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penpalkingdom · 2 years

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Hi there. My name is Marcus and I’m 32. I enjoy doing drugs, being crazy and writing letters. (Though, no judgment if you’re straight edge or just not into drugs or whatever. I have plenty of other things I can talk about.) When not engaged in those activities, or just otherwise bored, I tend to find my interests varying a lot. I’ll tend to get really into something for a brief period of time, never to really fully fulfill it. Some things I’ve been interested in include sprouting, mushrooms, coffee, fragrances, tea, nootropics, supplements, fountain pens, crafts, knitting, I’m sure there’s others as well I’m forgetting. I work retail in management and live with my grandmother to help take care of her/keep her company. I’m located in Indiana, PA, which is about an hour out from Pittsburgh since Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are our only real noteworthy places. I like to read, mostly experimental fiction, poetry and non-fiction. I’ve been really into Amphetamine Sulfate’s books lately. I listen to a lot of music, honestly a bit of everything but especially stuff like rap, noise, drone, folk, electropop, that sort of thing. My favorite musicians are Keiji Haino and Chief Keef. I like a lot of different kinds of films, but I’m especially drawn to video ethnography, documentaries, travel films/nature documentaries, experimental horror, dumb comedies. I like best long drawn out films with no plot, just lots of visuals. My favorite movies are Begotten, Louisiana - The Other Side, Black Metal Veins and Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes That the Boy Saw. Roberto Minervini and Koji Wakamatsu are my favorite directors. I used to penpal a bunch but I kind of fell out of the habit and left a lot of letters go unresponded to unfortunately. I feel like I’m ready to get back into it now though. I’m open to snail mail, emails or even just chatting over a program like Discord or Telegram, I’m not really picky. I will go ahead and admit to being a pretty awkward person, a lot of times I don’t really know what to say. Not that it really matters but maybe for some context I am diagnosed with Schizoid Personality Disorder. I tend to get along best with people who are more talkative, pushier, even more self-centered in a way. Otherwise the conversations can dry up pretty quick despite my best efforts. If you feel like we could get along and don’t exactly meet that criteria, don’t really worry about it, I’m just speaking in generalizations here. But that’s about it I think for now as a general idea. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to chat in some matter. Also included a picture for reference. Oh, I don’t care about gender identity or anything in a penpal. I’m getting to be an age where it’s a bit strange to be exchanging lengthy letters with teenagers so it’s probably for the best if you’re somewhat near my age. I’m not going to bother with an age range, if you think we’re close enough then I trust you. Plus I do talk to people younger than me and it seems fine really, and I’ve never had any issue getting along with people older than I am. Just getting in touch with me on Tumblr is probably the easiest way to go about it, so just message me here on the tussive.tumblr.com account. Thanks for your time. <3

#penpal #snailmail #postcards #electronic mail #online friends #internet friends #30+#penpalkingdom #submission

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spettrorecords · 5 years

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Proiezione di “La Faute des Fleurs, a portrait of Kazuki Tomokawa” (2009, di Vincent Moon)

Presso Ikigai Room via Nosadella 15 A, Bologna, 30 Maggio 2019, ore 21:30

(Proiezione gratuita riservata soci AICS 2018/19. Apertura circolo ore 18:00, inizio proiezione ore 21:30) Continua la rassegna di #Ikigai dedicate alle sottoculture del Giappone contemporaneo, con il documentario "La Faute des Fleurs" di Vincent Moon (2009), incentrato sul musicista e poeta Tomokawa Kazuki. Ancora una volta la rassegna vede incrociarsi personaggi e interpreti chiave di quella che è stata la cultura dissidente in Giappone, quali Wakamatsu Koji, Nagisa Oshima, oltre alle proteste antinucleari, la musica e il cinema d'avanguardia, il dissenso politico. "La Faute des Fleurs — a portrait of Kazuki Tomokawa 友川カズキ" – un film di Vincent Moon Versione in giapponese con sottotitoli in inglese / 2009 / Giappone / Colore / 70min. Vincitore del Sound and Vision Award 2009 Winner al Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH: DOX 2009) Kazuki Tomokawa: Poeta, cantante, artista, commentatore di gare ciclistiche, saggista, attore, bevitore. Un artista che incarna miracolosamente il romanticismo del poeta vagabondo, una rarità in un'epoca in cui la nostra stessa libertà significa che abbiamo dimenticato come vivere.. Nato a Hachiryu-mura (ora ribattezzato Mitane-machi), Akita nel nord del Giappone il 16 febbraio 1950, il vero nome di Tomokawa è Tenji Nozoki. Fu cresciuto dai nonni, circondato dalla natura rigogliosa del fiume Mitane che sfocia nel lago Hachiro. Durante i suoi anni alla scuola media di Ukawa, Tomokawa era uno studente particolarmente scarso e non mostrava alcun interesse per la letteratura. Tuttavia, per caso un giorno in biblioteca si imbatté nella poesia Hone (Bone) del poeta simbolista giapponese Chuya Nakahara, dell’inizio del XX secolo. Questa poesia lo scosse nel profondo, e iniziò a scrivere i suoi versi. Dopo aver lasciato la scuola media, entrò al Liceo Tecnico di Noshiro, una scuola famosa per il suo programma di pallacanestro. Mentre dirigeva la squadra di basket della scuola, iniziò a leggere molto - divorando libri del romanziere decadente Osamu Dazai e del noto critico letterario Hideo Kobayashi. (In seguito ha allenato la squadra per un po' di tempo, uno dei suoi studenti rappresenterà poi il Giappone ai Giochi Olimpici). Ispirato da Bob Dylan e altri, i primi anni '70 in Giappone videro un boom della musica popolare. Tomokawa si trovò coinvolto nel movimento, imparò a suonare la chitarra acustica e cominciò a mettere in musica le sue poesie. Nel 1975 fece il suo tanto atteso debutto discografico, pubblicando l'album Yatto Ichimaime (Finally, The First Album). In questo periodo conobbe i membri del gruppo rock radicale giapponese Zuno Keisatsu. Si trovò particolarmente bene con il percussionista del gruppo, Toshiaki Ishizuka, che sarebbe poi diventato uno dei più importanti collaboratori musicali di Tomokawa. Alla fine degli anni Settanta Tomokawa era molto impegnato con diverse compagnie teatrali, scrivendo canzoni per le loro opere teatrali e persino apparendo sul palco come attore. Questo fu un periodo in cui cercava sempre nuovi spazi in cui esprimere la sua creatività. È anche in questo periodo che si interessò per la prima volta all'arte. Tomokawa ha tenuto la sua prima mostra personale a Tokyo nel 1985, con il supporto del critico d'arte Yoshie Yoshida. Da allora ha avuto mostre in tutto il Giappone e ha attirato l'attenzione e gli elogi di artisti e opinionisti come lo scrittore outsider Kenji Nakagami e il poeta Yasuki Fukushima. Nel 1993, Tomokawa ha diede alle stampe l'album Hanabana no Kashitsu (Fault of Flowers) per la PSF Records, etichetta fino ad allora meglio conosciuta per la musica d'avanguardia e il rock psichedelico. L'album attirò molte lodi dal compositore contemporaneo Shigeaki Saegusa, e improvvisamente Tomokawa vide molti dei suoi album fuori stampa ristampati. Il rapporto tra la PSF Records e Tomokawa continua ancora oggi, producendo un flusso costante di uscite. Uno dei suoi album sotto la PSF è Maboroshi to asobu (Playing with Phantoms, 1994), che ha aperto un nuovo terreno artistico col suo incontro con musicisti di free jazz. In questo periodo, Tomokawa produsse anche una serie di libri - la raccolta di poesie Chi no banso (Earth Accompaniment), un libro illustrato, Aozora (Blue Sky, testo di Wahei Tatematsu, illustrazioni di Tomokawa), e una raccolta di saggi, Tenketsu no kaze (Wind from the Skyhole). Più recentemente Tomokawa è diventato noto come un'autorità sulle corse in bicicletta, lavorando come commentatore al canale televisivo satellitare Speed Channel, e scrivendo una rubrica di corse per un giornale serale. Le corse in bicicletta sono oggi una delle principali ossessioni di Tomokawa. Nel 2004 Tomokawa è apparso nel film Izo del regista di culto Takashi Miike, incentrato sulla figura dell'assassino del XIX secolo Izo Okada, ritraendo scene di carneficine e massacri e viaggi nel tempo. Tomokawa appare come un misterioso cantante che simboleggia i processi mentali del killer, e canta cinque canzoni nel corso del film. Tomokawa ha anche fornito la musica per il film 17 sai no fukei (Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw) di Koji Wakamatsu del 2005. Da quando è passato alla PSF, Tomokawa ha continuato a pubblicare un album all'anno. La sua reputazione ha cominciato a crescere all'estero, e negli ultimi anni si è esibito in Scozia, Belgio, Svizzera, Francia e anche in Corea nell'autunno del 2009. Mentre la musica di Tomokawa è stata accolta calorosamente da artisti e appassionati di musica, ciò non significa che sia difficile da capire. Piuttosto è il risultato ironico del suo modo di vivere come artista. Con il passare degli anni, la musica e l'arte di Tomokawa sembrano diventare ancora più belle, sempre più pure, e continueranno sicuramente ad ispirare i suoi ascoltatori con il coraggio di essere se stessi. VINCENT MOON Nato a Parigi nel 1979, all'età di 18 anni Vincent decise di voler vedere tutto, di imparare le cose da solo, per curiosità, anche se questo avrebbe potuto portare alla sovralimentazione, e così per dieci anni. Da quell'esperienza sono nate le immagini, prima attraverso la fotografia, che ha studiato sotto l'influenza di Michael Ackerman e Antoine D'Agata. Qualche anno dopo, scoprendo l'opera di Peter Tscherkassky, le sue immagini acquistano movimento/mozione. Grazie a Internet ha sviluppato diversi progetti legati alla musica, dirigendo video per Clogs, Sylvain Chauveau, Barzin, The National. Nel 2006, travolto dalla bellezza di Step Across the Border, diretto da Nicolas Humbert e Werner Penzel, sul chitarrista inglese Fred Frith, ha creato con Chryde "the Take Away Shows project", il video podcast della Blogotheque (www.takeawayshows.com). Questa serie di documentari outdoor consiste in sessioni video improvvisate con musicisti, ambientate in luoghi inaspettati e trasmesse liberamente sul web. In 3 anni è riuscito a girare oltre un centinaio di clip con band come REM, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Beirut, Grizzly Bear e molte altre. Ha perfezionato uno stile immediatamente riconoscibile di inquadrature intime, fragili, danzanti e ombreggianti, e allo stesso tempo ha cambiato l'idea di quello che dovrebbe essere un video musicale. L'intero 'concept' è stato poi esportato in tutto il mondo da molti giovani registi ispirati dal suo naturale approccio organico alla musica. Mentre lavora alle sue mostre Take Away, Vincent Moon tiene anche progetti collaterali, esplorando altri formati, sperimentando le relazioni tra immagini e suoni. Ha diretto un saggio cinematografico sulla band newyorkese The National dal titolo "A skin, A night", uscito nel maggio 2008. È stato il principale creatore del cult "Miroir Noir", un film di 76 minuti su The Arcade Fire e ha poi lavorato a stretto contatto con Michael Stipe e REM su diversi progetti video e web legati al loro ultimo album: il saggio di 48' "6 Days", un documentario gratuito sulla registrazione di "Accelerate", il progetto web sperimentale di novanta giorni chiamato "90nights" (wwww.ninetynights.com), il video e sito web unico per il singolo "Supernatural Superserious" (www.supernaturalsuperserious.com), e l'acclamato "This Is Not a Show" (co-diretto da Jeremiah, l'altro giovane regista musicale francese), un film dal vivo sulle loro performance dublinesi considerato come uno dei film live più unici di tutti i tempi. Ha pubblicato nel novembre 2007, insieme a Chryde, la fondatrice della Blogotheque, un film molto particolare con Beirut, dove tutte le 12 canzoni del suo nuovo album sono state girate per le strade di Brooklyn, in un finto esperimento one-take. (www.flyingclubcup.com) Nel tentativo di trovare nuove strade per la musica da film, prendendo le distanze dai formati mainstream e commerciali, ha girato nel 2006 un mediometraggio gonzo al Festival ATP, "Sketches from a Nightmare", il primo di una serie su questo festival, e ha partecipato attivamente al film di 90 minuti All Tomorrow's Parties, uscito nel 2009 con il plauso della critica. Nell'ottobre 2007, Warp Films lo ha assunto come regista di video musicali. Un'altra parte della sua vita è ora dedicata a lunghi ritratti su musicisti di culto e rari - realizzati con Antoine Viviani e Gaspar Claus, collaboratori di lunga data, la serie "Musicians of Our Times" (due volumi sono stati completati finora), "Little Blue Nothing" sugli Havels, una mitica coppia praghese, e "La Faute des Fleurs", spesso considerato il suo lavoro migliore, su Kazuki Tomokawa, cantante folk giapponese estremo. Links: www.lafautedesfleurs.com http://kazukitomokawa.com/

#vincent moon #kazuki tomokawa #associazione culturale ikigai #ikigai #ikigai room #documentaries #documentari #japanese music #folk #japanese folk #bologna #eventi #la faute des fleurs #wakamatsu koji #izo #takashi miike #psf records #experimental music

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biofunmy · 4 years

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The Leopard Pony Coat Chronicles

The speed of time is the speed of a clock, and goes by, we can probably agree, in a blur. The speed of fashion is seemingly that of light and is thus impossible to track.

This is the sense that can come over an observer of fashion’s increasingly hectic cycles. You begin a new year forgetting what you saw in the last. Creepy developments like Pinterest’s new Trends tool, which provides year-round, real-time trend data to the public are not exactly a help.

How about, instead, indulging in a little reflection? Why not slow down for a moment to consider the creativity that lies at the core of one of the largest global industries?

As another new cycle gets underway this week and scores of men’s wear shows roll out in London, Florence, Milan and Paris, I posed a question to some seasoned professionals: What stood out for you in 2019?

I asked because if there is anything that gets lost to the commercial imperatives of fashion, it is the desire among designers to create objects of both utility and beauty.

“There was really so much good design,” said Bruce Pask, the men’s fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman. The offerings he cited ran the proverbial gamut from Thom Browne’s intellectualized homage to that humble preppy staple, seersucker (which the designer rendered in the form of little boy shorts sets, skirts worn with codpieces and voluminous trousers with panniers at the hip), to Emily Bode’s poetic handmade garments patched from vintage quilts.

Yet for all extravagance of Mr. Browne’s vision and the modesty of Ms. Bode’s, what was most notable for Mr. Pask in the year gone by was the humblest of utilitarian garments: the chore coat.

“It was one of those items that became part of the zeitgeist,” Mr. Pask said of a boxy functional garment repurposed for an employment landscape in which people (not exclusively men) find themselves casting about for something comfortable and multiuse, a garment more adult than a sweatshirt yet less fuddy-duddy than a suit.

Mr. Pask said his favorite is a $320 patch pocket blue version from Le Mont St. Michel, a coat like the kind the photographer Bill Cunningham bought at French uniform supply stores and made his signature.

In the case of Josh Peskowitz, the fashion director of the online retailer Moda Operandi, an average day’s work involves posting a series of self-portraits to Instagram, dressed in one coat more outlandish than the last. The series, titled “The Trench Coat Chronicles,” reached a peak when he turned up on social media clad in a singular trench from Francisco Risso’s fall 2019 collection for Marni.

“I look insane in it, but I love it,” Mr. Peskowitz said, referring to a garment that looks as if it had been excavated from the closet of Buster Poindexter, the rocker David Johansen’s alter ego.

“I often don’t like the idea of something being expensive and looking cheap,” he said. Of Mr. Risso, who showed the coat over pajamas, Mr. Peskowitz said, “Somehow he gets around this with his spirit of D.I.Y. and an attitude that is very punk.”

And as proof that Mr. Peskowitz’s admiration for the coat was not one of those abstractions that govern certain of fashion’s early adopters, he went all in.

“I actually bought a leopard print pony-hair trench coat for myself,” he said.

For Jim Moore, the author of “Hunks & Heroes: Four Decades of Fashion at GQ,” a compilation of pictorials he engineered as the magazine’s longtime creative director, 2019 was a year in which men’s wear found a sweet spot.

“Tailoring returned and the volume of clothes seemed right on,” Mr. Moore said in an email.

As an example, Mr. Moore cited a black-and-white houndstooth wool suit designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen’s fall 2019 collection and worn under a similarly graphic wool coat in monochrome Glen plaid.

The subtlety of details like deep inverted pleats in the trousers and oversize patches on the coat pockets called to mind the exaggerated gentlemanly elegance of the Congolese dandies called Les Sapeurs, a contraction from the French for Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People.

“Men’s wear moments like this speak to a new generation in novel ways,” Mr. Moore said. “They don’t reek of old traditions at all.”

No one has ever accused Rick Owens of hewing to tradition. Yet what is indisputable is his sense of being part of a long creative lineage.

Elements of designers who have influenced him — people as disparate as Charles James and Larry Le Gaspi — pass through the complex matrix of Mr. Owens’s creativity, and yet the results seldom look as though they could have been produced by anybody else.

“My favorite look from 2019 is Rick Owens’s collarless, blown-up bubble, side-cross-zip B-1 bomber coat,” said Long Nguyen, a freelance critic who has spent decades observing fashion from its front rows.

“It was worn with a frayed asymmetrical T-shirt and leather and cotton combo pants that had the Owens signature,” Mr. Nguyen added, referring to innovation based on knowledge and a love of craftsmanship that, as Mr. Owens once told me, seems almost quaint in an age of computer-generated design.

That Mr. Owens does so in a way that rarely seems forced was a crucial factor in Angelo Flaccovento’s selection of a tossed-off Owens design as a favorite of the year.

“What I like about it is the color and the collarless shape,” Mr. Flaccovento, a critic for the Business of Fashion, said of a quilted long satin jacket that resembled the marriage of a mattress cover and a Happi coat. “In an era of abundance, I am all about less.”

“I also like the slight laziness of the look,” he said.

The obverse of that seeming offhandedness would have to be almost any design by Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons Homme Plus. If there happens to be an easy way to get from Point A to Point B, Ms. Kawakubo will undoubtedly take a detour to difficult.

“I love that this look is full-on couture,” Nick Wooster, the retailer and Instagram influencer, said, referring to a long Comme des Garçons tailcoat-like jacket in gray tropical weight wool with flanged panels floating out from the hips.

Throughout her long career, Ms. Kawakubo has bridled at conformist inhibitions, whether those of gender binaries or so-called good taste. That hasn’t kept her from mining traditions — not infrequently those of Japanese court dress — to resolve her unease with the fundamental ungainliness of the human form.

“It is as though Rei Kawakubo and Charles James did a collaboration,” Mr. Wooster said of the jacket. “That one will definitely be on my back.”

It is hard to know who will be wearing the beaded shirt from Kim Jones’s fall 2020 collection for Dior Man, shown in Miami Beach in early December, but this much is certain: It’s not likely me, though I may wish otherwise.

And that is too bad. The Dior shirt falls into that category of garment so precious that brand representatives get coy when asked how much it costs. “Price upon request” is proof positive an object is not for hoi polloi.

It is consistent, though, with a direction Mr. Jones has pushed at every label at which he worked — that is, men’s wear produced at the level of haute couture. Finally the designer has landed at a house that can abet his ambition to capture a generation of moneyed men unafraid of fashion and conditioned by the rarity of the drop.

At Dior Mr. Jones can design clothes like this resplendent shirt, so offhand as to seem skate-rat generic, yet rendered at a level of skill commonly associated with the aristocracy.

The royal courts of our day have backboards and foul lines and hoops at either end. Even if I will never own the Dior shirt that took seven embroiderers 2,600 hours to create, I can amuse myself imagining it on a fashion-conscious baller like King James.

Looking is free, after all.

“Loewe, look six,” Tim Blanks, the fashion editor at large for The Business of Fashion, wrote in an email when asked to name the design object he dreamed about most consistently in 2019. “I feel oppressed by the debate on ‘masculinity’ that has infected men’s fashion.”

This is why he retreats in imagination from the “conflagration raging outside” to the mental comfort of a Loewe caftan designed by Jonathan Anderson and that Mr. Blanks rates the epitome of timeless cool.

“Generous, evocative, sensual, particularly so in suede,” Mr. Blanks wrote. It’s a garment that is male on a man (if he chooses that designation) and female on a woman (ditto) and enduringly seductive on either.

“You could wear it in 2020 B.C. or 2020 A.D. and never look wrong.”

Sahred From Source link Fashion and Style

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inloveandwords · 5 years

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This post was inspired by Ally’s series (which was inspired by Lia at Lost in a Story).

It works like this

Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.

Order on ascending date added.

Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books

Read the synopsis of the books

Decide: keep it or should it go?

The Coma by Alex Garland

The acclaimed author of The Beach returns with a mesmerizing and highly original work of intrigue.

Proclaimed “a gifted storyteller” by The New Yorker and “a huge literary talent” by Kazuo Ishiguro, Alex Garland, the internationally bestselling author of The Beach, The Tesseract, and writer of the critically acclaimed film 28 Days Later, returns with yet another gripping page- turner that blurs the edges of reality and probes the boundaries of consciousness. A man is attacked on the Underground and awakens to find himself in a hospital, apparently having emerged from a coma. Or has he? Garland’s brilliant tale is illustrated with forty haunting woodblock print illustrations by his father, Nicholas Garland, a well-known political cartoonist for the Daily Telegraph (UK) and noted artist.

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: The reviews aren’t great on this one and I honestly have no idea why I added it to my TBR in the first place.

***

Midnight Magic (Midnight Magic #2) by Avi

Mangus the Magician must free a princess from a terrifying ghost. But Mangus doesn’t believe in ghosts. Actually, he doesn’t even believe in magic. His servant boy, Fabrizio, is the princess’s secret friend and determined to prove that the ghost is real.

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: First of all, the author doesn’t have a last name… just kidding, I’m ditching this simply because I have no idea why I added this in the first place.

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The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate’s baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: This just does not appeal to me anymore. I actually think I owned this at one point, but ended up donating it.

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Pussy, King of the Pirates by Kathy Acker

A loose reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island, Acker’s radical interpretation is a masterfully directed, wild trek through real and imagined history, from the most famous whorehouse in Alexandria through an unidentified, crumbling city that may or may not be sometime in the future. “Acker pushes language to the tension point, explodes and reclaims it”.– Boston Sunday Herald.

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: I remember the day I bought this at a little pop-up book shop many years ago. The checkout guy saw the title and nodded appreciatively and drawled, “niiiiice.” I do still love the cover… whether I read it or not is an entirely different story.

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Open House by Elizabeth Berg

Open House, Open Heart

Elizabeth Berg has made a name for herself by writing provocative, engaging novels that strike a deep emotional chord with women everywhere. Her topics have ranged from parental estrangement and the death of a dear friend, to the unique bonds that can develop between sisters, or between a straight woman and a gay man. But at the heart of each is a common theme#151;a woman put to the test, stretched to the limits of her emotional boundaries by the vagaries of life. Berg’s latest, IOpen House,/I follows this tried-and-true formula by telling the story of one woman’s struggle to survive divorce.P Throughout the 20 years of her marriage, Samantha Morrow has been content with her life, though she knows it isn’t perfect. She has a nice home, a great son, and a husband she loves. But everything is turned upside down when her husband, David, tells her he wants out of their marriage. His rapid departure on the heels of this announcement leaves Sam horribly shocked, utterly confused, and oddly obsessed with Martha Stewart. Her initial reaction is to go on a spending spree, charging thousands of dollars worth of merchandise at Tiffany’s to her husband’s credit card. But when reality sets in and her husband cuts her off, she realizes that if she wants to keep the house she loves and make a home for herself and her son, she’s going to have to generate some income.P Her first solution to this dilemma is to find a couple of roommates. Between the finished portion of the basement and the extra bedroom upstairs, Sam figures she can take on two boarders and mitigate a large portion of the mortgage payment. She finds her first boarder quickly#151;the septuagenarian mother of an acquaintance#151;and is delighted. Lydia Fitch is quiet, clean, concerned, friendly, and more than eager to play grandmother to Sam’s son, Travis. Which is just as well, since Sam’s own mother doesn’t quite fit the bill. In fact, Sam’s mother has made a career out of dating since the death of her husband two decades ago and is now determined to fix Sam up as soon as possible#151;a plan with foreseeable disasters written all over it.P Sam’s life is further complicated when she starts looking for a job, for other than a gig singing in a band years ago, she’s never been employed. But then King, the gentle giant of a man who helps Lydia move in, puts Sam in touch with the employment agency he works for. Suddenly Sam is off on a variety of short-term jobs, everything from making change at a Laundromat, to working as a carpenter’s helper. When she gets the devastating news that Lydia has decided to marry her long-time beau and move out, Sam takes on a second boarder for the basement space: a sullen, depressed college student.P Meanwhile, Sam’s relationship with David has given way to an awkward tiptoeing d�tente as he starts building a new life for himself, replete with an upscale condo and a new girlfriend. Travis starts acting out and behaving as sullenly as the new boarder, and Sam finds herself eating all the time and gaining weight. Throughout it all, the one steady force in Sam’s life is King, whose implacable calm and supportive friendship provides a stabilizing rudder in the storm-tossed sea of Sam’s life. But Sam soon discovers there is much more to King than she realized and it will force her to rethink everything she has come to hold true.P One of Berg’s greatest strengths is her keen eye for the tiny details and intimate thoughts that allow her readers to relate to her characters on a deeply personal level. Watching Sam try to create a home that will nurture her soul by stocking it with the best of household items is funny but heartbreaking. Yet the journey she travels, a journey of self-discovery that shows home really is where the heart is, makes it all worthwhile. Berg’s mix of pathos and humor (and in this case, a hilarious dead-on skewering of Martha Stewart) lends her prose a tantalizingly perverse flavor that is both entertaining and oddly satisfying.P #151;IBeth Amos/IP Beth Amos is the author of several mainstream suspense thrillers, including ISecond Sight, Eyes of Night,/I and ICold White Fury./I. She lives in Wisconsin, and is at work on her next novel.P

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: Dude. That synopsis was a novel itself. I didn’t even feel like reading it just now to decide whether I want to keep it or not. So, pass. (Also the cover is awful)

***

Princess of the Midnight Ball (The Princesses of Westfalin Trilogy #1) by Jessica Day George

Rose is the eldest of twelve princesses forced to dance through the night in an underground palace. Galen is the soldier turned gardener who falls for her. The key to breaking the spell lies in magic knitting needles, an invisibility cloak, and-of course-true love. Inspired by “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,”

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Keep Comments: This is actually rated fairly high and I’m always down for a retelling.

***

Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle #1) by Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver is here. A monumental literary feat that follows the author’s critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller Cryptonomicon, it is history, adventure, science, truth, invention, sex, absurdity, piracy, madness, death, and alchemy. It sweeps across continents and decades with the power of a roaring tornado, upending kings, armies, religious beliefs, and all expectations.

It is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight. It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of “Half-Cocked Jack” Shaftoe–London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds–risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox…and Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent a contentious continent through the newborn power of finance.

A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life–a historical epic populated by the likes of Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton, William of Orange, Benjamin Franklin, and King Louis XIV–Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time.

And it’s just the beginning …

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: Anyone else a little turned off by the phrase, “monumental literary feat”? Cuz I am.

***

Trading Up by Candace Bushnell

With a brilliant comic voice as well as Jane Austen’s penchant for social satire, Candace Bushnell, who with Sex and the City changed forever how we view New York City, female friendships, and the love of a good pair of Manolos, now brings us a sharply observant, keenly funny, wildly entertaining latter day comedy of manners. Modern-day heroine Janey Wilcox is a lingerie model whose reach often exceeds her grasp, and whose new-found success has gone to her head. As we follow Janey’s adventures, Bushnell draws us into a seemingly glamorous world of $100,000 cars, hunky polo players and media moguls, Fifth Avenue apartments, and relationships whose hidden agendas are detectable only by the socially astute. But just as Janey enters this world of too much money and too few morals, unseen forces conspire to bring her down, forcing her to reexamine her values about love and friendship–and how far she’s really willing to go to realize her dreams.

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: I feel like I added this back in my obsessive Sex and the City Days.

***

The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier

What if our pain was the most beautiful thing about us? In the aftermath of a fatal car accident, a private journal of love notes written by a husband to his wife passes into the keeping of a hospital patient, and from there through the hands of five other suffering people, touching each of them uniquely. I love the soft blue veins on your wrist. I love your lopsided smile. I love watching TV and shelling sunflower seeds with you.

The six recipients – a data analyst, a photojournalist, a schoolchild, a missionary, a writer, and a street vendor – inhabit an acutely observed, beautifully familiar yet particularly strange universe, as only Kevin Brockmeier could imagine it: a world in which human pain is expressed as illumination, so that one’s wounds glitter, fluoresce, and blaze with light. As we follow the journey of the book from stranger to stranger, we come to understand how intricately and brilliantly they are connected, in all their human injury and experience.

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Keep Comments: I can actually picture myself a decade ago standing in Barnes and Noble, reading the synopsis of this book. I’m still pretty intrigued.

***

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter #2) by J.K. Rowling

The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he’s packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike

And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls’ bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley’s younger sister, Ginny.

But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone — or something — starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects . . . Harry Potter himself?

Date added to TBR: Jun 27, 2011 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: OK, so, don’t hate me but I’ve tried reading Harry Potter on several occasions and I just can’t get into it, friends. I want to be super into it simply because the fandom has so many amazing things (a freaking theme park!), but gah! I just can’t!

***

Here are the stats

Starting Total TBR Count: 1760

Previous Total TBR Count: 1849

Total Marked TBR ASAP: 132

Updated Total TBR Count: 1896

Total Ditched Today: 8

Total Kept Today: 2

Bye-Bye Books: Decluttering my TBR February 2019 This post was inspired by Ally’s series (which was inspired by Lia at Lost in a Story…

#declutter #TBR

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shihlun · 7 months

Text

Kōji Wakamatsu

- Ecstasy of the Angels

1972

- Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw

2004

#Kōji Wakamatsu #Koji Wakamatsu #若松孝二 #天使の恍惚 #Ecstasy of the Angels #Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw #Landscapes the Boy Saw #17歳の風景少年は何を見たのか #17歳の風景 #富士山 #mount fuji #fuji mountain #japanese film #1972 #2004 #fukerion #landscape theory #風景論

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tussive · 2 years

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#Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw

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primalscne · 10 years

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Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw (Koji Wakamatsu, 2004)

#cycling chronicles: landscapes the boy saw #koji wakamatsu #film

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shiningwizard · 10 years

Photo

Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw (Wakamatsu Koji, 2004)

#17歳の風景 #cycling chronicles: landscapes the boy saw #last movie i saw

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vagabondedlife · 11 years

Photo

#Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw #koji wakamatsu

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shihlun · 7 months

Text

Kōji Wakamatsu

- Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw

2004

#Kōji Wakamatsu #Koji Wakamatsu #若松孝二 #Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw #Landscapes the Boy Saw #17歳の風景少年は何を見たのか #17歳の風景 #富士山 #mount fuji #fuji mountain #japanese film #2004 #fukerion #landscape theory #風景論

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tussive · 2 years

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Hey guys I collected every Koji Wakamatsu movie I could find and uploaded them and then compiled the links in one neat post.

[1963] Sweet Trap

https://mega.nz/file/Ao0SGSyL#BwYGY7UTWtOI-ttxoePW39sx8smHL8_ZOqFNR9N4fMY

[1965] Lead Tombstone

https://mega.nz/file/89kQSIib#aoV7Odn3vQA2ynZYjdkp2llwbexEUgoVMXrppnUro4Q

[1965] Resume of Love Affairs

https://mega.nz/file/F58iiKQB#KNHh2sQfNKkeW-EAET1VqKb203DjSz9mlR70TpIKTYo

[1965] Yuganda kankei

https://mega.nz/file/tpt0gQYK#PQxmJtmbedejFgWlX6qC6jp-iIc5zvC9Aiq1hRHZbq0

[1966] The Embryo Hunts in Secret

https://mega.nz/file/tp8mkIzY#rJ93vwUz0LKah2yBYy3AwIe-vEwHelQCs_N-a70ZGdg

[1967] Abnormal Blood

https://mega.nz/file/E5siGKhD#zmRsboTXzMADzCM6Y0ldKUQM4TXv9Q0-2pfx9EqTltU

[1967] Dark Story of a Japanese Rapist

https://mega.nz/file/ll9wRaKY#vNomLYX7hvwuzTYO4fMHn7iREbE2xe7H4368ZmGjLLU

[1967] Ranko

https://mega.nz/file/8g0UWAzS#i5BXlP71LhHCOi2pUtH7pCQBYYTVsK-mQxJKhNc_4HY

[1967] Vagabound of Sex

https://mega.nz/file/tkkkwYzZ#AzB5BnKfvFLCcEMI7izmygTUd1oHD0wj7RcD_cvrVzY

[1967] Violated Angels

https://mega.nz/file/009g1CwS#UhGtfALioeG1H57fYP5fXBlRpEmOdnW3RuLpYHJFvfI

[1969] Go, Go, Second Time Virgin

https://mega.nz/file/d99Q0YhJ#gLfTcueMULKBYONPu44nT7oVHxwSpdPNKWoqRjH2WRg

[1969] Naked Bullet

https://mega.nz/file/VlsQwSJY#z5peJamzlxmGN_NcsFqQt78cadQQqhLq6CyttohJtP8

[1969] Notorious Concubines

https://mega.nz/file/Yt8AlKST#fi5yoWNb3fRK9iP2f2KnkdKqQLzGAFCx7G7dLbmo8_E

[1969] Running in Madness, Dying in Love

https://mega.nz/file/Jk1E3CbJ#A_ADGNUldGjRbeCYK2emunoeHqTvKZabdWtv0C7wtHE

[1969] Season of Terror

https://mega.nz/file/Qs1yhQaC#dl0D_4gWTf7kpVjCO-ovMCyJVba8XiL_JJDR_YSEKZI

[1969] Vengeance Demon

https://mega.nz/file/NwtGBQ7T#pmNjWbySb_UjoicxMgchRRMInx6khKO2jQIa5rn0Loo

[1969] Violence Without a Cause

https://mega.nz/file/d99AHKyL#iRcE6zs7Bq-P2zrF0PFeuaGb2tjJ9x-bu-vDKnUGUA0

[1969] Violent Virgin

https://mega.nz/file/JssCUADS#0oUpa3NYQX8pVGRdoiQivb9gF7W5LeBZM-ufBoVPokE

[1970] Sex Jack

https://mega.nz/file/Uss2wYiR#-SowkeQKDwP5ksJivjwvM-IP5BIZ41Ci4Gh5m_zN3Zo

[1970] Shinjuku Mad

https://mega.nz/file/Yp9QEa6A#TnVRMMPrXpcAQwQBsQIdt1FWnjVuokgQWblo2P_HP84

[1970] The Hateful Beast

https://mega.nz/file/Rp8miCLA#rZDJuPnVRUYGbYUNcNABPKcLBTT6J-uf_lvRFg7eHUY

[1970] The Woman Who Wanted to Die

https://mega.nz/file/Y59WGQRT#fsd-WNSdiBmohFEAYj8ebMxExsDfgtIeyDXDWB2P6bM

[1971] Secret Flowert

https://mega.nz/file/okt2USoK#Mc0TSu80_67UCNOpv5V0eEFV0mwBFs-9OlUN5uJQZwY

[1971] Sex Family

https://mega.nz/file/BtMRDISC#t6n3BMB6OvHWAQukLLsEgJvRpkJeVxNuTfVhWAPHoHk

[1972] Ecstasy of the Angels

https://mega.nz/file/Jhd1HS5b#kpKqiTeI55h_SYp1YN-lZpqoHVH7X1STsh9__Fy4C6M

[1975] 100 Years of Torture The History

https://mega.nz/file/ktN1gCjD#Q8X0816baoLYhGJ6Z1pPgm08xmx25qCOcsBaTdFZuYo

[1977] Eros Eterna

https://mega.nz/file/dhdjxQrB#b5NyWFZrHlcAoU85Hvz3KctIh4AOM-BIkazA772YMQ0

[1977] Torture Chronicles Continues 100 Years

https://mega.nz/file/N9FDhYrR#LooAlDd2DhzNVCEVHEIscbaBuFkAOjjQSP-zPS5Ev_4

[1978] Serial Rapist

https://mega.nz/file/twNRXYoT#_d2nPw8GO42LxbK9RwmDMgYZjs2JktEKZc9yi2xJgPs

[1979] Prey

https://mega.nz/file/R4FVnC5B#vR1WIO1Kb_ROC8RHytJeQRkOSNT4r0ff6mC3bffQDDQ

[1982] A Pool Without Water

https://mega.nz/file/IsV3EYiS#5IsE7KHEd6QhBvIcUNyYuFiTP5UmjQgqi4_7INUxaXM

[1992] Erotic Liaisons

https://mega.nz/file/RxM3FA5A#eaVOd5CZyokv42giwDu0g5gTiCDiDCqON_5Oo8ZQMUo

[1993] Singapore Sling

https://mega.nz/file/g8N3kaoC#54XBHRSmbJsL0ubYiuO02gwx35ZqIEompsRaKfocYME

[1995] Endless Waltz

https://mega.nz/file/F0MTTATa#3baPfAABUXJzKR1sMo30mW-gvY0WB4ekXQKdNQFxtJs

[2004] Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw

https://mega.nz/file/54slDSJa#Ujn6L-uDdjtOmam-h6errptXGDYYx-34Rhyg91qsQ7Y

[2004] Perfect Education 6 Red Murder

https://mega.nz/file/l9UXEArb#HhDfw0uazSIx_zrabf6euSWkQptIfaiHeS6BuMtQfGI

[2007] United Red Army

https://mega.nz/file/Q9VnVYgL#0ZFA8whmToNs1nnUhMEV71O58ECKZ3UR-G0JUDTQH-8

[2010] Caterpillar

https://mega.nz/file/ItVlxQDQ#Cy5ZQQuJ5dtzdoRyhpslRmpLtGJGSawuVAosg5JS8yM

[2012] 11:25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate

https://mega.nz/file/pxUXnYZC#geSQ-qDXReRgSakSGwH_ypDBLa2DZ2rAvyc0yZLSe1Q

[2012] Petrel Hotel Blue

https://mega.nz/file/8sN1Fa6D#HGFAlLDfy17NzMziWBiLAiKKopG8cPjb2-Hl087WHoI

[2012] The Millennial Rapture

https://mega.nz/file/AlFVyaDC#I08yLrQTdjaI6g6vSQzQn85urMq_-9xeLKtVZKB8nqU

Masao Adachi & Koji Wakamatsu

[1969] Sexual Play

https://mega.nz/file/9stC0YpC#o1aEvKsNS-NP__h4FpTj2tV1LiGXDc_h6ESAMBz6gBU

[1971] Red ArmyPFLP Declaration of World War

https://mega.nz/file/RokGxQiQ#CyNYYeDx2Eu5mpT8PxVe7lQh1qA2_SYvzvirwMwCdZs

<3`

#Koji Wakamatsu

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