Ben Greenman knocks one out of the park with his Largehearted Boy Book Notes. The author of What He’s Poised to Do, picks songs that “are themselves letters.”
Bloomsday is the Cinco de Mayo for People Who Read
Tablet continues the Jewish takeover of Bloomsday, talking to Joshua Cohen. Things discussed include big novels, sacred books, and Pynchon. Not discussed is the possibility that Tablet’s Bloomsday celebration could become an all out chug fest after Cohen and Ben Greenman get finished reading. But wait! There is also Radio Bloomsday on June 16th! A national broadcast on the Pacific Radio Network from the WBAI studios in New York City from 7pm to 2am EST on 99.5FM in NYC and […]
Jews Taking Bloomsday Back
As a Jew growing up in a predominantly Irish city, I always felt a little left out on St. Patrick’s Day. Not that marching in parades and vomiting green beer is my idea of a good time, but I’ve always been a bit jealous of their Irish and their ability to party. So it made me grin a bit when I read that Tablet was deciding to take one back for the Tribe and reclaim Bloomsday with a pretty stellar […]
I Don’t Like Mondays/Smurfs/Long Pieces by Malcolm Gladwell
It’s Monday, it’s raining, and they’re filming the (live action?) Smurfs movie right outside my office window. Thankfully, The New Yorker put up some of their content online prior to my hands touching the print version. This week, Ben Greenman talks about Mike Patton, Witz gets reviewed, and oh look, Malcolm Gladwell writes what might not be a five (internet) page review of a book that I’m probably never going to read. Somebody please confirm that this is indeed a […]
Flash Forward to Jan. 1 2011: Harper Perennial Named Label of the Year for 2010
I received a copy of Ben Greenman’s forthcoming book of stories, What He’s Poised to Do, and found myself excited for two reasons: 1. Ben Greenman is awesome. 2. Anytime I get a Harper Perennial galley, I hold a little celebration inside my head. They’ve already put out books by Justin Taylor, Kevin Sampsell, the good tell-all book about somebodies relationship with Norman Mailer (opposed to the creepy one) and have Blake Butler’s book on the horizon. Harper Perennial =’s […]
“It gets so hard in times like now to hold on” – Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton died yesterday. For 59 years he gave the world some of the most perfect pop songs ever known. It’s one of the great crimes of humanity that not enough people listened. I’m not very good at writing goodbyes to people I only knew through their art, but Ben Greenman is, and he wrote something at Moistworks.
Happening: Underwater New York Takes Over a Museum
Tonight, our pals at Underwater New York take over the Folk Art Museum tonight for a night of shipwreck-themed original songs and fiction: Readings by Sara Weiss, Claire Shefchik, and David Hollander Music by Lindsay Sullivan and the Sailors and Richard McGraw A performance by Aaron Diskin (Golem / Lycaon Pictus) and Annette Kogan (Golem) of an original musical fragment by Ben Greenman (Editor at The New Yorker, author of several books of fiction including the novel Please Step Back). […]
Bites: Tolstoy Investigation, Misfit Pics, Hemingway Cat Poop, Harry Smith, and More
“The murder of Leo Tolstoy: A forensic investigation” at Harpers. Ben Greenman discusses Sly and the Family Stone, and their brief flirtation with being French. Eerie Von from Samhain and Danzig has a book of photography out. You can buy fake cat poop at the Ernest Hemingway museum. The New Yorker gives us a preview of albums coming out in 2010. A new decade just started and already we are talking about the publishing industry in 2020. A book on […]