As I try and barrel through Infinite Jest this summer, I thought this was a great piece about a movie adaptation about another of David Foster Wallace’s books, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. I had heard The Office’s John Krasinski was (passionately) writing it, but I had no idea he’d be directing as well. Nor that he had DFW’s explicit blessing. Interesting!
and I like it. (via)
Perhaps, belatedly, here’s an audio interview with Jeff Tweedy, about ”the new record and the controversy surrounding the band’s past relationship with recently-deceased former member, Jay Bennett.” Tweedy also addresses the whole “that song sounds like George Harrison” thing. Because you know, I know it was keeping you up at night.
An illustrated chart that gets the imagination rolling – “If extraterrestrial civilizations are monitoring our TV broadcasts, then this is what hey are currently watching.” Fascinating. I wonder how much the signal really does break up. Surely so much so that it is not much more than static by the time it gets anywhere… or maybe not?
While I spin “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” one more time and remember the halcyon playground days listening to “Thriller” on a big ass boombox, you should check out io9’s roundup of some of the King of Pop’s more sci-fi/fantastical contributions, including the (sadly) oft overlooked Captain Eo. Or perhaps the life of MJ as comic book collector and almost-owner of Marvel Comics.
The big news in the Sci-fi publishing world this week is British Author Alastair Reynolds and his £1m contract to produce 10 novels in the next ten years. It’s great to see a publisher get behind a Science Fiction talent and foster their growth. This superstar treatment is rare, I think, outside of the mainstream media. Of course, mainstream media is looking pretty sci-fi these days…
Mr. Reynolds has a great interview up at the Guardian, with some fresh thoughts on writing a science fiction narrative:
If you want the texture of an invented future to feel real, it must have some weirdness in it, he argues, because the future “isn’t going to look like Star Wars, even if you’re in the middle of an intergalactic space war”. For Reynolds, the most telling moments in science fiction aren’t the massive set pieces, the big, epic reveals, they’re the quieter, subtler moments that offer a totally new perspective. He was careful, for example, never to describe the vast, interstellar spacecraft which drives the plot of Revelation Space from the outside, offering only glimpses from odd angles, or close-ups of particular sections, just as in a modern airport a passenger can board an aircraft, cross a continent and disembark without any clear idea of the machine that has carried them on their journey.
Alastair Reynolds has been on my ever-increasing to-read list for some time (particularly Revelation Space). With this, he’s moving up towards the top of the list…
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Chicago soul band JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound somehow manage to take the noise-folk Wilco song “I am Trying to Break Your Heart” and turn it into a Otis Redding/Sam Cooke uptempo soul song. And it’s awesome.
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This is fantastic. I’ve never before seen anything I would describe as a digital cinema collage version of Heironymus Bosch. Until now. (via goldenfiddlr)
A new element called Ununbium is about to be added to the periodic table.
I’m seeing Wilco in concert tonight here in Cincy, and while their new album is, as expected, quite good, I do feel as though they’re coasting on this one. It’s their fault I feel this way, of course – Wilco is a band that regularly reinvents itself and often skirts expectations and comes out with an album out of left field. Yet not this time. Sure, “Wilco (the song)” is rifftastic and cheeky, “Bull Black Nova” is fierce and sharp and “You and I” is delicately lovely. But you’ve got a band of virtuosos, and a avant-guitar genius in Nels Cline… I’m waiting for you to again stretch your wings a bit, Wilco. I can find comfort knowing that tonight’s show is going to be more spontaneous and eclectic than their latest release – Wilco always puts on a hell of a live show.
It’s actually the album from a Wilco side project (of which there are many to choose from) that has me more excited at the moment. Mikael Jourgenson, Wilco’s keyboardist and laptop slinger, has his own band: Pronto. Pronto’s All is Golden is a crafty, poppy, charming and somewhat oddball record that delivers a bunch a tunes that sound fresh and derivative at the same time. It’s got a definite seventies vibe, which I like. A “classic pop rock” sort of sound (whatever that is). This surprising to me, coming from a SOMA studios founder and Wilco keyboardist – I guess I assumed he would be a tad less traditional. The surprise is a pleasant one though. As it is, I find All is Golden on heavy, heavy repeat. Check out this mp3 download of “When I’m on the Rocks” and you’ll see why.
Haruki Murakami’s (one of my favorite authors) next novel is called 1Q84 and it is shrouded in mystery. Granted, a Murakami novel is by definition shrouded in mystery, but the lack of press and early information has created a special interest in the book. One clue, perhaps:
Critics are wondering if the title, translated as 1984 because the “Q” in Japanese has the same sound as “nine,” is a reference to George Orwell’s classic.
The blokes in Gomez (that’s Gomez The Band, if you aren’t familiar) passed away the lazy hours on a tour bus by recording a mini album entirely produced on their iPhones. Don’t go expecting Gomez rockers here, this is some chill ambient stuff. Cool of them to do it, and even of cooler of them to share.
I’m looking forward to seeing Gomez tonight at the Madison Theatre in Covington!
Great storytelling photography with a sophisticated eye.
I know this has made the rounds lately (especially on Twitter) but I wanted to make it public record that I am participating in Infinite Summer (because maybe if I make it public record it will increase my chances of actually finishing the book). I am super-intrigued by David Foster Wallace (RIP) and his Infinite Jest.
I also plan to check out This is Water, the increasingly-famous Kenyon College commencement address he gave on the subject of “how does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously?”
NASA gets serious – and creative – with space farming technology research. I think “growing your own” out in space will be necessity for our spacefaring next generations.
I’ve been a big fan of illustrator Tom Gauld for some time, one of only a handfull of working artists that I would love to have an original of hanging in my home. His work is minimalist, well-designed, sharp and wry. If you have not seen his work on his own site, check out the weekly comics work he does for the Guardian. This flickr collection was new to me.
I’m excited that there is a 10-part television series being produced about Michio Kaku’s awesome Physics of the Impossible!
I remember during the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot days, Wilco was occasionally (and erroneously, I thought) called “the American Radiohead.” Almost a decade later, it comes full circle with Tweedy ding this surprise cover. [thanks, Paco!]
Been rockin’ out to (an advance release of) Dan Auerbach’s new one, Keep it Hid. He takes the blue of the Black Keys and adds some 60’s rock and soul influences. The result is the best pure rock record in recent memory.
A nice essay from the New York Times that echoes many of my own thoughts.
To be honest, the restoration of science was the least of it, but when Barack Obama proclaimed during his Inaugural Address that he would “restore science to its rightful place,” you could feel a dark cloud lifting like a sigh from the shoulders of the scientific community in this country.
A handy reference for fans and nay-sayers alike.
When it is all said and done, I believe we’ll look back and realize LOST has had the most creative and ambitious plot in television history. I can’t wait for this week’s Season 5 premiere. Check out this great Q&A with LOST’s producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.
