The Village Voice throws some cold water on the idea that the new r.e.m. album might be good

George Saunders prefers the descriptor "comic" to "satire":

"Satire always -- to me anyway -- implies that the writer knows something and is trying to bludgeon the dullard reader with it," he said. "But comic implies a more joyful approach -- like you're just trying to distill some of the crazy beautifulness of life into your story."

Here is recent Saunders from the New Yorker on "washboarding" as torture

Last week's New Yorker also had an article on Lenny Dykstra, the kind of baseball player who could convince you to like baseball when you were a kid. I remember being very sad when he was traded to Philadelphia. for Juan Samuel, why oh why?

Of course, Dykstra doesn't really seem to be that great a human being.

Here's an interview with She & Him

Here's an interview with Stephen Malkmus

There are a bunch of Malkmus video clip interviews at Snow Ghost Youtube

The Village Voice reviewed Mountain Goats at Webster Hall. Not really into the drums, it seems.

John Darnielle talks a bit about his upcoming book

Chris Ware writes in Publishers Weekly about Rodolphe Töpffer, who invented the graphic novel

The free Matador download sampler has some pretty good stuff on it
including a new Shearwater song