Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Legendary Makeup and Costume Designer Van Smith passed away last week. Here is the NYTimes article about him.

Did you hear that Bret Easton Ellis is working on a horror-tinged soap opera for Showtime, called "The Canyons"?

How about a couple of surreal pieces from Mihai Criste:

Essence of Creation


Mathafisic Autum


And lastly...

Orhan Pamuk held his Nobel Lecture on December 7, 2006, at the Swedish Academy, in Stockholm. You can click here to either read a transcript or watch a video of him giving the entire lecture, titled "My Father's Suitcase." I very much enjoyed what Pamuk had to say, not only because I am a fan of his work, but because of the way he made such a public speech so very beautifully personal. Here is a particularly powerful excerpt:

"As you know, the question we writers are asked most often, the favourite question, is; why do you write? I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can't do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can only partake in real life by changing it. I write because I want others, all of us, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live, in Istanbul, in Turkey. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at all of you, so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life's beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story, but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but – just as in a dream – I can't quite get there. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy."