Blood is a Rover

I've been working my way though the latest Jame Ellroy Blood is a Rover. It's long, it's complex, and it's puzzling, all things that I like in a novel. I also like his style, the stripped down language, the crazy titled unfair world. It's filled with damaged people driven by guilt, fear, hunger and primal needs to scream at a chaotic world. I love that his writing makes me think in the same patter and that I can hear the voice of the charceters in my head, the only other writer who has done that in the last couple of years is Megan Abbot (who's latest is hovering around the top of my TBR pile).

In a lot of ways I am taking my time and savoring the book, it's been eight years since his last and I fear that it will be at least another five before we see fiction from him again. Sure I wish that he would come up with a Hard Case Crime style 200 pager, but I don't know how likely that is.

Anyway, one of the reading commitments I have made this year is to read at least one Donald Westlake novel each month, and as I watch the  days of august fall away I am finding my time cut short for the month, and have decided to take a break from Rover and read The Mourner by Richard Stark (a Westlake A.K.A. for those not in the know).

Friday Forgotten Film: Dudes (1987)

Dudes (1987)
"They Were Looking for the American Dream, They found the American Nightmare"

Here is the pitch,three young adults are heading west to LA from NYC, they are looking for a new life. Somewhere in the middle of Arizona they are attached by a gang, one of them is killed, and it is up to the other two to avenge their friend. Along the way they find out who and what they are, and are forced to grow up.

Now from that pitch you could have almost any kind of film. A Western, a Hard Boiled Noir, a coming of age tale, a thriller or a horror film. When I first saw the ad for this movie in a video catalog in 1988, I was sure that it was going to be a horror film-- something along the lines of The Zero Boys or The Hills Have Eyes. The poster was an ominously dark and garishly colored affair, two young men, a pink land yacht and a dark desert behind them-- I had to rent it, and I did.

What kind of film did it turn out to be? get this, a Punk Rock Western! yep, that's right a genre blend of crime, Punksploitation and the Western . John Cryer (Duckie from Pretty in Pink), Daniel Roebuck (Rivers Edge and US Marshals) and Flea (from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Back to the Future) are three punks in mid 80s NYC, they lives are going nowhere, they go to shows, work dead end jobs, drink and have minor adventures in the pre Gulliani blight of NYC. With nothing to loose they head west looking for the promised land of California. Along the way they pass though desert landscapes, help a Elvis impersonator with his stuck car and talk about their future in the land of sunshine. On their last night before reaching California they camp under a massive stone, only to be bushed whacked and one of them get's killed. It is from this point what might have been a film about NYC Punks finding their place in the LA Punk world turns into a revenge story with elements of the typical fish out of water story. They find that they appearance hampers their ability to follow their friends killers, and have to deal with being outsiders in a part of the country that was hostile to them.

I'm not going to make the case that this is a great film, it has it's moments. There is great scenery and a soundtrack that is almost perfect in relation to the film. Dudes might have played for a weekend in the theaters, but once I saw it for the first time, it was mine. It was everything that I was looking for in a film, it was about outsiders who took control of their lives, who stood up for themselves, and found purpose. It had adventure, crazy dreams, surreal shoot outs and just a little bit of romance. There is something also to be said about the connection between the myth of the American west, American Punk rock and the world of indie film making, all of them have the element of Do It Yourselfness, do what you have to do, and forge ahead as best you can in common. In a time when so many people seem to be sitting around crying that the jobs that have always been there are gone, and that the middle class life they felt they were promised has vanished a film like Dudes, with a message of finding your path and going for it might just be what the doctor ordered.

Don't You Forget about Me.

Don't You Forget about Me.

It's been a weird month for notable deaths, and I wanted to take just a moment to comment on a couple of them.

First John Hughes. I grew up in the 80s, came of age as they say, and the films that Hughes made did make an impact on me, then and again later on when I started to unpack their messages. I had to have seen all of them, if not in theaters then on video (everyone remember the old days of video?). At the time they were sold as being 'Real' and 'Honest' about teens and their issues. I have to applaud Hughes for dealing with issues that weren't addressed in other teen films of the time-- class being the biggest one-- but at the same time I can't help but shake my head at the underling message of conformity that was in many of those films. To me the best of the teen films (and I am not counting Ferris Buller which is a fantasy even if it contains many truths) has to be Some kind of Wonderful, which is really Pretty in Pink with the correct ending. The rest of his films are marred with things like Annie Potts finding happiness when she sells out in Pretty in Pink and the underling message of The Breakfast Club seeming to be that as long as the nerds do all the work they will be allowed to live with out getting picked on. No matter my issues with those films they are iconic and did mean something to me and my generation. As a writer I always wanted to know where those stories would end, and it's too bad that Hughes never was able to come back and tell that tale.

Second Billy Lee Riley, almost the last of the Sun Rockabilly crew. He was there, he was part of it, and even if he did not get the fame and fortune of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash or the last man standing Jerry Lee Lewis he was part of that scene and that era. His band, sometimes known as the Little Green Men, were basically the house band at Sun and Riley was a first rate singer and ax man. I have always had a fondness for his classic Flyin' Saucer Rock'n'roll, which might just have been part of the blue print for Horror Punk and Psychobilly down the road. If nothing else he was pumping out the kind of energy that weaves it's way through the history of real Rock and Roll, from Rockabilly to Garage Rock to Proto Punk, Hard Rock, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal, Power Pop and on into the world of Grunge and Hi Energy Rock and Roll--- all of which have now seemingly come under the umbrella heading of -- Garage Punk!

Lastly Willie Deville. 70s NYC punk icon who brought that punk energy to R&B (the real stuff not the warmed over disco the mouse has been selling as of late) and roots rock. Like many of his peers from the CBGBs days he never really got the mainstream attention he deserved, but the underground and of course the Europeans remembered him. It's only been in the last couple of years that his music, mostly the Mink Deville 70s era stuff, has been part of my collection, and while I am still discovering his work his passing just reminds me that we are watching his generation of musicians start to leave us (those who lasted out the 80s) and wonder who will be the next to go.

thoughts, comments, remembrances?

Friday Forgotten Book: The Chucklin' Whatsit?

Friday Forgotten Book: The Chucklin' Whatsit? by Richard Sala.

Some time in the late 90s artist and musician Tomb (aka Jackson Phibes) mentioned the comic artist and writer Richard Sala in a e-mail. I of course had to look up his work, as anything that Tomb was talking about had to be worth checking out. Sala's most current work at the time was today's Friday Forgotten Book The Chucklin' Whatsit?.

From Amazon.com:
Broom, hack writer turned detective by
necessity, is having a heck of a time figuring out why astrology
columnists are turning up dead, seemingly at the hand of the Gull
Street Ghoul, a killer from the city's past. The solution to the crimes
involves a strange organization named G.A.S.H., a shadowy masked man
named Mister Ixnay, and tiny outsider-art dolls called "whatsits."

What I like about the book is that it mixes the feel of outsider culture, pulp story telling and the comics medium with just the right twist. Sala has said that he is inspired by time spent in his grandfathers antique shop. The look of Sala's art has a Edward Gorey via The Hernandez Brothers look. I also like the fact that his characters are often dumb, short sighted or just make mistakes. I have become a fan of Sala's work in general, and look forward to each and every one of his new projects.

Books July 2009

Devil Born Without Horns by Michael A Lucas
Tarot Card Book Mark: The Home
2009 Will Read List book!

bought this book because Amazon kept recommending it, and it is from Rudos & Rubes publishing, who issued the collection of short stories from 70s Punk Rocker Johnny Strike. The book follows Jim Pichaske, a recent college grad, and his decent into the madness of low rent world of working retail. In this case it's for a poorly run and managed Furniture Company called Nimbus. Jim is of course educated and underemployed , and too often treated like some kind of chucklehead with no brain. As time passes he starts to spiral into a life of petty crime, drug use and finally a last big score which, well like the rest of his life isn't going where he thought it would. I liked this book a lot, maybe it cause I have worked in the furniture business, or that I know all too well what it is to be underemployed and to watch dreams and desires slip away. The book is more in the vein of something like Miami Purity where the crime is the result of a life in free fall or maybe more to the point a life without a real drive or direction.

The Con Man by Ed McBain

Tarot Card Book Mark: None

The 4th of the legendary 87th precinct novels follows the squad as they track a team of Con men who are working the streets fleecing the public, meanwhile the bodies of two women have surfaced in the river, both dead of poisoning and both with near identical tattoos on their hands. The squad works the cases while McBain talks about the Cons that people live with every day, and the trust that it takes to put the truth in someones hands and for them to follow up. There is a element of the book where McBain addresses the reader about the subject of the con, in much the same way that Donald Weslake did in some of his books. Once again there is shockingly dated quality to the book as it is pre-drug apocalypse, pre-professional police movement, and stills stuck with the technology and methods of the 1950s. Still it is worth visiting and checking out.

Killer's Choice by Ed McBain

Tarot Card Book Mark: None

I really liked this one, I have to say that I have liked all of the 87th precinct books I have read, but this one was different. This was the first one that didn't deal with perps that were committing a specific crime, that is to say the last one was the con man and before that there was the pusher and the mugger. This one had a little more of the expected mystery structure and feel to it. I liked that the mystery structure was folded into the police procedural style. I also liked the introduction of the Det Hawes and the exit of Haviland. Who but McBain could get away with some of the really dark humor that's in this book, and in 1957 even. I am taking a little break from the 87th precinct books right now, but hope to get to the next one later in this month or early next month.

East of A by Russell Atwood
Tarot Card Book Mark: Burning
Hard Case Crime is going to publish the sequel to this book in Sept so I wanted to read this one before hand, luckily I ran across a copy of in a paperback trade in joint. East of A starts with P.I. Payton Sherwood arriving home to find he needs to run to the store for some food, only the place on the corner is closed and things just get worse from there. He interrupts the beating of a young woman who repays him by taking his watch. The story unfold from there as Payton searches for the girl, his watch and slowly depletes his bank account trying to get her out from under. It is a Detective novel of it's time (90s NYC), and was a great read. I look forward to the HCC book arriving in just about a month.

Vanilla Ride by Joe R Lansdale

Tarot Card Book Mark: The Mouth
Leonard and Hap and back and riffing their tough talking asses off while things go bad around them. It all started with them retrieving the grand daughter of a friend from her drug dealing scum bag boyfriend, and from their chaos ensues. It's pretty much a lot of crazy action and funny tough guy talking. There is an energy to the book the keeps it from getting boring and standard. No mysteries to solve, no big corruption to uncover, Leonard and Hap really are just two guys who can't seem to stay out of trouble and have to deal with happens.

The Deep Blue Good-Bye by John D MacDonald
Tarot Card Book Mark: The Gift
2009 Will Read List Book!
I have put off reading this book for a long time, and it was time to give it a read. This is the first of the Travis McGee series, and the first full length MacDonald that I have read. If this is any indication of things to come I have to say that I am looking forward to the stack of MacDonald books that I have amassed over the last year or so. The story is pretty straight forward, Travis is an outsider type who lives on a house boat and is in the business of recovering things for friends. In this one he is asked by a friend of a friend to help recover/discover what every it was that her father had brought back from the Far East during the War. That would be WWII, and her father would have died in prison, only to have a former cell mate show up and search the family home, taking off, only to return a rich man. If you look at the cover of the book I have included in this post, you should get an idea of what the riches were. McGee takes the job and is sucked into the world of the ex-con and his psycho way of life and search for kicks. There is a strong undercurrent of the loosing of the social mores and dangers of that ebbing through the book-- it's almost like a prediction of the social chaos to come in the 1960s and 1970s. The prose are direct but have a flow and a spark. There were a couple of places where the turn of the phrase stuck with me, lines that I am going to have to steal for story titles, "These are the Slums of the Heart" and "These are the bunnies who never find a burrow". There is the issue of the wounded women that McGee finds himself in the company of, I don't really have much to say about them at this point in my reading of the series, I wonder if as times changed over the more than twenty years that the books were written if the women become stronger? What I can say is that if you are new convert to reading pulp/hard boiled tales that this will entertain and also give an insight to the steps between Marlow and Spencer in Detective fiction.



Yellow Medicine by Anthony Neil Smith
Tarot Card Book Mark: The Lion
I first heard the name Anthony Neil Smith in connection with the website Plots with Guns and his brother in arms Victor Gischler. A pretty good crime book, that I think I liked more for what it said about some places I have lived than for the over all plot. In a lot of ways the book felt a little-- mushy-- around the edges, like there was a sharpness that was missing from the plot. Things I liked : The stuff about the Minnesota Ice culture. As an outsider who lived in the Cities for 5 years, I know exactly what that 'we had all the friends we needed in the 2nd grade' mentality and culture is all about. As for the description of my home town (and current residence) of Ann Arbor, MI, Smith gets is half right. His description of the town as being filled with smug people who don't know how smug they come off is correct on the first part, but the truth is they know how arrogant and smug they come off and they really don't care. The minor quibble aside, I am looking forward to picking up the newest of Smith's books, Hotdoggin' in the future.


The Cutie by Donald Westlake
Hard Case Crime Book of the Month
Donald Westlake Book for the Month!
I'm running low on time this month, so I am going to go for a two for one here, my Hard Case Crime and my Donald Westlake book for the month. This was the first Westlake novel published way back in 1960, and the first to hit the stands (are there still stands?) in the months after his death. It's the story of a organization man who gets caught up in finding The Cutie. No despite the red head loading the pistol on the cover, the Cutie is someone who thought that they were being cute when they left a passed out junkie next to a woman they had murdered, only the junkie woke up and got out of the scene ahead of the cops. I think I am making it more complex than it is, but it's a hell of a read, and knowing that it was Westlakes first published novel makes it well worth checking out.

Note: Tarot Card Book Marks? I have a really lame deck of Tarot cards that I pulled off a free cart at the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library sale a couple of months back, and I started using them as book marks for giggles mostly. I just pull a card at random from the deck, make note of it, and when I am done it goes in the discard pile. Sometimes the card ends up to have a relation to the book in questions, sometimes not. This month I had several books where I didn't have the cards as bookmarks, this was mostly due to the fact that I have been moving and everything was in disarray and I didn't always have the cards handy. A couple of the books were also inter-library loans, and I tend to use the paperwork that comes with those as bookmarks.
p.s. I am half wake as I write this let me know if something didn't make sense or I really screwed up the grammar

A Word that Start with H

House Keeping--- or more to the point house moving, which is what I am in the middle of currently. I am moving to a new place, my own apartment, and haven't sorted my Internet connection yet. I am able to check e-mail and do some on-line tasks at work, but my ability to take the time to write semi well thought out and composed blog posts is going to be limited for a while. For that reason I am announcing that I am taking a little, what's the word: Hibiscus? Hit or Miss? Hiatus, that's the one.

In other news, The Ann Arbor News, my home town bird cage liner is closing it's doors today with it's last edition. I can't say that I have been all that enamored with the paper and it's political bent in the last couple of years. I've watched it get thinner and thinner, I've seen as it had followed the trends of the media industry and given less and less space to local stories that are not crime and politics. Living in a town where there is one political party runs the whole show, and the paper is on their side I really don't know that they were doing their job of holding a light on our local government, school board and the university when they made policy that should have been questioned.

That said, there were several moments in my life time where my family was featured in the paper (all in positive lights).
Maybe the most memorable was several years ago there was story on the number of record shops in downtown Ann Arbor-- and the photo accompanying the story was of my sister looking at CDs in one of the used shops. She had tagged along with my brother and I and ended up in the photo. I always thought it was funny that she ended up in the photo, as she is a casual music fan and my brother and I are the Rockfiends. My grandfather, one of the most Conservative men I have ever known, was quoted in the paper when my sister graduated from Community High School. He said that he thought it was great that all of the grads got a chance to speak during the ceremony. Lastly there was the article about my mother and the new letter she published in the 80s for single Christan women, that was distributed around the city. I think it was all the time that she spent on that news letter along with the Church newsletter that influenced my brother start his own zine and the two of us to start out own record label in the late 90s. Like a lot of young people over the years I was also and Ann Arbor New Carrier, back in the bad old days when kids did those jobs. I made a little money, once and a while.

Anyway, later days.
Eric

P.S. If you are looking for a Friday forgotten book, I suggest this week, not a book, but about movie about a pulp writer. Le Magnifique which I think I have written about before, it is fun and has an energy to it, and well worth checking out. You can get it from netflix.
From Wiki:
Synopsis: François Merlin (Belmondo) is a Jean Bruce type writer of pulp espionage novels, and about half of the film plays in his imagination, where he is the world-renowned superspy Bob "Sinclare" (The name of the character is never seen written in the movie, while some people write his name "Saint-Clair" the way it is pronounced in French sounds like Sinclar.) Christine (Jacqueline Bisset) is a sociology student who is interested in the novels, but in the writer's imagination, she is Tatiana, his paramour. Her clear fascination with Bob St Clair, an irrealistic and idealized hero, begins to bother Marlin, who in real life is the very opposite of his creation: a clumsy, frustrated man who barely makes enough money to get by. As a result Marlin begins to sabotage his own hero.

Hard Case Crime: Bi Monthly/Westlake

No, no, we are not going to get 2 new Westlake books a month. However, as many of you know Hard Case Crime had been the most visible purveyor of old school hard boiled plot driven crime paperbacks for the last five and a half years. They have consistently issued a new title each month during that time, both new books in the style of classic crime and reissues of out of print titles.

In the latest News e-mail Editor Charles Ardai announced that they would be taking a break between the two books they plan to publish in December, and their next title, a unpublished Donald Westlake (bow your heads, moment of silence, open your copy of Lemons Never Lie to page 138 and read aloud) novel which is slated to hit shelved in April 2010 (which is most likely going to be the last week in March). Starting with Memory HCC will publish every other month.

(love that cover, it's the red in the chair, the pants and the blanket)

Ardai, didn't go into all of the reasons for the bimonthly*, but the slow down in consumer spending would be my guess. Ardai did say that a lot of people have reported having a back log of HCC books in their TBR piles (and you can count me in that number) which is a valid reason to slow down publishing new titles. Because I am a can do, give it your best shot type of guy, I feel like there is more that can be done to move the masses to pick up and support HCC more. To that end I have a couple of suggestions that I am just going to throw out there into the interweb winds:

1- on the HCC website, how about a printer friendly one sheet PDF list of the books published so far so that new readers can print it off and take it with them to the book store, Amazon, or the library.
2- A PDA/ Black Berry/iPhone/iPod touch version of the same thing so that people can have the electronic shopping list with them.
3- book sets. why not have a special that collects all the Max Allen Collins Quarry books in one set, or all of the Westlake in one set.
4- more merch- posters, postcards, magnets, and bottle openers.
5- Facebook- It would be nice to see a official HCC face book page, with news, updates, art work, and just a general place for fans to mingle and what not.

There you have it--- now I know that the people at HCC work hard and are doing the best that they can, I in no way want to come off like a know it all, or a back seat driver, I simply want them to be able to keep on doing what they have been for a lot of years to come.

oh and they could republish the A. I. Bezzerides novel The Long Haul (*Hint*Hint*)

*(From http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/bimonthly) Does bimonthly mean 'twice a month' or 'every two months'? I'm afraid it means both! But in the publishing industry, it is used fairly consistently to mean 'every two months'. The same ambiguity affects biweekly and biyearly. If you want to be absolutely clear, use a phrase such as 'twice a week' or 'every two years'.