Recently I read Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. A great debut situated in New York with loads of references to the classics, beautiful 30′s tunes, with plenty of martini’s and horrible blurbs on the pretty cover.

Rules of Civility clearly is Booktunes material as it holds so many good tunes that, like author Amor Towles states on his website, shape the backdrop to the story of Katey, Evie, Tinker, Wallace and Anne. New York, music, cool story, a novel that is full of love for literature, what more can you expect from a book? Beautiful prose & thoughts to take with you on the train.

Thumbing through the book now I am having an easy time finding an extract for you:

Check Amor Towles ‘s page & playlist, get the book, enjoy.

One week into the new year already. 2011, the year in which we crossed La Manche to move from Amsterdam to Brighton, has gone and I am really glad we have managed to settle down here… future looks bright in this city where we only just had a short glimpse of all good restaurants, bars, clubs, record- and bookshops that need visiting in 2012.

I am looking forward to turning Booktunes into an international venture this year. Recently world citizen Anthony Stone joined the think & tech team, soon we will start developing some Booktunes website features and bring the music to your books in a more advanced way.

Now that I think of it, both the job at American Express and the new weekly giggin’ at The Globe are pretty international as well. And so was Christmas (we combined the Dutch & Finnish tradition of Sinterklaas with the more English & American Santa Claus) and the Christmas presents (Kubb, Marmite Chocolat, Dutch Liquorice, Italian Delicatessen). On top of that 2012 started with the smashing of the Pomegranates (a Greek tradition) introduced by my Dutch mom, and Polish Bigos (the perfect hangover food) cooked up by my new friends from Seattle.

What I liked best about 2011?
- Meeting all these friendly Brighton people and settling in. Liz & David, Dave & Lucy, Jo & Will, Jeff Daniels, Peter Biggs, Rodney & co., Arthur & Marjoke, Talia & co., Sam & Chris, Dashal, Carl & Lara, All welcome to enjoy our international kitchen.
- Having friends & family over and share the good times. All welcome!

Mina Witteman – or rather BT Mama Mina –  is about to slaughter some riff-raff writers. Amsterdam has the Literary Death Match coming up where she will read her upcoming YA Thriller Weed Man out loud to shout down daring authors and win this verbal dispute.

As we quote Mina’s Ring Entry Song…

How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

LITERARY DEATH MATCH
December 1, Smart Project Space, Arie Biemondstraat 105-113, Amsterdam NL

More info & tickets here.
Former LDM authors on iTunes – Free Podcast

Glenn David Gold’s Sunnyside was in my bag as a holiday read. A big book about a range of real and fictional characters, set in Russia, France and America’s Hollywood. An inspiring read that makes you want to know more about Chaplin, lost soldiers, comedy, film history, celebrity dogs… and music. I was completely wrong thinking I could escape the combination of literature & music during my time 0ff.

Around page 400 Gold describes how Charlie Chaplin hauls a complete orchestra on to the set:

There was also a cannon, for Chaplin had decided that, in order to concentrate better on Sunnyside, he would be conducting the 1812 Overture.
Now it was just the opening measures, based on the heart-rending, quiet hymn ‘God Preserve Thy People.’ Chaplin himself was taking the lead violin, and he had requested that the orchestra not yet join in, except for one cello, there in the third row. [...]
Upon the twenty-fifth iteration of the opening measure of the 1812 Overture, Chaplin allowed it to continue, the mood of the tune changing from melancholy to low anxiety and yearning. The horns came in like the edges of a distant storm, the timpani brought in lightninglike strokes of punctuation, and the rest of the set could now continue its work.

After this Booktunes passage a lot of other interesting music plays. War songs, vaudeville, music hall, waltz, old folk songs. I must say I really like the old 20′s stuff. After creating the new Circus Jingle, playing at the opening of the new Circus Family home, being turned down as an electronic music jock at my new local pub The Black Dove, getting bored with both dubstep and the whole 405060swing revival, and having enjoyed C.W. Stoneking‘s sundaynight gig very much I might even know where my DJ career is going. Straight to Hokum!

Friday October 28th: Zwarte Gat Festival 2011. DJ Dirk Diggler will carry the Booktunes flag and get the people dancing after an evening crammed with words by Sterre van Rossem, Martijn Simons, Renske Jonkman, Pepijn Vloemans, Olga Kortz and Lotte Hoogzand.

If you happen to be in the Amsterdam Area, pop in at De Kring to enjoy free literature & music. Hosted by Booktunes favourite Maurice Seleky!

Planning :
1. Literature
2. Live Music
3. Party

Personnel:
Early: Sterre van Rossem, Martijn Simons, Renske Jonkman, Pepijn Vloemans, Olga Kortz and Lotte Hoogzand.
Late: Steyne
Later: Dirk

More info:
Start: 20.30
Free: Entrance, Drinks
Facebook: Zwarte Gat Festival

On Booktunes every Book gets its own Playlist

Founder of the website is the Amsterdam DJ and literature scholar Erik de Loor (32). “When I was reading An Equal Music by Vikram Seth, I was triggered to go look for the music. I bought the CDs, but thought that there had to be an easier way to obtain the music used in books. I thought wrong, so I decided to make that happen myself,” he says on the phone from Brighton, England, where he temporarily lives and works.

His initial idea was to set up a record label, Booktunes, and produce compilations CDs that could be sold in bookstores. De Loor had already experience with running a record label: through Sirkus Recordings he brought his own productions (as DJ Elected) and work of colleague producers. The licensing of the music he needed for the compilations turned out to be both time consuming and costly.

De Loor decided that Booktunes should be a website, because that would be “efficient, international and future oriented”. The site offers playlists that can be downloaded through iTunes. The books on the site can be bought through Amazon. Booktunes receives a percentage of every sold song and book. The music can be bought in the iTunes stores in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the UK and the United States.

De Loor deliberately held on to his initial idea of a series: “Not every book that has a song in it has to be on the site. It is not a database. We have to have a connection with every book featuring on the site. The idea is that people regard the site as someone like-minded who recommends books and music.”

The first book on the site with a playlist was Kafka on the Shore by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. De Loor graduated with a thesis on the role of music in this book. “By studying the music in books you will get additional information on the characters. One of the main characters prefers to listen to Schubert. I realized that this character, Oshima, resembled him a lot. I have also compared Oshima to a Schubert sonata: the way he lives his life, and sometimes just crosses the line that his illness imposes on him, is similar to the way the composer Schubert every now and again lets go of the classical rules, without losing them.”

By now the site features 22 books. A varied range: from P.F. Thomése and Keith Richards to Tolstoy, each with its own playlist and accompanying article about the music in the book. De Loor: “Those articles can cover a variety of subjects. About an author’s love for certain music, but also about the structure of a book that has to do with music, like with the books of Anna Enquist.”

The contributions to the site come from volunteers, friends of De Loor, who are in everyday life writer, web designer or photographer.

This is an update on the previous post about the Photographisation of Houellebecq’s daring and controversial Platform. Beautiful pictures by Dutch photographer Joep Neefjes tell the sad story written by Michel, enfant terrible de la littérature française. 

I am really glad to present these pictures here. After all recent media coverage of the Frenchman (he went ‘missing’), we should realise this particular art form really is all we need when it comes to authors & photos.

Platform page 20

Platform page 66

Platform page 187

Platform page 197

Platform Page 265

The book is still a bit hard to find, try Ludion Publishers to find out where this book is available.

I really like to find my way on Flickr browsing through all these beautiful photographs. Some pictures I find are really inspired by novels, others just fit in with themes, characters, places, events. All pictures taken with an analog machine, all by friendly photographers willing to contribute to our website.

Now Platform, the novel of my favourite enfant terrible Michel Houellebecq, has been photographised by Dutch artist Joep Neefjes! Although there is not much music in Houellebecq’s stories, I am a big fan looking forward to seeing the photos. Has Joep managed to keep le narratif? Is he an artiste able to tell this controversial story through pictures?

It is 13 October and I just went for a swim in my loose and lovely new hometown Brighton. Cold, but I see an old man ‘sunbathing’ on the nude beach. There is a beauty in this, but when it comes to pictures I prefer the Lanzarotian loneliness I hope to find in Neefjes’ book.

Will post a picture soon!

– update –

5 photos available through this link.