I ran across this clip while watching a documentary on the late, great blues master. It seems that Howlin' Wolf wasn't a big fan of Son House's drinking. As most of you know, Son House was the king, the innovator who all the younger guys -- Wolf being one of those -- respected. But according to close friends of mine who new Son House, he was also a heroic drunk -- turning up a bottle of gin or vodka as if it were water. In this clip, Wolf is plenty pissed about it. -- Ace

Bruce Lee was about a lot more than just whipping ass. This is from the book Bruce Lee: Artist of Life compiled by his widow, Linda.


"Night Rain"


Sadness broods
over the world
I fear to walk in my garden,
lest I see
a pair of butterflies
disporting in the sun
among the flowers.


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It's been about fifteen years since I first attended the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading. I was a rookie reporter then, just a lowly correspondent and occasional book reviewer for the newspaper. One of the perks was getting invited to the Festival parties and meeting some of my favorite writers at the time -- James W. Hall and Kinky Friedman.

In college, I'd been crazy about Hall's gritty and quirky Florida noirs about a Keys beach bum named Thorn. Hall is one of those terrific Florida crime writers who can wrap a hell of a social message in a terrifically entertaining novel. His books were funny and weird with some of the best villains I'd encountered since Ian Fleming. He was gracious enough to answer a lot of questions from a 25-year-old aspiring novelist. A lot of what he told me helped shape my career.

I'll get to spend some time with Hall again this weekend -- at the 19th Annual Festival of Reading. This time I'm honored to be one of the featured authors.

This is one of the last great book festivals in the country and I look forward not only to speaking but listening to many of my of my new favorite authors including the great Connie May Fowler.

Go to the festival site for more on times and authors. I'll start up at 11. a.m. This is my first trip back in many years to the place where I started my career.

During a weekend trip to my local bookshop I spotted a small coffee table book called Celebrity Vinyl written by Tom Hamling. The book is a showcase for the author’s novelty record collection featuring albums recorded by actors and other celebrities. The book is fun to flip through but Hamling’s a tough critic and seems to enjoy referring to his record collection as the “worst collection ever.” The book got me thinking about some of the most interesting celebrity albums that I’ve come across over the years. A surprising number of classic film and television actors I admire have recorded LPs and I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite discoveries. READ ENTIRE PIECE

There are all manner of spy cinema websites scattered about the Internet, but only one that is devoted exclusively to the source material for the many espionage films that have taken up permanent residence in our collective consciousness. Most filmgoers rarely give thought to the literary antecedents of their favorite silver screen spy, yet there would be no James Bond, Harry Palmer or George Smiley if Ian Fleming, Len Deighton and John Le Carre hadn’t created them. Fortunately, one man had the perception to recognize this oversight, plus the expertise and dedication to create “Spy Guys & Gals,” a cyber shrine to the numerous fictional agents — male and female — that have populated espionage fiction for the past five-plus decades. His name? Masteller. Randall Masteller. READ ENTIRE PIECE

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