by Clutchy Hopkins (2006)

The neighborhood corner Aussie gem, Five Leaves has much to recommend it (a brilliant chicken sandwich, pavlova, muesli, gravlax, and excellent coffee to name a few) but aside from the food and an affable staff, there’s always good tunes playing. I am usually familiar with what their spinning, and sometimes pleasantly surprised (True Stories by Talking Heads is woefully forgotten and underplayed). This morning though, a music I was thoroughly enjoying was unknown to me. It ended up being a one Clutchy Hopkins, a man whose very identity in in question and the stuff of mystery and legend.

Considered a dj, his music is an amalgamation of styles and sounds and as far from the monotonous stuff that inspires squatting, hoola hooping in McCarren Park (anyone else privy to that display Saturday?) that I usually associate with the term “dj”.

The album is self produced and likely to become the soundtrack to the rest of my summer. Very lovely stuff.

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Posted on August 15, 2010

by Bret Easton Ellis (2005)

I can kind of understand why some Bret Easton Ellis fans told me not to bother with Lunar Park. It’s a love it or leave it (The Boston Globe said it may be the worst novel I’ve ever read) book that really depends on how much you’re willing to go with him on a journey, not fueled by sexy young things, drugs and privilege (well, OK there is a bit of that) but on a journey that most closely resembles Poltergeist meets faux self loathing. Yes, Ellis has pretty much created a straight up horror summer reading book with loads of meta meta meta.

The main character is Bret Easton Ellis, and while most of his life story and persona are true, the skyrocketing fame and parties of the real Ellis are well known, much of the biography of this “Bret Easton Ellis” is purely made up. (I was one of the clueless who looked up the book version of Bret Easton Ellis’ girlfriend, Jayne Dennis to see if she was real – she’s as real as Dorsia – which I also looked up). He is a world famous, controversial author now living the suburban life with his wife, her daughter, and his estranged son while reluctantly teaching at his alma mater and trying to carry on affairs with his students.

There’s cocaine, there’s alcohol, there’s clever cynicism.. even Jay McInerney shows up – but the book takes on something entirely new for Ellis when the McMansion he lives in starts to show signs of being possessed. Lights begin to flicker, footsteps burn themselves into the carpeting, a Furby like doll turns animals inside out, and a hairy creature crawls up the stairs. Patrick Bateman , the serial killer from American Psycho also makes an appearance – killing locals based on the novel and young neighborhood boys are (willfully?) disappearing. I’m not surprised that he says the book was an homage to Stephen King because it shares much more with those genre books than I think most fans were interested in.

It’s sometimes complicated, sometimes melodramatic, often cinematic (you can easily see many of the scenes played out in a movie) and definitely surreal but it’s mostly about the pain of bad father and son relationships. Well, that and violent ghosts.

Best to enter this one without expectations and a love for the horror book genre.

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Posted on July 18, 2010

by Christian Lacroix (2007)

If Christian Lacroix wants to talk fashion, I am listening, or in the case of the exquisite and inspiring Christian Lacroix on Fashion, I am looking. I found this all color coffee table book for a surprisingly cheap 25 at a local shop and have been gazing at the contents ever since. Any fan of incredibly detailed clothing and sartorial history will find themselves equally transfixed.

Divided into themes like “colour” ( “The red that I love to use everywhere… comes from my mother.. She always dressed me in red, or at least a touch of red, which had a cheering effect”), “Checks, plaids and tartans” (“Eccentric yet conservative, checks and their Scottish cousin, tartan, re the essential embodiment of British dandy chic.”), “ceremony”, “graphics”, “patchwork”, “cobwebs”, “black”… the book features short, colorful descriptions and beautiful photographs of beautiful clothing.

From ivory garden party dresses from the 1900s, capes from the 1880s, the work of Mainbocher, Chanel, Gres, YSL, Heim, Vionnet, Worth, Dior, Rabanne, Ungaro, Balenciaga and of course, many from Lacroix himself – there is so much style here it will make your toes curl with excitement.

Click here for the rest of Christian Lacroix on Fashion

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Posted on May 31, 2010

aired in 2000

I’d be excited about anything Rob Brydon and Julia Davis were a part of, so Human Remains, wherein they play six different married couples, was at the top of my list of BBC shows to seek out while at Amoeba in LA (sadly, they didn’t have it, so i broke down and got it from Amazon UK). It’s a treat, but a very strange treat that you may not want to share with everyone – kind of like salted licorice or such.

It’s funny… but not exactly funny. Like so many British comedies, it’s as dark and sad as it is humorous – though no where near as pitch black dark as Davis went on to do in Brix Pick, Nighty Night. From aristocratic twits to swinging goofballs, from paranoid Christians to wacky musicians, all of their character portraits are well developed and intriguing even as they mostly deal with depression, betrayal, and death.

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Posted on April 25, 2010

directed by Paul Verhoeven (2006)

Black Book is a sexy, entertaining, tiny little explosion of a movie. Telling a supposedly true story about the Dutch resistance during the final months of World War Two, it follows the indomitable cabaret singer Rachel Stein as she flees Nazi traps, bombs, betrayal and spies only to land a key spot within the Gestapo headquarters in Holland, by way of the captain’s bed.

All the lead players are excellent, especially Carice Van Houten who is sparkling, alive and incredibly riveting to watch. Her ruggedly handsome male counterpoints are equally impressive: Sebastian Koch (who you might recognize from The Lives of Others, but looks strangely similar to Verhoeven veteran Jeroen Krabbe) and Thom Hoffman.

As good as a movie as it is though, it was far more straight forward than I expected from Verhoeven, a man who usually adds some unusual flare to his films. While the signature sex and violence were intact, I suppose I was expecting something a bit more off the rails. Still, I was entertained and satisfied once I settled in.
Click here for the rest of Black Book

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Posted on April 11, 2010