Summer Summary

I’m popping in again to remind you that the action these days is at Cocktails and Crime, my Substack newsletter. A recap of the last few months of entries—

The Netflix documentary How to Rob a Bank, and how I was hired to tell the same story decades ago.

Reviews of two new jazz histories.

I marked the one-year anniversary of C&C by going to a book signing for Baseball: The Movie.

I try to figure out why everyone keeps asking me if I’m retired, and why that means staying connected. Also, a related few words on one of the year’s best films, the documentary Flipside.

A pair of books on vintage spirits puts me on a birthday quest to drink Howard Hughes’s whiskey.

A memoir and a raucous comedy set in the ancestral homeland of the Keenans, plus Martin Scorsese’s heartfelt tribute to Powell & Pressburger.

You should subscribe now. I’m always yammering about something.

Elaine May into June

The main news in this post: my new story at CrimeReads on the crime films of Elaine May went live late last month. Swing on over and check it out.

My Substack experiment continues, and is looking more and more like a success. Exhibit A: Cocktails and Crime was singled out in a Drawing Media interview at Kottke.org with polymath Michael Sharp, the man behind Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle, the pulp fiction blog Pop Sensation, and the Twitter account The Lamps of Film Noir. Drawing Media’s Edith Zimmerman even transformed the C&C welcome screen into a gorgeous illustration. If you’re at all interested in my ramblings, subscribing to C&C is your best bet. I give you my solemn oath that I won’t spam you. You’ll receive a newsletter approximately every seven to ten days, with rare exceptions like my coverage of the Seattle International Film Festival. A look at those stories and what else you may have missed—

On murder clubs, death cleaning, and reaching the age of not bouncing back.

I finally read Steven Bach’s Final Cut, which meant finally watching Heaven’s Gate.

I rant about baseball, but actually about something even larger that has nothing to do with sports.

A history of Blaxploitation, Michael Keaton’s second hit-man movie, and more recommendations.

SIFF crime films, including an early look at Thelma, a terrific heist movie, and a questionable Hitchcock doc.

SIFF serves up food and drink fare, like documentaries on Spanish wine and Seattle beer.

Background on the Elaine May piece for CrimeReads, including the story of how I didn’t meet her.

Another round-up of recs, among them a history of the Village Voice.

The infamous Tinseltown P.I. Fred Otash in a biography, a novel, and his own words.

Cocktails and Crime Catch-Up

A summary of what I covered in February and March at Cocktails & Crime.

A recap of this year’s Noir City Seattle, four nights of which I hosted solo.

Revisiting Elmore Leonard’s Get Shorty, both book and film, prompts me to revisit Be Cool, both book and film, which doesn’t prove as good an idea. Also, I matriculate at Rum University.

Reviews of the sublime Perfect Days and the underrated Dumb Money.

Two new books on show business: Edward Zwick’s surprising memoir and an appraisal of every iteration of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Almost four decades later, I finally watch the sequel to Jean de Florette, paired with a suitable cocktail.

Love Lies Bleeding, Drive-Away Dolls, and how my first car made me like the second movie.

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.

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.

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 Carré, 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.

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 Almodóvar.

Bidding farewell to How To with John Wilson and Reservation Dogs, plus I retool my Manhattan.