The News

All is coming up a pocketful of poppies in my world of work this week...

Rudolph Wurlitzer, author of The Drop Edge of Yonder, which Patti Smith recommends, has an exclusive essay at MaudNewton.com that could not be more of the (read: against the) zeitgeist.

UPDATE: Today Los Angeles CityBeat published a lengthy, glowing review: "Wurlitzer’s West is a sacred space, an American dreamtime, and a carnival of travesties and transfigurations..."

Also, a friend told me yesterday that he and his pals have been passing around the issue of Arthur with Rudy's interview (now online). From my favorite passage, you can see why:

Arthur: After Two-Lane, weren’t you going to go to India to direct a film?

RW: In the early ’70s there was a very short-lived wave of small films that were made by people like Dennis Hopper, Monte Hellman, Bob Rafelson, and, of course, Terry Malick and others, and I was sort of washed along in that wave. After Universal gave me a small amount of development money based on a script I wrote that took place in India, I went off on a location scout with the producer and a production manager. While we were wandering around Benares, we stopped in a small shop to have something to drink and got unexpectedly whacked out on some kind of hash-opium concoction which left us barely able to crawl. We got totally lost and ended up on the river where dozens of bodies were being burned over huge woodpiles like some kind of surreal barbecue. When we got back to the hotel, the production manager, who had never been outside of California, was so freaked out that he refused to leave his room except to go to the airport. By the time the producer and I returned four weeks later, we were barely allowed in the parking lot at Universal.

And, Roxana Robinson, whose new novel, COST, is out officially from Sarah Crichton Books/FSG next week, will be reading from her "scorching" (--Booklist) tale on Friday night in New York. Please join us for an evening exploring Heroin & Hollywood, with a little party to follow. The New York Times ran a profile of Roxana last weekend. Prepare to be fascinated!