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Archive for the ‘3:AM Magazine’ Category

Eric Hazan talk in Dublin

17 Feb

Eric Hazan, author of The Invention of Paris, will be speaking at the Alliance Française in Dublin next Tuesday 21 February at 6.30pm. More information here.

Click here for my review of the book and here for my interview with Hazan, conducted when the English language edition of The Invention of Paris was published.

I think Paris had a very particular growth: it grew like an onion, with a series of concentric layers. And that gives a quite special geography to the city, which is not exactly the same as it is here [London] for instance. And what was striking, when I began to work [on the book] was how sharp can be the border between one quartier and another one. Elsewhere in the city, it’s less precise, and even there can be transition – small pieces of the city – and all that makes, when you walk through the city, a very special psychogeography. I think it’s because the layers are so densely connected; there is this extremely dense – much more than here – there is nothing like what we call in French terrain vague: space, imprecise, where there is nothing, with not exact borders.

 
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Posted in 3:AM Magazine, articles, geography, history, Literature, Paris, urbanism

 

An aversion to experimentalism

02 Jan

Poet Christodolous Makris on Irish writing:

“It seems I’m happier writing away from, rather than towards, something. I arrived here at the height of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ and therefore into an awful lot of smugness, which didn’t mix well with the country’s inherent parochialism and insularity. The smugness seems well and truly smashed now… A lot of the poetry written in Ireland appears far too preoccupied with the idea of ‘Ireland’. It places huge emphasis on place in rather territorial terms. And there’s generally an aversion to experimentalism. Poetry that uses ‘unpoetic’ language or plays around with convention is looked upon (at best) as an entertaining oddity. With few – but striking – exceptions, the ‘scene’ is dominated by a small number of established organisations which have an interest in maintaining the status quo.”

From an interview with SJ Fowler in 3:AM Magazine here.

 
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Posted in 3:AM Magazine, arts, economy, ireland, Literature

 

‘Bloody sod yis den’

27 Sep

My review of Alexei Sayle’s memoir Stalin Ate My Homework is up on the 3:AM site here. (Above, Alexei in character as tragic ‘top warm-up man’ Bobby Chariot.)

I’ve linked below to sides one and two of Alexei’s live album Cak!, from 1982, to give you and idea of what a great stand-up comedian he was: sweary, angry, verbose. (Did I mention angry?) Great stuff!

Alexei Sayle – Cak! – Side One by dumbriffs
Alexei Sayle – Cak! – Side Two by dumbriffs

 
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Posted in 3:AM Magazine, comedy

 

A History of French Cinema

16 Aug

My review of Emilie Bickerton’s A Short History of Cahiers du cinéma is on the 3:AM Magazine site here.

Yet, it seems to me that what the early Cahiers critics did so well was to bridge the gap between commercial concerns and personal visions, and to acknowledge the possibilities of a quick-witted director harnessing the potential of the studio system. In this way, the Cahiers critics were negotiating the contradictions of attempting to produce highly personal cinema in an era of increased consumer capitalism. This image of the director as auteur may have been wishful thinking on the parts of Truffaut and Godard, yet this convenient fiction allowed them to imagine themselves in the role of director, an effort of the imagination that is even more astounding for having actually materialised. Their cinema, in actuality, took a markedly different form from their heroes Hitchcock and Sam Fuller: fewer studio sets, more filming on the street; lower budgets, smaller audiences. Perhaps the lessons about negotiating the commercial aspects of filmmaking were forgotten by Cahiers in later years; when it couldn’t survive as an autonomous concern, it fully embraced commercialism – again, mirroring Toubiana’s leap from Maoist to pillar of the industry (he’s now the Director General of the Cinématheque française).

 
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Posted in 3:AM Magazine, Cinema, Paris

 

Crosswords, lightly thrown

28 Jun

I’ve written a short piece about Georges Perec for 3:AM Magazine here. It’s the first time I’ve sat down to write anything about Perec since finishing my PhD, and I really enjoyed dipping in again to Perec’s novels and writings, which are often gleefully playful. My article gives a brief overview of Perec’s major writings, touching on some of the themes that colour his work. I’ve previously written about Perec and the rue Vilin here (on last 4 pages of magazine).

 
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Posted in 3:AM Magazine, articles, Paris, Sixties, urbanism, vaguely spooky travelogues

 

Tall stories

20 Jun

My review of Christian Salmon’s Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind is now online at 3:AM Magazine here.

 
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Posted in 3:AM Magazine, America, articles, Politics

 

Some Parisian Walking

20 Mar

Two recent articles by me, written for 3:AM Magazine: a review of Tom McDonough’s new Situationist reader, and an interview with Eric Hazan, radical publisher and author of The Invention of Paris.

 
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Posted in 3:AM Magazine, Academic, articles, arts, France, Literature, modernism, Paris, Sixties, urbanism, vaguely spooky travelogues