Saturday, April 26, 2014

Mine Needs an "On" Switch

Scientists have built an 'off switch' for the brain 

Comic Strip of the Day

Link

James Melville, R. I. P.

Mystery Fanfare: James Melville: AKA Roy Peter Martin: RIP

10 Alleged Ghost Sightings With Bizarre Consequences

10 Alleged Ghost Sightings With Bizarre Consequences 

Song of the Day

QUEEN - FLASH GORDON THEME HQ SOUND - YouTube:

10 Famous Women of The Wild West

10 Famous Women of The Wild West

Jeff VanderMeer Interview

Raw Story talks ‘Annihilation’ with author Jeff VanderMeer

Today's Vintage Ad


Alistair MacLeod, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Alistair MacLeod, a Canadian writer whose only novel — composed over 13 years and extracted from him only after a campaign by his publisher involving surveillance, subterfuge and outright bribery — brought him literary fame, a lucrative prize and a bottle of Scotch, died on Sunday in Windsor, Ontario. He was 77.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Advice to the Young

Kurt Vonnegut’s Advice to the Young on Kindness, Computers, Community, and the Power of Great Teachers

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Charles Alden Seltzer, Arizona Jim, Popular Library, 1949

I Miss the Old Days

Forgotten Hits: The Saturday Surveys (April 26th)

10 Con Men And Their Masterful Forgeries

10 Con Men And Their Masterful Forgeries

I've Been in One of These

7 Fairy Tale Castles 

17 Quirky, Cool Bookends To Organize Your Shelves In Style

17 Quirky, Cool Bookends To Organize Your Shelves In Style

The Weird Week in Review

The Weird Week in Review

Shotgun

1955 SHOTGUN TRAILER STERLING HAYDEN YVONNE DeCARLO - YouTube:

Friday, April 25, 2014

Another Golfing Gator

Move already: Golfer chases off alligator with a rake

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Texas County to Feed Feral Hogs to the Homeless 

5 Two-Man Teams Who Took on Whole Armies (And Won)

5 Two-Man Teams Who Took on Whole Armies (And Won)

Where is Old Zealand?

Where is Old Zealand? 

Song of the Day

Charlie Walker - Pick Me Up On Your Way Down - YouTube:

The Other Six-Gun

The Other Six-Gun: The 1861 Remington New Model Army revolver was an Old West workhorse.

Today's Vintage Ad


25 Essential Graphic Novels

Flavorwire: 25 Essential Graphic Novels

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Joseph Rosenberger, The Death Merchant, Pinnacle, 1972

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

And now it's the: Pet duck attack leads to neighbor's $275,000 injury lawsuit 

The Wonderfully Wacky Artwork Of Kurt Vonnegut

The Wonderfully Wacky Artwork Of Kurt Vonnegut

10 Obscure Inventors And Their Wonderful Inventions

10 Obscure Inventors And Their Wonderful Inventions 

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

And once again Texas leads the way:  Midland police say knife-wielding Carrollton woman flew into rage over corn dog 

Vintage Treasures: The Shores of Space by Richard Matheson

Vintage Treasures: The Shores of Space by Richard Matheson

Some Nice Covers of Forgotten Books Here

The Golden Age: Horror and Fantasy Anthologies ~ 1946-1978

Vintage Treasures: Men, Martians, and Machines by Eric Frank Russell

Vintage Treasures: Men, Martians, and Machines by Eric Frank Russell

A Forgotten Fantasy

The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series: Lilith by George MacDonald

A Forgotten Collection

The Collections of Michael Shea: Polyphemus

FFB: Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters

Did you ever buy an anthology just for one story?  I wouldn't be surprised if some of you had done that very thing.  Almost exactly five years ago, Todd Mason wrote about this book, and one story title stuck in my head: "Day of the Alligator."  So naturally I got the book; it just took me a while to get around to reading it.  That particular story is one that Algren mentions in his preface as being not among the most skilfully written in the book but one of the two he found of most interest.  The alligator doesn't really figure into the story much.  It's just a catalyst for the action, which takes place in a prison.  The book was published in 1962, and if I'd read the story then, I might have had trouble figuring out everything that was going on.  Why?  Because I was a naive kid, and the author, James Blake, had to approach his material obliquely.  There were still some things you couldn't be frank about, and a story about a man who becomes another's punk in prison was one of those things.  Todd notes that the book was also published under another title, 13 Masterpieces of Black Humor.  There's nothing at all funny about "Day of the Alligator."  Trust me.

In fact, it's kind of stretching it to find the humor in several of these pieces.  Joseph Heller's story of a telegram delivery boy who's been summoned to a fine apartment is another one I didn't find a lot of humor in.  There's not a lot of humor in the boy's situation, another sexual one, at least for me.  It's a well-done story, but a reader now will catch onto what's happening long before the boy does.  Maybe a reader in 1962 would have, too.  Probably not me, though, and I might even have been shocked.  Not now.  The story reminded me a bit of Salinger, and I could see Holden Caulfield stumbling into a similar situation.

I'd read two of these stories before.  One is George P. Elliott's "Among the Dangs," which I'd read in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  The other is Thomas Pynchon's "Entropy," which I read elsewhere, but I can't recall where.  It was originally published in the Kenyon Review, but I'm sure that's not where I read it.  Maybe I'm just imagining that I'd read it before.

If you're looking for a slice of '50s nostalgia (the '50s didn't end in 1060) or just some well-written stories, give this book a look.  And of course click on the link above to read Todd's comments on it.  I lifted the table of contents below from his blog.

7 · Preface · Nelson Algren · pr 
11 · A World Full of Great Cities · Joseph Heller · ss Great Tales of City Dwellers, ed. Alex Austin, Lion Library Editions, 1955 
24 · Talk to Me, Talk to Me · Joan Kerckhoff · ss, 1962 
34 · Show Biz Connections · Bruce Jay Friedman · ss, 1962 
44 · Hundred Dollar Eyes · Bernard Farbar · ss, 1962 
54 · The Man Who Knew What Ethopia Should Do About Her Water Table · H. E. F. Donohue · ss The Carleton Miscellany, 1961 
68 · Among the Dangs · George P. Elliott · nv Esquire Jun ’58 
95 · Peacetime · Brock Brower · ss, 1961 
111 · The Shores of Schizophrenia · Hughes Rudd · ss, 1961 
120 · Day of the Alligator · James Blake · ss The Paris Review #17 ’57 
136 · Address of Gooley MacDowell to the Hasbeens Club of Chicago · Saul Bellow · ss The Hudson Review, 1951 
143 · The Closing of This Door Must Be Oh, So Gentle · Chandler Brossard · ss The Dial, 1962 
157 · Entropy · Thomas Pynchon · ss The Kenyon Review Spr ’60 

173 · The House of the Hundred Grassfires · Nelson Algren · ss, 1956 

Vice Raid

1960 VICE RAID TRAILER MAMIE VAN DOREN - YouTube:

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Must. Keep. Jogging.

Regular exercise can keep dementia at bay

Martha Gellhorn’s Lost Debut Novel

Martha Gellhorn’s Lost Debut Novel 

10 Potentially Career-Wrecking Films by Great Directors

Great Directors’ Biggest Failures: 10 Potentially Career-Wrecking Films by Great Directors

Song of the Day

Jay & The Americans Come A Little Bit Closer - YouTube:

Cartoon of the Day

Link.

Why your fingerprints may not be unique

Why your fingerprints may not be unique 

Today's Vintage Ad


Once Again Texas Leads the Way

'I will kill you': Texas woman accused of head-butting police officer during booking  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Man pulls machete on dog bite victim 

I'll Bet You Knew About All of These

15 Movies You Might Not Know Were Based On Shakespeare Plays

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Ray Morrison, Reformatory Girls, Avon, 1960

Gone with the Wind: Memo lists potential screenwriters

Gone with the Wind: Memo lists potential screenwriters including William Faulkner

Happy Birthday, Anthony Trollope

Happy Birthday, Anthony Trollope: The Celebrated Author’s Advice on How to Be a Successful Writer 

I Miss the Old Days

The Eight-Track Miracle: 8 Reasons It Failed

The future of the library

The future of the library: How they’ll evolve for the digital age.

The 10 Most Misheard Song Lyrics

The 10 Most Misheard Song Lyrics: Survey Says…These Are The 10 Most Misheard Song Lyrics Of All Time

Forgotten Music

8 Extinct Musical Instruments That Mankind Has Forgotten How to Play

The Mayor of Hell

mayrhe - YouTube:

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Uh-Oh or OK?

Pulp Hero Flash Gordon May Be Headed Back to the Big Screen: Eighty years after his creation and following multiple television and film adaptations, 20th Century Fox has reportedly scooped up the rights to bring Flash Gordon back to the big screen. Considering the pop culture property land-grab that is Hollywood tentpole filmmaking, it was inevitable that eventually the pulp comic hero would be in the running again, but Gordon’s been done before. A lot. So the inevitable question is: Will this one do it right?

Shakespeare’s Tropes: 7 Phrases and Concepts That Changed Western Culture

Flavorwire: Shakespeare’s Tropes: 7 Phrases and Concepts That Changed Western Culture

Teens Invent a Better Ketchup Cap

Relishing a challenge, teens in Project Lead the Way invent a better ketchup cap

Phone Call from Hell and Other Tales of the Damned-- Jonathan Woods

When you're in the mood to travel down some dark paths, really dark, Jonathan Woods is your man.  Not that the dark paths aren't lighted with humor.  Sure, it's dark humor, but it's there in abundance, particularly in a story like "Lucky Man."  Or in "The Other Suitcase," in which a doomed man devotes his energies to finding a lost novel by Franz Kafka.  It's a story that ends with a bang.  Literally.  Then there's "A Bad Day for Barbecue," which has put me off BBQ for a while.  The title story is about a man who gets a phone call from Charles Manson.  Charlie has a strange request.  If you got that call, would you try to carry out the request?  This guy does.  "A Handgun's Tale" is narrated by a handgun with a literary bent.  For an inanimate object, it gets around.  "Writer's Block" brings us Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene out on the town.  To say it's not a flattering portrait of either man would be to understate the case.

Jonathan Woods' work might not be to everyone's taste, but if you're looking for the offbeat, the bizarre, and the downright strange, you owe it to yourself to read these stories.

“The Mystery Gene” (by Miriam Grace Monfredo)

“The Mystery Gene” (by Miriam Grace Monfredo) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN

Uh-Oh

DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG: New research shows middle-age and older adults who take naps may be at an increased risk of dying.

Or Maybe You Do

12 Things About ‘Field Of Dreams’ You Probably Didn’t Know

Song of the Day

The Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - YouTube:

Needle Magazine: Spring 2014 issue available now

Spring 2014 issue available now | Needle: A Magazine of Noir: Needle Magazine is hardboiled, lean and mean. Crime fiction from some of the best — Heath Lowrance, Rob W. Hart, Patti Abbott, Taylor Brown, Jen Conley, Stephen D. Rogers, Court Merrigan, Sandra Seamans, Trent England, Christopher L. Irvin, William Boyle, William Dylan Powell, and Tom Joyce. Cover art by Scott Morse.

Another Sign of the Approaching Apocalypse

Peeps Candy Optioned For Movie, TV Treatment

Gator Update (Recycling Edition)

Tire Alligators 

Today's Vintage Ad


I Miss the Old Days

20 Awesome Things People Saw at the 1964 World’s Fair 

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Pat Stadley, The Black Leather Barbarians, Signet, 1960

The secret to happiness? Visit a library... and avoid the gym

The secret to happiness? Visit a library... and avoid the gym: Study finds which activities most boost our contentment  

Hat tip to the well-read Jeff Meyerson.

Oops

Obese virgin accidentally smashed girlfriend's head through wall during sex   

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson, who says he saw Obese Virgin open for Meat Loaf.

The Most Popular Girl Names in Each State Since 1960

The Most Popular Girl Names in Each State Since 1960 
Ever wonder what it's like to round up, milk, and skin a rattlesnake?

Charting the Unknown: Collectible Maps and Cartography

Authorized Map of the Second Byrd Expedition - Antarctica - 1934
Charting the Unknown: Collectible Maps and Cartography: Let's hear it for cartographers. Without map-makers, who knows how we'd find our way around. But they have an easier job of it today, with most of the globe explored, charted, recorded and explored again. Early map-makers struggled against many adversities - imagine traveling to far-off lands and trying to accurately record your voyage, on tiny scale, well enough for the next ship of travellers to follow your route?

It's a Date

1940 IT'S A DATE TRAILER DEANNA DURBIN - YouTube:

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Wife tried to run over husband after he complained she was a bad driver: Sarai Longhenry, of Fort Campbell, is accused of trying to drive over her husband on Easter Sunday in the parking lot of a Baptist church.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Central Florida teen charged with attempted murder in stabbing over Facebook post

We Got Shakespeare's Personal Dictionary on eBay

Booksellers: We Got Shakespeare's Personal Dictionary on eBay: Now, two New York City booksellers say they have found one of those books. And it's not just any guide: This is William Shakespeare’s dictionary, owned and annotated by the man himself.

Early Bands Of Bowie, Elton And Others

Before They Went Solo: Early Bands Of Bowie, Elton And Others

I Have a Gub, er, a Spud

Suspect uses potato in attempted robberies

Or Maybe You Did

15 Movie Quotes You Never Knew Were Ad-Libbed

Song of the Day

Faron Young -- Hello Walls - YouTube:

Alternate Endings to Popular TV Finales

Alternate Endings to Popular TV Finales 

Today's Vintage Ad


25 Books That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About New York

Best New York Novels: 25 Books That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About New York

Mr. Bliss: Tolkien’s Little-Known Children’s Book

Mr. Bliss: Tolkien’s Little-Known Children’s Book for His Own Kids, Lovingly Handwritten and Illustrated by the Author Himself

PaperBack



Carter Brown, The Silken Nightmare, Signet, 1963

Lynn Munroe Books:Cover Art by Tom Miller

Lynn Munroe Books: Lynn Munroe's latest check list includes the works of paperback cover artist Tom Miller.  I highly recommend not only the check list but the essays "Tom Miller and Me" and "Tom Miller."  Take a look at the link.

12 Directors Who Hated Their Own Movies

12 Directors Who Hated Their Own Movies 

No Big Sleep for Raymond Chandler

No Big Sleep for Raymond Chandler

36 Life Changing Poems Everyone Should Read

36 Life Changing Poems Everyone Should Read

It's Earth Day!

Earth Day: The History of A Movement 

Overlooked Movies: Love and Death

Napoleon invades Russia, but never fear.  Woody Allen is there to provide a stout defense of his native country.  Okay, not his but his character's.  If your country is depending on Woody Allen to save it, you're doomed.

When people talk about Allen's earlier, funnier movies, this must be the one they mean.  It has some of Allen's best slapstick and best one-liners.  It's hilarious.  Also philosophical.  Characters are likely to break into philosophical discussions or monologues at any moment.  Most often even these discussions are funny, as they're meant to be, but they're also quite serious.  Allen gets into plenty of his main concerns about love and death here.  

The movie was made when Allen was still doing anarchic comedy.  It's off-the-wall, and it borrows from just about everybody.  It was made when Allen could parody Bergman and before he tried to become Bergman.  The trailer posted down below gives you some idea of things, but here's a sampler of scenes.  If you like what you see, you'll like the movie.  If not, forget it.  As for me, I love this movie. 

Love and Death Trailer

Love and Death Trailer - YouTube:

Monday, April 21, 2014

'Literary fiction' is just clever marketing

The genre debate: 'Literary fiction' is just clever marketing 

Books Every Writer Needs to Read

Books Every Writer Needs to Read 

Antiques Con -- Barbara Allan

Brandy and Vivian Borne (not to mention cover-dog Sushi) are back in action, and this time they're taking Manhattan as they go to a comics convention where they hope to sell their Superman drawing, obtained in the previous volume of this very funny and entertaining series.   

The book begins with Chapter Two, which explains why there's no Chapter One, and I think any crime writer will get a kick out of it.  I also got a kick out of their occasional comments about keeping things clean in hopes that the series will make into the nation's Walmarts.

The con's awards are shaped like pens, and it isn't long before Brandy and Vivian, ever the lucky ones, stumble onto the body of the con organizer, who's been stabbed by one of the awards.  This leads to investigation and hilarity, not to mention a bit of a coincidence, when the lead detective turns out to be the brother of Brandy's boyfriend, Tony, now in the Witness Protection Program.  He's all too familiar with Vivian's love of inserting herself into murder investigations.  

This one leads in a surprising direction when it appears that the Mob might be somehow involved, and that leads to some great scenes with Vivian confronting mobsters in a strip club and, best of all, the Big Boss in a nursing home.

You probably know that Barbara Allan is Barbara and Max Allan Collins.  I've mentioned several books in this series here on the blog, and if you haven't read it yet, it's about time you started.  The mysteries are solid, the characters are the kind you'll like to read about (you might not want to spend much time with them in person), there are lots of laughs, and the writing has pizzazz.  Check it out.

Frank R. Paul ~ Amazing Stories

The Golden Age: Frank R. Paul ~ Amazing Stories

Song of the Day

The Crickets - Love's Made A Fool Of You - YouTube:

Classic Gunfights

Battle of the Plaza: Battle of the Plaza Bat Masterson Vs Peacock & Updegraff

Today's Vintage Ad


Comic Strip of the Day


Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Shakespeare and Shatner Go Head-to-Head In Five Minute Lego Film [VIDEO]: Texas-based production company AMAA Productions is the team behind Action Bill. It took them 14 days to shoot the five-minute film, which they animated using only Lego pieces. Check out behind-the-scenes photos on the company's blog, as well as a visual effects breakdown in the clip below.

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Jonathan Craig, So Young, So Wicked, Gold Medal, 1957

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Road-raging Texas driver shoots 3-year-old girl on Easter: KPRC reported that the suspect fired several rounds into the air as Leah’s father passed the suspicious vehicle. When the suspect’s car caught up to the family at a red light, a person in the car shot “six or seven” more rounds into Leah’s side of the SUV.

The Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum

The Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum 

Will the Persecution Never End? (See #2)

Top 10 Unbelievable Ways to Sneak Your Way Past Security

No Wonder I'm Blissfully Happy

Study: Using the Internet can reduce depression among older adults by 33 percent

I Miss the Old Days

The '60s at 50: Monday, April 20, 1964: Picturephone

New Poem at the 5-2

The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly: David S. Pointer MARINE BARRACKS FIRST AID

San Jacinto Day!

Battle of San Jacinto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio L�pez de Santa Anna's Mexican army in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes. About 630 of the Mexican soldiers were killed and 730 captured, while only nine Texans died.[3]

The Outlaw Deputy

outldep - YouTube:

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Red Chief Strikes Again

Kidnapped boy Willie Myrick sings gospel song until abductor sets him free

A Landmark Story's Anniversary

he Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor: It was on this day in 1841 that the first "detective story" was published: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," by Edgar Allan Poe (books by this author). In the story, C. August Dupin reads about the murder of a mother and daughter in a Paris street. The police are baffled, and Dupin decides to offer up his services. He finds a hair at the crime scene that he realizes does not belong to a human, and eventually he pieces together enough evidence to solve the case: The murder was committed by an orangutan who had been held in captivity by a sailor and who murdered the first woman with a straight razor and the second by strangling her.

Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, R. I. P.

chicagotribune.com: Former professional boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who spent 19 years in prison for murder and then was released after it was determined he did not get a fair trial, died on Sunday at the age of 76, according to reports in the Canadian media.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Or You Might

7 Facts You Might Not Know About The King Of Late Night, David Letterman

Song of the Day

Uncloudy Day (Willie Nelson) w/ lyrics - YouTube:

Ten Underrated Things About Houston (For Now)

Ten Underrated Things About Houston (For Now)  

Not quite a slideshow, but equally annoying.

Today's Vintage Ad


First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Detroit student's father accused of biting principal after child denied field trip 

PaperBack



Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust, Bantam, 1953

5 Theories About Why We Dye Eggs for Easter

5 Theories About Why We Dye Eggs for Easter

I Miss the Old Days

Fender Stratocaster turns 60  

Yes, it's a slideshow, but who can resist guitars?

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Possible Interest

Amazon.com: How the West Was Written: Frontier Fiction, 1880-1906 eBook: Ron Scheer: Kindle Store: The chapters of How the West Was Written tell a story of how the western frontier fed the imagination of writers, both men and women. It illustrates how the cowboy is only one small figure in a much larger fictional landscape. There are early frontier novels in which he is the central character, while in others he’s only a two-dimensional, tobacco-chewing caricature, or just an incidental part of the scenery.

Top 10 Bizarre Easter Traditions from Around the World

Top 10 Bizarre Easter Traditions from Around the World

Happy Easter!

Easter eggs, bunnies, Peeps: Easter traditions explained

This picture is from  Easter, 1949.  I'm on the left, my brother, Bob, is in the center, and my sister, Francelle, is on the right.

Easter Parade

Easter Parade Trailer (1948) - YouTube: