Saturday, July 19, 2025

On this day in movie history - The Frighteners (1996)

The Frighteners

directed by Peter Jackson,

written by Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson,

was released in the United States on July 19, 1996.

Music by Danny Elfman.

 


Cast:
Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace Stone, Jake Busey, Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe, Troy Evans, Julianna McCarthy, R. Lee Ermey, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Angela Bloomfield, Desmond Kelly, Jonathan Blick, Todd Rippon, John Sumner, Michael Robinson, Jim McLarty, Anthony Ray Parker, Paul Yates, Melanie Lynskey, John Leigh, Nicola Cliff, Ken Blackburn, Stuart Devenie, Genevieve Westcott, K.C. Kelly, Leslie Wing, Leslie Klein, Frank Edwards, Alan O’Leary, Danny Lineham, Charlie McClellan, William Pomeroy, George Port, Billy Jackson, Sophie Watkins, Taea Hartwell, Max Grover, George Grover, Tony Hopkins, Lewis Martin, Clay Nelson, Matthew Chamberlain, Vivienne Kaplan, Liz Mullane, Matt Aitken, Grae Burton, Michael Elsworth, Nic Farra, Peter Jackson, Rhys Jordan, Paul Kingdom, Isaac Lucas, Michael Maxwell, Bryce McCawe, Nicolas Pegg, April Phillips, Tracey Savage, Jeff Slaven, Clinton Ulyatt, Fran Walsh.

On this day in music history - A Journey for Mankind, by Tom Moore & Sherry Finzer (2019)


A Journey for Mankind


by Tom Moore & Sherry Finzer

was released on July 19, 2019.

Track list:

Dawn at the Coast; Trans-Lunar; A Song for Distant Earth; Shadow of the Moon; Blue Pearl in a Black Sky; Tranquility Base Here; Magnificent Solitude; Trans-earth; Night Sky in Wonder.

Friday, July 18, 2025

Lucy Maud Montgomery, on writing:

 
You have the itch for writing born in you.
It's quite incurable.
What are you going to do with it?
- Lucy Maud Montgomery.


Recommended reading - City Primeval & Fire in the Hole, by Elmore Leonard:

City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit
Fire in the Hole: and Other Stories

Both books filmed as the TV series Justified: City Primeval (2023).


City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit
by Elmore Leonard.

Published by Mariner Books.
First published 1980

ISBN-10: 0062191357
ISBN-13: 978-0062191359

Description:

“As gritty and hard-driving a thriller as you’ll find…. The action never stops, the language sings and stings.” – Washington Post.

Clement Mansell knows how easy it is to get away with murder. The cool killer is already back on the Detroit scene – thanks to some nifty courtroom moves by his lawyer – and he's feeling invincible enough to execute a crooked judge on a whim. Lieutenant Raymond Cruz thinks the “Oklahoma Wildman” crossed the line long before this latest outrage, and he's determined to see that the hayseed psycho meets an end he deserves, with a gun pointed at him. But that means a good cop, having to play somewhat fast and loose with the rules . . . in order to maneuver Mansell into a wild Midwest showdown that he can't walk away from.


Fire in the Hole: and Other Stories
by Elmore Leonard.

Published by Mariner Books.
Published 2012.

ISBN-10: 0062120344
ISBN-13: 9780062120342

Description:

“[Leonard’s] most satisfying book since Out of Sight…. Top-notch work from one of our most gifted and consistently entertaining writers.” – New York Times Book Review.

“Vintage Leonard…. Nine stories with booze and shotguns and lowlifes…and lots of scenes that ought to be in movies.” – Detroit Free Press.

“If Leonard were a new kid instead of a past master, this fiction collection would make his name.” – People.

“Rummaging through Leonard’s attic via these nine stories revives some fond memories and turns up a couple of forgotten treasures.” – Kirkus Reviews.

“Elmore Leonard’s 39th book ...finds one of America’s most accomplished novelists presenting his most accomplished female characters in years.” – USA Today.

In this superb short fiction collection, Elmore Leonard, “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever” (New York Times Book Review), once again illustrates how the line between the law and the lawbreakers is not as firm as we might thibk. In the title story, the basis for the hit FX series Justified, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens meets up with an old friend, but they’re now on different sides of the law. Federal marshal Karen Sisco, from Out of Sight, returns in “Karen Makes Out,” once again inadvertently mixing pleasure with business. In “When the Women Come Out to Dance,” Mrs. Mahmood gets more than she bargains for when she conspires with her maid to end her unhappy marriage. These nine stories are the great Elmore Leonard at his vivid, hilarious, and unfailingly human best.

Born on this day – William Makepeace Thackeray:


William Makepeace Thackeray


Writer

Illustrator

July 18, 1811 – December 24, 1863

Credits:

Books:

A Cairo Anthology: Two Hundred Years of Travel Writing (2013); A Little Dinner at Timmin's (2001); A Shabby Genteel Story (1985); Ballads (1855); Burlesques (1856); Catherine (1840); Christmas Books (1868); Contributions to the Morning Chronicle (1955); Cox's Diary (2004); Denis Duval (1864); Doctor Birch and His Young Friends (2004); Early and Late Papers (2019); Eastern Sketches (1846); Echoes Of Terror (1980); Essays on Goldsmith by Scott, Macaulay, and Thackeray, and Selections From his Writings (2016); George Cruikshank (1840); Jeames's Diary (2016); Legend of the Rhine (1845); Letters to an American Family (2003); Little Travels and Roadside Sketches (1879); London Stories (2013); Loose Sketches (2007); Lovel the Widower (2018); Men's Wives (1852); Miscellanies (2015); Mr. Brown's Letters to a Young Man about Town (2002); Mrs. Perkins's Ball (2004); Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1846); Novels By Eminent Hands (2004); Our Street (1848); Reading a Poem (2015); Rebecca and Rowena (1850); Roundabout Papers (1863); Selected Letters Of William Makepeace Thackeray (1996); Sketches and Travels in London (2018); Some Roundabout Papers (1863); Stories of Comedy (2017); Sulton Stork (1887); Thackerayana (1970); The Adventures of Philip (1862); The Awful History of Bluebeard (2019); The Bedford-Row Conspiracy (1856); The Book of Snobs (1848); The Bridgerthonian Novels (2022); The English Humorists Of The Eighteenth Century (2019); The English Humourists (1861); The Fatal Boots (2001); The Fitz-Boodle Papers (1842); The Four Georges (2019); The Great Hoggarty Diamond (1848); The Greatest Tales of Regency Romance (2023); The Heroic Adventures of M. Boudin (1984); The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. (1852); The History of Pendennis (1848); The History of Samuel Titmarsh (2017); The Hitherto Unpublished Contributions of W.M. Thackeray to Punch (1971); The Irish Sketch-Book (1843); The Letters And Private Papers Of William Makepeace Thackeray (1980); The Lock and Key Library Classic Mystery and Detective Stories (1909); The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844); The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush (1837); The Newcomes (1855); The Notch On The Ax (2004); The Paris Sketch Book (1840); The Rose and the Ring (1855); The Second Funeral of Napoleon (1841); The Story of Mary Ancel (1840); The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan (1855); The Virginians (1859); Vanity Fair (1847).

Movies and television:

Aus dem Bücherschrank geholt (1962); Barry Lyndon (1975); BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950); Becky Sharp (1935); CBS Television Workshop (1952); De broodwinning van Frederic Altamont (1962); George Warrington's Escape (1911); Hora once (1971); Jackanory (1975); Kraft Theatre / The Philco Television Playhouse (1949); La feria de las vanidades (1975); La fiera della vanità (1967); Novela (1963); One Woman's Story (1953); Pendennis (1916); Pierscien i róza (1987); Poetry fugacious (2019); Ruze a prsten (1971); Secrets from the Asylum (2014); Television Theater (1956); Tense Moments with Great Authors / Segment: Vanity Fair (1922); The Rose and the Ring (1953 / 1979); Vanity Fair (1911 / 1915 / 1922 / 1923 / 1932 / 1961 / 1967 / 1976 / 1987 / 1998 / 2004 / 2018); Vanity Fair / TV Series (1956–1957); Your Favorite Story (1954).

Born on this day – Lupe Vélez:


Lupe Vélez


Actress

Singer

Dancer

July 18, 1908 – December 14, 1944

Credits:

Arena (1991); Death Scenes (1989); E! Mysteries & Scandals (1999); East Is West (1930); Ernesto Alonso: Estrella de estrellas (2007); Fashion News (1930); Gypsy Melody (1936); He Loved an Actress (1938); Hell Harbor (1930); High Flyers (1937); Hollywood on Parade (1934); Hollywood on Parade No. A-12 (1933); Hollywood Party (1934); Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies (1988); Hollywood Snapshots #11 (1929); Hollywood Without Make-Up (1963); Hombres de mi vida (1932); Honolulu Lu (1941); Hot Pepper (1933); Kongo (1932); La zandunga (1938); Ladies' Day (1943); Lady of the Pavements (1929); Laughing Boy (1934); Los que hicieron nuestro cine (1983–1985); Mexican Spitfire (1939); Mexican Spitfire at Sea (1942); Mexican Spitfire Out West (1940); Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost (1942); Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event (1943); Mexican Spitfire's Elephant (1942); Mr. Broadway (1933); Naná (1944); Oriente es Occidente (1930); Palooka (1934); Perdida (2009); Playmates (1941); Recordar es vivir (1941); Redhead from Manhattan (1943); Resurrección / Resurrection (1931); Sailors, Beware! (1927); Screen Snapshots Series 9, No. 11 (1930); Screen Snapshots, Series 14, No. 1 (1934); Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga (1941); Stand and Deliver (1928); Strictly Dynamite (1934); That's Entertainment! III (1994); The Big Parade of Comedy (1964); The Broken Wing (1932); The Bronze Screen: 100 Years of the Latino Image in American Cinema (2001); The Casting Couch (1995); The Cuban Love Song (1931); The Gaucho (1927); The Girl from Mexico (1939); The Half-Naked Truth (1932); The Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941); The Morals of Marcus (1935); The One, the Only, the Real Tarzan (2004); The Squaw Man (1931); The Storm (1930); The Voice of Hollywood No. 12 (1930); The Voice of Hollywood No. 13 / Second Series (1932); The Voice of Hollywood, Series 1, No. 2 (1930); Tiger Rose (1929); What Women Did for Me (1927); When the Applause Died / Death in Hollywood (1990); Where East Is East (1929); Wolf Song (1929).

Born on this day – Harriet Nelson:

 

Harriet Nelson


Actress

July 18, 1909 – October 2, 1994

Credits:

A Christmas for Boomer (1979); ABC's Silver Anniversary Celebration (1978); Aloha Paradise (1981); America's Clown: An Intimate Biography of Red Skelton (2014); Biography (1998); Bridget Loves Bernie (1973); Canal Zone (1942); Cocoanut Grove (1938); Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941); Death Car on the Freeway (1979); Dinah! (1976–1977); Disneyland '59 (1959); Fantasy Island (1978); Fatal Confession: A Father Dowling Mystery (1987); Follow the Fleet (1936); Follow the Fleet: The Origins of Those Dancing Feet (2005); Gals, Incorporated (1943); Glitter (1985); Happy Days (1982); Harem Scarem (1932); Here Come the Nelsons (1952); Hi, Buddy (1943); Hi, Good Lookin'! (1944); High School U.S.A. (1984); History of the Sitcom (2021); Hollywood My Home Town (1965); Honeymoon Lodge (1943); It's Your Bet (1970); Juke Box Jenny (1942); Love, American Style / Segments: Love and the Unmarriage; Love and the Only Child; Love and Take Me Along (1969–1973); Musical Justice (1931); My Music: Starlight Ballroom (2015); NBC Special Treat (1977); New Faces of 1937 (1937); Night Gallery / Segment: You Can Come Up Now, Mrs. Millikan (1972); Once an Eagle (1976); Our World (1987); Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra (1943); Ozzie's Girls (1973); Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1956); Pioneers of Television (2014); Rick Nelson: A Brother Remembers (1987); Ricky Nelson & Fats Domino: Live at the Universal Amphitheatre (1985); Ricky Nelson Sings (2005); Rockin' Ricky (2023); Screen Snapshots Series 34, No. 6: Hollywood Shower of Stars (1955); Screen Snapshots: Hollywood on a Sunday Afternoon (1952); Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976); Stu's Show (2021); Super Duper Bloopers and Silly Shorts (1986); Sweetheart of the Campus (1941); Swingtime Johnny (1943); Take It Big (1944); Television (1988); Television: The First Fifty Years (1999); The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1953–1962); The Andy Williams Show (1971); The Barbara McNair Show (1969); The Campus Mystery (1932); The David Frost Show (1969); The Falcon Strikes Back (1943); The First Time (1982); The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1973); The Joey Bishop Show (1968); The Kid with the 200 I.Q. (1983); The Life of the Party (1937); The Love Boat (1977); The Merv Griffin Show (1966–1982); The Mike Douglas Show (1966–1973); The Red Skelton Hour (1967 / 1968); The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1969–1973); This Is Your Life (1953); Time Out for Dad (1987); Uncle Tom (2020); What's My Line? (1956 / 1973).