A YouTube clip of my new favourite author Tom McCarthy talking about his new favourite author Georg Trakl.
Labels: Literature
Friday, June 13, 2008
Field Tested Books 2008
The team over at Coudal.com are back at it with the launch of the 2008 edition of Field Tested Books, a collection of book reviews by a variety writers, each with an interesting twist. As Jim explains:
"We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it."
This year, the ever-experimental crew are trying their hand at book publishing by offering the Field-Tested Books collection (including all three years of FTB reviews) "in a handsome trade paperback". I was quite honored to be asked back as a contributor, and in return submitted a gonzo-inspired review of "The Proud Highway" by Hunter S. Thompson as read in Bangkok. (My 2006 submission, "Siddhartha, on a train between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain" can be found here.)
A perfect way to blow a Friday morning: peruse the website, buy the book and be sure to throw it in your backpack this summer when you light out on your own great literary adventure.
The team over at Coudal.com are back at it with the launch of the 2008 edition of Field Tested Books, a collection of book reviews by a variety writers, each with an interesting twist. As Jim explains:
"We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it."
This year, the ever-experimental crew are trying their hand at book publishing by offering the Field-Tested Books collection (including all three years of FTB reviews) "in a handsome trade paperback". I was quite honored to be asked back as a contributor, and in return submitted a gonzo-inspired review of "The Proud Highway" by Hunter S. Thompson as read in Bangkok. (My 2006 submission, "Siddhartha, on a train between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain" can be found here.)
A perfect way to blow a Friday morning: peruse the website, buy the book and be sure to throw it in your backpack this summer when you light out on your own great literary adventure.
Labels: Collaborators, Literature, Shameless Self Promotion, Travel, When the Going Gets Weird
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Communist's Future
Illustrations from various works by Russian science fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev
(via Coudal)
Illustrations from various works by Russian science fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev
(via Coudal)
Labels: illustration, Literature
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Re:Read
“The idea is that one artist takes a hardcover from a book, tears out the pages and draws in one half (or half draws in both halves) of the binder/diptyque. In a nod to Ray Johnson, the two books are mailed (swapped) and each of these will be finished by the other.”
-from the intro to the Flickr group “The Library” by Alex Itin, the current artist-in-residence at the Institute for the Future of the Book.
“For the past five hundred years, humans have used print — the book and its various page-based cousins — to move ideas across time and space. Radio, cinema and television emerged in the last century and now, with the advent of computers, we are combining media to forge new forms of expression. For now, we use the word "book" broadly, even metaphorically, to talk about what has come before — and what might come next.”
-from the mission statement of The Institute for the Future of the Book
“The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in England is the only place you are likely to find an Ethernet port that looks like a book. Built into the ancient bookcases dominating the oldest wing of the 402-year-old library, the brown plastic ports share shelf space with handwritten catalogues of the university's medieval manuscripts and other materials. Some of the volumes are still chained to the shelves, a 17th-century innovation designed to discourage borrowing. But thanks to the Ethernet ports and the university's effort to digitize irreplaceable books like the catalogues -- which often contain the only clue to locating an obscure book or manuscript elsewhere in the vast library -- users of the Bodleian don't even need to take the books off the shelves. They can simply plug in their laptops, connect to the Internet, and view the pertinent pages online. In fact, anyone with a Web browser can read the catalogues, a privilege once restricted to those fortunate enough to be teaching or studying at Oxford.”
-from The Infinite Library by Wade Roush
“The Library Project's aim is simple: make it easier for people to find relevant books – specifically, books they wouldn't find any other way such as those that are out of print – while carefully respecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers.”
-Google Book Search Library Project
“The idea is that one artist takes a hardcover from a book, tears out the pages and draws in one half (or half draws in both halves) of the binder/diptyque. In a nod to Ray Johnson, the two books are mailed (swapped) and each of these will be finished by the other.”
-from the intro to the Flickr group “The Library” by Alex Itin, the current artist-in-residence at the Institute for the Future of the Book.
“For the past five hundred years, humans have used print — the book and its various page-based cousins — to move ideas across time and space. Radio, cinema and television emerged in the last century and now, with the advent of computers, we are combining media to forge new forms of expression. For now, we use the word "book" broadly, even metaphorically, to talk about what has come before — and what might come next.”
-from the mission statement of The Institute for the Future of the Book
“The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in England is the only place you are likely to find an Ethernet port that looks like a book. Built into the ancient bookcases dominating the oldest wing of the 402-year-old library, the brown plastic ports share shelf space with handwritten catalogues of the university's medieval manuscripts and other materials. Some of the volumes are still chained to the shelves, a 17th-century innovation designed to discourage borrowing. But thanks to the Ethernet ports and the university's effort to digitize irreplaceable books like the catalogues -- which often contain the only clue to locating an obscure book or manuscript elsewhere in the vast library -- users of the Bodleian don't even need to take the books off the shelves. They can simply plug in their laptops, connect to the Internet, and view the pertinent pages online. In fact, anyone with a Web browser can read the catalogues, a privilege once restricted to those fortunate enough to be teaching or studying at Oxford.”
-from The Infinite Library by Wade Roush
“The Library Project's aim is simple: make it easier for people to find relevant books – specifically, books they wouldn't find any other way such as those that are out of print – while carefully respecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers.”
-Google Book Search Library Project
Labels: Art, Literature, Signs of Our Time
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
CBC Book Club: William Gibson Podcast
As an update to my writeup about William Gibson at the CBC Book Club, the podcast of the event has been posted over at Studio One for your listening pleasure.
As an update to my writeup about William Gibson at the CBC Book Club, the podcast of the event has been posted over at Studio One for your listening pleasure.
Labels: Literature, William Gibson
Friday, September 07, 2007
William Gibson at the CBC Book Club
William Gibson’s stretched stooped figure curls over book and microphone under yellow lights that hang like a field of beauty salon hair dryers before an unlit neon sign tracing out the words Studio One on a wall deep within the bowels of the CBC. He has just returned from touring in the States and Europe, hitting a dozen cities in twice as many days while promoting his new novel, Spook Country. He is honed at this point. Listening to him read, you realize that this is how his writing is best taken in. He reads like a jazz musician plays his horn, echoing Kerouac and, of course, Burroughs in the way that the words fall into punched syncopated rhythms, sentences building into what has been described by one reviewer as "miniature aesthetic jolts".
He will tell us later that the part of the brain that writes fiction is also the part that reads it, that in fact "writing and reading are two halves of the same activity", that the exercise of reading a book is as active a part of the process as the writing. Only upon doing so, when the words of the writer project their world onto the back of the reader’s skull is "arch of the text" successfully completed.
So went the discussion at tonight’s CBC Book Club, with Gibson delivering poignant, often comic takes on how Google has replaced our memories, the inevitability of blended reality and the "complications" of sci fi, all the while riddled with deep, cerebral observations on the writing process. You got a sense that writing for Gibson -- if not for all writers -- is an act of discovery. "My own experience with creativity," he tells us, "is that it is incremental." The development of a character will begin simply as a point of view, a camera angle. Often characters are not so much created as they simply show up on the scene with their own demands and opinions so that all the writer can really do is try to "keep them on topic".
He tells us of a fan site called Node, named after the under-the-radar magazine that the protagonist is hired by in Spook Country, on which Gibson fans have mapped any and all linkable references found in the pages of the novel. Gibson marvels at the speed that such endeavours can be executed in this day and age. A dozen people, in different times zones, "who are crazy" can achieve enormous things. Gibson describes it as cheap A.I. In fact, as he continues talking, you come to understand his view of the human race as something that has evolved well past nature, that our present "natural state" is more cyborg than animal. Gibson seemed to mark the point of no return down this path as the dawn of broadcast television: "We still have no idea what the impact of broadcast television has had on us and it is pretty much a dead medium". But none of this is to be interpreted as a pessimistic world view; a writer like Gibson has a tendency to remain agnostic on most accounts:
"I'm kind of ok with where we are," he say with a smile. "It's interesting."
NOTE: A podcast of last night's Book Club will be available for download in the weeks ahead on World at Large.
He will tell us later that the part of the brain that writes fiction is also the part that reads it, that in fact "writing and reading are two halves of the same activity", that the exercise of reading a book is as active a part of the process as the writing. Only upon doing so, when the words of the writer project their world onto the back of the reader’s skull is "arch of the text" successfully completed.
So went the discussion at tonight’s CBC Book Club, with Gibson delivering poignant, often comic takes on how Google has replaced our memories, the inevitability of blended reality and the "complications" of sci fi, all the while riddled with deep, cerebral observations on the writing process. You got a sense that writing for Gibson -- if not for all writers -- is an act of discovery. "My own experience with creativity," he tells us, "is that it is incremental." The development of a character will begin simply as a point of view, a camera angle. Often characters are not so much created as they simply show up on the scene with their own demands and opinions so that all the writer can really do is try to "keep them on topic".
He tells us of a fan site called Node, named after the under-the-radar magazine that the protagonist is hired by in Spook Country, on which Gibson fans have mapped any and all linkable references found in the pages of the novel. Gibson marvels at the speed that such endeavours can be executed in this day and age. A dozen people, in different times zones, "who are crazy" can achieve enormous things. Gibson describes it as cheap A.I. In fact, as he continues talking, you come to understand his view of the human race as something that has evolved well past nature, that our present "natural state" is more cyborg than animal. Gibson seemed to mark the point of no return down this path as the dawn of broadcast television: "We still have no idea what the impact of broadcast television has had on us and it is pretty much a dead medium". But none of this is to be interpreted as a pessimistic world view; a writer like Gibson has a tendency to remain agnostic on most accounts:
"I'm kind of ok with where we are," he say with a smile. "It's interesting."
NOTE: A podcast of last night's Book Club will be available for download in the weeks ahead on World at Large.
Labels: Literature, William Gibson
Monday, April 30, 2007
Signs of Our Times #2: Tom Sawyerism 2.0
"Tom Sawyer got it right. Why paint a fence when you can get your friends to do it for you for free? He would have been the perfect new-media mogul. Spending time and money creating content on the Internet is so hopelessly dated, so dotcom, so very, very 1.0. The secret of today’s successful Web 2.0 companies: build a place that attracts people by encouraging them to create the content — thereby drawing even more people in to create even more stuff..."
– Time, May 8th 2006
Hmmm...case in point: Facebook; which I finally caved in and signed up for this weekend and which has been consuming my spare time ever since. I noticed that there are 12 step programs to get off the bloody thing.
More mentions of the Tom Sawyeresque 2.0 labour exploitation practices at the NYTimes.
"Tom Sawyer got it right. Why paint a fence when you can get your friends to do it for you for free? He would have been the perfect new-media mogul. Spending time and money creating content on the Internet is so hopelessly dated, so dotcom, so very, very 1.0. The secret of today’s successful Web 2.0 companies: build a place that attracts people by encouraging them to create the content — thereby drawing even more people in to create even more stuff..."
– Time, May 8th 2006
Hmmm...case in point: Facebook; which I finally caved in and signed up for this weekend and which has been consuming my spare time ever since. I noticed that there are 12 step programs to get off the bloody thing.
More mentions of the Tom Sawyeresque 2.0 labour exploitation practices at the NYTimes.
Labels: Literature, Signs of Our Time
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Great Counterculture Logos - Part 5
The Gonzo Fist by Paul Pascarella .
Paul Pascarella writes:
I would just like to be clear on the logo that you are refering to, the Gonzo fist, or the actual Gonzo logo with fist, name and dagger blade. The two thumbed fist with peyote button was originally designed by Hunter and a local Aspen artist named Tom Benton. It was first used I believe as a Freak Power symbol when Hunter was running for Sheriff in Aspen in 69' when Benton designed the poster.
The actual Gonzo logo that you see around in Rolling Stone, Hunter's books etc. is what I designed for Hunter in the early 70's. Designing logos is what I did such as the Lorimar logo, United Artists and many more. Hunter wanted a logo for the Gonzo way, Gonzo Journalism and so on. So I took the two thumbed fist and redesigned it along with the logotype and knife blade. I remember the knife blade was roughly fashioned after one of Hunter's throwing knives and if you notice carefully the negative spaces in the type and knife blade all match up and relate well to each other, atleast if you are looking at the real one.
That was only one of many graphic and art projects I worked on with Hunter and working with Hunter is always much more complex than it need be, but also can be more fun than usual. The most recent was a kind of Hunter's World portrait I did right after his death. It is mixed media almost all in black and white 5'x4'. I also made a six minute film on the making of the painting and soon will be putting the painting up for sale.
Years later I didn't think the Gonzo logo was my best design, but it may turn out to be the biggest.
The Gonzo Fist by Paul Pascarella .
Paul Pascarella writes:
I would just like to be clear on the logo that you are refering to, the Gonzo fist, or the actual Gonzo logo with fist, name and dagger blade. The two thumbed fist with peyote button was originally designed by Hunter and a local Aspen artist named Tom Benton. It was first used I believe as a Freak Power symbol when Hunter was running for Sheriff in Aspen in 69' when Benton designed the poster.
The actual Gonzo logo that you see around in Rolling Stone, Hunter's books etc. is what I designed for Hunter in the early 70's. Designing logos is what I did such as the Lorimar logo, United Artists and many more. Hunter wanted a logo for the Gonzo way, Gonzo Journalism and so on. So I took the two thumbed fist and redesigned it along with the logotype and knife blade. I remember the knife blade was roughly fashioned after one of Hunter's throwing knives and if you notice carefully the negative spaces in the type and knife blade all match up and relate well to each other, atleast if you are looking at the real one.
That was only one of many graphic and art projects I worked on with Hunter and working with Hunter is always much more complex than it need be, but also can be more fun than usual. The most recent was a kind of Hunter's World portrait I did right after his death. It is mixed media almost all in black and white 5'x4'. I also made a six minute film on the making of the painting and soon will be putting the painting up for sale.
Years later I didn't think the Gonzo logo was my best design, but it may turn out to be the biggest.
Labels: Great Counterculture Logos, Literature, When the Going Gets Weird
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Брет Истон Эллис
A very cool collection of Russian covers of Bret Eason Ellis novels, the above being for The Informers...
...a Kubrickesque fake trailer for Lunar Park on YouTube...
...and Bret Easton Ellis on the Why the Teletubbies are Evil.
More on Ellis over at Not An Exit.
A very cool collection of Russian covers of Bret Eason Ellis novels, the above being for The Informers...
...a Kubrickesque fake trailer for Lunar Park on YouTube...
...and Bret Easton Ellis on the Why the Teletubbies are Evil.
More on Ellis over at Not An Exit.
Labels: Literature
Thursday, September 14, 2006
I read banned books
September 23 - 30 is Banned Books Week which recognizes those great works of literature that society for one reason or another has taken issue with. Catcher in the Rye, Ulysses, Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, all of these works at some point have been put on trial for the ideas they advance. In fact, 42 of 100 books listed by the Radcliffe Publishing Course as the best novels of the 20th century have been challenged or bannd.e
As part of this celebration, Google has posted a page that allows you to explore passages from some of these classics and get a sense of what makes them read as dangerous to some and revelatory to others. (via Forward)
September 23 - 30 is Banned Books Week which recognizes those great works of literature that society for one reason or another has taken issue with. Catcher in the Rye, Ulysses, Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, all of these works at some point have been put on trial for the ideas they advance. In fact, 42 of 100 books listed by the Radcliffe Publishing Course as the best novels of the 20th century have been challenged or bannd.e
As part of this celebration, Google has posted a page that allows you to explore passages from some of these classics and get a sense of what makes them read as dangerous to some and revelatory to others. (via Forward)
Labels: Google, Literature
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Silence has a funny sound
"Something had gentled the rain, taking the madness out of it."
From today's New York Times: the "unmistakable prose" of Micket Spillane (1918-2006).
"Something had gentled the rain, taking the madness out of it."
From today's New York Times: the "unmistakable prose" of Micket Spillane (1918-2006).
Labels: Literature, NY Times
Monday, June 26, 2006
The Dark Side of Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland doesn't want to end the Book Club meeting on a positive note. They always end upbeat he explains. For once, he wants things to end darkly. "Doomed. We are all doomed." He throws this out there as his final words. "Quit your job. There is no hope."
It is this topic of life's darker edges that seemed to continue to be addressed over the course of the two hour discussion tonight that was being recorded for an upcoming episode of North By Northwest, hosted by Sheryl MacKay and Georgia Straight's John Burns for CBC Radio Studio One's Book Club.
Vancouver, as much as we wish to ignore it, has a rather notorious underbelly - and not just the open and festering wound exposed on the Downtown Eastside. As Coupland pointed out, we don't really make all that much here aside from pushing a few pixels around on a screen and some high-end real estate. And yet, no one asks a lot of questions about where all the money is coming from; instead we remain complacent, like a good mafia wife. "We are living in a unique place, at a unique time" Coupland stated. That is one of the main reasons that he based his latest novel J-Pod here. (Well, that and the fact that he was feeling too lazy to travel).
So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the discussion tonight veered onto such topics as "where is the best place to dump a dead body" It was in relation to the passage he read in which the main character's mother kills a biker who tried to extort her for a share of her basement grow op. But Coupland is visibly pleased to be sitting up in front of us, relating his experiences during the research phase of driving around Vancouver looking for the perfect place to get rid of a corpse. From the novel:
It's strange how everything in the world changes the moment your focus becomes extremely specific. Hmmmm....is that a good place to bury a body? No, soil's too thin.
Mom suggested Stanley Park, on the edge of downtown. "If there was ever a place to dump a body, the park is it. At this point in history, there are probably more bones there than soil."
His choice of reading, he told us, was inspired by a report on NEWS1130 of three grow ops exploding out in New Westminster earlier in the day. "This is the only place in the world that they don't have to explain the term 'grow op' on the news" he wryly observed. And then, in the same way that he had done at the last reading I had attended, he stumbled over an explanation in the attempts to set up the scene of the selected passage, loose thoughts trailing after one another with starts and pauses until suddenly it all seemed to gracefully take flight and you realized that he was reading.
There were a lot of those tonight, trailing loose thoughts and quirky starts and pauses, as Coupland took questions from the audience about his take on programmers, micro-autism, the Google phenomenon and our divorce from history. This is the first time in the world that we have nothing to look back on and learn from, he told us. "History cannot help us anymore. We must begin fresh and figure it out as we go". Which is exciting, in my opinion, and optimistic. And it ultimately ends this entry ..on a positive note.
Douglas Coupland doesn't want to end the Book Club meeting on a positive note. They always end upbeat he explains. For once, he wants things to end darkly. "Doomed. We are all doomed." He throws this out there as his final words. "Quit your job. There is no hope."
It is this topic of life's darker edges that seemed to continue to be addressed over the course of the two hour discussion tonight that was being recorded for an upcoming episode of North By Northwest, hosted by Sheryl MacKay and Georgia Straight's John Burns for CBC Radio Studio One's Book Club.
Vancouver, as much as we wish to ignore it, has a rather notorious underbelly - and not just the open and festering wound exposed on the Downtown Eastside. As Coupland pointed out, we don't really make all that much here aside from pushing a few pixels around on a screen and some high-end real estate. And yet, no one asks a lot of questions about where all the money is coming from; instead we remain complacent, like a good mafia wife. "We are living in a unique place, at a unique time" Coupland stated. That is one of the main reasons that he based his latest novel J-Pod here. (Well, that and the fact that he was feeling too lazy to travel).
So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the discussion tonight veered onto such topics as "where is the best place to dump a dead body" It was in relation to the passage he read in which the main character's mother kills a biker who tried to extort her for a share of her basement grow op. But Coupland is visibly pleased to be sitting up in front of us, relating his experiences during the research phase of driving around Vancouver looking for the perfect place to get rid of a corpse. From the novel:
It's strange how everything in the world changes the moment your focus becomes extremely specific. Hmmmm....is that a good place to bury a body? No, soil's too thin.
Mom suggested Stanley Park, on the edge of downtown. "If there was ever a place to dump a body, the park is it. At this point in history, there are probably more bones there than soil."
His choice of reading, he told us, was inspired by a report on NEWS1130 of three grow ops exploding out in New Westminster earlier in the day. "This is the only place in the world that they don't have to explain the term 'grow op' on the news" he wryly observed. And then, in the same way that he had done at the last reading I had attended, he stumbled over an explanation in the attempts to set up the scene of the selected passage, loose thoughts trailing after one another with starts and pauses until suddenly it all seemed to gracefully take flight and you realized that he was reading.
There were a lot of those tonight, trailing loose thoughts and quirky starts and pauses, as Coupland took questions from the audience about his take on programmers, micro-autism, the Google phenomenon and our divorce from history. This is the first time in the world that we have nothing to look back on and learn from, he told us. "History cannot help us anymore. We must begin fresh and figure it out as we go". Which is exciting, in my opinion, and optimistic. And it ultimately ends this entry ..on a positive note.
Labels: Literature
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Zen, Kafka and Typography
"For many, including myself, the voice at the start of "The Trees" belongs to Kafka's letters themselves, speaking directly to the reader: "we are like tree trunks in the snow." Picture a field after a recent snowfall."
A beautiful article by Rob Giampietro on the relationship of Zen Buddhism, Franz Kafka and typography over at the newly redesigned Design Observer.
"For many, including myself, the voice at the start of "The Trees" belongs to Kafka's letters themselves, speaking directly to the reader: "we are like tree trunks in the snow." Picture a field after a recent snowfall."
A beautiful article by Rob Giampietro on the relationship of Zen Buddhism, Franz Kafka and typography over at the newly redesigned Design Observer.
Labels: Asia, Design, Literature
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Anthony Bourdain: Live at the Yale
There was a true rock n roll buzz flowing through the bar of the Yale Hotel last night, as though one might expect Bono or Neil Young to step onto the small hallowed stage and play a solo set. Tickets to the event had been hard to come by. If you listened close enough, you could catch tales of backdoor dealings and namedropping to gain access. The only other way had been to write an online 200 word essay on why you deserved an invitation to this most heinous meeting of… the CBC Book Club?!?
Without question, the new rock star of the 21st Century is the Celebrity Chef and no one out there is keeping up the hells bells persona better than last night's guest, Anthony Bourdain. Somewhat ironically, this rebel of the gastronomic realm has come to represent the voice of more traditional bistro fare. He has no time for kitchens that offer “Wasabi Sorbee” or “Green Pear and Lychee Reduction”. And don’t even bother sitting down at his table if you are anything close to being vegetarian. His tastes are carni-centric and the more of the beast that you consume, the better.
Above all else, food for Chef Bourdain has become a means of communicating and breaking down cultural barriers. For the past five years, with only a few small breaks, he has been traveling to the farthest and most remote corners of the world in search of “the perfect meal”. When you are on the road for such an extended period, you come to learn that ego and attitude do not translate as well as sincerity and gratitude. Likewise, you find yourself quickly humbled by the generosity of your hosts who will often sacrifice a week’s worth of food to assure that you are well fed. As Chef Bourdain talked of his experiences, extolled the ethereal nature of Vietnamese cuisine and read passages from his new book Nasty Bits, you could glean from him the wisdom that comes with seeing so much. He repeatedly told us that he had the best job in the world; and we believed him.
From the Preface to The Nasty Bits:
“It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and what’s happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there – with your eyes open – and lived to see it.”
There was a true rock n roll buzz flowing through the bar of the Yale Hotel last night, as though one might expect Bono or Neil Young to step onto the small hallowed stage and play a solo set. Tickets to the event had been hard to come by. If you listened close enough, you could catch tales of backdoor dealings and namedropping to gain access. The only other way had been to write an online 200 word essay on why you deserved an invitation to this most heinous meeting of… the CBC Book Club?!?
Without question, the new rock star of the 21st Century is the Celebrity Chef and no one out there is keeping up the hells bells persona better than last night's guest, Anthony Bourdain. Somewhat ironically, this rebel of the gastronomic realm has come to represent the voice of more traditional bistro fare. He has no time for kitchens that offer “Wasabi Sorbee” or “Green Pear and Lychee Reduction”. And don’t even bother sitting down at his table if you are anything close to being vegetarian. His tastes are carni-centric and the more of the beast that you consume, the better.
Above all else, food for Chef Bourdain has become a means of communicating and breaking down cultural barriers. For the past five years, with only a few small breaks, he has been traveling to the farthest and most remote corners of the world in search of “the perfect meal”. When you are on the road for such an extended period, you come to learn that ego and attitude do not translate as well as sincerity and gratitude. Likewise, you find yourself quickly humbled by the generosity of your hosts who will often sacrifice a week’s worth of food to assure that you are well fed. As Chef Bourdain talked of his experiences, extolled the ethereal nature of Vietnamese cuisine and read passages from his new book Nasty Bits, you could glean from him the wisdom that comes with seeing so much. He repeatedly told us that he had the best job in the world; and we believed him.
From the Preface to The Nasty Bits:
“It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and what’s happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there – with your eyes open – and lived to see it.”
Labels: Literature
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Coudal returns for another summer of Field Tested Books
The Field-Tested Books project is our version of the Heisenberg principle: reading a certain book in a certain place uniquely affects a person's experience with both. The writing you'll find here is grounded in that idea. You won't find any book reviews here. You'll find reviews of experience.
My experience: Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha on a train between Madrid and Barcelona. Check it out here.
The Field-Tested Books project is our version of the Heisenberg principle: reading a certain book in a certain place uniquely affects a person's experience with both. The writing you'll find here is grounded in that idea. You won't find any book reviews here. You'll find reviews of experience.
My experience: Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha on a train between Madrid and Barcelona. Check it out here.
Labels: Collaborators, Literature
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Life of Pi Illustration Shortlist
I made a pact with myself at the beginning of the month that during my stint as guest editor over at Coudal.com I would not post duplicate entries either on this site or at Industrial Brand. However, today's entry breaks rank and has been posted on all three.
One of the freshest and exciting books to capture the world's imagination in the past decade was Yann Martel's Booker prizewinning novel Life of Pi. Since October, The Times and Canongate Books have been running an international call for submissions for a new illustrated edition. A shortlist of 15 artists has now been announced and the diversity in style of the entries is amazing. It will be a difficult task for the judges to choose who provides the visual skin to such a magical and captivating story. (Props to Drawn for this).
I made a pact with myself at the beginning of the month that during my stint as guest editor over at Coudal.com I would not post duplicate entries either on this site or at Industrial Brand. However, today's entry breaks rank and has been posted on all three.
One of the freshest and exciting books to capture the world's imagination in the past decade was Yann Martel's Booker prizewinning novel Life of Pi. Since October, The Times and Canongate Books have been running an international call for submissions for a new illustrated edition. A shortlist of 15 artists has now been announced and the diversity in style of the entries is amazing. It will be a difficult task for the judges to choose who provides the visual skin to such a magical and captivating story. (Props to Drawn for this).
Labels: Art, Literature
Monday, October 24, 2005
A Million Little Pieces
It is amazing how a cultural virus can enter your periphery and then suddenly dominate the horizon like a horde of locusts. This weekend, I was introduced to the hype that is "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. It started on Friday with a casual reference in an email from my friend West. Then on Saturday, I learned that Chapters had sold out all 12 copies that had arrived earlier that morning within the first two hours - no doubt due to Oprah's blessing. Then it was Jane pointing out its #1 spot on the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller's List. And to top it all off, my Sunday night phone call to my parents began with an account of my mother's book club meeting and the inevitable "Have you heard of this book..?"
It would seem that once you're in the loop, it is hard to find your way back out again. Has anyone out there read it? Is James Frey the new Dave Eggers? Claire Zulkey provides a review for the book that is currently shaking up the literary world over at PopMatters.
It is amazing how a cultural virus can enter your periphery and then suddenly dominate the horizon like a horde of locusts. This weekend, I was introduced to the hype that is "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. It started on Friday with a casual reference in an email from my friend West. Then on Saturday, I learned that Chapters had sold out all 12 copies that had arrived earlier that morning within the first two hours - no doubt due to Oprah's blessing. Then it was Jane pointing out its #1 spot on the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller's List. And to top it all off, my Sunday night phone call to my parents began with an account of my mother's book club meeting and the inevitable "Have you heard of this book..?"
It would seem that once you're in the loop, it is hard to find your way back out again. Has anyone out there read it? Is James Frey the new Dave Eggers? Claire Zulkey provides a review for the book that is currently shaking up the literary world over at PopMatters.
Labels: Literature
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
William Gibson and the Garage Kubrick
"Ingmar Bergman...in 1966 demanded that stills for Persona be taken from the negative – and, moreover, reproduced with their sprocket holes; proof that one was seeing the whole image as he conceived and shot it."
A fascinating essay by John Baxter on William Gibson and the Garage Kubrick. via Coudal's inimitable "Stuff about Kubrick".
"Ingmar Bergman...in 1966 demanded that stills for Persona be taken from the negative – and, moreover, reproduced with their sprocket holes; proof that one was seeing the whole image as he conceived and shot it."
A fascinating essay by John Baxter on William Gibson and the Garage Kubrick. via Coudal's inimitable "Stuff about Kubrick".
Labels: Film, Literature, Tuned to a Dead Channel
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
John Hersey's Hiroshima
At the risk of this blog's focus becoming too literary, today's article at todayinliterature.com is too good to pass up. On this day in 1946, The New Yorker published John Hersey's thirty-one thousand word article titled "Hiroshima", which followed the lives of six survivors in the months after the atomic bomb was dropped by the US to end the Pacific battle of World War II. The article took up all sixty-eight pages of text space, an unprecented occurence in both the history of the magazine and the publishing world. New York University magazine recently named 'Hiroshima' the best single work of reporting in the 20th century. It has since been published in book form available (of course) through Amazon.
The above photo was "borrowed" from a French website called Luxorion which has a considerable collection of terrifyingly beautiful nuclear explosion photos.
At the risk of this blog's focus becoming too literary, today's article at todayinliterature.com is too good to pass up. On this day in 1946, The New Yorker published John Hersey's thirty-one thousand word article titled "Hiroshima", which followed the lives of six survivors in the months after the atomic bomb was dropped by the US to end the Pacific battle of World War II. The article took up all sixty-eight pages of text space, an unprecented occurence in both the history of the magazine and the publishing world. New York University magazine recently named 'Hiroshima' the best single work of reporting in the 20th century. It has since been published in book form available (of course) through Amazon.
The above photo was "borrowed" from a French website called Luxorion which has a considerable collection of terrifyingly beautiful nuclear explosion photos.
Labels: Literature
Monday, August 29, 2005
Official Cult Member
So I've decided to give a boost to my fiction writing by joining The Cult at chuckpalahniuk.net. While not run directly by Chuck Palahniuk, author of such novels as Fight Club, Choke, Lullaby and most recently, Haunted, Chuck does conduct an online writing workshop every month that consists of essays on how to improve your writing skills and an assignment which can be submitted back to the site for critiquing and even the possibility of getting published in an upcoming anthology.
But I may have already said too much. The first rule of The Cult is — you do NOT talk about The Cult. As always with such ventures, I am curious to see how dedicated I remain to the task at hand. Of course, anything that materializes from this exercise will be published on kevinbroome.com so be sure to check back in the future or send me an email and I will make sure you are on the update list.
So I've decided to give a boost to my fiction writing by joining The Cult at chuckpalahniuk.net. While not run directly by Chuck Palahniuk, author of such novels as Fight Club, Choke, Lullaby and most recently, Haunted, Chuck does conduct an online writing workshop every month that consists of essays on how to improve your writing skills and an assignment which can be submitted back to the site for critiquing and even the possibility of getting published in an upcoming anthology.
But I may have already said too much. The first rule of The Cult is — you do NOT talk about The Cult. As always with such ventures, I am curious to see how dedicated I remain to the task at hand. Of course, anything that materializes from this exercise will be published on kevinbroome.com so be sure to check back in the future or send me an email and I will make sure you are on the update list.
Labels: Literature
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Bret Easton Ellis' Lunar Park
It wasn't easy tracking down a copy of Lunar Park, the new novel by Bret Easton Ellis. I went to a number of book stores around Vancouver before finding a "slightly damaged" last copy at the Duthies on Broadway. I guess the true fan would have already pre-ordered on Amazon; I myself do not seem to possess enough forethought for such matters. In the end, I was desperate; they offered me a discount; I pulled out the credit card.
Promoted as a pseudo-memoir, Ellis fans will immediately recognize the author's usual tricks of ludicrous namedropping and references to people and places from previous novels. You become aware early on that this story unfolds in the Ellis universe, not so much in the real world. The self portrait that is crafted in the book is a sensationalized check-out counter version of the author's career: starting out as a promising talent who found instant fame at too young an age (his first novel, Less than Zero was published when he was 21 and still in college) through to the public outcry and villification that presaged the publication of American Psycho and the subsequent deterioration into an out of control, drug addled narcissist; and finally into a not-so-clean-and-sober existence as a suburban husband and father. And that's when the story really starts to get interesting with a plot twist that seems to give nod to master horror writer, Stephen King.
Check out the interview with Ellis on Chuck Palahniuk's site. And, as an interesting sidenote: in keeping with the theme of my recent article, "Digging in the Right Yard: The Viral Marketing of It's All Gone Pete Tong", take a moment to follow the breadcrumbs that surface upon google searching actress Jayne Dennis, Ellis' wife in Lunar Park. Again a very similar example of extending the blurred edges of fiction into a marketing campaign.
It wasn't easy tracking down a copy of Lunar Park, the new novel by Bret Easton Ellis. I went to a number of book stores around Vancouver before finding a "slightly damaged" last copy at the Duthies on Broadway. I guess the true fan would have already pre-ordered on Amazon; I myself do not seem to possess enough forethought for such matters. In the end, I was desperate; they offered me a discount; I pulled out the credit card.
Promoted as a pseudo-memoir, Ellis fans will immediately recognize the author's usual tricks of ludicrous namedropping and references to people and places from previous novels. You become aware early on that this story unfolds in the Ellis universe, not so much in the real world. The self portrait that is crafted in the book is a sensationalized check-out counter version of the author's career: starting out as a promising talent who found instant fame at too young an age (his first novel, Less than Zero was published when he was 21 and still in college) through to the public outcry and villification that presaged the publication of American Psycho and the subsequent deterioration into an out of control, drug addled narcissist; and finally into a not-so-clean-and-sober existence as a suburban husband and father. And that's when the story really starts to get interesting with a plot twist that seems to give nod to master horror writer, Stephen King.
Check out the interview with Ellis on Chuck Palahniuk's site. And, as an interesting sidenote: in keeping with the theme of my recent article, "Digging in the Right Yard: The Viral Marketing of It's All Gone Pete Tong", take a moment to follow the breadcrumbs that surface upon google searching actress Jayne Dennis, Ellis' wife in Lunar Park. Again a very similar example of extending the blurred edges of fiction into a marketing campaign.
Labels: Literature
Monday, August 22, 2005
Hunter S. Thompson takes to the sky
Above are the two best photos I could find of the weekend's festivities at Owl Farm. Michael Swindle of the Village Voice provides the most fitting commentary.
Above are the two best photos I could find of the weekend's festivities at Owl Farm. Michael Swindle of the Village Voice provides the most fitting commentary.
Labels: Literature, When the Going Gets Weird
Friday, August 19, 2005
Buy the ticket, take the ride...
Final preparations are being made for tomorrow's private memorial service for writer Hunter S. Thompson. A 153 foot tall cannon, shaped like the gonzo fist (currently covered in blue tarp to conceal it from curious onlookers) is scheduled to fire the good doctor's ashes into the air above his Owl Farm property.
My original reaction at the time of HST's suicide was posted on the IBC blog site:
More info on HST and tomorrow's ceremony can be found at gonzo.org.
Final preparations are being made for tomorrow's private memorial service for writer Hunter S. Thompson. A 153 foot tall cannon, shaped like the gonzo fist (currently covered in blue tarp to conceal it from curious onlookers) is scheduled to fire the good doctor's ashes into the air above his Owl Farm property.
My original reaction at the time of HST's suicide was posted on the IBC blog site:
The self proclaimed creator of gonzo journalism and long time hero of mine, Hunter S. Thompson shot himself yesterday afternoon at his home in Woody Creek, Colo. A nasty way to go, to be sure. One might argue that the myth had no more use for the man; that a gonzo journalist should never reach the age of retirement. Whatever the case, I hope that HST will be remembered for more than just his groundbreaking novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Read his letters or The Great Shark Hunt, and you will come to realize that we have lost one of the most important voices of dissidence that America has ever known.
More info on HST and tomorrow's ceremony can be found at gonzo.org.
Labels: Literature, When the Going Gets Weird
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Pattern Recognition - William Gibson in Wired Magazine
One of my favourite writers, William Gibson has poked his head back into cyberspace after an extended sabbatical from his blog with an article in Wired magazine that compares beat writer William Burroughs' "cut up method" of writing with Lee "Scratch" Perry and the origins of music sampling. It really does not get much better than this.
One of my favourite writers, William Gibson has poked his head back into cyberspace after an extended sabbatical from his blog with an article in Wired magazine that compares beat writer William Burroughs' "cut up method" of writing with Lee "Scratch" Perry and the origins of music sampling. It really does not get much better than this.
Labels: Literature, Tuned to a Dead Channel
