Sunday, November 9, 2014

Piles

NoirCon has come and gone and I hardly left any skin behind this time. Maybe I'm all growed up. Did have a swell time in Philly, though. Especially enjoyed hanging with folks like Anthony Neil Smith, Christa Faust, Scott Adlerberg, Tom Wickersham, Vicki Hendricks, Andrew Nette, David James Keaton, Amy Leuck, Nik Korpon, Rob Hart, Adam Cesare and Eric Campbell. I only got to see Kieran Shea for about five minutes, but I'd have made the trip just for that chance.

Also had quick run-ins with Dennis Tafoya, Ed Pettit, Eddie Muller, Wallace Stroby, Megan Abbott, Jen Conley, Jon McGoran, Joe Samuel Starnes, Erik Arneson, Chuck Barksdale, Lou Boxer, Jonathan Woods, Paul Oliver, Juliet Grames, Bronwen Hruska, Kenneth Wishnia and Stuart Neville, plus a chance to apologize to Sean O'Kane for past harassments and press flesh with Gonzalo Baeza, Kevin Catalano and Fuminori Nakamura. Plus, y'know what? I got to say 'Fuck Peter Rozovsky' right to the man's face.

And I can't tell you how warm it made my heart substitute to hear he'd kicked off the NoirCon N@B edition with 'Fuck Jedidiah Ayres'. Fuck you forever, Pete.

 Last week's book haul was pretty high quality too. Among others, I picked up the Stark House Malcom Braly omnibus featuring Shake Him Till He Rattles and It's Cold Out There, Ron Hansen's Desperadoes, Jay Stringer's Old Gold, Garry Disher's Hell to Pay, Massimo Carlotto's The Goodbye Kiss and signed copies of Tribesmen by Adam Cesare and Jungle Horses by Scott Adlerberg. Also happy to have received copies of a couple swell books featuring blurbs from me -

Flash Blood by Joseph Hirsch: Flash Blood, much like its main character, is competent, methodical and dogged in pursuing its goal. Unfortunately, that goal is to freak you the hell out. Fortunately it's a lot of fun getting there. The Arklow books rank alongside Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt series as the best weirdest thing going in PI fiction today. Joseph Hirsch is scary good.

and

The Last Projector by David James Keaton: That thing called 'voice' authors are said to have? Keaton's are legion. That 'Tap, tap, tap' you may hear issuing from this book? I wouldn't open it up without a quick 'Klaatu barada nikto' for good measure.


Very pleased to publicly endorse both of these books and both of these writers represent the best of post-genre fiction's future. Particularly honored to have been there for The Last Projector's release party which consisted of me and Keaton in twin beds trying to sync up our simultaneous Netflix streams of John Badham's The Hard Way on our laptops... which is perhaps the most perfectly Keatonian experience I've ever had.



During my travel time I enjoyed knocking Adam Cesare's The First One You Expect, Steve Lowe's King of the Perverts and Ray Banks's Matador off of my TBR pile. Of course when you're surrounded by so much talent and knowledge for even a short time that TBR pile is gonna get outta hand. 

I think my most pressing concern from the weekend is gonna be one of many film recommendations I picked up from Nette: Jules Dassin's Uptight. How the hell had I never heard of this one? I love Dassin - maybe the most palpably angry of the black-list era directors - and the idea of him coming back to the states for a remake(?) of John Ford's The Informers (this time the IRA are black revolutionaries) is just toooooo great to pass up. Of course I can't find it. Of course. Anybody with a connection for this flick, please hit me up. 

So... that's my week. How've you been?

3 comments:

Kieran Shea said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kieran Shea said...

Dang...as I was driving over the Ben Franklin Bridge after my turn n' burn Noir Con visit (btw $5.00 each way DRPA? $5.00 to get back into CAMDEN? d'fuck?)...I realized I forgot to bring all these comics I'd saved up for you.

jedidiah ayres said...

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo