Gaby den Held - Writer
NEDERLANDS
 GABY DEN HELD

JE SUIS CHARLIE                         7-1-2015

لا، نحن لن تذعن للعنف
No, we won't bow our heads for violence
Nee, buigen we ons hoofd niet voor geweld
Non, nous n'allons pas nous incliner devant la violence

CHARLIE HEBDO
HAPPY NEW YEAR                          1-1-2015

سنة جديدة سعيدة
GELUKKIG NIEUWJAAR
GLÜCKLICHES NEUES JAHR
BONNE ANNÉE
Archive                
For older posts go to:
Archive 2014...
BLOGSColumn 7 Advalvas          12-1-2015
The search for a new job, and for a publisher 
for his novels.

"IPU is great!"
Suddenly they are there. Two armed and masked figures in pink robes. 
All employees of The Unnatural Arts stand rooted to the spot. 
Who are these guys?
"Who is IPU?" Asks Angela, our most clever reporter.
"Don't play the fool, you infidel!" one of them shouts incensed. 
"You're talking about our goddess, the Invisible Pink Unicorn, 
peace be upon her!"

  
Read blog (Dutch): 
De belediging van de Onzichtbare Roze Eenhoorn
(Insulting the Invisible Pink Unicorn)

Cover                                                  19-1-2015
About cover design for the novel MOON. There are clear ideas about the atmosphere. It must be colorful, because the story is too. It has to have something nostalgiac and unashamedly. It must be like the ringmaster who lures the audience inside outside the circus. "Come and see, folks! Here inside there is something special going on!" The cover must be the 'trailer' of a novel.                       

BLOGSColumn 8 Advalvas            27-1-2015
The search for a new job and a publisher for his novels.

"Did you say: fire department?"
"You've understood right. From Amsterdam-Amstelland, to be exact. "
It's Sunday afternoon. My companion and I are discussing my last job application 
in cafe De Rechtbank (The Court).
"But what will you do there?"
"What do you think? Learning how to descend from a fireman's pole. "

Read blog (Dutch)
Spuitgasten (Firemen)
My mixcloud                                            

1-2-2015 For years Gaby makes mixtapes for friends. Now some of them are 
published on Mixcloud. 
To assemble the music and sounds is like telling 
stories. Not with word, but with music.

My Mixcloud

              





BLOGS: Column 9 Advalvas                    

9-2-2015 The search for a new job and a publisher for his novels.

My sweet and I are having breakfast. At the moment I turn the salt mill
over my toast with scrambled eggs, he suddenly askes me a
totally idiotic question. If I'm bored? Where does he get that idea?
  
Read blog (Dutch): 
Struisvogel (Ostrich)
BLOGS: Column 10 Advalvas             

23-2-2015 The search for a new job and a publisher for his novels.

"A movie about a faded actor who once played a superhero and now wants 
to make a comeback in the theater? How peculiar!" my good friend says.
It's evening. We sit at the table in her room, crammed with books, 
while it's getting darker around us.
  
Read blog (Dutch):  
Birdman
Stranger in Paradise                                                 

7-3-2015 Moaning man, songbirds and the apocalypse in Buckingham 
Palace Garden. It’s all happening at the musical journey
STRANGER IN PARADISE
Listen to it on Mixcloud!

And there was trouble
Taking place
Trouble
Taking place

With: Marc Almond - PJ Harvey - Fink - TR/ST 
and the poetry of William Blake.

Listen on Mixcloud


L'Âge d'Or                                                  

1-3-2015 Made a new mixtape for a friend who is celebrating a jubilee year!
YOUTH, DAY, OLD AGE AND NIGHT.
YOUTH, large, lusty, loving—youth full of grace, force, fascination,
Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, 
 force, fascination? 
Day full-blown and splendid—day of the immense sun, action, 
 ambition, laughter, 
The Night follows close with millions of suns, and sleep and 
 restoring darkness. 
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Listen on Mixcloud  
BLOGS: Column 11 Advalvas                 

9-3-2015 The search for a new job and a publisher for his novels.

Classroom 1A6, Where is classroom 1A6 ? Desperately, I look around. 
Rows of students pass. I'm clinging to a boy.
"There is no classroom 1A6 here," he says.
  
(Dutch)
Terug naar school (Back to school)

INSPIRATION: Mary Wollstonecraft   

12-3-2015 She loved the idea of a threesome. For instance with Henry 
Fuseli, the great painter of nightmarish scenes and his wife. Wich they 
rejected indignantly. 
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759 - 1797) was unconventional, 
to say the least. She was a writer, a philosopher and a feminist 
avant la lettre.
Her most influential work is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Eventually she married the radical philosopher William Godwin. 
Both emphasized that their marriage was not a concession to the prevailing 
morality, and that they were completely equal partners. 
Her daughter MARY SHELLY would come in her footsteps and reap fame
as the writer of the gothic novel Frankenstein.


  
More on Mary Wollstonecraft
BLOGS: Column Advalvas                      

23-3-2015 The search for a new job and a publisher for his novels.

"Do you have those feelings, too?"
"What feelings?"
"You know..."
"No, I don't. Help me out."
"The main character of your novel is transsexual. Do you perhaps feel more like a girl? "
  
Read blog (Dutch):  
Valentijn
Ocean Girl                                                    

7-4-2015 An ALL GIRL'S MIXTAPE! An exciting and moving story 
of a girl from the ocean.
Go on this journey with Anne Clark, Anna Calvi, Susanne Sundfør, 
Kovacs, Laurie Anderson and Roosbeef.

And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair
streams black, the merman in his armored body.
We circle silently
about the wreck
we dive into the hold.
I am she: I am he

From: Diving into the wreck – Adrienne Rich

Listen on Mixcloud

BLOGS: Column Advalvas                      

18-4-2015 The search for a new job and a publisher for his novels.

"Cheers! To your traineeship,“ my love says and punches his wineglass
against mine. We sit together on our red sofa.
My laptop lays in the corner of the couch. Almost midnight,
I read on the screen ...
  
Read blog (Dutch):  
Gesprek met een dinosaurus 
(Conversation with a dinosaur)
BLOGS: Column Advalvas                      

28-4-2015 The search for a new job and a publisher for his novels.
My publisher is not convinced. Until now, we were right on. 
His remarks about my script I process without grumbling. 
But now we oppose each other...
  
Read blog (Dutch):  
De ogen van een kunstenaar 
(The eyes of an artist)
MAAN soundtrack                                      

12-5-2015 Violins, murmurs. It seems like I'm in a theater.
Then there is the sound of white noise mixed with a heavenly voice...

Laß mich siegen, laß mich sterben
Laß mich lieben, laß mich fliegen
You should drown with me 

Listen on Mixcloud

MOON will be published this fall      

25-6-2015 The search for a publisher is at an end! This fall the
novel MOON from Gaby den Held will be published by IJZER.
(in Dutch)

More on
IJZER
MOON

Coverdesign for MOON                  

27-6-2015 The cover design for MOON will be provided by three 
artistsCliff Thillo and Sander & Sandor Photography & Visagie. The 
playfulabsurdist world of drawing talent Cliff Thillo seamlessly fit
into the fairytale side of Gaby's story. But also the photographs of
Sander & Sandor celebrating the decadent colorful life with a
unmistakably rough edge are the perfect representation of his prose.
So it's going to be a composite work: photograph (Sander & Sandor)
and drawing and typography (Cliff).


  
More on:  
Cliff van Thillo
Sander&Sandor

Federico Fellini                                 

21-7-2015 First there are the images, then the words. It’s no surprise that the movies are Gaby’s major influence. He love’s the films by Xavier Dolan, François Ozon, Roman Polanski and David Lynch. But FEDERICO FELLINI has influenced him most. Like Fellini he wants to create a slightly caricatural dream world that gives reality a brighter color. That does not deny the ruthlessness of life, but places it in a different light. And so typically Italian as Fellini's films are, so 
typically Dutch, is the setting in Gaby's stories. But he adds colors, and places tragic clowns in it. Dutch anti-heroes with panache. Outsiders who were bullied in the schoolyard as a kid. Because they have red hair. Because they don’t play football. Because they are boys who feel like a girl or vice versa. But they have rebounded. They go through life with their heads held high. They remember that statement of ballet legend Sonia Gaskell: If you fall, always make something 
of it.
MOON as a shoebox diorama            

11-9-2015 Finishing touch for the cover design by CLIFF VAN THILLO and 
SANDER & SANDOR. A unique collaboration between a graphic artist and two 
photographers. Their graphic designs and photos are placed in a diorama. 
When the diorama is finished a final picture will be taken. That picture will be 
on the cover of MAAN. A meticulous and time consuming job!

MOON: cover design                             

12-9-2015 Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome to the viewing box theater. Here is the cover illustration of MOON. A miraculous wonderful work of illustrator CLIFF VAN THILLO and photographers SANDER & SANDOR. Imagination, originality, hard work, dedication and an extraordinary collaboration between artists who previously did not know each other, but understood each others worlds. They also completely understood the world of MOON, and added their own story to it. A world that will soon be open to you. Come and see! Come and see!

More on MOON

INSPIRATION:  Sander & Sandor         

15-9-2015 A crooked world underneath a beautiful thin layer (Sander).
Their pictures are colorful, with a wink to decadence and the underground 
pop culture. SANDER & SANDOR, lovers and business partners. Sander 
is in the photo technique and the big picture, while Sandor is doing the 
styling, make-up and focusses on the details. They lift each other to great 
heights, they say. They want to make the world a little more beautiful, but 
they don't avoid political statement. An example is their series: From Russia, 
With Love with images of beaten up gay and transgender people.


More on Sander & Sandor
INSPIRATION:  Eiko Ishioka           

25-9-2015 EIKO ISHIOKA (1938-2012) was a Japan born art director, costume and graphic designer. In her designs she brought along the Japanese tradition of the NO theater. Her creations are surreal, theatrical, over the top, but always effective and stylish. Her work was shown at the MoMa and she inspired fashion designers like Victor & Rolf. Her trophy cabinet was decorated with a Grammy award, two Tony awards and an Oscar. Who don't know her name, hath certainly seen her designs. She did the art direction of BJÖRK's video Cocoon and designed the costumes for GRACE JONES's Hurricane tour. She designed the fascinating costumes for Bram Stoker's Dracula (FRANCIS COPPOLA). Coppola said: the costumes are gonna be the sets, a perfect description of Eiko's work. Other films where she worked on include Tarsem Singh's The Cell, The Fall and The Immortals. Mirror Mirror would be her swan song. She died on January 21, 2012 of pancreatic cancer.

More on Eiko Ishioka
INSPIRATION:  Leonor Fini             

1-10-2015 The Argentine-French artist LEONOR FINI (1908-1996) was 
unconventional and uncompromising. She gained a foothold in the male-
dominated Surrealist movement. A female Dalì she was called. A nickname 
that does its deficit because she had her own unique style: sophisticated, 
pronounced erotic with references to death. Besides painter, she was also 
a designer of ballet and film productions, illustrator of bibliophile book 
editions (eg from Baudelaire, Sade, Verlaine, William Shakespeare and 
Edgar Allan Poe) and wrote three novels. However she was sometimes 
more famous for her independent and free lifestyle than her art: traditional 
marriage meant nothing to her. She preferred a ménage à trois. After her 
death she fell into obscurity, but in recent years she regains recognition.

More on Leonor Fini
MOONparty                                               
13-11-2015 Book launch Gaby den Held
  
The book launch on Saturday, November 7th at the legendary Mirliton 
theater in Utrecht was memorable! A presenter in a Queen Maxima dress 
sang the Moon Song, interviews with the author, the publisher and 
illustrators and a Moon Baptism which ended the party with a bang. 

See the pictures
Watch the videoregistration
ARCHIVE

Old news gathered in chronological order: excerpts from Gaby's novels and facts about people who inspired him over the years.




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