Matthew Simmons shares a photo essay inspired by his collection Happy Rock.

“In stark contrast to barns like City Gardens or The Ritz, Maxwell’s felt like a place that was owned & staffed by persons who thought the players and paying customers were friends and peers.” Gerard Cosloy makes the case for why Maxwell’s matters.

Indie booksellers provided NPR with some summer reading recommendations.

Gerard Way’s Batman proposal.

Kevin Sampsell wrote about his visit to NYC for BEA.

MobyLives on literary Iceland.

“More Nathaniel Wests’s Lonelyhearts than Dave Eggers’ Staggering Genius, this metafictional moment is played not with a wink but with real despair…” Gabe Durham on Tom Whalen’s novel The President in Her Towers.

Roxana Robinson talked Sparta with Leonard Lopate.

A report from Bushwick Open Studios. (Features the Silent Barn; also, skulls.)

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