Saturday, March 21, 2015
First It was the Thin Mints Melee
Orlando Sentinel: Woman charged with smearing dog poop on neighbor
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
For $1.49 you cannot go wrong here!
Hannibal At Risk: (The Joe Hannibal Collection, Volume III) (The Joe Hannibal Series) - Kindle edition by Wayne D. Dundee. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: Volume III, presented here, sequentially features the seventh through eighth full-length Hannibal novels, and the Casefiles collection of some of the best Hannibal short stories: GOSHEN HOLE BLADE OF THE TIGER BODY COUNT – (The Joe Hannibal Case Files, volume I))
Soon We'll Have No Punctuation Left at All
No Punctuation Is Funnier: [T]o see man outpace machine, look no further than Twitter, where a style marked by little punctuation and no capitalization is almost a native language.
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Archaeology Update
Business Insider: Archaeology has had an amazing month: Here are 7 of the most exciting discoveries
Friday, March 20, 2015
Michael Brown, R, I. P.
Michael Brown, the Left Banke's brilliant baroque-pop leader, dies at 65 | OregonLive.com: Michael Brown, the initial guiding force behind influential 1960s pop act the Left Banke, has died, the group's Tom Finn announced on Facebook on Thursday.
Brown was the keyboardist and main songwriter for the group, though he left in 1967 after just one album. He co-wrote and wrote, respectively, the band's best-known songs, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina" -- tracks that also served as the title of their classic debut album. The band's use of strings and harpsichord earned them the label "baroque-pop," while their tuneful sensitivity echoes on in the work of acts such as Belle & Sebastian, Elliott Smith and Jens Lekman, whose "Black Cab" sampled the band's "I've Got Something On My Mind."
Brown was the keyboardist and main songwriter for the group, though he left in 1967 after just one album. He co-wrote and wrote, respectively, the band's best-known songs, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina" -- tracks that also served as the title of their classic debut album. The band's use of strings and harpsichord earned them the label "baroque-pop," while their tuneful sensitivity echoes on in the work of acts such as Belle & Sebastian, Elliott Smith and Jens Lekman, whose "Black Cab" sampled the band's "I've Got Something On My Mind."
Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
End of the World Literature – Post-Apocalyptic Fiction on AbeBooks: Things can always be worse and you can rely on novelists to put that phrase into cold, hard words on the page. Noah’s ark and the flood that wiped Earth clean of wicked mankind is an early example of post-apocalyptic writing but the modern genre of end of the world literature can be traced back two centuries to Mary Shelley’s The Last Man published in 1826.
FFB: Mr. Justice -- Doris Pischeria
This post appeared in somewhat different form on July 31, 2004.Doris Piserchia started publishing around 1972. She published 13 novels from 1973 to 1983. That was it. For some reason (from what I've found on the 'Net, a severe family illness might be the answer), she stopped writing in 1973. When she started again a few years ago, nobody would buy her stuff. She seems to have been pretty successful during her productive years, and her short fiction appeared in some prestigious publications. She was to have a story in Last Dangerous Visions, but apparently we'll never see that one.
I got interested in Piserchia because of a review of Mr. Justice. I'd read only one book hers previously, Blood County, a DAW book that came out under the name "Curt Selby." (Piserchia says that the pen name was adopted because Donald Wollheim published four books by her in the year that Blood County appeared.) It's a very unusual vampire book in which, if I'm remembering correctly, the word "vampire" is never used.
But I wanted to talk about Mr. Justice. This was Piserchia's first novel, and Wollheim published it as half of an Ace Double. After reading it, I have to wonder what readers must have thought in 1973. Maybe the New Wave was in full flower (or whatever waves do) then. At any rate, it's a very strange book. I'm not sure I can describe the plot, but I'll give it a try.
Mr. Justice is a vigilante who can travel in time. He witnesses murders and other crimes, but he can't do anything to affect them. He can, however, take photos. Then he accosts the criminals in "real" time and doles out justice. Naturally something has to be done about this guy, but what can you do to stop a time traveler? The government singles out one kid and sends him to a special school. He's going to be their Mr. Justice hunter. Meanwhile the government agency that's running him is still hunting on its own.
At the same time there's another time traveler, Arthur Bingle, who's decided to use his power to take over the world. (You'd think he'd take a cool name for himself, like The Mastermind, but he doesn't.)
So far, so good, except that you don't get all this in a straightforward narrative, and there's also a lot more going on. A whole lot more, including a love story and some pretty weird family stuff, much of it undeveloped or cut short. It's almost as if Piserchia wrote 200,000 words and cut it to 60,000.
Some of the book is written in a semi-pulp style (the opening section, for example), while others are, well, less readable. It makes for an odd combination. If you go into this looking for something like an old Republic serial, you're going to be disappointed. (But it might have worked better if it had been more like one of those serials.)
Some people think of this book as an undiscovered classic. I'm not convinced. But it's certainly different.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
First It was the Thin Mints Melee
Mob of teens attacks father: The dispute began when the father caught his son and two friends smoking marijuana in the basement of their home, police said.
Thieves Fall Out -- Cameron Kay (Gore Vidal)
This is another of those books that's been on my shelves for many a year, at least 40 and probably more. The original Gold Medal edition, that is. I don't know when I found out that Cameron Kay was really Gore Vidal, but that was long ago, too. I still wasn't tempted to read the book, though. It took the new edition from Hard Case Crime to tempt me into doing that.As you can see, the covers for the two editions are very different. For once, the current one is the more lurid and considerably less representative of the contents. NTTAWWT.
Vidal didn't want to have the book reprinted, but after his death, his estate agreed to the reprint. It was written back in 1952 and published in 1953, the year that Vidal published three books under pseudonyms. Rumor has it that he may have "written" them using a Dictaphone. I've never read the other two books, one of which is the first in a series of three books by "Edgar Box," described by one reviewer as "Spillane in mink." That's almost enough to tempt me. Almost.
But I digress. Thieves Fall Out is a novel of international intrigue, set in Egypt in 1952 at the time of a big political upheaval is about to begin, the time when King Farouk was ousted by General Nasser. We geezers will remember that King Farouk was much in the news in the U.S. because of his lavish lifestyle, which figures in the novel. But I digress again.
Pete Wells, a fellow American down on his luck, finds himself in Egypt, broke and knowing no one, having gotten drunk and mixed with the wrong crowd. So he goes to Shepheard's, a hotel where he's heard a sharp guy might pick up a fast buck. Almost as soon as he hits the bar, he spots his mark, and before long the guy, a British gent named Hastings has a proposition for him. It involves a mysterious errand (is there any other kind?), for which Wells will be well paid, and a beautiful, mysterious brunette. Further complications involve a crooked cop named Mohammed Ali, a dwarf pianist, a mysterious, powerful figure, and a beautiful, mysterious blonde. Intrigue, love, and betrayal ensue.
Reading this book, I got the feeling that Kay/Vidal was sort of doing the plot by numbers. Every beat is hit, and most experienced readers are going to figure some things out long before Wells does. What's best about the book is the local color. Vidal had visited Egypt, and he describes various locations vividly and memorably. The characters are types, but they're just different enough to be interesting, and Vidal moves the story along efficiently for the most part. This isn't top shelf Gold Medal storytelling, but it's certainly entertaining enough to be more than just a literary curiosity. Check it out.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
The Axeman of Storyville (Cash Laramie & Gideon Miles Series Book 7) - Kindle edition by Heath Lowrance. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: New Orleans, 1921. It’s a new world for former U.S. Marshal Gideon Miles, now retired and running one of the most popular jazz clubs in the city. But when a deranged axe murderer strikes at the prostitutes of Storyville, and the Black Hand takes up arms, Miles is drawn back into the world he knows so well--the world of evil men, buried secrets, and violent death. Just like old times.
I Want to Believe!
Dr. Pepper The Doctor Of Choice For A 104-Year-Old Woman: . “I started drinking them about 40 years ago. Three a day. Every doctor that sees me says they’ll kill you, but they die and I don’t.”
I Want to Believe!
Iowa Republican busted reading ‘Sex After Sixty’ book in session: [He] claims he was just holding it for a friend.
First It was the Thin Mints Melee
And now it's the chainsaw melee!
Quiet Montana farming town disrupted by brief melee involving chain saw
Quiet Montana farming town disrupted by brief melee involving chain saw
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Phil Collins & The Alamo
“It’s My Obsession”: For international rocker Phil Collins, the Alamo is personal.
Ib Melchior, R. I. P.
Hollywood Reporter: Ib Melchior, the screenwriter and director who took two classics of literature and set them in the future for the 1960s sci-fi films Robinson Crusoe on Mars and The Time Travelers, has died. He was 97.
Andy Fraser, R. I. P.
NME.COM: Fraser was a member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers before co-founding Free with Paul Rodgers in 1968 when he was just 15. He co-wrote the band's 1970 hit 'All Right Now' but left the group in 1972 to form Sharks with guitarist Chris Spedding. He then formed the Andy Fraser Band before moving to California and going on to write for artists such as Robert Palmer, Joe Cocker and Rod Stewart.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Kill Me, Darling -- Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane
Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane are back with another collaboration. With this book, Collins is working with less of Spillane's original material than in the previous collaborations, but there was still a substantial amount. As Collins explains in his "Co-Author's Note," Kill Me, Darling is an early version of The Girl Hunters, and while Collins could have used the familiar opening of that novel to begin this one, as Spillane did, he chose instead to begin it with a similar incident in a different fragmentary work. All that being said, this collaboration, like the earlier ones, is seamless. It's next to impossible to determine where one writer leaves off and the other begins, and the book is another winner.Kill Me, Darling is set in the early '50s, and Hammer is on a monumental bender brought on by the disappearance of Velda, who's left him with only a two-word goodbye note. Two cops haul him to Pat Chambers' apartment. A cop has been murdered, and Chambers has found out where Velda is. She's turned up in Miami as the latest decorative companion of Nolly Quinn, a gangster with mob connections. Chambers thinks the murder of the cop is somehow connected with Quinn. Almost immediately, Hammer is drying out and on his way to Miami with his .45 ready to go.
Hammer's not in Florida long before he's clashed with Nolly Quinn and Velda, and people start dying. No surprise there, but you might be surprised when Hammer picks up a client, or clients: four mob bosses who think something's fishy about Quinn even from their point of view.
Collins is writing a historical mystery here, and he paints a convincing picture of Miami in the early '50s, with its swanky hotels and clubs and homes. We see some of the seedier side, too, and it's all part of the story that Collins and Spillane are telling. The less said about certain aspects of the plot, the better, so no spoilers here. It's perfectly in keeping with Spillane's work in the late '40s and early '50s, and that's all I have to say. [SPOILER ALERT: I can't resist mentioning that dying words aren't always what they seem to be. END OF SPOILER ALERT]
Kill Me, Darling is a crackerjack crime novel that captures an era that most people now don't remember. It's the kind of book you would have grabbed off the spinner rack back in the '50s or that might read now in an old paperback with browning pages. As you know, coming from me, that's a high recommendation.
Happy St Patrick's Day!
2015 St Patrick's Day: May the Irish hills caress you;
may her lakes and rivers bless you;
may the luck of the Irish enfold you;
may the blessings of St Patrick behold you
Overlooked Movies: John Wick
In fact, it's just about all action after the first few minutes. Keanu Reeves is John Wick, a former hit man, now retired. His wife dies, and he's very sad (I could identify; this part was pretty tough to watch). A puppy, a posthumous gift from her, arrives. The bad guys beat up Reeves and kill the puppy. After that, it's vengeance time. The action never lets up as John Wick gets back in the game. You don't kill his puppy and walk away unscathed, and you don't try to stop him when he's out for revenge.
The movie has a high body count. I believe I read that Wick kills 75 people. Give or take. That's also about the number of words Wick speaks in the movie, which works great since Keanu Reeves is the star. Action is everything, and the choreography is great.
I read today that there will be a sequel. I was surprised, given the box office figures. Also, I don't know where they can go with the character that they haven't already been, but I'll probably see it. For now, though, I recommend this one to anybody who's looking for a pure adrenaline ride.
Monday, March 16, 2015
How the West Was Written - Volume 2 - 1907-1915 -- Ron Scheer
This is, natch, the follow-up to Ron Scheer's first book on western fiction, and it's an absolute must-have for fans of the genre. I think it's also a must-have for anybody interested in the history of American fiction, and it's the kind of book that every library should have on its shelves. The same goes for the first volume, too, of course.What Scheer does is analyze a novel by just about everyone who write about the American west between 1907 and 1915. He talks a little about the writer of each one, but the main focus is on the books. Scheer goes over a number of topics for each book, topics like Villainy, Themes, Storytelling Style, the West,and so on. He doesn't write in a turgid academic style but in clear, straightforward prose that's a pleasure to read. And speaking of being a pleasure to read, each of the essays here is just that.
The writers covered include the expected and familiar (Robert W. Service, James Oliver Curwood, Hamlin Garland, Zane Grey, William MacLeod Raine, O. Henry, and Clarence E. Mulford, among others) and writers that will be completely unfamiliar to most people (Vingie E. Roe, Edgar Beecher Bronson, Agnes Christina Laut, and a lot more). All are interesting and worth your time. Whether you like to read in short bursts or go straight through, you'll enjoy this book.
Mike Porcaro, R. I. P.
Rolling Stone: Mike Porcaro, the longtime bass player for Grammy-winning rock band Toto, died early Sunday morning at 59 following a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease).
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
And I'll just have a cheeseburger.
Get your half a pig's head at Hay Merchant: James Beard award-winning chef Chris Shepherd is adding family-style dishes to the menu at Hay Merchant. Half a Pig Head ($45) is a roasted pig head split down the middle, served with tortillas, lettuce cups, kimchi salsa and pickled vegetables. Serves 4-6 people.
Get your half a pig's head at Hay Merchant: James Beard award-winning chef Chris Shepherd is adding family-style dishes to the menu at Hay Merchant. Half a Pig Head ($45) is a roasted pig head split down the middle, served with tortillas, lettuce cups, kimchi salsa and pickled vegetables. Serves 4-6 people.
Criminal Genius of the Day
UPI.com: Police in California said a fleeing suspect attempted to "camouflage himself" by covering his face in black spray-paint.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
JDM Update
Peter Dinklage, Nicola Peltz in Talks to Join Christian Bale in 'Deep Blue Goodbye': Dinklage will play a mathematician who made a fortune thanks to an app and ends up as McGee's sidekick.
Hat tip to Fred Zackel.
Hat tip to Fred Zackel.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
PARADOX FALLS: A Suspense Thriller - Kindle edition by Peter Brandvold. Romance Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: Two men. One woman. A blistering love triangle that turns deadly at...
PARADOX FALLS
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