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May 25, 2006
Shorties
In the Guardian, author Matthew Pearl lists the top ten books inspired my Edgar Allen Poe.
Slate continues Pulp Fiction Week with a look back at Erskine Caldwell's novel, Tobacco Road.
Popmatters interviews author David Mitchell.
What I hope is that my books are teaching me more about writing. That's a generalization, and you're asking about specifics. In a way, it's the blindingly obvious things, once you stumble upon them. Things you could probably get from a creative writing course, or a book about writing. I haven't done the former, and I don't read the latter. So I have to learn them from my books. Sort of craft-level theories of understandings about writing. For example, begin a scene slightly after the beginning and end it slightly before the ending.
As work on the album was nearing completion, Heap was racked with indecision, so she reached out to fans via her blog. "I posted various song scenarios with a short description of each and asked people to vote on them.
"Every day I wrote on my blog what I wanted to do the following day. This way I felt people were watching over me, waiting for me to do something. It really helped. It's funny how you get so much more work done when you think somebody's watching you."
The Telegraph's Sportsbook column recommends books about the World Cup.
Sixty years after its publication, Paste reconsiders Richard Wright's novel, Native Son.
Smoosh's Asya talks to the Los Angeles Times.
Clearly, what began in 2000 as seemingly innocuous drum lessons with Death Cab's Jason McGerr (who mentored the duo and produced the album) is taking on a life of its own.
"The artists we've played with have been really supportive," Asya says. "I think the best advice they've given us is to not get too bigheaded."
Author Harvey Pekar talks to the new York Press about the art form that is comics.
“I’ve got a good opportunity to write about different things. I’ve got a lot of companies that are interested in my work, so I’m going to try to do a lot of stuff that has little or no precedent in comics. I’m interested in widening the range of stories that comic book artists deal with. It’s all inline with my thinking that comics are a first-rate art form, but haven’t been used anywhere near what there potential is. You can do the same kind of thing in comics that you can in a novel, or film.”
Flagpole interviews David Payne and Jordan Jeffares of Snowden about musical comparisons.
Flagpole: Receiving comparisons to acts like The Cure and New Order, you're uniquely non-derivative in comparison to a lot of the post-punk acts appearing these days.
Jordan Jeffares: The reason I don’t think that applies to us is because I’ve never written the music using a lot of those conventions. If I heard something that I thought was derivative, I changed it.
David Payne: Yeah, it’s really hard when we get that inevitable question, “Who do you sound like?” I feel stupid no matter how I answer that. I think we sound unique, but have a lot of moments that draw from different styles, without being overly derivative about it.
Flagpole examines the current state of Athens hip hop.
Athens rap is certainly no underdog, though, as many would like to paint it. It's not a case of a scene getting no respect. Hip hop in Athens has been around for years, but only recently a number of factors have combined to create a scene brimming with potential. Hip hop artists are moving to Athens to pursue musical goals. Several organizations are working to cultivate community.
