How to be cool

I have long said that Teleport City’s Keith Allison is one of the best film writers on the internet, and now his talent has bled onto the page with his new book Cocktails & Capers: Cult Cinema, Cocktails, Crime & Cool. The book is a perfect expression of Keith’s unique and highly personal take on pop culture, flitting from subject to subject in a way that might seem disorganized in another writer’s hands, but in Keith’s yields one unexpected insight (or, in the case of the cocktail recipes, buzz) after another. It’s also a lot of fun.

How fun, you ask? Well, let me just say that the chapter on lucha cinema contains contributions from your truly—that’s right, me. So it would behoove you to jet on over to Bezos’ place and buy it right now! And while you’re at it, why not throw your support behind another worthy up and coming author? It will make you feel good about yourself.

Have no fear, Bond is here

The 1967 film version of Casino Royale is unloved by many, yet, if you go by number of viewings alone, it stands as one of my all time favorites (seriously, it's well into the double digits). One of the reasons the movie puts me in such a happy place is Burt Bacharach's original score, which I think everyone -- haters included -- can agree is amazing. In a new post on Teleport City, I turn my attentions to that score and, in particular, Quartet Records' definitive, double CD release of it from last year. Rest assured that it is the most toe tapping, French horn inflected piece of writing that I've done all year. Check it out here.