Fragments of Noir: June 2013

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Soul of a Deadbeat

If you're losing your soul and you know it then you've still got soul to lose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence.

Charles Bukowski

I remember getting up and coming back to her, and of throwing a shoe at the light bulb later, when the whiskey was gone. I remember the smell of rain-darkness in the room and her telling me i'd cut my feet on the light-bulb glass on the floor. And how she said i was no better than a tramp myself ........

Elliott Chaze
Black Wings Has My Angel
1953

image
unknown

https://www.vulture.com/2016/01/black-wings-has-my-angel-a-perfect-crime-novel.html

Saturday, 29 June 2013

Classic Fragments 23 - What it Does to Men's Souls

'I know what gold does to men's souls'

The Way Some People Die

Double Indemnity

The Conformist

Crime Wave

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

L.A Confidential

Phantom Lady

Casino

Touch of Evil

Strangers on a Train

Dead Calm

Shadow of a Doubt

Sexy Beast

Detour

Friday, 28 June 2013

One Chance in Hell

They talk about you in the press
They got you figured out i guess
Though you never heard of the guy they mention
Sometimes that girl she'll slip you a kiss
But she's just another somnambulist
And you're tired of sleepwalking
The cat's out but he ain't talking

You're just another joker
With one chance in hell
Of ever pullin' that trigger
Of ever feelin' too well

Ride Along
(Hiatt)
John Hiatt
1988

image
Esther Bubley

Like Forever

When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn't love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in the city, they are not so much new, as themselves, their stronger, riskier selves.

Toni Morrison
Jazz
1992

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Arthur Siegel
State Street 1949
reblogged from Arttattler

Thursday, 27 June 2013

Gita Lenz

Self

Torso

illustrations
Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Andreyko
from Torso 1998
Image comics
reblogged from Idlermag.com

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Not to Lose it All

It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to lose it all.

Albert Camus

image

The Set-up

1949

Confessions of Noir

Tuesday, 25 June 2013

This Bloody Mary

At the Aladdin you could rent a suite on the tenth floor for $35 a night. Thirty years previously when the Aladdin was the fashionable Vegas place, these were the high-rollers' suites. My suite had a dark red glow like the Beckett. The breakfast bar was chipped and stained, the red carpet was frayed and the lock on the door rattled flimsily, but you could still imagine what it used to be like. From the tenth floor you could sit watching the whole of Vegas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Out on the pavement i wove through the staggering downtown bums until i reached the bar of Binyon's Horseshoe. I sat down at the bar. A man opposite said 'You think you got problems ? This Bloody Mary is the last thing i own.'

This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own
Jonathan Rendell
1997

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Dice 1950
Stan Douglas/ David Zwirner
reblogged from Newyorker

Stolen Car

And i'm driving a stolen car
Down on Eldridge Avenue
I'm waiting to get caught
But i never do

And i'm driving a stolen car on a pitch black night
And i'm telling myself i'm gonna be alright
But i ride by night and i travel in fear
That in this darkness i will disappear

Stolen Car
(Springsteen)
Bruce Springsteen
1980

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unknown