Vintage Christmas Ads & An Eggnog Recipe

It’s 1964 and Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is limping into ’65 in serious financial trouble. They want to have a laid back Christmas party, well they have to have a laid back party because the budget can’t account for anything else. But Roger Sterling finds out that the heir to the Lucky Strike throne, Lee Garner,… Continue reading Vintage Christmas Ads & An Eggnog Recipe

The Rat Pack and Old Vegas

I’m gonna warn you now, there’s a lot of videos in this one. Bust out the Jack Daniels, it’s Frank Sinatra’s birthday today. In honor of Ole Blue Eyes himself, we’re gonna talk about the Rat Pack. Both of my Grandfathers were Frank Sinatra fans, as were their entire generation. Whatever that ‘it factor’ is,… Continue reading The Rat Pack and Old Vegas

The Americana Art of Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton (April 15, 1889 – January 19, 1975) was the Woodie Guthrie of Americana Art. He, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry were the main artists of the Regionalist art movement, where artists depicted rural and small-town America during the Great Depression. His work is like a Steinbeck novel on canvas. When I look at some of these… Continue reading The Americana Art of Thomas Hart Benton

The LA Quartet

The best known group of works by James Ellroy, The LA Quartet covers the years 1946 to 1958 in Los Angeles and it’s about as noir as you can get. It’s bleak, brutal, and beautifully written. With this being the last week of Noirvember I figured it was worthwhile to write about my favorite neo-noir… Continue reading The LA Quartet

Sticking it to the Man: Counterculture Pulp and Pop Fiction

Let’s face it. It’s 2019 going on 2020 and people are pissed off. It seems the only thing we can all agree is that we disagree about everything. It’s because of this anger in the world that Andrew Nette, aka Pulp Curry and Iain McIntyre’s new book Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture… Continue reading Sticking it to the Man: Counterculture Pulp and Pop Fiction

Celebrities and Cats

Because the internet could really use more cats. Also, today is National Cat Day (in America, it’s August 8th in Canada). To quote Charles Dickens, “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” And he wasn’t the only one who loved having a feline friend in the writers room. Here’s some famous celebrities and… Continue reading Celebrities and Cats

Some of our Favorite Mystery / Thriller Horror Movies

Our favorite horror movies usually have some sort of a mystery element to them. We’d both rather have a solid and suspenseful mystery or thriller than just straight gore. So here’s a list of just that. Movies that bring a little more to the table than co-ed’s getting stabbed by a deranged maniac. Some of… Continue reading Some of our Favorite Mystery / Thriller Horror Movies

Celebrate Noirvember with these Film Noir Flicks

With Noirember right around the corner we thought we’d give you a list of movies to watch in celebration. If you couldn’t tell from our previous articles, we love film noir. And we love talking about our love of film noir almost as much as we love watching them. So here’s a list of some… Continue reading Celebrate Noirvember with these Film Noir Flicks

Universal Monsters

This is still my favorite Universal Opening – The Burbs (1989): A Brief History of Universals Founding In 1906 Carl Laemmle started one of the first motion picture studios, aka nickelodeons in Chicago. In 1908, Thomas Edison’s film company backed the “Motion Picture Trust” with the intent to monopolize the film industry. Laemmle and his… Continue reading Universal Monsters

H.P. Lovecraft and Lovecraftian Horror

From the Guillermo del Toro exhibit while it was at LACMA a few years back.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 – 1937) was largely an unknown writer during his lifetime. His work was primarily published in the horror pulp rags like Weird Tales and Astounding Stories and was never considered “literature.” He developed a cult-like following years after his death. Today people still write about his creations in a Horror sub-genre… Continue reading H.P. Lovecraft and Lovecraftian Horror