Archive for March, 2007

…oh, and speaking of Chandler

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

Ian Fleming Interviews Raymond Chandler for the BBC
That’s the only known recording of Chandler’s voice. How cool is that? Phillip Marlowe’s creator being interviewed by James Bond’s creator.
Chandler is getting on in years in this interview, and he comes across as a kinda-drunk cranky old man, but with a razor-sharp mind. It’s pretty awesome. And [...]

While I’m Talking About Movies…

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

..but this time good ones: We had a double bill of Double Indemnity and Body Heat last night.
Best piece of dialogue1 from the night:
Phyllis: I was just fixing some ice tea; would you like a glass?
Walter Neff: Yeah, unless you got a bottle of beer that’s not working.
Now, do you think that’s Chandler, or [...]

Jeff Ford, Look What You’ve Done.

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

You know, things are so easy in this Internet age that it sometimes only takes a tiny impetus to start things rolling down the hill.
For example, brilliant author Jeff Ford might make a slightly nostalgic post about the terrible 1975 movie The Devil’s Rain.
One of the unintentionally funniest flicks ever. If I’m not mistaken, [...]

A Clash Of The Titans

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

This Saturday night my home will be host, for the first time, to a Halifax Gentlemen’s Poker Association No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em invitational tournament.
I’m quite excited–the logistics of getting the various and sundry reprobates required for such an event out to my secret base in the woods are not trivial, and attempts to have [...]

Have I Fallen Into Bizzaro World?

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

Yes, this is a link post.
Each one of these links is something I’ve run into lately that makes me wonder if I’m still in the real world… or at least has made me suspect there is something subtly off about things around me…

“Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself [...]

Favourite Blog Memery

Monday, March 26th, 2007

So, over at Shaken & Stirred my pal Gwenda says some very nice things about this blog, and then tags me with one of those memes: list your top five non-book blogs.
This is both easier and much harder than “list your top five blogs”.
It’s easier since the vast majority of the blogs I follow1 [...]

Science Fiction Authors Say Smart Things: Brust on Thinkin’

Monday, March 26th, 2007

Some days Steven Brust does a brilliant job of charmingly and knowingly talking a lot of bunk. Hell, I’ve seen him do it in a costume with a cheesy, fake accent, and that’s like the black diamond trail of bunk-talkin’.
Today is not one of those days. Today he hits it straight down the middle with [...]

Of course he would know where the lost souls were…

Monday, March 26th, 2007

You remember when I was hyping up that Judy Henske collection?
Well, it arrived, and the music is just as awesome as I expected it to be. However, the liner notes are even better than I expected them to be. Especially this one:
Hooka Tooka
When I sang this at Mr. Kelly’s in Chicago, Martin Luther King came [...]

A Story That Could Be True

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

If you were exchanged in the cradle and
your real mother died
without ever telling the story
then no one knows your name,
and somewhere in the world
your father is lost and needs you
but you are far away.
He can never find
how true you are, how ready.
When the great wind comes
and the robberies of the rain
you stand on the corner [...]

Quoting From “LONG LOST FRIEND”

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Actually the proper title of the work is “JOHN GEORGE HOHMAN’S POW-WOWS; OR, LONG LOST FRIEND A COLLECTION OF MYSTERIOUS AND INVALUABLE ARTS AND REMEDIES, FOR MAN AS WELL AS ANIMALS. WITH MANY PROOFS Of their virtue and efficacy in healing diseases, etc., the greatest part which was never published until they appeared in print [...]

A thought

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

I was going to write up something about the just passed fourth anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. war in Iraq, but I’ve decided I’m too tired. Maybe tomorrow.
Instead, I offer this quote, from Edmund Burke:
The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove [...]

Cellblock America

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

I’m not going to talk a lot about the history or positions of the Cato Institute–if you’re interested in that, you can go do the reading yourself.
The very short version is that they are essentially right-wing libertarian types. I’m a bleeding heart left wing socialist type. You’d think we would agree on nothing. You’d be [...]

I could wake up to that

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

While I maintain that the ne plus ultra1 form of Wodehouse’s Jeeves & Wooster stories are the Jonathan Cecil unabridged readings from Audio Partners, the voice I hear in my mind when I think of Jeeves speaking is Stephen Fry’s. Certainly he’s created a visual icon:

That’s why I think the notion of the VOCO clock, [...]

This one’s for Mike Drake

Tuesday, March 20th, 2007

Soundtrack for the birthday drinking post

Tuesday, March 20th, 2007

For the full experience of the “A Man Turns 34” post below, you really should have this song playing in the background. It’s the best thing the Fruvous guys ever wrote (although I think the version on the tape was slightly better than this one from Bargainville).
Moxy Früvous - The Drinking Song
The Drinking Song
And the [...]