1. As promised, I went to see Augusten Burroughs and John Elder Robison, who read from Look Me In The Eye. The elder Burroughs/Robison brother has a good sense of humor and an appealing lack of self-consciousness on stage. He’s almost as big a ham as Augusten, in fact, and that’s a good thing. I recommend this book to anybody who enjoyed Running With Scissors and also to anybody interested in learning more about Asperger’s syndrome.

2. Blogger Marlon James says “My seer/creepy dreadlocked guy quotient increased dramatically last year when I predicted that Orham Pamuk would win the Nobel Prize” [via Maud]. Dude, relax. I picked Pamuk too, rather smoothly I may add, but I don’t think that makes me suddenly Nostradamus. For the record, I’m picking New Jersey’s own Philip Roth for this year’s Nobel Prize, just because I’m getting this vibe about it. And I’m expecting to see the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

3. What? The Plastic People of the Universe are going to be playing Joe’s Pub in Greenwich Village? Now that is something to go to.

4. You’ve seen my father’s cartoons, right? I think writers and editors will especially relate to this great series of clippings from the 1950’s, How Not To Get An Okay.

My dad has been around LitKicks before, but next week I hope to bring you something else special: a essay on Franz Kafka and Paul Auster by my very-own mom (who, by the way, knows her stuff). It’s always a family affair over here in LitKicks-land.

5. Bat Segundo interviews Norma Klein. Klein’s new book has an important message about the intersection of big business and war, and this interview is worth your time.

6. So, now that James Frey has just rehabilitated himself to the tune of a million smackeroos and Kaavya Viswanathan just got compared to S. E. Hinton by Dale Peck in the New York Times Book Review, do you think we can all reach down deep and find some love in our hearts for Tim “Nasty Nas” Nasdijj Barrus, and Laura “JT Leroy” Albert? Yeah, people, I think we can.

Nasdijj has been putting up some truly artistic video work as “cinemathequefilms” on You Tube, including this self-referential piece called Name Thief. Well worth visiting if you like this sort of thing.

As for Laura Albert aka J. T. Leroy, she is trying to marshall her resources for a new legal defense, and she has now created a blog. And why the hell shouldn’t J. T. Leroy have a blog if J. T. Leroy wants to have a blog? It’s called a pen name.