My favorite chapter from the otherwise pretty fun, but ultimately forgettable book The Science of Superheroes is this one where the author reminds readers that the man who wrote the Donald Duck comic book from 1942 – 1966 (Carl Barks) tried hard to always get the science right. Starts on page 161 of the preview on Google Books:
This image popped up when I googled stealing. "Bigfoot stealing" it would be.
I’m leaving at 4:30 am tomorrow for the Dominican Republic. I’ll be gone for two weeks and although I will not be reading much while climbing Pico Duarte, I will be spending some of that time sitting around and reading. Here is a list of the books I am contemplating bringing:
Pretty stoked on this forthcoming new novel from the dark dad, Nick Cave. Here’s him speaking tongues from Chap 3 of his new forthcoming novel The Death of Bunny Munro:
Musicians who can actually write are pretty rare, for sure. Nick ain’t no joke. (On a side note, would someone please rerelease Michael Gira’s The Consumer? Why hasn’t that happened yet? Derek, Calamari?)
See more videos and a whole lot more at the book’s website.
[Contributor Ryan Call teaches first year composition at University of Houston. He also teaches an introduction to fiction (the reading of/writing about, not the writing of) course as well.]
Great, Ezra Pound has something to say about reading. Lay off the Latin Ezra and we’ll be just fine. And check out the 800-ish page “compact edition” of The Literary Experience. What exactly is a literary experience? Putting suntan lotion on pale Sylvia Plath? Removing lice from Tolstoy’s beard? Or just getting rejected by Paris Review? I need answers. Then there’s Ze “bro”ski, senior faculty at U. of Houston, who wants us to “think through theory,” which is like a kid going downhill on a bike with no brakes frantically writing out “3.1415926535…” And what the hell is Rhetorical Grammar? Would, its; — look some-thing like these? [hyperlink ryancall_asszit.jpeg] I bet Professor Call enjoys teaching Teaching One-to-one one-to-one to all those Sophomore girls one semester past that “not so fresh[man]” feeling. It must be a good pedagogical life.
Rating: Not
It’s a cold day in Hell when I agree with every. last. word. of a Peggy Noonan column. Anyone down there want to shout back with a thermometer read? Here’s one of my many favorite parts of her take on the lately departing Mrs. Palin-
there is a new dispatch lit review up here featuring three stories by amelia gray. amelia gray is reading in chicago this saturday i think at the book cellar. come see people wearing cute glasses and tight jeans and shit.
a man named court merrigan emailed me a few days ago and asked me to comment on his blog, in a post about twitter, because he knew i had started a twitter website where made up accounts are maintained. i am interested in what other people think. i am not trying to get an argument going or whatever, i just think it would interest me to hear from other people. the tone of the comments seems to change by the last one and i don’t know why people get so defensive. but whatever, i am interested in hearing from other people. here is the article and the comment thread that followed is after the break.
I’ve been really enjoying the hyper-abridged versions of films at Movies in Frames and find it very instructive, in terms of singling out visual vocabularies and narrative arcs. The featured movies are fairly popular, and I love comparing my memory or notion of the movie with images which have been edited/collated by others. (Some find themes or repetitions, while others seem to exploit differences.) Each chosen frame seems to mark an important or iconic point of the story, which when juxtaposed so severely next to each other, evokes an alternative story. I think the inherent quality of the cinematography is also implicated, as these are all still frames. It’s just nice to take a movie and slow it down, reduce it to its core. I like it a lot.
HTMLG BFF Michael Kimball will be interviewed on All Things Considered about that postcard project thing tomorrow, Friday, July 17. I hope California has their budget balanced by then.