Month / July 2007

by Edward Champion

Craig Davidson vs. Jonathan Ames

As regular readers know, back in the day, I made a deal with a man at a crossroads who pledged to give me a mysterious potato salad recipe (along with guitar lessons), if I would continue to reference the adventures of Jonathan Ames. Well, I’ve been doing this for quite a while. And there hasn’t been a potato salad recipe sent to my mailbox. So I thought that I would begin to take my involvement on the Ames reporting front to the next level.

Somehow, I’ve been coaxed by very pleasant people to be a part of the Craig Davison-Jonathan Ames “exhibition sparring event” (note the new terminology) that’s happening at Gleason’s Boxing Gym (83 Front Street) on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 8:00 PM. (If you heard about this event before, please note the new venue. Apparently, an amateur boxing law prohibiting opponents who were more than ten years apart in age from fighting forced the event’s organizers to find a new venue.)

At the very least, I hope to offer a few between-rounds interviews with Davidson and Ames for a future installment of The Bat Segundo Show. (Mr. Ames and I have been trying to get a third Segundo interview set up for some months now.) But I may also be involved, in part, with emceeing this event. If this turns out to be the case, having never announced a boxing match before, I plan to dutifully study the history of past boxing announcers and give it my all. That’s the very least I can do under the circumstances. A lot of this, of course, depends upon the organizers and my recurrent laryngitis, which is not fully recovered but well on the way to being gone.

But don’t let my dubious participation stop you from attending what is surely one of the craziest literary publicity stunts seen in some time. Here are two writers who would willingly beat the shit out of each other to promote their names. Would you go that distance?

Here’s the flyer:

amesdavixon.jpg

by Edward Champion

Jeff Bridges as Graydon Carter?

Variety: “U.K. law firm Davenport Lyons brokered the deal with majority funder Aramid Entertainment backed by hedge fund coin. Project, reputedly carrying a $20 million budget, is also being developed with the U.K. Film Council, Film4, InTandem Films and the Irish Film Board….Cast for ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’ includes Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst and Jeff Bridges as Vanity Fair’s flamboyant editor Graydon Carter.”

by Edward Champion

Fly With One Eye Open / Gripping Your Van Dyke Tight

Yahoo: “Metallica singer James Hetfield was investigated by UK airport officials who believed he was a terrorist this week, it has been claimed. The star was barred entry to Luton airport on Thursday and questioned by staff who were concerned about his appearance. Fears that Hetfield might be involved in terrorism were apparently founded on his ‘Taliban-like beard’, according to The Times.”

by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • Apparently, the Chicago Sun-Times wants to redefine itself as a liberal, working-class paper. Presumably, this is a clever ploy to pay the staff abysmal salaries. But no matter. What is most interesting here is that Books Editor Cheryl Reed has become the Editorial Page Director. Does this mean the Books section is dead?
  • Dan Green on Tom McCarthy’s Remainder.
  • Sebastian Faulks has written a new James Bond novel.
  • Daft Punk: “The encore was just fantastic. two red lines were released from the pyramid, travelling around the outer frame like a game of snake, entering back into the pyramid at the base, then upwards until the lines connected with the artists, transforming their robot costumes into glowing red outlines.” At the next show, the encore will involve three green lines extending into a middle finger and then a series of words across the pyramid reading “WE ARE DAFT PUNK AND YOU ARE SUCKERS! WE TOOK YOUR MONEY BECAUSE YOU ARE EASILY AMUSED BY LIGHTS! NEXT TIME, OUR AVARICE WILL BE HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER!” The crowd will nevertheless be wowed by the “performance” of two guys resembling a bad Tron ripoff. Look, I like Daft Punk as much as the next guy and perhaps in piecemeal (say, in a festival environment with several other bands, as I saw them a few years ago at Coachella), their postmodern presence works. But what makes their stage act anything more than a needlessly gargantuan planetarium laser show? Does watching two guys in robot suits and lots of lights extruding from a pyramid really justify the $50 ticket purchase? Particularly if one is way in the back? That’s all I’m saying.
  • “How to Write the Great American Novel.”
  • Here’s one reason to be less liberal about ordaining reverends.
  • RIP Doug Marlette. The cartooning world needs more provocateurs.
  • Motoko Rich investigates the phenomenon of Sara Greun, who built up her reputation entirely on word-of-mouth and even beat out two Oprah books this summer. Wait a minute! I thought television had whacked the novel!
  • And if reading is dead, why then are more Brits reading books now than in 1975?
  • Publishers Weekly examines the seemingly limitless social networking sites devoted to books.
  • EW offers a literary stars list. I’d deem it dubious, had not EW included Warren Ellis on the list, who observed of writing Crooked Little Vein, “It came down to banging out a thousand words a day in the pub before I started the day’s comics work. If it wasn’t for Red Bull and Silk Cut cigarettes, the damn thing would never have seen the light of day.”
  • Good Christ, people are talking about Jane Austen! But is there any real cause for alarm here? (via Isak)
  • OK Computer turned ten today? Christ, I’m getting old.
  • Colleen on mysterious houses.
  • How to get that literary guy’s attention. I’m no great fan of Anne Rice, but if you’re going to badmouth her, at least least spell her name right. (“Grammar is everything,” my ass.) And wait a minute, isn’t it the guy who’s supposed to walk up to a girl and get her attention? I fear that several young men with good intentions will be laid astray by Adam’s well-intended advice. (Adam, what the hell’s going on, sir? Put down that issue of Maxim posthaste!) Lounging about and waiting for something to happen will not cut the mustard! Action is needed! Why not simply walk up to a lady and ask about the book she’s reading? From there, after the inevitable trial and error, great conversational and flirtatious possibilities await!
by Edward Champion

Finally, Someone in the NBCC Who Plays Doubting Thomas

Considering all the hysteria that transformed Critical Mass in mere months into one of the most laughable blogs professing to concern itself with books, I must nevertheless commend the NBCC for offering Kansas City Star books editor John Mark Eberhart’s thoughtful and quasi-contrarian post, which offers the most plain and humble argument on the situation so far. In self-effacing words devoid of the off-putting and humorless self-importance seen before, Eberhart observes that the hue and cry to save books coverage may very well be encouraging top tier editors to initiate the death knell. As Eberhart puts it:

And I just hope the NBCC is successful in making things better. I have to ask, though: Did the campaign change any minds, really, in Atlanta?

Things change. Societies evolve. The Internet is not going away, barring some catastrophic event (I’m trying not to grin right now; I confess I sometimes have a rather twisted imagination). And as things change, journalism reflects those changes. There is an old, old tension in this business: Are we supposed to be a catalyst for what is “right,” or are we supposed to be a mirror or reflecting pool, showing society its true nature?

I certainly hope Eberhart’s realistic considerations of what is now happening in media and his call for sanity initiates a more constructive conversation for this very important issue.