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October 4, 2011
Shorties (Feist, Art Spiegelman, and more)
Leslie Feist talks to the Wall Street Journal about her new album, Metals (out today).
The Wall Street Journal interviews Art Spiegelman about his new book, MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus .
Was it difficult to revisit the memories and materials you used in creating "Maus"?
The reason I put it off, I learned all too well when I started working on this in real earnest about a year ago plus, it's so painful. The history's painful. The looking back at one's own other work that chases you through the rest of your life is not so easy. Looking at pictures of family and all the stuff churned up by that, not so easy. So the first month was spent in a state of grief and shock. Eventually, like when working on "Maus," you develop these calluses. It's like if you go into surgery as a doctor, you're an intern, you go in, you faint, you get taken out, you go back in, you faint. Fourth day, you don't understand what the big deal is, a knife going into somebody's face.
Spiegelman also talks to Comic Riffs about the book.
The Vancouver Sun interviews the producer of the multimedia DVD included with the book.
The A.V. Club interviews Jeff Tweedy about the new Wilco album, The Whole Love.
Maurice Sendak talks candidly to the Guardian about a variety of topics.
Of Salman Rushdie, who once gave him a terrible review in the New York Times, he says: "That flaccid f***head. He was detestable. I called up the Ayatollah, nobody knows that." Roald Dahl: "The cruelty in his books is off-putting. Scary guy. I know he's very popular but what's nice about this guy? He's dead, that's what's nice about him." Stephen King: "Bullshit." Gwyneth Paltrow: "I can't stand her."
Spinner lists the best non-rap covers of rap songs.
Flavorwire lists 10 children's books that are also great for adults.
The BBC Music Blog lists September's best albums.
io9 interviews Daniel Clowes about his new graphic novel, The Death-ray.
IGN interviews Amanda Palmer about her graphic novel, Evelyn Evelyn.
IGN: Both Evelyn Evelyn and Dresden Dolls have a unique visual aesthetic and a strong focus on performance. What appeals to you about the correlation between music and visuals? Do you think that's translated to the book?
Palmer: I always see visuals attached to music. From the time I was teeny, I always attached music to visual stories in my head, and I can't imagine certain songs without seeing the artwork that came on the LP cover. I am sad about that getting lost lately, and am actually hoping to rectify that on my next album project.... I love songs having visual worlds. I think it's also a product of being raised on MTV -- the favorite song always had a color and a background to go along with it.
Wild Flag visits The Current studio for an interview and live performance.
The Millions interviews Craig Thompson about his new graphic novel Habibi.
TM: A lot of Orientalist art from the 19th century is aesthetically pleasing, but it’s all in service to an ideology that has caused an incredible amount of destruction in the world. How do you square that problem, especially in the current era when there are an enormous amount of issues with the way people regard Islam, the Muslim world and the Arab world?
CT: Well, that exactly is the intent [of the book], to bring up the correlations between the turn-of-the-19th-century Orientalism with the new brand of Orientalism that exists throughout the world, this new Islamophobia and this labeling of people as the other. I was also thinking not of Orientalism, [but of] the Arabian Nights as a genre, like cowboys-and-Indians. So cowboys-and-Indians is a sensationalized version of the history of the American West and doesn’t really reflect reality. So I wanted to work with the Arabian Nights genre in the same way and steal from all these tropes and not shy away from their inappropriateness.
Drowned in Sound interviews Bjork about her early music.
Michael Lewis talks to Talk of the Nation about his new book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World.
The New York Times Magazine also profiles Lewis.
Truthdig interviews Ry Cooder about his musical and political influences.
Michael Ondaatje talks to All Things Considered about his new novel, The Cat's Table.
"Something I realized much later on is that some of the most anarchic and perhaps accurate books about childhood — that catches that feral quality — are often written by older people," he says. "We think about a film like Fanny and Alexander by Ingmar Bergman; it's a wonderful film about childhood and he was quite an old man when he wrote it. There's something about looking back that allows you a freedom to invent bad behavior."
The Inlander profiles the band Japanther.
In 2003, Japanther performed in Miami, Minneapolis, Berlin and Vienna as part of famed conceptual artist Dan Graham’s exhibit Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty. In 2006, the band played a show at New York University's pool, accompanied by synchronized swimmers. This time last year, Japanther was in Vienna playing for 84 straight hours with no food or sleep, on a stage that rotated the entire time. The duo is now planning both an upside-down concert and an upcoming performance art project on America’s prison industrial complex, in conjunction with the Experiential Media and Performing Arts Center.
NPR recommends three books that "convey the complexity of caste."
eMusic lists 20 overlooked albums from the grunge era.
Win a copy of Craig Thompson's new graphic novel Habibi and a $100 Threadless gift certificate in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
