RIP Rosie

It is with great sadness that I report that Rosie, the great labrador who accompanied Robert Birnbaum on his interviews, passed away last week. I was lucky enough to meet Rosie a few years ago. A gallery of Rosie in action can be found here. (via Matthew Tiffany)

Bobby-B In Da House!

Robert Birnbaum talks with Susanna Moore.

Birnbaum Alert

Robert Birnbaum talks with Colum McCann and conducts the interview in a car! Also, I think this may be the only interview in which the journalist in question picks up his son from school midway through the conversation. As always with Birnbaum, there’s more to this interview than quirky environmental variables.

Birnbaum Alert

Robert Birnbaum talks with Donald Hall.

Birnbaum Alert

Robert Birnbaum chats with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Ed Jones

Robert Birnbaum talks (a second time) with Edward P. Jones.

Birnbaum vs. Benedict

Robert Birnbaum, who I appear to be synchronized with on a similar interview update schedule, talks with Elizabeth Benedict at the infamous Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Thankfully, Birnbaum resists any and all easy jokes about eggs.

The Bat Segundo Show #60: Robert Birnbaum

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Author: Robert Birnbaum

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Detached but amused by the pair-up.

Subjects Discussed: The value of conducting interviews at a cemetery, Ed Champion’s arrest, the current state of the literary world, literary feuds, Richard Ford and Colson Whitehead, Stanley Crouch, Nicholson Baker, Leon Wieseltier, Anthony Burgess, US vs. UK journalism, Cynthia Ozick, the literary blogosphere, Birnbaum’s participation at the Oscar blog, West Coast vs. East Coast weather, reading and page limits, the “importance” of the New York Times Book Review, Gilbert Sorrentino, Sam Tanenhaus, Thomas McGuane’s Nothing But Blue Skies book tour cancellation, Laura Miller, an attempt to stop the interview by a Mt. Auburn employee, examining a Mt. Auburn Cemetery leaflet of rules, John Updike, Joan Didion, comparisons with the publishing and the music industry, the NYTBR contemporary fiction coverage, list-making, classic vs. contemporary literature, Paul Collins, small presses vs. large presses, the onslaught of galleys, BEA, Birnbaum as editor, party pictures, celebrity culture, visionary magazines, Henry Luce, artistry vs. Photoshop, California fruit labels, the advertising world, who Birnbaum will talk with, Nicole Richie, authors having emotional breakdowns, the current state of literary journalism, and staying humble.

Birnbaum Alert

The man talks with Sebastian Junger.

Birnbaum Alert

Birnbaum talks with Susan Straight.

Birnbaum Alert

Robert Birnbaum talks with Eduardo Galeano.

Bookish Journalism Summit

The extremely entertaining tale (along with the inevitable podcast) on how the below happened will follow shortly. (I even got to meet Rosie.) For now, I’m still decompressing from the flight. So bear with me as I adjust back to PDT again. Many thanks to El Rojo himself and Megan Sullivan for providing assist on this.

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(Top photo courtesy of Ms. Tyrieosa.)

Birnbaum Alert

Robert Birnbaum talks with Lawrence Weschler and the marvelous George Saunders.

There’s Always Room for Bob

I’m still waking up here and I’ve had scant sleep. Don’t expect a coherent blog post until the late morning. But in the meantime, do check out Mr. Birnbaum’s interview with Thomas Beller.

Roundup

Roundup/Update

Birnbaum Watch

Okay, an effort at moving forward. It won’t be easy.

For now, check out Birnbaum’s interview with James Lasdun. Lasdun’s latest book is Seven Lies, which somehow made its way into my hands at BEA. I don’t really remember how this happened, but, for the most part, I dug the book, even if it seemed to borrow just a tad too much of its feel from John O’Hara and Christopher Isherwood for my tastes.

Needlessly Snarky (Due Possibly to Being Subjected to Fourteen Listens of “The 12 Days of Xmas” Over the Past 72 Hours) Roundup

Birnbaum Watch

Missed it while my legs were locked under wintry work, but Bob-B has talked with Marc Estrin and Barbara Ehrenreich.

Burn Balm

Robert Birnbaum insists that he has “chewed the fat” with Ron Rash. This strikes me as a potentially dangerous activity, particularly if you are watching your carbs. If I were of a more carnivorous mindset (it is, after all, the morning), I would fully expect Mr. Birnbaum to “chew the thin” at some point — ideally, sacrificing a few anorexic chickens into the barbeque.

But no matter. This is a silly question of semantics. The important thing here is that Birnbaum has talked with yet another writer, squeezing more Southern writers into the talk than chicken into jambalaya.

Birnbaum Alert

Bob “He Puts the Cream In Your Coffee But Asks You First In Case You Take It Black” Birnbaum talks with recent MacArthur fellow Jonathan Lethem. There’s also a sweet photo of Lethem with a certain canine friend.

Birnbaum Alert

Robert Birnbaum, who, contrary to current rumors, is not interviewing book warehouse workers, talks with Frederick Busch. And since proper beer nomenclature is of pressing importance these days, I should point out that Mr. Busch has no relation to any novelist named Anheuser.

In any event, these two cats talk about everything from poetry to nameless dogs to Stephen King to the four greatest Hollywood novels. Joe Bob says check it out.

The Long Colloquy

We’ve ribbed James Howard Kunstler before for his extraordinary cynicism. Nevertheless, having read The Long Emergency and remaining quite concerned about the issues expressed therein, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point you over to Birnbaum’s latest interview with Mr. Kunstler himself. Rather interestingly, The Long Emergency did not receive a single review in any major newspaper. Bobby B made efforts to contact several book review editors and none chose to respond.

See How the Other Half Writes

In light of the recent Washington Post scandal, Ms. Tangerine Muumuu digs out this interview between one Robert Birnbaum and one Marianne Wiggins.

The “We Were Too Sluggish From Tuesday Night’s Festivities” Roundup

Take That, Birnbaum!

Today’s Word of the Day is “jejune.”

jejune \juh-JOON\, adjective:
1. Lacking in nutritive value.
2. Displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity; childish.
3. Lacking interest or significance; dull; meager; dry.

Were I to make this public now, it would be dismissed as the raving of a mind at the end of its tether, unable to distinguish fiction from reality, real life from the jejune fantasies of its youth.
–Ronald Wright, A Scientific Romance

By the inflection of his voice, the expression of his face, and the motion of his body, he signals that he is aware of all the ways he may be thought silly or jejune, and that he might even think so himself.
–Jedediah Purdy, For Common Things

A while ago, Michael Kinsley wrote that Jewish Americans envied Israelis for living out history in a way that made the comfort and security of life in New York or Los Angeles seem jejune.
–Geoffrey Wheatcroft, “The Big Kibbutz,” New York Times, March 2, 1997

Jejune derives from Latin jejunus, “fasting, hence hungry, hence scanty, meager, weak.”

The Real Question: Which One of the Two is Goofier?

In one of the most inspired and frabjous convergences of online talent, Yankee Pot Roast talks with Robert Birnbaum.