Blake Butler—
@ Urlesque, Mark Baumer is interviewed about his walk across America: “Q What surprised you about your trip? A: People are good and god might be real.”
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Object Press: An Interview with Richard di Santo
I discovered Object Press via this entry on Chad Post’s Three Percent blog, and Post’s enthusiasm for the press and its latest book, a reprint of Christian Oster’s In The Train, convinced me to contact Richard di Santo, the founder. He sent me review copies of the two books he’s published so far and agreed to answer a few questions by email, which you can read below this introduction.
WRITER’S EMBARRASSMENT
mortification
One time I saw the film director Paul Thomas Anderson give a talk to a small group of college students. A burly male student made the mistake of asking a question that went something like, “My problem is that I feel embarrassed to show my work to people. Do you have that problem?”
Starcherone Prize 6 & 7
Sarah Falkner wins the 7th Starcherone Prize for her novel Animal Sanctuary, selected by Stacey Levine. It sounds quite look-forward-to.
Last year’s winner, Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls by our own radical Alissa Nutting, selected by Ben Marcus, is coming out October 1st! It’s going to eat your hair. You can preorder it now from Starcherone or wherever great books are. Here’s a taste, from Fence.
Nick Antosca—
I saw Tony O’Neill read from Sick City a few weeks ago when he was in town and heard him tell stories afterward. Even more edifying, however, is this Jim Ruland interview for Fanzine where they drive east on Sunset Boulevard and O’Neill reminisces about the stuff he sees.
Behind the Scenes at the “Word Made Flesh” Book Trailer Shoot
On Sunday, August 15, 2010 Eva Talmadge and I shot a book trailer for our forthcoming photo-anthology, The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide. First we spent a couple of hours with our videographer, Dev, at Eva’s apartment. We answered some questions, tried not to cut each other off too much, and did an impromptu scrounge of Eva’s library for books that inspired tattoos included in our book. I guess we found about two dozen. Then it was off to the legendary Fineline Tattoo on 1st Street and 1st Avenue. Fineline is the longest continually running tattoo shop in New York City, with a history that goes back into the underground days when tattooing was still illegal in Manhattan. Eva and our agent, Brandi Bowles, got themselves some literary tattoos from Mehai Bakaty, the son of Fineline founder Mike Bakaty and a worldclass tattooist in his own right. (I had initially promised to get inked, too. Needless to say, I bailed.) The trailer itself should be available sometime in the next couple weeks, but in the meantime I offer the following photo gallery- a preview of the preview, if you will (please do).
Blake Butler—
What are some awesome Must Read more experimental or weirdo graphic novels? I enjoy, like, Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes but I feel severely out of touch.
Salvatore Pane on Earthbound
An awesome appreciation of one of my three favorite video games & media experiences. (others: Chrono Trigger & Final Fantasy VI (or III on the version I had))
Giorgio Morandi
When a writer gets described as writing the same story again and again, the tone’s usually accusatory, like it’s a bad thing to be noticed doing. But here is this guy, Giorgio Morandi, who painted the same objects arranged in still life again and again. He got really into these objects and seeing what he could do, how he could render what was really there, and what was really there–light–was always changing.