It’s been a while since I did one of these, and more than seven years since I did a Beach House song, so here’s “Space Song,” featuring footage of a science fiction film I bet you’re familiar with.
Posts Tagged ‘Stanley Kubrick’
Shoegazer Sunday: Beach House’s “Space Song”
Sunday, January 8th, 2023Library Addition: The Shining: A Visual and Cultural Haunting
Tuesday, December 13th, 2022This is less a book than a weird art assemblage. Seeing this on Kickstarter, I figured that the overlapping Venn diagrams of crazy Stephen King fans and crazy Stanly Kubrick fans justified a purchase.
The loose sheets:
16 x typed replica sheets with All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy as discovered by Wendy in the film. 120 x one-page pieces analysing, exploring, and extrapolating the films ideas, themes, influences, contexts and critiques. 10 x original typewriter art portraits made using the same model of Adler typewriter used by Jack Torrance.
Some examples:
Plus “Contributor Booklets” (which are more like brochures):
9 x 8-page cultural contributor essays from a range of celebrated artists, musicians, authors, architects and curators designed to evoke the film’s intertitle cards.
Original and exclusive piece from actor Dan Lloyd (Danny Torrance), an extraordinarily rare opportunity to share memories, stories and insights from this usually private person, as well as the coup of a rare interview with Shelley Duvall (conducted by Ryan Obermeyer) shedding light on her performance and experience of the film.
Artist Gavin Turk examines myths, mirrors and mazes and looks at the film through art, whilst fashion designer Margaret Howell takes us through her iconic maroon jacket worn by Jack in the closing act of the film.
Artist and musician Cosey Fanni Tutti on sound and the unfolding domestic violence within the film. Architecture expert and writer John Grindrod on the role of The Overlook Hotel itself and the impact of such spaces on our behaviour.
Producer and Record Label head James Lavelle (UNKLE) tells of his enduring inspiration and love for Kubrick and his art whilst author Jen Calleja looks into Shelley Duvall, folklore and fairytales.
And BFI Curator and Author Michael Blyth cross-examines the character of Wendy as she appears in both the film and the original Stephen King novel.
3 x 16 page reproduced texts including essays from H.P. Lovecraft, Sigmund Freud, and a short story which was a key influence for Kubrick when developing the film.
H.P. Lovecraft — Supernatural Horror in Literature An extract from the seminal yet largely overlooked essay that significantly influenced decisions not to explain the horrors which unfold at The Overlook.
Stephen Crane — The Blue Hotel First serialised in 1898, the American author’s story was highlighted by Kubrick in interviews as similar to events unfolding in The Shining and offers an insight into the director’s read of the film.
Sigmund Freud — The Uncanny Diane Johnson (co-writer of The Shining) cited Freud’s influential 1919 essay “The Uncanny” as a key text in Kubrick’s research. Freud explores many ideas that are woven through the film: retracing steps, recurring numbers and motifs, and the significance of the double. We will re-publish an extract from the essay.
with:
Bought for £65 plus shipping through Kickstarter. You can buy them through their respective Amazon links above.
Library Addition: Signed First of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange
Monday, December 30th, 2019This was the most expensive book I bought this year:
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. Heinemann, 1962. First edition hardback, an Ex-Library copy with interior pocket removed, rear inner flap previously taped to rear inside cover, with tape stains there and to rear free endpaper, in a Near Fine, first state (16s, flaps untrimmed) dust jacket, with tape stains to rear flap, with a crease across bottom of front flap and a few specks of dirt to front flap, otherwise a very well-protected example of the first state dust jacket; call it a Very Good/Near Fine Ex-Lib copy. Signed by Burgess. A keystone work, and basis of the Stanley Kubrick film. Signed firsts of famous books made into famous films are among the most desirable first editions across a wide range of collectors. This edition also includes the final chapter, where Alex “groweth up” and contemplates leaving behind his antisocial ways for marriage and a family, omitted from most subsequent editions. Pringle, SF 100 36. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 48. Locke, Science Fiction First Editions, page 22. Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-4 1. Magill, Survey of Science Fiction, pages 396-401. Bought off a noted UK SF dealer for £600, making it among the most expensive single volumes I’ve ever purchased, but I’ve never seen a signed copy in a first state dust jacket list for under a grand before.
