Have Mandolin Will Travel

"I'm Talking About Shaft" - The Novel and the Film

A deep dive into the classic 1971 blaxploitation film "Shaft" and the 1970 novel it is based on. The film is good and very important to both film and pop-culture. The book is *really* good and it's interesting to see how different it is than the movie despite the events being largely the same.

No Muckle on the Spule Bane - "The Bride of Lammermoor"

Inspired by Opera Orlando's production of the tragic opera "Lucia di Lammermoor." I read the book it was adapted from: Sir Walter Scott's novel "The Bride of Lammermoor." The book is pretty good and, weirdly, often quite funny which is *very* different than the opera. It was an interesting read, especially after having seen the opera.

Remorse and Bitter Tears - Opera Orlando's "Lucia di Lammermoor"

A look at Opera Orlando's 2024 production of "Lucia di Lammermoor," an 1835 opera by Gaetano Donizetti. The opera is based on Sir Walter's Scott's 1819 novel "The Bride of Lammermoor." This production was put in a Game of Thrones setting and was really good. I also read the book, which I will look at in the next episode.

A Return to the Black Hills - "The White Buffalo" (novel)

Part 2 of my series on "The White Buffalo." This one both takes an even deeper dive into the novel which, spoilers, is actually pretty good, and revisits the film adaptation with some enlightenment after having read the source. (I recant some of my theories from the previous episode on why the film is the way it is.) It makes me sad that this book is out of print. Again: it's pretty good.

Impaled on a Sharpened Stake - "The White Buffalo" (1977)

A deep dive into the 1974 Western "The White Buffalo," a film adaptation of Richard Sale's 1975 pulp novel of the same name starring Charles Bronson. This film is kind of a train wreck, but a really interesting one to do an autopsy on. This ended up being the first entry in a two part series about "The White Buffalo". I was so fascinated by this film that my friend James bought me a copy of the out of print novel as a joke. It's *way* better than the film, as in "actually pretty good" and it inspired me to write part 2. (See the next episode) .