Episode #291: The Family Bookcase: {1}

In my basement we have two monstrosities that pass for bookcases: the family bookcase that basically stretches some ten feet across a side wall, and mine that stretches some four feet down the side wall in front of my den. Starting with this post, we'll be doing a skewered exploration on the contents of the family bookcase, and alternate a few about my bookcase.

Our family bookcase contains about 60 years worth of books collected in a few different ways: directly purchased from bookstores, acquired on the dirt cheap (aka free) from various people who were bringing/purging their collections. 

Just to give you a basic idea of what kind of books/reading material taking up space, we have the following: old mystery/sci-fi magazines; religious materials, encyclopedias, fiction, pop culture and different types of non-fiction that one would find in schools/universities. Like I said, this is just a sampling.

Wherever I walk by the bookcase, I'm always on the lookout for a particular missing repro book from the late 19th century, specifically, memoirs from the US Civil War (I bought some 35 years ago, two different Time-Life book series that totaled almost 65 volumes, each one costing, on average, $14.99 (not counting S&H) in 1980's money). When I was creating my own personal bookcase, I discovered I was missing one volume from the memoir series, thus the need for perpetually searching the bookcase.

Because of the type of books we have stashed in a bookcase that will never be read, there are titles/topics that often jump out at me, simply because of how strange the topic is. For our first example, we have this:

To be honest, I do not recall how this particular book made it to our family bookcase, but since my brother is a bit of a mild hoarder, I'm thinking it came to us courtesy of him.

Now, I know absolutely zero about cricket and I'm 100% positive that no one in the house knows anything about cricket. I think I tried watching it once or twice, but when you don't know anything about a sport that is popular everywhere except the US, you kind of say to yourself, "No." and move on.

This is but one of about two dozen sports oriented books housed within that large bookcase, which run the gamut of encyclopedias, memoirs, histories and compilations, covering mostly baseball, with a few football and one emphasizing World Cup soccer....and one that's a short history of Bundesligia, which is German soccer (fun fact: our local PBS affiliate used to host a weekly German soccer game called "Soccer Made In Germany", which my dad used to watch every Sunday.

~~~~~~~

I have five of these highly informative baseball encyclopedias. This particular baseball encyclopedia was around from the 1970's through 2009, was a baseball junkie's wet dream. It had everything a junkie would want: a detailed synopsis of every season (both AL & NL) as well as the final standings; with a statistical breakdown of each team's total player stats; it also included a breakdown of each world series (and divisional playoffs); divided the entirety of baseball (1876 thru 2009) by periods/eras; lifetime stats were also divided by the same periods/eras; and even included the two years that the Federal League was around (1914 & 1915), fun fact: Wrigley Field initially belonged to the Chicago Whales, the Federal League ball-club before they disappeared with the Federal League did. Overall this was a fantastic detailed history about Major League Baseball.

This baseball encyclopedia was the catalyst for me getting into the minutiae of baseball for a number of years, and everything else that I've managed to come across I compare to this encyclopedia, and I found those...wanting.

This was and remains to this day, my absolute favorite encyclopedia of my absolute favorite sport (I became a NY Mets fan since I got cable t.v. in the late 70's), and it still has an influence on me as a person and as a writer to this day.

As the title of this post states, this is the 1st part of what I hope to make a reoccurring feature on this blog: a sampling of books that were read maybe once or twice, then became a part of a very eclectic collection of books that me, myself and I would ever read, as I seem to be the only hardcore reader in my household.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #288: We Be Reviewing A Pop Culture Icon

Found this at my local Savers store (thrift store that's a slight cut above the Salvation Army) for about $6. This was the best of a not so good shopping expedition that day.

Even if you've never read the books, not seen the animated series (2006-22) nor the movie, chances are that you've heard of Curious George and his "owner" the Man With The Yellow Hat in some way, shape or form.

Curious George is a pop culture icon, much like Bob Ross is, in that all you have to hear is a particular phrase and presto! you instantly know who they're talking about.

On a personal level, I have very mixed feelings about Curious George. On one hand, I do believe I made a genuine attempt at reading the school age books  but quickly realized that while the illustrations were good, the story simply didn't keep my interest (I think at that point I was already reading way above my age level). But on the opposite side of the equation, the name was used as a bullying epithet that was directed at me during my late elementary/middle school years.

The end result of this potpourri of feelings is that as an adult, I've been very....meh...about Curious George. I mean, I don't go out of my way to be nasty about it, I haven't the need to defend it like Babar (another pop cultural icon), because most of the world doesn't have a problem with him on a cultural/revisionist basis. I certainly don't regress back to my childhood when other things are created from the IP like other types of IPs (e.g. Harold and the Purple Crayon cartoon series springs to mind).

But I do find it to be quite the blast from the past whenever I come across something that involves the IP, like the aforementioned commercial lithograph that was originally part of series carried by Target. Because even to this day some 50+ years later, it still strikes a (mostly) positive chord whenever I see or hear something about Curious George.

In conclusion, while I remain mostly ambivalent about Curious George, I have no qualms in recommending this particular blast from the past to others who might be curious, in a gentle George kind of way, about children's literature from their parent's childhood. After all, everyone needs to revisit something that was considered to be magical when they were a kid, right?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #280: Is My Inertia That Blatantly Obvious?

This is about the only real selfie that you will see on any of the social media platforms that I use. This was taken between 2004 and 2013, as this was used on my very first blog "Cedar's Mountain" (you can find the link in one of the tabs above this post).

Before I get into the topic at hand, I want to make an observation: does anyone find it how remarkably obtuse some spammers can be when they ignore a caption that states comment moderation is enabled and post just the same? You would think that they would program their bots to ignore blogs/websites that have that policy enacted and just hit the ones that don't moderate. Right?

Back to the topic at hand: Inertia.

For the past month, I've been pretty much stuck in a holding pattern with publishing my upcoming novella. I was becoming so afraid of pulling the trigger (aka severely third guessing myself), so I started doing all kinds of things to avoid pulling that trigger. Things like:

1} Getting the short story bug and writing almost one dozen stories for maybe a short story collection in the future, although one of them is calling out to me saying "expand me to a novella", and I may do just that in the future, as soon as I can figure out how to work in that short story.

2} Beefing up my c.d. collection. I've temporarily stopped purchasing music from Amazon, and not because of some altruistic vibe of shopping locally, but simply because current life events have dictated that my frivolous Amazon spending be directed to non-frivolous Amazon spending.

But I did shop locally, as in I supported my public library by purchasing gently used c.d.'s (most of which were $1). I'm always of the opinion that used c.d.'s are the way to go if you're intrigued about a particular artist, past or present, but not intrigued enough to drop $10-$20 on a new c.d. in order to satiate that need.

3} Beefing up my DVD collection. Most of the DVD's that I've purchased came to my attention directly due to pay-cable t.v (e.g. HBO, Showtime, Encore) going through spurts of overplaying movies for a couple of months to gin up interest before taking them out of rotation (before the advent of streaming, most of the major pay movie channels had over a half dozen offspring that required content)

The movies listed are ones that I did not see first run, but saw on cable, which due to overplaying, got me hooked: Quigley Down Under (cool western featuring Tom Selleck); The Shawshank Redemption; Kung Fu Hustle (The gentleman who did the fight choreography for Crouching Tiger and The Matrix did it for this one); Falling Down (in my opinion, a truly underappreciated Michael Douglas film. Fun fact, it was filmed during the King riots of '92); Major League: Back To The Minors (fun fact, the Buzz are based on the real AAA team, the Salt Lake City Bees); and everyone's favorite spaghetti western: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

And finally, 4} re-re-editing a previously published novella. Or, that was the basic idea. Two years is a long time to go from not appreciating the original rewrite (went from the normal 3rd person/past tense to 1st person present tense) to having serious thoughts of leaving the bulk of it alone and just perform some continuity tweaks.

The short version, I have a previously published novella, A Taste of Pain, that ultimately I was not happy with the end product in a myriad of ways. In short, it should've been published as an e-book exclusive, without all of the fluff at the end (e.g. chapter samples of two other books to pad out the page count), which is one thing I'm giving serious thought to. But in regards to leaving it alone, after sitting down with the intent of re-re-editing it back to a traditional voice*, after tackling the first couple of chapters I came to the sobering thought that this story was flowing pretty good in 1st person/present tense view. Like it was a lot more personal/intense in that particular viewpoint than others.

*3rd person/past tense is usually the traditional method. But let me warn everyone, I've actually written stories in all three voices, because you know, I like to challenge myself.

The good news to all of this, is that the reason for the inertia has fundamentally changed. The original reason of being afraid to pull the trigger (my choice) has been replaced by simply waiting to receive the first version of a book cover. Only when I approve the cover for the e-book will the book formatter be able to start the process on their end. Until then, the inertia remains stuck in the same holding pattern, yet now, it's not by choice.

Contentment is a concept that has numerous paths to explore and no single path is the actual chosen one.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #275: DNF That Bad Old Book!

A book purchase that was an actual good selection for me, because quite frankly, in today's world, it's better to be educated than ignorant.

I have been on a very long losing streak as of late, when it comes to selecting books to read. Normally, when I decide to choose a book to read from my local public library, I have a set of rules that I follow in order to select a book to read.

1. The front and back cover. If my curiosity is piqued, then;
2. I open and read the inside blurb. If my curiosity is still piqued, then;
3. I open to a random page and read. If my curiosity is still piqued, then; 
4. I check out the book.

However, if the book is non-fiction and if it's from a person that I am very familiar with (e.g. Eric Roberts has a memoir out), then I will skip my rules and simply choose the book.

The problem that has contributed to my current DNF streak is pretty basic: I am purchasing gently used books from my local library's used book/DVD/CD store, and they're being chosen by a completely different criteria, namely, it's about an interesting (at least to me) topic.

Unfortunately for me, choosing a book, usually non-fiction, by topic, has not translated to the book being an interesting read. Let me give you a few examples to show you exactly what I mean.

1} A book about a Victorian lady whose husband is a sea captain, sailing from England to Australia, from Australia to San Francisco, then San Francisco to Ireland, then from Ireland to home. Sounds interesting, right? Especially when the source material is a diary/journal that the lady in question kept throughout the trip. Unfortunately, the narrative was dry as dirt and because it was written by an academic, it felt like I was reading someone's master thesis. So I gave up after two weeks.

2} A book about the history of the London underworld. The title alone piqued my curiosity enough for me to purchase the book, and after discovering that the author in question wrote a series of books covering different facets of the London underworld, I was hooked. But, it soon became apparent that the author's biases were making themselves known throughout the book. Call me old fashioned, but I'm of the school of thought that when you write a non-fiction book, your biases should be kept under wraps. You should present a thoughtful interpretation of the events without your personal biases coloring your writing. This one I also gave up on after a few weeks.

In general, the past half dozen used books that I had purchased caused me to have buyer's remorse. Not so much losing money, as the price range of $2 to $4 (about 10% of the current cover price) was good and it was going to a good cause, but the fact that the topic mentioned on the cover did not live up to the hype whatsoever to what was between the covers.

I'm fortunate enough that the newer books that I have purchased I do not have the same problem, as I make it a point to actually get to know the person in question before I actually commit to dropping my hard earned dollars on their product and I have not been disappointed whatsoever.

I really do loathe in not finishing a given book that I have acquired, either temporarily (library) or outright purchased (new or used), because I'm of the mindset that if I had taken the time to acquire said book, then I need to read it to the bitter end, a literary twist on the sunk cost fallacy if you will. I'm pretty sure that I applied this theory to music as well.

Pivoting back to the written word. The scary thing about my DNF pile is that it's almost exclusively non-fiction that I ultimately have issues with. It's very rare for a fiction book to make my pile, although a few have made it in the past forty odd years, which have been scattered across all genres. 

I think in general, my one saving grace is that I'm not spending oodles of money on the gently used books purchased and that the money being spent goes to a very good cause. So if I don't like the book in question, it ultimately makes a very fine visual addition to my bookshelf that screams "look how well read I am!", which is a tiny white lie that I'm willing to live with.

So my dear reader, do you force yourself to finish a book that you eventually found unappealing, just to justify the amount of money (or if you're a library patron, time and effort) spent to acquire the book to begin with? Or do you simply stop and place the book in an area of your bookshelf that holds all of the books that, for one reason or another, became a cherished member of the DNF, never to darken your field of vision every again?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #270: Censorship 2.025

This pic, while holiday themed, accurately describes my state of being right now. The implied caption will, we hope, become apparent by the end of this blog post.

Today's socialized media makes it very tough to be a centrist kind of person, as being a centrist often makes people assume that your personal beliefs are toxic. This viewpoint is often badly magnified when the cyberspace that you dabble in often espouses beliefs that you have serious issues with.

As the majority of you undoubtedly know, I keep my personal views tightly concealed from those that I do not know. Because of this, I often have to censor what I say in certain public forums, like socialized media. That's a fact of my life.

Digital self-censorship is often a triple edged sword for me. I've been blogging for over 16 years, and at first, I had no problem voicing my opinion on numerous hot button topics and I was of the mindset of, "no one is forcing you to read me, so you can leave if you want to."

But now, in 2025, I don't have the readership that I used to {blogging really isn't the be all to end all anymore}, and since I post my blog links on one of the other two socialized media platforms I partake in with regularity, I now have to be very careful on what I opine on in my blog because someone could take hysterical hostile offense on my viewpoint, which would be detrimental to my digital well being.

That doesn't mean that I will not opine on issues that I care about, but I keep those opinions strictly to commercial oriented forums {e.g. news, pop culture and sports} where I can get into (mostly) sane debates about topics. It also doesn't mean that I will simply ignore what other people might have an overly strong opinion about. I have, very recently, culled/lessened my interaction with certain individuals because their opinions about certain things have...drifted, for lack of a better word.

As I stated previously, nobody is forcing me to read/listen to anything that anyone else says that I disagree with. I simply ignore and continue with my day. Especially at my age {60} where I have more than average understanding of the world around me.

Now I'm pretty sure at this point, you're wondering why I'm talking about self-censorship yet again. In order for you, dear reader, to have a better understanding of this post and the picture up above, a short info dump is required. I live in one of six deep turquoise blue states that make up New England. In fact, my home state of Connecticut is battling with Massachusetts on who should become California 2.0.

With all what you know about Blue States, your educated guess about what topic I might want to opine about would be true. If I was to write about a certain topic, one definite outcome and two probable outcomes are likely.

1} I would not be able to post the blog link to my local writer's group, as I'm the direct cause of a rule change instituted in 2021. Thus, those random eyes would not be able to easily visit my blog post.

2} I'm trying to build some interactions with my author's page on FB. Posting it there might generate some unwarranted backlash because, to be fair, those who write tend to lean 180 degrees left on social issues, and aren't that open minded about opposing viewpoints. At all.

3} My own personal page, while centrist by nature, tends to stay in my very narrow bicycle lane and only ramble on topics that slices of life and/or topics I have personal working knowledge of {e.g. public sector employment/unions}. If I were to post a link to a hot-button blog post, I could very well get some unwanted static, and I really don't need that in my life anymore.

Ultimately, this is why you're getting a post about self-censorship instead of the topic I most dearly want to write about. Like I stated in an earlier post, sometimes we have to do things that we personally do not like, in order to keep and incrementally build on what we currently have.

And with that being said, please enjoy this best of SpongeBob's "I'm Ready!" manifesto.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #263: Why I Like Certain Kinds Of True Crime Books

A more lighthearted example of the kind of true-crime books that I own/read. This is actually the 2nd edition, which I found of B&N, written by a current (?) National Service Park Ranger.

I'm not sure why I was drawn to true-crime books, but I think it was a young boy's curiosity with different types of non-fiction books beyond the bios and pop culture that I was reading at the time. I do know that the earliest true crime books that got my curiosity pique about true crime, were two particular books that I read some ten years apart.

The first one was about the Mob & the Mafia back when I was in middle school (late 70's). It was pretty graphic to say the least, much like the movie horror mag Fangoria years later. The second one that really piqued my curiosity was the paperback version of the book "Helter Skelter", while graphic text-wise, was not picture-wise.

As the decades progressed, I found myself going through mellowing out, so to speak, with true crime in general. I was finding that most of the true crime books were becoming somewhat redundant in formula and content, so I started searching out other types of books to get my true crime fix, like the one pictured above. I found about that one pre-pandemic via a YouTube documentary about Yellowstone Park. But that particular book was not my initial foray into different types of true crime books. Instead, it was more like a pleasant exit from the now tasteless (to some) highway I was currently traveling.

Pictorial history, for lack of a better phrase.

Back in the late 90's, I had gotten hooked into an HBO show about autopsies hosted by Dr Michael Baden, well known forensic pathologist. Curiosity piqued, it eventually led me down the very weird rabbit hole of true-crime pictorial death.

Over the next few decades, I purchased a few true-crime pictorial books that featured stories/pictures about death and policing in the United States. One book, that featured the LAPD, featured stories about policing in the early part of the 20th century, as well as stories about dying (from the local coroners's office). While informative, it was also pretty grim and depressing look at live in United States during that aforementioned era of the 20th century.

I also purchased one put out by CourtTV, that featured a lot of true crime photography mostly shot by New York crime photographer Weegee.This book also featured both crime scene photos along with specific stories for certain types of crime scenes as well.

I was, and still am, an ardent student of American History, especially the seedier side of history, which is why books like the aforementioned pictorial books about the LAPD crime archives and the CourtTV book about crime in NYC intrigued me so. You really can't get a good understanding about the history of the US without delving into books like these, not so much for the pictures but for the stories connected to those pictures.

The most interesting aspect about my tiptoeing into this particular realm of true-crime, is that I've already had exposure to this kind of pictorial writing earlier in my life. My late father was a US Civil War buff who, when I was a school-aged lad in middle school and high school, would lecture at my schools throughout the years about this era of American History. So decades prior to Time-Life getting out of the book business, I managed to acquire by subscription, their entire 35 volume series on the US Civil War.

This also gave me exposure to the great 19th century photographer Matthew Brady, whose grim battlefield pictures truly brought home the abject horror of war to the masses. And some of these pictures actually made it to American History textbooks, back when a school education actually meant something.

Overall, true-crime is actually a good genre to pursue as a reader, because it can cover a myriad of social and political issues that you really can't get anywhere else, except maybe podcasts, which is a whole other post entirely.

Thanks for stopping by to learn yet another interesting facet about what I like to read. The true-crime genre has always fascinated me, which is why, even though I don't read that much true crime these days, I subscribe and listen to nearly a half dozen long running and limited podcast series to get my true crime fix.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #258: I Always Enjoy The Music Around Me

No matter how crappy your week might get, it's the little things that keep you chugging along.

I've mentioned over the years that I have a very modest (compared to others) music collection that is mostly vinyl and c.d.s, with the vinyl split between LP and 45 then further split between new and used.

I rarely buy new vinyl because it's a prohibitively expensive 100% money grab (average price for a single LP is about the cost of one half to one third of tank of gas depending on where you live), and I rarely buy used vinyl, because there's no used record stores near me or the what GoodWill/Salvation Army/Savers carries is not conducive for listening if you're under the age of 60 and your music tastes have not been permanently stunted.

Over the years, my little brother (four years younger than moi) has always been on the lookout for vinyl for me. He often collects it from clients (he's a handyman/super), garage sales and even once found some by the curbside, and I often receive them as b'day gifts or Christmas presents. 

Because I'm not one to turn down free vinyl of any sort, I now possess music in all kinds of genres: 30's-70's pop, 80's rock, 90's indie rock, soul, jazz, comedy and everything else in between. I should mention that what my brother gifts me is nearly all original issues, with almost zero being reissues. Trust me, it's pretty easy to tell if you got an original, especially if you know the basic history of a particular artist. With that being said, I would like to share some examples, split between LP and 45, of what my brother has gifted me over the years. Please note that these examples are all original releases and some of the 45s come with the original sleeve.

1. Steve Lawrence- "In Time/My Claire De Lune": Most people know Steve Lawrence from his various comedic appearances on shows like The Carol Burnett Show or Johnny Carson, but he was a very accomplished singer in his own right. A United Artists release from the 60's.
2. Inez Foxx- "Mockingbird/Jaybirds: If you've listened to the golden oldies radio format, you're very familiar with the A side. What's interesting about 45, is that the previous owner had put little yellow dots noting the year (1963) and the length of the end fade (:04). A Symbol Records release.
3. Don McLean- "American Pie"- promo radio version in mono: I have both the reissue long version and I believe the original long version on 45. A United Artists release.
4. Wilton Place Street Band- "I Love Lucy Theme/You Don't Even Know Who We Are": Not familiar with this band, although a lot of minimally known bands/artists often became one hit wonders for their theme songs. This was released on an Island Records subsidiary called Disco Lucy in 1978. Make of that what you will.
5. Journey- "Open Arms" promo 45: We all know of Journey, that late 70's/early 80's arena rock band that is currently being ossified on classic rock radio. This particular release is strictly a radio station copy, as both A & B sides are the same song. A Columbia Records release.
6. Billy Stewart- "I Do Love You/Keep Loving": If you're not familiar with Billy Stewart, he had that monster hit called "Summertime", a cover version from a featured song in the play "Porgy and Bess". This was also a radio promo copy with the first song listed being the plug. A Chess Record release.

As I've stated earlier, these are all original releases, with the majority of them being promo records given to radio stations. Now let's move on to a sampling of LPs, most of which are original releases.

1. John Lennon- "Mind Games": A great musician but a mediocre human being, he put out some fantastic music during his solo career. This is a Capitol Records reissue that I'm guessing came out after his untimely passing.
2. Bruce Springsteen- "Born In The U.S.A.": I was a fan of Bruce Springsteen once, until he turned into one of those money grubbing people that he used to rail about. Now he just rails about the people who dare not to vote his way, who used to make up the majority of his fan base. Have to give him props for producing an album that featured at least six top 25 hits. A Columbia Records original release.
3. Andy Gibbs- "After Dark": An often overlooked artist who sadly flamed out after his massive hit "Shadow Dancing", which this album does not contain. An original RSO Records release.
4. The Mamas & Papas- "If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears": An excellent folk rock band from the late 60's. I already have an original version (#2 I believe) of this release. The reason why I say 'number two', is if you remember how puritanical the entertainment industry was in the 60's, the original cover photo of this album made everyone clutch their pearls, as it originally showed the group, fully clothed in a bathtub with a toilet in full view. The cover was quickly redone and in some versions, the toilet was mostly blocked out, leaving only the handle showing and in other versions, I believe everything was blacked out save for the band members. An original ABC/Dunhill Records release.
   
5. The Rolling Stones- "Aftermath": What can I say about the Rolling Stones other than in my personal opinion they jumped the shark in the mid 90's and been on a fast downhill slide to money-grubbing irrelevance. Still, this early original album features such dinosaur classics as "Paint It; Black", "Lady Jane", and "Under My Thumb". Original stereo London Records release.

This is just a very tiny sampling of the type of music that my brother has graciously gifted to me over the years (I was also gifted such interesting items like full orchestral 45 e.p.s), to which I am forever grateful. I have just recently acquired a portable record player and I'm slowly starting to get back into the swing of listening to my vinyl once again (for example, I recently listened to an original Simon & Garfunkel album that featured "I Am A Rock" and "Richard Corey").

I truly enjoy exploring the vast Mariana Trench that is music, and that exploration has led me to a diverse group of artists like Samantha Fish (blues), The Pretty Reckless (hard rock), Band Maid (Japanese hard rock), and Sammy Kershaw (country-pop) and genres like country-pop, easy listening, rock, jazz and even 18th century classical/ballads. 

Explore your horizons today, you just might find something that is so out of the ordinary that it will tickle your fancy enough to dig that deep rabbit hole.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #250: It''s A DVD Reality In A Downloadable World

I believe we need one final semi-real pic of Autumn in Connecticut until everything goes all the way to pot and becomes winter.

A few posts ago I touched upon how I'm currently expanding my c.d. collection by dipping my toes into the world of gently used music. This time around I plan to touch upon my nascent  (like I have exactly five dvds) DVD collection and how I'm doing it on the frugal end of the spectrum (i.e. gently used)

Presently, I have extremely eclectic tastes in movies, like none of that MCU or blockbuster stuff ever crosses my field of vision. Instead, I go for things like the odd action/adventure, noir, dark fantasy and the odd drama.

Note: roughly 95% of the movies that I like were originally discovered on the various sub channels of Starz, Showtime, HBO and Encore. You'd be amazed at the amount of quirky movies that no one cares about anymore on those channels.

For example, prior to adding to my collection with some used DVDs, I have the following films in my collection:

1. Drive Angry, featuring Nicholas Cage and Amber Heard: This is mostly a violent religious fantasy film, with Nicholas Cage portraying a man (John Milton) who escapes from Hell to rescue his granddaughter. The movie itself, at least that I can tell, is steeped in concepts of Hell, Satan and Redemption among other things. Believe it or not, most people give this move a 3/5 star rating.
2. 30th Anniversary collection of SchoolHouse Rock!: No further explanation needed (I also have the complete box set of the same).
3. Byzantium, featuring Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan: one of the better vampire films that came out of the early 2010s. Highly recommend it as this was compared to another excellent vampire film called Let The Right One In (watch either the original version in Norwegian with subtitles, or a very excellent American remake that takes place in Minnesota. Don't bother with the dubbed version).
4. The 13th Warrior, featuring Antonio Banderas: A very good film, in my opinion, that's set in the first millennia in the vast Nordic wastelands. To me, it feels like they drew on the old Icelandic saga of Beowulf to create this movie.

This is the extent of my very eclectic movie collection. I love movies that are mostly fantasy based but cover topics that intrigue me both as a writer and a reader, but as you can see, the collection is very tiny. The main reason is one that is always the major bugaboo when it comes to pursuing something that we like: money. 

I've always balked at paying high prices for movies (those mentioned above, except the boxed set, were in the $15-$20 range), and completely dismissed purchasing downloadable movies. I also wasn't too much of a fan of purchasing used movies, because for me, it was either new or nothing. But during this year, I softened my opposition to used movies when I started finding some faves in the used DVD selection at my public library. I was also re-introduced to the world of quality used merchandise when I had visited the Savers store (an upscale Salvation Army/Goodwill used good store) when I had decided to donate clothes that no longer fit me.

Another note: during my initial visit to that store, they had two high end sound/mixing boards for sale dirt cheap.

So in the past month, I decided to resume adding to my DVD collection by purchasing gently used DVDs of movies that I personally enjoyed throughout the decades. Here, in no particular order of importance, are the latest additions to my collection.

1. Luck # Slevin, featuring Josh Hartnett, Lucy Lui, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis: A very excellent NY based crime drama centered around a fixed horse race and revenge. What drew me to this movie was that it starred Josh Harnett, as at the time I was really into a Showtime limited series called The Penny Dreadful. If you like Victorian era drama centered around horror/fantasy, you'll love that series.
2. The Boondock Saints, featuring Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus: Another excellent crime drama movie about two brothers who believe that God choose them to rid the world of evil piqued my curiosity the multiple times that I had watched it. 
3. Reservoir Dogs, directed by Quentin Tarrentino: This was a movie that I had searched out after watching Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Another excellent thought provoking film by Tarrentino, this time about a heist that goes awry.
4. Eastern Promises, featuring Vigoo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassell: I stumbled across this one sometime after watching Vigoo Mortensen in a previous crime drama film called A History of Violence (the opening sequence to that movie is not for the faint of heart, as it is quite disturbing). Viggo plays a cop who infiltrates the Russian Mafia, who runs into a nurse (Naomi Watts) who has possession of a baby and an incriminating diary that the late teen/young adult mother wrote about how she became pregnant.
5. Snatch, featuring, among others, Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Dennis Farina and Benicio Del Torio. A very dark crime farce featuring the underground fight game and a very large diamond. This was a critically acclaimed follow-up to director Guy Ritchies debut of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Highly recommend both the movie and soundtrack.
6. 21 Grams, featuring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro. This was another movie that I had stumbled across during my movie channel surfing days. A quality suspense/thriller/vengeance movie that I highly recommend. Say what you want about Sean Penn's politics, but the man has grown way beyond his Jeff Spicolli character from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" as an actor.
7. Rounders, featuring Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich. I would say that this a crime drama of sorts that centers around illegal card gambling. This was another movie that I had stumbled across, and one that I highly recommend.

Like I stated earlier, I have very eclectic tastes in movies, and except for the SchoolHouse Rock! collection, all R-rated. I can unequivocally state that there are PG and PG-13 movies that I do like and want to add to my collection, but those are mostly rooted in the decades from 1940 through the mid-to-late 1980s.

I hope you've enjoyed this snapshot of what I enjoy for video entertainment and here's wishing a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday for you and yours.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #248: The Power Of Persuasion Can Be Insidious Indeed

For those of you who enjoy the Elf ruling the world from a Shelf, I bring you his cereal. Sugar Is Good Food.

The title of today's post can mean a multitude of things. For those of you who have a genuine sense of humor, you'll immediately get the gist. For everyone else, today's post is about how the arts & entertainment sector can surreptitiously remove your hard earned dollar from your locked wallet without you being the wiser.

But first, a writing update that features, rather annoyingly, a setback. My current saga, conveniently titled here as Hot Mess, has been forced to expand to one more volume. Between last week's post and the writing of this post, I've been forced to concede that in order to bring everything to a proper conclusion (including uniformity of content), I need to drift into one more volume. This pain is still fresh, and it's something I will elaborate on in a future post. 

With that out of the way, let's jump to the topic at hand: persuasion in the arts & entertainment field, with a specific look to books.

Oddly enough, this topic came to me in a roundabout way. I was settling down with a gently used book that I had purchased from my public library a few weeks ago {"Drunk" } and had posted a picture of here boasting how you can find a non-fiction book about any topic under the sun, and one of the main reasons why I had acquired the book were the jacket blurbs that were touting the praises on how good this book is.

Within the first thirty pages, this book performed a complete 180 from what it outwardly presented itself to be. Outwardly, it presented a picture of a fun-filled historical romp through the millennia about drinking. Inwardly, it presented a detailed picture of social/behavioral sciences indicative of what the various people of the world did when it came to producing/consuming/regulating fermented drink. All well and good, but this book was more suited for a college level social sciences course than as a book for the masses {aka literary non-fiction}.

Usually I've been pretty good about weeding out reading material that says one thing on the cover but says something completely different on the inside, but this time, I fell for the hype without researching to see if the hype lived up to the product. As the old saying goes, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, I'm just a gullible kind of guy {modern twist, so sue me}.

I'm often seeing this more and more when it comes to browsing both the new book selections at B&N or the gently used book selection at my public library. Lots of hype that I take with a large boulder of rock salt because why would a particular author have (at least with non-fiction) have so much hype about their book that contains a topic more suited for pop culture as opposed to not.

Now, I have seen some good hype geared towards books in certain non-fiction genres where the content ultimately lives up to/exceeds the hype (e.g. certain historical events/periods, sports and true crime), at least in my personal opinion. But I've also been the victim of where the hype thoroughly masqueraded the dullness/zoning out capabilities of the book itself (again, looking at you the literary genre).

The reality of good hype/bad product is that the person who created the perceived bad product will almost never have the opportunity to win that particular reader back. Reputation is everything in the literary world, and unless you're someone who has churned out quality product and can get away with the occasional lemon, one perceived bad tome is very hard to recover from.

Sad to say, I only purchase books based on the reputation of a writer who I have either interacted with personally, or peripherally in another format (e.g. a podcast host who writes a book in their particular field of knowledge). For general reading, the public library remains my go-to source of material.

So my friends, have you fallen victim to this insidious issue when it comes to the written word? 

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #245: Where Oh Where Are My Ideas?

Decided to do one last quasi-hike/walk up the mountain this past Saturday {10/19}, which included a closed side street that was recently shorn of vegetation by Eversource so that they could safely access the power lines. Was able to take almost a half dozen pictures of a seldom seen part of the mountain, including this nifty fall foliage scene crackling with sunlight.

This post is my semi-monthly to monthly two-fer, in which you get random thoughts here and pictures over at that resurrected picture blog of mine, Pictures For Smarties!

Random thoughts

Had a brief writing related reality check when I suddenly had a full barrel of fish, a rod and reel and no fish caught. In other words, no ideas on what to write for a blog post.

I mean, I could give a writing update, but frankly, how many times can I say, "I'm in the home stretch and I have just a few more chapters to go!", before it starts sounding painfully redundant?

"I'm in the home stretch and I have just a few more chapters to go!"

 But, as they say, inspiration comes from the oddest of places, which in today's skewered world is Face-planting my Book. A FB friend of mine made a comment about Mondays being a drag, which triggered a tangent based on that troublesome day of the week. Fortunately enough for everyone else, I had enough presence of mind not to continue because I still don't quite know how they take my quirky sense of humor. So keep your eyes peeled for a very odd post about that troublesome day of the week, done in the form of...well, I'll let you both be surprised and be the judge.

So, this post is short on brevity and short on word salad. Have an enjoyable Monday, because the world indeed does revolve around you. Oh and in case you're below the age of say 50 and haven't watched the golden years of 70's television, part of my blog title refers to this nifty song.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #244: Still Entertaining Myself Weakly...But Happily

Once again successfully testing out my theory that you can find a non-fiction book on just about any topic you can think of. This is my latest gently used book purchase from my local public library. The main topic is drinking and partying throughout the centuries.

You're welcome.

Today's fun filled topic was last touched upon by me back in the Spring/Summer of 2023: podcasts. 

At this point in my life, I have basically given up listening to music during my twice daily walks, as the major music platform that I use for music {TuneIn} is not very good. It's decent, to a certain degree, for podcast listening.

The other major platform that I use is IHeart. Say what you want about IHeart Radio, but they do have their act together when it comes to media. IHeart is what Audacy, Spotify and TuneIn strive to be. This ends the editorialization part of today's post, so now we move on to the entree portion of the post.

Podcasts.

I rarely listen to music while walking these days. I think it's due to three reasons: unhappiness with my music app TuneIn (a multitude of reasons that boil down to how they run their business stupider, not smarter); the finickiness of using Chrome in a non-app format while in a semi-dead zone town and in the summer Baseball via the MLB app.

Podcasts for me have become the logical successor for audiobooks. Now to be fair, I haven't listened to audiobooks since the early 1990's when they were available exclusively in the cassette/CD format (yes, showing my age here) and I'm very leery in general of purchasing something in an exclusively digital format (which is why I never got into downloading MP3's and the like). I won't bore you with even the T.L.;D.R. version of how I came into the world of podcasts, but instead will skip right to what keeps my usually short attention span occupied when I'm doing something healthy like walking. 

I currently have a set list of 26 podcasts that I listen to on a rotating ten day basis (during the summer, it can take me up to two weeks to run the circuit), along with a few one and dones, and four YouTube channels. I would like to share those podcasts with you, so that you can get another glimpse of what piques my curiosity and will often dictate what I read and/or write. 

I would also like to note that a lot of these podcasts have fascinating websites attached to them as well, and those are worth looking at too.

1. Stuff You Missed In History Class: the title says it all. From what I understand, this podcast has been around since the mid 2000s, and the running gag on the podcast is when people write in to say they have earned their PhD by listening to the entire back catalog. No topic or person too obscure or well known is off limits to them and it's well worth a listen to.
2. Dark Downeast: This is a fantastic true crime podcast that specializes in New England crime. I'm currently going through the back catalog while listening to current episodes and I highly recommend it as well.
3. Legends Of The Old West: A great podcast that covers everything associated with the Old West. The host recently came out with a book covering a period of the Indian Wars of the late 19th century.
4. Park Predators: another true crime podcast that specializes in the National Park System and has occasional episodes based overseas.
5. Criminalia: A very odd true crime podcast that will take a in-depth look at a particular type of crime per season, (e.g. arson, poisoning, patent medicines) and as a bonus will create a cocktail/mocktail for each episode. They currently have a book due out later this year.
6. Cautionary Tales: It's a bit hard to pin down just exactly what this podcast is about beyond the title. Very cool podcast that often tells two stories covering different viewpoints on a given topic/problem/issue.
7. The Big Flop: As it title states, this podcast covers the well known blunders and public mistakes of companies and people (e.g. the Fyre Festival, Janet Jackson debacle, and the Willy Wonka debacle in the UK).
8. Infamous America: this is a companion podcast to the Legends Of the Old West, as it's produced by the same media company. They cover well known historical infamous events/people (e.g. The Black Sox scandal, DB Cooper, Willie Sutton and the Zodiac Killer).
9. Mobituaries: this podcast deals with the lives/legacies of well known people/events (e.g June Foray, John Denver, Wanda LaPage and a PBS show he was a writer on called Wishbone). Created by Mo Rocca, he's also written a couple of books about this topic. 
10. History On Trial: this podcast focuses on historical trials that affect crime and punishment, along with the lasting aftereffect. (e.g. the abolishment of the "3rd degree", obscenity, defamation, adultery)
11. The Wild: this podcast covers all things nature, wildlife and the environment. Based out of Seattle, hosted by environmentalist Chris Morgan, it's a very informative and entertaining look at the world around us (e.g. bears, the fragile ecosystem in certain areas, the Cascades and wolves)
12. The Curious History of Your House: is exactly as it states. Covers the history of everyday objects, hosted by domestic historian Ruth Goodman (e.g. windows, bathrooms, utensils and board games).
13. The Mets Pod: Self explanatory, but this pod takes over a previous NY Mets podcast that was getting to be maddeningly inconsistent when it came to publishing. This one is actually owned by SNY TV (sports home of Met, Jets, Nets, Knicks and I believe UCONN still).
14. Which Game First: this is a podcast produced by a cousin of mine, who covers the RPG/board game industry. They review all sorts of games, attend/put on conventions, weekly live stream their gaming. A very cool podcast that's been going on for about 6 years.
15. The People's Recorder: not sure if this is simply a one-off or not, but this podcast covers the WPA Writer's Project of the pre-WWII years, with an emphasize on the forgotten/overlooked communities of the time period (aka, everyone who wasn't White). Highly informative, with recent episodes covering Indigenous people and former slaves. I found this one via another podcast on this list called "Sidedoor".
16. Scamfluencers; this one covers all kinds of scams that have taken place. Some well known, like the eighteen year old masquerading as a doctor and the Fyre Festival, others a bit more obscure, like a woman who drove a town into bankruptcy/receivership to fund her lifestyle of breeding show horses and the entrepreneur who scammed his way to opening a well known ski resort in Vermont. 
17. Small Town Dicks: this is a true crime podcast that has a special emphasis on small town crime, mostly in the US, with the occasional foray into Scotland and Australia. They recently aired a six part series on the first modern murder investigation (that is, one that first used the forensic techniques that are commonplace today). This one is hosted and produced by Yeardley Smith.
18. Sidedoor: this is a podcast produced/created by the Smithsonian Institute, so the topics are often based mostly from items in the various collections housed there. A recent episode covered the history of women winning the right to have credit cards/loans in their own names.
19. Criminal Attorney: I believe this is a one-off and I'm not sure if its non-fiction or fiction. I just heard the promo for it, and a podcast about a criminal defense attorney drawing the ire of the FBI can't be all that bad, right?
20. Empire City: this one is a bit of an outlier for me, in that it's a critical history of the NYPD, told by a journalist/activist that leans a little more left politically than I'm personally comfortable with. Having said that, so far it's been a good deep dive into one of America's top three major police departments (other being Chicago and LA, in my opinion). I also believe this one is a one-off as well, although I could be wrong.

A minor break here, as I wanted to briefly highlight four YouTube channels that often make it into my podcast rotation. Three are political in nature that are moderate/conservative, but the fourth is a writing related channel that started earlier in the year called "Only Murders In My Mind", which is about the wonderful world of crime writing (true crime and all kinds of murder mysteries). It's hosted by three well known UK crime/mystery writers and I highly recommend it. They too have a blog associated with the channel as well.

1. Tides of History: Almost no explanation needed. From 2017 thru 2019, this podcast dealt with the history of the Middle Ages through the Italian Renaissance. From 2020 to the present, he switched gears and started covering pre-history, the Stone age, Bronze Age, the Iron Age and is currently making his way back to the Middle Ages. If you like world history, this is a fantastic podcast to check out.
2. American History Tellers: also self-explanatory, this podcast deals with American History and other connected world events. Topics of recent note include Tulsa Race Massacre, the Space Race and the First Ladies Of the White House. He also hosts the next podcasts on this list, as well as one from 2020 called American Elections/Wicked Games.
3. American Scandals: Also self-explanatory, this once covers American Scandals, of recent note were The Teapot Dome Scandal, The Titanic and Watergate.
4. Business Wars: this one covers battles between different businesses. Of recent note, Coke v Pepsi, ESPN v FoxSports, CNN v FoxNews and Fender v Gibson.
5. British Scandals: just like the one mentioned above, except the focus is on Britain, of recent note, Jeffrey Archer, Oasis, The Peru Two and the man who faked an around the globe boat race.
6. Decoding the Unknown: this podcast/YouTube channel covers all kinds of well known mysteries, including Avril Lavigne, The Man in Black, Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great and Nazi gold. This podcast/YouTube channel is hosted by Simon Whistler, who has nearly one dozen total channels under this belt that you should check out.
7. The Casual Criminalist: this is another podcast/YouTube channel hosted by Simon Whistler. The pleasant thing about this one and the previous is that he really puts his dry sense of humor to the test, so in spite of the gruesomely dark subject matter, he really does make it very enjoyable to listen to. Topics include just any well known murder(s) you can think of between the 19th and 21st century.
8. Grating the Nutmeg: this one I found via random FB page suggestion. This covers the very entertaining topic of Connecticut history, which they must be doing very well as they're coming up to their 200th episode. While it doesn't seem like a lot, they do publish on a bi-monthly basis, which puts their born on date around the late 2010's. Highly recommend if you want to learn the history of a seldom mentioned original colony.

To sum all of this up, this is what passes for literary entertainment in my tiny slice of the universe. If you're into podcasts, please give these a look see, you won't be disappointed if you do. However, I will give you a fair warning about the two Simon Whistler channels: he really does very deep dives, as each episode can range anywhere from 55 minutes to almost 2 1/2 hours in length. 

Have a fantastic Monday everyone! And remember, Christmas is just around the corner, at least according to the advertisers.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #242: We Haz Scribbles And Pictures!

The sun was looking especially inviting the day after the rainstorm the prior weekend to this post, so I took a few dozen steps inside for a few pics. Not quite Autumn in this part of New England yet.

This post will be a short two-fer, in that part one is a brief writing update, while part two will be linking up to my picture blog.

Here is part the 1st: the writing update.

Sometimes doing the most mundane things in life often can be the impetus to working out a satisfactory conclusion to a thorny issue. Which in this case is something that I've recently written about here a few weeks ago: a title. 

But, first things first. We are now into the home stretch of completing our four part lo-fantasy series, in that the final confrontation will be commencing very soon, which I hope will tie up at least a half dozen plot lines to a satisfactory conclusion.

We are currently sitting at 102 total chapters, of which 101 have been transcribed, totaling 494,751 words. Now before you act on the popular acronym of WTF?!, let me enlighten you on something: those chapters will be properly broken down to the appropriate volumes once I go through the initial round of edits, because there is no way that particular numbering will stay exactly like that. I may be a bit eccentric with my writing, but not that eccentric.

Now, onto the other issue, the title. As I hinted at, the mundane thing I was performing was one of my twice daily walks while listening to podcasts. Sometimes, when I'm listening to a topic that doesn't quite keep my short attention span occupied, my mind will wander about on the inside. That wandering about eventually came up with a base title for my series: Sister vs Sister.

Now I know it sounds cliche, but when you boil down all of the plotlines contained within, it basically comes out to two sisters, one that knows the other exists while the other doesn't know she has a sister, battling over the possession of one sister's husband.

So, this overall title actually completes my title search, as I had already come up with the titles for the remaining four books: The Kidnapping, The Campsite, The Retrieval I and the Retrieval II {although the last two are not quite set in stone just yet}.

And now for part the 2nd, pictures.

I've decided to make my picture blog into a bi-monthly occurrence, as it gives me something lighthearted and fun to do with all the pictures that I got hanging around on Google. This particular post deals with the theme of All Hallow's Eve, so I sincerely hope you take a short stroll over to my picture blog to check it out.

Pictures For Smarties!

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #239: The Return Of The....Picture Blog!

Back in the day, during the fertile time period of my blogging {mid-2010's}, I decided to create a picture blog. I had recently become enamored with basic point/shoot photography {aka disposable cameras}, so I decided to create a picture blog called Pictures For Smarties! It functioned quite well for a short number of years, 2010-16, before I decided to move on to other things. 

The reason for giving everyone the very abbreviated back story is two fold: one, I need to publish a blog post and two, my brain decided to take an involuntary thinking break as it applies to blogging.

In regards to the latter, we originally came up with three topics to write about. The first was another deep dive into my writing process, but after two pages in, I realized that I had covered the topic in other blog posts, so it was becoming blatantly redundant; the second topic was to riff on a previous blog post about my muse, but after writing just the title on a sheet of blank notebook paper, my muse hit me {gently} with a cat o'nine tails and stated very succinctly that this would work better as a short story. I agreed, so I wrote a sticky and put it with a folder of other potential short story ideas; the third topic was to do a "abnormal review" but I quickly shot it down the moment I wrote Abnormal Review on the paper.

The next day, while munching on breakfast, the idea of resurrecting my picture blog, at least for this week, was looking very, very feasible. I had accumulated a lot of random slice-of-life pics, and using them for an emergency blog post such as this one, made a lot of sense.

So, without further ado and after a nearly 8 year hiatus, I bring to you a fresh new post from my picture blog, and depending on the response I receive, I may add a few more to the mix in the coming weeks/months.

Pictures For Smarties!

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #228: How Newspaper Writing Has Evolved Over The Centuries

Just to give you a basic idea on how long I've been blogging, this is a pic of my daughter taken circa early 2000s. She will be entering grad school this fall some 17+ years later. Imma feeling really old.😎

Newspaper writing has really evolved over the past two hundred years or so. What was acceptable to write about then, is now not acceptable; and what wasn't then, is more or less accepted practice now.

Note: what I'm about to state is pretty much verifiable. If you do a bit of Googling, or check out the various microfilm/digital archives in the possession of public libraries/historical societies/colleges, you will have a good understanding of what I'm presenting here.

As an example, let's take a look at crime and how it was reported back in the 18th thru early 20th century then, and then compare it to how it's reported today.

Back then, because newspapers were really the only game in town, the more lurid the crime, the better it was for the average writer. Because, let's face it, the philosophy of today's "if it bleeds, it leads", was very much the norm. Didn't really matter what kind of serious crime it was, it was reported to the smallest graphic detail. Now unlike today, where certain crimes involve the kind of victim where you would sensibly respect their privacy by not stating identifiable personal details (and you can take a good guess on what those would be); back then, every identifiable personal detail was given, including the lurid description of the actual crime itself.

It was definitely a shock to my system to see how certain violent crimes were reported on. However, what was also a certain shock to the system was how they censored certain words, either substituting opaque words for actual words {e.g. "ravished" for the actual vulgar description} or doing something like implying what a "bad" word was without actually writing the full word out {e.g. instead of writing "damned" they would write "d______" instead. This practice was widely used to skirt libel/slander laws as well}.

Today, a lot has changed. The truly graphic descriptions have mostly been moved to books/magazines/other video mediums, leaving the (mostly) PG-13 descriptions intact and the plethora of personal details in regards to certain crimes has been judiciously censored over the preceding decades, so that the privacy rights of the individual are respected.

Now, lets move on to advertising and see how that has evolved over the centuries. 

Back in the later part of the 19th century (1860's to maybe 1880's) advertising copy was often very outlandish, fanciful, braggadocios and at times, extremely racist. Now what I mean by the last part, is that during the latter part of the 19th century, racist tropes/stereotypes were on full display in the ad campaigns that dealt with patent medicines. Whatever offensive trope that you know of now, was effectively used in selling certain types of patent medicines, and other assorted non-consumable products.

The one that always stuck out to me, simply because it was so blatantly racist (but keep in mind this was the normal mindset for the 18th century and beyond), was the ad campaign for a patent medicine called "Dr. Sanford's Ginger" which was marketed as a remedy for an upset stomach. I would love to describe to you the reader what was contained within the ad, but the pragmatic side of me hates having anything that I say being misconstrued into something that I would stupidly believe in (yes, this has happened to me over the past 15+ years on FB). Instead, I will strongly encourage that you the reader, Google the phrase noted above to see what exactly I'm talking about.

Now, in the 21st century, advertising/marketing campaigns have become (mostly) less offensive to the average consumer. Blatantly racist tropes/stereotypes have long been discarded in favor of real world scenarios and the often gentle mocking of normal stereotypes, whether it's a person/place/thing. It's also been moved more towards the Internet (YouTube especially) where you can explicitly target without offending others.

Newspaper writing has evolved over the centuries to the point where that tired well-worn cliche of "less is more", actually does work. The better you can narrow your target with your writing (I often compare average newspaper stories to writing micro flash fiction), the more that particular reader will actually pay attention. At least, that is the working theory that is often ignored these days.

Please tune in next week when I will pontificate about another historical newspaper tidbit that was all the rage in the 18th through the early 20th century but has recently fallen by the wayside: frequency of publication!

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #227: How Reading Ye Olden Newspapers Shaped My Writing

Full moons are very cool in my neck of the woods. Reminds me that the simplest things in the universe often bring the greatest amount of pleasure.

I have mentioned periodically over the past seventeen years of blogging, that one of my very first state agency jobs was working at the Connecticut State Library {1996-2003}, first as clerk, then later as an office assistant in a sub department called The Connecticut Newspaper Project, then later in a regular department called History/Archives (this moniker to differentiate from the History/Genealogy department). 

I wrote almost two dozen posts about my time spent there at my very first blog, Cedar's Mountain, which you will find at this link called Library, covering mostly newspaper humor and old newspapers in general.

Having to read 18th thru early 20th century newspapers to get certain types of information for things like programming reels of microfilm or determining a publishing schedule (tri-weeklies were very much a given in the 18th and 19th century), along with reading multiple versions of historical events (like reading three different versions of Rudolf Valentino's 'sudden' death) gave me a deeper appreciation of what actual journalists had to go through.

Back then, newspapers & periodicals were often the only form of entertainment available to the general public. Books were usually too expensive for the general masses to consume, so it often fell to the newspapers to keep people well informed and entertained. This required publishers to churn out massive quantities of very dense articles of all persuasions to keep the masses hooked, so to speak.

This in turn required the writer/journalist to churn out very precise and overly informative articles, which is why if you look at a typical newspaper from the 19th century, most stories often ran two or more full newspaper length columns, with incredibly tiny print (if I remember correctly, the font size was usually between 3 & 5 point; for modern comparison I would say the standard text on a back of any state's lottery ticket should suffice) but packed with loads of information. I would also say that, unlike today's non-tabloid style newspaper, the average size of a newspaper page was doubled the size of a page from say, the New York Times.

I spent a lot of time reading those very informative stories, digesting the often standard style of how the story was written and the kind of information contained (back then, the only words that were actually censored were curse words. seriously). I would like to think that these old newspapers had influenced the way I went about performing my descriptive writing style. To this day, I sincerely believe that my descriptive writing is still my strongest suit, and reading those early newspapers still has a continuing influence on how I write (see last week's blog post on how I choose character names as an example of this influence).

I've had a lot of fun tripping down my memory lane in order to write this blog post. Truth be told, it still remains my absolute favorite state agency job to have during my almost 25 years of state employment {1996-2020}. In fact, to borrow a former football owner's catch phrase about his commercial product, I enjoyed my trip so much that I have decided to revisit my time spent working with old newspapers at the Library with a newish series of blog posts about them. So prepare yourself for this ye olden gentleman to gently pontificate about the curious history of old newspapers, from a purely observational viewpoint.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #223: Let's Talk About Shiny New Books!

This is another example of The Completion Backwards Principle. If you can possibly manage the time, please play both sides at one meaning.*

*the intro to the Tubes album, "The Completion Backwards Principle", right before it goes into track one, "Talk To Ya Later."

Oh and the clock is from the Quad at Quinnipiac University, from which my lovely daughter Jenelle graduated from last Sunday May 12th.

So last week, we held a genteel talk about the eclectic tastes in my used books purchases. This week, we're going to have a not so genteel talk about my new book purchases.

In general, I am not a major acquirer of new books. For me, new books cost money, and I do not have a lot of excess income to play with. So I have a tendency to really space out my new book purchases {much like I do with my music purchases}. 

To give you an idea on how spaced out my new book purchases are, I have made a grand total of 14 new book purchases since 2019. Yes, you read that number correctly. That averages out to about 2.8 books per year, and if you take out a four book set that I had purchased directly from the author, that drops down to 2 books per year. In fact, for this year I have already met my quota, but I do plan on purchasing one or two more.

Today, I'm going to share with everyone nine of those books, along with the reasoning as to why they were purchased. So come along and join me on what's sure to be a very eclectic ride of books, some of which were written by Internet personalities who actually know how to write.

1} Once Upon A Time In Carrotland by 'Josh Carrott': The reason for the quotes is that Josh Carrott's lifelong friend/YouTube channel co-host {channel is called JOLLY} Ollie Kendal, actually hired ghostwriters for this autobiography. This is very much a lighthearted romp about Josh Carrott, with all of the proceeds, I believe, donated to the Ohakune Carrot Adventure Park, New Zealand. Highly recommend this fluffy read.

2} Out of Dreams: Nightmares by Charles Gramlich: I actually wrote a review about this book earlier in the year. Charles is a well known author in the Western, Horror, and Sword & Sandal Fantasy genres, whose books and stories can be found in various e-zines and e-tailers like Amazon and B&N. If you like fantasy horror, this book is for you.

3} The Verge- Reformation, Renaissance, And Forty Years That Shook The World {1490-1530} by Patrick Wyman: Patrick is a creator of two podcasts, Fall of Rome (inactive) and Tides Of History. At the time when this book came out, he was covering world history between the 12th and 17th century on his podcast. If you enjoy world history, this book, with an emphasis on British and European history, is definitely for you. If you enjoy world history in general, I highly recommend his podcast, which is presently covering very early world history {BC to about 500 CE}. You can also find his musings on Substack.

4} Razored Land by Charles Gramlich: This is another excellent fantasy novel that originally was two novellas released as e-books, Crimson Sacrifice and Blackest Of Hates, but recently released as a full length novel. Thus the reason why I'd purchased it, since I do not own a Kindle, or any other e-reader for that matter. I did have one back in the day, a NOOK, but it got to be a bit of a pain to deal with on consistent basis.

5} Grappler-Memoirs Of A Masked Wrestler by Lynn "The Grappler" Denton and Joe Vithayathil: This one came to me as a recommendation from a Facebook group page about all things wrestling. Believe it or not, I am a fan of pro wrestling {insert insults here}, but I haven't watched any since the early 2000s. I am, however, a fan of the product that I grew up with, the 1970's through the late 90's. I found it to be very informative, especially about the wrestling era from the 1980's through the early 2000's. Highly recommend it, and I also recommend any pro wrestling memoirs that are out there today if you want to get a really good inside look of the industry back in the day prior to the WWWF/WWE blowing up nationally.

6} The Monster And The Magpie by Brianna Fenty: This is a fantastic debut by Ms. Fenty, and it came to my attention as she is a member of a FB writing group that I belong to. It is very much a violent psychological thriller in the same vein as the series "Killing Eve". Took me about a week to read it, and I highly recommend it.

7} Me vs Brain by Hayley Morris: Hayley Morris is a wickedly funny TikTok/YouTube content creator who does shorts featuring anxiety battles between herself and her brain, as well as the rest of her body. This book was basically recommended to me via one of her video shorts. A very excellent memoir and I highly recommend it.

8} American Murder Houses-A Coast-to-Coast Tour of the Most Notorious Houses Of Homicide by Steve Lehto: Steve Lehto is a lawyer from Michigan who also has a popular YouTube channel. He is also an accomplished author who mostly writes true-crime and non fiction. This one came as an indirect promo when he happened to be referring to the book during one of his videos. This is one of two books that I'd purchased from B&N, due to the fact that I had a gift card from them. Fun fact: he has a running "Where's Ben Franklin?" gag as he hides a fake C-note somewhere in his on-air studio.

9} Death In Yellowstone-Accidents And Foolhardiness In The First National Park {2nd edition} by Lee H. Whittlesey: One of my guilty pleasures in non-fiction are books that feature what we like to call "Darwin Award Winners", and this book is not an exception to this rule. The author in question is actually a National Service Park Ranger who is also a historian, and this book covers almost every conceivable accident/Foolhardiness that happened in Yellowstone Park. This book was referenced in a YouTube video that caught my attention a couple of years ago, and because it was so offbeat, I just had to purchase a copy. It's scary that a 2nd edition had to be written for this title. This was the other purchase at B&N for me.

I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this little behind the scenes peek into what I like to read, and I hope you have the opportunity to check out the books/YouTube channels mentioned in this post.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved