jürgen fauth’s muckworld

What good is having your own blog if you can’t brag about your girl? In a piece about MySpace and the book world in the New York Times Book Review, Pagan Kennedy devoted a paragraph to Marcy and her pioneering use of MySpace to promote Twins. I confess I used to hide the occasional sneer when she was compulsively befriending strangers instead of, say, writing the next book, but we all have our own ways of procrastinating, and hey, it worked for Lily Allen. Authors weren’t dime-a-dozen on MySpace at the time, and making people with her characters’ names into her “top friends” was pretty clever.

Seen Anything Good Lately?
Whenever this question gets asked, either the music’s too loud or I’m preoccupied with chasing down hors d’oeuvres, so here’s a more considered answer. For my money, the best current releases in New York are Once, Away from Her, and Day Night Day Night — and The Host is still playing, too. You might also like The Wendell Baker Story, Severance, and Hot Fuzz. (I haven’t seen Brand Upon the Brain!, 28 Weeks Later, or Rolling Like a Stone.) If you happen to find yourself in Germany, you must not miss INLAND EMPIRE. Also, Ray Pride informs us that Nicholas Geyrhalter’s Our Daily Bread premieres on TV next week.

This Week in Dead History
Much thanks to Daniel A. and Ace Cowboy for reminding me of the Taper’s Section, where Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux releases new mp3s every week. I’ve just barely scratched the surface but so far I’ve dug The Music Never Stopped (4/27/78), Dark Star (5/7/72), and Estimated Prophet>Uncle John’s Band (4/12/82.) Tons more where that came from.

Must Be A Good Cause If They Have a Button
You might have noticed the button on the sidebar enticing you to support the National Book Critics Circles’ efforts to save book reviewing. More from Lizzie Skurnick, AWFJ, and Salman Rushdie on The Colbert Report.

Rebel without a Pause
As you can see, the new camera appears to be well-suited for bones, skaters, and strange brides. It has also been indespensable in our ongoing attempts to solve the Mansion Mystery:

Speaking of the neighborhood: for those who like to order in, Joey in Astoria’s Floozgrl maintains a Flickr pool with handy Astoria menus.

Extreme Navelgazing
Google Book Search reveals that through the magic of MySpace, Lauren Cerand and myself have now become characters in Twins.

The Graphic Novel Was So Much Better
GalleyCat found the trailer for Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. The first comic book adaptation I can get behind since Ghost World.

Marcy talks about Mary Kate and Ashley, George Clooney, and what makes a perfect soundtrack.

[tags]marcy, twins, writing, interviews[/tags]

In the Queens Chronicle today, Marcy tells blatant untruths about life in Astoria. Last night, she could be found at Kelly Braffet’s reading on the Upper East Side and partying down in SoHo at the annual Housing Works Gin Mingle. That Marcy! You never know where she’ll turn up next!

[tags]marcy, twins, interview, newspaper, queens, astoria, party, reading, kelly braffet, upper east side, nyc[/tags]

Two new interviews with Marcy Dermansky, author of the “deliciously weird page turner” Twins:

• LitPark asks about high school secrets. With photos!
• Little Willow
  

[tags]marcy, books, writing, interviews, twins[/tags]

In the onrush of the ever-churning hype machine, never-ending blogs, and the constant RSS-fuelled river of news, it’s hard to hold on to two or three related thoughts for much longer than it takes to hit post. To counteract the continuing blurbification of the culture at large and my head in particular, here are a few items that deserve a little more than whatever has become of Warhol’s 15 minutes.

Must-See Movies, Out Now

• Shortbus. Finally, in what has been a lackluster year at best, there are some serious contenders for film of the year. John Cameron Mitchell’s paean to post-9/11 New York is still very much in the running. Detractors like to point out the ramshackle filmmaking, but I think it adds to the film’s enormous charm. If the characters can be generous enough to share their lovers freely, shouldn’t we forgive when Mitchell crosses the line once or twice?
• The Queen. A more perfect piece of filmmaking than Shortbus, and only slightly less daring. It’s only a matter of time before I go see my girlfriend Lilibet again.

Must-See Movies, Coming Soon

• Pan’s Labyrinth. Guillermo del Toro’s masterful fairy tale won’t be out until after Christmas, but this is one film you should feel free to get excited about early.
• The Host. Ditto for Bong Joon-ho’s riveting marriage of monster movie and art house film. Scheduled for release in January, and I’ll be first in line to see it again.
• Woman on the Beach. No distributor, no release date, but I keep thinking about the sly wit and seemingly accidental elegance of this movie.
• Volver. Almodovar’s latest opens Friday, and I’ll leave the superlatives to Marcy.
• INLAND EMPIRE. My ankle’s not swollen any more, but Lynch still has a hold on my imagination. He’s releasing the film himself so perhaps an uncut version will arrive sometime soon.

Books
Been reading top-secret drafts of friends’ novels and J. Robert Lennon’s wildly amusing Happyland as serialized in Harper’s. I’m also halfway through Klaus Kinski’s amazing autobiography, Ich Brauche Liebe. (Of course it’s outrageous. More on this soon.) I keep encountering variations of ideas Daniel Pinchbeck presents in 2012, many of which I first heard about from Danielo at Tikal . Here’s a video of Daniel with Douglas Rushkoff. Like the snake that bites its own tail, this gets us right back to accelerating culture, Shortbus, and the permeability of a shrinking world.

Finally, a week after the paperback release, no round-up can be complete with another plug for Marcy’s stellar debut Twins. If you missed her reading at In the Flesh, I’ve got the video.

[tags]roundup, shortbus, film, coming soon, books, tikal, twins, 2012, pinchbeck, bong joon-ho, pedro almodovar, david lynch, stephen frears, john cameron mitchell, guillermo del toro, klaus kinski, j robert lennon[/tags]

With pride-swelled heart much like the one depicted on the splashy new cover, it is my pleasure to announce that the Twins paperback is out in the U.S. today. Grab a copy or three and support your favorite film critic slash beach-lovin’ novelist. HarperCollins throws their corporate weight behind Marcy with an online author interview and a reading guide. She’s going to be reading at Happy Ending again tomorrow night, but word has it there won’t be any unicycles this time around. More at Marcy’s site and on MySpace.

How Many Friends Does Your Book Have?