The Restless Kind

FFB rewind: Zeppelins West By Joe R. Landsale

2012-01-27T01:51:00.000-08:00

I recall reading Zeppelins west while sititng in the tempory home fo the Minneapolis library around 2003. I was working downtown and my brother would drop me off early in the day on his way to work, and I would hang out read, write, wander the sky way and drink coffee before heading off to work. Zeppelins West was one of those mash ups with characters from all kinds of fiction hanging out as a part of a Bill Cody steampunk show. I have to admit that the book was better in theory and concept than execution, but I swear you’ll never read anything else like it.

read the original FFB post HERE

FFB rewind: THE LIST OF 7 by Mark Frost

2012-01-20T01:50:00.000-08:00

THE LIST OF 7 by Mark Frost reviewed by Barna William Donovan caught my attention and lodged in my brain after Patti posted the review. I haven’t checked it out yet, but it’s on the list. I have to admit I am a sucker for books that reference other pop culture and draw them into a mix of history. I think it was the description of the book as a “genre mash-up mixing paranormal and occult horror with conspiracy thriller elements, all wrapped up in a historical mystery starring Arthur Conan Doyle” that hooked me. It’s one of those books that I swear I am going to make time for this year.

http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2011/01/fridays-forgotten-books-january-7-2011.html

Radio: Rock 103 WIQB

2012-01-16T07:19:00.000-08:00

Back in the bad old days of the 80s and 90s, before Clinton killed radio and Telecom by selling it out to Clean Channel (see the Telecom Act of 1996), we had a local Top 40 radio station that was my gate way to pop music. It was thee station that I listened to when I was a teen, at least in the morning on the way to school.

WIQB was an ubiquitous presence in town. There were bill boards, a ad that played before films at Fox Village Theater, and sponsored and participated in local events. I recall every winter that they would participate in Rocking for the Hungry, a food drive for those on the bottom of the social ladder. They also at least in a couple of cases were more than willing to play local artists and promote local musical events.

Their morning crew were a pre-Shock Jock set cast with a main DJ, Rob Reinhardt as I recall, and a couple of co-hostes. They played music, talked about traffic, weather, and local news. At some point in the 80s they started taking listeners calls about movies they had seen over the weekend and what they thought of them.

For a while they had an oldies show on Sunday mornings and played Dr Demento on Sunday Nights. Sure they were a Top 40 station and they played the hits of the day, it should be noted that they also did play older tunes that had fallen off the charts as well. They were kinda a JACK FM kinda deal before that format reached the airwaves. They also were operating in a radio environment where the way to gain market share was to take chances on stuff that others were not playing. I vividly recall hearing them say, The only station where you are going to hear.... and then play something that was new, that was unproven and that had yet to reach the charts.

WIQB vanished somewhere along the way, I fell off listening at some point and last I checked their 102.9 location on the dial was occupied by WWWW W4 Country ... A quick google search confirms that right now W4 is still there, they are owned by Cumulus Media Inc, at leas that's what their web page indicates.... however I have found this....

from: http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/WWWW

WWWW - "W4 Country" - is a country music radio station based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, broadcasting on 102.9 MHz. The WWWW calls were originally used for 106.7 FM in Detroit, Michigan, first with easy listening and later an oldies format. Throughout most of the 1970s, it was an album-oriented rock station. During the heyday of the short-lived quadraphonic sound fad, it featured quad broadcasts and was known locally by fans as "W4 Quad." In 1980, WWWW changed its format to country, and was then known as "W4 Country" for almost two decades until switching to adult rock as WLLC-FM "Alice 106.7" in 1999. After a switch to classic rock as WDTW-FM "106.7 The Drive" in 2002, country music made a return to 106.7 FM on May 19,2006 as "106.7 The Fox". The "W4 Country" brand name and WWWW calls were revived for 102.9 FM in Ann Arbor in October 2000 and continued even after WDTW relaunched as "The Fox," which disappointed many fans of the original "W4 Country" who had hoped that the brand name would make a return at 106.7.
The 102.9 frequency began operations in March 1962 as WOIA and was (and still is) co-owned with WOIB-AM 1290 in Saline, Michigan. In 1970, the stations became WNRS-AM/WNRZ-FM, "Ann Arbor's Winners." WNRZ-FM changed its format from country to album rock in March 1975 and became known as WIQB, with a call sign which designated the number "103" (AM 1290 has since been through a multitude of format changes and is now WLBY, an affiliate of Air America). Like the original WWWW-FM, WIQB broadcasted in quadraphonic sound for a time in the 1970s as "QuadRock 103." WIQB's rock format went through several metamorphoses during the 1990s, including adult alternative during the late 1990s and then active rock by the end of the decade. As an active rock station, "Rock 103 IQB," then owned by Cumulus Broadcasting, was low-rated, continuously losing to Detroit's WRIF in the Ann Arbor Arbitron reports. "W4 Country" has proven much more popular in Ann Arbor, and is now often the top-rated music station in the market. Its signal into metropolitan Detroit is impeded by WHTD(102.7 MHz) in Mount Clemens in Macomb County, but WWWW still frequently shows up toward the bottom of the Detroit ratings. WWWW's signal is much stronger toward the west and north of Ann Arbor, and the station gets a listenable signal as far away as Flint and Lansing.
Both the former (106.7) and the current (102.9) WWWW are now owned by Clear Channel Communications.

Thoughts, comments, remembrances of your fave High School radio station?

Fixed call letter mix up.

FFB rewind: Shoot by Douglas Fairbairn

2012-01-13T01:48:00.000-08:00

Shoot is a fast, short meditation on the lives of warriors after the battles are over. It looks at middle age men who have won their wars and become successful in the domestic world. A simple plot wherein a group of hunters are shot at by another group of hunters, their opposite numbers from down the road, and what happens afterward.

I checked out the book after reading a FFB post on it by Mike Dennis, and enjoyed it and hop that others will check it out.

http://mikedennisnoir.com/review-shoot/1042/

http://restlesskind.blogspot.com/2010/06/books-april-may-2010.html

2001: Music that has endured? My top 10 looking back

2012-01-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

Doo Doo Doo

Bom Bom Bom

Laasssstttt Niigghhhttt I tried to listen to the strokes again

After a decade of ignoring them

And they bored me to tears, and I fear that the White Stripes will continue to do the same to me.

For the longest time I have been feeling like just looking back at the past year really doesn’t tell the story of what was good and bad beyond initial reactions. Especially when it comes to music I think that’s it’s more and more important to see what is still listenable a decade later. For that reason I present the top ten albums of 2001 as culled from my memory banks by me.

Adam West: Right On!

The Billy Nayer Show: The American Astronaut STK

The Damned Grave Disorder

The Faint: Dance Marcrba

The Flaming Sideburns: Hallelujah Rock 'N' Rollah

The Groovie Ghoulies: Freaks on Parade

Monster Magnet: God Says No

The Soundtrack of our lives: Behind the music

Hemi Cuda- Music for Lovers

Manic Hispanic: The Recline Of Mexican Civilization

I look at this list and think, really? Did I miss something along the way? There are a couple of album here that I really like and find that I still listen to plenty, and then there are some that I don’t love so much and some that I can’t imagine being my fave from 2001. Was that year in music really that bad? I am not sure that I can even point to a number 1 album from the bunch. If there was one that I had to pick for your average rock fan it would easily be the Soundtrack of Our Lives albums and after that, either the Damned album or the Flaming Sideburns. The Ghoulies provided another solid fun pop garage punk record that contains some of their best songs ever.

And honestly if there is one record from that year that I can recommend it’s a box set and I have left it off the list as all of the music was from the 60s. Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 was the real find of the year, and while not as classic as the first Nuggets Box it is a must for any real rock fan.

What haven’t I talked about? Adam West and Hemi Cuda, a pair of high-energy rock and roll groups from the good old USA. Adam West was fronted by Jake Starr a true gent and a man that I have been happy to have known and spent some time with in the late 90s and early 2000s. Hemi Cuda appears to have been a one shot wonder from somewhere out west. They were a Fistful of Rock type bands, and speaking of the Fistful of Rock comps, they launched in 1990 and faltered pretty quickly. What was proposed as a one year project took several years and morphed along the way. It was an interesting attempt to get the Hi Energy Garage Punk underground into people ears, and maybe someday will be rediscovered…. But alas too many people were too busy listening to the Strokes or the White Stripes and thinking that was Rock and Roll.

2001 wasn’t a great year for much and to me the music of the time wasn’t much better. There were a few gems and a lot of hums. Just looking at my 2002 list (Tune next year for that one) I am more impressed and excited.

FYI
The 2001 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll
1. Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft" (Columbia)
2. The Strokes: Is This It (RCA)
3. Bjork: Vespertine (Elektra)
4. The White Stripes: White Blood Cells (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
5. Radiohead: Amnesiac (Capitol)
6. Ryan Adams: Gold (Lost Highway)
7. Jay-Z: The Blueprint (Roc-A-Fella)
8. The Coup: Party Music (75 Ark)
9. Lucinda Williams: Essence (Lost Highway)
10. Rufus Wainwright: Poses (DreamWorks)

Pitchfork Top 20 of 2001
20 Fugazi The Argument   19 Dntel Life is Full of Possibilities
18 Beta Band Hot Shots II  17 Cannibal Ox The Cold Vein
16 Jim O'Rourke Insignificance
15 Strokes Is This It
14 Dismemberment Plan Change
13 Les Savy Fav Go Forth
12 Mouse on Mars Idiology
11 Autechre Confield
10 Prefuse 73 Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
09 New Pornographers Mass Romantic
08 White Stripes White Blood Cells  07 Múm Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK
06 Radiohead Amnesiac 05 Circulatory System Circulatory System
04 Unwound Leaves Turn Inside You
03 Avalanches Since I Left You
02 Fennesz Endless Summer
01 Microphones The Glow, Pt. 2

Thoughts, comments, your faves of 2001?

FFB rewind: Murder Among Children by Tucker Coe (Donald Westlake)

2012-01-06T01:46:00.000-08:00

1/6

In the past I did a couple of FFB entries that were inspired by others entries. I read some of the recommended books and gave them my own review. I only managed to write two of those, but I want to make sure that in 2012 I spend more time writing fiction and less blogging… to that end I plan to high light the FFBs post that others have written. I am going to try and keep them short and sweet and to the point…. And our first second look is…..

Murder Among Children by Tucker Coe (Donald Westlake) covered by Ed Gorman

I had already read the first of the Westlake Tucker Coe books when Ed covered the second one, Murder Among Children, which prompted me to check out the book for myself. I liked it a lot and especially think that there is a cultural element to the book that has only deepened as time has passed. As a member of the silent generation Westlake explores the generational conflict between the silents and the boomers.

Ed’s review here and my follow up here

http://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com/2010/06/forgotten-books-murder-among-children.html

http://restlesskind.blogspot.com/2010/08/ffb-echo-murder-among-children-by.html

R.I.P. Sean Bonniewell and Jennifer Miro

2012-01-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

Saints and Sinners

I was sadden to hear recently about the passing of two little known musicians who have held a place in my juke box soul.

Saint?

The first was Sean Bonniewell of the Music Machine (also known as the Bonniewell Music Machine) a 60s Garage Punk band that has been cited by some as one of thee bands that really inspired punk a decade later. Talk Talk, the bands big hit is a thundering pure rock tune that clocks in at a Ramones like 2:00 Minutes. It’s a powerful howl that is echoed in other Music Machine tunes like Double Yellow Line and The People in Me. That said, Bonniewell was also an early chronicler of the damage of the drug culture (King Mixer), nuclear proliferation (point of no Return) and the degradation of the Environment. After the Music Machine he became a DJ and found a career as well as becoming a Christian. Reports are that he was 71 when he passed.

Sinner?

Jennifer “Miro” Anderson was a fetish model, actress (having a small part in the sublime Dr. Caligari) but more importantly to me, she was a singer and keyboard player and songwriter in the great SF group The Nuns. The band was part of the first wave of punk groups in SF and opened for The Sex Pistols at their legendary final show at Winterland. Miro was a platinum Goddess who was one of the constant members of The Nuns, taking the band from punk to industrial. I like the original era of the band the best; their first LP is one of the great overlooked albums of the 1^st wave of punk. Their early 90s records had great moments that seemed to have fallen though the cracks and are well worth checking out. Her voice could reach from the lower reaches of folk singer breathiness to the, wild, savage urgency of the better punk howlers. I wonder what she could have done if she had gone more country than industrial in the 90s? Original Nun Alejandro Escovedo has paid tribute to The Nuns in song over the last couple of years with Sacramento and Polk and more obviously with Nuns Song… during which he sang, “You got so much to live for…. It’s not too late!” Now the time has passed, Miro was 54 and died of cancer in NYC.

Saints, Sinners, few of us are completely one or the other and often times the clothes of one is worn by the other. I don’t know where Bonniewell or Miro really fell on that scale, only that they are gone and left something for future generations to discover and enjoy.

It seems that the last couple of years have started off with news of punk heroes passing, Bonniewell and Miro now join with Lux Interior and Ron Asheton as gone but not forgotten.

2012: A starker Restless Kind.

2012-01-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

2011 is over and done and I think I managed to make most of my planned blogging.... but it was a huge time suck. For that reason readers you can expect a much more stripped down Restless Kind in 2012. I am going to have weekly FFB entries, but they are going to be on the short side and, well you will see...

anyway, here's to a productive 2012 writing fiction and I will see you all over the web!
Eric

26 Films: World Gone Wild

2011-12-26T02:54:00.000-08:00

World Gone Wild is a 1988 post-apocalypse which is based on the model of the classic Western The Magnificent Seven. It's got a pretty simple plot, a village in the desert is being pillaged by a roving cult which takes the young men. The village needs to hire protectors and well you can pretty much guess the rest.

I saw this film in the theater when it was released and have owned my VHS copy for a number of years. It's not a great film, but it's watchable and entertaining in it's own way. Stars Bruce Dern and Michael Pare carry the film with enough grit to keep it real, and of course Catherine Mary Stewart is always a welcome addition to any 80s film. As far as I know this is not on DVD and it's likely to be (but it would be a great double disc with Neon City) any time soon.

So this is the last of the films I am covering for 2011. I am not planning to keep the same every other week film write up, but I will have some movie coverage in the coming year.

FFB Thieves World

2011-12-23T03:02:00.000-08:00

I am pretty sure that I first heard of Thieves's World from my cousin Dan, which is strange in that Editor Robert Asprin was my brother's Cub Scout troop leader. Anyway, Thieves's World was a series of 12 anthologies set in a shared world, written by a cadre of Sci Fi and Fantasy authors.

Set in the city of Sanctuary the stories are range in topics from the stories of city administrators to that of Shadowspawn the thief. The Shadowspawn stories were my favorites, and I did end up reading the spin off novel Shadowspawn by Andrew J Offutt. I think I read almost all 12 of the volumes and even stayed on after the original set of authors left the series.

Later on there was a Role Playing Game and a Graphic Novel incarnation of the series, along with a series of spin off books and an relaunch of the series in the early 2000s. I have fond memories of the books and their covers and have been tempted to revisit series in the last couple of years but have yet to pick up and crack one open. I have to wonder what a Crime Anthology called Thieves City might look like from todays new Noir and Crime Writers.

26 films: Off Beat

2011-12-12T02:52:00.000-08:00

The best dancing cop film ever… maybe the only one I know of as well. The plot is kinda on the wacky side. After messing up a undercover drug bust, Joe Gower (Judge Reinhold) is pressured by his buddy police officer Abe Washington into taking his place at the try out for a charity dance performance. Shocking I know but Joe gets caught up in the moment and manages to get selected for the dance… in part because he has fallen for Meg Tilly.

It’s a kinda strange film; on the one hand you have this comedic set up with the whole dance bit, which has some fun moments and elements. There is a waiting for Guffman tone to that part of the film. Also the classic getting tough guys to do something girly trope is deployed in those scenes. The other hand is a story of a man who has let life happen to him and finally is able to take charge of his life and step up and take control.

The two story elements don’t completely gel, and there is a fair amount of humor that is very dated. However the performances are solid, and both Reinhold and Tilly are likeable enough to leave me wondering why they didn’t have more leading roles and why have both seem to have vanished from film in the last couple of decades. I honestly didn’t have a lot of hope for this one when I started it, but found it to be a charming, fun little romp.

FFB License Renewed by John Gardner

2011-12-09T02:48:00.000-08:00

This was the first Bond book that I read. I only recall that we were on a family trip out east when I was reading it, but nothing about the book or the plot. It was a big deal that these new Bond books were coming out in the 80s and I read most of them long before I cracked any of the Fleming books. Looking back I am really not sure that there needed to be new Bond books in the 80s, and I am not sure that they need new ones now... at least not ones set in the current landscape. I might be on board with some retro adventures set in the 50s, 60s, and maybe even into the 70s.

I'm going to open this one up to the readers, thoughts, comments, anything that you recall about the Gardner Bond?

26 Soundtracks: Demon Knight

2011-12-02T02:40:00.000-08:00

Yet another 90s Hard Alt Rock soundtrack, Demon Knight is of note for the inclusion of Pantera and Filters best songs. Really not much else to say other than if you are looking for another document of the era this one is worth rescuing from the dollar bin.

1. "Cemetery Gates" - 5:47 (Pantera)

2. "Tonight We Murder" - 3:56 (Ministry)

3. "My Misery" - 4:28 (Machine Head)

4. "Diadems" - 4:17 (Megadeth)

5. "Instant Larry" - 4:06 (Melvins)

6. "Fall Guy" - 3:53 (Rollins Band)

7. "Beaten" - 3:10 (Biohazard)

8. "Polícia" - 1:46 (Sepultura)

9. "Hey Man, Nice Shot" - 5:20 (Filter)

10. "1-800 Suicide" - 4:17 (Gravediggaz)

Monthly Reads: Nov 2011

2011-12-01T01:35:00.000-08:00

The Topless Tulip Caper (1975) by Lawrence Block
This Chip Harrison novel was a fun romp with just enough drive to keep it going. A tank of fish have been killed along with a stripper and Chip and his boss have to figure out who done it.

Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music edited by Greg Prato.
This oral history of the Seattle Grunge Scene gives a good over view of the major moments and major events of the late 80s early 90s scene. I do wish that it had gone a little more into the also ran bands and some of the hidden gems, but if you are looking for a solid overview you can't do much better than this.

yep that's been pretty much it for the month. I started and put down a couple of others,... but hey I hope there will be more next week.

26 Films: Rolling Thunder

2011-11-28T02:31:00.000-08:00

from imdb:

Plot: Major Charles Rane comes back from the war and is given a number of gifts from his hometown because he is a war hero. Some greedy thugs decide that they want to steal a number of silver dollars from him. In the process they also manage to kill his wife and son and destroy his hand. The Major wants revenge so he enlists the help of his war buddy Johnny to meet the thugs in a final showdown

The 70s were of course the era of not only the revenge film but also post Vietnam film. Co- written by Paul Schrader, the film has a tie to Taxi Driver in that it deals with men who have been thought a change in not only of the culture around them, but with in. William Devane is not an actor that I have ever been a big fan of, although I dig his role in the Jesse Stone films, but he carries this film hitting just the right notes of knowing how to give Rane a public face and a private face. I don't have a whole lot to say about the film other than it is well worth checking out and re-watching.

FFB: ILL Wind By

2011-11-25T02:29:00.000-08:00

The two pillars of the post apocalypse fiction world are Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank and Earth Abides by George R Stewart and every other book in the genre owes some debt to one or the other. Alas, Babylon deals with the aftermath of a nuclear exchange, and Earth Abides deals with the aftermath of a plague which wipes out a chunk of humanity.

Illwinds falls mostly into the Earth Abides camp, telling the story of what happens when microbes intended to eat oil spills end up eating all petroleum based products on the planets. Airplanes fall from the sky, the combustion engine is useless and the infrastructure of the world just seems to fall apart.

I don’t recall much from the book aside from the plot other than I enjoyed it, as I enjoyed most of the books in the genre that I read at the time. There were a few that I read and didn’t really get or like. With some of these books that I recall liking and some that I recall fondly I wonder if they would hold up for me. I was a different kind of reader then, I was living a life that had different expectations and a different perspective on life. I have to admit that I have some fear of opening one of these books and finding that I have changed too much, or worse yet finding that I haven’t.

Anyway, Ill Winds was once worth reading for me, and if you are looking for something to follow up The Stand or Swan Song, it might just fit the bill.

FTM The Valentine Six

2011-11-24T02:26:00.000-08:00

I think that I heard these guys on a college radio show somewhere, and got my hands on a copy of a 7” of theirs soon after. I listened to the 7” once or twice and filed it away in my box of records. I had a vague thought that they had a dark, nourish jazzy feel, and the name of the band lodged in that dark rarely visited file cabinet in the back of my brain…. And then I really found noir, I started reading both the cannon and the new cannon of the genre along with starting to watch the films. Being a Rockfiends, I naturally went looking for Noir Music… and recalled The Valentine Six

Listening to them via their self titled CD I can hear a rocking Jazzy dusk cacophony of squealing that recalls Hoppers Night Hawks at the Diner, rundown motels. Vocally singer Parker Valentine (and I am thinking Lee Marvin big time just reading his name, and I expect that the FFB Noir crowd will know exactly why that tickled my fancy) emits a groaning croon that you might find on a micro stage at the back of a dingy roadhouse in a 40s crime pic. This is music for sitting in a rundown motel smoking that last cigarette, downing that last shot of rotgut while looking at your last dollar on the table.

The Valentine Six

1997

1. Ghost Face

2. Sonic

3. Motel girl

4. Thin Red Line

5. Blood Orange

6. Silencer

7. Tucson

8. Always is my Name

9. Bad Penny

10. Kill Street

11. Motel Lights

The album was released by PCP Entertainment (nope I never heard of them either) and never seemed to get much distribution… and like so many of the lost gems of the 90s is most likely going to be found circling the drain of you local used record shop’s discount bin. Needless to say, if you spot a copy, I recommend picking it up.

26 Soundtracks: The Crow

2011-11-17T02:19:00.000-08:00

Aside from Singles, no soundtrack in the early 90s showcased hard rock, metal and alternative music better than The Crow. Finding music to fill out the apocalyptic vision of the motor city in it’s post job creator downfall was a challenge that met by bringing in the harder edge of the burgeoning Alternative music scene.

Mixing cover tunes and originals the sounds present vary from heavy to sweet, primitive to refined. In many ways the soundtrack is a Rosetta stone of the music of the era, with Stone Temple Pilots (with the Big Empty being a hit track of time), and Rage Against the Machine adding their heavy anger and groove to the mix and of course you couldn’t have a dark soundtrack of the time without the Nine Inch Nails.

I had almost forgotten about Jane Siberry and her angelic anthem for the film that closes out the sound track, It Can’t Rain All The Time. It’s a haunting number that I am sure will send those of us who once lived with this soundtrack back to a moment, to a place where someone was saying that all this darkness will end sometime and some place.

1. "Burn" - The Cure (Robert Smith, Simon Gallup, Boris Williams, Perry Bamonte) – 6:39

2. "Golgotha Tenement Blues" - Machines of Loving Grace (Scott Benzel, Mike Fisher, Stuart Kupers, Brad Kemp) – 4:01

3. "Big Empty" - Stone Temple Pilots (Dean DeLeo, Scott Weiland) – 4:56

4. "Dead Souls" - Nine Inch Nails (Joy Division) – 4:54

5. "Darkness" - Rage Against the Machine (Rage Against the Machine) – 3:41

6. "Color Me Once" - Violent Femmes (Gordon Gano, Brian Ritchie) – 4:09

7. "Ghostrider" - Rollins Band (Suicide)(Martin Rev, Alan Vega) – 5:45

8. "Milktoast" (also known as "Milquetoast") - Helmet (Page Nye Hamilton) – 3:59

9. "The Badge" - Pantera (Poison Idea) – 3:54*

10. "Slip Slide Melting" - For Love Not Lisa (For Love Not Lisa) – 5:47

11. "After the Flesh" - My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (Buzz McCoy, Groovie Mann) – 2:59

12. "Snakedriver" - The Jesus and Mary Chain (William Reid, Jim Reid) – 3:41

13. "Time Baby III" - Medicine (Jim Goodall, Brad Laner, Jim Putnam, Ed Ruscha, Beth Thompson) – 3:52

14. "It Can't Rain All the Time" - Jane Siberry (Graeme Revell, Jane Siberry) – 5:34

Edited to try and fix the formatting issues... 11/17/2011
Also I urge readers to check out these TIG posts on Movie Soundtracks I Can't Live Without, Part I and The Sequel

26 Films: The Annihilators

2011-11-14T02:12:00.000-08:00

The 80s was the era of the big action flick… what people forget was that there were also the smaller action flicks. The Annihilators was one of those, a revenge film featuring a small squad of Nam vets who reunite after one of there own, Joey who saved all of their lives, is killed by the local gang. They fight back and get the residents of the neighborhood to stand up for themselves as well.

The films isn’t any great shakes, it’s pretty straight forward. It never gets boring, and moves along quickly enough. There are a few things to recommend the film. Solid acting from Christopher Stone and Gerrit Graham, and there is a nicely played and shown but not dwelled upon element of the plight of veterans of Vietnam. The action and the film making are just enough above average to recommend it.

FFB Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks

2011-11-11T02:03:00.000-08:00

Elves, Swords, a quest, magic, it’s all pretty standard Fantasy stuff, and that’s why I have largely forgotten The Wishsong of Shannara aside from the fact that once upon a time I read it and liked it. The Shannara series started out in the late 70s and the third book arrived almost a decade later, just in time for me to find it at the end of elementary school and the start of Jr High.

I am going to pause here from talking about the book and talk about my relationship with reading. I started kindergarten when I was 4 years old in the fall of 1977, and turned 5 about three weeks later, I had to be the youngest kid in my class until I became the oldest. When I was in the second grade my reading did not improve over the course of the year and my parents had me held back and repeat the second grade. I can recall clearly being annoyed and bored with the reading books we were given, Honeycomb and Cloverleaf. I also recall being attracted to the older schoolbooks from the 40s and 50s that some teachers kept in their rooms, and I recall visits to the school library and not finding many books that really related to my world there.

When I was in the 4^th grade I had one of those old school teachers who wasn’t going to fall in line with all the new fangled education theory and among other things she insisted that we read. She also read to us, Where the Red Fern Grows and Call it Courage were both read aloud in class… along with a couple of 50s text books, one called If I Were Going that ignited my imagination about seeing Norway, and that we do book reports. To this day I look back on the structure of her reports, synopsis, tell what you liked, tell what you didn’t like and tell the class if you recommend the book as THEE structure for any kind of review. I think that it is safe to credit her more than another teacher for getting me to read, and by the time I was in the sixth grade I was reading at an eight-grade level.

Somewhere in there I picked up the Shannara books the first two were already out, the second one The Elf Stones was the first book that I literally stayed up all night reading. It was the 4^th of July in the mid 80s…. when the Wishsong came out I was ready for it. The plot was about evil coming back into the world, and the Omsford clan once again is called upon to put a stop to it. Quests are started, Allies gathered and danger faced in route, but it all works out pretty well in the end… until the next series of course. I don’t recall any of those books either, even though I did end up reading the next 5 or 6 entries in the series. .. It’s true that I have forgotten the book and it’s plot and most of the characters and what I really liked about it…. But in this case maybe what is important is that I remember that it was important to me once upon a time.

26 Soundtracks: Return of the Living Dead Pt. 1

2011-11-03T05:23:00.003-07:00

The Return of the Living Dead Original Soundtrack

I can’t really say how many times I have written about this soundtrack. It changed my life, or maybe it’s more that I allowed it to change my life. It was the catalyst for something in my life, A move away from rock and roll and pop tunes that extolled love with all of it’s complex highs and lows had left me low. It was in a moment of transition when things hadn’t been working out for me that I found the album on cassette and took it home to open a new chapter in my life.

The album came out at the same time as a new chapter was occurring in the underground music world. The bands represented on the soundtrack; The Cramps, The Damned, The Tallboys, The Flesheater, T.S.O.L., The Jet Black Berries and 45 Grave were all going though their own changes, reflecting differing moments in the scenes they belonged to both on the macro scale and the micro scale. Over all, Punk Rock had made it to its second wave. The early days of art rock and weird kids making a noise had given way to the Hard Core, loud, fast and out of control sound of stripped down Rawk.

The Cramps and The Tall Boys (an off shoot of The Meteors) were moving from their Psychobilly beginnings towards a sound that we now think of as Garage Punk. 45 Grave and TSOL were moving from their Deathpunk phases into a sound that was more hair metal with 45 Grave going more and more Goth as time went on. The Damned were also on the Goth train with their Punk Rawk sound getting more and more pop and smooth. The Flesheaters were headed towards becoming The Divine Horsemen and The Jet Black Berries has moved from their Dark Psych New Math days to a cowpunk sound. Most of the bands were headed for their last days of their initial run as they entered their final phases. Interestingly, all of these changes reflected new influences and refined musical skills, and even some maturity and growth as songwriters.

The Film famously is about the adventures of a group of punk who encounter the living dead while hanging out in a graveyard. It’s not that far fetched to think that the soundtrack would feature punk bands, and it’s just lucky that Enigma records was able to provide the soundtrack. Rather than getting some limp major label form of punk some true greats of the horror punk landscape were included along with some of the outliers. It’s a special soundtrack to me, and one that I hope people keep on discovering and listening to.

Oct 2011 Reads

2011-11-01T07:08:00.001-07:00

Choke Hold by Christa Faust

We are not only seeing the return of Hard Case Crime, but of Chirsta Faust and Angel Dare. The former Porn Star turned on the run WITSEC participant…. It appears that she didn’t have Marshal Marshall and Mary protecting her, this time she ends up in the middle of nowhere when an old flame wanders back into her life. Things go from bad to worse and Angel finds that she can’t escape the curse that seems to be following her. Faust knows noir and how to keep things rolling along. It’s a tough rolling adventure, and I of course look forward to the next tour of the darkness that Faust illuminates.

Gangway by Donald Westlake and Brian Garfield

A 70s effort from the authors of The Hunter and Deathwish. Set in San Francisco of the 1890, this heist tale was fun, but not anything amazing. I enjoyed it enough to finish, but was never really engaged by it. If you have made your way though the Westlake cannon and need a fix of something you haven’t read before, check this out, other wise I wouldn’t made any big effort to seek it out.

Lawrence Block book of the Month: Getting Off

The first of the new Hard Case Crime releases, Blocks Getting Off is also their first Hard Cover…. And it’s a about a killer on the road and her adventures as she tries to some to terms with her past. I thought it was pretty good, if a little long,

Bad Cop by Paul Bacon

The true adventures of the author as he became a NYPD officer in the wake of 911. As a liberal he’s an outsider easy to read style and a nice insight to the works of the lower levels of policing. It was a very nice quick read that was engaging and I highly recommend it.

Stark House Press novel of the Month:

Body and Passion by Harry Whittington

A sharp tale of two men who get caught in a fire and only one survives… only he has no idea which man he is. One is a criminal and the other the DA, and you can guess who things play out from there --- maybe. Clocking in at a brisk 107 pages it’s a lean tale that nicely fills out the three stories in the book.

26 Films: Keys to Tulsa

2011-10-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

As I noted in my review of I Went Down [Link] the post Pulp Fiction video landscape was suddenly open to Indie crime films from around the world, it was also open to a number of US indie crime flicks sent in such far flung locals as: Denver, Boston, New Mexico, and in this case…. Tulsa. Telling the story of rich kids who had grown up to not find their way to make their own fortunes (shockingly we were talking about a group of Gen xers here), Keys to Tulsa finds our principals engaged in grasping for the cash that they have managed to get their hands on. There is blackmail, betrayal, and an underlying sense of failure and doom.

Eric Stoltz is given the chance to step up and carry a film, and along with James Spader doing his best Elvis manages to keep things rolling along. Some nice character moments from James Colburn and others make the film worth checking out. I liked the moment when Colburn tries to get Stoltz to get the hell out of dodge and send him the bills. This is a Noir so of course he’s not smart enough to take the hint.

Over all it’s not the best of the regional noirs of the era, but it’s not the worst either. If you haven’t seen Things to Do In Denver When Your Dead, check that out first, but after that… and Two Hands, I Went Down … I would recommend checking out Keys to Tulsa.

FFB: THE Spy by Clive Cussler & Justin Scott

2011-10-28T02:30:00.000-07:00

Back when I got out of college in the bad old days of 1996, my first job was a minimum wage security gig. I worked Midnight to Noon on Saturday and Sunday the guy who worked the opposite 12 hour shifts spent a lot of his time reading and Clive Cussler was one of the authors he was a fan of and I started making my way though the Cussler books. I had read Raise the Titanic in college, but hadn’t picked up any of the other Cussler books. After a couple of years my tastes changed and I stopped picking up the Cussler books and the increasing number of books that he was writing with others.

I checked out The Spy on Audio book on a whim, and didn’t get around to listening to it until I was on an long drive to the other side of the state. I found The Spy to be a fun, fast adventure story set in the early 1900s. PI Isaac Bell is hired to find the killer of a weapon designer for the Navy. His investigation takes him all over the country and into the obit of a few soon to be famous people and events. There is a secret weapon in the Dreadnaught race and industrial espionage ensues. It’s a solid story and it passed the hours of my driving and downtime during my vacation last spring. I don’t know that I am interested in sitting down and reading any more Cussler books, but I have already queued up the other adventures of Isaac Bell in Audio Book form.

Isaac Bell tales

1. The Chase (2007)

2. The Wrecker (2009)

3. The Spy (2010)

4. The Race (2011)

5. The Thief (2012)

Final Thursday Music: Jeeves And Wooster (theme melody) by Anne Dudley

2011-10-27T01:36:00.000-07:00

On the list of soundtracks that I have yet to find a copy of you can list the Frye and Laurie series Jeeves And Wooster based on the books of P.G. Woodhouse. The theme by Anne Dudley is a great homage to the music of the era of the series; with its Jazzy hints of both Lounge and Swing. It also holds up on it’s own, and leaves me wanting to hear what else she could come up with in the same vein.

Apparently there was a CD release of the soundtrack for the show, which not only included the theme, but also Hugh Laurie’s numbers from the show. IT went quickly out of print in the UK and never appears to have made it to US shores. You would think that in this day and age of iTunes that music featuring Hugh Laurie would at least be available for download, but last time I checked it was MIA. Over time there have been several TV series themes that have become classics on their own, and Anne Dudley has created one of the greats that is out there waiting to be rediscovered.

Friday Forgotten.... Liner Notes? Nuggets Box Set

2011-10-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

I think I have a bead on the kind of people that follow the FFBs, and one thing that I think many of you will find something to like in is the Nuggets set of 60s Garage Rock tunes and the accompanying liner notes. While the music on the set is some of the greatest Rock and Roll tunes ever recorded by bands like; The Electric Prunes, The Castaways, The Sonics, The Amboy Dukes and The Standells to name just a few, it’s the liner notes that I really want to focus on today. For those not in the know, Garage Rock in it’s 60s form was really about young bands inspired by 50s Rock, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Dylan, playing teen clubs, writing fast furious and sometimes primal pop songs.

Running just under 100 pages the booklet included with the box set a work of art by itself. It is to the point where the last two entries in the Nuggets series of sets by Rhino Records have been in book form with the attached. The liner notes in the first set include lots of photos and reproductions of the cover art from the singles that the tunes are drawn from. Nuggets started as and LP collecting many of the one hit wonder singles of the late 60s; it was released in 1972, and included in the booklet is the original essay written by compiler and music critic Lenny Kaye. A couple of other essays are included in the book, but the real story is the track-by-track reviews of the songs. The box covers 118 songs across 4 CDs, and each of them is given a history, context and information on labels, where the band was from, and chart date. On it’s own it is a history and puzzle that is worth checking out… and of course the music is first rate.

The Nuggets box set was enough of a hit that of course Rhino had to follow it up with others. Nuggets II focused on non-US bands, Children of Nuggets focused on the neo-garage movement of the 80s, and the last two Love is the Song We Sing (about the San Francisco scene) and Where the Action Is? (about the LA scene) have been region specific. In many ways the last two have been a bit of a let down, and I haven’t bothered to pick them up… however if a Seattle, Scandinavian or Detroit set appears you can bet that I will be in line to pick up a copy.

Rather than the standard call for thoughts, comments and the like, I think this time I am going to call for your Juke Box picks from the bands and songs on this set….

While I love so many of these songs, the one that today calls out to me is … Cold Outside by The Choir

26 Soundtracks: Fast Track To Nowhere OST

2011-10-20T05:19:00.000-07:00

Along with remaking the AIP films of the 50s and 60s, the Rebel Highway also included remakes of the music of the era. Roadracers featured Charlie Sexton’s cover of Race with the Devil and Girls in Prison featured the Jody Reynolds classic Endless Sleep as coved by Concrete Blonde and the music fits well with the films. As stand alone tracks they are a mixed bag, like any covers album. There are some standouts, Concrete Blonde has long been a favorite of mine, and I have developed a fondness for the Meat Puppets and their House of Blue Lights. I think over all it’s a solid album, that if you find it isn’t going to cost all that much and if you like these songs or bands you should enjoy.

Going back to my comments about the rebel highway series needing a reissue on DVD (wide screen if possible) or on Bluray, If I was going to do a boxset I think that I would add copy of the soundtrack, and if not a special feature on the music, at least a directory of all the songs used in the films.

C'mon Everybody by Iggy Pop

The House Of Blue Lights by Meat Puppets

Lights Out by Los Lobos

Endless Sleep by Concrete Blonde

Let The Good Times Roll by Neville Brothers

I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday by Sheryl Crow

Gene Vincent’s Race With The Devil by Charlie Sexton

I'm Walkin' by Blues Traveler

Evil by The Wild Colonials

Stroll by The Smithereens

The Girl Can't Help It by Babes In Toyland

26 Films: Roadracers

2011-10-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

A throw back to 50s JD pictures should open with a car chase intercut with a rockabilly band. Robert Rodriguez knows this and that exactly how he opens his entry in the Rebel Highway series, Roadracers. The series, a revival of the American International Pictures of the 50s and 60s, ran for ten-feature length made for Cable TV films. Roadracers is about Dude Delany, a small town outsider who dreams of leaving to become a rockabilly star. He’s on the outs with the town sheriff.

The film includes an early performance by John Hawkes from Winters Bone and Deadwood, along with a solid turn with by William Saddler. The perfect music selection included Link Wray and Hasil Adkins, and Gene Vincent. It’s not some long lost treasure, it’s simply a solid entertaining film that catches a young cast and crew making a B film and having some fun.

Re-watching it has gotten me geeked to revisit the rest of the series. and thanks to the magic of the Internet I have 5 of them on the way on DVD. I do have to wonder why we don’t have a box set of these from the Shout Factory or someone like that.

The complete series includes:

▪ Girls in Prison - Directed by John McNaughton and starring Anne Heche and Ione Skye.

▪ Dragstrip Girl - Directed by Mary Lambert and starring Mark Dacascos and Natasha Gregson Wagner.

▪ Shake, Rattle and Rock! - Directed by Allan Arkush and starring Renée Zellweger and Howie Mandel.

▪ Runaway Daughters - Directed by Joe Dante and starring Julie Bowen and Paul Rudd.

▪ Roadracers - Directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring David Arquette and Salma Hayek.

▪ Reform School Girl - Directed by Jonathan Kaplan and starring Aimee Graham and Matt LeBlanc.

▪ Motorcycle Gang - Directed by John Milius and starring Gerald McRaney and Jake Busey.

▪ Jailbreakers - Directed by William Friedkin and starring Antonio Sabato Jr. and Shannen Doherty.

▪ Cool and the Crazy - Directed by Ralph Bakshi and starring Jared Leto and Alicia Silverstone.

Confessions of a Sorority Girl - Directed by Uli Edel and starring Jamie Luner and Alyssa Milano.

Check out my thoughts on the soundtrack later this week.

26 Soundtracks: Dudes

2011-10-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

The soundtrack to Dudes, more than any other album (save one, and I am going to get to that one soon) has informed my musical taste. With it’s mix of Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Punk, Alt Country, and Alternative music it not only fits the film, it’s like a sample of not only what Rock and mainstream music and underground music was going to become in the 1990s, it’s a snapshot of Rock N Roll in transition.

Not only were the pieces of the decade to come in rock in motion and evolving when the film was made in 1987, but so were many of the bands. You have first and foremost Janes Addiction and Megadeth two band who would go to become major acts in the early 90s. Here Janes gives what I have always thought was their best song, the energetic and frenetic Mountain Song, and Megadeth provides a revved up cover of the classic These Boots are Made for Walking.

The rest of the album runs the gambit of the genres that I have already listed. Looking back I can see that this album was in many ways a Rosetta stone for the soundtrack of my life. It lead me to the vast majority of what I listen to today. Megadeath and WASP lead me to metal and hard rock. The Vandals and the Little Kings to punk, and Legal Weapon to Alt Country. Now I know that there is more than a little nostalgia in my love of the soundtrack, but I think one of the reasons that I keep coming back to the film, the album and several of the songs is that I just hope people will discover them.

FFB: 'Til Death by Ed McBain

2011-10-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

Bordering on cozy territory ‘Til Death, one of the three 1959 entries in the 87th Precinct series, ‘Til Death is a solid read, but feels like an entry which is drifting away from the police procedural genre pioneered in books like; Cop Hater, The Mugger and The Pusher. This is not to say that I didn’t like McBain’s tale of Det. Steve Carella looking into a threat to his sisters fiancé on their wedding day.

Setting two sets of plot in motion, the protection of the groom and the investigation of the prime suspect, McBain gives a quick, driving novel with just enough of the 87th Precinct style to keep me reading. What I am left wondering is if at the point the book was written if McBain had yet to realize the opportunity he had in front of him. I don’t know that he realized three years into the series that he had the chance to show the evolution of police and their culture over the decades. I do realize that he book is still early in the series and that marketplace pressures might have played a role in the softening of the series.

I plan to keep on reading the series, and up next is King’s Ransom, a notable entry in the 87th Precinct series as it is the bases for Kurosawa’s High and Low (which received a Bluray release from Criterion recently).

Thoughts, Comments, Feedback?

26 Films: Dudes

2011-10-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

I have written about Dudes, the 1987 Punk Western, before many times and am not sure why I keep coming back to it. The plot is a combination of the road film, the fish out of water film and the revenge film. Its stars are solid b film actors, Jon Cryer, Daniel Roebuck, Catharine Mary Stewart and Lee Ving, who all do an admirable job with the material. The script is also solid, with moments of better than average dialog. Direction by Penelope Spheres keeps the film and the action moving forward along with the music (which I am going to talk about on Thursday). I also want to point out the great cinematography, which showcases the landscape of the west as good and often times better than other films of the period.

So what is it that keeps me coming back to the film? Part of it is the nostalgia, the fact that it was a film that I ‘discovered’ and embraced when I was an impressionable teen. The fact that while the most current reviews of it I have seen are positive, that it has yet to reach the cult level of Rock and Roll High School or Suburbia by fans of punksploition. Maybe it’s that I am baffled at it being ignored wholesale (along with The Running Kind) but the growing legions of Alt Country fans who are likely to see something of their youth in the film.

I don’t have the answers to these questions yet, and I might never have them. What I can say is that it’s a film that means a lot to me, even if I don’t watch it often. I can say that if it ever gets a proper DVD or Bluray release I will have it pre-ordered the first day that I can.

Dudes writer Randall Jahnson has a nice website where he talks about Dudes Here

26 Films: Dudes

2011-10-03T01:03:00.000-07:00

I am delaying the Dudes VHS and Soundtrack posts until next week, you can read my early write up of the film HERE

Sept Reads

2011-10-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

The Astounding, The Amazing and the Unknown by Paul Malmont

Malmont returns to the world of The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, this time around Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asmomiv, Sprague De Camp and L Ron Hubbard are looking for lost technology to help defeat the axis in 1943. I took my time reading this one and enjoyed it immensely. It’s geeky fun with a lot of little cameos and even an appearance by Walter Gibson and Lester Dent.

Killer Wedge by Ed Mc Bain

See review Here

33 1/3: Johnny Cash – American Recordings by Tony Tost

Another ultra readable 33 1/3 volume, this time exploring the myth of the Man in Black. Using the first of the American Recordings albums, Tost looks at the end of the life and time of Cash, looking both back and forward, examining not only Cash and his life, but the other song writers who came into his orbit. It’s a little long, but sent me back to the album which is the ultimate goal of these books.. one critism, for this entry and the others I have read, there really should be the track listing for the album at the start of the book and the play list of all the mentioned songs in each book at the end.

Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B Hughes

First Published in 1946, made into the film of the same name (which I have yet to see) If Hard Case Crime is looking for a classic Noir by a woman to reprint, maybe this should be there first. Set in the southwest, Sailor is looking for the Senator who owes him money for a job done. Told from Sailor’s POV the book unfolds the story of what happened back in Chicago, and who Sailor is at his core. It left me thinking of Nightfall by David Goodis for some reason.

'Til Death by Ed McBain
An 87th Precinct Mystery. Another solid entry in the series, I am not going to say much more as I am holding off to use this as a FFB sometime down the road.

So I didn’t get to a Lawrence Block book or a Stark House book this month for a lot of reasons, but that’s ok, I am finding that around September I am needing a break from my plan, and I think that next year I am going to build that into the plan. I hope to be back on track next month, but we will see.

FFB: Killer on the Road by James Ellroy

2011-09-30T01:29:00.000-07:00

Ellroy is hardly forgotten, and might be the best and most important crime writer of the last 30 years, but his take the on the serial killer novel, Killer on the Road, seems to have largely fallen to the wayside…. Which is too bad, because not only is it one of the few times that Ellroy was willing to play the game and try and five the publishing world what it wanted, but it was also one of the first that really contained autobiographic elements.

Killer on the Road was my first Ellroy book, I discovered it on the shelves of Curious Books in East Lansing Michigan when I was a student, and it would have been either 1994 or 1995. I have the exact date that I finished my first reading some where at hand…. Ok, looking it up.. I see that I finished reading it on 26 April 1995.

That same year I read; Ripper by Michael Slade (Finished 13 Feb), Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block (Finished 4 April), Tricks by Ed McBain (Finished 14 April) and followed Killer on the Road with a after the bomb book not worth noting and then Miami Blues by Charles Willieford (Finished 7 May). My next Ellroy was Because the Night which I finished on 12 June.

The plot follows a wayward youth who is left on his own after the death/abandonment by his parents (stop me if this starts to sound familiar…) and after getting started with small time prowling and petty larceny, ends up following his impulses to killing and heading out on the road… hence the title. There is also a cop who the main character get’s caught up with, mind warping exposure to comics and more than a bit of potential homo erotic undercurrents…. In other words what we have come to expect from Ellroy.

Honestly I haven’t reread this one, and am a little afraid to crack it open again after all these years. That same copy is shelved in my Ellroy collection. While I tend to point people towards the master pieces, The Big Nowhere and LA Confidential as a starting point in the Ellroy collection, Killer on the Road is of interest in show casing a young writer still trying to find his place in the publishing world and giving what even by then was a tired genre his own spin.

Other Ellroy books read in 1995 not noted above?

Hollywood Nocturnes

White Jazz

(I didn’t get to The Big Nowhere and LA Confidential until early in 1996)

A selection of Crime Books I am not embarrassed to have finished reading in 1995?

Hells only Half Full by Rob Kantner

Wilderness by Robert B Parker

Let Us Prey by Bill Branon

The Michigan Murders by Edward Keys

Bandits by Elmore Leonard

B.O.L.O. by Dave Pedneam

Farwell, My Lovely by Chandler

Trace: Too Old a Cat by Warren Murphy

TFM: Marillion Brave

2011-09-29T06:32:00.000-07:00

I’ve been a sucker for concept albums for a long time; the idea of a rock opera, something that tells a story via a cycle of songs has appeals to the storyteller in me.

Arriving in 1994 Brave, by the UK band Marillion tells the story of a woman found wandering on a bridge in Bath with no memory of who she was or any details of her past.

It’s a quite reflective album for the most part, dripping in imagery. The lyrics don’t explicitly flesh out the story, but rather provide a mood and feeling of the experience. It’s the kind of album that needs to be listened to and revisited several times.

On the Web: marillion.com,
Wiki: Marillion
: Brave

Tender Mercies by Priscilla Peterson

2011-09-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

While continuing to clean out my mother’s estate I came across this review and felt like I should share it with everyone. My mother grew up in a household where films were of the devil and as a student in the 1950s during lunch on raining days she wasn’t allowed to watch the Shirley Temple short with the rest of the children, nor was she allowed to have the Ice Cream Cup treats that her peers were because photos of film stars were some how involved. She often told my siblings and I that the first film she saw in the theater was The Sound of Music when she was 21. She like a lot of parents was concerned about what we saw on TV and at the movies and often times would not let us watch the same films and TV shows our peers were, but often she let us see films that our peers were not seeing, because they were too mature or parents didn’t think that their kids would like them.

Tender Mercies was on of those films that we were not only allowed to see, but were taken to by our mother because she felt it was important somehow. I recall going to the State Theater in Ann Arbor, and I am sure that it did effect me, but I honestly can’t say what I thought of it at the time.

Having seen it again a little over 4 years ago I did more fully understand the film and found it still had something to say for current audiences. It still resonated with me strongly enough that when I saw the recent Crazy Heart I recognized that film as being tied to Tender Mercies in more than Robert Duvall’s performance… anyway, without further ado my mothers 1987 review of Tender Mercies…

From Cross References the newsletter for University Reformed Church in Ann Arbor Michigan

Originally published in the August 1987

Tender Mercies

A deceptively simple story, Tender Mercies with its stark plot and poetic dialogue has the ability to grab onto your heart. Don and out country singer Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) fetches up in Rosa Lee (Tess Harper) and her son’s corner of Texas. Rosa Lee, a Vietnam era widow who runs a gas station/ motel in what seems like nowhere. She and Mac Marry, while he reconstructs his life as a singer and rehabilitated alcoholic.

Meanwhile, in nearby Austin, Mac’s ex-wife, Dixie (Betty Buckley of Cats) is singing Mac’s songs and pursuing a successful career. Their teenage daughter languished backstage while mama “belt’s ‘em out.” Dixie is as haunting in her empty lyrics as Mac is in his heartfelt, newfound truths.

The theme, “It Hurts to Face Reality” is a poignant as sung by Duvall. Although there is plan, Mac, Rosa Lee and Sonny never flinch – sometimes you wish they would. Their day to day existence is carried out against sparse furnishings: neat, clean survival living. Unified by their respect for one another and their faith in god the look life in the eye, relentlessly.

The understated dialogue sketches in a richer world than meets the viewer’s eyes. The statement, “I don’t Know,” is a response which is followed by an action to discover the truth or accept the unknowable. When Sonny, Rosa Lee's son, asks how and hen his Daddy died, the three visit the cemetery. Many issues are dealt with directly without the tedium of analysis, accusation or blame.

Robert Duvall is so believable in this role that it seems autobiographical/ He becomes the taciturn Texan, who’s half-smiles and gestures tell the rest of the story. His singing is as pleasant and easy as the songs, some of which he wrote himself.

It would be a mistake to underrate Rosa Lee as the little housewife. She can more than convey more in a glance than any word could. Her singing takes place in the country church choir and she shines where she is.

Sonny has the sagacity of a child touched by tragedy. He also possesses the privilege of the childe of a single parent -- intruding when he senses Rosa Lee and Mac are getting close and addressing them as peers. His joy and chatter enlivens’ their lives.

The photography is another dramatic element. Many statements are mad in the silence. The spaces almost become characters in themselves. This is the Texas most non-Texans will never know – simple, earthy, spacious.

God is not given lip service in this film. When Dixie’s cries out in anguish to Mac, “Why did God do this to me?” he ahs no answer, only compassion in his eyes. There is forgiveness and love, with thankfulness and joys as subtle undercurrents, as Rosa Lee says to Mac, “When I say my prayers at night and thank God for his blessings and tender mercies, you and sonny head the list. This movie touched my children and me deeply after my husband’s dearth. I think we all agree: it hours and heads) to face reality.

This is a movie which could open up dialogue among families. We shy away from talking about pain and death until it is upon us. This is not he pattern God has given us. We have as Christian people a long history of wrestling with God on the hard ground. Tender Mercies helps us see it again --- PBP

26 Films: Scenes from the Goldmine

2011-09-19T01:42:00.000-07:00

Scenes from the Goldmine

The music industry is a heartbreaker, so is the movie industry. Scenes from the Goldmine is the story of Debbie DeAngelo, an singer who is looking for a band. Niles Dresden and the Pieces are looking for a keyboard player and she lands the job, bringing not only her playing to the band but her voice and her songs.

To be honest this film is a bit of a mess and while there is an effective scene here and there, it seems to be a patchwork of moments… but those moments. Starting with a lovely panning shot of Catharine Mary Stewart’s amazing legs and ending with her singing, Goldmine is a collection of moments strung together.

Stewart is one of those 80s actresses who, despite having rolls in some big films – Weekend at Bernie’s and The Last Star Fighter – and having a great girl next door quality never got the kinds of roles that were going to make her an A lister…. Which is too bad, because she is so likable a presence on screen. She’s beautiful, but never projects a hint of crassness. She sings her own vocals in the film and is solid belting out mid 80s commercial hard rock, that while never reaching the skill and power of Joan Jett, is as good as any number of half forgotten vocalists of the era.

The rest of the cast have their moments, Steve Railsback as the bands manager wears a series of jackets hat have to seen to be believed, and Jewel Sheppard looks great as always, but never seems to have a real purpose in the film. In her autobiography she wrote about her part being cut a lot because of issues behind the scenes. Cameron Dye, playing singer Niles Dresden the heel of the film is very good, and also provided vocals for his part. He’s effective and if the film had been better marketed and promoted he might have had an nice music career.

I should also mention that the songs are quite good. Nothing earth shattering, but as good as anything used in other music industry tales of the decade…. Ok maybe there isn’t an Over on the Darkside or an I Can Dream About You, but Play to Win and a few of the others are catchy enough to have had a life outside of the film.

It looks like the whole film is on youtube for anyone that wants to check it out...

FFB: KILLER’S WEDGE (1959) by Ed McBain

2011-09-16T01:18:00.000-07:00

The Killer's Wedge is McBain riffing on the locked room mystery in several ways.... and commenting on them in a way that we would call Meta these days. The two plot lines involve a dead man in a locked room who looks to have killed himself and a group of 87th Precinct Bulls trapped in a squad room while a woman waits to kill Det. Steve Carella with a .38 Special and a jar of Soup (nitro). The action takes place over the course of 1 day, mostly the afternoon, and it tense and driving.

Carella wrestles with the suicide squeal, the rest of the squad wrestle with how to escape the trap they have been placed in. It's a fast, punchy read that shows what a limited story in a small setting can be and still keep the larger story of the 87th Precinct moving along. McBain knew how to keep the pages turning and his readers waiting for the next installment. As with earlier installments in the series the book a product of the market of the time, 160 pages of sparse proses telling two simple stories and at the same time fleshing out the world of the 87th Precinct... well worth checking out, and I hear tell that Amazon is going to start reprinting the series in the near future for anyone that wants to check it out.

another look at the book can be found HERE. Patti Abbott advises that this weeks links are going to be collected by Brian Lindenmuth at SPINETINGLER

26 Soundtracks: Escape from LA

2011-09-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

Released in 1996, Escape from LA along with films like the Crow and Demon Knight (both of which have soundtracks that I am going to cover in the next couple of months) had notable hardrock / Alternative Rock soundtracks. Most of the songs were just sort of there, the only one of these that I think really has stayed with me is the White Zombie track The One…. Oh and the Clutch song, Escape From The Prison Planet, is one of their best.

I think it’s interesting to note the amount of music that was on the pop industrial side, Stabbing Westward, White Zombie, Tool and Gravity Kills all were mixing rock, pop and industrial sounds. Ministry of course is one of the pillars that Industrial was built on. For those who don’t know, industrial is a form of hard rock that includes sounds made by machines. Sometimes it’s revving motors, or gridding gears, or even the sound of clanking metal. The lyrics often deal with dark themes.

Anyway, Escape from LA is a relic of an era and honestly I am not sure why I still own my copy. I think that for now I am going to hold on to it, and maybe even give it a couple of new spins.

1. "Dawn" – Stabbing Westward

2. "Sweat" – Tool

3. "The One" – White Zombie

4. "Cut Me Out" – Toadies

5. "Pottery" – Butthole Surfers

6. "10 Seconds Down" – Sugar Ray

7. "Blame (L.A) Remix" - Gravity Kills

8. "Professional Widow" – Tori Amos

9. "Paisley" – Ministry

10. "Fire In The Hole" – Orange 9mm

11. "Escape From The Prison Planet" – Clutch

12. "Et Tu Brute?" – CIV

13. "Foot On The Gas" – Sexpod

14. "Can't Even Breathe" - Deftones

26 Films: The Running Kind

2011-09-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

The Runnin' Kind is one of those great little b films from the 80s that has largely been forgotten. The plot is about a kid from a nice upper class family in Ohio meets the drummer of the band The Screamin' Sirens and kinda falls for her. Instead of staying home and taking the career ladder internship set up by his family he takes off for LA to follow the band. It's a sweet story about a kid who has been controlled all his life by family breaking out and doing something for himself. He opens his mind enough to see that these punks aren't just a bunch of thugs and that there is more to life than just going to work and doing what you are told.

The fashions are pure Cowpunk, mixing Western wear, lingerie, and Punk and Glam clothes of the mid to late 80s, which I kinda like. The music is fairly Cowpunk mixing those sounds in a way that I like... and that I like enough that I own both released albums by the real Screamin' Sirens.

I have a lot of affection for this film, in many way's it reflects parts of my life. I grew up in a proper christian household where there were a lot of expectations about how my life would play out. I ended up falling off that track for various reasons, and one of the places I ended up was in the punk rock world. I wasn't lucky enough to have a cadre of Cowpunk chicks chasing me, but hey you can't have everything.... but I digress, The Runnin' Kind is one of those films that needs to be rediscovered, sure it's on the slight side, but it never bored me and I think that a lot of people will find a lot to like in it. Of course it's not on DVD, but if I had all the money in the world, it would end up on a 2 in 1 DVD with our next enter Scenes from the Goldmine. I also really want to know what Yum Yum from House of Self-Indulgence Blog would think of this film.

Friday Forgotten Book: Big Rock Beat by Greg Kihn

2011-09-02T01:56:00.000-07:00

Following The Horror Show Kihn pick up the story a decade later. This time around director Landis Woodley and his crew is headed to the beach to film a Beach Party Rock and Roll flick, and of course things go wrong. Just as Sci Fi/ Horror films were the cheap fast buck film genre of the 50s, for at least a portion of the 60s a beach flick was going to make money... and what would a good beach flick be without a Rock and Roll band. Take a look at Tom Hank's That Thing You Do! (well worth revisiting) for a bit of insight into that scene.... anyway, It's been so long since I have read the book that I have largely forgotten what all happened. I have fond memories of it and I liked it enough to read the next installment in the series.
check out Greg Kihn on the web HERE

as always more FFBs can be found via Patti Abbotts blog here

Monthly Reads: Aug 2011

2011-09-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

Lawrence Block book of the Month: To Murder and to Create

The second of the Matt Scudder books finds Scudder trying to figure out which of three blackmail victims bumped off his acquaintance who was running the blackmail. Told with Block’s usual deftness, the story unfolds and we see how Scudder handles the secrets of those with power and money who might wish to keep them hidden. This is also one of the shorter books in the series, and I am not sure if that is just Block still feeling out the character or if it was a reflection of the market for mysteries at the time. Either way another solid entry in the series and worth a read.

Stark House Press novel of the Month: Danger in Paradise by A.S. Fleischman

Originally a Gold Medal paperback from 1953, Danger in Paradise is pretty much a rip roaring island adventure. Oil Geologist Jeff Cape is just looking to get back to the states when he falls into intrigue with guerillas, reds, gunrunners and a rich American woman who likes to walk around topless. Needless to say there is nothing outstanding about the plot, it’s all in the telling, which is first rate. Clocking in at just under 150 pages Danger is a solid read that’s part of another time and place. I look forward to reading the second reprint in the volume, Malay Woman.

The Cold Kiss by John Rector

A Solid Neo-Noir debut from Rector, Cold Kiss is the story of a couple of kids looking to escape their past and start anew when a suitcase of money falls into their hands. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…. Anyway, things go wrong and moral and practical choices must be made. I find that for first time writers the small story pallet of a limited set of characters and possible interactions is best, and the Cold Kiss is mostly a fine example of starting small. My only criticism is that the last two chapters could have been skipped and the Cold Kiss would have been a Hard Case Crime worth tale. Either way if you like Noir this is worth a look.

33 1/3: Slayer - Reign in Blood by D. X.Ferris

The untold story of the death of Hair Metal is not only the rise of Grunge, but the rise of Thrash. Reign In Blood tells the story of Slayer and their ascension at thee great thrash band of the 80s and 90s. Never the big sellers that Metallica or Megadeth were, Slayer has defined a sound and a genre that doesn’t get the respect that it deserves. Ferris tells the story of the band, the record and it’s legacy in a mostly flowing manor that is readable and if not totally engaging then at least interesting.

Deep Focus: They Live by Jonathan Lethem

The first of the Deep Focus series, They Live unpacks John Carpenters Regan-era analysis of unchecked greed and baby boomer egotism run amok. It’s a fast insightful book that inspired me to finally pick up a copy of the DVD to add to my small, but growing Carpenter collection. I did find myself skimming some of the more academic portions of the book, but over all I liked it and look forward to seeing what the forthcoming volumes of the Deep Focus series are going to have to offer.

26 soundtracks: Still Crazy

2011-08-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

I like the soundtrack for Still Crazy (reviewed HERE) enough that I sill own it and several of the songs have stayed with me. I could go on and on with a breakdown of the soundtrack, I could talk about what I like and what falls flat. Instead I want to focus on two things, the stand out track The Flame Still Burns and the nature of songs written for soundtracks.

The Flame Still Burns is thee song from the film. It’s the great song that the band wrote back in their heyday as a tribute to their fallen original member. It’s a great dramatic prop that is one of thee tensions between band members. It’s an epic song with a drama that rises above the din of 70s hard rock that the film evokes. Not only is it a song that can be read as a tribute t the fallen band mate, but also to the spirit of rock and the magic that happens when a performer really allows the music to open them up and expose the raw power of sound to scream to the heavens and to connect with the audience.

I have to ask if anyone is playing that song and any of the others today. It’s a shame when great and even good bands have superior songs that are unheard these days for whatever reason. In the case of soundtrack songs, and epically ones that are part of a film and part of a band that is created just for the film, they are often even more forgotten than those of defunct bands. The nature of songs written for a soundtrack is that they are created for a film, and often there is very little investment in those songs by their creators. Often times a band is asked to write a song to go along with a film, they get a payday and have a short period of time to get it written and recorded.

Sometimes those constraints can bring gems to the surface. It can allow bands to have the distance from the material to create something that is raw and not over thought. I can name a dozen great songs that were written for and only appear on soundtracks that have the magic that songs by the same artists that were created for their albums or live sets. In the case of Still Crazy you have not only The Flame Still Burns, but also Dirty Town and All Over the World, which are little gems that are crying out to be rediscovered and played live.

26 Films: Still Crazy

2011-08-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

Sad but true, for every successful band soldiering on years later there is a history of groups that had their moment and then faded away. The early 70s hard rock outfits were especially hard hit as they often didn’t have the kind of sales to keep money in the bank and to keep a large group of stalwart fans coming out to the shows. Still Crazy follows the story of one such forgotten group, Strange Fruit, as they get the band back together and try for a do over for their last gig at a rock festival 20 years past.

Plot wise this is getting to be well tread material as we enter the era of the Grunge revival, where we are starting to see the bands of the 90s reform and take to the road to play mainly their old material. Still Crazy succeeds as a film in the way that it handles this material. While it is about the band, the film wisely focuses on the failed relationships that caused the break up… mostly focusing on the tensions between the bassist Les (Jimmy Nail) who has never forgiven their singer, Ray (Bill Nighy) for taking over when original front man Keith died of an OD. For his part Ray has been battling his own demons and his place in the band. Add to this mix Keyboardist, Tony Costello (Stephen Rea), MIA guitarist Brian (Bruce Robinson), Keith’s brother and the band’s support crew, Roadie Hughie (Billy Connolly), along with Karen (Juliet Aubrey) who was once their laundry girl and now is their road manager and our cast is set…. Except for the need for a new guitarist. The band quickly recruits Luke Shand (Hans Matheson) to fill in for the missing Brian, before hitting the road for a round of live gigs in Europe.

You can mostly guess where things go from there, it’s not Spinal Tap, but it’s maybe one of the more realistic depictions of a band on the road. What carries it in addition to a first rate soundtrack (which I will be reviewing this Thursday) are the performances. Mostly notably Bill Nighy, as the vulnerable Ray, who has one of those lives where he might seem assured and in command while on stage, but out in the world isn’t as comfortable as one would expect the frontman of a rock band to be.

Tony and Karan have a nice relationship, played perfectly without a lot of shouting and drama and misunderstandings. I really liked their chemistry and am left wondering what happened to Juliet Aubrey, as I don’t think I have seen her in anything recently.. I’ll have to look her up.

Re-watching the film I was stuck by how much I still enjoyed it and that the film still get’s me at the end. As you might expect many things are set right, but I dig the fact that it’s really the music on stage that causes old wounds to be healed and old tensions to be released. The film is on DVD (and it is available from Netflix), but is badly in need of re-mastering for sound and for picture, and a few extras would be nice as well. I don’t know that it’s a Criterion level film, but if someone would do that kind of restoration to it I would be more than happy to pick up a new copy.

FFB: Balefire by Kenneth W. Goddard

2011-08-19T00:50:00.001-07:00

Sometime around High School I was given a copy of Balefire as a gift. It was one the few books that I had encountered at that point that dealt with the issue of terrorism which I had an interest in. Living in a very politically aware university town the threats of all out nuclear war and terrorism were often discussed, debated and lectured about. As a teen I had watched as there had been high profile hijackings and I knew about the Delta Force and the Iranian Hostage crisis. I was interested to read about terrorism, and stories that proposed to deal with terror on US soil were of interest to me. Blaefire fit that mould perfectly.

From the authors website…

(http://www.kengoddardbooks.com/descriptions.htm)

When a real, honest-to-god professional terrorist named Thanatos shows up along the shoreline of Huntington Beach, California, intent on destroying the scenic beach city as a demonstration against the 1984 Olympic games, the local cops have no idea what's happening, and therefore don't stand much of a chance. Which puts them in a terrible situation when they're forced to chose between defending their city, their families ... and themselves.

I honestly don’t recall much about the book besides having enjoyed it’s mix of police and action enough to seek out more books by Goddard. While the ’84 games area going on 40 years past the threat of domestic terror and the response of Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement to such events have changed greatly in the last decade. We now have a department of Homeland Security (which I am sorry with all due respect is an awful name for the agency) who are tasked with responding to terror around the country.

As I noted I did seek out and read ore of the books by Goddard, who moved on to a pair of books, The Alchemist that dealt with designer drugs and Digger which I recall as a serial killer novel. I stopped picking up his books at some point, most likely because I stopped seeing them around. Looking at his website I see that he moved on to writing about Wild Life Law Enforcement. In thinking back I think that I would like to revisit Balefire, just to see how the world of Law Enforcement and terror mix circa 1984, and I might even check out one of the Wildlife Law Enforcement themed books…

Goddard can be found on line HERE

26 soundtracks: Ed's Next Move

2011-08-11T01:43:00.000-07:00

I am not going to even argue that the 90s were the only time that quirky was embraced in music, but I feel like the early and mid 90s were a time where quirky worked much more than in the 20 or so years preceding the time. I say this because Ed’s Next Move is filled with two types of music, Jazzy score and quirky pop songs.

I honestly don’t have a lot to say about the score cues and music other than they work well in the film and work well on their own. Too many times with out the visuals that score music is written to and for it falls flat and fails to connect. The score music for Ed’s Next Move is one of those cases where the score music can stand on it’s own and I can see that it might be ideal for around the house, playing in the car or the backyard cookout.

The real reason that I own the soundtrack is the songs that are mostly part of the film. I noted in my review of the film that Callie Thorne plays a musician and there are a couple of scenes of her with the band, Ed’s Redeeming Qualities. ERQ had been around since the late 80s and built a small following and were covered by The Breeders on their big hit album Last Splash. The film and the soundtrack make use of a couple of their strange off kilter story songs and includes the additional vocals of Callie Throne on the song More Bad Things… it’s fun music and while too many of those 90s quirky bands (King Missile anyone?) seem to have lost any kind of luster, the ERQ tunes still find their way onto my iPod regularly.

The last tune of note for me on the album is the Comedians hyper literate history nerd pop opus, Tea & Sympathy. Charting the last great era of the British Empire the song is a world history lesson in 4 minutes. It’s impressive in that not only is the narrative kept, but also the pop structure of the song remains intact and never takes a backseat to the lyrics. It’s driven in a mode that never get’s too cutesy or preachy. I haven’t looked to see if there is anything by The Comedians, but now I am curious and will have to take a look.

Obviously this is one of my personal favorite soundtracks and I wish that like the film it had gotten more attention. It’s worth checking out for Tea & Sympathy and the ERQ tracks…. And I like the think it’s the kind of album that some outsider teen might trip over in a discount bin somewhere take it home and love it.

Film Review HERE

26 films: Ed's Next Move

2011-08-08T01:15:00.000-07:00

Ed’s Next Move is one those rare rom-coms where the man in the couple is not a complete moron. In fact Ed is a scientist who after getting dumped by his girlfriend back in Wisconsin, moves to New York to take a new job. As with Love and Other Catastrophes Ed’s Next Move the story of a Gen X guy who is looking for a new life in the city, a place to live and of course a woman. All this is pretty standard territory so it’s how it’s played that matters, and Ed’s Next Move plays it better than most.

The film not only get’s the Com side of things right with several laughs, mostly of the situational variety, but it get’s the Rom side of the form right with a light touch. The film presents us with two people who are genuine and real, who stumble though their first couple of meetings and when Ed asks her out she doesn’t say no exactly, just indicates that she thought he was nice, and he back pedals and shuts down his request and hangs up… only she keeps popping up, and finally Ed stumbles onto her band, a quirky indie group called Ed’s Redeeming Qualities (who I am thinking came before the film), they are one of those bands who could only exists in the 90s (ok maybe in the 60s also, but mostly the 90s).

I need to pause here and talk about the music in the film. The films score is mostly a fun up beat jazz, and are a nice change from the more common string arraignments. The real story here is the songs, which we will get to later this week as I am covering the soundtrack for the Thursday post (there are a couple of film/soundtrack parings that I am going to be covering in the near future)… but sufficient to say that I liked the soundtrack enough that I own it. Callie Thorne, who plays the female half of the duo, acquits herself well as Lee, a musician even taking lead on a song or two.

I should also add that, the VHS tape starts off very wisely with a ad for the soundtrack --- more videos/DVDs should take the time to advertise the soundtrack, or the books the film is based on or what ever that is tied to the film and not just the other flicks that the company is currently releasing.

Which leads me to talk about Callie Throne who was the reason that I saw this film in the first place. I have to admit that I was smitten when she arrived on the series Homicide: Life on the Street as former Seattle Detective Ballard. She’s likely best known these days for her roles on The Wire and Rescue Me where she plays an middle age woman who’s life is in flux. Here she is younger, more naive, un jaded, fresh and adorable beyond belief. She’s a charming presence and her performance here is enough to make me wish that she had gotten more opportunities to play these kinds of roles. I also like that just as Ed is socially awkward, she has her moments of less than complete composure.

Speaking of Ed, he’s played affably by Matt Ross (best known for Big Love), and he also has a presence that makes me wish that he’d been able to play more leading men in light comedies. I wonder what the entertainment world would be like if he had become the kind of leading man that Matt Damon or Brad Pitt have? He carries the mid-west kid in the city with just the right touch. He’s not a complete rube, but has several moments where he’s obviously a stranger in his new world.

There is a lot of things I could write about the film, but I would just like to point out the comedy bits about relationships that Woody Allen might have included in his early funny roles. There are couple of little asides which are fun in a first season of Six Feet Under way. The film also contains the realist date from hell I have ever seen. It’s not that it is a complete failure because of contrivances, but due to a few little, and very funny moments. I am sure that someone somewhere had once of the reasons happen to them.

It had not dawned on me that there are a couple elements the film shares with Love and Other Catastrophes. The montage of roommate hunting and the overly verbal women who spend their time at parties going on about some out there theory appear in both films. There is also a spirit and sense of youthful energy and creativity that carries the few thiner points in the film.

As with so many of the films from the 90s that I have covered this is very much a time capsule of at time and a place and a way a generation lived and loved…. but really I just want to encourage people to take the time and seek this great flick out, only it’s not on DVD.

Check back Thur for a full review of the soundtrack

Friday Forgotten Book: Such Men are Dangerous by Lawrence Block

2011-08-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

Such Men are Dangerous is either a heist novel that takes half it’s page count to get to the heist, or it’s a study in what individuals who have been cut off from society and culture. The book starts off with Paul Kavanagh, who has spent the last decade fighting in south East Asia, discovering that the Agency has determined that he is not the type they can trust to work for them. Dejected he heads south and ends up living in alone and cut off on an island he has developed a list of rules to live by and seems to be settling into his new life…. …. Only someone shows up on his island and manages to recruit him to help steal a load of weapons from the US Government.

Using a tone and a style that shows the journey of Paul Kavanagh though the book Block explores the crime as the choice of a man who has none of the typical reasons for committing his crime. There is no need for money, for vengeance, he’s not angry; he’s not looking for more…. In fact the only thing he really wants is to be left alone. There is an Existential element of the book, like the Hitman series (of which I have only read the first), that really in many ways is a deconstruction of the crime genre, getting to the core of what drives the professional heister.

Such Men Are Dangerous is the 7^th Lawrence Block book that I have read this year as part of my one Block Book a month for 2011. This one was a very solid entry into his backlist and is worth checking out.

More FFB's can be found here

Books July 2011

2011-08-01T01:07:00.000-07:00

13 French Street by Gil Brewer.

Alex surprise visits his old army buddy Vern and wife Petra and things go bad, bad, bad. Really this book is riff on the old The Postman Always Rings Twice plot, and while I did finish it…. I struggled with it. It was ok, just ok, I didn’t find any of the zing and prose that other Brewer books (The Vengeful Virgin comes to mind) that I have read.

What of Terry Conniston? by Brian Garfield

Full review can be found here

… and kudos to Cullen Gallagher for bringing Garfield to my attention.

Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski

Fast paced, fun, Action Film romp of a book… the first in a trilogy and I am looking forward to the next two. In this first installment Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop is house-sitting for a living when things go very very wrong.

Stark House Press novel of the Month: Iron Man W.R. Burnett

Following the rise and fall of Coke Mason a middle weight boxer on the rise. This was the second reprint in this collection, and while I enjoyed it I liked the other book better. There are a lot of great boxing scenes, and some excellent character drama moments, but over all it was just ok, and the prose while straight forward and tough didn’t really zing.

Lawrence Block book of the Month: Such Men are Dangerous

I really liked this tale of a former GI and Merc who finds himself figuring out what he’s going to do next with his life. At first he seems to be headed for the life of a hermit, until he’s approached to help hijack a load of military weapons. Part introspective and existential, part heist novel ala the Parker novels, it’s a fast read that is both entertaining and thought provoking…. Good stuff.

26 soundtracks: Tjenare Kungen

2011-07-28T01:18:00.000-07:00

Loosely translated as ‘God Save the King ‘Tjenare Kungen[1] is one of those films that I got to see at a film festival, but hasn’t made it to home video in the states. It’s the story of young punks in Gothenberg Sweden in the early 80s who form a band and … this is about the soundtrack, which features not only the music of the fictional band, but also the kind of music that young punks would have been listening to at the time in Sweden. First off you get the UK and American New Wave and NYC punks groups like; Blondie, The Prentenders, Alphaville, The Vapors and Roxy Music. These tracks work well in the context of the film and is a reminder to the viewer that we don’t all start out listening to the underground classics of the time. We all really have to start somewhere and with some more commercial bands and songs.

The Swedish bands include thee Swedish punk band Ebba Grön with the killer 800 Grader. The rest of the Swedish tracks are ok, but really haven’t stuck with me as songs that I listen to. The tracks credited the band which the film follows, Tjenare Kungen, were written for the film and keep to the spirit of the time and the music in the film. I espically like 1x2x3x4 by the title band, it has a kick and a power to it, which still being infectious and poppy enough.

Of course both the soundtrack and the film have yet to have any kind of release in the States. The only reason that I even have a copy is that I have visited Sweden since seeing the film and was able to pick up at copy of the soundtrack then… which is all too bad, because I have a feeling that the film and the album would find a small but loyal following if it got even a hint of a release in the States. I recommend both the soundtrack and the film if you run across copies.

Track list:

1. Solglasögon by Docent Död

2. 1x2x3x4 by Tjenare Kungen

3. Man ska vara som ett vilddjur i år by Kai Martin & Stick

4. More Than This by Roxy Music

5. Turning Japanese by The Vapors

6. Berlin Berlin by Happy Gigolos

7. Perfect Skin by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions

8. Bara för mycket by Tjenare Kungen

9. 800 grader by Ebba Grön

10. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes by Ultravox

11. Middle Of The Road by The Pretenders

12. Livin' Thing by Elo

13. Diamanter (är en flickas bästa vän)by Lustans Lakejer

14. Samarin Atentát by Tjenare Kungen

15. Hanging On The Telephone by Blondie

16. The Freaks by Cortex

17. Dunkar Varmt by Tant Strul

18. Forever Young by Alphaville

[1] MY Swedish tells me that the direct translation is really ‘hello to the king’

26 films: Love and Other Catastrophes

2011-07-25T01:20:00.000-07:00

Love and Other Catastrophes

1997

79 Minutes

Australia

“Love is always Dangerous”

Set in and around Melbourne University, Love and Other Catastrophes tells the story of a small group of students as they try to figure out their lives. Michael (Matt Day) is looking for a new place to live and for a girl. Mia (Frances O'Connor, who also stared with Day in Kiss or Kill) is trying to switch departments to follow a professor, all the while breaking up with her girl friend (Radha Mitchell). Ari is a the campus stud, when we first meet him he is have sex for money with a woman who’s face we never see, later he is reading James Ellroy’s America Tabloid. Alice, Mia’s roommate, is trying to finish her thesis on Doris Day Feminist Class Warrior and looking for love. She only has three requirements for the boy she is looking for he must; Be left handed, like the same films she likes, and be honest… what do you think is going to happen.

It’s not the what’s going to happen that matters, it’s what co-writer and Director Emma-Kate Croghan does with the set it that matters. It’s fast, fun, free and a classic example of doing the best with what you have. There are several great shots, some very fun moments and a lot of illusions to other films, styles and moments. No attempt is made to hide the homage’s and in some moments outright lifting from others work. For me that’s part of the fun, part of the mixing of Croghan seeming to say this is where I am coming from. It’s a great début, and Croghan followed it up with a film called Strange Planet, which really did nothing for me.

The other element that makes the film rise above the 90s indie fray is the cast. Given a lot of self important, I’m so smart, cool or whatever dialog they sell it in a way that never made it to precious to me. It’s O’Connor who gives the best of these, playing drama, comedy and portraying Mia as not only a narcissist, but as a manipulator while at the same time caring about her friends and girlfriend…. Despite what she might say. Matt Day is one of my favorite presences on screen, most of the time, and here he is likable and fun, he gets several of the best comedic moments and plays them well. Alice Garner as Alice and Matthew Dyktynski as Ari are fun and fresh, and I wish that they were in more films that got some play in the states.

Overall I do have to admit that there is an element of enjoyment of the film as it captures a moment in time for my generation, that being the college years of the mid 1990s. Like Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming and the Ben Affleck flick Glory Daze, Love and Other Catastrophes reflects a world, a time and a mindset that I recall with some fondness. I have the film on VHS, along with a Australian DVD (which I can’t play due to the fact that I don’t have a region free player), but I still want some sort of US release for the film on DVD. I would love to see a Criterion release of the film, I think it would sit nicely along side Kicking and Screaming in the collection, but unless it was to end up in an eclipse set of some sort, I don’t think that’s going to happen. At this point the best we can hope for is that it pops up streaming somewhere, or if someone was to put it out on the cheap… it’s too bad because it’s a favorite of mine and it’s well worth checking out.

FFB: The 100 Best Movies that you’ve NEVER seen by Richard Crouse

2011-07-22T04:51:00.000-07:00

In these days of the Internet guidebooks for films, books, and music might are often obsolete. Most of the basic info on almost anything you are looking for can be found on line somewhere, along with plenty of opinions about what every you are looking for. … that said the place for the ‘guide’ book these days is in either documenting a scene (see Swedishsensatinsfilms ), films that are off the radar, and then there is the guide for films that have been overlooked and that’s what we have here, a book that gives you 100 films that you may never have heard anything about.

Covering a lot of ground from the early horror of Island of Lost Souls (1933, and slated for a Criterion Collection release this October) to Here Comes Mr. Jordan to The Krays (1990) Crouse covers a lot of ground and provides enough varied material to make this a nice selection of film in general. Two films that I really love and recommend, CQ and The Dish are included along with many that I had never heard of. I have to admit that there are a number of films in the book that I have yet to check out, but in an age of Leonard Maltin’s best film’s you’ve never seen and 101 of the best action films you must see before you die, Crouse seems to have been ahead of the pack. This is also a perfect gift (which is how I got my copy) for the budding film fan in your life.

more forgotten books HERE

26 soundtracks: Border Radio

2011-07-14T02:11:00.000-07:00

Border Radio the first feature film from Alison Anders (Food, Gas and Lodging) the plot (from Wiki)

… in which two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid rob money from a club and one flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind.

The film starts LA punk stalwarts Chris D. (of The Flesh Eaters and The Divine Horsemen) and John Doe (of X and now has a very nice solo career going)

Along with an appearance by Dave Alvin (of the Blasters and who also has a Solo career)… so it’s should be no surprise that the music used in the film is largely drawn from the participants. I have to admit that I was already a big fan of several of the bands, and a couple of the songs used in the film. The music is largely in that Cowpunk, dusty, C&W mode. The title track is a Balsters song as covered by Tony Kinman of The Dils and pioneering Cowpunkers Rank’n’File. The Green on Red track, Sixteen Ways, is one of those overlooked LA punk classics and I am a sucker for the Divine Horsemen, who are the third of my holy trinity of LA/ Southwest Cowpunk bands (Rank’n’File and Blood on the Saddle are the other two). The rest of the tracks didn’t really stand out to me, but fit the mood and film and sit well with the rest of the tracks. I am not sure if the record is in print, but the film has been issued on DVD by Criterion and is nicely packaged. I hope that if they are going to up grade it to Bluray (which I don’t think is really going to make it look any better) that they add a download of the soundtrack to the package. If you can find a copy of the LP and you like that rootsy, cowpunk, alt country sound I would say pick it up.

The Tonys – Border Radio

Dave Alvin – La Frontera I

The Lazy Cowgirl,– Drugs

Dave Alvin – Burning Guitar

Dave Alvin – Mi Vida Loca

Dave Alvin & John Doe – Little Honey

Divine Horsemen – Mother's Worry

Green On Red – Sixteen Ways

Dave Alvin – La Frontera II

Chris D. – Lilly White Hands

Dave Alvin – Driving To Mexico

Dave Alvin – Mi Vida Loca

26 Films: Bandits

2011-07-11T00:07:00.000-07:00

“They Always Wanted to be Famous… They never knew they would be wanted!”

1997 110 Minutes German

As I have noted one of the great things about the VHS world of the 90s was that it was open of foreign films much more so than in the 80s. I don’t know if it was that most of the Hollywood back catalog of note had been mined, or that the indie boom (which was really in a lot of ways like the director driven films of the 70s) opened peoples eyes and wallets to films from other places… but luckily a lot of films made their way into our VCRs.

Bandits, from Germany was one of those films. The plot is about a band formed in prison that finally gels and when sent out to play a gig at the policeman’s ball manages to escape. After seeing a news report about escaped male prisoners and up set about nothing being said about their escape they call up Blitz TV (a German MTV like channel… I’d watch it) and perform for a camera crew on top of a parking structure and give an interview before fading into the city. This of course brings them to the attention of not only the police who have been looking for them, but the public at large and they find an audience for their alt rock sounds.

The band is made of up of strong women, most of whom are in prison for standing up to, conning, or fighting back against abusive men in their lives. They each have their own creative side and their own issues, which leads to a dynamic of conflict, but also of creative inspiration. They are not easy people to like and the film never asks the viewers to forgive them for their crimes, or makes them out to be victims of those they committed their acts against.

Once out of prison and on the run they make plans to escape the country, but have to wait for their boat to leave, and during that time they have a series of adventures which also give them an excuse to play music live, and have musical numbers similar to what was found in classic musicals of the 40s and 50s. It’s worth noting that like Altman’s Nashville the actresses created a large number of the songs they sing and perform in the film.

I recall liking the film a lot when I saw it back in the 90s and have looked for it on DVD since. Re-watching it now I didn’t love it as much, but I suspect that was due to my own distractions while trying to watch it. I think it’s a solid film and one that I wish more people had latched onto and discovered. It’s a film that really should sit along side Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Ladies and Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains (and the Running Kind, but we are going to get to that) in showcasing that women can and always have been able to rock, and portraying flawed strong women making their way in a hostile world.

Here is another look at the film over at Prison Movies and one from Beyond Hollywood.

FFB: What of Terry Conniston? by Brian Garfield

2011-07-08T01:36:00.000-07:00

This is another Echo FFB, which was originally covered by Cullen Gallagher over at his blog this past May (http://www.pulpserenade.com/2011/05/what-of-terry-conniston-by-brian.html).

What of Terry Conniston? is a masterfully told story of a kidnapping, a ransom and the disintegration of parallel ad hoc families. Told in a non-linear format, the book is fast and furiously paced with tough smart driving prose. We start with a pair of men surveying the spot where the kidnappee was held; they mention finding two bodies and wonder what has happened to the rest of the gang and what happened to our Kidnappee.

As plots go the Kidnapping thriller is one of the more common, and what makes this book stand out is how Garfield tells the story and what he adds to the mix with the group dynamics of the two afore mentioned ‘Families’. I don’t want to go into too much detail, only because I do highly recommend this book, and I think it would make a great Hard Case Crime or Stark House Reprint. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the recent UK film The Disappearance of Alice Creed, which shares some elements with the book, but is not an adaptation as far as I can tell.

Thanks to Cullen Gallagher for the heads up on not only this book, but Brian Garfield, whose work I had not heard of, but will check out further in the future.

More Friday Forgotten Books can be Found over at Patti Abbotts Blog Here… and also check out my review of Megan Abbotts new book from yesterday HERE.

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

2011-07-07T01:53:00.000-07:00

Like Megan Abbott I grew up in Southeast Michigan during the 70s and 80s, we lived in the wake of the Oakland County Child Murders, and the disappearance of Adam Walsh. There were very bad things happening to young people, stranger danger, the crack wars, and then there were people who were doing bad things to kids at school, in day care and of course in Church. In The End of Everything, Abbott explores the all too common threat to young Generation X teenage girls of the early 80s, the sexual predator.

The novel follows Lizzie, a 13-year-old girl about to enter high school. She plays soccer and is learning field hockey, she spend her time with her best friend Evie and her older sister. Evie disappears after school one day after refusing a ride with Lizzy and her mom. In the hours following it becomes clear that Lizzy isn’t anywhere to be found, and in come the police. As things move on Lizzie finds that she holds clues and some answers about what has happened and why, and just maybe she is going to start putting together some answers to what is going on in her neighborhood.

Abbott drives the story forward in a whispered running pace. It’s like she is tell you a gossipy secret in the lunchroom. She accesses the confusion, uncertainty, and the emerging truths of becoming an adult, in a way that is honest and very real. Set right at the end of the school year as the spring is making way for summer, the book also manages to bring in a humid sticky feel that isn’t sexual, but more dream like and buzzing with a realization that just hasn’t been put together. While the time and place of the story is never spelled out I have a strong feeling that it is the

This is another winner from Abbott, who is blazing her own path through the world of crime fiction. She consistently seems to write what she wants; never pandering to what the market seems to be selling. I don’t expect for her to give us another series detective, or some sort of tough anti-hero vigilante character. Simply I think she stands along side; Victor Gischler, Duane Swierczynski, Jason Starr and Christa Faust as thee cutting edge voice of crime fiction today….. which is to say that I do highly recommend The End of Everything, it’s a book that I know I am going to revisit.

Books June 2011

2011-07-01T01:41:00.000-07:00

Lawrence Block book of the Month: The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling

This is a paperback that I have owned for years and until now have never gotten around to reading. I think that I picked it up in the late 80s or early 90s when I read my first Block books. This time around Bernie is running a bookshop, trying to make it the legit way... only there is always another score. Bernie been hired to pick up a rare book, only there are bodies and Bernie finds himself in the middle of it all again. At this point I read these books because Bernie is fun to read about, and I enjoyed this book... and am sure I'll enjoy the next one when I get around to it.

Stark House Press novel of the Month: One for Hell by Jada M. Davis

Willa Ree is a bad man, and when he hits a booming oil town in the backwaters of Texas he thinks he’s hit the jackpot. Co-oppted by the town leaders to work on the police force to take over the action and line everyone wallet, Willa runs wild and takes what he wants, using his badge when needed. This was a solid noir from the early 50s and one has to wonder what Davis would have produced if he written a few more.

Ian Dury : the definitive biography by Will Birch

The title pretty much says it all… aside from the fact that this was very solid biography that moved along well and at the same time gave insight to Ian Dury. There was no soft-pedaling of his shortcomings and issues, at the same time the uplifting parts of his life story are explored. Very good, and recommended.

Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliot Chaze

One of the Holy Grails of Gold Medal paperback fiction, the story is about a ex con and the woman he meets and their descent into the blackness of greed. I really don’t want to say anything more because I really don’t want to give the story away, but I will say that there is a heist. I will say that it works on many levels and echo’s many of the great themes of Noir, but spins them in a direction that is more David Goodis than Richard Stark. I just finished it and I am still taking it in, but I can add only that it really deserves to be back in print (Hard Case Crime or Stark House Press would be thee candidates for a reissue). While looking for info on it I did note that a film version has been in development for almost half a decade, well shall see if it makes it way to the screen and if that also triggers a reissue.

26 Soundtracks: CQ

2011-06-30T01:29:00.000-07:00

The one and only film that has so far been directed byRoman Coppola CQ, is a fun cool film that is positioned on the edge of 1970, and neatly looks at the end of the euro pop genre films of the 60s and the more personal films that would come out of the 70s. For the sound track Coppola picked the french band Mellow to provide much of, but not all of the cool fun bright pop songs that populate the film. There is something joyous and shimmering about the tracks, and even the music cues are fun to listen to outside of the context of the film.

It's a great soundtrack and I highly recommend it as well as the film.

1. Seek You
2. Codename Dragonfly
3. Take Me Higher
4. Love On The Moon
5. Ce Soir Je Valis Boire - Claude Francois
6. 321...Zero
7. Song For The Loved One
8. In The Cave - Antonello Paliotti
9. I Love You
10. A Vision
11. Airplane
12. Rivolizione Sessantanove
13. Le Responsable - Jacques Dutronc
14. Absolutely Free
15. CQ Theme
16. Chain Reaction
17. Multithing
18. CQ Car Chase
19. Tous En Scene - Paul Piot
20. The Lost One
21. Dragonfly M36
22. Dragonfly Car Chase
23. Who Is Dragonfly?
24. The End
25. CQ Song

26 Films: Don's Party

2011-06-27T01:37:00.000-07:00

Don's Party (wiki, imdb) from 1976 is one of those films that it tripped over a VHS copy of in a donation bin somewhere. To be honest I didn't get all that much out of this film. It follows the guests at a part for the assumed winner of the 1969 Australian federal election. As the night wears on truths come out, people get drunk and there is some fighting and sex.

I am sure that at the time it was shocking or at least edgy at the time when the play was written and the film was made. However like so many of the edgy sex comedies and dramas of the 70s it's dated when you think about films that have dealt with sex in the last decade and a half.

One thing that I did really like was the sets, they were loud mod looking and had a fun vibe to them. I also dug the use of pop music on the soundtrack which featured great pop and rock tunes.

Over all it I don't know that I will be revisiting this film, at the very least if I do it will have to be a much cleaner copy of the film.

FFB: Double Trouble by Sheldon Jaffery

2011-06-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

The full title:

Double Trouble: A Bibliographic Chronicle of ACE Mystery Doubles

Starmont Reference Guide #12

A forgotten book about forgotten books, something about that idea appeals to me. The full title says pretty much of all of what you need to know, this slim volume, published in 1992, is a reference guide for the ACE Mystery Doubles published between 1952 and 1963. Covering the D through F series the book provides not only the publishing dates and biblogaphic information for each volume, but information about authors, the books and even occationaly reviews of books that were written at the time of publication.

This isn’t the kind of book that has to be read cover to cover, but is easy to page though, and look up specific authors. It looks to be well researched and Jaffery obviously has an affection for these books, but never pretends they were more that entertinment for the most part. As this is Starmont Reference Guide #12 I have to wonder what the first 11 cover and if there were more after this one? The copy that I read I obtained via Inter Library Loan, which has been very kind to me when it comes to Friday Forgotten books that I have wanted to check out. A while back I was able to ILL Shoot, and currently have; What of Terry Conniston? by Brian Garfield, Black wings has my angel by Elliott Chaze, and 13 French Street by Gil Brewer from other libraries...All if which I have discovered though FFB and other blog posts from others.

Speaking of which, you can find more FFB's here

26 Soundtracks: In Search of....

2011-06-16T01:11:00.000-07:00

In Search Of... was a weird, low budget TV show that was produced in the late 70s and early 80s. One of the things that made it creepy and even scary was the music, with it's odd edgy electronic sounds. Several years ago I ran across a copy of the soundtrack on LP and snatched up a copy. Over all it's a nice LP featuring mostly the kind of music that I recalled from the show.... only the main theme has been turned into a disco-tastic funky jam, that while fun and cheesy, is no replacement for the original.

Listening to the LP again, I am stuck at the strangeness and haunting feel of the tracks. I wonder what some of these would feel like remixed or covered by bands like Nine Inch Nails or Black Moth Super Rainbow. It's worth picking up if you find it for less than a couple of bucks, other wise I would pass on it.

26 Films: Kiss Or Kill

2011-06-13T01:23:00.000-07:00

Kiss Or Kill

1997

97 Minutes

Somewhere in hell and gone Austriala damaged young grifters Matt Day and Francis O’Conner are working their trade when something goes wrong and they end up with a dead mark. Along with the mark they also end up with a video tape that would be very damaging to a sports celiberty. Now all this is a pretty standeard Noir set up, young people with fucked up lived doing fucked up stuff headed for a fucked up end….. only in case, after a life full of bad descissions, a good one is made, get the hell out of dodge. Thus we have the start of a nice little nourish road film that at once has elements of the Not Quite Hollywood era of austrialian cinema with the great Road Games as a major touchstone, but also the DNA of such well reguarded more current Aussie crime films like Animal Kingdom (and if you saw that and liked it, I recommend that you seek out the amazing Noise).

I saw this film for the first time when it was relased in the states n DVD, I think it was a favorable review from Siskel and Ebert that lead me to the film, but I recalled enjoying it, and likeing at least the not what you expected story. I also really really like the leads, Matt Day has long been one of those actors who I am not sure why he didn’t become a big star in the states. He has a nice presence and great rockabilly hair. If you don’t know his name, I assure you that you have seen his work, as he had a small but pivitoal roll in Muriel’s Wedding.

Francis O’Conner is best known for her work in Mansfield Park in 1999. I think she is super cute and has a presence that is joyful and has a depth. I espically like that while both her charcter and Day’s charcter are damaged, it’s only her trauma that we really get to see and experience… mostly because she is the films narriator and focus. She also gets the silent moments of reflection and doubt in the film.

The rest fo the cast is filled with no one who I recognized, but I want to give a special mention to the pair of cops that are hot on the trail of the progatinists. They have a weird fun chemistery, and there is a moment centering around the eating of Bacon that is right up there with the Sam Jackson and John Trovolta moment in Pulp Fiction. Along the way there is a cast of charcters, a tracker, and the afore mentioned sports celiberty (who gives just a slight Buffllo ’66 feel to the film).

I have to say that I really liked the film a lot, I liked rediscovering it and I liked seeing it in the context of where it stands in the history of Austrialan film. Matt Day and Francis O’Conner will return in a future installment of this series covering one of my favorite over looked 90s gems…. A film where O’Conner plays the grilfrind of Radda Mitchel… but we will get to that soon enough. Sufficide to say that I think that this film got it’s US release because of the same interest in odd ball crime films that allowed I Went Down a release, as far as I can tell there isn’t a US domestic DVD or Bluray release, but it’s still worth seeking out.

FFB: The Broken Gun by Louis L’amour (1966)

2011-06-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

The recent passing of James Arness has me thinking about westerns, and for whatever reason I could feel a Louis L’amour book tugging at the back of my brain. I only recalled a few things about the book. It was set in the 1950s, the protagonist was a western writer, who is lured to a ranch and ends up hip deep in a mystery, the nature of which I don’t recall..

I turned to Google and came up dry with my searches for about an hour. Finally I was able to triangulate enough information and discover that the book I was thinking of was…. The Broken Gun!

From Amazon:

Ninety years ago the Toomey brothers, along with twenty-five other men and four thousand head of cattle, vanished en route to Arizona. When writer and historian Dan Sheridan is invited to the missing brothers’ ranch by its current owner, he jumps at the chance. The visit fits right in with his plan to solve the century-old mystery—but it turns out that his host isn’t a fan of books, writers, or people who don’t mind their own business.

Soon Dan is living the dangers of the Old West firsthand—tracked through the savage wilderness by vicious killers straight out of the most violent pages of his stories. However, his enemies have made one serious mistake: Sheridan is no pencil-pushing greenhorn, and killing him won’t be as easy as they think.

Now to be honest, here is what I recall from the book… a daring escape from a canyon by our 1950s hero. Yep, that’s it, an escape. That’s not to say that it’s not worth checking out, but to say that like the airwaves of the 50s and 60s there was so much western story telling that much if it seems to bleed together. L’amour of course became the dominate voice in the genre for those decades, just as Gun Smoke and Arness did for the TV Western. I don’t think I have my copy of this book any longer, I am sure that I purchased it at a local used shop…. which I have left unnamed in hopes that it will pass from this earth as it should ….. and devoured it during a time when no one else that I knew was reading westerns. However, as I still could recall the book, even in a small way, it must have meant something to hangout in the back of my brain.

more Friday Forgotten Books can be found HERE