A Likely Story
(by Donald E. Westlake) (1984) Very funny tale of hack writer (of “The Pink Garage Gang”, “Coral Sea”, “Golf Courses of America”, etc.) trying to get up a Christmas Book with contributions from various real celebrities that respond with a mixture of indifference, misunderstanding or hideous enthusiasm, while contending with a mother-obsessed editor (‘I’m fine…I’m peachy. Destroyed at f****** lunch with a writer. Home a basket case.’)
Continue Reading →Atlantic City
Image by Bordercolliez
(directed by Louis Malle) (1981) Atlantic City, a style-free Las Vegas with saltwater, is the perfect place for Malle to probe America’s dark corners, with Burt Lancaster (a small time chiseller and errand-boy, seeking an emotional resurgence) and Susan Sarandon (a cocktail waitress down on her luck) playing a great pair of losers. How something so seedy can bloom so sweetly is a tribute to the entire cast and crew.
Continue Reading →Animal Crossing – 3DS
I have 5 million bells in the post office bank but that old meerkat or whatever he is, is not impressed with the state of my house. Everytime I start doing the place up, inspired by the show houses, I get distrac- ooh look, a new snowdrop! there’s a sheep with earrings! I’d better go sell some fruit. The game does raise some moral questions. I have a second character whom I created solely for the extra storage space. Poor, neglected little Freesia. It’s like having a clone who’s kept only for body parts. A pointless, repetitious, sickeningly cute must-have game for…
Continue Reading →Lou Reed
(2/3/42 – 27/10/13) “When Lou Reed sings, a child somewhere dies.” This horrible statement, attributed to our good friend Matthew R, has a black truth in it (like all good and unfair epigrams). Reed’s records were not for everyone and definitely not for children. Jewish, polysexual, extremely troubled as a youth (his parents committed him to shock treatment at a psychiatric hospital when he was 17) and artsy, he spurned the comfortable Long Island existence and devoted himself to his trade. With some diversions, that is: incredibly, after the release of the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, he was working as a…
Continue Reading →The Great Gatsby
Grave Fitzgeralds (Image courtesy of JayHenry)
(by F. Scott Fitzgerald) The Great American Novel is an absolute synthesis of all that’s great and rotten at the height of the Yankee century. America is so accomplished and competitive that one tends to overlook the result: a defeated majority. Hence the American theme of ‘starting over’ in a different place, exemplified in the go-west mantra of the 1800s and the eastern push of the 20th century. Gatsby emblematised this push, a doughboy made ‘good’ in the new desert of Dr T.J Eckleburg’s New York. Born 1896 in Minnesota, F.S.F. grew into a world of American hegemony but dreamed…
Continue Reading →