LENA DUNHAM
Girls is to our generation as All In The Family was to the Baby Boomers. The show's premise commits to realism, a definitive picture of living your twenties in the bar and club scene in Brooklyn. Yet underneath this thin sheet of plot lies a thick layer of irony and absurdity. Her episodes mix a blend of quirky female-lead character development, oblivious side characters with indiscernible motives and preposterous scenarios. You relate to familiar sounding conversations with parents about responsibility and what will you do with your life, or late night conversations with friends about relationships and sex. Then you're thrown into a tailspin, whites only Brooklyn in which DJs mix with two laptops (LOL!) and people say things like "He looks like a boss." Some people are quick to jump on the social justice/white privilege/tumblr hashtag bandwagon and give Lena SHIT for her lack of black characters in a show set in Brooklyn, or for focusing on the problems of an upper-class white girl living in luxurious apartments in a gentrified neighborhood. Writer Andrea Coates writes an insightful post about, amongst other writers, Lena Dunham, her well-off upbringing in NYC, and that when Lena Dunham writes (about sorrow) she doesn't feel as if it is a universal feeling of sorrow but rather she "want[s] the Reader to feel Sorry for ( the Character / Writer )." But this is all part of the charm of the show Girls and Lena's work as a writer. Her movie Tiny Furnitures is nothing but a narcissistic reflection of the individual experience of one woman through a diary format. Lena's show is solipsistic. It is as real as the world is in Lena's head.
MARIE CALLOWAY
We here at diff int absolutely LOVE Marie Calloway. We love Adrien Brody. We love her sex writing. We love her tumblr. We love her sex writing. We're really excited for her new book. We love that her writing is about a young girl having sex. We love her mentions. We love her nude shots which she posts on fb which her fans make fan art out of. We love her sex writing. We love her readings. We love her sex writing.
RICHARD PAPIERCUTS
February of twenty-ten, I've just turned twenty-two and I'm at the height of an alcohol abuse driving rampage that will end a year and a half later. Real Sparks has been out of the market for over a year. I nestle into a law office nightly with six packs of schlitz before the four loko turn-over. My band is punk, trying to survive in a musically dead swamp of South Florida where the only events people care about are the kind involving free drinks and social photography. Jacuzzi Boys and Electric Bunnies are the hottest acts in town and we're regular openers for them. We're staying punk, T Bone, Teepee and I. We pound beers. We get invited to play a show at Vagabond, a trendy shit club in the center of Miami nightlife, an area centered around a beating-heart parking lot and venues with suggestive names like "white room." We show up drunk and in drag. We demand money and free drinks. We get paid. We get free drinks. We set-up onstage to a sizable crowd. Within minutes our set turns into garbled guitar screeching and offbeat drumming. T Bone falls over his bass. I face away from the audience to keep the earth from sliding underneath my feet. On the way out we demand more money. We are not invited back. The local newspaper awards us with "Best Band Name" of the year. It means nothing, we don't book shows, people don't come to see us.
A seven inch pressed out of California makes its way to us. Chinese Restaurants, "Queen of the Skanks" sounds like every song we're currently trying to write and record. It's a modern day punk anthem. Where on earth are our long lost rat brothers?
LF Restaurant of the band puts out a solo record. Dick Papercuts. I read about it online and buy it the same day. I play it fives times in a row. Select lines from the record:
If we ever find the people who did this we'll
cut off their
hands
We can't figure out what these lyrics are about. It's the greatest record we've ever heard.
VOICES FROM THE LAKE
I moved to NYC with a girl and nine months later I moved out of our apartment. I started living in a Williamsburg basement. A friend was thinking of moving to town and stayed with me for sometime. We played this record every day. I moved into the tea factory in Bushwick and he stayed living with me for a few more months. Now he lives two blocks away. We still play this record all the time.
JASON COZZA
The next David Lynch.
I walk through the broken glass, myself. With worn out beat up shoes. I step out of the house in the morning. I spot a dead rat with its insides splattered all over the ground. I walk a couple of blocks down to the train where a swarm of pigeons rip open a garbage bag like hungry jackals on a wounded impala. A gust of wind blows stained and crumbled styrofoam between my legs. I head underground and touch the sticky hand rail as I hear phlegmy coughs echoing from the tunnel walls.
I'm walking through the crossroads down in the darkness, where I'll meet you.
I need a bottle of Purell.
This is "Darken Daze," the b-side of Pink Reason's latest single. For those who are unaware, the song was penned by the legendary and elusive (T. Hanson) aka, THE JAGUAR
SPRAGUE DAWLEY
One of the Geniuses of our times. His art is new aesthetic. He is differently interested.
SPRAGUE DAWLEY
OXYTOCIN
GREAT TUNES
this was the best social media group of 2012 hands down
OPEN MINDEDNESS
Did you dance this year? A lot of people wrote in and asked us questions like "Do you like this?" or "Are you down with that?" We try to remind people that we don't have black and white opinions, that we don't "like" or "dislike." Everything in life is something we experience. Here's a good way to explain it:
Friend of ours came over to our house this year. We were talking about a hotly debated subject on the internet, a sort of "writer's" movement that's become popular in the past couple of months that we've grown interested in. We interrupted our friend for a second to go to the bathroom, but we eagerly hurried back. The "literature" movement, per se, is a bit amateurish, something anyone can approach and contribute to. Now imagine, this friend of ours, guest at our home, he is someone who's art we admire deeply. He views this "tumblr crap" as something negative, something to humiliate, something to be repulsed by. He asks us "what is your aversion to it?"
We have no aversion to it. We have no aversion to anything. Everything on earth that life has to offer is an experience we are happy to participate in. We give everything the same attention, the same love and dedication. We plan on continuing this policy in 2013. We love you. All of you.
PROMISES FOR 2013
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE DIFF INT STAFF
RICHARD PAPIERCUTS
February of twenty-ten, I've just turned twenty-two and I'm at the height of an alcohol abuse driving rampage that will end a year and a half later. Real Sparks has been out of the market for over a year. I nestle into a law office nightly with six packs of schlitz before the four loko turn-over. My band is punk, trying to survive in a musically dead swamp of South Florida where the only events people care about are the kind involving free drinks and social photography. Jacuzzi Boys and Electric Bunnies are the hottest acts in town and we're regular openers for them. We're staying punk, T Bone, Teepee and I. We pound beers. We get invited to play a show at Vagabond, a trendy shit club in the center of Miami nightlife, an area centered around a beating-heart parking lot and venues with suggestive names like "white room." We show up drunk and in drag. We demand money and free drinks. We get paid. We get free drinks. We set-up onstage to a sizable crowd. Within minutes our set turns into garbled guitar screeching and offbeat drumming. T Bone falls over his bass. I face away from the audience to keep the earth from sliding underneath my feet. On the way out we demand more money. We are not invited back. The local newspaper awards us with "Best Band Name" of the year. It means nothing, we don't book shows, people don't come to see us.
A seven inch pressed out of California makes its way to us. Chinese Restaurants, "Queen of the Skanks" sounds like every song we're currently trying to write and record. It's a modern day punk anthem. Where on earth are our long lost rat brothers?
LF Restaurant of the band puts out a solo record. Dick Papercuts. I read about it online and buy it the same day. I play it fives times in a row. Select lines from the record:
Doggie in the winter Tastes like aspirin
How
to
hide behind
a bitter wall of
doubt
They're punching the women.
If we ever find the people who did this we'll
cut off their
hands
and t i e them to the mast
We can't figure out what these lyrics are about. It's the greatest record we've ever heard.
VOICES FROM THE LAKE
I moved to NYC with a girl and nine months later I moved out of our apartment. I started living in a Williamsburg basement. A friend was thinking of moving to town and stayed with me for sometime. We played this record every day. I moved into the tea factory in Bushwick and he stayed living with me for a few more months. Now he lives two blocks away. We still play this record all the time.
JASON COZZA
The next David Lynch.
DARKEN DAZE
I walk through the broken glass, myself. With worn out beat up shoes. I step out of the house in the morning. I spot a dead rat with its insides splattered all over the ground. I walk a couple of blocks down to the train where a swarm of pigeons rip open a garbage bag like hungry jackals on a wounded impala. A gust of wind blows stained and crumbled styrofoam between my legs. I head underground and touch the sticky hand rail as I hear phlegmy coughs echoing from the tunnel walls.
I'm walking through the crossroads down in the darkness, where I'll meet you.
I need a bottle of Purell.
This is "Darken Daze," the b-side of Pink Reason's latest single. For those who are unaware, the song was penned by the legendary and elusive (T. Hanson) aka, THE JAGUAR
Basically, we love this song.
We really do.
SPRAGUE DAWLEY
One of the Geniuses of our times. His art is new aesthetic. He is differently interested.
SPRAGUE DAWLEY
OXYTOCIN
The love molecule, they call it. We couldn't get enough of it this year. This powerful hormone engages humans in pair bonding activities such as sex, breast feeding, birth, hand holding, hand massaging, back rubs, hair caressing, face caressing, longingly looking into each others eyes, speaking honestly and frankly, hugging, kissing, making out, and dancing at 7 am in a sweaty warehouse packed full of people when ingested.
It reduces inhibitions and makes getting down and losing one's shit a biological imperative. We found ourselves talking at a million miles an hour, going to the bathroom over and over in droves to savor its beauty. Saying the most honest and beautiful things to each other while under its effects. We even heard of one instance where it landed someone a cushy job in Manhattan's financial district. It has made it possible to fall in love, develop a sense of altruism and optimism, and wipe away all societal constructs of negativity and shame.
Also, it makes music sound fucking amazing.
Wikipedia says:
GREAT TUNES
this was the best social media group of 2012 hands down
OPEN MINDEDNESS
Did you dance this year? A lot of people wrote in and asked us questions like "Do you like this?" or "Are you down with that?" We try to remind people that we don't have black and white opinions, that we don't "like" or "dislike." Everything in life is something we experience. Here's a good way to explain it:
Friend of ours came over to our house this year. We were talking about a hotly debated subject on the internet, a sort of "writer's" movement that's become popular in the past couple of months that we've grown interested in. We interrupted our friend for a second to go to the bathroom, but we eagerly hurried back. The "literature" movement, per se, is a bit amateurish, something anyone can approach and contribute to. Now imagine, this friend of ours, guest at our home, he is someone who's art we admire deeply. He views this "tumblr crap" as something negative, something to humiliate, something to be repulsed by. He asks us "what is your aversion to it?"
We have no aversion to it. We have no aversion to anything. Everything on earth that life has to offer is an experience we are happy to participate in. We give everything the same attention, the same love and dedication. We plan on continuing this policy in 2013. We love you. All of you.
PROMISES FOR 2013
ARTIST BIOS
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A DIFFERENTLY INTERESTED ARTIST IN THE FORMAT OF AN ESSAY OR MAYBE EVEN A MOVIE?
PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTOGRAPHY
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE DIFF INT STAFF
