Justin.TV Guide: “Admit it. When you first heard about Justin.TV, your curiosity quickly wandered toward the scatalogical [sic] and the sexual. Justin has obviously had no qualms about the former, but the latter seems to have presented a line he’s not willing to cross. We’ve covered moments in the past where Justin has unplugged or pointed the camera away, so it’s perhaps no surprise that this landmark moment would similarly be censored. It’s still disappointing.”
Year / 2007
Roundup
- Just one new area to hit: A neologism traditionally anticipates kleptomaniacs, expectant and frenetic. Underlying concerns, kidding, innocent nefarious gambol. Criminally, hearts inside lilt low, pandering in lecherous lulls.
- The Guardian‘s John Lanchester examines the American concern with copyright, and what this means for Google Book Search and publishers. (via Scott)
- Apparently, there’s a Casino Royale play has been commissioned. My fellow Bond fan wonders if there have been any others. Me, I’m wondering what resemblance this has to Bond’s first dramatic appearance on television (which, by the way, also included Peter Lorre).
- Some details have been released on the forthcoming LATBR overhaul (as well as the general newspaper), and I happen to know that the writers being commissioned for the web-only columns are definitely going to be worth your reading time. Alas, I am sworn to secrecy. Not even torture flying in the face of Geneva Conventions will loosen my tongue. Of course, you’ll find out soon enough. What’s also interesting is that all this has caused the aforementioned Bond fan to pledge a revival of the LATBR thumbnail.
- Fuck you, give me my car.
- Attention, all reviewers! Can we put a moratorium to the use of “snookered” in relation to Lionel Shriver’s The Post-Birthday World? I mean, really, this is the best wordplay you can come up with? (See also Mr. Birnbaum’s views on the subject.)
- With all due respect to Jessica, who is a thoughtful litblogger, now that it’s out in the open, the recent Chabon-signed copies of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union sent out to bloggers strike me as a more escalated and egregious version of last year’s Diane Setterfeld controversy. I’m exceedingly grateful that I wasn’t targeted. I can read this book on my own, judging it independently, without having to feel guilty that it may not live up to any kind or personalized proclamations offered by Chabon. I generally set aside any and all handwritten correspondence, press materials, or other ephemera into a file, permit the book to sit for some time (so that I will have forgotten about the note) and read and respond to any and all notes or kind gestures after I’ve finished the book. I do not wish for my opinion to be corrupted or tainted in any way. Even my friends know, when offering any manuscripts or work for me to look at, that I will tell them the truth, and it is because I greatly care about literature (and, particularly, my friends’ creative development; I wish to see them blossom) that I will be honest (sometimes quite hard) yet always encouraging. I’m wondering, however, if some of my fellow litbloggers who received these packages might, in some small way, have been unduly influenced by a personalized bookplate from a high-profile literary author. After all, I don’t believe Chabon is doing this for critics and editors who are requesting review copies (and such a practice would be a no-no on a newspaper). Sure, it’s a clever marketing gimmick. But this preys upon the general bonhomie I’ve observed in the litblogosphere.
- I can’t believe that Jeff is ahead of me on this Vollmann item, but it seems that this reading has been made available by Politics & Prose.
- Warren Ellis: doing his bit for a nice, clean blogosphere.
An Elegy for Listening
Washington Post: “Even at this accelerated pace, though, the fiddler’s movements remain fluid and graceful; he seems so apart from his audience — unseen, unheard, otherworldly — that you find yourself thinking that he’s not really there. A ghost. Only then do you see it: He is the one who is real. They are the ghosts.”
RELATED: Grimes Poznikov: “In 1987, after being ticketed by the police for playing his trumpet 13 decibels above the legal sound limit, Mr. Poznikov quit his act, moved out of his rented apartment and began sleeping in the streets. He stayed with friends from time to time — particularly his off-and-on girlfriend, Susan ‘Harmony’ Tanner — but the freedom of the outdoors always pulled him back to the sidewalk, he told a reporter last December.”
Sleep-Deprived Roundup
- Fans of books turned into Hollywood treacle rejoice! Pat Conroy, not to be confused with Pat Barker, is finishing his first novel in more than a decade. The new book is set in Charleston and is more than 700 pages. Take that, John Irving!
- USA Today has selected “25 books that leave a legacy.” Dan Brown, John Gray and Helen Fielding certainly do leave a legacy: the same one carved out by Spandau Ballet, the starved Twiggy look, and Daniel Boone caps.
- Is it too late to bring civility to the Web? What the fuck are you talking about?
- The hallowed silence of libraries appears to be in jeopardy. (via Bookninja)
- The Chron on what all the recent bookstore closings mean.
- Darby observes Stephen Dixon’s retirement from teaching.
- C. Max Magee is interviewed at Litminds.
- Twin Peaks Season Two: “This TV show did not get workshopped.”
- The latest Pulitzer finalist list.
- Callie Miller investigates the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists. (via TEV)
- Erin O’Brien calls out Bryan Appleyard.
- Whitney Pastorek has concerns about the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack.
- Bon Jovi won’t be playing BEA? Lance Fensterman, your “regret” is admirable, but I’m sobbing like a BOP-reading bobbysoxer curling beneath a duvet with a gargantuan teddy bear in a 1985 suburban split-level home. Goddam you, Mr. Bon Jovi! Goddam you all to hell! You cruel, CRUEL man! Well, you can forget about any BEA coverage by this dutiful litblogger. If Jon Bon Jovi can’t back up his literary mojo with his musical mojo, then, while indeed I was halfway there, I shall be living (or perhaps covering BEA) on a prayer. Perhaps if someone takes my hand, I’ll make it. I swear.
- Tim Martin talks with Neil Gaiman. (via Jenny D)
- Charlie Anders: “Just three years in, and the new Doctor Who series already seems to be cannibalizing itself.”
- Christopher Walken had fantastically destructive plans for Silicon Valley in 1985.
- The spring issue of ZYZZYVA is now available online for your literary edification.
- I’m with Lev Grossman. Does anyone still care about the Webbies anymore? Particularly since nominees have to pay $245 to enter into the Awards. The Webbies are the Golden Globes of the Internet: its nominees and ceremonies and sycophantic adulations limited to those who can pay for it. It is about as useful to any discerning Web surfer as a fusillade of pop-up ads.
- The Onion: “‘Most E-Mailed’ List Tearing New York Times’ Newsroom Apart.”
Indolent Roundup
- Just what the world needs: a Spandau Ballet reunion. When the apocalypse occurs, humans suffering from radioactive sickness will place tinny and barely functioning crystal radio sets to their ears, shuffling in threadbare Chuck Taylor All Stars along the abandoned strip malls and suburban shrapnel, and susurrating, “Ba ba ba ba ba, I know this, much is true.” Then there will be no hope for Western civilization.
- Updike on Wharton bio.
- Sarah Kerr on Joan Didion. (via Laila)
- The new Rupert Thomson book appears very promising.
- The Ray Davis/Jonathan Lethem letters. (via Matt)
- Roberto Bolano! Roberto Bolano! Roberto Bolano! I’m telling you: four people have mentioned The Savage Detective in the past forty-eight hours. You better watch your ass, Joshua Ferris. A new hot author has arrived. Roberto Bolano! Roberto Bolano! Roberto Bolano! I have no basis for this enthusiasm, but everyone else seems excited and I’ll likely check this book out.
- Finn Harvor’s interesting email exchange with Laura Miller.
- Erin O’Brien is one determined woman.
- The top 500 fonts on the web. (via Messr. Peschel)
- The Internet has made obituaries hot again. Perhaps it’s because Internet users spend most of their time surfing in moribund offices.
- Who’s more evil? Ann Coulter or Don Imus? Tough call.