March 2011 Monthly reads

Books March 2011

Vampire A Go-Go by Victor Gischler

Gischler takes the reader on a fun romp through Prague with a Vampire looking for; well I don’t want to spoil it. Allen Cabbot is sent off with a professor to assist in researching a bogus article on Kafka. He quickly get’s swept up in the search for some secret hidden somewhere in the city. On the journey joined by witches, shape shifters and battle priests trying to unravel the mystery of what everyone seems to be looking for. There are some great comic moments, and Gischler is a master at reminding the reader of the importance of Coffee to the modern action hero. Fun and recommended, I am looking forward to cracking open my copy of The Deputy.

Stark House Press novel of the Month: Like Mink Like Murder by Harry Whittington

A fast tough noir that is part David Goodis part Richard Stark. Sam Baynard has been out of the stir for close to a year. He’s got a square job and a good girl, only she and her family don’t know about his past. He’s trying to leave that past behind, only someone won’t let him be. First it’s the girl, and then her master, and after telling his girl Lois and her father about his past everything is set in motion. Throw a cop who can’t believe that he’s gone straight, a black mail and you have a nice short, direct tough piece of noir. There is nothing groundbreaking about the story, but it’s told with a strength and knowledge that is atypical. I especially liked the way in which Sam was able to see the world in terms between the saints and sinners, and the deep pain he feels at having been thrown out of the paradise of squaresville. Stark House has another volume of Whittington’s work slated for release, and I will be picking up a copy. Like Mink, Like Murder is highly recommend, it’s a great entry point into the work of Harry Whittington

Lawrence Block book of the Month:

Sins of the Father

The first Matthew Scudder book.

Scudder is hired to find the back-story on the murder of a semi-MIA daughter who is found apparently slashed to death in her apartment by the man she’s been living with. It’s a great start to the Scudder series, as the darkness of humanity that Scudder faces time and time again is present, along with the Hypocrisy of humanity.

26 Soundtracks: Streets of Fire

Any film that’s billed as A Rock & Roll Fable better have a killer soundtrack, and Streets of Fire surprisingly manages to live up to that charge. The film is a slice of 80s neon soaked retro rock and tough guy patter. The plot follows Tom Cody, a vet who is back on the street, and looking for his Ex a Singer named Ellen Aim who has just been kidnapped by a gang and Tom and a group of hangers on have to rescue her. All of this looks cool, and has a certain charm, but it really ends up with the music being the star. Not only the star, but a bigger hit than the film with the best known track Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You" reaching Billboard’s top 10 in 1984. I recall having heard it often on the local Top 40 station when I was growing up. It’s a slick pop tune that is just catchy enough, just glossy enough and just smooth enough to be one of the greatest one hit wonder pop songs of the 80s.

The strongest and most overblown tunes on the soundtrack came from writer Jim Steinman, best know for his work with Meatloaf in the 70s. "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" and "Nowhere Fast," both by Fire Inc. have an urgency and power that can not be denied. They are grand and striking, and they keep a beat and energy that most songs this long can’t outside of musical theater. They have anthem written all over them, it’s almost too bad that they seem to be forgotten at this point. I would like to think that every 9th grade dance in the world would end with Tonight is What it Means to be Young.

The Blasters, a great 80s retro rockabilly band, not only provide two tracks for the album, but also appeared live playing One Bad Stud in the film. I don’t have their tracks listed under the album on my iTunes because they are included on their complete recordings, which I also own. Needless to say they are essential to any collection of 80s LA bands that should have been bigger. I also find there is a element of reality in their inclusion in Streets of Fire, as if their music and presence is saying that there is a reality beyond the faux 50s of the film that can’t be hidden.

The soundtrack for Streets of Fire is one of the best of the 80s, and it’s well worth picking up a copy. It is about time that someone out there got smart and offered an affordable Bluray/ DVD/ Download/ Copy of the Soundtrack all in one package.

Track listing

Fire Inc. - "Nowhere Fast"

Marilyn Martin - "Sorcerer"

The Fixx - "Deeper and Deeper"

Greg Phillinganes - "Countdown to Love"

The Blasters - "One Bad Stud"

Fire Inc. - "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young"

Maria McKee - "Never Be You"

Dan Hartman - "I Can Dream About You"

Ry Cooder - "Hold That Snake"

The Blasters - Blue Shadows

Next: Wristcutters The Original Soundtrack coming 7 April 2011

FFB: Mazes and Monsters & The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III

Mazes and Monsters (1981) by Rona Jaffe

The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III (1984) by William Dear

The Dark Tunnel, the steam tunnels below the university play a role in the book. The tunnels that he was writing about are the ones that run under the University of Michigan. I have been in those tunnels, as a new hire at U of M DPS back in the late 90s I had an afternoon orientation to the steam tunnels. I can tell you first hand that they are dirty, dark and really not fun to crawl though. Steam Tunnels run under the grounds of a lot of Universities in this country and I am sure that most of them have a legend about a kid playing Dungeon’s and Dragons in them, going crazy and dying. It’s the stuff of urban legends, and there is a real history to the legend.

Most of us know of the legend because of the 1981 book Mazes and Monsters by Rona Jaffe, and the Made for TV Film staring a young Tom Hanks, which arrived a year later.

The book was based largely on the new paper reports of a missing student at Michigan State University in 1979. Raffe reportedly wrote the book very quickly to prevent someone else from grabbing the story and making it to print before her.

The plot is revolves around a group college students who play a role playing game, Mazes and Monsters, one of the group has never recovered from the disappearance of his brother. He has an episode while playing in a local cave with his group and believes that he is now his character and sets off on a quest to find his missing brother. The characters are pretty cardboard, little more than names with the right off center quirks to attract them to their group and the game.

I first encountered Mazes and Monsters as the TV Movie, which I enjoyed and recall to this day (in part because of having seen it on VHS in the late 80s). The story is perfect for the TV film format, where the actors could fill out the emotional dimension missing from the book. I later did read the book, and found it to be little more than an exercise in plot more than anything else.

The newspaper reports that Rona Jaffe had drawn from were about a missing college student James Dallas Egbert. PI William Dear had speculated that maybe James had gone into the steam tunnels to play D&D and the press ran with it. D&D was one of those boogey men, like Heavy Metal Music, that parents in the late 70s and into the 80s blamed for their kids issue. There were various calls from mainly wing nut types for regulation of the game, and a lot of fear by patents about what playing these games was doing to their kids.

The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III (1984) by William Dear recounted the facts of the case and largely dispelled the notion that D&D had anything to do with the Egbert case. Dear recounts the story of Egbert a child prodigy who was sent off to Michigan State by his parents when he was 16 years old and left largely unsupervised by the school. Egbert apparently buckled under the academic pressure, drug problems and other issues; he entered the steam tunnels to commit suicide and vanished. After several weeks he was found and the case was closed. It’s been a decade since I read the book, but of the two it’s the most interesting, not only because of the portrait of the James Dallas Egbert that it paints, but also it is a snap shot of a time and a place this is no longer. It’s also of note because it at least attempted to set the record straight on a story that took on a life of it’s own and passed into urban myth.

I would say that of the two books it’s the better read, and I highly recommend it. I would also recommend the film Mazes and Monsters, and I think I might just have to revisit it myself.

More Friday Forgotten Books can be found at Patti Abbott's blog here.

FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE: Scarred but Smarter

Scarred but Smarter II

“I really don’t mind the scars,” Wilson started, she pushed her sweatshirt hood back and looked over at me “it’s the itching that kills me,” there was a twinkle in her eye and a hint of lechery in her smile.

I didn’t say anything in response, for a moment I wished that I smoked, but I never had and never would. We had just escorted the model to security and were headed back from Detroit Metro.

“That’s to say, it’s not the…..” she started,

“I got you, I heard,” I was a little gruffer than I needed to be, but that was my way. I was gruff with the help, mostly because of my friendship with the boss.

“So I have been tasked to, well,” she paused and looked ahead. I nodded, keeping my eyes on the road.

“We want to know what’s your deal? Why are you so…” I heard her words and took a moment to wonder how I should respond. There was the temptation clam up, shut down or joke, but in the end, I had to give some credit to her for asking.

“Distant, cold, detached, uninvolved.” I offered

“Yeah,” she looked back at me, her eyes were slightly downcast and she was doing that thing with her chin that is supposed to evoke sadness or submission, if she had been standing I wondered if she would have been twisting her arm around to expose her wrists.

“I don’t really know, it’s the mode that I fell into when I would come into the office, and then it became a bit of a joke, which I played up too, and then it just kinda stuck.” I wished the radio had been on so that I could play with it, I had to settle for adjusting my hands on the steering wheel. I wanted a cup of coffee that was a prop that I could have toyed with.

“That’s sad, why no change that? You should come to a after party, or join the gang for lunch and you know…. Just be yourself,” she looked forward again, and then I could see her look out the window. Outside the sun was setting on another grey winter Michigan day. Soon we would be passing the Ypsi Ford plant and soon enough we’d be back at the office.

“Well,” she started again

“We’re almost back to Ann Arbor, so just what ever is on your mind,” I didn’t believe that I was really saying that. I had made a point to be detached from the business; I was after all just kept on retainer. The fact that I was driving people to the airport was simply a favor, a favor for cash, but still a favor.

“I guess, it’s just that people, staff, ok, us girls wonder what’s going on with you and the boss?” She looked right at me and our eyes met, I could see there was something important in the question.

“Listen, I am the itching, something get’s ripped, or damaged, or cut, and I come in an patch it up, but I am the irritant, and because it’s the job, I am separate from the gang. I also report to Megan, and we have become…. Well, it’s not really clear, but” I stopped; I really didn’t know what more to say. I didn’t know how to really answer the question. I knew that my relationship the business wasn’t like theirs, and because of that I had access to the boss.

“Ok, I think I get it, maybe” I looked over and gave her a smile. She was young, she was pert, and full of life, but she was real. On the surface she looked like any 20 something young professional, only she worked for a place that sold fantasy images, she worked around the far edges of the sex industry, there had to be some scars in there.

“For the record, I don’t mind the scars either, the itching I think I might like, because sure it can get annoying at the time, but after the fact you know there was a story behind the whole thing.” I flipped on the turn signal and pulled the car onto the on ramp and we re-entered the city limits.

More over at Patti Abbott's blog HERE

Feb 2011 Monthly Reads

The Dame by Richard Stark

The second of the four Grofield novels find’s our buddy Al looking into an island job that could make him some cash. He’s not impressed with the initial set up, but finds himself caught up in it all anyway. It’s a quick, swift, who-done-it…. That is a Stark, but maybe not the more iconic of the bunch… and after reading Dead Skip last month, where Stark is named and Parker makes and appearance I am looking forward to Black Ice Score and getting back to Parker’s adventures. That said I know that Lemon’s Never Lie, the final of the Grofield books is coming up, and I have read and enjoyed that one.

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn

I kept running to this memoir about the author having encountered his MIA father as a client of the homeless shelter the author was working in. I fooled around with the book for a while and then gave up, I like the title I like the short chapters, I like the choppy narrative, but it just couldn’t sustain the energy for me.

Stark House Press book of the month:

It's Always Four O’clock by W. R. BURNETT

Dig it Daddy-O

Dig it loud and live

The big beat from the coast,

Jazz Bo, jive tale of… hell,

This is it, the Noir Jazz tale you have been waiting for, it’s a classic. The bare bones of the pop music story, kids with talent, things start to get going and then it’s every man for himself. What carries the story is the vibe of the thing, the language, the evocation of the time, place and world at the start of Pop TV fame. It really needs it’s own soundtrack, it needs a Tom Waits a Stan Ridgway or even a Kevn Kenny to read it aloud for your to really get the drift. That Burnett is largely out of print is a crime, his fluid prose are cinematic, dramatic and have the right jazz tempo. Check it out.

Lawrence Block book of the Month: Burglar in the Closet

Another winning entry in the Burglar series, this time around Bernie gets caught up in a murder that occurs while he locked in the victim’s closet hence, the title. It’s not that he was on the Hot Prowl, she came home earlier and Bernie get’s to hear her murder, and after some time, he has to figure out who did it to keep it from getting pinned on him.

Double Indemnity by James M Cain

I had never read a Cain before this, I was aware of course of the great film based on the book, and had just watched it again and figured that I should check out the book. It’s short it’s more of a novella than a full-blown novel. Having seen the film, I am stuck with the improvements of the film over the book, mostly the addition of the snappy Chandler dialog and the cinematic changes of things like last names, clothing choices and even the streamlining of the story. All this is not to say that the book is a shabby read, it is a great noir that can be knocked off in a couple of hours and is well worth checking out.

26 Films: O.C. & Stiggs

O.C. & Stiggs

1985

“That’s the problem with insurance damage in never permanent ”

Robert Altman wasn’t always at the top if his game, but I think all his films are worth checking out at least once. While M*A*S*H, The Player, and Godsford Park are well thought of, it’s safe to say that O.C. & Stiggs will never be considered a master piece. It’s a film that I discovered as a teen and think that it might just be the most punk rock film ever made. Sure it’s a mess, but it has it’s moments and it has some the best scenes of managed chaos since the Marxx Brothers… all of that is not to say that it’s anywhere near the level of those films.

The plot is pretty simple; O.C. & Stiggs are a pair of Phoenix area high school Students trying to navigate the mid-80s landscape of Regan upwardly mobile America. At the start of the film they sneak into the backyard of the Shwab family, to make long distance international calls and tell their story to President Bongo of Gabon.

Essentially they have spent their summer being a thorn in the side of the Shawbs because, the husband is an insurance magnet, had canceled O.C.’s grandfathers retirement insurance. O.C.’s Gramps with out his insurance is headed for a nursing home and O.C. is about to be shipped off to live with an uncle in Arkansas.

In what was slated to be a teen sex comedy, Altman manages to skewer the neo-affluence, the oblivious parenting of the era, the right wing survivalist, the high school hi-jinks films and the stereotypes of homeless winos and Vietnam vets. The film also contains the Altman wandering camera, the overlapping dialog and ensemble cast he was known for. Paul Dooley, Jon Cryer and Jane Curtin all have big roles, but are far too often overshadowed by the smaller roles of; Ray Walston, Dennis Hopper, Martin Mull, a pre-Sex in the City Cynthia Nixon and one amazing scene with Bob Uker.

Like all good teen films of the time there is also an extended musical performance, only instead of getting what ever puffy haired New Wave one hit wonder, Altman brings in King Sunny Ade and his African Beats, a world music artist who after becoming a huge hit in his home land was being poised to be the next Bob Marley in the states by his record company. This of course never happened and King Sunny Ade never was able to make the step from the world music genre to the mainstream, which is really strange because watching his performance in the film he showcases everything that a cross over act needs. I have owned a couple of his records and none of them ever came close the magic and connection of his O.C. & Stiggs performance.

Fashion wise O.C. & Stiggs is a time capsule of tacky and misguided clothing choices all too often made by the rich and stupid, and it even plays a role in the film. Mr. Stiggs starts off with sunglasses with those side cover things that you would think are only legal while transversing the deserts of Africa; on the other hand this film is set in a desert. Of course there is also the suits they wear when purchasing their car, and then the whole business with the Afro-Dizzy-yacks… witch I won’t go into, other than to say Martin Mull almost steals the film with his intro of ‘Girls if you need clothes, and you don’t here….” Line right before he offers O.C. and Stiggs cups of brown rum with the line ‘ Double or Triple, there’s no Singles here”.

I have to fess up and say that this film holds a very nostalgic place in my life. It was something that my friends and I all discovered because we were fans of Jon Cryer and were on a mission to track down all of his films. Of course he has a small role in this film, that’s everything that someone like Ducky from Pretty in Pink, or Grant from Dudes, or even Morgan Stewart from Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home isn’t…. but the magic of a film that was seeing though all the bullshit in the teen flicks of the era meant something to me and to my circle of friends. We were smart enough to know that there was a lot of hollow, debt ridden, compromised lives out there pretending that everything was ok, and this film affirmed that.

O.C & Stiggs was featured on the Onion A.V. Club's My Year of Flops, you can read that HERE

Up Next: Pyrates with Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick

FFB: Dead Skip by Joe Gores

Dead Skip by Joe Gores

Gores past away at the end of last month and there were flurry FFB entries in memory of him. I had only read his Spade and Archer at the time of his passing, but the first of his Dan Kearney and Associates(DKA) book Dead Skip has been hovering around the top of my To be Read Pile, and I had already planned on reading this year.

The story is the ultimate well worn first plot any one thinks of when you say mystery fiction…. in that it is set up, it’s a who-done-it. What makes it stand out is that features a real, professional detectives and focuses first on their day to day work doing repos and skip tracing.

Our lead in Dead Skip is Larry Ballard who steps up and attires to figure out who has attacked one of his co-workers. Backtracking the last couple of cases a a pool of suspects is generated, they are interviewed and eliminated as Ballard get’s closer and closer to figuring out what happened.

The writing is clean and direct and drives the plot along, keeping some suspense, but paying off questions raised in time. I really liked that Gores shows how long it takes to get answers, to follow up on leads and how no matter how good you are forgetting one little thing, or not following up on one lead can bollix the whole venture up, complicate things, and create more work for the investigator.

I need to take a moment here to talk about Richard Stark. Not only is he name dropped in the book, but his character Parker makes an appearance in the book, he helps to get some information and move the plot along. I haven’t read Plunder Squad yet, but apparently this chapter also appears in that book.

I liked the book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I also want to point out the great Art Nevo/ Art Deco covers on the Mysterious Press covers.

"Dan Kearney and Associates" DKA Novels:

▪ Dead Skip (DKA; 1972)

▪ Final Notice (DKA; 1973)

▪ Gone, No Forwarding (DKA; 1978)

▪ 32 Cadillacs (DKA; Edgar Award nominee, Best Novel; 1992)

▪ Contract Null & Void (DKA; 1996)

▪ Stakeout on Page Street and Other DKA Files (DKA Short Stories; 2000)

▪ Cons, Scams & Grifts (DKA; 2001)

26 Soundtracks: Hiding Out

Hiding Out Soundtrack

Film Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C3K0wd6L_M

Film studios in the late 80s were chasing the $$ still in the pockets of the teens who had taken in all those John Huges films. No doubt trying to cash in on Pretty in Pink and soon to be old to play a teen Jon Cryer was cast in the lead of the back to high school Hidiing Out, which started out as a intresting look at the trials of the American High School before falling into a mob hit man at the rally for class president grinder…. But I am not here to talk about the film, but about the soundtrack.

See in addation to movie tickets (and VHS rentals, tapes were expensive and it really took until the early 90s for the studios to understand that selling htem to viewer to own was a cash cow) those John Huges films also sold soundtracks. Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club stand out as the winners in the soundtrack sweepstakes of that era, and so a film like hiding out needed a edgy soundtrack that would sell to the kids.

At the time what a good soundtrack really needed was vision, and a strong director who know the value of the music to their film. Cameron Crowe, John Huges and Penelopy Spheres all knew this and that is why their soundtracks all stand today as a part of their film, as a time capsule of the era. Hiding out n the other hand has some great songs, mostly by accident. As a collection it feels like there were one or two moments that helped the film, and were needed, but the rest were just tracks from bands with the right connections and ended up in the film.

The Roy Orbison and K.D. Lang version of Crying is the most memorable from the film, as it was used in a sequence at the school dance, but aside from the improved rap by students I can’t recall the scene where any of the other tunes are used. That’s not to say that there isn’t a couple of gems on the ablum. Public Image Ltd.(PiL) was rarely as accessible as they were with Seattle. Johnny Rotten’s post Sex Pistols band had their own majuc and place in music history, but they failed to connect with me over and over, this tune however remains one of my favorite PiL tracks.

Aside from Roy the biggest name on the album is a solo Boy George track. That’s a cultureal touchstone that I never got that meant nothing to me at the time, the whole Boy George, Culture Club thing I mean. To be fair I was growing up in a town that helped to spawn all that was rough and in your face about punk rock… not that I knew that at the time. In the years to come it was that heavier, grittier and more revolution based music that would appeal to me. Boy George was really just a shiny pop act, giving the world more pop confections at least at the time. I have no clue if this tune appeard on any of his albums, or if this was a case where they offered him some cash to record a tune for the soundtrack so they would have a newer name act in the film and on the soundtrack.

Catch Me (I'm Falling) by Pretty Poison (Hiding Out Soundtrack)

Catche Me (‘m Falling) is pure 80s electro dance pop, it is one of the forgotten gems on this album. A perfectly produced slice of alternativly tough and danceable fluff. I don’t know that I could take a whole album of the band Pretty POsion, but this song should have been on one of those Rhino Records New Wave Hits of the 80s comps.

Scarlett & Black channel a vaugly Brit New Wave feel with You Don’t Know, it’s one of those tunes that you know is like something else, but you just can’t put your finger on it. It has a mid tempo beat, and slightly soulful vocals, like OMD or Tears for Fears. Bang Your Head by Lolita Pop was a supriseingly enjoyable near ballad, that plays more like a manta than a full song, but the production never get’s too much and it’s over quickly enough.

The rest of the soundtrack is really not my thing, it sounds dated and reminds the listener of how good and how bad the music of the period could be.

Track listing:

Live My Life by Boy George

Bang Your Head by Lolita Pop

Catch Me (I'm Falling)by Pretty Poison

You Don't Know by Scarlett & Black

So Different Now by Felix Cavaliere

Run! Hide! by all that jaz:

I Refuse by Hue & Cry

Crying by Roy Orbison & k.d. lang

Crying (Prelude) - Jon Cryer, Keith Coogan

Max For President Rap by Lee Anthony Brisdon, David L. Robinson, Daryl Smith

Real Life by Black Britain

Seattle by Public Image Ltd.

26 Films: Plain Clothes

Plain Clothes

1988

When looking for trends in history the more distance you have from a place the better able you are to see what was going on in the culture. What I can see very vividly now is a generation, the Baby Boomer, who refused to put away childish thing staying in power, one of the ways to keep themselves young was to make sure that no one born after them was allowed to grow up. This has manifested in many ways, from a near pathological insistence that they ‘changed the world’ and the constant referencing of events like The Summer of Love, Woodstock, and the single handed ending of the war in Vietnam as proof that they have been the saviors of the world…….argh, don’t’ get me started on all of that..

All this is to say that by the late 80s with the first wave of generation Xers graduating from high school and college and entering the work force there were a spat of films (ok, maybe only 2 that I know of) and one TV show that featured these Gen X kids being seen as so young and young looking that they were able to pass as high school students. On TV it was 21 Jump Street, on film it was Hiding Out (see the review of the soundtrack to that film later this week) and today’s forgotten film, Plain Clothes.

Set in Seattle, Plain Clothes is the story of cop Nick Dunbar, a young officer who frustrated at being assigned again and again to details because of his young looks. When his brother is implicated in the murder of a teacher, he looses his temper and get’s suspended. He takes his suspension time to enroll in school and try and clear his brother’s name. The film is part look at how crazy American High Schools are in 1988, part who-done-it, and part 80s Romantic comedy. There is also a plot about the Baby Boomer Teachers worry about their pensions (20 years on this part resonates even more than I did then), and of course Nick falls for a young teacher who thinks he is a student, when they are really about the same age.

I am not going to make the case that it’s a great film, it existents now as a time capsule of the time and place. There are a number of very funny lines and a couple of scenes that raise the film above the level of trash. The cast is solid and there are noteworthy performances by George Wendt and Seymour Cassel. Also watch for the moments with Abe Vigoda, Harry Shearer, and the PA announcements from Robert Stack.

Plain Clothes is not out on DVD as of this writing, it is on Netflix instant if you want to check it out. I do think that someone is missing an opportunity not packaging it as a double disc with the Jon Cryer flick Hiding Out.

Up Next: The Robert Altman not classic, but I love it anyway for my own reasons…. O.C. & Stiggs.

More Overlooked Films at Todd Mason's blog Here

FFB: King of the Wood by John Maddox Roberts

It must have been frustration for young writers who discovered the pulps their parent’s generation had read were no longer around. Just think of a kid of about 14 or 15 discovering the format in attics, and used book shops and garages around the country….. and of course in those late 60s paperback reprints of the bigger name authors… only when these would be pulp writers entered the writing market in the 70s and 80s there was little call for their take on pulp.

All of this is to say that King of the Wood reads like it should have been published over the course of a year in an adventure pulp, with each installment giving a little piece of the adventure of Hring Kristjanson, as he wanders an alternative North America circa 1485. Hring a son of the royal bloodline has been cast out of both the Christian church and Treeland his nation.

From that starting point we get a series of adventures over the course of which Hring explores the empires and cultures that have come to power, or stayed in power on the continent of North America. He finds and looses companions, ascends and descends levels of power, before finally leading one last big adventure and returning home, before giving into his fate.

I don’t want to get too much more into the story, let’s just say that there are solid adventure yarns though out the book, filled with adventure, weird rituals, and even what is essentially a western tale.

As a writer John Maddox Roberts has had what I consider an interesting career. After King of the Wood, which was published in 1983, along with Cestus Dei both of which I also read as a teen, he would go on to write eight Conan between 1985 and 1995, if King of the Wood is any indication I would say that he would be the right choice for Conan. He also contributed one of the three D&D Mysteries, Murder In Tarsis (1996) to their excellent but all too short-lived ventures in genre blending. These days he’s best know for his SPQR series Mystery series set in Ancient Rome. I’ve read the first one and enjoyed it a lot.

A lot of books that I read as a teen haven’t held up to being revisited, but rereading King of the Wood, I felt like I was getting a lot more out of it than the first time around. Roberts is an author who is well worth checking out.

More Friday Forgotten Books at Todd Mason's Blog HERE

26 Soundtracks: Pushing Dasies

It’s amazing how your mind can play trick on you, I had remembered the music from the late lamented ABC TV Show Pushing Daisies, as being kind of cool, loungy, bright jazz/ exotica. I was thinking real Martin Deny or Les Baxter type stuff. The show was a fun, cartoony looking take on the slight wacky detective formula. The music in the show was great and along with the set design and the off kilter cast of charters add to the fun feel, and I was excited to pick up the sound track…

Only, this turned out to be a case where the score and the music cues didn’t seem to hold up much on their own. There are a few bits, mostly riffing on Big Band, that I do like, but overall the find it all just to be ok…. Or so I thought at first. Having listened to the album several times for this review it really has started to grow on me. And honestly this isn’t the first time that it’s taken more than a handful of listens for something to grow on me.

I wonder how much we have all written off because something didn’t hook us the first time? I like to think that there was a reason we sought out a film, or book or album, and if we don’t immediately get that jolt of pop culture buzz off of it, do we leave it behind? I also tend to think that as culture consumers that things that he have expectations of disappoint us most. If I am sure that something is going to just be ok, and that’s exactly what it is, I tend to shrug it off as, what else did I expect?

I am glad that I have rediscovered this album and it will serve to remind me that I need to go back and give another listen to anything that I was really disappointed by. Anyway, I haven’t yet mentioned the three Glee like production numbers (Moring has Broken, Hopelessly Devoted and Birdhouse in you Soul) sung by cast members, all of which are first rate. I think this would be great for the mini van on the way to or from school, or just stuck in traffic on the way to or from the office.

Next time: Hiding Out the original film soundtrack

FFB: Down the Long Hills by Louis L'amour

By the time I has graduated from High School in 1991-I think I had read the majority of the books that L’amour had published at that point. Down the Long Hills first published in 1968 wasn’t the first of his books that I read, but it is one that sticks out, mainly because I fondly recall the the TV Movie made from it in 1986.

The plot…. (From www.louislamour.com)

“After the massacre Hardy and Betty Sue were left with only a horse and a knife with which to face the long battle against the wilderness. A seven-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl, stranded on the limitless prairie. They were up against starvation, marauding Indians, savage outlaws, and wild animals. They were mighty stubborn, but the odds were against them--and their luck was about to run out.”

What we have is a classic tale of adventure and courage. It’s as western as you can get, a kid having to make their own way, having to survive without the benefit of civilization and adults. L'amour as always (ok almost always) is very readable and a good entry point for younger readers into the world of pulp fiction.

In thinking about the book again, I am wondering if there are teens out there that are still reading L’amour’s books, or westerns in general. When I was growing up the adults in my life, mostly teachers and school administrator types, seemingly had written the western off as a chauvinist, imperialist form that degraded native cultures, minorities, and women while glorifying violence and colonialism. To them John Wayne was just a right wing nut who taught boys all the wrong ways to be a man, and anything that smacked of a Western was trash… I wonder how many of those types of teachers are still out there discouraging young readers?

As I said I read many of L’amour’s books, but only a handful have stayed with me all these years and Down the Long Hills is one of them.

Restless Kind 2011

For most of the history of this blog I have been working with out any real plan. I just post when I feel moved to do so, but for 2011, I have a roadmap for what I want to post over the course of coming year.

I am not going to go into exactly what I am going to cover, but I hope to have:

26 Friday Forgotten Books which will be posted ever other Friday

26 Film reviews which will be of older mostly forgotten films and will be posted on the Tuesday of the week opposite the Forgotten Books.

26 Soundtrack Reviews will appear on Thursdays following the film reviews and will often be related to the films from that week, but will mostly also be for films that have fallen off the radar.

and

12 Flash Fictions which I am still working on and will most likely be posted when they get done.

In 2009 I read a Hard Case Crime paperback and a Donald Westlake book each month, in 2010 I carried on with the Hard Case Crime book along with a John D MacDonald book. This coming year I am planning to read a Lawrence Block book each month, and instead of catching up on my Hard Case Crime collection I am going to read a Stark House Press book each month. As Stark House books contain more than one novel, I am only going to read one of novels from each collection each month.

I am also going to do my month reads posts around the end of each month, and what ever else catches my fancy.

Enjoy

Eric