Blogs your way
Ultimate Pulp the Fifth Grave by Jonathan Latimer & Night Squad by David Goodis ('ultimate Pulp)
Bookgasm (Free subscription) | 03/09/2010
Stark House Press casts the two novels in IT’S ALWAYS FOUR O’CLOCK / IRON MAN under the noir banner. But let me clarify: This is not bang-bang/shoot-’em-up noir. W.R. Burnett’s works more fall into the like-minded world of David Goodis and Charles Willeford. An introductory essay by David Laurence Wilson gives a history of Burnett [...]
Ed Gorman Blog (Free subscription) | 02/27/2010
Forgotten Books: Down There by David Goodis "Love between the ugly/is the most beautiful love of all." --Todd Rundgren I haven't kept up with all the Goodis mania of the past five years or so so forgive me if what I'm about to say has been said not only better but quite often as well. To me Down There is one of Goodis' finest novels filled with all his strengths and none of his weaknesses....
ImpossibleFunky Productions (Free subscription) | 02/04/2010
It's official... March is Mike White Month. I claim it. March 5 brings the premiere of Larry Withers's David Goodis: To A Pulp to Philadelphia. I've not seen the final cut yet but I've been assured that I'm in it, pontificating about the film adaptations of Goodis's work. For details on the premiere screening check out DavidGoodis.com . And, if you can't make the premiere, the documentary is ( available...
The Rap Sheet (Free subscription) | 02/01/2010
Sorry to have been a bit quiet over these last few days, but I’m busily editing/rewriting somebody else’s book about one of America’s Founding Fathers. The project is educational, but it’s also taking a great deal of time to translate this academic prose into popular-history-style English. So for today, just a few quick hits: • I hope that the juvenile pissing match now...
Secret Dead Blog (Free subscription) | 01/31/2010
That is to say, in a documentary. Larry Withers' long-awaited David Goodis... To a Pulp will make its screen debut in a little more than a month, and you're invited. You can find more details (and a segment from the documentary) over at Lou Boxer's NoirCon site .
ImpossibleFunky Productions (Free subscription) | 01/31/2010
Readers may recall that I went down to Philadelphia back in 2007 for an interview about David Goodis . It was for Larry Wither's documentary, David Goodis: To A Pulp . Now, I'm happy to announce that the project is complete. It's going to be premiered in March, 2010 in Goodis's native Philadelphia. Here are the details from "The Writer In The Gutter": What: David Goodis: To A Pulp Produced...
Secret Dead Blog (Free subscription) | 01/11/2010
Above, Philly native Dan Wolkow (that's Professor Wolkow to some of you) at the intersection of 10th and Loudon in Philly's Logan neighborhood, where noir writing legend David Goodis grew up. Two decidedly un-thuggish things about this photo: the cigarette in Dan's mouth is fake. And behind the stone barriers are two mini-vans . Still, there was much fun at yesterday's Goodis Tour and Memorial 2010,...
Secret Dead Blog (Free subscription) | 01/11/2010
"They spotted him on Race Street between Ninth and Tenth. It was Chinatown in the tenderloin of Philadelphia and he stood gazing into the window of the Wong Ho restaurant and wishing he had the cash to buy himself some egg-foo-yung. The menu in the window priced egg-foo-yung at eighty cents an order and he had exactly thirty-one cents in his pocket. He shrugged and started to turn away from the...
The Rap Sheet (Free subscription) | 01/07/2010
• A new addition to The Rap Sheet’s blogroll: My Year in Crime , the product of Dan Fleming, who describes himself as “the writer/co-creator of Warrior Twenty-Seven , the independent comics anthology.” Check it out. • I’m sorry to say that it’s been a while since I read one of Graham Hurley ’s Portsmouth novels featuring Detective Inspector Joe Faraday....
Secret Dead Blog (Free subscription) | 01/06/2010
"The house was a bungalow on the outskirts of Frankford, where Philadelphia gives way to the Roosevelt Boulevard. It was a neighborhood of new homes, low-priced but solidly constructed. The bungalows were detached and each had a reasonably wide skirting of lawn, a small garage, an open porch, and an altogether attractive appearance. They were nice little bungalows and it was a clean and pretty...
Secret Dead Blog (Free subscription) | 01/03/2010
"He wondered if there was a lot of crime in Germantown. If things hadn't changed there wouldn't be much police activity there, because long ago when he was at the University he saw Germantown as a collection of dignity, just a bit smug and perhaps unconsciously snobbish against the historical background and the old colonial flavor. It might still be quiet and dignified up there. He wished he had...
Secret Dead Blog (Free subscription) | 12/30/2009
I've long known that noir legend David Goodis was born in Philly's Logan neighborhood. But until Lou Boxer and Aaron Finestone sent me the above photo, I never knew it was that part of Logan. And by "that part" I mean the notorious sinking homes of Logan . Seems that 80-plus years ago, some developer decided it would be okay to build a neighborhood on top of old creekbeds filled in with ash...
The Rap Sheet (Free subscription) | 12/28/2009
• Last week we reported that John Shannon has signed with publisher Severn House to produce future entries in his Jack Liffey detective series. Now comes this note from Private Eye Writers of America founder and author Robert J. Randisi : Looks like Severn House is making many good decisions of late. Aside from signing Gar Haywood and John Shannon, I’ve come to terms and am about to sign...
Secret Dead Blog (Free subscription) | 12/13/2009
We're less than a month away from the second annual graveside ceremony honoring Philadelphia noir legend David Goodis (above left). You can read my coverage from last year's event here ; I'll definitely be headed back this year. The details are in from Aaron Finestone and Lou Boxer: "From the nearby Delaware a cold wind came lancing in, telling all alley cats they'd better find a heated cellar"...
Bookgasm (Free subscription) | 12/09/2009
The one and only David Goodis makes bleak look so good. This time out, I’m covering three of his novels, all of which are super-depressing noir. It’s not like the guy ever wrote a happy ending, so what could make this holiday season brighter than the man from Philly who reveled in the darkest corners? [...]
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