Happy Anniversay to Me & Judy

Today we have been married for 42 years. Seems like a long time to you whippersnappers, I'm sure, but it went by so fast that I can hardly believe it.

Hard Case Crime at Book Expo

Click the link for more photos.

About Hard Case Crime: " On June 2, 2007, Hard Case Crime welcomed booksellers from around the world to the annual Book Expo America tradeshow in New York City. Editor Charles Ardai was joined by stage and screen performers Meredith Napolitano (also the cover model for ZERO COOL), James Huffman, and Victoria Lee, all three of whom were dressed in vintage clothing from the pulp era. See below for some candid photos from the event..."

Man of the Century

I can't remember who recommended this one, but I'm glad somebody did. It's an odd little B&W movie about a guy named Johnny Twennies. Johnny appears to be living in the 1920s, even though he's living in the present day. He dresses in '20s clothes, shaves with a straight razor, uses '20s slang. He writes a column for a metropolitan daily, tapping it out on an old typewriter. His attitudes toward sex and dating are from a century ago.

None of this is explained. It just is. The rest of the screwball plot involves mobsters, Johnny's girlfriend, another girl who wants to be an opera singer, and things like that. Mostly, though, the movie is just strung-together bits, most of which I found very entertaining. The ending is right out of It's in the Bag.

Gibson Frazier plays Johnny. It's as if he's spent most of his life watching Warner Brothers movies about the '20s. Most of them with Bogart. His acting style is based on those movies, particularly Bogart's. Some of his lines are even stolen from Bogart movies, among others. Putting that style into a modern movie, where everyone else is from a different school, might seem odd, but it works just fine. If you're looking for something different, this is it. Check it out.

Will the Persecution Never End?

I don't think so.

Thanks to Jeff Meyerson for the link.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Not that we're surprised. Thanks to Jeff Meyerson for the link.

Top News - Texas Leads Nation in Carbon Emissions - AOL News: "WASHINGTON (June 2) - America may spew more greenhouse gases than any other country, but some states are astonishingly more prolific polluters than others - and it's not always the ones you might expect."

The Carpetbaggers -- Harold Robbins

The Carpetbaggers was originally published in 1961, which means that the paperback came out in 1962. So in the summer of 1962 I read the book for the first time. A week or so ago I visited my local personal bookseller (Wal-Mart) and saw a brand-new paperback edition from Tor. I went into a veritable frenzy of nostalgia (shocking, I'm sure, many Wal-Mart shoppers). This happened on the same day that I'd just read somewhere that it was Harold Robbins' birthday. The coincidence and the nostalgia, along with the fact that it had been just about exactly 45 years since I read the book, were too much for me, and I bought it.

When I read it in 1962, the book was considered very hot stuff. I believe one reviewer said that it should have been written on a restroom wall rather than published between covers. And it is indeed full of sex: straight sex, gay sex, rough sex, near-incestuous sex, solitary sex, group sex, kinky sex, and probably other kinds of sex that I'm forgetting at the moment. None of it, however, is graphically described. I'm sure that Nightstand Books and others of the time were going farther in that regard than Robbins did.

The book is divided into sections named for the characters. Jonas Cord is the major figure, and he narrates his sections in the first person. Cord was based on Howard Hughes, a fact that was obvious to me even 45 years ago. I'd see The Outlaw and knew the story about Jane Russell and the bra, which is fictionalized in the book.

The section I remembered best was devoted to Nevada Smith. I guess others liked it best, too, because it was made into a movie with Steve McQueen, and even into a TV movie with Cliff Potts. The section is under 100 pages long, but there's enough violence in it to fill a much longer book. No wonder I remembered it. It's the most vivid in the novel. Smith seems to be about 90% fictional, but there are traces of Tom Mix and William Boyd in the character, for sure.

I enjoyed reading the book again. Since it was a historical novel, it's not nearly as dated as you might think. It's still pretty darned good popular entertainment if you like trashy books, which I do. Check it out.

Aside: The first book I read by Robbins was A Stone for Danny Fisher, which I checked out of the library after seeing King Creole and noticing that it was based on Robbins' novel, which it hardly resembles. After The Carpetbaggers, I never read another book by Robbins, and I didn't realize that he kept on cranking them out for so many years. In fact, the books have continued to appear right up to the present, even though Robbins died in 1997. Someone called Junius Podrugg is now sharing credit with Robbins on the covers. The same roman a clef formula seems to be working all these years later.

Buy Mine! Buy Mine!

Tough sell for writers at NY literary speed-dating | Entertainment | Reuters: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you think speed-dating is tough, try selling your book to an editor in three minutes.

That's what hundreds of aspiring authors were doing this week at a New York trade fair, and the odds were against them.

Literary agent Peter Miller said there were as many as 15 million wannabe writers in the United States with books to sell."

Will the Persecution Never End?

Thanks to Jeff "Jailbird" Meyerson for the link, which I of course won't use.

Paging Jules Verne

Trip proposed to centre of Earth via Arctic hole: "A U.S. scientist and a small band of believers are planning a journey to the Canadian Arctic for what they call 'the greatest geological expedition in history.'

Are they searching for Arctic oil reserves? Documenting evidence of climate change?

Not quite. They're looking for a fog-shrouded hole in the Arctic Ocean that leads -- they say -- to the centre of the Earth, where an unknown civilization is lurking inside the hollow core of the planet."

The Results are In

The all new seven wonders of the world | Uk News | News | Telegraph: "The Channel Tunnel has been voted one of the seven new wonders of the world in a new survey.

The longest undersea tunnel in the world, which opened in 1994, came seventh in an online poll conducted by Teletext Holidays, while the Sydney Opera House was hailed as the top new wonder of the world.

Second place was given to the Eiffel Tower, which has been visited by more than 200 million visitors since its opening in 1889."

Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

Check it out. But not when you're feeling queasy.

Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality: "Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing
was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all."

Cue Michael Jackson Singing "Ben"

Lost documents shed light on Black Death-Life & Style-Health-TimesOnline: "For centuries, rats and fleas have been fingered as the culprits responsible for the Black Death, the medieval plague that killed as many as two thirds of Europe’s population.

But historians studying 14th-century court records from Dorset believe they may have uncovered evidence that exonerates them. The parchment records, contained in a recently-discovered archive, reveal that an estimated 50 per cent of the 2,000 people living in Gillingham died within four months of the Black Death reaching the town in October 1348."
*********
"Experts now believe that the Black Death is more likely to have been a viral infection, similar to haemorrhagic fever or ebola, that spread from person to person."

Slooowly I Turned

More on Astonishing Adventures

The site is now up and running - please pop over and take a look. The magazine will be released on August 31st, so please sign up for the mailing list to receive your free copy of the Astonishing Adventures! magazine ePulp. The site itself will cover comic, DVD, movie, and genre interviews. We've just posted the first of the content tonight!

Anyway, keep coming back and enjoy the magazine!

Editor-in-Chief
John Donald Carlucci

NoirCon 2008

NoirCon has a new website. Here's the original post about the convention.

It Was 40 Years Ago Today, er, Tomorrow

Thanks to John Duke for the tip. Like some of you, I can remember where I was when I first heard it. Others of you whippersnappers weren't even born yet.

nme.com: The Beatles' album 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is 40 years old tomorrow (June 1) - and to celebrate the occasion, we want your thoughts on arguably the most famous album of all time.

The LP was revered on its' 1967 release, both a critical and popular sensation. It was seen as innovative in every possible sense, from the recording techniques to the astonishing cover. Designed by Peter Blake, it featured the band themselves surrounded by cardboard cut-outs of famous people chosen by the band.

Nessie's Back!

Unfortunately I can't find a link with video. Update: In her comment below, Karin says there's video at the link. It won't play on my computer, but maybe you can see it.

New Loch Ness Monster video - CNN.com: "EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) -- Like tartan, bagpipes, and shortbread Scotland's Loch Ness Monster is as much an emblem as a tourist draw.

And now Nessie's back.

An amateur scientist has captured what Loch Ness Monster watchers say is among the finest footage ever taken of the elusive mythical creature reputed to swim beneath the waters of Scotland's most mysterious lake.

'I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this jet black thing, about 45-feet (15 meters) long, moving fairly fast in the water,' said Gordon Holmes, the 55-year-old a lab technician from Shipley, Yorkshire, who took the video this past Saturday.

He said it moved at about 6 mph (10 kph) and kept a fairly straight course.

'My initial thought is it could be a very big eel, they have serpent-like features and they may explain all the sightings in Loch Ness over the years.'

Loch Ness is surrounded by myth and mystery, as it is the largest and deepest inland expanse of water in Britain. About 750 feet (230 meters) to the bottom, it's even deeper than the North Sea."

A Small Gallery of Photos . . .

. . . of the cell where a certain celebrity will be doing hard time. And seems that she's in trouble again. And the persecution will never end.

So Close

Let's see. We have beautiful young women who are professional assassins, high tech geekery, a relentless woman cop who's as expert in the martial arts as the assassins, big-time criminals, wire work, zippy camera angles, kung fu, sword fights, car chases, lots of shooting, and a couple of love stories. Did I leave anything out? Oh, yeah. Explosions. And a bubble bath scene. And there might be a few other things.

Don't worry too much about the plot. This is Hong Kong hokum at its best: fast moving, fun to watch, and great to look at. Shu Qi (The Transporter) plays the older sister of the assassin duo and does the killing. Zhao Wei, the younger sister, is the computer geek. You'll want a wrist watch like these two wear after you see the movie. Karen Mok is the relentless cop. Her fight with Shu Qi in a parking garage is just one of many highlights in the movie.

Comparisons with Charlie's Angels are probably inevitable, but while the plot doesn't make any more sense than the ones in the Angels movies, this is a lot more fun. Trust me.

One more thing: the movie did not make me any fonder of the syrupy "Close to You," but you might feel differently. Check it out.

We're from the Government, and We're Here to Help You

Net taxes could arrive by this fall - Page1 - MSN Tech & Gadgets - News and Features: The era of tax-free e-mail, Internet shopping and broadband connections could end this fall, if recent proposals in the U.S. Congress prove successful.

State and local governments resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail.

At the moment, states and municipalities are frequently barred by federal law from collecting both access and sales taxes. But they're hoping that their new lobbying effort, coordinated by groups including the National Governors Association, will pay off by permitting them to collect billions of dollars in new revenue by next year.