Money quote: "'While your typical Poetry 101 workshop will churn out blank verse like crazy, I was writing really tightly metered, rhymed couplets,' he says. 'I've always loved using rhythm, meter, and rhyme in poetry. And, consequently, mine comes off as pretty naive.'"
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If I needed a reason to check out the Decemberists beyond Stephen Mejias' recommendation, this interview would be it.
Can one ever truly get enough of the spiced ham that is William Shatner?
How could I have missed this Charles Rosen article? It was even published on my birthday. Aww, he shouldn't have.
Yes, he should've and I'm glad he did. Rosen writes so well that it hardly seems fair that he plays even better.
No, it isn't a joke. Hey, if you're here, it's not like you're using the one you've got.
Over in the Stereophile Forums, we've been having a conversation about the differences between music lovers and collectors—a conversation that has been considerably enlivened by the participation of my friend Jeff Wong, who is both.
Jeff just sent me this link to a website dedicated to Agrippa—A Book of the Dead by William Gibson and Dennis Ashbraugh, a collector's item that was designed to erase itself as you read it. Talk about dilemmas! Is it all about owning it—or does the act of experiencing it become tantamount? Whew!
Glad we have sites like this to experience it vicariously.…
Funny thing about carting a $1600 amplifier down these New York City streets during the evening rush: People just don't give a crap; they'll run you over. No problem. In fact, I was almost shown to that great, big listening room in the sky by an SUV (with Jersey plates, of course) just outside Herald Square. And try getting a $1600 CD player through the PATH station turnstiles; there's no special "Hi-Fi Entrance" down there. You're left to your own devices. I employed the lift and twirl method, but only after realizing that the push and shove method wasn't going to work.
In…
I link to this review of David Crystal's How Language Works not so much because it is deeply informative—I'm pretty sure I want to read it, but the review doesn't make that compelling a case—but rather because of my admiration at the way John Humphrys manages to work one of my favorite grammar jokes into the review.
That's the mark of a pro: He got to read a book that sounds fascinating and then get paid for telling a good 'un.
San Francisco's wonderful Jon Carroll points us towards Regret The Error, a compendium of error correcting slugs that have run in newspapers and journals.
The Inquirer goes medieval on DRM's butt. This rant is passionate and incandescent. Wish I'd said it, but linking to it is pretty satisfying, too.
This online dialog between Neal Stephenson and the readers of Slashdot isn't new, but I'd never read it before. There's good stuff on money, copyright, and his three deathmatch battles with William Gibson.