Excellent Quotes: Heat Rises

I have been watching ABC's "Castle" since it premiered and -- while it will not win any awards -- it combines puns, crime drama, romance, puns, New York City, puns, and charismatic Canadians Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic...so I am happy.

The general gist: Richard Castle is a famous mystery novelist and divorced father raising his teenage daughter along with his live-in Broadway diva mother. When a copy-cat serial killer parrots the plots of his books, he meets NYPD Detective Kate Beckett, a no-nonsense hottie struggling with the lingering loss of her mother's unsolved murder. After they work together to solve the Castle copy-cat killings, Rick Castle ("Rich Asshole?") and Kate Beckett pair up to investigate homicides in New York along with a team of engaging background players on, and off, the force.

ABC has won my heart forever by publishing three best-selling mysteries as if they were actually written by Rick Castle, complete with acknowledgements from Rick, readers' guides, and author's photos. In them, Castle chronicles the adventures of a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Jameson Rook, and his paramour and no-nonsense hottie, NYPD Detective Nikki Heat.

In Heat Rises (a better title, suggested by his editor, Castle admits, than his woefully bad original Heat Heat Heat), our heroes are investigating the seemingly tawdry death of a Catholic priest. Events lead them to interrogate an attractive and single member of the priest's flock, whith whom he has been working to fund a potentially shady human rights group. Killer puns abound. To wit:

"Emma Carroll was quite attractive in what some would call a cougarish way, but the skin was swollen around her eyes, which had a dullness from medication or despondency, or both. 'I'm still reeling,' she told them as soon as they sat. 'Father Gerry was a great priest and a great man.'

'Were you close?' Heat surveyed her, wondering if there was any forbidden romance lurking, but she couldn't tell, which usually meant there wasn't any. Nikki prided herself on having finely tuned lay-dar."

- Heat Rises. Castle, Richard. New York (NY): Hyperion, 2011. P. 69 of 451.

Ahh, puns. Yay.

PS - You can read Heat Wave and Naked Heat, too, if you like. I did. Oh, and "Night Train" by James Brown is hot, hot, hot; now playing on iTunes.

Do It: Watch the Muppet Show Theme Song

Sometime in, say, 2000, I went to a concert at the Black Cat in Washington, DC. Back then, the neighborhood was woefully sketchy -- not the kind of place you might be hoping to start a cool bookstore or buy a condo. When you went, you brought plenty of people with you, moved swiftly, and exuded a sense of purpose. My purpose was to see a young straight-ahead rock and roll band named OK Go.

They were good. Not earth-shattering, but fun. So I signed up for their email list when I left. I have been getting posts from them ever since and it has been interesting to watch their meteoric rise as they harnessed the power of kooky videos in a viral age.

Anyhoo, they have been tapped to perform the new Muppet Show movie theme song, and--as per usual--the video is a blast.

So do it: Watch the Muppet Movie theme song, which recapitulates the past OK Go videos.

PS - Arghhhhhhhhh! Man, we most posolutely can NOT close this blog entry without recommending the video that really put the boys on the map: "Here It Goes Again" by OK Go, now playing on iTunes.