My New Band Name

Marquis de Lafayette Funk and the Funk's Hybrids.

Funk's Grove

Vintage Paperbacks: House Hop

HOUSE HOP

John Dexter

Ember Library EL343

1966

It was over.

Or so I thought.

The first phase was over, that's all, and I had idea what would follow until this guy Mike, who'd come out with Charlie and the girls, stood up and said, in his slow, stoned-out voice.

"I got two dozen cubes in my jacket. Anybody want to take a trip?"

I knew what he was talking about. He meant sugar cubes impregnated with LSD, that psychiatric drug that produces all kinds of hallucinations.

And all at once I was afraid of what was going to happen.

Especially when several voices said, "Sure, sure! What a great idea!"

"Yeah, let's take a trip and really wig out!"

"Yeah, man!"

Cover art by the great Robert Bonfils, who later reworked the same art for Reed Nightstand books.

Vintage Paperbacks: Like Ice She Was

MILLION DOLLAR DOLL

In the house on St. Catherine Street they called her Fifi--the highest price call girl in Montreal...

In her Saratoga motel hideout she was known as Marion Bouchard--a playgirl on the make for special entertainment, with an unlimited expense account...

But to Lou Large, on the prowl for a million bucks heisted from a big-time gambler, she was luscious Madeleine Mann--a doll with a heart of chipped ice and some of the hottest ideas a tough private eye ever connected with!

This is the one that really started me collecting old paperbacks, although it was years into collecting that I actually bought a copy.

Back in about 1985 or so, my friend Marlon West and I were hanging out at the Rainbo Club in Chicago. Along the front wall of the place was a large display case. One month it held someone's art, the next month something else. This particular month it was someone's collection of vintage paperbacks, and right in the middle was Like Ice She Was.

Something about that cover just grabbed me. Was it the look in the woman's face? The odd mirror staging? For some reason, I zeroed in on her knees, which were oddly fleshy and realistic for an image this stylized. I stood there, my Leinenkugel in hand, and stared at the cover for a long time.

And then I started to look for it.

Every time I went into a used book store I looked. At every yard sale I looked. At every thrift shop I looked. When the internet came along I looked there, too. And along the way I found a lot of other good stuff. But this one eluded me.

Then, about four years ago, I was working in Glendale and on my lunch I went into a nice used bookstore, Mystery and Imagination on Brand. In the back, in the locked glass case, they had not one, but two copies of Like Ice She Was. I held them in my hand, but I couldn't pay the price they were asking. I emailed Marlon and told him what I'd found. I titled the email, "Like 75 Bucks She Was." Just too tall a dollar for me to pay for a paperback.

I started going onto Ebay and looking there, doing a search on "Ard." I saw some of Ard's other books, usually Make Mine Mavis. Finally I saw a copy of Like Ice She Was. After 22 years and for 26 dollars, plus shipping, she was mine, knees and all.

Just what the world needs...

another blog.

I read somewhere once that the most common blog entry is "Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this blog." I hope that won't be something that you read here, whoever the hell you are.