Syntax of Things

Still May

The short story posts here have tailed off dramatically over the past few weeks. I'm sure everyone had the best of intentions, but perhaps writing about short stories has this in common with actually writing them.

But I just got a call from The Reg  saying that my copy of the new Miranda July collection had arrived (I'm going to assume my inability to find it Sunday means it's selling briskly).  I read "The Swim Team" in Harper's a month or two ago and was nicely surprised. It certainly kicked the ass of the recent Nicole Krauss story there and I wanted more.  The general talk about it around me seems to start with "I was skeptical..." or "I wanted to hate her..." but begrudging acceptance often seems to give way to delight.  I'll have to report my final thoughts later.

But what do any of y'all think?

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Short stories make me think of Shalom Auslander, especially "Smite the Heathens, Charlie Brown."  That, plus my mention of student films, makes me think of this Peckinpah version of Peanuts, done by Jim Reardon, most notably associated with The Simpsons.

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Finally, I'd like to share my favorite piece of prose with everybody.  It could be called a story or maybe a prose poem, but I love it regardless and I don't think it's in print anywhere anymore now that the KGB Bar Reader looks to be oop.   Read it in memory of Short Story Month.

Counter-mush

Jeff, Jeff - this is what you get for reading The Secret.

I feel for Jeff having to resort to shock and awe for his mouth troubles, but I'm a little worried that this kind of response will only breed and encourage more cavity creeps.  The soldiers of Crestopolis need their fluoride-body-armor to do their jobs, dammit!

I, however, am not a surrendering defeatist.  I was awake during the removal of four wisdom teeth and, not only do I not fear dentists, I dated mine - long enough to get invited to her wedding (big and Indian and Irish, if you're curious) but not long enough not to get invited to her wedding.  And note for those of you who find yourself attracted to yours - they will check your charts if you ask them out.

I think this was Michael Bay's student film. Too bad I can't find a decent version of the dogfight episode.

 

Mush

Tomorrow is a day I've been dreading for too long now, a day that's been scheduled for some time and has been put off even longer.  It's the day that I pay a visit to an overfriendly oral surgeon who will be performing some rather major and extensive surgery on yours truly.  And for the price of a small car, I'll be rewarded with a lot of pain and several weeks of mushy food.  Those of you who've been reading Syntax of Things long enough know that I'm more afraid of the dentist than I am of death itself, so you won't be surprised to know that all of this is being done under deep sedation.  I know more now than I'll remember later.  But it'll wear off and what I'll wake up to is anybody's guess. 

Anyway, instead of making it up to New York for BEA and all of the festivities this weekend, I'll be recovering, my cocktail a mix of vicodin and sympathy (I hope one of those works).  I'll also be away from the blog for a little while.  Not to worry.  I'm leaving it in the capable hands of Mr. George Kaplan who I think is slowly recovering himself, only his involves a disappointing season from his beloved Carolina Hurricanes. 

I'll see you when the pain wears off.

No Country Clip

I mentioned last week that the Coen brothers' adaptation of McCarthy's No Country for Old Men was getting rave reviews following its showing at Cannes.  Well, here's a clip from the film.  Watch it while you can.

Several more clips can be found here.

Seriously?

Over at the Huffington Post, Erica Jong makes the claim that critics aren't giving women writers a fair shake:

Critics have trouble taking fiction by women seriously unless they represent some distant political struggle or chic ethnicity (Arundhati Roy, Nadine Gordimer and Kiran Desai come to mind). Of course, there are exceptions, like Annie Proulx and Andrea Barrett. But they tend to write about "male" subjects: ships, cowboys, accordions. There's Pat Barker, who gained the most respect when she began to write about war. Margaret Atwood, who is Canadian and therefore gets a longer leash than most North American writers. And Isabel Allende, a wonderful writer, who has become our token South American female.

But deep down, the same old prejudice prevails. War matters; love does not. Women are destined to be undervalued as long as we write about love. To be generous, let's say the prejudice is unconscious. If Jane Austen were writing today, she'd probably meet the same fate and wind up in the chick lit section. Charlotte Brontë would be in romance, along with her sister Emily.

[...]

We may glibly say that love makes our globe spin, but battles make for blockbusters and Pulitzers. When writers like Eugenides write about families and relationships, critics marvel at their capacity for empathy. When a female writer does the same thing, they sigh and roll their eyes. Men aren't penalized for focusing on family and relationship. Rather, we wonder at their empathy because of their gender.

And Jane Smiley responds:

The fact is that women form the biggest audience for serious fiction -- all Americans read fewer books than they once did, but mature men have shown the biggest decline and mature women the smallest decline. Women tend to read all kinds of books and they also tend to write all kinds of books. Alice Hoffman, to mention only one woman I've been thinking of recently, has written three children's books, six young adult novels, and nineteen adult novels, not one of which has a masculine subject. It has always been the case in American literature that women's books sold lots of copies (think of Uncle Tom's Cabin) while men's books were much esteemed (think of Moby Dick). When Edith Wharton drove over to Henry James's place to show off the car she'd bought with the proceeds of her latest novel, James responded by bringing out the wheelbarrow he earned with the proceeds of his. But who is known as "The Master"?

To base one's estimation of the health of the American novel on awards and publicity does all women novelists a disservice. Novels are sometimes acclaimed and sometimes make news, but really novels move through society like a virus -- silently passed from hand to hand, reliant upon word of mouth, proliferating by means of social gatherings (book clubs, say). Their power isn't always evident, but it is there.

I'm going to let the last bit of my reply to Jong speak for itself: Here are a few authors you might try, Erica, not in any particular order: Valerie Martin, Gish Jen, Susan Cheever, Francine Prose, Diane Johnson, Sue Miller, Linda Hogan, Louse Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, Marianne Wiggins, Joy Williams, Ursula K. Leguin, Amy Tan, Joan Didion, Octavia Butler, Ann Beattie, Sandra Cisneros, Jamaica Kincaid, Gail Godwin, Cynthia Ozick, Mary Gaitskill, Susan Richards Shreve, Alice Greenway. And that's only a beginning. If you think we haven't been doing anything, you are wrong wrong wrong.

Here_There

I had no idea but am glad to hear that Andrei Codrescu is shooting a documentary about the Mississippi River:

"Big River Blues" is a travel documentary using the Mississippi itself as "an instrument to gauge where we are now," Codrescu said.

It's intended to echo the work of wide-eyed travelers such as Jack Kerouac and Charles Kuralt, he added.

"I don't see those big cross-country journeys anymore. I see a lot of historical documentaries and CNN stories about disaster, but I don't see a seeker just going to find out what's there in the belief that America's an incredible place."

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I somehow missed the news last week that the University of California, Irvine, has dropped its lawsuit against the family of Jacques Derrida:

The school, where Derrida was a part-time professor until his death, reached an "amicable agreement" with his family to keep a collection of his letters, speeches and academic writings from 1946 to 1998 but relinquished a claim to other papers, the university said in a statement Monday.

The university also agreed to pay about $16,200 of the Derrida family's legal fees.

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A big chunk of some of that recently discovered Steinbeck material, including a handwritten first-draft of a novel called Sweet Thursday, went unsold at auction on Thursday.

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Flannery O'Connor slept here.

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The Independent Florida Alligator has more on the accusations of plagarism surrounding Mark Mitchell, the managing editor of the University of Florida's literary journal, including the withdrawal of Mitchell's book by the University of Indiana Press.

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Speaking of people of questionable honesty, Ron Hogan tracked down the former JT LeRoy, Laura Albert, who is writing the liner notes for the new Smashing Pumpkins album/yawner.  And news came out last week that those of us with copies of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces purchased on or before January 26, 2006, will be able to get a full refund.

Baby Photo Friday: The Return

How Much Is More Than Too Much?

I wish someone would help fashion designers realize that a backpack priced at $1,300 or a sneaker that'll run you almost $300 cannot and should not be associated with a man who was fond of getting his next cigarette out of ashtrays.  Syntax of Things sez this "Jack Kerouac Project" is the height of fashion absurdity, a faux pas if you will, based on the cost alone:

Hogan will unveil its first-ever outerwear piece on Tuesday, when the Tod’s Group-owned brand debuts the Jack Kerouac Project, a capsule collection of six leather goods pieces inspired by the Beat novelist, writer, poet, and artist, which will be available exclusively at Paris retailer Colette for one month. In addition to the $1,590 bomber style jacket, the collection consists of two styles of shoes (a $295 high top sneaker and a $475 working boot) and three bags (a travel bag, book bag, and back pack priced from $950 to $1,290). Colette will celebrate the launch by showcasing a series of photographs influenced by Kerouac’s novel On the Road in its iconic rue Saint-Honoré store windows. Following its debut at Colette, the collection will be available in all Hogan stores worldwide beginning in July.

Brown the Runway

For Elaine.

Oprah & Friend Cormac

Oprah just e-mailed me* to let me know that her interview with Cormac McCarthy will air June 5th.  If ever there were an occasion to save the date of an Oprah episode, it's my opinion that this would be a good one.  Apparently it's already happened as you can see from that tiny photo that she included in her e-mail.  Of course, that could also be Anthony Hopkins.  And maybe he's being interviewed by Oprah's friend Gayle.  We'll know more on June 5th.

By the way, what better occasion to wear your new Maggot Gear! than at the bar while you cheer on Cormac as he spars with Oprah for ruler of the known universe?  You can get your shirts and caps and magnets and steins at the Maggot Gear Store.  Click on the Tote Bag! there to your left.

*Jealous?  Don't be.

Music for Larry

In case you missed the news, Bloodshot Records has released Just A Few More: A Musical Tribute to Larry Brown [ht: Erin].  For those of you with an eMusic subscription, you can grab the album as part of your monthly download allotment.  The rest of you will have to hit up your local record store/online retailer.  In fact, you might want to fork over a few extra bucks for the Bonus Collection.  Here's a description from Bloodshot's website:

In March of 2007, Larry Brown's final book, "A Miracle of Catfish" was published by Algonquin Books. To commemorate the occasion, the University of Mississippi held a symposium the weekend of March 22 in Oxford MS. There were also several concerts, parties, radio shows and free-for-alls that captured the spirit of Larry's writings and his general love of music.

We also put together a special limited edition package of goodies. In addition to the "Just One More " CD, there is a bonus CD with 8 tracks (featuring RB Morris, Kenny Brown, Taylor Grocery Band and some wonderful songs by Larry himself), and a 12 page booklet with photos, remembrances, poems, lyrics to and about Larry and his influence on the musicians involved.

This package is limited to 1000 and more than half disappeared that weekend, so act fast, cuz when they gone, they GONE.

Also available in a few select book stores:
A Cappella Books - Atlanta, GA
Turnrow Books - Greenwood, MS
That Bookstore in Blytheville - Blytheville, AR
Carpe Librum Books - Knoxville, TN
Lemuria Books - Jackson, MS
Windows a bookshop - Monroe, LA
Square Books - Oxford, MS
Regulator Bookshop - Durham, NC
Shaman Drum Bookshop - Ann Arbor, MI
AND ONLINE!

Hheeeh Hhaa He Hhheee

Today is May 24th, also know as International Talk Like Bob Dylan Day.  Also happens to be Mr. Dylan's 66th birthday.  Hhheppy Buurthdey.

Just think, if you're in London, you can walk around the newly opened Dickens World talking like Bob Dylan. Or not.

Slow Down

I'm a little too busy for much of an update today but I wanted to post this video from a very early Replacements show (1981) for someone who really needs some Mats right now.  You know who you are...

Pet Sounds

A new George Saunders story appears in this week's New Yorker. 

Twice already Marie had pointed out the brilliance of the autumnal sun on the perfect field of corn, because the brilliance of the autumnal sun on the perfect field of corn put her in mind of a haunted house—not a haunted house she had ever actually seen but the mythical one that sometimes appeared in her mind (with adjacent graveyard and cat on a fence) whenever she saw the brilliance of the autumnal sun on the perfect etc. etc., and she wanted to make sure that, if the kids had a corresponding mythical haunted house that appeared in their minds whenever they saw the brilliance of the etc. etc., it would come up now, so that they could all experience it together, like friends, like college friends on a road trip, sans pot, ha ha ha!

But no. When she, a third time, said, “Wow, guys, check that out,” Abbie said, “O.K., Mom, we get it, it’s corn,” and Josh said, “Not now, Mom, I’m Leavening my Loaves,” which was fine with her; she had no problem with that, Noble Baker being preferable to Bra Stuffer, the game he’d asked for.

Well, who could say? Maybe they didn’t even have any mythical vignettes in their heads. Or maybe the mythical vignettes they had in their heads were totally different from the ones she had in her head. Which was the beauty of it, because, after all, they were their own little people! You were just a caretaker. They didn’t have to feel what you felt; they just had to be supported in feeling what they felt.

Still, wow, that cornfield was such a classic.

Quote of the Day: Music Edition

Jeff Tweedy's reaction after hearing that Entertainment Weekly called Wilco's new album, Sky Blue Sky, "the best Eagles album the Eagles never put out":

"Those are fighting words."

(T)Here

The Albany Times Union's Paul Grohndahl has written a nice article about native son and recent American Academy of Arts and Letters award winner David Markson:

In 1966, he struck literary gold when he published "The Ballad of Dingus Magee," which sold well and was made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra. The book earned him a six-figure payday.

He's struggled financially ever since. He even sold off a collection of first editions inscribed by literary friends when he was strapped for cash. He is divorced from Elaine Markson, a noted literary agent.

Markson counted among his close buddies Malcolm Lowry, Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac and Kurt Vonnegut -- all deceased. Many of Markson's memories of them involve heavy drinking.

"Kerouac was always drunk. He'd ring my doorbell and crash on the couch in my apartment every time he came through New York," Markson recalled.

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The Coen brothers adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men is getting a lot of praise after its showing at Cannes.

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Guest blogging at Ed's, Erin O'Brien writes about her six-year correspondence with the great Larry Brown.  You should also check out her post about her brother, the novelest John O'Brien.  Great stuff.  Erin's regular blogging can be found here.

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The Contra Costa Time's Randy Myers goes behind the scenes of a Chuck Palahniuk reading and gives us all a little insight into the types of people you might meet if you go to one.  You can see some photos from one of his events and listen to Pahalniuk discuss his own planning for one his readings in the "On a Rant" audio slideshow.

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Levi Asher tips his New York Mets hat to the Sopranos as "one of the most bookish television series ever, which is one of many reasons it will be missed after two more episodes complete the run."  I previously noted the use of a William S. Burrough's voiceover on the show.

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The Mobile Press Register's John Sledge re-examines Brad Vice in light of the re-publication of his controversial collection, The Bear Bryant Funeral Train:

Happily for Vice, he had a big fan in Jim Gilbert, editor at Montgomery's River City Publishing. Almost as soon as Georgia recalled the collection, Gilbert began to study whether he should acquire and republish it. If he did, he would include all the appropriate attributions as well as essays from scholars about the dust-up.

During a recent e-mail interview, Gilbert explained why he wanted to take on Vice's tarnished collection. The decision was, he declared, "Very simple: these are great stories ... in all the hubbub, people seemed to forget how strange and moving and original stories like 'Mojo Farmer' and 'Artifacts' and the title story really are." Gilbert admitted that it didn't look like a bad business decision, either: "As an editor I'm also a capitalist. Here was something notorious and missing from the marketplace."

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Joshua Ferris's debut novel, Then We Came to the End, has been optioned by HBO Films.

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Mick Jagger's ex-wife Jerry Hall plans to debut her "pretty dark" poetry at the Ledbury Poetry Festival in July.

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Wilco's Jeff Tweedy talks to The Independent about the new album and about his lifelong battle with depression:

But, I say to him, you have two kids (Spencer, 11, and Sam 7), you have a gorgeous wife (Sue, who Tweedy met when she was the owner of Lounge Ax, one of Chicago's seminal indie venues in the 1980s and 1990s), you are in, perhaps, the greatest rock band of my lifetime... "Well," he interrupts, "that's one of the diabolical things about depression and any sufferer will tell you that. Intellectually, you can look around and count your blessings, the problem is that you can't make yourself feel any better. Panic disorder makes you feel as if you're being chased by a lion. You know that you're not, but you are still incapable of stopping your body and your emotions from feeling as if they are."

The Store Is Open

Update:  As requested by a certain cross-country traveling maggot, I've added an entire line of women's apparel.  If there's something you want and you don't see it in the catalog, shoot me an email and I'll see what I can do. 

By popular demand, the maggot merchandise is now available for sale.  If you decide to buy something, send me a photo of you wearing it and I'll share it with the world. 

Thanks for your support!

Don't Call Him Japhy

The VC Reporter's Maureen Foley takes a closer look at Gary Snyder:

A friend of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, poet Gary Snyder was immortalized as Japhy Ryder in Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, a story about a group of friends interested in backpacking, women, carousing and Buddhist philosophy. But if you see Snyder at the Ojai Poetry Festival, do not call him “Japhy.”

For the record, Snyder says the character is a fictional creation. He was “modeled on who I was then,” Snyder says, but the stories of Japhy Ryder are not really based in truth. Snyder, who lived with Kerouac, also claims the book is not his friend’s best work. “It was written too hastily,” he says.

The real Gary Snyder, though perhaps less well-known by mainstream America than his fictional counterpart, is a poetic force of nature. According to his Web site at UC Davis, where he taught until recently, Snyder has published 18 books and had his work translated into more than 20 languages. Born in San Francisco and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Snyder’s work is infused with the language of the outdoors. Over the years, his poetry has won him numerous awards, from the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 to the Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1997.

And although Snyder may not be a big fan of Dharma Bums, the book itself does give a generalized (if distorted) overview of the real bard. As in the book, Snyder is interested in Buddhism and is a proponent of environmentalism, and was active in both long before they became hip trends. Snyder acknowledges his early ecological mindset by citing his Four Changes manifesto, which he wrote in 1969. Looking back, Snyder is still amazed by how well the ideas about population, energy, pollution and other ecological issues have held up over time. “My gosh, it could have been written yesterday,” he says.

Skull Crushing?

I hate to see one of the good indies become, well, unindied, but I guess it's bound to happen and no amount of petitioning can keep part of my utopian vision intact.  From Galleycat:

After last week's announcement of the massive restructuring of Perseus - leading in part to layoffs, imprint cancellations and the formation of a new venture by Charlie Winton - now comes a new announcement that Winton, Shoemaker & Co., LLC has acquired Soft Skull Press. This is their third acquisition this year. In February of 2007, they acquired Shoemaker & Hoard from the Avalon Publishing Group, and earlier in May they acquired Counterpoint from The Perseus Books Group.

As with the Counterpoint transaction, the Soft Skull transaction is expected to close in June. As announced last week, when the transactions close the company will be renamed Counterpoint, LLC. Soft Skull will remain as an imprint of Counterpoint. Soft Skull's Publisher Richard Nash will join the company as an Executive Editor and will also maintain the title of Editorial Director of the imprint. Nash will acquire for both the Counterpoint imprint as well as continuing to acquire for the Soft Skull imprint. In the fall 2007 season, titles acquired by Soft Skull will be published under the Soft Skull imprint and will be distributed by PGW. Beginning in winter 2008, all Counterpoint and Soft Skill titles will be distributed by PGW.

We'll have to keep our fingers crossed this one turns out okay.

You Ain't Seen Gloatin' Yet

I had a new idea just now thanks to Shannon Byrne, an Atlanta-based publicist for Little, Brown.  As part of the shrill chorus that's been gathering and whining for weeks over at the Critical Mass blog, she wrote a nice little piece about, you guessed it, bloggers, a favorite subject for too long now on the BLOG of the NBCC.   In her post (on a BLOG), Ms. Byrne acknowledges that we bloggers serve a useful purpose, even if she doesn't quite see the usefulness in the same way that I do.  Here, let me quote her:

Seriously, though, blogs are kind of like parasitic microorganisms which feed off of a primary host. For the sake of this discussion, the host is clearly print media. Some are the good bacteria and some are transient and viral. Or maybe I can upgrade blogs to the status of some sort of interstitial or synovial fluid, buffering the vital organs of the media (newspaper, television, radio, the Internet)? But, c’mon, if newspapers are dying, then blogs are the maggots come to feast upon their corpses.

Now let me ask you, could you imagine a world without maggots?  Think of all the piles of decaying corpses and rotten trash that would sit for days smelling up the very air we breathe, making it difficult to read the newsp--...ah, computer screens in front of us.  Maybe to her, maggots have a negative connotation, but to someone like me who appreciates a tidy planet in which all things run efficiently and in which the dead can be disposed of by creatures who demand no pay and complain very little until the corpses--in this case, "the host"--start calling them dirty names, well, I'm a fan of the maggot. 

So back to my idea.  I'm still looking for a way to make a few extra bucks and my cafepress thing didn't go over so well, so I've come up with this:

Keep in mind, this is just a prototype.  I also have hats and bibs and little rainproof covers for your newsp--...ah, laptops.

Let me know if you're interested.  Remember, these Totebags! really do a good job keeping your petitions organized.  If I can get them manufactured in time, I might send a batch up to New York in time for BEA, where the corpses and maggots will mingle.

For Rent

If by chance you're looking for a place to rent in Lowell, Mass., you might want to give the number in the photo above a call.  Three bedrooms in an upstairs apartment for $1,100 a month ain't too bad.  Plus, you'll be living in the house in which Jack Kerouac was born.

Days

Anniversaries and milestones galore this month.  Here are a few:

On Sunday The Simpsons will turn 400. The Nation evaluates the series and what it has meant to all of us:

Remarkably, after eighteen years, The Simpsons never strays far from a "smartest show on television" discussion. Actually, it never strays too far from much of anything it laid down in Episode 1, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," a Christmas special aired December 17, 1989, which featured the first mainstream animated characters who drank beer to excess, bet the family savings at the dog track and said "damn," "hell" and "ass" like the rest of us (and like their nonanimated TV cousins)....The Simpsons is the Gordie Howe of sitcoms. Creator Matt Groening has watched as knockoffs, heirs apparent both worthy and unworthy and even an entire network devoted to cartoons of the swearing, non-Saturday morning variety, come, struggle for a time and--more often than not--go.

Speaking of 400, Jamestown was founded 400 years ago last Sunday.  I'm currently reading Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe.  Coincidence?   Not so much.  Jamestown is one of the Litblog Co-op's Summer Read This! nominees.  As for the settlement, check out some of this photographic slideshow from National Geographic.

Finally, May 6th was the 70th anniversary of the Hindenburg explosion.  I have really no reason to mention this other than the fact that it allows me to post one of my favorite television moments ever, a monologue (of sorts) inspired by Herbert Morrison's radio coverage of the tragedy.

Ad

The folks at Adweek asked some ad executives which literary figures would make the copywriters.  Here are a few of their responses:

Charles Bukowski. He could be his own focus group on any booze account. —Jonathan Schoenberg, partner, cd, TDA Advertising & Design, Boulder, Colo.

Ernest Hemingway. He could fit more into a short sentence than anyone else—that is the primary element of copywriting. Hemingway could get more action, emotion and description into a sentence without length than any other writer. —Lester Wunderman, founder, chairman emeritus, Wunderman, New York
 
Though we know most famous literary figures tried to write ad copy and failed miserably, some did pretty well. Notably Hemingway, whose terse, vivid prose lent itself well to tiny copy holes under photos of guys smoking cigars and shooting lions. I'd also vote for Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan.) He got everyone buying the idea of an English lord raised by monkeys who travels by vine all over Africa, a place Burroughs had never seen. —Chris Knopf, chairman, ecd, Mintz & Hoke, Avon, Conn.

Ding Dong

Words to remember him by:

"AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."

"Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan in America."

"Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions."

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."

"Homosexuality is Satan's diabolical attack upon the family that will not only have a corrupting influence upon our next generation, but it will also bring down the wrath of God upon America."

"I am such a strong admirer and supporter of George W. Bush that if he suggested eliminating the income tax or doubling it, I would vote yes on first blush."

"I believe that global warming is a myth. And so, therefore, I have no conscience problems at all and I'm going to buy a Suburban next time."

"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."

"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country."

{quotes via}

Here-->There

I've been wondering how the weather in Palm Springs was treating Anne Rice, who, if you remember, couldn't take La Jolla's cold weather after she moved to the California seaside town from New Orleans.  Well, seems she's settling in just fine and just threw a lavish garden-party along with her son Christopher.  Tickets went for $150 a pop and all money raised went to the Lambda Literary Foundation.  Now, suddenly, I fell a little too much like TMZ.  Back to normal programming.

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A writer is asking the public to submit one word and £1 to his "I Want a Word" project.  He's hoping to collect 10,000 words (read: around US$20,000) and then he'll cobble all of these words together along with a few that he'll throw in for free and put them into a book which he will publish and distribute for free.  Generous guy, huh?  You can also send me a dollar and a word and I'll be your friend for a minute for free.

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First they take away the book reviews, next they'll come for the reporting.  Actually, it's a small online community newspaper and they've decided to outsource some reporting to India but that kind of news travels fast in this rather job-sensitive time we live in.  Actually, this comes as absolutely no surprise to someone who worked for a major publishing company that decided to outsource its copyediting and proofreading to the subcontinent.

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Looks like a couple of the editors of the University of Florida's new literary journal, Subtropics, have some 'splainin to do.

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Richard Ford stole Terre Haute; Edmund White is stealing it back.

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The $10,000 Lulu Blooker prize was won by Colby Buzzell for his blog-inspired book My War: Killing Time in Iraq.