Saturday, January 07, 2017
Francine York, R. I. P.
Hollywood Reporter: Francine York, the statuesque actress who showed off her sexuality as The Bookworm's moll on Batman and in such films as It's Only Money, Cannon for Cordoba and The Doll Squad, has died. She was 80.
Nat Hentoff, R. I. P.
SFGate: NEW YORK (AP) — Nat Hentoff, an eclectic columnist, critic, novelist and agitator dedicated to music, free expression and defying the party line, died Saturday at age 91.
Makes Sense to Me
Visiting Disney World is the Modern Version of Making a Medieval Pilgrimage: According to anthropologists, religious studies experts, and art historians.
The Digest Enthusiast #5 -- You Know You Want It!
The Digest Enthusiast #5 | Digest Magazines: The Digest Enthusiast #5 Jan. 2017 cover by Joe Wehrle, Jr.
TDE5 is now available in print and Kindle editions.
Here’s the lineup: • Interview with Bill Crider: The inside story on Dan Rhodes, EQMM’s Blog Bytes and Bill’s storied career with digests—with special coverage of the beloved DAPA-EM.
• Digest News: the latest from Dell, Fate, F&SF, Nostalgia Digest, Video WatcHDog and our contributors; readers’ response to TDE4; plus Tom Brinkmann’s portraits of synchronicity.
• Peter Enfantino’s overview and synopses of Martin Goodman’s Justice Amazing Detective Mysteries. • Steve Carper cracks the riddle of the remarkable Ellery Queen Selects series.
• Peter Enfantino reports on the editorial insights of Robert A.W. Lowndes on his ultimate manifestation: the Magazine of Horror.
• RAWL on Writing for Publication, a summary by Richard Krauss.
• Reviews of the UK’s Worlds of Fantasy #4, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by Peter Nicholls, Charles Beckman, Jr.’s Honky Tonk Girl by Gary Lovisi, and Marvel Science Stories May 1951.
• Genre fiction by Lesann Berry, Richard L. Kellogg, and Joe Wehrle, Jr.; with illustrations by Brian Buniak, Michael Neno, and Joe Wehrle, Jr.
• Plus contents lists and sources; digest magazine checklists; Haiku by Clark Dissmeyer; cartoons by Brad Foster and Bob Vojtko; and more.
Print version, $8.99, includes nearly 100 B&W cover images, 152 pages, 5.5″ x 8.5″ digest. Kindle version, $2.99, includes over 50 color cover images.
Here’s the lineup: • Interview with Bill Crider: The inside story on Dan Rhodes, EQMM’s Blog Bytes and Bill’s storied career with digests—with special coverage of the beloved DAPA-EM.
• Digest News: the latest from Dell, Fate, F&SF, Nostalgia Digest, Video WatcHDog and our contributors; readers’ response to TDE4; plus Tom Brinkmann’s portraits of synchronicity.
• Peter Enfantino’s overview and synopses of Martin Goodman’s Justice Amazing Detective Mysteries. • Steve Carper cracks the riddle of the remarkable Ellery Queen Selects series.
• Peter Enfantino reports on the editorial insights of Robert A.W. Lowndes on his ultimate manifestation: the Magazine of Horror.
• RAWL on Writing for Publication, a summary by Richard Krauss.
• Reviews of the UK’s Worlds of Fantasy #4, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by Peter Nicholls, Charles Beckman, Jr.’s Honky Tonk Girl by Gary Lovisi, and Marvel Science Stories May 1951.
• Genre fiction by Lesann Berry, Richard L. Kellogg, and Joe Wehrle, Jr.; with illustrations by Brian Buniak, Michael Neno, and Joe Wehrle, Jr.
• Plus contents lists and sources; digest magazine checklists; Haiku by Clark Dissmeyer; cartoons by Brad Foster and Bob Vojtko; and more.
Print version, $8.99, includes nearly 100 B&W cover images, 152 pages, 5.5″ x 8.5″ digest. Kindle version, $2.99, includes over 50 color cover images.
Friday, January 06, 2017
PaperBack
Ellery Queen (Daniel Nathan [Frederic Dannay] and Emanuel Benjamin Lepofsky [Manfred Bennington Lee]), The Four of Hearts, Pocket Books, 1943
FFB: My Turn -- John O'Hara
When I was in high school and college, I read quite a few novels by John O'Hara. Lately I've been enjoying his short stories. My Turn is nonfiction, a collection of syndicated columns that O'Hara wrote from October 1964 to October 1965. Each column is about two pages long, and O'Hara got $1000 for each one. Not bad in 1965 dollars, and of course the column was just a sideline for him. He was a former straight-ticket Democrat who'd become a straight-ticket Republican by the time the columns were written, and apparently a good many newspapers dropped the column over the course of the year. The syndicate could no longer afford them, and O'Hara refused to take a pay cut. Thus ended the column.O'Hara was free to write about whatever he wanted to, and mostly he wrote about his personal views. You might not think the columns would be relevant now, but you know the old expression about how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Lots of this stuff could be redone today if the names were changed. Black men being shot by cops? That's covered. Gun control? Yep. Liberal bashing? Plenty of that. The thing about O'Hara's writing and opinions is that they're always urbane, civilized. He doesn't go for ranting, but you never have any doubt about where he stands. The fifty years that have gone by since the writing of the columns give them plenty of distance. It's easy to read them as entertainment and to enjoy O'Hara's opinions of some of his fellow writers (he didn't care for most of them) and politicians (he liked Barry Goldwater but didn't like Lyndon Johnson). People under fifty, or maybe under sixty, reading this book might feel as if they're reading about events as ancient as the Punic Wars. To me at least 95% of the names were as familiar as if I'd seen them yesterday. It's a short book, and I found it a lot of fun.
Thursday, January 05, 2017
King Kong vs. Tarzan -- Will Murray
Here's the part of the story of King Kong that you know: Kong is captured on Skull Island and taken away by Carl Denam and his crew. Kong arrives in New York and havoc ensues. What you don't know, since it's in neither the movie or the book about Kong, is anything about the journey from one place to the other. Now you can find out, since that's what Will Murray's new novel is all about. Consider the problems. How are you going to feed Kong? How are you going to keep him from tearing your ship apart? What about body waste? Murray has thought about all these things and more. For example, the shortest way to New York would be through the Suez Canal, but what are you going to tell the customs inspectors if they ask if you have anything to declare? "Oh, nothing at all. Just the giant ape down there in the cargo hold." So the canal is out, and the ship winds up docking for supplies in Kenya. Which is where Kong escapes. Into Tarzan territory.
We all know there can be only one Lord of the Jungle, so who's it gonna be, Kong or Tarzan? Have a look at the cover up there on the left for one of the great confrontations from the book. We all know that Kong winds up in New York, but how does the confrontation end? I'm not telling.
There's lots more in the novel than a short review can reveal, and Murray's ideas about how Kong would adapt to Africa, a very different environment from that of Skull Island, are among them. You'll just have to read the book for yourself to find out what they are.
Carl Denham's a great character, determined to get his way come hell or high water or Lords of the Jungle. This is another thrilling adventure in the grand pulp style from Murray, great reading for a cold winter's day or for any other day of the year.
I Was a Ghostwriter for a Ghostwriter
I Was a Ghostwriter for a Ghostwriter: ON TIME SPENT IN A MEMOIR FACTORY
Letters from an Invented Writer
Letters from an Invented Writer: A selection of correspondence between 'James Tiptree, Jr.' and Joanna Russ
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
Tuesday, January 03, 2017
Health Update
For those interested in the state of my health, here's the latest. After a long day of testing yesterday, I met with the doctor today. The test results were "mixed" and a little puzzling. The good news is that both the CT scan and the bone scan showed nice improvement, and most of my blood work was excellent. The bad news is that the one problem with the blood work was the PSA count, which has risen again. This is puzzling because in light of the test results, that shouldn't be the case.
Rather than start chemo immediately, the doctor wants to wait one week and do another blood test. If the PSA remains high, then I'll be boarding the chemo train. I can't see any reason why it won't remain high, and the doctor wasn't sanguine, either. At least I'm getting a week's reprieve, so I'm glad about that.
Rather than start chemo immediately, the doctor wants to wait one week and do another blood test. If the PSA remains high, then I'll be boarding the chemo train. I can't see any reason why it won't remain high, and the doctor wasn't sanguine, either. At least I'm getting a week's reprieve, so I'm glad about that.
Ex-drug users share photos after their recovery
Ex-drug users share transformation photos after their recovery from drugs
Annoying slideshow, but interesting.
Annoying slideshow, but interesting.
Lynn Munroe Books: Morgan Kane
My friend Art Scott reminded me that I've been remiss in not posting links to Lynn Munroe's latest research. This time Munroe discusses Morgan Kane, who did hundreds of great paperback covers, among other works. The bio is great, and the checklist is a visual feast. Mostly. As Art points out, Kane, while a great illustrator, was also responsible for some not-so-wonderful photo covers, including the early '70s Shell Scott novels by Richard S. Prather. Lynn Munroe Books: Morgan Kane bio
Morgan Kane Checklist.
A Recommended Website . . .
for SF readers who miss the old days: Galactic Journey:
Imagine living in the post-Golden Age of science fiction and fantasy. What would it be like to actually be there, experiencing life, the movies, the books, the music, day per day?
The Traveler lives in 1961, but he regularly commutes 55 years into the future to write about then-contemporary science fiction and fantasy, particularly fiction found in magazines. But that’s not all there is to life 55 years ago! So expect to read about the movies, the space shots, the politics, the music, and much more!
There is nothing like the Journey anywhere else in the universe. Come jump through the portal and see a world you may but dimly remember, or which you may never have seen before, but without which your time could never have been…
Imagine living in the post-Golden Age of science fiction and fantasy. What would it be like to actually be there, experiencing life, the movies, the books, the music, day per day?
The Traveler lives in 1961, but he regularly commutes 55 years into the future to write about then-contemporary science fiction and fantasy, particularly fiction found in magazines. But that’s not all there is to life 55 years ago! So expect to read about the movies, the space shots, the politics, the music, and much more!
There is nothing like the Journey anywhere else in the universe. Come jump through the portal and see a world you may but dimly remember, or which you may never have seen before, but without which your time could never have been…
Overlooked Movies -- The Terror of the Tongs
Christopher Lee, plays the head of the Red Dragon tong in a somewhat lackadaisical performance. The MacGuffin is a list of the members of the tong, which a group opposed to the tong could use to destroy it if they can only get their hands on the list. The man with the list hides it in a book before he's killed. The book is a gift for a ship's captain (Geoffrey Toone), and his daughter is killed when the tong members are searching for the list. And it's a good thing. The daughter is so irritating that I was glad that she was in the movie for only a few minutes. I couldn't have taken much more of her.Naturally the captain wants revenge. The police are no help, so he sets out to destroy the tong on his own. You could probably write the rest of it yourself since it plays out just as you'd expect. The surprise villain isn't at all surprising.
My guess is that 90% of the actors aren't Asian. This might occasion a bit of comment today, but I don't remember that it occasioned any on its original release. What got the comment was the torture and violence, which would now be rated PG at worst. It's all quite mild and nothing graphic is shown. It's an okay movie but nothing you need to go out of your way to see.
Monday, January 02, 2017
I'm Sure You'll All Agree
The 30 Best Self Help Books: This list reflects books that have saved lives, sold millions of copies, spawned publishing empires, influenced work habits, inspired presidents and prime ministers, and we approached the subject from a variety of angles ranging from allegories to straight fiction to ensure diversity in our recommendations. Mind, body and health, family and relationships, work, money and finance, and lifestyle are all covered.
Sunday, January 01, 2017
Librarians use fake reader to check out and save books
The Sacramento Bee: A library in Florida created a fake reader, named it for a former major-league baseball player, and allowed it to check out books to make sure certain titles remained on the shelves. Books that aren’t used for a long period can be discarded and removed from the library system.
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