Recent content by Miles Borocky

Mary Deluxe: What is that thing over your couch? I like the space-age star kind of shape. And that green is of such a period. Great eye!

wow Whether it's period-appropriate or not for this forum, your friend's place is incredibly chic. I love the lamps and the coffee table. Incredibly envious here.

If TBL is noir... ...then maybe a great segue between "real noir" and the Coen Bros. film is Robert Altman's take on Chandler's Marlowe in THE LONG GOODBYE (1973). If you look at Altman's interviews, you'll learn that the director's unspoken conceit was that somehow Marlowe--with a...

my name ...is the name of the fictional alter ego I use in stories I write loosely based on my life.

My ballcap, etc. I agree that the Ebbets stuff is lovely for its authenticity. My preferred ballcap as a Tigers fan is the 1908 model depicted here: http://www.dugout-memories.com/dettig.html As for those vintage sweatshirts... I agree, those would be lovely to have. Ebbets has a...

xm radio I broadcast my XM radio through a nice old tabletop wood-paneled radio I picked up in an antique store. If you have the 1940s or the jazz station on, you really can kid yourself that you've slipped back through time into a lost era.

Today's pipe tobacco fix... ...came courtesy of two dear grad students here who invited me out for some afternoon pipe-smoking here on campus. Just tried two I've never had before Stanwell's Melange, and another called American Delight. Both splendid aromatics, which, in good company, and...

Dorothy Parker Speaking of Dorothy Parker, as a few of you were-- This summer, I had the pleasure of staying at the Algonquin Hotel for a few weeks while I was on a research trip in Manhattan. It was a delight to be holed up in one of their classic rooms with my laptop (I know, not a classic...

While I have a long love of many vintage elements--including saddle and spectator shoes, and tie bars, and nice old school collegiate looking tweed jackets and blue oxford button-downs--one of the longstanding, adolescent vintage loves I've never been able to shake is for classic athletic...

Lady Day, I am envious of your Anatomy of a Murder poster. Excellent iconography!

English professor here (pays most of my bills), plus jazz critic (minimal bills), and fiction writer (pays no bills!). :)

I always intend to write more letters-- Ugh. I do enjoy having written them though, and of course, I LOVE receiving them. It's clearly generational though. My mother and grandmother--both of whom stopped school with the twelfth grade--write some of the loveliest letters I've ever read. They...

I've been keeping journals since I was 13, and now have a box of them in a closet. It's been a great tool at developing mnemic prowess (that is, friends are always impressed that I remember certain shared events in vivid detail, which I attribute to having lived each of them twice.) My...

what was Faulkner's blend? Well, now, you have to tell me what Faulkner smoked so I can consider trying it for myself. :)

merci! Thanks for all the excellent recommendations. I look forward to seeking a number of these out in the library.