Bart King's Blog, page 228

Sunday!

THERE is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry. 

This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!
                      —Emily Dickinson

Photo by Mark Feenstra. 

A "Boy on a Dolphin" will change your life.

When thinking of the great works of nautical fiction, two
books come to mind: MOBY DICK and this fine volume:






Hey, why is the posh gent to the right looking so skeptical . . . does he think the boy is actually riding a porpoise? (BTW, there's a reason Sophia Loren is on the the cover.)

Who stole Sammy Hagar's cape?

As you may know, I try to only read the finest works of
literature and nonfiction. And I just wrapped up Sammy Hagar's memoir, Red: My
Uncensored Life in Rock. The part that stands out most isn't about Van Halen. It was this story from Hagar's earliest days as a
musician:

"My first band never played a gig, but we had capes . . .
[we bought] the fabric and talked one of the guys' mothers into making
them—black velvet, red lining, Dracula collars. We wore them around town . . .
We thought we were really cool. We decided we would wear them to a dance in
Riverside, but we were too young to drive. We hitchhiked. Nobody was going to
pick us up wearing those capes, so we rolled them up and put them on again when
we got to the dance. Only they wouldn't let us wear the capes inside the dance,
so we rolled them up again and stashed them outside in the bushes. When we came
out, they were gone. Somebody stole them. My mother thought the whole thing was
hilarious.
 "Years later, when my mom was interviewed for the local
paper about me, she told them, 'Oh, his first band. They had capes.'"

My Clever Idea for Saving a Bookshop

From the Telegraph

If you ever saw the film "Notting Hill," (starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant) then you've seen the
bookstore called The Travel Bookshop. It's in danger of closing, so a poet
named Olivia Cole has enlisted a group of writers and celebrities to work at the shop for free . . . thus saving it!









I love this idea, and it might just work. However, if I can
make a suggestion, it's important for The Travel Bookshop to stock the right
titles. These should be books that appeal to EVERYONE, not just travel-minded
people. Ooh, here's the perfect example of what I'm talking about:


Via Awful Library Books

I have lots of relatives who live near Sacramento.

I hope they're all safe!

What DO bears do in the woods?

Apparently, the bears arm themselves!



Admittedly, I haven't read this novel. But I enjoyed Gordon R. Dickson's work years ago, so my guess is that The Right to Arm Bears is pretty funny.

"I cannot live without books." —Thomas Jefferson

Now this is just sad.







From a closed Borders bookstore. (Photo by Jessers25.)

"I cannot live without books." Thomas Jefferson

From a closed Borders bookstore. (Photo by Jessers25.)

Archie meets KISS?

Consider my mind blown. Ooh, there's an alternate cover!









Well THAT'S a bit more sinister! (Via.)

Ed Gombert, we salute you!

In 1986, Disney big-shots made a marketing decision. They changed the title of an upcoming movie about mice from Basil of Baker Street to The Great
Mouse Detective . So an animator who worked on the film named Ed Gombert wrote a
fake memo renaming Disney's back catalog of movies in a similarly lame
style. For example, 101 Dalmatians becomes Puppies Taken Away. Brilliant!




 How many films can you identify? (Via.)