Current t-shirt: snowy owl and autumn leaves (gray background)
Current music: The Decembrists "The Tain," rock song-cycle based on the Tain Bo Cuailnge "The Cattle-Raid of Cooley."
I went to my first photo-shoot today. No, I wasn't that subject. The subjects were Anita Durst and Leslie Hampton. Leslie is one of the artists who has a studio in Anita's arts organization, Chashama. The piece is for Contribute Magazine.
Ok - now that I think of it, it wasn't my first shoot. That was for a piece on The Joy of Cooking, where I went to The Joy of Cooking test kitchens. A freelancer took a lovely picture of some barbecue-style baked ribs.
The photographer's main talent, and most necessary one, seemed to be to lower the temperature of the room, and to put people at ease, which he did mightily.
I did some interviewing afterwards. Found out that artists often spend a third of their 'art-time' off chasing grants to enable the to - do - their art. This strikes me as wrong. Being an artist is about playing with paint, or sculptural items, or whatever. It's not about writing grant proposals. As far as I know, no grant proposal has ever been exhibited at The Whitney.
But that's what they have to do: write extensive project plans, come up with budgets, give out personal information about their finances. One of the things the two artists liked so much about Chashama was that the application process took about twenty minutes and six slides.
Twenty minutes, six slides, and Leslie Hampton has a studio for $130 a month for a year.
Kewl.
Oh, nifty new book:
Lost Paradise, by Cees Nooteboom (Grove Press, October)
One of those cute, slim European books that never got fat thighs, only this one isn't tragically chic and really works. Based in Brazil, two friends of German extraction fantasize incessantly about the dreamtime of the Australian aborigines, and one of the two girls gets raped...
That's as far as I've read, but it's really good. Ms. Nootebeem's paragraphs keep my mind thinking and have great depth of heart.
Love and Gazpacho,
The Red Pooka!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
To-do list
New batteries for CO2 alarm. My landlord broke city laws and put it in three months late.
Laundry.
Empty post box. (Haven't been in a few days. Expecting an avalanche.)
Transcribe tape from Chashama.
I sent one of the tapes off to my boss's transcriber. It was a group tape where everyone introduced themselves. The tape came back, and the reviewer failed to distinguish between the different people talking. It was all:
Interviewer...
Female voice...
Male voice..
Luckily, I made a transcript beforehand, but if I have to go from the professional transcript, I won't be able to quote.
I'm a little miffed. Am considering buying a tape-dubber, so I can make copies. Also looking into a way to record phone conversations directly onto my computer for phone interviews. But these problems with the transcriber have me rattled. My tapes are precious. I don't like surrendering them without backup. And suddenly, just to feel safe, I'm looking at a $300+ dollar system.
Love and wretchedness,
The Red Pooka!
Laundry.
Empty post box. (Haven't been in a few days. Expecting an avalanche.)
Transcribe tape from Chashama.
I sent one of the tapes off to my boss's transcriber. It was a group tape where everyone introduced themselves. The tape came back, and the reviewer failed to distinguish between the different people talking. It was all:
Interviewer...
Female voice...
Male voice..
Luckily, I made a transcript beforehand, but if I have to go from the professional transcript, I won't be able to quote.
I'm a little miffed. Am considering buying a tape-dubber, so I can make copies. Also looking into a way to record phone conversations directly onto my computer for phone interviews. But these problems with the transcriber have me rattled. My tapes are precious. I don't like surrendering them without backup. And suddenly, just to feel safe, I'm looking at a $300+ dollar system.
Love and wretchedness,
The Red Pooka!
Epistle from Redstone Arsenal
Current t-shirt: lavender with green sloth hanging from my neckline. From Squidfire, http://www.squidfire.com/Results.cfm?category=8.
Current Music: Winterpills again.
There's a new Von Braun biography by Michael J. Neufeld coming out with Knopf in September. For those of you who don't know, he was a nazi adopted by the U.S. government to head our rocket program down in Alabama. One might wish the U.S. had adopted something cuter, maybe a puppy (Laika was a stray), but Von Braun, who designed the rockets that took the U.S. to the moon, also designed the ones that that made messy craters in London.
Messy with bits of people and burning houses.
I like the biography and I don't. Good historian writes well-researched book. Fine. But Neufeld seems far, far too intent on painting Von Braun as a nazi, and guilty as hell. As far as most people who know about Von Braun are concerned, he - was - a nazi and guilty as hell. It's a bit like reading a detailed argument that the sky is blue.
Personally, I find people intent on grinding the old axes of the 20th c. to be uncaring toward present needs. Yes, please, we need to know about Von Braun. Yes, please don't forget to mention he was a nazi. Don't refight the case again, please.
Please.
What we need to know about is the early culture of NASA, why it felt - alright - to a lot of people to have a nazi (actually several nazis) on board to build rockets for us. That's interesting. That's useful knowledge.
When black and white exists, it's easy. And after the battle's won, it's not useful outside of Hollywood.
Pity, because the author knows German, German history, and rocket science. Feels like he's been at whetting this ax for at least a decade, probably two. Mr. Neufeld, I'm here to inform you, you have a nice, shiny ax.
Why didn't you find useful wood to whack it with?
Love and Rockets,
(apologies to the Hernandez Brothers)
The Red Pooka!
Current Music: Winterpills again.
There's a new Von Braun biography by Michael J. Neufeld coming out with Knopf in September. For those of you who don't know, he was a nazi adopted by the U.S. government to head our rocket program down in Alabama. One might wish the U.S. had adopted something cuter, maybe a puppy (Laika was a stray), but Von Braun, who designed the rockets that took the U.S. to the moon, also designed the ones that that made messy craters in London.
Messy with bits of people and burning houses.
I like the biography and I don't. Good historian writes well-researched book. Fine. But Neufeld seems far, far too intent on painting Von Braun as a nazi, and guilty as hell. As far as most people who know about Von Braun are concerned, he - was - a nazi and guilty as hell. It's a bit like reading a detailed argument that the sky is blue.
Personally, I find people intent on grinding the old axes of the 20th c. to be uncaring toward present needs. Yes, please, we need to know about Von Braun. Yes, please don't forget to mention he was a nazi. Don't refight the case again, please.
Please.
What we need to know about is the early culture of NASA, why it felt - alright - to a lot of people to have a nazi (actually several nazis) on board to build rockets for us. That's interesting. That's useful knowledge.
When black and white exists, it's easy. And after the battle's won, it's not useful outside of Hollywood.
Pity, because the author knows German, German history, and rocket science. Feels like he's been at whetting this ax for at least a decade, probably two. Mr. Neufeld, I'm here to inform you, you have a nice, shiny ax.
Why didn't you find useful wood to whack it with?
Love and Rockets,
(apologies to the Hernandez Brothers)
The Red Pooka!
Friday, July 20, 2007
T'was a Cold, Cold War
Current t-shirt: Intfiniit, (a little winged guy in big, big tennis shoes). It's an art site that's submission only, but anyone can come and vote on what art they like. (Has a lot of comics!) http://www.infiniit.net/
Current Music: Silence, oddly enough.
Two great little graphic novels are coming out in September:
Laika
by Nick Abadzis (First Second)
Reagan
by Andrew Helfer (Hill & Wang)
Laika is the story of the sad, sweet little dog the Russians threw into space to make Khruschev happy. Not a whole lot was learned from Laika, and she's somehow a stand-in for all those shipped off to the gulag. Another soul lost to a five-year plan.
Reagan is the story of the Gipper. A lot of kids are going to learn about our fortieth president from a comic book. Somehow it's really appropriate.
Nostalgia for the 20th century? Golly, but yes. It was a safer time. I think, for all of us. At least it felt safer. No, actually it didn't. But it felt like people cared that there was danger. Doesn't feel like danger really impresses people anymore. Something got lost, that idea that people are precious. I'm just old enough to remember it.
Helps that I can remember back to when I was two.
Love and a little sugar,
The Red Pooka!
Current Music: Silence, oddly enough.
Two great little graphic novels are coming out in September:
Laika
by Nick Abadzis (First Second)
Reagan
by Andrew Helfer (Hill & Wang)
Laika is the story of the sad, sweet little dog the Russians threw into space to make Khruschev happy. Not a whole lot was learned from Laika, and she's somehow a stand-in for all those shipped off to the gulag. Another soul lost to a five-year plan.
Reagan is the story of the Gipper. A lot of kids are going to learn about our fortieth president from a comic book. Somehow it's really appropriate.
Nostalgia for the 20th century? Golly, but yes. It was a safer time. I think, for all of us. At least it felt safer. No, actually it didn't. But it felt like people cared that there was danger. Doesn't feel like danger really impresses people anymore. Something got lost, that idea that people are precious. I'm just old enough to remember it.
Helps that I can remember back to when I was two.
Love and a little sugar,
The Red Pooka!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Ok.. Gonna Spill
Ok, here's the gorgonzola:
San Francisco Book Review:
gonna be cut by 25% or more.
San Diego Union-Tribune Book Review:
going away altogether as a separate entity. What's left may be cut by up to half.
The editors, Oscar Villalon (SFC-BR) and Arthur Salm (SDUT-BR) are the good guys. Villalon has a rep for giving new writers a chance. He gave me mine, and I've returned the favor by sending promising newbies his way. Salm is sweet and fastidious. A bit anal and completely dedicated - exactly the person who should be allowed something big to run as he chooses...
Sigh.
Love and Unceratian Cheeses,
The Red Pooka!
San Francisco Book Review:
gonna be cut by 25% or more.
San Diego Union-Tribune Book Review:
going away altogether as a separate entity. What's left may be cut by up to half.
The editors, Oscar Villalon (SFC-BR) and Arthur Salm (SDUT-BR) are the good guys. Villalon has a rep for giving new writers a chance. He gave me mine, and I've returned the favor by sending promising newbies his way. Salm is sweet and fastidious. A bit anal and completely dedicated - exactly the person who should be allowed something big to run as he chooses...
Sigh.
Love and Unceratian Cheeses,
The Red Pooka!
Book Reviews on the Squeeze
Current t-shirt: "The Incredibly Strange Kitties," by Emily the Strange. www.emilythestrange.com. Just about one of the greatest t-shirt and intelligent goth-girl apparel line in existence.
Current Music: Winterpills, http://www.winterpills.com/ especially the song "Found Weekend," …you will live forever, apples still crisp on the shelf…life goes on underground, we won't surface til' we are found.
Had a disturbingly family conversation today. Disturbingly familiar because I've had it at least five times in the last few months. Goes like this: Newspaper book reviews are being squeezed and cut. One effect is that lead-times for reviews are getting longer.
Lead-time is the time between when a book review is okayed and the actual pub date of the book. Publishers that can afford to put out galley copies, sometimes called ARCs (advanced reading copies) beforehand.
If a galley comes out far in advance, the book is more likely to be reviewed.
But putting out a galley or arc months in advance costs money. Smaller presses get hurt. And I love small presses. Small presses have heart. Small presses take risks. Small presses are the good guys. Small presses are where I go shopping for gems…
(For a great small press, try Small Beer Press, http://www.lcrw.net/)
It also favors established authors and authors who don't take risks. Publishers are less likely to be able to justify marketing dollars to themselves if a book is a debut and/or unusual.
The book reviewing process is screwy. Everyone knows it. No one likes it. Reviewers receive books for free, which then turn up in The Strand, often before their publication date. Maybe publishers could put their books into an online database before publication and simply give out passwords. Yes, a bitch to read off the screen, but I'd do it.
BTW, nifty little graphic novel about Ronald Reagan coming out with FSG. No where near as good as Sentences or Cairo, but a nice blow.
Makes me feel all warm and glowy to think a whole generation will learn about the Gipper from a subversive little comic book that uses the truth like the weapon it is.
Love and Ketchup (as a vegetable),
The Red Pooka!
Current Music: Winterpills, http://www.winterpills.com/ especially the song "Found Weekend," …you will live forever, apples still crisp on the shelf…life goes on underground, we won't surface til' we are found.
Had a disturbingly family conversation today. Disturbingly familiar because I've had it at least five times in the last few months. Goes like this: Newspaper book reviews are being squeezed and cut. One effect is that lead-times for reviews are getting longer.
Lead-time is the time between when a book review is okayed and the actual pub date of the book. Publishers that can afford to put out galley copies, sometimes called ARCs (advanced reading copies) beforehand.
If a galley comes out far in advance, the book is more likely to be reviewed.
But putting out a galley or arc months in advance costs money. Smaller presses get hurt. And I love small presses. Small presses have heart. Small presses take risks. Small presses are the good guys. Small presses are where I go shopping for gems…
(For a great small press, try Small Beer Press, http://www.lcrw.net/)
It also favors established authors and authors who don't take risks. Publishers are less likely to be able to justify marketing dollars to themselves if a book is a debut and/or unusual.
The book reviewing process is screwy. Everyone knows it. No one likes it. Reviewers receive books for free, which then turn up in The Strand, often before their publication date. Maybe publishers could put their books into an online database before publication and simply give out passwords. Yes, a bitch to read off the screen, but I'd do it.
BTW, nifty little graphic novel about Ronald Reagan coming out with FSG. No where near as good as Sentences or Cairo, but a nice blow.
Makes me feel all warm and glowy to think a whole generation will learn about the Gipper from a subversive little comic book that uses the truth like the weapon it is.
Love and Ketchup (as a vegetable),
The Red Pooka!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Drinks list!! (partial)
Current t-shirt: "Oh no, the Butterflies Are Escaping!" by Oopsy Daisy
By the same people who make Emily the Strange, http://www.emilystrange.com/, but I think it's no longer available.
Current music: Sunset Rubdown (Spenser Krug is a god)
http://www.absolutelykosher.com/sunsetrubdown.htm
Ok, I've got three books for the fall menu drinks list:
Malt-liquor - exactly! - when you need it:
That White Girl, by JLove (Atria, August)
Story of a white girl who joins the Colorado Crips, specifically the Rollin' 30s. Reads like thinly veiled memoir, and golly but it's good. Let's you remember what it was like to be a kid. I haven't finished it yet, but will be majorly disappointed if it takes that predictable moralistic turn at the end.
Non-alcoholic alternative with a kick:
Cairo, by G. Willow Wilson (DC Comics, October)
Lyric, folklorish, yet up-to-date and swimmingly good graphic novel about a Jinn, a lost Lebanese American and a word nailed in a box. Better than "Pride of Baghdad," which was itself pretty phenomenal.
Lit-chick special (like a Manhattan, only really, really dry)
The Last Chicken in America, by Ellen Litman (Norton, September)
Short stories about a newly immigrated family. Replete with irony, dry wit, and multicultural misunderstanding. People in Brooklyn will be talking about it. Yes, it's a rather safe drink, but safe drinks exist for a reason.
Love and Lots of Salt,
The Red Pooka!
By the same people who make Emily the Strange, http://www.emilystrange.com/, but I think it's no longer available.
Current music: Sunset Rubdown (Spenser Krug is a god)
http://www.absolutelykosher.com/sunsetrubdown.htm
Ok, I've got three books for the fall menu drinks list:
Malt-liquor - exactly! - when you need it:
That White Girl, by JLove (Atria, August)
Story of a white girl who joins the Colorado Crips, specifically the Rollin' 30s. Reads like thinly veiled memoir, and golly but it's good. Let's you remember what it was like to be a kid. I haven't finished it yet, but will be majorly disappointed if it takes that predictable moralistic turn at the end.
Non-alcoholic alternative with a kick:
Cairo, by G. Willow Wilson (DC Comics, October)
Lyric, folklorish, yet up-to-date and swimmingly good graphic novel about a Jinn, a lost Lebanese American and a word nailed in a box. Better than "Pride of Baghdad," which was itself pretty phenomenal.
Lit-chick special (like a Manhattan, only really, really dry)
The Last Chicken in America, by Ellen Litman (Norton, September)
Short stories about a newly immigrated family. Replete with irony, dry wit, and multicultural misunderstanding. People in Brooklyn will be talking about it. Yes, it's a rather safe drink, but safe drinks exist for a reason.
Love and Lots of Salt,
The Red Pooka!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Screwtape
Current t-shirt: Last Kiss. Caption reads - "Men are all alike! Sooner or later… Jack would want more than just wild passionate and cheap thrills! He'd expect me to… cook for him!" thinks pretty blonde woman drawn in '50s style. http://www.lastkisscomics.com/
Current Music: Headlights - check out "Songy Darko. "(free download) http://www.daytrotter.com/daytrotterSessions/477/free-songs-headlights
My boss for a new article doesn't understand the concept of time. I'm writing a piece on Chashama (http://www.chashama.org/home.php) for a magazine downtown. Da' boss wants everything ASAP. Fine. I can do ASAP. Boss-lady also wants me to use the magazine's transcription service.
I usually transcribe myself. I have the tapes and transcripts if anyone wants to fact check. Helps me to get into the head of the people I'm interviewing… But hey, having someone else take some labor off my hands sounds lovely sunshiney.
But that ASAP thing. I called the transcriber service. They wouldn’t' even be able to start the tapes until next week. Not clear on when they'd come back.
Oh.
I'll transcribe them over the weekend myself, start the article, and let the transcription service transcribe them, too. I get my piece in on time (will check all quotes against what the transcriber gives me). My boss gets to use her service, which makes her feel happy.
Yes, someone's spending more money somewhere. But who am I to question why?
Love & Mango Skins,
The Red Pooka!
Current Music: Headlights - check out "Songy Darko. "(free download) http://www.daytrotter.com/daytrotterSessions/477/free-songs-headlights
My boss for a new article doesn't understand the concept of time. I'm writing a piece on Chashama (http://www.chashama.org/home.php) for a magazine downtown. Da' boss wants everything ASAP. Fine. I can do ASAP. Boss-lady also wants me to use the magazine's transcription service.
I usually transcribe myself. I have the tapes and transcripts if anyone wants to fact check. Helps me to get into the head of the people I'm interviewing… But hey, having someone else take some labor off my hands sounds lovely sunshiney.
But that ASAP thing. I called the transcriber service. They wouldn’t' even be able to start the tapes until next week. Not clear on when they'd come back.
Oh.
I'll transcribe them over the weekend myself, start the article, and let the transcription service transcribe them, too. I get my piece in on time (will check all quotes against what the transcriber gives me). My boss gets to use her service, which makes her feel happy.
Yes, someone's spending more money somewhere. But who am I to question why?
Love & Mango Skins,
The Red Pooka!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Lie to me.
Current t-shirt:
Narwhale, "Stay Alive in 2005," from this great t-shirt outfit in Baltimore called Squidfire. (I'll wear it later in the day, once I've done this interview thing with this arts group called Chashama.)
http://www.squidfire.com/
Current Music:
Tilly and the Wall, esp. the song "Nights of the Living Dead,"
Let's get wild, wild, let's rejoice
Come one, come on
I want to hear that fucking noise…
God, put down your gun, can't you see we're dead?
God, put down your hand, we're not listening…
I want to fuck it up. I want to fuck it up…
And I feel so alive, and I feel so alive, and I feeeelll...
(See Daytrotter for free - yeah that's right, free and legal - downloads:
http://www.daytrotter.com/daytrotterSessions/624/free-songs-tilly-and-the-wall)
Found a sweet delight. Evil, Inc. also exists as books. I'd love to pitch them for review somewhere, really love to. Unfortunately, the creator can't give me a publishing date for the next trade paperback.
Review pitches are structured around the pub date.
No pub date, no review in standard review outlets. Simple as that.
***
Let's say you have a great little comic, and you aren't sure when it's coming out, but think probably the fall. Thing to do is make up a pub date - pull it out of your, um, nether regions.
Yes, try to keep to it, but in other words:
Lie to me.
Consider it like all those un-evil white things in the world: elephants, handkerchiefs, albino pumpkins, and oh yeah, those little fibs you tell when your girlfriend asks if her jeans make her butt look big. White lies. Those.
And if the pub date has to change, tell people it slipped, and pull out another one.
Love and George Orwell,
The Red Pooka!!
Narwhale, "Stay Alive in 2005," from this great t-shirt outfit in Baltimore called Squidfire. (I'll wear it later in the day, once I've done this interview thing with this arts group called Chashama.)
http://www.squidfire.com/
Current Music:
Tilly and the Wall, esp. the song "Nights of the Living Dead,"
Let's get wild, wild, let's rejoice
Come one, come on
I want to hear that fucking noise…
God, put down your gun, can't you see we're dead?
God, put down your hand, we're not listening…
I want to fuck it up. I want to fuck it up…
And I feel so alive, and I feel so alive, and I feeeelll...
(See Daytrotter for free - yeah that's right, free and legal - downloads:
http://www.daytrotter.com/daytrotterSessions/624/free-songs-tilly-and-the-wall)
Found a sweet delight. Evil, Inc. also exists as books. I'd love to pitch them for review somewhere, really love to. Unfortunately, the creator can't give me a publishing date for the next trade paperback.
Review pitches are structured around the pub date.
No pub date, no review in standard review outlets. Simple as that.
***
Let's say you have a great little comic, and you aren't sure when it's coming out, but think probably the fall. Thing to do is make up a pub date - pull it out of your, um, nether regions.
Yes, try to keep to it, but in other words:
Lie to me.
Consider it like all those un-evil white things in the world: elephants, handkerchiefs, albino pumpkins, and oh yeah, those little fibs you tell when your girlfriend asks if her jeans make her butt look big. White lies. Those.
And if the pub date has to change, tell people it slipped, and pull out another one.
Love and George Orwell,
The Red Pooka!!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Villains are hot
If you haven't read it yet, be sure to pick up "Soon I Will Be Invincible," by Austin Grossman. Dr. Impossible, the villain, takes over the book, though not the world (not yet, anyway... Grossman mentioned that Impossible might possibly return some day).
The book is about the funnest thing to come out in June. A total riot that someone should buy to make into a film, or at least a comic book. It's already a comic book, only it happens to have been written as a literary novel. Please, someone send a copy to Vertigo.
Also, cool web-comic: Evil, Inc. It's like the show "Heroes," only they're villains, incorporated, and have their shit together.
http://www.evil-comic.com/index.html
Villains are cool...
This post is dedicated to Day Al-Mohamed, friend, trickster, and sleazy lobbyist set on world-domination.
http://www.dayalmohamed.com/
Love and Prune Juice,
The Red Pooka!
The book is about the funnest thing to come out in June. A total riot that someone should buy to make into a film, or at least a comic book. It's already a comic book, only it happens to have been written as a literary novel. Please, someone send a copy to Vertigo.
Also, cool web-comic: Evil, Inc. It's like the show "Heroes," only they're villains, incorporated, and have their shit together.
http://www.evil-comic.com/index.html
Villains are cool...
This post is dedicated to Day Al-Mohamed, friend, trickster, and sleazy lobbyist set on world-domination.
http://www.dayalmohamed.com/
Love and Prune Juice,
The Red Pooka!
The Saxophonist Next Door
My next door neighbor is a saxophonist. This is a problem. My husband and I scheme up ways to do in his instrument. Either that, or raise money to buy him lessons. (He's not a very good saxophonist.)
Anyone out there who feels like starting a family want to adopt?
Love and Rubber Cement,
The Red Pooka!
Anyone out there who feels like starting a family want to adopt?
Love and Rubber Cement,
The Red Pooka!
Ah! Rip, rip, rip, rip... tear. A new batch of unpublished books in lovely wrappers all for ME!
God, but I love being a book reviewer sometimes. I get all these packages in the mail. The people at the post office hate me and think I'm running a smuggling ring, but I don't care. PREZZIES!!
Current music: the sound of ripping packages.
Current t-shirt: Winnie the Pooh (willy nilly silly ol' bear)
http://stylinonline.stores.yahoo.net/winniepooh.html
A reasonable book menu for the fall:
Appetizer:
Percy Gloom, by Cathy Malakasian (Fantagraphics)
Think of it as one of those vastly strange, but rather tasty things cooked by El Bullie.
Soup:
An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England, by Brock Clarke (Algonquin)
Revenge for all those New England writers assigned in school. (Why Southerners should have to read Nathanial Hawthorne is beyond me.) Nifty literary mystery about the picturesque homes of those yankee writers being burned to the ground.
First Course:
Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm, by Percy Carey (DC Comics)
Yes, it's a graphic novel. (If you're one of those people who don't think comics are real art, I don't want to know you, and please go visit my ex-friend Fred, who lives in the dust-bin of history along with Marx and the Edsel...) Sentences is one hell of a wonderful read. Sesame Street, the birth of Hip-Hop, brotherly love, loyalty, it's all there.
Palate Clearer:
My Lobotomy, by Howard Dully (Crown)
Bitter herbs to clean the tongue. An autobiography of a man who was erroneously sent to have a lobotomy by an evil stepmother.
Second Course:
Turpentine, by Spring Warren (Black Cat)
A truly fabulous debut about the Wild West. Beautiful, funny writing, none of that passé irony we've been hearing lately from beyond Wyoming. Curiously, it's not tragic-comic, either.
Desert:
Witches Trinity, by Erika Mailman (Crown)
Jealousy and witch trials in medieval Germany--because watching petty gossip rise to the level of tragedy is sweet, sweet, sweet.
I'm still working on my drinks list.
Love,
The Red Pooka!
God, but I love being a book reviewer sometimes. I get all these packages in the mail. The people at the post office hate me and think I'm running a smuggling ring, but I don't care. PREZZIES!!
Current music: the sound of ripping packages.
Current t-shirt: Winnie the Pooh (willy nilly silly ol' bear)
http://stylinonline.stores.yahoo.net/winniepooh.html
A reasonable book menu for the fall:
Appetizer:
Percy Gloom, by Cathy Malakasian (Fantagraphics)
Think of it as one of those vastly strange, but rather tasty things cooked by El Bullie.
Soup:
An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England, by Brock Clarke (Algonquin)
Revenge for all those New England writers assigned in school. (Why Southerners should have to read Nathanial Hawthorne is beyond me.) Nifty literary mystery about the picturesque homes of those yankee writers being burned to the ground.
First Course:
Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm, by Percy Carey (DC Comics)
Yes, it's a graphic novel. (If you're one of those people who don't think comics are real art, I don't want to know you, and please go visit my ex-friend Fred, who lives in the dust-bin of history along with Marx and the Edsel...) Sentences is one hell of a wonderful read. Sesame Street, the birth of Hip-Hop, brotherly love, loyalty, it's all there.
Palate Clearer:
My Lobotomy, by Howard Dully (Crown)
Bitter herbs to clean the tongue. An autobiography of a man who was erroneously sent to have a lobotomy by an evil stepmother.
Second Course:
Turpentine, by Spring Warren (Black Cat)
A truly fabulous debut about the Wild West. Beautiful, funny writing, none of that passé irony we've been hearing lately from beyond Wyoming. Curiously, it's not tragic-comic, either.
Desert:
Witches Trinity, by Erika Mailman (Crown)
Jealousy and witch trials in medieval Germany--because watching petty gossip rise to the level of tragedy is sweet, sweet, sweet.
I'm still working on my drinks list.
Love,
The Red Pooka!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)