largehearted boy: a boy, a girl, and his radio

November 20, 2009

Daily Downloads (Efterklang, Nouvelle Vague, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Boy Genius: "Ramona Saves the Day" [mp3] from Staggering (out January 26th)
other Boy Genius posts at Largehearted Boy

Chip Taylor: "No Dice" [mp3] from Yonkers, NY
other Chip Taylor posts at Largehearted Boy

Downtown Harvest: "Anita Leave" [mp3] from Discovering Dinosaurs (out February 14th)
other Downtown Harvest posts at Largehearted Boy

Efterklang: "Modern Drift" [mp3] from Magic Chairs (out February 23rd)
other Efterklang posts at Largehearted Boy

Georgia Anne Muldrow: "Run Away" [mp3] from Early
other Georgia Anne Muldrow posts at Largehearted Boy

A History Of: "Action in the North Atlantic" [mp3] from Action in the North Atlantic (out December 1st)
A History Of: "Dagger Woods" [mp3] from Action in the North Atlantic (out December 1st)
other A History Of posts at Largehearted Boy

Kate and After: "Snow Angel" [mp3]
other Kate and After posts at Largehearted Boy

Nouvelle Vague: "Ca Plane Pour Moi" [mp3] from 3
other Nouvelle Vague posts at Largehearted Boy

Sia: "You've Changed" [mp3] from We Are Born (out in spring 2010)
other Sia posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Cory Chisel: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Cory Chisel posts at Largehearted Boy

Imogen Heap: 2009-11-09, Los Angeles [mp3]
other Imogen Heap posts at Largehearted Boy

Mason Proper: Luxury Wafers session [mp3]
other Mason Proper posts at Largehearted Boy

Mission of Burma: WOXY Lounge Act [mp3]
other Mission of Burma posts at Largehearted Boy

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down: The Bay Bridged session [mp3]
other Thao posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
other music festival downloads

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

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November 19, 2009

Book Notes - Lydia Millet ("Love in Infant Monkeys")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Lydia Millet is one of my favorite writers, and her first collection of short fiction, Love in Infant Monkeys marries celebrities with animals to great effect. These keenly written interactions of human and animal move these tales forward and offer rare insights into the human psyche as well as our celebrity-obsessed culture.

The Los Angeles Times wrote of the book:

"Lydia Millet's first collection of short fiction, "Love in Infant Monkeys" (Soft Skull: 178 pp., $13.95 paper), is a superb book. Featuring 10 stories -- all of which revolve in some sense around the interaction of animals and famous people -- it asks all sorts of uncomfortable questions: about ourselves, about the world around us, about the very essence of being, of belonging, of what it means to exist.

In her own words, here is Lydia Millet's Book Notes music playlist for her short story collection, Love in Infant Monkeys:

Love in Infant Monkeys is a book of short stories about famous people and their relationships with particular animals. All the stories are based on nuggets of nonfiction and then spun out from there—from biography or soundbite into fleshy cultural shapes.

"Sexing the Pheasant," the first story, is about Madonna, when she shot a pheasant on her English estate and then decided to give up hunting. It's an internal monologue as she watched the bird die, her thoughts on her marriage and religion and the thorny issue of whether she would still be able to wear tailored hunting clothes if she wasn't actually hunting anymore. I'd pick "Pablo Picasso," maybe the John Cale version.

Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole.

The second story, one of my two favorites in the collection, is "Girl and Giraffe," about George Adamson, of Born Free fame, and two of the lions he raised, a brother and sister. One of them, the brother, stays half-tame and lives with Adamson and eventually becomes a brutal killer and has to be shot dead, though Adamson loves him deeply. The other, a female simply named Girl, readjusts to the wild and disappears into it and is never seen again. The setting is postcolonial Africa. I would set this to the timeless Mekons song "Waltz."

A pair of giant's hands/Sink into the sand/And tear out the family silver/To pay off the stooges we hired…You will never come home, now/You will never come home.

"Sir Henry" is about David Hasselhoff's dogwalker and his dogs. If the story was about the Hoff, primarily, you'd have to go with something iconic eighties and plasticky, maybe The Cars, "Drive" or "Let's Go" or similar. But the story is more about dogs, and the love of dogs, and the loneliness of people and perhaps of dogs too. Also it features a dying violinist who's a dog owner. So I'd pick Tchaikovsky's sad and beautiful Violin Concerto in D.

"Thomas Edison and Vasil Golakov" is about Edison's obsession with a film of Topsy the circus elephant being publicly electrocuted, and an alleged relationship between Edison and his drug-addled valet. The song for this has to be the Bryan Ferry cover of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."

They say someday you'll find/All who love are blind /When your heart's on fire/You must realize/Smoke gets in your eyes.

"Tesla and Wife," about a couple of maids and Nicola Tesla and his romantic love for a pigeon. I think "Che farò senza Eurydice," from the Gluck opera, where Orpheus searches for his lost love in the underworld and finally finds her and loses her again.

What will I do without her? What will I do without my love?

The title story "Love in Infant Monkeys," about infamous experimental psychologist Harry Harlow and the baby monkeys he took away from their mothers and isolated in cages with only monkey mothers made of wire to keep them company, would read well to Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl."

I am an orphan on God's highway/But I'll share my troubles if you go my way/I have no mother no father/No sister no brother/I am an orphan girl.

"Chomsky, Rodents" is a fictionalized anecdote about a real-life episode when my husband ran into Noam Chomsky in a town dump on Cape Cod and Chomsky was trying to give away a gerbil cage. It's a lot about mothers too, women and men and parenting, so though I'm not much of a Sinead O' Connor fan in general I think I'd recommend "Emma's Song" to go with it.

The first time I saw you/I loved you/I loved you/Your face blue/Your eyes too/Your mouth too/Your mouth too.

"Jimmy Carter's Rabbit" chronicles a fictional visit by Jimmy Carter to the office of a psychotherapist after he leaves office, in the wake of the killer swamp rabbit episode that arguably helped emasculate the President in the public eye. I'd set it to something earnest, folksy and a little nostalgic — maybe "Our Town," by Iris DeMent.

Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town/Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town/Goodnight.

"The Lady and the Dragon," about Sharon Stone's ex-husband being bitten on the toe by a Komodo dragon—and what happened to the giant lizard afterward—I'd put with Cat Power's "The Greatest."

Once I wanted to be the greatest/No wind or waterfall could stall me/And then came the rush of the flood/The stars at night turned deep to dust.

The last, brief story in the collection, "Walking Bird," is the only one without a celebrity. A small family goes to the zoo, and suddenly at the end of the day the mother notices that all the animals have disappeared. For this I'd go back to the Mekons, as I always do in the end—say, "One X One."

All the eyes are closing/one by one/one by one.

Lydia Millet and Love in Infant Monkeys links:

the author's website
the author's Wikipedia entry
animated video of a line from the book
excerpt from the book

Austin Chronicle review
Black Gate review
BOMBLog review
Bookforum.com review
Bookmarks Magazine review
Eye Weekly review
Frisbee: A Book Journal review
Globe and Mail review
The Internet Review of Books review
Los Angeles Times review
New York Times review
Publishers Weekly review
Quill & Quire review
The Second Pass review
The Rumpus review
Venus Zine review

Identity Theory interview with the author
Joyland interview with the author
The Rumpus interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)

online "best of 2009" book lists
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature fiction

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November 19th Updates to the Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists:

The A.V. Club (best albums)
The A.V. Club (best metal albums)
Bandwagon (songs)
Credit to the Girl Next Door (most influential albums)
The Drink Up, Honey (best albums)
eMusic (best albums)
The Media Crunch (best albums)
Musings of Mark (albums)
N. Frank Daniels' Cruel World (best albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily updates to the list

list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists

Online "Best Of 2009" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2008" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2007" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2006" Music Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Daily Downloads (free & legal mp3 downloads)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
musician/author interviews

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

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Shorties (Sufjan Stevens, The National Book Awards, and more)

Stereo Subversion lovingly profiles singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens and his music.

The New York Times ArtsBeat blog looks to the history of the National Book Awards and its selections.

Jacket Copy wraps up last night's National Book Awards ceremony and winners.

Myspace has added music charts.

SEE interviews Charles F of Winter Gloves.

“I don’t think we have this Montreal sound at all,” Charles says. “For me, the Montreal sound a couple of years ago was Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, and a bunch of bands influenced by British music and being dark with a lot of reverb. In Montreal a lot of people like dirty music and I don’t feel like Winter Gloves is a part of that. There are more bands playing with keyboards and vintage loops, so I feel like we belong to the Montreal scene more than the Montreal sound."

Melissa Auf der Maur shares her iPod top 10 with the Montreal Gazette.

The Globe and Mail profiles the rise of The Rural Alberta Advantage into the public eye.

But the intimate and lively music of love and loss, memories of yesterday and imaginations of tomorrow, sparked devotion one person at a time online. Starting with a glowing review on Halifax blog Herohill through to exposure a year ago at music retailer eMusic.com, the band's slow and steady stroll to attention arrived in Austin, Tex., in March at South by Southwest. A deal with a stalwart American indie label, Saddle Creek of Omaha, Neb., followed.

The Reno News Review profiles singer-songwriter Marry Mannor.

Guerrero mentions “Ms. Sanders” as a personal favorite on Come Home. The title of the song, in a move sure to inspire some nerd crushes, is an obscure Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference. But the song is a sort of delirious, allegorical rumination on loss, with Guerrero’s high, yearning voice lilting, “My hands, my hands, my hands, they don’t dig like they used to …”

io9 lists 20 eagerly anticipated 2010 science fiction novels.

Monitor Mix waxes nostalgic for the music blogs of the '00s and shares screenshots of several in their earlier incarnations (including Largehearted Boy).

Gilbert Hernandez talks to Comic Book Resources about his new graphic novel, The Troublemakers.

Cage the Elephant's 11-track self-titled album is on sale at Amazon MP3 for $2.99.

Singer-songwriter Brendan Benson visits The Current studio for an interview and live performance.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie

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Daily Downloads (Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

All Smiles: free and legal The Comparison Blouse EP (click "free demos") [mp3]
other All Smiles posts at Largehearted Boy

Bonnie "Prince" Billy: "Death to Everyone" [mp3] from Funtown Comedown (out December 15th)
other Bonnie "Prince" Billy posts at Largehearted Boy

Charlie Alex March: "Carot No. 9" [mp3] from Home/Hidden (out February 16th)
other Charlie Alex March posts at Largehearted Boy

Man & Dog: several demo tracks [mp3]
other Man & Dog posts at Largehearted Boy

The Minor Leagues: "Good Boys" [mp3] from This Story Is Old, I Know, But It Goes On
The Minor Leagues: "The Love That Never Was" [mp3] from This Story Is Old, I Know, But It Goes On
other Minor Leagues posts at Largehearted Boy

Oh, Starling: free and legal Joy Christmas EP [mp3]*
other Oh, Starling posts at Largehearted Boy

Pixie Carnation: "When the Lights Go Out" [mp3] from Fresh Poems
other Pixie Carnation posts at Largehearted Boy

Plasticines: "I Could Rob You" [mp3] from About Love
other Plasticines posts at Largehearted Boy

Wild Yaks: "River May Come" [mp3] from 10 Ships
other Wild Yaks posts at Largehearted Boy

*registration required

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Bo Bedingfield: 2009-11-11, Athens [mp3]
other Bo Bedingfield posts at Largehearted Boy

Cymbals Eat Guitars: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Cymbals Eat Guitars posts at Largehearted Boy

The Jesus Lizard: 2009-11-16, New York [mp3]
other Jesus Lizard posts at Largehearted Boy

Magic Wands: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Magic Wands posts at Largehearted Boy

Royal Bangs: WOXY Lounge Act session [mp3]
other Royal Bangs posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
other music festival downloads

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

November 18, 2009

Antiheroines: Lisa Hanawalt

The Antiheroines series features author Jami Attenberg interviewing up-and-coming female comics artists.

In May I saw Lisa Hanawalt, author of I Want You (Buenaventura Press) and the Ignatz award-winning mini-comic Stay Away From Other People, do a slide show presentation as part of a group show at Hi Christina, a wee venue in Williamsburg.

During Lisa's extremely dry but charming performance, she did this short bit about her week. She talked about how she had gone thrift shopping and bought a pair of overall shorts for a dollar, and the tag on them read "Teen Bibs." That made me laugh pretty hard and when I looked up she was actually wearing the overall shorts. I appreciated that very much. I hadn't been paying attention when she was introduced, so I never knew her name, but I thought to myself: You should interview that girl. She's got something special going on.

But then I didn't. I had a lot on my mind that month. It's hard to follow up on every idea. You try it.

Then, a few weeks ago, I was at the bookstore on Bedford Ave, the one with all the art books. On the way out I picked up the beautiful little book of illustrations Vice did for "Where the Wild Things Are."(I am loath to promote that movie but I enjoyed looking at the book, and it is always good for creative people to be getting paid.) And Lisa had a piece in there. A little missile fired off in my head. Oh there you are, I thought. But I wasn't sure if it wasn't the same woman or not.

So I looked on the Hi Christina website for the event, and her name wasn't on it. I looked at the Facebook invite, and her name was not on that either. I emailed the guy who curated the show and asked him to tell me the names of all the people who read. Again, the list did not include her name. "Was there not another cartoonist? Am I hallucinating?" I emailed him back. "Oh yes," he said. "Lisa Hanawalt, our Los Angeles transplant and Williamsburg truck-driving, dog-loving, cartoon-making woman. She good."

Yes. She good.

I want to do this interview in the correct order, because I believe you are a very orderly thinker. I suspect this because you make a lot of lists in your work. So the first thing I want to know is how you got into making comics, and if you see yourself doing this for the long haul.

I used to think I was on a path towards becoming a fine artist, showing my drawings exclusively in galleries, but that world seemed less feasible after I graduated from art school and got more interested in illustration.

Around that time, one of my best friends from high school asked me to collaborate on an autobiographical comic about his life, and for the next two years I worked with him on Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out. I'd always loved comics, but for the first time I was drawing them in an orderly way and getting a strong sense of what I liked and didn't like. After getting more confident in that arena, I self-published a couple of minis, and then serendipitously met Alvin Buenaventura.

I was at my first comic convention, a little show called "Super*market" (organized by an acquaintance from UCLA, Jessica Gao) in the back room of Meltdown Comics. I was sitting there nervously with printed copies of Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out, my first mini-comic, It's Sexy When People Know Your Name,and I'd taped some artwork up on the wall behind me.

Alvin came by and we talked a little about my drawings, but I had no clue who he was - until I realized he published Kramers Ergot, and I had a delayed reaction of freaking out. I figured he was just being nice and wouldn't remember who I was the next day, but he kept in touch. He asked me to contribute to the Arthur comics page, invited me to Comic-Con and encouraged me to make my next mini, Stay Away from Other People.

Right now I'm lucky enough to be doing comics, illustration and fine art, and I'd love to keep doing all three for the long haul – as long as there's enough balance and I don't feel stretched thin, of course.

Do you feel like you get different things out of doing comics versus doing fine art? Like there's an obvious catharsis for me when I'm writing essays about my life, but everything feels safe and easier in my little fantasy world when I write fiction.

Drawing comics is a lot harder because I have to think about issues like narrative and character development, and make sure everything is clear to the reader. And I have to draw things like grocery store shelves and rows of airplane seats. When I'm making fine art, I can draw whatever I want and it feels so mindless and cozy by comparison. But the feeling of having a finished comic is much more rewarding, I think, due to the challenge and time invested.

And, I think, you have the opportunity to reach a wider audience with a comic, which is pretty exciting. There's also more to interact with, in a way, because your voice is so present, and I think that can be rewarding for an author. You're probably going to get a lot more fan mail for a comic.

Oh, that's an excellent point about the wider audience - you aren't as likely to get fan mail for having nice paintings up in a gallery, comics are so much more accessible. And I love fan mail.

I think I like your list comics ("Mistakes we made at the grocery store" "Things I should probably hide before a date comes over for the first time") so much because they feels so personal. Also because I am the kind of person who makes lists of things to do for my day and then adds really easy things on to the list that I know I can do really quickly, just so I will have more to cross off at the end of the day and feel a bigger sense of accomplishment. What attracts you to making lists?

I make shitloads of lists, including everything I can think of: small tasks like writing emails, then medium errands like buying groceries, then larger responsibilities like sorting out my health insurance, and I usually end the list with some major lifestyle choices written in all-caps like: "DO YOGA 3X A WEEK!" and "ABD!! "(Always Be Drawing.)

It seems crazy but it's actually a way of easing anxiety. If I put it down on paper, I don't have to lie awake worrying about it.

Maybe that's why the lists in my comics come across as personal, even if they aren't directly autobiographical; I think the compulsion to make them comes from wanting to poke fun at my own anxiety.

I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about all of your animals in clothes which appear in your comics. Do you think of them as animals or humans or something in between?

I think they developed as a way of doing loosely autobiographical stories, or ones where drawing myself feels too personal. So they are often representative of aspects of my personality or people that I know. The argument She-moose has with Account-cat about whether to play a game or see a movie is taken straight out of an email exchange. And sometimes, like in "Lunch Break," they're just used to illustrate a daydream. I like how the animals can be eased in and out of reality; the mundane stuff in their world makes just as much sense as the hallucinatory.

I just read your comic again, and saw a part where you said your mom sent you a slideshow of eagles fishing. Are you into nature?

I'm so into nature! But more in a "look at this weird bug under a microscope and then read a book about it" way than an outdoorsy adventuresome way. My parents are both biologists, so they taught me how to get excited about horrifying things like videos of cancer cells multiplying.

We have now arrived at the Largehearted Boy Mini-Music Questionnaire portion of the interview. Do not be afraid.

What was your first rock show?

I went with my parents to see Paul Simon, and I was really pissed when he performed "The Boxer" and sang "leh leh leh" instead of "lai lai lai" during the chorus. Doesn't he know how his own song goes? I'm still pissed.

What was the best performance you've ever seen?

Cirque de Soleil. Every time. Especially now that they have speakers inside every headrest in the theater.

What albums do you listen to while you work?

Quirky electronica like Hot Chip and Metronomy gets the most air time, but I will listen to anything from rap to neo-soul to country to classical, as long as it isn't too mellow.

What music did you listen to when you were growing up?

Weird Al Yankovic, Paul Simon's Graceland, soundtracks to musicals. The first band I lost my mind over was the Beatles, after my brother made me listen to the White Album the entire way through on our record player.

Did you ever date anyone in a band?

Yeah! When men play instruments, it casts an embarrassingly potent love spell on me. My boyfriend plays the ukulele and it drives me crazy!

Lisa Hanawalt links:

Lisa Hanawalt's website
Lisa Hanawalt's Flickr photostream

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Antiheroines interviews
musician/author interviews
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature comics

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November 18th Updates to the Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists:

Alternative Press (best songs)
Awesome with a Side of Sweet (albums)
Berkeley Place (best independent rock albums)
A Blog Supreme (most important jazz albums)
The Boy Kicked Out at the World (songs that defined the decade)
The CDP (top concerts)
The Daily Deuce (top rock bands)
Go Go Randy Go (best albums)
Jazz and Blues (best jazz albums)
Jazz Chronicles (best jazz albums)
The Lost Boy (top songs)
Music and More (best jazz albums)
No One Cares What I Think (best albums)
Switchblade Comb (favorite albums)
That's What Steve Said (top music videos)

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to the list

list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

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November 18th Updates to the Best of 2009 Online Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of 2009 music lists:

Art Vinyl (album artwork)
Big Hollywood (top power pop albums)
Christopher Dudley (Underoath) (top albums)
A Cold Sweat (most bafflingly well-received albums & songs)
Dunjamon's Blog (albums)
Esquire (best songs you probably didn't hear)
Esquire (top songs)
Film Punk (best songs)
High School (best songs)
Insound (bestselling albums)
M Shadows (Avenged Sevenfold) (favorite albums)
The Open Neck Shirt (top albums)
The Recordstore Blog (albums)
Rolling Stone (best new artists)
Toon World (favorite albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily updates to the list

Online Best of 2009 Music Lists
Online Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Music Lists
Online Best of 2009 Book Lists

2008 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2007 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2006 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Daily Downloads (free & legal mp3 downloads)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
musician/author interviews

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

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November 18th Updates to the Online Best of 2009 Book Lists

Today's updates to the list of online "best of 2009" book lists:

Book Patrol (best books about books)
EarlyWord (list of major national lists)
Flashlight Worthy (best books for tweens)
FreeInfidel (top atheist books)
ITs Food (best foodie books)
Kathleen Rooney (best poetry books)
Kristi Maxwell (best poetry books)
Professor Doddley's Occasional Weblog (favourite books)
Stepcase Lifehack (best productivity books)

also at Largehearted Boy:

Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
daily updates to the list

Online Best of the Decade (2000-2009) music lists
2009 Online Year-end Music Lists
2008 Online Year-end Music Lists
2007 Online Year-end Music Lists
2006 Online Year-end Music Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Anitiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books literature list lists indie 2009 fiction nonfiction

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Shorties (Bad Sex in Fiction Award Shortlist, Girls, and more)

The Guardian examines the shortlist for the 2009 edition of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

The shortlist:

Paul Theroux for A Dead Hand
Nick Cave for The Death of Bunny Munro
Philip Roth for The Humbling
Jonathan Littell for The Kindly Ones
Amos Oz for Rhyming Life and Death
John Banville for The Infinities
Anthony Quinn for The Rescue Man
Simon Van Booy for Love Begins in Winter
Sanjida O'Connell for The Naked Name of Love
Richard Milward for Ten Storey Love Song

NPR is streaming the new Fever Ray album, Live at Lulea, in its entirety.

The Guardian's book blog profiles author Dave Eggers.

Neon Indian's Alan Palomo shares his favorite things with Pitchfork.

Billboard offers musicians sound advice on publicizing their music.

Muso's Guide interviews singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer.

Muso’s Guide: You blog and use Twitter a lot; it feels like you share a lot of very personal stuff. Do you hold anything back? Does there need to be any mystery to keep fans intrigued?

Amanda Palmer: I hold things back that could possibly harm others. But no, I think deliberate intrigue is not my forte. I’ll leave that to PJ Harvey.

The Telegraph lists the 100 best jazz recordings of all time.

io9 examines the visual history of 16 science fiction classics' book covers.

Drowned in Sound interviews the members of the Fiery Furnaces about the band's future projects.

NPR's All Things Considered profiles two doctors who write, Abraham Verghese and Terrence Holt.

Girls visit The Current studio for an interview and live performance.

Vote for your favorite dog in literature.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us