Thursday, February 01, 2024
2024 So Far at Cocktails and Crime
The main thing you need to know: Noir City Seattle is coming back from February 16—22, and I’ll be serving as your host for the final four nights. Meanwhile, here’s what I’ve written about so far this year at Cocktails & Crime.
Amazon made a show starring an Academy Award winner and didn’t tell anyone, but I watched it anyway. Also, multiple movie recommendations.
Good stuff from people I know: books by Duane Swierczynski and Kate Alice Marshall, and music by Ethan Iverson.
More details on Noir City, a report from the celebration of life held for Murray Stenson, and killer cats.
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Farewell 2023 and December at Cocktails and Crime
Is there ever going to be a year I’m sorry to see end? I seem to remember that happening. In any event, bring on 2024.
2023 did turn out to be when I returned to blog-style writing. It just happened to be at Substack, that’s all. Here’s what happened at Cocktails and Crime this month.
It’s a Shane Black Christmas made its debut over there.
I started doing the program outlined in Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, which meant dealing with the terrors of reading deprivation week. I also reviewed Sam Wasson’s The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story.
I decided to start taking financial advice from movie directors, a choice that I’m sure will not backfire.
25 years of Zero Effect, the great private eye movie featuring a final terrific turn from the late Ryan O’Neal.
Thursday, November 30, 2023
November at Cocktails and Crime
Hey, Substack is pivoting to video! I’m sure that bodes well for the future.
I understand how the game is played. Platforms evolve to the point where they eventually stop doing what you want them to do. Case in point: the now non-functioning Twitter (to hell with that X nonsense) widget to your left. Maybe Substack is the answer, maybe it isn’t. The numbers indicate that it’s working for me right now. Still, I’m keeping my shingle up here even if it’s only to recap what I’m doing there, like the following.
A look at three new books on the big-screen comedies Airplane!, The Blues Brothers, and Anchorman.
Somehow I connect the icy, cerebral thriller Anatomy of a Fall with the raunchy comedy No Hard Feelings. Plus a history of Siskel & Ebert and a martini variation from Phil Ward.My social media report card, along with Kliph Nesteroff’s new history of the culture wars and Scott Eyman’s Charlie Chaplin vs. America.
Jesse David Fox’s survey of contemporary comedy, documentaries on Albert Brooks and John le CarrĂ©, and a cocktail from the glory days of New York’s Amor y Amargo.
The latest spy novel from Mick Herron, plus Nyad and a documentary on the design studio responsible for some iconic album covers.
Monday, October 30, 2023
October C&C Roundup
I’m keeping busy at Cocktails and Crime, my Substack newsletter. This month’s offerings:
The ten-year anniversary of my first book, Down the Hatch: One Man’s One Year Odyssey Through Classic Cocktail Recipes and Lore, plus the evolution of my martini and the French noir Symphony for a Massacre.
Background on my CrimeReads feature about the LAPD films of Ron Shelton, Dark Blue and Hollywood Homicide, both of which were released twenty years ago.
General thoughts on watching new movies at home, plus a few of those new movies: Fair Play, Flora and Son, Wes Anderson’s adaptations of Roald Dahl stories for Netflix, and (in theaters for a change) a pair of short films by Pedro AlmodĂ³var.
Bidding farewell to How To with John Wilson and Reservation Dogs, plus I retool my Manhattan.
Saturday, September 30, 2023
September Cocktails and Crime Round-Up
Another month, another series of posts you can have delivered straight to your inbox for free. Here’s a recap of what appeared in my Substack newsletter Cocktails and Crime.
I resurrected and updated my post on Rabbit Hole, my favorite new TV show of 2023, and touted my low-octane libation of choice.
An overview of the 2022 Noir City Annual, which I edited, plus a rewatch of my childhood favorite Colossus: The Forbin Project and a review of Laura Lippman’s Prom Mom.
A tribute to Murray Stenson, an extraordinary bartender and my friend.
Thursday, August 31, 2023
August at Cocktails and Crime
Things continue to go swimmingly at Cocktails and Crime, my Substack newsletter. Remember, sign-up is free. Here’s what was delivered to subscribers’ in-boxes in August.
A tribute to the late William Friedkin.
Reviews of a trio of new books about show business.
A new season of Project Greenlight, the only show I’ve ever hate-watched.
Wanting to feel uncomfortable, I start an improv class.
Somehow, I finish an improv class.
Monday, July 31, 2023
C&C in July
In less than a month, my Substack newsletter Cocktails and Crime has racked up subscribers in the triple digits. Thanks to everyone who has signed up. If you haven’t, there’s no time like the present. Here’s what you’ve been missing.
1. Introductions
2. My look at Library of America’s Crime Novels: Five Classic Thrillers 1961-1964
3. LOA’s Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969
5. I spin the Dial of Destiny and weigh in on the international capers Gold Brick and The Siberia Job
6. Steven Soderbergh’s SF/comedy web series Command Z, paired with a suitable cocktail