Scary quote of the week: In an article from the LA Times about the sad passing of another indie book store owned by a wonderful old eccentric — which is kind of like losing one of the last 12 rare rhinoceroses or something – anyway, toward the end of that article, we read this: Dowdy […]
Entries Tagged as 'Books'
Books: “Too Slow a Form of Information Delivery”
July 13th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Books, Culture, Education, History, Internet, Lit, Mythology, News
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A Cat Like Fine Wine
June 24th, 2007 · Comments Off on A Cat Like Fine Wine · Books, Cats, Culture, Media, Nature, News, Pets, Science
Oh, my heavens. How old do you think the world’s oldest cat might be? Try thirty-seven years. That’s right, a black cat named (ironically) Baby was born in 1970, according to his owners, and he will be recognized by Cat Fancy magazine in its August issue. You heard me. For those feeling as skeptical as […]
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Merry Marvel Movie Society
June 18th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Books, Comics, Culture, Film, Journal, News
I haven’t even seen the Silver Surfer movie yet — I’m half dreading it — but I came across this little cache of news about what’s in the Marvel superhero movie pipeline: Iron Man will be heading for post-production in July, and a “reboot” of The Incredible Hulk will go into production in Toronto the […]
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In Chicago: Rachel Claff Is Busting Out All Over
June 17th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Blogs, Books, Chicago, Culture, Film, Fringe, LGBT, Lit, Music, Neo-Futurists, New Wave, News, Nightclubs, Performance, Poetry, The Partly Dave Show, Theater
I haven’t done one of these Chicago Fringe scene reports in a while, so here’s what’s on my radar this week: The Neo-Futurists’ annual festival It Came From The Neo-Futurarium VI: Curse of The Neo-Futurarium, consisting of staged readings of various camp-ready old films, kicks off this Thursday, June 21 at 8pm. The first installment […]
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Roundup: Return of the Mouse Edition
June 15th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Activism, Apple, Books, Comics, Culture, Fiction, Food, Hate Crimes, Health, Healthcare Crisis, HIV/AIDS, iTunes, LGBT, Lit, Macintosh, Music, News, Organic Food, Politics, Roundup, Tech, Theater
BOOKS: This week marked the release of Armistead Maupin’s new book Michael Tolliver Lives, which picks up the story of Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, the iconic character from Maupin’s Tales of the City series. Mouse is now in his mid-50s, living with HIV but happily married. Maupin says, “I wanted to tell the story of a […]
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I’m the Featured Poet at Molly Malone’s Next Week and Oh My God It’s in the Suburbs …
June 7th, 2007 · Comments Off on I’m the Featured Poet at Molly Malone’s Next Week and Oh My God It’s in the Suburbs … · Books, Chicago, Culture, Journal, Lit, News, Poetry
Those who know me know it takes a lot to get me to venture into the uncharted here-be-dragons-ness that is the “-land” part of Chicagoland. But this coming Monday night, June 11, Nina Corwin and Al DeGenova have done me the immense honor of booking me as the featured poet for their highly regarded poetry […]
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Russell Hoban, The Kraken, and the US Edition of Linger Awhile
June 5th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Internet, Journal, Lit, Mythology, News, Online Communities, Russell Hoban, Science Fiction
A few days ago I got a package in the mail from the David R. Godine publishing house, who last year republished both of Russell Hoban’s hilarious Captain Najork children’s books in the US (and did a lovely job of it). Inside the package was an advance copy of the forthcoming US edition of Russ’s […]
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Roundup: Magnum Opus Edition
June 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Magnum Opus Edition · Apple, Books, Comics, Culture, Food, Heroes, iTunes, Language, LGBT, Lit, Media, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Tech, TV, Vegetarian & Vegan
COMICS: For once I’m starting out with the comics section, in honor of the fact that Salon has added Opus by the mighty Berkeley Breathed (Bloom County, Outland) to their repertoire. Oh, happy day. Here’s the first installment. Along with my favorites This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow and Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben […]
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Copy Rights and Wrongs
May 29th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Books, Culture, Film, History, Law, Lit, Video
This way-clever video, which I found on YouTube, uses short snips from various animated Disney films to provide an entertaining education on the nature of copyright, fair use, and the public domain. The daunting reality is that copyright has way gotten out of control in recent years — where once upon a time copyright […]
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Roundup: Fried Ice Edition
May 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Fried Ice Edition · Blogs, Books, Climate Change, Comedy, Comics, Culture, Film, Food, LGBT, Music, New Wave, News, Organic Food, Politics
Profile of Newtok, Alaska: One of the first victims of climate change, a town gradually sinking into the mud. As the hardest hit of the 180 Alaskan villages suffering from erosion, “studies say Newtok could be washed away within a decade.” Iceberg of Yuck: The Consumerist says, “Poison toothpaste, killer cough-syrup, and tainted pet food […]
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A Book That Will Live in Grinfamy
May 25th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Books, Comedy, Culture, History, Journalism, Language, News
This is a laugh-out-loud good time. Janet Maslin at the New York Times reviews the new book about Pearl Harbor (titled simply Pearl Harbor) by Newt Gingrich and his co-author, William R. Forstchen. The title of her review? “An Assault on Hawaii. On Grammar Too.” OK, I could have stopped right there, and that would […]
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Roundup: Giant Hourglass Edition
April 30th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Activism, Apple, Blogs, Books, Culture, Education, Fantasy, Foreign Policy, Health, Human Rights, Lit, Media, News, Politics, Science, Science Fiction, Tech, TV
As part of an international day of protest over the genocide in Darfur, campaigners in London displayed a giant hourglass filled with “blood” to symbolize time running out. The image at right is from a video featuring Hugh Grant tied to the campaign. More than 200,000 have died, with 2 million displaced and 4 million […]
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