This week in the New York Times, Google co-founder Sergey Brin wrote an op-ed about Google’s efforts in the realm of digitizing so-called orphan books.  Despite ongoing legal drama, Brin insists that their efforts are for the good of everyone, and for all important texts that would otherwise be lost.  

Erick Schonfeld, co-editor of TechCrunch writes in his piece covering the latest press meeting, “The main objection to the settlement is that it will give Google a monopoly on out-of-print, or orphan books.” Brin provides a retort to that argument in his op-ed : “The agreement limits consumer choice in out-of-print books about as much as it limits consumer choice in unicorns.”  The unicorn defense!

Jonathan Ames has a great blog about his HBO TV series Bored to Death.  In this post he talks about the irony of engaging in an S&M session with his former student and then the very next evening being part of a presentation on torture put on by the  PEN American Center and the ACLU.  Then he goes on to give sweet and interesting behind the scene details on each of the show’s episodes.  It’s like being able to travel alongside Ames’ writerly life, from his love of Russian spas to his affinity for the Brooklyn coast, all with a little flogging along the way.

The popular software Pl@giarism used to detect cheating students by comparing their papers against published texts was recently used by Sir Brian Vickers, an authority on Shakespeare, to determine whether or not Shakespeare collaborated with Thomas Kyd on The Reign of King Edward III.

The debate on whether or not Shakespeare contributed to the play has been raging for over 150 years, and now some scholars feel that Vickers’ work puts the question to rest.  Apparently authors have literary fingerprints that can be used to compare and contrast texts to determine if they have collaborated or plagiarized other works.

Others disagree with the idea that Shakespeare collaborated; but it’s nice to think otherwise, as Jonathan Bate, Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick, puts it: “I think it creates a more realistic image of Shakespeare than perhaps the romantic view some have of him as a solitary genius.”

If you thought having sex was complicated, try defining it.

Lexicographer and language expert Jesse Sheidlower, author of the famed F-Word, and currently serving as Editor at Large (North America) of the Oxford English Dictionary, writes about the challenges of defining sex in all its various manifestations in the dictionary.  Sure, we all know what fuck means, but articulating that is a whole different ball game.  Even though the word fuck is first found in a dictionary in 1598, it still sends editors into a headspin. …more

Sherman Alexie, whose novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was banned in some school districts, is no stranger to controversy.

He’s recently come out with a new collection of stories and poetry called War Dances.   In this latest Mother Jones interview, he talks about the weight of being American’s most famous Native American Indian author: ”I’m going to get grief from certain people about not having likable characters,” he says. “As an Indian writer I’m supposed to be showing us in our best light.”

In the interview he also responds to his having called the Amazon Kindle elitist:  ”If I had been talking about drowning polar bears, people would have been weeping with me.  But nobody recognizes that a bookstore or library can also be a drowning polar bear.  And right now in this country, magazines, newspapers, and bookstores are drowning polar bears.  And if people can’t see that or don’t want to talk about it, I don’t understand them at all.”

You can read the title story of his new collection here.

The Atlantic covers Leak & Sons Funeral Home in Chicago’s South Side.  Business is up, and that’s not a good thing, especially when the average age of the deceased is getting younger and younger, and they’re not dying of natural causes.

In related news, here’s a story about the activist priest Rev. Michael Pfleger who started flying the American flag upside down outside of his church to protest the unceasing violence, particularly amongst Chicago’s youth.  Since then people have cut down and removed his flags (which he just keeps putting back up), as well as sent him death threats.

His response:  ”What I don’t understand about this (criticism) , is when people dial 9-1-1, nobody asks why they’re dialing, they ask how they can help.  When people on a boat raise a (upside down) flag, nobody asks why they are raising it, they just go help.”

If you look up the New Deal on Wikipedia you’ll hardly see Frances Perkins‘ name mentioned.  Yet, as the first female cabinet member, serving as FDR’s Secretary of Labor, she was the major force behind such revolutionary acts like minimum wage,  unemployment, pensions, welfare, and also crafted laws to ban child labor.

She’s also the one to thank for the forty hour work week. On Saturday mornings you should wake up and say, “Thank you Mrs. Perkins.” …more

The Jonathan Ames you may love and know is not only out with a new book but also a new series on HBO which is a spin-off from his real life, featuring Jason Schwartzman as Jonathan Ames (how’s that for awesome casting), a writer who has just been dumped by his girlfriend and is unable to crack into his second novel.

Instead of getting down to business, he instead forges ahead with his fantasy of becoming a private detective, emulating the novels he reads.

In addition to writing the show, Ames has a blog where he goes into each episode and adds lovely behind the scene commentary (alright lovely might be the wrong word choice here) like the time he ran out of toilet paper and didn’t even have free napkins, but did end up finding some coffee filters…..you get the idea.

As you may already know, Google has been spending the last seven years scanning their hearts out, digitizing more than two million books that are old enough to be part of the public domain.  They turn them into searchable documents, making many rare and hard to find books accessible for anyone with access to the Internet.

And now they’ve just outdone themselves. …more

Writers are always lamenting the lonely journey of being in a room by oneself armed with just words and coffee. Other artists seem to enjoy the benefits of collaboration, why not us?

Enter The Owls, a self-described “site for collaborative writing projects.”  One such project was created by the poet Sean Hill.  He’s asked writers to respond to the prompt :  “A Natural History of My _______.” Posted every Wednesday, here’re a few samples from the site:  Brian Barker with “A Natural History of My Curiousity” and Danielle Evans with “A Natural History of My Earlobes.”

Other cool stuff includes a project called Stamps where writers are asked: “What place do you write about or think about, and why? Is there a location – in space or time, real or imaginary, past, present, or future – that draws you back again and again? What happened there?”

Beautiful internet collaborative wonder.

I remember when my dog Rusty disappeared, and we spent a day looking for him.  When I went to bed that night, I imagined he was at the park smoking cigars and playing poker, because that’s what dogs do when you’re sleeping; the next day, of course he came home, without any indication on his face that he had even been gone.  It was very easy for Rusty to disappear.  However, that was the 80′s, and he was a dog.

It’s 2009 and harder than ever for a human being to disappear and start a new life under a false identity. …more

The authorities at Cushing Academy, a New England prep school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts have decided to do away with their traditional library. Meaning, nothing between two covers. …more

A little snapshot of love stories from around the web.

One of my all-time favorite love stories told at the Moth podcast: Mike Destefano recalling his love for Franny in Franny’s Last Ride.

Calvin Trillin, who always wrote about his wife, remembers her life in this incredible essay “Alice Off the Page” which you can read here (if you have a subscription to the New Yorker) or here.

A Modern Love essay about a husband telling his wife, “I don’t love you anymore” and her responding with “I don’t buy it.”  On sticking it out.

And if all those have you feeling too good, here’s a This American Life episode about break-ups.

What is believed to maybe be the last significant trunkload of Bloomsbury letters is about to be auctioned off on September 3rd.   The collection, containing about 700 letters were all sent to Helen Anrep, a friend and supporter of many artists and writers (though not one herself); they showcase  correspondence from many people including Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, and Virginia Woolf.  Woolf’s letters exhibit her famed sharp tongue with lines like “The female oaf is utterly intolerable.”

Artist: Architecture in Helsinki

Song: “That Beep”

Sharing is caring on the Internet.  The idea is that magazines and newspapers, struggling for survival, want one thing: more distribution.  So why not make it easier for bloggers and writers to embed posts on their sites, rather than having to waste their time fussing with copy and paste?

Not only does it make it easier, it also makes attributing props where props are due, avoiding all this fighting over copywrite issues and the debate that aggregation is basically stealing.  That’s where the release of the new embeddable posts from Business Insider comes in.

Maybe you’re like me: someone who loves music but is at a loss at keeping up with the frenzied pace of all this awesome new music being hurled at you.

If so, do what I do and defer to those who know more than you do.  A music-savvy friend pointed me in the direction of this awesome music blog/internet radio station, Left as Rain, created by Chris Thomas & Alex Mejias.  It consists of bitchin’ hand-plucked songs and little write-ups about them.  Currently they only have 42 fans on their Facebook page; why don’t we change that?

I’ve been in love with people who’ve had excerpts from Lord Jim scrolling up their arms, and Faunia Farley tattooed on their chest with an arrow going through a heart.  It’s like you can’t escape these literary tattoos.  But it makes sense; if the books are already living inside of you, why not let them show a little bit, through the skin?

The Millions posted a link about a call for an anthology of literary tattoos.  Remember when Shelley Jackson got people from all over to agree to tattoo a word of her story on their body.  Look here. Also, a more in depth exploration of the literary tattoo and Jackson’s project here.

Despite the glorified notion that we’re supposed to grow up and not repeat the same mistakes our parents made, some of us go out and do even worse jobs.

For example, when you thought it couldn’t get worse than Bush Sr., we got, well, you know.  From financing coups to driving 90 miles an hour on the wrong side of the Champs Elysees to torture by pouring sand in someone’s mouth, here’s a procession of some of the world’s worst sons.

Some people think cover songs are for people who don’t like music; I happen to see them as heart-warming love letters from adoring fans, and at their greatest, revealing other aspects the song didn’t even know it had.

Stephen Elliott recently mentioned the rise of the middle-class artist in a Rumpus daily email: “What I think we’re seeing is that culture is becoming more diverse. There will be less and less mega-stars. It’s the rise of the middle class artist…,” and the plethora of teenage kids singing in front of their webcams speaks to that statement.

I mean if you love Fleet Foxes, how could you resist these girls?  Also, Paul McCartney you have nothing on this kid.

We could sit around all day sending out links to YouTube covers, but it brings up the whole other issue of licensing.  Warner Brothers continues to not only pull its own music down from YouTube, but cover songs as well.  Is that right?  This teenage girl talks back.

I was waiting on a couple the other night at a restaurant where I work, and I saw a strange box on their table that had Jonathan Lethem‘s name printed on it.

When they opened it up, a pair of black glasses rested inside, and they asked me if I would try them on.  So I did.  Then they asked, “Do you see any chaldrons?” at which point I was like “wtf?”

They tried to explain to me what The Thing is.  Started by Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan, The Thing is “an object based quarterly publication” where artists, writers, musicians, film artists, etc., create an object that somehow includes text.  The object is made, wrapped and sent out to you, the diligent subscriber.  The point is that Jonathan Lethem got involved with The Thing, made some crazy glasses, and talked about chaldrons.

This year’s next lineup includes Trevor Paglen, Ryan Gander, Starlee Kine, and Chris Johanson.

Sex educator and writer Lux Alptraum, who is also the editor of Boinkology, has an article in Black Book that investigates the absence of condoms in porn.  Is it because of production challenges, or because the companies don’t want to protect the health of their performers?  No.  It turns out, the absence of condoms might be because of you.

In the current political crisis in Iran, the boldest tool, turns out to be civic technology.  Iran has gone out of its way to block the BBC, Yahoo, mobile phone networks, foreign journalists, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites during the election.  What this has revealed is that the Iranian government is very sophisticated in blocking access to technology.

But sites are biting back; even Twitter rescheduled a maintenance, so that Iranians would be able to tweet during this crucial time.  And one of the most powerful ways to combat this censorship is by using what’s known as a proxy server.  A proxy server is basically a middle man.  It’s there for people to interact between their computer and another server; it’s like fooling the Internet into thinking you’re in one place when you’re someplace else.  When the government blocks sites like YouTube, a proxy server is basically sending out pings saying, “I swear this site isn’t YouTube.”  At least that’s how a friend explained it to me (I’m not that computer savvy.)

But all in all, it allows people using the web in Iran to access restricted sites like Twitter.  It’s two main functions are to keep people anonymous and to speed up access.  Here’s an NPR podcast that explains it better. So, while it can be used for not so altruistic purposes (see spam); in a crisis like the one in Iran, it becomes completely critical.

That’s where Austin Heap comes in.  …more

If you’re tired of the frenetic pace of life, being hampered by your 140 character limit, and can’t remember the last time you made it through a book, then you might smile at conceptual artist Jonathan Keats’ new project.  He’s written a nine word story that will take 1,000 years to read.  The catch?  It requires a century of light to expose each word – Read about it here.

It’s hard to overstate how endearing Thu Tran is.  I mean basically when Pee Wee’s playhouse came to end, so did surrealism in TV.  But now it’s back, and Thu Tran might be the most adorable person on the planet.  Her collaborative anti- reality food cooking show, FOOD PARTY, is part puppet show, part cooking show, if by cooking you mean putting a cornish game hen over a can of Mountain Dew and putting it into a fake cardboard oven and then feeding it to a baguette paramour.  Exactly.  She herself says of her work, “I strive to achieve visual MSG.” …more

Original story at The Millions.

You probably didn’t even know that Haruki Murakami has a new book coming out today.  That’s because the hype has been largely suppressed, and also because it’s only coming out in Japanese.  In fact the only major leak came from Murakami himself when he spoke last October at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, where he described his new book, 1Q84, as a “real doorstop”.  He said, “It’s least twice the size of Kafka on the Shore,” which received applause from the bookish crowd. …more

Elvin Jones, one of the most influential jazz drummers, most known for his work with John Coltrane, died this week five years ago, on May 18th, 2004.  Adam Mansbach, who is recently well known for his novel Angry White Black Boy, also wrote a jazz novel, Shackling Water, that some consider second only to James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues. He pays a lovely tribute to Elvin Jones here. Acknowledging the musician’s ability, even in his last days, to triumph over the suffering of dailyness, with the glory of jazz, Mansbach highlights the beauty that only love and dedication can bring.

In the wake of losing several authors of extreme significance this last year, David Foster Wallace, Studs Terkel, and now John Updike, a bevy of reflection floods in.  Search for David Foster Wallace on the Rumpus, and you’ll find a host of articles ranging from Elisa Bassist’s expansive review of Infinite Jest to Stephen Elliott’s unfinished notes on DFW.  David Foster Wallace inspired an emotional outpouring from readers everywhere.  The death of John Updike inspired similar, if not more tempered, outpourings, such as this nice collection of writers reflecting on Updike’s work.  Garth Risk Hallberg takes the opportunity to revisit Updike’s novels, in which he finds that Rabbit Redux is a great novelistic representation of the age of political terror, and that ultimately terror may be a sign that beauty is lurking around the corner.

I’ve always wondered why Ada Lovelace, first female computer programmer, only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the person I idolized in high school, hasn’t been more glorified in culture, seeing as she was one of the first females to envision computers as being something beyond mere number crunching machines.  Keep in mind she died in 1852. …more

The much-hyped, long-awaited debut album Manners by electro band Passion Pit has finally leaked.  You can only keep such stuff away from Internet-savvy people so long.  If you haven’t heard “Sleepyhead,” one of the tracks off Manners, then it’s time to wake up.

Spin has a fascinating profile of Dennis Sobin former sex-biz enterpreneur turned convict, who now is utilizing his guitar to rehabilitate prisoners. …more