THE LIVERPOOL BASQUE
The best-selling English writer Helen Forrester has just written a book called The Liverpool Basque. The Alberta based writer, who also lived in Hoylake, Delhi and Liverpool, tells the story of a Basque immigrant in her new 382 page-long novel. An America-bound ship bearing Manuel the Basque docks at Liverpool at the beginning of the XX Century. The story carries on from there and follows Manuel through his mishaps and adventures in the Liverpool port. The novel "The Liverpool Basque" offers us what we Basques were missing: a best seller emblazoned in gold letters. It's got the Basque Beret and all!!
CLOWES’S LATEST: DAVID BORING
The author who brought us the Ghost World and Eight Ball comics is back with his latest picture book. He focuses on the lukewarm nature of a XX Century youth that has lost itself along the way. We once again see the world through the eyes of a youngster. Clowes's new comic grabs your attention through the same steady rhythm and nearness of style that he used in Ghost World. There are many ways to describe David Boring, but you'd never call him dull. If you visit the web page below, you can also see what Robert Crumb has been up to lately.
KIDNAP ME, I BEG YOU!!
New York executives find robbing and ripping people off a tad boring it seems. They're now paying 1,000 dollars for people to kidnap them in their search for new thrills. Once they've handed over the dosh, they can be kidnapped at any time or place in the six months following the payment. In order to find out what it feels like to be kidnapped they leave all the dirty work involved in their thrill-seeking to a company set up for such. The company, as you might expect, has no name or telephone. However, we at The Balde know the boss's handle: Matt Wells. If you're up for it, we have other information you might like to know...
+, + DA, MORE IS MORE
Before we've even had a chance to get to grips with Apple's Powerbook Titanium, the fruit with the chunk missing has gone and released the world's first laptop with a 17 inch screen. You also get some extra pearls like 1 GB of speed, a DVD/CD recorder and 64 MB of video memory as well as the aforementioned spectacular screen. You're gonna have a tough job finding a briefcase big enough for this bucko.
ZWAN
Billy Corgan's new band Zwan are calling their debut album "Mary Star of The Sea". The LP will be in the shops on the last day of February. Other ex-Smashing Pumpkins man Jimmy Chamberlain also features on drums. The rest of band is made up of David Pajo (Slint), Matt Sweeney (Chavez) and Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle). For further info, go to...
SOLDERBERG VS TARTOVSKY
The film Solaris won't leave anybody cold. Andrey Tartovsky was the first to bring Stanislaw Lem's novel to the big screen. The Russian director hacked his version into slow time and either marvelled his audience or bored them to death. Solderberg has speeded his version up a bit but they still don't seem to understand him in the USA (very strange that!). What is Solaris about? That might just be a little too difficult to answer. It's like trying to fathom how much of a hold on our lives unrecoverable lost love has...
