Paul Ryan O'Connor

I asked if he was escorting Mrs. Jaffee.
"Certainly," he said virtuously. "She is my client. What's that noise you're making?"
"It's something special," I told him, "and takes a lot of practice. Don't try it offhand. It's a derisive chortle." -- PRISONER'S BASE, Rex Stout (1952)

John Cassavetes
#Caturday

“Great artists are entirely themselves. They've got their own vision, they've got their own way of fracturing reality, and if it's authentic and true, you will feel it in your nerve endings.” - David Lynch

Gestapo (points to 'Guernica' ): 'Did you do this?'
Picasso: 'No, you did.'
(True story).

My buddy had a Betamax machine, and Zardoz was his only tape. That was peak.

No One Will Believe You — Paul O'Connor A broke New York gig worker is robbed at gunpoint by the world's most famous movie star.

In "No One Will Believe You," a penniless New York gig worker is mugged at gunpoint ... by the world's most famous movie star.

Published in print, digital, and Kindle Unlimited by Mystery Magazine!

#crimefiction #mystery

When I drop off at the airport I don't even slow down.

Seconded and resolved. Same applies if they ask for a ride to the airport. I'd rather give up a kidney than drive someone to the airport.

Duke Ellington advertising Olivetti typewriters, 1969

Yeah ... never asked for it, don't need it. But they aren't making these things for guys like me who came up on the show. The studios are just rattling old cans, listening for nickles.

I grew up in the Valley, so it was Licorice Pizza for me.

42nd Street, N.Y.C 1967.

‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ was released on this day 72 years ago! (March 5, 1954)

Directed by Jack Arnold.

Screenplay by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross.

Starring Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell, & more.

#OTD #OnThisDay

Happy #WorldBookDay to those who celebrate.

#MarilynMonroe #BookSky #FilmSky #MovieSky

Brian Dettmer's carved book sculptures are created with the exactitude of a surgeon, using clamps, tweezers and Exacto knives to turn unused books into intricate sculptures. He favors out of date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books and dictionaries for his work.

#WorldBookDay

Friends With A Dead Man — Paul O'Connor Stalking the ghost of Raymond Chandler.

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid."

(Or maybe he's just on a walking tour of Raymond Chandler's La Jolla).

#CrimeFiction

Halfway through The Grave’s in the Meadow and it’s batshit crazy. Not good by any metric, but entertaining. In 2 days, man witnesses murder, flees, finds another dead guy, marries woman he just met, & she blows the fuck up via mail bomb hours later. Now he’s robbing a bank.

I have vaguely positive memories of Humanoids From The Deep … but they are distorted by hazy drive-in nostalgia and best not examined in the full light of day.

Having Doug McClure and Vic Morrow in the same film was like wearing suspenders AND a belt. They’re the same guy.

Joanne Woodward and
Paul Newman

Search Me — Paul O'Connor No one should be judged by their search history! Especially mystery writers.

No one should be judged by their search history!

Especially mystery writers.

I think unearthing an identical one on Uranus was the original inciting incident of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In times of darkness, I turn to comics.

This week’s read. The first release in the LOST MARVELS series, from (believe it or not) Fantagraphics. The entire run of Marvel’s short-lived horror mystery title, Tower of Shadows.

A fun collection, with some key work.

#comicbooks #comics #horrorcomics

They were worshipped for a reason.

He knew.

He might have warned us! But, no. Of course not. He's a cat.

(I do note that those smashable statues to either side of the TV set disappear at some point in this photo sequence. Not that a cat might have something to do with that, not at all.)

Jean Harlow, Dorothy Burgess and Clark Gable in Hold Your Man (1933)

But this gritty reboot of the Newsboy Legion changes EVERYTHING!

God bless the old Radiation King. We had one. I watched so much Felix the Cat that it etched my shadow onto the wall.

1962 Corvair Monza … and after that I have no memory, because it was “unsafe at any speed” and I was evidently killed in it.