Odd Jobs

2Spare - 25 Most Bizarre Jobs: "A postal clerk wants to be a stand-up comedian for one night. A businessman wants to drive a freight train across a western State. A psychiatrist wants 20 dates on 20 weekends with 20 girls from 20 different countries. How do they do it? They see a fantasy broker whose business is making dreams come true. Originally pioneered in Chicago by an advertising executive, fantasy firms in several cities now do a booming business, charging from $150 to thousands to turn dreams into reality."

Weed grower? I could've been rich!

The Family Trade -- Charles Stross

Charles Stross is a hot writer in the SF field right now, but I wasn't much taken by Singularity Sky. Someone at AggieCon said that I might like his fantasy better than the hard SF and suggested that I try The Family Trade, which is supposedly "in the tradition of Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber." I really liked the early Amber novels, but they unfortunately came to demonstrate the truth of an old saying about writing (first you do it for love, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you just do it for the money). Anyway, I was ready for something similar, and The Family Trade paperback I bought was covered with rave reviews and enthusiastic blurbs.

The book didn't really work for me, though, and it comes down to the writing. Zelazny had a sense of humor that I enjoyed. Stross is supposed to be pretty funny, too, but I guess I just don't get the jokes. I might have smiled once, but I didn't do any laughing.

And no matter how many times I people tell me about Stross' great prose, I just don't see it. Not that there's anything wrong with adverbs, but Stross tosses them around like the old pulpsters. Nobody ever just says something. Everybody says something with an adverb. So on pages 92-93 of the paperback we get things like this: "Angbard said firmly," and "she replied, disbelievingly," and "Roland said slowly." Things can get awkward, as with the "disbelievingly," and on page 100 we get "asked exasperatedly." I like adverbs, myself, and I like to use them in my writing, but not to the extent that Stross does.

So while I liked the alternate-earth story, I kept getting distracted. I wasn't
taken with the characters, so even though the ending of this novel is a huge cliffhanger, I'll probably stop with Stross and move on to something else.

Your FBI Believes in Irony

My favorite line in the article is the one about how the agent "somehow lost consciousness."

An FBI agent who pleaded guilty to drunken driving has sued the maker of his pickup because it caught fire after he passed out behind the wheel.

Robert Clymer, who was involved in a high-profile investigation of the Crazy Horse Too strip club, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.306 percent, nearly four times the current legal limit, and was unconscious when Las Vegas firefighters pulled him from his burning truck on Jan. 29, 2005.

[. . .]

During sentencing in November, Clymer's lawyer said his client wanted to take responsibility for his actions.

"Public officials make mistakes," attorney Gary Booker said. "With public officials, we expect them to own up to their mistakes and correct them. That is exactly what happened in this case."

Two weeks later, Clymer filed a product liability lawsuit against General Motors and Bill Heard Chevrolet, who had sold him the truck. He was seeking more than $33,000 in medical bills and nearly $11,000 in lost wages.

The lawsuit says Clymer stopped on the side of the road to make a telephone call. He left the engine running and the car in park.

Clymer then "somehow lost consciousness" and the truck "somehow produced a heavy smoke that filled the passenger cab," the suit said.

Booksquare Mentions the Mammoth

David Thayer: "Bill Crider’s A Mammoth Murder is out April 27th from SMP Minotaur. Bill got a blurb from The Romantic Times demonstrating his global appeal as a writer."

My thanks to David for the plug. And you should all buy a copy to help out a poor old retired guy who's living on a subsistence income and dreams of his lost youth. Not that I'd play the Pity Card or anything like that.

Happy Birthday, Alfred M. Butts!

Mr. Butts, whose birthday you can celebrate today if you wish, though Mr. Butts is no longer around to join in, was the inventor of Scrabble. The game was really big in the 1950s when I was growing up, and my family played it often in those dimly remembered days before television. Here's a little more Scrabble information, and you can find the whole story here.

"Butts studied the front page of The New York Times to calculate how often each of the 26 letters of the English language was used. He discovered that vowels appear far more often than consonants, with E being the most frequently used vowel. After figuring out frequency of use, Butts assigned different point values to each letter and decided how many of each letter would be included in the game. The letter S posed a problem. While it's frequently used, Butts decided to include only four S's in the game, hoping to limit the use of plurals. After all, he didn't want the game to be too easy!

"Butts got it just right. His basic cryptographic analysis of our language and his original tile distribution have remained valid for almost three generations and for billions of games played.

"The boards for the first Criss-Cross Words game were hand drawn with his architectural drafting equipment, reproduced by blueprinting and pasted on folding checkerboards. The tiles were similarly hand-lettered, then glued to quarter-inch balsa and cut to match the squares on the board."

Ride the High Country

Ride the High Country is one of my favorite westerns. I sometimes think you have to be around my age, or even older, to appreciate the movie fully because it's not about just the characters on the screen. For me, it's also about what Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea bring with them to the story, the hundred Saturday afternoons I spent in little shoebox theaters watching those two in western movies, most of them in black and white. The elegaic tone of the whole thing works better because of that. This was the last movie Scott ever made. McCrea made a couple of others, but maybe he shouldn't have.

Two old lawmen who've out-lived their time sign on to bring a gold shipment down from a mine. It's the first job in a long time for Steve Judd (McRea). Gil Westrum (Scott) has been working as a Buffalo Bill knock-off in a carnival. His plan is to steal the gold with the help of his young partner, and he hopes to talk McRea into going along. Judd's too upright to do any such thing, of course, and in the end, so is Westrum, just as anybody who grew up watching them would know. When Scott comes riding up for the final showdown with the sorry Hammond brothers, I always feel like applauding.

There's a lot more going on in the movie than the plot, and I love the little touches in the opening scene when Judd thinks the townspeople are there to see him and not some race with a camel. And the scene where he wants to read his contract in private so he can use his glasses. And just about any scene where Scott's telling his young partner about Judd. And any scene where McCrea and Scott are together. Sometimes I tend to forget that both those men were actors, and good ones. Every time I watch this movie, I'm reminded of that, and they were never better than here, at least not as far as I'm concerned.

I first saw this movie more than 40 years ago. Judy and I were dating, and I took her to see it. We've both loved it ever since.

Mystery*File Again

MYSTERY*FILE ON-LINE: "April 11. DEAN OWEN. A colloborative checklist of this author’s many novels and short stories, compiled and annotated by Steve Lewis, James Reasoner, Victor A. Berch and Bill Pronzini. Since Dean Owen, aka Dudley Dean, wrote many more westerns than mystery novels and other fiction, under a host of other pen names, this will qualify him to be the first entry in the Western Annex of M*F On-Line, opening soon."

The "Western annex" is great news. There's also an interesting short article on the "adult novels" of Dan J. Marlowe, and more.

Want a Treehouse That Comes With Its Own Tree?

These quys will build you one.

Paris Hilton Sings!

The Superficial has a link to a video of a nearly naked Paris Hilton singing "Happy Birthday" to Hugh Hefner. If you want to see it, click here. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Another Great List

No list that contains “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers” and "Blueberry Hill" can be all bad.

National Recording Registry picks for 2006 - Lifestyle - MSNBC.com: "The Library of Congress’ 2006 selections for the National Recording Registry, in chronological order."

Happy Birthday, Bomba!

Ironically, considering the post below, it's also the birthday of Johnny Sheffield, or as I like to think of him, Bomba the Jungle Boy. I posted the photo to the left last year on this date, so I figured it was time to use it again. Johnny Sheffield is 75 today, one year older than Cheeta.

Happy Birthday, Cheeta!

North Adams Transcript - Headlines: PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — Cheeta the chimp, star of a dozen ''Tarzan'' movies in the 1930s and 1940s, celebrated his 74th birthday with sugar-free cake. Although healthy and active, Cheeta is diabetic.

I wish Cheeta many happy returns. I loved the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weismuller and Gordon Scott when I was a kid, and Cheeta was a big part of things. He seems to be quite the artist, too.

The Hanging Heiress -- Richard Wormser

Having recently read Richard Wormser's memoir, I really wanted to like this book. And I did, but not as much as I'd hoped. Maybe I was expecting too much, or maybe I was just hoping that it would be in the same style as Wormser's Gold Medal novels. It wasn't, though it does involve a p.i., Marty Cockren, who's hired as a bodyguard for the titular (no pun intended) heiress (the hanging pun in the title is definitely intended, and you'll have to read the book if you want to know about it). The lady in question has just received a huge inheritance, and she wants to live to enjoy it. There are many people who would profit if she doesn't, which is why she hires Cockren, a failed newspaper reporter who turns out to be a lot better at his new job than he was at his old one, or at least his smart mouth doesn't get him in quite as much trouble. Good characters, not a bad plot. Just not quite up to expectations.

Happy Birthday, Dandy Don!

Dandy Don Meredith turns 68 today. I followed his career when he was at SMU and later when he was with the Dallas Cowboys, first as part of the infamous quarterback shuffle, alternating plays with Eddie LeBaron, and then when he was on his on. He was part of the reason I used to enjoy watching the Cowboys so much. When I was going to grad school in Austin, Judy and I had a color TV set. A couple of our friends, Fred and Paul Williams, would come over every Sunday, and we'd all watch the Cowboy game. Part of the fun of it was cheering for Dandy Don or yelling at him when he'd screw up.

Gary Cartwright, a sportswriter for the Dallas Morning News, always wrote his best stuff about Meredith, including one article which began something like this: "The Four Horsemen rode again at the Cotton Bowl yesterday. You remember them: War, Pestilence, Famine, and Meredith." Cartwright went on to write a novel called The Hundred-Yard War, which was about a team much like the Cowboys, with a QB named Riley Sylver (it's been a long time, and I'm not 100% sure of the name of the spelling), who was much like Meredith. A pretty good book, as I recall.

I read recently that Dandy Don had some health problems, but I hope he's doing better by now and that he'll have a good day and many more good years to come.

Mystery*File Update

MYSTERY*FILE ON-LINE: "Ed Gorman announced yesterday that he was closing down his blog to concentrate on his health and the current book he is writing. In order that the various postings over the past several months not be lost, as they were when he ceased his previous blog, they are in the process of being archived here at M*F. The postings for the month of April are now online both here and on his present blogsite. All of the earlier ones will eventually migrate over here as well."

I saw this news on Saturday when I was in Dallas. As I'm sure everyone else does, I wish Ed only the best, and I'm glad that Steve Lewis is archiving Ed's posts. Just one more reason why Mystery*File has become essential to all of us.

Mystery*File Update

MYSTERY*FILE ON-LINE: "As a companion piece to the article on Robert Martin written by fellow Tiffin OH resident Jim Felton, Bill Pronzini writes about the correspondence he had with the author of the PI Jim Bennett novels toward the end of his (Martin’s) career. Many more jacket covers are included."

More don't-miss material. Check it out.

Best Southwest Bookfest

Judy and I will be on the road this weekend. In an hour or so we'll take off for the Dallas area for the event linked below. Naturally blogging will be light to nonexistent for the next couple of days, but we'll be back at the old stand on Monday.

Welcome to the Best Southwest Bookfest :: 3rd Annual April 7-8, 2006: "The Best Southwest Bookfest is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging reading and the love of books and to be a force in improving the cultural opportunities of the Best Southwest area.

The Bookfest, presented by the public libraries of Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Lancaster, and the University of North Texas Dallas Campus Library is the area's largest literary event. Proceeds from the Bookfest are used for the promotion of literacy in our community through the Best Southwest Bookfest Foundation."

There's a Blue Ring around Uranus

Planet Uranus has a rare blue ring - Space.com - MSNBC.com: "The recently discovered outermost ring of gas giant Uranus is a bright blue, scientists said Thursday.

Saturn is the only other planet with an identified blue outer ring in the solar system. Both blue rings are associated with small moons; Saturn with Enceladus and Uranus with Mab.

'The outer ring of Saturn is blue and has Enceladus right smack at its brightest spot, and Uranus is strikingly similar, with its blue ring right on top of Mab's orbit,' said Imke de Pater, professor of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley."

Bill Nye, The Science Guy, Visits Waco, Texas

Don't confuse us with the facts. We're Texans.

'The Science Guy' is entertaining and provocative at MCC lecture: "The Emmy-winning scientist angered a few audience members when he criticized literal interpretation of the biblical verse Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

He pointed out that the sun, the “greater light,” is but one of countless stars and that the “lesser light” is the moon, which really is not a light at all, rather a reflector of light.

A number of audience members left the room at that point, visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence.

“We believe in a God!” exclaimed one woman as she left the room with three young children."

Happy Birthday, Merle Haggard!

One of the days the music died was when they stopped playing Merle Haggard on country radio. He turns 68 today, and he can still sing better than any of the hat acts out there. I stole the stuff below from today's Writer's Almanac.

It's the birthday of country songwriter and singer Merle Haggard, born in Bakersfield, California (1937). His parents were dustbowl migrants from Oklahoma, and Haggard grew up in a house that had been converted from a railroad boxcar by his father. He grew up poor and restless, in and out of reform schools, and by the time he was fourteen he was hopping trains and hitchhiking around the West Coast. He supported himself as a migrant farm worker, but he also stole cars, wrote bad checks and became a petty thief.

He eventually got caught trying to burglarize a roadhouse and he spent twenty-seven months in San Quentin prison. He decided that he didn't ever want to go to prison again and became a model prisoner. He also joined the prison's country-music band. Before he was released, Haggard got to see Johnny Cash perform in concert for the prisoners. Haggard even got to meet Cash, and the experience persuaded him to pursue country music as a career.

The first song he wrote, while he was still on parole, was "Branded Man" about the life of an ex-con. He began recording with a friend who ran a record company out of his garage. His first single sold only 200 copies, but within a few years, his song "All My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers" became a top-ten hit on the country charts.

Today, Haggard has released more than six hundred songs, thirty-eight of which were number-one hits.

The Blood Red Sea -- Ron Faust

I liked the first two books (Dead Men Rise up Never, Sea of Bones) in Ron Faust's series about Dan Shaw quite a bit. Shaw reminds me a little of Travis McGee, and the Florida setting in the books is very well done. Somehow I missed The Blood Red Sea when it came out last fall, and I guess a lot of other people did, too, since as far as I know there's not a fourth book scheduled. That's too bad because The Blood Red Sea is very good.

The comparison to the Travis McGee novels is bound to occur to a lot of people after reading the opening section when Shaw rescues (in a sense) a woman who's been left to drown. There's none of the old T. McGee patented therapy, and the woman Shaw saves isn't like a JDM heroine. She's damaged, all right, but she's not so easily healed. Shaw and his friends cook up a plot to get her son for her, and that's when things start to go wrong.

You might think you have the book figured out, that this will happen and then that will happen and then will come the expected ending. You'll probably be wrong on all counts, though. Faust doesn't go in any of the standard directions. That's about all I'm going to say about the plot. You'll just have to read it for yourself. I'll bet it's going to be a little darker than you think. Maybe you'll like it, maybe not. It worked for me.

I first read Ron Faust's work back in the late 1970s and early '80s when he did some books for Gold Medal. I remember talking about them with Joe Lansdale at an AggieCon or two. We both thought that Faust was going to be a contender, but somehow he never quite made it to the top. I thought the Dan Shaw series would do the trick for sure, and if there were any justice, it would have. Maybe it has, and I'm just not aware of it. Boy, I hope so. I hope there'll be more books in the series. I really do.

Nice Story on KACC, the Pride of Alvin

houstonpress.com | Music | KACC Mentality: "It may not look like much -- a low brick structure amid ACC's Air Force base-like cluster of buildings on a sun-baked Brazoria County prairie in suburban Alvin -- but it's where just about every radio station in town gets its fresh young talent. And the weird thing about it is that it is also the best rock station in town. (Or at least it is in the parts of town where you can pick it up -- primarily on the south side.)"

Political Post -- Please Skip

I've gone out of my way to keep politics out of this blog, since that's not what the blog's about. Sometimes, though, I have to let off a little steam, mainly because I've become a grumpy old man. I think it's hormonal. When you get old, you lose your testosterone, your hair, your teeth, your . . . never mind. Anyway, if you've read this far, please stop. Go find something entertaining or informative to read.

Today's Gripes:
1. I was a college student throughout the 1960s. I thought the questions about freedom of expression had been pretty much settled. I guess I was wrong.

2. I never thought I'd be living in a country where people who don't even know the definition of "scientific theory" would be driving the debate about what could be taught in biology classes in the public schools.

3. Has any president ever made (or tried to make) more disastrous appointments to important government positions than George W. Bush? This one is only the latest. (And can you imagine what Rush Limbaugh would be saying if Bill Clinton had made this appointment?) I'm sure you remember this one and this one and this one, too. Yet we're supposed to believe that the two men recently appointed to the Supreme Court are absolutely the best-qualfied jurists in the country because of the thoughtful vetting and research that's gone into making the choices. UPDATE: Good grief!

4. Why is it that the people in Congress who scream loudest in demanding accountability for every penny spent on education or programs like Medicare and Medicaid don't give a flying fig about accounting for the the billions of dollars we spend every month in Iraq? You'd think they'd feel a little hypocritical, right?

5. And finally, You damn kids get off my lawn!

Something to Look Forward To

AP Wire | 04/04/2006 | Dick Francis' 39th novel due in fall: "Dick Francis' 39th novel due in fall
Associated Press

NEW YORK - Best-selling mystery author Dick Francis is ending a six-year hiatus and publishing his first book since the death of his wife and collaborator, Mary Francis.

This fall, G.P. Putnam's Sons will release 'Under Orders,' his 39th novel.

'I am delighted that ... my family has talked me back into the literary saddle,' the British author, 85, said Tuesday in a statement."

Gene Pitney, R. I. P.

Aw, man, not Gene Pitney. Here's a guy I never met who had a big influence on my life through his music. The first song by him that I remember hearing is "(I Wanna) Love my Life Away," a great hit back in the spring of 1961. Those were the days.

CNN.com - Gene Pitney found dead in hotel - Apr 5, 2006: "Pitney was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on February 17, 1941.

His 40-year career included hits such as 'It Hurts to Be in Love,' '(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance,' 'Every Breath I Take,' 'Town Without Pity,' 'Only Love Can Break a Heart' and the operatic 'I'm Gonna Be Strong.' His last U.S. hit was 'She's a Heartbreaker' in 1968.

Pitney was also a highly regarded songwriter -- he wrote the Crystals' No. 1 hit, 'He's a Rebel,' Rick Nelson's smash 'Hello Mary Lou' and Bobby Vee's 'Rubber Ball.' Some of his own hits, though -- 'Only Love,' 'Liberty Valance' and 'Tulsa' -- were written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

He was an early subject of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound -- Spector produced Pitney's version of Carole King and Gerry Goffin's 'Every Breath I Take' as well as the Crystals' 'He's a Rebel' -- and an early supporter of British bands such as the Rolling Stones."

Earl Kemp's Latest e-Zine

It's right here. Politics and paperback covers, not to mention some letters about the "Dean Hudson" issue mentioned here. Check it out.

How to Become a Complete Nonentity -- Richard Wormser

When I read about this book, I knew I had to have it, even though $12.95 (plus postage) seemed like a lot to pay for a slim 90-page memoir. The thing is, Richard Wormser is far from a nonentity in my book. He's the author of some fine Gold Medal novels, including Drive East on 66, A Nice Girl like You, and the Edgar-winning The Invader. The memoir was written years ago, and is just now seeing the light of publication, thanks to Ira Skutch, one of Wormser's nephews.

I was disappointed that the memoir says nothing at all about writing paperback originals, but Wormser also wrote for the pulps, the slicks, and the movies. He has more to say about those things, including some pretty funny stories, including this one: "Columbia Pictures wanted to buy one of [the stories] but they couldn't decide between one called 'The Frameup' and one called 'Right Guy.' After much coast-to-coast telegraphy, they bought 'Right Guy' and changed the name to 'The Frameup.'" Sounds like Hollywood hasn't changed a lot since the '30s.

Wormser has a straightforward writing style to go with his natural story-telling ability, and the memoir was fun to read. The anecdotes are consistently entertaining and amusing, and he mentions a lot of familiar names. I have to warn you that the book is an iUniverse production. There are a lot of typos, and Harry Cohn, whose name is spelled correctly on the back cover, is persistently referred to in the book as "Harry Cohen." Even at that, I'm glad to have this book in my collection. Now I think I need to read one of Wormser's noves that I've never read before, and I happen to have one. It's a reprint of a hardcover called The Hanging Heiress. If I do read it, you'll see a report here eventually.

Mystery*File Update

More on Gil Brewer, and lots of other good stuff over at the indispensable Mystery*File today.

MYSTERY*FILE ON-LINE: "One of the unanswered questions about Gil Brewer’s career as a writer is which of the books published as by Harry Arvay did he write? While the investigation into the matter still continues, Lynn Munroe has added a footnote to his earlier bibliography, setting forth the state of the evidence at the present time."

And Yet Another List

I'm surprised at how many of these I've seen.

Empire's 50 Greatest Independent Films

Yep, another Blog to Bookmark

Murderati: "Welcome to Murderati

Pari Noskin Taichert a.k.a. Bad Girl O' PR

Murderati.

Cool name, hunh?

Think of it as a combo of something smart, glamorous* and appropriate: Literati glitterati murder.

(* Um, well, maybe “glamorous” is a bit of a stretch for mystery authors.)"

Here's a List I'm not Going to Read

Because I'm sure I'm on it.

The 100 unsexiest men in the world - Home Entertainment - The Phoenix: "Welcome to the first installment of ThePhoenix.com's 100 Unsexiest Men in the World. After pouring through thousands of photographs, millions of frames of movies and TV shows, we have created a list of the least sexy males on the planet."

Veniss Underground -- Jeff VanderMeer

Every year at AggieCon, Scott Cupp and Willie Siros talk me into buying some SF books they think I should read. This year, one of the books was Veniss Underground. I realize Jeff VanderMeer is a hot writer now, so I figured I'd give the book a try, even though there are a couple of things about it that put me off.

One thing was that the book is divided into three parts, and the first part is told in first person, the second in second person, and the third in (you guessed it) third person. Is that a little to cute for you?

Then you don't even want to hear the rest of what I have to say. If you're still reading, here's the second thing. Veniss Underground is the kind of book that inspires reviewers to say things like this: "There is a knit cohesion close in service to the novel's overall themes, an unfolding symbolism and allegory that is ultimately let loose during the final chapters, unleashing a Babel of imagery recalling the febrile panels of The Garden of Earthly Delights." That should give you a clue that this isn't some Doc Smith space opera we're talking about here.

Instead, what we have is a very literary SF novel about a far, far future where all things are possible and where people are "born" in vats and where just about any kind of manipulation of the fleshly material is possible. Animals like meercats can be given almost human intelligence, and creatures like "ganesh" are possible. The story very obviously plays on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, but there's a lot more going on as a fellow named Shadrach goes far below the surface, through various levels of the underworld, to bring back a woman he loves. The imagery and descriptions and the writing itself are more important than the characters, almost more important than the story. If you like that sort of thing, then this is just the sort of thing you'd like. Small doses are recommended. This volume contains a novella and three short stories set in the same universe as the title novel. One of these days I'll probably read them, but it will be a while.

Interesting True-Crime Links

The Little Professor has some really interesting true-crime links posted here. Included are things like this, this, and this. Check 'em all out.

Top Ten Femme Fatales

Entertainment Weekly's EW.com | Photo Gallery: Sexy... but deadly! 10 best femmes fatales: Check 'em out. Another list, sure, but this one has photos.

V for Vendetta

Judy and I went to see this one yesterday, and we both enjoyed it immensely. Usually Judy's not too fond of the movies I choose, so I was glad to hit on one she liked.

The plot's pretty simple. The English government has become oppressive. The people have sacrificed freedom for security. The man known only as V wants to take the government down, so he sets about doing it. He's a terrorist, a revolutionary, or a freedom fighter, I guess, depending on your point of view. Or maybe he's an anarchist. Mainly, though, he just wants revenge (you'll have to see the movie to find out why; I'm not telling). He doesn't have any plans to replace the current government with something better. I can't remember the exact line from the movie, but when he's asked about that he says something like, "There are no certainties, only opportunities."


Hugo Weaving is V, and he plays the entire movie behind an immobile mask of Guy Fawkes. I thought he did an amazing job of conveying the character's thoughts and feelings with his voice and body language. In fact, I found him so convincing that a couple of times I almost thought the mask changed expression.

Natalie Portman plays a woman named Evey, who goes from conforming to the norm to informing on V even though he's rescued her, to helping him. I'd say she redeems herself for the various Star Wars prequels here.

The whole cast is good, and so is the script, which is more literate and less action-oriented than you might have been led to believe by the trailers. Check it out.

Mystery*File Update

Steve Lewis keeps making essential stuff available at Mystery*File. Check it out.

A Conversation with PETER RABE, by George Tuttle.: "A TOO BRIEF CONVERSATION WITH PETER RABE

by George Tuttle

I first contacted Peter Rabe in the fall of 1989. In that letter, I told him about how I’d admired his fiction and asked if he’d be willing to let me interview him for Paperback Parade. He wrote back, agreeing to the interview, and said he was very flattered. We set up a time, and I called. We talked for about fifty minutes. "

Self-Portrait

Whenever I read one of James Reasoner's posts about his writing production, this is how I feel.

This is What I Call a Great Cover!

You want your snake-handling preachers? You got 'em. This is a fine addition to Ed Gorman's Sam McCain series, and the cover's just plain terrific. It's the British edition, so you might just want to buy the American edition. The cover's not as cool, however.

A Cherished Fantasy

Art Scott came up with this great cover, which reveals at least a couple of things that reside in the dark recesses of my troubled brain, including crocs (or gators) and warrior babes in metal bras.

Viking Women and the Sea Serpent

In a comment on my review of The Long Ships, Jeff Meyerson mentions Viking Women and the Sea Serpent. I had to pause for a moment until the wave of nostalgia had washed completely over me before I could even take a breath. Thinking of this movie is even better than thinking of Pat Molittieri. It's one movie I'll certainly never forget, and not just because it's Fabulous! Spectacular! Terrifying! I won't forget it because I "saw" it at the Parkway Drive-In Theater just outside the city limits of Mexia, Texas, long, long ago. My date to the movie was Margaret Stubbs, who was my eight-and-a-half cousin (people in Mexia, some of them, kept up with things like that).

Ernest Hemingway, Spy: Update

A while back I linked to an article about a trip Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Martha Gellhorn, took to China in 1941. The article sounded like an outline for a high adventure tale, and sure enough, it was. The full story is contained in the book pictured on the left, now available for pre-ordering. It will probably be out any day now, and it sounds like something of interest to a lot of readers of this blog. Check it out.

Pat Molittieri

A good while ago, in a post about Dick Clark, I mentioned that my favorite among the American Bandstand kids of a long-vanished era (the 1950s) was Pat Molittieri. Today, when I was going through a bunch of old junk (there's a lot of that around here, for some reason), I ran across this photo. I have no idea how I obtained it, and I'd completely forgotten I even had it. It was fun to run across it again and to be thrown for a moment into a veritable frenzy of nostalgia. I can hear the Bandstand theme song playing right now.

Scooped Again!

Yes, once again Banjo Jones beats me to the hot news from Alvin:

THE BRAZOSPORT NEWS: Alvin students march to Pearland, realize they have no idea what they're doing, then catch the bus home:

Have You Been Waiting for the Death of Rap?

Your wait is over:

Hilton to record rap album for music debut - Music - Entertainment - smh.com.au: "US Academy Award-winning rappers Three 6 Mafia say they are producing and recording tracks with Paris Hilton for her music debut.

'We ran into her at a William Morris agency party and she said she liked our song Stay Fly and asked could we work with her,' said Jordan 'Juicy J' Houston, one-third of the Memphis hip-hop group."

The Long Ships

The Long Ships is my favorite Viking movie. Sure, lots of people prefer The Vikings, with Kirk Douglas, directed by the recently deceased Richard Fleischer, and it’s probably a much better movie. It’s certainly more serious, and that might explain why I like The Long Ships, which is anything but serious. Someone should have explained that to Sidney Poitier, though. It’s as if he’s acting in a different movie from everyone else. Oscar Homolka hams it up outrageously, and Richard Widmark is clearly having a wonderful time. It’s all he can do not to wink at the camera. Russ Tamblyn is pretty bad, but he gets to make a couple of nice athletic moves. Rosanna Schiaffino has a couple of great lines, especially when she questions Poitier: “How long must I endure your abstinence from pleasure?” (When she says that, we realize that Poitier is completely nuts. And it’s no wonder he seems grumpy. Not that his grumpiness couldn’t be a result of the terrible wig he’s wearing.) Ms. Schiaffino also gets to run down a street, waving her arms and yelling, “The long sheeps! Beware the long sheeps!”

The plot of the movie, such as it is, concerns the search for “The Mother of Voices,” a giant bell made of solid gold. I love the opening scenes where the story of the bell is told. Both the telling and the shots used are just about perfect. And speaking of the shots, this is a beautiful movie, filmed in Technicolor and something called Technirama. But I digress. Poitier believes that Widmark knows the whereabouts of the bell, and this leads to complications, including The Mare of Steel, which is a giant curved blade in the shape of a horse’s head. Riding The Mare of Steel is, of course, fatal, not to mention painful. I mean, look at the way you’d land on it.

The funniest scene in the movie occurs when the Viking crew breaks into Poitier’s harem. Pure slapstick. The battle scenes are also good, with none of the quick cutting that ruins that kind of scene in current movies. Sure, we see the same thing two or three times from different angles and aren’t supposed to notice. Who cares?

One of the screenwriters was Berkely Mather. When you have time, you might enjoy reading his novel The Gold of Malabar. I did, long ago.

But what I really enjoyed was the novel The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson. You’ll be shocked to hear that it’s hardly anything at all like the movie. But it’s wonderful. I read it over 40 years ago, and I can still remember the last line. Not that it’s all that great, but it was affecting to me because of all that had gone before. Check it out.

Happy Anniversary, Forbidden Planet!

Chron.com | At 50, Forbidden Planet a benchmark in film: "On its 50th anniversary, Forbidden Planet is considered a benchmark film that launched a thousand spaceships

By LOUIS B. PARKS
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

March 1956. Dwight Eisenhower was president. Psychoanalysis was topical. New technology meant fancy kitchen appliances or the Bomb. Space travel was science fiction. And most science-fiction films were cheap monster movies.

But not all. A half-century after its debut, Forbidden Planet is still a beloved science-fiction movie. It has a monster, of sorts, but this widescreen, big-budget production is into the excitement of exploration, humanity's self-destructive tendencies and wowing audiences with mind-expanding special effects."

Click on the link for the whole article. And on the right-hand side is the writer's list of the top 25 SF movies.

Now This is an Interesting List

Complete list - 2005 [OCLC - OCLC Top 1000]: "The 'Top 1000' titles owned by OCLC member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the 'purchase vote' of libraries around the globe."

Thanks to The Little Professor for the link.

When Gators Attack Geezers!

Montana's News Station, Fair. Accurate. To the Point. -Man battles gator with broom: "NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. Florida's alligators seem to be getting bolder lately.
A four-foot-long gator apparently spent the night in a man's garage in North Fort Myers. The 82-year-old man says he tried to shoo it with a broom -- then sprayed it with a garden hose.

It didn't leave until three other people prodded it, and it moved on to a lake.

Just a few days ago, another alligator was found at the front door of a Bonita Springs home."

What Happened to the Crimespot?

Crimespot seems to have disappeared.

Update: All appears well, according to Graham. So go check out Crimespot.

Suicide Squeeze -- Victor Gischler

When I heard that the paperback of Victor Gischler's Suicide Squeeze was out, I figured it was about time to get busy and read the hardback that's been sitting on my shelves almost since it was brand new. I'm glad I did.

The book's main character, Conner Samson, is down on his luck. Perpetually. He doesn't have the dough to pay for a beer because he never wins his bets on baseball games. The woman he loves, Tryanny Jones is married to someone else and is a sex addict. About the only man she doesn't want to have sex with is Conner.

Conner's life is about to change, but his luck isn't going to improve. What happens to him involves a boat he's supposed to repossess, Japanese gangsters, a former secret agent who's as dangerous as the gangsters, a huge collector named Otis, whose boss is Rocky Big, comic book nerds, and an assortment of other things, in a plot that's impossible for me to describe. Let's just say that everybody is out to double-cross everybody else, and kill anyone that gets in the way, to gain possession of a baseball card.

Being a baseball card collector myself, I have to love a book in which the mcguffin is a one-of-a-kind card signed by Joe Dimaggio, Billy Wilder, and Marilyn Monroe. It's worth whatever some sucker will pay for it, maybe a million bucks, and it comes with a signed personal letter written by Monroe. The people Gischler writes about will do just about anything to get it.

There's lots of funny stuff in the novel, but the climactic shoot-out is one of the bloodiest I've read in years. It's not funny at all. Well, not unless you're thinking that Gischler is messing with you when he says, "The weapon sang, a Wagnerian shotgun opera, the sound track to hell." Because Gischler's next novel, coming out in April, is, you guessed it Shotgun Opera. I plan to read that one, too.

Bluebonnets

Sure, bluebonnets are a Texas cliche, but I like 'em anyway. I mentioned that the roadsides and fields near Navasota were covered with them, but I didn't take any pictures. However, someone here in Alvin really likes them and has a front lawn covered with them. It looks cool, and there's no lawn mowing until the flowers all die. (Click on the pic for the full-screen version.)

AggieCon 2006

Somehow it wouldn’t be spring if I didn’t go to College Station at the end of March for the AggieCon. Judy and I first attended in 1980, and we’ve missed only one year since then (we were in Europe). Walking down the halls of the Memorial Student Center is as much a part of spring to me as the bluebonnets that cover the fields along the highway.

When I started going to AggieCon, I loved going to the panels and hearing writers like Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Williamson, Roger Zelazny, Poul Anderson, L. Sprague de Camp, C. J. Cherryh, and lots of others talk about their work. I never dreamed that one day I’d be the guy up at the front of the room doing the talking. I thought about that a lot this past weekend, though. I’ve been going to AggieCon since before most of this year’s organizers were born. I used to go hear the writers. Now I’m one of the writers people come to hear. Time changes everything.

Another thing time has changed is the dealers’ room. It used to be wall-to-wall with book dealers, and they all had old paperbacks that I loved to go through. I found many of the paperbacks that line my office walls there. Not anymore. This year there were exactly two dealers with any real stock of books. I bought three or four. A far cry from the old days, and kind of sad. I guess most people who attend SF cons just aren’t interested in books now. They’re into gaming, anime, jewelry, costumes, weapons. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just different.

As always, I had a great time in College Station. Joe Lansdale didn’t show up (he’s in Italy, basking in the glow of his international fame), but I saw lots of great folks: Willie Siros, Scott Cupp (it was Scott’s 33rd consecutive AggieCon), Jayme Blaschke, Rick Klaw, Mark Finn, Tom Knowles, David Carren, and Theresa Patterson, just to name a few. I’m ready to go back next year.

I Hope this is True

WP: U.S. plans moon base on path to Mars - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com: "By Guy Gugliotta
The Washington Post
Updated: 1:36 p.m. ET March 26, 2006

HOUSTON - For the first time since 1972, the United States is planning to fly to the moon, but instead of a quick, Apollo-like visit, astronauts intend to build a permanent base and live there while they prepare what may be the most ambitious undertaking in history — putting human beings on Mars."

Jack Black is the World's Smartest Man! (And he had a talking motorcycle!)

YouTube - Heat Vision and Jack: "Heat Vision and Jack was created as a 1999 pilot for Fox. Written by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, directed by Ben Stiller, this series was passed over by Fox despite critical acclaim from those who've been lucky enough to see it.

The 30 minute pilot is about an astronaut (played by Jack Black) with a medical secret who is on the run from the evil Ron Silver and the rest of NASA, with the help of a talking motorcycle called Heat Vision (voiced by Owen Wilson)."

Cindy Walker, R. I. P.

Cindy Walker, prolific country songwriter, dies at 87

Texan wrote 500 songs, including 'You Don't Know Me' and 'Bubbles in My Beer'

By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 24, 2006

She had never stepped inside a honky-tonk before writing "Bubbles In My Beer," one of the greatest country and western drinking songs ever, for Bob Wills. Her material ranged from the smooth ballad "Anne Marie" for country crooner Jim Reeves to the pop of "Dream Baby" for Roy Orbison to the wacky "Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow" for Spike Jones and the City Slickers.

"Cindy Walker never wrote a bad song in her life," Nashville producer Fred Foster said two years ago when the prolific first lady of country songwriting was feted with a tribute concert at the Paramount Theatre. The spritely, gregarious Walker, whose best-known composition, "You Don't Know Me," was recorded by everyone from Eddy Arnold and Ray Charles to Elvis Presley and Michael Bolton, got up and danced a jig in the aisles a few times during the Paramount show. It seemed like she would live forever.

courtesy of The Country Music Hall of Fame

(enlarge photo)

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Willie Nelson
"You Don't Know Me"

• Windows Media | Real

XL Feature (includes audio)

A Pioneer Songstress

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Jill Johnson
for ENCORE

(enlarge photo)

Cindy Walker, legendary Western songwriter, was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame on Friday at the Worthington Hotel in Fort Worth.

But Walker, the subject of a new tribute album by Willie Nelson, died Thursday evening soon after being checked into a hospital in her native Mexia, about 40 miles east of Waco, with respiratory problems. She was 87.

"She affected me and everyone else who came along after her," Nelson said in a statement announcing the release of "You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker," which hit stores March 14. "We had to have heard her music before we could do ours."

The first woman inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, Walker said in a 2004 interview with the American-Statesman that in a career that spanned seven decades, with nearly 500 songwriting credits, she never experienced discrimination or thought of herself as a rarity in a male-dominated field.

"The one thing that everybody in the music business is always looking for is a good song," she said. "If you could write some, it didn't matter if you were male, female or orangutan."

The last time I went out of town for a regional SF convention, we lost Don Knotts and Darren McGavin. This time it was Cindy Walker, the pride of my hometown of Mexia, Texas, and Buck Owens. I may stay at home from now on.

More Books than Space

"Avid readers . . . grapple with storage, from basic bricks-and-board shelving to exquisite, and exquisitely expensive, custom cabinetry. They have discovered that books can be tucked under the stairs, over doorways, into headboards, atop the refrigerator and inside kitchen cabinets. The cliched decorator's trick of stacking large, glossy art books on their sides can give new life to occasional tables. Indeed, several uniform, knee-high piles of books on the floor can become a table when topped by a piece of glass."

Sure, just one post down I said no more blogging until Sunday or Monday. So I lied. I couldn't pass up a mention of this article from the Washington Post. You probably have to register to read it. It's all too true, and it reminded me of my recent post on compulsive hoarding.

AggieCon

Judy and I off for the AggieCon in beautiful College Station, Texas. Maybe some of you will be there as well. I won't have a computer with me, so there won't be any blogging here until Sunday evening or Monday morning. I know you'll miss me, but I'm sure you can find something else to read for a couple of days.

Phantom Nights -- John Farris

A couple of years ago I mentioned my admiration of John Farris. It's hard to believe I've been reading his work for over 45 years now. Besides Harrison High, I really like Sharp Practice and The Fury, as well as a number of others. Farris's most recent book to make it to paperback is Phantom Nights. It's set in 1952, and it's the story of the rape and murder of a black woman in a small southern town called Evening Shade. I can't help thinking of the TV series starring Burt Reynolds and Ossie Davis; I wonder if Farris ever saw it or for that matter if his editor did. I think I'd have changed the name of the town. But I digress.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

There's a witness to the murder, a 14-year-old mute named Alex, whose brother, Bobby, happens to be the county's acting sheriff, but there's no real evidence that would lead to a conviction, that is, there's not until the murdered woman's father turns up. He's a doctor who lived much of his young life in Paris, and he's up on all the latest techniques of forensic science. So the book is about his relationship with Alex and Bobby as it is about the murder. And here's a warning for you crime fiction fans: The book has a lot of supernatural elements. If you don't go for that sort of thing in your crime novels, better skip this one. If you don't mind, though, this is a well-written and entertaining story. Check it out.

I, for One, Can Hardly Wait

Paris and Nicky Hilton preliminary cartoon sketches - The Superficial - www.thesuperficial.com: "Paris and Nicky Hilton are making a cartoon TV show about their lives in the style of The Simpsons, and have spoken to Interscope boss Ted Fields who will make the series and hopes to air it on US television."

The Dan Brown Code

The Dan Brown Code - In a court filing, the best-selling author of The Da Vinci Code reveals all the secrets of a pulp novelist:
By Bryan Curtis
Updated Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at 6:10 PM ET

"Dan Brown, author of the mega-selling The Da Vinci Code, has brought forth his most thrilling piece of writing to date: a court document."

Thanks to Walter Satterthwait for the tip. I think this pretty much explains why I didn't enjoy The Da Vinci Code and why I won't be reading any more books by Dan Brown.

New Drive-In Theater

When we went to Dallas a few weeks ago, we drove past the Galaxy Drive-In on Interstate 45 near Ennis. It's nice to know that the drive-in is making a comeback. Update: I've added a photo that shows one screen. The speakers are in the foreground.

Galaxy Drive-In Theatre: "Please arrive as early as possible to help avoid long lines of cars and traffic problems, which in turn leads to later start times! For safety reasons and the consideration of other patrons we cannot start the first features while several cars are still trying to park!
PLEASE do not wait until the last minute to show up!!!"

Shaolin Soccer

I often go about things all wrong. For example, I watched Kung Fu Hustle before watching Shaolin Soccer. Both movies were made by (and star) Stephen Chow, and both are hilarious fun.

Shaolin Soccer is sort of a Bad News Bears movie. Chow is concerned with making the martial arts relevant to modern society, and he's always got a scheme (including one that gives us the worst singing duo since Hoffman and Beatty teamed up in Ishtar. In his latest plan, Chow wants his band of brothers to form a kung fu soccer team. This suits Golden Leg fine. He wants revenge against the owner of Team Evil (yes, that's its name) because the owner had his leg broken years before.

You pretty much know what's going to happen, and sure enough it does. The kung fu team tears through the opposition, right up until the Big Game, when they meet Team Evil, a bunch of guys who have even more kung fu powers (the cheaters!) than our heroes. I won't tell you the outcome of the game, since you know it already, but maybe the way it happens will surprise you.

Like Kung Fu Hustle, this movie throws in some singing and dancing in places you'd least expect. It also has a love story, and lots of laughs. There's no sequel, so far, but I read somewhere that Kung Fu Hustle 2 is being filmed. I'm ready.

Compulsive Hoarding Syndrome

What's really scary isn't that I have several of these sympoms. What's really scary is the sentence that says, "The condition worsens with age."

Lansing State Journal: Amassing a mess too ugly to live in: "Compulsive Hoarding Syndrome
• What is it: The disorder, which is classified under obsessive-compulsive disorder, has three key components: overacquisition of things; disorganization; failure to discard items that appear to have little value.

• Characteristics: Sufferers often feel a hyper-responsibility to care for items. For example, a person may collect recyclables, fearing no one else will see them to their proper place. The condition worsens with age.

• Hallmark symptom: Stuff takes over places designed for other purposes. For example, items may be stacked on a stove so the stove can no longer be used, or stacked on a bed so the bed can no longer be used or even stacked in a shower.

• Treatment: Compulsive hoarding tends to be more resistant to treatment than other forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. That is because all three components - overacquisition, disorganization and failure to discard - need to be treated.

Source: Hoarding expert Irene Tobis, a Chicago psychologist"

An Interview with Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen | The A.V. Club: "Just before embarking for America, where he'll be touring through early May, Harryhausen talked with The A.V. Club about his life and his new book The Art Of Ray Harryhausen, which looks back at his career from his high-school days building mammoths out of his mother's discarded fur coat to his latest work as a bronze sculptor."

Rock On

From the March 21st edition of The Writer's Almanac and Garrison Keillor:

It was on this day in 1952 that Allan Freed organized the first ever rock and roll concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball, in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1951 Alan Freed took to the airwaves for the first time under the name Moondog. He was convinced by a record storeowner named Leo Mintz to play rhythm and blues songs to an audience of mostly white teenagers. This was a new idea at the time, and it made Freed very popular with his audience.

Freed became a favorite in Cleveland, and so he decided to hold a concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball, for his loyal listeners. He hired bands like the Dominoes, the Rockin' Highlanders, Tiny Grimes and Danny Cobb to play the Cleveland Arena which held 10,000 people. At first, Freed was afraid the concert would be a bust because nobody would show up. But thousands of teenagers lined the sidewalks of Euclid Avenue, holding tickets Freed had printed, eager to hear these black artists perform their music. The arena filled easily, and thousands of teenagers were barred from entering, even though they had tickets.

The first performer that night was Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams. During his first song, the barred teenagers tried to force their way inside. They broke doors and windows, people were knocked down and pushed aside, and fights broke out all over the arena. The police closed down the concert after Williams had played only one song.

Roast Alligator

Boing Boing: Ever wondered what roast alligator tastes like?:
"Esther Dyson's amazing food snapshot from the recent VIP 'Explorer's Club' dinner may not answer that question, but it does show you what oven-roasted alligator looks like. "

Nightstand Books

Click the link for an excellent article, not to mention a checklist with cover scans!

Lynn Munroe Books: "William L. Hamling started publishing Nightstand Books in Illinois in 1959. The little paperback originals with pink or yellow spines and titles like SEX GANG and SIN GIRLS were immediate best sellers, and Nightstand brought more out each month, a couple hundred of them over the next few years. And other lines were spawned by the same publishing house: first Midnight Readers, then Leisure Books and Ember Library and many more, a couple thousand of them over the next decade."

Ernest Hemingway, Spy

TheStar.com - Ernest Hemingway, secret agent: "Ernest Hemingway, secret agent
Mar. 19, 2006. 10:43 AM
PETER MOREIRA
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

In 1994, I began to look around Hong Kong for Hemingway the Literary Adventurer. What I discovered instead was Hemingway the Spy."

This article, like the one below, was called to my attention by contributors to the fictionmags list.

Noir Town

Noir Town: "The hard life of John McIntyre, the legendary Philly novelist nobody's heard of."

This long article by Kevin Plunkett is from Duane Swierczynski's paper. Well worth your time.

I'm Considering an Offer of the Same Deal to Readers of my New Book

Turkmen president offers a place in heaven to his readers - Yahoo! News: "ASHGABAT (AFP) - Turkmenistan's president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov announced on state television that anyone reading his philosophical work three times would be assured a place in heaven.

'Anyone who reads the Rukhnama three times will find spiritual wealth, will become more intelligent, will recognise the divine being and will go straight to heaven,' Niyazov said Monday."

That's my book there on the left. You can get it at your friendly independent mystery bookstore or here. It's an April 15 release, so you might have to wait a couple of weeks.

Brokeback Bunnies

Brokeback Mountain in 30 seconds. With Bunnies.

Headline of the Day

GOOGLE BEATS OFF THE GOVERNMENT

Court ruling mostly in its favour

By Nick Farrell: Monday 20 March 2006, 08:01

SEARCH outfit Google has managed to tell the US government to go forth and multiply over its demands that it hand over details of keywords that its punters choose to search.

US Justice Department wanted the data so it could back a Bush administration initiative to defend a federal law created to shield children from online pornography.

A History of Violence

If you haven't seen this movie, then you probably shouldn't read any more of this because the whole thing is one giant SPOILER.

Having gotten that out of the way, let me say that I liked A History of Violence quite a bit. I was reminded of a couple hundred westerns I saw as a kid, the ones where the gunfighter is trying to give up his life of violence and start over. This movie's not quite in the Shane mold, but that should give you an idea. Someone always comes along and screws things up.

Viggo Mortensen plays Tom Stalls, who's not really the guy he appears to be. When a couple of murderous drifters come into his diner with intent to kill, Tom's hidden depths are revealed to the town and to his family, none of whom had any idea about his past. Will Tom be able to hang onto his present, or will he get pulled back into the old ways? Will his family be able to forgive him? Has his son inherited Tom's violent nature (and his reaction times, along with his fighting skills), and if he has, can he control himself? Are there situations in which violence is the only answer? Most of these questions aren't resolved, but they're there for you to think about.

The movie has an almost leisurely pace at times, and the violence, when it occurs, is over quickly. Things happen fast, and then they're done. This morning I was talking to a woman who recently survived a terrible traffic accident. She saw Jeep Cherokee swerve off the road and into a ditch. She said, "I thought it would flip over and that someone would be hurt or killed, but I didn't think it would be me. The next thing I knew, the Jeep was back on the road and on the hood of my car and bam! that was all." The movie reminded me of that.

There's a great scene near the end with William Hurt, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his brief appearance. He deserved the nomination. It's the best performance I've seen from him in years. He's scary and hilarious at the same time.

Highly recommended.

Twelve Books that Changed the World

The world's best books - Sunday Times - Times Online:
"When Melvyn Bragg set out to pick the books that changed mankind he found himself making some startling choices"

You can read the whole article, or you can just scroll down and read the list. How many of the books on it have you read?

Top 100 Overlooked Films of the '90s

O.F.C.S.: The Online Film Critics Society: "July 27, 2004: It was the decade of Tarantino and Titanic. From Schindler's List to The Blair Witch Project, movies and the hype that went with them seemed bigger than ever.

However, too many great films somehow got lost in the shuffle. While some were recalled by Oscar voters and many managed to squeak out a modest box office return, these films nonetheless failed to click in the memory banks of both the critics and with audiences.

The writers of the Online Film Critics Society recalls the half- and completely-forgotten treasures of the past decade cinematic canon with its list of the Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s. Join us for a trip back into the not-so-distant past and see if you recall the titles celebrated here by the OFCS writers."

Yes, it's another of those lists. I've seen a frightening number of the movies ( or films) on it. Probably not as many as some of you, however.

Old Man's War -- John Scalzi

In John Scalzi's future, you can join the Colonial Defense Forces when you're seventy-five and go out among the stars to fight for humanity's survival. Somehow the CDF will "improve" that old body and make it fight for fighting, but no one can find out how until he (or she) joins and is sent up the beanstalk. And that's about all I'll say about that. I don't want to spoil any of the book's surprises.

Old Man's War is narrated by John Perry, who joins the CDF after the death of his wife (they'd planned to join together). What happens next might be vaguely familiar to fans of Robert Heinlein, and Scalzi couldn't be happier if you find that to be the case. In some ways this is an unabashed tribute to Heinlein and Starship Troopers, but it's also reminiscent of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, which I believe was Haldeman's response to Heinlien.

Another thing the book has going for it is good old-fashioned storytelling. A lot of contemporary SF leaves me cold because the writers seem to have forgotten that necessary element. But Scalzi hasn't. I mean that as a high compliment. And I like the writing style, too: simple, straighforward, supple, graceful.
I thoroughly enjoyed Old Man's War. Check it out.

Richard Wormser

I really like Richard Wormser's work, particularly his novels for Gold Medal Books. Which is why I gotta have this.

Junebug

Junebug doesn’t have any explosions or car chases. It just barely has a plot. A guy named George, who’s from North Carolina, meets a cosmopolitan chick named Madeline in Chicago, and they get married. His family doesn’t attend the wedding. When Madeline, who’s an art dealer, wants to go to North Carolina to try to sign a folk artist there, they decide to pay a visit to George’s family: George’s father, mother, brother, and sister-in-law. The visit is what the movie is about.

This ain’t Mayberry. Madeline doesn’t learn any lessons about the goodness of the slow-paced life. I’m not sure anybody learns much of anything, and that includes the audience, which never really learns how George feels about his family until the movie’s last line, and I’m not sure if we learn then. Every member of the family is closed in, and nobody communicates with anybody else, except for the sister-in-law, played by Amy Adams. She’s open and eager for someone to talk to, someone to emulate, someone to tell her things. She lights up the screen every time she’s on, and she pretty much steals the movie. It’s no wonder she was nominated for an Oscar.

There are some great lines in the movie, some careful observations of life in a small town. I’ve never been to North Carolina, but I felt right at home. In some ways, that could have been my family in Mexia, Texas, up there on the screen. Some of the movie’s funny, some of it’s sad, some of it’s hard to figure. It’s slow-paced, and some might find it drags. Not me. I enjoyed every minute of it. The next time you don’t need a car chase to get your adrenaline moving, check it out.

Now This is Really Cool

SkyScout: "The SkyScout is a revolutionary handheld device that uses advanced GPS technology with point and click convenience to instantly identify thousands of stars, planets, constellations and more."

Mystery*File Update

Absolutely essential stuff.

GIL BREWER, by Bill Pronzini and Lynn Munroe.: "You want to know what the life of a working mystery writer is really like? Gil Brewer could tell you. He could tell you about the taste of success and fame that never quite becomes a meal; the shattered dreams and lost hopes, the loneliness, the rejections and failures and empty promises, the lies and deceit, the bitterness, the self-doubts, the dry spells and dried-up markets, the constant and painful grubbing for enough money to make ends meet. He could tell you about all of that, and much more. He would, too, if he were still alive. But he isn’t."