Pulp Today
Writer, filmmaker and raconteur David Avallone talks about and reads selections from classic pulp fiction. And day-drinks. Sometimes with special guests!
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Episode Archive
KONG!
Episode Number: 28It’s the thrill of a lifetime! In today's exciting episode, we talk about my favorite movie when I was a kid, novelizations, paperbacks that fall apart in your hand, complicated copyrights, and enthusiasm for a life in show business.
Episode download: PulpToday028.mp3
Release Date: August 2, 2021
Run Time: 12:30The Spider! With Andrew Pepoy!
Episode Number: 27In this episode, me and my friend Andrew Pepoy -- an amazing cartoonist and comics creator -- talk about my dad's favorite pulp character... THE SPIDER! (Originally recorded last year, we also talk about his Simone and Ajax Kickstarter, which is now long over, but you can still buy the book on IndieGoGo.)
Episode download: PulpToday027.mp3
Release Date: July 26, 2021
Run Time: 43:23To Hell and Back
Episode Number: 26This episode of Pulp Today is slightly different. This book is pulp NON-fiction... the combat autobiography of Audie Murphy: TO HELL AND BACK. In 2021, I’m sure we can all sympathize with the title. Originally recorded in 2020, and inspired by Trump’s refusal to visit a military cemetery in France for fear of a light drizzle. Content Warning: some fairly graphic descriptions of combat – and what it does to the human body – in this episode.
Episode download: PulpToday026.mp3
Release Date: July 19, 2021
Run Time: 14:17Pulp Today GOES APE!
Episode Number: 25I started this series with one of Dad's books, and in this age of Apocalypse it seemed appropriate to read BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, one of the finest novelizations of all time. I’m biased, of course…
Episode download: PulpToday025.mp3
Release Date: July 12, 2021
Run Time: 13:13The First Ever Pulp Adventure
Episode Number: 24I do a little reading from what I'm calling the first pulp novel ever... sex, violence, adultery, jealousy, murder, longing, Gods and monsters. Dive into the wine-dark sea at rosy-fingered dawn, and join me on this... what's that word... trip? Voyage? Trek? It’ll come to me. After all… there’s no place like Homer.
Episode download: PulpToday024.mp3
Release Date: June 28, 2021
Run Time: 7:54Dorothy Parker and Emily Edwards
Episode Number: 23I'm joined by my friend Emily Edwards, host of the amazing F**kbois of Lit podcast, to talk about Dorothy Parker, whose work always appeared on very nice paper... but who had a secret love of Pulp in her heart, frequently expressed by her sharp tongue...
Warning : as you might notice, the name of Emily’s podcast leads to some Adult Language in this episode…
Emily’s Amazing Podcast: https://www.fuckboisoflit.com/episodes
Episode download: PulpToday023.mp3
Release Date: June 21, 2021
Run Time: 31:35A Little Something Romantic, From Ed Noon
Episode Number: 22Back to basics: I read a few pages of THE VIOLENT VIRGIN, which -- despite that title -- is one of the more romantic Ed Noon novels by Michael Avallone. This one is dad’s tribute to THE MALTESE FALCON. For more Ed Noon goodness, follow @EdNoonPI on the Twitter.
Episode download: PulpToday022.mp3
Release Date: June 14, 2021
Run Time: 9:21Sex, Murder and Actuarial Tables… in DOUBLE INDEMNITY
Episode Number: 21Only James M. Cain could make insurance policies sexy and violent... but he does just that. Give a listen. And ask yourself... is this the most drunk Avallone ever was while recording one of these?
Episode download: PulpToday021.mp3
Release Date: June 7, 2021
Run Time: 9:34David F. Walker reads Donald Goines
Episode Number: 20Note: this episode contains some adult language in the book excerpt. When I started adding guests to PULP TODAY, I knew I wanted to talk to David F. Walker: an exceptional writer, a thoughtful human being, and one of my favorite people to run into on the convention circuit. Here, we talk about our career paths, we talk about Donald Goines, and he reads a passage from CRIME PARTNERS. Then we riff on pop culture – in particular Batman and James Bond --- for a bit, as we do... enjoy!
Episode download: PulpToday020.mp3
Release Date: May 31, 2021
Run Time: 34:25History of the Pulps, Part Three
Episode Number: 19The final chapter of my conversation with acclaimed literary historian JESS NEVINS. In part three, we talk about how the Pulps influence the pop culture of today, "ideasplosions," emotion over logic, and I tell an anecdote about Roger Corman. (Apologies again: the audio gets a little crackly here and there. The challenges of the Zoom interview…)
Episode download: PulpToday019.mp3
Release Date: May 24, 2021
Run Time: 14:19History of the Pulps, Part Two
Episode Number: 18Continuing my conversation about pulp history with acclaimed pop culture historian JESS NEVINS. In part two, we talk about Pulps around the world, sweat mags, the atomization of culture... and what killed the Pulps. (Again, sorry the audio gets a little crackly here and there: the challenges of the Zoom interview…)
Episode download: PulpToday018.mp3
Release Date: May 17, 2021
Run Time: 13:19History of the Pulps, Part One
Episode Number: 17Acclaimed pop culture historian JESS NEVINS educates me about all things pulp... in a wide-ranging conversation that I'll be splitting into multiple episodes. Here we start off with the origins of the form, and the artificial gap between High Art and Low Art. (Sorry the audio gets a little crackly here and there: the challenges of the Zoom interview…)
Episode download: PulpToday017.mp3
Release Date: May 10, 2021
Run Time: 10:16You Can’t Win Part Two, With Salt Chunk Mary
Episode Number: 16Another reading from the 1926 true crime memoir YOU CAN'T WIN, and an indelible character out of hobo legend, Salt Chunk Mary.
Episode download: PulpToday016.mp3
Release Date: May 3, 2021
Run Time: 7:21You Can’t Win Part One, and Mother’s Day
Episode Number: 15Today's book is the amazing crime memoir YOU CAN'T WIN, from 1926. And in its way, this reading of the first chapter is all about the importance of Mothers… so this one was originally recorded for Mothers' Day.
Episode download: PulpToday015.mp3
Release Date: April 26, 2021
Run Time: 10:32What’s Up, Doc?
Episode Number: 14The first great hero of the 1930s pulps: some words of mine, Doc’s first few pages, a fan letter and words to live by. The Man of Bronze, my friends.
Episode download: PulpToday014.mp3
Release Date: April 19, 2021
Run Time: 11:20Pal Joey, John O’Hara, and Some Fashion Tips
Episode Number: 13“If it’s going to happen, it can happen before nine o’clock.” A little funnier and less dark than the usual Pulp, and this one premiered in magazines with nice paper. Never wear a hat indoors. (Sorry I talk about some visuals in this one, but you could look it up on YouTube if you want to see me in a hat…)
Episode download: PulpToday013.mp3
Release Date: April 12, 2021
Run Time: 9:51Tarzan, and Other “True Stories”
Episode Number: 12Did you know Tarzan started in the pulp magazines? Of course he did. I talk about that, and the long tradition of presenting fantastic stories as coming from "true" sources...
Episode download: PulpToday012.mp3
Release Date: April 5, 2021
Run Time: 8:37Red Harvest, and Men With No Name
Episode Number: 11Dashiell Hammett drafts the blueprint for so many 20th Century pop culture heroes with RED HARVEST: a holy text of pulp fiction. Often “unofficially” adapted to film, often imitated, but never done real justice and never surpassed. Meet The Continental Op.
Episode download: PulpToday011.mp3
Release Date: March 29, 2021
Run Time: 8:47Ed Noon and Dead Game
Episode Number: 10Today, it's back to basics and back to Dad: DEAD GAME, the third Ed Noon novel by Michael Avallone. As I like to say, this is the real stuff, the actual vintage poured from the original bottles, with a baseball twist just in time for Spring Training!
Episode download: PulpToday010.mp3
Release Date: March 22, 2021
Run Time: 7:46A Pulp Fiction Mystery Novel
Episode Number: 9All sorts of things are Pulp. We'll get deeper into that as we go along. Here's something which is now considered high literature, but first appeared in a cheap paperback with a lurid cover. The "voice" is not unlike the voice of any private eye novel from the same year (1953). It's the hard-boiled New York City voice, speaking the hard-boiled New York City lingo. I recognize it because my father spoke it, fluently, and I grew up hearing it. Listen, and see if you can guess the author and title. The subject matter may just give it away…
Episode download: PulpToday009.mp3
Release Date: March 15, 2021
Run Time: 15:06Ross Macdonald is the Holy Ghost
Episode Number: 8I read Ross Macdonald's account of the beginnings of his writing career, complete with a special shout-out from Ross to a certain colleague of his who is near and dear to my heart.
Episode download: PulpToday008.mp3
Release Date: March 8, 2021
Run Time: 8:05James Urbaniak and Fante’s Ask The Dust
Episode Number: 7Now with guest stars! My pal James Urbaniak (star of stage and screen, writer, bon vivant) joins me to talk about, and read a funny chapter from, John Fante's Depression Era Hollywood classic, ASK THE DUST.
Episode download: PulpToday007.mp3
Release Date: March 1, 2021
Run Time: 24:19Chandler, The High Window, and Love Poetry
Episode Number: 6I wrap up my Chandler trilogy with a little something sweet from THE HIGH WINDOW. Next time... more authors, more drinking, and now with Special Guests!
Episode download: PulpToday006.mp3
Release Date: February 19, 2021
Run Time: 4:15Chandler, Carmen Sternwood, and the Big Sleep
Episode Number: 5I talk about that time Phil Marlowe met Carmen Sternwood -- 1939’s version of Kim Kardashian -- and reacted how you might expect. Bonus shoutout to Aimee Mann.
Episode download: PulpToday005.mp3
Release Date: February 19, 2021
Run Time: 6:45Raymond Chandler and the Simple Art of Murder
Episode Number: 4“Down those Mean Streets a man must go who is not himself mean.” What makes a great private eye? I drink and read a little bit from Raymond Chandler's seminal essay, "The Simple Art of Murder."
Episode download: PulpToday004.mp3
Release Date: February 19, 2021
Run Time: 7:33
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