If I Had A Hammer

If I had a hammer, this is the warning I'd hammer out. If I had a good lawyer (or a million bucks), I'd require every website that offers my books to place this warning on that particular detail page. The closest I ever came to writing anything that could even remotely be construed as a paranormal romance is Little Green Man from Mars, the sixth full-length science fiction thriller I wrote back in 2006.

In Little Green Man from Mars, the protagonist falls in love with a woman who is from the afterlife. But — and this is a very big but — she's a human being. An "ascended" human being from another planet but a human being nonetheless. She's not a ghost or a ghoul or — gimme a break — a goddamn vampire. Plus, their brief romance is a minor element in that story, way down the list from the hard science fiction elements, the biblical "revelation prophecy", the sci-fi twist I gave that prophecy, the other religious, historical and philosophical themes, and the action sequences that play out in the eternal battle between good and evil. That's the real story.

Yeah, if I had a hammer.

A Sucker for Disco

Disco couldn't begin to touch the live elegance and class of big band music from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, but its debut in the 1970s gave me a welcome break from 1970's rock music, which I found impossible to dance to. My body felt nothing when I heard rock music. The few rock songs I did like were from the 1960s and they were "head food" for me. Not dance music.

Anyway, Baby Boomer Boy and I already posted our official slant on disco music back in August 2007 when "we" wrote Disco's Fifteen Minutes for another blog of mine. So, I won't go into too many details here except to reiterate that Disco, unlike a lot of rock music that came before it and after it, was a celebration of life, not an angry denunciation of it.

Additionally, disco music also put a lot of women back into dresses again and, damn, if they didn't look good on the dance floor. People dressed up instead of down. Women showed a little cleavage and a lot of leg. All the more reason to want to dance. And, speaking of dancing, I couldn't dance worth a damn even though I loved the music. I looked like somebody who had to go to the bathroom really bad but who had no clue which way the restroom was. But I had fun anyway and that was the whole point.

Finally, I think the most positive thing about Disco is that it reminded men and women that there were a lot of wonderful, exciting differences between men and women, instead of being brainwashed by movies and television sitcoms of that era that men and women were somehow, unimaginably, interchangeable.

Here, then, are 25 songs that I feel represent the true spirit of Disco. These songs are in no particular order. Your opinions may vary about what songs best represent the Disco era and that's your perfect right. But this my blog, not yours.

Red numbers indicate my top ten personal favorites for representing what Disco meant to me. That doesn't mean I don't like the other 15 songs. I personally picked all 25 out of over 100 other Disco songs. In my opinion, they're all great. Headphones recommended.

1. Get Down Tonight - K.C. and the Sunshine Band - 1975 1

2. Night Fever - Bee Gees - 1977 5
3. Do the Hustle - Van McCoy - 1975 4
4. Low Down - Boz Scags - 1977
5. Disco Inferno - The Trammps - 1976
6. Good Times - Chic - 1979 7
7. Contact - Edwin Starr - 1978
8. Ladies Night - Kool and the Gang - 1979
9. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty - K. C. and the Sunshine Band - 1976 2
10. Heart of Glass - Blondie - 1978
11. That's the Way (I Like It) - K. C. and the Sunshine Band - 1975
12. I Feel Love - Donna Summer - 1977
13. Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston - 1976
14. Born to Be Alive - Patrick Hernandez - 1979 10
15. More, More, More - Andrea True Connection - 1976
16. Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel - Tavares - 1976
17. Boogie Oogie Oogie - A Taste of Honey - 1978
18. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) - Sylvester 1978
19. You Should Be Dancing - Bee Gees - 1977 3
20. TSOP - MFSB featuring The Three Degrees - 1974
21. Shame - Evelyn Champagne King - 1978 9
22. Don't Stop Till You Get Enough - Michael Jackson - 1979
23. Let's All Chant - Michael Zager Band - 1978
24. Bad Girls - Donna Summer - 1978
25. Turn the Beat Around - Vicki Sue Robinson - 1976

Thank you, YouTube and YouTube members, for keeping Disco alive.

Author's Note: I selected these YouTube links for sound quality and not for video quality. I may have missed the best presentation, here and there, but I was only willing to give this posting the two days it took me to research, write, link to and post it. And then to test the links. I'll try to monitor these links and relink any ones that go dead over time (links repaired on 9-29-11). As usual, I advise viewers to ignore the comments by YouTube users. A lot of them have no respect for others or for moral decency on a public forum. Thanks for reading and watching.

The Adventure Can Be Yours

Visit Science Fiction for Thinkers.com today.

Your world may never look the same.

This post was update on 1-27-13 to replace a video that no longer exists.

They Were Right: Earth is Hell

"The hell with this. I'm going home."

"Science Fiction for Thinkers" Unmasked

The World Wide Web seems to be pointing people away from real science fiction these days. That's mostly due to the influence of Hollywood and Madison Avenue. And that's unfortunate because Michael Casher's unique blend of hard science fiction, action/adventure, humor and romance is a new and often astonishing sci-fi experience you won't want to miss out on.

So, what's hard science fiction? Before we tell you that, we'll you what it's NOT. It's not vampires and dragons and monsters and mutants. That's horror. And it's not space opera, intergalactic warlords or space erotica, which has often been mistaken for real science fiction. That's fantasy and smut. Real science fiction is fiction that has some kind of "science" in it, emerging or speculative or theoretical science.

What makes science fiction "hard" is mostly the high-tech element. Futuristic hardware, newfangled gadgets, exotic gizmos, techno-wizardry and all that fun electronic, cosmic speculative science. But it's also the scientific concepts and theories that go along with all that gadgetry. That's what makes hard science fiction seem so believable.

And, if you're wondering what "crossover" science fiction is, we'll spill the beans about that right now. That's genre sci-fi that contains some elements of another genre. Michael Casher's sci-fi combines science fiction, action/adventure, humor and even romance, but it reads like mainstream. You get real — but readable — science fiction, instead of the overrated and overdone sci-fi fantasy that's front loaded with confusing techno-speak, smut and creepy, dark themes.

So, you can forget about castles and capes and swords and unicorns and twisted religious history, too. That's fantasy, which is fodder for moviegoers and gamers and aftermarket pablum for kids with bottomless pocketbooks. Not only is it not science fiction, that kind of tripe is way overdone, to the point of saturation, in fact.

Science Fiction for Thinkers is science fiction for "grownups", adults who aren't so obsessed with sex, violence, swords, Satan, inscrutable ancient scrolls, romantic fantasies and flying waffle irons that they forget how to think for themselves. Remember the 90's phrase, "think out of the box"? That's the kind of readers we're looking for. People who are hungry for adventure, new knowledge and cutting-edge concepts about life, time & space and death.

Michael Casher, Science Fiction for Thinkers and Science Fiction for Thinkers.com invite you to "read out of the box". Your world may never look the same.

Why Me?

╥

Good-bye, Goodreads, and Good Riddance

Today I deleted my account and my affiliation with Goodreads because of book links to erotica (a polite word for smut) on my profile page. My god, isn't there a decent place left on the World Wide Web anymore?

I removed Goodreads from the Science Fiction for Thinkers page at Facebook and undid the the "Michael Casher at Goodreads" links from my Blogger blogs' sidebars and from the sidebar of my Lulu storefront. As I discover more forgotten links that connect me to Goodreads and vice-versa I'll sever them as well.

People who dare to connect me to erotica of any kind, hate, illegal pharmaceuticals, pornography, religion, or any other kind of counter-evolutionary nonsense will soon find out that they've taken the bull by the horns. If you've always possessed a certain civic-minded tolerance for other people's lifestyles and beliefs, like I have, rat-bastard scoundrels will come out of the woordwork in droves to take advantage of you. Well, I've had it.

The biped creatures on this planet can damn well do as they please. That's what freedom is all about. But don't even think about linking me to the above topics. If you do, you will become my enemy for life. That's a promise and that's also my goddamn right. I'm living proof that if you push a good guy too far, you'll see another side of him you'll wish you hadn't.

That's it, then. And, if you don't like it, I couldn't give a rat's ass. In that case, just go away and make me a happier man.

Author's Note: Shortly after I posted this on Thinker's Corner I closed out my Facebook account, as well.

Slug Fest

Hmmm. Slugs have apparently infested FeedBurner because my blogs are riddled with them. I doubt if the hardware store has any feed-slug spray but I'll check it out later. In the meantime... time to reconnoiter.

Oh, yeah. For those of you who have no clue what a blog slug is (or a blog feed slug, which is a bottom-feeder without a home), just click on the pic.

Don't like this posting? Then go away and infest someone else's blog. It's no skin off my ass.

Life Unmasked

"Fiction is real life without its mask." That's been my signature line since 2004. What mask am I talking about? All the masks we wear, all the masks you wear, all the masks they wear. The big mask.

Power over others is upheld throughout the universe by lies. Without lies and deception, we would all be free and equal. Be a thinker and think about that.

Tally-ho!

Paperback and Kindle editions of all my books are now available through Amazon.co.uk, which is the United Kingdom version of Amazon. Remember, if you don't own a Kindle wireless reading device you can still buy and read my Kindle editions, using the FREE Kindle app for Android, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac. Here are two links to my books at Amazon.co.uk:

The complete listing for my books (includes my novella by Jonco Bugos)

The Michael Casher Author Page at Amazon.co.uk

Tally-ho!

Behind The Mask

Do I ever think about extraterrestrials in real life? You bet I do. I think about them all the time. But the Hollywood cutie-pie and harmless versions (like this one) never cross my mind because I really doubt if they exist. What's really out there is less comical and more diabolical. I think about and write about what might go on behind the mask of real, everyday life and what probably does.

I write about extraterrestrials all the time, too. In my blogs I often use them to deliver comedy and light-hearted entertainment (click on pic for example) but in my sci-fi thrillers I do a lot more. In my novels I show a more sinister side of the extraterrestrial phenomenon. A sample of otherworldy power and unbridled ambition that I actually tasted in real life, as a boy. That's right, I'm talking about extraterrestrial influences in my life, including abduction and medical experimentation. But the extraterrestrial interference that bothers me the most is the manipulation of life events for social and biological experimentation. You got it. The big picture.

That's right. I write about Earth as one of the biggest experimental laboratories in the Milky Way Galaxy. Maybe the biggest. And right again, based not only on my own childhood experiences, but on my continued observations of not only my own life but life on Earth in general. It's not easy to live your life while observing it at the same time.

But that's what I do. And I've been doing it all my life.

A Sucker for a Beach Boys Summer

When I graduated from high school way back in 1969 what I wanted more than anything was to be a beach boy for the entire summer. Southern California would have been a great place to do that and I used to daydream about working in a surfboard store and surfing and having this beach bunny girlfriend and the whole nine yards.

What I got instead was a few weeks in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a job as a bus boy and dishwasher and a fickle girlfriend who liked older guys who had flashy cars, money to burn and more interesting jobs. But at least I had my big dreams and my favorite beach boy music.

I've been way too old for wanting to be a beach boy for more years than I care to remember but, when I think of the great summer sounds of The Beach Boys, I still think about the Summer of '69 and how it could have been.

Here are 14 of my favorite songs by The Beach Boys.
The red numbers indicate my six favorites:

California Girls

Dance, Dance, Dance 2

Don't Worry Baby 1

Do You Wanna Dance?

Fun, Fun, Fun 6

Hawaii

Help Me, Rhonda

I Get Around 4

Little Deuce Coupe

Sloop John B

Surfer Girl 3

Surfin' USA

Wouldn't It Be Nice

Your Summer Dream 5

"Kindling" for your Summer Campfire

All my books are available through Amazon's Kindle Store. My full-length science fiction novels are only $3.99 each while the novella Blind Fool Running and my book of blogs, The Four Bloggers of the Apocalypse, are a mere $2.99 each. These e-Books can be purchased through Amazon's Kindle Store and read on Kindle and the Kindle application for Android, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac and Windows Phone.

Now that's an e-Book deal everybody can live with. Click on the image below for books by me in the Amazon Kindle Store.

post updated 2-16-13