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When I saw Michael Mann’s brilliant film The Insider in 1999, one of the many highlights, for me, came in a pivotal courtroom scene. The film’s co-protagonists, Jeffrey Weygand, is trying to testify against the tobacco industry with the help of a Mississippi attorney, Ron Motley, played by Bruce McGill. McGill gives a great, over-the-top…
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The power of rock-and-roll transcends language. And that’s a good thing because I don’t speak a word of Japanese. Even so, I love this song. It’s from Japanese punk band The Blue Hearts, and it sounds like something The Ramones might have done, back in the day. Also, I’m pretty sure it’s about a girl…
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My privious entry in this continuing “Classic Sci-Fi Book Covers” series was also devoted to Roger Zelazny, so please forgive me for double-dipping into the Zelazny well. But I couldn’t resist talking about one of Zelazny’s other great novels, …And Call Me Conrad—published in 1966 as This Immortal. Most people have never heard of it,…
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Some years ago, my son Connor and I were watching the movie Dunkirk on DVD. It’s a very good movie, telling the story of that fateful week from multiple points-of-view. Of course, the most compelling thread of the narrative is that of the lone RAF pilot (played by Tom Hardy) doing his heroic best to…
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ZZ Top is the brainchild of lead guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons, who is a genius. Ever since I learned that he essentially named the band after his hero, blues legend B.B. King, I’ve always thought of ZZ Top as a kind of parallel-universe version of B.B. King. (In that other universe, B.B. King is…
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I can’t believe it’s been 41 years since James Cameron’s The Terminator came out. I first saw it in the movie theater and like everyone else I was completely stunned by its energy and creativity. It might well be the best B-movie action film ever made. (Its sequel, T2, is an A-movie action flick that…
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One of the many things I learned from Rod Stewart’s memoir, Rod: The Autobiography, is that the technical process of recording a studio album is very strange. For instance, the lead singer usually records his vocal track in a soundproofed room, by himself, wearing headphones so that he can listen to the band’s instrumental track.…
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Sometimes you just gotta dance. And who better to dance to than one of the greatest ska punk bands ever?
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It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a year since the launch of my mystery novel, Twice the Trouble. It’s been a wild ride! To commemorate the launch, I’m re-posting this very long (three chapters!) sample of the audiobook version on Youtube from Google Play.
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*** SPOILERS BELOW *** It feels a little silly, writing SPOILERS BELOW considering I am discussing a novel that came out 123 years ago. Is it possible that any reader of this blog—or, for that matter, any book nerd over the age of thirty—is not already familiar with the plot of The Hound of the…
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Ash Clifton, Writer 