Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious.
Archive for May, 2006
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Not Even Exhibitionists Are Safe Atop Everest
Posted on May 28, 2006 | No CommentsMSNBC: “The head of the Nepal Mountaineering Association urged the government on Saturday to take action against a sherpa who reportedly stripped off on top of Mount Everest.” -
Public Transportation — The Great Facilitator of Diplomacy
Posted on May 28, 2006 | No CommentsPerhaps it’s a sign of urban living that I’ve seen altercations as strange as this one on MUNI. Of course, nobody has, to my knowledge, claimed to have his penis... -
Barker’s Beauties
Posted on May 28, 2006 | 3 CommentsWhere Are They Now? More interestingly, why is it that so much crazy shit goes on behind the scenes at The Price is Right? Just how stable is Bob Barker?... -
The Bat Segundo Show #41
Posted on May 28, 2006 | No CommentsAuthors: Carrie A.A. Frye and Yannick Murphy Condition of Mr. Segundo: Missing, last seen packing himself into a suitcase at Dulles. Subjects Discussed: To Kill a Mockingbird, Dodie Smith’s I... -
RIP Alex Toth
Posted on May 28, 2006 | No CommentsReported on Toth’s site. -
Food Issue, My Ass
Posted on May 28, 2006 | 2 CommentsWhat Levi said. -
A Scanner Dully?
Posted on May 27, 2006 | No CommentsEarly reviews are coming in on Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly and they’re not promising. The Book Standard: “Visually, this Scanner is no phantasmagoria, unlikely to inspire comparison to great... -
Calvin and Hobbes
Posted on May 26, 2006 | 1 CommentArchive. (via MeFi) -
To the Moleskine People
Posted on May 26, 2006 | 3 CommentsI have no idea what I did to earn your good graces, but.. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the package. -
Baum’s Away
Posted on May 26, 2006 | No CommentsAt Gonzaga University, to celebrate L. Frank Baum’s 150th birthday, an exhibit entitled “Oz and Beyond” is on display in the library rare books room. -
The Video Game Industry: Innovation is an Afterthought
Posted on May 26, 2006 | 1 CommentSlate: “What happened to these pioneers? Garriott never produced another breakthrough like Ultima; he now works for online multiplayer giant NCsoft. Meier has spent most of the last decade updating... -
Dover Town Library: Hot to Trot
Posted on May 26, 2006 | 1 CommentIt is a fundamental truth that librarians are among the sexiest people on the planet. But the Dover Town Library staff have me contemplating all manner of sexual fantasies*: you... -
New Yorker 2.0?
Posted on May 26, 2006 | No CommentsThis morning, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the New Yorker is going digital. In a podcast, editor David Remnick reveals that the New Yorker plans on “dramatically upgrading” its... -
LBC Podcast Alert
Posted on May 26, 2006 | No CommentsDo check out the LBC site today for a podcast featuring Carrie A.A. Frye and Yannick Murphy. I should have things squared away by mid-morning. -
Who Are the Fact Checkers at Poets & Writers?
Posted on May 25, 2006 | 7 CommentsPoets and Writers: “Despite one interruption by a young man who asked why he didn’t get a thank-you for once sending Tanenhaus cookies….” (Emphasis added; thanks Sarah!) -
Kind of Like Al Gore Himself During the Past Six Years
Posted on May 25, 2006 | No CommentsFrom a review of An Inconvenient Truth: “Fundamentally, this is a film about communication– the failure to communicate in the past, and the mission to truly communicate before it’s far... -
CointelPryor
Posted on May 25, 2006 | No CommentsRichard Pryor’s FBI file. -
Or Maybe Joan’s Just Waiting for the Creepy Journalist to Go Away
Posted on May 25, 2006 | No CommentsNew York Times: “Ms. Didion, tiny, quiet and quick-speaking, keeps her hands mostly in her lap. One gets the feeling that the room is impressing itself on her.” -
You’re Spending £7 Million on a Sex Park And You Mean to Tell Me That There’s NO MONEY Left Over for the Rides?
Posted on May 25, 2006 | No CommentsBBC: “A £7m sex theme park, which has no rides, is to open in London’s West End later this year. Visitors to Amora – The Academy of Sex and Relationships... -
The Moral of the Story: Lose the Guillotine, Lose the Audience
Posted on May 25, 2006 | No CommentsGuardian: ” They sat in their seats and hooted and whistled and shouted and slow-clapped. It felt as though the audience was providing the ending that Sofia Coppola was too... -
New Literary Pejoratives
Posted on May 25, 2006 | 1 CommentThe time has come for the literary world to move well beyond the terms “chick lit” and “lad lit” and add more literary pejoratives to the lexicon. After all, if... -
Vanity Press Equals Vanity Proposal?
Posted on May 25, 2006 | 1 CommentCameron Kelly has proposed to his girlfriend by self-publishing a book, 50 Reasons Why You Should Marry Me and 51 Reasons Why I Should Marry You. A sample PDF reveals... -
The Twenty Worst Agents
Posted on May 25, 2006 | No CommentsThe SFWA has posted the twenty worst agents in the business. Miss Snark corroborates. (via Lee Goldberg) -
The Mikes Will Stay On When the Energy Runs Out
Posted on May 25, 2006 | No CommentsThe first solar-powered recording studio. -
“The Book of Revelation” Film Adaptation
Posted on May 25, 2006 | No CommentsMaud Newton points to this site, which contains a trailer and information on the film adaptation of The Book of Revelation. Thankfully, the movie is being made in Australia, as... -
A War on Contemporary Bildungsromans?
Posted on May 25, 2006 | 3 CommentsThe Chronicle of Higher Education offers an overview of “lad lit,” noting, “Virtually every writer of guy lit is an almost-thirtysomething graduate of an elite college or university.” This is... -
Gray Lady Staff Distinctions
Posted on May 24, 2006 | 5 CommentsA.O. Scott is listed on the Times bio page as a grad-school dropout. Do you think the Times needs to hire new biography writers? You know, to sort of accentuate... -
Maybe It’s Wise to Maintain a Bachelor Desktop Model
Posted on May 24, 2006 | 2 CommentsGirlfriend 6.0 vs. Wife 1.0: “Wife 1.0 installs itself such that it is always launched at system initialization, where it can monitor all other system activity. He’s finding that some... -
Newspaper Death Watch?
Posted on May 24, 2006 | 1 CommentB to B Online: “With declining circulation, a relatively flat ad market and sluggish stock prices, some analysts say the writing is on the wall for newspaper companies. In an... -
Or Maybe Roth Just Needed to Be Called to the Bench This Round
Posted on May 24, 2006 | No CommentsNicholas Spice on Everyman: “Everyman has none of this propulsive linguistic exuberance [identified in previous books]. Its energy is of a quite different kind. It is a funerary portrait, a...