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Monthly Archives: February 2009

February 2009 Book Round-Up

28 Saturday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

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CR: 16: Jimmy The Kid – Donald E. Westlake

WE: 17: Lawless Prairie – Charles G. West

SF: 18: The Secret of The 9th Planet – Donald A. Wollheim

AD: 19: Fargo: Phantom Gunman – John Benteen(Ben Haas)

AD: 20: Fargo: Killing Spree – John Benteen(Ben Haas)

WE: 21: Violence of The Mountain Man – William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

WE: 22: The Last Gunfighter: Killing Ground – William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

HR: 23: Partners In Crime – C J Henderson with Joe Gentile

SF: 24: Cap Kennedy: Galaxy of The Lost – Gregory Kern(E.C.Tubb)

WE: 25: Matt Jensen, The Last Mountain Man: Savage Territory – William W. Johnstone with J.A Johnstone

WE: 26: Sidewinders II: Massacre At Whiskey Flats – William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

WE: 27: Fargo: Shotgun Man – John Benteen(Ben Haas)

Ingathering: The Complete People Stories
SF: 28: Pilgrimage: The Book of The People – Zenna Henderson

SF: 29: The People: No Different Flesh – Zenna Henderson

February 2009 Movie Round-up

28 Saturday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

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Ride Lonesome(1959)

The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh(1964)

Eddie and The Cruisers(1983)

Eddie And The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!(1989)

Last of The Dogmen(1995)

Led Zeppelin Meets Gilligan’s Island

27 Friday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

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Gilligan's Island, Led Zeppelin

A really odd cross breeding here. I don’t see how people thing of this stuff. I guess their imagination is much greater than mine. Either that or “Them’s some powerful drugs there!”

Try these on for size:

That one I’ve heard on the radio a few times. The next one I just stumbled across.

More than passingly strange.

FFB: Ingathering:The Complete People Stories – Zenna Henderson

27 Friday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

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Forgotten Friday Book, Zenna Henderson

Zenna Henderson was born in 1917 in Tucson, Arizona, graduated from Arizona State in 1940, and worked as a teacher in Arizona most of her life, except for a year in Connecticut, and two in France. She taught at a Japanese internment camp during WWII, at a military base, and even, as she referred to it, a semi-ghost mining town.
the-people
Raised a Mormon, after her marriage to a non L.D.S., she wasn’t active in that faith, attending a non-denominational church up until her death in 1983.

The people were a human looking alien race that were fleeing the destruction of the Home, looking for a new one. During the Crossing, one of their ships crash landed on Earth, the People escaping on life slips. Now they are scattered across the southwestern part of the North American continent. The time is 1890.
images
The People have physic abilities. All of them can fly(they call it lifting). Some can read minds. Others, called sensitives, feel the wounds and pain of others. They can find things such as water, precious metals, by touching, and then are able to “see” where it is in the ground.

Henderson’s first People story, Ararat, was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in October, 1952. It concerned a young woman, an outsider, taking a job as a teacher at a community in Cougar Canyon. Warned that, while friendly, they were a bit standoffish to the world at large. The time of the story is 1940.

Her stories were filled with religious references(titles like Ararat, Gilead, and Jordan). The People were a religious folk. The Power had told them the Home was dying and what they needed to do to survive. When their time is at an end, The Power Calls them to the Presence. The living all rejoin their family members in the presence sooner or later.
images
Scattered as they were, a lot of them lost contact with each other. Some have gone to extraordinary lengths to deny their abilities, having suffered at the hands of superstitious people(burnings and such), branded as witches. Some, born on Earth, have grown up not knowing why they were different, their parents never telling them before their deaths. Some injured in the original crash taken in by kindly humans.

Teachers are prominent in a number of stories. One, a substitute , handicapped by a car accident, takes it upon herself to “get through” to a young boy, a foster child, everyone else has given up on. He’s troubled, but she learns of his “abilities” by accident, one that he can make music out of the air.

What I liked about these stories was the writing, the way Henderson vividly paints pictures in your mind of the society she’s creating: aliens and the few humans that know and aren’t afraid of them. She mirrors the real world with it’s intolerance of differences and makes one think. Some people have dismissed her stories as overly sentimental. I disagree.

The stories were originally gathered into two books, PILGRIMAGE: The Book of The People and THE PEOPLE: No Different Flesh, tied together to make a fix-up novel. The first tells stories from the forties on and ends with a ship coming from the new Home to rescue them. Some go and some stay(after all, most were born on Earth; it’s their Home now. The second begins with their leaving the original Home and a couple of stories set during the early days on Earth, showcasing some of the horrors and joys both of encounters with humans.

I read them many years back, though I first encountered the People in a literature book in junior high school. The first story, Ararat, was there and the phrase “platting your twishers” stuck with me many years after that until I found the paperbacks. Those two books disappeared a good while back(probably lent to somebody and never returned).

The book I’m referencing here was published by the New England Science Fiction Association Press and gathers the two books, as well as one story never published, into one handsome volume.

The two paperbacks are easily available and reasonably priced on the used book sites, though the original hardcovers command substantial costs(I saw one for $500+). Henderson was one of the few female SF writers that never used a male or androgynous sounding name to hide her sex.

Final note: a TV movie was made in 1972 of the first story I think(I’ve never seen it) that starred William Shatner and Kim Darby. It was appropriately titled The People.

The Sixties And Captain Beefheart

26 Thursday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

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Captain Beefheart

A few days ago, Patti Abbott posted a couple of music clips from the Sixties and there was a brief discussion. I decided to get in the spirit and dug up a couple on Youtube from one of my favorites back then.

Kids these days think us old fogies are stiff and don’t know how to have a good time. If they only knew….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCSPf5Viwd0

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAoPhVn4y1Q

These certainly brought back a lot of old memories of the era. I was nineteen at the time Woodstock(the original) happened. I briefly entertained a notion to go, but couldn’t interest anyone in going with me. As much as a nineteen year old thinks he knew, I wasn’t about to take off up there alone. I was at least that smart in those days.

We’ve Lost Another One

25 Wednesday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in authors

≈ 3 Comments

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Philip Jose Farmer

I just heard the sad news. Philip Jose Farmer has passed way at 91.
Another great one gone. Read about it here.

Partners In Crime – C J Henderson with Joe Gentile

24 Tuesday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

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comic book characters, horror, radio characters

When I first started this novel, I wasn’t sure what I would find. It contained a host of characters, only one of which I had more than a passing familiarity, some I’d never heard of at all.cj-henderson

It has characters from old radio, from old books, new books , movies, and television. Handily, the authors explained it all and kept things rolling along nicely while they did.

It begins during the latter days of World War II when insurance investigator Johnny Dollar(from radio) and reformed jewel thief Boston Blackie(old prose and movies) are hired by private eye Candy Matson(from radio) to buy The Moon of Kali, the Dres’ri’pur, a large black star sapphire from an unscrupulous officer at an American military base where it was amongst other valuable items awaiting return to the rightful owners. Supposedly cursed, of it’s eighty-five owners in it’s thousand years of existence, seventy had died during the first year of ownership.

The man behind the transaction is a Japanese secret service agent, Mr. Moto(from stories and movies).

Just as they make the deal, not without a lot of trouble, Hiroshima and Nagasaki happen and the deal is canceled, the participants told to return the gem to it’s rightful owner.

Jump to modern day.

The gem is part of an traveling exhibition, valuable objects with lurid histories, at the Natural History Museum. Pat Novak, ex-PI(from radio), out of retirement and in charge of security, has hired Jack Hagee, a PI in the Mike Hammer mold(Henderson’s prose hero), as part of the team. Reporter Carl Kolchak(TV and prose) shows up to cover the story.

At the same time, Lai Wan(Henderson’s character), a Chinese woman who’s a mystic/detective, is looking for the only man who can stop the coming terror: Mr Moto who dropped out of sight twenty-five years. She enlists the aid of Mr, Keen(old radio), here resurrected as a large black man, the finder of lost souls.

While they look for Mr Moto, a deadly battle begins at the museum for possession of the gem with ninjas and men under the thrall of some unseen agency. Near the end, one last character appears(Blackshirt, his son, and an early ancestor, are the heroes of a large number of stories and books by a father and son in the early part of the twentieth century).

An expert marksman, he takes out a number of the enemy combatants, takes the jewel, and flees to a faraway spot to draw this unseen enemy out.

As I said, it all flows pretty easily and I was thoroughly entertained. The book comes from the good folks at Moonstone, those who’ve brought us collections of prose stories featuring Carl Kolchak, Zorro, the Avenger, the Phantom, the Spider, the forthcoming Green Hornet(I can’t wait for this one), and all of these characters in this novel appear in comics and graphic novels published by the company. One intriguing title mentioned coming is a teaming, of sorts, of Sherlock Holmes and Carl Kolchak. A comic series has already appeared and Joe Gentile has turned it into a novel(another one I’m looking forward to seeing).

Gunsmoke On The Radio

23 Monday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in Radio

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Gunsmoke, Old Time Radio Catalog

I’ve been having a fine time lately listening to the old radio tales of Gunsmoke. The show ran from 1952-1961 and starred William Conrad of Cannon fame as the Marshall of Dodge City. It overlapped the TV version which started in 1955 and ran through 1975.gunsmoke
Some of the episodes have featured real characters from the history of the old west such as Doc Holiday and Billy The Kid. I’m sure there will be others as a I progress through the list of shows.
The history I’ve researched says it started with the idea of a hardboiled Philip Marlowe type western and two audition tapes were made, the first what they were after and the second a more traditional western. The actor in the second wasn’t available for a western, so the project was shelved. An interesting note in the two audition shows was that the character’s name was Mark Dillon.
Jump three years when two men were looking to create an adult western, as opposed to The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid, more for younger listeners. Mark became Matt, William Conrad took the role, and history was made.
The role of Doc was played by Howard McNear and Chester was Parley Baer, both veterans of the Andy Griffith Show as Floyd the barber and Mayor Stoner respectively, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty. The photo is a publicity still made for the program.
The characters here are a bit different from their television versions. Matt was a bit more ruthless, though not a killer mind you, Doc was nastier, almost a drunkard at times, and Kitty was more the traditional saloon owner. They never mentioned on TV that most saloons kept a string of “girls.” I’ve never seen the early television episodes, so they may have been the same back then. I don’t know. Television sometimes tames them as the years role by and the show becomes more favored.
The set I’ve started on comes from the good folks at Old Time Radio Catalog. I’ve been having a great time exploring the site to see what they have available.
The entire Gunsmoke series(400+ episodes) is available on five discs in the Mp3 format, which allows up to fifty hours per disc(the first I’m working on has 94 half hour programs, including the two audition shows). They won’t play in regular audio players, but I listen to them on my computer as well as an Mp3 player.
I like the format as it keeps the number of discs small, making one able to have extensive collections, even without a lot of room for storage. Very convenient.
Old Time Radio Catalog has a large number of shows available of all types: westerns, mysteries, sci-fi, variety, comedy, drama. Here\'s a link to their site. Anyone interested in the old radio program can certainly find what they like there, whatever they favor. The prices are very reasonable as well. Myself, I plan to pick up more and will report on them as I do.
Now back to the first disc. It will take a while to get through over four hundred episodes.

Final note: one thing I find of interest in these shows. They carry the original broadcasts completely, with commercials and announcements as well. Normally I’m not a commercial liking person. But these give one a little insight into life during these times. The first broadcast was April 26, 1952.
Some announcements talk about the network’s coverage of the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions. Those would have been the ones that selected Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson to run against each other.
Fascinating stuff!

Musician? No! Funny? Yes!

21 Saturday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in Humor, music

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Manualist

Jerry Phillips bills himself as the Manualist and has been doing this for thirty-eight years. I find it funny. What can I say? I’m a male.
Here’s a couple of samples to show his range. He has about forty or fifty videos on Youtube.

and:

Five Johnstones

20 Friday Feb 2009

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Matt Jensen, Preacher, Sidewinders, Smoke Jensen, The Last Gunfighter, Westerns, William W. Johnstone

I hadn’t really intended to write anymore about the William W. Johnstone books, but the Sidewinders post back on August 30th has proved to be very popular. I still get two or three hits a week on it and, at the rate it’s going, it will soon be the top entry I’ve posted(it’s second behind About,the one on myself). I actually started this post in December and it’s moved up the list from about fifth since then. It is only two points now away from the most read post I’ve written. People seem fascinated with the identity of J. A. Johnstone, the name attached since William passed away a few years ago. Everyone wants to know who’s carrying on those wonderful characters.

So here goes.

SIDEWINDERS II: MASSACRE AT WHISKEY FLATS

It starts with Bo and Scratch breaking up a tar-and-feathering of a young conman, the would-be victim getting away in the ruckus. Then, on the way out of town, said victim tries to hold them up, to steal their horses and gear as he’s on foot.
Bo sees something in the young man, though, and they take him along.
Then a rock slide takes a man ahead of them and looking for identification, they discover he’s a Marshall hired to tame Whiskey Flats. Bo has the idea to let their “friend” pose as the Marshall, with them as deputies, to “fleece” the town. Bo still feels he’s honest deep inside, just needs a little growing up.
They didn’t know what they were getting into. Rustlers were stealing from the two large ranches and the owners were blaming each other. Also evidence turns up of someone selling new Winchesters to Apaches.
Is it two different schemers or one causing the mischief? And why?

PREACHER’S PURSUIT

Someone is trying to kill Preacher. In the past couple of days, two men attempted to gun him down and three men triggered a landslide trying to take him out. In all cases, the mountain man wants one alive to find out who’s after him. Not only that, someone has armed the Blackfeet with new muskets and they intend to wipe out Corliss and Hart’s outpost and all the whites living around it.

Well crafted novel of the early days of the west. Highly entertaining.

VIOLENCE OF THE MOUNTAIN MAN

An old enemy of Smoke Jensen has finished his prison term and been released. He’s planning vengeance. In the constantly evolving plan, the man kidnaps Sally and Pearlie’s girl friend to set a deadly trap, drawing a very angry group, Smoke, Cal, and Pearlie, in pursuit.

MATT JENSEN, THE LAST MOUNTAIN MAN: SAVAGE TERRITORY

Pogue Willis has killed his friend and Matt makes a promise to the dying man to take a poke of money to the brother. The trail leads to St. Louis and then back to Phoenix. He gets hooked up with a self-centered Eastern businessman and his wife. When she is taken by hostile Apaches, Matt sets out to rescue her.

THE LAST GUNFIGHTER: KILLING GROUND

Riding back into Buckskin with his son and daughter-in-law, Frank Howard was almost the victim of an assassin’s bullet. Arriving in town, he learned of Dex Brighton’s claim that he was the legal owner of Tip Woodford’s Lucky Lizard silver mine. A tough Easterner, he swears his father was an original partner with a paper claiming, since his father died after the partner, he owned the mine. He keeps trying to get a settlement before the judge arrives for the trial over the matter.
Another attempt is made on The Drifter’s life, the judge is killed in a stage hold-up, several tries are made on Frank’s lawyer’s life. Brighton has to be behind it, but there is no proof.

I may be talking through my hat, and I’m no expert of course, but I see three different styles in these five novels. Everyone seems extremely curious as to the identity of J. A. Johnstone. I not a big enough reader of current western authors to hazard a guess.
I think I will just enjoy each one as they come out. These are some of the best writing around these days.

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