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

The New York Times > Books > Slide Show > Book Ads: The Golden Age, 1962-1973

pretty interesting.

a few neat things

So the Elephant 6 Blog points to the first/only E6 catalog and manifesto (from the label)and has put up some Marbles demos with explanation from Robert Schneider.

Apparently The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil and In Persuasion Nation have been combined for the UK market; the Guardian review is here with the cover art (emphasizing Phil).

I read In Persuasion Nation over the weekend and enjoyed it. Some marginal members of the Saunders Army have expressed mixed feelings about Mr. Saunders' ambition for his work. I think that any story collection from an author whose stories you've been tracking through various publications will fail to make the same impact as if you'd encountered the collection independent of the earlier magazine publishings. I felt kind of the same way about The Disappointment Artist and Men and Cartoons. I might be in favor of Saunders doing a NYTimes Magazine Funny Pages serial; it might be able to drag a sortof novel from him...

I put a few things on ebay; trying to clear some space and raise some funds.

kind of like that commercial

So, the washing machine commercial that sounds line Jens Lekman isn't Jens Lekman.

Apparently someone else imitates Jens better than he can...here's an explanation with sound clip.

White Magic wants your headache to go away

The band White Magic, who I have seen twice and think are nifty in a kind of somber, Cat Power-on-ritalin kind of way, are apparently in bed with Tylenol. I picked up a free split cd featuring the White Magic and American Analog Set at Kims last night. Three songs each! Tylenol must really work. I haven't listened yet, but will report back later. If you must, check out the curiously named ouchthewebsite.com. It's tylenol marketing for the young and hip.

great beyond

I walked past the demolished (once, collapsing) building on Lex yesterday. I can't remember exactly what was there, but it is strange seeing the hole now.

I went to Thinkquest training yesterday. I hoped they would teach me something new, but they didn't. Lame.

Last night we saw Finding Neverland. Despite the fact that it sounds too much like that pixar movie with the fish, it was good. Johnny Depp was excellent, Dustin Hoffman was in it, and the movie recalled Hook in some ways without being as long or boring. (I am not such a fan of Spielberg.)

This looks like a nice holiday gift.

I am watching soccer (mls cup) on television.

Other News:

Old Dirty Bastard (the rapper) is dead

long november

On Saturday I went to the WFMU record fair. In addition to picking up a few xmas gift items, i picked up big stack of compact disks that I hope to listen to soon. So far I am enjoying the Heavenly States' single. Looking forward to listening to David Kilgour, Stars, Four Tet, and Ulysses, among others. The stack is about 30 deep, but thankfully the cd's were only $1 each.

I have been doing a bunch of reading. I read The Devil in the White City, which came as a birthday gift. I'm not sure that I am too into the book as a work in the discipline of history, but it is very readable and creepy (which motivates one to finish the book.) Perspepolis is good but taking me a while to get through. I enjoyed Auster's Music of Chance, which I hadn't read before. The most recent issue of the New Yorker has a cover by Adrian Tomine, which I suppose is to be expected. Inside there is a story by Jonathan Franzen, which was familiar from the Downtown for Democracy reading of several months back. Too bad that didn't really work out.

Saw r.e.m. on thursday. Opened with End of the World, and for the first three songs it seemed like it would be good. But the new album (which I haven't purchased and wouldn't recommend...bore yourself by listening here) is too dirge and self-important. To be honest the new songs ruined the good old dirges from Automatic for the People. Maybe they were bummed out by the Kerry situation, but the whole event was for me uninspiring.

Saw Secret Window with Johnny Depp on video this weekend. I don't usually like the scary movies, and I wouldn't say I liked this movie. but Depp and John Turturro are interesting to watch. I didn't realize it was from a Steven King story, which explains some of the stupidity of the movie. Still, when does the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory come out? That's what I want to see.