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December 29, 2008

13 New(ish) Videos

(1) Deerhunter, "Microcastle"

(2) Bloc Party, "Flux"

(3) Crystal Stilts, "Prismatic Room"

(4) Why?, "Song of the Sad Assassin"

(5) Frightened Rabbit, "Set You Free"

(6) Air France, "Collapsing At Your Doorstep"

(7) Fleet Foxes, "He Doesn't Know Why"

(8) The Sight Below, "Further Away"

(9) Fujiya & Miyagi, "Sore Thumb"

(10) Pacific UV, "If So"

(11) The Presets, "This Boy's In Love"

(12) Jonas Reinhardt, "Modern By Nature's Reward"

(13) Mogwai, "Batcat"

Posted by scottheim at 09:38 AM | Comments (1)

December 19, 2008

I'm Back

...from France. God, I love Paris. I'll write a report sometime in the next few days. In the meantime, here's a few links: first, a "best books of 2008" list that made me happy. In addition, over at the Olive Reader (the cool blog from my publisher HarperPerennial), various authors have posted their lists and resolutions--mine will probably be up there soon as well. And if you search around on the site for my French publisher Au Diable Vauvert, you can find the jacket design for the French Nous disparaissons, which will be released in just a few weeks (more about this soon).

Posted by scottheim at 03:48 AM | Comments (1)

December 10, 2008

Off to France...

Starting tomorrow, I'll be in France for a week, as We Disappear is about to be released there. Au Diable Vauvert is my French publisher (as they were with Mysterious Skin); I'm really happy with them, and their list of books and authors is impressively welcoming. Prior to my 3-4 days in Paris, I'll spend a weekend with my friend Christophe (who is also the translator of both the novels) in Saint-Malo, which, based on photos like the one below, seems pretty darn magnificent.

Posted by scottheim at 11:13 PM | Comments (4)

December 04, 2008

Let the Right One In

Lat den ratte komma in, ie Let the Right One In, is my favorite film of the year so far. It's beautiful, strange, haunting, sad, and really scary. I waited a couple of weeks to see it, but it was hugely worth the wait.

A horror film that isn't really a horror film, it marries a whole bunch of my visual and thematic obsessions, so much that I was actually depressed when I left the theater in that "god, I wish I'd written that" sort of way. Now I really have to read John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel on which the film is based.

The movie won "Best Narrative Feature" at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's been getting great reviews, like this one, and even has a whopping 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It's been a good season for films--I also loved Gus Van Sant's Milk and thought Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (especially the first half) was pretty darn good--but there are few films I've seen that have blown me away as much as Let the Right One In.

Posted by scottheim at 10:48 PM | Comments (4)

December 03, 2008

GIVE BOOKS!

Longer post coming soon. In the meantime... I've been meaning to join this weblog surge from authors to try and convince readers to give BOOKS this holiday season, especially during a time where every day, it seems, brings more horrifically bad news from the publishing industry. Imagine if everyone went to their local bookstore and bought a book for someone instead of a sweater or a video game or a box of chocolates. I got these cool banners from http://www.indiebound.org.

Posted by scottheim at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)