So, that blank post Thursday? That said it had a story? Was eaten by Blogger. I'll just post the IMDB crib notes version instead, which is deceptively long. As some of you may be aware from my prior blog, my grandfather died in May. My family is still attempting to fix up the house for my grandmother after many years of neglect. I managed to unearth two huge drawers full of photographs, artwork, and news clippings about my great uncle. Turns out my family wasn't exaggerating when they said he used to work in Hollywood. He was an artist and set designer. There were countless, documented photographs of him with his best friend Gene Autry and not quite as close friend Jackie Gleason. There were shots of him at the Emmy Awards, on sets of John Wayne films he painted, even a candid shot of John F. Kennedy at a press conference recorded for the TV station he worked for. There was also original concept art work for different shows and films, portraiture of radio/TV/print personalities he worked with, and one of a kind comics he drew on every envelope he ever mailed my grandfather. I'm completely blown away by this discovery. Even more so by the new fact I learned about him: he accomplished all of this with one arm. He lost his left arm in WWII during gun fire in Germany and was turned down by all but one company for his design work. That company, Kool Radio, became Kool TV, became his connection to all the major stars he befriended who helped open doors for him in Hollywood. Which in turn set him up for the rest of his life doing freelance design work out of Arizona, including much promotional material for Sun City, AZ. Now comes the difficult task of organizing, analyzing, and quantifying all these discoveries to put his story to paper and see where it leads. Midnight Rec: Winkie by Clifford Chase Have you met my new friend Winkie? Winkie is the favorite toy every child has growing up. Perhaps s/he was a teddy bear, or an action figure. Maybe a board game or model car. Whatever s/he is, s/he might be a danger to society if s/he ever gets her/his wish for life. Winkie is a very strange concept for a novel that only works due to execution. A teddy bear is facing serious criminal charges, most noticeably the accusation that he is a mad bomber living in a backwoods cabin. A sentient teddy bear that tugs at your heartstrings in an attempt to discuss some of the failings of the US legal system? Bring it on. Give it a shot if you care to. If the idea of a teddy bear who comes to life dealing with prison life and court proceedings sounds good to you, you've: A) already read the book; B) loved the X-Files/Millenium/Buffy/some supernatural tinged proceedings how; or C) should at least give this one a try.
Labels: Midnight Rec