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Monthly Archives: May 2010

Fever Dream – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

31 Monday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

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Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

I’ve been a fan of the writing duo of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child ever since their debut novel, RELIC. They’ve produced some really fine novels since then, not to mention their solo efforts. FEVER DREAM is the latest to feature Aloysius Pendergast, Special Agent for the FBI, a man who prefers to go by his last name only.

This one opens twelve years in the past, before his FBI days, when he’s in Africa with his wife of two years, Helen, where they were participating in a herd reduction program for the Zambian government, when they get a call for help In a nearby tourist camp, a German photographer has been attacked by a huge lion and dragged into the underbrush. Because the Pendergasts are licensed hunters, they have to answer such a request.

Everyone is terrified because the lion had a bright red mane and the area was full of legends, going back forty years, of such a man eater that had killed and eaten humans. Couldn’t be the same lion, though, as the lifespan of a lion was approximately twenty-five years. Couldn’t be. Could it? No one would track and kill it.

The trail wasn’t hard to find and Pendergast and Helen checked their weapons, gave them to the gunbearers and began the hunt, tracking it by the blood trail. Knowing it was close, as a lion wouldn’t go far before eating, they came to a copse of trees where it had to be hiding, readied their weapons.

Just in time for the lion, a huge monster, to burst from cover, attacking Pendergast and his man, swiping huge paws back and forth, taking down the pair, about to chomp down on Pendergast when Helen cuts loose with her rifle, driving the creature off. She rushes in to attend to her husband when the lion suddenly reappears as she lays down her rifle, snatching her up, and retreating into the jungle.

Pendergast comes to a few minutes later and, though severely wounded, takes his rifle and pursues. The first thing he finds is her severed hand, stepping into a clearing to find the lion munching on Helen’s torso, the head lying beside. Calmly,he puts a bullet into the lion’s brain.

Jump to the present.

Special Agent Pendergast is in New Orleans for his bi-decade visit, according to the terms of the will, of his grandfather’s grave. At the old family home, tended over by the ancient Maurice, he decides to make a tour of the place he rarely visits, ending up at the gun case where his and Helen’s rifles reside, untouched since that incident twelve years before. Noticing rust on the barrel of Helen’s weapon, he decides to clean it. A weapons expert, when he finds the barrel clogged with bits of cotton wadding, he realizes right away what it means. Someone had changed the loads to blanks!

Helen had never had a chance!

Next, he goes to the personal effects recovered after killing the lion, as well as a tuft of that red mane that had been clutched in her severed hand. Performing tests, he finds the red is not natural, but a henna rinse! Helen had been murdered!

Anyone who follows the Pendergast novels knows a small thing like a twelve year old trail won’t even slow down the Special Agent. He recruits his old friend, Lieutenant Vincent D’Agosta of the New York police, to help and they set off for Africa.

What they learn there sends them back to the States and Pendergast begins to learn he didn’t know his wife as well as he’d thought. She had been keeping secrets from him. An interest in John James Audubon and a missing early painting by him, the Black Frame, for one, a painting that no one knew the subject, done while he was recovering in a sanitarium before he began his famous paintings of American birds. An extinct species, the Carolina Parakeet, is also involved.

Unknown to Pendergast and D’Agosta, they’ve stirred up something with their investigation and now have a killer stalking them and everyone involved. One man is killed by shotgun before they can interview him, another shortly after their visit. Pendergast won’t let the unknown killer stop him, though, as he hunts down his wife’s killers for his expected revenge.

I couldn’t put this one down, I started it Sunday morning and finished it, all four hundred pages, before bed time. If one likes a good thriller, here’s one highly recommended.

May 2010 Book Round-Up

31 Monday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

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79: WE: The Family Jensen – William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

80: CR: Bruno, Chief of Police – Martin Walker

81: CR: Mum’s The Word For Murder – Brett Halliday

82: CR: The Deputy – Victor Gischler

83: CR: The Columbo Collection – William Link

84: WE: The Loner: Rattlesnake Valley – J. A. Johnstone

85: CR: Columbo: The Dean’s Death – Alfred Lawrence

86: CR: Downtown – Ed McBain

87: CR: Quarry – Max Allan Collins

88: CR: The Rare Coin Score – Richard Stark(Donald E. Westlake)

89: AD: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Vampire Affair – David McDaniel

90: CR: Columbo and The Samurai Sword – Bill Magee & Craig Schenck

91: FA: Another Fine Myth – Robert Asprin

92: CR: Nobody’s Angel – Jack Clark

93: WE: Blood Bond: Moonshine Massacre – William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone

94: CR: 87th Precinct: Killer’s Choice – Ed McBain

95: AD: Girls On Sin Street – Larry Maddock

96: WE: The Last Gunfighter: Winter Kill – William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

97: TH: Blockade Billy – Stephen King

98: CR: Columbo – Alfred Lawrence

99: CR: 87th Precinct: Killer’s Wedge – Ed McBain

100: TH: Fever Pitch – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

101: CR: The Sour Lemon Score – Richard Stark(Donald E. Westlake)

May 2010 Movie Round-Up

31 Monday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

≈ 1 Comment

Ride Him, Cowboy(1932)

The Big Stampede(1932)

Haunted Gold(1932)

Sagebrush Trail(1933)

Somewhere In Sonora(1933)

The Dawn Rider(1935)

Stagecoach(1939)

Apache Trail(1942)

My Darling Clementine(1946)

The Law And Jake Wade(1956)

On The Beach(1959)

Sergeants 3(1962)

Alien Trespass(2009)

Jesse Stone: No Remorse(2010)

Mailbox Monday

31 Monday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 7 Comments


1: The Ark: archaeologist `Dilara Kenner goes on an adventure tied to her missing father, his obsession with finding the biblical ark, and the possible death of billions. And someone doesn’t want her looking.

2. Girls on Sin Street a collection of short stories by Larry Maddock(Jack Jardine), author of the Agent of T.E.R.R.A. series when I was a teenager. The stories are all about the ladies of the evening and carries the subtitle An Anthology of Pros(think about that one for a second).

3 + 4: one of the old Ace doubles. Read The Sun Smasher and flip the book over for Starhaven. Recommended by James Reasoner.

5: Bitter Steel: a collection of stories and poems of fantasy by the author of the Talers novels, Cold In The Light, and Write With Fire.

6: The Sword of Langor: another novel by Jack Jardine(Howard L. Cory) in the Sword and Planet style of fantasy.

7: Blockade Billy: two novellas by the master of horror, except here the horror is not supernatural, but the evil created by man.

8: Sidewinder: Mankiller, Colorado: a new western featuring Bo Creel and Scratch Morton, two longtime friends getting on in years.

9: The Wall Around The World: a collection of short science fiction recommended by Richard Robinson on his fine blog. My cover is different from the one he posted.

10: Find My Killer: Bill Crider posted on this one for Forgotten Books. My cover is different. By a fine fantasy writer.

Just Because I Like It

30 Sunday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

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Apocalyptica

I’ve posted on this band before, a Finnish group of classically trained cellists formed in 1993 that transpose metal, as well as other types of music, not to mention more and more original stuff as the years went past, into cello music. They started with four, added drums a few years later, and two have since moved on. At first, it was all Metallica covers, but they’ve covered various other musicians as well. One particular favorite is their Stairway To Heaven(I’m including it at the bottom).

The album here is mostly original material one of the band, Toppinen, wrote, or co-wrote with guest musicians performing on the album. There are even a few tracks with vocals.

The current line-up has Eicca Toppinen, Pavo Lotjonen, Perttu Kivalaakso, all on cello, and Mikko Siren on drums.

John Wayne And “Duke”, The Wonder Horse

29 Saturday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

≈ 1 Comment

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Duke, John Wayne



John Wayne appeared with Duke in a series of B movie westerns in 1932-33 and both seemed to get equal billing(six I believe) . Most of them were remakes of old Ken Maynard pictures from the Twenties. I’ve been watching some of the old B movies Wayne made before his big break in STAGECOACH in 1939. From what I’ve found, they even used a lot of stock footage from the Maynard westerns, usually distance shots of a man, supposedly Wayne’s character, on a fast moving horse and a few others where you couldn’t see faces.

Duke certainly was a wonder. In RIDE HIM, COWBOY, Wayne proves Duke was not a killer by riding him and the horse seemed to take to him immediately. After trying to buck him of course. He established himself as Wayne’s ride by, in one scene, unsaddling Wayne’s black horse with just his teeth and running the mount off. In these four movies, he did all sorts of tricks, usually involving pulling up trees or posts he’s tied to to race to the rescue. Wayne was a different character in each movie, always John with new surnames, but the Wonder Horse was forever Duke.

One thing I found odd in my research. Wayne was not particularly fond of horses. To him, they were just tools of the trade in making cowboy pictures.

FFB: Girls On Sin Street – Larry Maddock(Jack Jardine)

27 Thursday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

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Jack Jardine, Larry Maddock

I wasn’t sure what this book was going to be like when I started reading it. Larry Maddock(Jack Jardine) was a favorite writer of mine from my teenage years. He was the author of my favorite science fiction series from that time, AGENT OF T.E.R.R.A., and I wondered what I might be getting myself into here.

Published in 1963, GIRLS ON SIN STREET is subtitled An Anthology of Pros(think about that one for a moment). What it is is a collection of short stories about those ladies of the evening, prostitutes. There are no credits to indicate that they might have appeared singly in other venues and the tales cover all facets of that line of work. We have seasoned pros, college girls just getting into the business, bored housewives, women regretting choices made. And the men: college boys with more money than sense, cab drivers, two soldiers planning a whore house in Algiers during WWII and taking ten years for that dream to come to fruition.
There are even a few science fiction stories in the mix.

I suppose in 1063, these tales might have been a bit salacious, but compared to your average story today, they are restrained. I liked them. Whatever they were, Maddock didn’t beat down the ladies here, make them appear as dirty. They made choices to survive and prosper as each of us do today.

I’m glad I found this one.

Forgotten Music: Move It On Over

26 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

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George Thorogood

Maybe I’m listening in the wrong places these days, but I don’t hear much about George Thorogood anymore. Oh, you hear a few of the songs on the radio, but he is sixty now and the bluesy sound he plays is probably not relevant to the young folks these days.

I first saw him and his band, The Delaware Destroyers, on some long forgotten TV program. It may have been Soundstage on PBS, now that I think about it.Maybe not. I just remember it was a nightclub setting and the band hadn’t been playing but a couple of minutes before the crowd was up dancing among the tables. I know my foot had begun to tap and, likely, if I’d had a partner at the time, we’d have been dancing as well. And let me tell you, me dancing is not a pretty sight. Just ask the lady with which I used to hit the local dance club floors.

The music certainly had an energy and George Thorogood’s fingers flew over the strings in a manic frenzy that brought out beautiful solos while he strutted across the stage.

I immediately went out and looked for a record by them. And I mean record. It was that far back. 1978. Their current release at the time was MOVE IT ON OVER, the second from Rounder Records, a small blues label. No original material, all covers, it was the album that put him over. The band never attained the level of a major band. He played the arenas and did well, but the band always seemed more at home in that night club setting that I first saw them.

George has recorded some memorable songs(Bad To The Bone, I Drink Alone, Get A Haircut(and Get a Real Job), One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer). Two other songs you still might hear on the radio came from this release: Move It On Over, the Hank Williams tune, and Who Do You Love?, from Bo Diddley.

and probably his best known song: BAD TO THE BONE. George is joined in the video by Bo Diddley.

High School Exit Exam

26 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Humor

≈ 4 Comments

New High School Exit Exam

(PASSING REQUIRES ONLY FOUR CORRECT ANSWERS. REMEMBER THAT)

1: HOW LONG DID THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR LAST?

2: WHICH COUNTRY MAKES PANAMA HATS?

3: FROM WHICH ANIMAL DO WE GET CATGUT?

4: IN WHICH MONTH DO RUSSIANS CELEBRATE THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION?

5: WHAT IS A CAMEL’S HAIR BRUSH MADE OF?

6: THE CANARY ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC ARE NAMED AFTER WHAT ANIMAL?

7: WHAT WAS KING GEORGE VI’S FIRST NAME?

8: WHAT COLOR IS A PURPLE FINCH?

9: WHERE ARE CHINESE GOOSEBERRIES FROM?

10: WHAT COLOR IS THE BLACK BOX IN A COMMERCIAL AIRLINER?

REMEMBER, YOU ONLY NEED FOUR CORRECT ANSWERS TO PASS.

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS BELOW….

1: HUNDRED YEARS WAR: 118 years

2: PANAMA HATS: Ecuador

3: CATGUT: sheep and horses

4: OCTOBER REVOLUTION: November

5: CAMEL’S HAIR BRUSH: squirrel fur

6: CANARY ISLANDS: dogs

7: GEORGE VI: Albert

8: PURPLE FINCH: Crimson

9: CHINESE GOOSEBERRIES: New Zealand

10: BLACK BOX: Orange

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU FAILED? YEA, ME TOO. I got one right.

Hero Metal A Capella! WTF?

25 Tuesday May 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

≈ 2 Comments

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Hero Metal a Capella, van Canto

Van Canto is a German ensemble formed in 2006 that are referred to as Hero Metal a Capella, but they do use real drums and not a machine. Five voices and a drummer. Their music has an energy that I actually like. Probably not for everyone though.

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