Lethem's upcoming book sees the author returning to New York, and he says it's a "long, strange novel about the Upper East Side." Like Gossip Girl for adults, maybe? "Oh yeah! I don't know — I haven't seen Gossip Girl so I can't compare them. I don't know how to compare it. It's kind of just a big, crazy novel about bohemians who snuck into these rent-controlled apartments in the middle of where all the wealthy people live." [more]

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

Robyn Hitchcock is up to a bunch of stuff: something with Andy Partridge, another small part in a Jonathan Demme film and another reissue box set

My Morning Jacket's new album will have a song called "Librarian"
I somehow doubt that it relates much to my daytime existence.

Stereogum has all kinds of youtube on new songs, but not Librarian.

Here's an article about stolen books from independent bookstores

There's an underground economy of boosted books. These values are commonly understood and roundly agreed upon through word of mouth, and the values always seem to be true. Once, a scruffy, large man approached me, holding a folded-up piece of paper. "Do you have any Buck?" He paused and looked at the piece of paper. "Any books by Buckorsick?" I suspected that he meant Bukowski, but I played dumb, and asked to see the piece of paper he was holding. It was written in crisp handwriting that clearly didn't belong to him, and it read:

1. Charles Bukowski

2. Jim Thompson

3. Philip K. Dick

4. William S. Burroughs

5. Any Graphic Novel

This is pretty much the authoritative top five, the New York Times best-seller list of stolen books. Its origins still mystify me. It might have belonged to an unscrupulous used bookseller who sent the homeless out, Fagin-like, to do his bidding, or it might have been another book thief helping a semi-illiterate friend identify the valuable merchandise

Finns are quite active library users

The David Hajdu book on comics sounds interesting; I put in a reserve claim.
The Paper Cuts blog revisits the NYT's 1954 take on comics

Larry Norman, r.i.p.


I didn't realize that Adrian Tomine had an official website

Daniel Handler didn't realize that he was a book cover model until recently

Lethem and Chabon are sort of reunited this week on this week's NewYorker.com

• Lethem reading Thurber
• Chabon on superhero clothing (article) (audio)

Jack Nicholson for Hillary Clinton
(info)

news on Colin Meloy solo stuff and new Decemberists

An article on Paul Auster, and here is a PA timeline

I don't play video games, and I don't really understand the underlying concpet ,but this Lego Batman thing seems kind of neat.

Apparently the Lemony Snicket project The Composer is Dead , will become a book sometime in 2009. Carson Ellis is doing illustrations.

Here's a review of a Michael Chabon talk at Yale

Here is an interview with Brett Morgan about the Chicago 10 film which seems like a pretty interesting project; apparently Steven Spielberg has already purchased remake rights with Aaron Sorkin to write.

The Guardian looks again at Richard Yates

Dave Eggers is writing a novel based on the screenplay he wrote based on Where the Wild Things Are picture book. It's a little unclear if this is going to be a big step past those movie tie-in novelizations with "16 pages of photos from the movie!" that were popular at my elementary school book fairs and continue to entice children away from real books.

Lemony Snicket reviewed Lois Lowry (scroll all the way down)

Lois Lowry, who casts her noble and enviable shadow wide across the landscape of children's literature, from fantasy to realism, here turns her quick, sly gaze to parody, a word which in this case means “a short novel mocking the conventions of old-fashioned children's books stuffed with orphans, nannies and long-lost heirs.”

Six word memoirs; famous writer types have their responses posted here

This seems like a good idea:
The Coen brothers are set to direct an adaptation of Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policemen Union.

The full text of the Believer conversation between Jonathan Lethem and Paul Auster is now online.

I'm currently reading One Hundred and Forty Five Stories in a Small Box: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, How the Water Feels to the Fishes, and Minor Robberies which is indeed three little hardcover books in a slipcase from McSweeneys with a title each from Sarah Manguso, Dave Eggers, and Deb Olin Unferth.

It's all very short prose pieces, which is about the only way I can digest Eggers. I didn't know much about Manguso or Unferth before, but the whole thing recalls Lydia Davis. And in the new Believer Manguso interviews Lydia Davis.

The books are a good size for putting in one's pocket to read on the train, and the stories are short and therefore well suited for reading on the train.

I suspect that these stories are harder to write than they appear to be.

Bowerbirds did a Daytrotter session; there's a new song too. And a bunch of discussion as to how they are building a house without any power tools.

The Clean played some shows.
I'm kind of surprised these happened, and more surprised about where they happened.

Brian Wilson's lost rap.
I suggest using the flash in browser player if you want to hear it; you don't really want this thing saved to your hard drive.

The Guardian on Brooklyn and Baltimore as music scenes

An overview of Haruki Murakami's works.

The Justice League movie apparently has more casting done; they have a new actor for Batman. Seems like they are going with not-really-famous people for this.

And the Heath Ledger Joker looks pretty scary. And there's another web promo thing up for next year's Batman movie.

Edward Scissorhands vs. Sweeney Todd

Aaron Sorkin's new play is apparently factually incorrect

I just finished reading A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign. It was engaging and pretty well done popular history. Especially interesting in light of the current situation with Russia and Putin, not so totally dissimilar. The changing of election law (i.e. how the electors for each state were to be selected) throughout the campaign is something that it probably not so well known.

Also, Larson does a pretty good job of providing evidence that Thomas Jefferson may have been the Hillary Clinton of his day. I mean, it seems like half the country really hated that atheistic, infidel, Jacobin guy.

Friday night we went to go see the Freewheeling Yo La Tengo show in Williamsburg, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

The band played seated and answered questions in between songs. I think the setup made Georgia the star of this show, but there were moments that led audience members to comment that "that song sounded like you were standing up". YLT also revealed that they are just as happy to have a quiet audience rather than a dancing audience. Overall, the show was kind of like recent Mountain Goats shows where there was a lot of banter but then very quiet during songs.

The Hanukkah shows all sold out very early this year and so I'm not going, but this was the special Yo La Tengo show of the year for me.

The show was at that new Music Hall place that replaced Northsix in Williamsburg, and it was pretty nicely set up but eerie how much the overall design took from the Bowery Ballroom.

Photo from yolatreacy flickr.

The Jennifer O'Connor Myspace has some streaming covers, including Stockholm Sweden and an Elliott Smith track.

A good week of Daytrotter sets, with Magic Numbers and Emma Pollock following Okkervil River.

I'm really not too impressed with this Amazon Top 100 books of the year list.
Knuffle Bunny Too as the kidlit pick? Not really the one book I'd pick for such a list.

British papers are reviewing The Book of Other People, created by all the trendy writers and graphic novelists

There's all kinds of Ray Davies/Kinks stuff in the UK Times, to go with the big cd giveaway

Here's an interview

UK people get not only the virtually free cd, but also a free iMix of Kinks not-hits. The song annotations are here.

also:
Cormac McCarthy talked to the Coen brothers in Time

Daniel Handler on money, again

Neil Gaiman on Fairy Tales and adults

George Saunders on experimental stories

The LA Times ponders potential rock operas

Heidi Macdonald criticizes the overabundance of autobiographical comics in the Best American collection of this year

Bill Callahan does another email interview

And here's an interview with the Caribou guy

Stupid parent tricks aren't limited by geography...
The Happy Ending Foundation is planning a series of Bad Book Bonfires for later this month, when parents will be encouraged to burn novels with negative endings

The NY Times Magazine has a big article about the Todd Haynes Dylan movie, written by the author of that Rats book

The WFMU blog shows how records get manufactured

Controversy over Paddington Bear's endorsement deal with Marmite
(Darkest Peru is mentioned a couple times, but no mention of controversy with that issue)

Here's a trailer for Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd

People connected to Spoon, Wilco and R.E.M. talk about the Radiohead download promotion

The Wall Street Journal on the newest McSweeneys book [It's a long way from being involved in the creation of Mr. Magoo to writing about the insanities of war-torn Iraq, but 90-year-old first-time novelist Millard Kaufman made the journey.] and the new Fiery Furnaces album.

Here's another George Saunders interview
and outtakes

Vanity Fair covers "folk heroes" old and new

William Bowers on Vic Chesnutt and his new album
also: Independent Weekly has a song to download

The Carl Wilson book on Celine Dion is coming soon; for now, you can get a pdf excerpt by following these instructions. The introduction recalls Elliott Smith's Oscars performance (youtube) and leaves me intrigued for the rest of the book...

Tiny Showcase linked to Model Railroad Slums, which are kind of neat but maybe more terrible.