From Season One of SST - my Audio Noir, based on a real place in Arizona that I visited with my late brother Bob in 2015, "Stranger in a Saloon". click the blue link to listen for free https://www.spreaker.com/user/11578348/stranger-in-a-saloon It takes place in today's West, but in a town with no wi-fi, where the only tablets are found in bottles of Bayer Aspirin. (I wrote this story after my brother, myself, and two other people were stranded for hours in a vast desert with no cell service, after the truck we were riding in got stuck in a sand bog a few miles from one of the largest open pit mines in the world.)

by Bill Russo (January 2022)

The talented but troubled actor David Carridine gave one of his best performances in 1976's Bound for Glory, the Woody Guthrie Story. Best known for the TV series Kung Fu, Carradine threw himself heart and soul into the filming of the movie.

He got so into the spirit of the project that once when they were shooting a scene some migrant farm workers marched by, and David started marching with them. By the time the producers caught up to him, he had marched for two miles and the film was held up for three hours!

David, a talented singer and player of multiple musical instruments, performed some of the songs on this underrated Woody Guthrie film.

The DVD is in stock at most Dollartree stores for $1.25 and well worth that extra quarter!

 

Star In The Night Christmas 1945 - Oscar Winner

A little known Christmas gem from the black and white days of TV. 

Life Begins at Ten!

Everyone deserves a second chance.  For some it comes early.  For others it is late, and for some it never comes at all.  For Jose Mendez, it came at TEN!

The Keys to Life

Waking up at 4:30 on a Sunday morning in early December 2021, a poem came to me, and I couldn't go back to sleep until I wrote it down.  For better or worse, here it is.....................

"The keys to life. I’ll tell you what they are

88 in number, and eight to a bar.

On three sturdy legs they make a stand.

Brought to life by a five-finger hand

The keys can be sadder than a lonely night

and make you feel like you lost your last fight.

Or they can repair anything that is wrong

And break you out into a happy song

The keys are there for anyone to use

For hip hop, rap, rock or the blues.

The keys are there to make a song

Make it good and they’ll sing along.

The keys to life, I’ll tell you what they are

88 in number, and eight to a bar.

On three sturdy legs they make their stand

Brought to life by a five-finger hand."

The Midnight Express - Short Story Theater

The Midnight Express

The YouTube version of the Season Three Episode

 of Bill Russo's Short Story Theater, 

'The Midnight Express'

 

A few decades ago the United States expanded from 48 to 50 states by admitting the warm Islands of Hawaii, and the frozen expanse of the Alaska territory.

Up next two more islands?

Will Porto Rico, aka Puerto Rico, and Cuba be numbers 51 and 52? Before you say nay consider this - about a century ago Guam, Porto Rico, and Cuba belonged to the U.S. as "Territories". Now P R is a quasi state whose people are citizens of the U.S. Guam is still a territory, and it's people ARE CITIZENS of the U.S. Is Cuba next in line? Some people in FLA (especially in Miami) and in Cuba hope that it happens.