I just finished James Ellroy’s Blood’s A Rover. It’s the second big, sprawling, American novel I’ve read this year and it’s fucking amazing. It’s the book about the sixties I’ve always wanted to read. (The other big, sprawling, American novel … Continue reading
Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza was announced the surprise winner of the Ridenhour Book Prize last week according to the Los Angeles Times. I just read Footnotes in Gaza a couple of weeks ago, and it’s fantastic. For the first … Continue reading
Parkerizing at home. “Fucking women is as monotonous as listening to male wit. I find that the news in the papers is always the same, that the vices are trivial, and that there aren’t enough different ways to compose a … Continue reading
Guns, Books, Etc. Bastardilla. NEED IMAGE – 3452041750_1c96a3d8be.jpg http://www.flickr.com/photos/bastardilla “That time was tragic, it hurts to think about it, and the toxins produced by the great assassinations are still draining into American life. It’s possible that it takes an obscene, … Continue reading
Guns, Books, Etc. The tactical sharpie. http://www.globalgear.com.au/prod521.htm Israel’s Kafkaesque bureaucracy colonizes the occupied West Bank one settlement at a time. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4880/making_the_illegal_legal/ “The most important writing tool in James Ellroy’s apartment is his leather couch. For hours every day, the author … Continue reading
James Ellroy’s Blood’s a Rover is out today, and the Demon Dog is everywhere. So far my favorite bit comes from the Economist‘s review. Only Roberto Bolaño, with his genre-bending mysteries, approaches Mr Ellroy’s skill at simultaneously hewing to and … Continue reading
Watched James Ellroy’s Feast of Death last night. The high point was Ellroy’s explanation as to why the Kennedys didn’t sue him after American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand. If the Kennedys protested everything that was written about them, … Continue reading
James Ellroy on Dashiell Hammett and the Pinkertons, from The Guardian. Dashiell Hammett was allegedly offered five Gs to perform a contract hit. It is most likely a mythic premise. He was a Pinkerton operative at the time. A stooge … Continue reading
From Salon. I watch boxing on TV and I listen to classical music. I talk with my wife a lot and exercise. Culture to me is just shit in the brain. I just hate it when I tour overseas and … Continue reading
Buy Satan is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers from an indie bookstore, Amazon.com, or Barnes & Noble.
Buy Pike from an indie bookstore, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or PM Press.
Buy Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail! from an indie bookstore, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or PM Press.