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January 10, 2008
Shorties
Carl Wilson talks to The Tyee about his 33 1/3 Celine Dion book, Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste.
I really had two reasons for picking Celine. One was that I wanted to do a sort of case study about the gap between popular success and critical acclaim, that gap that's familiar to everybody who's ever read movie reviews or looked at best-of-the-year lists from critics about any mass-cultural medium.
The Daily Evergreen lists the most anticipated albums of 2008.
The San Francisco Chronicle covers a speech by author Michael Chabon where he pledges to support Barack Obama for the US Democratic presidential nomination.
"You know what I needed to do before I could decide to support Barack Obama for president? I had to give myself permission to feel hope. That's almost kind of sad, isn't it? I had to tell myself that it is OK. That it would be all right if I allowed myself to acknowledge the possibility that we can aspire as a nation. That we can aspire to be more than merely secure or predominant. That we could apsire to build and to heal not just to patch and prop up. We can aspire to come together not just come to terms."
Popmatters lists the best international/indie films of 2007.
Daytrotter features the A-Sides with an in-studio performance and interview.
Ed Champion interviews Jami Attenberg about her debut novel, The Kept Man.
Attenberg: I think that, if you’re going to write a true New York story, you have to write about all of these little shops and stores. We don’t know our neighbors a lot of the time. Our friends tend to live really far away from us. Or it’s not like you can walk down the street and knock on someone’s door and see them. So it becomes really crucial where you have these relationships with a person at your bodega, with a laundromat. It’s just an interesting community. And in Williamsburg, where there’s so many different kinds of people here, and there’s this big influx of young people who really like to engage, it just seems really natural. I don’t know. That’s just my version.
see also: Hallelujah the Hills frontman Ryan Walsh's interview with Attenberg at Largehearted Boy
Oregon Public Broadcasting features a streaming live in-studio performance by Loch Lomond.
The San Francisco Chronicle profiles Jon Bernson and his band, Ray's Vast Basement.
Jon Bernson took on a daunting project when he accepted a commission to compose songs for the Actors Theatre's 2005 staging of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." First, Bernson, the San Francisco singer-songwriter who helms the "musical fiction" band Ray's Vast Basement, had to bring something fresh to a classic play by a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner; then he compounded the challenge by deciding to extrapolate the project into the third Ray's Vast Basement CD, 2007's wondrous "Starvation Under Orange Trees."
Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones talks to Rolling Stone about the band's reunion tour possibilities.
Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan talks to Creative Loafing.
Wired's Compiler blog points out the updated Yahoo widget that plays mp3s on your website.
Drowned in Sound lists musical artists that will be certifiable successes in 2008.
Monsters & Critics staff members list the best DVD releases of 2007.
Breakthru Radio's Live at the Hi-Tone has put together a streaming show of the best live tracks featured on the program in 2007.
also at Largehearted Boy:
2007 online music lists
Daily Downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
this week's CD releases
tags: music books popculture indie news
