“In many ways poetry is my first love—that level of engagement with words. Robert Frost is so sneaky. He’s like Hemingway—he saw the darkness and then created this stylistic veneer that keeps it down, but you’re fed it unconsciously.” The Paris Review interviewed Nathaniel Philbrick.

We’re presently enjoying reviews of Woody Allen’s new film Blue Jasmine, notably those by Graham Fuller and David Edelstein. (The latter includes the phrase “Andrew Dice Clay, surprisingly affecting as her first husband.”)

SPIN has a roundtable discussion of the fact that Nirvana did not kill hair metal.

Junot Diaz has been using Rap Genius to point out the science fiction references in a passage from The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Maud Newton checked out James Turrell’s Aten Reign.

Natalie Portman will make her directorial debut with an adaptation of a book by Amos Oz.

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