I WANT TO BE A COWGIRL

Posted for no special reason except that I like the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQMH3KgYsTY

THE GOAT (1921)

Buster Keaton could always put a smile on my face.  His timing and comic control truly made him a candidate for the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), as well as the hapless "goat" on this silent two-reeler.  Here, through a series of mistaken identities, Keaton is mistaken for a murderer who is pursued by a posse, lead by the father of the woman he loves.

Also starring Virginia Fox, who was the leading lady in many of Keaton's early films, and went on to marry producer Darryl F. Zanuck; she died at age 83 or maybe age 76 or perhaps somewhere in between -- her given birthdates had an eight-year discrepancy.  Joe Roberts played the police chief; Roberts had become a friend of Keaton's father and the Keaton family and was asked by Keaton to appear in 16 of Keaton's 19 silent short films of the 1920s. Playing the actual murderer was Malcolm St. Clair, a producer, director, writer and actor who also co-wrote and co-directed The Goat with Keaton; Keaton's influence on St. Clair has been described as "transformative" and his directing work is distinctly divided between pre- and post-Keaton.

Enjoy this comic gem from more than a century ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6kE2JfkJ1c

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SMILEY LEWIS! (AND A HAT TIP TO THE TWO-PIECE)

 Overton Amos Lemons (1913-1966), a.k.a. Smiley Lewis, was "the unluckiest many in New Orleans.  He hit on a formula for slow-rocking small-band numbers like 'The Bells Are Ringing' and 'I Hear You Knocking' only to have Fats Domino come up behind him with similar music and a more ingratiating delivery.  Lewis was practically drowned in Domino's backwash."  Other songs Lewis recorded were "The Bells Are Ringing," "Blue Monday," "One Night," and "Shame, Shame, Shame"  -- most of these became hits for other artists.

"I Hear You Knockin' "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIeY7J9kjg0

"Shame, Shame, Shame"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctLKz-ZLbMU

"Blue Monday"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxdRFTa0sg

"The Bells Are Ringing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKsnw0ZH7gY

"Tee-Nah-Nah"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIu6fnUNP0U

"Can't Stop Loving You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnAckkJ-ncI

"One Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yks0vvhF9c

"I Love You for Sentimental Reasons"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tN8UY2P_sw

"She's Got Me Hook, Line, and Sinker"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg2VtGYyXHE

"Bumpity Bump"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-vwQMi6lsY

"Someday You'll Want Me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIEmHdQmnSE

"Go On Fool"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPTzS38c_E

BONUS:  Did you really think I would let the 80th anniversary of the two-piece swim suit -- the bikini -- got unnoticed?  When runway models refused to model the revealing swim suit, designer Louis Reard hired Micheline Bernardini, an 18-year-old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, to model the 30 square inches of cloth at a press conference at a public pool in Paris on July 5, 1946.  Thus was history made.  Bernardini, bless her, is still alive at age 98.

In tribute, here's Bryan Hyland with "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge9Ou3-YyqU&t=3s

HYMN TIME

 The Golden Gate Quartet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvngnjAcrAw

100 YEARS AGO: THE FOURTH OF JULY AX MURDER IN PENSACOLA

This was less than a decade after the notorious "Axman" murders in New Orleans during 1918 and 1919.  As with the New Orleans Axman, the Pensacola murderer remains unknown.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-century-later-pensacola-s-july-4-1926-ax-murder-still-unsolved/ar-AA27c5S4?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=464632e1990540b5e3865445fe448cbb&ei=86

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! SEEING WASHINGTON (1957)

I freely admit that I have a love affair with Washington, D.C.  There is a sense of grandeur that I got sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Monument overlooking the Reflecting Pool, a feeling of reverence as I viewed the Vietnam Wall, and a sense of being near greatness as I entered the Jefferson Memorial.  I've been on a special tour of the White House and drank cups of sickly sweet lemonade.  I walked the steps of the Capital Building during the Vietnam War and saw students there quietly protesting the war.  I stood in the Rotunda as people were singing Phil Ochs' "The Power and the Glory" to the tune of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" -- people who were supporting Nixon and had no idea what the song was really about, and though I did not agree with them I was glad they could voice their opinion.  I spent hours admiring the magnificence of the animals at the National Zoo, braving the yellow jackets that swarmed through its luncheon areas, especially admiring a newly-born baby hippo, and I stayed at a home that was once part of Washington's Mount Vernon estate.  I walked with awe through the sacred and hallow Arlington Cemetery.  I found myself weeping at the National Medical Museum in Silver Spring when I saw that they had a portion of Abraham Lincoln's shattered skull on display.  I have sailed the Potomac on Thanksgiving Day.  I have been to book signings where I met Dick Francis and Elizabeth Peters and many others.  I have picnicked along with many happy families.  My girls went to school in the area so I spent a lot of time at George Washington University and Marymount College.  My eldest grandchild was born at Georgetown University Hospital, but all remember nothing of that place, only the tightly swaddled, beautiful and calm infant that was placed in my arms that day.  The statues, the monuments, the National Cathedral, the parks, the museums, the historical sights, the many venues for culture and the arts, the restaurants, the theaters...all of them are etched in my memory.  I spent too many hours at the Washington Children's Hospital where so much was being done to help young people.  So, too, are the poorer sections of the city and the people of all stripes, colors, creeds, and ethnic origins, and the many rats that seemed to appear at night.  All of this -- the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the tacky -- combined to form a city that I love, a city that represents some of the best of America, and a city that has helped us move toward that more perfect nation we all strive for.

Things have changed now.  Efforts are being made to turn Washington, D.C., into another Trump Mar-a-Lago.  I compare the Hillwood Estate in Washington of Marjorie Merriweather Post to her other mansion, Mar-a-Lago in Peach Beach, which has been (in my considered opinion) demeaned and cheapened by its latest owner.  We once took a clipping of ivy from Hillwood that had originally been planted at Buckingham Palace and planted at our then house in Maryland; I fear that if we took anything from Mar-a-Lago today, it would rot and decay.

This promotional, educational comic book points out some of the magnificent and historic sights of Washington in the late 1950s, back when the White House had an East Wing that was not rubble and when tacky gold leaf was not the dominant aesthetic.

"Seeing Washington is designed to highlight but a few of the countless points of interest which annually attract millions of visitors to Our Nation's Capital.  The magazine is published by Commercial Comics, Inc., a firm specializing in the production of custom-made educational comic booklets for government, business and industry.

"It is our wish that this magazine will bring to everyone who reads it a better understanding of what Washington, D.C. means to our nation and to the world, and that it will arouse a greater appreciation for the privilege to say 'America, My Home.' "

The Washington, D.C. of my memory, the Washington, D.C. I knew, is part of my America.  With courage and determination, we can once again return this magnificent city to that shining beacon of freedom and liberty.

Enjoy this brief trip through my -- our -- city.  And Happy Fourth!

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102130&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE FURY AND THE TERROR

The Fury and the Terror  by John Farris, 2001

This is the first sequel to the author's bestselling horror novel The Fury, which was published twenty-five years earlier, sold more than a million copies, and was made into a major film starring Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving in 1978.  Farris has since published two further sequels:  The Fury and the Power (2003) and Avenging Fury (2008).  Knowledge of the first book is helpful, but not essential as the significant background details are revealed over the long course of The Fury and the Terror.

I mention the long course of the book because it is a sprawling work covering an array of themes.  Although set in contemporary times (with many cultural references to date it), it portrays an America just bursting with people with newly-found psychic powers who are hiding behind the scenes.  Two opposing political groups are vying for supremacy.

MORG is a secret paramilitary group with unlimited funds and power that is working to subvert the Constitution and brings about a Fascist rule; it is run by the unscrupulous Victor Wilding, the lover of First Lady Rona Harvester.  The two have managed to "brain block" Rona's husband, the President, who now sits in a vegetative state in a secret location, supposedly recover from a stroke.  Wilding is actually a psychic doppelganger of Robin Sandza, a powerful teenage psychic who was thrown from a roof to his supposed death by his father at the end of the first book.   Robin lives, however, also in a forced vegetative state; if Robin dies, then Victor, as his doppelganger, would also die.

The other political is organized by the Director of the FBI and opposes MORG.  Both groups are evil and often resort to violence and murder to achieve their ends.  The director's son, using the name Geoff McIntyre, has been tasked to seduce young Eden Waring, who, unknown to her, may become the next Avatar, the powerful leader of psychics of many stripes and powers around the country.

The current Avatar, Kelane Cheng, had been captured by MORG and was being taken to their secret base in Plenty Coups, Montana, when she managed to psychically take over the controls of the airplane and crash it into a college graduation ceremony in Northern California.  The Valedictorian at the ceremony happened to be Eden, who suddenly had a vision of the impending air crash, and managed to get most of those present to safety.  Eden now finds herself on the run from both covert groups, as well as from confused citizens demanding an explanation.

Tom Sherard is a former South African big game hunter who had been married to the Avatar before Kelane, Gillian Bellevar, the daughter of rich and influential parents.  Now, here's where it gets tricky.  Gillian was the "psychic twin" of Robin Sandza.  Robin's father, Pete, impregnated Gillian in Robin's stead and Gillian gave birth to a baby girl, who turned out to be Eden.  Gillian's memory of the whole thing was psychically blocked.  Gillian was assassinated in a hail of bullets in front of Tom, who also bore the scars of the assassination attempt.  Now that Eden nis on the run, her grandmother, Katherine Bellevar, has asked Tom to find Eden and bring her granddaughter to her for safety from MORG.  And, yes, there is a history between Katherine and Rona.

Just to make things interesting, the country is still reeling from a nuclear attack that wiped out Portland Maine, secretly orchestrated by MORG.  Rona and Victor plan to release another nuclear device over the next few days in Madison, Wisconsin.  A shift in prevailing winds have forced them to shift their target to Nashville, where Garth Brooks will be performing to a crowd of over 70,000.  Can Tom, Eden, and a kick-ass high-fashion Somali-Chinese supermodel stop the explosion in time?  And can Eden's reluctant doppelganger (yes, she has one) aid in the defeat of MORG?

There's psychics galore, shape changers, ghost and revenants, time travel, other dimensions, incest, prophecy, and the Good Lord knows what else.  It's a lot to pack into some 500 pages of small type.

Confused?  Join the club.  But somehow it all makes sense.  Sort of.

An exciting, wide-ranging extravaganza that is hard to put down, with just a few (very few) hints of snark in the writing. 

John Farris (b. 1936, and still alive; he'll be 90 this month) is a best -selling author of horror, suspense, and /southern Gothic novels.  His first novels, beginning when he was 19, were crime and hardboiled mysteries.  His first bestselling novel, written when the author was twenty and published two years later, Harrison High (think Peyton Place set in a high school), was filmed as the Dick Clark vehicle Because They're Young in 1960; any problems with the film can be forgiven because it also starred Tuesday Weld.  From 1968 to 1974, Farris published five other Harrison High novels as paperback originals.  When Michael Calls, published in 1967, gave Farris a solid foothold into the horror/thriller genre.  It was filmed as ABC Movie of the Week starring Ben Gazarra, Elizabeth Ashley, and Michael Douglas in 1972.  The Fury, with its plethora of psychic intrigue, made the bestseller lists in 1976 and was the basis of the noted 1978 Brian DePalma film.  Among Farris's other bestselling books are All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By, Shatter, The Catacombs, The Uninvited, and Son of the Endless Night.  Despite some of his work being flamboyant, it is uniquely effective.  In 2001, Farris was presented with the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.  Although he has not published a novel since 2009, he did script a 2019 film, No Sin Unpunished.