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It practically gallops!

Cruci Fiction

cover art for "The Inquisitor's Key" by Jefferson Bass In the latest Body Farm novel, “The Inquisitor’s Key,” one character refers to “The Da Vinci Code” by the common expletive  for bovine manure. It made me laugh because the publicists for Jefferson Bass seem eager to capitalize on some of the success enjoyed by Dan Brown’s controversial book. For example, the press release for “The Inquisitor’s Key” reveals a major plot point right away:

Miranda Lovelady, Dr. Bill Brockton’s protégé, is spending the summer helping excavate a newly discovered chamber beneath the spectacular Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France. There she discovers a stone chest inscribed with a stunning claim: inside lie the bones of none other than Jesus of Nazareth. Faced with a case of unimaginable proportions, Miranda summons Brockton for help proving or refuting the claim. Both scientists are skeptical—after all, fake relics abounded during the Middle Ages—but evidence for authenticity looks strong initially, and soon grows stronger.

In Catholic school, we were taught that Jesus ascended into heaven, which means that His bones would no longer be on Earth. A discovery of His skeleton would question the divinity of Jesus. The book, of course, is fiction. Brockton is asked to determine if the bones are from the first century or the fourteenth century.

The story jumps back and forth between the 1300s and the present. In the flashback chapters, the action centers on an inquisitor who later becomes pope and on an artist who creates a portrait of a crucified man on a shroud. The skeleton under the Palace belongs to a crucifixion victim who bears a strong resemblance to the image on the Shroud of Turin. The novel cites real science to explain how the image on the Shroud could have been created by a medieval artist.

Saints known as the Incorruptibles, specifically Saint Bénézet, get mentioned in chapter five. I first heard of the Incorruptibles in 2008 and asked Jefferson and Bass about them during an interview in 2009. Certain unusual conditions make it appear that those saints’ bodies did not decay. Their flesh turned into adipocere, also known as grave wax.

Admittedly, I am a fan of the Body Farm novels. I was a little anxious about the press release, fearing an anti-Catholic slant. Without ruining the story’s suspense, I will say that I found the mystery of the bones and the shroud to be exciting and satisfying. There are some evil characters who are Catholic but there are some evil non-Catholic characters too. The non-religious Brockton questions his own beliefs along the way.

“The Inquistor’s Key” hits stores on Tuesday. If you can’t wait, download the short prequel “Madonna and Corpse” from Amazon.com for 99¢. As a bonus, you get the first six chapters of “The Inquisitor’s Key.”

The official book release event will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8, at the New Hope Center in Oak Ridge. Tickets cost $31 with proceeds benefiting United Way of Anderson County, Friends of Literacy and the William M. Bass Forensic Anthropology Building. Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass will give a presentation and will sign books for those present. Jennifer Alexander and I are co-emcees for the evening. More information can be found at BoneZones.com.

Using an old NPR trick, Jefferson and Dr. Bass recorded an interview with me to promote the new book and their upcoming appearances. A podcast of the thirty-minute program can be found at the bottom of this blog post. If you’re a completist, you can find my seven previous Body Farm podcasts at these links:

FrankMurphyInterviewsJeffersonBass-TheInquisitorsKey-05-06-12 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

May 6, 2012 | Filed Under Body Farm, Catholic | 4 Comments 

Thirty Years More

If it was possible to send a message back through time to the younger me, I would tell myself to drive from Northern Virginia to East Tennessee during the 1982 World’s Fair. I was focused on school, while also working at the college radio station. Later that summer, I got my first job at a commercial radio station, albeit a bankrupt one, in Herndon.

Since moving to Knoxville ten years ago, I’ve collected a few World’s Fair items. To me, they are as interesting as artifacts from the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. I hope to visit the Farragut Folklife Museum before May 18 to see their collection of 1982 World’s Fair memorabilia.

The Fair opened 30 years ago today. The local television stations commemorated the anniversary with retrospective stories. WBIR anchor-emeritus Bill Williams filed a great then-and-now piece.

May 1, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Monumental Clarity

There is a major anachronistic flaw in the movie trailer for “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” It shows a completed Washington Monument. On my last visit, I learned that an anti-Catholic group called the Know Nothings halted construction of the monument in 1855. It wasn’t completed until December 1884, almost 20 years after Lincoln’s death.

One of the comments I made on Twitter about the film caught the attention of Kate Reagan, the director of public relations and marketing at Lincoln Memorial University. She emailed to tell me about the new “Abraham Lincoln at the Movies” exhibit in the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum on the Harrogate campus. A year-and-a-half ago, my wife and I visited the museum to see a replica of Lincoln’s casket.

Kate suggested I record a public-affairs interview Steven Wilson, the curator of LMU’s museum. During the program, I got to gripe about the “Vampire Hunter” trailer in between my questions about Lincoln’s funeral and other bits of historical trivia. We also talked about “The Conspirator,” a movie I saw a year ago. I enjoyed the conversation and thought you might too.

Frank Murphy Interviews Steven Wilson of LMU - Lincoln in the Movies Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

April 9, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

Noct and Di

Interesting stuff happens at night. We all know that the TV networks schedule their best shows during prime time. Concerts and plays generally start at 7:30 or later. I love performing every Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. and I love going to events on other nights of the week. I often meet people who say it’s too late for me to be out. I disagree.

I wake up at 4:30 a.m. on weekdays, which is about two or three hours earlier than most people. When I get tired in the afternoon, I go back to bed, usually for about three hours. Splitting my sleep schedule allows me to stay up late enough to watch prime-time TV or go to the circus or other event.

Segmented sleep used to be the norm. A great article by Stephanie Hegarty of the BBC World Service discusses “the myth of the eight-hour sleep” and refers to the book “At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past” by historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech. In the days before streetlights, people went to bed when it got dark but would awaken in the middle of the night. They would stay up for a while before going back to sleep. Persecuted Catholics held church services in secret in the hours between their first and second sleep.

Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the eight-hour sleep, but Ekirch believes many sleeping problems may have roots in the human body’s natural preference for segmented sleep as well as the ubiquity of artificial light.

March 4, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

Mobile Cranium

Dr. Bill Bass with early 20th century teaching skull Dr. Bill Bass with early 20th century teaching skull The skull in Dr. Bill Bass’ study is from about 100 years ago. It has hinges that open to show sinus cavities and other details. The skull’s original owner, actually second owner when you count the donor cadaver, was a local doctor who used it as a teaching tool. The inside of the cranium is painted with a representation of arteries and veins.

Susan Seals from BoneZones.com asked me to come to the Bass home to record an introductory video that could be shown at some of his speaking engagements. In it, I ask the questions he hears most often. By answering them on-camera, he can spend more time on the specific topic of the lecture.

February 14, 2012 | Filed Under Body Farm | Comments Off 

French Connection

“Midnight in Paris” was a little like “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” for the literary set. The story is a time-travel fantasy that assumes you had at least heard of Man Ray, Gertrude Stein, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. Some of the portrayals are better than others. Adrien Brody seemed cartoonish as Salvador Dalí. I liked the film a lot but I don’t think it will win Best Picture.

Owen Wilson plays Gil, the part that Woody Allen probably would have played if the movie had come out a few years ago. Gil is a Hollywood  screenwriter who longs to write something more substantial. While visiting Paris with his fiancée and her parents, Gil takes a late-night walk. When the clock strikes midnight, Gil is able to catch a ride back in time to the 1920s. Each night, he goes to parties with his heroes of that era and soon falls in love with a girl who had been dating Pablo Picasso. Like Gil, she feels out of place in her own timeline and wishes she could travel back to La Belle Époque.

My wife and I watched “Midnight in Paris” via On Demand over the weekend. It was the third Best Picture nominee we’ve seen so far this year. At this rate, we probably won’t get to all nine before the Oscars especially if we also try to catch some of the films nominated only in the acting categories.

February 7, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Hooverville

FBI Academy in Quantico - movie poster signed by Jimmy Stewart in 1989 A huge movie poster for “The FBI Story” hangs on a wall in a hallway at the FBI Academy in Quantico. The movie came out in 1959 and Jimmy Stewart autographed the poster in 1989. My son and I saw the poster during a field trip to Quantico with the FBI Knoxville Citizens Academy Alumni Association in 2010.

Knox County Library poster for The FBI Story screening Knox County Library - Jack Neely speaks before screening of The FBI Story Last week, I read a press release from the Knox County Public Library about an event on Sunday. They were having a free screening of “The FBI Story” because an early scene is set at the old Knoxville Library. Local historian Jack Neely spoke before the screening. He pointed out that the Knoxville scenes were filmed on a sound-stage somewhere, not on-location.

Knox County Library - ginger snaps, cider and popcorn at Sunday Screening The library had set out ginger snaps, warm cider and popcorn. There were two scenes in the movie where boxes of ginger snaps were plainly visible. I thought they must have deliberately chosen to serve ginger snaps at the screening but the woman who provided the treats said it was just a coincidence.

The movie has the feel of a “Dragnet” marathon with a few elements of “The Glenn Miller Story” thrown in for good measure. Stewart’s FBI partner is played by Murray Hamilton, who also played Mayor Larry Vaughn in “Jaws.”

screen capture from the trailer for The FBI Story Later I watched the film’s trailer online and saw an erroneous claim that “Warner Bros. filmed it exactly where it happened.” Maybe the New York and Washington scenes were filmed on location, but probably not the Oklahoma or South America scenes and definitely not the Knoxville scenes. In a scene set in 1924, an FBI agent played by Jimmy Stewart proposes to a Knoxville librarian played by Vera Miles. She says no, unless he quits the Bureau. If the library has another screening, they can point out that the FBI’s Knoxville field office opened in 1937.

January 9, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments 

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