theinferior4+1

A cool piece on (mostly British) writers' rooms. There's a lot of them, so be prepared to lose some precious writing time marveling at all those Post-Its in Will Self's office.

Certain patterns emerge, and a lot of the rooms look remarkably similar (and remarkably similar to those of writers I know). The big choice for color scheme: deep red or Bond paper white? Many talismanic objects, lots of childhood furniture co-opted as desk. Guiding spirits tend to be Irish – Joyce, Yeats (artwork by Jack Yeats is mentioned or displayed more than once), Beckett, Behan. Chairs — comfy, objects of torture, ergonomic — have an almost religious imnportance. A surprising number of people still don't know how to use a computer.

Most antic room: Beryl Bainbridge's. Most alarmingly tidy: Sarah Waters.


http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersrooms

Damn, this is a fine song! Reminds me of Lucinda Williams's stuff a bit.

Here's a fan's video of the tune, composed of stills of the band. You get the pristine studio track, although an instrumental coda is missing.



Here's a couple of live versions.







And finally, an a capella cover of the song that's not bad either.



Posted by Paul DiFi.

Wikipedia claims that PLAYBOY'S Femlin character was invented in 1955.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femlin

But its creator, LeRoy Neiman, on his home page, asserts 1957 as the birthdate of that sprite.

http://www.leroyneiman.com/about.ihtml?about=chrono

Therefore, he's staging the fiftieth anniversay exhibit this year.

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/2537?nid=2413

I mentioned the Femlin in a story once, and Rudy Rucker did too. We need a whole new category of SF: Science Femlin fiction.

But Piers Anthony, of all people, was there first, with his excellent and truly dirty story from 1970, "The Bridge." For all of you who remember the immense talent Anthony exhibited before he turned to cranking out endless YA fantasy novels....

http://www.piers-anthony.com/bridge.html

After the jump, you'll find three mildly NSFW pix: one of a bodypainting attempt to create a live Femlin. And the other two illustrating what a rough job LeRoy Neiman has.

Posted by Paul DiFi.

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Rising to the implied challenge in Liz's post about writers' workspaces, I attach the following, which is not my main workspace, or even my Maine workspace (that would be Tooley Cottage), but my Delaware workspace.  

Okay, Liz, Paul, and Lucius -- the ball is in your court!  Who has the inferiorest workspace?

posted by paulw