Richard Orth, Girl in a Go-Go Cage, Softcover Library, 1967
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Goodbye, Columbus
New evidence confirms Vikings beat him to America by 500 years: According to the report, “Although less than 400 km separated the Norse Greenlandic colonies from the coasts of Arctic Canada, and explorations to the west of Greenland are described in Icelandic sagas, surprisingly little is known of ventures to North America. The archaeological site at L’Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland confirms saga accounts that the Norse established a short-lived station in Atlantic Canada at some time around A.D. 1000.”
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
The Name Is Hannibal: (The Joe Hannibal Collection - Volume I) (The Joe Hannibal PI Series) - Kindle edition by Wayne D. Dundee. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: The Name Is Hannibal: (The Joe Hannibal Collection - Volume I) (The Joe Hannibal PI Series) [Kindle Edition] For over three decades, Joe Hannibal has stood tall on the fictional PI landscape. The Hannibal books and stories have been translated into several languages and have been nominated for an Edgar, an Anthony, and a total of six Shamus Awards. Almost from the outset, Hannibal was dubbed "the blue collar PI" due in equal parts to the series' initial smaller-city setting of Rockford, Illinois, and its surrounding rural areas - as well as to the middle class roots and values that his creator brought to the writing. Later, after author and character both moved to the even more rural setting of west central Nebraska, the distinction only deepened.
Hannibal has matured and evolved as a character and the writing has been honed to a finer edge. But the admiration for and love of the PI genre that was always at the core and heart of the series has never changed.
Happy Hanukkah!
What Is Hanukkah?: Chanukah -- the eight-day festival of light that begins on the eve of the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev -- celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality.
Norman Birdwell, R. I. P.
Flavorwire: Kids everywhere lost a friend today. 86-year-old Norman Birdwell passed away on Friday in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was best known as the author and creator of the Clifford the Big Red Dog series, a Scholastic classic that started in 1962. It’s sold over 60 million copies, and forty different Clifford titles have been released.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
If you like the weird west, you'll want a copy of this collection. I found the introduction especially interesting, as Whalen explains the inspiration for each of the stories collected here. The movies have a lot to do with them, and as a fan of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, I was partial to "Little China," whose title echoes another movie I like. There's even a story named "Rancho Diablo," but it has no relation to the famous series of novels by the great Colby Jackson.
Hunting Monsters Is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories: John M. Whalen: 9781503190924: Amazon.com: Books Undead Tlingit tribesmen rise from their graves in the Yukon. Something not of this world stalks Dodge City. A creature emerges from the ocean on the coast of the Monterey Peninsula. These are just some of the monsters bounty hunter Mordecai Slate is hired to eliminate in HUNTING MONSTERS IS MY BUSINESS. Follow Slate through nine tales of horror and wonder, including a brand new novella written specially for this book.
Dino Update
Fully intact dinosaur neck so rare, two years spent to build road in Spain before it can be removed: Paleontologists have extracted an intact neck of a Sauropod, which they estimate to be 68 million years old, from a dig located in the Pyrenees, Archaeology News Network reports.
I Miss the Old Days
You should go immediately and read this essay, and not just because my name is mentioned.
Venture Galleries: In 1973, DAPA-EM (which stood for Elementary, My Dear APA – don’t ask, because I don’t know the origin of the name) became the first and only APA (Amateur Press Association) devoted to the mystery genre.
Venture Galleries: In 1973, DAPA-EM (which stood for Elementary, My Dear APA – don’t ask, because I don’t know the origin of the name) became the first and only APA (Amateur Press Association) devoted to the mystery genre.
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They Weren't Around in the Old Days
Ocala, Florida: According to Ocala Police, two would-be carjackers were foiled in their bid to steal a Toyota because they didn’t how to drive a car with a manual transmission.
Rock Hall’s 2015 Class Announced
Flavorwire: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s induction Class of 2015 was announced early this morning. The performer inductees are: Lou Reed, Green Day, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Bill Withers, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble.
Previously inducted as a member of The Beatles, Ringo Starr will be inducted again as a solo artist in 2015, as the recipient of the Rock Hall’s Award for Musical Excellence. This year’s Early Influence Award inductee will be the “5” Royales, a 1950s R&B band.
Previously inducted as a member of The Beatles, Ringo Starr will be inducted again as a solo artist in 2015, as the recipient of the Rock Hall’s Award for Musical Excellence. This year’s Early Influence Award inductee will be the “5” Royales, a 1950s R&B band.
Raoul J. Cita, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Raoul J. Cita, one of the great unsung forces behind rhythm and blues in New York in the 1950s, died Saturday at the age of 86.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Overlooked Movies: The Durango Kid
This a slightly revised re-post from December 2, 2007. There's no trailer for the movie on YouTube, but there's a clip posted below. It's not much of a clip, and it tells you nothing about the movie, but it's all there is in the trailer department. However, if you want to watch the whole movie, you can click here and see it for $2.99.
When I was a mere sprout of a lad, I saw a double feature western movie nearly every Saturday afternoon. Often the movie featured Charles Starrett as the Durango Kid, so when someone tipped me to the fact that TCM was having a mini-festival of Durango Kid movies, I set the DVR.
The Durango Kid is the first movie in the series, though apparently nobody planned for a series. The movie was popular, however, and a few years later the character was brought back for another go. And another and another until 60 or so features had been made. I remember the later ones best, after Smiley Burnette had become the comic sidekick.
In this first movie, there is (blessedly) no sidekick. There are, however, the Sons of the Pioneers, with a young and skinny Pat Brady thrown in for alleged comic relief. I didn't find myself laughing much during the opening barn-painting scene, but you can't beat the Sons of the Pioneers when it comes to singing cowboy songs.
The plot is pretty simple: Bill Lowry's father is killed by the bad guys because he (the father) is sticking up for "the nesters." Bill vows to find his dad's killer, and he does so as the Durango Kid. Everybody's pretty cavalier about the disguise. The marshal appears to suspect all along, and Bill even gets Bob Nolan to impersonate the Kid, with the rest of the Sons riding along as his gang. Bill hints at his secert identity to the chief bad guy, and at the end of the movie, the Kid is unmasked.
Starrett is an athletic guy, and he does just fine in the role of the Durango Kid. He might have been a pretty good actor if he hadn't become stuck in the role. Everything in the movie is entirely predictable, but it's fun in a nostalgic way.
There's stuff here that I might not have noticed if I'd seen the movie as a kid. For example, there are scenes from other movies cut in. One night scene of a house burning is painfully obvious, especially since the intercut scenes of the Kid are all daylight scenes. And the people in the house don't seem bothered at all by the raging inferno that's shown in the exterior shots.
And I have a major gripe. What I saw must have been a mutilated print. I didn't know TCM went in for that sort of thing, but I'm certain there are several minutes, maybe ten or so, missing from the movie. Either that, or it has serious continuity troubles. While that's not impossible, it seems more likely to me that TCM showed a bad copy. Of course I could be wrong. I often am.
I've watched only a few minutes of the second movie, The Return of the Durango Kid, but already things have gotten cheaper. The Sons of the Pioneers are gone, replaced by the Jesters, whoever they are. I do plan to see all of this one eventually, and maybe even one of the later ones. Too bad they didn't show one with Smiley Burnett, though.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Sy Berger, R. I. P.
Sy Berger, who invented the Topps baseball card, dies: In the 1950s, Berger used scissors and cardboard at his kitchen table as he played around with ideas for trading cards until he devised a design for Topps that endured for decades: team logos and a fake player autograph on the front with stats on the back.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Ann Marcus, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Ann Marcus, who wrote scripts for soap operas and won an Emmy for parodying them as a creator and head writer for the 1970s cult hit “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” died on Dec. 3 in Los Angeles. She was 93.
One of John D. MacDonald's Homes Is For Sale
The Trap of Solid Gold: Point Crisp Road House is for Sale: John and Dorothy MacDonald's old Point Crisp Road house is for sale! For a cool $3.2 million you can own what can be truly called a literary shrine. Here is a great article from a West Coast Florida newssite called Your Observer. There's some interesting stuff here about subsequent owners I hadn't known, along with the revelation that the house, with a few nice additions, is still in pretty much the same shape as it was when the MacDonalds lived there.
A Review of Interest (To Me, Anyway)
Brash Books Brings Back Two Mysteries From the Past
Scroll down for the review of Outrage at Blanco.
Scroll down for the review of Outrage at Blanco.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
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