Saturday, May 06, 2017
Scribe Award Nominees
Scribe Awards | International Association of Media Tie-In Writers: The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers is pleased to announce the Scribe Award Nominees for 2017.
Don Gordon, R. I. P.
Variety: Character actor Don Gordon, who appeared alongside his friend Steve McQueen in “Bullitt,” “Papillon,” and “The Towering Inferno,” died April 24 in Los Angeles, according to his wife.
Hat tip to Don Herron.
Why you like the smell of old books
Why you like the smell of old books: A new study says historic smells are part of our 'cultural heritage' and should be saved to bring the past to life.
Hat tip to Deb.
Hat tip to Deb.
Brooklyn Leads the Way
Dig Through the World's Largest Sketchbook Library: There’s an art library in Brooklyn where anyone and everyone can be a contributor to the collection. It has existed for almost 10 years and yet it’s fittingly one of those wonderfully and unusual things that few New Yorkers know about.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
![The Driving Lesson by [Rehder, Ben]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41boQ0ABJgL.jpg)
Amazon.com: The Driving Lesson eBook: Ben Rehder: Books Charlie Dunbar had big plans for the summer break, but becoming a fugitive was nowhere on the list. Even more unexpected, his partner in crime is his own ailing grandfather. Now they're on the run, trying to make it across the country to see a special kind of doctor, while the world becomes mesmerized by their journey. They are the subject of heated debates on cable news channels. Thousands of people voice their support on Facebook fan pages. And Charlie's own parents appear on live TV to plead for him to come home safely. But Charlie isn't ready yet. He's determined to get his grandfather to Seattle. The only question is, will the police stop them first? Recommended for age 13 to adult.
Gabourey Sidibe: By the Book
Gabourey Sidibe: By the Book: The actress and author of “This Is Just My Face” found herself rereading Ruthie Mae Bolton’s “Gal,” “each time understanding more and more, the blessing and the burden of being a black woman.”
Friday, May 05, 2017
Adolph Kiefer, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Adolph Kiefer, a celebrated swimming champion who won gold as a teenager at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and might well have become one of America’s greatest Olympic champions if World War II had not intervened, died at his home in Wadsworth, Ill. He was 98.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Forgotten Hits: May 5th
Forgotten Hits: May 5th: Hot-shot debuts on the chart this week include "Do It Again, A Little Bit Slower" by Jon and Robin, which premiers at #79 and "Come On Down To My Boat" by Every Mother's Son.
A Super Summer Survey is included.
A Super Summer Survey is included.
FFB: Passion Cache -- J. X. Williams (Harry Whittington)
This is another example of Harry Whittington's "mid-century erotica" from the time when he was churning out work for hire. The setup made me hopeful that it would be a pretty good crime novel, with sex. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped, however.The setup, depicted on the cover, has a sleep-deprived Nick Phillips driving a seemingly deserted road because he was looking for a shortcut. He spots a scantily dressed woman wandering along and stops to see if he can be of help. She's battered and bruised and pretty much out of it. He does manage to get her to her house, which looks as if a fight has taken place. Sex ensues. The best sex ever, for either of them. She's married, of course, and her husband has disappeared. There's $250,000 that he's stolen and that can maybe be recovered. The woman is clearly not being truthful about what's been going on.
Not a bad setup, but the novel bogs down in endless talking. It was clearly written by Harry Whittington, but it lacks his usual narrative drive. There's lots of that good old sex philosophy: "A woman has to truly belong. She's got to be a slave to a man when they're together like that. She's got to be his slave. He's got to make her want to be his slave." To which the reply is, "I'll buy that."
If Whittington had eliminated all the sex and stuck with a straightforward crime novel, we'd have had a better book. Not that this one's terrible, but it's not up to Whittington's usual standards.
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Delights, Dangers, and Debuts
Book Rescuers in 1951
Pictures of the Book Rescuers in 1951: A small collection of photos from the LIFE Archives, taken by Thomas Mcavoy, show the sheer awesomeness of librarians. Pictured in 1951 drying out state library books damaged by fighting the Lewis Cass State Office Building fire in Lansing, Michigan; it was quite the undertaking.
I Miss the Old Days
A Photographer’s Quest to Find the Last of the Drive-In Theaters: A fade to black for America’s outdoor silver screens.
Sam Mele, R. I. P.
Sam Mele, Major League Player, Manager and Scout, Dies at 95: Growing up in Queens, where he played high school baseball, Sam Mele had no shortage of advice on the fine points of the game. His uncles Tony and Al Cuccinello were major league infielders, and Tony’s Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Al Lopez, who was their catcher and a future Hall of Fame manager, dropped by to give him a tip or two. Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
May the Fourth Be with You
Neatorama: This year marks the 40th anniversary of Star Wars. The world has changed a lot in those years, so it's nice to have a familiar world of light side vs. dark side, Jedi vs. Sith, and Rebel vs. Empire to submerge oneself in. Some of the first children who grew up with Star Wars are now introducing their grandchildren to a galaxy far, far away. Some of those first-generation fans are now working to send humans to Mars.
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
The Adventures of Roderick Langham -- Rafe McGregor
This collection of nine stories follows an unexpected arc. Langham is a soldier, who encounters an ancient evil (paging George Kelley) in the first story, goes on to become a police inspector (and excellent detective), and then, well, you should just read the stories and find out. Holmes and Watson figure in several of them, and Holmes doesn't come off too well. We get the "re-solution" (and supposedly the correct one) to the Baskerville case, and there's the affair of the ship named the Demeter (you Dracula fans will remember that one). Eventually he encounters full-blown Lovecraftian (or Derlethian) horror (paging George Kelley once again). And there's more. I found the stories different, intriguing, and entertaining. And the collection's only 99 cents for Kindle, a nice bargain.
“The Mysterious Face in the Cloud” by E. Gabriel Flores
“The Mysterious Face in the Cloud” by E. Gabriel Flores | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: The most recent winner of the Robert L. Fish Award for best short story by a new American author, E. Gabriel Flores did a post for this site in April, and she’s back this month with a post about a phenomenon that figures, in one way or another, in many mysteries. The geography professor turned fiction writer is a lifelong fan of the mystery, and her love of the genre is apparent in her fiction. We have a new Flores story coming up in EQMM soon. —Janet Hutchings
Bonus FFB on Wednesday: The Moonshine War -- Elmore Leonard
I was moving some books around the other day and came across a copy of The Moonshine War. It had been so long since I read it that I thought I'd give it another go, as I remembered it as being one of my favorites of Elmore Leonard's work.It's 1931, and Son Martin's old army buddy, Frank Long, now a revenue agent, shows up in the Kentucky county where Son lives. Son made the mistake of telling Long about the 150 barrels of whiskey that Son's father had hidden away to age for eight full years. That whiskey would be worth about $125,000, and Long has decided he wants it. He's not acting in an official capacity, though no one in town knows that, and when Son won't give up the whiskey, Long hires some killers and outlaws to help him take it.
Son, being one of those stubborn Leonard heroes, isn't going to give up the whiskey, no matter what, so one of Long's new associates suggests that attacking Son's neighbors and destroying their stills will make Son change his mind. That doesn't work, though it does turn all Son's neighbors and supposed friends against him.
After I got a little way into the book, I remembered where the whiskey was hidden and how the novel ended, but that didn't spoil things for me. Getting there was a lot of fun, and the book ends with an extended gun battle that's a real highlight.
It's easy to see this book as a precursor to the Raylan Givens stories. Just substitute marijuana for alcohol, and there you are. Good stuff. Check it out.
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Robert McGinnis Is Fashionable
Prada Teams with Robert McGinnis for Fall 2017 Prints: Miuccia Prada is known for pulling together disparate references, and her Fall 2017 collection did not disappoint on that front. Among the looks on her runway in Milan tonight were a series of prints pulled from paperback novels of the ‘60s, drawn by renowned illustrator Robert E. McGinnis. Looks 30 to 34 featured McGinnis’s depictions of bombshells in various states of alluring undress, each featured on the covers of mid-century books by Brett Halliday (and one by Erle Stanley Gardner) with salacious titles like Murder and the Married Virgin and Never Kill a Client. Titillating! McGinnis’s artwork was also featured in Prada’s set this season, with some of his famous works collaged in the Via Fogazzaro show space alongside modern photography and maps.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Don't Tell Dave Barry This
When Squirrels Were One of America's Most Popular Pets: Benjamin Franklin even wrote an ode to a fallen one.
Angels Flight: Up the Down Railroad
Neatorama: On the morning of December 31, 1901, a new train opened for business in downtown Los Angeles. There were crowds and many speeches about progress, and Mayor Meredith Snyder took one of the first rides. Wealthy women who lived in the Victorian mansions atop Bunker Hill served free punch to the passengers. The new railroad’s official name was the Los Angeles Incline Railway, but a nearby metal archway already contained the words, “Angels Flight,” so that’s what everyone called it.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee
Daily Mail Online: The wildest fifth birthday party ever? Cops pepper spray 'unruly' parents and a 'four-month-old baby' as chaos breaks out at the little girl's celebration
Overlooked Movies -- Our Miss Brooks
I may have mentioned before that Our Miss Brooks, both on radio and TV, was probably at least in part responsible for my choosing to become an English teacher. I thought Eve Arden was great, and I still think so. I wanted to be like her.The radio show, by the way, outlasted the TV show, and it was on for about a year after this movie version was released. I didn't listen to it in the later years, but I did watch the TV show right up until the end.
The movie is a curiosity, since it's both an origin story of sorts and an ending to the story, an ending which wasn't carried out on the radio or TV versions. It begins with Miss Brooks arriving in town, getting a room at Miss Davis' place, and going to Madison High School for the first time, where she meets Stretch Snodgrass (Leonard Smith), Mr. Conklin (Gale Gordon), and Mr. Boynton (Robert Rockwell), with whom she's immediately smitten.
And here comes the sociology. This is a true 1950s movie, in which Miss Brooks' one thought is that she wants to marry. She's a good teacher and loves her profession, as is made clear, especially by a passionate speech she gives to Gary Nolan (Nick Adams), a reluctant learner and son of Lawrence Nolan (Don Porter), one of the richest men in town, the owner of the local newspaper (this was a long time ago, for sure). It's also clear that Mr. Boynton wants a salary increase so he can marry Miss Brooks. It's accepted without comment or question that she'll quit her job when she marries. The guy is the head of the house and is required to have an income to support his family without the wife having to work.
There are several complications in the plot, all of them fairly easily overcome, and in the end the shy Mr. Boynton [HUGE SPOILER] proposes marriage, and they're ready to move into their vine-covered cottage [END OF HUGE SPOILER].
I didn't find this movie as funny as either the radio or TV shows. Gale Gordon never gets to go into a real rage, for example, and there aren't many jokes. Eve Arden gets to play to the camera and do a good many double takes, but that's about it. She never unleashes the kind of sarcasm she did in the other incarnations, or maybe I just missed it. Still, I'm glad I watched, and if you want a quick glimpse into a bygone era, here it is.
Monday, May 01, 2017
I forgot to schedule this for yesterday
Yesterday being the last day of National Poetry Month, I'd planned to post one of my favorite poems about poetry. But it's still great even if it's a day late.
Eating Poetry by Mark Strand
Eating Poetry by Mark Strand
It's May Day!
When is May Day and what does it mean? - CNN.com: Originally, May Day was an ancient pagan holiday celebrating the start of summer. In Gaelic traditions, it is known as Beltaine (or the Anglicized "Beltane"). As time went on, different groups adapted the celebration to their specific cultures or beliefs. Europeans and Americans often celebrate in a more secular manner with diversions like maypole dancing and flower crowns. . .
May Day is also a labor holiday in many areas of the world, and that part of its history is a thornier story. May Day has shared a date with International Workers' Day since the 1880s.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
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