“I first saw his face when he appeared on Shooting Stars, a surreal comedy panel show that used to be on the BBC. As a teenager I liked him because his persona was borderline depressive, a black hole in the middle of the carnival. I also remember marveling at his name, which sounded too good to be real — I was certain it was a comic pseudonym, like Mr. Bean.” Ben Hamilton on Will Self (and Will Self’s Umbrella.)

Pitchfork on Seattle’s low-key, blissed-out garage-rock outfit La Luz.

“I try to explain that it is a little like falling in love, that we really didn’t have a choice. The space was open, the price was right, and one morning over coffee my husband and I looked at one another and said at the same time: We’re opening a bookshop! Four weeks later, we did.” In The Paris Review, Kelly McMasters talks about opening the bookstore Moody Road Studios.

Dolan Morgan’s “Anatomy of the Monster,” up now at The Lifted Brow.

Warren Ellis on John Scalzi’s The Human Division and digitally serializing fiction.

Jenn Northington on Karen Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove.

Hyperallergic takes a look at seven noteworthy art shows in Ridgewood and Bushwick.

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