HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN!

Our beautiful. talented, smart, and modest* Erin turns 14 today.  When she was born, she marched to the beat of a different drummer, deciding to make her entrance on 2-3-02 instead of 2-2-02 -- a date which Kitty and I (and perhaps her mother) thought would be a cool birthdate.  Aside from that little glitch, Erin has been absolutely perfect to our unbiased, grandparently eyes.  Her mother's eyes, admittedly, roll when she thinks about having her as a teenager for another six years.  Christina really shouldn't worry because by that time she'll be ruling the world.

Our special girl serenades us beautifully on the flute.  She knocks our socks off  with her wonderful (and self-taught) nail designs.  (In Kitty's case, the socks are literally knocked off when Erin designs her toenails).  Someday she will realize that her wondrous headful of curls will be something she will cherish.

So a super-cheery Happy Birthday to you, Erin.  We love you and are very proud of the young woman you have become and the magnificent person you are becoming.


*We know she's modest because she will only admit to being 'awesome," not "awesomely awesome."  She's 14; give her time.

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: PEA PICKIN' PAPA

Here's Jimmie Davis, a baker's dozen years before he becameGovernor of Louisiana for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZRGZDZlQrw

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

To liven things up in a small English village it was decided to hold a town-wide spelling bee,  To everyone's surprise, one of the final two contestants was the village blacksmith; the other -- to no one's surprise -- was the town's most learned barrister.  The battle raged well into the night as first one, then the other, correctly spelled each word.  Then, at just a few minutes before midnight, the blacksmith faltered while the barrister spelled the final word.

The winning word?  Auspice.

JUG BAND MUSIC

Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band.  They were a favorite and we used to catch them at Club 47 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In addition to great music, I remember that Maria Muldaur wore the shortest skirts in creation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFqBD-FTPt0

OVERLOOKED MOVIE: AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL (1964)

Here's the first Coffin Joe movie and coincidently, Brazil's first horror film.

Coffin Joe was the creation  of Jose Mojica Marins, a Brazilian filmmaker and actor.  A now famous figure in alternative cinema, Coffin Joe is recognizable by his black suit, cape, top hat, and long,long fingernails.  This guy is immoral, murderous and searching for the perfect bride for "the continuiy of the blood."

As Coffin Joe became a cultural staple, his role as a central character became more diffuse and many of the later films were surrealistic bloodbaths of sexploitation.  No so, this one.

Crude though the cinematic techniques might be, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is effective -- albeit cheesy -- cinema.

Enjoy.

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

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: MAN SMART, WOMAN SMARTER

Harry Belafonte.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTDvCLAT8hg

INCOMING

A pretty good variety this week; I may have to put all of them atop the teetering Mount TBR.

• Lou Cameron, How the West Was Won.  Television tie-in novel.  "In agony and triumph, Through sweat and blood, they tamed and claimed a mighty land!"  As noted, this novelization  was based on stories and screenplays by Calvin Clements, Colley Cibber, Howard Fast, William Kelley, John Mantley, Katharyn Michaelian, Jack Miller, and Earl Wallace.  Cameron was a prolific writer with over 300 books published and winning a Spur award.  He created the long-running Longarm series as "Tabor Evans" and was a major contributor to the Renegade series as "Ramsey Thorne."  This book should not be confused with Louis L'Amour's novelization of the same title; the L'Amour book novelized the movie while this book novelized the miniseries.
• Angela Carter, The War of Dreams.  Literary fantasy, perhaps better known under its original title, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman.  Carter (1940-1992) was named one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 by The Times in 2008.  As an author, a critic, and an editor, she will most likely continue to be read long after you and I are dust.
• John Creasey, The Toff and the Deadley Parson.  Mystery novel.  The Reverend Ronald Kemp came to London's East End with a very set idea of right and wrong, but soon found his reputation tarnished in this world of thugs and toughs, leaving it to the Toff to get the parson back into a state of grace.  I like Creasey's books and, with over 500 to his credit, I'll probably never get to the end of them.
• Ron Dee, Blood Lust.  Vampire novel, billed as "a novel  of erotic horror."  The author has also published books as David Darke."
• "George G. Gilman" (Terry Harkness), Edge #28:  Eve of Evil.  Western novel in the violent adult series.  During a raging snowstorm, Edge finds Joseph and the pregant Maria held in a ghost town by hired killers.  The Christmas connection may be a tad overplayed in this book.
• Donald Hamilton, The Intriguers.  a Matt Helm thriller -- #14 I believe.  On vacation in Mexico, Helm is shot in the back.  Not a good way to start your vacay, but a great way to start a book.
• Charles Jackson, The Lost Weekend,  The classic novel of alcoholism.  This is a 1955 Berkley paperback in mint condition.
• Frances and Richard Lockridge, The Tangled Cord.  A Captain Bill Weigand mystery.  A notorious playboy is killed and a young economist disappears.  As the young man's fiance searches for him, a number of very peculiar people join the hunt.   The Lockridges always produced readable, above-standard mysteries.
• Steve Niles & Jeff Mariotte, 30 Days of Night:  Immortal Remains.  Graphic novel tie-in original novel.  Vampires are loose in Savannah, Georgia.
• Richard S. Prather, The Sweet Ride.  A Shell Scott mystery.  "Small town corruption explodes into a dirty case of multiple murder."   As always, there's humor, gunplay, and naked tomatoes girls.
• Richard Ben Sapir, Quest.  Thriller from the co-creator of Remo Williams, The Destroyer.  A New York cop is drawn into an international web of murder. 
• Max Shulman The Feather Merchants.  Humor novel.  Does anyone read Max Shulman any more?  In the Sixties, I devoured everything I could find by two unrelated and entirely different Shulmans -- Max and Irving.  This one by Max is about Sergeant Danny Miller's misadventures in the army.  As a bonus, there's the great Eldon Dedini's comic illustrations that graced so many of Shulman's books.
• Doug J. Swanson, Dreamboat.  A Jack Flippo mystery.  Dallas P.I. (and ex-lawyer) Flippo takes on the case of the "accidental" drowning of a nightclub owner.  Swanson (and Flippo) appeared in just five books between 1994 and 2000.  The author returned in 2014 to publish a non-fiction book about Texas gangster Benny Binnion.  Swanson is a highly regarded investigtive report for the Dallas Morning News.