Emsh Covers

Reading the bio of Ed and Carol Emshwiller encouraged me to put together a new slideshow over on the right, this one featuring some Emsh covers.

The Unknown

This is the third of the three I Love a Mystery movies based on Carleton E. Morse's radio series. It's not based on any of the radio shows, though it shares the gimmick of "The Thing that Cries in the Night."

In The Unknown, Reggie and Doc escort a young woman, Nina Martin (played by Jeff Donnell, whom I remember as "crazy old Alice from George Gobel's TV show) to a ruined southern mansion for the reading of a will. There's a complicated backstory to this, and it's set up in the opening scenes, which take a while to set things up. After that we're left in the mansion with the principals, the creepy family members, the faithful retainer, and a lawyer. There's a phantom baby crying in the night, lots of roaming through secret tunnels, a murder, a nice little twist. The atmosphere's well done, and the acting is okay. Not a great movie, but entertaining enough, and not too much over an hour long. Not as good as the radio show, though.

Ed Hoch Tribute in EQMM

If you don't subscribe, you might want to buy a copy on the newsstand this time for sure. A very nice collection of tributes, along with a new story.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Books banned from Texas prisons.

Why Can't They Just Keep Off His Lawn?

'Anti-young' device probed: "Police are investigating complaints after a man installed a device, more commonly used by shops to disperse young people, on his house.

Colin Martin said he bought the gadget for his home, in the Cadoxton area of Barry, south Wales, after years of anti-social behaviour and that he had not had a problem since.

But residents said the device, known as the Mosquito, was driving away innocent children. The Mosquito emits a high-pitched sound which causes discomfort to young ears, but is above the normal hearing range for most people after they hit their 20s."

Today's Top Croc Photo

Jayme Lynn Blaschke's Gibberish: "There's a new 'Africa Live!' section open at the San Antonio Zoo, and they've just recently added a young Nile crocodile. It was lurking in the water, not offering much to shoot, when it suddenly decided to climb out and start sunning itself. I started clicking away, zooming in tight for close-up, zooming out for full-body shots, the works. I wasn't sure if anything would be good, so I went with the shotgun approach."

My Name is Earl

Sometimes I forget to mention important stuff, like the fact that I watched the My Name is Earl two-parter with Paris Hilton. Maybe I forgot because it wasn't such a good episode. Ms. Hilton was in it only for a few seconds, though of course her reading of "That's hot" might well get her an Emmy nomination. My favorite line of the show, however, came when Earl lay in a coma in the hospital. The attending doctor, apparently a Hindu gives the gang the bad news about Earl's condition, and after listing any number of bad things, he says, "He has a fantastic mustache, and praise be to Ganesh it was unharmed. Other than that, all we can do is pray. I'll bet you wish you had more than one god now, eh?"

Gator Update (Traffic Hazard Edition)

Dead gator causes tanker to overturn - 04/04/2008 - MiamiHerald.com: "A tractor trailer toppled Friday morning as the driver veered to avoid what appeared to be debris on southbound Okeechobee Road.

The real culprit: the remains of a nine- to 10-foot alligator.

The driver, Steven Johnson, 43, of Riverview, suffered only minor cuts and bruises but the rollover led authorities to shut down both northbound and southbound lanes on Okeechobee to transfer 9,200 gallons of liquid propane to another tractor trailer."

Emperor Dad

I've mentioned Henry Melton's Emperor Dad here before, and now Henry's won the Darrel Award for the novel. You can read all about it here.

Chained Heat

Sex abuse, violence alleged at teen jails across U.S. - CNN.com: "JACKSON, Mississippi (CNN) -- Girls as young as 13 say they were shackled for weeks at a time in Mississippi.

A Texas teen was allegedly offered birthday cake in exchange for sex.

A guard drove his knee into the neck of a frail suicidal Ohio boy after the youth was wrestled to the ground and held down by other guards who stripped him and covered his face with a smock, a state report said.

More than two dozen girls at an Indiana lock-up describe 'networking' -- their term for sneaking into each other's cells to have sex, with no interference from guards."

Hmmmmmmm

Thanks to George Kelley for the link.
Dirty, sexy money: The writer Rupert Smith on his lucrative porn-lit sideline - Features, Books - The Independent: "With his legit literary career heading for the doldrums, a despondent Rupert Smith took on a 'nom de porn', James Lear, and entered the parallel universe of erotica. Now he sells more copies than Alan Hollinghurst..."

Gator Update (Gang Member Edition)

N.J. Police Nab 91 Gang Suspects, One Gator - News Story - WNBC | New York: "TRENTON, N.J. -- State Police and Plainfield police have arrested 91 alleged members of local gangs in a series of raids, authorities said.

The arrests happened in waves, with 46 people being nabbed between Jan. 23 and March 20, and 24 more arrested Wednesday and Thursday.

Police said they confiscated weapons, a stun gun and a bulletproof vest as well as large quantities of heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, ecstasy, Oxycontin and marijuana.

'Their reign of terror ended this morning when they woke up,' a state police spokesman said Thursday.

New Jersey State Police also told WNBC.com's Brian Thompson that a live alligator was discovered in one of the raided homes. The alligator was taken to an animal shelter.

The alligator measured 3 feet. It is not clear if the alligator may have been kept for security, as a pet, or for some other reason."

The Destroyer!

Tor Books has a good interview with Destroyer authors Warren Murphy and Jim Mullaney up at The Destroyer Club.

The Black Keys

I'm not fond of a lot of contemporary music, but for some reason I like The Black Keys.

Alas, no Asp

Discovery News : Discovery Channel: "April 1, 2008 -- Popular lore holds that in Cleopatra's last moments, the distraught queen -- who had just lost her kingdom and learned of her lover's demise -- smuggled a poisonous snake into her locked chamber and died, along with two ladies-in-waiting, of a self-inflicted snake bite.

Such a scenario is next to impossible, according to Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley, who shatters the 'snakebite suicide' myth in her new book, Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt, just published in Europe and slated for an upcoming U.S. release."

Top Gator Photo of the Day

Click here.

Emshwiller: Infinity X Two: The Life and Art of Ed and Carol Emshwiller -- Luis Ortiz

When I was a kid, my favorite SF artists were Emsh, Freas, and Finlay. I have a terrible eye, but I could recognize their work easily, and I liked all of it. Looking at the paintings in this book brought back a flood of memories, and I was surprised at how many of them I recognized instantly. I knew which magazines the cover paintings had appeared on without having to look at the comments about them, and I even remembered where a lot of the interiors appeared. I guess that some things make a huge impression on you when you're young.

While this book is worth its price just for the artwork alone, it's also a biography of Ed and Carol Emshwiller, and it goes into Ed's films as well as his magazine work. So there are lots of snippets from the films as well. Carol's contributions to the films are mentioned, but it's her stories that most people will remember. I can still remember reading "Pelt" many years ago in F&SF.

This is a book. Of particular interest to me were the paintings for covers that I'd never seen, the ones on the men's sweat mags and the mystery mags. You need a copy if you're a fan of either Emshwiller or of both of them. Great stuff.

Fossil Feces Update

Evidence Supports Earlier Date for People in North America - New York Times: "Exploring Paisley Caves in the Cascade Range of Oregon, archaeologists have found a scattering of human coprolites, or fossil feces. The specimens preserved 14,000-year-old human protein and DNA, which the discoverers said was the strongest evidence yet of the earliest people living in North America."

Remembering Bette Davis

Remembering Bette Davis on centennial of her birth - International Herald Tribune: "Bette Davis, born 100 years ago this week, made her first appearance on film in 1931 and her last in 1989, and like every star of her generation she was always ready for her close-up."

Hmmmmmmm

HarperCollins Unit to Pay Little or No Author Advances - WSJ.com: "In a radical departure from traditional book-publishing practices, News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers is launching a new business that won't accept returns from retailers. In addition, the new entity intends to pay little or nothing in the way of advances to its authors.

Instead, the unit, which hasn't yet been named, will share its profits with writers and focus much of its sales efforts on the Internet. In recent years, Amazon.com Inc., the nation's largest online book retailer by sales, has gained market share from bricks-and-mortar stores. News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., which publishes The Wall Street Journal.

The move by HarperCollins comes at a time when the book publishing and book retailing industries are battling to generate new sales and attract more readers."