Subjective Account

Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach at NYPL LIVE

I recently attended a talk with Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach at the New York Public Library, and a post-talk cocktail party. My Subjective Account of the evening, Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach Sit in Chairs, is up on The Rumpus. Andre da Loba created the incredible illustrations for the piece.

Goings on About the Rump

Wu Ming

Notable New York is up on the Rumpus. Some things to look out for are Justin Taylor's reading with the Italian lit collective Wu Ming, Paul Banks (about whom I wrote a Subjective Account) performing, the Tim Burton exhibit, and films by Ingmar Bergman at BAM. (It was initially posted that Julian Casablancas would be performing with Paul Banks, but he will not be performing--Only Paul Banks. Sorry for the confusion).

Also, a very interesting read is Catherine Lacey's post on HTML Giant about Zadie Smith's essay about novelists writing essays: No Easy Cure for Novel Nausea.

The Rumpus and Tin House Present

Fun Fun Fun

Tonight at the Highline Ballroom, The Rumpus and Tin House present More Than You Expected, a variety show including readings by Rick Moody, Starlee Kine, Jonathan Ames, and David Rees, comedy by Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman, and musical guests Care Bears on Fire. Come out!

Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach Backstage

Video aT NYPL

Before the NYPL Live event last Monday, Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach were videoed as they walked in rooms of the New York Public Library. They looked at maps, pointed at maps and talked to each other about Roald Dahl, pornographic poems and things I sometimes couldn't hear.

Corduroy Appreciation Day

A Fantastic Fabric for Fops and Fly Girls

Today, 11/11, is Corduroy Appreciation Day. In honor of this wonderfully textured fabric, the Corduroy Appreciation Club is holding a Grand Meeting at the Old American Can Factory with keynote speaker author Sloane Crosley.

I'm not sure whether corduroy connoisseur Wes Anderson, will be in attendance. But he and fellow filmmaker Noah Baumbach were in conversation at the New York Public Library on Monday, 11/09, an event for which I'll be posting a Subjective Account at the Rumpus. The filmmakers showed clips from their upcoming film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, an adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic children's book, a film which contains some idiosyncratic elements in true Wes Anderson style, such as the faux character Kristofferson made of real fur, and Mr. Fox in a bespoke corduroy suit.

Week in Advance

Wes Anderson, Ben Marcus and n+1

Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach will be in conversation tonight at NYPL, there's a Harper's Magazine reading on Wednesday with Ben Marcus and Rivka Galchen, and the Internet as Playground and Factory conference with n+1 magazine begins Thursday. Check these and other events at Notable New York at the Rumpus.

Also, keep your calendars open on November 17. The Rumpus is throwing a party at the Highline Ballroom--MORE THAN YOU EXPECTED--with readings by Starlee Kine, Jonathan Ames and Rick Moody, comedy by Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman, and musical guests Care Bears on Fire.

Gore Vidal

Snap Shots of the Spiffing

Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History's Glare, Gore Vidal's third memoir, and the latest project of my dear friend Kevin Kwan, got a great review in Vogue. The memoir collects photographs, letters and manuscripts from Gore Vidal's personal archives, telling of his time in politics, the film industry, and cafe society at large.

Photo of Gore Vidal with Anais Nin.

Interview with Kristina Born

And An Account of the CLMP Spelling Bee

At the Indie Books column at The Faster Times, there's an interview with a young word wrangling author Kristina Born by author Christopher Higgs who edits an incredibly cool site: Bright Stupid Confetti. Born's work is being published by YEAR OF THE LIQUIDATOR, a new press by Shane Jones and Blake Butler.

You can also view my piece on the CLMP Spelling Bee, where James Frey, Francine Prose, Michael Musto and Alex Kuczynski dazzled, got stumped, and mispelled some easy words, proving that it still makes me feel badly when big-name writers can't spell any better than non-reading humans. But all in "good fun." To be fair, many of the words "walked out" on were tough, which, I guess, is the point.

Original illustration by Andre da Loba.

Looking Ahead to Lust Weekend

Everyone I Have Ever Slept With

As part of Lust Weekend at the Performa 09 Festival in New York, Tracey Emin will be reading from her collection of poems, Those Who Suffer Love, and her autobiography, Strangeland. One of the YBAs (Young British Artists) who was part of Charles Saatchi's Sensation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art that caused a fooferaw here in New York, she is not surprisingly known for her "sensational" artwork such as the tent above and My Bed, an installation of her own dirty and unmade bed that consisted of detritus such as body secretions, condoms and other junk that collected around her bed when she stayed in it for a while while having feelings of suicidal depression. At first I thought she was one of those artists that wants to shock you for the sake of shocking you. But then I heard her speak, and I think the ideas behind her work are sound and compelling. Listen for yourself here:





For more news about Performa 09, or other notable happenings around new york, check out my listings, Notable New York, at the Rumpus.

Lawrence Welk Redux

Mr. Ghost Goes to Town

Today I watched this video (an experimental remake of part of one Lawrence Welk show) one too many times. I'm into to Lawrence Welk lately and his Alsace-Lorraine-via-North-Dakota-with-a-touch-of-Russian accent. He and his "champagne music," make me happy in an eerie detached way. This video has a kind of great moment at 00:49-1:11.

Gigantic's Mini-Monster Issue

Weird People in Masks

The Gigantic Mini-Monster Issue is live. Featured are an interview of Brian Evenson, fiction by Carmen Lau and Sasha Fletcher and two videos by Michael Nason & Brian Wilmont, and Max Juren & Jill Pangallo courtesy of Monofonus. The Gigantic Mini-Monster Issue has been written about by L Magazine.

Video still from video by Michael Nason and Brian Wilmont.

Feast of Freaks

Performa 09 Gala Dinner

Jennifer Rubell is throwing a gala dinner Friday night for the opening of Performa 09, a festival of performance art that starts Sunday. Some things at this dinner include giant chocolate covered rabbits, apple trees and honey dripping from the ceiling onto ribs. Here are some things Jennifer Rubell said about getting the meal ready--she is the niece of Steve Rubell, who owned Studio 54 where Andy Warhol went a lot:

"I’ll go over there and he and I are going to lie the bunnies in the back of his minivan and put a duvet on top of them and bring them over to the X Initiative space. We’re going to stand them up, surround them with newspaper and then Jacques is going to spray a final coat of chocolate directly on to them."

"Mr. Wickham from Cutchogue, Long Island, is now going to drive the trees in in two trucks on Thursday. He has this new plan to dig them up by the roots and then with a chainsaw cut the roots off with a chainsaw once he arrives, which I think is so great."

"The next hurdle is going to be setting up the ribs under the honey trap—and getting dressed."

More Goings On

Subjective Account

At the Rumpus, I published a subjective account of the n+1 launch party at PPOW that has this blowaway illustration by Andre da Loba.

Goings on About the Rump

James Franco's Face and Benefit Party w Care Bears on Fire

At the Rumpus, my write-up on the New Yorker Festival has been linked to by a few places like PW Morning Report, Tao Lin's blog and Vol. 1 Brooklyn, which liked my title, "James Franco's Face."

Also, save the date, the Rumpus and Tin House are having a benefit party on November 17th 2009 that's going to be a blast.


MORE THAN YOU EXPECTED, A NIGHT AT THE HIGHLINE

Rick Moody, author of Right Livelihoods, Jonathan Ames, author of The Double Life Is Twice As Good, This American Life's Starlee Kine, David Rees, author of Get Your War On, comedians Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman, HBO Def Poetry Jam star Vanessa Hidary, the Six Word Memoirists and music by kid core phenomenon Care Bears On Fire

DOORS 6:00PM, SHOW 7:00PM @THE HIGHLINE BALLROOM, 431 W. 16TH STREET

Showpage: www.highlineballroom.com/bio.php?id=1183

$10, Cheap!

Photo of Care Bears on Fire by Phil Knott

Introducing Tarko

Magician David Blaine as Tarko

Tarko teleports guy on sidewalk to Japan then talks about changing races of the human race, or something...

New Yorker Fest, Goodbye

What James Franco, Neko Case and Malcolm Gladwell Had in Common

Two of my favorite events at the New Yorker Festival, which took place this weekend, were Neko Case (she performed "That Teenage Feeling" among other songs, and talked about being a "cougar") and Malcolm Gladwell who told a story about a couple of WASP anthropologists who got drunk, ritualistically, in Bolivia in the fifties, and NOT Michael Vick, as he said he would. James Franco, who spoke very slowly, was asked what it felt like to be a stoner icon. He also talked about the art project he's involved with, Erased James Franco. And his audience wore much less clothing than any other audience of the six total events I had been to. George Saunders said "Pas de Chat" 73 times, Gary Shteyngart said he was bribed with cheese in Leningrad and Jonathan Franzen was asked a "personal" question by a young woman currently attending his alma mater, Swarthmore. I'll be posting something about all of the events I saw for The Rumpus later this week.

Amarillo by Morning - Spike Jonze

Amarillo By Morning - George Strait live at the Houston Rodeo








This is one of my favorite documentaries. Spike Jonze was in Houston filming a commercial for Pepsi, Adidas or Wrangler or something and met some of these young "bull-riders" and made a short film about them.

Bourgeois Gone Bad and Skate Videos

Jockum and Oeuvre

I like Jockum Nordstrom because he "seems to...delight in depictions of bourgeois life gone strangely if not savagely wrong," and I think my favorite depictions are depictions of bourgeois life gone strangely if not savagely wrong.

I saw illustrations by Jockum Nordstrom at the MOMA today. Tomorrow, it's music videos, commercials and other "award winning" parts of the Spike Jonze "oeuvre."

Spike Jonze in NY and Monofonus in Marfa

Spike Jonze is in New York this week, and in conjunction with the release next Friday, Oct. 16, of his latest feature, Where the Wild Things Are, there're a lot of things happening in New York, including a retrospective of his work at the MOMA. To check out a full schedule, see my short piece here.

Also, this weekend, Monofonus, the record label and multimedia organization, heads to Marfa to debut its Video Series. You can read a short piece about it with some video excerpts on The Rumpus. Here's a clip "Confederate Fruit: Rebel Song," from one of its featured artists, Michael Nason.

Confederate Fruit: Rebel Song from Michael Nason on Vimeo.

Spike Jonze Week

Exclusive Where the Wild Things Are Short Film

The Vampire Attack from We Love You So on Vimeo.

Where the Wild Things Are - IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE October 16, 2009