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.

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.

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.

The HBO documentary Being Mary Tyler Moore sends me down the rabbit hole of MTM’s biggest failure, a variety show packed with future stars.

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.

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

4. On my feature story about Walter Matthau in the current issue of Noir City magazine, and William Redfield’s Letters from an Actor

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

Substack Season

Short version: I’ve got a new Substack called Cocktails and Crime, which will be the home for most of my ramblings going forward, so if you’re at all interested in whatever thoughts wander into my head, you should subscribe to it.

Upon the advice of friends whom I trust, I have taken the plunge and hung out a shingle at Substack. The numbers here at the blog have held steady over the last few years, but like so much in life, they aren’t what they used to be. All the action is at Substack, and the cool kids are hanging out there as well. Based on concrete examples from people in the know, I started Cocktails and Crime. Which will pretty much be this blog in newsletter form.

I’m not closing up shop here; I have too many fond memories of the ol’ internet homestead to abandon it. My plan is to use this site to promote my work whenever it appears, and on occasion cross-post some of the longer entries after they’ve debuted on Substack.

The first post is up as of today. But again, the best way to keep up is to subscribe.