Saturday, February 27, 2016
Close to the Heart -- Harlan Ellison
Close to the Heart: ‘Fire-bringing’ Harlan Ellison, one of America’s greatest short story writers, on protecting his work, L. Ron Hubbard, Octavia Butler, and why he will never stop writing
A Recent E-Mail Message of Importance
Somehow I missed the news of this appointment, but if one can't trust the New Secretary of the Treasury, whom can one trust?
U.S. Department of the Treasury
My name is "Jacob Jack Lew". I am the New Secretary of the Treasury under the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Kindly open the attach form and fill it .
Jack J. Lew
U.S. Department of the Treasury
My name is "Jacob Jack Lew". I am the New Secretary of the Treasury under the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Kindly open the attach form and fill it .
Jack J. Lew
Lennie Baker, R. I. P.
New York Times: Lennie Baker, a longtime member of the rock and doo-wop group Sha Na Na, who sang lead on its hit version of “Blue Moon,” died on Wednesday in Weymouth, Mass. He was 69.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, February 26, 2016
Tony Burton, R. I. P.
NBC News: Tony Burton, who played Apollo Creed's inspirational boxing trainer in the "Rocky" franchise after his own glory days as a young prizefighter, died Thursday, his family said. He was 78.
Klaus Roth, R. I. P.
Telegraph: Klaus Roth, who has died aged 90, was the first British winner of the Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize, whose discoveries in number theory led to him being considered one of the greatest mathematicians of the second half of the 20th century.
The 21st Century Indiana Jones is a Woman
The 21st Century Indiana Jones is a Woman Crowdsourcing Space Archaeology: By examining high-resolution satellite imagery with algorithms developed via trial-and-error, Parcak and her team have discovered 17 pyramids, 1,000 tombs, and over 3,100 settlements in Egypt alone. Now, she’s interested in using the tools of space archaeology to help preserve these sites and ensure humanity’s cultural heritage remains in evidence.
Soon We'll Have No Rights Left at All
Canadian man fined for smuggling 38 turtles in his pants
Hat tip to Art Scott, who says, "Must not have been snapping turtles."
Hat tip to Art Scott, who says, "Must not have been snapping turtles."
The full run of If magazine, scanned at the Internet Archive
The full run of If magazine, scanned at the Internet Archive
Check out some of the covers at the link.
Check out some of the covers at the link.
FFB: John O'Hara -- The Doctor's Son
When I was a much younger man, I thought John O'Hara was a great American writer. You can read more about that right here, in my comments ten years ago on The Cape Cod Lighter. When I got to college, I learned that O'Hara wasn't considered great. He wasn't even considered very good. That didn't bother me. I wasn't fickle. I still thought he was great, and now that I'm a lot older, I still think so, even though he's been pretty much written out of the history of American literature. So when I ran across my copy of The Doctor's Son, I decided I'd read it all again. The book is a collection of pieces that aren't short stories. Well, the title piece is. The rest are a miscellaneous assortment of things, character sketches, vignettes, monologues, dialogues, and maybe other stuff. "Frankie" comes close to being a story, and so does "Mr. Cass and the Ten Thousand Dollars." So do a couple of the others, but they don't quite make it for me. "Master of Ceremonies" is the monologue of an MC.
"The Doctor's Son" opens the collection and is by far the longest piece. It's a 27-page coming-of-age store about a doctor's son in the Pennsylvania coal country during the great Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. O'Hara, as it happens, was a doctor's son in the Pennsylvania coal country at that time, so I suspect it's a tad autobiographical. The other pieces in the collection average about 2-1/2 or 3 pages long, I think. One of them, "The Hotel Kid," even reminded me a little bit of Salinger.
The stories appeared in places like The New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Scribner's Magazine, and The Brooklyn Eagle. The characters are distinctive, the dialogue is excellent, and the details are closely observed, but I wonder if any of these pieces could be published today, even in The New Yorker. If you're read any of the stories, let me know what you think. Thursday, February 25, 2016
Hap and Leonard Ride Again
Hap and Leonard Ride Again - Kindle edition by Joe R. Lansdale. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. If you bought the collection entitled Hap and Leonard, you got a lot of the good stuff. But not all of it. This eBook collection is a bit different. There are a few additions, like an essay by Lansdale entitled “The Care and Feeding and Raising Up of Hap & Leonard.” There's also an essay I wrote about the true story of Lansdale's career. I thought you ought to know.
Robert J. Randisi to Reveive John Seigenthaler Legends Award
The Killer Nashville John Seigenthaler Legends Award - Killer Nashville: Robert J. Randisi is the recipient of the 2016 Killer Nashville John Seigenthaler Legends Award. An exceptionally prolific author—he has written over 650 novels in the western, mystery, sci-fi, horror, and spy genres, under different pseudonyms—Randisi’s dedication to the craft is rivaled only by his passion for advocating, encouraging, and featuring other genre writers.
Uh-Oh
Kickstarter for the Sequel to Manos: The Hands of Fate Lawrence Person's Futuramen: entirely new sequel is being put together by Jackey Neyman Jones (the little girl in the original film) and their Kickstarter just made it’s $24,000 goal. They even have Tom Neyman back as The Master!
Forgotten Music: Little Willie John
Guest Shot: Vintage Trouble’s Ty Taylor On His (New) Favorite (Old) Singer: Belting it out as Vintage Trouble’s lead singer, Ty Taylor sings, shakes, and shines like the great soul shouters of the ’60s. He thought he’d done his homework. Until he heard Little Willie John.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Eight fun facts to celebrate Nat Geo's new CROCS exhibit
WTOP: Crocodiles are the stars of a new exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in Washington. “Crocs: Ancient Predators in a Modern World,” continues through May 8.
“Confessions of a Literary Safecracker”
“Confessions of a Literary Safecracker” (by Joseph Goodrich) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: Joseph Goodrich will make his EQMM debut in this year’s issue in tribute to our magazine’s previous editors (August 2016). The star of his tale is EQMM‘s founding editor, Frederic Dannay, who joins forces with Dashiell Hammett to solve a crime in 1950s Manhattan. Even mystery fans who have yet to be introduced to this author’s fiction will likely know him from his work for theater. He is an actor and an Edgar-Award winning playwright whose work has been produced across the United States. He’s an alumnus of New Dramatists and a former Calderwood Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. Joe’s love for mysteries, and for the work of Ellery Queen in particular, goes back many decades; he’s a frequent contributor to Mystery Scene magazine and an active member of the Mystery Writers of America, and, as he explains in this post, he was inspired to write his current play (adapted from and of the same title as the Ellery Queen novel Calamity Town) after multiple readings of Ellery Queen’s Wrightsville novels.—Janet Hutchings
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
The Bram Stoker Awards Nominees
The Bram Stoker Awards – StokerCon 2016™: Los Angeles, CA — The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy, today announced the nominees for the 2015 Bram Stoker Awards.
Douglas Slocombe, R. I. P.
The Guardian: Douglas Slocombe, who has died aged 103, was one of Britain’s greatest cameramen – an award-winning cinematographer noted for his high contrast shooting and a key figure in British and American film from the heyday of Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 50s onwards.
Sonny James, R. I. P.
NBC News: NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country singer Sonny James, who recorded romantic ballads like "Young Love" and turned pop songs into country hits, has died. He was 87.
Overlooked Movies: Casanova
There's probably a good reason why I like movies that don't get good reviews, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe I'm just a sucker for contrived plots, great soundtracks, beautiful scenery, lots of laughs, lavish color and costuming, attractive stars, and happy endings. Casanova has all of that, and more, so naturally I love it. If you're looking for historical accuracy, however, you've come to the wrong movie.Heath Ledger plays Casanova, who's in big trouble in Venice because of his many escapades. The doge tells him to get married to a good woman or get out. He doesn't want to leave, so he selects a woman just in time to fall for someone else, Francesca Bruni, an ardent feminist, played by Sienna Miller. Bruni hates everything Casanova stands for, so he adopts various personas to win her love. And she's engaged, too, to a man she's never met, the Lard King of Genoa (Oliver Platt). Not to mention that her brother is already engaged to the woman Casanova has decided to marry. And then the Inquisition's representative (Jeremy Irons) shows up to capture Casanova and put him in prison for his many licentious crimes. To say its complicated is to understate it, but, hey, it's a farce.
Oliver Platt is hilarious. So is Omid Djalili as Casanova's servant, Lupo. Miller and Ledger are just right, funny and smart and attractive. Venice is as beautiful as you'll ever see it. And, as I mentioned, all's well that ends well. What's not to like? I dunno. Some people didn't like it, but I sure did.
Monday, February 22, 2016
Harry Hunsicker Interview
Harry Hunsicker 022116: On high-tech Westerns and the burgeoning literary scene in the Big D
Astounding Stories 1931-1941
The Golden Age: Astounding Stories 1931-1941 ~ Art by Howard V. Brown, Wesso Graves Gladney & Hubert Rogers
Apparently the post for this link has disappeared; sorry about that.
Apparently the post for this link has disappeared; sorry about that.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Free for Kindle Today Only
Eight Mystery Writers You Should be Reading Now - Kindle edition by Michael Guillebeau, Chris Knopf, Larissa Reinhart, Lisa Alber, Kathleen Cosgrove, Jessie Bishop Powell, Jaden Terrell, Lisa Wysocky, Stacy Pethel. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. If you miss out today, it will be free again on 2-29.
I Can Quit Anytime I Want To
“Problematic Internet use” can hurt relationships, study finds.: And this professor says it can be as bad as substance addiction.
So It's Come to This
Daily Mail Online: Sculpture measuring 20ft high and 15ft wide moved... so that mobile users don't bump into it as they text!
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