Friday, August 1, 2025

On this day in music history - Transformation, by Sherry Finzer & Darin Mahoney (2013)


Transformation


by Sherry Finzer & Darin Mahoney,

was released on August 1, 2013.

Track list:

Alger St; Confused; Reflection; Early Spring; Joplin; White Sky In November; Jane’S Song; The Door.

On this day in music history - The Flowers Suite, by Barbara Hills (2018)


The Flowers Suite


by Barbara Hills

was released on August 1, 2018.

Track list:

Love-In-A-Mist; Among Lilies; Through Iris Halls; The First Snowdrop; When Cherry Blossoms Fall; On Hawkweed Bank; Sweet William; Forget-Me-Nots; Creeping Buttercup; Where Heather Grows; Hedgerow Walk; Canyons of the Black Tulip.

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Lemmy Kilmister, on books and reading:

 
There are a lot of good books around.
People don't read anymore.
It's a sad state of affairs.
Reading's the only thing that allows you to use your imagination.
When you watch films it's someone else's vision, isn't it?
- Lemmy Kilmister.


Recommended reading - The Ivory Grin, by Ross MacDonald (1952).

 

The Ivory Grin, a.k.a. Marked for Murder 

by Ross MacDonald.
 
ISBN-10: 0307278999
ISBN-13: 978-0307278999
 
Back cover description:
 
“Archer-Macdonald are working together at their peak, piecing together a most modern American Tragedy, making literature out of the thriller form, gazing more clearly than ever into the future as it rolls through the smog.” – Newsweek.
 
A hard-faced woman clad in a blue mink stole and dripping with diamonds hires Lew Archer to track down her former maid, who she claims has stolen her jewelry. Archer can tell he's being fed a line, but curiosity gets the better of him and he accepts the case. He tracks the wayward maid to a ramshackle motel in a seedy, run-down small town, but finds her dead in her tiny room, with her throat slit from ear to ear. Archer digs deeper into the case and discovers a web of deceit and intrigue, with crazed number-runners from Detroit, gorgeous triple-crossing molls, and a golden-boy shipping heir who's mysteriously gone missing.

Traveling from sleazy motels to stately seaside manors, The Ivory Grin is one of Lew Archer's most violent and macabre cases ever.
 
“Ross Macdonald must be ranked high amongst American thriller writers.” – The Times Literary Supplement.

Born on this day – Yvonne Howell:

 


Yvonne Howell


Actress

July 31, 1905 – May 27, 2010

Credits:
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey (1984); Working Girls (1931); Take Me Home (1928); The Junior Year (1928); Hop Off (1928); The Great Mail Robbery (1927); Somewhere in Sonora (1927); Fashions for Women (1927); The Knight Before Christmas (1927); The Lady of Lyons, N.Y. (1926); A Fraternity Mixup (1926); Flaming Flappers (1925); Transients in Arcadia (1925); Harem Follies (1924).

Born on this day – Mario Bava:


Mario Bava


Director

Cinematographer

Special Effects

July 31, 1914 – April 27, 1980

Credits:
A Bay of Blood (1971); A Dog's Life (1950); Amor non ho! Però, però.. (1951); Anfiteatro Flavio (1947); Anthony of Padua (1949); Asesinato desde la Roja Oscuridad (2019); Attack of the Normans (1962); Balocchi e profumi (1953); Barber of Seville (1947); Baron Blood (1972); Beautiful But Dangerous (1955); Ben-Hur (1959); Black Sabbath (1963); Black Sunday (1960); Blood and Black Lace (1964); Buonanotte... avvocato! (1955); Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959); Canzone di primavera (1951); Capitan Tempesta (1942); Capriccio musicale (1950); Città di notte (1957); Cops and Robbers (1951); Cose da pazzi (1954); Danger: Diabolik (1968); Deducoria (2018); Doctor Stein (2019); Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966); Dream House (2009); È arrivato il cavaliere! (1950); Ecco la felicità (1940); Elixir of Love (1947); Erik the Conqueror (1961); Esther and the King (1960); Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970); Four Times That Night (1971); Gladiators 7 (1962); Gli eroi della domenica (1952); Goya (1950); Grass Hook Massacre (2019); Graziella (1955); Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970); Hercules (1958); Hercules and the Captive Women (1961); Hercules in the Haunted World (1961); Hercules Unchained (1959); High School (1954); Il bacio dell'Aurora (1953); Il leone di Damasco (1942); Il tacchino prepotente (1939); Il viale della speranza (1953); Incubo per una mosca bianca (2015); Inferno (1980); It Happened in the Park (1953); Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966); King Ripple (2015); Knives of the Avenger (1966); La compagnia della teppa (1941); La famiglia Passaguai (1951); La famiglia Passaguai fa fortuna (1952); La Venere d'Ille (1979); La vispa Teresa (1939); L'avventura di Annabella (1943); Legenda Sinfonica (1947); Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? (1972); Lisa and the Devil (1973); L'orecchio (1946); L'ospedale del delitto (1950); Love of a Clown - Pagliacci (1948); Lust of the Vampire (1957); Mad About Opera (1948); Mario Bava speaks (2006); Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre (2000); Mario Bava: Operazione paura (2004); Masks (2011); Minnesota Clay (1964); Miss Italia (1950); Morgan the Pirate (1960); Moses the Lawgiver (1974); Moxina (2012); Mysteria (2016); Naked You Die (1968); Natale al campo 119 (1947); Nero's Mistress (1956); Non c'è amore più grande (1955); Odissea (1968); Orlando e i Paladini di Francia (1956); Papà diventa mamma (1952); Perdonami! (1953); Planet of the Vampires (1965); Rabid Dogs (1974 / 2015); Roja Oscuridad (2018); Roy Colt & Winchester Jack (1970); S.O.S. Submarine (1941); Santa notte (1947); Sant'Elena, piccola isola (1943); Savage Gringo (1966); Scream Creek (2024); Shock (1977); Silver Slime (1981); Sins of Casanova (1955); Son of Samson (1960); Spartaco (1953); Suspiria (1977); The Day the Sky Exploded (1958); The Evil Eye (1963); The Giant of Marathon (1959); The House of Exorcism (1975); The Last Days of Pompeii (1959); The Last of the Vikings (1961); The Old Man in the Rocking Chair (2022); The Road to Fort Alamo (1964); The Taming of Dorothy (1950); The Whip and the Body (1963); The White Ship (1941); The White Warrior (1959); The Wonders of Aladdin (1961); Two Guns and a Coward (1968); Ulysses (1954); Uomini e cieli (1947); Variazioni sinfoniche (1949); War of the Zombies (1964); Waterloo (1970); We Stole a Tram (1954); Winchester Jack (1970); Yellow (2006).

Born on this day – Gerald Butler:

 

Gerald Butler


Writer

July 31, 1907 – February 1, 1988

Credits:
 
Books:
 
Choice of Two Women (1951); Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1940); Mad with Much Heart (1945); Slippery Hitch (1948); Their Rainbow Had Black Edges (1943); There Is a Death, Elizabeth (1972); They Cracked Her Glass Slipper (1941).
 
Movies and television:
 
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948); On Dangerous Ground (1951); The Fatal Night (1948); Third Time Lucky (1949).