No The Walking Dead, Yes The World Series, & Kudos To Mister Bauer

Last night, for the first time in over five years, there was a new episode of  The Walking Dead being broadcast and I wasn't watching it.  Instead of asking Joe if we could read early, I watched game 5 of The World Series until a little after 9. Then we went to Joe's room and he read me a couple of pages from the Great Illustrated Classics version of Stories From the Bible, then I read him a couple of pages of Tarzan and the Castaways . . . the 24th Tarzan book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And then I came back to the living room and resumed watching the World Series.

And you know, it was pretty exciting. And satisfying, too. In fact, in addition to everything else, there was a moment which renewed my faith in the existence of Good Sportsmanship. Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer hit a foul ball which careened towards the stands, and  Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward ran it down and made an amazing catch.

After making the catch, Heyward trotted back to his position. No jumping up in the air. No swaying of the hips. No flapping of the arms. And Bauer? He smiled. And applauded.

NFL? If you're taking notes, that's called Good Sportsmanship.

Best. Sequel. Ever.

I just saw the most astonishing movie sequel of all time. Missed the title sequence and opening credits, but of course I recognized Willem Dafoe immediately, and then it all clicked into place: The Last Temptation of Christ 2.

I don't know if Martin Scorsese was at the helm for this one (you may remember that I mentioned missing the opening credits), but whoever the director was had some massive and buoyant balls, for sure. Choosing to set the sequel onboard a luxury liner was a stroke of genius. And talk about bold--not only did we have a clean-shaven Jesus this time around (!), but this Jesus had quite a chip on his shoulder as well. (He also seemed to be very fond of golf, which took me by surprise. I didn't see that one coming at all.)  But it was nice to see Jesus back on the water again, even if he did seem unnecessarily angry. All in all, it was an amazing job of film-making. I'll bet this one killed it at the box office. And having Sandra Bullock on board as Jesus's new pal was just brilliant.

UNgentleMANLY BEHAVIOR

I know that this is going to be hard to believe if you've only been watching football for the past two or three decades, but there used to be a thing called Good Sportsmanship which meant, among other things, that you didn't act like an asshole when you made a good play or scored a touchdown.

The first game I remember watching was the Ice Bowl. Strangely enough, after Bart Starr scored the game winning touchdown in one of the most memorable games in the history of the NFL, he did not leap to his feet and begin twerking. 

I miss those days.

As much as I still love football . . . which is quite a bit . . . every time a big play is made or a touchdown is scored, I just look at the fool(s) dancing and think, "Please stop that." It's not only ungentlemanly . . . it's unmanly. We've got rules against unsportsmanlike conduct; why doesn't that include this kind of thing?

My Last Willefords

Just finished reading my last two Charles Willeford books: The Difference and Made in Miami. I wish that I had read The Difference last. Neither book was all that great, but The Difference would have been a better note to go out on; it was at least an interesting take on the Western genre and was professionally produced. Not so much with Made in Miami.

For one thing, it seems to be presented as one of Willeford's "crime novels" . . . and has the oft-quoted Elmore Leonard line, "No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford" on the cover (in hard to read white lettering at the bottom of this picture). But it's actually more of a twisted romance thing.

For another thing, there are quite a few errors in the text. I didn't keep track of them as I was reading, but there were at least a dozen of them.  Here's one example:

"When Ralph came back with the money it would be money had couldn't actually afford to pay . . . . " (emphasis added)

That's indicative of some pretty shoddy editing. 

For another another thing, the story just doesn't hold together very well . . . and it is not very compelling. I also didn't like the use of the name Tarzan for one of the bag guys. ERB's hero deserves better than that.

If you are, as I am, striving to be a Willeford completist, then make sure that you don't read this one last. It will leave a bad taste in your mouth, for sure. And he deserves better than that. I'm hoping that my recently purchased biography of Willeford (by Don Herron) will help to wash that taste away.

Joss Whedon, Speed, and Stupid Television Shows

I was watching a show on tv last night that was so bad I can't even remember what happened, much less what it was called, but at one point a character said something like, "Everybody knows that Joss Whedon wrote Speed." I've always liked Speed. And I've always liked Joss Whedon. So the thought made me happy. But surely I would have heard this before if it were true, right? I went to IMDb and found . . . no writer credit for Joss Whedon on Speed. 

Nada. Hmm. So I went to Joss Whedon's IMDb page to look at his writing credits. And I found some surprises . . . like that he had written for the tv shows Parenthood and Roseanne . . . which was cool. But no Speed. So I figured that it was probably just a stupid, made-up thing in a stupid, utterly forgettable television show, but just in case I Googled "Did Joss Whedon write Speed?" And found 
an article entitled, "Joss Whedon Wrote 'Speed,' In A Hollywood Plot Twist Is Certainly Worthy Of Gratuitous Lens Flare." I have to admit that I have a little bit of trouble trusting a writer who has such a feeble grasp on English grammar (maybe it was translated from Chinese?), but the content of the article seemed believable, and there were other articles which supported it. 

So hey. Joss Whedon wrote Speed.

And even stupid television shows can give you a little something something. 

Сталинградская битва (1949)

The greatest battle that humanity has ever known . . .


David M. Glantz wrote over 3,000 pages on The Battle of Stalingrad in his Stalingrad Trilogy (which actually consists of four books, as the final "book" is split into two volumes). That's pretty intense. Intense enough for me to be interested in having a look at it. So I availed myself of the services of the library and checked out the first volume (To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942), but decided that before I plunged into its 678 pages I should get a little perspective on the subject. So I watched Stalingrad (1993), and it was a good piece of film-making, but it seemed to me that the story had been skewed to show the Germans in the best possible light . . . which is kind of ridiculous, since they had invaded Russia without provocation. 

Somewhere along the line I had heard about a documentary directed by a Russian fellow (Vladimir Petrov) in 1949 which actually re-enacted some of the battles that took place in Stalingrad and used German footage which had been captured after the war. It wasn't available on Netflix or Amazon Instant Video, however, and the Louisville Free Public Library did not have a copy. It was available for purchase from Amazon, but the cheapest copy was $25, which is kind of out of my price range. So I put it into my shopping cart and figured that if I left it there it might decrease it price at least a little bit (which seems to be the pattern), and then I'd go for it. 

And then I remembered: it's the 21st century.

So I went Googling, and, indeed, there was the movie, parts I and II, in glorious black and white . . . all 3 1/4 hours of it . . . on The You Tub.

I've just watched the first fifteen minutes so far, and it is magnificent. Now I'm going to go watch the rest of it.

Dos vedanya Tovarisch!

László Krasznahorkai, Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens

"The modern artist no longer bears within himself that hidden or manifest goal--clearly originating from an ancient mandate--of demonstrating, in his life and in his work, how a person can become, through the means of morality, humane . . . . "

László Krasznahorkai

Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens 

Charles Willeford: There's Something Happy and There's Something Sad

The mailman just brought me two packages which contained

So of course I am happy to have two more Charles Willeford books to read.

The sad, though, is that this is it. After I read these two, I'll have read 20 Charles Willeford books, and the only six that remain

Understudy for Love (1961) 

No Experience Necessary (1962) 

A Guide for the Undehemorrhoided (1977) 

Off the Wall (1980)

Everybody's Metamorphosis (1988)

Cockfighter Journal: The Story of a Shooting (1989)

are all way out of my price range . . . and according to WorldCat, the ones that are actually available in libraries (5 of them, surprisingly) are at least 300 miles from my doorstep.

So I guess this will be it. But it's been a good ride, and I'd mos def encourage any and all to give Charles Willeford a try. 

All in all, it's been a helluva return on my investment for being curious about the cover of an omnibus.

P.S. I was just looking through the stats on my blog entries and noticed that this one has lots of hits...like in my Top Ten...which led me to read it, hoping not to find any typos. (I didn't.) It did occur to me, though, that it would be appropriate to note that since I wrote this, Understudy For Love was published (as Understudy For Death) by Hard Case Crime (a wonderful publisher, by the way; read as many of their books as you can put your hands on). So only 5 Willefords remain unread by me now. And I think it's going to stay that way. (See THIS for the why if you're interested.)

Andrew Luck, Ameritrade, and Dangerous Things

I've got nothing against the Colts . . . other than that they snuck out of Baltimore in the middle of the night, but I'm getting ready to let go of that. And I've certainly got nothing against Andrew Luck, and have even gone out of my way to watch Colts games because of him. And I don't know a got-damned thing about Ameritrade. For all I know, they might be the most progressive, most generous company in the history of Western civilization. So I'm just sayin' here, right? 

I saw an Ameritrade commercial featuring Andrew Luck...

...and I said to myself, "Self . . . what if all of the celebrities in the world refused to endorse any products or services unless they could ascertain that said products and services (and the companies which produced them) were decent, honorable, and not harmful?"

Self could not answer, however:

 

Proletarian Laughter by Charles Willeford (1948)

In my quest to track down and read all of Charles Willeford's books, I looked at the University of Louisville's holdings and found (and was able to obtain and read) Kiss Your Ass Good-Bye, The Shark-Infested Custard, I Was Looking For a Street, and Something About a Soldier. I also noticed a listing for Proletarian Laughter, which I had already read in The Second Half of the Double-Feature (which collects all of Willeford's poetry . . . including some that doesn't seem to have been collected elsewhere), and I thought that it must surely be a reprint, but went ahead and got it anyway. Much to my surprise, it was one of the original Alicat Bookshop Press copies from 1948. It was in deplorable shape, and there were two pages missing, but still . . . I was able to hold Charles Willeford's first book in my hands . . . and that was kind of magical.



There were only 1,000 copies of this beauty in the original print run, so it's pretty amazing that U of L ended up with one of them. Too bad it's in such bad shape, but still . . . it's quite thrilling to have turned those pages.

I Was Looking for a Street by Charles Willeford

" . . . having a destination in mind kept a man from thinking he was merely on an aimless journey to nowhere."

Charles Willeford

I Was Looking for a Street

Now Available From Amazon Kindle Ebooks

It's a novel about an old lady who walks to a soup kitchen. And it's about life and what makes it worth living. And God. And miracles. 

It's HERE if you want to have a look. 

Or, even better, if you'd like to buy a copy. 

Speaking of which, thanks to those of you who have bought (or even borrowed) a copy of my novel. For those who haven't, help a brother out. This post has had almost 800 1260 visits. If a few more of you would buy / borrow a copy, I'd break into the top 2 million best sellers list!

Lucifer on Cats (Why He Hates Them)

"If you want an animal to look at you with contempt, get a cat. If you want a box of excrement in your house, get a cat."

Lucifer

Season 2, Episode 4

"Lady Parts"

script by 

Sheri Elwood

The Last Wolf / Herman (The Game Warden & The Death of a Craft) by László Krasznahorkai

It's been awhile since I tore through all of the  László Krasznahorkai books that I could find--starting with Seiobo There Below, then War & War, "The Bill," The Melancholy of Resistance, Satantango, and "Animalinside." I loved all of those books, and I wanted more. But when Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens came out, I didn't buy it. (In fact, I'd only bought the two short "books"--because there was no other way to read them--and Seiobo There Below because I loved it soooooo much.) It wasn't that I didn't want to spend the money. It was because I am in the process of divesting myself of books these days, and I am really hesitant to add more books while I am trying to do this. And I had obtained all four of the other big books from the library, so I thought it was a no-brainer that they would get Destruction and Sorrow. It came out on February 15th, 2016. I checked the library inventory regularly for months. Nada. About a month ago I went to the library web site and suggested that it would be a good book to purchase. Nada. Until today. When Destruction and Sorrow appeared in my holds list. (This has never happened before when I've suggested a purchase, so I guess someone is really looking out for me. Or maybe they've never purchased any of my previous suggestions.) So that will happen soon.

But meanwhile, another Krasznahorkai book has come out (September 27th, 2016), and (1) the library must have ordered it immediately, and (2) I was again on the lookout, so (3) I was first on the list to receive it. 

It is an odd little book. On the outside, it looks like this:

And on the inside, as you would probably guess, it looks like this:

Which is very cool to me. Like one of those old Ace Doubles, if you go back that far.

And I've just finished reading the three stories this little (4.8 x 0.6 x 7.3 inches) book, and I have to say that it is well worth $12.02 price tag (Amazon book . . . $9.99 on Kindle), but I probably am not going to buy it. Though I will read it at least one more time. (Which probably won't even require me to renew it; I'm sad to say, though, that at present that wouldn't be a problem, as no one else has requested the book. Isn't there ANYbody else in Louisville who reads László Krasznahorkai? If you do, please check his books out of the library so that they won't be winnowed, thus eliminating the possibility of someone stumbling upon him--as I did. It was a complete accident that I found him. I've told the story before, so I'll just squeeze it down to a Nabokovian parenthetical: (cover, likedit).

Anyway. "Herman" is divided into two sections ("The Game Warden" & "The Death of a Craft") because they are two "versions" of the same story (which is, at you have guessed, about Herman). Both are very strange stories, but they are told in a pretty conventional way--with periods and everything. "The Game Warden" is 25 pages long, and "The Death of a Craft" is 20 pages long. "The Last Wolf" --which is 70 pages long--is more typically Krasznahorkain . . . it's one sentence long. But you know how that goes. It doesn't really feel like one sentence, but the lack of punctuation encourages you to keep reading, and it really should be a one-sitting read.

There seem to be several connections between the two (three) stories, but I don't want to do any spoilers, so let's just leave it at this: it's a slim volume, but I wouldn't have felt cheated if I'd paid full price for it.

However . . . after I finished reading it . . . and I am very gentle with books . . . it looked like this:

I don't think that's the sign of fine craftsmanship there. Come on, New Directions Books. This is László Krasznahorkai we're talking about here.

Hoke Moseley

I just finished my first Hoke Moseley novel, Sideswipe. Was it good? Yes. Quite. How good? Let me put it this way: I've been a pretty dedicated Green Bay Packers fan since the Ice Bowl triumph in 1967. Well, tonight I had turned on the Packers / Giants game and started watching, but during the first commercial break I took a look at Sideswipe. I only had two dozen pages to go. Next thing I knew I was closing the book and the first ten minutes of the first quarter of the game was gone. So . . . THAT good.

Sideswipe is actually the third Hoke Moseley novel. It was the only one available at the library, though, so I picked it up when I got all of the other Charles Willeford books the library was holding. But I'd also ordered the Hoke Moseley Omnibus, so I'd intended to wait for it to arrive so that I could read the books in the proper order. I ripped through my other Willeford books very quickly, though, and faced with the prospect of a Willeford-less day, I decided to just have a little look at Sideswipe. You already know how that turned out. Sure hope that omnibus arrives today.

I've also been looking for the movie version of Miami Blues. I'd intended to wait until I'd read the novel before doing any serious looking, but since I was out of Hoke this morning, I looked around. Not available on Netflix. Only available via Amazon for sale or if you joined STARZ. But then I found it on the You Tub . . . in its entirety. Only two or three problems: (1) the sound has been speeded up, so all of the people sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks; (2) the picture has been reversed, so anytime there's writing it's backwards; (3) the picture is often cropped in very strange ways . . . so that, for instance, a speaking character's chest and neck will be in the shot, but not his head. But what the heck, it was free, and at least I got to see it. And it was actually a pretty decent movie. Alec Baldwin does a really good job as the bad guy, Frederick J. Frenger Jr.. And Fred Ward is pretty much perfect as Hoke Moseley The movie also features Vic Morrow's daughter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, as a young prostitute--and she looks a lot younger than 28.

So I am mos def up for some more Hoke Moseley. As soon as possible. Unfortunately there are no other movies out there. Paul Giamatti did his best . . . did a pilot for a series for FX . . . but apparently the network was not interested. Sometimes it just bes like that.

Charles Willeford, Journals, and Prayerish Things

"In a godless world, the keeping of a journal is a form of prayer."

Charles Willeford

New Forms of Ugly

Charles Willeford, Sisyphus, and Bowling Things

"There is no measurable difference between Sisyphus and a member of a weekly bowling team."

Charles Willeford

New Forms of Ugly

Speaking of Hard Case Crime Comic Books . . .

Just got my first glimpse of the first ever    comic book courtesy of Comixology, and I have to say that (1) I'm impressed by the art and (2) I am even willing to put $3.99 down for the first issue of Triggerman . . . assuming that it isn't sold out by the time I get to The Great Escape. Here, have a look:

And here's what the next two covers are going to look like:

That issue 3 cover is just a little bit too much (what with the bubbles), but that menacing foreground hand and gun is most excellent. 

Now if only Hard Case would release a high quality art book featuring the covers of all of the books they've published . . . .

Hard Case Crime & Charles Willeford?

Sent an email to

 Hi, Mr. Ardai. 

I’m still loving Hard Case Crime . . . and looking forward to seeing the comic books that are coming out any minute now. 

Meanwhile, I’ve just happened upon a writer I’m sure you’re familiar with: Charles Willeford. Most of his books are pretty readily available in one form or another, but there are a few which are really expensive . . . one to two hundred dollars expensive. They are:

Understudy for Love (1961) 

 No Experience Necessary (1962) 

Off the Wall (1980) 

Everybody's Metamorphosis (1988)

Cockfighter Journal: The Story of a Shooting (1989)

Is there a chance that Hard Case Crime could bring any of these books out?

Thanks.

Thomas Kalb

Heard back. They're going to take a look-see.

Hot damn.

In case you aren't aware of them, Hard Case Crime is a most wonderful publisher. The covers alone are worth the price of admission . . . but their author list is most impressive as well: Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Mickey Spillane, Robert Bloch, Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, James M. Cain, Donald Westlake . . . hell, they've even got a novel from Watergate Conspirator E. Howard Hunt. And many others.  Check out their homepage. It's worth your while.

Luke Cage, Hero Quagmire

I love Luke Cage. So I was pretty excited about watching the Netflix series. Joe was anxious to see it, too, and he has a much larger capacity for binge-watching than I do, so even though it was just released yesterday, we've already watched seven of the thirteen episodes.

And there have been some most excellent moments, for sure. One of my favorites was when Luke, after escaping from prison, steals a yellow shirt and some blue jeans from a clothesline, and is still wearing a metal thingie on his head from the prison doctor's rejuvenation machine, so he looks just like he did in the early comic book days. And maybe still does . . . I haven't read any Marvel comic books for a long time.

I've also enjoyed the many literary references, the occasional super-campy lines ("Sweet Christmas!"), and the 70s style theme song. 

However.

I am sorry to say that I have grown tired of this show already. Other than Joe, the only thing which keeps me watching is the hope that Danny Rand / Iron Fist will make an appearance. The biggest reason for my weariness is that there are just so many holes in the plot. Big holes. Like a guy shooting a L.A.W. (or something like it) in the middle of a city and not getting caught. And about a hundred other things of like ilk. Another reason is that the show is just downright racist. I haven't done a count, but I'd bet that there have been at least one hundred "nigger"s in the first seven shows. Not that that is itself racist, but it most certainly isn't not-racist. The racism comes in when damned near every criminal is black, and damned near every character is a stereotype. I mean, for fuck's sake. 

It's a shame, too, because Mike Colter is a pretty awesome guy, and he could do the part of Luke Cage justice if he wasn't hampered by such idiotic scripts. Speaking of which, more shame in that Cheo Hodari Coker, who is credited as executive producer, creator of the show, and writer of at least some of the episodes, is a guy with some pretty serious writing credits . . . Southland, for instance, which is probably my all-time favorite cop show.

So what happened?

Dunno. But I may have to go back and re-watch Daredevil to get the taste of this show out of my mouth. 

More news as it happens.