This week at the LBC site, discussion for Edie Meidav’s Crawl Space begins. Scott and I had the great pleasure of sitting down for Indian food and (later) coffee with Meidav. A podcast of this conversation, which features Scott as a co-interviewer, horrible French mispronunciations from me, and perspicacious answers from Meidav, will be posted on Friday. In the meantime, jump in to the fray at the LBC.
Levi Asher uncovers another Tanenhaus naysayer and asks why so many bloggers are concerned with the NYTBR. I can’t speak for others, but since the NYTBR is often misconstrued as the flagship weekly newspaper book review supplement, it’s disconcerting to see the Review regularly come across as a particularly crass frat boy spilling a keg of beer over the upholstery of a Rolls Royce on his way home from a stag party.
Over at The Elegant Variation, Karen Palmer interviews John McNally. I like what little I’ve read of McNally so far. So it’s good to see a long-form interview help push me over the edge.
Attention Bittorrenters: Torchwood has an airdate of late autumn. A spinoff from Doctor Who, the show will feature Captain Jack, who may be the first flamboyantly bisexual action hero to star in a regular television series.
Bruce Campbell will have a cameo as Quentin Beck (aka Mysterio) in Spider-Man 3. The original source for this information (and more) is down, but Cinematical has the roundup.
Kathleen McGowan insists that her book, The Expected One, is not a The Da Vinci Code knockoff. Well, let’s see. Religious thriller, check. Controversial framing of text, check. Large first print run, check. Vatican conspiracy and hidden documents, check. Turgid writing (“Feeling momentarily dizzy, Maureen steadied herself with a hand against the cool stones of an ancient wall.”), check. At least McGowan, who claims to be the descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, has the consolation of being batshit crazy.
Will the iPod become an eBook reader? More importantly, can contemporary developers offer a tech product in which the second letter of their ware isn’t capitalized?
Danuta Kean suggests that cookbooks are for wimps. I’ll have you know, Danuta, that I perform calisthenics before cooking my chicken cordon bleu. The Galloping Gourmet has nothing on my ass. I slam down several shots of straight 100 proof bourbon while I’m preparing the fillets. The Dirty Dozen plays in the background. I can drink AND cook Graham Kerr under the table! You want to fuck with me? You want to fuck with my smoked salmon or my homemade biscotti? I’ll show you who the real man in the kitchen is! Have your boyfriend meet me in a five-star restaurant kitchen of your choice at 5:00 PM. Gloves off! There will be blood on the kitchen floor and a fine five-course dinner to boot!
I obtained McSweeney’s #19, the cigar box version, yesterday, because I was tempted by the excised novella component of Talk Talk. While I haven’t cracked the contents open yet, the blog I Am the Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor takes umbrage with it, disappointed that “an actual collection of short fiction takes a backseat to a collection of random junk posing as a collection of short fiction.” It awards the collection “one tiny Ludivine Sagnier” on a scale of one to five.
Porn star Mimi DeMayo is running for Nevada governor, but she’s concerned that she’s not being taken seriously. But can one really endorse a candidate who offers a slow-loading campaign site, replete with misspellings and not so much as a platform? (Unless, of course, you confuse platform heels with a list of positions.)
Huh huh. He said “positions.” Huh.