Bites: On Herzog, Smut Saves Publishing, Sampsell’s Playlist, Bob Dylan the Phony and More

Ploughshares on Herzog. Einstein the agnostic. Publishing is going to be okay, thanks to smut. Kevin Sampsell gives Largehearted Boy a chapbooks worth of music he likes. Read about somebody listening to music in Montreal over at the McSweeney’s. If the “voice of the generation” turned out to be a phony, what would that mean?   Joni Mitchell accused Bob Dylan of plagiarism and The Daily Beast discusses it. Coffee House Press to put out another winner:  Big Other tells you […]

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The Week in Moody

In case you aren’t keeping track of the exploits of Rick Moody, rest assured that for some reason, I am. Today Mr. Moody gave us another installment of his “Swinging Modern Sounds” column on The Rumpus. A few days back, Moody talked about his repulsion/attraction of the Kindle. Because of Rick Moody, this guy will listen to Metal Machine Music.  Good luck bro.

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Bites: Willy Loman Gets Some Respect, Gladwell Writes a Letter, Chomsky’s Eye, Beth Ditto as a Hero, Oprah Fucks Over the Book Industry, and More

“He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being”.  Actually Linda Loman, I think in regards to your husband, it’s the other way around. According to this list, your husband Willy stands alongside The Wandering Jew, Betty Boop, and Shylock as the 100 most influential people who never lived. Lit. Gore Vidal rips William F. Buckley.  No response from Buckley, because he’s dead. Leo Tolstoy is also dead.  Today is the anniversary of him dying. Malcolm […]

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Happening: A Night at The Highline

Tonight, The Rumpus and Tin House team up for an epic night whose lineup reads like a laundry list of people we really, really like: Stephen Elliott hosts an evening that features (among others) Eugene Mirman, Todd Barry, Rick Moody, Starlee Kine, and Jonathan Ames, at The Highline Ballroom. Considering a few of those people have had pretty big years, we would like to think they might get some of their even more famous friends to show up, making this […]

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Bites: Juliet Linderman Interviews Paul Auster, LOOK on Display, Wes Anderson’s Music Choices, and more

Juliet Linderman, managing editor of The Greenpoint Gazette and featured reader at last month’s Vol. 1 Storytelling anniversary party, has lovingly and skillfully interviewed Paul Auster for The Rumpus. It is “lovingly” done in the sense that she clearly holds the novelist to eminent, celebratory respect, and “skillful” in that she just did it really fucking well. And Auster upholds it with his writerly charm, eclipsing the recent unpleasing flavor left atop my literary taste buds by Cormac McCarthy.

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Bites: Media Battles (Ever-Present), Franco’s Face, Humility as ‘Sin,’ Tony Judt, and the Bad News For Big Business

New Media, Old Media, and E-readers Barnes and Noble’s e-reader, the Nook, looks promising as  Kindle competitor (and book sharing device!). The Rumpus’ account of last week’s New Yorker Festival is titled “James Franco’s Face.” Jacket Copy suggests that because their paper gave Le Clézio’s Désert a bad review, that the Nobel Prize in Literature is becoming “esoteric” and “wrong-headed.” Ugh, close-minded print newspaper. And now to take back the above statement about print media back with Harper’s lovely “Blake–To […]

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Bites: Book Review Highlights, Kakutani Two-Step, Required Reading, the Millennials, and Why Our Media is Getting Scolded

Celebrated artist of the female form, Peter Paul Rubens, was “a man of controlled appetites, with a modest disposition and a reputation for tact and discretion.” He was also a diplomat, spy, and peace-maker, according to Mark Lamster’s new book “Master of Shadows.” Other Book Review Highlights: A history, slightly obsessive, of Strunk & White’s little style book.(NYT) Michael Chabon’s new essays: “First Person Masculine”?(NYT) Has anyone else noticed that James Joyce has been tryin’ to change a lot of […]

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