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hardy boy books

Posted by 16 Dec 2009

OK, I couldn’t leave well enough alone.

In digging up the stuff from yesterday, I love the fact that Wikipedia cites “homoromance” as a theme for the Hardy Boy books in the main description.* (Emphasis mine; the other points are also pretty funny.)

Critics have offered many explanations for the characters’ longevity, suggesting variously that the Hardy Boys embody simple wish-fulfillment, American ideals of masculinity, American ideals of white masculinity, a paradoxically powerful but inept father, homoromance, and the possibility of the triumph of good over evil.

There were 190 books in the original series, but these all went through a bunch of revisions as they got updated over the years.

My favorite five:

  1. While the Clock Ticket (number 11)
  2. The Secret of the Old Mill (number 3)

OK, I couldn’t come up with 5 that I actually recall. How about the top 10 stupidest titles instead? (These are all real titles.)

  1. Warehouse Rumble
    This is how you convince me that the series isn’t homoerotic? All I can think of is the Pit Fighter videogame:
    ATARI_-_PIT-FIGHTER_1990.jpg
  2. Panic on Gull Island
    Really? Gull Island? Panic? This sounds like the poor man’s version of “The Birds.” Of course, there is the very real chance that that’s exactly what it is.
  3. Attack of the Video Villians
    “You know what kids today love? Video games!”
    “Great! I want the draft on my desk by Monday!”
  4. Three-Ring Terror
    High school emo at its best. The Hardy Boys solve the case of the missing Trapper Keeper.
  5. The Billion Dollar Ransom
    Really? A billion dollars? And the Hardy Boys are on the case? This all sounds entirely reasonable and realistic.
  6. Rock n Roll Renegades
    Guest starring Rage Against the Machine. Because if there is one other thing kids love (you know, other than video games), it’s Rock n Roll.
  7. Trouble In Warp Space
    This either takes place in an amusement park or on a space ship. Either way, it sounds like the recipe for some crappy fiction.
  8. Farming Fear
    This one sounds so stupid I can’t even make a joke about it.
  9. The Baseball Card Conspiracy
    Encyclopedia Brown called. He wants his mystery back.
  10. Danger in the Fourth Dimension
    You know, as opposed to all the other Hardy Boys cases that didn’t involve the element of time.

* When I wrote for the Pillory in college, I wrote a whole faux Hardy Boys story that was nothing but a homoromance. I’ll post it soon.

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hardy boys & nancy drew

Posted by 15 Dec 2009

Guess what I just learned? That the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew have ended as book series. The Hardy Boys in 2005, Nancy Drew in 2003. I’m sure this isn’t rocking your world, but I’m surprised it wasn’t bigger news. (For crying outloud, the Hardy Boys have been around since 1927, Nancy Drew since 1930).

From Wikipedia:

The original Hardy Boys Mystery Stories series ended in 2005. A new series, Undercover Brothers, was launched the same year, featuring updated versions of the characters who narrate their adventures in the first person.

Undercover Brothers? Are you kidding me? That movie came out in 2002. They have renamed the Hardy Boys series after the crappy Eddie Griffen movie. At least the new title of the Nancy Drew books is “Girl Detective” which at least isn’t ripped off from something you want no association with.

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surprise! you’re in print

Posted by 22 Sep 2009

Long story in four sentences:
I did an internship as part of my Master’s with Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell using MyLifeBits and the Sensecam, back in 2004. It didn’t go as far as I would have liked because I was hospitalized for half the semester and simply wasn’t able to give it my all. The work I did with them combined with my thesis led to me presenting a paper at CARPE 2005 in Singapore. Their new book came out this week, called Total Recall: How the e-memory revolution will change everything.

I just got the book in the mail today; imagine my great delight to see my name in the acknowledgments! I’m on the shortlist (16 people) for MyLifeBits/CARPE people that also includes one of my thesis advisors, Steve Drucker. Big ups to them for the book and for the shoutout. I can’t wait to read this; I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks.

I’m seeing them speak tomorrow night in Mountain View, if anyone else will be there or is interested. And the book looks interesting from my glances through it, though a little basic if you’ve spent a good amount of time with the subject of recording everything you see.

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where the sidewalk ends

Posted by 19 May 2009

Last night I got coffee with a friend down at Dana Street in Mountain View. And as we walked around, there were a couple of books lying out on the sidewalk. And one of them? “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”

And inside? An inscription reading: “9th Birthday Present, January 1992, Amber [last name] If found call [telephone number]”

Now, there is no area code on the number. It was 17 years ago, which would make Amber 26 now. And looking on Facebook, there are 5 potential Ambers, none of them are in California, one isn’t even in the country.

So I don’t think there is much I can do — I suppose I could send FB messages to these people, asking if I have their copy of “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” It seems a little weird.

At the same time, this is such a…critical book to childhood, I can’t imagine why someone’s copy was lying on the sidewalk at 10pm on a Tuesday night.

Thoughts? What should I do?

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not really a state of the union

Posted by 15 Apr 2009

i’ve been quiet, very very quiet, for a few weeks. it’s for a number of factors and reasons. you can probably guess most of them. this post isn’t about 80% of them. it’s about the 20% that i’ve been heads down on since about feb, working heads down on.

80,155.

the words in my new novel. that’s done. as of today. (at least as a draft that i’m willing to share with people. it’s what i want it to be. we will see if it’s what i need it to be once i get some other eyes on it.)

for those of you keeping score, it’s #3. #2 got shoved into a drawer. which is for the best. it’ll be back, but it needs some time to simmer. this one, though, this one is different. in every way.

i’m not even ready to give you the title, which is sad to me. i want to share, but i’m not there. soon.

i started this one back in 2005. four years. fours years i’ve lived with these two characters in various ways. four years i have looked at these three days of their lives and thought about them. it’s almost more thought than i’ve given to any of the days i have lived myself.

next week, ill be starting #4. no rest for the wicked. it’ll be fast, comparatively. i like it; it’s been in my head for almost as long as this one, but lives as a bunch of notes at the moment.

wow. i’m kinda amazed at myself. they say most people have a novel in them. that one, for me, was ‘stories for boys’ but i’ve got more. they keep coming. i can’t write as fast as i can imagine. it feels awesome.

i can’t wait to share this one with you.

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The Recently Deflowered Girl

Posted by 9 Jan 2009

A 1965 book, illustrated by Edward Gorey, titled The Recently Deflowered Girl. This is literally the best thing I have seen/read in weeks. What page is your favorite?

Update: a quick scan of abebooks.com shows that this can be had for the cheap price of about 75 bucks. for the cheapest version; you can spend all the way up to about 450 on it.

Update 2: Here is a pdf of the images (5.5 meg though), along with a zip file of them (5.1 meg). You know, just in case you want to save them for re-reading later.

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‘life passes like a sigh around me’

Posted by 25 Dec 2008

oh, christmas.  how it feels like anything but.  sandwiched in between my hard-of-hearing grandfather, who is spending the first christmas in seventy-four years without my grandmother, and my father, whose quirks and behavior have caused both my sister and i to recently hypothesize about him possibly being aspergerian.

it’s weird and sort of laid back on this holiday trip.  i’ve been reading a lot and playing a lot on my laptop, having been blessed with the christmas miracle of poachable wi-fi from a generous -or more likely unknowing- frankenmuth neighbor.  i finished the last twilight book with some sadness but am now pleasantly ensconced in the hour i first believed.  i love the feeling of being comfortably settled in the middle of a good book – it’s dependable and there whenever i want it.

when it’s not really quiet around here it’s ridiculously painful.  my grandpa, in his deafened state, has also grown picky of late – in food, of action…  he reamed me the first night we were here for my lack of capitalization of his name, said that i could do what i wanted to with my own but that he wanted a big E and a big H.  he spends hours a day playing sudoku, laying on his bed, and i swear sometimes i can hear his mind whirring busily.

i have such a difficult time listening to my father talk to him.  he raises his voice and when my grandpa still can’t hear him, he shouts at him – as if the irritation and agitation are something he can’t hear, either.  no amount of persuasion causes him to pause before one of his screamed tirades. he just can’t see what is wrong.

i miss todd.  this is our third christmas together, yet not actually together as 600 miles separates us again.  i find myself still reluctant to do christmas with his family, although we all gather together for easter and thanksgiving.  i think it’s still ties to my mother.  even if christmas current is nothing like the christmases with her, it is still tied to her memory.  as if doing something with todd’s family would cut one last tie.  things with him are still off, and i’m not sure i know what to do anymore.

my youth pastor and i found each other on facebook.  i always liked him a lot and thought he was pretty cool.  i remember thinking how cool it was that a pastor had once been a bartender and still enjoyed margaritas.  he sent me a message that asked, “So…where did I go wrong that you list your religion as: “confused”???”   i wish i had an answer.

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