the house of the devil

This looks fantastic...set in, and filmed as if it were still - 1980. Out now theatrically in the US, hopefully soon elsewhere...HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

dirty gems

All my old obsessions returning to me of a sudden. Wedged into a pile of true-crime books at a thrift store, I finally found Christiane F., the original book (later filmed) about her junkie-baby-prostitute life in late-70s West Berlin.



As hard as the movie can be to watch, the book is even more dense, immediate, and rough. I read it when I was 13 and it strongly affected me...it's virtually impossible to find now, long out of print, and battered copies go for $60+ on ebay. Not this one!

N.B.: If you're up for it, the entire movie has been posted to Youtube, starting here. So far, it's unavailable in North American NTSC format.

...always coming back to you

Sighing over Scott Walker once again, after watching the documentary 30 Century Man (2006). Cameras are let into his studio for the first time (recording his '06 album The Drift). David Bowie, Johnny Marr, Brian Eno all confessing their love and his influence. It's the first time Scott has been interviewed so intimately. You get a sense of the depth of his marriage to his music, that he can be and do nothing else but create this extraordinary stuff. Although his style has drastically evolved - become more itself, one could say - I will always get chills listening to his solo work from the 60s/70s. It stops you up short. He really is one of the life-changers.

the plight house

Heartbreak, horror, and impossibly brutal choices may all be yours in The Plight House. This first novel by Jason Hrivnak is like nothing I've ever read, and still troubles me.

down the junction

I spent my pre-teen years in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood in the early 80s, and the surroundings of the spartan Crossways Mall (beneath the dual tower blocks pictured), derelict warehouses and railway lines - accompanied by a soundtrack of Soft Cell, Joan Jett and Human League - were heavily formative.