Il y a des fois où vous avez une idée, quelques choses qui viens de germer dans votre tête et qui évolue toute seule à force d'y penser. Ben, cela m'est arriver hier soir, en revenant de la cuisine avec la bouteille de Coca dans le frigo (grignoter entre les repas c'est pas bien ! Super Nanny insid) à la main, je passe devant le miroir qu'il y a dans le couloir qui mène à ma chambre, et je vois mon visage éclairer (oui j'utilise mon iPod avec l'appli "Flashlight" pour m'orienter dans le noir. On est geek ou on l'est pas !) d'une façon très stylisé et épurer qui me rappeler la photo de l'ami Dolarz.

Après 20min de réglages Lumière/Appareil Photo et de shoot, sa donne sa:

Je n'avais pas un but précis a part d'éclairer mon visage inexpressif.

Je me découvre, en ce moment, une passion/affection pour la photographie. Je ne sais pas si c'est les photos de Dolarz qui me fait cette effet mais j'ai de plus en plus envie de prendre des photos artistique. Je me suis éclaté, dernièrement à Aix, à prendre des portraits de l'équipe de Nerdz et de la gare(je vous aurez gaver avec cette dédicasse !). J'ai bien envie de m'acheter du matos pour pouvoir mieu m'exprimer. Mais avant, ya l'ordi portable donc l'appareil photo sa sera après. Je ne vais pas commencer à regarder les comparatifs de reflex sinon je vais me faire du mal. Sa attendra un peu...

-Hé Bill ! Contrairement à ton noir ordinaire, mon noir de marque supérieure lave plus blanc que blanc

Innamorarsi della persona sbagliata costa caro

Quando il colore di una tinta sfuma nello stesso rosso del sangue

Un parrucchiere, una bellissima ragazza russa, un mafioso e un puttaniere si ritrovano a condividere un destino simile. Sono gli attori di una storia tragica, raccontata con stile snello da Alessandro Zannoni - autore del sottobosco italiano, sotto lo pseudonimo Michelangelo Merisi - in Biondo 901, novella pop in salsa thriller uscita per i tipi di Perdisa.

Come i fratelli della collana Babele Suite, dedicata ai romanzi brevi, il racconto di Zannoni parte sgommando. Procede rapido, cattura il lettore, gli fa incontrare i personaggi, cui dedica un capitolo ciascuno. Non sbanda mai, a volta scala qualche marcia e si prende tempo per offrire scorci inattesi, riflessioni, psicologie, momenti di preparazione prima del colpo violento. Poco prima del finale mette in piazza una frustata drammatica che apre all'epilogo, raccontato in terza persona, dal tono ancora più romantico.

Biondo 901 prende in esame il lato oscuro del Tirreno vacanziero, delle case da gioco, dei sodalizi italo-russi a base di euro e prostitute. Sono le nuove mafie che avanzano, spietate, cui nulla sembra potersi opporre come ostacolo. Figurarsi un modesto parrucchiere di provincia incapace, per una sola sfigatissima volta, di attenersi alle ferree regole che si è autoimposto per anni.

Quello che colpisce è la «voce» di Zannoni. Così definisce Luigi Bernardi, direttore editoriale della collana, lo stile con il quale vuole contraddistinguere le sue pubblicazioni. Le pagine non sono tante ma vengono bruciate a un ritmo infernale, salvo poi rallentare bruscamente e costringere chi legge a una pausa di necessaria riflessione.

La forma azzarda commistioni di dialetti, di ibridazioni culturali, di storpiature. Dal secondo capitolo in poi l'onda della narrazione, come la marea, travolge e si ritira a flusso continuo, avvolge il lettore, cullandolo, e inesorabile, senza che questi se ne accorga, lo porta a largo insieme ai malcapitati protagonisti.

Matteo Di Giulio

Biondo 901
Autore: Alessandro Zannoni
Gruppo Editoriale Perdisa
128 pagine
Euro 9,00

TREVI NOIR

LE SPIE DEL MALE. Il noir, la storia, la vita

TREVI –Perugia - 1 - 2 novembre 2008

Sabato  1  novembre

ore 10.00  Teatro Clitunno, via Roma, Trevi: Inaugurazione festival. Saluti delle autorità - Antonio Gnoli   Il noir e la storia segue Incontro con Ben Pastor.

ore  11.30   Villa Fabri , p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi Il giallo storico: Roger N. Morris e Michael Gregorio a confronto segue Inaugurazione della Mostra: I diavoli di Jeffrey Isaac

Ore 12.30  Villa Fabri, P.zza Garibaldi, Trevi Tendenze del  noir Incontro con l’agente letterario Leslie Gardner  Conduce Patricia Clough

Ore 15.00  Villa Fabri , p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi  Il noir tra cronaca e storia. Incontro  con  Simone Sarasso e Guglielmo Pispisa Conduce:  Pasquale Guerra

Ore 16.00  Villa Fabri , p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi  Viaggio nel cuore nero delle città Incontro con Andrew Taylor  e  Laura Wilson Conduce: Michael Jacob 

Ore 17.00  Villa Fabri , p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi “NOT YET PUBLISHED”  - Premio  Michael Gregorio  Segue  Scritti da Maiano (racconti noir inediti)

I LUOGHI INEDITI DELLA SCRITTURA NOIR

Intervista  di Giovanna Zucconi Intervengono: Fausto Cardella ed Ernesto Padovani 

Ore 18.30 Villa Fabri , p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi  IL CRIMINE DELLA PICCOLA GENTE George Simenon visto da Ciro Becchetti Segue Presentazione del volume  “Ellenico” di Lorenzo Paranama -  Conduce:  Baldissera Di Mauro

Ore 21,00  Teatro Clitunno, via Roma, Trevi Fratelli Mancuso in concerto

Domenica 2 Novembre Ore 9.30 Villa Fabri , p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi -  Premiazione concorso “racconto noir” per le scuole.

Ore 10.00 Villa Fabri , p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi Incontro con Diego De Silva  Conduce: Vanna Ugolini

Ore 11.30 Villa Fabri, p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi  Scrittura multipla -  Incontro con Kai Zen Conduce:  Pasquale Guerra

Ore 15.30 Villa Fabri , p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi  Incontro con Mister Noir: Maxim Jakubowski  Conduce:  Michael Jacob

Ore 16,30 Villa Fabri, p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi  Editoria noir a confronto tavola rotonda con Jacopo De Michelis (Marsilio), Walter Donohue (Faber & Faber), Claudio Maria Messina (Robin), Luca Briasco (Einaudi Stile Libero) Coordina:  Vanna Ugolini 

Ore 18,00 Villa Fabri, p.zza Garibaldi, Trevi Bologna noir: Antonio Gnoli intervista Patrick Fogli

Ore 21.00 Teatro Clitunno, via Roma, Trevi Jazz Noir  Concerto

Sempre più piacevolmente stupito, ho chiamato Fabio e Simone per chiedere loro cosa fosse successo...
Insomma siamo cascati un po' dalle nuvole entrambi, ma siamo tanto tanto tanto contenti...

Talmente contenti che vi facciamo un bel regalino:
squilli di trombe e rulli di tamburi, ecco a voi la tavola numero 13!

E visto che apprezziamo il vostro interessamento così affettuoso a Ruby Soho, sabato raddoppiamo il regalo e vi pubblichiamo la versione variant...

Grazie ancora a tutti!!!! Vi vogliamo bene!
Stay tuned!
Ste & Co.

Here is a frightful image to get you warmed up for Halloween. More Halloween and Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) images are in the works. Stay tuned!

Original image of skull was captured at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, then processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Instead I want to bring your attention to some news I came across yesterday. A friend linked me to this.

For me this is sounds pretty cool. I am huge fan of noir, always have been. Favorite black and white from the 40s and 50s? The Third Man. 

Of course, they're starting with X Men Noir. The promo art of Gambit looks awesome. The X Men series will be written by Fred Van Lente, who I honestly have not heard of before, and drawn by Dennis Calero. I'm not familiar with work of either of them so I don't have a point of reference to even have a guess at the quality of the work but I am excited nonetheless it sounds like a good series from what I've read. 

Anyway, I'm out for the evening with some homework for this college scene. I leave you with the Gambit promo  art:

Scyo.

The Fall 2008 issue of The Missouri Review features a pop culture critic interview and titles such as Sex, Gambling, Pain, Bad Behavior, Bad dogs and Bad professors. There is a paucity of the “non bad” and man descends toward the abyss in the “pick your poison” edition. Human interest is distilled to vice or anathema which is pathognomonic for our times.

In the forward, Speer Morgan refers to the aging boomers, the past “Pre-Safety Age” of our collective enlightenment, and the realization of where we are now. Here art is like life, a dark and complex pastiche where Nosferatu lurk, both dark and filmy. It is classic harmartia, but it is post-Freudian and post value-crash: it is the Cheneyesque Poetry Noir of 2008 (Dick not Lon...perhaps both).

Collectively, we have sifted from the warning of “put the B-B gun down, you can put an eye out” into, “so many of my friends have lost their eyes on dark nights. We are all somehow blind to this.”

This TMR edition contains a dark poetic realism, cruel fatalism and the smoke of doomsday in every room. The acid rain of the future blends into the Film Noir, hard-boiled roots of the French Film Noir of the 1930s. Additionally, the themes hold the tried and true modern noir: stories take place at night, the cement is wet, or violent brutality permeates the scenes along with the unknown darkness of unnamed Nosferatu of our inner and outer selves, and there is sex, lots of sex. At least we still have that!

Stay tuned for more.. and please send your Poetry Noir reflections of these 21st century times my way!

[caption id="attachment_220" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="Which noir is the one true noir?"][/caption]

Screw it.  We picked this one because their names are alike.  That’s all. 

SHAWN: In the wine community, there are peasants and kings, a wide range of tastes and locations. But there is only one wine God and His name is Pinot Noir. With a crisp complexity and thrilling taste that is nearly daunting, pinot noir is a rich, smoky orgy attended by a myriad of fickle young flavorful courtesans. The leaf even provides the backbone for the finest champagnes in the world, making pinot noir a popular selection no matter the wine country in which you find yourself naturalized. Bridging subtlety and accessibility, pinot noir doesn't come right out and tell you what's happening inside your head—as some movie styles might—but it simultaneously seduces and pacifies even the wildest of taste buds.

RYAN: I got news for you: the only thing you're going to find at the bottom of the $4 bottle of pinot noir is a raging headache and an urge to vomit; not complexity and thrills. If complex and thrilling is what you really want, then you should go grab yourself a good film noir from your local videotorium. What you'll find is a style of moviemaking that invigorated a stale film industry when it needed it most. Unlike your hoity toity wine, film noir has substance. Sex. Murder. Flawed, relatable heroes. Engaging plots filled with twists and turns. Sex. It's got it all. That's why it's still prevalent today, decades after it was first defined. How long has pinot noir been around? Five, 10 years tops?

SHAWN: Film noir still prevalent today? Oh, excuse me, I must've missed the bevy of recent film noir releases: Eagle Eye, Tropic Thunder, Kung Fu Panda, High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Admit it: film noir died with American intelligence (somewhere around the mid-40s), while pinot noir is as popular as ever. Luxurious whilst affordable. Sexy whilst accessible. Classy whilst vomit-inducing (it's like I'm back in college!). It's the dichotomy of the world, all bottled up. You take your black and white German expressionism, but I'll be busy sipping a beaming red glass of fine wine. And it doesn't take an introspective detective with an eye for dames to realize there are other delectable forms of pinor noir beyond the $4 bottle you buy with your wretched peasant money.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="219" caption="Gabriella Montez is the femme fatale."][/caption]

RYAN: You probably missed the bevy of film noir releases cause you were too busy seeing all those crappy movies you just listed. Maybe you've heard of L.A. Confidential. Insomnia. Memento. Big Lebowski. Gone Baby Gone. You Don't Mess With The Zohan. Should I keep going? All of those movies have their roots in the film noir genre and all are critically acclaimed for being crazy awesome. I know none of them will ever been shown on the Disney Channel, but I figured you might have seen one or two of them before. You go ahead and drink your bottle of pinot noir that cost you $7, $8, or whatever crazy amount you spend to feel and act better than everyone else. And after you're done puking it all back up and you feel all empty inside, you'll wish you had gone with a classic film noir. They leave you satisfied without making you feel miserable the next day.

SHAWN: I didn't realize we were using the loosest term of noir, including contemporary neo-noir classics. Very well. But like an unnatural blonde, you can clearly see the roots of those films and wonder what was wrong with brunette. Why must we take a classic genre and update it with mere noir acknowledgments that try for such high stylistic and mind-game standards that we have to date rape the esoteric character studies and simplicity of true film noir? It's because we're stupid. Which is why we need wine. Clearly, pinot noir is a finely crafted gem, but lest we forget it gets you WASTED. And, admit it, last time you truly enjoyed film noir, you had to be completely smashed. In a sense, you need pinot noir to enjoy film noir. And you can still enjoy pinot noir with, say, beef. Without pinot noir, film noir might as well be C-SPAN.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="195" caption="Somehow Shawn doesn't bring up Sideways."][/caption]

Next on Danger Queue: Nessie vs. Lassie—Who's The Real Monster?

A atmosfera épica de Le Cercle Rouge é suficientemente vasta para compreender tanto este neo-noir pintado pela óptica metódica de Melville quanto o próprio gênero de sombras e fumaça fundado do outro lado do Atlântico. São mais de duas horas de elegância, beleza, emoldurações frame-a-frame com precisão matemática e muito, muito pessimismo, assumido aliás como discurso explícito.

Já disse no post do Un Flic mas repetir não custa, até porque nenhum outro traz este elemento tão evidente quanto O Círculo Vermelho: os personagens de Jean-Pierre Melville suplantam sua humanidade pelos dogmas e pela moral do seu trabalho, e é exatamente pelas vias dessa mecânica profissional que, sempre, ao fim de tudo, é necessário o sangue incandescente, como apenas o homem possui, para mover essas engrenagens. Porque a maldade, a ambição e as rotas da traição acabam entregando que são apenas fracos e suscetíveis seres humanos os que se escondem sob as máquinas que desfilam sempre tão imponentes de sobretudos ao longo dos noirs de Melville.

Levando a doutrina de Jules Dassin debaixo do braço, Melville volta a filmar o tempo real com lentes forjadas do hipnotismo. São 25 minutos de assalto a uma joalheria (e o estilo todo do diretor é perpetrado pela contemplação tributária à ação da cena, mas este é sempre o melhor exemplo) que, embora não tencionem reproduzir a mesma e quase insuportável tensão dramática de Rififi, prendem o espectador com uma linha invisível da pura mágica que o mestre francês faz com a câmera e o som, amplificado aqui ao terreno de uma bem orquestrada sucessão, simplesmente, de passos, portas fechando, ferramentas funcionando.

Admiro profundamente quem consegue fazer tanto com, aparentemente, tão pouco. Com a quase inexistência de artifícios aos quais um cineasta comodamente pode recorrer pra seqüências bacanudas e planos ishpertos. O mesmo ocorre com Alain Delon, que sendo o mesmo Edouard Coleman ou Jeff Costello, ainda sem mover um músculo do rosto, consegue ser simplesmente perfeito, insubstituível. Pode ser no modo de olhar, de se mover, de falar, pouco importa... Delon é brilhante sem precisar de um milímetro de esforço pra tanto, e insinuar que seja menor ator por isso é qualquer coisa à qual eu ainda darei nome no meio de um estado de fúria durante uma próxima goleada que o meu time sofra no Gre-nal.

De qualquer forma, obra-prima (outra...) do francês, embora menor que O Samurai e Expresso Para Bordeaux, mais pela inspiração encantada que os governa do que qualquer eventual demérito do Le Cercle Rouge. Mas algo é preciso deixar claro: independente da ordem, o filme do círculo é o que até agora melhor representa este casamento entre o minimalismo de Melville e a depressão do film noir clássico pra composição de uma identidade mais sólida que nunca pro noir europeu, algo digno de ser documentado pra posterioridade, tratado ilustrativo de uma visão cética e talvez mais realista que pessimista sobre as motivações humanas, porque, pra Melville, todos os homens, sem qualquer exceção, terminam sob o alvo iridescente de um círculo vermelho.

4/4

Luis Henrique Boaventura

<kill for cookies>

• Pavel Lagutin Artwork/Portfolio/Fotografien - düster und makaber in höchster Qualität
• Jesar One ein deutscher illustrator zeigt in seinem Onlineportfolio was er drauf hat
• NextWall DAIM, TASEK, DADDY COOL, DESUR und SEAK haben eine interaktives Graffiti in Hamburg gemalt
• retired gun ein Kunstprojekt aus Japan
• Luis Diaz Er ist schon ein echter Freak mit seinen Motiven
• YetAnotherFace Hätte Picasso ein CAD-Programm besessen - hier das Ergebnis :)
• Mike Corriero Onlineportfolio eines talentierten Kreaturmaler und -zeichner

wir hoffe doch, dass die Links ein wenig TeMos Verspätung wieder gut machen! Ansonsten wünsch wir enterName bei der 29 30 31 32 frohes Schaffen und dem Rest vom Team sowieso nur das Beste!

so long, TeMo und SD und TeMo und wieder SD

This gun.  I love this gun.  There are so many wonderful things I can do with this gun.  So many people I can kill.

People usually laugh when I tell them that I keep my Amazon recommendation list up to date.

I don't know why that is, but they do.  Like any good database, if you give it enough information it will spit out good results.

That, my dear readers, is how I discovered Charlie Huston.

And I'm so glad I did.

Mr. Huston has written the Hank Thompson trilogy, The Shotgun Rule and the Joe Pitt casebooks.

Every Last Drop is the 4th (allegedly of 5) of the Pitt books.

Pitt, a rogue vampyre (his spelling, not mine) fixer, lives in a modern Manhattan controlled by various Clans, all of whom are scheming to take more control.

Well, that is until the end of the last book.  That was when Joe finally got himself kicked out of Manhattan and banished to the Bronx.  Turns out that is a lonely place to be a vampyre.

That is where Every Last Drop picks up.  After a year in the wilderness, Joe runs afoul of Lament, a recruiter/trainer for the Coalition, the most powerful vampyres in Manhattan.  This chance encounter leads to some a meeting with arch-enemy Dexter Prado and Joe's return to the Island.

As usual, Joe plays all sides against one another in an effort to net the results he is looking for.

Giving away much more would be cheating.

I'm a huge fan of Mr. Huston's work, but I honestly felt he lost a step in this book.  After expanding his vampyre world in Half the Blood of Brooklyn, this book just doesn't move.  The writing is still top shelf, but it takes to long to set Joe in motion.

Witness this exchange between Joe and Amanda Horde late in the book.

- I guess I'm not as tough as I think I am.

I take a drink.

- Here.

I offer her the bottle.

-Get tougher.

Joe needs to be in motion, because when he is in motion, he tumbles to THE big vampyre secret.  Things pick up quickly from there.

The ending seems a bit rushed, but it sets the stage for the 5th, and possibly (probably?) final book in the series.  If that is the end result, then it makes the pacing of this one forgivable.

If you haven't read any of Mr. Huston's book, try starting with Caught Stealing.  If you think a badass vampyre is more your speed, start at the beginning with Already Dead.

You'll eventually get back to Every Last Drop, becuase like the title suggests, that's how much I think you'll like Mr. Huston's work.

Incredible Hulk - ocean 5

Edward Norton pociągnął cały film! Może film o wielkim zielonym potworze nie leży, aż tak w moim guście, ale każdy film, w którym go wiedziałam tego aktora wzbudza emocje. Chociażby Malowany welon (Painted Veil), Iluzjonista (Illusionist), American History X, czy kultowy Podziemny krąg (Fight Club).

Sokół Maltański - ocena 5.

Czarnobiały film noir. Niesamowity sarkastyczny humor, cięte dialogi, jednocześnie klasa i elegancja. No i scenariusz!

Trainspotting - 6!

Ciekawy film, świetnie zrealizowany, początki Ewana McGregora, fajne dialogi, no i pouczający! Dobrze jest mieć przyjaciół, ale od niektórych ludzi należy się trzymać daleko!

Sylvia - ocena 4

O poetce Sylvii Path, którą mąż, również poeta zdradzał. Tyle, że niewiadomo, czy prędzej ta myśl urodziła się w jej głowie, czy była w rzeczywistości. Zresztą myśli mają to do siebie, że najpierw rodzą się w głowie, a gdy są często powtarzanie materializują się. Dlatego należy zawsze myśleć pozytywnie, no chyba, że jesteśmy masohistami. To trudne i i wymaga kontroli umysłu. Ale może o tym napiszę w kolejnym wątku...

Ma ora siamo qui e, prima di mostrarvi la tavola numero 13 vi regaliamo le foto da cui siamo partiti per realizzarla:

Una:

E due:

E se avete pazienza fino a giovedì, vedrete la tavola 13 sempre in due versioni: bianco e nero, bianco-nero-rosso (o variant per gli amici)..

E da qui l'annosa questione: ma è meglio b/n o variant? La giriamo a voi....

A presto e...
... Stay tuned!

Brooklyn-based writer Jonathan Segura is destined to eventually write beyond the noir setting of Occupational Hazards, his first novel. Segura is an often brilliant raconteur who has already draw comparisons with Elmore Leonard and Chuck Palahniuk. Segura's day job as the deputy reviews editor of Publishers Weekly seems to have helped endow the pages of Occupational Hazards with an authorial voice that captures immediate rapport with the reader.

I reviewed Occupational Hazards right here in BodyCount. For this BodyCount interview, I was able to catch Segura at home this Sunday .

BC: Could you begin with a brief biography of Jonathan Segura? I understand you grew up in the Midwest, but would like to know more specifically where you were born and raised, and a brief description of your growing up years? Also, how old were you the first time you thought you might want to be this thing called a writer?

JS: I did grow up predominantly in Omaha, Neb. My dad was in the Air Force, so we moved around a couple times. I was born in Newport News, Va., then moved to Hickam AFB outside of Honolulu when I was five, then to Omaha when I was ten. Stayed there until I moved to New York in 2002 at the salty old age of 24. So, growing up in a few different places around military bases, you sorta learn to get along with a lot of different people from wildly different backgrounds. I also had a lot of bad haircuts. As far as when I knew I wanted to be a writer, I figured out pretty early that I could string words together.

BC: As you have your M.F.A from Columbia, it seems a fair assumption you've long wanted a career with words. Can you tell us Jonathan, what sort of career you 'wished' for at 18, 'hoped' for at 22, and later 'envisioned' at 26? I'm smiling a bit, but it's perfectly acceptable if your dream, hope and vision remained consistent. Or didn't.

JS: At 18, I wanted to be a reporter. By 22, I was a reporter and enjoying it but wondering if maybe there wasn’t a different kind of writing I’d rather be doing; as a reporter, you spend a pretty small chunk of your day writing. Lots of phone calls, reading boring court filings and municipal docs, covering various board meetings, meeting strange dudes in parking garages for confidential document hand-offs, etc. At 26, I’d just finished grad school and was waiting, like an idiot, for that million dollar advance. I’m still waiting for that, by the way.

BC: As was your character Bernard Cockburn (pronounced Co-burn, please) in Occupational Hazards, you yourself were a reporter in Omaha, Nebraska. Can you tell us about your experiences as a reporter in Omaha? Was newspaper journalism ever a career ambition of yours? Or was it more nearly a necessary step on the career ladder?

JS: I worked for a couple of alternative newsweeklies, first as a freelance writer and later as a reporter and news editor for a dramatically understaffed paper. I covered mostly city hall and courts and had as much fun doing that as a person reasonably can. I had a great editor/mentor who drilled into me the value of word economy and precision. I hope those values come through in the novel.

Journalism was something I came to accidentally. I signed up for a creative writing class my freshman year of high school, but only like two other people signed up for it, so the class was cancelled and I needed to fill an elective. I looked at the options, and journalism involved writing, so. I stuck with that through high school and enjoyed it despite the wretched journalism teacher, then majored in print journalism. What do you do with a BS in journalism? Get a reporting job, weasel into a PR firm or wait tables.

BC: I had the notion that you have a sort of 'Master Plan' Jonathan, in which you consciously chose a smaller stage such as Omaha to cut your teeth as a novelist. And that you later plan to move your novel settings on to a much bigger stage such as New York, and perhaps still later, Internationally. Just a notion on my part, or any substance?

JS: I realized as I wrote and rewrote and rewrote the novel that first novels are largely learning experiences. (The same could be said for second, third and twelfth novels, I’m sure.) So I thought I’d start out with something I could manage, which is a pretty simple narrative structure set in a locale I know relatively well. And now I’m working on something that’s a bit wider in scope. Though you can still have big, important novels set in the backwoods--let us not forget The Echo Makers is set in a corner of Nebraska much smaller than Omaha.

BC: You've been compared stylistically to several very talented writers. Your own Publishers Weekly felt that Occupational Hazards 'should appeal especially to fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Arthur Nersesian', while Radar likened you to 'a shotgun wedding of Elmore Leonard and Chuck Palahniuk'. Candidly, both Palahniuk and yourself are savagely funny and sharp, but I don't find you stylistically similar to Palahniuk- beyond having talent of a similar order. This might be hard for a mid-westerner such as yourself to answer (as it may seem to strain modesty), but do you have an idea why your writing is compared to Palahniuk's?

JS: I think the Palahniuk comparison boils down to profanity and irreverence. We’re definitely, as you point out, very different stylistically, but, goddamn, there are a lot of ‘fucks’ in both our works. He also has a lot more money than I do.

BC: Every (honest) writer has parts of his game he'd like to improve- whether strong already or not. Jonathan, can you tell us what aspects of your writing you work most on improving?

JS: Oh, all of it? Like most writers, I’m deeply insecure and really, really hate everything I write. I’m convinced it’s all shit. That, of course, is a vague non-answer to your question. The thing I’m working on right now is in third person, and I’m having a lot of trouble nailing down the voice, ie: is this me editorializing or is this the character editorializing? Is this me choosing this adjective, or is this adjective something the character would use? Free indirect style is a bad, bad motherfucker.

BC: As a deputy editor at Publishers Weekly Jonathan, you certainly have a wonderful opportunity occupationally to become very familiar with the sort of good- and bad- writing that is published today. Focusing on bad published writing for now, what sort of authorial mistakes 'disconnect' you as a reader. Name as many or few as you wish, please.

JS; A lot of it is along the lines of Potter Stewart’s “I know it when I see it” dictum. But, some specific things I can’t stand:

-sex scenes that are about sex
-grammatically perfect dialogue
-beginning a novel with a line of dialogue
-narrative arcs that involve people learning from their mistakes and becoming better people
-redemption
-mannered storytelling and neatness in general
-nice people who do the right thing
-plotlessness
-excusing away a character’s bad behavior by relating it directly to a childhood trauma
-childhood trauma
-cute shit
-the assumption that a character’s feelings/inner life are enough to carry a book/story
-“But I love you,” he said.

BC: What sort of published writing 'has you at hello'(if any)? What sort of author grabs you, and has you almost from the beginning, and would thereafter have to make mistakes to lose you?

JS: This, again, is a “know it when I see it” thing. I can get hooked in any number of ways, but I’m not going to wait for page 150 for the hook. If I don’t care about the characters pretty quick, I’m out. I’m also drawn toward grotesques and nasty types. They’re so much fun to read about.

BC: You chose noir or detective fiction as the genre for your first novel. As talented as you are in the genre, I don't necessarily see noir as your final destination. Jonathan, do you see yourself writing in other genres? If so, can you tell us what sort of home you eventually envision for yourself as a genre?

JS: I’m really afraid, actually, of getting pigeonholed. I love writing noirish stuff, but it’s not all I want to do; the thing I’m working on now is very much not a noir. I hope I can sell it. I honestly don’t know where I’d like to end up. I wouldn’t mind a Graham Greene sort of set-up, where you can turn out “entertainments” as well as “real books.” I realize that may sound pompous, for a guy with one book out to say “I’m going to be like Graham Greene,” but here we are and there that is.

BC: Whom are you own personal favorites amongst authors actively publishing today? Choose any genre..

JS: How about: Martin Amis, James Ellroy, A.L. Kennedy, Elmore Leonard, Bruce Wagner, James Lee Burke, Aleksandar Hemon. Peter Carey’s Theft is magnificent, and I’m reading and loving Zoe Heller’s The Believers. Irvine Welsh can be sublime. I wish David Gates would write another novel--Jernigan and Preston Falls are pure genius.

BC: Do you have any new projects you're now working on, or that are about to be published?

JS: I'm working on another novel and am in the earlyish stages of it. I haven't honed the elevator pitch for it yet, but it's 'bigger' than Occupational Hazards in terms of scope (it's not at all a noir), though I hope to keep it very dark and funny.

BC:This last question is a sort of 'vacation' from our previous line of inquiry. I saw some photos in your blog that appeared to be taken in the Basque region of France (possibly Spain). What sort of world travel have you yet engaged in? What sort of world travel, if any, would you yet like to do?

JS: Ah, those pics are from Bilbao, Spain. We were there for a couple days this summer, and you know what? They love to drink. Then we hit a tiny and shockingly beautiful mountain village in Spain called Segura. My people may or may not have distant roots there. (My mom’s genealogical research indicates my dad’s line of Seguras left Malaga and landed in Louisiana in the early 18th century. Her people are West Virginia hillbillies of indeterminate origin. These things are of recent and inexplicable interest to me. Maybe I’m getting old.) But, to answer your question: I didn’t get a passport until 2005, when my then-girlfriend (and now wife) ordered me to get one. Since then, we’ve taken a couple trips a year and have hit a good chunk of Europe, as well as Turkey and Morocco. It’s difficult, I’ve found, to get a decent martini abroad. This is a problem. I’m currently fascinated by countries that have currencies weaker than the dollar.

C'est sur l'A-55, cette fois, à la hauteur de Saint-Wenceslas, près du site de pesée des camions, en direction sud, que la mort a frappé.  Une dame de 76 ans, passagère d'une petite Chevrolet Aveo, a perdu la vie, à la suite d'une manoeuvre de dépassement, ratée par la conductrice de la même voiture, une autre dame, âgée de 50 ans, celle-là.  Cette dernière a subi des blessures sérieuses, mais on ne craindrait pas pour sa vie.  Il semble que la conductrice aurait voulu dépasser, dans un endroit où la manoeuvre était permise, mais elle aurait hésité à le faire.  Elle se serait retrouvée dans la voie en sens inverse, et serait d'abord entrée en collision avec une première voiture.  La voiture de la dame serait alors partie en tête-à-queue, et aurait été heurtée, cette fois à l'arrière, par une seconde voiture, qui venait, elle aussi, en sens inverse.

En tout, cet accident a fait pas moins de sept blessés, en plus du décès de la septuagénaire.

La question revient, encore une fois.  Les autoroutes de type super-2 sont-elles sécuritaires?  Voyons les probabilités, dans le cas de cet accident.

L'accident aurait-il pu être évité si l'A-55, à cet endroit, avait été munie d'une bande rugueuse, sur la ligne médiane, comme celle que l'on installe sur l'A-50, entre Grenville-sur-la-Rouge et Mirabel?  Probablement pas, puisque la tentative de dépassement s'est effectuée à un endroit où elle était légale, si l'on en croit les policiers interrogés dans le reportage.

L'accident aurait-il pu être évité si l'A-55, à cet endroit,avait été construite sur deux chaussées séparées?  Définitivement!  La dame aurait pu dépasser en toute sécurité, puisque aucun véhicule n'aurait pu venir en sens inverse, ceux-ci roulant sur l'autre chaussée.

Ce n'est qu'un exemple de plus, qui s'ajoute à tant d'autres, de décès facilement évitables, sur le réseau autoroutier québécois.  Les campagnes de pub de la SAAQ, le bras "promotionnel" du MTQ, disent "Nous sommes tous responsables de notre conduite, sur la route".  Par contre, le MTQ a tendance à oublier qu'il est responsable de la route, sur laquelle on conduit.  Et si la ministre des transports, Julie Boulet, était interrogée, suite à cet accident, elle répondrait probablement que l'on ne peut pas tout faire en même temps, qu'elle a déjà procédé à des investissements record, ou encore, comme l'a fait son ex-collègue du conseil des ministres, Michel Després, du temps où c'est lui qui régnait, au MTQ, que "quand il est question de sécurité, il n'y a pas de budget qui tienne."  Vous vous souvenez, en 2006, à Laval, tout près d'un viaduc qui s'était écroulé?

Il serait grandement temps que la ministre des transports démontre, hors de tout doute, et à la face de la population, que "quand il est question de sécurité, il n'y a pas de budget qui tienne", et qu'elle procède à la construction de la deuxième chaussée de toutes les super-2 du Québec.  Il faut que les autoroutes du Québec soient toutes dignes de porter le nom d'autoroute, et le gouvernement se doit d'investir dans ce sens dès maintenant.

" Ahh, tisk tisk. I think perhaps the lad has been hit one time too many with the hurly to remember only yesterday's lesson." said the wire-eyebrowed fiddler sitting in the corner. Flan was listening and watching the great pipe master encourage his latest pupil on the playing of the Uilleann bagpipes and her fiddle accompaniment was really not needed at the moment so she sipped her black and tan's mingling fluids and checked her wristwatch as clinking of the chains commenced.

The soapstone stove's bottom heatshield was being raised. Four chains supported the load of wood, peat and newspaper kindling that was carefully arranged on the the five foot square platform that would close under the custom crafted soapstone chamber. The chains on each side of the stove ratcheted up through three inch diameter enameled cast iron piping that was incorporated into and through the dragon footed support structure curving and scrolling to the chimney. Serious elevator mechanics were housed discreetly above and to the sides of the stone chimney to power the platform's clockwork defiance of gravity. The clinking and reassuring chatter of the raising chains reminded me of an old wooden roller coaster approaching the first big hill.

The raising and the lowering of the Shield, as the locals had come to call the stove's fuel platform, was an event that people set their watches by in the village as you could hear it echo out through the chimney's iron support exoskeleton.

"Coop, now would you look at that. My Ash and blackthorn amidst the peat. That load will take us through the morning tea. They load the stove just twice a day. If I can arrive here, like we did today before the eight PM shield, and see what sort of mix they have going, I can pretty much tell how nice the pipes will be for playing."

"What about your reeds, are they as reliable as the pipe's response to the fuel and humidity mix. Can you tell from it how it will go?" I asked looking around the pub at the milling locals only half understanding what Maeve was goin' on about.

"Well, now. I can't be sure....Now, the pipes response is pretty much trackable in so much as I know that if that Shield is piled with peat an no wood and it is warm to my feet in here and its raining as usual outside that they will be OK but muddy sounding. My reeds are a lot more tempermental, now. I can't depend on any one reed to work in any specific situation. I guess it's down to my poor reed making skills. But I tell myself it is all the random tobacco's that are smoked in here. Interfering like.

"The tourists bring in all kind of plant and god only knows what else in their cigarettes, pipes and those ghastly gourd hookahs that they have started with....the plant matter and particulates that those engineered pumpkins throw off is positively radical. Radical I tell ya, now," winked Maeve as she smiled knowingly, she herself being the pioneer who developed the neo-hookah smoking trend across the E.U.

It was unusual to have a basement in an old cottage in Ireland as the need to dig below the frost line for foundation stability meant you only had to go down a couple of feet at most. Not having to dig to a human size depth, or a depth that at least is most of the way to a fathom meant that cellars under cottages were a luxury or curious architectural design in these parts.

The pub's renovation and initial installation of the great soapstone stove from the kingdom down by Amerikay Vermont, as the older generation referred to it, was quite the village event back in the late 1800's. Dozen's of local farmers and men of the bogs pitched in and helped in the unusual project of lifting the actual cottage, that dated back to the 1700's onto a timber system that allowed for the building to be temporarily rolled away from the old foundation. Digging and even a bit of dynamiting of hard ledge allowed for a full basement to be built, with a french drain system to keep the wet out,  thus accommodating the stove cellar shield contraption, stores of Poitín and the local cell of hard-men on the run, it was rumored.

Nelle mie peregrinazioni in cerca di un pezzo di cinema diverso dal solito e che non manchi di rispetto alla mia intelligenza, sono capitato su Zen Noir, girato da Marc Rosenbush nel 2004, pellicola che ha spazzolato una quantità di premi in un certo numero di festival del cinema indipendente, e che nessuno si è mai sognato di distribuire nelle nostre sale (o almeno così mi pare).

Considerando che il titolo da solo riunsce due dei miei (troppi) interessi extracurricolari, era destino che prima o poi finissi seduto davanti ad un televisore a guardare questo film.
E mi rallegra annunciare che non sono stati 71 minuti buttati.
Anzi.

La trama in breve: chi ha ucciso l'uomo dal capo rasato che suonava la campana?
Un detective "alla Marlowe" indaga su un misterioso omicidio in un tempio zen.
Riuscirà il nostro eroe a superare le proprie angosce esistenziali ed arisolvere il caso, considerando che già interrogare i sospetti è un'impresa apparentemente impossibile?

Il film è girato in digitale (in 12 giorni di riprese) fra scenografie ingannevolmente spoglie, con un uso sottile del colore.
Gli attori sono sconosciuti ed azzeccatissimi - dalla faccia stralunata del detective alla sinuosità della femme fatale dalla testa rasata, al misterioso monaco delle arance, sarebbe difficile immaginare qualcun'altro sulla scena.
La musica talvolta è invadente - specie sui voice-over del protagonista - ma miscela bene il jazz strascicato del noir e le suggestioni orientali, e contribuisce a rendere il prodotto, nella sua assoluta semplicità, qualcosa di superiore alla somma delle proprie parti.

È un peccato che il film non sia disponibile nelle nostre videoteche.
Così come è unpeccato che lo sceneggiatore, regista e produttore Marc Rosenbush non abbia apparentemente prodotto nient'altro per lo schermo (salvo due video-lettere presenti sul suo myspace), dedicandosi soprattutto al teatro.

Per i più curiosi, qui c'è il trailer...

A dor, pra Melville, não tem cheiro, não tem textura, não tem expressão; não se manifesta no nível emocional da superfície, capaz de ser captado pelos sentidos humanos. É muda, subterrânea e deixa no seu rastro apenas e nada mais que uma única cor: o azul. Porque é o que acontece com o film noir quando passa pelo filtro de Jean-Pierre Melville, e pelos olhos de Alain Delon.

Expresso Para Bordeaux é antes de mais nada um dos filmes mais bonitos do mundo. Visualmente mesmo, na tela, e tem aquele mesmo caráter frio e limpo de O Samurai, com homens polidos ao invés de filmados, e que dão sempre a impressão de serem incapazes de transpirar, de sangrar e de sorrir. E apesar de os paralelos com a obra-prima de 67 serem quase inevitáveis, Expresso potencializa aquela mecânica da simetria (cultuada religiosamente até o final para ser estilhaçada nos últimos cinco segundos) e vai além, porque ao contrário de O Samurai, apesar da semelhança dos destinos, Melville mantém a estrutura laminada e inquebrantável que alicerça seu filme, seus personagens e as ruas nebulosas de Paris, elementos que sob a lente do francês são irreversivelmente nivelados no timbre afônico da dor e do remorso, porque os homens de Melville são profissionais, acima de tudo, e é por isso que parecem inexistir como seres humanos.

Os sentimentos estão extintos nesta Paris azulada de 72. Eles não aparecem, nunca, ao longo dos 98 minutos de filme, mas acredite (ou não): estão todos ali. E o último plano é um exemplo brilhante de como se mostra algo sem nem sugerir mostrar.

Obra-Prima, e ainda que não seja maior que O Samurai, sustém a mesma linha de hipnotismo visual por aquela forma metódica e detalhista no limiar da compulsão com que Melville filma e reconstrói cenários, ruas, paisagens e pessoas ao passarem pela lente da câmera e caírem no mundo de metal inventado pelo diretor. Porque é esta a identidade do noir europeu pro francês, escrita em Expresso Para Bordeaux através de três personagens, dois olhos e uma cor. Film bleu.

4/4

Luis Henrique Boaventura

 Cuando estuve en el Salón del Manga de Jerez de este año aproveché para hacer unas comprillas y entre ellas estuvo el integral de Noir. Ya había visto la serie en esos tiempos jerezanos en los que estaba conectado al mercado negro otaku y me la pasaron subtitulada en inglés.

En el mes de Agosto empecé a verla de nuevo, para recordarla y comprobar que los DVD´s no tenían ningún defecto y a trancas y barrancas he terminado de verla esta semana, por supuesto me ha vuelto a gustar y lo que mas me ha gustado es que después de un argumento hilado y con cierta lógica , a los guionistas japoneses no les ha dado ese ataque filosófico que parece entrarles a la hora de culminar series con unos finales abiertos, alegóricos, altamente imaginativos y tan abiertos a la interpretación que te quedas sin saber para que narices has visto los 26 episodios de marras, si no que al final los buenos les meten un montón de plomo a los malos, se deshace el complot y se van para su casa hechos unos zorros y se deja abierto lo imprescindible.

Otra cosa de las que me gustan es la música de la serie, creo que junto a la de Cardcaptor Sakura, es de las bandas sonoras de anime que puedo escuchar separadas por completo de la serie.

Bueno, pues una vez vista ya he pasado el pack del montón de las cosas por ver a amontonarlo en la estantería de las cosas ya vistas, espero que cuando vuelva a tener casa propia haya un sitio adecuado para todas mis pelis y mis cómics (sueño eterno de todos los coleccionistas de películas y de cómics).

Une palette inspirée des couleurs Classiques de Designers de Benjamin Moore ci-dessous :



• Papiers peints :

  

  

À l'usage du scrapbooking numérique (Digital Scrapbooking), vous pouvez télécharger ces papiers peints. En cliquant sur l'image, une fenêtre chez Colour Lovers s'ouvrira. Allez dans la colonne de droite, vous verrez un petit carré bleu "Get This Pattern Image", juste en dessous les fichiers sont disponibles au format que vous souhaitez. Vous pouvez soit cliquer sur le lien avec le bouton droit de la souris et "Enregistrer le lien sous..." ou cliquer normalement et l'image apparaitra à l'écran. Vous pourrez alors la sauvegarder sur votre ordinateur comme n'importe quelle image sur internet (bouton droit).

• Exemples dans une pièce :

  Une salle à manger pétillante chez Pottery Barn

  Agencement d'un coin lecture chez Behr

Articles sur le même thème : Observez pour copier: salle de bain couleur taupe Couleurs du mois de septembre 2008 : turquoise et blanc cassé Couleurs du mois d'août 2008 : jaune et bleu La peinture noire : un choix de caractère