Saturday, July 19, 2014

Lionel Ferbos, R.I. P.

Lionel Ferbos, New Orlean’s oldest performing jazz musician, dies at age 103: Legendary jazz trumpeter Lionel Ferbos, whose prolific career began with society bands that predated the Great Depression, died in New Orleans at the age of 103, US media reported.

Curt Gentry, R. I. P.

SFGate: Curt Gentry, a San Francisco author who wrote or co-wrote 13 books including best-sellers "Helter Skelter" about the Charles Manson case and a harshly critical biography of FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, died July 10 in a San Francisco hospital.

Hat tip to Fred Zackel.

Best Feminist Films: An Essential List

Best Feminist Films: An Essential List 

Song of the Day

THE BACHELORS--MARIE.wmv - YouTube:

Set the DVR

Adult Swim's 2014-2015 Slate Will Include something called Mike Tyson Mysteries, which will be a new half-hour animated adult comedy series featuring a cartoon Mike Tyson who solves mysteries, aided by the Mike Tyson Mystery Team - which is made up of the Ghost of the Marquess of Queensbury, Mike’s adopted Korean daughter, and a pigeon who was once a man.

These Are America's 8 Most Heroic Dogs

These Are America's 8 Most Heroic Dogs, And They Are AMAZING

I will continue to freak out

Hey, grammar nerds! Stop freaking out about 'alot.' 

Today's Vintage Ad


Or Maybe You Have

10 Great 1950s Sci-Fi Movies You May Have Never Heard Of  

Link via SF Signal.

Forgotten Hits: The Saturday Surveys ( 07 - 19 )

Forgotten Hits: The Saturday Surveys ( 07 - 19 )

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Leonhard Frank, Desire Me, Penguin, 1948

The Eleven Best Metal Songs About Literature

The Eleven Best Metal Songs About Literature

11 Extremely Rare Books You'll Wish You Could Afford

11 Extremely Rare Books You'll Wish You Could Afford

25 Greatest Pieces Of Wisdom From Hunter S Thompson

25 Greatest Pieces Of Wisdom From Hunter S Thompson

Ummmmmm. Spray Cake

Spray Cake: Microwavable Cake Batter Invented By Harvard Students 

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Man arrested over city car chase machete attack

Things Found in Books

Found in Books
AbeBooks: Things Found in Books: Be careful what you use as a bookmark. Thousands of dollars, a Christmas card signed by Frank Baum, a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a marriage certificate from 1879, a baby’s tooth, a diamond ring and a handwritten poem by Irish writer Katharine Tynan Hickson are just some of the stranger objects discovered inside books by AbeBooks.com booksellers.

So What's the Problem? It's Not Like It Was a New One.

Road workers smash 1,000-year-old monument  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Comanche Station

1960 COMANCHE STATION TRAILER RANDOLPH SCOTT DONNA REED - YouTube:

Friday, July 18, 2014

I Want to Believe!

NASA More Confident Than Ever That We Are Not Alone

How to survive an alligator attack

How to survive an alligator attack: Video shows how to escape an encounter.

Song of the Day

Petula Clark You're The One (the original version)- YouTube:

Theakston's Old Peculier Top Crime Novel of the Year

Mystery Fanfare: Theakston's Old Peculier Top Crime Novel of the Year

Will the Persecution Never End?

7 Celebrities You Probably Forgot Tried To Have A Singing Career

Today's Vintage Ad


Buffalo Led the Way

Stunning Drawings of the 1901 World's Fair in Buffalo, NY 

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Paul V. Russo, This Yielding Flesh, Midwood, 1961

The five-year-old alligator wrangler

The five-year-old alligator wrangler

Worthwhile auto-start video.

Forgotten Hits: 50 Years Ago This Weekend

Forgotten Hits: 50 Years Ago This Weekend (July 18 / 19)

Isaac Asimov's Ridiculous Limericks

Isaac Asimov's Ridiculous Limericks

July 18, 1992: The First Photo Uploaded to the Web

July 18, 1992: The First Photo Uploaded to the Web, of CERN’s Parody All-Girl Science Band   

Includes songs!

J. T. Edson, R. I. P.

Ben Bridges has noted on the Piccadilly Publishing page that western writer J. T. Edson has passed away.

Hat tip to Randy Johnson.

Vintage Treasures: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space

Vintage Treasures: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space

Another Forgotten Book

I love this book.  Should've done an FFB post on it, myself.

Welcome To The Commonwealth: John Myers Myers’ Silverlock

A Forgotten Book with a Classic Cover

Vintage Treasures: Martians, Go Home by Fredric Brown

A Forgotten Series

 Old Favorites: Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni

FFB: Lust Queen -- Don Elliott (Robert Silverberg)

Pause for a moment if you will and think about the careers of some of the people who were writing what's now politely called "midcentury erotica" under pen names for the sleaze publishers back in the '60s.  Lawrence Block. Donald E. Westlake.  Evan Hunter/Ed McBain.  John Jakes.  Harlan Ellison (only one book).  Harry Whittington.  Robert Silverberg.  Probably others who haven't yet come forward.  All of these had extraordinary careers under their own names, and some of them had fine careers before they started writing these books.  


Why did they write them?  Various reasons, I'm sure.  Those starting out had a way to learn their trade by writing and selling.  Another reason had to be the money, which was very good and which was paid promptly.  Robert Silverberg wrote two of them a month for years while also working on his own stories and books.  He made a ton of money, as he explains in his introduction to Lust Queen and Lust Victim, recently reprinted as a Stark House Double.

I can't resist a story about a writer, which is why I read Lust Queen recently.  The protagonist is Joe Baldwin, who's doing pretty well writing crime novels and science fiction.  As the book opens, he's working his latest crime novel, writing it on a manual typewriter.  There's some truly nostalgic stuff for us geezers here about carbon paper and such.  Anyone who's pounded out material on a manual will enjoy this part, and I expect many of you will find the scattered bits about Baldwin's writing process fascinating.  I know I did.  It was much more exciting than the sex scenes, of which there are many.

Baldwin is engaged to be married, but his agent has a gig for him in Hollywood, writing the autobiography (sic) of a Hollywood star named Mona Thorne.  The money is far beyond what Joe's making for his own books, and he can't resist.  He tells his fiancee farewell and flies to Tinseltown.  Mona's plan is for him to live in her house while she tells him her story and he writes the book.  Naturally she wants sex, too.  Lots of sex.  In between bouts of sex and working on the book, Baldwin gets to meet a few Hollywood types, and there's some mild Hollywood and poseur satire.  Example:  One "real" writer he meets at a party tells Baldwin that he's "lecturing on The Role of Verse Drama in the Modern Theater."  When Baldwin says that he writes detective stories, the man looks at Baldwin as if Baldwin "had just admitted seducing his pet dog."

At the same party, however, Baldwin does meet the only genuine person of his entire stay, and naturally they go outside and have sex.  

Things get complicated when Baldwin's fiancee shows up in Los Angeles.  Baldwin tells Mona he'll have to move out.  She doesn't take it well, and she plans her revenge.  Things don't work out well, but I won't say for whom.

I wondered about a couple of things in the Stark House edition.  The dates used in the story are several years after the publication of the book.  Was it supposed to be set in the future?  A few times the magic word that couldn't be uttered in these books is uttered.  Or maybe I was wrong and it could be uttered. 

Silverberg was already a thorough pro when he wrote Lust Queen.  The book moves right along, it has some humor, the material about writing is fun, and Silverberg's writing is polished.   Check it out.

Dancing Co-Ed

1939 DANCING CO-ED TRAILER LANA TURNER - YouTube:

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Uh-Oh

Universal could reanimate old-school movie monsters, from Frankenstein to the Invisible: A new strategy at the studio will see their library of iconic characters wheeled out for a new generation, in a Marvel-style 'universe'

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

The El Paso Chihuahuas Have Created The Best Sports Uniforms Ever

Elaine Stritch, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Elaine Stritch, the brassy, tart-tongued Broadway actress and singer who became a living emblem of show business durability and perhaps the leading interpreter of Stephen Sondheim’s wryly acrid musings on aging, died on Thursday at her home in Birmingham, Mich. She was 89.

Sad, but True

If Campaign Ads Told the Truth, They Would Sound Like This 

Ray Bradbury on Failure

Ray Bradbury on Failure, Why We Hate Work, and the Importance of Love in Creative Endeavors 

Song of the Day

Mark James - Suspicious Minds (The Original Version) - YouTube:

Uh-Oh

Porcupine attacks on the rise in Central Texas

Today's Vintage Ad




Western Fictioneers: 3 Tips for Writing Short Stories

Western Fictioneers: 3 Tips for Writing Short Stories

Been There, Done That

Well, not all of it.  You can read about my trip here if you haven't already.

 26 Fantastic Reasons To Pack Your Bags And Visit Peru Right Now

PaperBack



Thomas Vail, Swamp Girl, Private Editions, 1966

The shameful secret behind the popularity of spy movies

The Week: They're a comforting fiction in a frightening world run by villains and fools

22 Lessons From Stephen King On How To Be A Great Writer

Business Insider: 22 Lessons From Stephen King On How To Be A Great Writer

Texas Is Merely #3

Florida ranks as the scariest place in the country 

A Review of Interest (To Me, Anyway)

Kevin's Corner: Review: "Half In Love With Artful Death: A Dan Rhodes Mystery

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Botanists love it: A new plant species found in Valentine

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Toothless man bites roommate for not cleaning his ear

Johnny Winter, R. I. P.

Houston Chronicle: GENEVA (AP) — Texas blues icon Johnny Winter, who rose to fame in the late 1960s and '70s for his energetic performances and musical collaborations including with childhood hero Muddy Waters, has died. He was 70.  

Hat tip to Randy Johnson.

Feeling Safer Now?

Fake screener probes passengers at SFO - Matier And Ross: A man suspected of being drunk posed as a security screener at San Francisco International Airport long enough to direct a couple of women into a private booth for pat downs before real security staffers caught on to him, authorities said Wednesday.

Hat tip to Art Scott.

And then there's this, which has happened at least once before (annoying auto-start video).

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.


Baby Face

1933 BABY FACE TRAILER BARBARA STANWYCK - YouTube:

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Report: Amazon to Purchase Simon and Schuster

Report: Amazon to Purchase Simon and Schuster

. . .And Elsewhere

Plain English becoming lost art in corporate America

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

UPI.com: Massachusetts man facing charges after alleged gumball machine attack at pizzeria

Dino Update

Plumage aplenty: fossil found of 'four-winged' feathered dinosaur

Song of the Day

Willie Nelson - Band of Brothers - YouTube:

10 of The Wildest of The Wild West

10 of The Wildest of The Wild West

“A Sense of Place” (by Christine Poulson)

“A Sense of Place” (by Christine Poulson) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN

Today's Vintage Ad


Road House: So Bad It’s Good

Flavorwire: So Bad It’s Good: Bouncers, Mullets, and Tai Chi Collide in ‘Road House’

I Miss the Old Days

Apollo 11: What Liftoff Looked Like: It’s one of the most immediately recognizable photographic sequences ever made: Ralph Morse’s dizzying pentaptych capturing the July 16, 1969, liftoff of Apollo 11. Here, in five narrow frames, we witness—and celebrate—a distillation of the creativity, the intellectual rigor, the engineering prowess and the fearlessness that defined the best of the Space Race.

PaperBack



Tom Phillips (Thomas R. Ramirez), The Sorority Girls, Monarch, 1962

They're Still Out There Waiting for You

The quest to find 12 hidden treasures from a 1982 treasure hunt book 

Quicksand!

Woman rescued from quicksand

James MacGregor Burns, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: James MacGregor Burns, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and political scientist who wrote voluminously about the nature of leadership in general and the presidency in particular, died on Tuesday at his home in Williamstown, Mass. He was 95.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Will the Persecution Never End?

Paris Hilton’s New EDM Music Video Is a Barbie Nightmare 

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Driver rams woman in West Seattle during parking spot fight

Man in the Dark

1953 MAN IN THE DARK TRAILER EDMOND O'BRIEN - YouTube:

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

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

In July 2014 the Mysterious Bookshop will publish an annotated bibliography of first editions of mystery fiction set in the world of books. Written by the award-winning mystery expert and editor Otto Penzler, this comprehensive volume will cover every title published between 1849-2000 that falls into the bibliomystery sub-genre.  In addition to notes of issue on publication, publisher, and date, plus plot descriptions, Bibliomysteries will also include 130 full-color photographs of rare or especially interesting dust jackets and covers.  Limited to 200 signed and numbered copies, this bibliography is a must for collectors, booksellers, and scholars of mystery fiction.  
Price: $75.00

Uh-Oh or OK?

Variety: Christian Bale is in early talks to star as Travis McGee in Fox’s adaptation of “The Deep Blue Good-By.”

Grammar Nerds Will Love Weird Al's Latest Parody

Grammar Nerds Will Love Weird Al's Latest Parody

Hat tip to Gerard Saylor.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Texas bank robber with ‘strong body odor’ arrested: It didn’t take long for cops to sniff out this suspect.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Taco Bell employee arrested after he allegedly fired BB gun at customer angered over wait time at drive-thru  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Soon We'll Have No Rights Left at All

7 Gorgeous Libraries Where You Can’t Be Naked No Matter What

Hat tip to Gerard Saylor.

Song of the Day

delilah jones - the McGuire sisters - coral 1956 - YouTube:

Look Out! He Has a . . . Wait, What?

Weaponized can of tomato paste used in robbery   Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Since When Did Watermelons Have More Rights than People?

Connecticut man arrested after stabbing watermelon  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The best short story of all-time.

Slate: The Greatest Short Story of All-Time

Alice Coachman Davis, R. I. P.

AOL.com: The first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, Alice Coachman Davis, died early Monday in south Georgia. She was 90.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Today's Vintage Ad


Actor-on-Actor Insults

Actor-on-Actor Insults: The Harshest in History 

PaperBack



Carter Brown, Blonde on a Broomstick, Signet 1966

Chicken Bomb!

Bomb squad discovers chicken head in bowl  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Gulf camera reveals spectacular footage detailing World War II wrecks

Houston Chronicle: Spectacular footage detailing World War II wrecks thousands of feet down in the Gulf of Mexico has been released by scientists doing a months-long deep sea expedition in the area.  

This might be behind a paywall, but it's very interesting and I hope it's available to all.

Soon to Appear on Jerry House's Wednesday Blog

11 of Abe Lincoln’s Favorite Stories 

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Burglar Dives Out Window After Run In With Naked Homeowner 

The Deepest Cave in the World

The Deepest Cave in the World – Krubera Cave 

Overlooked Movies: Innerspace

Here's the pitch: Fantastic Voyage meets All of Me.  Starring Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, and Meg Ryan, with some great character actors filling out the bill.  I've said several times that I thought Quaid would become a major star after certain movies.  This is another of them, but Martin Short also gives a great performance.  I thought he'd go on to stardom, too.  Didn't happen.  Maybe he never got the right role.  Meg Ryan is great, too, and she did become a big name, for a while, anyway.

What happens is that Quaid is reduced to microscopic size and put in a vehicle not unlike the one in Fantastic Voyage.  He's supposed to be injected into a bunny, but things happen and he winds up in Short.  There's a gang of master criminals.  There's a mcguffin (a computer chip).  There's pantomime and dancing (a great scene).  There are chases, escapes, and romance.  There's kissing, which is how Quaid winds up in Ryan for a while.  There's slapstick. There's more shrinkage.  There are two versions of "Twistin' the Night Away" (Sam Cooke and Rod Stewart).

Judy and I saw this in the theater and found it exhilarating.  The great final scene will put a smile on your face and a song in your heart.  Or maybe not.  You might be one of the curmudgeons who doesn't like this movie.  But I like it a lot.

Innerspace

INNERSPACE - Trailer ( 1987 ) - YouTube:

Monday, July 14, 2014

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

SEE IT: Texas car jumps straight up in the air in an amazing performance to win hydraulics competition  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Quicksand!

The Moonstone quicksand scene.

Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.

He's Baaaaaaack

Heights serial pooper could be back

Who Said It?

A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes

Yet Another List I'm Not On

Internet’s Most Influential Writers 

Bastille Day

11 Remnants of the Bastille You Can Still See Today

NTTAWWT

Couple Had Sex On Top Of Chipotle Restaurant In Delaware 

Song of the Day

The Rolling Stones - Out Of Time - YouTube:

Ralph Steadman Illustrates the Life of Leonardo da Vinci

Ralph Steadman Illustrates the Life of Leonardo da Vinci 

Nadine Gordimer, R. I. P.

Flavorwire: Writer and activist Nadine Gordimer is dead at 90. Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1991, she was known as a powerful voice against apartheid. The author of 15 novels and numerous essays, short story collections, and plays, she leaves behind a legacy of human and weighty writing.

Today's Vintage Ad


Gator Update (Alligator Kinematics Edition)

What Do You Find Out When You Put An Alligator On A Treadmill?: When you come across a paper on "alligator kinematics," it's time to pay attention. Somewhere, at some time, a scientist wanted to find out deep secrets of evolution and decided the best way to do it was putting an alligator on a treadmill.

PaperBack



Carter Brown, The Velvet Vixen, Signet, 1964

A Review of Interest (To Me, Anyway)

Western Fictioneers: Review Roundup: Outrage and a Family Feud

The Original Bug-Eyed Monster: Astounding Stories, May 1931

The Original Bug-Eyed Monster: Astounding Stories, May 1931

In Defense Of Killing Off Main Characters

In Defense Of Killing Off Main Characters

Color Me Nostalgic

Some of you might be old enough to remember The Executive Coloring Book

Link via The Presurfer.

Shirley Jackson Awards

Mystery Fanfare: Shirley Jackson Awards

I Miss the Old Days

11 Products That Kept Dad Looking Dapper 

13 of the Most Annoying Writers You'll Ever Meet

13 of the Most Annoying Writers You'll Ever Meet   

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Or Maybe You Did

Stunning photographs of the unbelievable travel destinations you never knew existed 

The Count of Monte Cristo

1948 COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO RE-ISSUE TRAILER ROBERT DONAT - YouTube:

Sunday, July 13, 2014

BOLO If You Hear "Turkey in the Straw"

Dollar General underwear thief flees in ice cream truck 

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Hi-Yo, Silver! Lone Ranger Outfit Sells for $195,000

Edge of Tomorrow

This movie hasn't made nearly as much money at the box office as it should have.  I know some people don't care for Tom Cruise, but that's all the more reason to see the movie.  They can watch him getting killed over and over.   Besides, he gives a good performance here, and so do Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton.  I wouldn't have thought of casting Blunt in an action movie, but she's right at home.

The deal is that an alien race called, for reasons that are never explained, the Mimics are just about to conquer the world.  There doesn't appear to be much hope, except for a big last-ditch attack which will supposedly be like D-Day -- totally unexpected.  Cruise is shanghaied into participating and he's killed very quickly, but not before he realizes that the attack wasn't just anticipated but planned for.  It's a trap.  

Here's the gimmick.  Before Cruise dies, he's touched by the blood of an Alpha Mimic.  The blood gives Cruise the ability to "reset time" by one day.  (Don't ask me to explain how this could possibly work.)  Anyway, Cruise he wakes up, alive again, the morning of the previous day.  Now that he knows what's going to happen, he tries to warn people.  They think he's nuts, and off he goes into battle again, only to die again.  Soon he and Blunt meet on the battlefield, and she tells him to find her the next time he wakes up, which he does.

Things get a little complicated after that, so I'll just say that Blunt has to kill Cruise a lot of times so he can "reset time."  And I'll add that what happens in the battle is a lot like the old text-based computer games I played long ago.  Maybe it's like the modern ones, too.  You get killed, you start over, and you try to remember each step you took so that you can repeat them all, right up until the last one, which you want to do differently.

Do the Mimics win, or do Cruise and Blunt save the world?  I'm not going to spoiler-alert you or anything.  I suspect you know the answer.  But who's going to live and who's going to die for real?  Go and see for yourself.

Song of the Day

Good News By The Kingston Trio - YouTube:

Today's Vintage Ad


Texas Doesn't Lead the Way

How uptight is your state?

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

WWLP.com: An Easthampton man was arrested and accused of throwing large amounts of cayenne pepper at several customers inside Whole Foods in Hadley.

PaperBack



CarterBrown, Girl in a Shroud, Signet, 1963

Armchair Field Trip: The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory

Armchair Field Trip: The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory 

A Review of Interest (To Me, Anyway)

A Mammoth Murder — Review | Books & Life & the Whole Shebang

ThrillerFest Awards

Mystery Fanfare: ThrillerFest Awards: 2014: ITW's (International Thriller Writers) 2014 Thriller Awards

I Miss the Old Days

America's Vanishing Bowling Alleys 

11 Strange Soap Opera Cameos

11 Strange Soap Opera Cameos 

Top 10 Rules of Punctuation

Top 10 Rules of Punctuation

Barbary Coast

1950s BARBARY COAST RE-ISSUE TRAILER EDW. G. ROBINSON - YouTube: