U.S. Army vet, and was also a lover of dogs. We have therefore reached out to a service dog organization in Maryland that trains dogs to assist wounded veterans, and they will be thrilled to receive donations in Jerry's name.
The group is called Hero Dogs, and is based in Maryland. Their website is listed below. They are an IRS approved 501(c)(3) organization and operate entirely on donations. You can donate via their website, or by sending a check to Hero Dogs, P.O. 64, Brookeville, MD 20833-0064. But please ensure either by writing on the memo section of your check, or using the form on their website, that you're making this donation in Jerry's name. That way, Hero Dogs can track how many donations come in, so that they can be used in some way to keep Jerry's memory alive in years to come. Please donate what you can, and please share this link. Thanks to all of you who were friends or fans of Jerry's. http://www.hero-dogs.org/
Ben Bradlee, R. I. P.
The Washington Post: Benjamin C. Bradlee, who presided over The Washington Post newsroom for 26 years and guided The Post’s transformation into one of the world’s leading newspapers, died Oct. 21 at his home in Washington of natural causes. He was 93.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles - Kindle edition by Edward A. Grainger. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: Nine rousing, noir Western tales with a hardboiled edge are collected in this third volume of short stories, Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles.
Paul Craft, R. I. P.
Rolling Stone: Thirteen days after his induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Paul Craft — the man behind offbeat, wisecracking country hits like "Dropkick Me, Jesus (Through the Goalposts of Life)" and "It's Me Again, Margaret" — has died. He was 76 years old.
Overlooked Movies: Straight Time
Straight Time is based on the Edward Bunker novel No Beast So Fierce. If you've ever doubted that Dustin Hoffman is a great actor, just see this movie. He plays Max Dembo, a guy who's just out of prison. His parole officer, Earl, is played with M. Emmett Walsh, who plays sleazy as well as anyone ever did.Max gets a job through an employment agency, where a secretary named Jenny (a young and beautiful Theresa Russell) falls for him. Hoffman seems set for the straight life.
But he's not. His old buddy Willy (Gary Busey) pays him a visit and shoots up in the apartment. Earl snoops around later and sends Max to jail, where he's proved to be clean. Earl lets him sit there for a week, anyway. When Earl picks Max up, Max gets his revenge and realizes that he can never live the straight life. He goes back to his old ways, robbing a bank with his good friend Jerry (Harry Dean Stanton). That goes okay, but after that it's all downhill.
I'd call this a noir film if not for the ending. It's close, even at that. I've never read the novel, so I don't know how it ends.
Straight Time isn't a great movie, but it has some wonderful performances by everybody I've mentioned and also Kathy Bates as Gary Busey's wife. Well worth a look if you're interested in the forgotten films of the '70s.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Oscar De La Renta, R. I. P.
Variety: Legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta has died at 82, according to ABC News.
He first came to fame dressing Jackie Kennedy, and went on to dress celebrities of the 1960s through the present. Among the actresses who appreciated his red carpet gowns were Cameron Diaz, Oprah Winfrey, Kristen Stewart, Penelope Cruz and Jessica Chastain.
He first came to fame dressing Jackie Kennedy, and went on to dress celebrities of the 1960s through the present. Among the actresses who appreciated his red carpet gowns were Cameron Diaz, Oprah Winfrey, Kristen Stewart, Penelope Cruz and Jessica Chastain.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee
And once again Texas leads the way!
Losers Of Beer Pong Match Opened Fire On Fellow Texas Partygoers
Losers Of Beer Pong Match Opened Fire On Fellow Texas Partygoers
It's Science!
Season of birth affects your mood later in life: Babies born in the summer are much more likely to suffer from mood swings when they grow up while those born in the winter are less likely to become irritable adults, scientists claim.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Doc Savage: The Ice Genius -- Kenneth Robeson (Will Murray & Lester Dent)
It's only a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and intrepid archaeologist Johnny Littlejohn, one of Doc Savage's merry band, is in Mongolia on a dig. What he uncovers there is amazing enough: a man frozen in ice. What's even more amazing is that the man is Tamerlane. And what's even more amazing than that is that in a series of unfortunate events Tamerlane is thawed out, is alive, and is ready to conquer the world. There are plenty of people who'd love to help him do that, too, and it will happen unless Doc Savage and his crew can stop him.Once again, Will Murray expertly channels the style and headlong pace of Lester Dent to present another fine Doc Savage adventure. Doc and his men are all present, as is Habeas Corpus, Monk's faithful porcine companion. So is Cadwiller Olden, aka Monzingo Baldwin, a villain who might be familiar to longtime readers of Doc's adventures, who meets a strange fate.
The story is high adventure in the pulp tradition. There are mongol hordes. Battles in the air and on the land. Wild plane rides and narrow escapes. Captures and more escapes. Trains and planes crash. Heads roll!
The only thing missing here is some explanation of what Dent's part in the writing of the book might have been. An outline? A fragment? A jotted-down idea? Inquiring minds want to know. But don't let that little quibble stop you from reading the book. It's great fun all the way.
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