Shades of black apparel, her scarves, boots, words by Paul Auster, tunes by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rodriguez-Gerada's "Expectation" of sand," Swiss artist Pipolotti Rist, truisms by Jenny Holzer and an assortment of empty wine bottles...
Music
The Organ, The Smiths, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Pipas, CSS, Pulp, The Dandy Warhols, The Raincoats, Siouxie & the Banshees, The Slits, Devendra Banhart, Holly Golightly, Pony Up!, The Siddeleys, Blue Orchids, Pet Shop Boys, David Bowie, Nick Drake, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Blondie, Roxy Music, Jeff Buckley, Antony and the Johnsons, Coco Rosie, Mazzy Star, Soda Stereo, Cole Porter, John Coltrane, Sergio Mendes'Brazil 66, Manu Chao, Marisa Monte, Aterciopelados.
Movies
Godard. Almodovar. Buñuel. Wong Kar-Wai. Julio Medem. All
About Eve. Double Indemnity. Jules et Jim. 2001. Solyaris. Old Boy. Mulholland Drive. King Kong. Irma Vep. The Women. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Henry Fool. Airplane. The Passenger. Swept Away. Harold and Maude. Sweetie. Ghost Dog. Ruby in Paradise. Buffalo 66. Spinal Tap. The Pink Panther. Splendor in the Grass. Waking Life. Shampoo. The Taste of Tea. Lost in Translation. Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Annie Hall. Pierrot le fou.
Television
Six Feet Under. Little Britain. The Office. Extras. Will and Grace. Betty la Fea. Fantasy Island.
Books
Orlando, The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll,Labyrinths, Anagrams, Portnoy's Complaint, The Bone People, Runaway, Love in the Time of Cholera, Pedro Paramo, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Delirium, The Savage Detectives, Anna Karenina, New York Trilogy, Nada, Lolita, Deep Purple, The Shadow of the Wind, The Russian Debutante's Handbook, MiddleSex, Book of Disquietude, Natasha, The Bell Jar, Midnight's Children, Tinisima, Fear of Flying, The Lover, The Last Masquerade, Caramelo, Drown, Like Son, The People of Paper, War by Candlelight, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, books by Europa Editions and...
Heroes
Emily the Strange, Frida, Dali, Gandhi, and those lady bullfighters...
About me: Ms. Adriana Victoria Lopez is a writer, editor, book critic, and translator who divides her time between New York and Spain. So she knows how to travel light, but with exactly the right types of shoes and jewelry to accessorize well. She's currently compiling a story collection entitled "Barcelona Noir," with her former Críticas magazine partner-in-crime, Carmen Ospina, for Akashic Books' award winning City Noir fiction series.
A proud member of PEN America, she also has a website, if you can find it at: www.adrianavlopez.com .
Here's a list of her published books:
Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles and Other Quinceañera Stories (HarperCollins, 2007, Editor). Adriana was thrilled to able to edit terrific Latino writers such as Felicia Luna Lemus, Michael Jaime Becerra, Angie Cruz, Erasmo Guerra and more in this kitschy collection of quinceañera tales. Think John Waters meets Mi Vida Loca. Juicy Mangos (Simon & Schuster, 2007, Story Contributor). This year her novella, Don't Be Mad at Me, was published alongside the godly work of writer Mayra Montero with an uber translation by none other than Miguel de Cervantes' translator, Edith Grossman. Muy chevere. According to her agent, Adriana's story is an Edgar Allan Poe kind of love story. Border-Line Personalities (HarperCollins, 2004, Memoir). This was a coming-of-age dramedy that she can't believe she actually wrote and published to show to the world. Her story, Straddling Desire, was edited by the gorgeous and talented duo Michelle Herrera Mulligan and Robyn Moreno. Maybe that's why. Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism (Seal Press, 2002, Essay). This fresh and exciting collection of women of color feminist manifestos was edited by her former WILL (Women in Literature and Letters) cohorts Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman. Fierce politics, good times. Hopscotch: A Latin American Cultural Review (Duke University Press, 2001, Essay). This was Adriana's very first published creative non fiction essay about the women in her family and the history of Latin American feminist movements that she entitled, Feminism and Femininity: In Praise of Difficult Chicas. It was edited by Ilan Stavans and made her mother very proud. You could be proud of her, too, if you ever read it.
Who I'd like to meet: Bon Vivants, Nerds, Oenophiles, Book Sluts, Rockers, New Wavers, Post Punkers, Wordsmiths, Cinephiles, Tree Huggers, and general misanthropes...
¡¡The 2009 LAMC Compilation has made its arrival known!!
The three-disc collection features tracks from artists you already love like Manu Chao, Nortec Collective, as well as
the next wave of artists from all over that you'll surely fall for, like Toy Selectah, Nubla, and Banda de Turistas.
It's super cool, super rare [we only make 2,000], super exclusive, and the only way of getting it has been by attending LAMC because it's
*NOT SOLD IN STORES*
Do you want a copy? Do something about it!!
Email Adriana.Arce@Cookman.com + she’ll send you an IMAGE so that you can make it a DEFAULT IMAGE [you should email her the link when it’s up].
Then will enter your name so you could be one of FIVE winners!
If you haven’t yet – REGISTER FOR THE LAMC TODAY: www.latinalternative.com
Just finished reading Don't Be Mad At Me. I'm impressed. I thought it was excellent. The psychological warfare between the girlfriend and the brother was interesting, as was the way they used sex as a weapon against each other and the character of David as a weapon too. I thought what you didn't say was as interesting as what you said; I could read a lot into the actions of Sergi, about his motivations. Literary Erotica isn't easy to write. You can come off as trashy or too clinical or even worse, like a Harlequin romance. I thought you pulled it off brilliantly! The mother's suicide seemed extraneous to the story but I liked the way you tied it together in the end with the song The Perfidy of Love. I liked some of the descriptive phrases you used: the "leaden humidity" his toes "curled in arthritic pleasure" and the line about how it is nice to be warm when one's feeling cold! Excellent writing! There aren't too many members of "the New York Literary establishment" that I have much respect for. You're someone I respect. (Actually I've found editors to be human, it's agents I can't fucking stand!) Anyway, best of luck with the novel, or whatever you're working on. Oh--PS.. Aterciopelados were excellent too! Didn't know very many of the songs (most of their material was off the new CD) But they sounded great. Best wishes. Maurice.
We seem to have similar aesthetic tastes: Lolita, Love In the Time of Cholera, Double Indemnity, Bunuel, Godard -though I like individual scenes in Godard films better than the films themselves, which can be tedious when watched all the way through. And I notice from your photos that you've met Andrea Echeveri from Atercipelados. I'm going to see them in two weeks. My man Alex Cuba is their opening act. Should be a great show. I can't wait. As to The Sheltering Sky quote:that one tiny paragraph is a keystone to much of my writing as well my whole aesthetic philosophy. I've never understood the lack of curiosity (if not outright xenophobia) many Americans have about the rest of the world. The fear to move outside their own circumscribed boundaries. The conviction that their own culture, their own nation, their own city, their own neighborhood is everything! I find that attitude especially disturbing when I encounter it in young people. There is a whole cult sort of thing people have about this city: the LBC, Snoop Dog, Sublime, Strong Beach, thug life! It's one thing not to have any conception of life outside your own city, your own neighborhood. What I find disturbing is that many young people have no curiosity either. Well, I've rambled on... Just ordered Juicy Mangos from Amazon. Can't wait to read your story. Won't be here for a few days, that will give me time to finish the book I'm reading (Singer's Enemies, A Love Story). Hope the writing and editing is going well. So long. M.
Thanks for adding me. I'm looking forward to reading some of your writing, particularly Don't Be Mad At Me. The cover looks enticing and much of my own writing strays into the erotic as well. A modern Poe-type love story sounds fascinating. I'll look for it at Barnes and Noble or on Amazon. ciao.
