The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March and Art Spiegelman
Posted: June 12, 2020 Filed under: Theater / Drama | Tags: Art Spiegelman, Books, English, Joseph Moncure March, Poetry Leave a commentWow, such a wholesome, rhythmic, totally jazzed-up poem from the roaring twenties, a true gem by Joseph Moncure March, then managing editor of the recently established The New Yorker magazine, spiced up with Art Spiegelman’s black and white drawings of 1994.
First published in 1926, two years before Bertolt Brecht’s similarly tuned Three-Penny Opera hit the stage, in those careless final years of laugher and prosperity before the Great Depression and War, this short barely a hundred-page long smashed up, sexed up, and cocked up narrative drama of a lovers’ fight, seduction, jealousy and vengeance in a bubbling new New York apartment, propped against a totally Gatsbian wild party atmosphere, is definitely the best piece of frivolous poetry I’ve read in a while.
Queenie was a blonde, and her age stood still,
And she danced twice a day in a vaudeville.
Lip-smacking, invigorating, well ahead of its time, and quite contemporary today.
Reflections of a Wine Merchant by Neal Rosenthal
Posted: June 7, 2020 Filed under: Books, Non-fiction | Tags: Books, English, Neal Rosenthal, Wine Leave a commentFollowing in tracks of Kermit Lynch’s spectacular Adventures on the Wine Route, probably the best wine book ever written, out almost a decade and a half before Reflections, Neal Rosenthal shares this colorful memoir of his early days as an NYC wine importer and retailer, traveling across France and Italy in times long gone, when no-one knew who, for instance, Hubert Lignier or Paolo Bea were.
A funny read, riddled with anecdotes and full of tales about a handful of cult producers, yet it is also a brilliant discussion on the shortcomings of the modern wine trade, about a battle between quality, tradition and legacy with sales, vogue and technology, putting a wedge between classic and natural wines vs their commercial and rather soulless adversaries.
Be prepared – Neal is not hiding his resentment, he is blunt and straightforward, no words are spared for growers and distributors who favored an additional buck at the expense of filtering, over-sulfuring, raising alcohol level or otherwise diluting true drops of gold. And as all wine is perishable, and renown wine families may also come to an end (a few lamentable examples are described in great detail) – it is also Neal’s tribute and a way of remembrance of some former treasures long surrendered and lost.
Essential reading for passionate wine geeks.
Старик путешествует Эдуарда Лимонова
Posted: May 7, 2020 Filed under: Books, Documentary | Tags: Books, Limonov, Russian Leave a commentС тяжелым сердцем начинал читать последний предсмертный роман Эдуарда Лимонова (уверен, наследники, издатели, черт знает кто ещё, они все выпустят много чего посмертного) – а закончил легко и с душей легкой.
Эдичка был и остался, наверное, главным рубаха-парнем, лучшим дворовым поэтом уличного Харькова, совдеповской Москвы, Нью-Йорка времён Баскиа задолго до джентрификации всего и вся, социалистической и буржуазной Франции конца 80х, агрессивным горлопаном ельцинских диких и свободных 90х, борцом за присоединение Крыма и Северного Казахстана в нулевых, задолго до победоносного крымнаш, автором великолепной тюремной прозы из Лефортово и зоны – и не сдающим и сдающимся дедом в десятых. Не старик Козлодоев ни разу.
Что бы кто ни говорил, как бы ни относится к радикальным политическим взглядам деда – который умудрялся в каждую эпоху встать в оппозицию к любой власти, перейти от антисоветчика к антикапиталисту, от стремления вырвать наружу из Совдепии к пафосу вооруженной революционной борьбы чуть ли не за неё – а вот читаешь любую книгу деда и видишь – честен с собой до конца, не прячет свои недостатки – и, черт возьми, великий писатель земли русской.
Я, конечно, чуть biased, сразу скажу – я все же читал, наверное, с добрых три десятка, если считать стихи, книг Вениаминыча – зато говорю и утверждаю с широты всего этого почитанного, а не только известного романа мосье Каррера. И вот эта вот короткая голубая книжка, воспоминания и дополнения к жизни, сочащейся через пальцы и убегающей в песок, она ценна не сама по себе – это не просто сборник воспоминаний и замёток, это настоящий мета-текст, дополняющий и цитирующий Лимонова всех его периодов, всех его женщин, всех настроений и убеждений. Мне сложно сказать, как воспримет ее условный нуб, молодой человек, ранее никогда Лимонова не читавший – которого и образы Наташи, и хулиганского Харькова, и вся его военреволюционная деятельность минули и обошли стороной. Не знаю.
И все же Эдичка умер. И тут написал мне один товарищ, «Эдичка умер давно, вместо него доживал какой-то маразматик» – но нет, не так это совсем. Можно было не любить бравого седовласого крикуна Савенко и его протестные возгласы, не поддерживать Стратегию 31 и не одобрять марши его бравых Санькя НБП-солдат в чёрных рубашках, но не не любить писателя Эдичку ну прям нельзя. И Эдичка жив и жить будет.
P.S. С нетерпением хочу посмотреть фильм Хаски.
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На самом деле человек в старости не болеет, а подвергается нападениям смерти. Она его кусает, душит, сдавливает своими клыками, порой отступает, затем опять наваливается.
Человеку представляется, что это очередная болезнь. Но это не болезнь, это смерть его выкручивает. Она хочет своего, пришла ему пора обратиться в другую форму. Ах, как он не хочет, он же к этой привык!
Отдай, дурень, это тело! Тебе оно будет ненужным более. Ты перейдёшь к более высоким формам жизни (или к более низким, или к ничему).
When the Wolves Bite by Scott Wapner
Posted: February 28, 2020 Filed under: Books, Documentary, Non-fiction | Tags: Bill Ackman, Books, Carl Icahn, English, Herbalife, Scott Wapner Leave a comment
A quick and rather superfluous read, a story of Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn’s fight over Herbalife, an MLM dietary supplements producer accused by Ackman of being a pyramid-like Ponzi scheme. Ackman lost his fight, Herbalife survived, though in a somewhat crippled way – and this story, frankly, bears no moral whatsoever – it is just yet another Wall Street popcorn read you can devour in a few hours on the beach.
The Netflix movie on the same subject, Betting on Zero, is a much more candid thing, though siding entirely with Ackman in this struggle – it has certain honesty about it, determination, candor. Though somewhat socialist and anti-aynrandian, you inadvertently sympathize Ackman, posing as a Don Quixote for the poor defrauded Latino communities (sic!).
Yet, if you want to read a true activist book, don’t read this CNBC summary report by Wapner, glorifying again and again the harsh talk he had with both investors on live TV. Better read David Einhorn’s Fooling Some of the People All of the Time – a short-seller’s tale in his own words. Or bloody read The Big Short, definitely a more wholesome read.
Mary wept over the feet of Jesus: Prostitution and religious obedience in the Bible by Chester Brown
Posted: July 3, 2019 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, Chester Brown, English, Religion Leave a commentGiven a hell of controversy this may spark, I’d rather leave this review intentionally blanc. The title is self-explanatory. Read the book and decide for yourself.
The New Wine Rules by Jon Bonné
Posted: June 23, 2019 Filed under: Books, Non-fiction, Wine | Tags: Books, English, Jon Bonné, Wine Leave a commentA short, funny, rather entertaining book by Jon Bonné, something young wine aficionados should read and enjoy. Actually, I was okay with it as well.
Funny find – the diagram of technical/traditional wines, classified whether they are in or out of fashion now. Hilarious!
My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Posted: May 4, 2019 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, Comic, Crime Fiction, Ed Brubaker, English, Sean Phillips Leave a commentA short new graphic novel by the duo of Brubaker and Phillips falls in the tracks of their well known Criminal series, it’s is indeed another short noir story. A wrong man meets a wrong woman. What makes it different is the combination of striking blue and yellow colors, more shameless and alluring than I would expect.
A brief easy read.
Berlin by Jason Lutes
Posted: October 26, 2018 Filed under: Comic | Tags: Berlin, Books, English, Jason Lutes Leave a commentA book that took three installments and 23 years to complete. I think I stumbled on Book One: City of Stones back in 2007 or so, and then got hold Book Two: City of Smoke immediately thereafter, in 2008 when it was out, and had been patiently waiting for the finale, Book Three: City of Light which finally came out this September. All three under one hardcover and read in one go, brilliant.
Deep and sincere, it’s a multi-layered interconnected tale of a big group of people, rich and poor, politically motivated and careless, all residents in the city of Berlin during the Weimar Republic in 1928-1933, the Jazz era, a short intermission for peace, with fascism, intolerance and hatred slowly and masterfully creeping in.
The band is still playing – yet children get hurt, mothers are shot, families break down and turn on each other, free love is persecuted, a tall blond man is marching with a black band on his arm and shiny suspenders in full sight, and then a small man, he with ridiculously trimmed mini-mustache is making a couple of brief cameo appearances here.
Fills your heart with sadness, with loss of liberty, youth and innocence, and with little hope. Lives are wasted, and the city, burnt and captured, cut in two pieces with a butcher’s knife and then sewn back together, the city still stands. Uh-huh. Well, could I expected anything else?
Picture: Carl von Ossietzky, the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Posted: October 6, 2018 Filed under: Comic, Fiction | Tags: Books, Comic, Craig Thompson, English Leave a commentAn honest and somewhat clumsy autobiographical graphic novel by Craig Thompson, his first major success, a thick 9-part book about growing up in snowy rural Minnesota, about young boy’s religious acceptance, god fearing reverence, affection, love, and subsequent denial of god, and on finally moving on.
While Blankets is a critically acclaimed masterpiece of modern comic book storytelling, I remain a much bigger fan of Thompson’s next story called Habibi, a much harsher tale of love, poverty, almost medieval violence and bigotry. To me, Blankets vs Habibi is a good US indie flick vs a major groundbreaking Scorsese biopic.
Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh
Posted: August 18, 2018 Filed under: Fiction | Tags: Books, English, Irvine Welsh Leave a commentAlmost sixty now, Irvine Welsh still rocks my world and gets me glued to the pages like he used to 25 years back or so, even now, with yet another book on Rents, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie. It’s officially the fifth in the series, after Trainspotting, Porno, Skagboys and Begbie’s very own The Blade Artist, but really like the twelfth, if you count the rest of his Edinburgh novels like Glue, Filth, A Decent Ride and the rest.
Traveling between Miami and Scotland, Welsh carefully places his characters on the same routine that he undergoes himself, red-eye flights back and forth, a huge divide between sunny and well fed Florida and a drizzling damp and bevvied up brawly Leith.
Everyone’s now older, somewhat tired and weary, yet Hibs, ching, lassies, parties, and chapter after chapter of this unique Welsh-invented brute Scottish language you first learn, get accustomed to, and only later appreciate. The part on Scottish Cup final of 2016 made me open up YouTube and watch Sunshine on Leith sung by the stadium after a major mash up in the pitch.
I dream that one day I re-read most of Welsh’s books in a TV-show-like binge kinda way, as I am tired of not remembering certain parts of previous books that the old master carefully cross-refs here – without it I’m often clueless, as my memory fails.