tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428967382239931892024-02-19T19:39:58.149-05:00The Sophisticated RagamuffinDavid A. Spence's blogDavid Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-66565686811282784362012-06-18T15:11:00.004-04:002012-06-18T15:11:58.277-04:00R.I.P Rodney King<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was 11 years old and 2,000 miles away when L.A. melted down. I watched it on T.V., and at that age I couldn't wrap my head around most of what I was seeing. Most of those images have subsequently faded, except one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">On May 1, 1992, the third day of the riot, Rodney King had a bunch of microphones stuck in his face. He said, <span style="line-height: 19px;">"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?" I thought that was very big of him. I thought it was admirable. And what did the country do? They laughed at him. Big joke. I think that, more than even the beating or the riots, taught me an early lesson about the cruel streak running through our culture via groupthink; that it would turn a victim's call for peace into a talk show punchline. I don't want to sound high and mighty, I've laughed at some messed up things, and there are times when most every person--no matter how kind they usually are as an individual--is a part of that harsh edge of societal judgement. I imagine King was sometimes, too. He had his demons. But there's a lot of lasting heart in his words of that day, and maybe a lot of sadness too because too few listened.</span></span>David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-33010548022900586262012-06-10T00:02:00.000-04:002012-06-10T00:10:23.825-04:00Survey Part One of TwoIf you got selected to be on a reality show which would it be, and why? Finding Bigfoot. I don't like camping and they don't ever find Bigfoot, but that Bobo maniac would be fun to hang out with.<br />
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On a scale of 1-10 how large is your attention span? Umm I guess a 6...well, wait what?<br />
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Are you sure that you were born in the right era? Sometimes I think it would be fun to live in another era, but honestly I like indoor plumbing and not dying of dysentery so now is just fine by me.<br />
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The last text you sent is the only thing you can say for the rest of your life. How screwed are you? It was, “Hey, you up?” so I guess if that's all I could say people would think I'm a motivational speaker.<br />
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Name at least three things you could stand to cut out of your life. Soda, pessimism, and neighbors.<br />
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If you could be invisible for a day what would you do? “Dave, did you have this large, museum-quality collection of art the last time I was here? And are those bank money bags sloppily hidden under that tarp in the garage?”<br />
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How do you deal with criticism? And what the hell do you mean by that? Huh?<br />
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How do you think you will fare when the Zombie Apocalypse arrives? I'm not going to lie. I'll get a few of them, but if they're those fast zombies from newer movies, I'm screwn. Plus I'd be stopping after every zombie kill to take a shower, so that's gonna slow me down some.<br />
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You ordered pizza last night and have been looking forward to eating the leftovers all day. You go home and the box is still in the fridge, but someone has eaten all of it and its empty. What do you do? Call the police. Hahaha. No, seriously, officer I'd like to file a report.<br />
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What’s something you’re nostalgic for? Sleepovers with ghost stories. Why the hell don't adults do that? Set up a tent in the living room, big bowl of popcorn, c'mon now.<br />
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What do you think people assume or know about you by looking at your blog? That I don't have much to say because I don't update very often. I do, but I always wind up doubting if it's really worth my or your time to type up a thousand words about my head-melting rage that shit like 50 Shades of Grey gets published and churns out money like an ATM that ate potato salad left out in the sun.<br />
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If you were an element on the Periodic Table, which would you be and why? Thorium. It was once used in lantern mantles. It's also radioactive, which means the atoms are unstable but are trying to reach stability by emitting energy.<br />
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David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-42002043110095979452012-05-12T03:24:00.001-04:002012-05-12T03:27:35.432-04:00May's SAORAAT Magazine<ilayer clip="0,0,170,150" height="150" name="scroll1" width="970"><layer bgcolor="white" height="150" name="scroll2" width="400"> </layer></ilayer><br />
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3542896738223993189" target="_BLANK"><iframe border="0" frameborder="0" height="500" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60289202/flipbook/May2012.app/Contents/Resources/index.html" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;" width="400">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60289202/flipbook/May2012.app/Contents/Resources/files/thumb/cover.jpg" width="125" height="155" alt="" border="0" align=""&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</iframe></a></div><div></div>David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-14909498566654721502012-01-26T05:56:00.000-05:002012-01-26T05:56:39.629-05:00Day at the DIAI finally made it to the Detroit Institute of Arts to see the Rembrandt exhibit, and it was so very, very worth it. It was a once-in-a-lifetime collection, and they are considered masterpieces for a reason.<br />
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It was a nice day trip for my mom and me, as neither of us have been to the museum in years. It was crowded, mostly around the exhibit, and we bought tickets for eleven o'clock. I'm happy to see how many people have been drawn in by this attraction, so much so that the DIA has extended their weekend hours to ten at night. They let groups in an hour at a time, and it takes about that long to get through it all. <br />
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We had an hour before our group, so we checked out the rest of the second floor, where most of the art I'm interested in can be found. The first piece I was taken by was this <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/30eb6109-c0e4-462b-9ff0-1b7b7bd0bd67.aspx?position=352" target="_blank">Madonna and Child by Sassoferrato</a>. The web version gives you a little of the sense of dimension and color, but standing in front of it is mind-blowing. It glows, positively glows. It looks like you could reach in and feel the bright fabrics. Four hundred years later it looks freshly dried. It's located in the Promenade outside the Renaissance rooms.<br />
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A little further down the hall is <a href="http://www.dia.org/art/rivera-court.aspx" target="_blank">Rivera Court</a> which houses the panel murals Diego Rivera did in the 1930s depicting Detroit's auto industry. Unlike any of the other art at the DIA, this wasn't brought from anywhere. Rivera completed this opus in less than a year right here in the middle of the museum. This is the mural's home, a high, open court with his bright symbolism on all four walls. I probably saw this once a year when we took field trips in school, but I think it takes an adult appreciation for history and labor to really take it in. <br />
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Past that is the "modern" collection of European art, a tantalizing assortment of the biggest names of the nineteenth century. The DIA has an impressive Van Gogh collection, consisting of <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/127f6f52-58cb-4381-a706-f649d1ee56e5.aspx?position=273" target="_blank">The Diggers</a>, <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/93609ce8-3ede-4544-803c-5f48bb7ff974.aspx?position=274" target="_blank">Bank of the Oise and Auvers</a>, a venerable portrait of <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/49f3c5da-9fb9-492e-9cca-d152084d8675.aspx?position=29" target="_blank">Postman Roulin</a>, and what I think is<a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/662cf867-c9e6-4f6b-9281-8b5ca7dd6c72.aspx?position=56" target="_blank"> the best of all his self-portraits</a>. I'm probably biased, but of all the self-portraits I've seen online or in books, I find it both the most attractive visually and the most expressive in the eyes.<br />
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So after all this we got in line for the Rembrandt exhibit. They let people in in a controlled flow, sort of, and when you get in they give you a neat digital audio tour device. There are numbers next to a lot of the pieces and you just punch in the number and hit play to hear the commentary on that piece. One cool thing is that a lot of them featured my old art professor, <a href="http://www.shelleyperlove.com/ShelleyPerlove/Home.html" target="_blank">Dr. Shelley Perlove</a>. She's the one who taught me about Rembrandt in the first place. <br />
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We looked at the sketches and etchings first, as an appetizer. The paintings, of course, are the main course. Did I mention it was crowded? It was crowded. I was sharing my personal space with about four people at a time, but like I said it was worth it. All along one wall were studies of the same model he used for Jesus. The effect of looking at one after another gave the impression of a series of photos of a subject in motion. You can only get that with such an exhibit with all these pieces brought together. <br />
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<a href="http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=2306&iid=" target="_blank">The two big stars of the show</a> shared a wall at the end of the hall in the portraits room. The first I studied was Rembrandt's Head of Christ (more like upper body of Christ). It was the same model as the other portraits, but it's like he took all he learned from doing those and amplified everything into this one impossibly deep painting. Physically it is small, but you only notice that approaching. Once you're looking at it, it's huge. Christ is portrayed as contemplative, approachable, and clearly has a lot on his mind. This isn't the traditional European Jesus, he's darker and his hair is a little kinky and he looks like a man who knows his mission is costly and difficult. It's beautiful. The Supper at Emmaus is a masterpiece of light. You can really tell it's been cleaned for this exhibit. There's no film or grit anywhere on it. It's pristine looking. And, since it's after the Resurrection, Jesus has a much more peaceful expression as he's encircled by an unearthly light.<br />
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The exhibit is there until February 12th. I'll say it again, it was worth it. Worth the measly cost, worth the line, worth the crowd (these are fellow people who appreciate an event like this, after all), heck it was even worth almost crashing into the bales of hay somebody dumped on I-94 on our way there.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-40709895693139484332012-01-13T15:42:00.002-05:002012-01-13T15:42:00.407-05:00More on The War of ArtJust a follow-up to my prior entry praising Steven Pressfield's amazing book. By sitting down and writing--by having inspiration come through work instead of waiting for ideas before beginning--in three weeks I've got a killer 8,000 word short story and another 1,500 on something that feels a lot like the start of a novel. And that's with all the to-do of the holidays thrown in. It's immensely satisfying to be working, to be overcoming Resistance. And it's all because I've trusted that by clocking in at the keyboard, it'll work out. It does. <br />
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Like Pressfield writes, "W<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">hen we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen. A process is set into motion by which, inevitably and infallibly, heaven comes to our aid. Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose." </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's real. That happens.</span></span></span><br />
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Write on.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-83716609516800294452012-01-12T00:12:00.001-05:002012-01-12T00:16:10.610-05:00January SAORAAT MagazineCheck out this month's edition, featuring authors Madeline Sloane and Matthew Wood!<br />
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And don't forget our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Supporting-Authors-One-Read-At-A-Time-Magazine/226576284074037" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>. Join the network, meet cool people.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-39893423425699764662011-12-28T07:31:00.002-05:002011-12-28T07:37:09.766-05:00The War of Art: Arm Yourself with This Book<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the last week I've written nearly 4,000 words on a new story. That may not seem like much to some writers, but for me this week has been more productive than the last six months combined. During that time, that dormant period, I told myself I wasn't writing because I was focused on shopping my book to agents. And that did take up a chunk of time, but that wasn't the reason I wasn't writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was because I was petrified. Petrified of not being able to do this again, to write a book. Petrified of sitting down and finding out there was nothing left. And all that time I was waiting for that fear to subside before I tried to write again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then I read <span id="goog_734023423"></span>Steven Pressfield's <span id="goog_734023424"></span><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/0446691437/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325075142&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The War Of Art</a> </em>and I turned pro. I thought I'd turned pro before, but Pressfield (</span><a href="http://www.stevenpressfield.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">here's his website</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) taught me the secrets of being a pro: you sit down and you write. Waiting for ideal circumstances, for quiet, for courage or whatever we wait for when we procrastinate, that's all amateur stuff. That's all what he calls Resistance. And the only way to beat it is on a day to day basis, by putting your butt down and hammering away at it. When a writer does that, THEN comes inspiration and courage and THEN comes the story. Only the act of writing produces writing. Only work works.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That sounds so simple, that there must be a catch. The catch is that <span style="color: red;">"</span><span style="color: red;">Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work." <span style="color: black;">Resistance says: You suck, You have other things to do first, You didn't get enough sleep to write, Nobody wants to read your crap anyway, etc etc. And the only way to shut it up is to work. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So I did, I have. And I feel great. When Resistance wins, it permeates everything with a general shitty feeling. When we win over Resistance, one day at a time, there's a positive energy that sticks to us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pressfield has done God's work by peeling away all the excuses and tricks of our creative enemy and reminding us of what we're here to do; what we need to do for both our own sake and the universe's. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My favorite quote is right near the beginning:</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">"</span>How many pages have I produced? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got. All that counts is that, for this day, for this session, I have overcome Resistance."</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">It's worth noting that Steven King talks about this a little in <em>On Writing</em>, where he talks about the discipline of shutting out the world and working, so that his Muse (a cigar-puffing basement dweller) knows where and when to find him. Pressfield boils that concept down and drills it home in a way that connects directly to both the practical and "higher" parts of our minds. The books go really well together, and I keep them both handy. (Incidentally, I plan on adding <em>Elmore</em> <em>Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing</em>, which I've read but don't own yet.) </span>David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-51531658872874578082011-12-27T08:06:00.001-05:002011-12-27T08:08:43.959-05:00December's SAORAAT MagazineI realize with mild alarm that I haven't posted this yet! It's still December though, so enjoy:<br />
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And if you want .pdf's of the issues, they're available at the website. Just click the yellow sticky to the right.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-48156977282952356582011-12-04T19:10:00.000-05:002011-12-04T19:10:50.087-05:00Rembrandt in DetroitThis is a big deal. <br />
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Back in the day, sitting in art history class, I always sat up a little straighter when Rembrandt popped up on ye olde overhead projector. After suffering through units on French Impressionism that made me hate water lilies, and for a time the French, here was some damn ART. Rembrandt did gritty reboots centuries before Christopher Nolan was born.<br />
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And now, for the first time since the 1930s, one of Rembrandt's masterpieces, The Supper at Emmaus, is on U.S. soil and on the wall at the Detroit Institute of Arts as part of a new exhibition running through February called Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus. There are about five dozen works from the master and his students, primarily etchings and drawings, but the stars of the show are The Supper and the portrait Head of Jesus<br />
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The Supper at Emmaus, on loan from a little outfit you might know as the Louvre, was recently cleaned by meticulous French people, making up for their water lilies. They removed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eguQH8_HIXY" target="_blank">seven layers of varnish</a>, meaning that the painting on display is, for the first time in centuries, able to be seen as it was intended by Rembrandt. <br />
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Go <a href="http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=2306&iid=" target="_blank">here</a> for more info and for a coupon saving you $6 off admittance, which is only $16 as is.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-45170397834976167362011-11-23T03:00:00.000-05:002011-11-23T03:00:11.671-05:00Premises I LoveIf I see a book, movie or television show about any of these stories, I just can't pass it up. <br />
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<ul><li><strong>The isolated group of people--and one of them is a ________! </strong> I love stories where people are trapped together, it's best when they're strangers, and they slowly realize that someone in the group is not what they seem. The most recent version of this was the movie Devil, where some people are stuck in an elevator and one of them is an insurance adjuster. I mean the devil. </li>
<ul><li><em>+1 if they're stranded because of a raging storm</em></li>
<li><em>+1 if one of them is secretly a werewolf</em></li>
</ul><li><strong>A contentious will reading leads to danger!</strong> A lot of estate issues in real life cause strife, but don't make good stories. What makes a good story is if the dead guy or gal's attorney gathers all the nefarious relatives together to read a will that surprises everyone and sets in motion blackmail and murder.</li>
<ul><li><em>+1 if the will specifies that they must stayed in the creepy house together</em></li>
<li><em>-1 if the deceased is revealed to be still alive. Unless he's also the killer</em></li>
</ul><li><strong>A deadly prank comes back to haunt a group of friends!</strong> I talked about this a little in regards to Kevin O'Brien's book <em>The Last Victim</em>. Whether this set-up leads to a ghost story, a slasher revenge story, or a taut thriller (like O'Brien's), I'm probably going to like it. </li>
<ul><li><em>+1 if they're stranded somewhere together</em></li>
<li><em>+1 if it's at a class reunion</em></li>
</ul><li><strong>My neighbor is a __________ and no one will believe me!</strong> Like the last one, I love this premise no matter where it's going. It doesn't matter if the guy next door is a vampire like in Fright Night or a killer like in Rear Window. And for what it's worth, if you tell me you saw your neighbor doing something crazy or unbelievable, I'll be that side kick who stands lookout while you break into their place looking for their coffin or the murder weapon.</li>
<ul><li> <em>-1 if the neighbor is totally innocent, unless there's a good twist where someone else is guilty</em></li>
<li><em>+1 if the cops won't help</em></li>
</ul><li><strong>The classic locked room!</strong> What I mean by classic is: someone is dead, murdered, in a locked room with no apparent way anyone could have gotten at them. This is a great premise and easy to start, but very difficult to pull off successfully. My love of this sort of thing goes back to an episode of Hey Dude I saw when I was about 10 or 11 and they told a story about people being found dead with all their doors and windows locked from inside. Maybe that wasn't a good plot for a kid's show, but it stuck with me!</li>
<ul><li><em>+1 if the solution is clever, not too simple or too technical</em></li>
<li><em>-1 if an animal did it, that's been done by the masters and I could only barely tolerate it when </em>they<em> did it</em></li>
</ul><li>Finally, <strong>Bigfoot!</strong> If a group of people go into the woods or the mountains and they're running into a skunk ape or yeti or whatever, I want to know about it. For me this goes back to stories at boy scout camp and the Peter Cushing movie The Abominable Snowman.</li>
<ul><li><em>+1 if they've ticked Bigfoot off</em></li>
<li><em>-1 if it's about the monster truck, unless a real Bigfoot is driving it</em></li>
</ul></ul>Someday I hope to combine all of these beloved plots into one grand magnum opus. Okay, picture this, Bigfoot is found stabbed to death in a locked motel room after receiving threatening letters referencing his recent inheritance and a high school prank.<br />
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All right, I need to think about this some more.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-9893604080983543762011-11-08T03:16:00.001-05:002011-11-08T03:17:48.245-05:00Yee-Haw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSJf_sP8V9spbvAnviJzdfn5biPWP9G8TxJ7cyffiC4JD6eHCoapswq-uwKMlQXo2HvzpGEzrhBK5L6Q-0nyvHfSaJUKoYjsqqIovlPO-eh7bnQEbGY5uiuWwPkEJpjC1NeuG2wIVBzM2O/s1600/IMG_1017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSJf_sP8V9spbvAnviJzdfn5biPWP9G8TxJ7cyffiC4JD6eHCoapswq-uwKMlQXo2HvzpGEzrhBK5L6Q-0nyvHfSaJUKoYjsqqIovlPO-eh7bnQEbGY5uiuWwPkEJpjC1NeuG2wIVBzM2O/s320/IMG_1017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
A photo to commemorate the first time I've put on a cowboy hat, as an adult anyway. Sure the only country I listen to is Johnny Cash and I can't wear boots, but I gotta say it felt more right than I'd have thought. But if I got one of my own I'd go for something a little...less tall. Not a ten gallon. Maybe a six gallon. Whatever the hell that means. That's a Pistons 2004 Championship shirt, by the way.<br />
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Anyway I've just about lost track of the books I've read lately but I'm hoping to get a Recent Reading entry up as soon as I get re-organized. Then there's the Supporting Authors magazine for November, so I may just surpass my blistering blog speed this month. I'm thinking, like, four posts.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-21779036516563690452011-09-14T03:45:00.000-04:002011-09-14T03:45:34.763-04:00New Networking EndeavorNew to my sidebar over there is a clickable sticky note that links to a new site started by Eri Nelson, author of <em>The Call from Within</em>, to gather interested authors together so that we can support each other using our blogs. Click the sticky or <a href="http://www.wonderfulreadofthemonth.blogspot.com/" target="new">here</a> to find out more.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-85520877727890424332011-09-10T01:27:00.000-04:002011-09-10T01:27:00.897-04:00Made in AmericaNo, not that terrible movie with Ted Danson. I'm talking about <em>stuff</em> made in America. People often say this country doesn't make anything anymore. A stroll through most stores--especially any electronics section--would give one that impression, it's true, but the Internet has opened up an avenue for people to find a lot of products still made here. This post is in honor of Labor Day (for which I began it, alas these posts with lots of links take me awhile!) and the men and women who keep our manufacturing tradition alive.<br />
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These links are all from my bookmarks (and not in any particular order), and I know there are probably others out there so if you can't find what you're looking for below, it may still be available elsewhere.<br />
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<strong><u>General Stores</u></strong><br />
<ul><li><a href="http://allusaclothing.com/" target="new"><strong>All USA Clothing</strong></a><strong> </strong>As the name suggests, they specialize in clothes and footwear for men, women, and children. I ordered from here last Christmas and had a good shopping experience.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.justiceclothing.com/thereis/justice/index.html" target="new">Justice Clothing</a></strong> Not just a retailer, they make their own products for men and women.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://madeinusaforever.com/" target="new">Made in USA Forever</a> </strong>A Made in America megastore. Clothing, home goods, furniture, toys, outdoor goods, etc. Something for everyone.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.theunionshop.org/" target="new">The Union Shop</a> </strong>Another good site for clothes and home goods</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.unionlabel.com/" target="new">Union House Apparel</a> </strong>Clothing, footwear, and some cookware. Always a special going. I've ordered from here and trust them. One of the last sources of guaranteed American Carhartt gear.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.allamericanclothing.com/" target="new">All American Clothing</a></strong> Not to be confused with All USA Clothing (above), though they carry similar items.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.usab2c.com/" target="new">USAB2C (Business to Consumers)</a> </strong>The biggest merchant of American-made goods I know of. Take just about everything offered in the shops above, add a few hundred or thousand more things, and that's USAB2C. I've bought from them and I'm sure I will again.</li>
</ul>Two things to keep in mind when shopping at the above: First, you can often find the same product at a couple different stores listed, so you can comparison shop. Second, most of the clothing is cotton and most of it is not pre-shrunk, meaning you might want to size-up. Now, some more links:<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Specific Products</u></strong><br />
<ul><li><strong><a href="http://store.carolinaglovecompany.com/shglmainus.html" target="new">Gloves</a></strong> Carolina Glove Company's selection of American-made gloves</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.hats.com/c/1787/Made-in-the-USA.aspx" target="new">Hats</a></strong> Hats.com has 23 pages full of attractive hats made in the USA.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.knifecenter.com/american_made.html" target="new">Knives</a></strong> Knife Center has a good selection of cutlery made here in America. Nothing beats a Ka-Bar.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.staples.com/Pilot-EasyTouch-Ballpoint-Pen-Medium-Point-Black-Dozen/product_382502" target="new">My Favorite Pen</a></strong> I've grown loyal to Pilot's EasyTouch line of pens. They're inexpensive, made in the USA, write well, don't smudge on me, and always last longer than I expect them to. They're available in various colors and in two styles: retractable and with a cap. I prefer the latter and have linked to those. Staples is just an example, they're fairly widely available online and in stores.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.uaw.org/cars" target="new">Vehicles</a></strong> I'd be remiss not to link to my family's union, which my Dad belonged to for 30 years before his passing. From him I'll always know the value of the unsung labor that chugs along in the face of all challenges.</li>
</ul>David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-8695592197384007282011-08-25T10:52:00.000-04:002011-08-25T10:52:42.596-04:00C.J. Box's Joe Pickett novels 1-6Because I've read them in a row, I can't make my mind draw clear borders between the novels, so I'll just treat them as a group consisting of the first six books:<br />
<ul><li><em>Open Season</em></li>
<li><em>Savage Run</em></li>
<li><em>Winterkill</em></li>
<li><em>Trophy Hunt</em></li>
<li><em>Out of Range</em></li>
<li><em>In Plain Sight</em></li>
</ul>The series' protagonist is Joe Pickett, and he isn't like a lot of crime fiction heroes. He's not especially troubled, though he has his troubles. He's got a relatively stable family life. He's a game warden in Wyoming, not a cop or PI or even a granny who's too nosy for her own good, and he'd be just fine if all he ever had to do was mount his horse and patrol the beautiful scenery. About the only thing that gets to him is that his mother-in-law thinks her daughter married beneath her, and Pickett knows that, at least financially, she's right. They live a meager existence on the salary of a public employee, and it's a bur in his side.<br />
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He's also not an action hero, which is evident early on in the series. He carries an issued gun that he isn't very good with and has his awkward moments, including unknowingly arresting the governor for fishing without a license and getting handcuffed to his steering wheel by a suspect. And he gains infamy by wrecking every vehicle the department sends him, though it's usually not his fault.<br />
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So how does such a man get involved in so many (mis)adventures? It all boils down to Pickett's strong sense of right and wrong, which won't let him quit a matter without seeing it through to a just conclusion. That's essentially what this entire series is about: a man trying to do what's right in a world where a lot is wrong.<br />
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The crimes and villains in the stories spring from their environment. Land battles. Poaching. The everyday conflicts that sometimes get out of hand, you'd think, but a lot of times there's a darker plot afoot that dwarfs the original incident(s) Pickett sets out to investigate. And at every stage he's not only confounded by the criminals, but all-too-often by his own people. The bureaucracy--on the local, county, state and federal levels--threatens to smother him and the corruption threatens to kill him, or his family.<br />
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Pickett gets his first taste of that official brand of betrayal in the debut, <em>Open Season</em>, in which he investigates the murders of several Outfitters. It introduces us to a number of the local characters that will complicate Pickett's life down the road, in addition to being a solid story per se<em>. Savage Run</em> finds us three years down the road, where our game warden gets drawn into the case of--get this--a radical environmentalist getting blown up by an exploding cow. As always, there's something deeper and bigger going on, but I can't say more. In <em>Winterkill </em>we first encounter some of the series' most important characters, including the shady but fiercely loyal Nate Romanowski and his .454 revolver, whom Pickett has to prove innocent of a murder. I see these first three books as a collective; each capable of standing alone but also serving as the appetizer for the series.<br />
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Then we have <em>Trophy Hunt. </em>It's a lot of fun seeing how down-to-earth Pickett handles things when the Twilight Zone drops right on his head. Cattle and wildlife are being mutilated, and everyone in town has a theory, from a cult to UFOs. Then two men are killed and mutilated, and the book grounds itself in fast-paced, earth-based, action. Well, <em>maybe </em>it's all earth-based. <br />
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The next two books, <em>Out of Range </em>and <em>In Plain Sight </em>mark a big development in Pickett's character. He's still the common man seeking justice, but by now he's seen a whole lot of awful, and it's affected him. When he goes to Jackson Hole to investigate the suicide of a friend--and fellow game warden--Box gives us this remarkable juxtaposition of our protagonist and the dead man. What road is Pickett going down? we wonder. Tiny fissures begin appearing in him and his family. It's great reading, because Pickett is in more danger than just the physical sort. And in <em>In Plain Sight </em>just when you think the strain of his previous adventure is healed, a man from the Picketts' past comes looking for revenge not just against Joe but his whole family. The tension Box creates is remarkable, and the climax truly memorable. <br />
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And, just think, there are five more novels I've yet to read!<br />
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Next time: Eri Nelson and Lee LoflandDavid Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-89866514939244169982011-08-10T22:23:00.002-04:002011-08-10T22:23:00.605-04:00Recent Reading 4<strong>Bad Blood by John Sandford</strong><br />
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I've finally caught up and read all the Virgil Flowers novels. Part of what makes them great reads is the way the chapters are subdivided into chunks a few paragraphs long. You finish one and think, "Okay, just one more." Then you read the next, and the next, and pretty soon it's deep into the night and the book is done. The other great part is Virgil. He's fun, smart, and just rebellious enough to keep things interesting without making him cartoonish. <br />
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<em>Bad Blood</em> has all those traits which made the previous entries fun, including a pulse-pounding shoot-out, but the subject matter is one that even makes crime and mystery buffs recoil: Virgil is investigating murders related to the sexual abuse of children in a cult. That makes it hard to have as much fun as with the other novels, but Sandford ultimately pulls it off, mostly by following that most Elmorian of Elmore Leonard's maxims: leave out the parts readers tend to gloss over. The action unfolds crisply, and the shoot-out this time is just electric.<br />
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<strong>A Killer Plot by Ellery Adams</strong><br />
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I read this after I read the second novel of the series<em>, A Deadly Cliche</em>, so I had the curious experience of being reminded of characters I only knew from things that hadn't happened to them yet. I read it with the later book handy so I could flip through it and, in effect, get things in order. <br />
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Between reading the second novel and this one, Ellery mentioned something on her Facebook page about some people not liking the series' protagonist, Olivia. Going in I wondered what they might be reacting to, since in reading <em>A Deadly Cliche</em> I found Olivia willful but not in a bad way. In <em>A Killer Plot</em>, she is introduced in an unflattering way by townspeople gossiping about her, and Olivia has a bit of a fit of pique in a store, so I'm guessing that some readers may have taken too much stock in that and not given the character a fair shake afterward. I find Olivia to be a challenging character, not unlikeable, but challenging in that she's very guarded, and Adams lets her be guarded even to readers at first. But she's a rich character and worth the wait.<br />
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Speaking of, now that I'm caught up on both these series, I'm going to have to wait for new installments! Oh well, next time I'll be writing about another series I'm knee-deep in: the Joe Pickett novels by C.J. Box.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-59433084616104632172011-08-07T02:31:00.001-04:002011-08-07T02:31:58.875-04:00Recent Reading 3This time, I'll be going over the two Kevin O'Brien books I've read lately, and two collections of short stories by Stephen King.<br />
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<strong>Disturbed </strong>and <strong>Vicious by Kevin O'Brien</strong><br />
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I've really come to love O'Brien's storytelling. My first taste was <em>The Last Victim</em>, which I talked about in a previous post. After that I was quick to snatch up his most recent novel, <em>Disturbed</em>, when I saw it at the store (even though the paperback has a purple cover that clashes a bit on my shelf). If you go strictly by the cover you'll know it's about a serial killer terrorizing people who live in cul-de-sacs, but there's a lot more going on here. Like O'Brien's other books, it features a female protagonist and a lot of interpersonal conflict, in this case within a mixed family. And being part thriller and part mystery, I found myself taking notes on the players and their motives, not because it's necessary but because that's part of how I enjoy a book with as much activity, and as many suspects, as this one. There are a lot of strings floating around and it's fun trying to guess how O'Brien will tie them up, and he does so in a thoroughly satisfying manner.<br />
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And <em>Vicious</em> was even better. Again, the cover only tells part of the story. It's about a killer who targets mothers with their sons, but it's also about grief (the protagonist, Susan, is recovering from the accidental death of her husband and eldest son), and trust (there are a number of characters here who may not be what they seem) and survival. It's tense and genuinely posed some moral dilemmas I hadn't expected (regarding the circumstances of her new fiance's disappearance), and the way O'Brien wraps it all up is fantastic. <em>Vicious</em> is my favorite of O'Brien's novels so far.<br />
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<strong>Full Dark, No Stars </strong>and <strong>Everything's Eventual by Stephen King</strong><br />
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The stories in this book are strong. The situations are strong, the violence is strong, and the writing is strongest of all. Only one of the four tales is really supernatural, "Fair Extension," in which a dying man makes a deal with the devil. The most memorable thing about it is King's description of the latter that reveals his true identity; how his shadow isn't quite right and he seems to change right in front of us without actually changing. The other three stories are crime stories, and they're gems, too. You have murder and madness within a family in "1922," the grim joy of revenge in "Big Driver," and the horror of finding out secrets in "A Good Marriage." My favorite is "1922" because it is told in the first person from the perspective of a man who kills to keep his land, chronicling the downward spiral that follows. The writing is superb:<br />
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<blockquote>Here is something I learned in 1922: there are always worse things waiting. You think you have seen the most terrible thing, the one that coalesces all your nightmares into a freakish horror that actually exists, and the only consolation is that there can be nothing worse. Even if there is, your mind will snap at the sight of it, and you will know no more. But there <em>is</em> worse, your mind does <em>not</em> snap, and somehow you carry on. You might understand that all the joy has gone out of the world for you, that what you did has put all you hoped to gain out of your reach, you might wish you were the one who was dead--but you go on. (pg. 42)</blockquote>That, to me, is the most terrifying passage in the entire book.<br />
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I also read an earlier collection of stories called <em>Everything's Eventual</em>. There's a broad selection of genres in here, including another chilling encounter with the devil and a sort-of-sci-fi piece related to the <em>Dark Tower</em> series. You've got a suicidal salesman and a possessed painting, along with "1408" which was turned into a movie starring John Cusack. But my favorite of the bunch, and maybe my favorite King short story of all, is "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe." It's about a man meeting with his soon-to-be ex-wife and her lawyer at a cafe to settle some figures, but their lunch is interrupted by a man's violent mental breakdown. A lot of what happens is senseless, because random violence in real life is. And we see it all through the eyes of a non-party to that madness and whatever caused it, which is a brilliant way to tell such a story, I think, rather than trying to explain everything. All we're left with is what the protagonist is left with: the experience and speculation. It's amazing. <em>King is amazing</em>.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-9578813646329350852011-07-14T02:24:00.001-04:002011-07-14T02:31:33.688-04:00Dubious Things People Say About the Casey Anthony VerdictThis post isn't really about Casey Anthony's guilt or not-guilt, though it may come up incidentally it's not my focal point. No, this is about some of the things that I've seen pundits and random people say or write about the verdict. Things that are beginning to drive me nuts.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjkpTGutJtWrMTKilfm2rMF6EOdnTbUiPBtBLhu5pgHY9Wvj6QDIxucACy1iNtFJkBWdKihcpUCNIN7tzRpRzU_CgU1ZrzaLDacrgbVnSMbooUK65oUIoLDxT7ObtTlxGkwK4LZ76efW0s/s1600/20070913_driving_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjkpTGutJtWrMTKilfm2rMF6EOdnTbUiPBtBLhu5pgHY9Wvj6QDIxucACy1iNtFJkBWdKihcpUCNIN7tzRpRzU_CgU1ZrzaLDacrgbVnSMbooUK65oUIoLDxT7ObtTlxGkwK4LZ76efW0s/s320/20070913_driving_02.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div align="center">From <a href="http://newprotest.org/" target="new">newprotest.org</a></div><br />
<ul><li><strong>"We have to respect the verdict."</strong> No, not really. The word people are looking for is "accept." We have to <em>accept</em> the verdict as the final word, but even the final word can be ridiculed, disrespected, second-guessed, etc. Court rulings, jury decisions, and legislative action all have to be accepted and, where applicable, followed, but there is nothing requiring any of us to respect something that we think is wrong. Which brings us to:</li>
<li><strong>"We have to respect the jury."</strong> Putting twelve people in a jury box does not bestow upon them unassailable wisdom. I understand that some pundits <em>have</em> to say this because they're officers of the court, but I'm not. Juries aren't magic and the scary thing none of those pundits want to admit about our system is that juries can be both shallow and ignorant. Think back to the jury selection for this trial. I heard multiple jurors say they had never considered the death penalty before. Really? Never? I can understand not having a position on it, but never considered it before? I have to truly question a person who can make it well into adulthood without giving any thought to a major, hot-button issue of our time. That tells me that there are parts of their brains still in the factory shrink wrap, complete with that new-brain smell. Which made what happened far from a big surprise:</li>
<li><strong>"The jury did their job."</strong> I'm not so sure about that. Day after day we heard from people inside the courtroom who reported that the jury wasn't taking many notes, to the extent that a bunch of them just left their notebooks behind when they went to deliberate. I guess they all have some kind of super-memories or something, but if it were me deciding on a matter of life and death that was based in large part on technical testimony from expert witnesses, I might have jotted a couple things down. At other times they were reported to look bored and didn't look at the people speaking. But, hell, it's just evidence, right? What's coming out from the jurors who are speaking illustrates that they didn't need no stinkin' evidence, because they had suspicions, mostly about a guy with no evidence whatsoever against him. Again, new brain smell. They also didn't seem to do their jobs in the sense that they didn't heed court orders. It was about halfway through the trial that they asked to examine an item, which meant they were already discussing the case in clear violation of the admonitions they all swore to abide by (curiously, they didn't again ask to see any evidence...when they were actually supposed to, I mean). And several have apparently stated they didn't understand the lesser charges they had the option of going with, while others abandoned their initial votes that favored manslaughter. In short, it didn't seem like these people were terribly interested in being jurors ('can we wrap this up I have a cruise to catch!'), though a number of them seem pretty interested in the payoffs coming to them. So no, I don't have to respect them, at all. </li>
<li><strong>"The media convicted Casey."</strong> I think the people saying this had their arguments all ready to roll for a guilty verdict. They're the same people saying Casey couldn't get a fair trial. So how'd she get acquitted? There are legitimate points to make about media and court cases, but if anything this trial shows that even under intense media coverage that allegedly sways to one side, a defendant can indeed be found not guilty.</li>
<li><strong>"I'd rather a (hundred/thousand) guilty people go free than one innocent person be falsely imprisoned!" </strong>While that's a nice sentiment, meant to convey the idea that our system favors the defendant to the extent that sometimes one will slip through the cracks, it just doesn't translate to the real world at all. Our system can, and does, both, letting guilty people go free <em>and </em>falsely imprisoning innocent people. There is nothing about Casey Anthony being acquitted that will keep an innocent person from being found guilty. They are not causally related in any way. As I pointed out above, no one likes to admit it but juries act capriciously. Even if they didn't, reasonable doubt is not a concrete standard. And even if you had a perfect jury pool who understood reasonable doubt, there would still be overzealous prosecutors and incompetent defense lawyers. People may be right when they say that we have the best justice system in the world, but we also know for a fact that we have locked up lots of innocent people, and we rightly suspect that many of the not-at-all-innocent are released to walk the streets.</li>
<li><strong>"Take THAT Nancy Grace!"</strong> Finally, there is an ill-defined but tangible sense in many comments about the verdict that make it sound like a victory over the forces of cable news media. Whatever you think about Nancy Grace or anyone else on television talking about this trial, they most certainly haven't lost anything here. Their ratings are probably bigger with a not-guilty verdict than they would have been with a guilty verdict. I've also seen it expressed in regards to Jeff Ashton for smiling behind his hand. The people who feel this misplaced vindication are usually the first ones to point out that this was a real trial and not a thing to be entertained by, complaining rightly or wrongly about the circus atmosphere surrounding it, yet they abandon that high ground to partake in <em>schadenfreude</em> at seeing a TV host they don't like reacting to the verdict. Go figure. I guess everyone finds something to like at a circus, don't they?</li>
</ul>David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-40176892436587156402011-06-14T03:05:00.001-04:002011-06-14T03:06:57.292-04:00Random Observations on the Casey Anthony Trial*Casey Anthony has apparently modeled her life on that <em>Seinfeld</em> episode where George is trying to bluff his dead fiance's parents into buying his story about owning a house in the Hamptons. The best part of the episode involves George telling them--as he's driving them to the house he doesn't have--how he's got horses there, named "...Snoopy and...Prickly Pete." While we were laughing, Casey was taking notes: If you're going to lie, lie big and stick to it. Then she underlined that, five times.<br />
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*Leonard Padilla's office looks like he turned on the Home Shopping Channel and said, "Fuck it, whatever's on, that's what I'm buying to decorate my place with," and it happened to be time for the knife show. Not the modern civilized knife show, the old one where they sold huge rainbow-handled hunks of Pakistani steel named The Destructinator and MegaKnife 2.<br />
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*I'd check that courthouse's HVAC system for Legionnaire's Disease. I haven't heard people in court hacking so much since State of Ohio vs. SARS.<br />
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*In the time it takes for an attorney at the podium to call up and send a digital item to the witness and jury, which often involves blank stares and several people gathering around to troubleshoot the system, they could have just handed people hard copies of the same material. It's like Skyping with someone in the next room.<br />
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*There's something grimly amusing, but irritating, about a lawyer who clearly enjoys his new found celebrity accusing witnesses of testifying for fame and money. Forget that congressman, wait till Jose Baez's cell phone pics leak out.<br />
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*Casey Anthony is constantly making a duck face like she's wearing a mouth guard. Maybe pretending to cry is really stressful on your teeth or something.<br />
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*I never figured a guy who spends a large portion of his time around decomposing bodies would strike me as charming, but Arpad Vass made for both a good and entertaining witness. Go figure.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-35387774126040279402011-06-11T02:19:00.001-04:002011-06-11T02:43:02.027-04:00A Tribute to Terribly Sophisticated Hilarity<a href="http://www.seanbaby.com/" target="new">Seanbaby</a> is the best thing to happen to comedy since the banana peel. Every week I look forward to his articles and cartoons on <a href="http://cracked.com/" target="new">cracked.com</a>, and for awhile I've been keeping a file of his best lines in much the same way I keep track of great lines in books I've read. In looking them over, I picked some favorites and present you with Seanbaby's 11 best lines. Because 10 was one too few than enough.<br />
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<strong>11. </strong>During one of his occasional <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/stupidity-digest-1516-ways-to-kill-the-romance/" target="new">literary reviews</a>: "Romance is like playing Mastermind except the girl never tells you which pegs you got right."<br />
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<strong>10.</strong> Preparing us for the <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/10-traits-that-will-come-in-handy-during-any-apocalypse/" target="new">end times</a>: "Most theologists agree that when the world goes out, it goes out big. And that's what you need to do. Decorate yourself in warpaint and doll heads and find a weapon too rad to be effective. A chainsaw on a rope, a bag of infectious tumors, maybe consider replacing your hands with beehives--basically you need to die so hard that when you get to Hades they already have a statue of you."<br />
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<strong>9.</strong> Educating people about <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/understanding-the-world-of-warcraft-using-super-mario-brothers/" target="new">video games</a>... "For those of you unfamiliar with Mario Brothers, I urge you to leave, as I'm sure the other Communists will soon be wondering why you're not harvesting the collective's potatoes."<br />
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<strong>8.</strong> ...and about <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-movies-we-hope-any-potential-alien-invaders-have-seen/" target="new">interstellar relations</a>: "Captain Kirk boned things that didn't even have holes until he met them."<br />
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<strong>7. </strong>Helping readers find <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-great-occupations-for-horribly-stupid-people/" target="new">their calling</a>: "When you apply for a job as an airport screener, you are shown a jar containing three jelly beans and asked to guess how many are inside. If you guess correctly, you are placed in a holding cell and tortured until you give up the bomb's location (nice try, Muhammad). If you guess incorrectly, you are given a coupon for a free hug. If you throw the jar of jelly beans into a wall safe and scream for everyone to clear the airport, you are immediately hired."<br />
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<strong>6. </strong>He knows about <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-questions-every-wow-fan-apparently-needs-answered/" target="new">biology</a>: "Without physical activity, the only way a human body can digest a Hot Pocket is by shedding layers of its own skeleton to battle it."<br />
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<strong>5. </strong>And has worked as a <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-worst-comedy-tv-explained-to-deaf-people/" target="new">closed captioner</a>: "Shatner is reading these lines like they're on a ransom note that didn't get to him until his kidnapped children were already killed."<br />
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<strong>4.</strong> Then he started his own <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/if-awesome-lunatics-ran-airlines/" target="new">airline</a>: "We don't trust any of you motherfuckers, and that's why when you get on board, we hand each of you a gun. If you pull it out first, you're the terrorist. If you pull it out second, you're EVERYONE ELSE. Good luck, first guy."<br />
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<strong>3. </strong>Speaking <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-top-eight-oh-shit-moments-in-mma/" target="new">truth to power</a>: "Bryant Gumbel is so white that he clutches his purse tighter when he passes by President Obama."<br />
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<strong>2.</strong> And he knows <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-assholes-who-found-this-article-by-googling-themselves/" target="new">fine dancing </a>when he sees it: "He moved like space squids hollowed out a sex offender and were drunk driving him."<br />
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<strong>1.</strong> Finally, some <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/10-traits-that-will-come-in-handy-during-any-apocalypse/" target="new">words to live by</a>: "The best final thought you can have is, 'That would have been so awesome if it had worked.'"David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-20672546549077591672011-06-03T01:16:00.000-04:002011-06-03T01:16:42.062-04:00Recent Reading II1. <strong>Nowhere to Run by C.J. Box</strong><br />
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I picked this up at the store while I was still trying to muscle through <em>Hot Blooded</em>, and totally abandoned that book once I began reading C.J. Box's quick, intense novel. The heart of the conflict begins on page 19, and yet it didn't feel rushed. Rather, it fit the protagonist, game warden Joe Pickett, who would yawn at chapters of superfluous setup. Box doesn't need that to show us Pickett as a man in his element in the outdoors. Nor does the pace stop him from laying down some great lines, like when he describes the character of different mountain ranges: "These mountains were like a glimpse of a beautiful and exotic woman in a passing car, a gun on her lap, who refused to make eye contact." Nice. <br />
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But once the action starts, this book both hauls and kicks ass so you'd better hang on. Joe Pickett wanders into the domain of two nearly superhuman mountain men, and is lucky to escape, bloody and broken. But the men are still up there, and Joe knows he's going back after them. Superb action and descriptions, and also something I wasn't expecting: a story with truly challenging ethical questions. It turns out those mountain men may have a legitimate beef with the authorities. How will that affect the way Joe deals with them? I loved finding out. <br />
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I chewed through this book so fast I got a concussion on the back cover. The good news is that this is just one of a series (though as usual I've started in the middle).<br />
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2. <strong>Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers</strong><br />
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Ms. Harriet Vane, in trekking along a fictional stretch of the English coast, discovers a dead man on a rock. His throat has been cut and the tide is coming in, soon destroying the crime scene. All the police have to go on are some photos and observations Harriet provides. The officials are happy to leave it at suicide, but Harriet and her bombastic (in the most gentlemanly way) acquaintance Lord Peter Wimsey set out to prove it was murder. The investigation is laid out in what I'd call amateur procedural, as opposed to police procedural. With a lesser writer the story might be sunk by the details, which are sometimes repetitious. But Sayers' bright dialogue between the two protagonists and her knowing when to offer some new twist to keep our interest saves the plot. I'll definitely be checking out more of the Wimsey series.<br />
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3. <strong>Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries edited by Mike Ashley</strong><br />
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The problem with reading an "impossible crime" or "locked room mystery" is that it's like watching one of those TV shows that reveals how magicians do their tricks. What was an awe-inspiring enigma is reduced to, "Oh, really? That's it, huh?" <br />
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A lot (maybe half) of the stories in this anthology gave me that feeling. A remarkable setup (One is, "A man vanishes at the top of the Indian rope trick and is found dead miles away") followed by varying degrees of deflation. And most of that isn't the fault of the writers. It just goes with the territory. You can't have a man, alone, killed in a locked room and not explain it. That'd be cheating. And you can't blame it on something supernatural if you're writing straight crime fiction. That'd be a cop-out anyway. There are only two things that can overcome the let down of peeking behind the curtain: a truly clever methodology that doesn't seem forced or cheesy, and great storytelling. My favorite story in the collection, "Proof of Guilt" by Bill Pronzini, offers both of those. A lawyer is shot to death in his locked office. The only other person in the office is a man with a clear motive. But there is no gun. Not inside, not outside--nowhere. Oh, he did it, though. How? Email me, I don't want to give it away.<br />
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Next up on my reading queue: more Virgil Flowers by John Sandford and going back to Oyster Bay with Ellery Adams.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-88539160680587714912011-05-14T05:32:00.000-04:002011-05-14T05:32:50.422-04:00Recent Reading Part I1. <strong>The Last Victim by Kevin O'Brien</strong><br />
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Back in high school, some kids accidentally killed a classmate in a prank gone wrong. Years later, someone is bumping off the former friends. It's a familiar set up, which is fine because it's one I happen to love whether in books or movies. And O'Brien manages to breathe fresh life into the premise, mixing in politics of both an electoral and family nature as our protagonist, Bridget, goes to work on behalf of her twin brother's Senate bid. Then the bodies start piling up, and she has to get to the bottom of things to save the campaign (which is the main concern of some of the characters) and, oh, her life. The characters are well drawn and their conflicts believable, particularly the familial dynamics. If you read this, tell me you don't hate Bridget's sister-in-law. I dare you. The killer's gimmick, by the way, is that he's a painter and he constructs each crime scene to his artistic vision, which he later transfers to canvas. If there's any flaw in the book, it's how inorganic that feels at times. It seems like, well, something a killer in a book does. Solid story, though, with a satisfying ending.<br />
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2. <strong>Hot Blooded by Lisa Jackson</strong><br />
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What's that thing Randy Jackson says, like when he acknowledges that a performance may have merit to someone else but it just wasn't his cup of tea? Something about dawgs, I think. That's pretty much my experience with this book. It's about a radio talk show psychiatrist who's targeted by a demented killer. That part sounds good. The man's obsession is driven by some dark secret from her past (I wasn't purposely choosing that as a theme by the way; nothing Freudian in there), but damned if I know what because I only made it through a hundred pages or so. The pacing killed me. That hundred pages is almost all set up. And while the protagonist's past romantic relationships may play an important part in the story, there was so much ruminating about them that I stopped caring. If that wasn't enough, the writing contained some real howlers. The second chapter ends with, "...she knew with mind-numbing certainty that this was just the beginning." Really? I've never been that certain. I may not want to be--it sounds uncomfortable. And a few pages later the hobbled radio doctor is described as "walking unevenly" twice in seven lines. <br />
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Next time: C.J. Box, Dorothy L. Sayers, and some impossible crimes.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-7407168464613019602011-05-07T02:07:00.000-04:002011-05-07T02:07:26.301-04:00Investigation Resources for the Writer or the CuriousIf you're interested, as a matter of work or play, in police procedure, or if you enjoy the show Castle, do yourself a favor and head over to Lee Lofland's blog, <a href="http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/" target="new">The Graveyard Shift</a>. With an easy and funny style, Lee lifts the crime scene tape and lets us see what it's like on the other side. In recent posts I've learned about homicide investigation <a href="http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/?p=11241" target="new">do's and don't's</a> and various kinds of <a href="http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/?p=11098" target="new">murder charges</a>. He also does a weekly post honoring fallen law enforcement officers. I'll soon be ordering Lee's book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Howdunit-Book-Police-Procedure-Investigation/dp/1582974551/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240583277&sr=8-1" target="new">Police Procedure & Investigation: A Guide for Writers</a>. It's part of the exceptional Howdunit series of books. I used to have the volume on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Doses-Writers-Poisons-Howdunit/dp/0898793718/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1304747191&sr=8-18" target="new">poisons</a> but it freaked me out to know how many common things can kill you so I donated it somewhere, heh.<br />
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And if The Graveyard Shift whetted your appetite, I know of no bigger or more organized resource for online crime than <a href="http://www.inreferencetomurder.com/" target="new">In Reference to Murder</a>, assembled and curated by <a href="http://inreferencetomurder.typepad.com/" target="new">BV Lawson</a>. From forensics and money laundering to blogs and books, it's like a toy store. A really depraved toy store, in a good way.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-53785316450499566552011-05-04T03:46:00.000-04:002011-05-04T03:46:29.234-04:00Shotgun HoneyThat's the name of the nifty <a href="http://www.shotgunhoney.net/" target="new">short-fiction blog</a> I recently began following. Each story, all of them in the crime genre, has a 700-word maximum, which forces writers to relate things as quickly as possible but hopefully without violating (much) the 'show don't tell' dictum of storytelling. It's great exercise for a writer and also leads to fun experiments and methods which are evident as you read the entries. They're also good for when you don't have time to read longer work, or if Twitter has beaten your attention span into a coma.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-87621426340223266922011-04-21T03:19:00.000-04:002011-04-21T03:19:00.527-04:00The Things I Stumble Upon, Part II frequently hop online with a concrete notion of what I'm looking for, but wind up hopelessly sidetracked. I could set out on a hunt for a movie quote and wind up checking out the movie's prop master's blog, then two hours later there's a guide to scuba regulators on my screen and I rub my head and wonder where I am and how I got there.<br />
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During one of these Momento-esque sessions of time-murdering, I meandered onto a message board thread about Nancy Drew computer games. A post there led me to You Tube and a series of video walkthroughs of said games by a user named <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/arglefumph" target="new">arglefumph</a>. Each video is accompanied by an affable voiceover, addressed to the "Nancy Drew Clue Crew," and I just could not stop watching them. And that's not because of the games--I haven't played nor do I plan on playing any of them. It's just that his narration is upbeat and often quite funny.<br />
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Arglefumph, aka Michael Gray, also has a <a href="http://arglefumph.blogspot.com/" target="new">blog</a> that I've started following, because he does ridiculously creative things like make two chatbots, one representing George Washington and the other Abe Lincoln, <a href="http://arglefumph.blogspot.com/2011/04/abraham-lincoln-and-george-washingon.html" target="new">talk to each other</a>.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542896738223993189.post-27812829047598258972011-04-12T03:08:00.000-04:002011-04-12T03:08:13.758-04:00Not Happy?Whenever I'm not feeling particularly overjoyed with the way things are going, there's one thing that always makes me laugh. It may not solve whatever is bugging me, but it sure doesn't hurt any.<br />
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My Dad (yeah, I capitalize it) used to tell a story, that he insisted really happened, where he witnessed a fender bender at work one night. The two guys got out of their cars, and the driver who got hit was a midg--er, a little person.<br />
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They exchanged insurance info, but the victimized party still--understandably--felt aggrieved.<br />
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"I'm not happy," the man said, shaking his head.<br />
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"No?" the taller man replied. "Which one are you?"<br />
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Whether or not there's really a guy out there who got bears the scars of being zinged that hard, every single time I think the words, "I'm not happy," a little voice comes back with, "which one are you?" I have to succumb to a chortle. My Dad was a world-class leg-puller. I guess that's kind of what being a writer is, too.David Spencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07478988196526151129noreply@blogger.com0