This section of the site features original and previously published articles by George Pelecanos.

Edward Hopper
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., through January 21, 2008
Here is the entire collection under one roof, a must for admirers of Edward Hopper's work. The justly famous city paintings, like Nighthawks (1942) and Chop Suey (1929) are on display, as well as a personal favorite, New York Movie (1939), and the remarkable oils, watercolors, and etchings of the houses, landscapes, and train yards of Gloucester, Cape Cod, and Maine. A single etching like Night Shadows (1923) confirms Hopper's visual influence on a generation of film noir directors, cinematographers, and gaffers, not to mention comic book artists. There is a pervasive sense of isolation in his work (people rarely look at one another in his paintings, which is to say that even when they are together they are alone) and a general feel of melancholia that, for me at least, is quite beautiful. The final painting displayed, one of his last completed works before his death, is of an empty room, and it is mesmerizing (kudos to the folks who designed and engineered the flow of the exhibition). This showing is worth a trip to D.C., and, like most of the museums here, it's free. Take the Red Line to Judiciary Square and walk due south to the East building of the National Gallery on Constitution Avenue. Hooper said (I'm paraphrasing), "If I knew how to put it into words I wouldn't need to paint it." Thankfully, he was not a writer. Instead, he left behind one of the great bodies of work in American art.

Northline, by Willy Vlautin
Willy Vlautin is the lead singer/songwriter of Richmond Fontaine, an excellent American band brought to my attention by foreign journalists in much the same way that the French taught us how to appreciate our own noir literature and films. Vlautin is also a novelist. His second novel, Northline, came my way via an editor at Faber and Faber in the UK. Northline is the story of a troubled young woman, Allison Burdette, who walks towards the light with the help of everyday people who offer her a leg up, encouraging words, acts of kindness, and love. If it sounds soft it is not. In fact, it is often disturbing, but true to life, direct, and ultimately inspiring. No big concepts, no gimmicks, no major twists. Just good honest work that will transport and move you like only the best writing can do. Available here from Harper Perennial in April, 2008.

The Fitzgerald and Post to Wire, by Richmond Fontaine
I have most of this band's music. Vlautin and fellow musician Paul Brainard recorded a companion CD to go with the UK version of Northline that reminds me quite a bit of Dylan circa Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Post to Wire is another record to check out, with a rock dynamic behind its pedal steel shadings. Standouts include the title track, "Polaroid," and the Reno-set "Barely Losing," surely one of the best on-the-road, got-no-money, young-and-in-love songs ever written ("And we're walking 'neath the railroad tracks/at five in the morning/wishing we could always be like this/that we'd never have to go back.") The Fitzgerald, with its spare instrumentation and evocative lyrics, is different still, a Nebraska in the West, written and performed by folks who lived it. For best results, pour two fingers of your best stuff and enjoy this one like a good short story collection. A soul-wrenching trip for your next late night in front of the fire.

No Country for Old Men, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
There has already been enough written about the third act of this film, so I will not gripe about it. Nor will I defend it. The point I want to make is this: the Coen Brothers respectfully stayed faithful to the Cormac McCarthy source material, remarkable in this era of test screenings and studio micro-management. This is a film that people talk about and argue over as they leave the theater, just as they used to in the era of Godard and Kubrick, and that's great (actually, the picture is closer to Peckinpah, both in its examination of hyper-masculinity and its stark, high-noon noir look; the scene where Chigurh blows up the Ford and walks into the pharmacy is filmed and lit, almost exactly, like the sequence in The Getaway where McQueen uses a pump-action shotgun to level a squad car on a sunbaked Southwest street). I don't share McCarthy's worldview, but I appreciate his writing, and I sure am glad I saw this film. Kinetically and thematically, Joel and Ethan nailed it.

The Scene of the Crime, by Bettye LaVette (backed by Drive-By Truckers)
I recently wrote a piece for Sonic magazine, the Mojo of Sweden, about this CD. Maybe I'll put it up on the website after it runs in the magazine and the Swedes get their money's worth. In the meantime, you might want to pick this up as a stocking stuffer for the soul lover on your list. It's the R&B record of the year.

Army of Shadows, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Newly restored, and now available on DVD, Army of Shadows (1969) is a realistic, completely unromantic film about the French Resistance, detailing the lives of ordinary citizens who were called upon to act during the German occupation, did so, and paid a terrible price. The death of humanity in war is explored here with subtlety and power. Certainly Steven Spielberg had this film in mind when he made his excellent Munich. Melville (who was an active participant in the Resistance) is best known for his influential Gallic gangster films, but this goes way beyond the level of entertainment and enters the realm of art. With Lino Ventura, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and, most memorably, Simone Signoret. Highly recommended.

Eastern Promises, directed by David Cronenberg
A critic's favorite, Cronenberg often gets a free pass, even when he is making fairly ordinary genre films (A History of Violence, for example, is basically a B-movie that would have filled out a triple bill at the drive-in thirty years ago, shoehorned between Macon County Line and Rolling Thunder). Eastern Promises is also a straight actioner and is about nothing deeper than its plot, but it is very well directed, well acted, exotic, and contains some real cool cinematic violence (yes, the fight in the showers is everything it is cracked up to be). Howard Shore's score is top notch, too.

A Reggae Christmas (Ras Records)
The Original Soul Christmas (Rhino)
This is a holiday edition of my picks, so I will mention a couple of Christmas records that go into deep rotation around my place this time of year. A Reggae Christmas has been our annual tree-decoration theme music for almost twenty years, and it is a fine, upbeat Jamaican sampler from artists like Michigan and Smiley, Pablo Black ( doing a nice "Silent Night"), Freddie McGregor ("Come All Ye Faithful"), and Eek-and-Mouse. The Original Soul Christmas (released by Atlantic in 1968) is also a fitting alternative to the usual holiday Muzak that can drive even the heartiest squares nuts this time of year. I like the cuts by King Curtis (with Duane Allman on guitar), William Bell, Solomon Burke, Clarence Carter ("Back Door Santa"), Booker T & the MG's, and Otis Redding's immortal take on "White Christmas."

Have a great holiday,
Pelecanos