Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 164

The Graphic Report: Zombie Pixies and Frank Black’s New Graphic Novel

In a development that would seem highly overdue,the Pixies’ frontman Frank Black wrote (or co-wrote at least) a graphic novel. CalledThe Good Inn, it’s something of a laundry list of his likes, particularly Surrealismandearly French cinema.

My essay onThe Good Inn and the Pixies is atAvidly:

Why did Black Francis take this long to write a graphic novel? Sure, he’s been busy of late with reunion tours of both the actual Pixies and their more recent and inexcusably Kim Deal-less zombie incarnatio...

Writer’s Corner: Instruct or Amuse

Henry James, c.1882 (Library of Congress)

You could do much worse than get writing advice from the late and very great Henry James. Sure, you wouldn’t listen to what the old man had to say (nothing, most likely, on structuring a chase scene). But in almost any other instance, the man who could write both a masterful drawing-room melodrama likeThe Portrait of a Lady and a cracking good ghost story likeThe Turn of the Screw deserves to be heeded.

To that end, consider this imprecation from his188...

Now Playing: ‘The Drop’

Tom Hardy, faithful dog, and Noomi Rapace in ‘The Drop’ (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

With a screenplay by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River,Shutter Island), an Oscar-nominated director (Michaël R. Roskam, for Bullhead), and an Oscar-worthy turn by Tom Hardy,The Dropwould seem to have plenty of ability to overcome its status as a run-of-the-mill crime drama about a mob-linked bar in Brooklyn. Whether it does or doesn’t is up for debate; the genius of Hardy’s performance shouldn’t be.

The Drop is playing...

Department of Weekend Reading: September 26, 2014

Cause: anti-vaccination extremists on the rise in Los Angeles; result: more kids getting sick, dying; also, vaccination rates in some affluent neighborhoods are as low as Sudan.
Mass shooter incidents rising steadily since 2000, mostly targeting students.
In rural Pennsylvania, it’s easier (and cheaper) to get heroin than wine or beer.
South Park on the .
F. Scott Fitzgerald thought he’d be remembered for Tender is the Night , notThe Great Gatsby.
Alison Bechdel (Fun Home) finally...

New in Theaters: ‘Jimi All Is By My Side’

Andre Benjamin in ‘Jimi All Is By My Side’ (Darko Entertainment)

Outkast’s Andre Benjamin as Jimi Hendrix in a film written and directed by John Ridley (Twelve Years a Slave)? Yes, please. No rights to any original Hendrix songs? Hmmm…

Jimi All Is By My Sideis opening Friday in limited release and probably won’t hang around too long. My review is at Film Journal International:

Eventually somebody will make a sprawling, all-inclusive Jimi Hendrix movie with the estate’s full cooperation. The cine...

Reader’s Corner: Run this Bookstore

Wigtown, book town (Shaun Bythell)

Hey, wanna run a bookstore? If you can get yourself over to Wigtown in beautiful,not-independent Scotland, they’re giving away the chance to learn all the ins and outs of the trade. According to The Bookseller:

The Open Book project will invite interested parties to apply to live in and run a local bookshop, renamed The Open Book, for a period of up to six weeks. Anyone is invited to apply, with preference given to artists, writers, thinkers, and “bibliophiles...

Department of Weekend Reading: September 19, 2014

Yes, most of the Nigerian girls Boko Haram kidnapped are still missing.
It’s possible that Mittens was right about Russia.
Jimi Hendrix died this week in 1970, he was 27 years old. In memoriam, read his 1969 interview with Rolling Stone , thenwatch “Voodoo Child.”
NASA just found a massive black hole (it has the mass of 21 million suns) inside one of thedensest galaxies ever seen.
How the day of Scotland’s independence vote looked in newspapers.
One way to boost the economy: Legalize same-sex marri...

New on DVD: ‘The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden’

Dore Strauch and Friedrich Ritter in their Galapagos garden, c. 1932 (Zeitgeist Films)

A Nietszche-loving disgruntled German doctor and his worshipful, sickly wife; a “Baroness” who believes no man can resist her; an isolated island; weaponry and jealousy. How could anything go wrong? The story of how it really, really did is the subject ofThe Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, one of the year’s curiouser documentaries.

The Galapagos Affairis on DVD and Blu-ray now. My review is atPopMatters...

New in Theaters: Nick Cave is Still Alive in ‘20,000 Days on Earth’

Nick Cave drives to parts unknown with Kylie Minogue in ‘20,000 Days on Earth’ (Drafthouse Films)

20,000 Days on Earth is ameta-fictional documentary about Nick Cave, art, life, death, and above all writing. It’s beautiful and transfixing and is opening in limited release this Wednesday.

My review is atFilm Journal International:

The last thing that audiences need is another documentary about the greatness of another band or artist of the past. It’s all too easy once artists have their glory day...

Writer’s Corner: Getting Prompted

Having a hard time getting started on that blank page? Every writer has their tried-and-true cures for the block—taking a walk, playing with the cat, etc. But even those will eventually run up against the dread lack of inspiration.

In those scenarios, prompts are the kind of thing that never hurt. Writer’s Digest has a handy repository of them here, ranging from things like mysterious monsters on a ship to zombie-killing and a pun competition.

Anything to get the juices flowing.