Tag: Stanley Donwood

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Stanley Donwood

Catacombs of Terror!

CATACOMBS OF TERROR!
BY STANLEY DONWOOD

“…I listened carefully. There was a voice. Distorted and broken, as if it was coming through something denser and more evil than fog. I couldn’t tell what it was saying for a little while. And then it started to form itself into thickly-spoken, drooling words…”

Martin Valpolicella is a Private Investigator. He’s down on his luck and seriously out of pocket. An anonymous note sends him on a nightmare adventure that takes in fake informants, Satanic CCTV

operators, flesh-eating pigs, doublecrossing motherfuckers, twisted archaeologists, cocaine-hoovering reporters, hellish psychogeography, genetically-modified killers and murdering global conspirators who will stop at nothing to control the world.

“I’M BEGINNING TO FEEL LIKE I’M ON STAGE AND THE SCRIPT IS – WELL, IT’S REALLY BAD.”

And he’s not wrong there. Written as fast as possible during one gloomy winter month in England, ‘Catacombs of Terror!’ is unashamedly cheap thrilling trash. The pace doesn’t let up for a second, and when you’ve read it you’ll immediately want to, er, go to the pub or something. Stanley Donwood read the worst novels he could find to research the writing style for this one, and wasn’t satisfied until he’d packed in more cliches, more swearing, more unbelievable plot twists than EVER before.

One hundred and forty-four pages of unmitigated pulp trash! Printed on 100% watermarked cannabis-content hemp paper! A cover with the words ‘GUNS! DRUGS! PIGS!’ written on it! More swearing than could ever have been necessary! Full-on action-packed hardboiled pageturning thrills! Tunnel-dwelling flesh-eating pigs hungry for human meat! Unputdownable blockbusting relentlessly depraved prose!

Global conspirators who stop at nothing! And a sacrificial victim tied to an altar of DOOM! Paperback for 13 or hardback for 26! Bargain!

YOU WONT BE ABLE TO STOP READING THIS ONE! POSSIBLY.

“…the smell was back, stronger than ever. It was horrible. Everything was so old it made my head hurt. I’d never been anywhere remotely like this before. It was old like – like a living thing could be old. Not like a place. I could almost feel its wheezing, impossibly aged breath sucking in and drooling out. There was mud and clay everywhere. The walls were made of it. Dirty water dripped onto us from the sloping roof, and mud was scattered around in clumps and splattered on the walls. Pools of brownish, greyish water collected in puddles on the flagstones. And it was cold. The rope from the winch hung down wih a big bucket, a bucket big enough for a body or two on the end of it. I looked at Kafka. His face looked terrible. The yellowish light didn’t help, but he looked really bad. I wondered if I looked as bad as he did. Worse, probably. Yeah, well. I wasn’t aiming to make a good impression anywhere. Not for the foreseeable future. I asked him if he was okay, and he shook his head slowly. He drew his finger across his throat. I knew how he felt…”

Popular Edition: 13.00 isbn 0 9541782 2 X
Library Edition: 26.00 ISBN 0 9541782 3 8
Published on 8th August 2002 by Hedonist Books, 103 Walcot Street, Walcot, Nr. Bath, Somerset
Advance Orders should be emailed to: stuff@waste.uk.com
Orders after 8th August: http://www.waste.uk.com
Read more at: http://www.slowlydownward.com
(thanks to Max K)

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Stanley Donwood

Slowly Downward & pics


Stanley Donwood’s site http://www.slowlydownward.com has been updated with two new stories and some information about his new book Catacombs of Terror!, which was printed on hemp paper, of course.

And, for some great pictures of Radiohead taken in Spain last year, head on over to http://www.twodeadstars.com/. You have to choose “Radiohead” from the box of artists.

(thanks to Kevin, Jody, & psock)

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Radiohead Stanley Donwood

Donwood interview

Below is an excerpt form the recent interview Stanley Donwood did with Idea Magazine:

About Yourself
?
I was born in essex, england.? thirty-three years before some aeroplanes flew into the world trade center, new york, america.? my hometown was a small town where nothing much happened.? i didn’t know about anywhere else so i stayed there for nearly twenty years.? once i left i did not return.? i have had many horrible jobs.? the worst one was cleaning huge pots that were used for boiling pork.? i do not eat meat which made this task more repellant than it could have been.? the best job i had was window-cleaning.? we had a van and didn’t work very hard.? i liked seeing inside other people’s houses.? i worked on many farms.? bailing hay was pleasant but hard work.
?
i was lucky enough to get into college but i didn’t work as hard as i should have.? i didn’t realise that until i left and it was too late.? i have always wanted to write and draw so thats what i did at college.? i made books.? after college i did more terrible jobs.? in my spare time i made posters to put up around the city and sneaked about at night with a pot of paint and a brush.? i painted pictures on derelict buildings.
?
when i had children i moved away because there was a lot of heroin around.? in the city where i still live i became an unpaid artist in residence at a cyber cafe.? the cafe closed so i took over the building became a designer.? but i lost money and had to find other work.? by a stroke of luck a friend from college phoned me and asked if id like to work on a cover for a record his band were releasing.? the record was ‘my iron lung’ and the band were called radiohead.? fortunately radiohead became successful and i was able to continue working with them.? because of that i sometimes get work from other people.? this is much better than cleaning pots used to boil pork.
?
Influences
?
I can’t remember what or who i liked when i was at college.? maybe Hieronymus Bosch and Andy Warhol.? now, i can’t remember either.? but ill write some names that come into my head.? david shrigley, g sus, john constable, banksy, cex, miss kitten, gerald kersh, antonia bird, werner herzog, michael nyman, chuck palahniuk, haruki murakami, andy goldsworthy, richard brautigan, mutoid waste company, iain sinclair, banana yashimoto.? there are lots more but in sitting here just thinking and nothing much is coming out.
?
Radiohead
?
my attitude when i work with radiohead is to try to hear the pictures in the music.? that sounds stupid but its the only way i can?explain it.? the best thing i can think of is how i felt when kid a was finished.? it was as is i hadn’t done anything at all.? my hands were guided by the music.? maybe i didn’t think at all.? it sounds so crazy but i hope you understand.? listen to music and close your eyes while you have a pen in your hand and a piece of paper on the table.? let your hand be moved by the music.? when the song is finished open your eyes and see what you have done.
?
i like to think that the pictures i draw for each record are a reasonable interpretation of the music i hear.? thom and me work next to each other telling each other what we like and don’t like.? when we finally agree on a picture thats pretty much how it ends up.? we make a lot?more pictures than we need then choose the best ones.

(thanks to John)

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Radiohead Stanley Donwood

Stanley’s artwork

Last month we told you about Stanley Donwood doing a 48 page spread in the Japanese magazine Idea. If you would like to purchase this issue, go here.
(thanks to Tony)

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Radiohead Stanley Donwood

Slowly Downward

Radiohead’s resident artist, Stanley Donwood, has updated his website at www.slowlydownward.com.
(thanks to Jody)

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Radiohead Stanley Donwood

Parrot’s Nest?

Last week we received an email from someone who works at a Californian CG design firm called CoCoa Creative who said that they were working on a video for a new song called either “Parrot” or “Parrot’s Nest” with Stanley Donwood.

As of now, there has been no confirmation by Radiohead or their management that they are working with CoCoa Creative or of the existence of “Parrot’s Nest.”

If you would like to see some of the correspondence that myself and some of the other people at MT have had with CoCoa Creative, go here or here.

Is this real? At this moment we don’t know but we do know that Radiohead just returned to the studio last month and talk about a video or single would seem really premature. Who knows?