Alex Ross does Largehearted Boy’s Book Notes for his new book Listen to This [Largehearted Boy]
In my sophomore year of college I did a radio show called the Twentieth-Century Symphony, which ended at 10PM. The punk-rock DJs came on right after, and at first I flinched away from them. I soon realized, though, that their passion for music equaled mine. And I understood that the values I associated with classical music—difficulty, intensity, resistance to the mass—were not unique to it. My friend Paula urged me to buy Pere Ubu’s Terminal Tower compilation, and it changed my world as much as anything I’ve heard: this rough, exacting music dismantled my bad assumptions in about an hour. When I write on classical music, I always hope to return the favor, foregrounding the piece that will destroy someone else’s preconceptions.
Grindhouse: Nick Cave’s Dirty Detour by Sasha Frere Jones [New Yorker]
In the eighties, it looked as though Cave might become a darker, underground version of Elvis, but that time has passed, partly because his interests have changed. Now his profile is pleasantly complicated; in the past thirty years he has channelled a dozen different versions of the male psyche. To the rock audience, he is a highbrow front man who also writes novels and soundtracks, and pals about with artistes who wouldn’t be caught dead at a rock show where the audience is forced to stand. In Australia, he is mainstream enough to have won a recent MySpace poll that asked which musician Australians would like to see installed as Prime Minister. (Three hundred thousand votes were cast.) In the U.S., Cave has a smaller but intense following. With his tailored suits, gold rings, and bad-hombre mustache, he has become our most dapper weirdo, a Don Draper for people who don’t get up before sunset.
The collection of short films defining a city has become a meme of it’s own. New York, I Love You. Tokyo. Paris, je t’aime. These films are often by filmmakers who aren’t from these places, and some who are, all providing their own perspective on what a metropolis really is from macro to micro. The Minneapolis Project is an undertaking in the same vein put together by The Cinema Revolution Society, what was once a fantastic video rental store and is now a non-profit keeping film arts alive in the Twin Cities through projects like this. The project features 25 short films by 18 Minneapolis filmmakers. The premiere of this cycle is on Thursday September 30 at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis. Check out the trailer for the screening below.
Minneapolis Project 2010 Trailer from Minneapolis Project 2010 on Vimeo.
If you’re a Minneapolitan you can get tickets here.
An Interview with Jonathan Ames about Bored to Death [AV Club]
Obviously, scripts are dialogue-driven, and I’d intended to write a lot of dialogue in my novels, but the dialogue in these scripts needs to be even terser and more efficient. You just don’t have the time or space that you do in prose, but I’ve always admired efficiency in writing, because I never want to bore the reader. In this case, whoever might be reading the scripts. And I don’t want what we’re doing to bore anyone, although we did call it Bored To Death. There definitely was a transition, but I like the economy of script writing. You know, a scene description, how can I tell it so it’s not longer than two lines? Because you’re also aware that people have to read these scripts, and you want to save space for the dialogue. I’ve always liked police-blotter kind of writing, or the writing of a policeman, right to the point and hardboiled. That’s how I see at least the prose elements of scriptwriting. I try to keep the dialogue lively and moving, try to do this David Mamet notion of getting into a scene late and leaving early, though it’s not necessarily David Mamet’s invention.
Our Love for Van Gogh Costs Gauguin Dear [Guardian]
Poor Gauguin. It’s not so long since he was accused of cutting off Van Gogh’s ear with his fencing sword – a nonsensical claim that can be dismissed by any reader of Van Gogh’s accounts of his self-harm. Now here he is, written out of history, effaced from time, by the makers of Doctor Who.
These are the first images we’ve seen of the upcoming Coen Brothers adaptation of True Grit starring Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn. The film also stars Matt Damon and Josh Brolin, and, though you can’t really say anything of substance based on a teaser like this, it does look beautiful and has a solid cast of mostly reliable actors. Then again, I said that about Burn After Reading before it was released. The film will be released around Christmas-time. If you need a little extra content after viewing the teaser, to ease your excitement about another Coen Brothers film, then you can go over the the NY Times Art Beat blog and see their post that recounts the NY Times review of the original True Grit from 1969.
All About Jazz is counting down the 1,000 jazz albums you should hear before you die. The list is unordered, so it’s sort of a random list of a ton of albums you couldn’t possibly ever get through. They are only putting them up ten at a time, so if you don’t have time to check it out now you can just wait until they hit number one in 2012 (that’s not true) and then go back through the list. Yesterday they posted 721-730 which included albums from Art Pepper, The Jazz Crusaders, Don Cherry, Sam Rivers, and a bunch of others. You can see that list here.
photo taken from NYC Taper
Pavement, Pavement, Pavement, and Pavement. They’re back.
A free five song EP from Trent Reznor containing tracks from his The Social Network soundtrack.
The Fiery Furnaces did a three track Laundo-Matinee session with video. They even played one of my favorites, “Duplexes of the Dead.”
Speaking of bands being “back,” Superchunk is that, I guess. This live recording from the Music Hall of Williamsburg is solid. They sound as good as they ever did.
Obligatory Daytrotter recordings of the week: Agent Ribbons and a really great set by Lower Dens.
Things I didn’t get to listen to, but I’m linking anyway:
Chrissakes live at the 40 Watt.
Pukekos posted some EPs from Cellular Chaos.
Below is the book trailer for Ada Levin’s forthcoming novel from McSweeneys, The Instructions
You can current pre-order the book at Amazon
words and photos by Annie Lesser
On September 19th the somewhat small Christina Ray Gallery was overflowing with art enthusiasts for the opening of sculptor Michael Zelehoski’s show Objecthood. This was Zelehoski’s first solo show at Christina Ray, but owner and namesake Christina Ray has previously acquired his pieces for multiple group shows at her gallery.
The sculptures in Objecthood were all created by breaking down three-dimensional objects into two-dimensional representations of their original selves. For example, in the piece Chair, the wood from a chair is broken down and layered along with paint and a framing device in order to create the image of an erect chair. Zelehoski comments that it is a very violent process breaking down these objects, destroying their ability to interact with humans in a utilitarian sense. Though. he does not see himself as killing the objects he uses in his works, because they still hold the spirit of what their original use was. Looking at his sculpture White Table there is the image of a picnic table and the association with the memory of picnicking, but one cannot sit at the white table or place food upon it. In this sense though the becomes haunting, like a ghost or a memory that one can almost place his finger on, but it’s just out of reach.
The images are presented cleanly and crisply, seeming at first minimalist, but due to their abstracted perspective lines they seem to have a mental complexity hinting at the layers beneath the surface of the sculptures.