Author Richard Bach recovers after nearly dying in a plane crash

By Bookmarked and Jessica Allen - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 5:27 AM - 0 Comments

Richard Bach in the cockpit of his piper cub airplane in 1972 (John Shearer/Getty)

If you thought that time when Stephen King recovered after being hit by a car while out for a walk leaving him with a shattered leg, broken hip and a collapsed right lung was as unimaginable as one of the scenes from the authors’s 50-plus novels and countless short stories, get a load of this: Another internationally bestselling author, Richard Bach, who found fame in 1970 after writing Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a three part novella about a bird, is on the mend after nearly dying in a plane crash five months ago.

Massive brain, chest and spine injuries, not to mention a coma, kept the 76-year-old author in a Seattle hospital for four months. But Bach not only returned to his Orca Island home last month, he also recently finished the fourth part of the book about Jonathan, the seagull who marches to the beat of his own drum, reports Jennifer Sullivan in the Seattle Times.

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REVIEW: 11/22/63

By Brian Bethune - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 1 Comment

Opinions vary (and how) about the literary quality of Stephen King’s vast output—more than three dozen novels alone—but no one denies the man can tell a story. Or that he has an authentic channel to the zeitgeist, both capturing baby boomer pop culture and contributing to it: who can imagine a prom gone wrong without recalling Carrie, or notice a dog acting strangely without thoughts of Cujo? So it comes as no surprise that when King, 64, wanted to write a time-travel novel, its plot would pivot on his generation’s watershed moment, the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Jake Epping, a young Maine schoolteacher, takes up the mission bequeathed him by Al Templeton, the owner of a local diner who discovers that his pantry offers a portal to the age of Ike and Elvis, to 11:58 a.m., Sept. 9, 1958, to be precise. Al has learned that every time one of us visits 1958, it’s like the first time: everything he has done on previous visits has vanished as though it had never been. So Al, dying of lung cancer, needs Jake to go and live back then permanently, or at least long enough—five years—to accomplish a mission both consider vital: the portal doesn’t extend back far enough for Jake to kill Hitler, so he had better save Kennedy.

Al offers a summary of the expected benefits of erasing that bad day in Dallas, succinct enough not to bog down readers and persuasive enough to convince Jake, before King starts tackling just about every classic conundrum ever raised in sci-fi’s time-travel subgenre. Some are disposed of quickly—what would happen should he kill his own grandfather, Jake wonders aloud; “Why the f–k would you do that?” Al retorts. Others unfold more slowly over the novel’s 842 pages. Time is “obdurate,” and resistant to change, Jake soon learns; only later does he realize that’s a good thing, in a story that’s as ingenious as it’s compulsively readable.

The world's most misguided musical returns

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, June 17, 2011 at 11:10 AM - 0 Comments

Everett Collection; Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Bradley Reinhardt

Are we finally ready to enjoy a musical about supernaturally powered mass murder? That’s what a New York theatre company is hoping by bringing back Carrie, the 1988 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a telekinetic teenager, and the only musical with a rock ’n’ roll production number where people slaughter a pig. The MCC Theatre announced last month it would be sponsoring a major revision of the work by the original creators. A well-known Broadway actor, Marin Mazzie (Stephen Sondheim’s Passion), has signed on to star as Carrie’s crazed mother in the theatre’s 2011-12 season. The time could be right for the only musical with a higher body count than Sweeney Todd.

In 1988, there wasn’t much hope that the show would stand the test of time. Critics mocked the combination of King’s violent revenge fantasy with peppy music by the creators of Fame. Frank Rich, in the New York Times, proclaimed that the famous climax—where Carrie gets blood dumped on her and then slaughters the rest of the cast—made all the blood “look like strawberry ice-cream topping.” Other reviewers felt Debbie Allen’s pelvic thrusts and arm-flailing choreography didn’t fit in with scenes of mass murder.

Adam Feldman, theatre critic for Time Out New York, told Maclean’s that the show failed so spectacularly it’s become “a legendary flop in the way that Bigfoot is legendary. It has myth built into it.” Broadway historian Ken Mandelbaum even called his book on musical theatre flops Not Since Carrie, placing it above Annie 2: Miss Hannigan’s Revenge as the most misguided idea for a musical.

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Newsmakers: Feuds

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 9:15 AM - 0 Comments

Beyoncé vs. Etta James

First Beyoncé played R & B legend James in the movie Cadillac Records, and then she sang James’s hit At Last at Barack Obama’s first inaugural ball. James declared that Beyoncé would “get her ass whipped” for singing her song, and Beyoncé defied the threat by singing the exact same song at the Oscars. James has said her comments were just an example of her “comedian kind of attitude,” but now she may have to add, to quote the title of her Grammy-winning album, Let’s Roll.

Winnipeg vs. Ottawa

In what wordplay lovers everywhere called a “cold war,” the two cities spent the winter fighting over who had the longest frozen skating rink: while Ottawa’s Rideau Canal used to hold the official record, Winnipeg got the Guinness World Record book to confirm that its frozen river trail was longer. 

Shepard Fairey vs. AP

Last year, Fairey picked up an Associated Press photo of Barack Obama and turned it into the “hope” poster, the most famous image of the presidential race. This year, AP struck back, claiming Fairey violated copyright by just adding some red and blue to it. If the news service wins, it will make it virtually impossible to base a work of art on an existing photograph. And if Fairey wins, might he face a lawsuit from Obama for violating his copyright on the concept of “hope”?

Lily Allen vs. Perez Hilton

Twitter used to be such a peaceful place, and then these two showed up. The pop singer and the gossip blogger took their long-standing feud to the popular text-message website, where Allen posted such one-liners as, “God, you’re like so obsessed with me” and called Hilton a “lonely, bitter old queen.” At least this is healthier than what would happen if these two met in person. 

Canada Geese vs. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger

After the super-heroic pilot managed to land his plane safely in the Hudson River, experts examined the jetliner and found the remains of Canada geese, suggesting that a swarm of Canadian birds might have been responsible for the crash. It gives new meaning to the term “downed plane.”

Stephen King vs. Twilight series

The prolific horror writer doesn’t appreciate the non-violent, un-horrific vampires of Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling Twilight series. King declared that Meyer “can’t write worth a darn” and compared her to another popular but bad writer, Earle Stanley Gardner, of Perry Mason fame. Meyer’s legions of teenage-girl fans were furious and posted angry comments. Nobody seemed to care that the comparison was unfair to Perry Mason.

Hilary Duff vs. Faye Dunaway

When the former Disney Channel star got cast in the remake of Bonnie and Clyde, Dunaway, who starred in the 1967 classic, remarked: “Couldn’t they have cast a real actress?” Duff replied that most of her fans don’t know who Dunaway is and added, “I might be mad if I looked like that now, too.” The only way for Dunaway to get her revenge would be to star in a remake of Lizzie McGuire. But Duff had better watch out: anyone who’s seen Mommie Dearest knows that Dunaway usually gets her revenge on younger, brattier women.

Steve Coogan vs. Courtney Love

The British comic and former Love lover was asked about the affair on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. He put two fingers in his mouth and replied: “If I had a gun right now I would put it in my mouth,” a reference to the suicide of Love’s husband, Nirvana star Kurt Cobain. Now Coogan is in trouble with angry Nirvana fans who don’t like him making light of their hero’s death. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.