ReverseBlog (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Updating the private investigator film with September 11 shadings is not a terribly novel idea, but writer/director Noah Buschel isn’t an idea man. He likes feelings, atmosphere, actors, and emotion, and he originally said he was inspired to make The Missing Person because he was reading Raymond Chandler around the time of the attacks—but then he told indieWIRE that he was being slightly...
Fantasy Book Critic (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Behold the birth (and the death) of sporepunk . If Jeff VanderMeer´s FINCH could be summated in but one word (it can´t, mind you, but let´s pretend, just for argument´s sake), it could be this one: sporepunk . Naturally, the suffix punk is more than overrated, and the story doesn´t have anything to do with old cyberpunk or steampunk stories. It is, however, a good, old-fashioned...
Bookgasm (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Raymond Chandler fans, you finally have a gift book of your very own! For DAYLIGHT NOIR: RAYMOND CHANDLER’S IMAGINED CITY, Catherine Corman (daughter of Roger) shot photos of Los Angeles buildings mentioned in the author’s classic hard-boiled prose. Corman’s stark black-and-whites — most taken from a low, neck-craning angle that careens toward the sky, giving [...]
Bookwitch (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
I’m beginning to feel I can’t stand the man. I can’t tell you who, really, because he has no name. He tried pretending to be Raymond Chandler in this new book by Bateman (I know I said I’d only ever call him Colin…), but he’s not. What he is, is an insufferable bookshop owner (there [...]
Thrilling Days of Yesteryear (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
I have returned from a shopping excursion to Publix’s (I know Mumsy and I usually do this on Fridays, but The Singular Case of The Decrepit Water Heater sort of postponed that trip) and since the groceries have been put away, I thought I’d catch up with a few noteworthy TV-on-DVD announcements right after we hear from my sponsor, First Generation Radio Archives (now with the special ingredient…Nostalgia...
Curbed LA (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
For people like Mayor Villaraigosa and Metro CEO Art Leahy, gadfly John Walsh (pictured, right) is a sharp thorn in the side. And for anyone who ever watched a City Council meeting, Metro board meeting, or community gathering on a new train line, Walsh is the anti-Metro screamer who brings up topics like racism, and corruption, and suggests LA's subway is being swallowed by the Earth. At last month's...
Malcolm Redfellow revivus (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
There's only one rule: expediency . It's better than flea-ridden beds : But first: Two mentions in a few days: is Malcolm becoming a cyber-stalker? Anne Marie Hourihane in the Irish Times on Monday was recounting her: main memory of our 24-hour stay in the Berlin of November 1989 is of looking for people to interview, then interviewing them until their ears bled... East Berlin itself looked very much...
Slog (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
There's a conflict-of-interest-y type reading I have to get out of the way first: Tonight is the Literary Death Match at Re-Bar. Authors, including brand-new Stranger Genius Stacey Levine, will compete in front of judges, including Jonathan Evison and myself. The audience will get drunk and probably turn mean before the night is through. I hope you'll join me. Besides that, you have some great choices...
Rough Edges (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
I done run outta words. Seriously, I know where the current book is going, but I don't know how to get there. I have no idea what happens in the next three chapters that I need to write in order to finish off this section. Was it Raymond Chandler who said that when you don't know what to do next, have a man with a gun come into the room? Well, what do you do when you've already done that? (Since this...
BLOGGING MY LIFE - PAST - PRESENT AND MAYBE THE FUTURE! (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Cover of The Big Sleep Image via Wikipedia This week's pub quiz in the local Sunday paper had a round in it entitled 'Sleepy Heads' - either the question or the answer is connected to 'sleep' so that's quite helpful in this round. Question 6 was 'In which 1946 film did Humphrey Bogart play private eye Philip Marlowe?' The answer is of course 'The Big Sleep'. The Big Sleep was a Warner movie from 1946...
LAist (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Ted Danson, Jonathan Ames, and Jason Schwartzman from HBO's "Bored to Death" from Thomas Attila Lewis on Vimeo. The season finale of HBO's "Bored to Death" is this Sunday at 9:30pm and it is a must-watch. There are plenty of McShows out there but this is not one of them and nor will it ever be. The brainchild of author and memoirist Jonathan Ames, the show about an author and part-time...
Vulture (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
Moderator John Hodgman noted that one of these people resembled a "drowned ghostly ship's captain." We'll leave it to you to figure out who. Although HBO has been widely praised (and rightly so) for their ability to cultivate hour-long, original dramas that strike a cultural chord, they haven't had quite the same record in developing half-hour comedies. For every bold success like Curb Your...
Recently Banned Literature (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
California Classics The Creative Literature of the Golden State by Lawrence Clark Powell The Ward Ritchie Press Los Angeles (1971) [click to enlarge] Works and authors discussed: Anza’s California Expeditions , by Herbert E. Bolton; The Journey of the Flame , by Walter Nordhoff; Death Valley in ’49 , by William L. Manly; The Land of Little Rain , by Mary Austin; The Wonders of the Colorado...
Not PC (Free subscription) | 11/01/2009
There were busybodies all over the place over the weekend. Busybodies making sure that you didn’t smoke in bars, drink alcohol in public places and – most importantly! – that you didn’t talk into your phone while your car was moving. This was important work – or so all the busybodies seemed to think. Didn’t matter if you were eating while driving, or putting on your...
Book Soup Blog (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
Have you visited our new Los Angeles Noir section? Check it out.....if ya got the guts. It's overflowing with gangsters, gun molls, rogue cops, and con men. We've got all your favorite writers: Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, James M Cain, Ross MacDonald...writing about the sun bleached streets of Los Angeles and the glittering denizens within. Drop in. Pick something up....if ya got the guts.
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