Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour. 
The Dashiell Hammett Tour
1977-2022
Arkham House Ephemera
The Classic Years 1937–1973
Death Lit
Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
Willeford
The Book
Tag Archives: Contrappasso
Sinister Cinema: Orson
I believe it was sometime in 2010 or so when Matthew Asprey — more recently writing under the longer handle of Matthew Asprey Gear — hoofed These Mean Streets on the Hammett tour. He mentioned the moment in a book … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Frisco, News
Tagged Bret Wood, Contrappasso, Fully Dressed and in His Right Mind, John Fante, Lady from Shanghai, Lilly Library, Matthew Asprey, Michael Fessier, Orson Welles
Rediscovered: Block on Willeford/Block on Block
The recent mentions of Charles Willeford caused Terry Zobeck to prowl the net for awhile, where he discovered an article from yesteryear in which Lawrence Block remembered his meetings with Willeford — pretty interesting, especially the bits about eating cat, though … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Frisco, Lit, News, Tour, Willeford
Tagged "Oreo Cookie Blues", "Teddy Bears' Picnic", 8 Million Ways to Die, A Necklace of Hickeys, Blanco's, Contrappasso, Dave Van Ronk, Ethan Iverson, Great American Music Hall, Greenwich Village, Grimhaven, Hoke Moseley, Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel & Ethan Coen, Lawrence Block, Lonnie Mack, Miami Blues, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Terry Zobeck, The Dude
Sinister Cinema: Too Late for Tears
Another year of Noir City — without the usual bleak noir rain — opens in the Castro Theatre tonight, with a specially restored 35mm print of the Roy Huggins film Too Late for Tears. Dennis McMillan and I were thinking … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, Film, Frisco, News
Tagged Castro Theatre, Contrappasso, Howard Browne, Noir City, Roy Huggins, Too Late for Tears
Posse McMillan: Contrappasso Noir
Dennis McMillan has been buzzing through the area lately — you’ll remember he got his car with Kansas plates stolen as an early Xmas present — and a few weeks later he got the ticket for his stolen car running … Continue reading
Rediscovered: More Contrappasso
Recently a 1977 issue of The Diversifier that I’d never seen before passed through my hands. It included a memoir of Edmond Hamilton by E. Hoffmann Price and a two-pager I hadn’t known about, in which Fritz Leiber discussed his tribulations … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged AHMM, Contrappasso, E. Hoffmann Price, Edmond Hamilton, Elmore Leonard, Farnsworth Wright, Firsts, Floyd Salas, Fritz Leiber, Harry Morris, Kindle, Matthew Asprey, Nyctalops, PW, The Cimmerian, The Diversifier, The Romantist, Weird Tales
Posse McMillan: CrumDog Speaks
The magazine Contrappasso is going a little interactive. You now can read the piece of autobiography Floyd Salas contributed to the first issue online — and the interview with James “Crumdog” Crumley by Noel King also gets an online … Continue reading
Rediscovered: More Life of Floyd
Got a note from Matthew Asprey that he’s got another publishing deal gone down — the magazine Contrappasso. Haven’t seen it yet, but a star feature for Up and Down These Mean Streets types would be a new autobiographical piece … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Contrappasso, Eddie Little, Edward Bunker, Floyd Salas, Jack Kerouac, James Crumley, Jim Tully, Matthew Asprey, Raymond Chandler, William S. Burroughs
