Yé-Yé

Here are some items of interest that have landed in my inbox lately.

Triple Canopy, a journal of culture and politics, is rolling out its fourth issue War Money Magic. The lead story asks "Was George Lucas a minimalist? Was Donald Judd a Jedi?"  John Powers looks at the "coincidences of Star Wars, minimalism, modernist architecture, and urban planning."

A new edition of the seminal reference work Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture has just come out. Due next week is Jure Kotnik's Container Architecture, which is about buildings that can be easily moved around, reconfigured, and recycled.

Nigel Beale interviews Nam Le, the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize. Nam Le's stories "take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa City; from a fishing village in Australia to a floundering vessel in the South China Sea."

Looking for good deals on modern design? The Regency Shop, physically located in San Diego and virtually here, offers good deals on reproductions of some venerable modernist icons. Arne Jacobsen's Egg Chair, for instance, sells for $495.

Drop by AGNI and Narrative, two of the best sources for online fiction and poetry. Both update their content regularly, and AGNI hosts literary events in the Boston area. This week's story from Narrative is from Edith Wharton.

The busy folks at Film Comment and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are throwing a yé-yé afterparty following the screening of Les Idoles, "the never-before-seen French 60s yé-yé/psychedelic musical romp starring gallic lefty posterboy Pierre Clémenti (Catherine Deneuve’s gangster lover in Belle de Jour) and nouvelle vague thespi-enne Bulle Ogier as pop singers backed by a band called Les Rollsticks." The screening will take place on Tuesday, November 25 at 7:30pm at the Walter Reade Theater. Tickets and more information on the only yé-yé party you're likely ever to attend can be found here.

And if Les Idoles wets your appetite for French eccentricity, next month Zeitgeist will release a remastered DVD of Olivier Assayas' Irma Vep. The film is available for pre-order now. Don't forget the silent film series upon which Irma Vep is based: Louis Feuillade's creepy and amazing 1915 serial Les Vampires.