Lux Lotus

BIG IN LONDON: A LUX LOTUS CONTEST

My publicity client, Min Jin Lee, is in the news again, as her "stunning debut" novel, Free Food for Millionaires, made the short list for The Times (UK) "Christmas choice," wherein "Kate Saunders selects the best novels of the year." Well, it just so happens that I have an audio version (with a retail price of around 50 bucks) of Free Food for Millionaires to give away! I know of one early reader who put the whole thing on his iPod and listened to it during his cross-town morning runs and Monocle page-flipping marathons. The rule for the contest is simple: send me your one sentence explanation of why you would rather listen to the book than read it -- how it would free up your time, or your hands, or whatever -- by next Friday, December 7th, and I will announce a winner shortly thereafter.

LUX LOTUS 'ROUND MIDNIGHT POETRY HOUR

PLEASE UNDERSTAND (A BACHELOR'S VALENTINE)
BY STEPHEN DUNN

"When, next day, I found one of your earrings,
slightly chipped, on the steps leading up to
but also away from my house,

I couldn’t decide if I should return it to you
or keep it for myself in this copper box.
Then I remembered there’s always another choice
and pushed it with my foot into the begonias."

Read the rest...

POEM: AGNI 66 (current issue).
IMAGE SOURCE: itfashion.

Art Crush: Dan Sabau

I like to eat Australian food like a piglet, and so I go to Tuck Shop quite a lot. Because the menu serves a list of constant cravings-- sausage rolls/ meat pies, brussels sprouts, scalloped potatoes and "Tim-Tam Slams" are pretty much my idea of comfort food heaven-- I started chatting with the sometime counter guy, who I even recognized at an art fair in the Hamptons this summer! It turns out his name is Dan Sabau and he is a painter and a talented one at that. Above, his painting Djuna As Alien (oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches). J'adore Snarrl, too. Noted, from his artist statement: "My paintings explore the mental and physical aspects of human emotion by pushing the boundaries of conventional portraiture... They celebrate our fascination with the beauty of tragedy." You can view his work online as part of his "Another Girl/Another Planet" series, and also at Feral, and at his personal site, and I certainly suggest that you do! It's exquisite.

UPDATED!
UPCOMING:

Windowlicker

The setting: the den of my dreams. The elements: Jason Miller's Ceramic Twelve-Antler Chandelier, two Saint Esprit tables, a Rustic Tea Cup of Twig Tea and the enveloping comfort of a Diptyque candle scented with Foin Coupé (New Mown Hay). Plus, this extraordinary piece of furniture with yours truly sprawled at leisure and dressed head-to-toe in couture camo courtesy of the Yves Saint Laurent Spring 2007 Collection. Note: sofa also available in Pendleton blanket fabric(s).

[Sofa in Buffalo Check Red, price upon request at Findley Lake Trading Co.]

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.

Setting For a Fairytale*

When I moved to New York at 22 and nothing seemed to be going my way, I used to go and look at this all the time. What's your talisman?

And, speaking of other worlds, my publicity client, author Anne Landsman, spins a beautiful narrative thread in her musical "Book Notes" companion to her novel, The Rowing Lesson, at Largehearted Boy.

*Hint: it's not 50th & Eleventh Avenue, where I lived at the time.

Art Crush: "Soldier Portraits"

Artist Ellen Susan's "Solder Portraits Project,"

"consists of portrait photographs of soldiers of the United States Army, primarily of the 3rd Infantry Division. The goal of the project is to look at a person in military uniform and to see that person as a unique individual... Each soldier who participates is asked to complete a brief questionnaire and to make any comments he or she wishes on any topic. They can also choose not to comment. The photographs are made using the 150 year old collodion wet plate process - the same process that was used to document much of the period (and many of the soldiers) of the Civil War."

Her method of making the images is particularly haunting to me as a viewer since it's a look that I associate with historical documents, and to be quite honest, it's not clear that most of these people-- deployed to Iraq one, two, three or more times-- are coming back.  Susan is exhibiting her work as part of Photo NOLA, and it can also be viewed online.   

Saturday in NYC: "An Insider's Look at Book Publicity"

I'll be discussing innovative PR this weekend, as part of the New York Center for Independent Publishing's 20th Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair. Details here.

Image: Russian Vogue.

The Lux Lotus 1:11 AM DANCE PARTY

Clip: Ames, Iowa-based superstars Leslie Hall and the Lys, How We Go Out Version 2.

Lux.links

• Emma Garman on Gamel Woolsey [lost magazine]
• Jen Bekman: Going on her nerve [downtown express]
• Keren Ann [fabulon]
• Preposterous Headdresses and Feathered Ladies [walpole library]
• Judge a Book's Cover [chekhov's mistress]
• Teenage girls write their own, uncensored stories in Amy Goldwasser's "Red" [radar online]
• Take Ames [kingdom of style]
• Collaborative innovation and collective intelligence [metacool]

Windowlicker

For those Cruella De Vil days...

[Karl Donoghue Lambskin Collar, $74 (60% off) at Net-a-Porter]

[Saks Fifth Avenue Patent Leather Gloves, $198]

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.