Noir! I love crime noir and this quote pretty much sums up why: Stories about life on the streets, shady characters, crooked cops, twisted love, and bad luck. About a darker side of human nature.' Dark romances about omnipresent corruption, dishonesty, sadism, nihilism, evil; full of violence, brooding, existential themes, intense psychological themes, the idea of malevolent fate, crushed idealism, the best intentions often coming to little or naught, and the only good coming at a high price. Urban expressionist fantasies full of gangsters, killers, hoods, racketeers, femme fatales, first-person narratives, crime-ridden back alleys, smoke-filled backrooms, and light filtering through venetian blinds. Tales wherein love is mostly hopeless and often expressed as obsession and aberrant sexuality
Oh my absolute favourite noir writer is James Ellroy with his L.A Quartet series being his best work, but a lot of people find it really hard to read his style of writing and I don't blame them beacuse it does take some getting used to. You could always start with the classics since you can never go wrong with anything by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.
If you like comics I suggest reading anything Ed Brubaker has ever done, especially Criminal, Fatale and his current ongoing The Fade Out and if you like a little Cold War espionage check out Velvet.
As for movies in my opinion the hands down best film noir ever made is Double Indemnity. It's a pure classic in terms of what a noir movie should be and the dialogue just drips style. The best quote in the movie sums up noir in a nutshell:
"I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn't get the money and I didn't get the women"
Holy smokes, this is a good discussion! Shame that it got buried.
Anyone's who's talked to me for more than 10 minutes knows that one of my absolute favorite things in the world is cycling. All kinds--road, mountain, touring. There's something about powering a simple machine yourself and being able to go fast, far, and feel the wind in your face that I just can't get enough of. I bike to and from work every single day, year round, in all weather. I literally never go a day without being on a bike and it's always one of the high points of my day. I picked it up as a serious hobby some time ago, but I really wish I would have taken to it like I have in recent years the moment I learned how to ride as a kid.
So when I'm not on the Vault, gaming, or at work, you can bet I'm either out riding, tinkering with my bikes, or watching downhill or freeride vids. This one is sponsored, but does a good job of explaining some of the technical stuff some of the best riders in the world deal with while preserving cool factor.
It's mostly just a hobby/way to get exercise/way to get around. I dislike driving in the city. I haven't done a ton of racing, but there are some really cool organized rides that Chicago offers. There's even, I kid you not, a completely clothing-optional bike ride. It's called the World Naked Bike Ride. I've never registered for that one though.