Download Issues of "Weird Tales" (1923-1954): The Pioneering Pulp Horror Magazine Features Original Stories by Lovecraft, Bradbury & Many More
Some great cover photos even if you don't want to download.
Hat tip to Deb.
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Bill Richmond, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Bill Richmond, who collaborated with Jerry Lewis on the screenplays for “The Ladies Man,” “The Nutty Professor” and a half-dozen other Lewis films before establishing a successful television career writing for Carol Burnett and others, died on June 4 at his home in Calabasas, Calif. He was 94.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Bernie Worrell, R. I. P.
Flavorwire: Bernie Worrell, known as the “Wizard of Woo” and a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic, has died at 72 after a battle with cancer. Worrell was a keyboardist for the group, known for his innovative use of the Moog synthesizer. He left the band in 1981, but continued to collaborate with P-Funk on albums and live shows. A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Worrell was also unofficial member of Talking Heads, performing with them on several albums and live shows, helping to expand their pioneering sound.
Michael Herr, R. I. P.
Flavorwire: Michael Herr, the writer famous for authoring the gritty Vietnam War testimonial Dispatches, has died at 76, after a long bout with illness according to Knopf, his former publisher.
Phoenix Press: Depression Era Pulp
Ralph Stanley, R. I. P.
ABC News: Ralph Stanley, a patriarch of Appalachian music who with his brother Carter helped expand and popularize the genre that became known as bluegrass, died Thursday. He was 89.
FFB: She Got What She Wanted -- Orrie Hitt
Okay, this is a brand-new book. It's not even for sale until August (you can order it now, though). But it's a reprint of a early Beacon Books novel by Orrie Hitt that not many of you have read, I'll bet. And it's probably not what you think it is, either.The novel's opening scenes make it appear that we're about to get a backwoods tale. A bill collector shows up at the Banners' house in the sticks. Pa owes money to plenty of people and usually talks his way out of paying until forced. Ma is lazy. Daughter Della is a hot number, who doesn't owe anyone and owns her own car. When they finally shake the collector, Della packs up and leaves for the city. She's had it with the life she's leading, and at age 20 she wants more. More means money, and she's determined to get it.
Through a series of events Della hooks up with Jack, a door-to-door roofing salesman. He thinks Della has what it takes to be a good canvasser, the one who hooks the suckers before he comes in to close the sale. He's right. And not only that, but Della learns the business so well and so quickly that she's soon a closer herself, and then a manager. You won't be surprised to learn that the pursuit of money doesn't always end well, but that's all I have to say about the plot.
The book itself if surprising in several ways. For one thing, it's a good deal longer than the usual sleaze novel. For another thing, it's not a sleaze novel. Sure, there are a few sex scenes, but they're quite brief and non-specific. What this is, is a noir tale of a smart woman who knows how to get ahead in a man's world and will do what it takes to get what she wants. Or what she thinks she wants.
I haven't read a great many books by Orrie Hitt, but this is the best one of the bunch, by far. It's a serious novel about business, with plenty of details. It has a well worked out crime scheme. If you've never read Hitt's work before, this would be a good place to start.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Houston Chronicle: Representatives from Guinness World Records verified last week that MASSIV is the world's tallest water coaster, at just over 81 feet.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Bill Ham, R. I. P.
Austin Music Source: Bill Ham, the 20th-century Texas music business titan who managed ZZ Top’s rise to international fame and guided Clint Black to country stardom, died Saturday at his home in Austin, the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Tuesday. He was 79.
Shot in Detroit -- Patti Abbott
Violet Hart is a photographer. She has artistic aspirations, but mostly she shoots weddings and bar mitzvahs to survive. She can't find a subject that would set her apart. And then she does. Young black men. Dead ones. She has access because she's dating the owner of a mortuary, and she takes the first picture because he asks her to, for the family of the dead man. When she sees the prints, she knows she's onto something.She also meets a young man named Derek on Belle Isle. Derek's an artist, too, in his own way, making installations in the park. She asks him to let her know if he finds anything edgy. He finds hands and feet and a torso.
As Abbott would admit, Violet's not a very nice person, but she's not a hateful person. She struggles with what she's doing. Is it art that she's trying to achieve, or is it personal success? Is she exploiting the dead for her own gain, or is there more to it? As her backstory is parceled out over the course of the novel, Violet learns a lot about herself and her past that helps explain both what she's doing and why it's even more important to her than she realizes at first.
Shot in Detroit has scope and ambition. It's one of those books that will stick with you long after you close the covers. Check it out.
You Can't Take It with You. . .
. . . but you can pass it along: Florence has had the same wealthiest families for 600 years
Croc Update (Monster Edition)
Daily Mail Online: Monster crocodile the length of three men is caught at a popular fishing spot
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Check out the photo at the link.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Check out the photo at the link.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Overlooked Movies -- Layer Cake
Summertime is rerun time, USA. Here's an oldie from 2006.
Admittedly I rented this movie because I thought it was a filmed version of The Betty Crocker Cookbook. Boy, was I surprised. It's another British crime movie with a convoluted plot, and I enjoyed it even more than I would have something based on Betty Crocker. It's a bit more serious than Lock, Stock and Two Loaded Barrels, and it's not as intent on being "stylish" (though it has plenty of style. Daniel Craig plays a nameless businessman who happens to be a middleman in the quite lucrative business of selling cocaine. He thinks he has everything figured out, even down to the "one big deal and I'm out of here" plan.
As soon as you hear that, as you do very early on, you pretty much know that bad things are going to happen, and they do. Craig is asked to look for a powerful man's missing daughter and to sort out a drug deal gone bad. These things are not in his line, but he's in no position to turn down the jobs. Before long, things begin to spin out of control. Craig's smart, but that doesn't always matter when you're dealing with people who'll kill you as a matter of course.
My main problem with the movie is the relationship between Craig and Sienna Miller, who, despite the nice photo you see here, is dreadfully under-used. The relationship between her and Craig is a key to the ending, but it's never developed. There's so much else going on that there just isn't time. While the ending came as a surprise to me, I thought it was a little bit of a cheat, though some sketchy attempt had at least been made to set it up.
I never did figure out the title, either. There's an unsatisfactory (to me) explanation near the end of the movie, but I still think it's a bad title for this kind of movie.
But never mind. The movie's still a lot of fun. Check it out.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Richard Linke, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Richard O. Linke, the talent manager who helped transform Andy Griffith from a high school music teacher into an exemplar of folksy American small-town values on one of the most successful television shows of the convulsive 1960s, died on Wednesday at his home on the island of Hawaii. He was 98.
Hat tip to John Duke.
Hat tip to John Duke.
Writing the Second Novel -- Patti Abbott
Writing the Second Novel -- Patti Abbott
Shot in Detroit was actually the first novel I wrote. It's the story of a female photographer in Detroit who comes up with the idea of photographing dead men and the trouble this brings down on her. I sent it out to about 15 agents and it generated little interest. Two agents who agreed to read it (mostly because clients asked them to) sent nice letters telling me how much they liked the writing, but that the protagonist was too dark. I should make the villain(s) edgy (they said) but keep the central character likable, relatable, pretty, young. But what if that was the point of the novel? What if the circumstances the protagonist endures over 300 pages whittles away at her edginess. A little at least.
So I put Shot in Detroit aside and wrote what seemed like a more salable novel, Concrete Angel. Guess what, I still wrote an unlikable character. Even more so perhaps. But she was balanced by a daughter who earned the reader's sympathy. Christine Moran was a Mildred Pierce and her mother, Eve, a Veda for those familiar with the novel.
Concrete Angel was more palatable in its structure too. It started with a big scene. As one editor said of SID, I shouldn't have to read forty pages before a crime occurs. And the crimes come fast and often in Concrete Angel.
I was ready to return to Shot and bring some of the devices I had learned in Concrete Angel into the story. I toned down Violet's more unpalatable traits. I worked to make Violet's consideration of her project deeper. Was she exploiting the black men she photographed or honoring them? This would be the main thrust of the novel--not the project itself or the crimes Violet becomes involved with along the way.
So each book ended up teaching me something I could use in the other. But neither taught me how to write a book about nice people. That would be a real feat. Shortly before my mother died, she said she wished either Megan or I would write an uplifting book. Ballykissangel was her favorite series. Hamish Macbeth-"write about a policeman like him," she said. I wish I could. Maybe if I lived in a village in Ireland or Scotland. But not writing from outside Detroit. Never from here.
Shot in Detroit was actually the first novel I wrote. It's the story of a female photographer in Detroit who comes up with the idea of photographing dead men and the trouble this brings down on her. I sent it out to about 15 agents and it generated little interest. Two agents who agreed to read it (mostly because clients asked them to) sent nice letters telling me how much they liked the writing, but that the protagonist was too dark. I should make the villain(s) edgy (they said) but keep the central character likable, relatable, pretty, young. But what if that was the point of the novel? What if the circumstances the protagonist endures over 300 pages whittles away at her edginess. A little at least. So I put Shot in Detroit aside and wrote what seemed like a more salable novel, Concrete Angel. Guess what, I still wrote an unlikable character. Even more so perhaps. But she was balanced by a daughter who earned the reader's sympathy. Christine Moran was a Mildred Pierce and her mother, Eve, a Veda for those familiar with the novel.
Concrete Angel was more palatable in its structure too. It started with a big scene. As one editor said of SID, I shouldn't have to read forty pages before a crime occurs. And the crimes come fast and often in Concrete Angel.
I was ready to return to Shot and bring some of the devices I had learned in Concrete Angel into the story. I toned down Violet's more unpalatable traits. I worked to make Violet's consideration of her project deeper. Was she exploiting the black men she photographed or honoring them? This would be the main thrust of the novel--not the project itself or the crimes Violet becomes involved with along the way.
So each book ended up teaching me something I could use in the other. But neither taught me how to write a book about nice people. That would be a real feat. Shortly before my mother died, she said she wished either Megan or I would write an uplifting book. Ballykissangel was her favorite series. Hamish Macbeth-"write about a policeman like him," she said. I wish I could. Maybe if I lived in a village in Ireland or Scotland. But not writing from outside Detroit. Never from here.
Running a Marathon Is Tough, Even without Bears
KOAT Home: JEMEZ, N.M. —A bear attacked a woman running in a marathon Saturday afternoon in the Valles Calderas National Preserve near Los Alamos, officials said.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Anton Yelchin, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Anton Yelchin, a budding film star best known for his roles in the new "Star Trek" movies, died Sunday morning in a vehicle-related accident. He was 27.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
The Married Woman Who Kept Her Lover in the Attic
The Married Woman Who Kept Her Lover in the Attic: Dolly Oesterreich, her "Bat Man," and one of the strangest sex scandals ever.
Happy Father’s Day!
Father’s Day - Holidays - HISTORY.com: On July 19, 1910, the governor of the U.S. state of Washington proclaimed the nation’s first “Father’s Day.” However, it was not until 1972, 58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official, that the day became a nationwide holiday in the United States. The photo is of my father and mother. A good-looking duo.
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