In the past few years, I’ve observed Melville House grow from a mom-and-pop imprint to an independent press keeping the work of Stephen Dixon, Tao Lin, the last interview of Jacques Derrida, and numerous other volumes in bookstores. Now Melville House is now having a summer sale. The MH website doesn’t specify whether or not this sale is being conducted because of the distribution nightmares now facing nearly every indie press working hard to offer alternative material. But if this is indeed the case, then you may want to throw a few bucks Melville House’s way for their backlist. And if you purchase two books, you get a copy of Lewis Lapham’s With the Beatles. Support your indie presses!

A very happy eighth birthday to Speedy Snail. Rory Ewins has been maintaining a grand arsenal of academic writing, cartoons, computer advice columns (Dr. Komputor) — in short, a variegated life preserved in web form reflecting the great possibilities of the personal web. I met Rory once — a good seven years ago at Fray Day 4. I was then posting a good deal of sophomoric personal material to the Web. But to my great shock, Rory recognized me and introduced himself. Not being among the cool kids, Rory and I both performed our material late in the night in front of a crowd. I recall capacious plumes of marijuana smoke drifting over the heads of disinterested twentysomethings sitting on the front couches at Cellspace. It was an audience that grew distressingly less interested with the fine folks who dared to share their stories. Thankfully, a German friend and I were there, sober, laughing hysterically at Rory’s grand delivery of a Madagascar tale. (You can find the audio here. Oddly enough, my own performance, which chronicled the history of a love seat, appears to have been dropped and unreferenced by those who have deemed me not part of history.)

Incidentally, Speedy Snail’s birthday reminds me that edrants celebrated seven years on the Web back in May.

And here’s Part Two and Part Three. They don’t make television like this anymore. Name a single interviewer today who would openly call a mass murderer as dangerous as Manson a “coward” or invite him to beat the shit out of him on national television. If anything, this incredible interview again demonstrates what we have lost in television journalism and why it is necessary for journalists of all stripes to up their game, remaining as fearless as possible in their pursuit of the truth.

Well, I thought I’d get the third and final Alternative Press Expo podcast up today, but other things — namely, lower back pain caused by accidentally throwing my back out of alignment last night — prevent me from industrious blogging. But I hope to return tomorrow.

Rupert Thomson is coming to New York and Maud will be interviewing him at McNally Robinson on Friday, August 17, at 7:00 PM. I’ve expressed my considerable enthusiasm for The Book of Revelation before. And Maud is a fantastic interviewer. So be sure to make it on August 17 to McNally Robinson, located, as all book enthusiasts know, on 52 Prince Street.