I hope you had a good Bank Holiday break. I spent a very enjoyable chunk of it reading the new Carl Hiaasen novel – excuse the shameless self-promotion, but you can read an interview I did with Hiaasen over on my blog. But now we’re back in the office, and it’s my pleasure to introduce you all to the new issue of Uncut, which goes on sale tomorrow.
I spent a chunk of the weekend reading Bad Monkey, the new novel by Carl Hiaasen - one America's great crime writers. After a rather fallow period recently, the book feels very much like Hiaasen is back to full strength.
The Coen Brothers have released a third trailer for their upcoming film, Inside Llewyn Davis. As I'm sure you know from previous reports, this is their inimitable take on the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s.
We only interviewed Elmore Leonard once in Uncut. This was around the release of Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino’s adaptation of Leonard’s novel Rum Punch; coincidentally, Leonard also had a new novel out at the same time, Cuba Libre.
I don’t know about you, but I’m still reeling from final episodes of Top Of The Lake and Southcliffe on television over the weekend. Both, I suppose, had a loose thematic link - they were studies of tragedy in small communities - and I think in the end I preferred Southcliffe’s open-endedness to Top Of The Lake’s flurry of final act revelations; but that said, they were both brilliant TV, easily among the best things I've seen this year.
As anniversaries go, you might presume that Morrissey hasn't much wanted to throw a party to celebrate his quarter century as a solo artist. After all, his year has been blighted by ongoing health problems - bleeding ulcer, Barrett's esophagus and double pneumonia, food poisoning - and a number of crippling tour cancellations, the most recent due to lack of funding, all of which has led him to note glumly, “the future is suddenly absent.”
There comes a moment during the trailer for Spike Jonze’s new film, Her, where Joaquin Phoenix turns to the object of his affections and says, “I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”
Taking my cue from John’s playlist blogs, I thought I’d compile something similar – a playlist (or, more accurately, a viewing list) of film trailers I’ve been watching in the office.
Bob Dylan’s on the cover of the new Uncut, which goes on sale tomorrow, July 31. The occasion? The release of The Bootleg Series, Volume 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969 – 1971) a typically fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of the Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning sessions.
