How come nobody ever told me about this?!
Anyway…
Better late than ever – I found out about this record just last night, and now I need to get me a copy.
Like, now.
I mean, a collection of original swing songs, by a British band, inspired by classic pulp themes and stories?
You must be kidding.
For starters, here’s a short featurette about the Jive Aces’ Amazing Adventures.
Which sounds exactly like my cup of musical tea.
Enjoy!
Considering I’m writing a book about the sea, and ships, and privateering, it seems fitting to put up something in tune.
The CSS Alabama was a British-built Confederate privateer that for two years, during the American Civil War, harassed and raided Union ships in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.
It was a royal pain in the neck, in other words.
It was finally sank in sight of Cherbourg, in 1864 – and it had never once touched a Confederate port.
Strange story.
They made a song about it.
And here’s the great rendition by the extraordinary British folk band, Bellowhead.
My earlier post about Fortunino Matània’s art got a very good response. so I thought… why not a gallery?
Enjoy!
(click on any image to enlarge)
Underwater action.
That’s what’s happening in my novel as I’m finally in sight of the finish line, and that’s what Irwin Allen was specialized in.
So here’s as a good luck token for my story, a pilot for a series called City Beneath the Sea, that sadly never happened.
It’s garish, somewhat preposterous and strongly influenced by classic Star Trek.
And yet, it’s pretty fun1.
Enjoy!
The Pre-Code Blogathon is an online event hosted by the blogs pre-code.com and Shadows and Satin – a number of blogs are taking part, each one posting about a pre-Code movie or related topic.
Karavansara is taking part in this game by looking back (again) at that weird Cecil B. DeMille extravaganza – Madam Satan.
Click on the banner for a full list of the blogs participating in the event
But first, a quick recap about the Code – the Hays Code was enforced in the 1930s, as a response to the wild, unchecked and scandal-ridden image Hollywood had acquired in the 1920s.
Will H. Hays, the czar of all the rushes had been appointed guardian of Hollywoodland’s morality, and the guidelines – very strict guidelines – that his office enforced on behalf of the production companies themselves: the movie moguls had in fact decided that a central censorship system was probably better than the previous practice of state-by-state censorship regulations.
But between the founding of the Hays Office and the actual application of the rules, there was a brief time in which deregulation was (supposedly) absolute – the Pre-Code era.
When Hollywood was wild – and when Cecil B. DeMille was asked by Louis B. Mayer to do a musical, and he produced a movie called Madam Satan.
Nothing clever here today, only a camel and a motorbike.
Well, ok, a camel on a motorbike.
Yesterday was Johann Sebastian Bach‘s birthday – and it’s always good to have some good music on a Sunday morning – so here’s SincroniCity doing their wonderful take on J.S. Bach’s Double Violin Concerto.
Enjoy!
Karavansara 