Guccifer’s latest target: noted Illuminati member Candace “Sex and the City” Bushnell.
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Robert Anton Wilson, call your office, please.
Thursday, May 9th, 2013Random notes: May 8, 2013.
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013(Fresno is paying their poet laureate $2,000 for a two-year term.)
Paging Andy Ihnatko. Andy Ihnatko to the white courtesy phone, please.
(Seriously, this does not strike me as a good idea.)
“She” is Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Edited to add: Ken over at Popehat has a post up flaming the LAT and other newspapers (and, sort of by implication, your obedient servant) for seizing on the karaoke angle and taking out of the context it was in.
The Statesman has been all over the collapse of RunTex (a local running shoe store, which was also active in various community events) like flies on a severed cow’s head at a Damien Hirst exhibition. I haven’t paid much attention to the story because I’m not a runner and didn’t care about RunTex. I remember my sister (who competes in triathlons) telling me about going there a while back and being totally unable to find any shoes that fit her. (And my sister does not have giant mutant feet.)
In that vein, I found this Statesman column rather interesting. It looks like my sister wasn’t the only person who had that problem…
Edited to add: A friend of WCD told us a similar story in email; he went in looking for the Nike shoes that would work with their iPhone application and transmitter. They didn’t have any shoes in his size, let alone the Nike ones. When he inquired, they told him “We’re not a shoe store. We support the running lifestyle.”
“We support the running lifestyle.” WHAT THE FRACK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
“We’re not a shoe store.” Yeah. Now, you’re nothing.
This is just further evidence towards my theory: the problems with the American economy have much to do with the fact that nobody wants to take money for goods and services any longer. I’m not kidding: I can’t count the number of experiences I’ve had, or been told about recently, involving wanting to make a purchase and not being able to get help, get questions answered, or get people to take money.
Week of Gatsby: Day 3
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013Why isn’t “The Great Gatsby” in the public domain? F. Scott Fizgerald has been dead for nearly 73 years, after all.
This is 19 Zillicoa Street in Asheville, North Carolina:
This building is Homewood. Homewood was part of Highland Hospital, and was the home of Dr. Robert S. Carroll and his wife, Grace Potter Carroll. Dr. Carroll ran the hospital, and his wife taught music lessons. (Nina Simone was one of her students.)
In 1939, Dr. Carroll turned management of the hospital over to Duke University’s Neuropsychiatric Department. It was while Duke was managing the hospital that the final act of a great American tragedy took place.
On the night of March 10, 1948, a fire broke out at Highland. Various reports say the fire started in the kitchen and moved upwards through the dumbwaiter shaft. The fire escapes were made out of wood and also caught fire. By the time it was extinguished, nine women were dead.
One of the women who died was Zelda Fitzgerald, the widow of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Zelda had a troubled life. I’m not an expert, but the consensus opinion I’ve seen is that she probably suffered from some form of bi-polar disorder, and medicated herself in an attempt to deal with it. She was in and out of Highland between 1936 and her death.
This is the closest thing I could find to an obituary for Zelda Fitzgerald. (Local cache if that doesn’t come up.) I hope wherever she is, she found the peace that evaded her in life.
(Information about Highland Hospital drawn from the NPS page.)
Week of Gatsby: Day 2
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013Real estate people like Gatsby.
That company, by the way, is “East Egg”.
In other news, have you driven a Gatsby lately?
(Nice looking cars, but not $34.5K worth of nice looking in my opinion. Assuming these people are still building cars, which I admit is a questionable assumption.)
Awards season.
Monday, May 6th, 2013Pop quiz:
Fäviken: Understanding the Genius Behind the World’s 34th Best Restaurant
Is that a headline from the Onion, or a real article from a food blog?
Answer: That’s a real article in the current “issue” of Dark Rye, which won the James Beard Award for “Best Group Food Blog” this year.
Sorry. Where were we?
I’d write more on the subject of “Dark Rye” (Why does the design make me stabby? Why are they endorsing the crank theory of Ayurveda?) but Ryan Sutton over at “The Bad Deal” has already made about as pithy a comment as I’ve seen.
(I know there are some people in my audience who feel that New York in general, and New York dining specifically, is overblown in the food news/food blog scene. I kind of agree with this in general: when it comes to Sandy, though, that was one of the most important food stories of the year, and there were lots of real food blogs that covered it well.)
In better news, the Edgar Award winners have been announced. I like Dennis Lehane a lot, so I’m pretty happy Live by Night
True crime: I didn’t read any of this year’s nominees. Midnight in Peking
Critical/biographical: I hope The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics
I finally got my hands on a copy of In Pursuit of Spenser
Week of Gatsby: Day 1.
Monday, May 6th, 2013In honor of the forthcoming movie, I am declaring this week the “Week of Gatsby” on WCD. Mostly for my own personal amusement.
Today’s entry: The Great Gastby for NES, a browser based game in which you wander around Gatsby’s party, throwing your hat at various targets and searching for the titular character.
(Yes, I am planning to see the movie. Yes, in 3D. “Argo” was the last thing I saw in a theater, and I figure I could use the diversion. Even if it is a pile of crap.)
(And, yes, as it happens, I do like the book. A short defense of it is here.)
Firings, obits, and other things: April 23, 2013.
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013Firings: Mike Dunlap, Charlotte Bobcats head coach. One season, 21-61.
Obits: Richie Havens. NYT. LAT. A/V Club.
E. L. Konigsburg, noted author (From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
This is one of those little tidbits that I find fascinating: “From the Mixed-Up Files…” won the Newbery Medal in 1968. That was Ms. Konigsburg’s second book. Her first book, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
There will probably be more to say about this tomorrow, but Allan Arbus has also passed away.
In other news, while I was out and about having fun, Lawrence was working. Specifically, he’s been posting video of the Travis County DA being arrested for DWI, and of the DA in jail.
And what do I have to offer to compare with that? Pictures, maybe?
Here we see the elusive Mike the Musicologist. While Jim attempts to throw a net over him, let me tell you about Mutual of Omaha…
And one for my great and good friend Weer’d Beard: ducks!
Also noted.
Monday, April 8th, 2013Anne Smedinghoff was killed by an IED in Afghanistan on Saturday. Four other Americans, who have not been identified, were killed as well. Ms. Smedinghoff and the others were part of a “delegation accompanying the governor of Zabul Province to inaugurate a new school in Qalat, the provincial capital. She was to help deliver donated books.”
I note this here because I actually heard about it before the NYT covered the story. I don’t know exactly how I found this, so I can’t give credit, but there’s a very nice tribute to Ms. Smedinghoff at a blog called “Email From The Embassy”.
I think there’s a lot that could be said about the importance of books, but I will let the author of “Email” say much of what I want to say:
Awful damn dusty in here. Maybe I need to clean the HEPA filter.
“…jackass legislation”
Thursday, April 4th, 2013I am a great admirer of H.L. Mencken. I have been since I was in high school (mumble mumble) years ago.
But I had not previously encountered this particular essay.
Also noted:
I would be very interested in knowing what revolvers Mencken and his brother owned. I’d be even more interested in owning one of Mencken’s revolvers, but I suspect the associational value puts that out of my price range.
(It does not come as a great shock to me that Mencken was pro civil rights: his “A New Constitution for Maryland” included a provision establishing the right to keep and openly carry arms. But encountering an essay of Mencken’s that I haven’t previously read, and is relevant to my interests…that lights up my whole day.)
(Hattip on this one to the amazing Roberta X.)
Random notes: April 3, 2013.
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013Some notes from the legal beat to get things started:
Javaris Crittenton is being charged with murder and “gang activity”. Crittenton is a former NBA player with the Lakers, Wizards, and Grizzlies. You may remember him as “that guy who got into a locker room altercation with Gilbert Arenas that ended with guns being pulled and a 38-game suspension”.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, Louis C. Taylor has been freed from prison. Mr. Taylor served 42 years before his release: he was convicted of starting a hotel fire in 1970, when he was 16, and sentenced to 28 life terms. However, it looks like the evidence used to convict Mr. Taylor was questionable, and (if I read the article correctly) the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence.
And:
Of course they believe Mr. Taylor was guilty. God forbid they should admit someone served 42 years for what may not have even been a crime.
Senator Smith is accused of trying to bribe his way onto the ballot for the mayor’s race in New York City.
Wait. What?
In case you were wondering, Robert “Ratso” Rizzo’s trial on corruption charges is scheduled for September. Ratso’s former assistant, Angela Spaccia, is asking for a separate trial.
From the department of things that suck: noted SF author Ian Banks is dying. Many of my friends, including Lawrence, are big Banks fans. I never got into his work, personally: the only Banks book I own is Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram
Firing watch: Mike Rice out as basketball coach of Rutgers after video of him acting like an a–hole becomes public.
Quote of the day.
Monday, April 1st, 2013“It is not surprising that this champion of the damned was, in his adult years, a Chicago Cubs fan.”
–John A. Farrell, Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned
Something for everyone, a new book tonight!
Saturday, March 30th, 2013Jack Viertel has a book coming out in late 2016.
Mr. Viertel is the artistic director of New York City Center Encores! The book is called (at least for now) “The Secret Life of the Broadway Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built”.
Mr. Viertel goes on to argue that “Oklahoma” established a “blueprint” for musicals, which was then subverted in the 1970s by “the Hal Prince-Stephen Sondheim shows – ‘Company,’ ‘Follies,’ several others”, and by the “cultural ferment” of that period. But, he suggests, current hit Broadway musicals have a similar architecture to the “golden age” ones.
From the description, it sounds like Mr. Viertel is, at least in part, applying failure analysis to Broadway musicals. This sounds like it will be an excellent companion volume to my own favorite book on the subject, Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops
Edited to add: While the Sondheim reference is in the article, I included it as deliberate Mike the Musicologist bait. This resulted in a text message conversation, excerpted below. (I’ve left out some asides which aren’t relevant to the conversation, mostly dealing with “Beat the Devil
MtM: From the description I think that book could also be titled “Get Off My Lawn: Musicals Were Better When I Was A Kid”.
Me: Could be.
MtM: Or perhaps “Musicals In Amber: Why I Think Art Shouldn’t Change”.
Me: But I think the argument that successful musicals share structural commonalities is a legit one to make.
Me: I’m not sure I’d AGREE, but it doesn’t strike me as crazy.
MtM: Which they also share with unsuccessful ones.
Me: Of course, that can be extended.
Me: “Audiences want things that are safe, predictable, and expected.”
Me: “Audiences don’t want to be challenged.”
MtM: The traditional process of putting a show together, as well as the R&H structure, is interesting. I would recommend Everything Was Possible
for a study of how a show is created.
MtM: But bemoaning that shows make money through touring over an extended Broadway run? Please.
Me: Is he bemoaning that, or just saying that’s the way the economics works today?
MtM: Curious. Amazon search for “everything was possible” returned a 16GB iPod touch as the 4th result.
MtM: I got the impression he is unhappy that Broadway is no longer the ultimate goal for a show.
Me: I didn’t pick that up. But if he does feel that way, I’d like to read why.
Me: From my POV: more touring = more people exposed to musicals = healthy and vibrant musical community.
MtM: I just got a sense from the article that this book is going to be “if shows were still done like this then musicals would still be central to our culture” which grates with me on many points.
MtM: The basic subject – how dramatic/musical structure, book doctoring, etc. is interesting. If that’s his focus then Yay.
Obit watch: March 29, 2013.
Friday, March 29th, 2013Paul S. Williams, noted music critic, founder of Crawdaddy. Hollywood Reporter. Locus Online.
The Locus Online obit touches on this briefly, but Mr. Williams was a friend of Philip K. Dick and, after Dick’s death, his literary executor. Mr. Williams founded the Philip K. Dick Society, which was a major force in getting Dick’s works out in front of the public. I did volunteer work as a secretary for the PKD Society for a period of time; Mr. Williams was always incredibly nice to me when we spoke, but I get the feeling he was the kind of person who was incredibly nice to everyone he met.
Post-PKD Society, he also was the force behind The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, which would make him a hero of mine even without the PKD connection.
If you want to get a feel for his writing and his philosophy, I commend to your attention his book The 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: A Top 40 List
Random notes: March 28, 2013.
Thursday, March 28th, 2013Lawrence threw me a nice backlink yesterday, pointing out that Bloomberg’s tobacco proposals will just put money in the pockets of organized crime.
But surely there’s hope for NYC? Surely they’ve learned and will elect someone unlike Bloomberg?
Nope. The NYT profiles Joseph J. Lhota, deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani and censorious asshat.
Hahahhahaha. Bloomberg, champion of free speech. Unless it is about guns. Or tobacco. Or soda. Or food.
Obit watch: James Herbert, noted British horror novelist.
Obit watch: March 22, 2013.
Friday, March 22nd, 2013Chinua Achebe, noted Nigerian writer perhaps most famous for his novel Things Fall Apart
And: