What a long gap! The reason for it is contained somewhere in this email... "Just realized I MISSED this. Book: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. You need to read this. Have I already suggested it? Album: Al Stewart, PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE. It’s a history lesson with catchy songs… Film: THE LION IN WINTER..." Thanks Neil!
Hello and greetings from Canada! Where the maple syrup flows freely over the cured pig belly year-round. Your cultural requirements for this week are: THE INFORMATION by James Gleick (A History, A Theory, A Flood). It's literally a history of our concept of "information" and how we transmit and @ measure it, as well as how it has transformed human society. Some nice non-fiction there for you, because you sounded enthusiastic when I mentioned it. The very beginning where Gleick explains about African drumming and information redundancy is killer and made me realllly excited. Have you been given Beck to listen to yet? If not, then it's definitely got to be, oh look - THE INFORMATION. (Would you believe me if I said this was a total fluke?) This is definitely one of my favourite albums and I know you're going to love it. If you HAVE had this one already, then let me know. I'll be REALLY disappointed and then I'll find you something else. Enjoy! Knibbs xx
"Dear Polly,
Please accept my humble apologies for the lateness of my glorious return to Culture Coaching. You see, the reason I'm a week late is that I got sick, and my eyeball fell out, then my house burnt down, and my mum flew up into space, and I was abducted by giraffes and then I married a squid, and then I broke my favourite mug. But I'm all better now. So please accept my cultured offerings for this week:
Book: The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll. JSC is a marvellous writer and an absolute favourite of mine (and way underrated if you ask me). This is my favourite of his books. It is romantic and funny and sweet and exciting and sad and all the good things. I like how JSC writes women. Delicately and lovingly. He is wonderful. And once sent me an unprublished short story in an email </humblebrag>.
Music: Awake by Tycho. Sparkly, shiny, sunny loveliness. I listened to this a lot while cycling through Vietnam recently. It's perfect for your upcoming spring/summer weather.
Film: I can't remember if you're doing films or not, but in case you are, you should totally watch Moonrise Kingdom if you haven't already. If you have, good - you have perfect taste as usual. If you haven't - good, you get to watch it for the first time, you lucky thing. Dreamy swoon love-fest.
SMOOCHES!"
Thanks Jordan!
A busy Neil hasn't given us blurbs, but here are his picks for the next two weeks:
Dire Straits, 1st album. Music.
Alice, by Jan Svenkmajor film.
The Years Have Pants, by Eddie Campbell. Book.
And then later, he later sent this:
"It has been brought to my attention that the Dire Straits album with TUNNEL OF LOVE on it is actually MAKING MOVIES and not the first album. I meant that one." So that's nice.
Kicking us off (she's so violent) for round 2 is Knibbs, and here she goes...
"Dear Polly, I'm going to continue the theme of being the assertive (Enthusiastic? ...Bossy?) one and give you your first "required reading" "for" ("new!" "improved!") "Culture Coach" "."
This time I even have the luxury of sitting right next to you and not letting you read over my shoulder! ...I feel so naughty? Seeings as how we are mid-way through the West End production of Matilda (!!!) for £5 (!!!) I thought it would be entirely appropriate to make you read the original: Roald Dahl's Matilda. You uncultured swine. And as that read, fun though it is, won't really fill your two weeks unless you read at a rate of a dyslexic snail, I'm going to break all of your rules (hashtagPissingOffTheBritish) and give you Extra Reading. In the form of Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler. It will provoke more questions than it answers and make you think of museums in a new light. Wonderful.
Music is harder.... So I'm dipping into my serious love for Australian hip-hop to give you the Hilltop Hoods' Drinking From the Sun. This album is wonderful because it features orchestral instruments in some tracks and is generally a great-sounding album.
Please enjoy.
Knibbs xxxxx"
Hello all,
After a break of just over a year, I'm getting spectacularly into the spirit of Easter with a resurrection of my own.
I so loved doing Culture Coach, and thought it was about time I got my act together and brought it back. So welcome old, welcome new, my haven't you grown since I last saw you, how's grandpa, etc, it's time to get royally cultured together.
What is Culture Coach?
So for those of you who have signed up since I last updated and don't really know why you're here, click this magical link to find out what it is all about.
For anyone who wants to know what's been covered so far, click this super button for a run down.
(For those of you who played along before, this resurrection includes the slight edit that instead of one week per update, it will now be two.)
Lets go!
Hi all from hot Phoenix. Sorry for lack of updates. Been doing that ol' travellin thing with culture coach Knibbs. Which obviously leads to a day trip to Phoenix. Whether it's the weather (I am a puddle of sweat), the cultural hotspots (very large Alzheimer's centre) or kindness of strangers (a man laughed at Knibbs when she tripped over a pothole), I can't recommend a holiday to Phoenix any more. To keep you going in the meantime if you are beside yourselves with desperation for my input into your cultural lives: I'm reading A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins. The great thing about the richness and vastness of English history is that this is an absolute page turner. Filled with explanations for questions you didn't even realise you were asking, it provides a great commentary to link up all of English history.
Thanks Neil.
"Your film is either
ALL THAT JAZZ by Bob Fosse -- a musical about making art and dying.
OR
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS - an Ealing Comedy. This one about murder, starring Sir Alex Guinness as more or less everybody.
(Depending on whether you have seen one of these or if your semi amnesiac cultcha tutor has put it on the list already. All That Jazz for preference.)
Your book is THE WASP FACTORY by Iain Banks. It's short. It's nasty. It's brilliant. It's funny. It's not like anything else. It was where Iain started, more or less.
Your music is IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS by Frank Sinatra. Songs of heartbreak and despair, all to be sung in bars at 3 am when it's closing up but if you don't tell someone why your heart is breaking you might as well just head off into the mist of the night and never come back again."
G'day m'hearties. Already started on this week's book and it's a corker.
"For this week:
Your book is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. One of the best college campus novels out there and fantastic suspense.
For music, you must listen to The Information by Beck. I promise you you will love it. Beck is continuing to do really interesting things in music, like releasing his latest album as sheet music only (called Song Reader) with accompanying art.
As for films, I can't believe nobody has given you Hitchcock yet! I'm not sure if I've seen more Hitchcock or Burton films.... Watch any of these you haven't already seen: Pyscho, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder. (For starters.)
Enjoy! Knibbs xx"
FIFTEEN. Madness. Enjoy! (Sidebar: I’m on mobile at the moment. I’m going to come back later and add bolds and hyperlinks. This will only bother me. This note is entirely for me. Just so long as we’re all clear.)
“So yeah - this whole kultcha thing you got going on. Here’s another slice for ya!
BOOK: Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I spent my high school years wanting to be Cayce Pollard. MUSIC: Version 2.0 by Garbage. I spent most of 1998 and 1999 wanting to be Shirley Manson. MOVIE: Tank Girl (1995). I still kinda want to be Tank Girl.
Enjoy those tasty morsels.
xxx J”
"Right. Well, books...
You get to pick: Sweet or sour. If you go Sweet: it's THREE MEN IN A BOAT (not to mention the dog) by Jerome K Jerome. A Victorian story of three men who go off on a boating holiday on the Thames. It's a travelogue, a collection of humorous anecdotes, and so many other things. From 1889
OR
Sour: The Turn of the Screw. By Henry James. From 1898. A novella. It's a ghost story, or it's a story of madness: a governess becomes convinced that her charges are being haunted by the spirits of her predecessors. How you read this book changes the nature o fwhat you're reading.
MUSIC: I'm glad you liked Patti Smith.
I've not suggested any Best of... Albums so far. But I think I will: TALES OF A LIBRARIAN, by Tori Amos. It's a real solid Best Of of Tori's first decade making music. You'll hear her sing about me in Tear In Your Hand. She's unique and smart and the songs on here are a good selection of what she does.
Something to watch: A Clockwork Orange. Kubrick's dystopic take on Anthony Burgess' novel: violence and free will and beethoven. A film that was unavailable in the UK for over 30 years because every time they showed it (anecdotally) violence went up. Huge philosophical questions about free will and evil and suchlike. Some of it is hard to watch, but in the cultural literacy stakes it's this or Kubrick's The Shining, and this is a more important film."
From the oracle himself, Neil.
Edit: I noticed that Neil has actually suggested A Clockwork Orange before. Keep it to yourselves, but I failed to watch it last time... I'm not very good at films. So I'm leaving it there in the hope I might watch it this time. Perhaps. Maybe.
Should any of you culture MANIACS want to join my mailing list, there is a way! Send an email to culturecoachpolly AT gmail DOT com, or leave your email address in my ask box. I'll email out the prescriptions at the beginning of each new week.
Warning! Side effects include never again missing a week, my complete inability to tell how long a week really is, and my shambolic attempts at occasional wit, right in your inbox.
Unlucky for some... Enjoy!
"Polly!
It's Week Thirteen like Commander Keen. Kudos on your continuing commitment to Culcha!
For this week:
RAIN DOGS BY TOM WAITS
Tom Waits' voice has been famously described as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." I love the way Tom Waits experiments with different styles of music, but I'm mostly drawn to his industrial sounds. I had trouble choosing an album because my favourite songs are spread across all of them, but I think my all-time favourite may be Jockey Full of Bourbon.
EXTRA: Make sure you look up the spoken poem What's He Building? from the album Mule Variations as well. So. Fucking. Good.
THE PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE
It's Oscar Wilde. Does it really need an explanation? Much more Gothic than say, The Importance of Being Earnest, but has one of those way-out crazy-original premises that has you on the edge of your seat. I keep meaning to read more of Wilde's stories.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
Good, proper vintage Tim Burton before he got a bit boring and repetitive. Fantastic production design and whimsical story.
Salut!
G'day one and all. New week is upon us. I've completely lost track of what weeks are, but here is this week's course, after a weekish sort of time gap from the last one. Enjoy!
"Howdy sweet-pea. It's to get kultcha-fied!
BOOK: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. I myself only read this for the first time last year, and was astounded by all the popculture references that suddenly made a whole lot of sense. You too should experience this burst of enlightenment!
MUSIC: Avalon by Roxy Music. Because screw you and shut up.
FILM: In the Mood for Love (2000) directed by Wong Kar-wai. Because of brilliance, and of love and lighting and camera angles and hair and dresses and sheer perfection.
Get it up ya." - Jordan
This is LATE. Apologies. This is another Gaiman week. He's even supplied handy links. Enjoy!
"So:
A book, some music, and a movie to bring you back into the cultural what-have-you.
The last book I sent you was a Wodehouse, and that made me really happy.
So. Your book. I think it's time for another CLASSIC. This one is my favourite Russian novel. Some Russian novels are filled with doom and despair. This one has doomladen undercurrents, but is much more about love and history and magic and salvation and damnation and Russia. It has the Devil in it, and a large black cat in it too, who does wonderful things. It's called THE MASTER AND MARGERITA by Mikhail Bulgakov.
Movie: Not exactly. In conversation, I discovered that a huge gap in your eduction was the lack of Vintage Muppet Shows in your life. So... Season Two of the original Muppet Show is on DVD. (Season one is good, but they are still finding their feet.) You do not have to watch all of them. You do have to watch the John Cleese one.
Music: Do you have a record player? You must have. Get THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS and listen to it on LP. I do not know why every CD mix I've ever heard has sounded tinny and thin, but they do. I mean it.
Ziggy Stardust was the album that made Bowie famous -- its potent combination of science fiction and predictive rock and roll autobiography, along with good tunes and a cracking band."
Sidebar: Neil later texted me saying:
"You don't have to listen to ziggy on LP, according to the Amazon reviews the 2012 release on CD sounds good."
We are just waiting on this week's recommendations from a certain Neil.
Films again from next week. Promises, preciouses. I found myself chatting nonsense about Day of the Triffids and Catch 22 at dinner the other night, surrounded by book people. I fooled them! They think I'm cultural! It's working!
Sorry for being a day late. Here you go:
"For this week: CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL by Glen David Gold. I loved this book because not only is it inspired by the life of a real stage magician in the 20s, but also because Gold expertly uses the magician's tricks of misdirection, anticipation and suspense to tell his story. And I gave you a classic last week so I thought I'd mix it up. And ELECTRO SWING VOLUME 1. This is a wonderful compilation of music incorporating classic swing and big band music into contemporary music styles. I sent it to my eldest sister and her reaction was all caps and exclamation marks. That's not usually how she communicates. Enjoy! Knibbs xx"
Morning all. Hope you're all enjoying this. This week is from Jordan. Sorry for lack of films - I'm not very good at watching films. I'm blaming it on being too busy. Maybe I should be practicing. Maybe I should make a blog that encourages me to. Hmmmm..
"Culture time!
BOOK: Your book for this week is Perfume by Patrick Süskind. This blew my face off the first time I read it. Creepy beautiful perfection.
MUSIC: Give Up by The Postal Service, for all your super-sweet glitch-poppy needs.
Bisous!"
Thoughts?
From Neil this week. Enjoy!
"MUSIC: Listen to the first Velvet Underground album. It has a banana on the cover, drawn by Andy Warhol. They say that only a thousand people bought this record when it first came out, but each of those people started a band. It's enormously influential. John Cale's strange viola drones, Sterling Morrison's guitar and Mo Ticker's heartbeat drumming, providing a framework in which Lou Reed's sad songs of alienation and deviance and longing rest uncomfortably. Sometimes Lou sings, and sometimes Nico does.
BOOK It's a culture blog, and it's about the things you should read to be culturally literate. Have you read Psmith In The City or Psmith Journalist by P. G. Wodehouse? If you have, then I assign you Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith.
FILM: Have you ever seen A CLOCKWORK ORANGE? If not, you should. It's one of those films you should have seen. You don't have to like it, but you should see it."
Looking forwards to this one! I've seen and been scared shitless by the BBC Day of the Triffids, so time to go through it all again. Be good, little culture-ettes.
"Your Culture Coach assignment this week is as follows: A bit of mid-century science fiction with The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. Quite possibly the most terrifying book I've ever read, mainly because of its realism. Wyndham is a master at speculative fiction. His characters are so ordinary and believable, that their terrors become real to the reader as they deal with the sudden crazy situation he puts them in. Wyndham makes his sci-fi believable without giving too much backstory - his novels focus on how individuals/society would actually deal with world-shaking events. In Triffids, it's blindness and flesh-eating plants.
Aaaand because you might need something a bit upbeat and cheerful to counter that, I'm also recommending Architecture in Helsinki's album Moment Bends. They're a very fun Aussie band and I'm quite convinced that at least half of the songs were created specifically for dancing enthusiastically in the privacy of one's own room. Not that I would ever do that. Ever.
Enjoy!
Knibbs xx"
