Pat Maginess: Private-Eye

STICKY POST

P.M.P.I. Contents and Updates

Saturday, 15. March 2008, 10:56:36

Pat Maginess, sea turtles, private-eye novels, private detective

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or
jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside
on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where
doing nothing was not boring -- it was peace."

-- Milan Kundera

"I would never shoot a cat. Unless they really had it coming to 'em."

-- "All My Todays"

It was a long, dark, quiet drive back to Los Angeles.

-- from That Killer Smile

SHORT STORIES:

"Those Songs We Sing to Ourselves" -- NEW!
"Remember Me"
"Hello, Robert"
"All My Todays"
"The Salesman"
"It's a Dog's Life"

NOVELS:

That Killer Smile (Complete Novella).

Click on the book cover to go to the novel.

HISTORICAL:

Nick Carter: The Crime of the French Cafe (Anon/Piercy)

COVER ART MINI-STORIES:

As a service to my readers who might only have about two minutes
between Point A and Point B, I decided to post humorous bits using
the covers of old pulp magazines. Here's the link.

The Complete Cover Art Mini-Stories

REVIEWS:

Hollywood Confidential (Movie Review) -- NEW!
Margin for Murder (Movie Review)
The Proposal (Movie Review)
Best Detective Movies
Kiss Me, Deadly (Movie Review)
Attack of the Sabretooth (Movie Review)
Savior (Movie Review).
Bare Trap by Frank Kane (Book Review).
I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane (Review-Essay).
DaVinci's Inquest (TV Series Review).
The Snarl of the Beast by Carroll John Daly (Book Review).
Poisons Unknown by Frank Kane (Book Review).
V. I. Warshawski (Movie Review).

MISCELLANEOUS:

CSI: Noir
Survivor China Episode 2 (Parody)
The Jungle Book Revisited (Parody)
The Black Dahlia Revisted (Parody)
The Nazi Bastard Diaries
Einstein On Lunch (Tiny Tale #1)
Robespierre's Doll (Tiny Tale #2)
The White Book (Tiny Tale #3)
Curse of the Body Snatchers (Tiny Tale #4) -- NEW!
Barbershop Quartet #1
Barbershop Quartet #2
Barbershop Quartet #3
Barbershop Quartet #4

Green Car Buying Guide (Link) -- Check it out, it's really cool!
AutoBlog Green (Link) -- Excellent!

Check out what you've missed in the Archive.

My thanks to Glen Pierce of Topsail Productions for being so gracious as
to give me a link in their Blog Spot links. You can view that one here.

OCTOBER UPDATE

I pretty much hit the doldrums in September. In
fact for a short while, at the end of the month,
I even took a break from the blogging. I was very
bored, extremely bored, for the first six days.
And then, finally on the last day of the break,
I finally managed to get into the swing of just
goofing off. Considering that it was only one
day, I decided to goof off a few more days at
the beginning of October. The story that I had
hoped to finish in September didn't get finished.
The only thing I can say on this is that I'm sorry
and hopefully will have it done soon. Right now
I am about to go out to a pet store and look at
a few dachshund puppies that are for sale. And
I might very well buy one. If so, then October
is going to be a very busy month indeed. For
those of you who live in seasonal places where
the leaves turn on the trees, I hope you all
enjoy one of Nature's most wonderful shows --
the multi-colored leaves. And for those who
don't live in such climes, there is usually
at least some better weather at this time of
year to enjoy -- not too hot, not too cold,
just right. Have a great month.

"When life gives you flippers you make waves, right?" -- Karen Sota

Well the only thing that could possibly be better than private-eye fiction
are sea turtles. Humans have been around about 6 million years. Turtles
have been around for 200 million years. Unfortunately, they're having kind
of a tough go at it lately due to human civilization and a new virus out
there that's affecting them. Here's a quick link to several turtle hospitals.
Just click on the images and you'll get there. If you are a turtle hospital
or a turtle rescue organization, I will gladly post your link on this blog,
so just let me know.

Plus: Turtle Live Cam! (North Carolina (UTC -5) daylight hours)

Best wishes to all,
Edward Piercy

That I have made all transformations
According to the dictates of my heart
In all places that have desired my ka

37 Comments

STICKY POST

P.M.P.I. Theme Music

Tuesday, 20. June 2006, 01:54:38

Music

To play the music, click on George or Glenn's picture.

(Please be patient. It will take a minute to connect with your media player.)

George Friedrich Handel
Suite in d-minor HWV 447
Courante
Artist: Keith Jarrett
Format (MP3) / Timing (02:31)
Light and dark combined.

J.S. Bach
Partita in G Major BWV 829
Praeambulum
Artist: Glenn Gould
Format (MP3) / Timing (01:47)

Now playing in a galaxy near you...

Didn't know where to put this map, so I'm putting it here.

13 Comments

The Hindu Channel

Sunday, 5. October 2008, 16:53:39

The Republic of Bullshit

It occurred to me recently, like about 10 minutes ago, that cable TV has
TBN, which is a (mostly) Protestant Christian channel. Then they have EWTN,
which my mom watches pretty much constantly if she's not channel surfing,
which is a (mostly) Catholic Christian channel.

But it also occurred to me that at least here in the States they don't have a
Hindu/Buddhist channel.

If you put the two religions together, Hinduism and Buddhism, they would
comprise about the third largest religion by percentage. So it really does
seem as if those religions should have their own channel.

But what kind of programming could we expect to see on such a channel?
Well, I'm not sure exactly. But I did have a few ideas. So here they are.

TODAY'S PROGRAMMING

5:00-6:00. "Sunrise Sitar with Ravi O'Donnell." Ravi plays this
morning's hymn to the sun.

6:00-7:00. "The Bhagavad-Gita." An exegesis of the passage "one falls
down when reasoning is destroyed."

7:00-8:00. "Beginning Tibetan Buddhist Chant." Lesson 326.

8:00-9:00. "Life of Buddha." Episode VI.

9:00-12:00. "One Hand Clapping with Zen Master Hiroshima Shiko." Today
Master Shiko beats on a rock with a stick.

12:00-1:00. "Intermediate Tibetan Buddhist Chant." Lesson 424.

1:00-4:00. Movie. Ghandi. Ben Kingsley, Roshan Seth.

4:00-5:00. "Secrets of the Buddhist Masters." Covered today is how not
to step on bugs.

5:00-6:00. "Carl Jung On Religion." Part 3 of 4.

6:00-9:00. Movie. Ghandi. Ben Kingsley, Roshan Seth.

9:00-10:00. "Yoga for Dudes." Covered is the Salute to the Sun.

10:00-11:00. "Kama Sutra for Dummies." The Flying Squirrel and the Hilarious
Monkey positions.

11:00-12:00. "Evening Sitar with Ravi O'Donnell." Ravi plays this evening's
closing raga.

[12:00-5:00. INFOMERCIALS.]

(And please, people. This is an ROB post.
I'm an anthropologist, I respect all religions.
NEXT MONTH: I come down hard on the Amish.)

9 Comments

New Dog, New Life

Saturday, 4. October 2008, 18:00:06

The Four Seasons

(Just click on the pic to watch the video on youTube.)

Last June, as some of you may remember, I lost my dog and my best
friend, Baron, to cancer. His death left a huge hole in my heart. For
the first month I tried throwing myself into my work, the writing and
the blogging. That didn't work. The second month I drank a lot more than
normal. That didn't work either. The third month I spent some time with
the other dachshunds in the building, and did a babysitting gig for
another dachshund named Daisy.

If getting with the other dogs taught me anything it was that I just
wasn't going to get over Baron or get past the grief without getting a
new dog.

The other day, just on a lark, I decided to check out a couple of pet
shops on-line here in Spokane. Well, when I got to the Northwest Seed
and Pet site the first thing I saw was the notice "Dachshunds for sale."
It turned out they had three dachsie puppies up for sale. In fact they
even had a short embedded youTube video of the puppies.

When I had thought about getting a new dog, I knew that I wanted another
dachshund. I just like the breed. But I also knew that I wanted a dog at
least a little different than Baron -- maybe a long-haired one this time,
and maybe a female. Not only to change it up a little, but to avoid being
constantly reminded of Baron so much.

I called Northwest Pet on Thursday and all three of the dogs were still
up for sale. So yesterday me and Charisse drove over to Northwest Pet.
I had been to the northside Northwest Pet before, but never the east side
one. Their pet place is a real menagerie. They had rabbits, chickens,
mice and rats, all sorts of birds, and even a huge tortoise that I think
was trying to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for number of
times a turtle could circumnavigate a room.

So I got some hands on with the dachsie puppies. The puppies were all
black and tan color, smooth coat, and all female. After about a half
hour I made my decision -- I picked the one that you can see at the
front of the cage at the very beginning of the video. "If you give me
a kiss, I'll take you home with me" I told her. And she gave me a kiss.
(Funny, that's the first time that line ever worked.)

The woman cashier made sure to give us the advice she thought we
needed on the issue of dachshunds. In fact it was a good 7 minute
lecture. Me and Charisse just kinda stood there and tried not to
laugh -- Charisse has two dachshunds, I had owned Baron for 15 years,
and we live in a building with a total of 6 dachshunds. Make that 7
dachshunds.

I had come up with a short list of names for the new dog. But the new
puppie turned out to be such a little princess that I knew that only one
name on the list really fit her -- Sasha.

Sasha is just a beautiful little girl. She is very quiet (for the most part)
and has a very calm personality. She's a Cancer -- still waters run deep.

So far she has been a good girl. She misses her sisters (seeing Charisse's
two girls helped a little in this) and keeps getting behind the television
and crawling into the storage unit at the bottom. I think this last is due
to the fact that she was in a cage for so much of the time since her birth
and she instinctively wants to get into another cage. It's tough getting
her out from behind the television, and I have to open the glass storage
unit doors and pull her out. And so far we've had some kisses and a few
tummy rubs. Her tummy, not mine. On the docket for tomorrow is a bath.
She still has that kennel smell on her. But I imagine that a good shampoo
will fix that right up. Also planned is her first trip to the vet -- that will
probably come early next week.

It also turns out that the little princess has a fondness for eating her
own poop.

We've also had a good number of "potty outside" walks. But it has been
kinda-sorta raining here in Spokane the last two days, and like most
dachshunds she hates the rain. I've never understood how a breed that
was developed in Germany, where it tends to rain a lot, can dislike the
rain so much. When Sasha wants to go back inside she sits down and cries
and totally refuses to move. At which point I have no choice really but
to pick her up and carry her back inside.

She has now spent her first night, and I think she really liked the sheets
and blankets on my bed. She slept well through the whole night. I would
wake up every once in a while and remember that she was there, feeling
the fur up against my feet, and I would smile and drift off again quite
happily.

I think that huge hole in my heart has gotten a little bit smaller.

New life.

[Pictures to come.]

18 Comments

A Familiar Face

Thursday, 2. October 2008, 13:15:57

Culture, Movies, Music

The rather intimidating Catherine Weaver
of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I was watching an episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles the week
before last, the season premier of the show, when I came across a face
that seemed very familiar. I had never watched the show before that, or
looked into it on its web site or whatever, and knew pretty much nothing
about it other than the obvious fact that it was a Terminator spinoff.

The actress who had caught my attention plays the character of Catherine
Weaver on the show. She has red hair, is definitely a fox, and has this cold
and vaguely threatening air about her. In fact I find her more intimidating
than any of the evil androids on the show. Between an evil android who
can crush your skull in two seconds or a redhead giving you "that look,"
I would prefer the evil android. In any case, to present that type of
character well takes some pretty good acting ability as well. And as I
mentioned, she looked very familiar. There was just something about that
face.

So I found the show's web site and looked her up. Turns out the actress
is Shirley Manson, singer for the rock group Garbage. And in fact I had
just seen her and that group in 2007 on a segment of Soundstage.

They say that the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill.
And in fact it seems that many musicians want to try the movie thing,
and many actors or actresses are drawn to the music thing. Which isn't
all that surprising. Most actors and actresses grew up listening to music
and, like most of us, wished they were a rock and roll star or whatever.
Just as a lot of musicians grew up watching movies and television shows,
and I'm sure thought about what it might be like to be in front of the
camera.

The list of these crossover gigs would be a long one. You have people
like David Bowie and Mick Jagger being featured in the occasional movie.
Some musicians, like Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley, became serious
actors in their own right. Johnny Depp started out as a musician also,
though he didn't have all that much of a track record as one before he
got into television and film.

And then you have the actors and actresses who have gotten into music,
or at least who have tried to. This would be another fairly long list. The
one that pops into my head first, probably because I was just looking up
some information on him a couple of weeks ago, was actor Telly Savalas.
Savalas took his famous Super-Greek persona that was developed on the
Kojack series and managed to work it into a rather successful music career
that included a couple of albums and a few songs that made the charts.

Occasionally, you have someone who inhabits both worlds simultaneously
pretty much from the start. The one I think of most in terms of this was
Judy Garland. Bing Crosby also comes to mind. It's fairly difficult to really
separate Crosby's musical career from his film career. And of course there
were others.

Since the early 80s and the rise of MTV, the music world has become
tremendously video oriented. In fact it's almost impossible for a new
artist to break in these days without doing a music video. So today,
the two worlds are linked even closer.

Well, it's certainly great seeing Shirley again on the show. Though that
doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to see Garbage come out of their "hiatus"
and do a new album.

And incidentally, I thought that there was some very interesting trivia
about Shirley listed on the Internet Movie Database. You might check it
out.

Shirley Manson in her Garbage days.

8 Comments

Crazy Daisy's Nightclub

Tuesday, 30. September 2008, 15:12:59

Music, Crazy Daisy Nightclub

Welcome to Crazy Daisy's.
Admission is free
(she must be crazy!)
BYOB.
Enjoy the show.

THE GO-GO'S

"Head Over Heels"

(Drummer Gina Schock had open heart surgery
when she was a kid just like I did.)

A-HA

"Take On Me"

(I always pictured these guys driving
around in Volvos.)

ELVIS COSTELLO

"Less than Zero"

(In his bad boy days.)

LENA LOVITCH

"Bird Song"

(Lena did that song/video in 1979.
She also gets my vote for the most whacked-out
chic of the 80s. Which is saying something.)

DEPECHE MODE

"Just Can't Get Enough"

(I once danced with a girl on the
top of a bar to this song.)

ULTRAVOX

"Visions in Blue"

SIMPLE MINDS

"Alive and Kicking"

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN

"The Cutter"

"Seven Seas"

What's the sense in spieling
Without the grace to be here?

It seems that David Byrne and Tina Weymouth
of the TALKING HEADS stopped in to do a number.

"Heaven"

(I was totally privileged to see this
band twice in concert.)

HUMAN LEAGUE

"Fascination"

"Mirror Man"

"Open Your Heart"

BLONDIE

"X Offender"

"Hanging On the Telephone"

"Dreaming"

Well it's late, the music is over,
I've drank about 8 beers and done
a gram of coke. So I guess it's time
to go home and put some music on the
turntable and drink some more beer.

23 Comments

Stupid or Criminal or Both

Tuesday, 30. September 2008, 02:35:09

Culture

The Bobcat skid-steer tractor.

A five year old child died of massive head injuries yesterday in a
construction accident. According to the report, the child had been sitting
on his grandfather's lap and fell forward on the Bobcat tractor just as
his grandfather was lowering the scoop, catching his head in the equipment.

The grandfather will not face charges in the incident.

Because you know, he was just a stupid country bumpkin who didn't know
what the hell he was doing, right? Never mind that it's against the law
to let your child go without a seat belt in an automobile. Never mind
that construction is one of the most dangerous occupations in the country.
Let's just let the poor bastard off.

Jeezus.

But maybe it's just me. I would like to hear your opinion on the matter.

And, in a related story, another five-year old was killed last weekend
when his mother took him for a walk in the Siberian tiger tank at the
local zoo.

24 Comments

The Heritage of Pat Maginess

Monday, 29. September 2008, 17:22:57

The Four Seasons

James Maginess (1868-1947)

When I set to writing my first novel, I needed to come up with a name
for my private eye. I didn't pick the name at random. For the surname,
I chose Maginess -- which had been the maiden name of my father's mother
(Fa-Ma, in anthropologist-speak). For the first name I picked Patrick as
it had been one of the names used by the Maginess clan for generations.
They basically just recycled the same seven or eight names from generation
to generation. A lot of people did that back then. It was a tie to the past,
to their ancestors, to their history. These days, you don't see that kind
of thing so much. We've lost to a great degree our sense of history.

I have to admit too that it was tempting that the initials of my private
eye -- P.M. -- would match those of Raymond Chandler's famous shamus
Phillip Marlowe.

The Maginess clan was originally from Killybegs, Ireland. Killybegs is
a small fishing village on the north side of Donegal Bay. Eventually,
during the late 18th and 19th centuries, many of the Maginess clan moved
to England or America to find work. My great-grandfather James Maginess,
who you can find listed in a copy of the geneology reproduced here,
moved first to England and then America.

He spent a short time in Connecticut, but soon moved to Indianapolis.
There he got a job at a factory called Diamond Chain. He worked at the
factory six days a week, almost all the way up to his death in 1947.

There is a photo of my great-grandfather posing as a model next to one
of the huge chains that his company produced. They chose my great-
grandfather because he was short -- only about 5'0" tall -- and thus made
the rolled up chain look even more impressive. It's a cool photo; unfortunately
I don't have a copy of that one.

James Maginess loved music. He loved opera in particular, and was an
early fan of Caruso. He had a phonograph with a good collection of opera
on 78s. He also bought a big old radio. On his time off, he would sometimes
connect the radio up with an extension cord and put it out on the porch
so that the other people in the neighborhood could listen -- a radio was
not a common thing back then.

He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetary. Holy Cross is one of those big
old-style cemeteries with mausoleums and big monuments with impressive
looking angels on them. My great-grandfather was buried in the newer
part of the cemetary. And though his monument is not as impressive as
some of the others in the older section of Holy Cross, it's a pretty nice
monument by today's standards. These days you get a tiny flat stone
with barely enough room for a name on it. Another thing that has been
lost. He was buried next to his wife, Ellen Maginess nee Quinn.

For about a year back in the 70s I lived in an apartment across the
street from Holy Cross. Since there wasn't a park in the area, I would
sometimes take walks there. I would visit great-grandfather Maginess'
grave. And sometimes I would hum opera tunes for him, what ones I knew
at least, which weren't many. But regardless, I always thought he would
appreciate it.

13 Comments

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