Sundance Grand Jury Award Winner

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell, was one of my favorite books of the last several years. Daniel Woodrell, along with William Gay and Cormac McCarthy comprise what I believe to be the 3 best writers of true Americana alive today. Their writing is gritty & real, striped of all pretentiousness. Winter's Bone has been made into a film, directed by Debra Granik. It premiered at The Sundance Film Festival last week with no big stars and no buzz. Word of mouth spread like wildfire and became a must see by weeks end. The film garnered the top prize, the Drama Grand Jury Award Winner. Roadside Attractions picked up the film for national distribution. In a nutshell, the film & book is about a 17 yr.old girl,(Rhee Dolly) living in the Ozarks, caring for her sick mother and two younger siblings. Her father, a meth dealer, has gone AWOL & has used their home as collateral for his bail bond. Rhee goes in search of her Dad or face losing the only thing they have in the world, their home. The book is outstanding but brutal & raw. The film is at the top of my must see list. Maybe... now Mr. Woodrell, will gain the widespread following his work so richly deserves. He is also the author of a previous novel, "WOE TO LIVE ON", which was made into a film as "RIDE WITH THE DEVIL", and directed by U of I grad Ang Lee. A St. Louis premiere of Winter's Bone would be pretty sweet. Mr. Woodrell is a Missouri native.

ROAD TRIPPIN TO THE LOU

I don't have any idea if anyone even reads my stories, but if you do, and you can find just one thing on here, (a book, movie, venue, artist or musician) that makes your world a little better place, or more colorful and fun to be in...well, then I've succeeded. All I know, is for me personally, I'm always looking for those "spice of life" discoveries. This Sunday Judy & I woke up to a beautiful sunny day( for Jan.) and decided it was a great day for a road trip to the Lou.. (St. Louis). I threw in a CD of Lucinda Williams (one of those discoveries that Patty Abbott led me to) and you just couldn't help but feel free as "Can't Let Go", "I Lost It" ,"Concrete & Barbed Wire", "Right in Time" and "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" helped set the mood. Great stuff! I dare you to listen to those 1st 2 tracks & tell me that you're still depressed. Once we got in town we headed to The Moolah Theatre, to see "CRAZY HEART". Over the next 2 hours I sat on my cozy leather couch and was transported to another place and time. Jeff Bridges gave a lifetime performance as country western singer "Bad Blake". I wont ruin it for you, but I will tell you to go see it, or rent it. The soundtrack is top rate & includes songs by Waylon Jennings,Lightnin Hopkins, T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham and of course Jeff Bridges and Colin Ferrell ( by the way..they can sing). We left the Moolah and headed to a couple of my favorite bookstores, BIG SLEEP BOOKS & LEFT BANK BOOKS in the Central West End. Of course we found a couple books we had to have..we always do. Then we headed to U City and Vintage Vinyl & Subterranean Books before catching the late afternoon showing of "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" at The Tivoli Theatre. I was pretty excited about seeing this show. First, it was Heath Ledgers last film & most importantly it had Tom Waits playing Mr. Nick (The Devil). I was hoping for so much more than I got. It was pretty slow and the plot lines were a bit jumbled at times. However, I don't care if you saw the worst movie of the year, if you saw it at the Tivoli it was worth it. Finally, we stopped for a burger & hit Borders to pick up the "Crazy Heart" soundtrack before heading home. This was an unusual trip as we skipped Ted Drewes on this occasion (it was winter). As I hit the Illinois border and darkness fell, I stuck in a CD of Ramblin Jack Elliott and "Soul of a Man" and for a moment " all things were right with the world".

J.D. Salinger ( 1919-2010 )

My good friend Dave Gergani rushed to see me today with news that he had my next story, and man was he right. J. D. Salinger, author and recluse, passed away late Wednesday evening at the age of 91. Salinger, author of the classic novel "CATCHER IN THE RYE", and the creator of the immortal character Holden Caulfield. There are over 60 million copies in print. Released in 1951, it had an immediate impact both positive & negative. The novel touched on themes that would strike a nerve with teenagers (innocence & alienation, a world of fakes and adults who can't be trusted). Many disillusioned youths have felt a connection and sense of place with "Catcher". However, it was his personal life that I found so interesting. Salinger chose to live a solitary life at his home in Cornish,N.H. for over 50 years. He refused interviews, fan letters and made no public appearances. During his years of isolation it has been rumored that he has continued to write & has completed some 15 novels. Now we will wait & see. I'll be fascinated to see if any posthumously books are forthcoming for the man who brought youth rebellion & angst to the forefront. Salinger, to the end, turned down all requests to have "Catcher in the Rye" made into a motion picture. My wife and I once took a 23 day rode trip through the East Coast & the only regret I have, was we passed within 10 miles of Cornish and I didn't detour and stop. Their are several books available on J.D.Salinger, two that I've read that were very interesting were Joyce Maynard's "At Home in the World" and Margaret Salinger's (his daughter) "Dreamcatcher". Salinger is survived by his two children, a son Matthew & daughter Peggy or "Margaret". His children often did not see him in a very flattering light. So... now we wait ! As Salinger's estate is passed on (possibly to his children) will we see those hidden novels forthcoming & will they finally sell the film rights literally "over his dead body"?

The whole purpose of my site is to pass on to you (the readers), things you most likely may not have heard about. Child prodigy, KIERON WILLIAMSON is probably one of those. Kieron,a 7 yr. old from Norfolk, England, is being compared to Monet & Picasso and his most recent gallery of 16 paintings sold out in 14 minutes for over 17,000 pounds. His watercolor paintings sell for over 900 pounds each and their is a waiting list of over 680 people. So... if you have an extra 1,000 dollars handy you might want to invest in something that one day may be worth 10 to 100 times that. If I had the money I would, because he truly is that good.

Just in case you missed it.. BANKSY (one of my fav's), a world renowned graffiti artist struck at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend. I thought it was pretty cool, as did others, but not everyone in Park City, Utah was as enamored. You can go to the Sundance web site to check out the photos.

Is That Even Possible ?

I just devoured this book! Allison Hoover Bartlett's, true life tale of book thief (John Charles Gilkey) & the bibliodick ( Ken Sanders), who helped to bring him down. As a self confessed bibliophile I found this book both fascinating & intriguing. I also found it personally enlightening & thought provoking about why we collect what we do & for what purpose. Allison looks into the field of rare book collecting through virgin eyes and is transfixed by the world she finds. Ive been a collector since I was about 7 years old. It started with baseball cards and comic books. The baseball cards ( some 500,000 plus ) I still have & the comics went the way of the burn barrel via my Mother. My mother is a saint & in fact it's the only thing I have on her & I still like to remind her from time to time. During my teens I started collecting autographs & sports memorabilia. Later, I began to amass a collection of coffee cups, Pyrex dishes, magazines, documents on S.Ill. history and original historic newspapers. I still have all the aforementioned, but in later years I moved on to 3 specific areas: roughly 7,000 books ( signed & 1st edition ), 5,000+ original movie posters & 6,000 movies (VCR,DVD,Laser Discs). My passion for book collecting really amped up after reading John Dunning's, "Booked to Die". I've spent many a day on an exciting quest by myself, with my wife & mother, and with my friend Tyler Renshaw looking for the next prize to add to the collection. At times its exhilarating, at others its frustrating as theirs only so much time & money available. When you have a limited amount of both, you have to work harder & wiser than the next guy,( without stealing ) so...that's my point. It can be done without resorting to the ways Gilkey does in this book. However, I will say I definitely understand his passion for obtaining. Is it a sickness, or addiction...probably. Like Gilkey says "Every collector seems a little obsessed, a little mad". Advise for future collectors or those already bitten by the bug, remember one thing, "We do not own our collections, our collections own us".....Happy Hunting !

ROBERT B. PARKER 1932-2010

I was saddened to see this morning that Robert B. Parker, had passed away of an apparent heart attack. Mr. Parker,77, was one of the true giants in the field of mystery writing. Robert B. Parker published 65 novels to date, and had published 37 Spencer novels, of which he was most known for. Spencer was an ex-boxer, turned Boston P.I., and was the basis for the 1985 TV Series "SPENCER FOR HIRE" featuring Robert Urich. He also had another popular mystery series with Jesse Stone. It was also a basis for films starring Tom Selleck. The 9th Jesse Stone novel,"SPLIT IMAGE" will be out on Feb 23rd. Mr. Parker was on my list of authors that I most wanted to meet and I had always admired his late start ( 1st book published at age 42 ) into the world of literature. He will be sorely missed.