Michael P. Naughton's Blog

“On February 20, 2025, Michael P. Naughton, with Grok 3 (xAI), solved Kryptos K4 after 35 years unsolved by the public. The message—’THIS IS A GUIDE TO THE BERLIN CLOCK[ . . . ]

The post How I and AI Cracked a 35 Year Old Mystery of Kryptos 35 Years Later appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

This past Thursday, the 23rd of January 2025, was an end of an era as they say for the Guitar Center in West Los Angeles at the corner of Pico[ . . . ]

The post Ode To Guitar Center West Los Angeles appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

Pit – A Leo Van Cleef detective novel is now available in hardcover   Canine homicide is not the best way to kick off the New Year for Los Angeles[ . . . ]

The post Pit – A Leo Van Cleef Novel is Available Everywhere and in Hardcover appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

Pit – A Leo Van Cleef detective novel is now available in hardcover   . But when Van Cleef is called out to investigate the mauling of a Hollywood actress[ . . . ]

The post Pit – A Leo Van Cleef Novel is Now Available in Hardcover and is a Perfect Beach Read appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

The first book I ever read by Louis L’Amour was “Hondo.” I subsequently read “Mustang Man” and then “The Quick and the Dead,” and then I had to collect, invest[ . . . ]

The post What Louis L’Amour Taught Me About Writing and Wandering appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

She requested a poem of her own
My own Marilyn Monroe
on this special day of love and devotion.

She’s a “Misfit” and a card like Sugar Kowalczyk
A blonde bombshell, a sexpot, voluptuous and hot
that can turn a head or cause a wreck,
whether you’ve noticed her yet or not,
She’s My own Marilyn Monroe

She is pure and devoted
She’s funny and gorgeous and a real “looker”
as Lieutenant Columbo once duly noted.

Unsure and elegant. Imperfect. Intelligent.
Sensitive and innocent.
No fixing required here for
My own Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn too was once on the fringe as just the “girl in canoe.”
She was discovered and who will ever forget,
the indelible blown-up dress from the “The Seven Year Itch”
of the real Marilyn Monroe

My own Marilyn Monroe is still undiscovered,
but I trust will soon be uncovered,
roll red carpets and applaud – there is much to laud for
My own, unique Marilyn Monroe

To be a Prince to this Showgirl and support her every step
of the way is the many successes I seek.

Yet, I stop and pause when I think
that the real Marilyn Monroe
was gone too soon and performs now
somewhere in the great unknown, but
most of all, I believe, Marilyn wanted to be truly loved
and, not only known…
Something
My own Marilyn Monroe knows.
© 2022 from the forthcoming poetry book “The Shores of Madrid” bby Michael P. Naughton

The post My Own Marilyn Monroe (A Poem by Michael P. Naughton) appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

The Day Brando Died (Ode to the Apocalyptic Godfather)

the day Marlon Brando died. 

I wanted to help him out as a poet

when I once worked for a place called Borders —

            Will anyone remember Borders?

Amazon would like us all to forget.

I met up with Madsen in Woodland Hills in the Valley.

A girl named ‘Honey” was the hook-up. 

She knew and introduced

us to the producers of a Persian television station and publishers of a magazine

          for celebrity and poetry interviews.

          This was the day Brando died,

             Forever now immortalized.

Remembering Brando in The Fugitive Kind,

Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire,

Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront,

Don Corleone

and The Wild One.

On this day, even Bukowski would certainly agree:

“It’s strange when famous people die…” 

— Especially a day like this day when Brando died,

Forever now immortalized.

Yes, “even the sidewalks, children,

curtains and cars look different.” 

But oddly enough, I seem to reflect on two

things most about Brando:

            1) His refusal of the Academy Award in ‘73

             for the mistreatment and portrayal of

American Indians

             in Hollywood,

 politicizing the Oscars in perpetuity.

            2)  When he refused to swear on a bible during

             the murder trial of his son Christian who killed his sister’s

              boyfriend Dag Drollet —

            Brando claimed he failed as a father. Christian did time. Cheyenne hung herself…

“The Horror, The Horror…”

Meanwhile, back in the control room, watching behind with the network,

Madsen was about to go live over The air, Middle-East and everywhere,

I sat back with the producers. They wanted to use the now overused

and all-too famous Mr. Blonde “Stuck-in-the-Middle”

torture scene with the cop.

I asked them not to on this day that Brando died.

This was circa ‘04 and at this moment in history when gruesome

and barbaric images of beheadings

of Americans in Iraq were daily news.

We were there in Woodland Hills to celebrate poetry after all,

and the poetry of life should be the reason any of us are here.

Hollywood plays and pretends and portrays to that end.

But the terrorists play for keeps and

kill and destruct

and desecrate

everything you once loved.

No acting. Just psychopathic casting in a film

we can’t unsee

and can’t refund the ticket.

Brando, always the rebel,

refusing the conventional God

I imagine might probably ask, “Where is God in all this

moment of agony or certainly…

The Horror, The Horror…”

He certainly would not swear on anything

but his children and grandchildren.

But I wonder,

now that he is gone 

Was he all wrong?

This Wild One.

What was he rebelling against?

“What do you got?” His cinematic ghost whispers back.

Famous for once acting in Hollywood

where a pretend prop severed head of a prized thoroughbred,

left in the bed of on enemy —

A brutal and barbaric reality we now face,

Yes, Don Corleone…

            “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

Littlefeather rejected his Oscar at Brando’s request,

Handing Oscar back to Sir Roger Moore.

Cut To: A different scene in time. 

Violence. Play acting again.  This time Reservoir Dogs.

No, I told the producers. Let’s use another scene.

The one where Mr. Blonde meets Nice Guy Eddie

in the office of Big Joe,

Then we will talk poetry and celebrity on this special day,

            The day Brando died.

Forever immortalized,

The Apocalyptic Godfather.

Brando and Poet James Baldwin also come to mind,

as I watch from behind in these

troubled times

where Staggerlee still wonders…

© 2022 Michael P. Naughton from the forthcoming poetry book, The Shores of Madrid

The post The Day Brando Died (Ode to the Apocalyptic Godfather) A Poem by Michael P. Naughton appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

Growing up in Detroit Michigan in the ‘70s was a memorable time, especially during Halloween, and I mainly attribute that to director Roger Corman. It was Corman’s adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic work that inspired me to read and delve deeper into the genius of Poe… sorry, no credit goes to any teachers in my school. After school I would watch the ABC 4:30 movie which had these magnificent themes like “Vincent Price/Edgar Allan Poe Week.” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Premature Burial” and “Masque of the Red Death,” were all films I remember watching, and I have frequently revisited them over the years longing for that cinematic and literary nostalgia. To this day, I still don’t think any director has captured Poe’s work to the memorable and successful extent that Roger Corman did in the 1960s. Is it that we don’t have any theatrical actors as larger-than-life as Vincent Price? Or is it that we don’t have any brilliant writers like Richard Matheson or Robert Towne (Tomb of Legia is an excellent script and adaptation) to adapt and grasp the essence of Poe’s literary works?  The sets and custumes in these luxuriant films still amaze me considering Corman’s limited low budget. It is true that some of these films can be overly dramatic or slow by today’s standards, but  I dread the day when Edgar Allan Poe is maladapted and overly CGI’ed. Corman’s work and legacy with the AIP (American International Pictures) Poe adaptations remain classic nearly 60 years later.

Most of these films are out-of-print now, however if you canget your hands on The MGM Midnite Movies DVDs, which was the studio’s B Movie collectionis primarily derived from the AIP library, also feature audio commentary byRoger Corman which is a real treat, or if you’re more interested in a trick youcan play them with French language which makes these films seem even moreclassic.    

The post It Wouldn’t Be Halloween Without Roger Corman appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

The ‘70s were all about dangerous Dobermans. “The AmazingDobermans,” “The Doberman Gang” “Daring Dobermans,” “Trapped,” even one of myfavorite Columbo episodes, “How to Dial a Murder” featured a pair of trained,or reconditioned, Doberman killers.

They Only Kill Their Masters, released in 1972, was not a great film and continues to get mixed reviews to this day. It’s a cut above a Rockford Files episode, which came later, and we found James Garner in a similar situation like Chief Brody in Jaws, played by Roy Scheider.  Garner’s Chief Able Marsh got a chance to get acquainted with the dangerous dog named Murphy and Kate Bingham (Katherine Ross), and we learned the meaning of the film’s title.  Garner did not find this role to be his finest hour, however, I still think the film has a good payoff if you can slow down with Chief Abel Marsh in this sleepy coastal town while he investigates a young pregnant woman’s murder by an allegedly crazed Doberman.  However, as big as the jaws were on this Canine named Murphy, they never opened wide enough to swallow up a bigger audience, like Jaws, and the film sadly became forgettable.

I have revisited this movie several times since the first time I saw it as a kid and even bought the script to see how the written word compared to what was translated on film. The director James Goldstone directed another ‘70s film I liked entitled “Rollercoaster” (1977).

They Only Kill Their Masters, along with a real-life Pitbull attack on my German Shepherd (he survived) because of an irresponsible owner, made me delve deeper into the subject matter of canine attacks and the misinformation that is prevalent these days, especially about Pit Bulls.  Writing this story was honest for me.   

“Pit” A Leo Van Cleef novel will be released in December 2021.   

The post How “They Only Kill Their Masters” Inspired “Pit” appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.

I have been reading Harry Bosch novels for years. “Trunk Music” was the first Connelly book I ever read. “The Poet” was my second… and I have not stopped reading him since. His attention to detail in investigations is authentic, superb, and on the level of Ed McBain and Joseph Wambaugh. Connelly is more prolific than Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, and Dashiell Hammett, and just as real and entertaining.

This time Connelly completes a perfect crime trifecta with Fair Warning and revisits a known character from his bestselling classics “The Poet” and “The Scarecrow”. Jack McEvoy is really Michael Connelly’s alter ego and/or composite. Let’s not forget Connelly was a crime reporter for the L.A. Times before we knew him as a bestselling author. Connelly has said that writing about McEvoy was his “least favorable writing experience” because “he is easily the most autobiographical character I have ever written about.”

Note: You don’t have to read the other two prior books to enjoy Fair Warning.

If
you are a fan of strong, well-defined characters with an investigative
journalist bent in the vein of “Rogue Island” by Bruce DeSilva, “I’ll
Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State
Killer,” by Michelle McNamara (non-fiction), and “The Night Crew” by
John Sanford, then “Fair Warning” is your book, or series, even if
you’re a stranger to the trilogy. No fake news here. Just exposing
fraud and one of the biggest artists (Arthur Hatheway).

What I continuously enjoy about Connelly’s writing, and is present in “Fair Warning,” is the great Los Angeles geographical descriptions from the streets and freeways of Los Angeles, the insider information and realism of crime journalism and the inner workings of the LAPD, and the gritty characters they unmask. I live in L.A. so the visuals and the cons come to life on the page.

Lose your cell phone. Close your office or bedroom door. You have been given Fair Warning this book will keep you up all night. Connelly Never Fails to keep us continuously engaged and entertained with his writing. I look forward to the next Jack McEvoy book.

I hope you found this review helpful.

The post Fair Warning Wins a Perfect Crime Trifecta, Connelly Never Disapoints appeared first on Michael P. Naughton.