Master Detective was one of the many true crime magazines that was published during the pulp era. What sets Master Detective apart is that it continued to be published long after the pulp era ended. The first issue came out in September of 1929 and Master Detective continued to be published all the way through September of 1995! That’s nearly 70 years of sex and murder!
That’s also nearly 70 years of memorable and sordid covers. Below are just a few examples. When known, the artist has been credited.
This classically trained actor and veteran of Shakespeare in the Park achieved cult immortality when he starred in The Mack (1973), the definitive pimp film. In the role of Goldie, Julien set the standard by which all other cinematic pimps would be judged. Julien, who also starred in Thomasine and Bushrod and wrote the script for Cleopatra Jones, may have never become a mainstream film star but his performance in The Mack ensures that he will never be forgotten.
In the scene below, Goldie takes his “ladies” to a planetarium and goes full MK-Ultra on them. This is the most ridiculous scene in the movie but Max Julien pulls it off like a champ.
2019 was a year when humans everywhere proved that they should just be quiet and let cats run the planet. Well, 2019 is over now. It’s 2020 and hopefully, everyone will try to do better over the upcoming 12 months….
Of course, they probably won’t. This is going to be a crazy year, because the humans in America are having an election in November and it seems like 60% of them have already climbed up to the top of the tree and decided to try to jump back down to the patio without even bothering to estimate the distance of their fall!
So you know what?
When the outside world gets too insane or annoying or whatever, we want to provide a place for you to escape. This year, the TSL is 10 years old and the Shattered Lens humans have got a lot planned! They’re going to make 2020 a great, great year!
So, remember — when things get crazy and when everything just seems to be too weird to deal with, TSL is here for you!
Here’s what we have to look forward to in 2020: the Oscars! New films from Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Edgar Wright, and Paul Greengrass! The next stage of the MCU! A thousand streaming services! Baby Yoda! The Many Saints of Newark! Cannes! Sundance! Theme months! Embracing the Melodrama! Back to School! Shattered Politics! 18 Days of Paranoia!
Welcome to 2020! Let’s make it great one and, when in doubt, look to the cats for wisdom!
“I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom … At our deaths and at the apocalypse… (always looming, folks). I think it succeeded. The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on, ’cause I didn’t think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it.”
— David Byrne on Road to Nowhere
Happy new year!
I want to start 2020 by sharing a video from one of my favorite groups, Talking Heads. Road to Nowhere is the type of cryptic but joyful song that could only have been done by this group. The music video features everything from David Byrne running in place to Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz aging before our eyes.
The video was co-directed by David Byne and Stephen R. Johnson. Johnson would later direct three of Peter Gabriel’s best-known videos, Sledgehammer, Steam, and Big Time, all of which would make use the stop motion animations technique that are briefly displayed in this video. At the time that Byne and Johnson were directing this video, Byrne was co-written the script for True Stories with actor Stephen Tobolowsky and all of the underwater scenes were filmed in Tobolowsky’s pool. Tobolowsky has had a long career as a character actor. He might be best known for playing Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day.
Recognize him now?
Road to Nowhere was nominated for Video of the Year at the 1986 MTV Music Video Awards but it lost to Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. The award, that year, was presented by Don Henley, who is about as far away from Talking Heads as you can get.
Through the Shattered Lens 