By Steven Pressfield | Published: January 10, 2011
Scott Oden, author of The Lion of Cairo
Hailing from the hills of rural North Alabama, Scott Oden’s fascination with far-off places began when his oldest brother introduced him to the staggering and savage vistas of Robert E. Howard and Harold Lamb. Though Oden started writing his own tales at the age of fourteen, it would be many years before anything would come of it. In the meantime, he had a brief and tempestuous fling with academia before retiring to the private sector, where he worked the usual roster of odd jobs—from delivering pizza to stacking paper in the bindery of a printing company to clerking at a video store. Nowadays, Oden writes full-time from his family home near Somerville. The Lion of Cairo is his third novel. (more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: December 13, 2010
Sean Van Vleet is a Chicago-based musician, songwriter, and lead singer of the alternative-rock band Empires. In March, Empires released their highly-anticipated sophomore effort Bang and have spent much of 2010 on the road in support of the release, with stops at SXSW, Verve Music Festival, and CMJ Music Fest. MTV.com called the album “great, all ethereal and doomy like the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or the Black Angels, but with a little bit of My Chemical Romance snarl thrown in for good measure.” Alternative Press said the band has “set about doing this right. It’s a sentiment reinforced by these sterling alt-pop tracks boasting delicious symmetry of texture and tension.” Empires recently put out their first music video for the song Bang and are set to release a brand new 7″ vinyl in January 2011. For more information, please visit www.weareempires.com.
I know how a writer experiences Resistance. How does a musician experience it? What form(s) does it take for you? When does it hit you? How powerful is it? (more…)
By Callie Oettinger | Published: October 1, 2010
Jeff Lipsky is the writer and director of the films Childhood’s End (co-starring Tony Award nominee Sam Trammell), Flannel Pajamas (about which Roger Ebert wrote: “One of the wisest films I can remember about love and human intimacy. I will not forget it.”), and Twelve Thirty (Jan. 2011 theatrical release, starring Jonathan Groff, Mamie Gummer, Portia Reiners, Reed Birney and Karen Young), and the director of Once More With Feeling (co-starring Chazz Palminteri, Drea de Matteo and Linda Fiorentino). He co-founded the film distribution companies October Films and Lot 47 films, and has shepherded over 200 films to market, including John Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence, Lasse Hallström’s My Life as a Dog, Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger than Paradise, and legendary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker’s Academy Award nominate documentary The War Room.
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