Postcard of the Week #4

Poster of the Week #4

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The First True Crime Book

In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Written in 1966, In Cold Blood is the mother of all non-fiction true crime books. Every book in the genre owes something to this book, which set the bar high for everything that came after such as the true crime books of Vincent Bugliosi.

What Capote did was to turn crime reporting into form resembling fiction, so that, rather than dry crime writing, the facts unfold like they would in a well-written novel.

When reading In Cold Blood, you get the feeling that Capote was conscious of creating a new genre in the way he presents the facts. It's not surprising that it took him six years to write the book, which was, not coincidentally, the time frame of the book itself.

The book tells of the murder of the Clutter family on a remote farm in western Kansas, which appeared to have had no motive. Eventually two young men, Perry Smith and Dick Hickok were tried and convicted of the crime and ultimately hanged for the crime. Those are the facts, but what the book reveals are the stories of the two men and how their lives led them to this violent act.

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On the Newsstand - March 1954

New Styles from Shuron

Sidewinder in crystal

Freeway in black fade

I noticed that Shuron, my favorite vendor for eyeglasses has two new styles in their Sidewinder and Freeway lines. About a year or so ago they added a clear plastic frame, which they call "crystal" to their Freeway line and a "black fade" to their Sidewinder line. They now have both fame color options in both lines.

The main difference between these two styles is that the Sidewinder (left) has a slightly heavier frame overall and much thicker sides than the Freeway (right). The thicker sides are something to take into consideration when buying sunglasses as they block out more of the sun. Also the crystal frames, although they look really cool with tinted lenses, aren't the best choice for sunglasses in that the clear plastic tends to reflect light into the eyes around the lenses and though the sides.

All in all you wont find a more durable frame than Shuron. Check with your local retailer or favorite website for eyeglasses. You can check out the all the Shuron styles on Shuron's Website

Postcard of the Week #3

Poster of the Week #3

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On the Newsstand - February 1954

This is All I Ask . . .

The Very Thought of You (1958) - Nat King Cole
September of My Years (1965) - Frank Sinatra
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (1973) - Harry Nilsson

Three singers, three different decades. What do these albums have in common? More than you might guess. Aside from being three albums you might want to have with you on a desert island, the music on all three of these albums was arranged and conducted by Gordon Jenkins.

As music director for Decca records Jenkins signed the folk group The Weavers who went on to have one of the biggest hits of the 20th Century with Goodnight Irene. In addition to working with The Weavers and Cole, Sinatra and Nilsson on these three albums, he also provided orchestration and arrangements for the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald.

The other thing these albums have in common is that they all include a song written by Gordon Jenkins himself entitled This is All I Ask. Written for Nat King Cole, Jenkins must have considered this one of, if not the best song, he'd ever written to persuade Sinatra and Nilsson to also record it. It was also recorded by Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Robert Goulet and Burl Ives.

The song has long been a favorite of Sinatra and Cole fans. Here's a sampling of the lyrics for those not already familiar with the song:

Beautiful girls, walk a little slower when you walk by me
Lingering sunsets, stay a little longer with the lonely sea
Children everywhere, when you shoot at bad men, shoot at me
Take me to that strange, enchanted land grown-ups seldom understand

Postcard of the Week #2

Poster of the Week #2

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On the Newsstand - January 1954

Postcard of the Week #1

Poster of the Week #1

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On the Newsstand - December 1953

Great Opening Title Sequences

Here are two of the greatest opening title sequences ever filmed. The first is from the 1969 film The Italian Job starring a varied cast that included Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Rossano Brazzi, and Benny Hill. The car is a ‪Lamborghini Miura‬ and the location is the Italian Alps. Although the 2003 remake was a great film with a little more action than the original, how can you beat a score by the great Quincy Jones with a vocal here by Matt Monro? It doesn't get much better than this.



This second title sequence is from the original fatal attraction movie, Play Misty for Me, Clint Eastwood's directorial debut two years later. I always think of this film as the last film of the Beat Generation, although it comes a good ten years after the peak of that period, It's shot in Big Sur and Carmel which, even in the early seventies, still attracted a lot of aging beatnik artists. But of course, as in SoHo in New York City at the same time, they were getting priced out of the area. I remember for a time in the mid-60s that Joan Baez and Bob Dylan lived in Carmel.

The Misty of the title is an instrumental version by the song's composer, the great Errol Garner, from his album Contrasts. It was a favorite among the jazz club denizens of North Beach and even gets a mention in the great beatnik novel, Shake Him Till He Rattles. Also featured in Play Misty for Me is Roberta Flack's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face which provides the background for a romantic beach scene.

The opening has Clint Eastwood getting in to his Jaguar XK-150 at his house in Big Sur and heading up the Pacific Coast Highway, over the Bixby Bridge, to his job as a DJ at a Carmel jazz radio station, where he gets a request from a female listener . . . "Play Misty for Me."