Bullet Points: 9/11 Edition

• The program schedule for Bouchercon 2012, taking place in Cleveland, Ohio, from October 4 to 7, has now been posted. Two of the panel discussions I shall miss most (since I am unable to attend this convention) will be Les Blatt’s “What Would Rockford Do?” (about private eyes in mystery fiction) and Peter Rozovsky’s “Murder Is Everywhere” (concerning international settings for the genre).

• Criminal Element has a wrap-up of events linked to Global James Bond Day, October 5, 2012. This occasion will mark 50 years since the theatrical premiere of Dr. No, the first James Bond spy film. Expect the number of commemorations to grow as that date draws nearer.

• Raymond Burr’s 1956 screen test for the CBS-TV legal drama Perry Mason shows that he had the right stuff for that role from the first--even though he auditioned originally for the lesser part of District Attorney Hamilton Burger. Interestingly, this clip offers a much different, sexier version of secretary Della Street. Somehow, I can’t see Barbara Hale replicating that performance.

• Also worth watching: Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead in the 1959 film The Bat, based on the 1920 Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. Elizabeth Foxwell explains that “Moorehead is a mystery writer hosting an array of guests searching for hidden money, as the notorious killer The Bat threatens the residents.” You can take in the whole picture here.

• If you haven’t yet noticed, the blog Crime Fiction Lover is in the midst of rolling out a month’s worth of “Classics in September” posts, all focusing on “great crime-fiction reading from years gone by. Books that we believe have stood the test of time.” Thus far, the series has brought us a look back at Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö’s first Martin Beck novel, Roseanna; a list of “The Top Five Women of Noir”; an interview with Charles Ardai, the co-founder and editor of Hard Case Crime; UK critic Barry Forshaw’s rundown of early 21st-century crime “classics”; and a fond remembrance of one of Ross Macdonald’s oft-overlooked standalones, Meet Me at the Morgue. You should find links to all of this series’ posts here.

• President Obama’s recent criticism of Mitt Romney, that the Republican is “still stuck in a Cold War time warp,” has inspired pretty YouTube songstress Taylor Ferrara to concoct this clever little ditty.

• Crime Beat has posted an interview with Jassy Mackenzie, the South African author of Random Violence, Stolen Lives, The Fallen, and her latest private eye Jade de Jong novel, Pale Horses, which I’m looking forward to seeing published in this hemisphere next year.

• Mischa Hiller submits his new novel, Shake Off, to Marshal Zeringue’s daunting Page 69 Test. Hiller previously imagined an ideal cast for the filming of his book.

• And, because it’s September 11, the 11th anniversary of the devastating attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., let me connect you to a collection of “7 Bizarre Ways You Didn’t Know 9/11 Changed the World.”