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September 16, 2008
Shorties (Nick Cave, Chuck Klosterman, and more)
The Toronto Star interviews author Hanif Kureishi.
The Guardian's books blog searches for the literary inspirations behind the television series The Wire.
The Wire is the most consciously literary of all crime dramas. Its creator, David Simon, wrote the classic true crime account Homicide: Life on the Streets, which Canongate has recently republished; Richard Price and George Pelecanos – two great postwar American novelists – wrote some of the scripts. Yet from the admittedly anecdotal amount of evidence I've gleaned, it seems that The Wire's literary pedigree isn't pushing people to read Pelecanos and Price, let alone some of the writers who inspired them. And while Pelecanos and Price and superb writers, two of their crime writing antecedents really do take some beating.
Paste reviews Chuck Klosterman's debut novel, Downtown Owl.
Downtown Owl reads like a set of hyper-interesting short stories, and not only because it’s divided among the three major characters (who trade off chapters). Klosterman is adept at thinking up bizarre, somehow plausible scenarios that hook readers while pushing the story along.
Pitchfork interviews Craig Wedren about the Shudder to Think reunion.
PopMatters interviews Joey Burns of Calexico.
Prefix lists the ten best albums resulting from the Uncle Tupelo breakup.
The Times Online examines the importance of comics.
Comics are censored less than other forms of entertainment and make a creed of free expression. Which medium other than comics could feature such a complex, challenging and literate tragic hero as Neil Gaimon's Morpheus in Sandman, Lord of Dreams. Norman Mailer called the series “a comic book for intellectuals”.
Mashable lists 9 sites to find music lyrics.
New York Magazine ponders the future of book publishing.
The Los Angeles Times' Soundboard blog interviews Nick Cave.
You have a pretty set work routine at home, where you write in a studio every day. Does that process differ from what you might have done with the Birthday Party?
I always sat down at a desk and wrote, since I started doing this kind of thing. I write on tour as well. I’m kind of writing all the time these days. I write when I wake up, on the bus, when I get back from the gig. And I’m writing a novel at the moment; I work on that everywhere and anywhere. Though my sleeping has gotten really strange lately -- I just don’t do very much of it. But sleep deprivation is kind of a creative force in itself.
LAist interviews the members of Dios (Malos).
The New York Times' Paper Cuts blog asks the question, "What is the funniest novel ever?"
Harper's is offering PDF downloads of the articles david Foster Wallace wrote for the magazine.
The Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex blog has still photos from the set of teh film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novella Coraline.
NPR excerpts from Philip Roth's new novel, Indignation.
Slate reviews the book.
PLORF is an mp3 search engine.
WDUQ streams five jazz covers of rock songs.
Minnesota Public Radio's The Current features the Walkmen with an interview and in-studio performance.
also at Largehearted Boy:
daily mp3 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
