Stuff

I spent two hours in the cancer clinic getting set up for my fourteen radiation sessions that start Monday morning. This is the quietest public building I've ever been in. Made me feel downright contemplative; I'm half-serious. When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in the spring of 2002 one of the nurses I spent a lot of time with was named Caroline. I was happily surprised to see her again after all these years. She's head nurse of the radiation section. She's a lot of fun and loves books. Turns out she's a big fan of the tv show "Castle" so we talked about most of the crime shows have been played out for a long time. Then we got to work. I've been measured and positioned for where I'm to be zapped. So I'm ready to go. This is my third go round so I know the drill and don't expect any serious downsides.

---------------------MICHAEL MOORCOCK'S FANTASY NOVELS

Ed here: I've been a fan of Michael Moorcock's Elric (and various other of his books in that universe) since they first appeared. This week he wrote a piece for Tor.com about how they came to be written. Man this would make even Max Brand shudder.

"I’m not even sure what the year was. I’d had the outline for the series for a year or two, together with a couple of chapters, I think, when Larry Shaw of Lancer asked me for a new fantasy series to follow the first two Elric books and the Blades of Mars series. This would have been in 1965 or 6, I think. I had not actually planned to write any more, but I can rarely resist a request!

"My old method of writing fantasy novels was to go to bed for a few days, getting up only to take the kids to school and pick them up, while the book germinated, making a few notes, then I’d jump out of bed and start, writing around 15-20,000 words a day (I was a superfast typist) for three days, rarely for more than normal working hours—say 9 to 6—get my friend Jim Cawthorn to read the manuscript for any errors of typing or spelling etc. then send it straight to the editor unread by me. I have still to read more than a few pages of the Hawkmoon books. The odd thing is that I’ve actually read almost none of my own books but I seem to remember the events as if I’d lived them. Some scenes are better remembered than others, of course. Similarly, I’ve reread almost nothing of the Elric, Corum or Eternal Champion novels."

for the rest go here:
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58955#more

-----------------------------THE POPULAR CROWD

I picked this up from the most excellent Cinema Retro website. I went to two or three movies a week back then so I'm familiar with everybody on these lists. But there are some surprises--that Marilyn Monroe didn't rank higher and that Ingrid Bergman ranked at all..

In 1961, Boxoffice magazine listed the All-American Film Favorites of 1960. The selections were based on a poll of theater owners in the USA.

FEMALE

DORIS DAY
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
SHIRLEY MACLAINE
DEBBIE REYNOLDS
JOANNE WOODWARD
DEBORAH KERR
AUDREY HEPBURN
MARILYN MONROE
SUSAN HAYWARD
INGRID BERGMAN
KIM NOVAK
SANDRA DEE

MALE

CARY GRANT
JACK LEMMON
ROCK HUDSON
TONY CURTIS
YUL BRYNNER
FRANK SINATRA
WILLIAM HOLDEN
JOHN WAYNE
KIRK DOUGLAS
GLENN FORD
ROBERT MITCHUM
JERRY LEWIS