A Sucker for Petula Clark

Back in the 1960s I was a sucker for Petula Clark and her particular brand of music. Sweet love songs with a big London street sound delivered by an attractive blonde with an English accent. I was in love the first time I heard her on the radio, even before I saw her on Ed Sullivan. It became a life-long love affair that I'll gladly take with me to my grave.

Yeah, Petula Clark was old enough to be my mother but having a crush on somebody older back in the 1960s was normal and wholesome and even chaste. Before Petula Clark came along my biggest crushes were Annette Funicello, Haley Mills and — that's right — Doris Day and Julie Andrews. It was the early 1960s. There were still plenty of good people and even innocent people in the world.

"Pet" Clark perfectly represented the "other Sixties", the overlooked part of that decade that flowed naturally out of the 1950s. The hidden side of the 60s where people still liked the way things were and wanted them to go on forever. That part of the world that still went to school and graduated and dated and fell in love and got married and had babies because that was happiness enough. It was what a lot of people wanted. It was what I wanted.

Being a teenager who "went for" Petula Clark made me understand why girls went for Elvis. I went for Petula Clark because she made me feel good about being a boy and then a man and she always made me feel good about being alive.

1. Downtown (1965)

2. Call Me (1965)

3. I Know A Place (1965)

4. You're the One (1965)

5. Color My World (1966)

6. A Sign of the Times (1966)

7. I Couldn't Live Without Your Love (1966)

8. Don't Sleep in the Subway (1967)

9. Beautiful in The Rain (1968)

10. Kiss Me Goodbye (1968)

Thank you, YouTube.

And thanks to all the Petula Clark fans who uploaded her music to YouTube.

Blogburg 2010

Vancouver wasn't the only place to have a great big happening in 2010. This is the year I revamped my blogs — all eight of them. I'm also in the process of migrating the Jonco Bugos blog from LiveJournal, post by post. When I'm done, LiveJournal and its nonstop Flash ads that won't let you navigate the blog until they've played out will be in my rear-view mirror forever.

Thank heavens for Blogger and especially for the new "Blogger in draft". It was a lot of work redesigning eight blogs but the great-looking templates by Josh Peterson and Tina Chen were the best foundations I could have had to build upon. I used them for all but Think-A-Holic Lounge which continues to occupy no space in the physical universe. I just gave the joint a new neon sign.

So, now that I've dressed up my blogs in their spiffy new Easter outfits for 2010 (sorry, I just couldn't resist the apropos analogy) feel free to check them all out at Science Fiction for Thinkers.com /  Blogs.
Post Update: I added this animated blog gif on 12-23-10 to add some "rich content" to this anemic posting. So, the Jonco Bugos blog looks like it was already migrated and revamped on 4-1-10, but it wasn't. As you can see, literary license also applied to blogging.

Visit Science Ficion for Thinkers.com Today

My official website has a cool new feature for 2010. My little "cyber home away from home" now has one-click links on the Home page that instantly translate Science Fiction for Thinkers.com from English into Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, French and German. I had to delete the link to Chinese because some browsers wouldn't display the Simplified Chinese characters. But there is another link to an online Google Site Translator that can translate my website into many other languages, including Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

So, go ahead. Visit Science Fiction for Thinkers.com today.

Your world may never look the same.

Author's Update, 03-01-14: No good deed ever goes unpunished. In December 2013 I had to remove all the language translation links from my website except the main Google Translator with the drop-down box that lets you choose what Google is offering. The other tools either didn't work anymore or became hidden redirects to other Google content. I tried to make my content available to as many people on the planet as I could. But, I 'm a fool no more.

Author's Update, 12-26-10: I had to remove the one-click links that translate my website into Chinese, Korean and Japanese because I found out that these links would not display properly with the Internet Explorer browser. Firefox worked fine but not IE. However, you can still translate my website into Chinese, Korean and Japanese by clicking on either one of the two links that allow you to choose your desired language. Thanks.

Snow Porch

Photo ©2008 by Michael Casher

I guess I should do something about my exposed porch furniture in the wintertime. But then I wouldn't be able to take interesting snapshots like this one. Anyone care to sit down?

A Sucker for a Sixties Song

I'm not a sucker for a Sixties song very often. But every now and then...

1. Baby Don't Go - Sonny & Cher (1964)
2. California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas (1965)
3. Turn Turn Turn - The Byrds (1965)
4. Eight Miles High - The Byrds(1966)
5. For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield (1967)
6. A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procul Harum (1967)
7. Light My Fire - The Doors (1967)
8. Play With Fire - The Rolling Stones (1965)
9. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (1965)
10.Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel (1966)

Think About This...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A Sucker for a Sad Song

Once upon a time I was a very impressionable young man who listened to sad songs every once in a while for some unexplained reason that I'm unable to remember at age 58. Thank heavens for that. Anyway, here are five such songs. Why anyone in their right mind would choose to torture himself with sad-ass old music when they have classic jazz and big band on CD and even on vinyl is totally beyond me.

Yeah...right. Listen to me. An old fart with not much left to go on except memories. Thank heavens for them.

1. In My Room (The Beach Boys - 1963 Surfer Girl Album)
2. The Dangling Conversation (Simon and Garfunkel - 1966 Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Album)
3. Lonely Boy (Iron Butterfly - 1971 Ball Album)
4. Nights In White Satin (The Moody Blues - 1967 Days of Future Passed Album)
5. Knocking on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan - 1973 Soundtrack to the movie Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid)

Ghost Book

There is NO hardback version of Evermore: the Evermore Trilogy begins.

I never approved any hardback version of this novel for publication and there never will be a hardback version of this book approved by me and published by Lulu.com. Any HARDBACK version listed or offered at any online bookseller, including Amazon.com, is completely bogus, the result of an automated distribution error caused by Lulu.com.

While a hardback version was one of my 2009 Lulu projects, I did not approve it for distribution and, in fact, I "retired" it from my Lulu projects list rather than approve it because I felt that it was far too costly. How this hardback book got into distribution is a mystery I may never fathom. Only 6 x 9 U.S. Trade paperback books by Michael Casher and Jonco Bugos (my literary pen name) are written, approved and authorized by me, as far as the tangible book market is concerned.

Right now, I'm formatting all my books for Amazon's Kindle Store, which will pull me away from the word processor once again. But, like I've said before, a writer is like a shark. You either keep moving forward or you die. And, right now, forward means having a presence in the digital book market in addition to the trade paperback market.

Until next time, happy reading, no matter what your choice of genres or authors. Reading keeps your mind proactive instead of just reactive. That's the way life ought to be lived.

Science Fiction for Thinkers.com

The New Gooseport Lunch Counter

Earlier this year, I replaced the old, broken-down, corn trough at Gooseport, PA with this brand-new, state-of-the-art goose "lunch counter".

I left the front open so the little summering ducks wouldn't have to stand on their tiptoes or hop inside it in order to enjoy the daily special of cracked corn that I sling mainly for remaining Canada goose that lives here year round, summering ducks and visiting geese. The big-ass shingled roof really keeps the rain off their food and this particular restaurant never closes.

From what I can tell, this new Gooseport lunch counter was an instant success. Every feathered traveler I've encountered so far has given it a four-star rating. Me? I prefer a booth.

Invasion of the Quad Punks

Every summer, in Earth's northern hemisphere, quadra-wheeled pinhead punks erupt from the bowels of the Earth and cover the entire world with their terrible numbers...

TC

A Sucker for a Summer Song

It's been 40 years since I walked barefoot in the warm sands of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but my most memorable stroll on the sand was around midnight the following year. That was the night I kissed a beautiful girl my own age under the moonlight on the beach at Stone Harbor, New Jersey. We were both 19.

She had long, thick, black hair that fell nearly to her waist and her favorite breakfast food was plain white bread without the crust and black coffee. She'd locked herself out of her motel room earlier that evening and, while I stood on the shoulders of a friend, I removed the window screen, squeezed in through the open window and unlocked her door.

What I got for my effort was only a kiss that night. But it was a kiss on the beach in the summer moonlight. A kiss I'd never forget.

There was no music when I enjoyed my first romantic kiss with the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. Just the soft rush of the incoming tide and the gentle flapping of the cool ocean breeze against us. But, if there had been music playing, it would have been in my head and it might have been one of these four songs. Or all of them.

1. Theme Song from A Summer Place (the 1960 instrumental version by The Percy Faith Orchestra)
2. Telstar (the 1962 song by The Tornados)
3. Surfer Girl (from the Beach Boy's 1963 Surfer Girl Album -- a vinyl album I still own)
4. Your Summer Dream (Surfer Girl album)

Even today, I'm still a sucker for a beautiful, romantic, summer song.

Hopping Through Hoops

Hmmm. Hopping or Diving?

Last month Amazon.com tossed out one of my favorite hoops, the Amazon Connect hoop. I'd hopped through that hoop way back in February because it gave me a place to blog on Amazon and I never saw a hoop that didn't make me want to taking a flying leap right through it.

Last month Amazon.com replaced that Amazon Connect hoop with the Author Central hoop and, hesitating at first, I hopped through that one, too. I and Jonco Bugos, my alter ego and literary pen name, held hands like two starry-eyed youths and hopped right through, expecting Wonderland on the other side or something to that affect. What we'll probably find are more hoops to hop through as we explore that realm. We certainly hope so.

Oh, well. At least Jonco and I haven't run across a big white rabbit yet, all frantic and late for a very important date. But, if we do, we'll help him out, too. And if he holds out a great big hoop for us, we'll hop right through it without hesitation.

By the way, this is the first time Jonco and I have posted anything on a blog together. We're just determined to be ourselves and to make sure everyone knows that this author "hoop hopping" is all they'll ever get from us in the way of a dog and pony show. Nobody owns us because we're independent authors.

And, besides, we really like hopping through hoops. So we do.

Amazon's Michael Casher Page

Amazon's Jonco Bugos Page

Back to Basics

This month I begin my eighth book, now that my seventh book is finally completed and published. Book #7 is a novella called Blind Fool Running that I wrote under the pen name Jonco Bugos. As usual, Lulu.com will be publishing this novella. This book is literary fiction but it's still part of my "Science Fiction for Thinkers" collection because of the metaphysical themes involved.

Now, back to the writing desk.

Author's Note: No, "Blind Fool Running" by Jonco Bugos has nothing to do with the Jonco Bugos blog. Jonco Bugos (my alter ego) is the pen name I use for writing literary fiction and for writing the Jonco Bugos blog and the Think-A-Holic Lounge blog.