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    Monday, September 07, 2009

    Sort Of Related: Richard Stark Edition

    Effective may not sound like the highest compliment. But it is in the world of Parker, the professional thief created by Donald E. Westlake under the pen name of Richard Stark.

    And the new graphic novel adaptation of The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke is brilliantly effective. Cooke’s clean, dynamic art, rendered with a sharp eye for early ‘60s detail, suits Stark’s stripped-down prose perfectly. The result is the best interpretation of the character to date, and that includes the two cinematic versions of this book. It’s a potent moment when Parker finally raises his face to a mirror and we see his grim Jack Palance mug. But it’s the blank eyes of the wife who betrayed Parker and left him for dead that fully reveal the power of Cooke’s style.

    Reading the comic triggered a hunger for Stark in pure form so I read the second entry in the series, 1963’s The Man with the Getaway Face. (Cooke’s take on this book will be published next summer.) Parker’s gotten plastic surgery after the events of The Hunter. Desperate for cash, he signs on for a heist that he already knows comes with a double-cross. His only hope is to beat his supposed partner to the punch. But there are unexpected complications, including one involving Parker’s new look. Do I even have to tell you it’s good?

    Elsewhere, critic Paul Matwychuk goes on a Parker roll, watching three movies about the character in a row.

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    Monday, September 29, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    It’s a casting call for your favorite married film geeks, below or here.

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    Sunday, September 21, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    Your favorite married film geeks are back on schedule. This week’s installment below or here.



    Miscellaneous: Tweets for the Tweet

    Posting will continue to be erratic. The bloom is not off the blogging rose, but it’s clear to me that this site is evolving into something else.

    Therefore, I’ve added my Twitter feed to the main page. 140 characters at a clip I can do, usually several times a day. Find out what I’m having for lunch! Learn why the person in front of me at the supermarket annoys me! Discover where I itch! And assorted pop culture bon mots. Just look to your left.

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    Sunday, September 07, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    Your favorite married film geeks brave the elements, below or here.

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    Sunday, August 31, 2008

    Miscellaneous: Southland Links

    The Los Angeles Times picks the 25 best L.A. movies of the past 25 years. Complete with map. And for the record, Fletch is a good film.

    Comics: Two, Please

    Trouble at the multiplex for your favorite married film geeks in the latest installment of our web comic, available below or here.

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    Sunday, August 24, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    Things get technical for your two favorite married film geeks. This week’s installment below or here.



    Miscellaneous: Movie Links

    In the 1980s, nobody mixed high and low like Cannon Films. They worked with Chuck Norris and John Cassavetes, produced Barfly and American Ninja. (Not to mention one of my favorite movies of that decade, Runaway Train.) Menahem Golan, one of the men behind the company, is still going at age 80. Films in Review has an interview. One gripe: how can you not ask Golan about his greatest directorial ... I’m going to go with “achievement,” The Apple?

    I’m late in finding the GreenCine interview with Harlan Coben and Guillaume Canet about their late summer arthouse hit Tell No One. Coben’s descriptions of the never-produced Hollywood versions of his novel are chilling, and further proof of this site’s long-held belief that all thrillers should initially be made in France.

    Excerpts of Woody Allen’s diaries from Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The movie, his best in several years, is also worth checking out.

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    Wednesday, August 20, 2008

    Miscellaneous: Links

    By popular demand*, we have set up a Flickr page for our web comic Two, Please. Now it’s even easier to enjoy the exploits of your favorite married film geeks. Of course, if you really want to support the team, you should go to our Bitstrips page and leave comments, kudos, and laughs. Two, Please is turning into a popular feature at Bitstrips, but we welcome any help we can get.

    Elsewhere –

    Experience the joys of cooking the Vincent Price way.

    I’m a big fan of the AV Club’s Random Roles feature, which asks character actors to survey their own careers. The latest subject is one of my favorites: Brian Cox. I must confess a certain degree of disappointment that no mention is made of Cox’s sterling performance as Captain O’Hagan in Super Troopers. Last night I discovered that Cox’s new film Red, based on the novel by Jack Ketchum, is also playing via On Demand during its limited theatrical release. I hope to check it out in the next few days.

    * Term applied very loosely

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    Sunday, August 17, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    Your favorite married film geeks are back with their most obscure reference yet! The latest installment is below or here.

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    Sunday, August 10, 2008

    TV: TCM Picks of the Week

    As part of the network’s Summer Under the Stars festival, two fine noir dramas air this week. Pushover (Tuesday @ 8PM EST/5PM PST) marks Fred MacMurray’s return to the shadows after Double Indemnity. And The Money Trap (Friday @ 1:30PM EST/10:30AM PST) is a late career reunion for Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth. While neither film is a lost classic, both are worth pushing the record button for.

    Comics: Two, Please

    Things get spicy for your two favorite married film geeks in the latest installment, which is below or here.

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    Sunday, August 03, 2008

    Miscellaneous: Blowing Out The Candles

    Today’s my birthday. Normally I don’t gloat over my gifts, but this year I received the best one ever – a portfolio of photographs of my blushing bride taken at Old School Pin-Ups. I believe the technical term is “Yowza!” Thanks, sweetie.

    Miscellaneous: Your Young Men’ll Be Twittering

    Yes, I’m on Twitter now. Technically, I’ve been on Twitter for months – I’ll sign up for anything – but I never used it. Once I saw that Banks and Matt were on there, I decided to give it a try. I know already I will never be as pithy as Warren Ellis, whose update from yesterday (Condition: Pub) is as fine a piece of writing as I’ve read all year. Feel free to follow me and find out what I’m doing every minute of the day as I expand the Vince Keenan brand.

    Books: Movie Mystery Link

    In his latest column for the San Francisco Chronicle, Eddie Muller reviews a slew of crime novels with movie backdrops. I can echo his praise of Loren D. Estleman’s Frames. Oh to be in San Mateo, now that Adrienne Barbeau is there.

    Comics: Two, Please

    Your favorite married film geeks are back! Latest installment below or here.

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    Sunday, July 27, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    The full report on all New York doings is still to come. In the meantime, your two favorite married film geeks return. This week’s installment is below or here.

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    Sunday, July 20, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    Your two favorite married film geeks return, primed for adventure on the high seas! This week’s installment is below or here.

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    Sunday, July 13, 2008

    Miscellaneous: Boot And Reboot

    It was bound to happen eventually. After years of roaming the Wild West ranges of the internet, never troubling no man and receiving no trouble in kind, I finally got winged.

    My primary computer came down with a case of malware on Friday afternoon. It’s not even a particularly bad case; just a blitz of pop-up ads (for anti-malware software, very funny). Thanks to Rosemarie’s tech know-how, we’ve narrowed the trouble down to a single tenacious file that refuses to be killed.

    For the time being I’ve switched to my laptop, a machine that, truth be told, I prefer anyway. I may not be posting much until we get the matter resolved. But we’re not letting it spoil the fun. Behold!

    Comics: Two, Please


    This week’s installment is below or here.

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    Sunday, July 06, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    This week’s installment is below or here.

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    Monday, June 30, 2008

    Book: Hollywood Crows, by Joseph Wambaugh (2008)

    Back in April I raved about Wambaugh’s Hollywood Station and said I’d be digging into the sequel post haste. I’d hoped to last a little longer than this, to save the book for when I needed a good one. Still, willpower’s overrated anyway.

    Crows is another group picaresque about the men and women of the LAPD. The surfer cops Flotsam and Jetsam are back, as is aspiring actor Nate Weiss. There are plenty of new characters, though, many of whom work as Community Relations Officers, the CROs of the title, responsible for “quality of life” complaints. It’s supposedly a cushy job, but as always with Wambaugh we soon discover that no part of police work is easy.

    Again, there’s a gossamer of plot, as a drug addict and a divorcing couple taking their animus to murderous lengths cross paths with various police officers and each other en route to a blowout of a climax. But it’s basically an excuse for the snapshots of cop life, from hilarious to shattering, that no one does better than Wambaugh. These books are like stews made from the same basic recipe, each time with different seasonings. The resulting meals always satisfy, yet never taste exactly the same. As long as Wambaugh is dishing them out, I’ll grab a space at the table.

    Comics: Two, Please

    This week’s installment is below or here.

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    Sunday, June 22, 2008

    Book: Frames, by Loren D. Estleman (2008)

    In January Loren D. Estleman published Gas City, a muscular tale of corruption in a fading Midwestern burg that’s my favorite book of the year so far. That would be enough for most people. But here he is back again, with a novel that’s completely different in tone but every bit as polished.

    Valentino, the UCLA archivist who bills himself as a “film detective,” has appeared in several short stories. In his first book-length outing, Valentino is ready to settle down. Where else but in a movie theater? He buys the Oracle, a Hollywood picture palace otherwise destined for the wrecking ball. In the basement he makes a pair of startling discoveries. A human skeleton, bricked up for decades. And a complete copy of Erich von Stroheim’s infamous Greed, long thought to be lost forever. There’s only one way to keep the precious reels of film from becoming the property of the LAPD, and that’s to solve the murder himself.

    It’s always strange to read a book that seems to have been conceived with you in mind. I am, need it be said, something of a film geek. My last post was about an Al Jolson movie, for crying out loud. So any novel featuring a character who praises the police by saying “there’s not a Barton MacLane or a Bill Demarest to be found” will go down easy. Factor in Estleman’s sparkling dialogue and evocative prose and I’m in heaven.

    OK, I do have one complaint, but it’s not about the book. A few months back Estleman sponsored a trivia contest at his website to promote Frames. I didn’t win, and that’s fine. I never win. But Estleman says only one person answered all ten rather difficult questions correctly. I would argue that technically, I also went ten-for-ten. Still, I’m willing to forgive. That’s another thing I learned from the movies.

    Speaking of Erich von Stroheim, I wrote about The Great Flamarion, in which he appeared as an actor, here. And speaking of film geeks ...

    Comics: Two, Please

    This week’s installment is below or here.

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    Sunday, June 15, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    This week’s installment is below or here.



    Movie: The Incredible Hulk (2008)

    Two hours of solid, entertaining superhero action. Rosemarie, who knows about this kind of thing, assigns bonus points for Tim Blake Nelson’s performance as the most believable movie scientist in a long time. Louis Leterrier has directed four films including The Transporter and its sequel, plus the woefully underrated Unleashed with Jet Li and Bob Hoskins. I like ‘em all.

    Music: James Hunter, The Hard Way

    Perhaps, like Carl Carlson, you have asked, “How ‘bout some new oldies?” If so, ask no more. The latest album from James Hunter is out, and it’s like a wormhole has opened to the early 1960s, pumping out original music with that vintage sound. Part soul, part R&B, all tasty. Give it a listen.

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    Saturday, June 07, 2008

    Comics: Two, Please

    The further adventures of your favorite married film geeks continue below. Or here, if that doesn’t work for you.

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    Sunday, June 01, 2008

    Comics: The King (And Queen) Of All Media

    So I’m reading Wired magazine – yours truly has always been a forward-thinking guy – and there’s a shoutout to Bitstrips, a site that allows anyone to create very basic online comics. And I mean anyone, because even I figured it out. Later, I show Rosemarie my handiwork.

    Me: So what do you think of the cartoon versions of ourselves?

    Rosemarie: I have to admit, they do kind of look like us. What do we do with them?

    Me: We could make a comic strip starring a pair of married film geeks.

    Rosemarie: (long beat) I’m on it.


    And so, without further ado, the premiere installment of Two, Please. Written by both of us, titled and designed by the missus.



    Like it? Here’s another one.



    In case the reader doesn’t work, here are links to strip one and strip two.

    The idea is to do at least one a week. Although we said that about the Shamefaced podcasts, and we all remember how that turned out. But hey, we’re busy people.

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