Earlier this week, I finished reading Book Three of William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I'm now working on re-reading (for the fourth or fifth time) Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens' The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is probably one of my all-time favorite novels. An absolute classic!
"Give a hoot/Read a book!"
I'll have to get a copy of Shirer. I read the whole opus way back as a teenager.
Benn, did you ever read Speer's "Inside the Third Reich"?
No. I have to admit, as I go through Shirer's book(s) (the whole thing is divided into six "sub-books", I guess you could call it), I've run across references to several other books that sound interesting. One of these days, I may have to try to track some of them down to check them out.
Speer was Hitler's architect; the guy who would have redesigned Berlin, had the Nazis not been eliminated.
Interestingly, despite having read the first 823 pages of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Speer has yet to make an appearance. Looking at the index, his first mention is in a footnote on page 1225. (And for the record, I have heard of Albert Speer prior to this.)
I'm now working on The Crime of the Century by Dennis L. Breo and William J. Martin. And nope, it ain't about O.J. Simpson. It's about mass murderer, Richard Speck who killed eight nurses in 1966. It's been a pretty fascinating read.
Next should be David Michaelis' Schulz and Peanuts, a biography of the late, great Charles M. Schulz.
"I guess there are never enough books..." - John Steinbeck
Right now, I'm more than halfway through Mel Blanc's autobiography (co-written by Philip Bashe), That's Not All, Folks!. So far, it's been excellent. Blanc, of course, is one of those celebrities who I really, really admire and wish I could've met. This is the closet I'll ever get to that, of course.
The book confirms one myth I've heard years ago: The voice of Porky Pig was originally done by someone who actually stuttered - Joe Dougherty. Mel took over (and made his Warner debut) with "Picador Porky". I also didn't know that Arthur Q. Bryan was Elmer Fudd's voice for so long. Bryan portrayed Elmer until his death in 1949 or 1959. (I forget which one.) I always assumed Bryan did a handful of appearances as Elmer, then Mel took over. Nope, Blanc took over in the Fifties or Sixties.
And as I long suspected, Sylester and Daffy Duck share the same voice (and I don't just mean Mel's). Daffy's voice is the same as Sylvester's, but at a different pitch. (Originally, the pitch was altered artificially.) If you listen to any of the cartoons with those characters from the Sixties on, it's really noticeable that there's not much of a difference in their voices.
I also found out that Mel contributed to two Disney movies. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is the first, obvious one that everyone should know. But the other one? Well, that's tricky. In Pinnochio, Mel Blanc provided the voice of Gideon the Cat. What's that you say? Gideon never spoke? True. Originally he was going to and Mel recorded the dialogue for him. Then Walt Disney chose to scrap the dialogue, making Gideon a mute. The only thing that's left of Blanc's work is Gideon's hiccup. For which he basically got paid $800. (That's how much Mel got paid to record Gideon's voice.)
The one thing I'm now hoping to learn from the book is the story behind Barney Rubble's two different voices. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you watch the Flintstones ep, "The Prowler". In it, you'll hear an example of both Barney voices Mel created.
"Eh, What's up, doc?"
Re: Barney
One of his voices is high and nasal, and he other is fairly low-pitched, rather reminiscent of Yogi Bear's.
Yup, that's the difference in the two voices, Scott. The lower pitched voice is the one I call his "Classic" voice. The higher, nasal voice is the original one. It's the one Barney had in "The Flintstone Flyer" ep, the debut ep of The Flintstones.
"Give a hoot/Read a book."
Books I've gotten in the recent months include:
101 Things You Didn't Know About Einstein by Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer. I got this book about the famed physicist around August, because I remember having it with me when my parents took me out to dinner for my birthday. I began it, but haven't finished it.
Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughn. I got this graphic novel for Christmas. It's a story of a group of lions who try to survive on the streets of Baghdad after escaping from the Baghdad Zoo during the beginning of the Iraq War and is inspired by the true story of just such a pryde of lions that really did get loose at the beginning of that conflict. It appears to be an allegory for the Iraq War.
The Mind of the Market by Michael Shermer. This is his most recent book, in which he explains why humans act so irrationally in matters of finance and economics.
The Soul of Science by Michael Shermer. This is a tiny 35-page book by Shermer that I got at the Great American God-Out back in November, when I first met Shermer.
In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace by Michael Shermer. This autobiography of the co-discoverer of natural selection, whose name has not engendered the fame that Darwin's has, and in which Shermer argues that Wallace deserves as much recognition as his more famous colleague, was the basis Shermer's doctoral thesis. It was the one older book from him that I didn't have at the time I met Shermer for the second time at a lecture in lower Manhattan this past January. It was a bit more expensive than it would've been if I got it on Amazon, but I really wanted him to autograph it.
The Mask of Nostradamus by James Randi. I really enjoyed Randi's Flim Flam!, in which he looked at a number of pseudoscientific topics critically, and The Truth About Uri Geller, in which he exposed the fraud of the fames Israeli psychic, but I held off buying this one for a while. I finally got around to it, and I'm currently on page 34, but have stopped for other things (something I tend to do with my books).
Darkness of the Light by Peter David. This is a new fantasy series by David and Tor Books, and is Book 1 of "The Hidden Earth", though I don't know how many books are intended to comprise this series. I've had it for a while, and it's rare for me to sit on a Peter David book for so long, but I'm trying to get through James Randi's The Mask of Nostradamus.
Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins. The description of this sounded like Dawkins' debunking of various pseudoscientific topics, like Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things and Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World.
Writers of Comics Scriptwriting 2 by Tom Root and Andrew Kardon. I really enjoyed Artists on Comic Art and Writers on Comics Scriptwriting by Mark Salisbury, which feature detailed interviews with various comic artists and writers on how they broke into the business, what their philosophies are on writing/drawing, what their techniques and procedures are, and some of the behind-the-scenes secrets from their most visible projects, so I'm hoping I'll enjoy this one too.
Bone: Out From Boneville by Jeff Smith. I've heard great things about Jeff Smith's critically acclaimed and award-winning comics series, Bone, so I got this first installment of it. Unlike the original black and white series, this version is colored.
Perselpolis by Marjane Satrapi. This two-book graphic novel series was the basis for Satrapi's Oscar-nominated animated film, which I enjoyed. Since books often have more details than the films into which they're adapted, I decided to get it. The second book arrived just a day or two ago.
At the start of the month, I was reading The Buck Passes Flynn by the late, Gregory Mcdonald. That was followed by The Terminal Man, by the late, Michael Crichton. After that, I started reading The Essential Marvel Horror with stories by the late Steve Gerber and Jim Mooney. On the 16th, I started The Hammer of God by Arthur C. Clarke. I'm now re-reading The Making of the TREK Conventions by the late, Joan Winston.
(Yeah, I guess I'm just doing a kind of end of the year tribute to some writers who died this year. Just wish I had something written by Forrest J. Ackerman to read.)
BTW, about the Winston book: I'm kinda of surprised to see the names of such people as Allan Asherman and Diane Duane. I mean, yeah, years later in the '80s, I read STAR TREK books by them. It's just that years before that, I had read about them in Joan's book and never realized who they were when I read their books. I guess that way back then, the world of TREK fandom really was a small one, indeed.
One more thing: Chapter 1 of Winston's book ends with some STAR TREK trivia questions. One of them is "Which Enterprise line officer did not attend the Academy?" The choices were A. Scotty, B. Sulu C. Chekov. The correct answer is "A. Scotty". Does anyone know what ep established that info?
"I guess there never are enough books." - John Steinbeck
My biggest chuckle in the Winston book was the revelation that Ben Stiller had attended a con as a child.
Y'know, it's been so long since I first read the book, I really don't remember much of it. One thing that I have been thinking about while re-reading it: I'm reminded of how, in the early days of TREK fandom, we were lead to believe that the cast was one big happy family. That everybody got along and liked and respected each other. (At the first con, Gene Roddenberry indicated that he and other members of the cast often saw each other socially.) If there was any disputes with the cast members, it was between Shatner and Nimoy, who supposedly couldn't stand each other. But that always seemed like gossip. No one really believed it. We knew that Walter, Jimmy, Nichelle and George all liked Shatner and thought he was great. Just like they respected each other. Little did we know back in the '70s and '80s.
Even more... charming, I guess you could say, is how TREK fandom was often portrayed back then as a group of kind, generous, noble people. There may have been some differences of opinion, but it never amounted to anything serious. In this Internet Age, it seems impossible to imagine such a thing, what with all the flame wars fans engage in these days. It all seems so hopelessly naive.
Most likely it's just a matter of fans (and cast) back then had the decency to keep their dirty linen away from public scrutiny. Today, no one thinks twice about dissing the other person. I'm even guilty of it. Kinda a shame that life has turned out like that.
"Give a hoot! Read a book!"
Got two books I'm working on now. The first is The Annotated Brothers Grimm, edited by Maria Tatar. The other is Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. The latter book is probably the one I'll be giving most of my attention to.
"I guess there are never enough books." - John Steinbeck
The Honor Harrington series.
I also have been reading bios of the Mercury 7. Deke Slayton's bio, "Deke!" is particularly good.
I'm currently reading Michael Shermer's The Mind of the Market, in which he discusses how the bottom-up self-organization of consumer-driven market systems are better than government top-down producer-driven systems, and how this parallels the similar bottom-up, self-organized nature of natural selection.
I also started the novels Tigerheart and Darkness of the Light, both by Peter David, during the summer, but I've put both down for now, until I finish Market.
Never did read the Brothers Grimm book. Instead, I focused on the Dawkins book. (It was great.) After it, I read Flynn's In by Gregory Mcdonald. Since finishing that, I've started Mixed Blessings by William and Barbara Christopher. And yes, M*A*S*H fans, William Christopher is indeed the man who played Father Mulcahy. However, if you're looking for a behind-the-scenes look at M*A*S*H, you're going to be disappointed. The focus of the Christophers' book is their son, Ned, who was diagnosed as autistic. I've gotta say, it's been a very good book, nonetheless.
"Give a hoot!/Read a book!"
I'm now starting in on Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. So far, it looks like it'll be pretty interesting.
"Give a hoot!/Read a book!"
I recently finished "Soon I Will be Invincible" which is easily my favorite book in a very long time. If you don't enjoy this book you aren't welcome around decent folk.
Right now I'm reading Martin Gardner's wonderful Annotated Alice in Wonderland. (With some content by some guy named Carroll.) It's a joy and a keeper.
Just finished reading Joanna Russ' The Female Man. Meh. I'm now reading The Medical Science of House, M.D. by Andrew Holtz. So far, so good.
"Give a hoot/Read a book!"
I'm now starting on Bob Levin's The Pirates and the Mouse. It's an account of a group of underground comic book artists who called themselves the Air Pirates and the lawsuit Disney brought against them. For more info go here.
I first heard about the Air Pirates from a couple of articles Howard Cruse wrote for Comic Scene back in the '80s. The case fascinated me. I even own the first two issues of Air Pirates Funnies. This book should be very interesting to me.
"I guess there are never enough books." - John Steinbeck