Killer Serials #18 – The Dain Curse, Part 1 of 4, “Black Lives” (2/11/26)
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2:14:39 – Dave in Kentucky brings back his Killer Serials series, transitioning from Old Time Radio serials to magazine serials, and from homemade song parodies to AI-generated songs. First up: Dashiell Hammett’s The Dain Curse, as it appeared in the pulp magazine Black Mask from late 1928 to early 1929. This first installment (“Black Lives”) is from November 1928, and is thus in the public domain, in this timeline, at least. The reading is by Dave in Kentucky, with occasional feline ambience by Mr. Bean.
| Musical Selection | Start Time | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jazz Agent (instrumental) | 0:00 |
| 2. | Diamond in the Grass | 2:27 |
| 3. | Noir for Miles (instrumental) | 18:31 |
| 4. | Two Men | 35:43 |
| 5. | Cherchez (as the French would say) | 40:31 |
| 6. | Minnie and Rhino | 1:02:10 |
| 7. | When Facts are All Assembled | 1:16:32 |
| 8. | Hopped-Up Mama | 1:35:53 |
| 9. | A Heck of a Frame | 2:10:16 |
| 10. | Noir for Miles (slight return) | 2:13:51 |
Words by Dave in Kentucky, music by Suno.ai (v4.5, except #1 is v5). Soundtrack is thought to be available on Alternate Timeline Records.
Show art: Public-domain covers of the November and December 1928 issues of Black Mask, which contained the first two episodes of the serialized version of The Dain Curse.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International license. Attribution: by Dave in Kentucky – more info at onsug.com.


