FFB: The Man with the Iron On Badge by Lee Goldberg

The Man with the Iron on Badge was one of those titles that called to me from the shelves at the library. There was something about the title that called out to me and I was very happy to have taken the lead and checked it out.

 Harvey Mapes has a job working security at the gate of one of those concentration camps that rich people hide them selves away in. He spends his time reading classic PI novels and living the marginal life of a low wageworker. He get’s drawn into a real mystery when he’s asked to keep an eye on the wife of one of the 1% who’s gated community he guards… and things go from there. It’s a fun romp and I for one am wondering what happened to Harvey Mapes

Paul Brazill covered The Man with the Iron On Badge Here, and you can check out writer Lee Goldberg’s comments on the book Here.

FFB: The Mouse in the Mountain by Norbert Davis

The Mouse in the Mountain by Norbert Davis is a book that I read after reading about  Sally in the Alley by Davis (which I still haven’t gotten around to reading) and finding that I could get The Mouse in the Mountain via inter library loan. Davis had a strange touch that was part comic and part noir. Mouse is about  a missing treasure.

Evan Lewis covered it on  APRIL 2, 2010 you can find his review HERE

FFB rewind: Zeppelins West By Joe R. Landsale

 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

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

FFB rewind: Shoot by Douglas Fairbairn

 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

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

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

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.

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