Saturday, August 06, 2016
Pete Fountain, R. I. P.
wwltv.com: Pete Fountain, the famed New Orleans jazz clarinetist whose 60-year career was marked by performances for presidents and a pope, making him an international ambassador for the music and culture of his hometown, has died. He was 86.
Super-Science Fiction #5 (August 1957)
The Friction of Ideas | Digest Magazines: The inside front cover of Super-Science Fiction #5 (August 1957) features editor W.W. Scott’s cautionary Soviet reportatorial. An American news correspondent was expelled from Moscow for “spreading Anti-Soviet literature.”
Friday, August 05, 2016
Cult Books: Obsession with the Obscure
Cult Books: Obsession with the Obscure: Defining a cult book is not easy. Let's start with the more obvious aspects of cult lit. To begin, a cult book should have a passionate following. Buckets of books fall into this category, including classics like J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and On the Road by Jack Kerouac. But even mega sellers Harry Potter and 50 Shades of Grey can be considered cult lit by that definition. A cult book should have the ability to alter a reader's life or influence great change, and for the purpose of this list, it should also be a bit odd and a tad obscure.
FFB: Naked Fury -- Day Keene
Dan Malloy is a big man in Phelpsburg. He's a political boss in the poor part of the city, under the bluff in The Valley. If you need a favor, he's the man to see, and if you want to win the general election, you'd better have him on your side. He's feeling a bit old and tired, but he's still got what it takes to win.This time around, the group that wants his support has promised him a lot for The Valley: parks, swimming pools, new houses with yards. As the old saying goes, if it sounds to good to be true, it is, but it takes Dan a while to catch on. The trouble starts with a hit-and-run accident that kills a crippled newsie. The single witness to the crime is killed. The cop who took the witness' statement changes his report, giving an entirely different description of the car involved. Just as Dan is about to get a confession from him, the cop is killed.
Any paperback fan is going to know what's going on long before Dan does, but Keene's vigorous prose carries things right along, and there's some very good stuff about Dan that proves how much he cares for the people in The Valley. This one's a fast, tough ride that might not be in the Gold Medal class but that comes close enough for some good reading.
Thursday, August 04, 2016
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
Yet Another Update
I'm still here. I saw my doctor at M. D. Anderson, and she's still very optimistic. There have been some complications, but she wasn't as concerned about them as I am. I've had the first in a series of shots, and I'll be starting chemo in about a month or a month and a half. My daughter, Angela, has been here through all of this, and I couldn't have made it without her. She'll be going back to California soon, and I'll have to see how I can make it on my own for a while. If things don't go well, my son or my sister can come. I think I'll be fine, though. I hope to ease back into blogging later in the week. We'll see how it goes.
Tuesday, August 02, 2016
Overlooked Movies -- Hairspray
It's hard not to like a movie as full of good will as this one, which presents 1962 as it never was but as it should have been: clean, colorful, and pretty much harmless, with lots of singing and dancing. It had me right from the first scene when Tracey (Nikki Blonsky) jumps out of bed with a smile on her face and a song in her heart.
Luckily for the audience, Tracey shares the song with us, and the whole opening sequence is bouncy with infectious happiness. In fact, the whole movie is bouncy and happy, and it carried me right along with it. I loved the colors, the songs, the dancing, and the actors, even John Travolta in his fat suit.
I liked the earlier version of the movie, too, the one with Ricki Lake, who turns up in a cameo. So does John Waters in another brief bit I liked. The plot in this one is pretty much the same, about the dance party TV program, the racism, and the beauty contest, but the energy and enthusiasm of the cast are what carry the show. If you need cheering up, this is one you can watch and get results.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
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