David Cloud Berman

It’s winter so that means we all trot out our Sunday Best and listen to Purple Mountains and read Actual Air. Tis the season for the reason?

New (first ever) Elaine May Book

Holy hot snakes there is FINALLY an Elaine May biography coming out next year by Carrie Courogen that looks fantastic! May notoriously did not flirt with the press, so this feels especially shrouded in mystery. Cannot wait to dive into the saga of A New Leaf, Ishtar, and beyoooonnnddd!

Good Time Music Videos

I have had the distinct pleasure to direct and edit some pretty epic music videos. Do people even watch these things anymore? No idea. One of the earliest videos I made was sort of co-directed with Father John Misty, and a LOT of people worked on it or jumped in it. Josh and his wife Emma are a double helix of effortless cool and creativity, so this was pretty much show up with your camera and concept and hit record on these two and GTFO of the way. This was filmed in the Chateau Marmont with permissions from no one.

Here is one I made very recently for Cory Hanson - who is just a real sweetheart talent. We were going for some real American Psycho, lukewarm Travis Bickle notions in this bizarro house of haunted animals. My steady DP Jonathon Narducci shot this with the help of Steve Pappin.

I’m now trotting out this old Hamilton Leithauser video that Tristan Patterson directed but I edited because it was SO FUN to make videos with Tristan. We had a really nice run there together a few years ago and I miss this sort of intuitive editing. What a dreamboat everyone in this thing is, I love this song.

Faith, Hope and Carnage

I’ve bought so many goddamn self-help books this year, but the only one I’ve actually read is this book that is actually a series of conversations between Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan. It’s definitely something one could file under self-help. Cave and his wife have endured such monstrous loss. Both in scope and exacting nature. His music has always had an alkaline effect on my sometimes acidic composition. So here we are closing out another year and to accompany the shifting nature of all things, I’m working out this new website of musings where links, music, art, film, recipes, and all things interesting to me might occasionally saddle up. Here is the video companion to the book, if you are more a visual learner:

‘We are all, at some point in our lives, obliterated by loss. If you haven’t been by now, you will be in time – that’s for sure. And, of course, if you have been fortunate enough to have been truly loved, in this world, you will also cause extraordinary pain to others when you leave it. That’s the covenant of life and death, and the terrible beauty of grief.’ – Nick Cave, Faith, Hope and Carnage 

In the depths of the pandemic of summer 2020 Nick Cave began a series of long conversations with his old friend Seán O’Hagan. The 40 hours of recordings have been distilled into a remarkable bestselling book, Faith, Hope and Carnage. In it Cave, one of the world’s most acclaimed and visionary musicians, talks with radical candour about his past, his loves, his work ethic, his creativity and the agony of losing his 15-year-old son Arthur in 2015. The book addresses all the big questions: What is love? How does faith work? How do we handle grief? As Cave says, ‘Despite how debased or corrupt we are told humanity is, and how degraded the world has become, it just keeps on being beautiful. It can’t help it.’