My review of the Akashic Books short story collection, OC Noir, edited by Gary Phillips, is up at Spinetingler Magazine:

Orange County Noir edited by Gary Phillips: Orange County with Extra Pulp

By Matthew C. Funk

Orange County is the sick dog living off of Los Angeles County’s scraps, and Akashic Books’ OC Noir delivers that depraved desperation. This hardboiled bite of Orange County’s sprawl keeps its genre plotting consistent thanks to the accomplished instincts of editor, Gary Phillips. OC Noir has to leap from diverse ZIP codes—the immigrant-driven squalor of Santa Ana to the beachside sparkle of Dana Point—but Phillips makes sure the stories share the same pounding pulse and venomous blood. OC Noir manages to be as true to the genre as it is to the character of its neighborhoods.

Amazing as it is to find a genuine Russian restaurant and deli in Orange County, it is even more amazing that one as high-quality and affordable as Russian Gourmet at 22722 Lambert Street has set down roots.

Prepare to be amazed.

Russian Gourmet opened two weeks ago and is already drawing a loyal lunch crowd. It is a tidy location in a modest mini-mall, well-stocked with distinctive fare from Belarus to Siberia. Rare candies are shelved alongside spices labeled in Cyrillic. But the main attraction for the casual visitor or Russian connoisseur are its prepared dishes.

The menu is extensive and a la carte. This translates to exceptional prices, with entrees averaging a County-low $2.50 a plate. The quality is easily beyond that. Their first lunch special—the staple of Russian tables, borsch—is an exquisite balance of natural broth and abundant chunks of beets and meat. Served in a Styrofoam bowl, it is subtly spiced and amply filling.

I also sampled a pirozschk and found it to have top-tier sausage that revealed layers of flavor. The kebab was lamb of the best cut; savory and rich in taste while still being lean of fat. With both of these items winning high marks, I am sure to return to explore the rest of their menu. Vegetarian choices are not in short supply either, with egg-based pirogis in a variety of options and a selection of salads.

Russian Gourmet is an experience not to be missed—an affordable adventure into Eastern European cuisine for the dabbler and a vindication of trans-Volga delights for those accomplished in this rare and toothsome fare.

I conducted an interview with Jocelin Donahue, an Imperialist-era history scholar who just happens to be an Indy film star, lately lighting up the brooding frames of Ti West’s The House of the Devil.

Check it out here at the one, only, absolutely awesome Pretty-Scary, site of women in horror, by women in horror.

Jocelin Donahue is a thoughtful actress. Thoughtful films would be her genre: The former NYU Sociology-History undergrad has starred in period pieces like The Burrowers, a horror-western that was as much about settling the wilderness of the West as about what beasts lurk beneath that harsh terrain. She has been in abstracted short films like The Masquerade and Express 831. Sitting with me in a room at the Four Seasons, draped in the catalog-sharp attire that befits her past career as a model, Jocelin tells me she is drawn to acting because she is fascinated by the formation of identity.

I am back in the online word circuit. This blog will be used as billboard for what I’m up to. Political opinions may still soil the screen. If so, my apologies in advance. I will not be kind. The time for kindness ended when the greatest economic crisis of our age was answered by a pissing contest from all directions.

So what am I do? I take a page from our “Elected Representatives” and I, who cannot do, criticize.

I wrote this recent review of Jennifer’s Body, for my friend Heidi Martinuzzi’s take-no-prisoners, women-in-horror site, the incomparable “Pretty-Scary”:

I also reviewed the straight-to-video Infestation, one of the better survival horror comedies I’ve seen in awhile. Check it out on Pretty-Scary.

As for other projects … I’m certain to go back to politics eventually. For now, my analysis can be summed up neatly.

My future is less about macro-level misery: Watch this space for serial murder.