Though I’ve tried recently to put consumerist tendencies on hold, it’s been a losing battle, as the length of these lists will attest.
SONGS
Mose Allison- Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy
Bobby Bland- Rockin’ in the Same Old Boat
Gus Cannon- Prison Wall Blues
Charlie Christian- Seven Come Eleven
Ornette Coleman- Ramblin
John Coltrane- Giant Steps
King David’s Jug Band- Tear It Down
Miles Davis: E.S.P.
Gil Evans- Bilbao Song
Ray Charles- Georgia On My Mind
Merle Haggard- California Cottonfields
Elmore James- The Sky Is Crying
Lonnie Johnson/Eddie Lang- Swing Out Rhythm
Robert Johnson- Hellhound On My Trail
Percy Mayfield- Danger Zone
Thelonious Monk- Epistrophy
Herbie Nichols- Lady Sings the Blues
Charlie Parker- Ornithology
Charlie Patton- Hang It On the Wall
Johnny Paycheck- A11
Webb Pierce- Back Street Affair
Ellis Regina/Jobim- Aguas de Marco
Django Reinhardt- Artillerie Lourde
Sonny Rollins- St Thomas
Randy Weston- Portrait of Vivian
O.V. Wright- Eight Men, Four Women
TELEVISON
Better Call Saul
Cambridge Spies
Deadwood
Detectorists
Fleabag
Homicide
Marker
Smiley’s People
Still Game
The Wire
Books
Nelson Algren- Neon Wilderness
Isaac Babel- Collected Fiction
Joe Ceravolo- Collected Poems
Raymond Chandler- The Long Goodbye
Jerome Charyn- Marilyn the Wild
Harry Crews- Knockout Artist
James Crumley- The Last Good Kiss
Fielding Dawson- Krazy Kat & the Unveiling
Edward Dorn- The Collected Edward Dorn
James Ellroy- L.A. Quartet
Kenneth Fearing- Collected Poems
Otto Friedrich- City of Nets
David Goodis- Street of No Return
Dashiell Hammett- Red Harvest
Chester Himes- If He Hollers Let Him Go
Dorothy B. Hughes- In a Lonely Place
Gerald Kersh- Fowler’s End
Cormac McCarthy- Suttree
Paul Metcalf- Genoa
Derek Raymond- Factory Series
James Sallis- Lew Griffin novels
Jim Thompson- The Grifters
B. Traven- The Cotton Pickers
Donald Westlake- Memory
Places
London
Los Angeles
Perpignan
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Lisbon
Lafayette
Films
Robert Aldrich- Kiss Me Deadly
Robert Altman- The Long Goodbye
Charles Burnett- To Sleep With Anger
Michael Cimino- Heaven’s Gate
Jacques Demy- The Model Shop
Frederico Fellini- Amarcord
Samuel Fuller- Pick Up on South Street
Monte Hellman- Cockfighter
John Huston- Fat City/Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Fritz Lang- Human Desire
Ida Lupino- The Hitch-Hiker
Emilio Fernandez- Salón Mexico
Jean-Pierre Melville- Le Samouri
Nicholas Ray- On Dangerous Ground/In a Lonely Place
Claude Sautet- Class Tous Risque
Robert Siodmak- The Killers
Jacques Tourneur- Nightfall
Edgar Ullmer- Detour
Stuff
Lined notebook(s)
Superior Weissenborn-style Guitar
National Tritone (square neck)
Gibson Hummingbird
Gitane guitar
Vega banjo
Bio: I’m the author of three books on hardboiled/noir fiction: Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold; Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction and Heartbreak & Vine: The Fate of Hardboiled Writers in Hollywood (all published by Serpent’s Tail), and two novels, Cry For a Nickel, Die For a Dime and Days of Smoke (published by Concord ePress). I’ve also written for a number of periodicals, including The Observer, Sight & Sound, The Guardian, and the L.A. Review of Books. My blog can be found at woodyhaut.blogspot.com, where, for the most part, I review the latest in noir fiction, poetry, music, etc.
Photo: Laura Hynd