Monday, October 19, 2009

Petites Annonces: Andrew's Americanface, American Junkie & the Devlin's Bench Miners.

My old chum Andrew Struthers has a lot on the go today, and not just because he's putting in his first day as a temporary office-mate with me and my pal Aaron Hill while he finds new digs. Today is the beginning of Andrew's Americanface project, a feature-length film which began unspooling at the Tyee this morning and will continue daily through its 64 parts until it's done. I've seen a good bit of it in rough and raw form over the past few months and I can tell you it is brilliant, weird, sublime and hilarious.

Visitors to this weblodge may remember Andrew from his 20-million-viewer smash Spiders on Drugs, and also his book The Green Shadow, which was the third title in my Transmontanus Series with New Star Books.

Speaking of books. . .

Tom Hansen, my student/comrade in the Writing Department at the University of British Columbia, was kind enough to get Emergency Press in New York to rush me a copy of his memoir American Junkie, and it just arrived this morning. I helped Tom wrestle the story to the ground as a special project & thesis over a couple of years in my capacity as his teacher. After all, what's the damn point of "teaching" a writer if the result isn't a book or something, yes? And what's a point of living a life like Tom's unless you're going to write it down? From the blurbage:

"It’s a story that takes us from the promise of a young life to the prison of a mattress, from budding musician to broken down junkie, drowning in syringes and cigarette butts, shooting heroin into wounds the size of softballs, and ultimately, a ride to a hospital for a six-month stay and a painful self-discovery that cuts down to the bone. Through it all he never really loses his step, never lets go of his smarts, and always projects quintessential American reason, humor, and hope to make a story not only about drugs, but a compelling study of vulnerability and toughness."

No saccharine redemption involved, either, which is to say Oprah Will Not Like This Book. Which is to say, it's too good for that sort of imprimatur.

And speaking of the arts, have a look at this gorgeous photograph taken by my buddy Bill Horne, and you will understand what I mean when I say I Support The Devlin's Bench Gold Miners:



Further explications here. The lad on the right is Dave Jorgenson, and Rob Dakau's is on the left.

Thanks, lads. I stand with you.

8 Comments:

Blogger Bill Horne said...

Thanks for the link, Terry.

As well as being pissed off about recent brutal cuts to arts funding in BC ("the best place on earth"), I was fed up with the government's insinuation that culture is inherently elitist and that working class people aren't interested or involved in the arts.

It just ain't true, so I started taking some pictures to depict our interconnections and the solidarity that actually exists.

6:09 PM  
Blogger Terry Glavin said...

Keep up the great work, Bill.

6:47 PM  
Blogger RadicalOmnivore said...

Great work indeed.
The pic caught my attention but Bill's explanation was a delight.
I'm still grinning.

11:28 PM  
Blogger Bill Horne said...

Thanks, IceClass. If you haven't seen the other pic, check http://tinyurl.com/yhl5y7k. Hopefully more to come...

3:54 PM  
Blogger Bill Horne said...

Next in the series: farmers stand tall: http://tinyurl.com/yfob2pm

9:50 PM  
Blogger RadicalOmnivore said...

Wonderfully cheeky and subversive.
Absolutely love it.
Keep up the great work and consider setting it up as a gallery with a PayPal link for donations to the project.
I'd certainly be in for a twenty.
I took the liberty of putting a link on my Facebook page.
Still grinning.
Cheers.

6:08 PM  
Blogger Bill Horne said...

Thanks for your enthusiasm and support, Iceclass - hope you liked the retro tractor ;-)

8:53 AM  
Blogger Bill Horne said...

There's now a PayPal "Donate" button here: http://www.claireart.ca/solidarity_index.htm

9:11 AM  

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