I'm the author of the novels Solip, Say, Cut, Map, The Country, and The City. I've also written the nonfiction books EarthBound and Eat the Flowers. I'm currently publishing my novel A Task via Kickstarter in order to have an hourlong conversation with each of its first thousand readers. For a decade I published books through Sator Press, and for a decade I acted in film and television; now I help students at St. John's College. More info: kenbaumann.com.
Last night I saw Kristian Matsson, a.k.a. The Tallest Man on Earth, at the Troubadour here in Los Angeles. Now, the Troubadour is a small venue, maybe able to fit 200 people; I sat on the balcony, front row, with a perfect view of Kristian’s performance. He was phenomenal.
I’ve been a fan of his work since I downloaded his album Shallow Grave, which I did immediately after seeing this performance. Everything beautiful in that movement — his energy, his nuanced mastery of the guitar, his apparent charisma, i.e. his heart — all of that was present and amplified last night. He was one of the best live musicians I’ve seen. And not only was his performance powerful, fun, surprising, intelligently structured — subtle variations and waves of change in tempo and amplitude that he utilized brilliantly, making each song seem to sing out in power that much more — not only was it all that, but he was also really nice to the audience, and highly alert, and gracious.
So if you haven’t already, read up on Kristian (a native of Sweden) and listen to his music and see him live.
The insular, dramatic affirmations just don’t cut it this time.
Speaking from my experience, the internet (lowercase ‘i’) is what lead me to the serious study of literature and philosophy and history. Need I point out how many comprehensive and correct resources there are for said ‘serious’ study? I would use some more time to turn every word in the last sentence into a link for Benjamin and everyone reading this, but my severely addled ADHD brain just won’t let me. I see something shiny. Damn you, Interwebz! And that same ADHD mind is going to pass on your next article, because, hell, there’s so much more pseudo-subsumption to get to.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIMReUsxTt4
Via Robbie Cooper again. He’s on fire.
The meat of the linguistics stuff is around the 20 minute mark, but I recommend watching the whole thing diligently. Es bueno. (See what I did there?)
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQqyzXhD6Ts
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWpNPP6Lvi4
From Robbie, again.
An aside: Burning Man is entertaining; it’s fun to watch hippies induce themselves into a similar but more lethargic trance with the aid of copious amounts of drugs, hippies that call themselves Moon Dog, and Star Fire, and The Walking Dude, but only for the weekend.
Possibly Obnoxious Half-Figurative Question(s) #1: Can a person be a glutton for information? What is the healthy amount to subsume?
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdTjRumkT9k
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EkI1KS3uRA
via the blog of the much-admired artist Robbie Cooper.
Crime in a rainy city.
Kevin Sampsell, incomparable writer/booklover, has edited a crime fiction anthology for Akashic Books: Portland Noir. Kevin, admittedly a noir noob, talks about the process over at the Powell’s blog. I’ll go ahead and reposition Kevin’s question for the HTML Giant audience: Which books in the crime/noir/mystery genre should he/I/we be reading? I recommend Dashiell Hammett.