Quentin Tarantino’s Shitty Taste
Weakass list of the famed ex-movie rental clerk director’s top 20 favorite films since ’92 (via Bright Stupid Confetti). Unbreakable? Speed? Really? Knew he was kinda dumb, but good lord.
BTW, who’s seen Inglorious Basterds? Thoughts?
Anybody else want to post a better top 20 since ’92?
NYC: Multi Lit Magazine Benefit
New York dwellers and New York visitors should know that this Wednesday (that’s tomorrow) there is going to be a cool fun thing to do. Opium, Gigantic, and Bomb Magazine are having a benefit/party. There will be micro-readings, plays, musical acts, video art and more.
Six bucks will get you in the door at 8 pm and 10 bucks will get you in the door for a “VIP” cocktail hour and bonus entertainment.
-VIP performance from Kalup Linzy
-Short plays directed by Ben Greenman and Bob Powers
–The Dog House Band, featuring bluegrass David Gates
and Sven Birkerts and John Wesley Harding
– performances by Joseph Keckler, James J. Williams III, and the band The Library Is On Fire!
A Book Lover’s Guide to IKEA seating
Say what you will about cookie-cutter culture, IKEA offers affordable furniture that doesn’t smell like the 1970’s. When enjoying your favorite book, it’s important to be seated properly — or at least in a way that compliments your reading experience. Here is a guide to what to read, and in what chairs.
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I.
Expensive couch
This is a really expensive leather couch, ideal for books which reflect the opulent lifestyle, like American Psycho and The Great Gatsby. We learn in literature that money is not good, like all the bad people are rich and all the good people are poor. I don’t think this is a healthy attitude — now there’s some artistic nobility to being unemployed. I know I’m not your dad, but “get a job.” If I were the guy in American Psycho, I would not “freak out” (murder, crying into voicemail, etc.) and just keep my kick-ass job and eat good filet mignon at lunch and have sex with a lot of models.
Genre followup, here and at Tin House blog
Christopher Higgs’ post from the other day, “Tin House & Genre Fiction,” has broken 100 comments. One of those comments is from Tonaya Thompson, the author of the Tin House blog post, “To Genre or Not to Genre,” that Higgs was posting about. Thompson has also written a followup post on the Tin House blog, “Genre Redux.”
Anyone who read my original post as saying that we will discount any piece of writing out of hand is willfully misreading it. And I think that’s because my attack on “lazy” writing put a lot of people on the defensive, especially since I equated that with genre writing.
It’s a good piece, and if you’ve been following the thread, you should definitely read this new post. She seems rather generous to me, in terms of treating her detractors with credulity. She’s certainly more conciliatory than I’d ever dream of being, if similarly treated. (Ironically enough I have an obligation to disclose that I am published in the current issue of Tin House: an essay celebrating Needful Things by Stephen King, the very existence of which would seem to put the lie to a whole raft of commenter claims about TH’s–and my–genre-related biases.)
Anyway, for ease of access, after the jump find a copy of Thompson’s comment in the Higgs thread. It’s worth reading the comment before proceeding to the followup post, and you’ll notice that she asks for recommendations of genre writing to read, so feel free to leave those on her blog or on ours. You–or she–could also do much worse, I’d just like to mention, than by reading the Michael Moorcock book pictured above.
Life’s kinda cool sometimes…
No, really…
“He enjoys acrobatics and working with computers.”
America is my home.
Other places are not my home, yet.
[vid2 via clusterflock]
Stephen Elliott Sends a Letter from Scotland
If you’re on the Daily Rumpus mailing list, then you already know that Stephen Elliott wasn’t kidding when he promised to send a letter every single day. He writes about whatever’s new on the Rumpus, or on his mind lately, or if he maybe needs a place to crash in the UK. They’re all fine and good, as daily mass emails go, but his most recent missive really stood out to me. He seems like he’s really firing on all cylinders right now, and so his letter is reproduced in full after the jump. After you read it, you’ll probably want to go to the site and sign up for the mailing list, so you too can get nifty notes like this every day. READ MORE >
I Will Smash You
I’ve been excited for a while now about the forthcoming film I Will Smash You, a collaboration between Luca Dipierro and Michael Kimball for Little Burn Films. As of now, the project is complete and getting ready to make the rounds of the independent film circuit. Some new information has also been released:
First, a new trailer, featuring Adam Robinson smashing a hymn:
Please Support InsideOut Literary Arts Project [A letter from Peter Markus]
The Calm, by Timothy Pace
Dear Friends,
The InsideOut Literary Arts Project, where I work as its Senior Writer, is looking for your help.
For the past 15 years, InsideOut has placed creative writers—poets, novelists, short story writers—into Detroit Public School classrooms as a way of getting students to actively engage in the power and pleasure of language and the imagination.
I’ve been a writer with InsideOut since its inception. It’s a part of who I am in the world. I can tell you, first-hand, that the work we do changes lives.
When a child picks up a pencil and is asked to gaze up inside it, anything—no everything—is possible.
When you write it down, I often tell them, people have no choice but to listen, to see what you see, to know what you know.
See for yourself. Check out this poem written by a 4th grader at Fitzgerald Elementary.
READ MORE >
WILA (Women In Literary Arts)
Cate Marvin & Erin Belieu are starting a movement for a conference based solely on women’s writing, with an emphasis on contemporary women’s writing.
Dear Friends,
A few days ago, Cate Marvin sent out an open letter to a group of women writers detailing her concerns about certain aspects of the AWP conference and asking if other women felt the same way. She then suggested the brilliant notion of a women’s writing conference and wondered who would be interested in such a thing. The letter has since gone out to hundreds, has been posted in many places, and the response has been absolutely tremendous. This leads us to believe that our moment is definitely NOW (pun intended).
Check out the rest of the letter, along with Marvin’s original letter, by visiting their Facebook group — which already has over 3,000 members (including me) — and while you’re there you should consider joining.