Ah

Somehow discovered Bradford Cox's (Deerhunter) Micromixes (all 22 of them) and so have been making my way through those. So far, they're excellent (22-17). I am now in love with the Fleetwoods. Am awaiting the future triumphs of the Phillies over the much-despised Yankees.

Reading Richard Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. This book has been responsible for my last two (of three) headaches, though I've actually enjoyed reading it.

Read, Eat, Write

Taking notes and listening to Bill May's self-titled album (1970). The orchestration sounds a bit like Scott Walker's, though it's not nearly as strange. Still, there's drama drama drama.

Watched Oldboy. Not sure what I think about it. Read Manohla Dargis's review, which is particularly scathing, and while I'm not sure that OB is a totem par examplar of cultural emptiness and pulp style, I'm not sure that I enjoyed it all that much. Tough film to like, like most Tartan releases.

Got the galleys for a forthcoming story in Witness, which is exciting. Can't wait until December.

Read two fantastic articles:

1. Padgett Powell in New York Times Magazine

2. Brock Clarke on the recent John Cheever biography and why it doesn't matter in the slightest.

Winter boots are here (picture soon?). Have sno sealed them. Now just waiting for winter.

Read, Eat, Sleep

Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic

Student Essays+

Been watching Wire in the Blood, a BBC crime drama about a somewhat antisocial psychologist who happens to work almost full-time helping local Bradfield police solve a somewhat perplexing amount of serial killer cases (one per episode). Cliche topics so far: voodoo, cross dressing, s&m, multiple personality, etc. Not the best show, but it's leaps and bounds better than Criminal Minds.

Notes +

Taking notes from David Harvey's excellent book The Condition of Postmodernity.

Read the latest Paris Review interview with James Ellroy of L.A. Confidential fame. Kind of awesome and nauseating at the same time.

Listening to Blind Willie Johnson. Waiting for my winter boots to come in the mail.

Listening + Reading, pt. 2

Girls, Album
Johnny Hartman, I Just Dropped by to Say Hello
Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
Atlas Sound, Sheila (single)
King Sunny Ade, Juju Music
Cass McCombs, Catacombs

Charles Jencks, ed., The Postmodern Reader (Huyssen, Hutcheon, Harvey)
This months 1000 word stories for the Sinkhole story group

Saw Doubt recently (film) and thought it was quite good. Same with I've Loved You So Long. Tried to watch My Beautiful Laundrette (Daniel Day Lewis) and got through it by not paying much attention.

Also trying to revise+write a few newer things . . .

Listening + Reading

Count Bass D (Dwight Spitz)
Jorge Ben (Forca Bruta)
M83 (Saturdays = Youth)
Marissa Nadler, Songs III
Sunburned Hand of the Man, Double Puberty cdr

Charles Lemert, Postmodernism is not what you think
Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood
Charles Jenks, ed., The Postmodern Reader
Wallace Stevens, Harmonium

Alabama