— Kids like video games, right? How about Shakespeare? How about a Shakespeare video game? For real. The game, Speare, will have kids shooting alien spaceships and piecing together Romeo and Juliet, which should round out their geek cred early in life. Sounds pretty awesome to me.
— In the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Virginia Tech, I pointed out that I hoped the shooter’s angry writing wouldn’t cause all angry writing to be viewed as potentially dangerous, but it looks like this is already happening. (Via Maud Newton.)
— Didn’t you think that The Da Vinci Code mania was dead? Yeah, me too. I was pretty sure that Tom Hanks and his mullet of doom had killed it off for good, but apparently not. (Maybe it’s a zombie.) See, the media is still milking its name for news, as evidenced by this story about a new mystery revealed at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. The story itself is kind of interesting, but is this place forever going to be linked to Dan Brown’s horrible novel? Why am I asking? The answer of course is yes.
— This story has been around a little while, but hasn’t been mentioned here, so I thought I’d tell you that there’s nothing greater than when the publishing industry invents a label for a type of writing. The newest subgenre for you to find in your local Barnes & Noble? Misery Lit. I’d be excited, but I’m too busy hating the futile, meaningless world. Sigh.
— Here’s an interesting article in The Believer about Ginsberg’s Wichita Vortex Sutra.
— We know that Levi Asher isn’t impressed with Cormac McCarthy, but it turns out that he’s not the only one.
— Any book review that says “the brains of male sparrows mixed with goat fat, roasted wolf’s penis, rocket (which “stirreth up lust”), or bread that had been kneaded with a woman’s buttocks” gets a link. That’s a matter of policy. (Sure, I just made up that policy, but it’s a good one.)
— Perhaps the only surprise here is that it’s just happening now, but it looks like the Army is going to be cracking down on blogs and email written from warzones.
— And in less serious blogging news, Dilbert’s boss is entering the fray. In true Dilbert’s boss style.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer has a review of The Friendship, which is about the, well, friendship between poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
— On Feministing: an interview with Origami Striptease author Peggy Munson. Some interesting things about lesbian gender and censorship, and also I have to mention that there’s a little bit in there about iambic meter.
— Virginia Woolf’s “Shakespeare’s Sister” reprinted in The Guardian. If you’ve never encountered it before (or even if you have), it’s totally worth your time.
10 Responses
Roasted Wolf’s PenisWell …
Roasted Wolf’s Penis
Well … I guess it is grilling season…
Who’s in the kitchen
Who’s in the kitchen today?
Ah, well then – I’ll have the pizza with sun-ripened tomatoes, basil & olive oil, fresh mozzarella, and buttocks-kneaded dough.
Also, thanks for the info on the Wordsworth and Coleridge book.
Note to self: no dinner
Note to self: no dinner parties at Bill’s place…
be open-minded, firecracker.
be open-minded, firecracker. gee.
You’re pretending like I
You’re pretending like I don’t remember Cherub…
Refresh my memory . . . how
Refresh my memory . . . how does that Cherub quote go?
Bill, how could you forget
Bill, how could you forget Cherub, the red-assed baboon? You said you’d never forget Cherub, the red-assed baboon.
Mmm. Where’s the charcoal?
Mmm. Where’s the charcoal?
Yes, you know I only use
Yes, you know I only use Kingsford. Kingsford: the only charcoal fit for all your penis roasting needs.
Now where’s that map?
Anniversaries When I am
Anniversaries
When I am reminded of “Wichita Vortex Sutra” I also have “Death to Van Gogh’s Ear” come to mind. I was more influenced by the latter. However, the Sutra has a similar frankness and/or visionary honesty.
Ginsberg, whom I again met in person at the University of the South at Suwanee, TN readings in
1982, permitted me to record and retain a tape of his readings and songs including “Don’t Smoke (the established dope)”.
Allen was a very personable and open-minded guy who encouraged me as I presented him a poem I wrote called “Barnstormer”.
He was a “regular feller” and had no “gay persona” evident off stage. As a bona fide member of the press one can meet quite a few personalities… Ginsberg was in his anti-nuke phase and read his famous poem on “Three Mile Island” etc.
I saw Ginsberg from a distance at quite a few anti-war rallies in the early seventies and participated in environmental and anti-nuke activities with him and others. Since I never got close enough actually to get to shake his hand or anything I welcomed the opportunity, in 1982, to speak with him about “Naropa Institute” and so on.
Moreover, if I hadn’t gotten a handout in high school, in 1967, containing portions of “Death to Van Gogh’s Ear” and “Wichita Vortex Sutra”, it is doubtful if my next phase of poetry–besides in sixth grade–ever would have happened. I am in great debt to both Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, et al… I wonder where my high school 12th grade English teacher is now… She was a Mia Farrow lookalike and I really had the crush on her back then. Thank you very much, sweet teacher, for introducing me to Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder’s eye-opening and mind-expanding poetry. Also, except for seeing
Kerouac on the Steve Allen Show many years before, I had not a clue what the “Beats” were about.
Just three years before, I saw Kesey’s “Magic Bus” ie.,”Furthur”, and got to grok on that scene for the first time. They were the original proto-hippies with Cassidy as bus driver. I heard
“something is happening here and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones”…”The Ballad of the Thin Man” Dylan tune and a Grateful Dead tune “Alligator”.
Meanwhile, The Beatles were playing at Shea Stadium as we drove by–went to the World’s Fair instead. Got stalled in traffic and got to “have our cake and eat it too.” You could hear the wonderful sounds of The Beatles outside the gates. Wow! Did that paragraph about Ginsberg take me back or what? Hoo Hah! Them times is a- travelin’…Fast forward to the future!