Morning Bites: Joe Strummer’s Birthday, Teju Cole’s Blindness, Melville in Jerusalem, Woolworth Building Pool and More

The very great Joe Strummer was born on this day in 1952. You should spend the entire day listening to The Clash. Teju Cole writes about going temporarily blind at Granta. That time Herman Melville went to Jerusalem. It truly is difficult to quit A Clockwork Orange. This is what the secret pool in the Woolworth Building looks like. One of the best tributes to Phyllis Diller we’ve read so far. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and our Tumblr.

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Everyday is Like Sundae

In very necessary things: Today is National Hot Fudge Sundae Day. Although there is plenty of dispute over where the ice cream sundae originated (note: not the hot fudge type we’re supposed to celebrate today) we do know for sure that there is one good quote which applies to literary trolling thanks to Kurt Vonnegut:  “Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and […]

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Reviewed: “A Masterful Adaptation” of Uncle Vanya at Soho Rep.

As a neophyte to the world of theater, each new performance carries the weight of a revelation. Consequently, as of this moment I cannot even imagine a more gripping, important, and compelling performance than the new adaptation of Uncle Vanya at the ingenious Soho Rep. theater. Director Sam Gold and his crew converted the already intimate space into a fully carpeted living room theater. The audience sits on all sides of similarly carpeted levels with those in the front mere […]

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Afternoon Bites: Misinterpreting Patrick Somerville, Steve Reich & Radiohead, Alison Bechdel, and More

Patrick Somerville writes about the experience of having a review in the New York Times get an essential plot detail of his (terrific) new novel This Bright River wrong. Lee Konstantinou on Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother? at The New Inquiry. Jeffrey Brown chats with The Rumpus. Vol.1 Brooklyn faves Violent Bullshit are interviewed by Sound of the City. Laina Dawes’s book What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal sounds fantastic. Steve Reich has a new Radiohead-inspired […]

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Morning Bites: Fifty Shades of Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Food Truck Lingo, and More

  Bret Easton Elis want to be the guy to adapt Fifty Shades of Grey. Kate Christensen talks to Ladies Home Journal. The new issue of n+1 is out. “The satirization of the authority we’ve traditionally given established institutions and systems, such as the theater, is satirized: the family, marriage, school, police, the boy scouts, social services, and the church for example.” – Katrina Richardson at The New Inquiry on Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. Do you speak food truck? Follow Vol. […]

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Afternoon Bites: Willie Nelson Interviewed, Moe Tucker Anthologized, Tim Horvath’s Fiction, And More

Victoria LeGrand of Beach House: interviewed at Sound of the City. In related news, said band’s new album Bloom is fantastic. Douglas Wolk looks at the solo work of the Velvet Underground’s Moe Tucker. Jessica Hopper chats with Willie Nelson for The Daily. Tim Horvath’s “The Conversations” can now be read at The Collagist. (For good measure, here’s our review of his Understories.) Sarah Schulman discussed gentrification at St. Marks Bookshop. Nitsuh Abebe discusses his favorite smells. Follow Vol. 1 […]

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Afternoon Bites: Art Spiegelman’s Trading Cards, Joe Strummer’s Screening, Bill Fox’s Playlist, And More

“If you are good, and patient, you will eventually have a career.  This is a categorical truth.  Being a novelist and being a Hollywood screenwriter are both, statistically speaking, spectacularly unlikely, and yet half the contacts in my phone are either one or the other.” Alina Simone chats with Brian McGreevy at The Rumpus. (We reviewed his novel Hemlock Grove in March.) Art Spiegelman discusses his role in the creation of Garbage Pail Kids trading cards. Bill Fox talks about his current […]

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