HYMN TIME

Well, not a hymn...but it is a bit of spiritual music to start you on your day and perhaps to help you remember how beautiful a gift springtime can be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1_xmj4mkgs

WANT TO BE A MOVIE PRODUCER?

Victor Gischler, a super-cool writer, is looking for funding for his super-cool feature film Pulp Boy.  I really hope this one gets made.  Follow the link to find out how you can help.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/693006064/pulp-boy-feature-film-comedy

WE'RE BACK

We had a great week and a half.  We were able to spend a few days with Jessie before she had to go to Chicago for her meeting.  Then we got to spend more time with Ceili and Amy, our very sweet granddaughters, and with Mr. Beefy and Anvil, our very droolish grandpugs.  Dined out a few times, once at the British Beer Garden and once at Fish Bones -- not to confused with Bonefish (Boston Market's seafood chain), although the fish skeleton logo looked surprisingly similar.  We had real Ipswich fried clams (whoot!) -- that's with the whole clam, bellies and all, rather than the wimpy clam strips you usually find outside of New England.

     Interesting and meaningless fact:  it is exactly 499 miles from our driveway in Southern Maryland to Jessie's front steps in Massachusetts.

    The weather was fantastic, just the way you would want to close out the winter and usher in springtime.  Once we got back, though, showers and thunderstorms.

     The trip back was interesting.  We spent one night in a motel in Havre de Grace.  Beautiful town.  Stop by if you have a chance, just be sure you avoid the motel we stayed at.  First they gave a room with only one working electrical outlet.  Mumbled mutterings about we thought we fixed that short circuit and don't worry, we're moving you to another room, if you need us we'll be working on the wiring in your old room.  The new room had all the outlets working, but there just weren't that many of them.  But, hey, I didn't mind unplugging the mini-fridge in order to charge our cell phones -- one at a time.  We were a bit put off by the empty coffee cup with the well-chewed wad of gum on the lid that was by the television.  But we were tired and we both have the pioneer spirit...

     So home again, home again, jigged-de-jig, with just a stop to pick up milk, bread, some dishwasher detergent, and an armful of mail.  We can relax tonight; tomorrow it's back to the market because my wife informed me there is a difference between dishwashing liquid and dishwasher liquid.  Who knew?

LEVIATHAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFinPD8n1N8

VA-CAY

Off to Massachusetts for a kinda/sorta vacation and some quality time with two of the sweetest grandkids on this planet.  Blogging will be hit-or-miss, or -- more probably -- nonexistent for the next week. 

OVERLOOKED FILM: THE WAY AHEAD

Here's one created and scripted by the great Eric Ambler, author of Tokapi, Epitaph for a Spy, Journey Into Danger, and Coffin for Dimitrios, and scripter of A Night to Remember, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, and The Cruel Sea, as well as the creator of the television show Checkmate.

     Even better, the script for this one was co-written with the multi-talented Peter Ustinov.

     Even more better, the film was directed by Carol Reed, who helmed such greats as The Third Man, Trapeze, Our Man in Havana, and The Agony and the Ecstacy.

     Want more?  How about David Niven, Stanley Holloway, James Donald, John Laurie, Ustinov himself, a super-young Dr. Who (William Hartnell), and (playing themselves) Tessie O'Shea and Quentin Reynolds.  This one also has an uncredited Trevor Howard as a ship's officer.

     The story?  It's about England preparing for the war at a time when many believed the country would never enter into it.  When the war comes the untried platoon find themselves being shipped for the invasion of French North Africa.  Before they could fight the enemy, their ship is nearly sunk.  Will they be able to pull together their training when they meet the Germans?

     Throw your stereotypes out the door.  This is a realistic look of England's army training at the time.  So realistic, in fact, that for the the next 39 years this film would be used in Austalia for officer training. 

     From 1944, The Way Ahead.

http://www.archive.org/details/The_Way_Ahead_1944

     For more of today's Overlooked Stuff go to Sweet Freedom.

INCOMING

An excellent week, capped off by a shopping basket of books for $3 total and some nifty free e-books.

• Kevin J. Anderson, Tau Ceti.  E-book.  Science Fiction.
• Brett Battles, Becoming Quinn.  E-book.  Mystery.
• Paul Bishop, Crocker:  Teguila Mockingbird.  E-book.  Mystery.
• Max Brand, The Rock of Kiever.  Western collection of three short novels.
• "Dan Britain" (Don Pendleton), The Godmakers.  SF.
• Jonathan Carroll, Glass Soup.  Fantasy.
• "Nick Carter", Strike of the Hawk and Double Identity.  Omnibus of two novels in the Nick Carter Killmaster men's adventure series.
• Lincoln Child, Deep Storm.  Thriller.
• "Lee Correy" (G. Harry Stine), The Abode of Life.  An early (1982) Star Trek television tie-in novel.
• Daniel Edward Craig, Murder at the Universe.  Mystery.
• Jack Curtis, The Sheriff Kill.  Western.
• Pablo D'Stair, Slumber.  E-book.  Mystery?, maybe; fantasy?, maybe;  interesting? definitely. 
• J. T. Donleavy, Meet My Maker the Mad Molecule & The Saddest Summer of Samuel S.  Omnibus collection of 27 stories and sketches in Meet My Maker and a very, very short novel in The Saddest Summer.  Lit'ry stuff, I suppose.
• Doranna Durgin, Angel:  Impressions.  Television tie-in novel.
• Travis Erwin, The Feedstore Chronicles.  E-book.  A Texas-laced memoir of sorts
• M. A. Foster, The Warriors of Dawn.  SF.  The first in the Ler trilogy.
• Richard Gordon, Doctor in Clover and The Summer of Sir Lancelot.  Two novels in the humorous "Doctor in the House" series.  The television series was much better than the movies, BTW.
• Zane Grey, Rogue River Feud.  Western.
• Timothy Hallinan, The Bone Polisher.  E-book.  Mystery.
• Captain Powers Hazelton, Scouts, Spies and Heroes of the Great Civil War:   How they Lived, Fought and Died for the Union, Including Thrilling Adventures, Daring deeds, Heroic Exploits, Exciting Experiences, Wonderful Escapes of Spies, Scouts and Detectives; With Anecdotes, Watchwords, Battle Cries, and Humorous and Pathetic Incidents of the War Embracing True Stories of Daring, Courage and Self-Sacrifice.  Phew!  Copywrited in 1911 by Geo. W. Berton, this book is also "Superbly Embellished with Many Thrilling and Very Attractive Illustrations."  How could I pass this one up?  Especially since the thrift store had a sale -- a shopping basket of books for $3.00.  This helped fill up the basket.
• Libby Fischer Hellman, Easy Innocence.  E-book.  Mystery.
• Hans Holzer, The Amityville Curse:  Fact & Fiction.  Omnibus of the nonfiction book Murder in Amityville and two novels, The Amityville Curse and The Secret of Amnityville.  Holzer, who died almost three years ago, was a self-promoting ghost-hunter who wrote over a hundred books of this sort, making him a latter-day Elliot O'Donnell.
• Charlie Huston, The Shotgun Rule.  Mystery.  This was Huston's first stand-alone novel.
• Cathleen Jordan, editor.  Alfred Hitchcock's Borrowers of the Night.  Anthology of 27 stories from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
• Louis L'Amour, Matagora and The Sky-Liners.  Westerns both.
• Ken MacLeod, Divisions.  SF.  This is the second half of MacLeod's The Fall Revolution and consists of two short novels.
• Warren Murphy and James Mullaney, The New Destroyer:  Guardian Angel.  The first of the "New" Destroyer series and the first with Mullaney's name on the cover; the series, of course, was created by Murphy and Richard Sapir.
• Mike Newton (ghostwriter), Mack Bolan the Executioner #91:  The Trial and Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan:  Flesh and Blood.  Men's adventure series.
• Scott Nicholson, Ethereal Messenger:  Three Novels (Drummer Boy, The Red Church, and Speed Dating with the Dead).  E-book.  Supernatural.
• Andre Norton, Horn Crown.  Fantasy, the "keystone" Wirch World novel.
• T. V. Olsen, The Hard Men and Run to the Mountain.  Westerns.
• Lewis B. Patten, Home Is the Outlaw.  Western.
• Louise Penny, Still Life.  Her debut mystery, featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.
• J. R. Roberts, The Gunsmith #316:  Ace In the Hole.  Adult western.
• Greg Rucka, Smoker.  Suspense.
• Alan Ryan, The Kill.  Horror.
• Bradford Scott, Holster Law.  A Walt Slade western.
• Luke Short, Play a Lone Hand.  Western.
• Neville Shute, No Highway.  Novel.
• Anthony Neil Smith, All the Young Warriors and Choke on Your Lies.  E-books.  Mysteries.
• Brad Steiger, Things That Go Bump in the Night (formerly The Awful Thing in the Attic).  Supposedly true, albeit fictionized, accounts of ghosts and hauntings.  Steiger is another one who has over a hundred such books.  He and Hans Holzer should have had a throwdown for Elliott O'Donnell's crown.
• Steven Torres, Killing Ways:  Stories.  E-book.  Collection of ten mystery stories. 
• Raymond Van Over, Whisper.  Horror.
• Robert W. Wallace, Children of Salem.  E-book.  Historical suspense. 
• A. R. Wise, Deadlocked.  E-book.  Zombies!
• Dave Zeltserman, The Hunted.  E-Book.  Thriller.