Insert book title here:
What do you think of the colouring? I’m practising for my future graphic novel, if I ever manage to finish my literary one. And, what are you reading? Leave some comments, I haven’t heard from you in a while :-)!
Books for the blind, part 1
In case you were wondering, Jonathan is my husband. Check in for part 2, which I hope to post in the next couple of days.
Apocalypse anxiety
In a moment of beautiful synchronicity, just as I finished this cartoon, the phone rang. There was an automated message: ‘Are volcanoes, earthquakes, floods and other disasters making you nervous? Now more than ever, you need insurance.’ Another sentence added to that scary story.
But of course the earthquakes and volcanoes are real. And my deepest sympathy goes out to those who have to live through this.
Here is the link to the Italian cult living in the Mayan village, making cheese as they await the end days.
Playlist
When I wrote ‘Dead People’s Music’, which is playing on RNZ at the moment, I had some music in mind. I thought I’d compile a list for people who were asking. Hey, if you’ve missed some episodes, it looks like you can download them. But remember, it’s a major abridgment; it’s one-third of its original size, and completely restructured for the radio version.
Of course – New York, New York – Frank Sinatra’s version, which sounds so plaintive and embarrassing in the city itself.
Here is Bauhaus’s Bela Lugosi’s Dead
Here is Schubert’s Piano Trio No.2 in E Flat
When I think of REM, I think of this song. As the earthquakes, nuclear disasters and volcanoes occur, I think of it as well.
Heinrich is playing Saint-Saëns’ The Swan when Klara first meets him.
I imagined that the quartet at the NYC club might be a mix between Nouvelle Vague, Rasputina and The Dresden Dolls
I can’t help mentioning The Pixies’ Monkey Gone To Heaven.
I also had to indulge my Morrissey and The Smiths obsession.
Rebecca loves the movie A Room With A View and Kiri Te Kanawa’s version of O Mio Babbino Caro
At the school ball, Rebecca and Bruno dance to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit
Klara is of course a wonderful classical cellist, and Rebecca tries to follow in her footsteps. Here is Rostropovich playing Bach and Shostakovich. He is fast and furious in the latter.
Here is some NYC music from the book’s time period – Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Strokes
Rebecca goes to some music when she’s in London – P J Harvey does her thing on the cello and Björk is referenced for hair-styling. Aah, those little buns!
When it came to the final performance in the book, I took inspiration from a few people – Zoe Keating for starters, Joanna Newsome for another.
On reading and memory
Have you guys listened to Radiolab? I love it; it’s a pastiche of pop science, psychology and music. They have a great episode on the nature of memory. Apparently the less you access your memories, the more intact they remain. If you mull over past events, you change them – they become fictionalised, cross-pollinated with other memories, TV shows, anecdotes. They are unreliable. Which is why I love reading these old books so much – there are those pictures, the same pictures I had in my head when I was eight. I can revisit a former, purer version of myself.
On the radio
My novel, ‘Dead People’s Music’ is on the radio for the next three weeks – heavily abridged, down from 108,000 words to around 30,000 – but still! On the radio!
Here is a song for you:
Vegetarian, part 3
Vegetarian, part 2
Read part 1 of this post if you haven’t already.
As you can probably tell by my clunky cliff-hanger, there’s a part 3 to come.
If you haven’t read the Roald Dahl story ‘Pig‘, Wiki has kindly done a synopsis of it. I loved his short stories when I first read them as a teenager. They were so macabre. There was even a TV series. The show I remember most vividly was about a model who’d gone to the dogs but then gave herself an extreme makeover for the benefit of a former lover, only to discover that he was now blind.
Oh, and the wonderful Mike Peterson of comicstripoftheday.com has reviewed my last comic!
Vegetarian, part 1
This comic morphed into something entirely different from what I intended, so now it’s going to be a 2 or 3-parter, depending on what it decides to do with itself. Actually most of my comics have a life of their own. I really should move beyond first-draft phase, and then I’d have more control over them. Also I could add colour and line variation – aah, time, that’s what I need.
The book in question is Laurel’s Kitchen. It has the most beautiful woodblock illustrations in it. And here is an interview from Smash Hits 1985, about Morrissey’s vegetarianism.
Social media anxiety
I thoroughly recommend those two books I mention: ‘Super Sad True Love Story‘ by Gary Shteyngart, and ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ by Jennifer Egan.
If you want less naval-gazing, more storytelling, check out my apples blog. I’ve been posting a few comics about my children over there.
Oh, and if you want to follow me on twitter, I’m sarahelaing
LET ME BE FRANK 