ERIS has published my review of William Leonard Pickard’s epic novel/biography The Rose of Paracelsus. As much as I would have loved to love this book, there are too many problems involved. If you’re interested in knowing why, please read the review.
Again, I’m happy to endorse a book I haven’t read yet. Gordon White’s Star.Ships is now available from Scarlet Imprint. I received my copy yesterday and have just very happily been flipping through it so far. Gordon is not only a bright and suave guy but the book itself has all the traits of a geo-magical/magico-geographical classic-to-be. I will read this book and review it soon. But already now I can say it’s a must have, so go get it HERE! This how the Scarlets themselves present the book: “A defining text of the new magical renaissance, Star.Ships addresses the question of who we are now by tracing where we come from, and by drawing out the stories and the spirits that have journeyed and evolved with us. The goal is, as Gordon writes, the restoration of context. To this end, White applies his globally-recognised data and demographics skills to realise a groundbreaking work of truly interdisciplinary research. Utilising mythological, linguistic...
There are many films I could list as having been formative in my teens and 20s. They have all been part of a cocktail of form and content that still lingers on, and now affect my own filmmaking processes. One of the key films all along the way has been Derek Jarman’s In the Shadow of the Sun, shot on super 8 and finished in 1975. A soundtrack was later added by Jarman’s friends Throbbing Gristle (1980). The total impact of seeing this film was both inspiring and overwhelming. With such simple tools (super 8, slow motion, superimpositions, a “psychic” soundtrack of undefinable music) Jarman managed to transmit a completely new kind of narrative. One which spoke in a language of symbols and dreams: a mythological insight into possibilities rather than a fixed and causal display of strange goings-on. A sense of aestheticised reverie takes hold and simply doesn’t let go. A couple of years ago, I felt I wanted to pay tribute to this film that has been...
I have never made a secret of my love for New York. Certain places just resonate in ways that are impossible to explain. Impossible, because it’s not a matter of analysing or thinking about the place. Rather, it’s a matter of emotional fascination, voyeuristic satisfaction and energy in quaquaversal motion. Even before coming to New York for the first time, in 1993, I fantasised about the place. Gotham romanticism, 42nd Street, Beat & Jazz 50s, Warhol 60s, tasteless disco 70s and no wave, cocaine-fueled yuppie 80s… ”The first trip blew my mind.” Since then, I keep coming back. I probably have more friends in New York than at home in Sweden, and interest in my work certainly seems greater there (vanity must surely be a part of the resonance!). Strolling down the wide Manhattan avenues or the skyscraper-encased crossing streets, I’m always amazed at the mix between the new and old. Remnants of glory days fiercely remain and defy, threatened by new and...