Cocktail of the Week: The Blinker

Me: I’m in the mood for grenadine.

Rosemarie: Don’t forget there’s a grapefruit in there.

Thus is inspiration born in Chez K. The Blinker (modified original)

Shake. Strain. No garnish.

Posted by Vince at 11:39 AM Labels: Cocktail of the Week, Cocktails, Rye

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Movies: Blinked and Missed ‘Em Edition

Catching up with a pair of films that slipped stealthily in and out of theaters ...

Don’t expect historical accuracy from Burke & Hare (2010), which features Edinburgh at its brownest. John Landis puts a comic spin on the famous story of the Irish immigrants who see a shortage of medical cadavers as a chance to make a killing. The movie is never scary, and more amiable than funny. But it boasts a terrific cast. Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis make an inspired double act, with Pegg particularly appealing as he struggles with guilt while spending his ill-gotten gain on an all-female production of Macbeth staged by woman of his dreams Isla Fisher. Tom Wilkinson and Tim Curry play squabbling surgeons, and the forces of justice are embodied by Ronnie Corbett. Even Christopher Lee turns up, for crying out loud. At its best the movie approaches the tone of Landis’ An American Werewolf in London; some key actors from that film cameo here. Mention must be made of Joby Talbot’s Scottish-inflected score, particularly the closing credit song “Burke’s Swing,” making excellent use of bagpipes. It’s no surprise that The Big Year (2011) didn’t score at the box office. The shock is that a dramedy about competitive bird-watching was made in the first place. Three men spend a calendar year racing around North America to spot the most species: Owen Wilson, jeopardizing his new marriage to preserve his old record; Steve Martin as an executive who has waited until retirement to commit to his obsession; and Jack Black as a wage slave trying to pull off the impossible on a shoestring. Nothing groundbreaking here, just a fine group of supporting players as the odd ducks looking for odd ducks (honors go to Brian Dennehy as Black’s irascible dad), lovely scenery, and some nice moments about the benefits of a passion that enriches the other aspects of your life. Plus you learn a few things about birds.

Posted by Vince at 12:59 PM Labels: Movies Posted by Vince at 10:39 AM Sunday, March 25, 2012

Movie: Suspense (1946) Posted by Vince at 11:18 AM Labels: Movies, Noir

Monday, March 19, 2012

Book: Wild Thing, by Josh Bazell (2012) 2 Whatever.

3 I liked it.

5 Statistic trademarked by Vince Keenan, 2012.

7 Obviously.

Posted by Vince at 3:09 PM Friday, March 16, 2012

Book: Interface, by Joe Gores (1974)

Multiple deadlines have me neglecting the blog of late. One thing I haven’t forgotten is Joe Gores’ Interface, which I read several weeks ago and have been meaning to write about ever since. I’m tempted to call this a “Friday’s Forgotten Books” post, only Interface never really faded into obscurity; among the cognoscenti, it’s regarded as one of the key crime novels of the 1970s and the most hardboiled of P.I. yarns. On page one, Docker, Vietnam vet turned bagman, has already committed one murder as part of his plan to boost a kilo of heroin and the cash meant to pay for it. His betrayal sets into motion a manhunt in the San Francisco underworld. Among the first people called: Neil Fargo – always the two names, Neil Fargo – ex-football player turned private investigator turned part-time drug dealer and the man who brought his army buddy Docker in on the deal. Neil Fargo has to run down his old friend before his new partners lose their patience.

It took me a few pages to find my footing in Interface. Gores kicks you into the middle of the action, introducing a host of truly despicable characters in short order. And that’s before the double crosses start and the hidden agendas come to light. What hooked me was the book’s dense, almost fetid atmosphere, a vivid snapshot of Zodiac-era San Francisco, “the muggers’ and pushers’ and prosties’ and hypes’ San Francisco ... the city of cheap hustlers.”

Interface is a throwback. Its relentless narrative energy recreates the pace and feel of a Black Mask story from the 1930s. Gores dispenses with psychology entirely, never bothering with his characters’ thoughts and keeping the focus on their actions in the style of Dashiell Hammett. In many respects Interface is a funhouse mirror version of The Maltese Falcon, so it’s no surprise Gores was chosen to write the Falcon prequel Spade & Archer. All of this tumult is in service of setting up a sucker punch of an ending – and even that is saying too much. Interface is essential reading for any crime fiction fan, and I’m glad I finally got to it.

Posted by Vince at 2:57 PM Saturday, March 10, 2012

Cocktails: Words of Wisdom

With apologies to Ethan Iverson and his recently christened cocktail the Ross Thomas.

Plain water, on the other hand, merely dilutes. It takes away and gives nothing in return. You wouldn’t think of pouring water in your milk or your ginger ale or your Coca-Cola, would you? Then, in heaven’s name, why think of pouring it in your bourbon or your Scotch? A watered drink is always necessarily a flat drink, a lifeless drink, an insipid drink. If you don’t like carbonated beverages (though it is hard to imagine anyone not liking them), don’t drink them; but don’t pour water in your whisky and call it a Highball. Drink the whisky straight and use the water as a chaser. Or take a claret or some other still wine, or a lemonade, or a glass of milk, or a cup of coffee – or even a glass of plain water. And, if you simply must use still water in your whisky or other liquor, use hot water, add a dash of soap flakes, and throw it down the drain, where dishwater belongs. Then dry your glass and pray for forgiveness for the sin of wasting good liquor.

David A. Embury, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948)

Elsewhere: The Wrong Marlowe

The Name of the Game is Death is one hell of a book. But author Dan J. Marlowe’s story is even more amazing.

Posted by Vince at 6:05 PM Labels: Cocktails, Miscellaneous, Wisdom

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Noir City Northwest: Your Belated Wrap-Up

It was a strange Noir City film festival for yours truly this year, evidenced by the fact that this post comes almost a week after the last screening. For the first time in five years I skipped movies in order to partake in the week’s more social aspects. Someone had to show Eddie Muller and local filmmakers and crime writers like the fabulous Skye Moody around Seattle’s best cocktail bars. (Did someone say Seattle’s best cocktail bars? See below.) Herewith, some parting thoughts as I try to resume my regular schedule. Last Tuesday was Comedy Noir night. An oxymoron? Not with Unfaithfully Yours (1948) on the bill. Preston Sturges’s gleeful send-up of the form is my favorite of his films. As Muller said, it’s only fitting that the most vicious, mean-spirited movie in the lineup is played for laughs. Rex Harrison is the orchestra conductor who doesn’t want to believe the worst about wife Linda Darnell, but word of her indiscretions keeps reaching him anyway. By the time he takes up his baton his imagination is running riot, and he constructs elaborate revenge fantasies set to and informed by the music of Rossini, Wagner and Tchaikovsky. For some reason the second of these sequences, with Harrison at his fatuous, self-sacrificing best, reduced me to tears this go-round. Seeing the movie on the big screen was a revelation, highlighting Sturges’s glorious long takes as Harrison disastrously tries to implement his plan in the real world. The packed house was howling for the entire second half.

Another advertisement for seeing films in the theater: the audible gasp that greeted the opening frames of Samuel Fuller’s Deluxe Color and Cinemascope House of Bamboo (1955) during Wednesday’s Fuller tribute.

Even though I saw the two titles on the closing night’s Bad Girls bill in San Francisco only a month before, I stuck around to watch Pickup again. Because you can never have enough Beverly Michaels.

I got my marching orders for the next several issues of Noir City, the magazine. Some interesting articles in the pipeline. Stay tuned. In the meantime, swing by the Film Noir Foundation page and make a donation to keep the Noir City caravan rolling along.

Cocktails: The Seattle Circuit

The latest issue of Class Magazine highlights a dozen Seattle cocktail bars, with my home away from home The Zig Zag Café and Canon, the new digs of bartender supreme Murray Stenson, taking top grades. I vouch for many of the others on this list, too.
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