Reading List: April.

Fiction:

Jonathan Lethem: You Don't Love Me Yet.

Neil Gaiman: American Gods.

Malinda Lo: Ash.

George R. R. Martin: A Song of Ice and Fire Book One: A Game of Thrones.

George R. R. Martin: A Song of Ice and Fire Book Two: A Clash of Kings.

Non-Fiction:

Sarah Vowell: Unfamiliar Fishes.

Tina Fey: Bossypants.

Films:

Yasmin (2004, Kenneth Glenaan) ****.

The Constant Gardener (2005, Fernando Meirelles) ***.

The Poker House (2008, Lori Petty) ****.

White Material (2009, Claire Denis) *****.

Inglourious Basterds (2009, Quentin Tarantino) ****.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010, Edgar Wright) ***.

The Baxter (2005, Michael Showalter) ***.

Series: 

South of Nowhere.

House, Season Four, Five, Six.

"I do react to things."

Sometimes, she admits, it was overwhelming, all that death. "I think as a creative artist it's crucial to be open – to feel. You can't do it with a closed heart. You almost have to hand over your soul to that action. And so there can be times when you can feel too full of the piece that you're making. It's almost like being a sponge and you just have to absorb everything in order to have all of the goods to make something out of that. 

The Guardian: PJ Harvey: 'I feel things deeply. I get angry, I shout at the TV, I feel sick', April 24, 2011

...

X-Ray Spex: Oh Bondage, Up Yours!
 

She always was the incisive cultural chronicler and commentator from the very beginning. X-Ray Spex’s 1978 album Germ Free Adolescents was an iconic punk release, anticipating and influencing greatly the future riot girl movement as well as being one of punk’s and late ‘70s Britain’s most important records. Poly Styrene’s music was always smart and fun in equal doses, making listeners think about gender politics, while shaking their booty and enjoying her marvelous wit. One of the great women of popular music has pass and will be greatly missed. 

PopMatters: R.I.P. Poly Styrene, Punk Legend and X-Ray Spex Frontwoman

Linkliste unbehandelter Themen

Uff, Frühjahrsmüdigkeit Hilfswort.

Die neue Regierungsmannschaft wurde angelobt - Spindelegger/Vizekanzler und weiterhin Außenminister, Maria Fekter/Finanzministerium, Beatrix Karl/Justizministerium, Karlheinz Töchterle/Wissenschaft, Johanna Mikl-Leitner/Inneres (das SICHERHEITSMINISTERIUM, dramatische Musik im Kopf inklusive), Sebastian "ÖVP macht geil" Kurz/Staatssekretär für Integration, Wolfgang Waldner/Staatssekretär im Außenministerium. Das Zitat zum Tag: "Finance ist etwas anderes als die Kieberei", und ein Versprechen Maria Fekters, die gelegentlich deftige Sprache zu mäßigen.

Kein Ende in Sicht in Libyen.

Der oscarnominierte Regisseur (Restrepo) und Photojournalist Tim Hetherington wurde in Misrata bei einem Angriff getötet.  

Laut Gerüchten entwickelt HBO eine auf Neil Gaimans American Gods (das ich gerade zum zweiten Mal lese und fantastisch finde) basierende Serie. 

PopMatters spricht mit den Thermals über Personal Life und ihre Europatournee (vergangenen Mittwoch im Flex).

Little White Lies interviewt Kelly Reichardt zu Meek's Cutoff (das offensichtlich erst jetzt in die amerikanischen Kinos kommt; ich habe den Film zum Glück schon bei der letzten Viennale gesehen). PopMatters findet den Film (wie schon Reichardts letzten Film, Wendy and Lucy) fantastisch.

Elisabeth Sladen, die 1973 erstmals als Sarah Jane Smith, companion von Jon Pertwees und Tom Bakers Doctor in Doctor Who zu sehen war und in der aktuellen Fassung der Serie immer wieder Gastauftritte hatte und mit ihrem eigenen auf ein jüngeres Publikum ausgerichtete Spin-Off, The Sarah Jane Adventures erfolgreich war, verstarb vergangenen Dienstag 63jährig an Krebs. Ich hatte nie die Möglichkeit, sie in älteren DW-Folgen zu sehen, aber ihre Rolle als engagierte Journalistin und willensstarke und selbstständige Heldin war mir eine der liebsten in der Neufassung. (A.V. Club, io9)

Some initial thoughts on the first episode of "Game of Thrones"

Spoilers, I guess...

Das Lied zum Sonntag

Nedry - Apples and Pears




Nedry - Scattered



[MySpace]. From London, named after a character in Jurassic Park. The entire record (Condors, released in 2010) is amazing.

Women don't read fantasy and serious critics can't be bothered to read what they write about if it involves "Middle Earth proclivities"

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half. 

NY Times: Game of Thrones, April 14, 2011

• Just as a note at the beginning of this... angry rant, I suppose: I haven't had a chance to watch the show yet. It premieres in two days. I have, however, listened to A Game of Thrones, all estimated 36 hours of it, within the last week, and as far as I understand, the show mostly follows the novel. 
• The review starts by mourning the fact that Mad Men faces budget cuts while Game of Thrones has a large enough budget to actually do the novel justice. Note that the two shows are not on the same network, so it isn't exactly a zero-sum game. Besides, Mad Men WAS actually renewed two more season, so hey, those of us who like both (we are a rare species, like "women who like science fiction" and "people who take comic books seriously") win! Twice!
• Yes, there are a lot of characters and many different complex storylines. I vaguely remember that the same is true of The Wire, but I can't really see any critic bringing that up as a negative point in a review. Beware! Can't be watched while solving crossword puzzles. 
• "a vague global-warming horror story". Considering that it is set in a clearly pre-industrial world in which bonfires and the occasional pillaged and burnt down village are the biggest polluters... no, it's really, really not. As you note in your very next paragraph, begging the question of why it was brought up in the first place. This is "fantasy". One of the awesome things fantasy allows writers to do is create worlds that differ from our own. One of the feature of this world is that the seasons follow different rules. 
• Sex! Incest! Statement either lamenting the lack of "eroticism" in Breaking Bad or opposing the idea of any kind of eroticism in anything fictional ever; ambiguous. 
• Saying that Game of Thrones takes place in the past is like assuming that there is still a possibility that archeologists might one day find the ruins of Rivendell. Ain't gonna happen. 
• Curious and curiouser, I like Mad Men, Lord of the Rings, Martin's writing AND Lorrie Moore. Maybe I have a mental illness.
• And ew, it's on HBO. Remove that hideous creature from my view at once. Also, how is Rome not gratuitous history porn (it's a lot of other things as well, and enjoyable, but it also fits very comfortably between The Borgias and The Tudors). I find the notion that the show can't be on HBO because the writer of the review isn't comfortable with fantasy as a genre, not one piece of narrative in particular, especially jarring. It's like declaring that henceforth, CBS should steer away from comedy because I feel personally more comfortable with its selection of dramatic shows. 
• I see, you also don't like True Blood, which, apart from also being on HBO, has no connection to this show whatsoever. 
• From this review and from another, equally terrible one (if more entertaining), the readers get the impression that there are flocks of dragons (flocks? Maybe schools. It's not my native language.) fluttering around the skies of Westeros, which, I am sorry to say, is a promise the actual show won't live up to, unless it really does deviate dramatically from the novel. On the other hand, if the terrible movie version of Dungeons and Dragons is your only reference point when it comes to fantasy, I see where the prejudices come from, it does however not exactly point towards a qualified opinion on a completely unrelated piece of fiction.
• It would have been nice to have at least one sentence in there describing what the show is about, and who the characters are. Just a thought. 

I read Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem last month and looked up some reviews, and found a couple that pointed out how it would have been a splendid novel if Lethem had only left out the whole tedious superhero stuff. Apparently, serious literary critics can't be bothered to take fantasy (or science fiction, for that matter - and in my head, those are also the kind of people who positively reviewed Fun Home EVEN THOUGH IT WAS A GRAPHIC NOVEL /shocked) seriously - but why people who apparently hate the genre itself to such an extent that the story itself escapes them are tasked to write reviews about the very thing they seem to dislike so avidly remains a mystery to me. It would have been worth pointing out, for example, that A Game of Thrones doesn't focus on the point of view of those who have power, but more often than not follows marginalized characters (Jon Snow, Arya, Bran and Sansa Stark, even Tyrion to a certain extent, in the context of his family), and has a particular interest in portraying how women navigate a world that is hostile and deeply patriarchal (and ultimately get empowered, if in completely different ways). Maybe the show isn't as layered as the novel (it would have taken a 20-part series), but I really can't believe that all of this is lost in the adaptation, and if the show doesn't live up to the book, than it would have been nice to read a review from someone who has actually READ the novel and can compare the two.

Obviously, the most frustrating part of the review is where the author assumes that women must be tricked into watching the show. Women watch fantasy and science fiction. They write fantasy and science fiction. A Game of Thrones even features female characters who, amazingly (take note, The Social Network!), have agency. I enjoy reading reviews, even when they criticize things that I unabashedly love (hi, Skins season four)- but what I can't stand is when people in the privileged position of having access to episodes before they have aired, and shaping the public's opinion, and, you know, getting PAID FOR WRITING ABOUT TELEVISION, are so lazy, and rehash one of the most tired (and inaccurate) clichés about how "women" (alive!) are and what "they" like. 

...

Writing the first paragraph of the MSCL-review, desperately trying to steer away from writing about grunge and riot grrrl; failing. One day I'll get over being born ten years too late. 

...but what does it all mean?

Geklärt werden soll das Donnerstagvormittag in einem Parteivorstand in Wien, den Erwin Pröll vorbereitet. Die Partei trifft der Rücktritt von Josef Pröll in einem denkwürdig ungünstigen Moment. Die ÖVP steckt tief in der Krise und verliert jetzt - in den Augen vieler Funktionäre - ihren besten Mann. Vakant sind mit Prölls Abgang gleich mehrere Posten: ÖVP-Vorsitz, Finanzminister, Vizekanzleramt. Und daraus wiederum resultieren weitere Rochaden in der Partei wie in der Regierung. 

DerStandard: Rücktritt von Josef Pröll löst Machtkampf in der ÖVP aus, 13. April 2011

Am Wochenende, nach einem Mittagsjournal-Interview mit Reinhold Mitterlehner, fragte ich mich noch, ob der Wirtschaftsminister größere Ambitionen hat --- ein paar Tage später tritt der Vizekanzler zurück und Mitterlehners Name wird neben Fekter und Spindelegger als potentieller Nachfolger genannt. Es geht hier wohl hauptsächlich um eine größere Richtungsentscheidung innerhalb der ÖVP - versuchen, wieder ein Stück des FPÖ-Kuchens abzuschneiden (Fekter), wirtschaftlich kompetent wirken (Mitterlehner), was auch immer Spindelegger verkörpert (gute und harmlose Koalitionszusammenarbeit?) - oder, weniger spannend, ein Kandidat mit weniger bekanntem Namen. 

Die Presse: Pröll tritt zurück: "Entscheidung für meine Gesundheit", 13. April 2011

Ö1: Josef Pröll tritt zurück, 13. April 2011

Das Lied zum Sonntag

Four Tet - Hands 

I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. 

Neil Gaiman: American Gods, p 424

...

I had a dream tonight that I was on a bus with some people that went to school with me and someone told me she'd gotten a text message from a friend, saying that Bob Dylan had died, and I couldn't believe it and while dealing with my feelings I also had to explain to all my friends who Bob Dylan was, because they didn't know. 

Needless to say, I had to check the news in the morning just to calm my nerves. 

Spring does strange things to me.

Things that aren't exactly important

• Figuring out how to make iTunes treat something as an audiobook so I can listen to the first book of George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones (the series Game of Thrones is premiering on April 17 and Lena Headey isn't the only reason to watch it, but definitely an incentive) Arya and Jon are the best #eightchapters
• Talking about audiobooks, I finished Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes today and enjoyed it so much that I didn't pause while shopping which I usually do because I tend to fall over stuff and people when concentrating on something else. Apart from Sarah Vowell's narration, there's John Slattery, Keanu Reeves, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph and Catherine Keener - it's like HBO, just without the cinematography. 
• This is a clip from Roseanne, 1995: Roseanne and her sister give a ride to a hitchhiker who tells them about riot grrrl and gives them a mixtape with Bikini Kill on it, and Roseanne points out that while she doesn't particularly enjoy the music, the lyrics are a vast improvement over the songs she grew up with. One day I have to try to watch this show not just accidentally (when it happens to be on TV, inaccurately dubbed). I've never even seen the episodes Joss Whedon wrote, it would be interesting if some his trademark quirks are recognizable. 
• Something strange happened yesterday - for some reason I felt compelled to read the passages on Kurt Cobain's suicide in About a Boy (the omission of this aspect in the movie will forever taint it, but I realize that it would have been hard to pull this off in a movie set in the early 2000s), and then I re-watched All Alone, that one devastating fifth season episode of Six Feet Under. I can't really keep track of this anymore but does this strange nostalgia for Nirvana still come back in waves now that MTV has lost all relevance and periodical reruns of the Unplugged concert and the well-timed documentaries (if they still happen) don't have that wide influence anymore (there were at least two waves of Nirvana when I was in school, one in 2004 when With the Lights Out was released). 
• The A.V. Club interviewed Evan Rachel Wood about her role in Mildred Pierce (she will take over the character from Morgan Turner who played a younger version of Veda for three episodes). I haven't found a fictional character quite so easy to hate in a very long time, which is probably the point, and executed brilliantly. The series is set in depression era California where Kate Winslet's titular character attempts to build a new, successful life out of a series of tragic blows. 
• A group of illustrious folks (Ben Folds, Damian Kulash, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman) will attempt to write a record in eight hours on April 25.   
• I wonder if Jack White had this in mind when he said that "The White Stripes no longer belong to us". (I faintly remember a West Wing episode about a government shutdown...)

Lied zum Surprise Hiatus

Burial - Street Halo

As always, Burial's beats are oblique, with a hazy percussive clatter lurking behind crisp, timekeeping accents. And again, he has made mournful, a cappella vocals the melodic focus of the track, and everything is suffused in a suggestive layer of static and grit. But he's a masterful arranger, frequently switching up elements-- focusing one minute on a blunt, rave-inspired bassline, and the next on supersaturated vocal harmonies that sound like overdriven Cocteau Twins. The track follows a counterintuitive logic, abandoning the predictable structure of breakdowns and buildups in favor of twists and turns you don't see coming, including a fake fade-out at the end.

Pitchfork