Category Archives: Hardboiled

That’s Balto.

There’s a little post-it stuck in my copy of The Black Dahila on the page where Bleichert first goes to the Sprague mansion and gets introduced to Balto. It says, “people who are not like us.” What kind of a … Continue reading Continue reading

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Ellroy

My introduction to the work of James Ellroy was White Jazz. I was browsing the crime/mystery section in the public library and the typography on the spine caught my eye. The jacket and flap copy made it sound intriguing so … Continue reading Continue reading

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What does he get out of this?

Good question. I’m doing this totally for fun. I love hardboiled detective stories and film noir – it’s something I’ve been into for more than twenty years. But if I wasn’t playing along with this course, my only reading would … Continue reading Continue reading

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Those were different times

Looking at the popular reception of some of these books back when they were published is kind of fun in a way because it sometimes shows them in a different light. We look at Mildred Pierce and see a hardworking … Continue reading Continue reading

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Hardboiled Week 12: WIkipedia Project Updates and Indemnity Only (Part 1)

Indemnity Only Part 1 11-13-2012
Tonight was a very fun class, #emoboiled (my new moniker for the class thanks to Dr. Garcia) always makes me happy. We spent a most fo the first forty minutes talking smack (I was in rare … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in emoboiled, Hardboiled, Indemnity Only, Sara Paretsky, V.I. Warshawski | Leave a comment

Paretsky

I had never heard of Sara Paretsky before. I knew of V.I. Warshawski from the title of a movie I never bothered to watch. The 1980′s, from whence Indemnity Only comes, seems to me to be pretty far removed from the  … Continue reading Continue reading

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Don’t mess with Shaft

If there’s one thing I like as much as noir, it’s blaxploitation films. Cotton Comes to Harlem was one I hadn’t seen before I found it on Youtube last week. The novel had funny moments, but the movie seemed to really … Continue reading Continue reading

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Black Capitalism Comes to Harlem

Cotton Comes to Harlem: Black Capitalism from Jim Groom on Vimeo.
This week in hardboiled we read Chester Himes’s 1964 novel Cotton Comes to Harlem as well as watched the 1970 proto-blaxploitation film adaptation by Ossie Davis. One of the elements … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in 1992 LA Riots, Black Capitalism, boyz in the hood, Chester Himes, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Hardboiled, John Singleton, Laurence Fishburne, Ossie Davis, Spike Lee, Watts Rebellion | Leave a comment

Hardboiled Week 11: Wikipedia Research Project & Sundry (Election Night)

Tuesday, Nov 6, 2012 Hardboiled Course Discussion of Wikipedia Research Project
Above is the audio from Tuesday night’s Hardboiled class. We spent most of the session discussing the Wikipedia research project, and started to frame the scope of that over the … Continue reading Continue reading

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A tennis star plays a match with murder!

I have been dying to make this GIF from Hitchcock’s adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel Strangers on a Train for a for a while now. I finally found some time to make it this evening, and as usual making … Continue reading Continue reading

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