- Top Ten Girl Geeks
- Scientific American: “Having a word stuck on the tip of the tongue is enough to activate an unusual condition in which some people perceive words as having different tastes, according to a new study.”
- In a desperate effort to get down with the kids, Burger King now trying out viral Google Video. (via Davis Freeberg)
- Altman memoir dead?
- You had 9+ hours of Jackson helming this nonsense. Quit your bellyaching.
- Clive Owen knows nothing about Sin City 2. This is a bad sign.
- Bloggers receive immunity in California Supreme Court. And I’d like to be the first to thank those sophomanic cocksuckers at the California Supreme Court for this fine decision.
- The Rake has tried to coax Pynchon into an appearance without apparent success.
- Damn. Can’t wait to see this.
- Webster’s Daily: poetry from Webster’s original 1828 dictionary.
The “Why the Hell Does Anyone Bother to Work the Day Before Thanksgiving?” Roundup
– November 22, 2006Posted in: Uncategorized
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. (
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.