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June 18, 2007
Shorties
Gothamist interviews author Amy Fusselman.
Your first novel, The Pharmacist's Mate, was published after you entered a contest on McSweeneys. Was the novel already written before you entered the contest or did you write it specifically for the contest?
I entered in the proper way. They didn't ask for a whole manuscript. Only a synopsis. I entered it and I never heard back. I was sort of obsessed with it. I was a huge fan of McSweeneys and thought it was so cool. I was on their website everyday. Finally, I just started writing these little letters over there. "How's that contest coming?" And nobody answered them. I was home with my mom and this was the summer that my dad was passing away. I decided that nobody was listening and I didn't care anymore and starting writing letters like, "Dear McSweeneys. My dad is dieing." Long, wild letters. Finally, six months later, I got an email from Dave Eggers that said, "Go write that book about your dad."
The Atlantic City Press lists essential prog-rock albums.
Stylus offers a history of the flexi-disc.
Popmatters picks the 50 DVDs every film fan should own.
This week Five Chapters is serializing a new short story by Alix Ohlin.
see also: Ohlin's Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for her debut novel, The Missing Person
The members of the reunited Dinosaur Jr talk to the Age.
Band members have been surprised that the kids have come out for their shows over the last year. Gen-Xers who might remember Mascis' curtain of black hair (now grey), Barlow's once rail-thin physique and the now-bald Murph's hair are outnumbered at shows by teenagers.
"I don't have my glasses on, but I hear that there's a lot of younger people," Mascis said. "A lot of my friends don't really go to shows that much anymore, so I don't know how many people would be going if there were no younger kids there."
The Murfreesboro Post has been posting "tales of a Bonnaroo virgin."
The Chicago Tribune's cultural critic offers her perspective on our connection to books.
You don't have to love books. It's OK just to like them. It's OK to be a casual reader, a sometime scholar, an occasional consumer of print. It's acceptable to read a book every once in a while, for the simple reason that you happen upon one that intrigues you -- without quitting your job, selling your furniture and going back to graduate school in comparative literature.
The Associated Press profiles the Athens, Georgia music scene.
"On any night of the week three or four or five venues are having several bands play," said Vanessa Hay, whose band Pylon was an influence on R.E.M. in the early '80s and who, at 51, still occasionally reunites with the group or sings with other acts. "There are just hundreds of bands here and there are just lots and lots of new acts starting up all the time."
The Herald offers a literary tour of Scotland.
"The Novel Novel makes unique, one-of-a-kind products from discarded library books," specifically bank journals and buttons.
Film School Rejects list the 10 worst movie video games in history.
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