Blog #8 assignment one

The two short stories "The Kidnapper Bell" and "City of Commerce" I thought were very good as far as the description goes, as I have been to both cities and found myself shaking my head thinking hey I've seen that or Ive been there. Everyone that has been to Los Angeles knows the LA River can be seen from the FWY and some streets. The LA River is known for floating trash and graffiti, even the freeways have graffiti all over. The way the story described the small tunnels with graffiti is right on point, "the dim light of the river bend,he has trouble seeing the graffiti on the drain covers" It was very easy to imagine where the story took place. In "City of Commerce" the story mentions how it is not known for its scenery or club nightlife, which is very true even though it is down the street from LA it is very different. The story mentions Commerce being known for its industrial buildings and outlet malls though both cities are close to each other one is crazier and full of nightlife and the other crazy as well but in a different kind of way as mentioned in pg.231"this town to me, isn't most notable for its candlelit, leather-bound nightclubs or fancy valley gallerias". It has to be crazy for a local to get knocked over the head in a casino and held hostage over a game of poker. The city of Commerce has not much to do , so what could be better than gambling all day long to pass time. As I read the stories I did get a good visualization as to where the story was taking place .

Blog #8 second assignment

Out of the 4 short stories in Gold Coast I choose to do my assignment on Kinship and The Hour when the ship comes in. Out of the two stories I thought Kinship was a better noir story , in the beginning of the story Manny says he drives up his driveway to see his cousin sitting there her face buried in her hands from that I took that he would be the one who would have to make things right what ever that might be. Tomas is a good family man and you can see that when he gets so upset about Emerson being bullied. Veronica tells him and his reaction is to yell "And you didn't tell me?" from that reaction I knew he was a good guy who would do something bad for what was being done to Emerson. Tomas would be the protagonist in the story which all noir films have. Overall the story shows how a good person commits a crime to prove a point for which he thinks is right, that is why this short story I would classify as noir. 
The other short story The hour when the ship comes in I thought to be hard to classify as a noir film due to the lack of good in the characters and darkness in the overall story.  The scene description is moms walking by the beach pushing their babies in there strollers , cardio classes in the gym and as stated in the book a " beautiful day in Belmont shore. The yuppie jewel of Long Beach" . None of this shows a visualization of darkness or gloom instead it made me want to go to the beach and sunbathe and shop. Also the main character Yancy and his pals Mason and PJ come off as little bad ass's there's nothing good or innocent about them. Right off the bat their cursing and plotting breaking into a dope house, when they do there is no regret or fear in their voice "Where is it motherfucker" or  " I'll blow your fucking brains out" sounds pretty bad ass to me. I also found myself becoming bored with this story and thinking why is it in this book? Therefore I wouldn't classify it as noir.