In mid-October 2013 the publisher Limelight released my book A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir: The Essential Reference Guide
. The book has entries on well over 3,000 films noirs and related movies from all over the world, including over 2,000 from the US alone.
The purpose of Noirish is to act as an extension to the Encyclopedia -- an annex, if you like -- where I can add entries for movies that for one reason or another didn't make it into the printed book.
In some instances, this is just because the movie concerned was released too late for inclusion.
Most often, though, the reason was logistic. Although the Encyclopedia takes the broadest possible view of film noir, there were some movies that were either too obscure or too tangential to the theme to merit the use of precious page space: 800+ large-format pages -- nearly 700,000 words -- may seem a lot but, when you're trying to cover in excess of 3,000 movies, you soon learn to appreciate the constraints.
That's why this enterprise has the title it has: Noirish. Many of the movies here are very borderline noir, and some aren't noir at all but have associational interest.
Just because a movie's obscure doesn't mean it's lousy . . . although there'll be some lousy movies covered here. There'll also be plenty of movies that are, shall we say, undistinguished -- which is not to say they're without at least some points of interest, and certainly isn't to say they're not lots of fun to watch.
After posting a bunch of entries to get myself started, I'll be adding new movies to Noirish as and when I watch them.
Noirish 
alright bro, sit back and listen. thanks for the music tip.
Hope you enjoy it, Ben. Vienna is, I think, one of the great musical talents currently working. We saw her gig a few years ago with the equally remarkable Alex Wong, and it was a knockout night.
This effort reminds me a bit of the String Band’s U, not because there’s any musical similarity (there isn’t) but because I reckon a lot of Vienna fans aren’t going to like it on first listen then realize a few years later quite how splendid it is.
I might sample a tune, but I’m kind of thinking it might not be my thing!
I like Teng, so thanks for the pointer……and, Happy Birthday!
I’m a big Teng fan. A few years ago a bunch of us old crumblies went to see her gig locally. Afterwards we queued around to get CDs, etc., and as luck would have it, were the last to do so. In fact, “luck” was the right word, because, everyone else having buggered off, we ended up chatting for quite a while to Vienna, Alex Wong and a superb cellist whose name alas (my shame) I can’t now remember. A friendlier bunch of people it’s hard to think of.
Anyway, glad to hear you like her stuff too!
Hmf. Growl. Hmf. 😦 How did you hear it was my birthday? This is a closely guarded secret known only to me to me, the Illuminati and, I’d assume, the guy I predicted might show up to my Spooky Science and who indeed did so. “I’ll never laugh at your paranoia again,” said Pam.)
And I see the Thursday Overlooked A/V was full of Blogspot’s too-easy link-colonization. Corrected as I come across it and reposted, as I’m also most of the way through today’s less delayed and virus?-addled list…
John, thank you so much for this! I just listed to “As Long As I am Living” and was very taken by it. As you know I am a musical fanatic, so I will investigate further, but I’ll have to buy the CD. It is extraordinary!!! Really beautiful.
Happy Birthday my friend!!!
Give it a play first, Sam! (Hm, that sounds like a sort of skewed movie quote, doesn’t it? :)) I don’t normally like musicals, but I like this. Pam has been closely involved with various Broadway musicals and loves the genre, but isn’t too keen on this one. So be careful!
John, I love all kinds of music, so I’m inclined to think (based on my listening of that one track) I will appreciate this. 🙂
John, I love all kinds of music
I know you do, Sam! I was just worried you might expect one thing and get another, so was advising you to give the stream a quick listen before shelling out your hard-earned bucks on a CD!