This and That
New Poetry and Music, August’s Calendar, My Note to Alexandre Desplat on his Hollywood Bowl Debut, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Ozzy Osbourne and the First Book by Scott Holleran
Here are some important or marginalized dates to note next month:
August 1st: “The Corn Ball,” micro-fiction inspired by Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” an eco-dystopian short story by yours truly, was published in Gabby & Min’s Literary Journal on this date in 2024. For an ominous impact, the editor and publisher selected “The Corn Ball” as the issue’s last short story. Listen to me read the story aloud on my fiction podcast.
August 2nd: Sports businessman Lamar Hunt, who coined the term Super Bowl, is born in 1932. Read my review of Autonomia subscriber David Sweet’s biography.
August 3rd: Christopher Columbus sails from Spain for a historic voyage of discovery.
August 5th: American astronaut Neil Armstrong is born on this date in 1930.
August 6th: After Imperial Japan refused to surrender to the United States of America during the war Japan initiated with a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, President Truman dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Japan still refused to surrender.
August 7th: The Band Wagon, based on a novel by Mickey Spillane and co-starring Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire, debuted in movie theaters in 1953.
August 8th: The Manson Family mass murder began on this date in 1969 in Los Angeles. Olivia Newton-John, whose mythical musical Xanadu about a heavenly muse coming to life on earth debuted on this date in 1980, died of cancer at the age of 73.
August 9th: President Nixon resigns in 1974. The United States of America’s President Truman drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. Whitney Houston is born.
August 11th: Robin Williams commits suicide in Northern California in 2014. Read my review of his last and final work, The Crazy Ones.
August 13: Alfred Hitchcock is born. Read my review of his 1954 film, Rear Window.
August 17th: Screenwriter Ayn Rand’s Oscar-winning Love Letters debuts in movie theaters in 1945.
August 21st: Walt Disney’s Bambi debuts in movie theaters in 1942. Nat Turner starts a slave rebellion in 1831.
August 22nd: Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata! debuts in movie theaters in 1952.
August 23rd: Today’s composer Alexandre Desplat’s birthday. (Read my review of his debut at the Hollywood Bowl below).
August 25th: MGM’s The Wizard of Oz based on the novel by L. Frank Baum, debuts in movie theaters on this date in 1939 (read my Oz book review here). The World According to Garp, an adaptation for the screen of author John Irving‘s novel, debuts in movie theaters in 1982.
Announcing My First Book Publication
This month, taking one small step for man’s mind, I announced pending publication of my first book, a collection of short stories, in a podcast for the paid Short Stories by Scott Holleran subscriber.
If you’d like to support this endeavor, with a review or other effort, kindly let me know (or/and choose to subscribe as a paid Short Stories by Scott Holleran subscriber). Listen to me read my short fiction aloud if you’re a Speakeasy, Annual or Monthly subscriber to Short Stories by Scott Holleran.
Book news, including details about advance reviews, cover art, credits and endorsements, goes foremost to the paid Short Stories by Scott Holleran subscriber.
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