Hangovers

• DeNiro unplugged, er, interviewed. (Via Matt Cheney.)
• Roger Ebert wants you to go see Al Gore’s global warming movie. He’s convinced me.
• Everything you wanted to know about 6-6-06.
• Cartoon Network bringing the reruns of PeeWee’s Playhouse.
• Bring out your (best) dead (face) for Jeff VanderMeer’s Shriek movie.
• Margo Lanagan’s guest blogging at Inside a Dog.
• Teen repeller.

• Stop by supercouple Alan DeNiro and Kristin Livdahl‘s new blog on all things pet-related, 1 Tough Puppy, where the costs of pet ownership are currently under discussion.
• Evil Editor. (Via Holly Black.)
• New horror column debuts in the NYT (haven’t had a chance to read this yet). Some related commentary at Contemporary Nomad by John Nadler.
• A new edition of Scott Esposito’s The Quarterly Conversation is out.
• Russian kittens. (Via Literaticat.)
• I was actually pretty surprised at the breadth of blog reaction to the top 25 novels included in the NYT round-up of same.
• Jeff VanderMeer posts some excellent thoughts on the importance of having/giving yourself permission to fail (jumping off Kelly’s risky proposal): I would have said to those high school students: Whatever you do from now on, don’t feel that it has to always be successful. To be successful, to be as good as you can possibly be in whatever field you choose, you need to have permission to fail.
• Hal Duncan on cultural appropriation: Don’t get me wrong; writing the Other has it’s own set of issues. I just can’t see what it has to do with "cultural appropriation". A fictive representation of a culture is not that culture itself. Having a painting which contains an image of a "dreamcatcher" on your wall is not the same as hanging some New Age trinket of string and feathers, made by and for white middle-class hippies, over your bed. Writing a 5-page scene in a novel which portrays a voudon ritual is not the same thing as setting yourself up as a practicing "babaloa" in Bognor Regis. Representation is not appropriation. The map is not the territory. And there’s lots more where that came from. Also, "Dionysus Knows No Nations" would make a great T-shirt.
• MP3s of Tolkien singing and reading from TLOTR. (Via Need Coffee.)
• Book Nerd with her long-promised post on the future of bookselling.
• Finally, I’d be less than delighted if my own neighborhood had been invaded by Paris Hilton. But Caitlin shouting, "I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees!" at Paris and Nicole makes me pretty freaking happy. Just on general principle.

• Jenny Davidson posts news of great joy, that her book Dynamite No. 1 will be published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2008, with a sequel to follow. Honestly, I can’t WAIT to read these.
• Tim Pratt posts his own fantabulous news of great joy, a two book deal with Bantam Spectra (& the kick-ass Juliet Ulman to edit) kicking off a new series. Congratulations!
• Remember the principal in The Breakfast Club (of course you do)? Jeff Bryant has uncovered an interesting connection between the actor who played him and Jack Kerouac.
• Mr. McLaren has all the hot Canadian comics news.
• Matt Cheney sexes things up.
• The brilliant Liza Palmer on the X-Men movie and more important matters of art and commerce (a must-read post, promise). A snippet: It’s funny – I know which company my book, and genre, would be in. I know that I would be chilling in some hypothetical, yet far less money making, room with X-Men and all those other more commercial works – the Wes Andersons and the Charlie Kaufmans would think me too fluffy for their room – which I imagine looks like the Gryffindor Common Room.
• Army report on ESP in pets. (Via #1HS.)
• Excellent advice from Le Lioness Link about taking risks in your writing, not just being competent, over at Charles Coleman Finley’s blog.
• Pinky points out the beauty in JT Leroy’s blog still clinging to life.
• Battlestar Gallactica next season stuff.
• Mysterious red rainstorms. (Via Caitlin.)
• High-larious writing prompt-related, 1,000-words-or-less short story competition at McSweeney’s.
• Kids interview their favorite writers at the Guardian. The results: you will die from cute. Plus, we all love the readery kids best.

• Anybody know anything about these Scott Lynch books? I’m intrigued, but can’t tell if they’re my sort of thing.
• E Lockhart’s newest, Fly on the Wall, which is on my TBR list, gets a rave review from John Green (whose amazing An Abundance of Katherines I’ll say more on shortly and who’s lucky he recently rescinded some things he’s said about Kentucky).
• Bookdwarf recommends Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black.
• Bob Barker conspiracies at Ed’s, apropos of a certain conversation over the weekend.
• Pictures of a raccoon lugging her baby around by the scruff of the neck. So cute. See explanation at Reb Livingston’s Home-Schooled by a Cackling Jackal.
• Lauren has an interview with a woman who met her husband at Match.com, in conjunction with her new short story on Salon.
• Color me jealous of Literaticat, who has a copy of David Levithan’s Wide Awake and is talking all about it. Holly mentioned it to me over the weekend and I now want to read it desperately. Something to look forward to. (And the very existence of which makes me far less nervous about the politics in Aztec Dance Tunes.)
• The Written Nerd rounds up some articles and discussion of the state of indie bookselling.
• The Spring 2006 issue of the Journal of Mythic Arts is up and out, featuring a new Alan DeNiro short story "Meet the Elms" and a new Karen Joy Fowler story "Familiar Birds." Not to mention essays by Hal Duncan, Jane Yolen and Terri Windling. In other words, what are you still doing here? Don’t forget to admire the loveliness of the site design.

• Booklist gives Feeling Very Strange: The New Slipstream Anthology, edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, a starred review. This looks entirely fabulous (figuratively speaking) and if there’s two guys I’d trust to pick good stories, these are the ones. Can’t wait to snag a copy. (Via Jeff Ford.)
• Matt Cheney posts some excerpts from Gilbert Sorrentino’s work. I can’t think of a better way to remember such a fine writer.
• Agent Kristin Nelson (re)posts the top 10 things she’d rather not see in opening chapters of SF submissions.
• Sara Gran has smart things to say about the fallacy that the publishing industry is all cutthroat competition and heartless climbers unwilling to take chances on writers.
• Tom Bissell’s The Father of All Things. Worth reading. (Via Maud.)
• Jennifer Nix weighs in on how the Web should circumvent publishing’s gatekeepers, jumping off a frustrating panel at BEA. (Also via Maud.)
• Matt Ruff has posted thoughts about the Tiptree winner, short and longlist. Especially interesting, his dissenting voice on the inclusion of the "venom cock book" and his pointers to the uproar over Arcana, the piece of fanfiction that made the list (you can find his own dismayed reaction here). (Via Sarah Monette.)

• Am slightly panicked having just realized that it’s T minus not very long until we have to be packed and ready to go for Wiscon (arriving late Thursday, more on that later). The laundry must be done (and the desmoking of last weekend’s jackets), the house must be cleaned, the dog and cat must be cuddled, etc. Oh yeah, and there’s deciding what the hell to read.
• It’s Yannick Murphy Week over at the LBC where discussion is flying back and forth about one of my most favorite books this time, one Here They Come. Do check it out. I’m tardy to the discussion but will be over there directly.
• The lovely Kassia of Booksquare has a most brilliant post on whether authors should attend BEA. Join me in envying her smarts.
• An interview with Lynda Barry (audio). (Via Austin Kleon.)
• Lauren Cerand (the one, the only) has a piece up at Moleskinerie (how did I miss this booth?). All I got was a few of those great Chronicle Books notepads.
• Aussie-focused litblog Matilda has a great round-up of the reaction to the brilliant Sonya Hartnett’s unmasking as the author of a new erotic novel, which um, doesn’t sound all that great.
• Maud Newton’s drool-worthy interview with Rupert Thomson.

• Erin Keane has a spiffy new Web site wherein you can find ordering info for her rock & roll-themed poetry chapbook, One Hit Wonders, and the goods on all the other million pies she has her fingers in. (Get your mind out of the gutter.) There’s excerpts, including Christopher’s favorite "The Secondhand Record Store Clerk."
• Mr. McLaren points to an excellent page of necessary vocabulary from other languages.
• I want this perfume.
• Finally, come to our party:

• John Green delivers an excellent review of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief in the NYT, which pretty well captures exactly how I felt about it. And it’s a beautifully written review too. I wish more reviews were as thoughtful about how a book interfaces with the writer’s work that came before.
• Glen Hirshberg’s World Horror Convention post cracks me up in parts (and is also an excellent encapsulation of why conventions can be very good things for writers): By Friday afternoon, twelve hours after my arrival, I’d learned once and for all that vampire poets do age, many of them gracefully, and that their joy in gross-out contests and amateur film premiers is genuine and generous. I’d seen the Dark Scotsman: black kilt, black tartan, red hair, burr that could cut chainmail. He was new.
• Megan at Bookdwarf asks for some opinions on this Slate article which basically says shopping at independent bookstores is for poseurs and hipsters. People, what is with the indie bashing? I don’t get it. Why is this fashionable to criticize? If every local coffee shop and arthouse movie theater in America was in danger of closing, I doubt the reaction would be to praise the chain competitors that are exacerbating the situation and criticize the local establishments. (And no, I do not think that chains are inherently EVIL; I think they are inherently impersonal and therefore unable to deliver certain things that are important to me. But yes, they are useful and have their place too.) Anyway, drop by at Megan’s and say your piece.
• Re: the whole discussion about music, race and dismissal last week, Ben Bova thinks kids today are killing the symphony with their craptastic musical taste. It’s, er, interesting to see someone embracing such a classic geezer stereotype as "kids these days." One of our good friends conducts the local youth symphony; I’m guessing as long as such institutions exist, some kids will be exposed to classical music. I’ll have to ask him if he thinks the symphonic scene will be dead in a generation. Somehow, I find it doubtful he’ll say yes. My own theory is that as long as there are really wealthy people, there will be symphonies. Not that symphonies are only for the wealthy, but let’s face it, they write the checks. (Via Scalzi.)

• Cassie Clare went to see the Lestat musical and shares Anne Rice’s bio from the program: The bio of an artist such as Anne Rice (b. 1941) can only be truly understood in the context of the author’s personal testimony—her vast body of work. Each beloved character iridescently animated and virtually manifested before our eyes witnesses their creator’s experience in triumph and in sorrow and in searching for some semblance of Happy Peace. From the pangs of Louis’ utter solitude to Claudia’s untimely demise to Lestat’s wickedly bedazzling smile, the author’s life permeates each page with such ardor one could only blush at being so exposed. But Anne Rice gives herself— her life in full—as a gift to the world in every spellbinding chapter, every carefully turned page, every meaningful word. Mere footprints of a life lived in art. A native of New Orleans now residing in La Jolla, CA, and author of 27 books, which include The Vampire Chronicles, The Witching Hour, Cry to Heaven and Violin, Rice’s latest novel, Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt, is the beginning of her literary contribution to Christian Art. Anne is grateful that these Broadway Giants have adapted her creative endeavor in such a mesmerizing and captivating musical. This adaptation stands alone as a genuine masterpiece!
• Liza Palmer recommends the British TV show Green Wing.
• Commentary has a wonderful piece on Houdini. (Via Theresa Duncan.)
• An excellent post on the fluid relationship of research and story, especially on television, by one of the writers on House. (And I forgot where I saw this. Sorry!)
• Mark Twain’s Hawaii. (I highly recommend all Twain’s Hawaii writings; great fun.)
• Paul Di Filippo reviews several YA fantasies in the WaPo, including raves for Justine’s Magic Lessons and Scott’s Blue Noon. There’s other children’s book-related stuff too. And there’s a fascinating plagiarism anecdote involving The New Yorker in this column (scroll down).
   

• Apologies if I have rudely not responded to your email yet. It’s a large club.
• The cinetrix runs a great exchange from film columnist Alan Smithee about which movie adaptations are better than the books they’re based on.
• Dave Schwartz on Scandanavian writer Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.
• The Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site.
• The Slate article about bizarre theorizing that Stephin Merritt is a racist is, well, bizarre. A bit of a misanthrope*? Maybe. (And apparently with good reason.) A racist? Seems like a Plastic Man-caliber stretch. (Via Ed.)
• Birnbaum v. David Mitchell.
• Disney and the Erotic Art of Dying by Benjamin Buchholz at Identity Theory. (Via Theresa Duncan.)
• A story on Carol Emswhiller’s Nebula win, featuring some charming quotes. (Via its generator, the Slush God himself.)
• Finally, best news of all: Scott has made the NYT bestseller list for chapter books with the final book in the kick-ass Uglies trilogy, Specials. Let there be great rejoicing. And reading!

*Who knew there was a French Extreme Metal band inspired by Moliere?