Little Toy Robot

I’ve raved about The Stones of Summer, the documentary that chronicles Mark Moskowitz’ search for long-forgotten novelist Dow Mossman. Along the way, he explores how and why meaningful books fade into obscurity and the one-book author phenomenon. The fab Gwenda Bond points out that he has a Web site at lostbooksclub.org and is organizing a contest:

For the next 10 days, starting right now (days do not start at 12:01 am, they start whenever I turn my computer on in the morning or afternoon or whenever), the first ten people replying with their name, address, zip, or whatever shipping address they want (friend’s, mother’s, etc.) will get a complimentary copy of this new lost book shipped to that address, with a bonus goodie.

I entered! Cross your fingers for me, and make sure you check the site every once in a while to see what Mark’s up to.

Well, it looks like a done deal. Instead of planting the flag of Major League Baseball in an emerging market like Portland or San Juan, the Powers That Be have settled upon Washington, D.C. as the future home of the Montreal Expos. This is a city that has already lost a baseball franchise and is only 45 miles away from the Baltimore Orioles, but it’s also the largest DMA without a team.

Montreal fans are going out with a bang: a whopping 4,000 were on hand to witness the first game of the city’s last home series against the Florida Marlins on Monday. The Mounties had to be called in for crowd control as tearful Canadians clutched their Tim Raines bobblehead dolls and cried “sacre bleu!” Eric Gagne shed a tear behind his goggles and told Bud Selig “I fart in your general direction!”

While I’m not usually amused by my hometown rag, I couldn’t resist participating in this poll. I don’t mind exhuming the old name (the Senators), but look at what delightful alternatives you can vote for: Expos, Lewinskis, Gerrymanders, Filibusters, Pols, Beltway Bombers, and Monuments. And yes, Lewinskis is currently in second place in the poll, which of course will have a huge impact on the final decision. Make your voice heard!

The October 1 Kirkus reviews McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, edited by Michael Chabon.

Last year’s McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales proved that you can actually gather a group of fine writers (or Michael Chabon and the cool folks at McSweeney’s can) and get them to turn in a collection of ghost stories, mysteries, and thrillers without the least dash of condescension. This second volume proves no different, with a superb roster of talent and some creepy, inky illustrations from “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola, to boot.

We can look forward to strong stories in this “first-rate collection” by Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Poppy Z. Brite, China Mieville, David Mitchell, and Charles D’Ambrosio. I am disappointed that there will be no continuation of Chabon’s own story from the first volume.

The only other review I’ve come across so far is by Jonathan Strahan, which is much less positive but will not deter me at all from eagerly awaiting the publication date of 11/9.

Finishing Norwegian Wood last night to the tattoo of pounding rain left me with an empty, aching feeling. The book is under 300 pages, which is pretty much what I go through in 48 hours, but I wish I slowed down. Not that I didn’t want to compulsively turn every page. The book is full of contradictions like that: It’s readable and abstract (some attribute this to Murakami’s still developing style), alluring and repulsive, erotic and anticlimactic, life affirming and sad. At its core are two women, both sensual, but one ethereal and the other earthy.

Daniel Handler had an excellent insight in an old Village Voice review:

In Norwegian Wood, Murakami warns us that falling into the arms of a longtime friend is not something you can clearly define as the awakening of a long-dormant passion or the vicarious revisit of lost innocence. An older woman is not necessarily a mother figure, any more than a man dying in the hospital is a fading God, or a new romance a cosmic refutation of a previous one.

I read this book as a prelude to David Mitchell’s Number9Dream, but Mitchell is going to have to wait until I get through The Elephant Vanishes and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Via Pitchfork:

The 10th anniversary rerelease of Pavement’s second album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, will have 37 bonus cuts.

LTR comment: !!!

Trivia: The first Pavement song I fell in love with was “Cut Your Hair.”

Also, the next Flaming Lips album, At War with the Mystics, is currently slated for a Summer ‘05 release.

“We’ve moved away from robot sounds to sounds that are made by robots that come off organic,” said Coyne….

LTR comment: These guys could record an album of kitchen appliance sounds, and I’d buy it.

Trivia: There has been at least one CD worth of B-sides and remixes released since 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot, and I have them all!

Oops, I did it again. I bought too many books this past weekend.

On Friday, killing time between work and a movie, I stopped off at Book Nook and bought Jonathan Lethem’s As She Climbed Across the Table; Angela Carter’s Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories; Dream All Day: the Best of the Posies (to replace a cassette tape copy I have); and the new Elric comic, The Making of a Sorcerer, because Moorcock himself wrote it.

Saturday, Lady Crumpet and I visited the Defoor Centre Book Market and, despite being surrounded by thousands of books, I managed to purchase only a cheap copy of Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading in good shape. (I passed over a signed first edition of Michael Bishop’s classic baseball/Southern gothic horror/Frankenstein sequel Brittle Innings for $35.)

Then on Sunday, between brunch and another movie (”Shaun of the Dead” — I thought it was hilarious), the Scooby Gang and I stopped off at Borders, and I made the one purchase I had actually been intending to make all weekend: Murakami’s Norwegian Wood and David Mitchell’s number9dream (I read thematically). It was a great purchase; I’m very happy with myself. I read 200 pages of the Murakami book on Sunday night and had a dream about it.

There is only one mandatory purchase this week: Brian Wilson’s Smile.

The Wilco Book may be coming out the day before Jeff’s birthday, but the first volume of Bob Dylan’s autobiography is due to be published just in time for mine.

The book is the first in a series of the artist’s self-penned personal histories, with this volume being comprised of first-person narratives focusing on significant periods in Dylan’s life and career.

(OK, fine, the Wilco Book might be better.)

I can’t stomach Dylan these days, but back in high school I though it would be cool to grow a beard and tried to learn the words to every Bob Dylan song I could find. I even read his novel!

The new Augie March album, Strange Bird, is absolutely gorgeous. Transcendent melodies and lush instrumentation. This could be my favorite new music since The Decemberists. Hopefully, the album will do well so more of their stuff will become available in the U.S. You can stream some tunes here; I’d start with “Little Wonder.” [Update: an mp3 of “Song in the Key of Chance” at Filter]

Ex-Beulah frontman Miles Kurowsky is supposedly putting together a solo album. I finally bought a used copy of When Your Heartstrings Break last weekend at the Atlanta Record Show, thereby completing my Beulah collection (I had the songs as mp3s) approximately six weeks after the band broke up!

The new Interpol video is available on MTV. The album comes out next week (Last Plane to Jakarta: 101 THINGS TO WHICH YOU CAN COMPARE INTERPOL BESIDES JOY DIVISION). So does Brian Wilson’s fabled Smile. Both are eagerly awaited, although they promise to have very little in common.

Holy fucking shit, yay!

SON VOLT IN THE STUDIO
Midwest-based Son Volt, with songwriter Jay Farrar at the helm, will begin recording their fourth full length album at the end of September. Following a five-year hiatus, with the exception of the April 2004 recording of “Sometimes” for the Alejandro Escovedo tribute album, multi-instrumentalist Dave Boquist, bassist Jim Boquist and drummer Mike Heidorn will reconvene at Farrar’s St. Louis studio. Speaking about the “Sometimes” session, Farrar says: “It felt like we hit the ground running when we recorded Al’s song for Por Vida. Five years seemed like five days at that point. It proved that more recording and performing as Son Volt is something that should happen.”

As this revered band reconnects, a unique glimpse inside the Son Volt sessions will be offered. Beginning October 1, a webcamera will be placed in the studio to capture a day of pre-production and 16 days of recording. The webcamera can be accessed at www.jayfarrar.net/webcam and will feature streaming photos that refresh every 5 seconds.

Farrar formed Son Volt in 1994 after the dissolution of Uncle Tupelo. With the release of Trace, Straightaways and Wide Swing Tremolo, the band was met with praise by the public and critics alike. From the plain-spoken chorus of “Windfall” to the gritty guitars of “Straightface”, Son Volt has always pushed the boundaries to blend traditional American music forms with poetic imagery and straight-ahead rock.

Son Volt is not currently affiliated with a label and plans to return to the road in early 2005.

Props to this guy for taking the words right out of my mouth.

This is the kind of fun stuff usually found on Tiny Mix Tapes, but this particular playlist is from Rhapsody:

“The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” Charlie Daniels

“To Beat The Devil,” Johnny Cash

“The Devil Gets His Due,” Loretta Lynn

“Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down,” Uncle Tupelo

“What The Devil Wanted,” Whiskeytown

“Christine’s Tune (Devil In Disguise),” The Flying Burrito Brothers

“Friend Of The Devil,” Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen

“The Silver Tongued Devil And I,” Kris Kristofferson

“Pickin’ To Beat The Devil,” Pure Prairie League

“Old Satan,” Nashville Bluegrass Band

“Did You Ever See The Devil, Uncle Joe?,” New Lost City Ramblers

“Satan Is Real,” The Louvin Brothers

“The Devil Comes Back To Georgia,” Mark O’Connor

“Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby,” Emmylou Harris/Alison Krauss/Gilian Welch

“Please Take The Devil Out Of Me,” Caitlin Cary

The Booker shortlist has been announced:

• Achmat Dangor: Bitter Fruit
• Sarah Hall: The Electric Michelangelo
• Alan Hollinghurst: The Line of Beauty
• David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
• Colm Tóibín: The Master
• Gerard Woodward: I’ll go to Bed at Noon

I’ve only read Cloud Atlas, but I loved it and think it should win. Those of you who have read it know that six is a significant number in the book…

Surprisingly, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell didn’t make it past the longlist. But I’m sure we’ll see it on shortlists to come, not the least of which will be the 2005 World Fantasy Award next October.

Hey, check out the Interstitial Library. From the FAQ:

What is the Interstitial Library?

The Interstitial Library is that infinite collection of books–obscure, lost, or not yet written–that belong in the spaces between the books on a library shelf.

Where is the Interstitial Library? Can I visit it?

The Interstitial Library is located in the Interstitial States–labyrinthine passages outside ordinary space-time. Visitors are welcome.

How do I get to it?

Generally, by sliding between two books on your bookshelf, or by correctly pronouncing the word “hh.”

It looks like another artistic project by Shelley Jackson, who has given us the tattoo story but also the extremely wonderful short story “Angel” in Trampoline.

[via Bond Girl]

Check out chromewaves.net for an mp3 of Drive-By Truckers covering Outkast’s “Hey Ya.” I know many people (especially in Outkast’s hometown of Atlanta) are sick to death of the song, but it’s great hearing it covered by our neighbors in Alabama.

(Remember when British pop band Travis did an acoustic cover of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time”? — also great fun!)

The Truckers are hot now (well, at least in the South). I’ve heard that one of their songs off their new album is being bundled with new Dell computers, and the band will be on Conan tonight.

In a very strange and satisfying confluence of some of my favorite things, I have just discovered that Jay Ryan, who has done artwork for The Flaming Lips, Sebadoh, and others, is illustrating Michael Chabon’s new Holmesian novella, The Final Solution.

I mean, have you seen this thing? Who the hell wants to be on the road around this? I’m not so much worried about getting down to Florida; I’m just worried that I won’t be able to get back. I’m still taking some time off work, but the trip is being rescheduled to October. In the meantime, I have two words for my Atlanta friends: HURRICANE PARTY!