Thumb drives and oven clocks: Random things about writing and reading, with a digression about German techno and sex

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Quote of the moment: "Writing is a habit that is too easily broken." So very damned true.

Now here's a neat idea. Using a Wiki to track books read. I don't even have a list written up for this year, not that it's that big yet, but this might be something I try, before I completely forget everything I've read. "David Foster who, you say?"

A post at Kate's Book Blog on the connection between music and writing. She mentions an anecdote about Peter Robinson; I think I heard/read somewhere, the same basic story, but with Rick Moody and...uhm, The Ice Storm, maybe? Interesting, in any case. Judging by the amount of electronica-ish music I've been listening to lately, the "spirit of the time" I'm capturing in my writing is probably one of obscure German pixie-like women tweaking dials that control how people gyrate; as ideal, optimistic (if cynically so) visions of the future go, it's one I could live with. (Seriously, some of the beats on Ellen Allien's Thrills album are designed solely to make the listener want to have sex. It's crazy. Definitely not something to listen to before meeting with the board of directors. "And as you'll see by our profit-loss margin indicated on this slide, unh, the way I'd like to slide you across this conference table, mmhmm...um...next slide, please.") And then there's also my basic inability to get tired of Squarepusher's "Tetra-Sync" off the Ultravisitor album, which track we'll loosely classify as "future-space jazz," for lack of any other current, widely-accepted classification terminology. Determining the "spirit of the time" I capture when I listen to that ten minutes of synthed-out drummed-up freak-funk Arthurian-reverbelot is left as an exercise for the reader.

Anonymous said...: Rick Moody has often spoken/written about the connection between his writing and his love of music. In his reader's notes at the back of The Ice Storm, he writes: "While I was writing The Ice Storm, I listened only to music that was released in 1973." He made a tape of his favorites for Tobey Maguire, who played Paul Hood in the film. And in the introduction to Garden State, he writes about how music, especially The Good Earth, by the Feelies, influenced his writing at that time.

Can't remember where I read it (probably in more than one place), but it's a good idea to put together a soundtrack for something you're writing, or to have music that goes with each character, to help you keep the right mood as you write.; 11:40 AM, February 15, 2006
Arethusa said...: I wonder what a book with a Bowie soundtrack reads like?

For recording the books I've read in any given year I just use one of those web 2.0 things like All Consuming or...umm...you know the others.; 3:58 PM, February 16, 2006