The Passing of Sam Shepard

Sorry to hear that Sam Shepard has died. Many top films in a stellar career but one that I immediately think of is Blackthorn from 2011. I reviewed it in my Under Burning Skies: Best of 21st Western Movies article.

Rest in peace, sir.

An Uneasy Evening

A great memory from Eddie Muller: An Uneasy Evening with the Noir Legend.

Richard's Storyville

I enjoy reading whatever Richard Thomas writes including his recent column at LitReactor: Storyville: Adding Diversity to Your Fiction.

Whole Lotta Writers

Open Culture brought this to my attention: 1,500 hours of audio & video featuring 2,200 writers.

Morning Read: Microsoft Is Hustling Us With...

Microsoft Is Hustling Us With "White Spaces" by Susan Crawford.

Martin Amis and Elmore Leonard interview (1999)

My Influences... And Yours?

I'm back at LitReactor with a new article. Please share, stop by there/leave a comment, write home to mom, etc. Here's a sample:

Like many writers, I was reared on a never-ending veneration for big guns such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. Authors who’ve passed some ‘immortal’ litmus test for stuffy academic types to get overly excited about. Harsh? Perhaps, because most of the top tier lit club have deservedly earned their marks. But along the path I’ve learned some of the best prose originates from sources other than these writing titans. Here are two actors—who apparently fancied putting pen to paper over starring roles—and one journalist that I would stack up with the best of the best and have returned to often for inspiration.

Royal Excursions

We stopped at the charming Royal Oak Bookshop where I picked up the eclectic trio of Visiting Mrs. Nabokov (1993) by Martin Amis, The Backgammon Book (1970) by Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford, and a math book on Algebra. We also went to a nearby park where we enjoyed about an hour until the sun heated things up a little too much. Still, a fun excursion.

Royal Oak Bookshop in Front Royal, Virginia.

Bookstore's Simone making Ava feel welcomed.

At a nearby park heading off for other worlds.

40 Ton Humpback Whale Leaps Entirely Out of the Water!

Willie Nelson - The Redheaded Stranger

Interrogation

I'm publishing Glenn Gray's next book Transgemination and he talks about that and a lot more in this interview with S.W. Lauden.

Subversive, Expressionistic, and Harrowing

“Gotta Light” is a subversive, expressionistic, and harrowing episode with prolonged scenes—even by Lynch standards—of no dialogue. “As soon as you put things in words, no one ever sees the film the same way,” he was quoted as saying in The New Yorker. The sobering result: we hear the eerie, discordant “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” by Penderecki as we bear witness to the first atomic bomb test at White Sands, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, and are pulled into the mushroom cloud among the swirling atoms of hellfire and destruction.

Rest of my thoughts on The Return Parts 8,9, and 10 at Criminal Element.

13 Is Who's Lucky Number

I'm not familiar with her work but have heard that Jodi Whittaker is a fine actor. I'm looking forward to her portrayal but more importantly a fresh direction to the series that I thought had become very stale last year. If you haven't already seen it, here's the big reveal that sent shock waves through the universe. Your thoughts? And not long ago, I rated my Time Lords in this order:

Matt Smith
Tom Baker
David Tennant
Patrick Troughton
Jon Pertwee
Peter Davison
Christopher Eccleston
Paul McGann
Peter Capaldi
William Hartnell
Sylvester McCoy
Colin Baker

Our Visit To Luray Caverns

Drapery formation, about 1/8 inch thick.

Dream Lake.

Water reflection of stalactites.

Speleothems of stalactites, and columns.

The wishing well.

Did You Hear The One About...

I have a dry sense of humor and in conversation can be witty if “I’m on” but note to self: no more joke telling. For god’s sake, just stop! Yesterday a humorous number died a painful death as soon as it left my lips, and the drive-by expression on the recipient’s face, well, it’s a look I’ve never got used to seeing. Now that I’m closing in on the half-century mark, it’s time to throw in the towel and just accept the fact that I should never begin any conversation with the words, “Hey, did you hear the one about …”

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1 [Official Music...

Getting Darker

The center cannot hold as we get close to the end...

Cranmers At The Park

Our daughter snapped this photo of little d and me at the park, today, playing backgammon. We were under the pavilion where a nice breeze kept us comfortable ... a pleasant break from the ninety degree temps with humidity. I brought two books to read, The Dark Tower and Orwell's Facing Unpleasant Facts, but much more enjoyed gammon with the mrs and going for a walk with the photographer.

Hope you are all having a top weekend.

Books Acquired, Manners Lost

We were at McKay’s in Gainesville, Virginia, enjoying the atmosphere among the stacks of secondhand books with a swirl of all sorts of people devouring a common passion. Ava and d headed toward the kid’s section where they hit a motherlode of ‘Junie B. Jones’ which has totally enamored our daughter. Me, being in an essay and memoir frame of mind, I bought Roger Ebert’s Life Itself, E.L. Doctorow’s Creationists, Sloane Crosley’s How Did You Get This Number, and Facing Unpleasant Facts by George Orwell. I read so many fictional books as a freelancer that I find myself more and more in the non-fiction section for entertainment.

Small observation: it used to be when someone passed in front of you in an aisle there would be a polite, “Excuse me.” That was the norm … or at least it’s how I seem to remember it. Look, I’m not someone who longs for the good old days. I know people are people and remain largely unchanged, but I don’t believe I’m mistaken that common courtesies in libraries and bookstores were the standard and only occasionally would someone fail to live up to it. Agree? Disagree?

Love you, d

And a happy anniversary to this lovely lady. We are celebrating ten years. Love you, d

Hooch

Met a truck driver today, in passing, who travels with a one-year-old conure parrot. The bird, Hooch, sat in a cage next to the driver, Turner, in the cab. No need to feel sorry for Hooch being in a cage though, the clever bird knows how to open the door any time he pleases, as he much prefers being perched on Turner’s shoulder. When Turner gave Hooch a playful toss in the air, the bird flew up then landed on my shoulder! And Hooch kept saying “aye,” Turner explained that the bird’s way of telling him that he wants food. These two are good friends and meeting them was a unique, inspiring experience. 

72 (This Highway's Mean)

Becoming Cary Grant

Do you enjoy documentaries? I do and can watch just about anything on any topic as long as it is done well. In the case of Becoming Cary Grant (2016), I very much admire the subject and director Mark Kidel has crafted an evocative film that uses Grant's home movies, interviews with relatives, and words from an unpublished autobiography. The Showtime presentation is currently available on Amazon Prime and here's a NY Times review that sums it up quite well.

Low-Key Fun

Is everyone having a super 4th? I hope so because the Cranmer's are kicking it albeit a bit low-key... the way we like it. We went to two different parks for the little one and had a blast at the swimming pool too. I brought along a book—Thomas Paine: A Political Life—and manage to squeeze out a backgammon win against Little d. Very satisfying because she puts up a mighty fight. And now for some fireworks!

*You on Twitter? Today is a perfect day to follow The Quotable Paine that I contribute to almost daily. Radical Paine's Common Sense (1775-1776) is the pamphlet that convinced the rebels to start this whole American experiment.

Where The Breakers Are

I am putting together my next write-up on Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER VII that will appear on Macmillan's Criminal Element blog around noon tomorrow. For the most part a solid section that includes our heroes preparing their next move.

"We go through the door to Thunderclap station," Roland said, "and from the station to where the Breakers are kept. And there ..." He looked at each of his ka-tet in turn, then raised his finger and made a dryly expressive shooting gesture.
"There'll be guards," Eddie said. "Maybe a lot of them. What if we're outnumbered?"
"It won't be the first time," Roland said.

Our passages for the week included Part Two, I: The Devar-Tete – VII: Ka-Shume and I hope you will join us to discuss or just stop by and listen to our palaver. A lot transpired including the return of Randall Flagg, Mordred Deschain hunting Roland and company, and our team wandering through the eerie chamber where the now quieted remains of the wolves of the Calla are suspended. 

And the Tower looms...

Gram Parsons - Return Of The Grievous Angel

Immutable And Ineluctable

Richard Burton. Say the name and Elizabeth Taylor jumps to mind. But there was so much more to the man besides Liz & Dick, scandal, and great acting chops that were highlighted in movies like The Spy Who Came in from The Cold, Where Eagles Dare, and 1984. He was a damn fine writer and he's included in an upcoming article I'm putting together over this holiday weekend. Here's an except from his life-long journal that was published in 2012:

The more I read about man and his maniacal ruthlessness and his murdering envious scatological soul the more I realize that he will never change. Our stupidity is immortal, nothing will change it. The same mistakes, the same prejudices, the same injustice, the same lusts wheel endlessly around the parade-ground of the centuries. Immutable and ineluctable. I wish I could believe in a God of some kind but I simply cannot. My intelligence is too muscular and my imagination stops at the horizon, and I have an idea that the last sound to be heard on this lovely planet will be a man screaming.

How sobering is that, right? And there's many more entries like that in The Richard Burton Diaries. And the dead live again, Richard's words are featured daily on Twitter which I regularly check. Burton ... fascinating guy. Back to work I go on a piece I'm calling My Unlikely Writing Influences.

The Doctor Falls

I haven’t remarked too much on Doctor Who this season because I thought it was a lackluster ride. The actors were ready but the scripts, for the most part (besides a stout debut), were meandering, lifeless. Not so with the climatic “The Doctor Falls” that had plenty of action, heartfelt emotion, and one helluva final surprise that I won’t spoil here. Most poignant scene was a solo Twelve (Peter Capaldi) preparing to do battle with an outnumbered enemy (anyone for an upgrade?) saying that he goes, “Without hope… Without witness… Without reward.” Refreshing in this age when humanity seems to be all about winning as opposed to doing the right thing. Mention is, appropriately, made to the leader of the free world.

It would seem we have said goodbye to Bill (Pearl Mackie) for the time being. I thought she was excellent but like the idea of companions with shorter duration's. That being acknowledged, I don’t want to see Nardole (Matt Lucas) disappear just yet. He was a superb foil for Twelve with just the right amount of snarky wit. Back to that conclusion. Wouldn’t it be awesome if that older gentleman ended up being a companion to Twelve in the Christmas episode and for a few episodes into the next season. Yeah, here’s hoping.

Ada

At a used bookstore today, I ran across The Calculating Passion of Ada Byron by Joan Baum. Long been enthralled with Ada (1815-1852) known as the first computer programmer. Here's an excerpt from the book:

She had also dared to dream, to imagine what computers might do with their power to repeat and loop and change course in midstream. And she had exercised her imagination when time and place were against her, when women were excluded from the halls of learning and generally dissuaded from pursuing subjects like mathematics, even in the drawing rooms.

Never heard of Ada? Here's a fun, short documentary, narrated by Hannah Fry, that spotlights this remarkable 19th century mathematician.

In 1977, When Voyager 1 And 2 Blasted Off, I was...

I was seven years old, in '77, and fascinated with the space program especially the Voyager missions. Of particular interest to that early me was the gold-plated audio-visual disc on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 that contained the sights and sounds of our world intended for intelligent life. From The Atlantic is a fascinating article about one reporter's attempt at Solving the Mystery of Whose Laughter Is On the Golden Record.