Total Pageviews

Sunday, October 7, 2018

The Writer's Life 10/7 - Author, Artist, Actor, Bears

Four articles in today's NY Post provided fodder for the blog:

Dacre Stoker, 60, is the great grandson of Bram, the creator of one of literature's and film's most enduring characters, Dracula. With the help of a co-writer, the Montreal native has put together pieces of his ancestor’s lost literary legacy. The result is Dracul, a pre-quel to the 1897 classic. Stoker and J.D. Barker discovered that the publishers edited out the first 101 pages of the original manuscript. To find what went missing, the men tracked down other editions and combed through letters and journals. Some of the new novel’s material was drawn from interviews with cousins across Canada and England. Here's the cover:


A work by street artist Banksy shredded itself after being auctioned off for $1.4 million at Sotheby’s in London — and the buyer may be left holding the scraps. Just after bidding closed an alarm sounded and the piece fell through a shredder the artist secretly built into the picture frame, slicing Girl with Balloon into strips that dropped from the bottom of the work. A broker said: “This is now part of art history in its shredded state, and we’d estimate Banksy has added at a minimum 50% increase to its value.” Here are side by sides, before and during:


RIP consummate actor Scott Wilson, 76, best known for his portrayal of Hershel in 37 episodes of The Walking Dead. He did so much more. There are 81 titles under his name at IMDb. Although he was never nominated for an Oscar, he received critical acclaim for his chilling portrayal of one of the killers, opposite Robert Blake, in In Cold Blood (1967). He received a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in the screen adaption of William Peter Blatty's novel, The Ninth Configuration (1980). He was perhaps the best aspect of the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby. He was also in The Right Stuff (1983), an episode of The X-Files, one of Law & Order, and nine of CSI, to name a few. Here's a quote attributed to him: "When you arrive to a set and you see the sky all lit up and the sets all lit up, for me it is very exhilarating and it's a lot of fun. It's really fun to see that and to be a part of it. It's just like going to the circus." Well Done, sir. Thank you.


President Trump has another victory. An article in today's Post dubs supporters of Justice Kavanaugh as "Mama Bears" and suggests they are galvanizing for the mid terms, just as female Democrats are.

My thanks to the young woman who bought Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, the only sale of today's session in Park Slope.
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, October 6, 2018

The Writer's Life 10/6 - Jolly

My Friday night movie fix, courtesy of Netflix, traveled all the way back to 1930. Morocco was Marlene Dietrich's American debut, and she is mesmerizing as a cabaret performer who falls for a Legionnaire played by Gary Cooper. Both were in their late 20's at the time. Dietrich does a number each in French and English. In the film's most famous scene, she is in top hat and tux, and kisses a woman during the performance. This, of course, was in Hollywood's pre-code days. The situation is complicated by the soldier's ambiguous attitude toward woman, which allows a rich man, played by Adolphe Menjou, to make it a love triangle. Menjou seemed the same age, fortyish, throughout his long career. I chuckle whenever I see him, having read what a nasty piece of work he was off screen. Anyway, I was surprised at how modern the acting was. Usually, in work from this period, the techniques used in the recently ended silent era linger, are obvious and seem out of place. Dietrich does wonderful, subtle things with her hands throughout the narrative. She was nominated for an Oscar, as was director Josef von Sternberg, with whom she worked seven times. The pace is measured. The major flaw is a lack of character development, back stories. Although there are leaps in the plot, the story is easy to follow through its 92-minute running time. The closing sequence is awesome, despite being open ended. Jules Furthman adapted the screenplay from the novel Amy Jolly by Benno Signy. The sets seem authentic, although I've never been to Morocco. Filming was done in California and Arizona. Obviously, von Sternberg and cinematographer Lee Garmes were great artists. According to his bio at IMDb, the auteur was also a hardcase. I wonder how he and Menjou got along during the shoot. To my chagrin, I was unable to find specifics on a piano solo that plays in the background at several points. Man, it fit perfectly. 4600+ folks at IMDb have rated Morocco, forging to a consensus of 7.2 on a scale of ten. The print is first rate. If there were any flaws, I didn't notice. Kudos to the restorers. Here's a pic of the stars in character:


From Yahoo's Odd News, edited by yours truly: After seeing reports of meteorite pieces selling for thousands of dollars, a Michigan man took his doorstop to be examined. He'd found it in a barn he bought in 1988. The farmer who owned it said the rock landed in his backyard in the 1930's and was dug out of the crater created upon impact. It's worth $100,000. The Smithsonian and a mineral museum in Maine are considering purchasing it. It weighs 22.5 pounds. Here's a pic:


My thanks to the kind folks who bought books today on Bay Parkway. Here's what sold: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Stephen King's Cujo and Firestarter, three books in Russian, and a young adult novel about a pro baseball catcher.
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, October 5, 2018

The Writer's Life 10/5 - Pretty, Pretty Peggy Sue

From Yahoo News, heavily edited by yours truly: The woman Buddy Holly sang about in 1957 passed away on October 1st. Peggy Sue Gerron was 78. In a great bit of trivia, the song was originally titled Cindy Lou, after Holly’s niece. Holly wrote it with producer Norman Petty and Crickets' drummer Jerry Allison, who persuaded his pal to change the name in order to impress his girlfriend, with whom he was having a spat. When the band reformed after the plane crash that killed Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens, she traveled with the group. She and Allison eventually divorced. She attended junior college and became a dental assistant. Her second husband was a plumber, and she became California’s first female licensed woman plumber. When her mom fell ill she returned to her hometown, Lubbock, Texas, where she became a celebrity speaker, columnist, and radio host for a show called Rave On, which is, of course, the title of another Holly hit. In her later years she worked preventing domestic violence and drug abuse. In 2008 she released Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?: A Memoir by Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue, in which she included 150 of the entries of the diary she kept back in the day. Each year on February 3rd, "the day the music died," she left a single red rose at Holly’s grave. Here's the cover of her book:


A blurb in today's NY Post reports the results of a scientific study. Harvard researchers have found that increasing the number of wind turbines to create energy will increase temperatures. They also maintain that it will still be better for the environment than fossil fuels. I doubt zealots will be happy with this half a loaf is better than none report.

I get it - Dez Bryant is a jerk, but so are many NFL players. Why won't anyone sign him? Have his skills diminished, or is there more to this story? Last season he caught 69 passes, averaging twelve yards per reception.

My thanks to the kind folks who bought books today, and to the gentleman who donated a large bag filled with mostly non-fiction, much of it intellectually challenging. He lost his job recently, fell way behind on his rent, and is being evicted. He will keep his most cherished titles, and give the rest to me a little at time. Like so many of my donors, he cannot bring himself to throw away books.
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Writer's Life 10/4 - Yes, My Fellow Travelers

From the NY Post's Weird But True column, in my own words: A Brit who claims to be a time traveler has passed a polygraph test. He says that he's met telepathic robot-human hybrids in 8973, and that everyone will be time-traveling by 2028. Holy smoke - I may be alive to experience it! Remember the advice George Costanza gave Jerry when he was about to undergo a polygraph administered by the policewoman he was dating, who didn't believe he didn't watch Melrose Place: "It’s not a lie… if you believe it.” Here's a pic of the real Dr. Who, who has terrible news for liberals - President Trump will be re-elected:


An article in the Post reports that 88 million Americans - one in three - eat fast food each day. That should set the killjoys off.

From Yahoo's Odd News, in my own words: Police in northern Minnesota have been getting calls about birds that seem drunk. They are inebriated. They've been ingesting berries that have fermented earlier than usual this year because of an early frost. Authorities say they'll eventually sober up. Here's one of the offenders:


It appears Brett Kavanaugh has passed his seventh FBI investigation. This should satisfy liberals  - not!

My thanks to the middle age woman who bought the Danielle Steel translation in Russian, and to Ira who purchased a trivia book, and Creative Dreaming: Plan And Control Your Dreams to Develop Creativity, Overcome Fears, Solve Problems, and Create a Better Self by Patricia Garfield, and The Manhattan Madam: Sex, Drugs, Scandal And Greed Inside America's Most Successful Prostitution Ring by Kristin Davis. Special thanks to the Latino gentleman who parked his bike and, as usual, paid a lot more than I asked, this time for a little booklet, threeXthree, titled Desire.
Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

The Writer's Life 10/3 - Good News

From Fox News, in my own words: Felix Hernandez, 32, a native Venezuelan and pitcher for the Seattle Mariners, has passed his citizenship interview. “This country has given me everything,” he said. “It’s a dream come true..." Dubbed "King Felix," the former Cy Young Award winner and six-time all-star is 168-127 in 14 seasons. Becoming a U.S. citizen may have been his greatest victory. Kudos. Here he is taking the pledge:


Also from FN, in my own words: The Las Vegas shooting occurred on 10/1/17. After a dozen major surgeries, victim Rosemarie Melanson, once on life support, was discharged from the hospital last week. She was attending the festival in the company of her two daughters when the lunatic opened fire. A bullet tore through her liver, spleen and stomach. Astonishingly, she forgives the creep. She's still in pain and has difficulty eating, and a long road to recovery. Here she is at home:


I'm halfway through the first of three planned proofings of the novel I will self publish in January. I'd hoped all the formatting issues were history, but they're not. If I try to add several sentences consecutively, a page separation occurs that can't be corrected by a simple click of the back arrow. I'm pretty sure bugs came with the system when I first downloaded Word, which was accompanied by a lot of other stuff that ruined IE and Firefox on my PC. Chrome worked well for awhile, but that too was eventually compromised. I'm using Opera these days and it's good. I really should buy a new laptop, but I hate to go to the expense when my current one works well 75% of the time. When I'm done with the third wash of the manuscript, which is scheduled for December, I'm going to download a free seven-day trial of Adobe Acrobat - if it's still available. I hope it will allow me to insert, without fuss, the half page of notes I've taken. I'll probably then reconvert to Word. Why should things be easy?

My thanks to the gentleman who bought Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Ultimatum, Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, a book on the NYC subway, and a tiny booklet on rock n roll; and to the gentleman who purchased Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island; and to my main benefactress, who donated a bunch of marketable books. The most surprising sale of the day was a sci-fi novel in Russian to a middle age woman. Usually, it is the young or males who buy what many scoff as "fantastique."
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

The Writer's Life 10/2 - Odds & Ends

Regarding the new NAFTA agreement - once again it seems President Trump knows a lot more about business and getting things done than his critics. I have no idea if it will be a plus in the long run, but it's impressive nonetheless.

Anyone will guess the intent of the following pic:


In a great op-ed piece in today's NY Post, Rich Lowry has the audacity to suggest that literary hero Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird would not fare well in the current political climate. After all, he defends an accused rapist. Lowry also suggests the beloved novel has lost its validity and appeal, given current standards. Kudos, sir. 


Episode Two of Manifest was interesting but not nearly as good as the first. I'll watch number three, hoping it gets better.

In watching the NFL highlights on youtube, it seems QB's are running more this season, including on designed plays... I still have two games to view, but I doubt there will be a more eye-popping play than Patrick Mahomes, righthanded Chief's QB, completing a pass lefthanded for a first down to Tyreek Hill on the go ahead drive. Here's a still:


No luck trying to sell books on the street today. There was an interesting moment, however. A woman with a heavy accent was interested in Danielle Steel in paperback. Unfortunately, I had only hardcover. I mentioned that I had one in Russian, and the woman said: "To read Danielle Steel in Russian in America - shame." A little harsh, but then again I'm biased, as I've sold many such books.
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 1, 2018

The Writer's Life 10/1 - Both Sides of the Sky

Listening to the radio in my car the other day, I heard a cover of Mannish Boy that sounded like an uncanny imitation and tribute to Jimi Hendrix, or a track I'd somehow missed through the years. It was indeed the guitar hero. The song is included on an album that was released in March. Somehow I missed the boat. Here is the song list, followed by notes about them. All but four were written by Hendrix. 216 users at Amazon have rated it, forging to a consensus of 4.1 on a scale of five. If the rest is as good as the first track sounded on one listen - wow:
1. Mannish Boy (5:01) * (Written by Muddy Waters)
2. Lover Man (3:03) *
3. Hear My Train a Comin’ (7:25) *
4. Stepping Stone (3:12) *
5. $20 Fine (4:59) *+ (Written by Stephen Stills)
6. Power of Soul (5:55) ^
7. Jungle (3:28) *
8. Things I Used to Do (3:41) # (Written by Guitar Slim)
9. Georgia Blues (7:55) ++
10. Sweet Angel (3:54) *
11. Woodstock (5:19) *+ (Written by Joni Mitchell)
12. Send My Love to Linda (4:36) *
13. Cherokee Mist (7:01) *
* Previously unreleased
^ Previously unavailable extended version
+ Featuring Stephen Stills
# Featuring Johnny Winter
++ Featuring Lonnie Youngblood


Here are interesting tidbits from the world of sports: In Europe's thrashing of the USA in the Ryder Cup, Francesco Molinari went 5-0 in his matches during the weekend, Tiger Woods went 0-4. This caps the Italian's dream season, wherein he also won the British Open and at least one other tournament... In the NFL, Seattle DB Earl Thomas, a holdout through pre-season, broke his leg yesterday. As he was being taken away in a cart, he gave the finger, which seemed directed at his team's bench... In MLB, Oakland's Khris Davis' ended the season batting .247 - for the fourth straight year! In six seasons his home run total has increased each year, to 48 in 2018... At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Orioles' Chris Davis had a batting average of .161 in 522 at-bats, the lowest in history. The former slugger hit only 16 HR's, a far cry from the power that earned him a $161 million contract prior to the 2016 season. In 2013 & 2015, he combined to hit 100 dingers. His sudden, almost complete loss of skill is baffling and sad, but eventually happens to all athletes.

My thanks to Wolf, who bought a mystery in Russian, and to Action Girl, who purchased Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley; and to the gentleman who selected James Michener's Legacy and a Golda Meir bio; and to the one who donated five impressive works of fiction. The highlight of the session was a visit from a guy who may have had a little too much to drink. He railed about Queen Isabella, Rudy Giuliani and others, and when done handed me two bucks, perhaps penance. Maybe the indian summer day had an odd effect on him. Many raved about it.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)