Autumn de Wilde & Death Cab for Cutie : New Book
In the market for a new coffee table book? Not likely, but this might just change your mind. Autumn de Wilde will be releasing a new book chronicling her work with indie band Death Cab for Cutie since 2003.
From the Death Cab for Cutie website
“In 2003, photographer Autumn de Wilde began shooting Death Cab for Cutie at a couple of shows at the close of their Transatlanticism tour. In the seven years since then, a collection of 200 photographs, conversations, and personal ephemera contributed by the band have emerged in the form of Autumn’s new book, Death Cab for Cutie.
The book will be available soon through the new online store with an exclusive, limited edition poster. More details to come, so stay tuned for information.”
If this book is anything like her work with Elliott Smith (the cover of his album Figure 8, yep, that’s Autumn), it can be nothing short of phenomenal. So excited.
:: Haley Rheinhart
haley.dustbowl@gmail.com
Kerouac’s On The Road Finds its Way Onto Film
Word has it Jack Kerouac’s famed On The Road is making its way onto film. Director Walter Salles and screenwriter Jose Rivera have plotted out the screenplay and the final product is set to be released sometime in 2011. The cast includes Viggo Mortensen (glad to see he’s moving on from Aragorn in LotR), Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst and Kristen Stewart. I’ve gotta say, I’m interested to see how this all unfolds.
Possibly at Cannes…
::Haley Rheinhart
haley.dustbowl@gmail.com
The Beautiful and Damned
Minnesota native, F. Scott Fitzgerald may have passed away years ago but his legacy lives on as generation after generation is introduced to his writing.
I first encountered the seductive writings of Fitzgerald in ninth grade. The Great Gatsby was the first novel I read of his and I quickly fell for his descriptive details and romantic metaphors that filled each page.
Fitzgerald’s writings have a way of capturing the reader into the moment, making them feel a part of the story. He used his life experiences to influence the stories and characters of his novels. In The Beautiful and Damned this standard could not hold truer.
Fitzgerald married the love of his life, Zelda Sayre, in 1920. Their lives of excess and chaos are portrayed in Fitzgerald’s second novel The Beautiful and Damned. The novel follows two main characters, an aspiring writer Anthony Patch and his wife, Gloria, who become infatuated by the fast life and glamour of the Jazz Age. The twists and turns of Gloria and Anthony’s world unfold as they selfishly toil through the muck of high society.
The classic tale of The Beautiful and Damned is now not only available to my fellow bookworms, but movie goers as well! Director John Curran has taken Fitzgerald’s novel and transformed it to the big screen. The film, starring Keira Knightley, is set to begin production in the spring of 2010. But, if you can’t wait that long to unravel the story of Anthony and Gloria, stop by any local bookstore and grab a copy of The Beautiful and Damned for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
Candice M. Grimm
cgrimm01@hamline.edu
Love is a Mix Tape
By Rob Sheffield
“Now we had a whole different language to learn, a new grammar of loss to conjugate: I lose, you lose, we lose; I have lost, you have lost, we have lost. Words I said out loud, every day, many times a day, for years and years–suddenly they were dust in my mouth.” ( Sheffield; 157)
I just finished a book I started a long time ago. I tend to begin a novel and stop three chapters in, this has to do with my fear of endings. If I go on a reading hiatus that happens to be indefinite it doesn’t have to stop. Well, it did. I’ve always said, “The tracks may end, but the sound never stops” and Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time is the epitome of that phrase. This book made everything in my world feel like it wasn’t out of context. Music and love have always just gone hand in hand. Rob Sheffield ( Pop Life writer for Rolling Stone–recently he did this great piece about True Blood) understands this like nobody’s business. He lost his beloved wife, and she was only in her 30’s and as The Carpenters sang they had “only just begun.” The novel is an ode to era, a space in his life that was meant for and consumed with his love for Renée and the cassette tapes they made. It deals with his life as a husband and an inescapable widower. Pop culture is brought about so tastefully here and in a way that doesn’t pollute the writing. This autobiography has soared to the top of my favorite books chart. It was painstakingly witty and sorrowfully joyous. Love is a Mix Tape also made me want to make a mix about crying, because I sure did sob my way through this one.
1. “Why I Cry”-Ben Gibbard cover
2.”Cryin'”-Aerosmith
3. “The Con”-Tegan and Sara
4.” The Tracks Of My Tears”- Smokey Robinson
Sheffield also made me really want to listen to:
1. “The Rain”- Missy Elliot feat. Timbaland
2. “Hypnotize”- Notorious B.I.G.
3. “I’ll Be Missing You”-Puffy
You also can’t go wrong with The Replacement’s album Tim.
Written by Rachel Summers
rachel.dustbowl@gmail.com
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