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Monthly Archives: November 2010

November 2010 Book Round-Up

30 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 3 Comments

204: WE: Longarm and The Golden Eagle Shoot-Out – Tabor Evans

205: SF: Written In Time – Jerry & Sharon Ahern

206: FA: Witch & Wizard: Battle For Shadowland(graphic novel) – James Patterson & Dara Naraghi

207: CR: Point of Reference – Richard Russell

208: SF: Star Smashers of The Galaxy Rangers – Harry Harrison

209: CR: The Lone Wolf(ebook) – Louis Joseph Vance

210: SF: Dumarest of Terra: The Jester At Scar – E. C. Tubb

211: CR: Dealing, or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues – “Michael Douglas”

212: SF: The Invaders – Keith Laumer

213: SF: The Invaders: Enemies From Beyond – Keith Laumer

214: WE: The Lone Ranger: Heritage of The Plains – Fran Striker

215: WE: The Lone Ranger: Lone Star Renegade – Fran Striker

216: WE: The Lone Ranger: Death’s Head Vengeance – Fran Striker

217: AD: G-8 and His Battle Aces: Bombs From The Murder Wolves – Robert J. Hogan

218: CR: The Yellow Overcoat – Frank Gruber

219: SF: The Invaders: Army of The Undead – Rafe Bernard

220: FA: The Solomon Kane Collection(ebook) – Robert E. Howard

221: WE: Blood Feud – David Robbins

222: AD: The Green Hornet In The Infernal Light – Ed Friend

223: TH: Vanilla Ride – Joe R. Lansdale

November 2010 Movie Round-Up

30 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

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The Saint In New York(1938)

The Saint Strikes Back(1939)

The Saint In London(1939)

The Saint’s Double Trouble(1940)

The Saint Takes Over(1940)

The Saint In Palm Springs(1941)

The Saint’s Vacation(1941)

The Saint Meets The Tiger(1943)

Teenagers From Outer Space(1959)

Ocean’s Eleven(1960)

The Scalphunters(1968)

Mr. Holland’s Opus(1995)

Solomon Kane(2009)

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse(2010)

Solomon Kane

30 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

≈ 7 Comments

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Robert E. Howard, Solomon Kane

I’ve been a fan of Robert Howard’s work for a good many years, but by no means am I any kind of expert. I’ve not read all of his stories and, not being one to read most things more than once or twice, I wanted to read the Solomon Kane tales again before viewing the movie, the idea being to know whether any of his Solomon Kane was there(you know Hollywood). Laying my hands on my copy of the book was problematic as most of my books are packed away in boxes. I opted to get THE SOLOMON KANE COLLECTION, an ebook, that was fairly reasonable. Seven stories and two of the fragments. Two stories were missing(Blades of The Brotherhood and The Right Hand of Doom) and two of the fragments(Death’s black Riders and The Castle of The Devil). There was also formatting problems and a serious need for editing; spelling goofs were all over the place. It was good enough to give me what I needed though.

SOLOMON KANE was written and directed by Michael J. Bassett and they opted for an origin story. Max Von Sydow has a brief role as Kane’s father, a nobleman who made it known he was leaving the estates to the older brother and wanted Solomon to enter the priesthood. When the boy refuses and leaves, he’s banished, cut off, completely on his own. It debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in September, 2009 and appeared at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con. Lion’s Gate has the rights and supposedly will release it in 2010(they better hurry). Since it’s already been released to DVD, they seems unlikely.

The movie opens in North Africa in 1600. A furious battle with the Ottoman army occupying a town. Storming the fortress after the treasure within, Kane is confronted by a demon calling itself The Devil’s Reaper, there to claim his soul. He escapes through a window, falling into the sea.

It’s a year later and he’s hiding in a monastery. Forced to leave because of the head Monk’s dreams, “you have a greater destiny,” he leaves, still vowing to renounce violence, such that when accosted by three robbers, he’s beaten and left for dead. He’s saved by the Crowthorn family and travels with them.

There is a plague on the land, though, a sorcerer named Malachi and his brutal lieutenant, The Masked Rider, who has a power in his hands to brand a man to make him loyal to the army. The weak are enslaved, or outright killed, and the strong become part of the army.

Kane is forced to return to what he knows best and makes a vow to a dying father to rescue his daughter. Battling his way across the land, he leaves a bloody swath in his quest, only to learn things about Malachi, The Masked Rider, and his own past.

Some thoughts on the movie.

It’s bleak, bloody, a lot of rain and mud. As an action movie, there’s a lot right here. Not a lot of CGI effects either, only the beginning and the end. James Purefoy looks right as our Puritan hero(at one time, Christopher Lambert was attached in the role), lean, but well-muscled, torso covered with scars and tatoos. The sword fights are well choreographed, the action nicely paced.

But as one, fan though I am, not fully versed in Howard’s worlds as some others, the spirit is there, just not enough Howard. Research shows a trilogy is planned, though considering the track record of theatrical release here in the States, that doesn’t seem likely. The plan is to use Howard’s stories as a basis for the others.

We’ll see.

New In The House

29 Monday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 9 Comments

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New In The House

Light week this time around.

click on image to enlarge


1: Purple Aces – Robert J. Hogan: the second in the Adventure House series of reprints of pulp hero G-8 and His Battle Aces.

2: Known Dead – Carl Harstad: the second book in the Carl Houseman mystery series. Two men are killed in a blaze of gunfire in a marijuana field. One is the grower and one is a good cop. Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman wants to know who and why.

3: The Solomon Kane Collection(ebook) – Robert E. Howard: the stories and fragments of the author’s Puritan character.

2010 NFL Week 12

28 Sunday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Sports

≈ 4 Comments

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Jets, Panthers, Redskins

Another bad week for my teams.

The Panthers played the Browns and it was former Panther QB Jake Delhomme starting against his old team, his first since week one when an ankle injury sidelined him. He began strong, then threw two straight picks early in the second half, one returned for a touchdown. The Browns kicked a field goal late to take a one point lead. Then Clausen, trying to drive the team into range for a game winner, threw a pick and I thought it was over. The Panthers defense held, though, and the boys got the ball back with about a minute left and no timeouts. I was sure they’d win when reliable Kasay had a forty-two yard attempt for the win, only to have it bounce off the left upright. Final score 24-23 Cleveland.

Ah well.

The ‘Skins lost to the Vikings 17-13. The game wasn’t carried in my area so I don’t know any particulars. The stats say Favre threw no TDs or picks though.

My lone salvation was the Jets on Thanksgiving taking down the Bengals 26-10. They appear to be my sole hope for anything in the playoffs and, as I’ve said, they have a history in the last forty years of teasing, but not delivering. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Blood Feud – David Robbins

28 Sunday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

David Robbins, western

I’d never read a western by David Robbins(he writes the Wilderness series as by David Thompson) before this one, but I am a longtime fan of his Endworld series and the off-shoot Blades. They belong in that genre of after-a-holocaust books. He’s also written a number of Bolan/Executioner tales, as well as an entry in the Hardy Boys set, some of the Ralph Comptons, and a large number under his own name.

BLOOD FEUD is a western set in the Ozarks, at least the beginning, and is a revenge tale, though I found it a bit different.

The Shannons and the Harkey clans were longtime enemies, though a twenty year peace had existed after the two patriarchs, Jed Shannon and Ezriah Harkey, had run into each other on neutral ground and talked, finding both were tired of the killing for reasons long forgot, hammering out a cease fire.

All that was about to end.

Eighteen year old Scarlett Shannon slips onto Harkey land to pick blackberries. She’s not worried as she’s fleet of foot and can outrun any Harkey. What she doesn’t count on is it being seven males that find her. She crawls home, raped and savagely beaten.

Buck Shannon, Scarlett’s Pa, and his two brothers, Granger and Fox, all farmers, ride to Harkey land to prevail on old Ezriah for justice. They are never seen again.

The Harkeys thought that was an end to it.

They didn’t realize, no one did, that sixteen year old Chace Shannon would take up the feud. Chace was different from the other Shannons. He hated farming. He’d killed his first man at eleven when he’d caught a drunk man trying to rape his identical twin sister, Cassie, and pushed him from the livery stable loft, breaking his neck.

It didn’t bother the boy a bit and the pair slipped away, no one ever knowing it wasn’t as accident.

The Harkeys, starting with old Ezriah and his witch wife, Woman, are about to find out just what they’ve unleashed. Though not much more than a boy, he will do anything to learn the identities of the seven Harkeys responsible, and they are going to pay!

Good One.

FFB: The Yellow Overcoat – Frank Gruber

25 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Forgotten Books, Frank Gruber

Joe Devlin had inherited the Transcontinental Detective Institute, a correspondence school, from an uncle he didn’t get along with upon the man’s death in an automobile accident. He arrives In Chicago to take control of it and finds that it’s really little more than a con job. The course consists of a tin badge, cheap handcuffs, a certificate ascertaining graduation, and a small booklet of lessons. The secretary says all that costs seventeen cents(1942 money) and the buyer pays twelve-fifty. After newspaper advertising costs, the school clears about eight dollars a sucker.

Old uncle had lived well though, a fancy apartment full of expensive suits and shoes, the shoes too small, the suits too big, and was a skirt chaser. The rent on the apartment was past due. The advertisers wanted their money. Because of the uncle’s death, they’d carried a month’s advertising without pay. Now they wanted that and the next month in advance, as Joe wasn’t a known commodity like his uncle.

So when the well dressed gentleman barges into the office and wants to hire Devlin to find a canary yellow camels hair overcoat stolen from him, it sounds screwy, but he’s paying well. The man admits the coat is cheap, but he’s willing to pay four hundred to get it back, “the principal of the thing.” The Institute had been recommended by the police chief of his home town, a graduate.

Joe immediately gets hold of the detective who’d written the booklet and hires him to help. After all, Joe doesn’t know Chicago. The man is unreliable though, being one who can’t pass a saloon without stopping in. Shortly, Joe gets another surprise. The cop friend drops in and wants him to find his best friend, the first client, who’s disappeared, and is offering a nice piece of change for that job.

To easy.

The search led from a swanky hotel to a loop flophouse, from clothing stores to a mining town gambling den. Going to visit the first client, Joe walks into something strange. A man he’d never seen throws something at him and his head explodes. Coming to, he finds himself lying beside a dead body, a chunk of iron ore lying between them. He grabs the rock and runs.

The dead man turns out to be the coat thief.

Things get worse after that. Another body turns up, a man hired by Joe to keep his first detective on the straight and narrow, shot in the back.

It had become obvious that there was more to it than a cheap yellow overcoat. But what? Two lives and the cops are interested in Joe for both, even though there’s not enough evidence to arrest him yet. But they are digging.

A nice little mystery by the pulp and television author.

For more great forgotten books, go to PATTINASE

Forgotten Music?: A Twisted Christmas

25 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Forgotten Music, Metal, Twisted Sister

Scott suggested something with a Christmas theme since next month the Holidays will be past. You asked for it, Scott.

I’m not sure how forgotten this CD is as it was released in 2006 and was a hiit at the time. Twisted Sister was big back in the early eighties, a mix of metal, glam rock, and punk. Dee Snider, head Sister, was at the center for hearings about labeling pop music as to content to protect the kids(grown-ups never seem to realize, and forget what it was like when they were children, that if you tell them NOT to do something they will; labeling music was a godsend to the music industry, though they will never admit it, and only made the kids want it even more than they would have if the adults had just stayed out of it).

The band had it’s problems over the years and split, reforming, still occasionally touring, and doing a final Christmas album in their inimitable style.

Everyone have a nice Thanksgiving.

Kevin Eubanks: NICE!

24 Wednesday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

≈ 1 Comment

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Kevin Eubanks

Great, great guitar player. He was a guest on his former gig last night playing a song from his new album, at which he’s spent the last few months working, and, while there’s nothing from that on Youtube yet, this shows Mr. Eubanks work very nicely.

The Six Million Dollar Man on DVD

23 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by Randy Johnson in Television

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Science Fiction, Six Million Dollar Man

Today marks Time-Life’s American release of television’s The Six Million Dollar Man in a complete set. Previously released in Europe in a different DVD format, this one includes all five seasons of shows. The set includes 100 episodes, the three pilot films, three reunion films, and crossovers with The Bionic Woman. To mark the occasion, I’m showing the covers of Martin Caidin’s four Cyborg novels, the first of which was made into the pilot for the series. A half dozen other novels by Mike Jahn and others were adapted from episodes, but these were the original tales.

Click on image to enlarge


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