Bright Women Wear Dark Hats, and other Noircon images

A good noir convention should always wind up at a vast and labyrinthine book shop. Philadelphia filled the bill with Noircon 2014 and Port Richmond Books. Photos by your humble blogkeeper, Peter Rozovsky, except where physically impossible.

Christa Faust

Anita Thompson, Suzanne Solomon

Andrew Nette, Ed Pettit

Jed Ayres and I re-enact an ancient
Noir at the Bar ritual

Scott Adlerberg

William Lashner

© Peter Rozovsky 2014

NoirCon 2008 podcasts

Or is that NoirCast 2008 podcons?

Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards, whose cyber-noir panel at NoirCon explored exciting new ways to think about, publish and broadcast noir, have begun posting their podcasts of the convention at Out of the Past and Behind the Black Mask. So far, they've posted on-the-street and in-the-theater interviews, including Ken Bruen and Gary Phillips, and talks with members of the George Lippard, Philly noir and editors and publishers panels.

Their format is simple but effective: After each panel discussion, Clute and Edwards snatched a member or two for an interview about the panel. The segments are no mere TV-style sound bites. The interview subjects go into considerable depth about the issues the panels had raised.

I was there for the discussions, and I still enjoyed Clute and Edwards with panelists William Lashner and Jon McGoran on why Philadelphia is a great city for crime writers. Civic boosters might not like what the interviewees had to say, though, which buttresses another notion floating about the conference: that noir is and should be a subversive genre.

© Peter Rozovsky 2008