SCHOOLCHILDREN PERFORM 'SCARFACE' (watch the vid)

I'll assume some are living under a rock. "Scarface" is the epic 1983 crime drama directed by Brian De Palma, written by then-screenwriter Oliver Stone and starring Al Pacino as the over-the-top Tony Montana.Based on Howard Hawks' original 1932 classic of the same name, it centers on fictional Cuban refugee Montana who comes to Florida in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift. Montana becomes a gangster against the backdrop of the 1980s cocaine...

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MEET SOME EDWARDIAN DRUNKS ... (FUNNY VINTAGE MUGSHOT PICS)

Drunks have always been drunks... Recently, The London Daily Mail compiled a collection of vintage shame-faced Edwardian drunks as they stared rather blankly into the lens of the police camera. The pic above is James Doyle, a laborer whose arrest record listed such "peculiarities" as having two scars on his right forearm and a crossed right eye. He was pinched for being drunk and disorderly in a watering hole -- called public houses back in 1904.These...

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NEVER BUY NEW (flash fiction)

There was a ton of shit to get before the baby arrived. Like most men, he started to stress and dread the arrival. If they were lucky, he thought they'd be able to snag some old baby crap from his brother. Big ticket items like car seats and carriers they'd acquire at the baby shower. Hopefully. His wife said that while they could hedge on some items, they needed the baby monitor to be state-of-the-art. There wasn't gonna be any dicking around with...

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PLAYWRIGHT DAVID MAMET BITCH SLAPS TV WRITERS OF 'THE UNIT'

I love how every now and then playwright David Mamet goes on one of his rants. This time, the Pulitizer-Prize winning scribe had some ire for the writing staff of the canceled CBS drama "The Unit" (which he helped create) and has drafted a snippy memo for what he considers compelling drama. Thanks to Slashfilm for pointing this out. The tirade, btw, first surfaced at Ink Canada.Anyone who read his non-fiction rant "Bambi Vs. Godzilla" knows that...

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HBO'S 'BOARDWALK EMPIRE' (DESTINED TO BE AWESOME)

It's great to see more and more entertainment properties these days being derived from books. The FX series "Justified" uses the work of Elmore Leonard; the Oscar-winning drama "Crazy Heart" was derived from Thomas Cobb's excellent novel and now, "Boardwalk Empire," a new HBO series will use Nelson Johnson's "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City" as its framework.The new series, executive-produced by Martin Scorsese...

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BRINGIN' THE HURT (flash fiction)

Trixi had been with the roller derby roughly two years and felt every bit of it. Bruised and battered at the end of each season proved that these Texas gals took their game seriously and didn't fuck around. Her husband constantly reminded that they weren't in Minnesota anymore. Many of these Lone Star dolls were ink-stained and pierced. She wasn't. At least nowhere visible. Most derby rollers adopted alter-egos much like rockabilly superheroes in...

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MEET ALEX ... ANOTHER AWESOME E-READER (find out why)

While most are touting the Apple iTab, iSlab, iPad or whatever-the-frig they're calling that thing a game-changer, I believe the real game changer in publishing will be the advent of all these new nifty e-readers coming out.Spring Design's Alex eReader is one of the most impressive little readers on the block. The $399 Android-powered device boasts both a 6-inch e-ink display and a 3.5-inch, 16-bit color touch-screen LCD.It's set to ship in the middle...

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YET ANOTHER POE FILM IN THE WORKS: 'THE BEAUTIFUL CIGAR GIRL'

Get ready Poe junkies because yet another Edgar Allan film is in the works...News has recently hit the interwebs (via the India Times) of a cool semi-cryptic quote from Resul Pookutty, a sound man who won an Oscar for his work on "Slumdog Millionaire.Says the film tech:"I couldn’t be happier because I am doing a period film. It is a very special challenge because I have to recreate the sound textures of New York in 1854. It’s an adaptation of 'The...

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ELMORE LEONARD GETS 'JUSTIFIED'

Anyone who knows good crime writing knows scribe Elmore Leonard. Most people, however, may know his work in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, several of which have been adapted into successful motion pictures or TV movies like "Get Shorty," "Jackie Brown" and the terrific "Out of Sight."The scribe is renowned by critics for his gritty tough-guy realism and strong dialogue. His writing style may often take liberties with grammar in the interest...

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OUR AFTERNOON WITH MR. WALKER (flash fiction)

The three of us met in on a base in Okinawa right before the end of the war. Sam, always the big galoot, worked on planes that Buddy the Hick jumped out of. It was hot that July afternoon -- so sticky in fact that none of us grunts were shocked when General Barnes almost dropped dead.For me, though, Barnes' ticker wasn't the news of the day. I learned from a Western Union telegraph that fatherhood would be soon upon me. Needing to get behind the...

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CLOONEY IS EVEN COOLER THAN WE THOUGHT (video)

By now, we all know that George Clooney is a guy's guy and all and probably one of the coolest men on the planet. That's a given. It's not because he channeled Frank as a modern Danny Ocean. Nope. It's not because he doesn't take himself too seriously and it's not because he trades in those model girlfriends as if they were leased vehicles. Ok, well maybe we know he's cool for THAT one.But seriously, here it is the second time he's up against Jeff...

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THE ALBINO TWINS (flash fiction)

I first saw them in Atlantic City sometime before the war. I had just opened a popcorn and peanut stand across from the Steel Pier and one mid-May afternoon, music both oddly macabre and hauntingly serene whisked through the salt air and up the tattered boardwalk.As I followed the music and approached the pier, I noticed the sign:Abigail and Geraldine - The Albino SongstressesTHREE SHOWS DAILYEach performance was only a nickel and every afternoon...

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MY ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE (OR LACK THEROF)

Being that this is Oscar week and all my esteemed writing bud Absolutely*Kate asked many of her peeps to provide some sort of film-related content for her nifty showcase At the Bijou. Being that I'm a movie guy, I dusted off an old project of mine and wanted to give her an essay about its conception. That said, here is an ever-so-brief taste of a much longer essay on her blog about my adventures in the screen trade and collaboration with my buddy...

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DYSTOPIAN BOOKS: TOO SMART FOR TEENS?

I remember in high school that I was assigned to read a fair share of Dystopian novels. Looking back, it was completely understandable since it was the Reagan-era after all. The cold war was running on its last legs and I remember that the notion of nuclear war was a bona-fide fear of mine and that damn "The Day After" TV movie didn't help...But you know what? To a 14 year-old, most of these post-apocalyptic tomes didn't make sense and honestly,...

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