Andy Warhol's Mona Lisa

happy Halloween

LISTEN TO THIS: Amy Millan: Masters Of The Burial

One of my favorite albums this year was Masters Of The Buriel by Amy Millan. I highly recommend checking it out.
If you don't know of it, check out this (great) free track on stereogum: http://stereogum.com/archives/mp3/amy_millan_covers_death_cab_for_cutie_stereogum_pr_084261.html
then buy it on itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/masters-burial/id327854954

Linkage.

Some links for the one person still reading this blog:
This week I'm going to a lot of readings at the International Festival Of Authors in Toronto. For all Toronto readers of this blog, I recommend checking it out. http://www.readings.org/
My new favorite blog is Every Nine Days: I mean, one women Beatles! Awesome! Great singing, guitar playing, clapping etc.
I read French Milk by Lucy Knisly and have started to follow her blog where she often posts great diary comics. (including a sadly true one about Twilight)
Speaking of diary comics, Gabrielle Bell has started to post her amazing comics online!

READ THIS: The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie sat on my shelf, unread, for over two years since I first bought it. When I first started to read it, it felt quite alike to various other problem books I had read so I put it down. I was surprised to find one of the freshest, funnest and best books I've read this year. This week, for whatever reason, I finally read it. The book tells the story of Junior who has grown up on a reservation but decides to leave the reservation school to seek a better life in a school of all white students. The good thing about Junior is that being a Spokane Indian, that is not taken as his main character trait. By this I mean he is a normal boy growing up in difficult circumstances. description of life on the reservation is quite sad and desolate. The escape from the reservation Junior goes through is uplifting in surprising non-cliched ways. It was truthfully fun to read this book. It is a testament to Sherman Alexie's talent how in a book with so much humor it is about thoroughly serious subjects. READ IT!!

The New Blog...

As you might have noticed, my blogging has become scarce and rare. This blog has had a cloud of dust swiftly circling the pages. Noticing this, I thought it was time for a change. This is why I have decided to open a new blog. The blog, Reading Comix, is going to include reviews of new comics and graphic novels, coverage of comic book events and more.
Check it out: http://readingcomix.blogspot.com/
(no, despite how the post makes it sound, this blog is not shutting down. the comics coverage has just been moved to the other blog)

TIFF 09: An Education

An Education
An Education tells the story of a 16 year old girl named Jenny (played by Casey Mulligan) and her relationship with an older man (played by Peter Sarsgaard) who seems to offer her a life of fun instead of the university educated life at Oxford she has been working for until the older man's secret is revealed. Not very entertaining stuff you might think but the dialogue by Nick Hornby is sharp and witty and An Education is manages to be funny (Alfred Molina's is hilarious in his performance as Jenny's father.) in addition to sad and moving. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

TIFF 2009: The Lineup

I'm getting ready for this year's TIFF and just picked up my tickets today. I will be reviewing everything I see on the blog. Here's what I'm seeing:

• An Education

• Jennifer's Body

• The Vintner's Luck

• My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
  

and maybe a few more.

read this article

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/a-librarys-approach-to-books-that-offend/?hp
Really interesting article.

READ THIS: Put This Book Back On The Shelf: a Belle And Sebastian anthology

The anthology Put This Book Back On The Shelf has comics by various cartoonists inspired by songs by Belle And Sebastian. I read the book after recently listening to The BBC Sessions on a constant loop so I still had most of the songs featured in the book (though sadly not all of them) stuck in my head. I hadn't heard of any of the creators in the book except for Bannister (who draws a moving short story here) from his wonderful contributions to the Flight books. The amazing thing with the book is that despite being a comic book, it still feels as musically and rhythmically vibrant as the songs. In some of the stories (like I Could Be Dreaming by Andi Watson and Me And The Major by Tom Hart) they directly quote the song lyrics and the effect feels like an animated music video. In some of the other stories they take different approaches. One of the stories, Dog On Wheels by Kato, has no dialogue. Others use collage to tell their stories. Others take a more narrative standpoint. One of my favorite stories in the book, The Model by Jennifer de Guzman and Brian Bellow, starts as a straight narrative story of the story of a guy who wants to meet his girlfriend's friend who he has a crush on and ends with him writing her a letter which includes some of the lyrics of the song. The book is fantastic. The only problem I had with it is I wish it had been longer. This book deserves to be taken off the shelf and read.

RECCOMENDED: God Help The Girl

Speaking of Belle and Sebastian, Staurt Murdoch (one of thier members) recently released an album for his movie musical that has yet to be made. It's a great album and I highly reccomend it. Here's a video of one of the songs:

Reccomended: My Maudlin Career

I bought this album pretty randomly after coming across it in a store and listening to a few tracks. I've really enjoyed listening to it and just wanted to post a recommendation. Okay, I'll stop talking now. I embedded a music video from the album below so you can (and should) watch it.

you should watch this...

The Hallway from The Hallway on Vimeo.

I'm reading Miranda July's book of short stories now (called No One Belongs Here More Then You) and happened across this video of an art installation she did which is pretty amazing as is her website for the aforementioned book I'm reading.