January 18, 2009
Short Takes
A very lovely video: “To the End of a Pencil.” (via Swissmiss) Apparently all that writing qualifies as thinking green. The NamelessleTTer Project is a project to leave a funny […]
December 23, 2008
Literature vs. Literary Studies
The state of English departments has been on my mind of late. So I’m interested that the new issue of Chronicle Review devotes three long articles to the topic “What […]
December 22, 2008
Cynosure: Poetry and World
7. Sprung Vision; Or, Who is Duane and Why Do I Have His Syndrome? Perfect 20/20 vision will not be enough to pass an eye test given to military pilots. […]
December 16, 2008
Reading and the Screen
Interesting op ed blog in The New York Times today, “Reader Beware,” that expounds on the perils of reading on the electronic screen, from the Kindle to the desktop. It […]
December 2, 2008
Kindle Confessions
For the last five years or so I’ve been predicting in print and elsewhere that electronic books would soon appear and play an increasingly important role on the publishing landscape. […]
November 24, 2008
What’s behind “a new rendering”?
Yes, you know already: Peter Matthiessen has won the National Book Award in fiction for Shadow Country, a recasting of his earlier triology about the Watsons in Florida. Some ruffled […]
November 17, 2008
Requiem for Harry Jones
Some of my favorite characters are flat. Not flat in a bad way, and not bad in a good way. They are characterized as they need to be, as is […]
September 29, 2008
An Evening’s Entertainment
I’m a pretty classy guy. I go out of my way to assist the elderly. I speak encouraging words to children. I dress nice and hold doors. I speak with […]
September 24, 2008
Print Or Online: Which Is More Selfish?
An endless and sometimes fatiguing debate persists in many circles about the future of printed media. From what I gather, tensions in this debate tend to fall along these lines: […]
September 23, 2008
Fare forward
Kudos to Wave Books for turning our ears out of the lipstick/pig thicket and into some poems. Over at Poetrypolitic.com, Brandon Shimoda and the Wave citizens are posting a political […]
September 19, 2008
Jono Tosch’s Oil Changes
Poet Jono Tosch would be ideally suited to author a blog dedicated to oil changes, but such a project would suffer from infrequent updates–one post every three months, if Jiffy […]
September 3, 2008
Incognito Lounge
I flew to Los Angeles this week and back on Virgin America. The rules for Virgin America are the same as a dive bar: 1) daylight is toxic 2) become your atmosphere 3) repeat 1 & 2