Weekend Bites: Banned Bulgakov, Sunday Book Review, Welles on Hemingway, Scotch Talk, Bad Beach Boys and More

Orson Welles talks about his strange friendship with Ernest Hemingway. (Thanks to The Paris Review and Electric Lit. for the h/t.) Nathaniel Rich on Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita for Guernica’s superb Banned Book Week series. Steve Almond reviews Irvine Welsh’s Skagboys and Rivka Galchen reviews D.T. Max’s David Foster Wallace biography for the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Laird Hunt talks music for Largehearted Boy’s Book Notes. Ten times when Surrealism got really surreal. Esquire has done the world a favor by putting […]

Continue Reading

Nicholson Baker Really Needs To Put Out An Album

A few weeks ago we mentioned what we thought at the time was a really one-off thing. Nicholson Baker, the author of several books collectively loved by Vol. 1 folks, issued a song protesting the construction of a military base in Gangjeong. We mentioned that the song sounded a good deal like Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt and even some Arthur Russell, and the conversation continued on Twitter about how great “Jeju Island Song” sounded (not to mention the important message):

Continue Reading

Take Lena Dunham’s (Expensive) Advice

There’s a letter in the first few pages of Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, supposedly written by the author of the collection, Lester Bangs, from heaven. Bangs tells his friend, the critic Dave Marsh, how he thinks they made a mistake and let him into heaven where Jim Croce and Karen Carpenter are the big acts. Bangs talks about how he keeps applying to get into hell, but they think he was too good hearted. He then goes on to tell Marsh, “Take […]

Continue Reading

Damn It Feels Good To Be Blake Bailey

It isn’t awesome enough for Blake Bailey that W.W. Norton & Company has picked up “Philip Roth: The Biography,” but they also decided to throw him some cash for the opportunity to publish his own memoir. So that means while we have to wait “8 to 10 years” for Bailey to finish up his work on Roth, we can fill the gap by reading his forthcoming biography on Charles Jackson in 2013, and in 2014 read about the life and times of a biographer. You […]

Continue Reading

Zadie Smith Shows You Around

Fact: three out of every five book trailers aren’t so good. While that number may startle you, I’m starting to think publishers are maybe starting to wise up to that fact, and that’s why they’re thinking of new and more clever ways to promote their books. One example would be Penguin getting Zadie Smith to read specific parts of NW that correspond with parts of a map. A much smarter (and I’m guessing more economical for the publishers) way of engaging […]

Continue Reading

Steve Sabol and Gridiron Poetry

I never really gave all that much thought into how much of an impact watching certain NFL Films productions had on me when I was growing up. They were gritty, melodramatic, and helped turn me into the fan I am today. They were also poetic, much of that due to the son of NFL Films founder Ed Sabol’s son, Steve Sabol. 

Continue Reading