Saturday, February 27, 2016

Eric Beetner Interview

The Education of a Pulp Writer: Six Guns, Noir Fistfights, and Burnout: Eric Beetner Interview

Song of the Day

Cream - White Room - YouTube:

Close to the Heart -- Harlan Ellison

Close to the Heart: ‘Fire-bringing’ Harlan Ellison, one of America’s greatest short story writers, on protecting his work, L. Ron Hubbard, Octavia Butler, and why he will never stop writing

10 Weird Claims That Authors Didn't Write Their Famous Works

10 Weird Claims That Authors Didn't Write Their Famous Works

Today's Vintage Ad


9 Celebrity #TBT Photos You Need To See This Week

9 Celebrity #TBT Photos You Need To See This Week  

Including one that's possibly NSFW.

PaperBack



Conrad Maine, Good-Time Girl, Popular Library, 1955

A Recent E-Mail Message of Importance

Somehow I missed the news of this appointment, but if one can't trust the New Secretary of the Treasury, whom can one trust?

U.S. Department of the Treasury

My name is "Jacob Jack Lew".  I am the New Secretary of the Treasury under the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Kindly open the attach form and fill it .

Jack J. Lew

John D. and me: James W. Hall

John D. and me: James W. Hall

The Weird Week in Review

The Weird Week in Review

Lennie Baker, R. I. P.

New York Times: Lennie Baker, a longtime member of the rock and doo-wop group Sha Na Na, who sang lead on its hit version of “Blue Moon,” died on Wednesday in Weymouth, Mass. He was 69.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

In That Case, Ma'am, You Are Free to Go

Emily Davis says she used dead grandmother's disabled parking badge 'in her honour' 

Friday, February 26, 2016

A Boy Named Sue, er, Evelyn

TIME Magazine names male author Evelyn Waugh on female most-read list   

Hat tip to Art Scott

Tony Burton, R. I. P.

NBC News: Tony Burton, who played Apollo Creed's inspirational boxing trainer in the "Rocky" franchise after his own glory days as a young prizefighter, died Thursday, his family said. He was 78.

Klaus Roth, R. I. P.

Telegraph: Klaus Roth, who has died aged 90, was the first British winner of the Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize, whose discoveries in number theory led to him being considered one of the greatest mathematicians of the second half of the 20th century.

Irene Larsen, R. I. P.

Magic Castle co-founder Irene Larsen, 1936-2016

The 21st Century Indiana Jones is a Woman

The 21st Century Indiana Jones is a Woman Crowdsourcing Space Archaeology: By examining high-resolution satellite imagery with algorithms developed via trial-and-error, Parcak and her team have discovered 17 pyramids, 1,000 tombs, and over 3,100 settlements in Egypt alone. Now, she’s interested in using the tools of space archaeology to help preserve these sites and ensure humanity’s cultural heritage remains in evidence.

Song of the Day

Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth 1967 - YouTube:

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

Best Movie Quotes: Hollywood's Top 100 Lines

Soon We'll Have No Rights Left at All

Canadian man fined for smuggling 38 turtles in his pants

Hat tip to Art Scott, who says, "Must not have been snapping turtles."

Today's Vintage Ad


I Miss the Old Days

The Groovy Age of Travel #12: Travel Ads 1950 

PaperBack



March Hastings, Crack-Up, Newsstand Library, 1960

The full run of If magazine, scanned at the Internet Archive

The full run of If magazine, scanned at the Internet Archive  

Check out some of the covers at the link.

30 authors show you how to shelfie.

Forget the selfie. Let these 30 authors show you how to shelfie.

Popular Library ~ covers 1944-1950's

Popular Library ~ covers 1944-1950's 

Bid Early and Often

Ultra rare Beatles record that lay in attic for 50 years up for sale

FFB: John O'Hara -- The Doctor's Son

When I was a much younger man, I thought John O'Hara was a great American writer.  You can read more about that right here, in my comments ten years ago on The Cape Cod Lighter.  When I got to college, I learned that O'Hara wasn't considered great.  He wasn't even considered very good.  That didn't bother me.  I wasn't fickle.  I still thought he was great, and now that I'm a lot older, I still think so, even though he's been pretty much written out of the history of American literature.  So when I ran across my copy of The Doctor's Son, I decided I'd read it all again.  

The book is a collection of pieces that aren't short stories.  Well, the title piece is.  The rest are a miscellaneous assortment of things, character sketches, vignettes, monologues, dialogues, and maybe other stuff.  "Frankie" comes close to being a story, and so does "Mr. Cass and the Ten Thousand Dollars."  So do a couple of the others, but they don't quite make it for me.  "Master of Ceremonies" is the monologue of an MC.   

"The Doctor's Son" opens the collection and is by far the longest piece.  It's a 27-page coming-of-age store about a doctor's son in the Pennsylvania coal country during the great Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.  O'Hara, as it happens, was a doctor's son in the Pennsylvania coal country at that time, so I suspect it's a tad autobiographical.  The other pieces in the collection average about 2-1/2 or 3 pages long, I think.  One of them, "The Hotel Kid," even reminded me a little bit of Salinger.

The stories appeared in places like The New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Scribner's Magazine, and The Brooklyn Eagle.  The characters are distinctive, the dialogue is excellent, and the details are closely observed, but I wonder if any of these pieces could be published today, even in The New Yorker.  If you're read any of the stories, let me know what you think.  


Thursday, February 25, 2016

Hap and Leonard Ride Again

Hap and Leonard Ride Again - Kindle edition by Joe R. Lansdale. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.  

If you bought the collection entitled Hap and Leonard, you got a lot of the good stuff.  But not all of it.  This eBook collection is a bit different.  There are a few additions, like an essay by Lansdale entitled “The Care and Feeding and Raising Up of Hap & Leonard.”  There's also an essay I wrote about the true story of Lansdale's career.  I thought you ought to know.

Robert J. Randisi to Reveive John Seigenthaler Legends Award

The Killer Nashville John Seigenthaler Legends Award - Killer Nashville: Robert J. Randisi is the recipient of the 2016 Killer Nashville John Seigenthaler Legends Award. An exceptionally prolific author—he has written over 650 novels in the western, mystery, sci-fi, horror, and spy genres, under different pseudonyms—Randisi’s dedication to the craft is rivaled only by his passion for advocating, encouraging, and featuring other genre writers.

Uh-Oh

Kickstarter for the Sequel to Manos: The Hands of Fate  Lawrence Person's Futuramen: entirely new sequel is being put together by Jackey Neyman Jones (the little girl in the original film) and their Kickstarter just made it’s $24,000 goal. They even have Tom Neyman back as The Master!

Stuart Pawson R.I.P.

'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?': Stuart Pawson R.I.P.

Song of the Day

Merle Haggard & The Strangers - Branded Man - YouTube:

13 Mysterious Facts About ‘The Maltese Falcon’

13 Mysterious Facts About ‘The Maltese Falcon’

Today's Vintage Ad


Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Texas dad pretends to shoot his 9-year-old daughter — and then accidentally shoots her in the chest

PaperBack



James M. Cain, The Butterfly, Signet, 1955

Paging Kojak

Police Hunt Bald Guy In Rogaine Thefts 

40 Words Turning 40 In 2016

40 Words Turning 40 In 2016

As If We Didn't Know

It’s official: ‘Idiocracy’ writer says his satire about a dumber America has become a reality

First It Was the Thin Mint Melee

Tiara-wearing lunatic bites passenger on JFK-bound flight

Yes. Yes, It Is.

"The Walking Dead" set to "Yakety Sax" is weirdly perfect

The Science Fiction Book Club Original Anthologies

Vintage Treasures: The Science Fiction Book Club Original Anthologies

Forgotten Music: Little Willie John

Guest Shot: Vintage Trouble’s Ty Taylor On His (New) Favorite (Old) Singer: Belting it out as Vintage Trouble’s lead singer, Ty Taylor sings, shakes, and shines like the great soul shouters of the ’60s. He thought he’d done his homework. Until he heard Little Willie John.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Joe Lansdale Burns Bridges

'Hap And Leonard' Creator Needed To 'Burn Bridges' To Make It As A Writer

What Does It Take To Be A “Bestselling Author”?

What Does It Take To Be A “Bestselling Author”? $3 and 5 Minutes.

The making of Eleanor Rigby

The making of Eleanor Rigby, the Beatles’ most mysterious song.

Song of the Day

Dick Curless - Tombstone Every mile - YouTube:

Eight fun facts to celebrate Nat Geo's new CROCS exhibit

WTOP: Crocodiles are the stars of a new exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in Washington. “Crocs: Ancient Predators in a Modern World,” continues through May 8.

Today's Vintage Ad


“Confessions of a Literary Safecracker”

“Confessions of a Literary Safecracker” (by Joseph Goodrich) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: Joseph Goodrich will make his EQMM debut in this year’s issue in tribute to our magazine’s previous editors (August 2016). The star of his tale is EQMM‘s founding editor, Frederic Dannay, who joins forces with Dashiell Hammett to solve a crime in 1950s Manhattan. Even mystery fans who have yet to be introduced to this author’s fiction will likely know him from his work for theater. He is an actor and an Edgar-Award winning playwright whose work has been produced across the United States. He’s an alumnus of New Dramatists and a former Calderwood Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. Joe’s love for mysteries, and for the work of Ellery Queen in particular, goes back many decades; he’s a frequent contributor to Mystery Scene magazine and an active member of the Mystery Writers of America, and, as he explains in this post, he was inspired to write his current play (adapted from and of the same title as the Ellery Queen novel Calamity Town) after multiple readings of Ellery Queen’s Wrightsville novels.—Janet Hutchings

PaperBack



Dallas Mayo, All Together Now, Midwood, 1965

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

The Best Old-School Noir Novels

The Trap of Solid Gold: Looking Sideways

The Trap of Solid Gold: Looking Sideways

Hey, Who Wouldn't Trust a Woman Named 'Joanie Pepperoni'

'Joanie Pepperoni' investigation busts woman in alleged murder-for-hire plot with boyfriend

First It Was the Thin Mint Melee . . .

. . . and now it's the Chuck E. Cheese's brawl!  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Retro Reviews: Amazing Science Fiction, June 1960 and July 1960

Retro Reviews: Amazing Science Fiction, June 1960 and July 1960

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

'Hap and Leonard': TV Review - Hollywood Reporter

'Hap and Leonard': TV Review - Hollywood Reporter

I'm Buying My Ticket to Norway Now

Vertigo-inducing viewing platform to open in Norway this summer

Song of the Day

Sonny James - Young love (1956) - YouTube:

The Bram Stoker Awards Nominees

The Bram Stoker Awards – StokerCon 2016™: Los Angeles, CA — The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy, today announced the nominees for the 2015 Bram Stoker Awards.

Douglas Slocombe, R. I. P.

The Guardian: Douglas Slocombe, who has died aged 103, was one of Britain’s greatest cameramen – an award-winning cinematographer noted for his high contrast shooting and a key figure in British and American film from the heyday of Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 50s onwards.

Today's Vintage Ad


11 Lucky Facts About ‘Dirty Harry’

11 Lucky Facts About ‘Dirty Harry’ 

PaperBack



Ted Fox, That Girl on the River, Popular Library Eagle Books, 1956

The 10 Most Expensive Comic Books Ever Sold

The 10 Most Expensive Comic Books Ever Sold

Lobby Cards: Little Pieces of Vintage Cinema

Lobby Cards: Little Pieces of Vintage Cinema

Sonny James, R. I. P.

NBC News: NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country singer Sonny James, who recorded romantic ballads like "Young Love" and turned pop songs into country hits, has died. He was 87.

Overlooked Movies: Casanova

There's probably a good reason why I like movies that don't get good reviews, but I'm not sure what it is.  Maybe I'm just a sucker for contrived plots, great soundtracks, beautiful scenery, lots of laughs, lavish color and costuming, attractive stars, and happy endings.  Casanova has all of that, and more, so naturally I love it.  If you're looking for historical accuracy, however, you've come to the wrong movie.

Heath Ledger plays Casanova, who's in big trouble in Venice because of his many escapades.  The doge tells him to get married to a good woman or get out.  He doesn't want to leave, so he selects a woman just in time to fall for someone else, Francesca Bruni, an ardent feminist, played by Sienna Miller.  Bruni hates everything Casanova stands for, so he adopts various personas to win her love.  And she's engaged, too, to a man she's never met, the Lard King of Genoa (Oliver Platt).  Not to mention that her brother is already engaged to the woman Casanova has decided to marry.  And then the Inquisition's representative (Jeremy Irons) shows up to capture Casanova and put him in prison for his many licentious crimes.  To say its complicated is to understate it, but, hey, it's a farce.  

Oliver Platt is hilarious.  So is Omid Djalili as Casanova's servant, Lupo.  Miller and Ledger are just right, funny and smart and attractive.  Venice is as beautiful as you'll ever see it.  And, as I mentioned, all's well that ends well.  What's not to like?  I dunno.  Some people didn't like it, but I sure did.

Casanova

Casanova (2005) Official Trailer #1 - Heath Ledger Movie HD - YouTube:

Monday, February 22, 2016

Beyond the Thin Mint Melee

Woman killed boyfriend for spending too much time on Facebook

New Poem at the Five-Two

The Five-Two: Rosemarie Keenan -- Grandiflora

Harry Hunsicker Interview

Harry Hunsicker 022116: On high-tech Westerns and the burgeoning literary scene in the Big D

Song of the Day

HANK BALLARD & MIDNIGHTERS Sexy Ways JUN '54 - YouTube:

I Miss the Old Days

This Was What The World Looked Like 30 Years Ago

Today's Vintage Ad


First It Was the Thin Mint Melee . . .

. . . and now it's the Cheesy garlic knots spat!

The Time Elvis Got out of His Limo to Break up a Fight between Strangers

The Time Elvis Got out of His Limo to Break up a Fight between Strangers 

PaperBack



William Campbell Gault, The Bloody Bokhara, Dell, 1953

Of Course We All Knew about #7

7 Words That Came About from People Getting Them Wrong

I Miss the Old Days

Ads #81 Jinglers Jeans

I Want to Believe!

16 Of The Creepiest Places In Texas That'll Forever Haunt Your Dreams

Astounding Stories 1931-1941

The Golden Age: Astounding Stories 1931-1941 ~ Art by Howard V. Brown, Wesso Graves Gladney & Hubert Rogers  

Apparently the post for this link has disappeared; sorry about that.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Free for Kindle Today Only

Eight Mystery Writers You Should be Reading Now - Kindle edition by Michael Guillebeau, Chris Knopf, Larissa Reinhart, Lisa Alber, Kathleen Cosgrove, Jessie Bishop Powell, Jaden Terrell, Lisa Wysocky, Stacy Pethel. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.  

If you miss out today, it will be free again on 2-29.

Uh-Oh

SportsDay: The Nolan Ryan Exhibit, which chronicles the Hall of Famer's career from the New York Mets to the Texas Rangers, will relocate from his hometown of Alvin, Texas, to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco.

Not political, just funny

Someone Inserted Donald Trump Into "Game Of Thrones" And It's Incredible

To Infinity . . . and Beyond!

Next 'Transformers' films dated for 2017, 2018, 2019 

Song of the Day

Dolly Parton - The Seeker - YouTube:

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

Worst Oscar Winners and Nominees

Today's Vintage Ad


I Miss the Old Days

1986 - Boy George and The A-Team

I Can Quit Anytime I Want To

“Problematic Internet use” can hurt relationships, study finds.: And this professor says it can be as bad as substance addiction.

PaperBack



Eunice Mays Boyd, Murder Wears Mukluks, Dell, 1948

These Are Great

Historic Photos of the Lincoln Memorial  

Link via Neatorama.

The Body’s Upstairs at Hangover House

The Body’s Upstairs at Hangover House

I Want to Believe!

Lost Tapes Reveal Apollo Astronauts Heard Unexplained ‘Music’ On Far Side Of The Moon

So It's Come to This

Daily Mail Online: Sculpture measuring 20ft high and 15ft wide moved... so that mobile users don't bump into it as they text!