Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 121

Writer’s Desk: Whistle While You Work

Do you need absolute, deafening quiet when you work?

Maybe you’re one of those people that likes to work in a loud cafe.

Or are you the type that writes at home but with music on? And if so, what’s your album(s) of choice? Do you prefer background noise so that the lyrics don’t interrupt your train of thought?

In the acknowledgments to his newest novel, the Oprah-pickedThe Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead has some very specific notes along these lines:

The first hundred pages were fuel...

Writer’s Corner: Whistle While You Work

Do you need absolute, deafening quiet when you work?

Maybe you’re one of those people that likes to work in a loud cafe.

Or are you the type that writes at home but with music on? And if so, what’s your album(s) of choice? Do you prefer background noise so that the lyrics don’t interrupt your train of thought?

In the acknowledgments to his newest novel, the Oprah-pickedThe Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead has some very specific notes along these lines:

The first hundred pages were fuel...

Weekend Reading: August 19, 2016

As of now, Clinton is as likely to beat Trump as an NFL kicker has of making a field goal from the 20-yard line. Forget the 1960s, it was the ’70s when thingsreally fell apart. Rape,The Birth of a Nation, and an open letter to Nate Parker. How Trump made an appeal to black voters … from a majority-white suburb. When flags become a possible liability. If you don’t believe climate change science, how about Zillow? Poll trutherism in the Age of Trump. Because of even the most populated states...

Quote of the Day: Nostalgia Kills

From Peter Pomerantsev’s Grantaessay,“Why We’re Post-Fact“:

‘The twenty-first century is not characterized by the search for new-ness’ wrote the late Russian-American philologist Svetlana Boym, ‘but by the proliferation of nostalgias . . . nostalgic nationalists and nostalgic cosmopolitans, nostalgic environmentalists and nostalgic metrophiliacs (city lovers)exchange pixel fire in the blogosphere’. Thus Putin’s internet-troll armies sell dreams of a restored Russian Empire and Soviet Union;...

Writer’s Corner: What Henry Miller Said

Courtesy of the folks atFlavorwire, here’s some commandments from Henry Miller on the craft of writing:

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”
3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
5. When you can’t create you can work.
6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
7. Keep h...

Reader’s Corner: Read Books, Live Longer

There are many advantages to being a reader. Most importantly, it gives you something awesome to do on a rainy day, or pretty much any day, and doesn’t require electricity or feeding. Also, if you’re a child, being a readerdoesn’t just build intelligence, it builds self-confidence.

Now, apparently, reading is positively associatedwith longer life. That’s the result ofa study inSocial Science & Medicine. According to theTimes:

Compared with those who did not read books, those who read for up...

Weekend Reading: August 12, 2016

“Donald Trump” as literary critic. So how come coffee shops have to look the same everywhere in the world? Coming soon: newLove and Rockets comics! Marlon Brando to Jared Leto: Is Method acting really just more macho nonsense? Apple move into the utility business. Two years of airstrikes on ISIS cost about $12 million per day. How come people in Arkansas and Kentucky are healthier than Texans? Is that it for the election? Already? Also: Setting the stage now to claim that the election won’t...

Screening Room: ‘A Touch of Zen’

In 1971, former martial-arts director King Hu embarked on an epic reimagination of what the genre would look like. The three-hourA Touch of Zen was magical, weird, and breathtaking, often in the same scene. It was mostly ignored in its butcheredrelease, except for some brief acclaim after finally getting a proper showing at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival.

Since then, the film—which deeply influenced Ang Lee’sCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—has been mostly confined to obscurity. Thankfully, Jan...

Screening Room: ‘The Lost Arcade’

For years, the last arcade in New York was a gritty little spot called the Chinatown Fair. There, night after night, gamers gathered to compete, play, gossip, and boast until the early hours. Then it closed.

The Lost Arcadehas been playing the festival circuit. It opens at the Metrograph in New York this week. My review is atFilm Journal International:

Everything about the videogame palaces inThe Lost Arcade makes them look like oases. Shot mostly at night, because that’s when the gamers com...

Shameless Self-Promotion Dept.: ‘St. Louis Noir’

For over ten yearsnow, the good folks at Akashic Books have been publishing a fantastic series of city-centric collections of noir fictionthat cover dozens of locales,everywhere from Baltimore to Beirut.

This month sees the publication of their newest volume,St. Louis Noir. Edited by the inestimable Scott Phillips (The Ice Harvest), it’s a crackerjack anthology of stories that cover the dark and seedy underbelly of the Gateway City.

There are some fantastic new pieces by Phillips, John Lutz,...