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 it’s a goldmine… Read more →
Month: March 2007
While I’m Talking About Movies…
..but this time good ones: We had a double bill of Double Indemnity and Body Heat last night. Best piece of dialogueBest delivery of a line, though, is a tie between Robinson‘s line about “Margie” drinking straight from the bottle, and Turner‘s “You don’t look lazy.” from the night: Phyllis: I was just fixing some ice tea; would you like… Read more →
Jeff Ford, Look What You’ve Done.
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, the last scene is… Read more →
A Clash Of The Titans
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 an event here in… Read more →
Have I Fallen Into Bizzaro World?
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 to roam the… Read more →
Favourite Blog Memery
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 followI do have literally hundreds… Read more →
Science Fiction Authors Say Smart Things: Brust on Thinkin’
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 precision. He’s good at… Read more →
Of course he would know where the lost souls were…
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 in. He… Read more →
A Story That Could Be True
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… Read more →
Quoting From “LONG LOST FRIEND”
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 for the first time in… Read more →
A thought
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 the necessity of… Read more →
Cellblock America
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 wrong. While we wouldn’t… Read more →
I could wake up to that
While I maintain that the ne plus ultraYes, I think I am prepared to make a case that these audiobooks are “better” in some sense than the printed form. It’s a very rare argument. 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… Read more →
This one’s for Mike Drake
Soundtrack for the birthday drinking post
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 band played… Read more →
