Tagged: nickhornby

When Ros stopped by to find out whether they’d made any progress with the photographs, Annie still had the website up on her computer. “Tucker Crowe,” said Ros. “Wow. My college boyfriend used to like him,” she said. “I didn’t know he was still going.” “He’s not, really. You had a college boyfriend?” “Yes. He was gay, too, it turned out. Can’t imagine why we broke up. But I [...]

Come molte delle cose belle, Moone Boy è una cosa piccola piccola così. Ma allo stesso tempo grande grande. Il serial, iniziato da un paio di settimane per lo Sky Inglese si inserisce in un panorama, quello delle serie tv anche per ragazzini, non popolatissimo. Anzi. Che poi che v'hanno fatto i ragazzini, dico io, che quando ero ragazzino sono cresciuto con SuperVicky, Arnold e Casa Keaton. Ecco, Casa Keaton magari non era propriamente per ragazzini ma io amavo Mallory (Justine Bateman) quindi lo vedevo, perdendomi molto dell'economia comica sul discorso dell'essere repubblicani, pro Reagan e figli dei [...]

Two things inspired this week's contest. First, I have been enjoying Nick Hornby's new collection of criticism, More Baths Less Talking . Secondly, ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series has been added to Netflix, and these sports films have dominated my weekend. I am far from the fervent sports fan I was as a kid, but these documentaries offer impressive insight, and have yet to disappoint me. While watching the excellent The Two Escobars , I was reminded how much I enjoyed Hornby's memoir Fever Pitch , [...]

Collaborations between musicians and authors seem obvious, like they should happen all the time, but the truth is, good ones don't come along that often. Earlier this month, however, author, poet, and memoirist Mary Karr released her first album,  Kin , in collaboration with country singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell, and boy is it good. Though we might be a little biased since we've always been die-hard Mary Karr fans, we love the album, which combines Karr's sublime poetry with Crowell's formidable musical talent. Inspired by their collaboration, we got to thinking about other fantastic author/musician pairs, from [...]

Ben Folds has had himself quite a prolific career. The world first became familiar with his quirky brand of alternative piano-rock through his band with Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee, Ben Folds Five . After their three albums and a rarities compilation, Folds went on to add three more LPs and and an equal number of EPs to his catalog under his own name. Tack on his numerous collaborations with the likes of William Shatner, Regina Spektor, author Nick Hornby, Amanda Palmer, and more, plus his work on films, and it’s clear Folds’ cup over flows with material. [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , The Hit List Roadrunner Records Can you imagine a world where, instead of fossil fuels, modern machinery runs on the power of steam and everyone's favourite band is Rush ? If so, you've glimpsed into the alternate reality that unfolds in the forthcoming steampunk novel from sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson. The best-selling scribe of over 100 genre books, including titles for the ' Star Wars ,' [...]

En 2008 los tres miembros de Ben Folds Five se reunieron en el escenario para interpretar su tercer y último disco The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner , que fue lanzado en 1999. A partir de ahí, el cantante y pianista Ben Folds ha seguido en la brecha sin la compañía de su banda original, lanzando su cuarto álbum solista Way to Normal en 2008 y otro álbum llamado Lonely Avenue , en colaboración con el autor de la novela High Fidelity , Nick Hornby. Aunque, hasta donde sabemos, Ben Fold Five se [...]

For most sports fans, the games themselves are just a jumping-off point. Sure, there's the excitement of a Hail Mary or a well-developed attack, but there's also lots and lots of (often impotent) build-up. The thing that keeps us engaged ... Continue reading �

I know I'm wrong about this book, because everyone else in the world, including writers I love, think it's fantastic, but it Wasn't For Me. It's brilliantly written, I can see that much, and it made me think, too. But mostly I thought about why I don't know anyone like the people Fox writes about. Why are all my friends so dim and unreflective? Where did I go wrong? Toward the end of the book, Otto and Sophie, the central couple, go to stay in their holiday home. Sophie opens the door to the house, and is immediately [...]

While collaborating with Bob Saget is clearly the pinnacle for any musician's resume, Ben Folds has had a long, fruitful career up to that glorious moment. Whether it was with Ben Folds Five or on his own, Folds has a rich back catalog, one which he'll make great use of when he releases his career retrospective The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective this October. The three-CD release will see a different focus for each disc. The first, The Best Imitation of Myself , features everything from the Ben Folds [...]

Ben Folds releases a new video of his song "Working Day," which is the first cut off his collab with Nick Hornby. The video was comprised of 2,000 audience members in seven cities singing the song a capella style. Basically, Folds figured out a way to make a 14,000 person choir. Nifty. Tweet

Nick Hornby's latest novel, Juliet, Naked returns to the amusing and painfully relatable music-obsessed, neurotic relationship theme of High Fidelity . You will like Juliet, Naked if you: 1) like music, 2) have ever been in a relationship and 3) can read. You will love Juliet, Naked if you: 1) have ever been unsatisfied with your life, relationship, career, neighborhood and/or country, 2) have ever been so obsessed with an album that you're convinced you understand and connection to it more than anyone else in the world (including the artist), 3) [...]

¿Ser fan ayuda a vivir o te arruina la existencia? - Hay mucho esnobismo alrededor del concepto fan. Si Duncan fuera universitario y amara a Keats con la misma obsesión, la gente no se lo tomaría mal. Sin embargo, estaría igual de loco ¡pero empleado por el gobierno! Si la obsesión tiene una credibilidad intelectual, pasa. Esos universitarios hacen un buen trabajo de "mensajeros" para la literatura, pero no querrías, sin embargo, vivir con ellos o quedarte en un ascensor en su compañía porque son igual de monomaníacos que Duncan. [...]

Robert Altman's Nashville is one of my favorite films - or, at least, I think it is. I haven’t seen it in a while, and the last time I did, I noticed the longueurs more than I ever had before. Maybe the best thing to do with favorite films and books is to leave them be: to achieve such an exalted position means that they entered your life at exactly the right time, in precisely the right place, and those conditions can never be re-created. Sometimes we want to revisit them in order to check whether [...]

Ben Folds released my favorite standalone track of 2010 in 'Levi Johnston's Blues', from the Nick Hornby collaboration album, Lonely Avenue . That chorus ['I'm a fucking redneck, I live to hang out with boys...."] and that NASTY echoing drumbeat just eat down to the core of me. And the subject matter, at first listen, may sound like an attack on Mr. Johnston, but on reflection, we realize that Levi isn't the true subject of this song. Levi's just being Levi, Ms. Palin.

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• Owl and Bear - The Owl and Bear Podcast vol. 143

Those who dismissed word of Nick Hornby’s first foray into music as little more than a vanity project are in for a disappointment. Lonely Avenue , the English novelist’s first collaboration with American songwriter Ben Folds, is an unequivocal triumph. Intelligently written, its 11 tracks manage to move and amuse in equal doses with their tales of illness, lust, love, faith and political scandals, making for one of the singer-songwriter records of the year and an album, which is never short of engaging. The discipline of the project was such — Hornby would look after the album’s [...]

Those who dismissed word of Nick Hornby’s first foray into music as little more than a vanity project are in for a disappointment. Lonely Avenue , the English novelist’s first collaboration with American songwriter Ben Folds, is an unequivocal triumph. Intelligently written, its 11 tracks manage to move and amuse in equal doses with their tales of illness, lust, love, faith and political scandals, making for one of the singer-songwriter records of the year and an album, which is never short of engaging. The discipline of the project was such — Hornby would look after the album’s [...]

From Bob Dylan rapping with Kurtis Blow , to Ozzy Osbourn and Miss Piggy covering Steppenwolf , and last year's WTF winner Grizzly Bear and Michael McDonald , seemingly incongruous musicians have always shacked up with one another for some reason or another. Sometimes it's been for a quick cash grab, or a peace offering, or in memorium, and often it can be cringe-worthy. With the bad ones, either you can smell the falsehood, or you just left wondering "why?" or worse, "who cares?" But something seems to be in the air in 2010, and [...]