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I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but I couldn’t help myself. It was brash and I purchased the book for my Kindle and began reading.

The self-publishing world has introduced the masses to a variety of different niches and subgenres. While neo-noir has been around for decades, I had never experienced it in a written format before. The book, Maybe I Just Shoot Your in the Face was just one of many collections that were circulating at that time (and still do) that featured up-and-coming writers talking about the darker, shadier side of life.

These gritty, downbeat and graphically violent stories offer readers something you didn’t see on cable television or even at your local cinema. Free of the restrictions of censorship and rating boards, these stories feel raw and almost dirty at times, as they explore good people falling into bad lifestyles and bad people trying to survive bad lifestyles and everything in-between.

The gold standard of these collections was called Thuglit, which began in 2005 and ran until 2016. This expertly curated collection of stories was a real treat to experience when it was in existence. I won’t recap the history of Thuglit, since CrimeReads did an amazing job last year with In Memory of Thuglit, The Lit Mag You Should Have Read, but if you are wondering about the pedigree of Thuglit, popular crime author S.A. Cosby got his start writing for the magazine.

Personally, short fiction was never something I appreciated until I began devouring issues of Thuglit. I found the power that could come in skipping the BS and getting straight to the action. By cutting through the nonsense, it allowed for the readers to spend less time with the characters in these stories, but I personally feel like it allowed for them to make more of an impression. You didn’t watch a character slowly build up to making a horrific mistake, you were thrown right into it as he’s bleeding out and trying to make sense of what happened.

One of my favorite parts of exploring these collections is finding new authors to explore. For example, after reading Fast Women and Neon Lights: Eighties-Inspired Neon Noir which was edited by Michael Pool, I read his books Debt Crusher and New Alleys for Nothing Men which I really enjoyed. After reading several stories by Eryk Pruitt, I realized he lived near me and I was able to attend a presentation he gave in nearby Chapel Hill about writing neo-noir.

I go through waves where I read a ton of these stories, and then I back off for a bit. They can be a little taxing, because they truly deal with the scum of the Earth a lot of the time, or at least, the more unsavory parts of life. However, there is truth is not putting on a show or trying to pretend everything is neat and clean and I appreciate that. It’s the honesty that brings me back to reading neo-noir and its definitely a sub-genre I love.

Recently, I began re-reading through Thuglit as well as Maybe I Should Just Shoot You in the Face and while not every story is a homerun, it’s a great little way to take a break from life and experience something unique and different.

Road House

The other day, a friend mentioned he recently watched Road House, and that inspired me to give it a rewatch. I’d only seen both the original and the remake once, and so I began with the original. I found I enjoyed it more this time around than my first watch a few years ago, although it gets a bit hokey the longer the film goes on. Then again, that’s part of the charm of it.

The remake doesn’t try anything new, but is enjoyable for what it is: a popcorn film. I do wish Amazon would have sprung for a bit better CGI in a couple of spots, but overall the film is an fun watch, although Connor McGregor is still a disappointment. His over-the-top character feels out of place, even amongst a ton of over-the-top characters.

Shameless

Despite being a fan of William H. Macy, I’d never given Shameless a watch. The only reason I did recently is because I thought my wife would like a show that featured Jeremy Allen White and Emma Kenney since we watch The Bear and The Conners. It was made pretty apparent with in the first few episodes the show’s humor was more to my liking than my wife’s, so she moved onto something else, and I kept watching. I’m on season six now, and while the show’s tone shifts quite a bit and every season is just the characters not being able to get out of their own way, I really like it. It offers a more relatable (well, maybe the early seasons) life than what passes on most television shows.

I doesn’t matter if it’s comedy or drama, I appreciate media that tell stories from lower class families, shows like Roseanne, Raising Hope, or My Name is Earl. It’s nice to see folks worry about everyday items like paying bills and working jobs they hate just to make it through the week. Shameless is great at this type of storytelling, just with gratuitous sex, tons of drug use, and a lot of crime thrown in.

UpNote

I went looking for a note-taking app that met my needs, which is kinda like trying to find a mattress. You’ll find a bazillion different opinions, a bazillion different options, and yet the only way to truly decide if you like it, you’ll need to try it for yourself. So, I spent a few weeks, test-driving all sorts of note-taking apps and UpNote ended up being the one for me.

It organizes things in a clear, concise way. It has a one-time fee (no subscription), and features great export options. I originally wanted to use it to help me track some thoughts on The Tools, but I enjoy the app so much I ended up porting most of my Apple Notes over and even began journaling within the app. Simple, affordable, cross-platform… UpNote is worth a look if you need a new note taking app.