Smiths inspired Penguin paper back covers

Shamelessly reblogged from The Paris Review Tumblr. Originals by Raid 71 AKA Chris Thornley. 

keep it short

Shit! A picture of Gwen Stefani!

So, I've been doing a lot of research (not enough) into contemporary short story collections as vague sort of market research for my still nameless short story collection. I've bought a subscription to The Paris Review, and am guzzling down their short stories both in the magazine and on the website. I'm scrolling like crazy over on HTMLGIANT. And I'm getting distracted by watching No Doubt and Gwen Stefani's entire back catalogue of music videos on Youtube - and once, by mistake, on Vimeo .... urgh, hash tag shudder....

Other than discovering that Bathwater is probably their most aesthetically 90's video (low slung cargo pants, thongs looped round hip bones, hilarious editing colour effects), I found this little joy over on the afore mentioned literary blog of the future: It's the most recent Harper Perennial collection, entitled Forty Stories. It was previously Fifty-Two Stories, but whose counting. It's, as you might imagine, a selection of forty short stories from different writers of varying notability.

What is great about it is that you can DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE and enjoy all forty of these babies. My favourite so far is a story by Elizabeth Crane called, appropriately, I Like Looking At Pictures Of Gwen Stefani. What a God send this marvel is. Here's how it starts:

"I like looking at pictures of Gwen Stefani. I do not need to know any more about Gwen Stefani than she looks really good in red lipstick. Looking at pictures of Gwen Stefani in red lipstick with pale skin and pale hair and a white tank top and a baby on her hip provides as much information as I feel I need about Gwen Stefani in order to imagine Gwen Stefani in the way I want to imagine her. Very occasionally, I like listening to Gwen Stefani, but listening to Gwen Stefani does not affect the way I look at Gwen Stefani and what I get out of looking at Gwen Stefani. When I look at Gwen Stefani in her red lipstick I think maybe I should try red lipstick one more time, just to be sure, though really I know the truth, and my red-lipstick desires are almost fully satisfied by looking at pictures of Gwen Stefani. All that said, had Gwen Stefani never come into my line of sight, the likelihood is high that I would not feel that anything was missing."

I recommend following the above link and reading the rest of the story and then the rest of the collection - before going back to listen to old No Doubt hits for the five hundredth time.

Now, on with the work/procrastinating....

Anal, Marina and the Paris Review.

A bits and bobs sort of post because I'm super busy right now.

Or we could call it a Quotes Bonanza.

Or we could call it a four day weekend. A four day weekend.

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but it is an obligatory bank holiday tradition that Super Girl is on at some point. It hasn't yet - but I'm still holding out. While we're waiting you can enjoy these quotes/videos/incredible 80's film still.

'Overall I'd say it was okay - like going through a little door into a big room. I prefer vaginas.'

- The narrator of Matt Sumell's short story Toast in the 200th edition of The Paris Review on first time anal sex with his girlfriend.

Life is, 'Tragic in Structure; comic in texture.'

- John Lanchester, discussing his recent novel Capital on BBC 4's Open Book with sexily huskily spoken Mariella Frostrup. I like that one very much.

'The imagination is in love with the feel of fact.'

- John Bailey, on verisimilitude in literature.

'The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.'

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (someone emailed this to me yesterday).

This video, which was sent to me by Robert Van Oz. Check it out:

I'm well feeling Marina and the Diamonds recently. Her new album, Electra Heart is out on 30th April. And here's a couple of highlights:

I'm also getting pretty obsessed with the Drive soundtrack. Fuck - everything to do with that film is great.

The video theme seems to be projections on walls with people in front of them. Curious, no?

Oh well, back to Super Girl then.

William Wei by Amie Barrodale.

This is the best short story I have read in a while. Compelling, original, funny and painful.
The rest is over at The Paris Review.

"I once brought a girl home because I liked her shoes. That was the only thing I noticed about her. I live in a really small apartment. A lot of my clothes end up piled on my mattress or draped over the open door of the microwave. I guess the girl with the pink high heels woke up in the middle of the night and didn’t remember where she was. She went out naked in the hall and closed the door behind her. She said that she had asked me, and I told her that was the way to the bathroom, to go out the front door. I don’t remember doing that. I remember I woke up with the cops in my house, asking me if I knew this girl. I said of course, she was the girl with the pink high heels. They thought that was really funny. After that, I didn’t drink for about five months. I was mostly celibate, except for my upstairs neighbor, until she moved away. She was this Indian girl. She liked to do it from behind, in this one position. That was the only thing she wanted to do. The other things were boring, she said. When I went to the shower, she got up on all fours to masturbate."