I’m a big fan of Chuck ‘Fight Club’ Palahniuk’s writing. I’m an even bigger fan of his warped world view. And I’m an even bigger fan of the way he’s created this whole cult movement around the first two. I would love to go to one of Chuck’s readings, but until he makes it to London I’ll have to make do with the film above.
Author Archive for dangennoe
Typical. Just minutes after describing Theophilus London as what Kanye would be if he was cool and not a complete arse Kanye puts this out as a reminder that sometimes he is cool, not a complete arse and is never to be underestimated. Arse.
Kanye West feat Dwele – Power
Just discovered Theophilus London. I know, I’m a little behind the times, but probably still three years ahead of Q Magazine. He’s had three mixtapes out from what I gather: Jam, This Charming Mixtape – apparently he’s a big Morrissey fan, but don’t hold that against him – and at the end of April he put out the brilliant I Want You.
I can’t get hold of the first two and most of the links I found to I Want You were broken. However, I found a SoundCloud playlist here. Not ideal, but well worth sticking with. Make the most of it while it’s still there.
He’s like what Kanye would be if he was cool and not a complete arse.
Evidently there’s an album on the way, so for more info Theophilus’s website is here and his myspace is here.
Vice Magazine and Intel have put together The Creators Project to showcase the work of influential and inspiring musical innovators and creators. Diplo, Peaches, James Lavelle, Phoenix, Richie Hawtin, Laurent Garnier, Mark Ronson and film maker Spike Jonze all feature. Including an exclusive interview with each artist, videos and biographies it’s really very good.
I love the photography of Carlos Nunez. He’s got that whole ’70s rock’n'roll sex thing going on. See more at his website www.carlosnunezphotography.com and blog ohsnapscarlos.blogspot.com NSFW but not in a straight-up porny way.
Cool Snow White and The Joker iPad vinyl stickers.
If I had an iPad I might be tempted by a gothed-up Snow White.
There is an advert that pops up every so often over there on the right hand side. It may or may not be there now. Have a look. It’s one of these google ads that is generated according to surrounding content. It features a picture of a very smiley bald man with a laptop (or sometimes an equally delirious lady with lovely long hair and a laptop) and above his head it cheerily reads: Why not be a writer?
I think the same thing every time I see it.
BECAUSE IT HURTS AND MAKES ME WANT TO BREAK THINGS.
Just saying.
I am a big user of Moleskine note books. I have way too many of them. I will no doubt have way too many more. The pictures above are from an imaginary ad campaign that Amy Nortman, a student of the University of North Texas, won a competition with. What competition? I have no idea. But they are genius and ably explain the love of the Moleskine, so I hope it was a competition with a big fat cheque at the end of it.
See these and the rest of the series in their full glory on the Moleskine Flickr. To find your own deep love and spend more money than is reasonable on notebooks, see the Moleskine site.
Jay-Z. Definitely cool. Or at least he is when he isn’t in sportswear. Sportswear Jigga is not a good look. Sweat bands and basketball attire aside, Sean Thomas Carter is a leading light in rap, not just because of his lyrical skills and business acumen, but because he carries himself with a dignified confidence that demands you listen up and take notice. Is that not the core ingredient of cool?
I have ghosted celebrity memoirs. I have worked on biographies. I am currently two thirds of the way through writing a novel, plotting another and working on a film idea.
I used to do all of the above in Word. It used to to make me very unhappy.
I used to have folders all over my laptop with notes, research, transcripts, chapters, outlines, drafts, manuscripts. It was all very confusing. When the draft was finished I used to have to cut’n'paste each chapter into yet another Word document. Making sure there was a page break before each chapter was a nightmare. Keeping the formatting consistent made me want to kill. And if I wanted to change or move anything… I used to weep…a lot.
Not anymore. Oh no. Now I use Scivener. Now I have all my notes, research, transcripts, chapters, outlines and drafts in one place and when all the chapters are done I can compile them into a manuscript and output it to Word, page breaks and formatting included, at the touch of a button.
Am I happier? Of course. Would I recommend other writers try Scrivener for themselves? Absolutely. Am I more productive? Not a bit, but I at least get to procrastinate and be unproductive free from the fear of page breaks and formatting and not being able to find my notes the one time I do decide to write something. Which in its own way is worth every cent of the $39.95 it costs.
Don’t believe me? Why would you. Maybe the video below will do a better job of convincing you.
Elmore Leonard knows so much about writing he could write a book about it... or at least a list.
I never wanted to be one of those writers who ends up writing endlessly about writing but never seems to do any actual writing. Then again I never wanted to be one of those writers who spent hours on the internet reading other writers’ writing about writing instead of actually doing any writing, but I do a hell of a lot of that and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t found it a most enjoyable and educational way to avoid writing. So, by way of a compromise, here are some links to some brilliant writers talking about their brilliant writing.
Inspired by Elmore Leonard’s now legendary ‘10 Rules Of Writing’, The Guardian ran a two part feature where the likes of Margaret Atwood, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Philip Pullman, Ian Rankin, Will Self, Sarah Waters and Zadie Smith divulge the 10 rules which either make them the writer they are or stop them wanting to self-harm. Some tips are more technical than others, but all are informative, entertaining and worth reading. My particular favourites are Richard Ford’s: “Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer’s a good idea” and Roddy Doyle’s very wise opener: “Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.”
Greatest rock video ever. Stadiums? Check. Guitars? Check. Girls? Check. Hanging out in guitar shops in black and white while smoking cigarettes, signing autographs and generally looking like you don’t give a fuck? Check. Sometimes it’s worth watching as a reminder that this is what being in a rock band is meant to be like.
In what is bound to be a fast track to being even less productive than I normally am, I’ve opened a dailybooth.com account. If you’re there already follow me and I’ll follow you and we can be like friends and such.
Ben Folds pays tribute to Chatroulette’s Pianoman Merton. Genius.
New Cold War Kids single, Audience Of One. Couldn’t get into the last album at all. This one sounds like it may well make up for it.
Jamie Lidell returns with Beck, Feist and Nikka Costa. Reasons to be cheerful, one, two, three (and indeed, four).
I like quotes. Here are some of my favourites, including one or two from the good doctor above.
“Life has improved immeasurably since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” Hunter S. Thompson
“Choose not a life of imitation,” Red Hot Chili Peppers, Can’t Stop
“Writing is the flip side of sex – it’s only good when it’s over.” Hunter S. Thompson
“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original you will have to ram it down their throats.”
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” Calvin Coolidge
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take them to.” Jim Jarmusch
Vanity Fair journalist to Matthew Perry’s character Matt Albie in Studio 60 as she takes down the name on the label on the rug in his office: “It’s a 10,000 word feature, they can’t all be winners.”
French author Frederic Beigbeder when asked what makes a good party: “Pretty girls, Champagne and me.”
“When two people know a secret, it’s not a secret anymore.” Titta Di Girolamo, The Consequences Of Love
“Midlife is when you get to the top of the ladder and realise that you’ve had the ladder against the wrong wall,” via Tom Ford
“I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.” George Best
“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.” Eleanor Roosevelt
John Updike on living in NYC: “The true new yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.”
“Outside of a dog a book is man’s best friend, inside a dog it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx
“I act real shallow but I’m in too deep,” Dizzee Rascal, Bonkers
“Pop music will never die, it just has no direction” Bis, Action & Drama
There is a better life. And it looks a little something like this. A thought to conjure with on a cold, snowy/icy/slushy night in London in January. For more of the same, see my new favourite oversized coffee table book Poolside With Slim Aarons. Genius.
Virtual life getting you down? Never got time to see your wife/kids/real friends? Always too busy answering emails/facebook messages to enjoy a nice walk in the park? Always being poked, but not in a good way? Then help is at hand.
If you’re curious about Google Wave, or struggling to understand what the point of it is, this video explains both the pros, and with the very last bit, the major con.
Nick Cave has a new novel, The Death Of Bunny Munro. He also has a very good website to go with it. Simple but effective, I especially like the video clips of him reading extracts and the limited edition idea – one already used extensively by HarperCollins’s innovative indie style imprint The Friday Project – is genius, not least because if they sell all 500 copies, and at the time of writing there are only 91 left, they stand to turn over £50,000. That’s a pretty smart way of making hardbacks profitable. The book will also, apparently, be available as an iPhone app, which I may well get just to see what it’s like.
On the Road: London Calling from richard hernandez on Vimeo.
The Fifty Four from richard hernandez on Vimeo.
Two beautiful short films made by US journalist Richard Hernandez. Atmospheric in a cool/creepy/disturbing/brilliant way. The second, The Fifty Four, was made using only his iPhone. Stunning.
My love of chairs is legendary. I think I’ve just found me new favourite website in the whole world. Chair Whore.
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Magazines, newspapers, it’s all screwed. Or so we’re told. Titles closing left right and centre, advertisers not interested in advertising, everyone sitting around, shaking their heads, staring into the abyss wondering when they’re going to have to get a proper job. Still, it wasn’t always like that. Once upon a time, advertiser money flowed as free as the Champagne and beautiful people were journalists and journalists were beautiful people who earned a fortune. Now most freelance writers aren’t even sure if they can earn a living anymore. Never mind, remember the beginning of the end of the good old days with the great piece in The New York Times by David Carr on the launch party for Tina Brown’s ill-fated Talk magazine. I remember the excitement, the hype, the couldn’t fail confidence. How times have changed.
*I couldn’t find a suitable picture to illustrate the excesses of magazine launch parties in the late ’90s or the demise of publishing, so I went with a gratuitous picture of Lindsay Lohan because a) she’s on the cover of a magazine, b) she’s not wearing clothes c) because LiLo knows how to party.
New meaning to the phrase ‘the film of the book’. And the best bit, it really does make you want to buy it. Or maybe it’s just me.
Film director Claude Lelouch’s legendary 1976 short film, C’etait un Rendez vous. Filmed in the early hours, in one take, it goes from the outskirts of Paris to Sacré-Coeur in a little over 8 minutes. Without stopping. For anything.
For anyone who knows Paris and knows it well, the bit where he exits Place de la Concorde, turning left on to Voie Georges Pompidou is particularly horrific. As is when he heads into the winding cobbled streets of Montmartre. It should be pointed out that the film is one continuous shot, filmed in real time – no special effects. What Lelouch did was crazy, reckless, and got him arrested when the film was first shown in public. Looks like fun though.
How could you NOT want to read a film magazine with covers as cool as these? For more on Little White Lies and to see more covers: www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
*note-to-self: see previous post’s note-to-self
