Other Random Posts

A Gunsmoke Treasure Trove

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Gunsmoke 4
I stumbled on this fantastic link today — it will lead you to all 480  GUNSMOKE radio shows in absolutely pristine listening condition (as well as the two pilots). Not only that, but there's also tons of fantastic extra material…like PDFs of all the early GUNSMOKE books, dozens of GUNSMOKE articles & interviews, complete rehearsals of GUNSMOKE episodes, the first TV episode, and a five-hour radio documentary on the making of GUNSMOKE featuring interviews with all the key writers, producers, composers and actors…and much much more. This is a treasure trove of stuff for GUNSMOKE fans…and best of all, it's free!  

Free Mystery Scene

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For next few days, the fine folks at Mystery Scene are offering to send out sample copies of their excellent magazine to anyone who wants one absolutely free. All you have to do is visit their website and request a copy — there are no strings attached. Be sure to tell'em that Lee sent you.

This and That

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I've been too busy to post the last couple of days. Mostly, I've been plugging away on my latest MONK book. I've taken some time out, though. Yesterday, I watched my daughter Maddie earn her black belt in Tae Kwon Do (yahoo!) and today I attended the MWA-SoCal Christmas party at the Jonathan Club in Santa Monica. While munching on tacos and fajitas, I caught up on the latest happenings with authors Paul Levine, Christa Faust, Les Klinger, and Matt Witten, among many others. The big talk around the tables was the frightening situation for writers in TV and in publishing, the dire circumstances of Borders, and NBC's decision to stop producing scripted programs at 10 p.m on weeknights. Nobody had answers, of course, but there were plenty of worries to share. It's a scary time to be a writer. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. There were plenty of funny anecdotes swapped back-and-forth, stories about new novels and projects people were working on, and the usual gossiping. 

Rejected Bond Theme Songs

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Over the years, a number of major artists have recorded Bond themes that were rejected by the producers. You can find out about many of these “lost” songs in the excellent BBC documentary JAMES BOND’S GREATEST HITS.
Here are a few of the rejected Bond theme songs, starting below with Johnny Cash’s rejected THUNDERBALL theme played against the THUNDERBALL main title sequence:



Here is Alice Cooper’s rejected theme for THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. He’s interviewed on the “James Bond’s Greatest Hits” documentary and is pretty pissed off that his theme was tossed in favor of Lulu’s awful theme:



Here is Dionne Warwick’s MR. KISS KISS BANG BANG, another rejected THUNDERBALL main title theme. Shirley Bassey also recorded a version of it. Both versions are available on the Best of James Bond CD collection:



Here is Julie Roger’s rejected theme for YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, which is also available on the Best of James Bond CD collection. She’s interviewed on the “James Bond’s Greatest Hits” documentary and talks about her disappointment at being passed over:



Here is Blondie’s rejected theme to FOR YOUR EYES ONLY:


Here is St. Etienne’s rejected theme for TOMORROW NEVER DIES. She’s also interviewed in the documentary and isn’t a fan of Sheryl Crow’s theme:


Here’s Pulp’s rejected theme for TOMORROW NEVER DIES (which they retitled “Tomorrow Never Lies” for their album). They’re also interviewed in the documentary.



Here is Phyllis Hyman’s rejected theme for NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Hyman isn’t interviewed but Lani Hall and Herb Alpert, who did the final theme, do appear and admit that their winning song wasn’t very good.

The name is Geek, Lee Geek

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I’m sitting in the Habit burger joint after seeing the first showing of the new Bond film. I am order #007…how’s that for fate?

I don’t see why the critics have been so hard on this movie…I liked it. I just wish there was more of the Bond theme and less frenetic cutting of the action sequences.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Beached 2

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PA230023 I'm here in Myrtle Beach. I almost missed my flight — a brush fire shutdown the 405 freeway and I had to go around it using surface streets. I was one of the last people to get on board my plane. Other than that, it was  an uneventful voyage. Tonight, I took a long walk on the beach and pigged out at a local fried fish place with my buddy James O. Born (who told me about his new scifi novel, written as "James O'Neill")  and some of the other attendees. Tomorrow morning, the conference starts at 8 so I am off to bed. Night night!