A giant of polemics, William F. Buckley Jr. "coulda been a contender" as a novelist too. Robert Dean Lurie examines Buckley's mixed literary legacy.
Monthly Archives: December 2009
Smashing Pumpkins “A Song for a Son”
I’ve never been much of a Smashing Pumpkins fan. I may have come across a song here or there on the radio, but whatever I heard must never have really grabbed me. That is, until I heard a new song called “A Song for a Son” off their incrementally released newest album “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope.” The song, the first of 44 to be rolled out one at a time, is instantly likable, a straight ahead rocker that starts slowly, builds to a crescendo, and ends plaintively. The son referred to in the title is not Billy Corgan’s, who basically is The Smashing Pumpkins. As he says about the song: “I think it’s got something to do about not having any kids and thinking about why I don’t have any kids. And then also kind of thinking about my relationship with my father — there’s some kind of connection there, but it’s not overt. I didn’t set out to write that, it just rolled out of me.” I feel sorry for Mr. Corgan. My daughter turned 18 yesterday, and I have two younger boys, and one of the greatest blessings in the world is having and raising children. As King Solomon
Violent Gentlemen of Past Were Models of Moral Strength
The brilliant economist and columnist Thomas Sowell writes beautifully of a time when even men paid to beat each other up in public conducted themselves as gentlemen, in “Old Boxing Matches,” on National Review Online. Key passage: The first thing I noticed about the boxers back in the era of Joe Louis, from the 1930s into the 1950s, is that they all wore regulation boxing trunks and they didn’t have tattoos. There was no trying to outdo each other with garish trunks or wild tattoos. They didn’t try to stare each other down when the referee was giving them instructions before the fight. Seldom did any of these boxers go in for showboating during the fight, and there was no denigrating the other fighter, before or after the fight. After Joe Louis knocked out an opponent, any comment he made was usually along the lines of “He’s a good fighter and very game.” Sometimes Louis would add, “He had me worried for a while,” though there was seldom any real reason to worry. One of the few fighters who did give Joe Louis a real battle, and who was ahead on points when Louis knocked him out, was Billy Conn.
Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Studio Boss
I’m usually against using a synonym for ‘happy’ when referring to homosexuals, but that was the word used in the headline of the article announcing Disney’s recent hire of Rich Ross for the post of studio head. This particular move may shock some people, but it is simply a particularly vivid manifestation of what has been a long-term trend for the Disney studio, long seen as a purveyor of wholesome family-friendly fare. Turning its back on its past (as is the organization’s right), Disney has deliberately placed itself on the cutting edge of progressive cultural change for the past couple of decades, slipping snarky, rebellious, and socially transformative messages into movies aimed at children. You’ll see that Mr. Ross has been in charge of the Disney Channel, which hasn’t completely corrupted the youth of America (the public schools have done that on their own), so what he does in his private sex life is really a big “who cares?” But of course this promotion fits in well with the agenda of homosexual rights activists, whose primary goal is that all Americans should see homosexuality as morally equivalent to heterosexuality. But I couldn’t help thinking about something that would really be
TCM Thrillers (December 28 – January 3)
This week: * Monday—A silent Sherlock battles a silent Moriarty, silently. * Tuesday—Two versions of a Damon Runyon story. * Wednesday—Bogie gets religion. * Thursday and Friday—Six Hitchcock classics followed by six equally classic Thin Man films. * Saturday—Charles Boyer risks it all. * Sunday—Errol Flynn hears footprints, in the dark yet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Monday—December 28th 12:00 AM—Sherlock Holmes (1922) Sherlock Holmes faces off against Professor Moriarty. Cast: John Barrymore, Roland Young, Carol Dempster. Dir: Albert Parker. BW-86 mins, TV-G ———- Tuesday—December 29th 12:00 AM—Lady for a Day (1933) A gangster helps an old apple-vendor pose as a society woman to fool her visiting daughter. Cast: May Robson, Warren William, Guy Kibbee. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-96 mins, TV-G 1:45 AM—Pocketful of Miracles (1961) A good-hearted gangster turns an old apple seller into a society matron so she can impress her daughter. Cast: Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Hope Lange. Dir: Frank Capra. C-137 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format 8:00 PM—On the Waterfront (1954) A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks. Cast: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger. Dir: Elia Kazan. BW-108 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format ———- Wednesday—December 30th 2:15 AM—Ice Station Zebra (1968) A sub commander
Murder and Miscreants for Christmas
On a hot August day in a big U.S. city after World War II, a man in a Santa Claus suit murders a radio executive in the latter’s office and escapes unidentified. Murder Can Be Fun (aka A Plot for Murder) is a fast-moving, entertaining 1948 mystery novel by the master of combining hardboiled elements with strong puzzle plots, Fredric Brown. It deals with murders in the interesting milieu of old-time radio, in the days before television, when radio was king, and it includes a fascinating forecast of the sexualization of the American workplace. As always, Brown presents an atmosphere that’s gritty and convincingly menacing while also dispensing a good deal of humor, astute social observations about the times, an interesting and appealing protagonist with a realistic complement of normal human strengths and weaknesses, a varied and insightfully portrayed group of supporting characters, and a strong, compelling plot with plausible motivations. A historically significant element of the story is the fact that it’s the first novel of which I’m aware in which a female golddigger type pursues her trade through the ruthlessly ambitious pursuit of employment advantages obtained through the dispensing of sexual favors, as opposed to the classic type
Three Christmas Mysteries by a Master
The late Edward D. Hoch (1930 – 2008) holds the record for the most published mystery short stories — 900 and counting. What’s even more remarkable is that, even with such a massive output, the quality of his stories remained remarkably high. He obviously loved the puzzle plot, and most of his works adhered to that formula. More noteworthy still is how readily he could concoct an ‘impossible’ crime (a.k.a. ‘locked room’) mystery. For most crime fiction authors, impossible crime plots are difficult at best, and they tend to avoid them. Hoch, in contrast, could turn them out on a virtual production line basis. Only John Dickson Carr (a.k.a. Carter Dickson) and Hal White have been as consistently successful with the formula. Two of the three stories mentioned here center on impossible crimes, but even the third one has plenty of mystification for readers who like their mysteries to have … well, mystery. Crippen & Landru publishers have done all of us detective fiction aficionados a great service by collecting many of Ed Hoch’s mystery short stories for posterity. We urge you to get them now before they go out of print. ———- “The Problem of the Christmas Steeple.” Ellery
Transatlantic Whirlwind
Prog-rock supergroup Transatlantic returns with another fine CD release, The Whirlwind. Click here.
James Cameron Would Hate to Live on Pandora
James Cameron would have a very hard time making his movie in Pandora. In fact, he’d have a hard time just watching his latest spectacle on that planet. Moreover, there is not a lot of time to just sit and meditate on one’s hatred of Western Civilization while trying to survive as a hunter-gatherer. Avatar is another case of hypocritical, liberal-left, “Do as I say, not as I do” moralizing. So argues Popular Science: Unlike Lucas’ more playful science fiction epic, Cameron reaches for a heavy environmental message. Avatar is every militant global warming supporter’s dream come true as the invading, technology-worshiping, environment-ravaging humans are set upon by an angry planet and its noble inhabitants. But the film’s message suffers mightily under the weight of mind-boggling hypocrisy. Cameron’s story clearly curses the proliferation of human technology. In Avatar, the science and machinery of humankind leads to soulless violence and destruction. It only serves to pollute the primitive but pristine paradise of Pandora. Of course, without centuries of development in science and technology, the film putting forth this simple-minded, self-loathing worldview wouldn’t exist. You’d imagine Cameron himself would be bored to tears on the planet he created. There are no movies
Pronzini Is Astute, Amusing Critic
Gun in Cheek: A Study of Alternative Crime Fiction (1982) by Bill Pronzini Hardcover: Coward McCann & Geoghegan, 1982; trade paperback: Mysterious Press, 1987. Gun in Cheek is Bill Pronzini’s backhanded salute to the “Best of the Worst,” books and stories that pushed the envelope of language to the breaking point and beyond. The blurb on the back says it all: Gun in Cheek is a delightful exploration of what the author refers to as “alternative crime fiction.” Less kindly put, it is a unique crash course in the worst English and American crime fiction of the twentieth century. Every category of mystery fiction is represented: the private eye, the stately home, the arch-villain, the gentleman sleuth, the amateur spy, and many others who have blossomed from the genre. Within these categories, in what can only be called a labor of love, Bill Pronzini discusses, digests, and shares the best of the worst — adding a wonderfully comprehensive bibliography for advanced and dedicated devotees. Gun in Cheek is an amusing and pleasurable reading experience as well as an enlightening guide to hardboiled potboilers. But they’re not all hardboiled. Gladys Mitchell is Pronzini’s target in Chapter Five: “Mitchell’s prose is of
The Spirit of Copenhagen is Anathema to the Spirit of America
Modern environmentalism is not some harmless desire for clean water and clean air. It is the implacable enemy of liberty and everything that has made American the greatest, most prosperous engine of freedom in the history of the world. Some might think I overstate the case. They would be wrong. I’ve read, as difficult as it is, much environmentalist claptrap, but I’ve found a wonderfully focused piece by a Brit name George Monbiot titled “This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity.” Kind of says it all. This is correctly looked at as a battle of worldviews. One of autonomous man, defined by evolution as a product of time, matter and chance, and the other of man as the product of an omnipotent creator who lives in a world designed for him. These are mutually incompatible. The foundation of American exceptionalism is established in our Declaration of Independence in which it is proclaimed, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Without a Creator, specifically of the Judeo-Christian tradition, America has nothing upon which it
TCM Thrillers (December 21 – 27)
This week: * Tuesday—Barbara Stanwyck can’t heal herself. * Wednesday and Thursday—Bogie goes bonkers, tangles with Nazis, gets a makeover, and mixes it up with mobsters. * Friday and Saturday—Get your fill of Sherlock Holmes in 17 films from the ’30s through the ’70s. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Monday—December 21st ———- Tuesday—December 22nd 4:30 AM—The Miracle Woman (1931) A phony faith healer fights the temptation to go straight when she falls for a blind man. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, Beryl Mercer. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-90 mins, TV-PG ———- Wednesday—December 23rd 1:00 PM—Conflict (1945) A man murders his wife so he can be free to marry her sister. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet. Dir: Curtis Bernhardt. BW-86 mins, TV-PG, CC 2:30 PM—Dead Reckoning (1947) A tough veteran sets out to solve his war buddy’s murder. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, Morris Carnovsky. Dir: John Cromwell. BW-100 mins, TV-PG, CC 4:15 PM—The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) A woman slowly discovers that her artist husband is a deranged killer. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith. Dir: Peter Godfrey. BW-94 mins, TV-G, CC 6:00 PM—Knock on Any Door (1949) A crusading lawyer fights to save a juvenile delinquent charged with murder. Cast: Humphrey
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