I'll admit right up front that I'm biased, been a Tom Petty and the Heatrtbreakers fan for more than 25 years, but I highly recommend the Peter Bogdanovich directed documentary Runnin Down A Dream chronicling the life and times of one of the most durable bands in history. Clocking in at four hours it may not be for everyone, but if you like Petty or classic rock there is plenty to savor. Using archival footage, we get to see how the Heartbreakers were formed and some of their earliest performances. The documentary then goes on to show the high and lows of the next thirty years culminating in a 30 year celebration concert(the entire concert is also part of the boxed set) held in his hometown in Gainesville, FL.

[SIZE="3"]This from a Navy reader I met in San Diego:[/SIZE]

> I just
> thought that I would let you know that ALL of the Repairman Jack books
> and Adversary books were ordered for the ships library after a request
> was put in BY THE CAPTAIN. Apparently after I talked to him about it, he
> went out and bought all the Repairman Jack books, then he started
> reading the Adversary series. So now there is and entire shelf dedicated
> to F Paul Wilson. Oh and the Tomb was the first non military book to be
> put on the preferred reading section of the POD (plan of the day) so now
> you have roughly 100 more fans just from the ship.

I don't know if anyone else knew this but the Horror Writers of America did some other themed books in the vein of Freak Show. There was Whitley Stieber's Aliens, Peter Straub's Ghosts, Robert Bloch's Psychos and Robert McCammon's Under the Fang. I was just reading about Robert McCammon's experience in writing Under the Fang and, well...

"Without talking out of school too much, suffice it to say that the job ended up being a disappointment for him. Several big-name authors declined to participate (even though the project was done to benefit the HWA and big names would have helped sell more books), and some of those who did apparently didn't bother to read the shared-world definition that McCammon wrote (which shows when you read the book, I think---while it's a good anthology, overall, few of the stories seem to be written to the shared-world McCammon had envisioned)."

I must admit that while certain stories out of the other collections were great, the overall best book of the lot was Freak Show. (Even though I have the disappointing paperback. Sorry, FPW.) Freak Show was great because it really stuck to the shared-world theme. I don't know if the other books were also intended to be shared-world or not but it really added to the pleasure of reading Freak Show. I know Bloch died before he finished editing Psychos and it was decided to let the stories stand by themselves. Then again, the other books it seems as though someone went, "Whitley, you've written books about aliens (or visitors), how about editing an anthology?"

That was my musing for the night. To sum up: Freak Show was good.

Ugh! It was terrible. The audience was groaning with every new flashback and was outright laughing at the movie's big, dramatic finish. What a waste of my hard-earned cash.

I have a hard cover copy of Black Wind available if anyone wants it. This is the edition that came out in late '88. If so PM me. All I ask is $8 to cover shipping.

does anyone know what this movie was rated?
PG or R?

I now know why Tom Cruise or John Travoltra are not FPW fans,lol. I could just imagine them reading the series up until this book and liking it. Then Wham!!!!!!! OMG!!!!! Holy XENU hes attacking SCIENTOLOGY!!!!! It is a safe bet that FPW is not on the SCIENTOLOGIST'S Christmas card list lol Straight to the In Seasonlist -------Mark

Can't find an official Secret Histories discussion thread so I thought I'd start one. (Forgive me if there's one already and please point me in its direction.)

First and foremost - [SIZE="5"]THIS THREAD WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!![/SIZE]

I think this is a great book. Yes, it's written with a young adult in mind, which is apparent mostly in the characters' speech (I thought anyway) but it's a damn good read. In fact, I couldn't put it down, and rattled through it very quickly. (Of course, this could be because I'm older and wiser than a young adult.... maybe.... or it could be that it's a great story. I lke to think the latter is the case!)
I loved reading how Jack set out on his path, and finding out more about his family. Not too much about his mother though, which was a bit disappointing, but there are another two books to go...
Of course, being a seasoned Repairman Jacker, I knew exactly where the pistachio nut thing was going but reading about the whole build up to it and fallout from it was great.
And meeting some important characters of the future was great too. Some nice foreshadowing to be found in this book.
I also spotted this:

(From FPW's foreword to Rakoshi)
...I bought an Apple II+ with... 48K of RAM. (I could have opted for a 64K upgrade, but I couldn't see how I'd ever need that much RAM.)

(From Secret Histories, when Jack, Tom and Kate's Dad is showing them the new computer)
"Here's the future, kids. I've got forty-eight K of RAM - could have gotten sixty-four, but I can't imagine ever needing that much memory."

I guess some things are just too good to waste on a foreword!
Great book. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ok now-looks like a new cinema craze is coming!
First it was Color
Then Widescreen
Then 3D
Then Emergo

Now it seems a whole new generation of Camcorder films are going to hit theatres in the wake of "Cloverfield".
The new "Night Of The Living Dead" entry-"DIARY OF THE DEAD" is going to be shot cammy! How Original.
Now I'm really waiting for the remake of "LAWRENCE OF ARABIA" shot in Super 8 sound in Kodacolor.

I got my copy today! It is beautiful in the slipcase. My only regret is that I will have to wait a bit to buy a copy TO READ! I'll have to wait to read it! Ugh.