Music; Bouchercon – TOTAL TECH MELTDOWN!

by Jonathan on September 15th, 2011

Hey, I’m in St. Louis, at Bouchercon, where I’ve suffered complete technical collapse. My computer can’t connect to the hotel wifi, the in-room internet connection is via ethernet, and my Macbook Air doesn’t have an ethernet connection, and my Ecto blogging software seems to be having some kind of identity crisis. The crisis is my fault – I seem to have changed something, somewhere and now it won’t connect. So that beautiful, image-studded post is gone, at least until I figure out what the hell is happening. So, here goes:

Kazu from Blonde Redhead – click anyway. She’s my favourite frontwoman, and this is a great song.

I’m on several panels (I put this here as much for me as for you):

Thursday September 15 11:30AM, Landmark 5-7 – A CLEAR CUT CASE OF MURDER – a panel with forensic types, plus Marcia Clarke

Thursday September 15 4PM – 5PM, Landmark 4 – I GOTTA RIGHT TO SING THE BLUES – music and crime fiction

Friday September 16 4PM – 5PM, Landmark 4 – ONE OF OUR OWN – writers write the first lines of each other’s books

In addition to signing sessions after each panel, I’ll be signing with Joe Finder at the Crimespree Booth on Friday September 16th from 11:30AM to noon. Seeya there!

Speaking of music, I like to make mixes to share with my friends. Here are a few – all are downloadable. If you’re using an iPod or iTunes to listen, you’ll find the complete track listing in the Lyrics section. Click on the cover image to reach each mix – you probably know how to download a file on your own particular computer. UPDATED! Click on the link – I can’t get the cover images to load!

THE HIGH ROAD TO A HARD DEATH – My mix for the book tour for A HARD DEATH. An American road mix, fast and loud, featuring the Soledad Brothers, the Cramps, Motorhead and other purveyors of noisy rock and roll. Bad language abounds. At 33 minutes, the shortest.

PERENNIAL SUMMER – Pastoral and psychedelic. A bit too blissed-out at some points, but, still, summer. Animal Collective, the Beach Boys, Blonde Redhead, the Rolling Stones and others. 60 minutes-ish; some of it’s immediately accessible, some may take a little getting used to.

PAUSES AND SILENCES – A mellow, darker mix, tending to the instrumental and electronic. A moody hour of Four Tet, Ry Cooder, Max Richter, the xx and others.

THE 9/11 GARAGE MIX – An odd mix, this, a relic that’s still means a lot to me. During the recovery process, when we had down moments, I’d DJ. The mix starts sad, with an old Joe Walsh/James Gang classic, then kicks off with Fatboy Slim. Along the way: New Order, Royksopp, Goldfrapp, and a sad and beautiful close with the Swans’ cover of “Can’t Find My Way Home”. Oh, I see the track listing isn’t imbedded into the mix file. Here it is:

James Gang, “Ashes, the Rain”

Fatboy Slim, “Right Here, Right Now”

St. Germain, “Rose Rouge”

Looper, “Mondo ’77″

New Order, “Crystal”

Royksopp, “Sparks”

Goldfrapp, “Lovely Head”

Royksopp, “A Higher Place”

Swans, “Can’t Find My Way Home”

Also, last week, I counter-programmed for the 9/11 bathos with some of the most beautiful music I know. Find them on my tumblr, www.afterthetorchlight.tumblr.com .

Ten Years On

by Jonathan on September 11th, 2011

I have escaped the city for this miserable anniversary. I’m staying by the sea; it’s quiet and beautiful here. There are dogs and books and good food and music, and it’s easy to tune out the buzzing hysteria.

I lost no close friends in the attack, but the fall-out afterward surprised me in its cruelty. For a long while, I was pretty wrecked. I managed to discover some bottomless well of… what? self pity? fear? – inside myself. The thing just bleeds and bleeds – my sheets are red, my sheets are wet, my sheets are ruined!

And yet, they’re not. Life goes on. I live comfortably, I live beautifully. I have fallen in love, I have been loved. I have amazing friends. I got less healthy for a good while, but I’m getting better. I live in the greatest city on earth. I go out in the world, and when I do, I am exhilarated. My life has returned to normal as the thing has slowly assumed its rightful proportion.

It’s still there, this throbbing, beating thing, locked in a trunk in the basement. And sometimes it gets out and wanders, traipsing its blood up the stairs, splashing gore on the upholstery. But I’m OK with that – that’s what things like this do. Besides, it doesn’t get out very often these days.

My capacity for self-pity pisses me off. After all, my loss was trivial compared to, for example, that of my friend Barbara, who lost the love of her life. And I was lucky, because I had a role to play; in those unreal days after the attack, I was able to do something meaningful, and find focus in that meaning. So many other people were hurt so badly, so many continue to be hurt. The cost has been staggering – beyond the human toll of the two active wars that followed, I read the other day that it cost Al-Qaeda less than $500,000 to mount the attack, and that in its subsequent reaction to the 9/11 assault, the US has spent $7 million for each of those Al Qaeda dollars.

Beyond the price we’ve paid in blood and treasure, the political shifts in this country have been depressing. There’s been a rush to abandon nuanced thinking, to reject any sophisticated interpretation of complex events. The knee-jerk Islamophobia has been particularly repellent – yes, it’s your right as an American to burn any document you want, including the Koran, but if you know that that pathetic little show you’re planning in a Florida trailer park will cost the real lives of innocents, it would be at least polite to think twice about it. There are few lessons from this whole miserable experience, but one of them is certainly that hate and ignorance breed hate and ignorance. The thing is, a lot of us had already learned that lesson, and many of us will never learn it.

But, enough. I’m sitting in the morning cool, two dogs at my feet (one on my foot), listening to the water lapping the edge of the pool, to the cicadas and the birds and the breeze. It is a sad and beautiful world; the trick is to manage the sadness by concentrating on the beauty.

And breakfast.

Blogging over at Murderati today…

by Jonathan on September 7th, 2011

Hi. Yes, I’ve been neglecting this space – in truth, between work and writing and living in NYC, I’m stretched pretty thin. I’ve been working on my next book, Monster Park, a thriller set in winter in the low mountains of Colorado, and I’m the newest member of Murderati, the group blog for a fistful (if you can fit fourteen of them in your fist) of prominent crime fiction authors. Plus, you know, earthquakes and hurricanes and whatnot.

Today, I’m discussing a few cult films in the crime genre, kicking off with Scarface, alighting briefly on Blade Runner, then focusing on Fight Club and Leon: The Professional, two films that have a cult following among Millennials. Plus a generous slathering of my thoughts on internet -p-o-r-n- and tumblrs. (I’m not trying to emphasize that word, I’m trying to hide it from spammers, doubtless futilely.) Speaking of tumblrs, have you seen mine lately? It’s awesome! Although sometimes NSFW – usually just a sprinkling of nudity, but occasionally something “worse”.

So, check out today’s Murderati post, and if the spirit moves you, say something in the comments! “Hallelujah!” would be good.

Other topics I’ve blogged about there:

1. Allow Myself to Introduce… Myself

2. Some Thoughts on TS Eliot’s The Waste Land

3. The Films of Neveldine & Taylor

4. Thoughts about Structure in Books and Movies