December 1st, 2009 / 3:00 pm
Web Hype
Gary Lutz trailer for 60 Writers/60 Places
60 Writers/60 Places is a film about writers and their writing occupying untraditional spaces, everyday life, everywhere. It begins with the idea of the tableaux vivant, a living picture where the camera never moves, but the writers read a short excerpt of their work instead of silently holding their poses. There is Blake Butler reading in a subway, Deb Olin Unferth in a Laundromat, Jamie Gaughran-Perez in a beauty salon, Tita Chico in a dressing room, Gary Lutz at the botantical gardens, Will Eno in a park, Tao Lin next to a hot dog cart, and Rick Moody on a baseball field. The writer and the writing go on no matter what is going on around them.
60 Writers/60 Places features:
BLASTER AL ACKERMAN ::
RAHNE ALEXANDER ::
KEN BAUMANN ::
LAUREN BENDER ::
KATE BLACKWELL ::
JESSICA ANYA BLAU ::
BLAKE BUTLER ::
MAUD CASEY ::
TITA CHICO ::
KIM CHINQUEE ::
KANDICE CHUH ::
LUCA DIPIERRO ::
GIANCARLO DITRAPANO ::
WILL ENO ::
BRIAN EVENSON ::
JENNIFER FIRESTONE ::
JAMIE GAUGHRAN-PEREZ ::
COLBY GREEN ::
PIOTR GWIAZDA ::
MICHAEL HEARST ::
JOANNA HOWARD ::
FELIX JACOB ::
BONNIE JONES ::
MICHAEL KIMBALL ::
JIM KNIPFEL ::
ELIZABETH KOCH ::
BRIAN KUBARYCZ ::
EUGENE LIM ::
TAO LIN ::
SAM LIPSYTE ::
ROBERT LOPEZ ::
GARY LUTZ ::
FIONA MAAZEL ::
EUGENE MARTEN ::
DANIELLE MCCLAMMY ::
JEN MICHALSKI ::
LESLIE F. MILLER ::
RICK MOODY ::
ELLEN MOYNIHAN ::
EILEEN MYLES ::
LEIGH NEWMAN ::
ZITA NUNES ::
WILLIE PERDOMO ::
CARLA PETERSON ::
DAWN RAFFEL ::
NELLY REIFLER ::
ADAM ROBINSON ::
RACHEL SHERMAN ::
JUSTIN SIROIS ::
RON TANNER ::
JUSTIN TAYLOR ::
CHRIS TOLL ::
RANDOLPH TRUMBACH ::
DEB OLIN UNFERTH ::
JOSH WEIL ::
LAURA WEXLER ::
RUPERT WONDOLOWSKI ::
JAMES YEH ::
JOSEPH YOUNG ::
LENI ZUMAS ::
Tags: 60 writers 60 places, gary lutz
he’s so adorable
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December 1st, 2009 / 11:14 pmLandon—
he looks like a nervous kitten
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This is not contrived at all.
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December 1st, 2009 / 3:45 pmBlake Butler—
Hi ‘Grey Name’ The footage comes from unused scenes from the shooting while Gary waiting to read into the camera.
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December 1st, 2009 / 7:15 pmRyan Call—
is ‘contrived’ a negative thing? isnt art contrived anyhow?
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December 1st, 2009 / 7:26 pmGrey Name—
Contrived art is not a bad thing. Your thoughts are, though.
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December 1st, 2009 / 7:37 pmBlake Butler—
Milk and Cookies back again
December 1st, 2009 / 7:43 pmRyan Call—
lol
December 2nd, 2009 / 10:57 amdavid erlewine—
you play to win, grey name. bring the noise.
that’s a pretty amazing list of writers.
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December 1st, 2009 / 4:08 pmBen Spivey—
the publishers weekly list?
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can we get it screened here?
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December 1st, 2009 / 4:18 pmAmy McDaniel—
i will smash you looks very cool too, maybe a double feature?
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December 1st, 2009 / 4:19 pmBlake Butler—
planning to try to set up a smash screening at eyedrum early next year. double feature is a good idea.
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December 1st, 2009 / 4:22 pmBen Spivey—
I would go to that big time.
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December 1st, 2009 / 4:24 pmAmy McDaniel—
hooraaaay!
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December 2nd, 2009 / 1:12 amjames yeh—
is it going to be part of solar anus?
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December 2nd, 2009 / 1:14 amAmy McDaniel—
james, everything is part of the solar anus.
double screening coming to Los Angeles, soon.
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I am setting up a screening of 60 Writers/60 Places at AWP. Please do not see it before then.
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December 1st, 2009 / 5:04 pmAdam Robinson—
There will be other good stuff at the event, too, in case you do see it before then, though.
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i’d never seen the other trailers for this movie; they’re all staggering. blake’s and gian’s, especially. i wish someone would bring 60 writers to florida (either the movie or 60 people who are writers).
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This Lutz piece is fucking brilliant.
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Gary’s a serious guy.
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This sort-of looks like:
http://vimeo.com/5454333
http://amherstcinema.org/?q=films-and-events%2Fwhen-you-think-it
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December 2nd, 2009 / 10:41 amJennie M—
It does, sort of in that these are all writers, but based on that trailer, it’s hard to tell. Also, the making of 60/60 has been known about for a while — in Time Out New York last March.
http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/tonyblog/2009/03/60-writers60-places/
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December 2nd, 2009 / 1:04 pmWalser & Co.—
That’s good news, Adam. We are already standing a mile high in line. But that doesn’t stop us from wanting to screen this in Western Mass (Michael and Luca, we want our double feature). Indeed, if it is anything “like” the notnostrums movie (When You Think Of It is the name of the movie, tho you might not know it from the direct link below) it will probably get better with every viewing.
As for that “like,” Jake and Jennie, does it really matter if one looks like the other or who thought of what when? It seems likely that Deb Olin Unferth didn’t know Ben Kopel would also read in a laundromat, and vice versa. But how much better that they both did (either read or know.)
One of the great things to gather from this coincidence is that altho places and settings are echoed, there is no overlap in the writers themselves. When You Think Of It has Heather Christle reciting on the way to Agnes Fox Park and Mark Leidner reading on…line, Dara Wier reading in black and white and Emily Toder proclaiming in water, Lisa Olstein reading in a tree and Christian Hawkey dancing underground, James Tate reading on a porch and Jordan Stempleman reading in a parlor, getting a tatoo, and Michelle Taransky, and 15 others, reading too. 60W/60P has not just Gary Lutz reading in the Botanical Gardens, and Blake Butler in the subway, and Giancarlo DiTrapano in a church, but so much else–Brian Evenson in a courtyard, Justin Taylor in a pastry shop, Leni Zumas in a lighthouse–that I wish I could see 60 trailers right now (tho browsing the 60 stills on the Little Burns site is the next best thing.)
Could it be that between the two movies there are 84 writers in 48 states, or more? And couldn’t (and shouldn’t) there be many more movies with many more writers. Isn’t it the best–the most–time to be a reader?
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December 2nd, 2009 / 1:32 pmCelan Salon—
Here is the link to the nn trailer:
http://www.notnostrums.com/iss3/investigations.php
and for good measure to the 60 stills:
http://www.littleburnfilms.com/60Writers60Placesstills.html
(and “most” was not a typo as will be clearer when The Minutes list of the 60 Most Books of 2009, lots of overlap with both movies, appears)
And here’s another analogy for why it’s silly to think of this as anything other than 1923 (Spring and All AND Harmonium): it’s not like we didn’t want to have Blake and Robert Lopez read w/ Sam Ligon in Celan Salon because they’d already read w/ Gary Lutz at Word (thought of this because I am wondering now, what is Word–in the Time Out NY link–? It sounds like Walser & Co should know about it.) No, we want to have Gary Lutz read at Schoen Books too. In fact, all of the readers from 60W/60P (and When You Think Of It for that matter) are invited to read at the old firehouse. We have a lot of their books there already, and you’re invited to come read these too.
And a question: what other movies have writers (or readers) reading in unexpected settings?
December 2nd, 2009 / 1:52 pmWalser & Co.—
And at least in Western Mass–a watcher–Sam Lipsyte Thursday (8 pm, Memorial Hall, UMass), Seth Landman a week from Monday (14th, Rendezvous, Turners Falls, 7 pm), Shane Jones (Mike Young?), etc.
December 2nd, 2009 / 3:27 pmJennie M—
It is great that writers and writing are celebrated so fully and enthusiastically.
[...] Trailer for 60Writers/60 Places. Links to most of the writers are at HTML Giant. [...]
“The divine magnet is in you, and my magnet responds. Which is the biggest? A foolish question–they are One.”
http://divinemagnet.blogspot.com/
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I think it matters that one looks like the other. When we are reminded of something by some-other-thing it is not uncommon, or impolite, to say “this looks sort-of like that.” It is, by my sense of the phrase, equivalent to saying, “I have been reminded of something I know of by this other thing that’s new to me.” Which came first is another matter that matters too in that it doesn’t matter oh so much. One of the trailers for 60/60 exposes the feelings of “urgency” the filmmakers had as they were planning the film. “This sort-of looks like” can be a difficult thing to hear. Yes. Maybe nobody wants to hear that. Not everyone wants someone to whisper in their ear: “Mr. Sensitive, Mr. Sensitive, Mr. Sensitive.” But some do.
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Well, yes, of course, similarities are interesting and important. The initial ’sort-of’ just said ’sort-of,’ nothing else really to respond to, and no way to enter the conversation except to say yea or nay.
All good readers recognize patterns, allusions, riffs, simultaneity, originality, simulacra, etc., as do good writers.
What’s really great is that writers are being profiled in such interesting and compelling ways.
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