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Truer Words

6 Comments / Uncategorized / By Gwenda / January 22, 2006

A quote from John Gregory Dunne by way of a Jonathan Yardley essay about Dunne (the whole thing is worth reading):

"Because one has written other books does not mean the next becomes any easier. Each book in fact is a tabula rasa; from book to book I seem to forget how to get characters in and out of rooms — a far more difficult task than the non-writer might think. Still I went to my office every day. That is the difference between the professional and the amateur. The professional guts a book through this period, in full knowledge that what he is doing is not very good. Not to work is to exhibit a failure of nerve, and a failure of nerve is the best definition I know for writer’s block."

(BookWorld is actually stuffed with good pieces this week — Dirda on Conan, John Crowley on a new bio of Robert Louis Stephenson, etc. Plus, there’s the Style pageant piece.)

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Totenberg v. Colbert

TV Goodness / By Gwenda / January 21, 2006

You must watch Nina Totenberg’s interview with Stephen Colbert. She OWNS him by the end. She’s even better than you thought she was from her Supreme Court reporting. Best interview ever.

You can download it here, at least for now, on the Colbert Report site.

Very happy.

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Saturday Hangovers

1 Comment / Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 21, 2006

Carl Zimmer on new research into the effects of toxoplasma (which will be familiar to anyone who has read Peeps) on humans: There’s plenty left to do to turn these results into a full-blown explanation of parasites and personalities. For example, what is Toxoplasma releasing into brains to manipulate its hosts? And how does that substance give rise to schizophrenia in some humans? And even if the hypothesis does hold up, it would only account for some cases of schizophrenia, while the cause of others would remain undiscovered. But still…the idea that parasites are tinkering with humanity’s personality–perhaps even giving rise to cultural diversity–is taking over my head like a bad case of Toxoplasma.
The Watcher has a ton of Veronica Mars scoop (there’s forewarning of spoilers) straight from Rob Thomas. And FINALLY we get a new episode next Wednesday, which makes me superhappy.
Stephen King ringtones. (Via Conversational Reading.)
Excellent DFW account at Counterbalance.
Cynsations has an interview with the fabulous Miss Cecil Castellucci about her fabulous forthcoming book The Queen of Cool (about which I will say more very soon): So this was like January 2004. I had met Aimee Bender, who is a fabulous L.A. author, at a literary speakeasy. When I told her that I had sold my first novel, she said "Write your second one before your first one comes out." I was like, "Why?" and she was like, "Because that way you won’t freak out." She’s kind of an L.A. literary Goddess, so naturally, I trusted her, and I just got to work.
Alan posts an amazing poem by Joan Murray and points to more. He also tries to prevent his lovely wife from telling the truth about his weird habits. (C’mon, DeNiro, let your freak flag fly.)
Chris McLaren has a lot of cool stuff on his walls.
William Shatner sold one of his kidney stones. (Via Paul Collins.)
Justine on Samuel Delany’s new book About Writing. WANT. (I, of course, recommend The Green Bible.)
Furries love Hal Duncan.
Style goddess Lauren Cerand suggests that the ladies of the red carpet get some more adventurous taste and reveals that there’s been a huge hubbub over Reese Witherspoon’s uniboob-making frock from the Golden Globes, which was first worn by Kirsten Dunst to the same event.
1UP.com had kids play classic video games (such as my favorite Adventure) and recorded their responses. Hilarity ensues. (Via the Sleep Deprivation Institute.)
Happy Saturday — despite still being sniffly and exhausted, I’m planning to pretend to be human again today and ride my bike for a bit and try to write something. You have a human day too.

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And the nominees are…

4 Comments / LitBlog Co-Op / By Gwenda / January 19, 2006

The rest of the LBC winter nominees have now been revealed — including my tie for favorite, Rupert Thomson’s Divided Kingdom, which the lovely BookDwarf posts about very nicely at that link.

Exciting developments are in the works starting next week.

And the nominees are… Read More »

Um.

Memes Upon Memes / By Gwenda / January 19, 2006

Slightly horrifying results (poor wooden Ione), but still amusement to be had:

Congratulations! You are a BRAINY BEAUTY.

The 80s teen film heroine you are most like is IONE SKYE from SAY ANYTHING. Your good grades and preppie style make you the classic overachiever. Still, you long to shed your good-girl image and have some fun, but are afraid of what everyone will think. May we suggest you find a kick-boxing iconoclast along the lines of JOHN CUSACK’s Lloyd Dobbler to show you that can make straight As and still have time for making out?

Um. Read More »

Thursday Hangovers

4 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 19, 2006

New Yorker piece on Battlestar Gallactica. (Via Niall Harrison.)
Do you have a place that feels like home?
Christopher got a new computer and, more importantly, sold "Another Word for Map is Faith" to F&SF. Yay!
Sarah on Leif Garrett’s embarrassing drug arrest. (A subway ticket?)
Excellent stunt casting on Veronica Mars — Maeby and George Michael!
Maud Newton has written an article on Mark Twain for The American Prospect. Must purchase.
Librarian Nancy loves Maureen McHugh. (Via Ed, who has some complaints about the framing of the rec.)
Holly Black sez smart things on critiquing and helping takes things to the next level.
Erin’s hot dog penguin slicer. (KDL, you must see.) (Scroll down.)

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Tagged

3 Comments / Memes Upon Memes / By Gwenda / January 18, 2006

Weirdness and movies, behind the cut.

…

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Pretty Pretty

5 Comments / Effing Genius / By Gwenda / January 18, 2006

So Gavin pointed me in the direction of these beautiful photos by Christa Parravani. Some of them (including the photo of Mabel Osborne at left) will be in a hopefully book-length series of Spoon River photos. Just as delightful as the photo browsing is the assertion that the photographer is often mistaken for Louise Brooks — judge for yourself.

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GilmoreGossipCircle

7 Comments / TV Goodness / By Gwenda / January 17, 2006

And tonight’s ep is:

Just Like Gwen and Gavin. Knowing he has let too much time go by, Luke (Scott Patterson) is still unable to tell Lorelai (Lauren Graham) about the existence of his 12-year-old daughter, April (Vanessa Marano), and he is thrown into a panic when April wants to hang out with him at the diner. When April and Lorelai both show up at the diner and begin chatting, April innocently explains that Luke is her father. Lorelai tries to be supportive, even offering to postpone the wedding date, but Luke’s reaction to this idea leaves her confused and hurt. Back at Yale, Logan (Matt Czuchry) takes unusual steps to win Rory (Alexis Bledel) back, and the newspaper staff rebels against Paris’ (Liza Weil) reign of terror at the Yale Daily News. Meanwhile, Stars Hollow holds its annual Winter Carnival, and Lorelai and Rory run a booth featuring their dog, Paul Anka, as a fortune teller. Sherilyn Fenn guest stars as Ana Nardini. Keiko Agena, Liz Torres and Sean Gunn also star.The episode was written by Daniel Palladino and directed by Stephen Clancy.

Great. A Daniel Palladino episode. (Also, didn’t he used to hyphenate like ASP?)

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Read This Too

LitBlog Co-Op / By Gwenda / January 17, 2006

And the second nominee is announced. I really, really dug this one. I think more than many. Weather = Good.

(More discussion to come during discussion week.)

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