A little Shearer
Here’s an old audio interview with Harry Shearer about his film, Teddy Bears’ Picnic. (Thanks to the ever-resourceful Ed for the audio link.)
Bookmark-worthy
Mark Engler, a writer, activist, and former classmate of mine at CCNY, has a fine website devoted to his political writings. A recent article of his at TomPaine.com highlights the selective memory of Republican Washington.
Quick announcement
Donnie Boman’s website has moved to LeftPedal.com.
I declare
I’m still under the weather, and I think I need a blog holiday. I’ll catch up with you fine people on Monday.*
Meanwhile, prepare yourselves for a summer of Friday guest bloggers. More details to come next week.
Don’t worry, people. I’ll do you right.
Art or crap?
Let’s hope your score on this little quiz is more impressive than mine. (Thanks to Stephany for the link.)
Atchoo
That’s it for today. I’ve got to go track down some cough drops.
Newsstand
Ang reports that the current issue of Bust “features an almost-cute interview with Todd Oldham and Amy Sedaris.”
B: You never used (Todd) as, like, a shield when someone was trying to pick you up or something?
A: Oh yeah. Sometimes I get people who call me, and he calls them [and says], “What do you [...]
Clinton talks tax
Former President Bill Clinton on the federal tax cuts:
The real reason for the tax cuts and their particular design in 2001 and 2003 was ideological, almost theological, the notion that we’re all just put upon by this onerous government of ours taking our hard earned money away and that there’s no such thing as a [...]
A manuscript rejection compendium
Someone named Gerard Jones has compiled a personal guide to U.S. literary agents.
The guide consists mostly of agents’ email addresses and form rejection letters, but also includes some correspondence in which the author abuses agents for failing to respond more promptly or enthusiastically, along with some more personal, considered rejections. (Another gem of [...]
More on commercial women’s fiction in Britain
In “The Great Chick Lit Racket,” a shorter version of which appeared in the Independent last year, Scarlett Thomas notes that the British chick lit market is in decline, and asks what can be learned from its demise. She argues that the entire genre:
not only misrepresents women in its storylines but exists in a [...]
Writing and more
Here’s an excerpt from A Conversation Between Writers: Benjamin Rosenbaum and Aimee Bender:
BR: So you don’t start ever with a character? The characters emerge from the voice. . . .
AB: Characters emerge from voice, yes. So something does start with character, but it’s more, again, about the sentence itself, the way the words bump against [...]
Okay, okay, Jayson Blair
Aside from my mention of John Warner’s fine article, I’ve tried to avoid all of the Jayson Blair/Stephen Glass hoopla. The whole thing bores me, frankly, and I’m convinced that putting their names out there just gives them power.
Still, the rhyming undergraduate poetic efforts of Mr. Blair are really something. (Thanks to Matt for [...]
Illness
I was hoping to make it to see The Live Ones with Cowboy Sally tonight after my novel critique session, but I seem to have caught a cold from one of my weekend guests.
I’ve never seen the band before, but the Cowboy, as she herself says, doesn’t sing for Pepsi or shill for bands [...]
Another Bush tax plan further cripples the states
The fiscal outlook for the states keeps growing more dire, and the latest federal tax cut is just exacerbating the situation.
Bollinger recipient
Vernon God Little, a first novel by DBC Pierre, has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Writing. The novel satirizes American gun culture, depicting a Columbine scenario in rural Texas. Here’s a condensed read.
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