Sunday, December 5, 2010

Nothing Happens

"Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every fucking day, someone, somewhere makes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life. And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it. I don't have any bloody use for it."

Quote from the film Adaptation starring Nicholas Cage

Thursday, April 22, 2010

quote of the month

"All life is just a progression toward, and then a recession from, one phrase - 'I love you.'"

F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Offshore Pirate.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Papa Razzi and the Photogs



Papa Razzi and the Photogs are my new favorite band. Think Woody Guthrie singing about Ingrid Berman and multiply that by a thousand. Papa Razzi only sing about famous people and somehow brilliantly reflects back our obsession with fame and celebrity. Even though most of the songs are quick, 2 minute funny dittys, there are some real gems in there like Natalie Portman, Gisele Bundchen, and Audrey Tautou. Yes, that's right. Those are the names of actual songs. If you love Weird Al Yankovic, Famous people, Woody Guthry, Daniel Johnston and short, funny songs you will love Papa Razzi and the Photogs. You can check them out on Itunes.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Tu Risa- Pablo Neruda


Tu risa

Quítame el pan, si quieres,
quítame el aire, pero
no me quites tu risa.

No me quites la rosa,
la lanza que desgranas,
el agua que de pronto
estalla en tu alegría,
la repentina ola
de plata que te nace.

Mi lucha es dura y vuelvo
con los ojos cansados
a veces de haber visto
la tierra que no cambia,
pero al entrar tu risa
sube al cielo buscándome
y abre para mi todas
las puertas de la vida.

Amor mío, en la hora
más oscura desgrana
tu risa, y si de pronto
ves que mi sangre mancha
las piedras de la calle,
ríe, porque tu risa
será para mis manos
como una espada fresca.

Junto al mar en otoño,
tu risa debe alzar
su cascada de espuma,
y en primavera, amor,
quiero tu risa como
la flor que yo esperaba,
la flor azul, la rosa
de mi patria sonora.

Ríete de la noche,
del día, de la luna,
ríete de las calles
torcidas de la isla,
ríete de este torpe
muchacho que te quiere,
pero cuando yo abro
los ojos y los cierro,
cuando mis pasos van,
cuando vuelven mis pasos,
niégame el pan, el aire,
la luz, la primavera,
pero tu risa nunca
porque me moriría.

Monday, February 8, 2010

The Proust Questionnaire: Delphin Lecompte



Delphine Lecompte is the author of the novel Kittens in the Boiler from Thieves Jargon Press. Her stories are all over the Internet. She writes like no one else writing today. Delphine has created a grotesque, comic, absurd, and highly unique world. If Borges had invented a story with a Belgian prostitute, it would be Delphine Lecompte. You want to read real underground literature, you pick up Kittens in the Boiler. I would also dare to compare her to Henry Miller. Her prose is lucid and soaked with brilliance. Please check out her stuff below:
Get her Novel here
Below is Delphine's answers to the Proust Questionnaire:






THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE: Delphine Lecompte


1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Writing a prose poem at the kitchen table whilst my lover is ironing my favourite blouse with exquisite care, noone is whistling and i'm expecting a call from a close friend.


2. What is your greatest fear?
Choking on a thumbtack, being poisoned.


3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Unforgiveness.




4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Sentimentality.



5. Which living person do you most admire?
Leonard Cohen.



6. What is your greatest extravagance?
Fire.



7. What is your current state of mind?
Fragmented.



8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Hopefulness.



9. On what occasion do you lie?
Sitting in front of well-meaning little therapists.



10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
My nose.



11. Which living person do you most despise?
The prime minister.



12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Insatiability.



13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Belligerence.



14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Sorry, it won't happen again, i'll make it up.



15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Omer Minnebo, 'my dodgy neighbour'.



16. When and where were you happiest?
I was deliriously happy on a breakwater on the 16th of february 2001 when i escaped from the nuthouse for a few hours.



17. Which talent would you most like to have?
Taxidermy.



18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My skin. I would like it to be more amphibian.




19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
The last poem that i've written: 'De tuinman is geen pedofiel die katten haat'.


20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A happy-go-lucky neurologist.



21. Where would you most like to live?
In a hotel room.



22. What is your most treasured possession?
My house burnt down a few months ago, so i can honestly declare that there isn't one single possession that defines me.



23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Stealing from a child to buy vermouth.



24. What is your favorite occupation?
Writing incoherently.



25. What is your most marked characteristic?
My eccentricity (though some might call it 'whimsicality').



26. What do you most value in your friends?
Reliability.



27. Who are your favorite writers?
Graham Greene, Charles Bukowski, John Fante, James Hadley Chase, Hugo Claus, Toon Tellegen, Blaise Cendrars, Franz Kafka.



28. Who is your hero of fiction?
Bunny Munro.




29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Vladimir Mayakovsky.


30. Who are your heroes in real life?
My father, my neighbour, my grocer.


31. What are your favorite names?
Zoë, Peter, Françoise, Dolores, Nicky, Gerrit, Adriaan, Omer.



32. What is it that you most dislike?
Stinginess and bottle caps.


33. What is your greatest regret?
When i was 22 i tried to destroy myself and forgot to write about it.


34. How would you like to die?
Suddenly.


35. What is your motto?
Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Mind Fuck of the Month - J.D. Salinger




J.D. Salinger: the literary equivalent of a "One Hit Wonder"?






...and that has been the Mind Fuck of the Month....