Up now at Vol.1: some thoughts on Mary Hamilton’s chapbook We know what we are, its ties to NBC’s late-eighties comedy lineup, and its relationship to the coverage of inspirational sports movies.
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Fiction
Two Reviews
Up today at Dusted: thoughts on Bon Iver member S. Carey’s All We Grow, which I liked overall. I’m curious to see where Carey’s next album goes, however — when All We Grow was good, it was quite compelling, but there were some aspect to the album of which I was less fond.
Also in the …
Weekend Reading: Gender & Rock.
Two worthwhile pieces for your weekend reading.
In the first, Amy Klein, guitarist for the excellent punk rock band Titus Andronicus, takes a look at the new issue of Rolling Stone and its handling of gender. She then ties this in with a larger political narrative which, I would argue, makes no small amount of sense. …
If “Psychic junkie vampires” doesn’t get your attention…
I reviewed The Orange Eats Creeps, Grace Krilanovich’s surreal novel of vampires, ESP, and punk rock, for Vol.1. You can read said review here; here’s a bit of it:
It’s possible that Krilanovich’s gangs of pill-popping, train-jumping, Pacific Northwestern vampires are vampiric in metaphor only. It’s never clear, but that lack of clarity is …
Welcome Returns
And in generally kickass music news this week, both Rebecca Gates and Erika Anderson have announced new musical ventures, whether albums in progress or newly-formed bands.
For what it’s worth, some context for why I’m so fond of the music of each:
The number one and the word “volume”
For what it’s worth, I’m doing a bit more blogging these days over at Vol.1. Some recent posts there include:
Two takes on crime fiction, via Tony O’Neill’s Sick City and a Charlie Huston essay;
Thoughts on Pioneer One;
Signs of Alan Moore’s influence on the Mike Carey/Peter Gross series The Unwritten (spurred on in part by this …
(I cannot think of a good play on “metadata” right now. My apologies.)
My first sudden reaction of the night was that Till Fellner’s recording of Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” would make excellent for the night’s editing.
My second sudden reaction of the night had to do with the amount of classical music in my collection. In my apartment, I generally listen to music in one of two rooms: my …
Notes on “Three Delays”
Inspired by a glowing Rick Moody review in The Believer, I recently picked up Charlie Smith’s novel Three Delays. “[I]t makes the entire shelf of novels from the last generation superfluous,” says Moody? Sure, I’m in.
Right about now, I’m about two-thirds of the way through the novel. (So…two delays, then?) I have to say, I’m …
Design (department of scowl)
So: decided to do a quick theme-change here, for no apparent reason. I have plans afoot for a much larger-scale renovation around here , but for the time being, I figured I’d shift a few things around and see how it looked. The theme in use is The Erudite by Matt Wiebe; I’ll be getting …
On Small Presses + Design Restrictions
This isn’t a post about starting a small press. Though I have to say, between Jackie Corley’s two posts so far on the subject and the announcement of Publishing Genius’s Awesome Machine imprint, it’s something that’s been running through my mind more than usual lately. In lieu of having, say, a book I’d like to …
Mark Robinson!
So hey, Maura Johnston has an excellent interview over at eMusic with Teenbeat founder Mark Robinson.
This bit is interesting, and — I’d think — gets at a lot of what’s good about both physical and digital distribution of music.
What do you think of digital distribution’s effects on the presentation of albums?
My main beef right …
Some Thoughts on “Casanova”
The good people at the Portland Mercury have a fantastic interview up with Matt Fraction, the man responsible for writing Casanova, pretty much my favorite comic book right now. There’s an equally good interview with Fraction up over at Comics Alliance, as well as this one in GQ. The last of those includes the following …
For Flavorwire: Capsule Reviews, Enhanced Books
At Flavorwire, I have a piece up on what my editor there has dubbed “Performance-enhanced books.” In practical terms, that involves capsule reviews of five titles:
Joseph Mattson’s Empty the Sun
Josh Farrar’s Rules to Rock By
James Kaelan’s We’re Getting On
Eric Davidson’s We Never Learn
Sara Jaffe and Mia Clarke’s The Art of Touring
And here’s a bit of …
Slush, etc.
Via their Twitter feed, Fictionaut recently linked this Jim Hanas post arguing against the slush pile.
I’m not sure that I agree with it. I think Hanas is a little too optimistic about editors seeking out and finding good work, if good work can theoretically be found anywhere. Though given that Fictionaut provides exactly …
Fine people a-blogging
The internet is a far better place as of now, because the greatly esteemed Molly Templeton now has a dedicated website of her own. A domain, even.
Where for right now she is discussing well-liked Canadian actors visiting the city in which she resides in order to eat pizza and test-drive electric cars. Also promised: contrarian …
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