Tag: literature/Archives

Willy Vlautin- Northline

A new video for a new book by Willy Vlautin (sing/song/git for the band Richmond Fontaine). WV’s first book, The Motel Life, had critics shedding streams of shimmering ink. Northline is his new novel:

Found Song- Devon Sproule

A while back Found Magazine asked musician friends to craft songs out of their finds, debris of notes and letters that people send in. Several songs appeared on their Found 7-inch vinyl release. But my fave is not on disc, nor any longer online. So, here ’tis, Devon Sproule with “Julie” (3:06 mp3):

(Just heard from Davy Found himself: “we ARE eventually gonna release a CD with songs based on Found notes by awesome musicians, including devon sproule’s “julie” song… we welcome all submissions!”) More…

New Kings of Nonfiction

My copy of the Ira-edited The New Kings of Nonfiction is on its way. What’s taking you to get yours?

Publisher Penguin Group has Ira’s intro online. Profits from the book benefit the writing center 826 Chicago.

Sez I-Glass “The contributors are some of the best nonfiction authors alive: Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point); Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief); New York Times Magazine writer Jack Hitt (a contributing editor of our show), and more. David Foster Wallace does the best piece of reporting I’ve ever read on right-wing talk radio. Mark Bowden explains what Saddam Hussein — the man — was really like. Dan Savage recounts how he decided that the best way to change the Republican Party would be to sign up (he ends up as a delegate to their Washington State convention; havoc ensues). Jim McManus tells the story of how he went to cover the World Series of Poker for Harper’s Magazine and ended up at the final table, carrying home a quarter million dollars.”

That latter McManus piece is one stellar article I’m particularly looking forward to reading again: Gave me an appreciation for Texas Hold ‘Em that continues to this day.

Operation Homecoming 6 cast

This week’s HV cast is from the NEA book project, Operation Homecoming, writings of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. We end our series with editor Andrew Carroll and project creator Dana Gioia (Chairman of the NEA) discussing the book and its contributors; and we hear troops reading their works. Music: Jess Atkins. A story by Barrett Golding, “Operation Homecoming- NEA” (5:47 mp3):

Operation Homecoming 5 cast

This week’s HV cast is from the NEA book project, Operation Homecoming, writings of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Part 5 in our series: Sergeant Clint Douglas exchanges some bizarre cordialities between bitter enemies. Music: Jess Atkins. A story by Barrett Golding, “Lunch with Pirates” (5:47 mp3):

Pacifica Howls

On October 3 1957, San Francisco Municipal Court Judge Clayton Horn ruled Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” was NOT obscene, despite lines like “who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy.” A full fifty years later WBAI still feels it legally risky to broadcast the poem, so instead offers it in an online-only special at Pacifica.org. “Howl Against Censorship” includes intervus w/ poets Lawrence Ferlingetti and Bob Holman (1:32:08 mp3):

Operation Homecoming 4 cast

This week’s HV cast is from the NEA book project, Operation Homecoming, writings of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Part 4 in our series: Sergeant John McCary writes a frustrated email home after attending two multiple funerals in a single day. Music: Jess Atkins. A story by Barrett Golding, “To the Fallen” (3:36 mp3):

Operation Homecoming 3 cast

This week’s HV cast is from the NEA book project, Operation Homecoming, writings of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Part 3 in our series: Sergeant Helen Gerhardt recounts her first few days in Iraq, in an email to family and friends. Music: Jess Atkins. A story by Barrett Golding, “Among These Ruins” (3:36 mp3):

Why Halloween?- Duplex Planet

“Pumpkins and all that bullshit…”

Check David Greenberger’s Duplex Planet blog-post “Why Do We Celebrate Halloween?.” Here’s some excepted answers from his conversations with residents of the Duplex Nursing Home, Jamaica Plain, MA, 1980:

WALTER KIERAN: Christ! Nobody knows that! I don’t even know myself! I bet you can’t tell me where Halloween originated. It started up in Salem, with the witches. The kids go around and knock on the doors and they have to give ’em something to get rid of ’em.

GEORGE MacWILLIAMS: Damn if I know. I’m not interested in that stuff. It’s a kids holiday, they enjoy it.

WILLIAM “FERGIE” FERGUSON: On account of the clowns.

KEN EGLIN: I don’t know, honest-to-god. You can ask me all about Halloween and I don’t know, I swear to God I don’t know. It has something to do with Salem. What do you call ’em — witches, spooks? I guess we celebrate it for the spirits, witches, scarin’ people. I used to put a sheet on and cover my head and stand behind a big tree. Now this is gonna sound silly to you, but I’m serious. I used to scare the shit out of all the girls. I didn’t have anything on them, they were smarter than I was. I used to ask them things, and I couldn’t stand them. I’d scare them and they’d run home screamin’ to their mothers! Pumpkins and all that bullshit.

“The Duplex Planet is an ongoing work designed to portray a wide variety of real characters who are old or in decline.” Much more “Why Hallowen?” at the DP Blog.

Storytelling — How Toons

Digg turned this up today:

How Toons

a collection of science- and engineering-related web comics.

I’m a bit partial to the form, my long-standing affair probably started about the time I got my first Dr. Seuss book. This struck me as particularly infectious — possibly because I’ve been re-immersing myself lately: novelized pastiches such as geoffrey woods’ Leaper and Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible; Moore and Gibson’s The Watchmen, Alex Ross and Mark Waid’s Kingdom Come, Frank Miller’s irrepressible Dark Knight and nearly everything Brian Woods has done; films such as Unbreakable, Sin City, Superman Returns, Batman Begins, and, of course Heroes.

What impresses me most, I suppose, is the resilience and versatility — how and why comics have persisted…

Remedial Theory cast

This week’s HV cast: Great literature allows us to learn to empathize with the experiences of others. So how is it a man now on trial for crimes against humanity is an avid reader of fiction? Might he simple be reading the wrong books? A trip to The Hague to hand-deliver the ‘right’ books to Slobodan Milosevic. A story by Ben Walker, “Remedial Theory” (13:29 mp3):

Denis Johnson’s Hippies

From Salon.com Audio George Plimpton does a damn fine reading of Denis Johnson’s short story (from Seek: Reports from the Edges of America and Beyond) about the Rainbow Gathering, “Hippies” (18:02 mp3):

Mark Z. Danielewski

One of three mp3s on an old post at Salon.com Audio, Mark Z. Danielewski performs from his book House of Leaves to music by his sister Poe, off of Haunted, “Hey Pretty” (3:50 mp3):

Harper’s Online Ink

If you’re a Harper’s Magazine subscriber, you can now get pdf versions of paper articles online; e.g., here’s Carrier, Scott – Articles (Harper’s Magazine).

What Taylor Mali Makes

High School Teacher & Slam Poet Taylor Mali on “What Teachers Make”:

Taylor Mali: @HV | Site | MySpace

Utah SONOSOPHER

If you’re swinging thru SLC, check the 2007 Utah Arts Festival, if only to find out what be a SONOSOPHER, TRANSPERFORMANCE, and WORDSHAKE. All three are inventions of Alex Caldiero, one of HV’s favorite poets, who is performing. Here’s a taste, “Metanym One”:

And here’s his email announcement:

2007 utah arts festival presents THE SONOSOPHER AT WORK

JUNE 22 and 23, Friday and Saturday, 9pm-10pm, at THE WORD ECSTATIC in THE ROUND TRANSPERFORMANCE,an architecture of co-operation, placement and simultaneity
with Alex Caldiero & Sara Caldiero-Oertli: sound-text/sonosophy
Stephanie Lietch: film/video projections
Theta Naught: ambient/improv music

JUNE 23, Saturday, 3pm-4pm, at THE WORD ECSTATIC
ARTS AND TARTS, a non-scripted non-descripted discussion
with Alex Caldiero, Ken Sanders, and others

JUNE 23, Saturday, 6:30pm-7pm, at THE WORD ECSTATIC SHAMANIC WORDSHAKE
with Alex Caldiero

aLEX cALDIERO is this year’s recipient of the mayor’s award for literary arts award ceremony in the urban room of the city library on sunday, june 24, 8pm-9pm

Poetry is Wanted Here cast

This week’s HV cast is for Poetry Month. From his collection Various Atmospheres, Alex Caldiero performs “Poetry is Wanted Here” (mp3 2:58):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Caldiero

What is Poetry?- video

An HV video by Trent Harris: Carl Sandburg reads his poems and wonders “What is Poetry?,” with music by Skyward and audio by Barrett Golding:

50th Anniversary of Neue Haas Grotesk – AKA Helvetica

…AKA Arial and other clones. MOMA is holding a commemorative exhibition to celebrate what has become the most widely used typeface in the world.

As a graphic designer and occasional typographer, I have preferred to avoid Helvetica. Not because it is a bad typeface. To the contrary, it is one of the cleanest, most readable ever designed. But its ubiqity and, to a degree, sterilility, compel the use of other typefaces.

Details

Some more info related to the comments posted:

It’s interesting that they mentioned in both the WaPo article and Helvetica film synopsis how much it has been used for signage. I immediately thought of Frutiger, which was commissioned expressly for signage – first for France’s Charles de Gaulle Airport – but now it’s what’s used in Switzerland. Frutiger is also a Swiss designer. I think it’s a more aesthetically pleasing typeface, particularly in heavier weights.

Like Helvetica clones, such as Arial, Frutiger has been closely copied by Adobe’s Myriad and Microsoft’s Segoe:

Sonia Sanchez Song#2 cast

This week’s HV cast is for Poetry Month. Sonia Sanchez performs her poem written to “all you young girls.” Produced by Steve Rowland and mixed by Joe Waters (a commission from WXPN with funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts) with original music by Jamaaladeen Tacuma. “Song #2” (mp3 1:56):