The Dark City: Noir Then and Now

I don’t know when noir happened to me.  Perhaps I got my first stirrings from my paternal grandfather’s insistence that I watch the early and eerie Universal Studios monster movies with him.  The fog, the dark villages, the cursed man alone in his plight–these were the precursors for my love of the fatalistic and dangerous cities […]

Driving with James Lee Burke and Dashiell Hammett

It’s been a while since you and I last saw one another. I’ve been packing my bags and books and furniture, everything really, in preparation for the move to Idaho. I keep asking myself, “Where did all of this stuff come from?” Followed immediately with, “Can I live without this?” Somewhere between the start of […]