The Naked Reader

Too busy with the Booktunes project to write a proper article on, say , Taras Bulba, I have decided to drop a top about naked readers... for the boys & lesbians & all the rest of the party people who want to see more titties in the Disco.

Today I came across this beautiful picture through one of my favourite blogs called Goodshit. An Extra Good blog so check it here.

Although I am getting married next month and don't have the ambition to become a collector like the Flemisch Louis Paul Boon, I would appreciate it if you could post some more with or without glasses in the comments field.

Enjoy!

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Murakami 1q84 is here

First book, first page, first paragraph, second sentence, first word is...
'Janáceks Sinfonietta'!
Followed by Aomame, one of the protagonists, telling all about it.

Yes I am having a test copy of the long awaited upcoming new Murakami novel 1q84 in front of me... in Holland we are quite lucky with a dutch translation to be released on the 26th of june! Seems Enlish readers won't be able to buy their copy untill november 2011. Hallo (hello)!

Anyway, doesn't matter where you are or what language you speak, Readers Disco likes to share some music before we continue reading. Get your groove on for part one of Haruki's latest work consisting of three massive volumes and download the Sinfonietta here.

Dutch readers can read along with the first 15 pages following this link.

Enjoy!

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Amadou & Mariam - Lundi à Londres

Back in London! Away from the Light of Day, the biography by Amadou & Mariam got launched yesterday in Waterstones Picadilly. The lovely couple played a few songs, novelist Ian Clayton read some text, the public asked some questions. And yeah, pretty English questions indeed.

I was lucky to ask them some questions in person, since their Publisher Route decided to give me some time in their schedule after The Times & BBC were done. Cool. Très cool as I said en Français.

The interview was alright. It's all a bit new to me, but I guess they liked my music related questions. We did talk about their blindness though, and about the process of writing the biography. I did get the notion Mariam was doing some powernaps during some of my questions, which wasn't too bad since Amadou seemed to be the one to rigoler with.

More laughing during the public Q&A: Amadou & Mariam have just performed on the dusty sixth floor while being told it really was the 'Waterstones loft'. They look wonderfull in their blue shiny African dresses. A geezer stands up and asks: 'So WHO is wearing the trousers?'. Pardon? (en frainçais)

Since we are in the Discotheque, here's the free disco download of the week:
a nice remix of one of our Amadou & Mariam fav's sent to us by our favourite Skater.

Cheers!

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Philip Huff - Dagen van Gras

- - ey Disco! Here's an article about a nice Dutch novel by Philip Huff -

- - Our first guestpost by a nice Dutch girl called Rose -

- - Soundtrack at the bottom, enjoy! -

Days (made of) of Grass a story about a boy in his puberty. In the book the boy looks back at his life. Ben is now 18 years old, born in Zwolle (Holland). His name is Ben. He tells his story while living in an apartment for youngsters with mental problems. Ben has had a psychiatric disease and is recovering from it. While recovering he tells his story, using loads of music to give the events some colour, sphere and meaning.

Ben grew up in country estate 'Weldra', just outside of Zwolle. Tom was Ben his best friend. Tom was a do-er, Ben was more of a thinker. Together they had much fun, doing stuff every young boy (and girl) would want to do if they had the space, lack of supervision and time to do it. Ben' s father called Tom 'Lucifer Sam', because of his red hair. Pink Floyd has a song about Lucifer Sam. Ben has his music taste from his father, who was an Englishmen, loving British pop music from the 60's and 70's. Ben now has these records.

Ben's life hasn't been easy. His twin brother died when he was born, his mother can be very depressed about this. When Ben was young, his parents used to have big fights. Ben would usually go and find someplace safe. His father built Ben a tree house, which became his safe place. After a while his father went away and never came back. He went back to live in England. His mother got herself a new lover who moved into the house and Ben found himself retiring in the tree house more and more.

The tree house was also the place Ben and Tom used to meet. One day, Tom brought some weed. They smoked the weed and listened to Ben's music. Smoking weed and listening to music in the tree house became a habit, the two would meet every day after school to play guitar, listening to records and smoking weed. This was the time Ben had lots of philosophical thoughts. He spoke about it with Tom, who sometimes understood his thoughts, sometimes laughed about it. It was a classic stoned togetherness, listening to music, finding out the best parts of the music and philosophise about it. I reckon that's why Ben talks about this music so beautifully, as if he is in the music. A few songs he tells about: "Blackbird" (fingerstyle), "Paperback writer" and "While my Guitar gently weeps" by the Beatles; George Harrison in particular was Ben's favourite member of the Beatles. Ben also writes about other songs, but when he was high nothing could beat the Beatles.

One day he was getting very stoned with his friend Tom, they fell asleep listening to Ben's records. When Ben woke up, the tree house was on fire. He can't recall everything that has happened and wonders where Tom was. He thinks he might not have made it out of the fire, and that the nurses and his mother don't dare to tell him.

Ben is thinking delusional, but the way he describes it, makes his story reasonable. The nice thing is, as a reader you understand Ben but you know what he is doing doesn't make sense: throwing with chairs at his mother, refusing to take his pills etcetera. Ben is having a psychosis. He is being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Also here music plays a big role for Ben. Ben describes how he hates the Beatles song “I want to tell you” by The Beatles), how "She said she said" is about a bad trip and how "Feed the birds" (Mary Poppins) is a very calming sound to him.

I think the music is not only illustrative in this story; it is a story on its own. You can't read the book properly if you don't know the tunes. It's definitely word a read because it's well written, never bores and you really get to know Ben, a troubled 18-year-old boy with interesting, sometimes quite stoned thoughts.

- Download the Soundtrack to Dagen van Gras for free - 

- Buy the novel at Bol.com [dutch] -

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Ytje in Barça!

Ytje's new work inspired by 'Rats' is part of the 'Chicas del Pólder' exhibition in the Ras Gallery Barcelona. Pop by if you're in the Barça area before the 4th of june!

Download the song by Sonic Youth here..

.. and head to the exhbition in the Ras

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Chick with Plums - Tar music search

The new Booktunes site is online! Now I have to worry, ehm, think about promoting the thing, pop by at literary sites both digital and physical, meet new people, read more books.

Recently went to visit Uitgeverij Atlas, the Dutch publisher of Mr. Murakami and Mr. Hornby. Good to be in this dragon's den adjoining one of Amsterdam’s finest canaux, got me thinking about the last time I was in London as a recording artist entering the Ninja Tune HQ for a quick chat with Mr. Manuva's label manager. Both visits brought me closer to my all time heroes; both parties donated some artefacts for on my shelves.


Artefacts really, especially the Dutch edition of Marrianne Satrapi's Chicken with Plums. After a year of reading classics and bestsellers, I suddenly realised that not all books are being published as a Penguin sized pocked! De Muzikant  by Satrapi looks so nice and, as I found out, just like the original French pressing.

The story about the last days of uncle Nasser Ali is beautifully drawn in the familiar Satrapi style, and tells about a man using his Tar to express his feeling for a women he loves. When his real life wife kills his instrument, Nasser Ali loses all motivation to live on.

Although I missed the positivity that can be found in Satrapi's bestseler Persepolis, Chicken with Plums still is a nice read. The lethargic uncle can be quite annoying, but hey, try to imagine being locked in an arranged marriage while dreaming of big breasts.

A question for the Disco readers: Any Iranian Tar music? I have been looking around for music by Nasser Ali to post on this blog. No luck so far. Any recommendations?

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Booktunes online!

Past few months I've been busy working on a more official disco: Booktunes.net.
As I told the office people I dealt with in the process of building this site:

'I am developing a website that connects books and their music. This International site will cover novels in which music plays an important role. Visitors to the site will find info on their favourite novels, links to the related music, interviews and news on this subject. Booktunes ought to become a site people interested in both subjects love to visit.'

Yeah baby!

Downside of the story is that I did not have much time to post things on this blog. But this is all going to change. Plenty of time left now to read books, go disco while being the chef of this new project on the side. After I had some good food and went from bill with my girl.

No worries, I think the Readers Disco will be ok. There will always be books, music or other subjects that need to be discussed in a less formal way.
For now, please have a look at this Booktunes thing. Since there is a lot more coming up, I suggest you to sign up for the mailing list, get the tweet or faceblob pape.

Soon!

ted

(download music: jaxx - alkazaar)

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Wonderboys

Last weekend Bas and I watched some movies. That's what we do when we meet. Eat burgers, watch movies. He suggested a movie from the early 2000's starring Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys. Douglas plays a writer who does not suffer from a writer’s block, but from a whole lot of other things. He gets stoned. A dog gets killed. A certain woman gets pregnant. A very expensive jacket gets stolen. An enormous and hopeless manuscript gets lost.

If you are an aspiring writer like Bas, it might be a good idea to read the novel by Michael Chabon (amazon). If you are also an aspiring director like Bas, the movie is a good option too. Not a big hit but really nice, and there is some good music in it too. Director Curtis Hanson and Bob Dylan were both happy with the soundtrack because they were so fond of each other. Nice. Hanson is said to have played the songs on the set to create the right atmosphere. Download their atmosphere here at the Readers Disco or go to Youtube to see what it's like.

One more thing about Bas: He knows everything about the movies. Plus the trivia. Exploring this new filed of writership from a moviebuff perspective, he came across this link linking the two:
- 20 movies about writers -
Might be some good music in them too.

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2009 Dear Diary

Here's a nice mix to end off the year 2009. How was it? Nice, yeah had some crises, on the money side like every one else so no complaining. I like to think it brought me closer to the guy I am really wanting to be, what I would really like to be doing. What about you?

I hope my 2009 diary is a bit like yours, plus I hope you will enjoy this music compilation. Sorry, no mixtape this time but complete tracks! Some are a bit predictable, so I will not bother you with info on Mr. Smith and Mr. T from LND who blessed my beat, or the new tunes by that Manchester Monkey, the boys from Brixton, the funny Espanishman with the red pants and yellow sneakers or a cheesy reggae hit.

Best wishes,

ted
December 31, 2009


Dear Diary

The last days of 2009... already 10 years in to this new millennium. Ten years back, at the ending of the previous century there was a trendy music style called lounge. I think most of the listeners were heading for their 30th birthday back then. Hip, polished, loungy was all you needed to be to enjoy this boring tedious computer grooves, with no 2009 party smashing hipsters involved. Recently I felt the urge to listen to the K&D sessions (1) again, and I realized that as trends fade the beat stays. And that it is not too bad to be 30.

As we enter this new decennium there is some more modern stuff going on though, even in these older genres. I already had some of his remixes, and the long awaited 2009 album of Harmonic 313 (2) is even better if you like the sub low frequency experience and some side chaining on the side. Talking about modern, the vinyl came with a free cd!
Good, because it adds to my collection. I only bought one 2009 compact disc in 2009: Bliksemschicht (3) by the talented Dutch hiphop group Zwart Licht.

I did buy more then one mp3; they are so 2009! Who expected dubstep producer Skream would get a gold plate for selling some copies of the La Roux remix (5). Heavy, both the 300 initial vinyls and the weightless mp3s they had to push to reach the 400.000.
As you can hear in the Skream mix, dubstep nowadays has some roots in the old ravey tunes from years back, like this XL Recordings classic by Dance Conspiracy (6). Pity the label did not make any fuzz about their 20th anniversary and did not email me back about the idea I had for a mixtape ;-).

One of the XL heavyweights released a new album this year, and this wild bunch went back to where they came from. Liam stayed away from the dubstep ting like he should have done with in 2004 with Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned. He then burned his fingers on a singing actress and grime beats... Warriors Dance (7) is not only my favorite tune of the album but also of the Notting Hill Carnival 2009. Yeah the last three minutes of this positive reggae vibe fest you could see me on the Pineapple Tribe corner where all the ravers are: 'Oi mate, wont some charly?'. The little starting riots were a bit negative but did give me some extra adrenaline for my warrior whoos. More riots by the way during that ridiculous Movado sing a long song (15).

More whooos on this Oizo tune (8) that gave me the best smiles during the worst gigs. My best gigs with the most wooing crowds were with Nobody Beats The Drum (9). As a stand I played with them in the outskirts of our flat land. And in the BK land. And the North African.
Also, a lot of wobwobs in the 2009. As a DJ I tried to enjoy the fact that dubstep got so big, but not to jump on this wobbly wagon too much. Best plan for the 2010: keep it creative like this Tek Step tune (10), because it is simply impossible to rock harder then Rusko. Man, this one really blew me away and I was happy this 2008 tune finally got released on vinyl (11).

I produced some dubstep myself this year; I even recorded a song with digital dancehall legend Mikey Murka. Helas, we@sirkusrecordings.com decided not to release it... might get some better results in 2010 with Kenny Knots (16) who was here in Amsterdam to play with Mungo's Hifi (12).
Next to my new plans about the music, there are serious plans on my upcoming website about books ... and music. As a start I did an interview for readersdiscotheque.com with a writer who mentions many good tunes in his books. I finally got to listen some tunes I knew I should have gotten into way before 2009 (18).

Soundtracks to a novel, as a background in the elevator, whatever. This old Coltrane tune (19) was the perfect music to a fabulous day I had with my mom. Not only the birthday presents, nor the beef 'n spinach, we simply had a great day discussing many things. Both ready for the 2010.

More jazz, from a different continent and hardly for sale in Holland nowadays. 2009 was the year of the big closing down of the good goods stores. My dad, being a specialist in a different trade, managed to keep on selling plates even crates. My favorite record store went down though, but I managed to buy a copy of the Mahmoud Ahmed record me and my girl had been looking for (20). His continent has more goods by the way. What is Tom Waits babbling about anyway (21)?

Anyway, Real romance in 2010... and the biggest WHOOOOOOOOOO!!! My girl proposed to me this past year! Date set, 7th of August 2010, all welcome to our little festival. Don't know what to say... got me locked. She has, my mind has, my whole body. But I also feel I could explode while typing this. The melody of this last song got me locked as well. The lyrics are dark and dramatic, I think beautifully romantic (22).

Happy New Year!

Download the 2009 music compilation to this diary here


[dutch text]

Van dit dagboek 2009 is geen Nederlandse vertaling.
Maak er wat van in 2010!

Download de muziek bij de Engelse tekst hier

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Pinball, 1973

I was disappointed. In myself, not Haruki Murakami. I just found out I hadn't read his first two novels! My little trick of reading from left to right at the bookstore shelf proved to be inconclusive; I would have to find the last two translations in Japan itself. Last two meaning Murakami's first two novels: Hear the wind sing and Pinball, 1973.

In short, Readers Disco had some catching up to do, as it only concerned two small booklets, starting with Pinball, 1973. Murakami wrote his second novel in 1980. The only existing translation by Alfred Birnbaum consists of a small pressing from Kodansha International, as a school book for students in English.
International book market Amazon offered little comfort when I tried to have them send me a copy. Even dismissing the $8250 first print this would have been a costly venture.

Since it seems Pinball, 1973 won't be reprinted, here or in Japan, with consent from Murakami, Readers Disco gladly provides the PDF found on the internet. With a little help from Bookletcreator.com we made it into an A5 booklet for you to download. As the story includes familiar characters like Boku and The Rat you can't afford to miss it. Also, you will need the music, all downloadable at the bottom of this post.

If your conscience bothers you too much, or you are unable to restrain your collector's disease, buy Hear the Wind Sing, Murakami's first novel: a still affordable translation most of us do not posess ... Ah there's the postman! Just arrived at Disco HQ: a little novel (A6) and a little CD (80mm!) with Haruki bonus material from that friendly Aliand Books @ Amazon.

Download Readers Disco's Pinball 1973 Christmas package here


[dutch text]

Laatst was ik erg teleurgesteld. In mezelf hoor, niet in Haruki Murakami. Ik kwam er namelijk wat aan de late kant achter dat ik zijn eerste twee boeken nog niet gelezen had! Mijn tactiek van het plankje bij de boekenwinkel afwerken bleek niet voldoende; voor de laatste twee engelse vertalingen die ik nog niet had gelezen had ik toch echt in Japan moeten gaan zoeken. Laatste twee? Het betreft hier de eerste twee romans van Haruki Murakami: Hear the Wind Sing en Pinball, 1973.

Het Readers Disco inhaalslagje, het betreft immers twee kleine boekjes, begon bij Pinball, 1973. Murakami schreef deze tweede novelle in 1980. De enige Engelse vertaling van Alfed Birnbaum verscheen in een kleine oplage bij Kodansha International, als schoolboek voor leerlingen Engels.
De internationale boekenmarkt Amazon bleek een schrale troost toen ik dit boek gewoon even wilde laten opsturen. Zelfs als ik niet voor die eerste druk van €8250 zou gaan werd het toch wat prijzig.

Aangezien het er naar uit ziet dat Pinball, 1973 met medezeggenschap van Murakami niet bijgedrukt wordt, ook niet in Japan, deelt Readers Disco graag de PDF die je overal op internet kan vinden. We hebben er een A5 booklet van gemaakt met behulp van deze te gekke site. Omdat ook in dit verhaal over Boku en de Rat muziek voor komt kan je alles hier downloaden.

Mocht je je een beetje lullig voelen tegenover Murakami, of je verzamelwoede niet helemaal kunnen beteugelen, koop dan Hear the Wind Sing. Dit eerste verhaal van Murakami verscheen ook in vertaling bij Kodansha en is wel betaalbaar gebleven.
Gister binnengekomen in de Disco: Hear the Wind Sing (A6!) plus een kleine CD (80mm!) met Haruki extra's van Alliand Books @ Amazon.

Download hier het Readers Disco Pinball 1973 Kerstpakket

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