Sometimes halting eloquence doesn’t fare well when you’re trying to make a complaint. Winston Churchill faced such a problem at this Scottish hotel, where his letter of misgivings is proudly mounted for guests to see. I’m hoping that, in addition to showcasing Churchill’s disappointments, they not only addressed their bug problem but started serving lunch food as well. After all, what distinguished person eats pancakes at mid-day? For crying out loud, Scotland.
Lit. & The Internet
- Bolaño explains life, naturally and continually, even or especially on book tour.
- Robert Louis Stevenson’s archives go digital in time for the writer’s 159th birthday.
- Google’s working hard on their digital book deal.
- Why are Dutch writers never actually associated with the Netherlands?
Moby-Dick Lives
- California College of the Arts’ Wattis Institute features Moby-Dick, where “artists from around the world are invited to address the key themes of the [book] and the historical [moment] in which [it was] written.”
- Damien Searls has, after his foray into whaling territory, has taken on Thoreau’s journals, of which his edits are “meant to showcase the journal as a unified work of literature.” Conversational Reading weighs in on the new edit, and provides a review.
Music
- Dave Hill: Funny guy/rocker
- The Serge Gainsbourg biopic is supposed to be good, and even better that the trailer, French of course, is NSFW.
- Thurston Moore answers the question, “what was there before YouTube?”, and quite a few others, for Carrie Brownstein’s Monitor Mix.