Saturday, February 8, 2025

On this day in music history - The album Careless Loving, by Roxanne Potvin (2004)

 

Careless Loving


by Roxanne Potvin

was released on February 8, 2004.

Track list:

I Don't Want Nobody (To Have My Love But You); Make Me Yours; Ain't It a Shame; If I Can't Have You; Missing You; My Book; Don't Get Close to Me; Careless Loving; Wild Wild Young Men; Long John Blues.



Sunday, February 2, 2025

Recommended reading - Stage to Lordsburg


Stage to Lordsburg

by Ernest Haycox.

Filmed as Stagecoach (1939), directed by John Ford.

Short story.
First published 1937.Published by Fantasy and Horror Classics.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1447404130
ISBN-13: 978-1447404132

Description:

Ernest Haycox's 1937 short story, Stage to Lordsburg, was a bestseller and a classic of the Western genre. Popularized by the 1939 film adaptation Stagecoach, this Wild West tale vividly portrays Haycox's setting and characters.

Stage to Lordsburg follows a collection of characters as they journey from Tonto, Arizona Territory, to Lordsburg, New Mexico. A series of dangers and perils face the colorful group as they embark on the uncomfortable trip. Ernest Haycox presents a number of cliché Western characters and the point of view shifts between them as the short story progresses. This masterful tale by Ernest Haycox, a prolific writer of Western fiction, is not to be missed by fans of old cowboy narratives.

Friday, January 31, 2025

Recommended reading - Badge of Evil


Badge of Evil

by Whit Masterson.

Filmed as Touch of Evil (1958), directed by Orson Welles.

Published by Adams Media.
First published 1956.

ASIN: 1440560919
ISBN-10: 9781440560910
ISBN-13: 978-1440560910

Description:

“Orson Welles based his noir masterpiece on this equally fine novel.” – The Washington Post.

Quinlan and McCoy – veteran cops who could smell out a murderer …

A dark, swift-running tale of love and hate and death under the bright California sun.

Assistant District Attorney Mitch Holt suspects the wrong people have been arrested in the murder of Rudy Linneker. But if it wasn't Linneker's daughter and her fiance, who was it? And why do two of the city's most decorated and beloved cops look like they're not shooting straight? If they've planted evidence in this case, what else are they guilty of in the past?



Saturday, January 25, 2025

Recommended reading - Little Caesar by W.R. Burnett (1929 & 1981):


Little Caesar

by W.R. Burnett


ASIN: B0012363AA

Published by Dial.

Published 1929.

Hardcover.

First edition.

Description:

Rico is a small, pale man, but he has guts, endurance and a steely single-mindedness. When Vettori sends the gang out to rob a local nightclub, Rico shoots a cop who pulls a gun on him. They get away, but Vettori is shocked. He had told Rico, no gunplay. That’s when Rico realizes that Vettori has gone soft. He’s too old to control the gang anymore. So Rico takes over. With the faithful Otero at his side, the rest of them quickly shift their allegiances. Now the world is Rico’s. It’s his gang, and he’s calling all the shots. But there is always a weak link, someone who’s ready to spill when the bulls get tough. And sooner or later the nightclub killing is bound to catch up with him.

 

Little Caesar

By Gerald Peary.

Edited by Tino Balio.


Published by University of Wisconsin Press.

Wisconsin / Warner Bros. Screenplays.

Published 1981.

First edition.

Paperback.


ISBN-10: 029908454X

ISBN-13: 978-0299084547


Description:

Little Caesar, a 1931 Hollywood gangster classic, is viewed in revivals today with nearly as much audience enthusiasm as it enjoyed a half-century ago, in the depths of the Great Depression.

In general, the Hollywood film industry responded to the dark economic conditions of the 1930s with escapist and non-topical films. The fascinating exception was the gangster film, through which the studios joined in the debate over the spiritual and economic health of the nation. Little Caesar, considered by many to be an architype of the genre, is one of the most memorable dramatizations of the discontent and alienation, the deep anxiety and hostility shared by millions of Americans during those dark years. 

Monday, January 20, 2025

On this day in television history - Justified (2015)

Justified

Season 6. Episode 1.

Episode entitled: Fate’s Right Hand.

Released January 20, 2015.

Directed by Michael Dinner.

Written by Graham Yost, Michael Dinner, Fred Golan, Chris Provenzano, Keith Schreier.

Based on the short story Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard.

Music by Steve Porcaro.

Cast:

Timothy Olyphant, Nick Searcy, Jere Burns, Joelle Carter, Jacob Pitts, Erica Tazel, Walton Goggins, Garret Dillahunt, Rick Gomez, Damon Herriman, Justin Welborn, Ryan Dorsey, Rolando Molina, Bill Tangradi, Natalie Zea, Cascy Beddow, Pamela Bowen, Kareem J. Grimes, Shawn Parsons, Chet Grissom, Aubrey Wood, Russell Bertolino, David Meunier.