#alan is a cowboy killer

[thatdude01181]

The singer part 2 Thanksgiving-JO

The plane landed at Orlando international airport at 4 am, Y/n and Jenna, hand in hand, walked through security, grabbed their bags from baggage claim and made it to the entrance as they saw Y/n's mom Cassandra waiting for them.

"My boy" she said as she pulled him into a hug, which was strong for her height of 5'4. He hugged her back picking her up off the ground.

"Hey momma" he said

Jenna smiled and watched as the two in front of her made small talk before taking notice of her.

"Oh I'm sorry, mom this is Jenna my girlfriend, sweet heart this is my mom Cassandra, but you can call her mom, everyone does."

"Hi it's nice to meet you" she said

"You too sweetie, now come on, we've got a long drive a head of us" she said as Y/n and Jenna carried their bags to Cassandras van. The ride took a few hours, but Jenna enjoyed watching the sun rise.

Pulling into the driveway, Y/n jumped out of the van, jostling the van enough to wake Jenna up.

"Sorry darlin'" he said as she stood and exited the van. The house that stood in front of them was a large 5 bedroom 4 bath, with enough land to have cattle and for several kids to play on.

"It's fine babe" she said as he grabbed their bags.

"Ryan we're home" Cassandra said as she opened the door. Said person came down stairs and pull Y/n into a hug.

"Hey baby brother" said the man now attempting to noogie Y/n, who was successful in fighting him off.

"Jenna this is my oldest brother Ryan, Ryan this is Jenna" he said as Jenna shook his hand.

" it's nice to meet you" she said.

"Likewise, Y/n tells us youre this famous actress" he says as they walk into the emasculate living room.

"Yeah, I'm in Netflix's Wednesday, the baby sitter killer queen, and I'm in scream 5 and 6" she said as his eyes widened.

Just then the door opened and in walked a small girl around Cassandras height with three dogs.

"Is he here yet" came the voice of the girl

"I don't know, why don't you come find out" Ryan called.

Around the corner came a woman who was the spitting image of her mother, but with longer hair. She immediately hugged Y/n.

"Hey big bro" she said

"Hey little sis, Jenna this is my sister Sarah, sis this is Jenna".

"I'm a huge fan, I loved you in scream 6" she said fan girling.

"Awwe thank you"

Later that night...

Y/n hopped out of his dad's truck that Cassandra gave him the keys to as he ran around to open Jenna's door.

"Such a gentle man" she said as she took his outstretched hand and stepped down to the ground below.

He looped his arm and she took it, wrapping her arm around it.

(she wore what she's wearing in the cover image you wore an all black outfit with matching cowboy hat)

"What is this place?" Jenna asked,being raised in Coachella Jenna didn't really experience community get together a as a kid.

"Its the rec hall, every weekend the town comes together and just celebrates life and family, and with tomorrow bein' Thanksgiving, we celebrate tonight by dancin' and bein with friends and family, so we can stuff ourselves silly the next day."

They walked ina and the place was popping off, there was music, drinks, and people were dancing. At one point good time by Alan Jackson came on.

(play good time, by Alan Jackson)

Y/n pulled Jenna towards the dance floor and taught her how to line dance, which was a challenge to be sure, but he pulled it off. She was dancing along with him, matching the beat.

The song ended and Jenna was smiling, a true smile, something Y/n hadn't seen since they started dating maybe this vacation was just what she needed.

As the other inhabitants danced they sat at a near by table and held each other close. She looked into his eyes. He was truly happy, whether it was that he was home or that he was with her she couldn't say, but she knows that he makes her happy.

As she was about to say something a girl in a rather short skirt with boots on walks towards them.

"Hi Y/n" she says

"Hi Candice" he says looking uncomfortable

She began talking to him, completely ignoring the fact that Jenna was there. Jenna put up with her as long as she could until she touched Y/n his arm.

This sent Jenna over the edge.

"Alright, that's enough, can't you see that he's uncomfortable" she said stepping in between Y/n and Candice.

"And who the hell do you think you are?" Candice asked.

"I'm his girlfriend" she said as Y/n stepped in between them.

"Yeah right, like he would date a stick like you" this enraged Y/n.

"Candice that's enough, I was fine with you talking to me, but you've obviously upset my girlfriend, so I'm gonna have to ask you to leave"

"Y/n, you can't be serious, as a fuckin heart attack, now get out" he said as security escorted her out.

He looked to Jenna as he knew she was angry. He walked up to her, placing his hand on her neck.

"You know that I love you right?" He said in his deep Southern accent as she nodded.

"I just can't with people like that, she could clearly tell that you are with me, holding my hand, and she still did that"

He pulled her closer as one of the employees came to check on them.

"Everything alright over here Mr.L/n" he asked

"Yeah Chuck we're good, could you set up the mic and two chairs with my guitar I'm about to go on stage with this pretty little thing here." He said gaining the attention on the shorter girl in his grasp.

"Can do" he said running back stage.

After about half an hour he and Jenna had both taken the stage and the crowd cheered. He grabbed his guitar and played a few chords as Jenna sat next to him, with him staring at her.

"This song is dedicated to someone very important to me"

(play in case you didn't know by Brett Young)

Jenna had began to tear up at the thought that you were singing for her, the crowd had began to slow dance as the song began, Jenna smiled swaying to the song as small tears streamed down her face.

After the song ended, she pulled him into a deep passionate kiss, letting him know just how much she loved him. They spent a bit more time at the rec center before they decided to head back to his mom's house.

The next day he woke early to help his mom with things, tending to the cattle, collecting eggs other things to do around the farm. Jenna woke to the smell of bacon eggs and sausage. She walked down to the kitchen to see Y/n walking in after completing the mornings work, seeing her he smiled and enveloped her in a hug, planting a kiss on her lips.

"Mornin' darlin'" he said

"Morning, what's for breakfast?"

"Oh, Y/n said that you were pescatarian, so I just made you eggs" Cassandra said "if you would like, I'm making bacon and there's sausage links on the plate over there.

She looked at the sausage links on the plate and took some, deciding to sacrifice her pescatarian life style.

"Do you have any toast?" She asked.

"In the toaster sweetie" Cassandra said

Jenna took some toast and began eating. She savored the flavor of each part of the meal.

The living room TV was playing the parade, it was a tradition that his dad started when he was young, every year they would start cooking food while the parade played on the TV.

"Is there anything I can help with Cassandra?" She asked

"Get me the hand mixer please" she said pointing to the device on the counter. Grabbing it, Jenna handed it to Cassandra and began helping cook thanksgiving dinner as Sarah walked in.

The door opened to reveal an elderly couple, Jenna stared confused until Y/n walked up to them and hugged them.

"Oh goodness is that my Y/n" the woman said

"Hi Mema, where's pop" he asked

"He's getting my gizzard stuffing and gravy out of the truck" she said patting him on the shoulder. She headed into the kitchen and started helping until she noticed Jenna.

"Hi I don't believe we've met yet, I'm Jodie, Y/n's grandma, you must be Jenna." She said to which Jenna nodded and went to shake her hand, to which Jodie pulled her into a hug.

"Sorry I'm a hugger, and you can call me Mema" she said releasing the girl. Y/n walked in with an elderly man, treys in hand.

"I told you I got it son" he said.

"And I told you that mom nor Mema would let me live if I didn't help." He looked at Jenna a smile spread across her face "I see you've already met Mema, she's a hugger"

"So I've seen" she replied as man known as pop walked past.

"Scott go introduce yourself to your grandsons girlfriend" Mema said as pop did as he was told.

"I'm Scott but you can call me Pop" he looked as Y/n "she's a keeper."

They sat around the the table, Pop sitting at the head of the table as he said grace. Food began to be passed around and conversations were had.

After dinner Pop sat in the lazy boy snoozing as the Thanksgiving day football game played. Sarah's husband and her kids arrived and were in the back yard playing football with Y/n and Ryan. Jenna was in the kitchen with Mema and Cassandra washing dishes and putting left over food away.

"So Jenna, what do you guys have planned after Thanksgiving?" Mema asked.

"Y/n and I are staying for a few more days, I was hoping to find something for Y/n tomorrow, if that's ok" Jenna replied.

"Well that sounds just fine" Cassandra said.

[marypsue]

Santa Carla, 1987. The California summer is in full swing. A killer – or killers – stalk the busy Boardwalk. And Michael Emerson is on the cusp of a life-altering revelation. Santa Carla, 20XX. The Experience Room, the Boardwalk’s hottest, most cutting-edge attraction, has just changed over its storyline. Now, within its artificial confines, a killer – or killers – stalk the 1987 Boardwalk, daring players to catch them. Edgar and Alan Frog are just here to stake anything that moves, and have a good time doing it. If a little paranoia doesn’t get the better of them first…

As promised: The Lost Boys Westworld AU! I saw a premise about examining the nature of personhood, asked 'but is anybody gonna make this also about the nature of story and narrative?', and did not wait for an answer.

Unfortunately, nobody in this fic ever gets to wear a cowboy hat.

[gloombog]

tagged by @driftingintomysolitude to shuffle my "on repeat" playlist + post the first 10 songs & tag 10 people yippee thankssss <3333

1. willing to follow you down by lowercase

2. honourosis by unwound

3. uma by majesty crush

4. smoker's paradise by spencer radcliffe

5. tall ships by swirlies

6. in the backyard by sundots

7. the great alligator by ovlov

8. alan is a cowboy killer by mclusky

9. sinking just right by shelf life

10. snowing by sprain

@trapper-faggot @sparklebot95 @angelnumber27 @swaddledintissue @zeebzorb @ihavebrainworms @sewercentipede @iwantedtosavetheworld @clownaura @chamberofmisery

[sinceileftyoublog]

Mclusky's Good Intentions

Mclusky's Andy "Falco" Falkous

BY JORDAN MAINZER

"Fuck This Band". It's the name of the song Andy "Falco" Falkous and Mclusky have been opening their sets with on their triumphant return to many North American cities, including Chicago last Friday at the Vic. It's an effective calm before the storm of noise and chaos that inevitably enraptures the moshing crowd. And it's an appropriate sentiment, tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating, referential to the very loud ruckus that presumably caused the initial postponement of these tour dates to begin with. A Molotov cocktail of aural health issues forced Falkous to make fans wait a little bit longer to celebrate 20 years of Mclusky Do Dallas. It was immediately apparent from the opening chords of "Dethink to Survive" that our patience paid off: Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone donning protective headphones, the band launched into a burst of razor wire guitars and pummeling percussion, and never stopped.

From left to right: Mclusky's Damien Sayell, Jack Egglestone, Falkous

Sayell, Egglestone, & Falkous

The post-hardcore band's influence is wide-reaching. You can hear Falkous' everyman sprechgesang in the cubicle shouts of Pissed Jeans' Matt Korvette, his frantic non-sequiturs in the nervy yelp rock of Squid, both of whom were featured on the house playlist before Mclusky took the stage. But the band continues to be good at its own game, too. Last year, they shared their first new material in 19 years, and they played two of those released songs on Friday, sounding like 2002 just as much as 2023. "Two minutes and forty five seconds is the optimum length of a rock and roll song," Falkous declared, after letting the audience know it was okay not to pretend they like new songs. But "Unpopular Parts of a Pig" is a trademark Mclusky tune, alternating between deceptively melodic shouts and droning chants, plus a loud-quiet-loud dynamic and sardonic lyrics chiding useless platitudes. Thematically and instrumentally, it nestled perfectly between the ugly guitar distortion and Damien Sayell's meaty bass on "Day of the Deadringers", and crowd favorite "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues". Meanwhile, the blown-out bass of "The Digger You Deep" and unreleased barnburner "Et Tu, Edwards?" gave the crowd a chance to let loose between "She Will Only Bring You Happiness" and "You Should Be Ashamed, Seamus", two The Difference Between You and Me Is That I'm Not on Fire songs that satirize the tortured artist and toxic masculinity.

Sayell, Egglestone, & Falkous

Really, though, to a certain generation of Mclusky fans, Friday first and foremost represented an event we thought would never come. To hear Falkous' introductory chirping on "Without MSG I Am Nothing", Egglestone's brawny thuds on "Chases", and the shout-alongs of "To Hell With Good Intentions" and "Alan Is a Cowboy Killer" was a thrilling exercise in nostalgia for some and disbelief for others. Towards the end of the set, Falkous took the time to thank everyone involved in the show, even those he had met just that night, an act of working class solidarity before his effortless bout of sarcasm: "This cavalcade of sincerity must end soon." Given Falkous' ability to lighten the mood through his well-intentioned derision, it's easy to see why Mclusky continues to be great today.

Falkous

Sayell

[filmnoirfoundation]

NOIR CITY returns to Chicago's Music Box Theatre August 25 - 31, to celebrate the heart of Hollywood's noir movement with "Film Noir in 1948"! Friday through Sunday screenings will be presented by Eddie Muller, Film Noir Foundation founder and host of TCM's Noir Alley, and films Monday through Thursday will be introduced by FNF board member Alan K. Rode.

Highlights include a 35mm screening of Robert Wise’s BLOOD ON THE MOON on Wednesday, August 30. In this Western noir, Tate Riling (Robert Preston) enlists an old friend and itinerant cowboy Jim Garry (Robert Mitchum) to help with his scheme to force an aging rancher (Tom Tully) to sell his herd at a discount. When Lufton’s daughter Amy (Barbara Bel Geddes) gets involved, Garry must choose between his old loyalties and what he knows to be right. Alan will be singing his book Blood on the Moon an hour before the show starts and during the intermission after the film. Since this is NOIR CITY: Chicago, two films set in the Windy City will screen during the festival. First, Call NORTHSIDE 777, featuring Jimmy Stewart as a crusading reporter determined to free convicted killer Richard Conte whom he believes is innocent, plays on Saturday, August 26. Eddie will be signing his most recent release Eddie Muller's NOIR BAR: Cocktails inspired by the World of Film Noir that day as well, time TBA. Then on Tuesday, August 29, Alan Ladd plays another reporter in CHICAGO DEADLINE, screening in 35mm, who becomes obsessed with finding the truth about the life and death of Rosita (Donna Reed) after discovering her corpse.

→ NOIR CITY: Chicago's full schedule, all-access passes, and tickets are available here.

[meanstreetspodcasts]

Episode 601 - Cowboys and Crimesolvers (Suspense, Texas Rangers, Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, & Dragnet)

Yippie-ki-yay, old time radio fans! We're heading west for some radio mysteries set in the wide open spaces of the American frontier. Alan Ladd is on the trail of his brother's murderer in "A Killing in Abilene" from Suspense (originally aired on CBS on December 14, 1950), and Joel McCrea hunts for a cowboy's killer in "The Cactus Pear" from Tales of the Texas Rangers (originally aired on NBC on December 17, 1950). As Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Edmond O'Brien has to determine if - and why - a rancher's wife bumped off her husband in "The Jarvis Wilder Matter" (originally aired on CBS on February 24, 1951), and William Conrad has to clear his own name in "Matt for Murder" from Gunsmoke (originally aired on CBS on July 26, 1954). Finally, Jack Webb stars in an urban western as the police face off against an armed and delusional man who believes he's defending a fort against the Indians in "The Big Cowboy" from Dragnet (originally aired on NBS on June 1, 1954).

Click here for some of my original audio comedy, including some old time radio show parodies!

Check out this episode!

[yasakajinjya]

Alan Is a Cowboy Killer

[friendzonefrog]

Movies:

Anatomy of a Fall (crime/courtroom drama)

Clue (one of my favorite comedies AND mysteries of all time)

Se7en (crime thriller where two detectives search for a brutal serial killer with a twisted M.O.)

See How They Run (goofy whodunnit set amidst the cast of a theatrical play)

The Hateful Eight (Tarantino western with whodunnit-ish elements and also a very specific spoiler in common with TRN)

Zodiac (crime thriller about the search for the Zodiac Killer)

TV:

Fargo (crime dramedy with an extremely eccentric ensemble cast)

The Mole (reality show where one of the contestants is secretly sabotaging the group. You won't find out who until the finale! The reboot is good, but the original S1 is my fav.)

Board/Card games:

Bang! (cowboy social deduction card game where different roles give you different abilities and different goals. Reminds me of the saloon slots game in SHA hehe.)

Clue(do) this one should go without saying.

Codenames (team v team card game where, out of a massive grid of words, players must prompt their team to guess their words only.)

Decrypto (very similar to Codenames. Team v team, both teams have 4 words and must get their teammates to guess those words in a specific "encrypted" sequence without giving it away to the opposite team. Hard to explain but fun to play.)

Mysterium (co-op card/tabletop game where one of you plays as the ghost and the rest play as psychic detectives trying to solve your murder!)

One Night Werewolf (social deduction game where the villagers must determine who amongst them is secretly a werewolf. Different roles=different abilities. Kind of reminds me of a game that'd be in CAP.)

Video Games:

Alan Wake, especially the second one. (It's horror, I can't express that enough, but top-tier crime investigation elements)

Darkside Detective (beggingggg yall to play this. episodic point and click adventure mystery. goofy cases with supernatural elements.)

Guilty Party (an old Wii game I used to be OBSESSED with, it has a story mode as well as a competitive party mode. you have to interrogate suspects and gather evidence so you can accuse the culprit. It's made for families so it's innocent (to my recollection) and exTREMELY campy with silly minigames, eccentric suspects, a theme song and everything. ugh love)

Heavy Rain (choice-based narrative game. has so many flaws. so many. but the crime thriller themes warranted an honorable mention.)

Life is Strange (drama/mystery choice-based narrative game. reminds me of WAC kind of, with the school gossip and drama hehe)

The Sinking City (Lovecraftian horror crime-noir mystery!)

can we gather a mass list of clue crew mysteryish/thriller/nancyish media recommendations? i'll start:

shows: columbo, murder she wrote, psych, x-files

video games: ace attorney, pentiment, return of the obra dinn, ghost trick

books: the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle, omniscient reader's viewpoint, (honestly that's it other than nancys I need to read more mystery novels)

movies: knives out series of course, the handmaiden

board games: (idk any I'm sorry just thinking of media categories)

trrpgs: monster of the week, city of mist

[iamdangerace]

McClusky, Alan is a Cowboy Killer recorded live in Cardiff, Wales on Dec. 19, 2019. From the Gateway Band: Live in London and Cardiff DVD/CD album.

[mr-craig]

I have answered the question literally nobody was asking: What would it sound like if Kraftwerk covered mclusky?

Alan is a Cowboy Killer, by Welsh hardcore punk band mclusky, in a late ‘70s / early ‘80s electro-pop style. You’re welcome.

[riseofthecommonwoodpile]

But you were such an ugly child. You were such an awkward child. But you were such a stupid child. We should have cottoned on.

Alan is a cowboy killer.

[bookclub4m]

Episode 155 - Literary Fan Fiction

This episode we’re talking about Literary Fan Fiction! We discuss ancient myths, fairy tales, Sherlock Holmes, copyright, Sherlock Holmes, authorized sequels, Sherlock Holmes, and sequels vs reinterpretations! Plus: Sherlock Holmes! (Okay, he didn't get mentioned that much.)

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss

Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was reprinted in Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J. M. Barrie (Wikipedia)

Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie (Wikipedia)

Copyright status

Telling Tales by Patience Agbabi

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Other Media We Mentioned

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer

Shadow Master Series Volume 3 by Andy Helfer, Kyle Baker, and Joe Orlando

Includes the comic in which The Shadow’s head is placed on a robot body

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny

Jack the Ripper in fiction (Wikipedia) (Yes, there’s an entire article and it mentions at least five additional stories that feature Sherlock Holmes.)

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill

Fables (comics) by Bill Willingham (Wikipedia)

The Argonauts and the Quest for the Golden Fleece (Wikipedia)

Beowulf (Wikipedia)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and  Jane Austen

Grendel by John Gardner

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (Wikipedia)

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

The Great Mouse Detective (Wikipedia)

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (Wikipedia)

Elementary, Dear Data (Wikipedia) - Star Trek: The Next Generation episode

House (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Elementary (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Sherlock (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Dorian Gray (2009 film) (Wikipedia)

Victor Frankenstein (film) (Wikipedia)

The Adventures of Shirley Holmes (Wikipedia)

Enola Holmes (film) (Wikipedia)

Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith (Actually just about cowboys who really like Sherlock Holmes)

Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the American West by John S. Fitzpatrick

Links, Articles, and Things

Fan fiction (Wikipedia)

Matthew was probably combining Robert Ludlum (died in 2001 and since then thirty books have been published under the “Ludlum brand”) and Tom Clancy (died in 2013 and since then 18 books have been published under the “Clancy brand”)

Marple: Twelve New Mysteries A 2022 collection of new stories by various authors about Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple character

Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture (Wikipedia)

Robin McKinley (Wikipedia)

Frankenstein's monster (Wikipedia)

How Rocket Raccoon Rescued My Brother, Famed Marvel Writer Bill Mantlo by Mike Mantlo

Doujinshi (Wikipedia)

Doraemon Doujinshi Accused of Infringing Copyright

Hark Podcast

Sherlock Holmes  (Wikipedia)

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Copyrightable Character by Nicholas Perrotti

Sargasso Sea (Wikipedia)

22 “Literary Fan Fiction” (retellings, adaptations, sequels, parallel novels, etc.) books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

For this booklist, the original story being retold/referenced appears (in parentheses).

Telling Tales by Patience Agbabi (Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer)

The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (El Gaucho Martín Fierro by José Hernández)

The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang (The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Windward Heights by Maryse Condé (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud (The Stranger by Albert Camus)

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan (A Room With a View by E.M. Forster)

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (The Horror of Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft)

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells)

The Holder of the World by Bharati Mukherjee (The Scarlet Letter by Nataniel Hawthorne and the Ramayana by Valmiki)

Mama Day by Gloria Naylor (The Tempest by William Shakespeare)

Even in Paradise by Elizabeth Nunez (King Lear by William Shakespeare)

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (The Tale of Shim Ch'ŏng)

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (The Ramayana by Valmiki)

The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall (Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)

My Jim by Nancy Rawles (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson (Wee'git stories)

Unforgivable Love by Sophfronia Scott (Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos)

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Prince of Cats by Ron Wimberly (Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)

Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita (Various works by Jane Austen)

Pride by Ibi Zoboi (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, August 16th we’ll be discussing an update on what media we’ve been enjoying outside of the podcast. (Oh no that’s next week.)

Then on Tuesday, September 6th we’ll be discussing the format of Audio Book Fiction!

[meanstreetspodcasts]

Diamond in the Rough

“I was sitting in my office shooting paper clips at a King size horse fly. It was a little sadistic but he was bigger than I was. Well, about the time I had him down on his knees begging for mercy, the door opened…” 

There’s nothing in Dick Powell’s early career to suggest he was destined to play hard-boiled private eyes.  Had his bosses at Warner Brothers had their way, he’d have stayed in the song-and-dance roles on which he built his career.  But thanks to a gamble by a director, Powell kicked off a new chapter to his career and the result were some great radio shows, including one of the medium’s best - Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

Powell got his start in Hollywood in the 30s as a singer in Warner Brothers musicals, including 42nd Street, and On the Avenue.  He was frequently cast in the role of a boyish crooner, even as he approached his 40s.  Despite his success, Powell was eager to expand into other roles.  His efforts were resisted by Warner Brothers, who wanted to keep Powell right where he was, even if he thought it was the wrong place to be.  He pursued the lead role in Double Indemnity, but it ultimately went to another actor pegged in “nice guy” roles - Fred MacMurray.

But later in 1944, RKO and director Edward Dmytryk gave Powell the role he’d been waiting for - Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, the film adaptation of the Marlowe novel Farewell, My Lovely.  The film was a success, and Powell received rave reviews for his performance.  In a flash, he had shed the crooner image he’d been desperate to shake and he embarked on the next stage of his career.

Powell recreated his role as Marlowe on the June 11, 1945 Lux Radio Theater broadcast of Murder, My Sweet, and he starred as private detective Richard Rogue in Rogue’s Gallery from 1945 to 1946.  While it was a fine series, it failed to stand out from the crowd of hard-boiled private eyes littering the airwaves in the postwar years.  For his next radio effort, Powell wanted to “make something a little bit different of a standard vehicle.”  He recorded an audition show as “the man with the action packed expense account,” Johnny Dollar, but he passed on the series for a show that sprang from the mind of Blake Edwards.  Edwards would later create the outstanding police procedural The Line-Up for radio, develop Peter Gunn for television, and would become a celebrated writer and director of film arguably most famous for the Pink Panther film series with Peter Sellers.

Powell and his producer, Don Sharp, asked Edwards if he had any ideas for a vehicle for Powell.  Edwards said he did (a lie), and went home to write what would become the pilot for Richard Diamond, Private Detective.  In Edwards’ original script, Diamond was a former OSS agent; he would evolve into an ex-cop.  One trait he would retain as the script evolved was that Diamond was as quick with a quip as he was with his fists.  This played to Powell’s natural comedic strengths, and it helped to give the show a unique voice in the sea of detective programs from the era.  Unlike other radio shamuses, Diamond would keep up a friendly relationship with his old colleagues on the force - Lt. Walt Levinson, his former partner; and the oafish Sgt. Otis Ludlum, the long-suffering butt of Diamond’s jokes.  Diamond flirted with every skirt that came through his office door, but he only had eyes for his Park Avenue girlfriend, Helen Asher.  Shows would often close at her apartment, where Diamond would sum up his case and (in a nod to Powell’s old career) Helen might coax him to do a little singing.

Richard Diamond, Private Detective premiered on NBC on April 24, 1949.  Powell was supported by Virginia Gregg as Helen; Ed Begley as Levinson; and Wilms Herbert doing double duty as Sgt. Otis and as Helen’s butler, Francis.  Joseph Kearns, Peggy Webber, Bill Johnstone, Jack Kruschen, and other West Coast actors filled out the cast.  Later in the show’s run, Frances Robinson would take over the role of Helen, and Ted de Corsia, Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd), and Alan Reed (Fred Flinstone) would rotate in and out as Levinson.

The show ran without a sponsor for the first year before being picked up by the Rexall Drug Company (“Good health to all from Rexall!”) in June 1950.  In January 1951, the show switched networks and picked up Camel cigarettes as its new sponsor.  The show took its final bow on June 27, 1952 (although repeats popped up in the summer of 1953).  Powell pulled the plug on the show as he entered a third phase of his career as a successful director and producer.

It was in this capacity that Powell brought Richard Diamond to television in 1957 for a four-season run starring David Janssen in the title role, minus the crooning of the radio series.  Janssen would later star as Dr. Richard Kimble on The Fugitive.  The Diamond TV show is perhaps best known today for its character of Diamond’s secretary, Sam, who was only shown from the waist down to show off her legs.  The first actress to furnish Sam’s legs was a young Mary Tyler Moore.

In honor of his anniversary, here are ten of my favorite Richard Diamond radio adventures. Sit back and enjoy some sleuthing and singing with Dick Powell and company in these sensational stories.

"The Lillian Baker Case" - This one is a good showcase for Diamond's girlfriend Helen Asher, who gets to take a rare role in the case of the week. At a department store, Helen witnesses an elderly woman shoplifting. It turns out she's a wealthy eccentric, and later that afternoon she dies - allegedly after leaping from her balcony. (9/3/49)

"The Jerome J. Jerome Case" - Joseph Kearns plays the titular eccentric character - a man who claims to be a millionaire, a genius inventor, and a private detective. He wants to partner with Diamond, but as soon as the gumshoe tries to dismiss him it turns out the kook may have information about an actual murder. (9/17/49)

"The Louis Spence Case" - An unusual, but very exciting, episode finds Diamond racing against time to save his old friend Lt. Walt Levinson. A deranged bomber has escaped from prison, and he's taken the lieutenant hostage. Unless the mayor jumps to his death from city hall within the hour, the bomber will blow the precinct - and Walt - to kingdom come. (3/5/50)

"The Statue of Kali" - It's Richard Diamond's version of The Maltese Falcon (complete with Paul Frees doing his best Sydney Greenstreet). An ivory statue is delivered to Diamond by a dying man, and it's being hunted by nefarious characters from all around the world. (4/5/50)

"The Martha Campbell Kidnap Case" - Diamond is hired to deliver the ransom when a wealthy woman is kidnapped, but both he and the lady's nephew are knocked out, the ransom money is taken, and the kidnap victim is killed. Rick has to use some creativity and theatricality to figure out what happened. (7/26/50)

"The Oklahoma Cowboy Murder Case" - Diamond trades the bright lights of the big city for the clear skies of the plains in this episode that was later adapted as an episode of Peter Gunn. Rick heads west to investigate a suspicious death - a wealthy rancher who expired when he fell from his horse. (9/27/50)

"The Cover-Up Murders" - Rick and Walt partner again when a serial killer stalks the city. Part of his MO is to call the police and boast that he'll kill someone that night at eight o'clock. But what appears to be random madness may have a clear motive, and it's up to Diamond to stop the killings before more bodies drop. (11/22/50)

"Blue Serge Suit" - Jim Backus (later Mr. Howell on Gilligan's Island) is Diamond's new client - a tailor whose supply of blue serge is raided and stolen by intruders. When Diamond's own suit is snatched, he's on the trail of a gang of spies. (2/9/51)

"Lady in Distress" - A beautiful woman hires Diamond, and then she drops dead in his office. With nothing to go on - he didn't even know her name - Rick takes the case and tries to learn what had her so scared and what led to her death. It's a story that was recycled quite a few times. Jeff Regan and Johnny Dollar both solved variations of this script, but the Richard Diamond version is my favorite. (2/23/51)

"The Red Rose" - In another story later reworked as a TV episode of Peter Gunn, Diamond is hired to keep a client alive. The man hired a hit man to do away with himself, but he's had a change of heart. Unfortunately, the hit man is a committed professional and he intends to finish the job. (3/2/51)

Check out this episode!

[back-and-totheleft]

‘There’s still a presence out there reminding people not to speak about JFK’s killing’

Oliver Stone is not a fan of “cancel culture”. “Of course I despise it,” the Oscar winning filmmaker says, as if utterly amazed that anyone needs to ask him such a dumb question. “I am sure I’ve been cancelled by some people for all the comments I’ve made…. it’s like a witch hunt. It’s terrible. American censorship in general, because it is a declining, defensive, empire, it (America) has become very sensitive to any criticism. What is going on in the world with YouTube and social media,” he rants. “Twitter is the worst. They’ve banned the ex-President of the United States. It’s shocking!” he says, referring to Donald Trump’s removal from the micro-blogging platform.

It’s a Saturday lunchtime in the restaurant of the Marriott Hotel on the Croisette in Cannes. The American director is in town for the festival premiere this week of his new feature documentary JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, in which he yet again pores over President John F Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963.

“I am a pin cushion for American-Russian peace relations… I had four f***ing vaccines: two Sputniks and two Pfizers,” Stone gestures at his arm. The rival super-powers may remain deeply suspicious of one another, but Stone is loading himself up with potions from both sides of the old Iron Curtain.

He has recently been travelling in Russia (hence the Sputnik jabs) where he has been making a new documentary about how nuclear power can save humanity. He also recently completed a film about Kazakhstan’s former president Nursultan Nazarbayev which – like his interviews with Vladimir Putin – has been roundly ridiculed for its deferential, softly-softly approach toward a figure widely regarded as a ruthless despot.

Dressed in a blue polo shirt, riffing away about the English football team one moment and his favourite movies the next, laughing constantly, the 74-year-old Oscar-winning director of Platoon, Wall Street, Natural Born Killers et al is a far cheerier presence than his reputation as a purveyor of dark conspiracy thrillers might suggest. He is also very outspoken. For all his belligerence, though, Stone isn’t as thick-skinned as you might imagine. I wonder if he was hurt by the scorn that came his way when his feature film JFK was released in 1991.

“I was more of a younger man. It was painful to me,” the director sighs as he remembers being attacked by such admired figures as newscaster Walter Cronkite and Hollywood power broker Jack Valenti for listening to the “hallucinatory bleatings” of former New Orleans DA Jim Garrison when JFK came out. “It was quite shocking actually because I thought the murder was behind us. I did think there was a feeling that 30 years later, we can look at this thing again without getting excited. But I was way wrong.”

Garrison, of course, was the real-life figure portrayed by Kevin Costner in the film; he was the original proponent of the theory that the CIA were involved in the killing of the US president, after his 1966 investigation. Garrison wrote the book On the Trail of the Assassins, on which the movie was partly based.

Even the director’s fiercest detractors will find it hard to dismiss the evidence he has assembled about the JFK assassination in the new documentary. Once I’d seen it and heard him hold forth, I came away thinking that only flat-earthers can possibly still believe that Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy all on his own. It’s that convincing.

Stone blitzes you with facts and figures about the Kennedy killing and its aftermath. At times, he himself seems to be suffering from information overload. “I am sorry. There are so many people,” he apologises for not immediately remembering the name of Kennedy’s personal physician, George Burkley, who was present both at Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy was first taken, and then at Bethesda, where the autopsy took place. Burkley was strangely reticent when giving evidence to the Warren Commission.

“I think there’s still a presence out there which reminds people not to speak. I’ve heard that in, of all places, Russia,” Stone says. He was startled to discover that the Russians knew all about his new documentary long before it was discussed in the mainstream press. “They said, ‘We heard about it.’ I said, ‘How?’ They said, ‘We have our contacts in the American intelligence business. They are not very happy about it.’”

Stone believes that no US president since Kennedy died has been “able to go up against this militarised sector of our economy”. Even Trump “backed down at the last second” and declined to release all the relevant documents relating to the assassination. “He announced, ‘I’m going to free it up, blah blah blah, big talk, and then a few hours before, he caved to CIA National Security again.”

The veteran filmmaker expresses his frustrations at historians like Robert Caro, author of a huge (and hugely respected) multi-volume biography of President Lyndon Johnson, for ignoring the evidence that has been turned up about the assassination.

“I can’t say [LBJ] was involved in the assassination,” explains Stone, “but it certainly suited him that Kennedy was not there anymore and he covered up by appointing the Warren Commission and doing all the things he did.”

Stone tried to cast Marlon Brando in JFK in the role as the deep throat source Mr X, eventually played by Donald Sutherland.

“I realise now I am grateful that he turned it down because he knew better than I that he would make 20 minutes out of that 14-minute monologue and it wouldn’t have worked.”

Nevertheless, he filled the film with famous faces. He thought that having familiar actors would make it easier for audiences to engage with what was an immensely complicated story.

Getting Stone to stop talking about JFK is like trying to pull a bone from a mastiff’s jaws. To change the subject slightly, I ask if he is still in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He is and is utterly horrified at how Assange is being treated, especially given that Siggi the Hacker, a key witness in the extradition case against Assange, admitted recently that he lied. Stone praises Assange’s partner Stella Morris as “the best wife you could ever have. She really is smart, she’s a lawyer … he has two children. He can’t even touch them or see them. It’s barbaric. It indicates America is declining faster than we know. It is just cutting off dissent.”

The mood lightens when I invite Stone to discuss some of his favourite films. He recently tweeted a list of these, which included Darling starring Julie Christie, Joseph Losey’s Eva starring Stanley Baker and Jeanne Moreau, and Houseboat, a frothy comedy starring Cary Grant and Sophia Loren. “I love films, always have. People don’t know that side of me. I could go on forever.”

Between his darker and more contentious efforts, Stone has made a few genre films himself, for example the underrated thriller U-Turn starring Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez. He notes, though, that even when he tried a sports movie, he ended up right back in the firing line. The NFL was furious about his 1999 American Football film, Any Given Sunday. “They (the NFL) are arrogant, very rich people who close down any dissent, so I had to change uniforms and names… but they got the point.”

Last year, Stone published the first volume of his autobiography, Chasing the Light, which took him from childhood up to his Oscar triumph with Platoon. It was well received but it didn’t make nearly a big enough splash for his liking. “There was a curtain of silence about that. Maybe it is Covid… it was not reviewed by many people,” he says. “I wish the timing had been better. The publisher was terrible. They didn’t really promote anything. So now I have to start over again if I am going to do a second book, which I would love to do. But I have to find the right publisher.”

The book contains a barbed account of Stone’s experiences as a young screenwriter working in London for British director Alan Parker and producer David Puttnam on Midnight Express. “I wrote about it in the book, so you got my point of view. They were not very friendly people. I gave my criticism of Parker that he had a chip on his shoulder. He was from a poor side of the English. There is this phenomenon you see in England of hating the upper classes until they approve of you.”

No, they didn’t stay in touch. “And Puttnam is a Lord, right? He reminds me of Tony Blair. He is such a weasel.” For once, Stone feels he has overstepped the mark. He doesn’t want to call Puttnam a weasel after all. “Put it this way, Tony Blair is a weasel. I wouldn’t trust Tony Blair. Puttnam is a supporter of Blair. Let’s leave it at that.”

On matters English, he isn’t that keen on soccer either. He watched the semi-final between England and Denmark but had no intention of tuning into the final.

“Soccer is a different kind of game. It’s a different aesthetic. It is constant movement. The United States game allows you to re-group after every play and go into a huddle and so it becomes about strategy. I still enjoy it although people think I am brutal.”

Ask him why he so relishes American Football and he replies that he “grew up with violence in America … we were banging – cowboys and Indians, a lot of killing and that stuff. How do you get away from that? We weren’t playing with dolls.”

Stone’s feelings about the US are deeply ambivalent. He is old enough to remember a time in the late 1940s and early 1950s when “everything in America was golden” and part of him still seems to love the country but his mother was French and he talks about the US as a nation now in near terminal decline.

Perhaps surprisingly, his real political hero isn’t JFK. It’s the former President of France, Charles de Gaulle. “He said no to NATO and he said no to America. He understood the dangers of being a satellite country to America. You have no power in Europe. Don’t kid yourself. The EU is just an artificial body that was amazingly stupid in cutting off Russia and cutting off China too now.”

He doesn’t much like Boris Johnson either. “Boris, listen. He’d simply throw you in jail in a second.” He rails against the English for holding Assange in Belmarsh prison.

When he is not on a crusade or unravelling a conspiracy, Stone relaxes through Buddhist meditation. “Moderation in all things,” the man who came up with the phrase “greed is right, greed works” says with no evident sense of irony. He enjoys hanging out with his friends. “I have a nice life. I’m lucky,” he says before quickly adding, “I wish I had been more honoured and respected in my lifetime, but it seems that I took a course that is in conflict with the American Empire.”

Stone’s films have had relatively few strong female characters. Ask if he welcomes the #MeToo movement and the challenging of old gender norms and he gives a typically contrary answer. “It cuts both ways, though. There are reasons for patriarchy through the centuries,” he says. “Tribes tend to have a strong leader. You need strong leaders, but I do see the feminine impulse as being important, especially when situations become too militant. The feminine impulse, I’m talking about the maternal impulse not the Hillary Clinton/Margaret Thatcher version of feminism. They’re men. They’re not women,” he says. “I don’t want women in politics who want to be men. If a woman is a woman, she should be a woman and bring her maternalism. It’s a leavening influence.”

The director deplores the rush to judge historical figures about past misdeeds from a contemporary point of view. “I am conservative in that way… don’t expect to rejudge the entire society based on your new values.”

He met with Harvey Weinstein in Cannes a few years ago to discuss a potential Guantanamo Bay TV series. “At that point, maybe he knew he was on the ropes; he was delightfully charming and humble.” The project was scuppered by the scandal that that engulfed the former Miramax boss, who is now behind bars as a convicted sex offender. Stone’s gripes with Weinstein are less to do with his sexual offences than with the way that he attacked films like Born on the Fourth of July and Saving Private Ryan to boost his own movies.

“The press loved him [Weinstein]. Don’t forget, they loved him in the 1990s,” he says, remembering the disingenuous way in which Weinstein portrayed himself as the underdog taking on the big, bad Hollywood system.

“I think he robbed Cruise of the Oscar, frankly,” Stone huffs at the intensive Weinstein lobbying which saw Daniel Day-Lewis win the Academy Award for Best for My Left Foot, denying Tom Cruise for Born on the Fourth of July in the process.

Stone acknowledges his status in Hollywood has diminished. “All that’s gone. The people have changed,” he says of the days when the studios doted on him and his films were regularly awards contenders. Now, he’ll often finance his work out of Europe. He is developing a new feature film (he won’t say what it is). “Never say die, never say it’s over,” he says of his career.

Stone is based in Los Angeles and also has “a place in New York”. During the pandemic, he still managed to travel to Russia to make his nuclear power/clean energy documentary. “I got my shots over there because the EU is so f***ing stupid,” he says of the of the Europeans’ refusal to recognise the Sputnik vaccine. “It’s ridiculous, part of the political madness of this time.”

Now, he is putting all his energy into his new documentary about nuclear power. He waves away the idea that the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters show what can go wrong – they were accidents.

“Accidents you learn from. If there were not a few crashes, how would you fly?” he says. It’s a line that somehow seems to express his entire philosophy of life.

-Geoffrey Macnab interviews Oliver Stone, The Independent, Jul 15 2021 [x]

[tabloidtoc]

TV Guide, April 12-25

Cover: Secrets of WWE Legends

Page 1: Contents, Your Feedback

Page 2: Ask Matt -- Grey's Anatomy and COVID, thirtysomething, Saturday Night at the Movies

* Coming Next Issue -- in TV Guide's April 26 issue, check in with The CW's original big-hearted Kryptonian hero, Kara Danvers, aka Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) to learn more about what's in store for the action-packed series' sixth and final season

Page 4: TV Insider -- 25 top shows

Page 5: First Look -- for season 25, Antiques Roadshow brings its fact-spouting appraisers to anxious owners of vintage pieces who just happen to be celebrities, like Carla Hall with expert Katy Kane

* The Show We're Talking About in the Office -- The Nevers

* The Big Number -- 1,187 total captures resulting from America's Most Wanted tipsters and the debut of Fox's AMW reboot helped with the latest, a violent carjacker nabbed after a viewer called Colorado police

Page 8: Family Room -- shows both adults and kids will love

Page 10: The Roush Review -- Mare of Easttown

Page 11: The Serpent, Back, Chad

Page 12: Cover Story -- Lords of the Ring -- A&E's Biography profiles 8 of professional wrestling's most revered and in some cases reviled Hall of Famers -- preview the WWE Legends' jaw-dropping reveals, notorious rivalries and most fun facts -- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

Page 13: "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Booker T, Best of the Rest -- Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Ultimate Warrior, Bret "Hitman" Hart

Page 14: Jumping Through Hoops -- John Stamos plays a former college basketball coach getting a second chance leading a team of high school girls on Big Shot

Page 16: What's Worth Watching -- Week 1 -- Alan Cumming on Prodigal Son

Page 17: Monday, April 12 -- Barry Shabaka Henley on Bob Hearts Abishola, Jeopardy! with guest host Aaron Rodgers, Small Sacrifices, Breeders, Miz & Mrs

Page 18: Tuesday, April 13 -- Big Sky, The Resident, Finding Your Roots with John Lithgow, Star Trek, Our Towns

Page 19: Wednesday, April 14 -- The Last Picture Show, The Big Interview With Dan Rather -- Lady A's Hillary Scott and her husband Chris Tyrrell, Tough as Nails, Game of Talents, The Conners, Bargain Block, Forged in Fire, Call Your Mother, I Survived a Crime

Page 20: Thursday, April 15 -- John Cena on Wipeout, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mom, Taxi

Page 22: Friday, April 16 -- Tricia Helfer on Van Helsing, Days of Our Lives, MacGyver, Blue Bloods

* Saturday, April 17 -- The Beverly Hillbillies, Pit Bulls & Parolees, Right in Front of Me

Page 23: Sunday, April 18 -- Sunday Today With Willie Geist, 56th Academy of Country Music Awards, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, Confronting a Serial Killer, WWE's Most Wanted Treasures, Couples Therapy

Page 24-37: TV listings

Page 38: Stream It! Your guide to the very best streaming available -- Netflix -- Five Can't Miss Movies -- Concrete Cowboy, Sky High, The Stand In, Thunder Force, A Week Away

Page 39: Shadow and Bone, Stream the Oscar Nominees --- Mank, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Pieces of a Woman, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Hillbilly Elegy, The White Tiger

Page 40: Prime Video -- Frank of Ireland, Stream the Oscar Nominees -- Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, One Night in Miami, Sound of Metal, Time, Oxygen -- stream serial killer week -- Rifkin on Rifkin: Private Confessions of a Serial Killer, Living With a Serial Killer, Murders at the Boarding House

Page 41: Hulu -- Sasquatch, Stream the Oscar Nominees -- Another Round, The Mole Agent, Nomadland, The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Page 42: New Movie Releases

Page 43: Series, Specials & Documentaries

Page 44: What's Worth Watching -- Week 2 -- Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor on Great Performances: Romeo & Juliet

Page 45: Monday, April 19 -- 9-1-1, Quantum Leap, 9-1-1: Lone Star, American Oz, All Rise, American Dad!, The Secrets She Keeps

Page 46: Tuesday, April 20 -- NCIS, Queen Sugar, Cruel Summer, Philly D.A., Hustle & Tow, The Walking Dead: World Beyond

Page 47: Wednesday, April 21 -- S.W.A.T., Chicago P.D., Married at First Sight: Unmatchables

Page 48: Thursday, April 22 -- Kingdom of the Polar Bears, Earth Day Takeover, Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World, Last Man Standing, 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards, Big Trick Energy

Page 49: Friday, April 23 -- The Young and the Restless, Doing the Most With Phoebe Robinson

* Saturday, April 24 -- Yannick Bisson on Murdoch Mysteries, House Hunters, Iyanla: Fix My Life

Page 50: Sunday, April 25 -- Air Disasters, The 93rd Oscars, Autopsy: The Last Hours of Anthony Bourdain, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?, Top Gear

Page 52-73: TV listings

Page 76: Cheers & Jeers -- cheers to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Breeders, Netflix for giving weekly drops another shot, Debris, jeers to American Idol, Hallmark for leaving Home & Family behind, Lifetime for capitalizing on a royal mess