I had 20-30 of the Bantam paperbacks when I was a kid, and I used to read them during lunch at school until my evil bitch of a 5th-grade teacher, Miss George, took them away from me and wouldn't give them back. My mother was furious with her, and asked her how she, as a teacher, could justify doing something to discourage a child from reading. I've always been grateful for how she stuck up for me against such a petty classroom tyrant.

Bite me, Miss George.

[Link: New Doc Savage Reprints]
[Link: Doc Savage Magazine Cover Gallery]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

[Link: How To Care For Your Monster, Part I, Part II][via Exclamation Mark]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I'm off to the Bay Area on bidness. While I'm gone, entertain yourselves by boldy going to Comics Oughta Be Fun, and reading this excellent post on Trek fotonovels from the '70s.

Smell you later.

[Link: Star Trek Fotonovels]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Gordon's Jet Flight, a children's book from 1961, took me back to a golden age of plane travel, when passengers in coach got to eat steak, kids were allowed to visit the pilots in their cockpit, and Homeland Security didn't give my teddy bear a cavity search.

I don't miss having to wear a blazer and tie though.

[Link: Gordon's Jet Flight]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Beachbum Berry's new book of tropical-cocktail history, Sippin' Safari, showed up on my doorstep yesterday, and I immediately sat down and read the section on the Zombie. As you may recall, I donated a vintage souvenir photograph from the 1939 New York World's Fair to help illustrate it, so the Bum was gracious enough to send me a free copy.

In many ways, it's a big departure from his previous volumes of cocktail recipes. Oh, there's still girly drinks aplenty, but it's also chock full o' full-color photos, illustrations, and snappily written tales of the libational luminaries behind those legendary umbrella drinks. The tale of the Zombie is a knockout bit of mixology detective work, in which the Bum relentlessly (and somewhat drunkenly) tracks down the origins and evolution of Donn Beach's most mysterious concoction.

Those of you who've purchased his previous books may be put off a bit by the switch to a non-spiral binding, as the new style makes it a bit more difficult to lay it open on the bar while you're attempting to follow the recipe. This is a minor quibble, and should not deter you from picking up a copy. I recommend it highly.

[Link: Sippin' Safari]

Unfortunately, I won't be able to try much of it out before I leave for Malaysia this Thursday, and my chances of getting a decent cocktail in that 70% muslim country are slim to none. This will be my 2nd trip, and I'm not looking forward to the 22+ hour plane flight, or the 2 weeks of brutal heat and humidity I'll have to endure. The fact that I got the worst case of food poisoning I've ever had on my last visit there isn't stoking my enthusiasm either. However, I'm better prepared this time with antibiotics and a bunch of oral rehydration packets.

During my absence, blogging will be light to non-existent until the week of July 23rd.Talk amongst yourselves, or visit the many fine blogeurs listed on my sidebars.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

By now, everybody reading this blog has probably heard about Mark Frauenfelder's new book, Rule the Web, but what you may not know (unless you've already read the book), is that I'm in it. Mark graciously asked me a while back to make a contribution to the Favorite Bloggers section, and I was happy to help out. The topic I chose to elaborate on? One of my biggest peeves...hotlinking. So if you want to learn how to keep those little creeps at MySpace from displaying your images on their crappy webpages, buy the book and look me up!

[Link: Rule the Web Weblog]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Pele the Benevolent, by John Rafferty

A comment by orangeguru put me in mind of a something I wrote several years ago for the old Exotica mailing list, called Tikidämmerung. Essentially, it's a piss-take on Wagner's Gotterdämmerung, with all the principal characters played by figures from popular music.

What inspired me to write it was an article I'd just written for Cool and Strange Music magazine about Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and his lifelong desire to be an opera singer. More specifically, he wanted to assay the role of Siegfried in the Ring Cycle. I also wanted to satirize the way that popular music keeps recycling everything that's come before it, although I don't think I was terribly successful in getting that point across.

I've put both online for your reading pleasure (or derision).

[Link: Tikidämmerung: Twilight of the Tiki Gods]
[Link: If You Are But A Dream: the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Story]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Bizarre Books: a Cabinet of Curious Bibliophilia [via Blort]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 7:09 AM | Permalink

Author Mickey Spillane, the undisputed master of hard-boiled detective fiction, passed away earlier this week at age 88. Of all his literary creations, perhaps none are more memorable than Mike Hammer the cynical, brutal, womanizing private dick who brawled his way across the pages of 13 novels, and appeared in countless television shows and movies.

I can't think of a better way to pay homage to the sway that Spillane's words still hold over me than to offer up this Noir-meets-Knights-Templar takeoff on the life of Our Blessed Savior, written by Alan Scott and Yours Truly long before the Da Vinci Code became a mediocre novel and a bad film.

[Link: Two-Fisted Jesus Tales]

P.S. and while you're at it, take a gander at the oh-so fine Unoffical Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer Site [Link] and the site that pays tribute to the greatest Mike Hammer of them all, the Meeker Museum [Link].

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:36 PM | Permalink

Please enjoy this gallery of cover and inside illustrations from the complete first-edition series of Biggles books, but remember, don't refer to him as Señor Biggles, he's not a Spanish person.

[Link: The Biggles Information Web Site][via elcg]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 4:33 PM | Permalink