Emma's Mixtape

Florence+The Machine

2011-11-01T15:37:00.000-04:00

This was a tough secret to keep for the last month: I wrote the liner notes for 'Ceremonials', the new Florence album that came out yesterday. The album is mesmerizing. If you haven't heard it, look out for the lyrical echoes of Virginia Woolf and 'Prufrock' by TS Eliot. It got me really hard.

Elle (Women In Hollywood essay)

2011-10-12T21:22:00.002-04:00

If you can get hold of the US edition, I have an essay about body image (and how mine was dictated by all the old movies I watched as a teen.)

Appearance sunday Oct 2nd 11.45am West Hollywood Book Fair

2011-09-30T12:49:00.000-04:00

WEST HOLLYWOOD BOOK FAIR

West Hollywood Library & West Hollywood Park

647 N. San Vicente Blvd.

West Hollywood, CA 90069

Panel: Who I Am: Memories That Became Memoirs

This will be a panel discussion with authors Dan Fante, Matt Logelin, Amy Ephron, moderated by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

A signing at the Mysterious Galaxy Booth will immediately follow.

McNally Jackson NY reading Aug 11 with JON RONSON!

2011-07-29T22:01:00.003-04:00

I'm so delighted to be doing a New York reading with my dear friend and literary hero, Jon Ronson!
http://www.mcnallyjackson.com/event/emma-forrest-and-jon-ronson

Bat Segundo

2011-07-14T18:35:00.000-04:00

http://www.edrants.com/the-bat-segundo-show-emma-forrest/
This interview was intense.

President Michele Bachmann - thank you NY Times:

2011-06-28T09:41:00.000-04:00

"John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa," Mrs Bachmann told Carl Cameron of Fox news in an interview. "That's the kind of spirit that I have, too".
"The actor was actually born in Winterset, Iowa, which is about 150 miles southwest of Waterloo. It was John Wayne Gacy, known as the killer clown who raped and murdered 33 teenage boys in the 1970's, who lived in Waterloo."

Book Court, Brooklyn, this weds

2011-06-28T02:54:00.000-04:00

I should have said the reading this Wednesday is at 7pm!

Country Strong

2011-06-24T21:25:00.000-04:00

I have seen this film so many times, as many times as I've actually seen the good movies I love. Do yourself a favour and rent immediately. And I do so enjoy the girls of gofugyourself:
http://gofugyourself.com/fug-the-fromage-country-strong-06-2011

Don't eat the daisies...

2011-06-19T15:15:00.000-04:00

Aw, man! You know what's really lovely on a sunday? Doris Day!

I fully have those blue trousers and tan loafers in my wardrobe. I am considering experimenting with a blouse buttoned all the way to the top. Will certainly let you know how I get on...

YVIMH flashback

2011-06-16T13:44:00.000-04:00

For those who have read the book, here's a little photo from the Istanbul section. Appropriately enough, I was locked out of a suite called 'War and Lovers'. If you're going to Istanbul, you must stay at the Hotel Poem. It's cheap, cheerful and, as I note in the chapter, has the names of Turkish love poems instead of room numbers.

Now, I've been meaning to tell you something I wish my Dad had said in time to make it into the book. But he only said it last month, when my parents were in L.A. We were reading at a certain hotel swimming pool when Annie Lennox walked out and took the lounger next to us. My Dad immediately texted my Mum, who was too engrossed in her book to notice (and never cares about such things anyway): "ANNIE LENNOX ON LOUNGER NEXT TO YOU". When we got home I asked why he'd felt compelled to alert her. He answered, his eyes still a little wide with concern: "So she didn't make fun of Scottish warblers".

Brooklyn reading evening of June 29th

2011-06-16T11:51:00.000-04:00

Book Court in Park Slope. Hope you can make it.

New York Times book review

2011-06-11T02:24:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/books/review/book-review-your-voice-in-my-head-a-memoir-by-emma-forrest.html
I'm really happy to be reviewed in the New York Times at all, let alone get such a thoughtful, positive review by a writer who really gets it. I've never met Emily, but she's definitely my new favourite journalist.

The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne

2011-06-09T01:45:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed this interview last month, even though I was put on tape after walking through a rain storm so bad I had to take off my top three layers and rock the Jack Kerouac T-shirt and Jewfro.
http://wheelercentre.com/videos/video/emma-forrest/#

Scent-memories

2011-06-05T22:56:00.001-04:00

I did a beautiful event, last night, at Scent Bar, the Los Angeles boutique that's basically a library of perfume. I read segments from my book, and Katie Puckrik "curated" the appropriate perfume for each emotion, which was handed out to the audience to smell. Katie chose expertly, summarizing both scent and feeling. I have this passage in my book:

"Mania flows like a river approaching a waterfall. Depression is a stagnant lake. There are dead things floating and the water has the same blue-black tinge as your lips. You stay completely still because you’re so afraid of what is brushing your leg, (even though it could be nothing because your mind is already gone). That’s why you lay in your bed, (in the centre, with my dark blue sheets. The silver curtains are a nod to mania. They were something that seemed like a good idea at the time). My bras are hung on the wall behind my bed, crucified for my sins. I have thirty six bras. I counted. I hold my hands over my breasts in my days and weeks and months in bed, as if someone might steal them."

So, for mania, Katie chose 'Commes des Garcons Daphne', describing it thus:

"High strung and dramatic, going in lots of directions at once. You just know Daphne Guiness was telling perfumer Antoine Lie: "I like oranges and oud and roses and sex and candy and tuberose and saffron and kittens and monkeys and coconut and incense!" It's a perfume with no boundaries, no sense of what's appropriate..."

Depression was 'Serge Lutens Gris Clair... ', which made me clutch my heart when I smelled it.

I mentioned, a few posts ago, 'Protection' by Rossy de Palma, and Katie picked it to symbolize the optimism in my final chapter, telling the audience:

"Your book ends hopefully, with the recognition of love as a force field, as protection. This is a sharp metallic/earthy rose, the smell of a rose turned flesh. Roses crushed passionately and protectively to your chest..."
You can read more from Katie at katiepuckriksmells.com and you can order samples at luckyscent.com
Here we are, with Scent Bar's Steven Gontarski, who organized the night. Yes, I am wearing the same Marc Jacobs dress I've owned for ten years and yes I have cut six inches off my hair. And, yes, it was because of this photo:

Home in L.A

2011-05-29T01:25:00.000-04:00

I have decided to send my first night home cleaning out my cat's ears and listening to James Taylor. I did it in that order so Perry could better enjoy Taylor's sweet yet melancholic voice. Why are James Taylor's songs so peaceful yet so sad? And between Fire and Rain, Carolina In My Mind and Sweet Baby James, which is the saddest? It's like he is breaking your heart and mending it in the same breath.

Sydney Writer's Fest interview:

2011-05-26T06:40:00.002-04:00

Sydney

2011-05-24T18:23:00.001-04:00

I feel very sad about leaving. It has been a once in a life time experience, though I hope very much to come back. I want to thank Chip Rolley of the Sydney Writer's Festival for asking me to be part of this amazing week. I got to share a stage with Howard Jacobson and have cocktails with Michael Cunningham! And found that they are both as beautiful as their writing. Last night Sydney got rainy and turned very film noir, and I fell even more in love with this city. Checking out of my harbour front room at the Sebel Pier One and heading for Tasmania now. You know, I really wasn't excited about coming here because I was anxious about doing the sixteen hour flight in coach. A good reminder in the form of a city: love always comes when you are least expecting it.

Australian dates: Hobart, Melbourne, Brisbane

2011-05-24T17:25:00.000-04:00

I am reading at Fullers in Hobart, Tasmania at 6pm tonight (wednesday 25th). Tomorrow(Thurs) I read in Melbourne at The Hill of Content at 5pm and the next day in Brisbane (but let me double check where).

Book Soup 7pm this evening (Weds May 11th)

2011-05-11T17:21:00.002-04:00

A reminder I am reading tonight from Your Voice In My Head, if you are in L.A and can make it there.

Boycott 'Like Water For Elephants'

2011-05-10T11:47:00.000-04:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384426/Water-Elephants-star-electrocuted-beaten-hooks-Shocking-new-video-shows-mistreatment.html
I never imagined I'd be backing a Daily Mail campaign of any sort, but we're on the same page here. It should be pretty obvious that performing, in a circus or for a Hollywood movie, does not come naturally to an elephant. But the torture Tai went through to end up being used as a money maker for Twentieth Century Fox is right here on camera. I've worked with the producer, Gil Netter, and he's a good guy, and had dinner with the star, Reese Witherspoon, who is a terrific girl. I hope they both donate any money they made on this film to animal protection charities, and furthermore, that they immediately distance themselves from the project, as Natalie Portman did when John Galliano's anti-semitism was caught on film. Hopefully you all boycott any circus that uses performing animals. Apply the same to movies, too.

Smiley Smile

2011-05-07T00:13:00.000-04:00

As I suspected, a lot of readers consider my Dad the breakout star of 'Your Voice In My Head'. For the Jeffrey Forrest fans out there, here we are, in full effect. I used to lie, around this age, and say my Dad was Freddie Mercury.

Large Hearted Boy!

2011-05-06T23:36:00.002-04:00

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2OAiuO/www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2011/05/book_notes_emma_3.html
What a lovely website.

In conversation with Jon Ronson:

2011-05-04T21:53:00.002-04:00

Emma Forrest Event at L&R from Anna Steadman on Vimeo.

The Paris Review/Kate Bush

2011-05-03T15:23:00.002-04:00

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/05/03/her-voice-in-my-head/

The Awl

2011-05-02T15:18:00.001-04:00

Thank you, Maud Newton, for a lovely interview.
http://www.theawl.com/2011/05/when-your-shrink-dies-emma-forrests-therapy-memoir

Religion and suicide

2011-04-23T17:42:00.000-04:00

Shaye has written another tremendous entry over at lalasmom.com, this one grappling with the idea that some religious followers believe suicide is a punishable sin:

"When I first started casting about for places online to connect with others experiencing a loss similar to my own, a search for blogs on suicide returned a high number of Christian sites whose sole purpose was to proselytize their belief that suicide is a sin and an act of selfishness to boot. Do they expect someone who is considering suicide to find their site and feel helped by a righteous finger pointing at them, accusing them of being a selfish sinner? If their goal is to ease the pain of the grief-stricken? Demonizing the person who killed themselves isn't likely to help; the mourner must now imagine their friend or parent, sibling or child, spending eternity in hell."

The Help

2011-04-21T22:24:00.001-04:00

Someone who has only ever been vicious to me has written a letter saying they have a mental illness and need my help. I always want to help, always, but at the end of the day I do believe that beneath your mental illness (or your alcoholism, or your homelessness) beneath all these real and serious hardships, you still have your personality. So I referred the person to a good counselling service and wished them the best because I wasn't the right one to talk to. Heavy heart...

Rossy De Palma

2011-04-21T21:47:00.001-04:00

The Almodovar muse with the glorious profile now has her own perfume 'Protection by Rossy De Palma'. I would like dearly to have her protection, plus, her scent smells incredibly good. You can buy it or even just buy a sample at luckyscent.com. If you're in LA, you can try it at the Luckyscent store on Beverly blvd. I have become something of a scent junkie since I randomly walked in and struck up a conversation. I am reading from my memoir May 11th at Book Soup, but will also be doing a one off event at Luckyscent in June, where a discussion of the book will be accompanied by perfumes that mimic the moods. And, yes, there is a (very beautiful) perfume called 'Ophelia'.

Kate/James

2011-04-18T19:39:00.000-04:00

Any Kate Bush fans out there have feelings about the James Joyce estate giving her permission to use Molly Bloom's soliloquy in an updated version of 'The Sensual World'? Here it is (it's about the most beautiful writing in the English language):

"...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. "

Libray Journal: first US review!

2011-04-07T16:24:00.002-04:00

Forrest, Emma. Your Voice in My Head. Other. May 2011. 240p. ISBN 9781590514467. $22.95. MEMOIR
At 22, Emma Forrest had moved to New York from London, was writing for the Guardian, was on the verge of publishing her first novel, and began mentally coming apart. She found a savior in her longtime psychiatrist Dr. R., returning to his care following a failed suicide attempt. Readers follow Forrest through heartache and triumph, through the ravages of mania and self-destruction. The witty and self-aware Forrest has assembled a story with a touchingly flawed, human voice.
What I'm Telling My Friends: I will be highly annoyed if this is marketed as "the Colin Farrell story." Yes, the movie star's break-up with Forrest is an element of the story. But his is not the Voice of the title. The woman can write, and this is the story of her pain.

Liz-talgia

2011-04-06T23:08:00.000-04:00

You've been asking where to find the infamous Elizabeth Taylor essay I wrote way back in 2001. Here it is:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4727434/Lessons-in-Liz.html

Hanna

2011-04-06T13:08:00.000-04:00

Go and see 'Hanna' this weekend if you're in the U.S, or May 6th if you're in the U.K. It's directed by by friend Joe Wright. Though he made his name on 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Atonement', he started his career doing visuals for The Chemical Brothers (who provide the soundtrack to this hit-girl joyride). There are several dark re-imaginings of fairytales in the Hollywood pipeline right now (Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty). 'Hanna' is a completely original fairytale and you've never seen anything like it.

My sister is the best:

2011-04-03T16:09:00.002-04:00

"I am preparing to watch a film about coming to terms with the death of Gerard Butler".

Dennings! Florence!

2011-03-26T00:59:00.002-04:00

I just got my hot little hands on the new issue of Vogue, in which there is a most beautiful spread on my number 1 girl, Kat Dennings (it's the "shape" issue and she's photographed representing the hourglass figure.) The cover is a divine Rihanna, so strong, so feminine. I'd mentioned both ladies in an upcoming essay on beauty for 'Psychologies'magazine - that one of the things I find most attractive in a face is the same thing I find most attractive in a personality: surprising juxtapositions (Kat's pale body and dark hair, Rihanna's green eyes and caramel skin.) I rhapsodised, too, about Florence Welch, and not just because she gave my memoir such an amazing review (it's on the cover of the upcoming paperback though I've yet to meet her). I could never muster interest in any model because I love watching women in motion and Florence is someone who just seems - in the best way - possessed. But my favourite thing - and this is something I feel with Dennings, is that she's from another era. That anachronism, that sense of being out of time, is something I find endlessly appealing.

Cathy Horyn on Elizabeth Taylor

2011-03-24T13:23:00.000-04:00

She has the most wonderful style appreciation in today's NY Times (I've been having a hard time make it linkable so do google it). She talks about how - having short legs and a huge bust - she was not a fit for designers the way Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly were (and honestly, the self-deluded web "comment-haters" would have an absolute field day today, criticizing the young womans weight and proportions), but that she dressed even better than a style icon: she dressed for devouring life. This is, you'll see, a very moving article, more so than most of the obituaries.

Good News!

2011-03-24T00:05:00.000-04:00

Just in case you're having a down day, here is a photo of my boyfriend's cat begging for spare change in a hallway.

Elizabeth

2011-03-23T15:49:00.000-04:00

Well, she wasn't a great actress (she said so herself), there were more natural beauties (she was especially anxious about Burton working with Ava Gardner in 'Night Of The Iguana' and the novelist Edna O'Brien on 'X, Y and Zee'). But she was a pioneer and a buccaneer - the first woman to divorce publicly (and often), the first to fight the stigma and fear around AIDS. The living embodiment of the triumph of hope over experience (is this why she was so devoted to her Judaism?), she never, ever stopped believing in love (so much so that the Vatican deemed her an 'erotic vagrant'). And nothing ever killed her. Until it did. Rest in peace.

Power Ballads!

2011-03-18T23:42:00.001-04:00

Apparently Susan Boyle just parodied this video for Comic Relief in the U.K. So I just rewatched this (a vague memory from childhood, nostalgia for something I'm not even sure I ever experienced in the first place) and it made me realize: cheesy as they are, there is something so primal in the great power ballads. "Now at least I know I know him well", oh my goodness, that line slays me! Haven't you felt that when something's over? Like only being able to actually taste the chocolate when you get to the very last one in the box? Pat Benatar wrecks me, too, especially 'We Belong' from 'The Legend of Billie Jean': "We belong to the sounds of the words we've both fallen under"...seriously, the hairs on my neck stand on end. But you're listening to someone who featured Cher's 'Just Like Jesse James' ever so prominently in the last script I sold. "Your heart is down for the count and you knoooow you're gonna lose it!" So kids - what's your favourite power ballad?
ps: itunes just asked me "Are you sure you wish to purchase 'I Know Him So Well' by Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige? Judgmental little shit!

Sunday high

2011-03-14T01:34:00.000-04:00

Just saw Paul Mazursky's 'Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice' at The New Beverly cinema and then walked across the street for cheesecake at Sussina. Natalie Wood is such a beauty (she's like a delicate pencil sketch of Mila Kunis) but I think this is the best performance I've seen from her. Sometimes I love L.A so much. There are people who do care about preserving real cinema! There are people who do eat full fat double dairy cakes!

YVIMH interview from last week...

2011-03-06T21:40:00.004-05:00

Ms.Kiefer is a Canadian legend and it was a real honour to talk to her before I left. The friend I mention in the interview writes the blog lalasmom.com about life after her daughters suicide. On a lighter note, I should probably remember not to wear green being 5 foot 1 and all. I look more like a yiddish leprechaun than I'd intended.

In case of emergency

2011-03-06T01:39:00.000-05:00

Whilst adapting my memoir as a movie, a visual motif I keep coming back to is the fire escape outside my old apartment. I used to use it to climb - with her permission - into my friend Teeter's living room in the next building. There's a line in my book: "In New York City a mutual fire escape is more profound than a mutual orgasm." I wonder if our friendship would've been so intense without that fire escape. I never had to use it for its stated purpose. But I did use it to watch a lot of sunrises and eat some stunning deli sandwiches and have some kisses and meditate without knowing I was meditating. NYC fire escape stories anyone?

LUCIE

2011-02-27T17:18:00.000-05:00

If you're out there, I've been on the road for two months so have only just received your forwarded letter. I thank you for it, will reply and hope you're okay...

Bookbits interview:

2011-02-26T02:55:00.003-05:00

This was a Toronto interview I really enjoyed. Not sure about my cleavage floating listlessly through space...

S and M

2011-02-20T18:52:00.000-05:00

That's what Christopher Plummer calls his film 'The Sound of Music' in his delicious memoir. 'In Spite Of Myself' is actually a book I bought when it came out in hardback a few years ago. I'd had Plummer in my head for a film I was writing (about a charismatic womaniser in his later years). Then, the other day, I had to go to Random House in Toronto to sign my memoir, and Plummer had to go to Random House to sign his memoir and - voila - I now have a signed paperback, which I re-read last night around 3am. If you've maybe read the Patti Smith autobiography and are looking for another vital life story told in a singularly mad voice, do pick this up. In the pictorial, amongst snaps with Natalie Wood and Julie Andrews, he has labelled a photo of himself as a young man in Quebec: "Me as a repulsive youth of indeterminate age".

This video made me cry:

2011-02-18T10:37:00.000-05:00

What an inspiring woman. What an eloquent defense of Planned Parenthood.

Emma's Mix Tape Feb 2011

2011-02-17T19:07:00.001-05:00

On the train from Toronto to Montreal, I made an ipod playlist of songs that were introduced to me by great friends, family, mentors, boyfriends past and present. They were originals and covers, classics and obscurities, but they had to be songs I'd never heard before I met them. I picture them as donations from people who cared about me (the donatee is in parenthesis):
Another Girl Another Planet - The Only Ones (Julie)
And She Was - Talking Heads (Julie)
Bad Weather - The Supremes (Robin)
Hurdy Gurdy Man -Eartha Kitt (Joe)
Shangri-La - The Kinks (Grace)
State Of Independence - Chrissie Hynde covering Donna Summer!! (Barbara)
Laura Marling- My Manic And I (Colin)
Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Spingsteen (Richard)
Mockingbirds - Grant Lee Buffalo (Marc)
Heard It Through The Grapevine - The Slits (Ryan)
Long Gone Before Daylight - The Cardigans (Sassica)
You Said Something - PJ Harvey (SB)
With Every Heartbeat - Robyn (SB)
Ecstatic - Mos Def (Mum)
Overload - Sugababes (Lisa)
A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell (Mum)
Pilgrim Chapter 33 - Kris Kristofferson (Dad)
Reckoner - Radiohead (Daniel)
Pi - Kate Bush (Daniel)
There's some people here I haven't spoken to in a decade or more. There's a friend or two I fell out with, badly. My life has been so compartmentalized, it was radical to put these voices from long ago and far away all together on one list. I saw a lot of emotional snapshots - great ones - music being a stronger sense-memory to me than scent.

The Lake and Stars

2011-02-14T14:46:00.000-05:00

http://jezebel.com/#!5759991/agencies-refuse-to-work-with-designers-who-hire-plus+size-models
Maayan Zilberman is one of my best friends, not just a great designer but a kind (and sensible) woman, so I'm not surprised she's making her voice heard over this.

Celluloid Dreams

2011-02-13T11:44:00.000-05:00

We're staying opposite the best video store I've ever seen. Every night I've been staying in, rewatching and discovering films. My favourite of the last five years, in no particular order:
Animal Kingdom
Fish Tank
Head-On
Reprise
Persepolis
Let The Right One In
Sita Sings The Blues
Joan Rivers - A Piece of Work
Client 9 (this one, above all others, is brutally painful to watch)

So what?

2011-02-12T09:51:00.000-05:00

What a sensible article by Julie Burchill:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/healthy-living/how-to-stop-worrying-2209481.html
Thankfully some of her advice did sink in when I was a teen. She taught me that you must point out your own flaws before anyone else does. That's been important, especially when it came to writing a memoir. When a reviewer gasped that I'm obsessive and self-centred - I did say that about myself in the book. I'm not proud of it (at all. I think the book makes that pretty damn clear) but I am self-aware, and working to make it right. Because of what Julie taught me back when I was a teen, it's been surprisingly easy to accept that any bad reviews are bad reviews, not of my writing, but of my personality. Julie has a really interesting chip missing that we'd all benefit from losing.

Hadley Freeman on Planned Parenthood

2011-02-09T09:08:00.000-05:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/guide-to-stop-women-having-sex

Hadley Freeman is a really cool chick - she may also be the best newspaper columnist out there.

High/Low

2011-02-09T08:51:00.000-05:00

Ever since I saw Jah Wobble play at the Royal Opera House in London (for the uninitiated, he's the former bassist of John Lydon's post Sex Pistol's band PIL), I've been thinking about high/low culture and what a happy marriage it can be. I'm not saying which is the "high" culture and which the "low" in this equation (honestly, my mind was blown when he brought on the Japanese flower arranger to set up enormous flowers around the band as they played, until they were completely obscured). This week I was sent reviews of my memoir from Macleans (the Canadian equivalent of Time) and from Laineygossip (a gossip blog). Both were serious, well written and insightful - but guess which one had the terrible tabloid heading? Interesting.

Room

2011-02-06T07:04:00.001-05:00

I know I'm pretty late to this, but Emma Donoghue's 'Room' is exquisite. Genuinely a thriller, and genuinely a work of art. If anyone were to adapt the book as a movie (which would be difficult) I think Sarah Polley would be an interesting candidate to direct.

Toronto

2011-02-04T20:50:00.001-05:00

Was having a lovely time here, even before Kate Carraway's review of my book in The Globe and Mail. My goodness, I owe this lady a drink...
In less self-obsessed news, I finally got round to watching 'Animal Kingdom'. Have to say, it's my favourite crime movie since 'Badlands' (and that's a film I marked with a tattoo!)

YVIMH readings

2011-01-28T10:36:00.000-05:00

I did a reading on tuesday at the Lutyens and Rubinstein bookstore in Notting Hill, and one on thursday at Clerkenwell Tales. Jon Ronson hosted the Notting Hill event and David Baddiel very kindly did Clerkenwell. Both audiences were very smart and asked great questions so thank you everyone who came down and to the good people in both stores who helped set everything up. Jon has a new book out in the summer called 'The Psychopath Test' (he did test me, in front of a packed room, too). David has his fourth novel out in March, 'The Death of Eli Gould'. L-R, Peter Ho, (owner of the excellent Clerkenwell Tales), small lady, David Baddiel (comedian, novelist, Madhur Jaffrey enthusiast.)

Best seller in disorders and diseases! Best bleakly humorous riposte wins a prize...

2011-01-24T16:44:00.000-05:00

New Reading Thurs Jan 27th

2011-01-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

At Clerkenwell Tales, a lovely independent bookstore at:
30 Exmouth Market
Islington, Greater London EC1R 4
020 7713 8135
After the reading, I will be in conversation with the brilliant David Baddiel - it's free but do call to get a space.

Perspective:

2011-01-23T09:24:00.000-05:00

"Re-read Julie Myerson," insists Mum, "She's extremely complimentary about your gifts as a writer. What she's saying she dislikes is you."
That's true!

Wow!

2011-01-23T06:22:00.001-05:00

A rave by someone who completely gets it in The Sunday Times and a hatchet job in The Observer by someone who does not (even weirder, within that newspaper, a rave in the Observer magazine and a hatchet job in The Observer review). Bi-polar train here we come!!
ps: It's all very well saying it's smarter not to read reviews, but when I wake up, my blackberry is buzzing with all of them from twenty different sources.
pps: very sweetly, my Mum will not admit the Observer is a bad review. "It's...mixed".

New London reading date

2011-01-20T16:03:00.001-05:00

The reading on the 26th has now sold out, so I'm doing one the next night, Jan 27th, at the lovely independent bookstore, Clerkenwell Tales, at 6.30 for 7. The address is:

Clerkenwell Tales
30 Exmouth Market
Clerkenwell
London
EC1R 4QE

Jesus

2011-01-15T16:08:00.001-05:00

Yes, the libelous Limelife piece has been forwarded to me, and the lawyers are already on it. I swear to God, the internet is like the f***ing wild west...

Blast from the past

2011-01-15T05:54:00.003-05:00

So, if you've seen the Daily Mail article, which is subbed and headlined the way the Daily Mail does these things, you'll have seen a photo of me at twenty. It doesn't say the picture is almost fifteen years old - they must have just pulled it from their archive. That was the absolute worst time of my life and it's all there in my face and posture. I was so bulimic, that was really all I did, seven times a day. I'd started to get a rash on my right hand from sticking it down my throat. I'd hacked off all my hair because I was trying not to cut. It's a painful picture for me to see and I guess it has double impact because I get so caught up in words - my own and others - I forget very often, the effect pictures can have. It'd be an interesting project to frame, side by side, the photo that you think captures you at your most unhappy and the one that gets you at your happiest. Maybe wear them in a locket round your neck and make sure the happy side is always touching your heart.

Your Voice In my Head reading

2011-01-12T14:42:00.004-05:00

Thank you all, again, for the lovely comments. Yes, I am doing a London book reading on Wednesday January 26th, 6.30 for 7pm at the Lutyens and Rubinstein book store at 21 Kensington Park Road, W11. I am extremely honoured to say that the great Jon Ronson will host a Q and A session. It's a fiver to get in but that comes with wine. To reserve a place email anna@lutyensrubinstein.co.uk

Reading group

2011-01-11T20:45:00.004-05:00

Saw someone reading my memoir tonight on the tube! I've seen it in book stores here already but not actually in someone's hands. Peeped over their shoulder (to try and see how it ends...)

The Gently Worn Friend

2011-01-11T17:42:00.005-05:00

This is me with one of my closest friends, Andrea. You know how charity shops like you to donate "gently worn" clothes? I call Andrea my "gently worn" friend. When I was 11, my best friend, Lizzie, broke my heart by moving to a new school and getting a new best friend. Andrea. I was jealous and heart-achey. But, as adults, Lizzie and I reconnected (she was just as funny and kind as in childhood) and it turned out my mysterious rival, Andrea, had moved out to L.A the same month as me. Andrea and I instantly hit it off, and helped each other ease into this vast, strange city. That Lizzie had loved us both intensely, suffused this new friendship with a depth and trust we didn't actually have yet, like a nostalgia for things you've never experienced. The girl who bullied me the absolute worst at school was Greek, so it's strangely significant that Andrea, my adult-world protector, is Greek too!

Scent and memory

2011-01-10T10:30:00.007-05:00

I want to stress that I have not named - anywhere - the anonymous figures in my book. I know it's driving certain people mad that I won't name them, to the point of putting words in my mouth, but this is my stance. My psychiatrist and my three significant love interests are all anonymous for a reason. Below is part of an essay on the process of writing memoir, which appears in the current issue of Psychologies. They want me to direct you to the magazine for the story in it's entirety...

"There’s a store in Los Angeles called Luckyscent, at which I have spent many a paycheck on perfume. Coming home with the classic Fracas, the cult Loukhoum, the obscure Magical Moon, I’ve been chasing a dream that intimates and passersby alike would smell me and nod, “Oh, I get her! I understand what she’s about!” I would never have to try to explain myself – moreover, I would never fail to explain myself. I wanted perfume as a stand in for written memoir. I found a lot of beautiful scents. But I never found “me”.

That idea of scent has returned to me as reviews begin to come in. What’s sour to some can be sweet to others and what some find overpowering, others find subtle. I said to my sister “I honestly believe that if the contents of this book are the worst things that will happen to me, I have been incredibly lucky” and she replied “I don’t agree with you”. I was shocked. I don’t feel sorry for myself, at all. But I have to wrestle with the notion that others might.

Writing this memoir kept my head above water. It saved me. Which is great, but why publish it? There’s the idea it may help other people. But, truthfully, the more I’ve turned the question over in my head, the more I have just one answer: because I’m a writer."

Thank you

2011-01-09T11:10:00.003-05:00

Between The Guardian excerpt and today's Sunday Times interview, I want to thank you all very, very much for your kind comments. Funnily enough, my sister said "Emma, go look on Twitter, there's really lovely stuff about your excerpt" and then fifteen minutes later called back to say "Uh, don't go look on Twitter".

Feb Elle and Psychologies

2011-01-08T11:18:00.004-05:00

I should also say: I have an essay in the new issue of Elle UK. It's about how it feels to no longer be the youngest person in the room. There's a very beautiful lady called Cheryl Cole on the cover (she had to be explained to me and I *think* I understand. I have been out of this country for a very long time...)I also have a story in the new issue of Psychologies magazine, about the process of writing memoir.

I also want to apologize, as I'm signed up to twitter but haven't figured out how to use it. HOW DO I SEND A TWIT?

Guardian Saturday Jan 8th

2011-01-03T22:13:00.005-05:00

The Guardian - my paper of choice - are excerpting my book in their magazine on Saturday. I'd assumed it would be a stand alone chapter, so I got a shock when I saw they'd edited an entire book down to an article. I know I delve into some difficult subject matter and a lot of early readers have asked how it felt to put the worst of myself on the page. My writing came very easily. What's a challenge for me is seeing it now reconfigured. Obviously, it is great for a book to get a newspaper excerpt and I am very grateful to be in The Guardian at all. And so grateful it's brought you to me.

On "misery memoirs"

2011-01-03T11:10:00.004-05:00

I was thrilled that The Observer put my book on their hotlist for 2011, but pretty gutted that they described it thus:

"MISERY MEMOIRS

This year, women writers are lining up to demonstrate that the misery memoir is alive and well. In January, US-residing British journalist Emma Forrest – former beau of Colin Farrell – brings out Your Voice in My Head, a memoir of her struggle with depression. In the same month, Throwing Muses singer Kristin Hersh publishes Paradoxical Undressing, the story of her descent into, and recovery from, schizophrenia. In April comes Margaux Fragoso's Tiger, Tiger, chronicling her long relationship with a man four decades older than her, beginning when she was seven."

The experiences in my book are sometimes terribly sad, sometimes terribly funny, but all of them are like thunderstorms to me: they changed the landscape of my soul. I don't see any of those experiences in terms of "misery". I think the term "misery memoir" is applied to female writers to denigrate women's stories in general. It's all just ladies, moaning about lady things! Silly me for viewing the stories I put to paper as "human".

I will say I'm in great company. I've read Kristen Hersh's memoir, as she is a long time heroine of mine. What do you know: her book is quite brilliant and also damn funny.

I won't dwell on being labeled "the former beau of Colin Farrell"? I simply was not aware! But delighted to imagine the bonnet I wore at the 18th century costume ball.

Your Voice In My Youtube

2010-11-29T11:11:00.000-05:00

Total Eclipse

2010-11-17T01:05:00.004-05:00

I find Kiki (aka Justin Bond) so thrilling. Live, Kiki and Herb - a duo who are some cabaret, some comedy, all wonderful - make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It's weird how a performance so over the top can have this real undercurrent of melancholy and kernel of truth (I think Tim Curry in Rocky Horror is a great example of that. Also, watching Prince William announce his engagement, I realized his clipped cadence reminded me of no-one so much as Curry's Dr. Frank-n-Furter).

Lalasmom.com

2010-11-13T19:52:00.004-05:00

My great friend, Shannon Nelson, has just started the blog lalasmom, where she chronicles life after her daughter's suicide.

http://www.lalasmom.com/LaLas_Mom/Welcome.html

Shannon (or Shaye) is just as brilliant and funny as Lena (or Lala) was. Lena hung herself a year ago, aged nineteen, and there are, of course, no words...and yet Shaye is doing her best to find them. Though she's not a "professional", she's without question a natural. Go and have a read. I think you'll be as taken with Shaye's writing as I am.

Holy Holy Holy

2010-10-10T00:52:00.004-04:00

Wandering Los Angeles of a saturday night, I just saw the astonishingly moving Allen Ginsberg biopic, 'Howl', written and directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. One always appreciates it when an artist uses their work to educate people, but I feel even more grateful when art is used to induce a state. That's what Ginsberg's epic poem does, and what this film does, too. I know there are some who believe there will be 72 virgins waiting for them in heaven (who, by the way, will be crap in bed, being virgins). I just say: may we all be played by James Franco after our deaths.

Whilst we're on the subject...

2010-08-17T13:25:00.002-04:00

...does anyone else's cat use their owner's hair as a security blanket/sleep binkie?

Saturday

2010-08-14T15:12:00.004-04:00

It's a lovely Saturday in L.A, and I've been listening to Donny Hathaway on repeat. I've had a great run of good luck with my reading list lately (I must especially recommend 'Role Models' by John Waters, 'In Youth Is Pleasure' by Denton Welch and now 'Furious Love' by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger.) The only thing really troubling me this weekend is how to make my cat, Perry, lose weight. A few months back we moved house and he went from being an outdoor cat to an indoor fella. I cannot for the life of me engage him in play and he is starting to look like Orson Welles. Any tips?

The Naming of Cats

2010-06-21T19:03:00.003-04:00

I noticed a cat that's been hanging out, lately, in the garden of The Chateau Marmont, where I sometimes go to write. I sent my Dad a photo, as he's particularly good at thinking up names for cats. His reply?

"Belushi?

Does s/he have own key to pool area?

xx"

New book - cover art

2010-06-15T01:17:00.005-04:00

I see it's up there on the internet, so I'll share it with you here: the cover of my memoir. Bloomsbury don't publish in the UK until January, I think the next month by Knopf in Canada and in the U.S. April, by Other Press. I am thrilled with the Bloomsbury art work, really, really happy. Thanks to the designer, Holly MacDonald, and photographer, Sarah Moon.

Jennifer Belle book reading weds June 2nd

2010-06-01T21:40:00.002-04:00

If any of you are in L.A, come hear a reading by my dear friend (and one time writing teacher), Jennifer Belle. The author of 'Going Down', 'High Maintenance' and 'Little Stalker', she'll be reading from her hilarious new novel 'The Seven Year Bitch' 7pm at Book Soup on Sunset.

Would love me for myself alone, and not my yellow hair...

2010-05-28T17:54:00.002-04:00

An important column published about Kendra Wilkinson, today, on blog The Evil Beet:

"Yesterday a 10-minute clip from Kendra Wilkinson's teenage sex video hit the ‘net (it's NSFW but you're on your own to Google it). And what I saw was infuriating to me.

I'm not angered because I have any problem with watching sex on tape - for the record, I watched the Pirates porn last week, and it was better than 75% of the mainstream movies I've seen this year. No joke. And normally these celeb sex tapes don't bother me either, but this one in particular pisses me off.

Kendra doesn't really want to be videotaped. She says so on quite a few occasions.

"Please don't do it," she says. "Please?"

"Kendra," he says, annoyed. "I'm barely zooming in. Just go."

"Can you not?"

"You'll like it. Trust me. Watch. Go."

Kendra seems resigned to her fate, and, almost instantaneously, she shifts characters, from a very young woman being pressured into a sexual situation she finds uncomfortable to a willing sexpot, grinding obligingly on the bed with a black panther blanket across it. (Jesus Christ.)

As her male companion puts the camera close-up on her vagina, she shuts her legs.

"What?" he whines. "Just do it. Just keep messing around."

She pushes him and the camera away several times after that, each time slipping instantly back into character as soon as he expresses annoyance.

He begins performing oral sex on her. She's not entirely comfortable with this. She wriggles around and clamps her legs close, against his head.

"Keep ‘em open. Keep ‘em open. Keep ‘em open. Open your legs. Open ‘em. Open ‘em."

They have sex. He has trouble staying hard. He's gross, really - a balding redhead in his late teens or early twenties with a pube-hair goatee, bad teeth and a too-large nose - pudgy and pale all over.

He comes inside her, even though she's obviously asked him not to. She makes a face and she rolls off the bed. He acts surprised and upset by her action. She tells him she doesn't like it when he does that. He mutters something about a blow job.

This isn't a sex tape, really. It's that thing we talk about that happens to our young women. That thing that we, as grown-ups, write about and research incessantly and condemn broadly, but don't remember so vividly. It's right here on video.

It reminds me to some extent of the Paris Hilton sex tape, but even more so here. It's that space where young women have discovered and perfected their sexuality and its value, but haven't yet figured out how it's empowering. They just know that it's something people want from them; it's something people expect from them. Something young men expect from them; something, perhaps, that young men haven't learned how to ask for politely. It's uncomfortable and new and everybody's learning, and what happens, more often than not, is that the male partner's desires come first and more forcefully, and the young woman is disrespected and disempowered and left with a sense that she's less valuable and less capable of demanding respect and control than her male counterpart - a sense than lingers into her twenties and beyond, even though she might not recognize it as such.

You should not be turned on by this. You should be pissed off.

This isn't rape - not even close. And Kendra's not even unhappy the whole time. But you can tell who's in charge; you can tell who's in control. It's made clear. Kendra's requests are completely ignored; she's totally disrespected here, naked and exposed.

So the next time some enterprising journalist wants to wax poetic on "what's happening to our daughters" - to cite studies and surveys and books upon books - maybe she could take ten minutes and watch the Kendra Wilkinson sex tape. What's happening to them is right here, right on video."

KBR are going to hell

2010-03-30T16:34:00.001-04:00

http://jezebel.com/5505484/kbr-says-jamie-leigh-jones-was-asking-for-it

Next Year in the White House: A Seder Tradition

2010-03-28T10:34:00.001-04:00

Last year's Seder, a White House first, saw the Macaroon Security Standoff.
By JODI KANTOR/ NY Times

WASHINGTON — One evening in April 2008, three low-level staff members from the Obama presidential campaign — a baggage handler, a videographer and an advance man — gathered in the windowless basement of a Pennsylvania hotel for an improvised Passover Seder.

The day had been long, the hour was late, and the young men had not been home in months. So they had cadged some matzo and Manischewitz wine, hoping to create some semblance of the holiday.

Suddenly they heard a familiar voice. “Hey, is this the Seder?” Barack Obama asked, entering the room.

So begins the story of the Obama Seder, now one of the newest, most intimate and least likely of White House traditions. When Passover begins at sunset on Monday evening, Mr. Obama and about 20 others will gather for a ritual that neither the rabbinic sages nor the founding fathers would recognize.

In the Old Family Dining Room, under sparkling chandeliers and portraits of former first ladies, the mostly Jewish and African-American guests will recite prayers and retell the biblical story of slavery and liberation, ending with the traditional declaration “Next year in Jerusalem.” (Never mind the current chill in the administration’s relationship with Israel.)

Top aides like David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett will attend, but so will assistants like 24-year-old Herbie Ziskend. White House chefs will prepare Jewish participants’ family recipes, even rendering chicken fat — better known as schmaltz — for just the right matzo ball flavor.

If last year is any guide, Malia and Sasha Obama will take on the duties of Jewish children, asking four questions about the night’s purpose — along with a few of their own — and scrambling to find matzo hidden in the gleaming antique furniture.

That event was the first presidential Seder, and also probably “the first time in history that gefilte fish had been placed on White House dishware,” said Eric Lesser, the former baggage handler, who organizes each year’s ritual.

As in many Jewish households, the Obama Seder seems to take on new meaning each year, depending on what is happening in the world and in participants’ lives (for this group, the former is often the same as the latter).

The first one took place at the bleakest point of the campaign, the long prelude to the Pennsylvania primary, which was dominated by a furor over Mr. Obama’s former pastor. “We were in the desert, so to speak,” remembered Arun Chaudhary, then and now Mr. Obama’s videographer, who grew up attending Seders with his half-Jewish, half-Indian family.

No one led the proceedings; everyone took turns reading aloud. Mr. Obama had brought Reggie Love, his personal aide, Ms. Jarrett and Eric Whitaker, another close friend, all African-American. Jennifer Psaki, the traveling press secretary, and Samantha Tubman, a press assistant, filtered in. Neither had ever been to a Seder, but they knew the Exodus story, Ms. Psaki from Catholic school and Ms. Tubman from childhood Sundays at black churches.

They peppered the outnumbered Jews at the table with questions, which the young men sometimes struggled to answer. “We’re not exactly crack Hebrew scholars,” said Mr. Lesser, now an assistant to Mr. Axelrod.

Participants remember the evening as a rare moment of calm, an escape from the din of airplanes and rallies. As the tale of the Israelites unfolded, the campaign team half-jokingly identified with their plight — one day, they too would be free. At the close of the Seder, Mr. Obama added his own ending — “Next year in the White House!”

Indeed, the group, with a few additions, has now made the Seder an Executive Mansion tradition. (No one considered inviting prominent rabbis or other Jewish leaders; it is a private event.)

But maintaining the original humble feel has been easier said than done.

Ms. Tubman and Desirée Rogers, then the White House social secretary, tried to plan an informal meal last year, with little or even no wait staff required. White House ushers reacted with what seemed like polite horror. The president and the first lady simply do not serve themselves, they explained. The two sides negotiated a compromise: the gefilte fish would be preplated, the brisket passed family-style.

Then came what is now remembered as the Macaroon Security Standoff. At 6:30, with the Seder about to start, Neil Cohen, the husband of Michelle Obama’s friend and adviser Susan Sher, was stuck at the gate bearing flourless cookies he had brought from Chicago. They were kosher for Passover, but not kosher with the Secret Service, which does not allow food into the building.

Offering to help, the president walked to the North Portico and peered out the door, startling tourists. He volunteered to go all the way to the gates, but advisers stopped him, fearing that would cause a ruckus. Everyone seemed momentarily befuddled. Could the commander in chief not summon a plate of cookies to his table? Finally, Mr. Love ran outside to clear them.

Mr. Obama began the Seder by invoking the universality of the holiday’s themes of struggle and liberation. Malia and Sasha quickly found the hidden matzo and tucked it away again, so cleverly that Mr. Ziskend, the former advance man, needed 45 minutes to locate it. At the Seder’s close, the group opened a door and sang to the prophet Elijah.

In preparation for this year’s gathering, Mr. Lesser and others have again been collecting recipes from the guests, including matzo ball instructions from Patricia Winter, the mother of Melissa Winter, Mrs. Obama’s deputy chief of staff.

“We like soft (not hard) matzo balls,” Mrs. Winter warned in a note to the White House chefs, instructing them to buy mix but doctor it. Use three eggs, not two, she told them; substitute schmaltz for vegetable oil, and refrigerate them for a day before serving (but not in the soup).

The Seder originated with Jewish staff members on the campaign trail who could not go home, but now some celebrate at the White House by choice. Participants say their ties are practically familial now anyway. “Some of the most challenging experiences of our life we’ve shared together,” Ms. Jarrett said.

No one yet knows exactly what themes will emerge this year. Maybe “taking care of people who can’t take care of themselves and health care reform,” suggested Ms. Sher, now Mrs. Obama’s chief of staff.

The evening might also reflect a group that has settled into the White House and a staff more familiar with the new custom. Last week, Ms. Sher was leaving the East Wing when a guard stopped her.

“Hey, are you bringing macaroons again this year?” he asked.

sigh...

2010-02-25T02:33:00.002-05:00

Isn't he other worldly? And Helen Mirren looks pretty when she cries. As I recall, since she's meant to be Baryshnikov's dance partner in this movie, but Helen Mirren can't actually dance, the character is like "Oh, I don't feel like dancing, I just got my period. Um, my toe hurts. I'ma just sit on the floor and weep if that's cool?"

Movie quest with BF Sarah:

2010-02-15T18:03:00.004-05:00

S: "So. What shall we do?"
E: "We could go see The Wolfman?"
S: "I am NOT spending money on The Wolfman!"
E: "What if The Wolfman buys the drinks?"
[Beat]
E: "Man, I wish 'Shutter Island' had opened..."
S: "Where EVERY WINDOW HAS A SHUTTER."

A Valentine's Day Story

2010-02-14T11:50:00.002-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/world/africa/14malawi.html?scp=2&sq=malawi&st=cse

This article is tough to read. It brought to mind a sentence by one of my favourite prose writers, Lorrie Moore: "Life is sad. Here is somebody". But, my G-d, life can be so sad. How amazing to find someone you can walk with. These men were forced off the road. It makes my heart so heavy.

I'm interested in her for her politics

2010-02-12T09:44:00.005-05:00

Didn't someone develop the technology to block your cell from making calls to certain numbers between midnight and 3am (so people can't drunk dial their exes?) I have jet lag that keeps waking me for a few hours before dawn. And I just woke up to discover that, some time last night, I down loaded this:

The Real Hangover

2010-01-18T12:43:00.005-05:00

The misogyny in Todd Phillips' films - if you've seen 'Old School' or 'Road Trip' you'll know that wives and girlfriends are nagging killjoys and teenage girls just need to get f***ed - came to its logical conclusion in 'The Hangover', which sought to make Mike Tyson, convicted of rape in 1991, into a loveable, family friendly figure of fun. Judging by the cheers Tyson got as a presenter at the Golden Globes last night, Phillips succeeded. Tyson did the film as an "opportunity to show off his giddy side," the writer-director told Movieline, "which I thought was really cool". People seem to have written off that night as if it was some sort of nebulous date-rape (maybe she was drunk, or said "yes" then "no", or he wasn't gracious afterwards...or something). This was, in fact, a terrifying attack on a seventeen year old girl who barricaded herself in the bathroom to escape him, until he punched his way through. The conviction hinged on brutal forensic evidence concerning the internal injuries he left her with. Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist, a convicted wife beater, a vicious and violent abuser of women, and the fact that a Hollywood audience applauded him last night makes me feel ashamed to be part of this community.

For balance...

2010-01-14T20:51:00.002-05:00

I realize those are two infuriating stories about men twisting religion to suit their own moral bankruptcy. So I wanted to post about a new book called 'The Harvard Psychedelic Club' by Don Lattin, a riveting account of how Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil "killed the fifties and ushered in a New Age for America". These four remarkable figures were on the same campus, at the same time. Timothy Leary is the most famous - for encouraging the country to 'Turn On, Tune In and Drop Out'. but the one I knew the least about was Huston Smith. An ordained Methodist minister, he practised every world religion, introduced the Dalai Lama to the West and educated generations of Americans to adopt a more tolerant, inclusive attitude to other cultures' beliefs. In a 1950's public-television program shown at dinner time, he casually blew America's mind by climbing onto his desk, in a three piece suit, to demonstrate the lotus position.

Guest blog by our friend, the mysterious 'Stone':

2010-01-14T20:49:00.001-05:00

The Archbishop of Granada, Javier Martínez, recently compared the new Spanish Abortion law - which had been passed in the Spanish Parliament with the votes of the majority - to Hitler’s crimes and added that if a woman has a termination, men are entitled to abuse her. “Si la mujer aborta, el varón puede abusar de ella”.

The Archbishop has now declared that he was being misunderstood and that he had actually meant to say that abortion provides males with an excuse to abuse women. Well, excuse me, but since when have rape and sexual abuse become excusable. Rapists and abusive men do not need a reason or an excuse for their behaviour, they are dysfunctional individuals who are in dire need of therapy. There is absolutely no behavior that would justify rape or abuse – whether a woman has had an abortion, whether she is wearing red lipstick, a mini skirt, or whether she’s into pole dancing – absolutely nothing should make you a potential victim of sexual harrassment or rape.

Through his statement, the Archbishop of Granada is giving every rapist and every male that displays aggressive and dysfunctional behaviour towards women carte blanche. At the same time Martínez reduces all males to helpless slaves to their sex drives who cannot control themselves in front of a woman.

This type of attitude towards women has been predominant in the Catholic Church ever since Eve’s original sin. Discrimination and crime against women have a long history in the Catholic Church – how many women were burnt alive during and after the Middle Ages? The Archbishop of Granada makes no exception to the rule, as he perpetuates the very same attitude. Seemingly, in the mindset of the Catholic Church, women are not supposed to make decisions with regard to their own bodies, while men are at the same time entitled to claim dominion over these bodies of ours.

I am Pat Robertson and I am a piece of shit

2010-01-14T20:43:00.003-05:00

By the way, if you are in America, text "Yele" to 501501 to donate $5 to Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund, or text "HAITI" to 90999 from the US to make a $10 donation.

Oh G-d, I love her.

2010-01-08T18:02:00.001-05:00

I don't even think it's drunken-ness. It's awesomeness.

Animal Planet

2010-01-04T13:24:00.007-05:00

I was in quite a bad mood, this morning, until I met a dog called 'Bear' at the coffee shop (apologies for wearing a denim tuxedo - I had just rolled out of bed.)

Not to mention the time I've been spending across the street, with a rabbit named 'Napoleon'.

Trying to get in on the good times, Perry brought me this dead lizard:

Um. Thank you?

Mariah

2010-01-02T21:38:00.003-05:00

I know it's awfully late in life for me to realize I have an opinion about Mariah Carey. I always thought she was very pretty and had an opera singer's range. I'd even heard a sweet story from a journalist friend who had interviewed her on the phone and broken down in tears because her Grandma had died that week...at the end of the interview, the journalist's doorbell rang and it was a delivery of condolence flowers from Mariah (my friend never knew how she arranged it all while they were still speaking). But her music never engaged - too clean, none of Mary J Blige's grit or sorrow - so she's never really registered much for me. Then I saw 'Precious' and, I swear, as good as everybody is in that film, she is extraordinarily good and really, really does deserve a best supporting actress nod. "I like Mariah Carey", I decided, and then I remembered that she's a grown-up woman who named her album 'Charmbracelet' and I upgraded my opinion to "I love her". The deal was sealed by this mention in the NY Times review of her December 31st concert:

"The holiday happens when Mariah Carey says it happens, which is why, on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, the New Year's Eve countdown was a minute after the fact".

The White Ribbon=Worst New Year's Eve idea Ever

2009-12-31T17:45:00.002-05:00

Other than that, my hopes are really high.

Sita Sings the Blues

2009-12-27T14:17:00.005-05:00

If you happen to be in New York, try and catch Nina Paley's 'Sita Sings The Blues' at the IFC Cinema on sixth avenue (It closes there December 31st but you can also download it at ninapaley.com). Sita is a movie so original, it's best I leave the review to A.O.Scott, of The New York Times:

"Animation is, at heart, the simplest form of cinema: a flutter of drawings fooling the eye into seeing motion. Nowadays, at least at feature length, the form tends to be a much bigger deal, with every year bringing can-you-top-this spectacles full of noisy, shiny figures and images.

“Sita Sings the Blues,” Nina Paley’s new film, which arrives in New York on Friday trailing festival love, is certainly ambitious and visually loaded. There are songs, bright colors and a story taken in part from one of the biggest, oldest epics in the world. But it is also modest, personal and, in spite of Ms. Paley’s use of digital vector graphic techniques, decidedly handmade. A Pixar or DreamWorks extravaganza typically concludes with a phone book’s worth of technical credits. Ms. Paley did everything in “Sita” — an amazingly eclectic, 82-minute tour de force — by herself.

Well, she didn’t sing the songs. Instead, she selected recordings from the early jazz singer Annette Hanshaw, whose voice, poised between heartbreak and soigné resignation, sets a mood of longing for this multilayered tale of love gone wrong. This music also provides an unlikely but seductive accompaniment to the main story, which comes from the Ramayana, an ancient and voluminous Indian epic.

Its hero is the blue-skinned Rama, avatar of the deity Vishnu, but Ms. Paley is more interested in Sita, his wife, whose devotion becomes both a romantic inspiration and a feminist cautionary tale. Her adventures are narrated by three shadow puppets who speak in the accents of modern Indian English and who quibble over details and interpretations.

Meanwhile, Sita, Rama and other characters from the Ramayana are rendered in various styles, including a “Betty Boop Goes Bollywood” look for the musical numbers and an illuminated-manuscript manner for the dramatic scenes.

All of this is entwined with the simpler, sadder, more drably drawn chronicle of a woman named Nina, whose longtime boyfriend, Dave, takes a job in India and eventually breaks her heart. This is a stripped-down, modernized variation on what happens to Sita, whose absolute love for Rama is repaid with suspicion, a humiliating trial by fire (to test her purity) and banishment. Hanshaw, crooning after inconstant or unkind lovers, completes the picture.

Not that “Sita Sings the Blues” will leave you wallowing in transhistorical, multicultural woe. On the contrary: Ms. Paley takes the pain in stride, and uses it as an occasion for whimsy and inventiveness. The movie’s playful spirit may represent a bit of defiant payback for whatever actual Dave may be out there; it shows that sometimes formal ingenuity can be the best revenge.

And the ingenuity of “Sita” — which evokes painting, collage, underground comic books, Mumbai musicals and “Yellow Submarine” (for starters) — is dazzling. Not busy, or overwhelming, or eye-popping. Just affecting, surprising and a lot of fun."

Hmmm

2009-12-23T10:54:00.002-05:00

Just before getting the plane from LAX to meet up with my family and loved ones, ran through a list of instructions for the cat sitter. After checking food, litter and medical instructions, decided to cut "If you need to pass wind, do warn Perry in advance (otherwise he might scratch you)".

Holiday Gift Idea

2009-12-21T23:05:00.007-05:00

I love my agent dearly, and Scott Rudin has been my great benefactor this year, but when I came across this:

I knew I could put it to good use. Scott owns the film rights to just about every great book on the market, from ‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius’ to ‘The Corrections’. I’ve been going around my house looking for the book that will most confuse my agent when I leave it on his desk, paper-clip’d with the compliments of Scott Rudin. I paused a moment on ‘Ramona Quimby, Age 8’, but it turned out that is actually in development. ‘Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia’, which is literally just pictures of Russian tattoos? I am not kidding, it is IN DEVELOPMENT. I dallied at ‘White Nights: Portrait of a film’, because how good would it be if Scott wanted to make a film about a book of stills from an existing film? The winner:

Logline? “This magnetic cookbook contains a delicious selection of bread recipes, including traditional favourites such as Soda Bread and Barm Brack”. Listen to me, Cliff: if we can attach Amy Adams, I think we have a hit.

Circles

2009-12-10T13:22:00.003-05:00

I wake up spritely on tuesdays, because that's the day the New York Times has its science section. I know absolutely nothing about science. I consistently failed physics and chemistry in school. I once tried to pass a physics exam by writing 'nitrogen oxide' for every single answer, certain it must be right eventually. I find I get the most writing inspiration from the science section, precisely because I am so lost. I end up wandering onto strange topics that spark something stranger. They are also great lateral thinkers, the NY Times science writers. Below is the link to an article about circles in nature, inspired by a Kandinsky retrospective going on at the Guggenheim right now. The painting she mentions, 'Several Circles', is one of my favourites. It gratifies me that a science moron and a science genius can find common ground in a painting. It usually hangs at the Norton Simon in Pasadena, the most consistently inspiring museum I know.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/science/08angier.html

ps: What's your favourite painting?

A Serious Man, A Shrieking Woman

2009-11-21T00:09:00.005-05:00

The Coen Brothers' 'A Serious Man' is, by a very long shot, my favourite film this year and even my favourite film they've ever made (which is saying a lot). My friend SB points out that it may be the first Coen Brothers movie that doesn't feature a ransom note (think about it - from Blood Simple to Raising Arizona to Big Lebowski). It does, however, feature three Rabbis. It's really funny and really entertaining and deeply - well - serious. Of the myriad reasons I love it, one of them is that 'Somebody to Love' by Jefferson Airplane, is a plot point. I have always had a huge soft spot for the Airplane, and especially for Grace Slick. I worship Aretha, Odetta and Mary (they made me the strong black woman I am today) but I think my teenage personality was also shaped by listening to weird white women who boom. Cher, love her. Bette Midler, love her. Grace Slick, obsessed. Why sing quiet when you can sing loud? Clips below from two boomers, Grace and then the great Melanie. 'Candles In The Rain' is a song that is very special to my friend Susa, who is very special to me. So that's for you (you're in my head even more than usual) xxx

Citizen's Arrest

2009-10-08T17:47:00.003-04:00

How's this for a bizarre London story (like a lot of things in London, it starts boring and ends up interesting): so, earlier this year I adapted as a screenplay a novel called 'Gifted' by Nikita Lalwani (pick up the book, it's great). I've never met Nikita, but tonight, after I got back from dance class, I had an email from her saying she thought she'd perhaps stood behind me on the escalator going down into Bond Street tube, wasn't sure, and had taken this cell snap to send me. Yes, that's me, wearing my favourite jeans! After the pic was taken, I got on the tube, went to learn how to rhumba, and then bus'd home in my workout gear. It's only when I got Nikita's photo, I realized I'd left my jeans at the dance studio. BUT NO! They say they are not there! Oh where, oh where are you, favourite jeans? Was your soul stolen by being photographed, and you vapourized in sorrow? Did you hail a cab and hit the town whilst I was dancing my ass off? Are you wandering the tunnels of the London underground like a denim ghost? Or are you in a cafe, having a cup of tea and reading Nikita's novel? If you see my jeans - Chip and Pepper, medium fade, size 25, petite (I'm not ashamed), I authorize you to make a citizen's arrest.

For now...

2009-09-28T06:20:00.003-04:00

I know I haven't updated in a while! Thanks so much for your kind inquiries. I promise you nothing is wrong - everything is right actually. Until I have time do update properly, here's a little clip from one of my favourite dance sequences. Been watching a lot of dance on film lately for a script I'm working on (rent Mathew Bourne's 'Swan Lake', Taylor Hackford's 'White Nights', 'Hans Christian Anderson' for 'The Little Mermaid' ballet sequence, or Powell's 'The Red Shoes' to continue this theme...)

A cool thing about Gene Kelly is that, until he came along, movie dancers had been refined and somewhat femme, like Fred Astaire, whereas Kelly brought a working class machismo to screen dance. Just to use trash cans as props, as he did in the most famous 'Singin' In The Rain' sequence, was quite revolutionary.