(via Rumpus) At The Millions, Sonya Chung writes about the bizarre process of picking out a cover image for her first novel. (I just went through a similar process, and though I can’t share the image yet, suffice to say it pleases me greatly and I’m eagerly awaiting the day when I can.)
Coldfront has a new Poets Off Poetry, this time authored by the vicious and delightful Erin Belieu.
And a new issue of Trickhouse (#5) is up, featuring an experiment conducted by Brandon Shimoda and Lisa Schumaier. They need you to participate, so you better get over there.
Oh and Slate’s got Katha Pollitt on Edna O’Brien on Lord Byron.
Web Hype / 2 Comments
July 15th, 2009 / 11:45 am
Hello from Hong Kong, everyone. Among the various goings-on I’ve missed blogging during the past few days, this one’s especially close to my heart, seeing as how the Solar Anus reading series is jointly run by Our Own Herr Butler, my dear friend Amy McDaniel, and all-purpose badass Jamie Iridell. Amy posted the following to facebook yesterday-
Hi writers!
I co-run a poetry and fiction reading series in Atlanta called Solar Anus. Past readers include Justin Taylor, Johannes Goransson, Rauan Klassnik, and Bruce Covey. In the interest of future readings that are every bit as fabulous, I thought I’d reach out to all of you in two ways:
First, please let me know if you will be in the Atlanta area…ever. I’d love to discuss the possibility of hosting you to read to us.
Second, pass this along to other writers whom you respect who either live in or near Atlanta or who might be passing through. Encourage them to query me at amymcdaniel@gmail.com with a brief bio and a link to something they’ve written. We especially love promoting writers who have books or chapbooks to sell.
Very many thanks.
Amy
Web Hype / 1 Comment
July 14th, 2009 / 10:34 pm
Hey do you remember ska? I do! It was SO GOOD. My parents were all like ‘don’t listen to that razzamatazz!’ and I was like ‘but mom there are HORNS in there!’ and she’s like ‘well, can’t argue with a good horn section…’ and then this gave her the opportunity to make me listen to Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass and then I saw the album cover and my eyes were all like ‘boinnnnng!’
I started listening to ska because Melissa Napoleon (happy Bastille Day btw) had a patch on her Jansport that covered up the Jansport that said ‘SKA’ on it! At first I thought it meant SKATE or POLSKA but nope! So I went to the Princeton Record Exchange and bought three albums! Skankin’ Pickle – The Green Album! Fugazi – Repeater +3 Songs! Gorilla Biscuits – Start Today! Two of them changed my life! One of them did not!
Either way, we can all laugh about it now! (Literary Ska-Band Names: David Foster Skalas, The National Books Critic’s Circle Skaward, One Hundred Years of Ska-litude)
Except for SOMEONE WE KNOW. Yes, Pitchfork Media, the Internet equivalent to that one friend who is kind of a douche but sometimes suggests decent stuff except when they went on that art-noise kick (ew!) had a layout change a few months ago. In this giant html htmlgiant-like facelift, they did a little bit of housekeeping, including eliminating the 9.5 review they gave of Save Ferris’ debut album ‘It Means Everything’. A 9.5! Wha! You remember those guys! They were famous for being mis-identified as No Doubt when you downloaded their feel-good cover of ‘Come On Eileen’ off of Napster! They had a song called ‘Spam’ that was about ‘Spam’ the meat not ‘Spam’ the email! 9.5!
Seriously…the review exists (it was one of the super short ones way back when) and is absolutely nowhere to be found on the Interwebs; a link from Wikipedia is dead. We at Le Giant are no stranger to unpublishing and the risks of publication online, but this is a conspiracy like that conspiracy movie! If you can find this review it needs to be saved 4ever! SAVE SAVE FERRIS
42 Comments
July 14th, 2009 / 7:47 pm
He's so cute when he's angry
The other night, just after I read that Chabon essay about the Wilderness of Childhood, I watched This Is England on a whim and I was positively floored. It’s about a twelve year old boy in rural England in 1983 who becomes entangled with a twenty-something skinhead, who exposes the boy to a lot of violence and extremism. (The two main characters mirror each other perfectly: a child who is forced to act like a man and a man who can’t help but act like a child.)
The first thing that stood out to me was how beautifully it was plotted. Maybe I just picked up on this because my boyfriend has been reading John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction to me in any spare moment he finds, but we both couldn’t help but gush about how each scene was perfectly weighted to balance each plot line: the political context, racial tension, the boy’s romantic interest, the two main character’s back-stories and ideas about family and fatherhood.
Also, it’s acted beautifully, written beautifully and is somehow extremely funny, horrifying, engrossing, violent, and heartbreaking all at once. It’s the kind of movie that I feel is an education in plot and character development. It’s up on Netflix and you can stream it right now if you’re so inclined. I already want to watch it again.
What are some other movies that you feel have been beneficial/influential to your writing?
Craft Notes / 66 Comments
July 14th, 2009 / 5:57 pm
If I sit in your lap, will you read to me?
I’m going to see if I can start a book club with Early Man. You know, go to their house, talk about books we read. That’s right! My own book club, with Early Man! Because those bitches from the PTA wouldn’t talk to me because I wasn’t “PTA” enough and wouldn’t invite me to their book club! (It was cool- I hung out with this Jamaican drug dealer named Ray whilst picking up our kids. Much more pleasant than talking to Cynthia/Satan, PTA President from the Devil’s Anus.) And you know what? After we talk about books, we’re gonna get really fucked up and screw! Wait, that just slipped out. Anyway, here’s some excellent recommendations from Early Man- The 12th Planet by Zecharia Sitchin, anyone?
Uncategorized / 30 Comments
July 14th, 2009 / 5:37 pm
Brian Allen Carr is giving away a bunch of books as a contest for MLKNG SCKLS. Enter it. Meanwhile, I’m having a crazy sale at PGP for another hour or something. The first person to spend $4 on these here separated (without DVD) will get the DVD, too.
Uncategorized / 6 Comments
July 14th, 2009 / 3:00 pm
Gene and I were chatting about Shotgun Ninja last night and found out that we both had the same secret desire. We both want to meet an indie video game designer and collaborate with them to make games. But how would we ever make this happen?
Well, we have a blog. We have readers. We may as well go ahead and ask.
Are you an indie video game designer? Would you like to collaborate with willing members of the HTML Giant team? Would you like to be the HTML Giant Gamemaster? Get in touch. I’m at
giantblinditems
at
g
mail
dot
com
Imagine: EVER, The Escape
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Or pr’s Baked Tennis All Stars.
Or BE SAM PINK: the game.
A Jello Horse’s Giant Turtle Rampage.
The Log of the S.S. Marie Unguentine Movie Tie-in Game.
An HTML Giant text adventure.
Etcetera.
Spread the word. We’re serious.
