In our afternoon reading: thoughts on Joe Meno’s new novel, an interview with Megan Giddings, and more.
Notes on Yasmin Williams in Concert or How Video Games Will Save Us All
We started playing Rock Band a couple of years ago. My kids and I arrived late one night at my brother’s. We were aiming for eight but landed at eleven. We caught a second wind and Casey asked if we wanted to try Rock Band. Video games make me grumpy for all the stereotypical geezer reasons, but it was late and my defenses were down. Plus, we’d never played the game before. I figured after a song or two we’d run out of gas, but we had a blast. We stayed up past one stumbling through various classic and alt rock songs.
Morning Bites: Adam Levin’s Latest, Books About New Jersey, Niina Pollari’s Poetry, and More
In our morning reading: thoughts on books by Adam Levin and Niina Pollari, Bitchin Bajas talk Sun Ra, and more.
Sunday Stories: “Just Add Al”
Just Add Al
by Anne Booty
You’ve blunted Al’s eye liner and she’s gonna kill you.
Still, you mustn’t forget your tennis racket otherwise your death will have been futile. At assembly that morning you pick at the black tape on the handle, sticky glue finger nails like molasses. Eventually, the Head calls your name and you move to the front, nodding to the P.E. teacher to press play. The opening is epic played this loud, dispatching magpies from nests, awakening a mass of two hundred children. When the organ drops out, you get your axe into position and begin to strum. You may only be eleven and this may only be lip syncing to Faith dressed as a bearded kangaroo, but a girl has to start somewhere.
Currents, an Interview Series with Brian Alan Ellis (Episode 88: Timothy Willis Sanders)
TIMOTHY WILLIS SANDERS is the author of the short story collections Modern Massacres (Publishing Genius, 2022) and Orange Juice and Other Stories (Publishing Genius, 2010), and the novel Matt Meets Vik (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2014). He lives in San Francisco.
Afternoon Bites: Lucy Sante on Writing, Mohsin Hamid Interviewed, Natalka Burian’s Novel, and More
In our afternoon reading: Lucy Sante on writing, an interview with Mohsin Hamid, and more.
A Burrowing Transcendence: A Conversation with David Leo Rice
David Leo Rice has been keeping busy. Since we last spoke (about A Room in Dodge City, Volume 2), he’s published a collection of short stories, edited a book of essays on David Cronenberg, and written another novel, The New House, which provided me an excuse to sit down with him again to discuss his new novel and talk more about Jewishness in American literature, heresies, and capital-A Art (among other things). The New House is available now from Whisk(e)y Tit.
Morning Bites: Isaac Fitzgerald’s Recommendations, Kayla Maiuri Interviewed, David F. Walker on Comics, and More
In our morning reading: Isaac Fitzgerald’s book recommendations, David F. Walker on comics, and more.