11. Scrawls from Tom Hanks, David Lynch and Nick Cave
I.
Bookshop Waterstones occasionally releases signed books from Big Names. Which is how a copy of The Making of Another Major Masterpiece landed on my doorstep this week. It’s the debut novel by Hollywood’s most beloved actor Tom Hanks. The signature: a red pen stroke that reads more like ‘Fidel’ than Tom Hanks (or more likely T. Hanks).
The name of Warren Ellis in my copy of his book Nina Simone’s Gum looks more like that of a ‘Won Eli’. I imagine that writers’ signatures, when they have to sign hundreds in a row, become increasingly abstract over the course of that assembly-line work. Ever more efficient. Until only a single stroke remains.
In one of his YouTube videos you can see David Lynch sighing as he signs dozens of works. “He really hated doing it,” director Jon Nguyen emailed me a few years back. For the financing of the documentary David Lynch: The Art Life, signed lithographs of his Self Portrait were sold. “He only signed a few a day for us, so it took months.”
I’ve thought about why I buy signed works. I don’t think it’s (just) about the right to humble-brag on an obscure blog. Nor do I need to sell them for a potential profit. On the contrary: a signed book is precisely one I would be reluctant to give away.
That didn’t apply to ‘Miranda and Menno’, the previous owners of As in Tas. Jelle Brandt-Corstius had signed the book in their names; I later bought it for 1.50 euros at a thrift shop.
I regularly have books signed. That doesn’t always mean much. But sometimes a book gains more significance for you. A story is added to the story. After a talk by Louis Theroux, I had a chance to thank the programme-maker. His television series Weird Weekends was one of the reasons I wanted to go into journalism. A signing session is then probably the only way to express appreciation (we do that too rarely) — and to go home with weird wishes.
Sometimes such a session disappoints. After an interview with Nick Cave at the library on the Neude, there weren’t enough books for everyone present. And because I’d been foolish enough not to bring a book from home, I missed out on a scrawl. Eight years later I saw my chance to close that chapter after all — with a beautifully signed copy of Faith, Hope and Carnage.
Of course it means nothing, a scrawl in a book. A writer or artist inherently leaves something behind through their work, and the content is what counts. An autograph is nothing more than a more emphatic way of saying: “I was here, I made this.” And now it sits on a shelf. The Guardian puts it bluntly: “It’s the equivalent of a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower.”
But then, I have no particular attachment to Paris.
II.
The Classic Tetris Mega Masters Championship took place in April and produced what was probably the greatest final imaginable. Both Tetris players reached level 39, also known as the ‘Super Killscreen’. From that point, the Tetris pieces fall so quickly that it becomes impossible to place them. The game always ends there. If a player even gets that far, as it’s already extremely rare.
In the nail-biting final of this tournament, they both made it. And not just once, but twice. This video not only gives a satisfying summary of the match, it also explains exactly what happens and why this is genuinely extraordinary.
III.
Speaking of competitions. This is also fantastic. Brilliant engineers build tiny robot mice that must then independently race through a maze as fast as possible. The Micromouse competition has existed since 1977 and the innovations from participants keep getting slightly better and the mice slightly faster.
You won’t believe your eyes watching the little robots solve a three-by-three-metre maze in just a few seconds. The Veritasium video explains the innovations over the years in an accessible way. This is glorious nerd content, trust me.
PS.
One of my all-time favorite games is getting a remake. Metal Gear Solid 3 was my first PS2 game and had unforgettable characters like The End and Revolver Ocelot, but also contained bizarre moments, such as the fake death pill and the ladder. The remake is called Metal Gear Solid ∆: Snake Eater, hopefully it will come out soon. MGS 1 and MGS 2 are also coming to the PS5. My autumn plans are set.
Here’s a 14-minute trailer of the original MGS3, as it was shown at gaming expo E3 in 2004.
The Professional is a game in which you try to steal a diamond. Your only obstacles are a crate, some laser beams and a staircase. The catch: you control the joints in the arms, legs and neck of the burglar individually by dragging with your mouse. Available to download for Mac or PC, pay what you want.
David Lynch was a guest on the BBC radio programme Sound of Cinema. He talks about Angelo Badalamenti, the composer who passed away at the end of last year. Badalamenti not only provided the music for films such as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and the series Twin Peaks, he was also a close friend of Lynch’s.
MS: There’s sorrow and a sense of sin in a lot of your music together. Angelo said you brought out his dark side, what did he mean by that?
DL: I brought out if anything, true Angelo, which is love. The feeling he can get is a heart feeling, full heart, deep love – deep, deep love. Even in the so-called dark things, there’s a beauty. It can be foreboding, but there is also something else in there that’s bigger. It’s truthful.
On the day Tina Turner died (we share the same birthday), Bob Dylan turned 82. I came across an audio clip from 2011 on YouTube in which Dylan is interviewed by Rolling Stone. A treat, because you rarely hear the singer this way — in a normal conversation. He sounds considerably younger than in his radio show or in documentaries. As if you’re listening to Dylan from the sixties, with a bit more bass in his voice. But just as direct and sharp as he was back then.
Thom Yorke is featured on a new track by electronic producer Clark. He also plays bass guitar on the album Sus Dog. “Chris (Clark) wrote to me that he had started singing and was looking for advice or something,” Yorke said in January. “Because this is something new for him.”
“The first thing he sent me was about being stuck between two floors,” says Yorke. “I was sold right then. It was in the way he approached the whole thing. Thank God not like the average singer-songwriter. His music reflects his earlier work, but this time with a more human face. His face.”
This is what Lana Del Rey’s new show looks like. At the MITA festival in Brazil she performed songs from Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd for the first time.
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