I know that blog title sounds odds, but I couldn't think of anything more appropriate for this particular column, with so many disparate things going on in the Thrillville Zone. Let's just dive right in:
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| Co-author Scott Fulks and me at Forbidden Island |


This has already been a satisfactory year, from a literary POV. A couple of weeks ago, after a night in
Noir City at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, our pal (and official Noir City announcer) Bill Arney took us for a private tour of his old apartment - which was also once occupied by an even more famous local personality, legendary detective writer
Dashiell Hammett, now privately leased and preserved with period-specific props. It reminded me of some of the hovels I've lived in as a struggling writer. Let's hope some of the Black Bird's magic rubs off on me...
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| "The stuff dreams are made of..." |
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| Monica Tiki Goddess: femme fatale |

Then, strangest of all, last Friday, February 3, I attended the first open house for
The New Parkway at 24th & Telegraph in Oakland, as part of
Oakland Art Murmur's First Fridays festival. It's just a warehouse now, but the blueprints are spectacular, and the location in the revitalized Uptown district is ideal. New proprietor
J. Moses Ceaser, who just hired me to be The New Parkway's publicist/special events consultant when it opens this fall, asked me to show up so he could film various prospective patrons and fans of the old Parkway sitting on a sofa with me, discussing what they'd like to see on the marquee, just like the infamous Parkway preview videos of yore. My role is basically to provide a familiar link to the beloved original institution. I have to admit, I felt a bit like a museum exhibit, and it was pretty disorienting, but I'm anticipating a mutually beneficial, lucrative, and creatively satisfying collaboration down the road. Stay tuned.

Meantime, I have plenty of B flicks to present back at Forbidden Island. My next
Forbidden Thrills movie nite, on Monday February 20, 7:30, no cover, features two Martian masterpieces, the original
Invaders from Mars (1953) and
The Angry Red Planet (1959), among my favorite sci-fi flicks. They sum up how I'm feeling lately: completely spaced out. Cheers.