• Big Man Japan @ Just Press Play

    “With Tokyo constantly under attack by giant monsters, of course you need giant ultra-heroes to defend its citizens; but when something that catastrophic had become the mundane for almost a century, what happens to the hero’s status in society? Do…

  • The Man Who Invented Borges

    Dzanc Books is one of my favorite recently-minted small publishers, and not just because their first two titles were by my brilliant friend Roy Kesey. Just check out their mission statement for an idea why I like them. They have begun…

  • Vices vs. Olé

    “I slam my fist on the table. ‘We need a book about the 7 Vices of Highly Creative People before the whole country ends up in a straitjacket!’ Bobby agrees enthusiastically, grabs a stack of napkins and begins writing. All…

  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide

    Ben Bachelder has been hitchhiking since 2000, traveling by thumb in “35 countries and six continents including Antarctica.” Over the years Ben has become a featured writer at digihitch, an online community for hitchhikers and self-described “site of subcultural movement.”…

  • Harry Patch

    Radiohead has released a new song titled “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” and is donating the proceeds to the British Legion (download it for £1.00). The song is “a tribute to the memory of Harry Patch, the last surviving World…

  • Random Media Notes

    Rumpus editor Stephen Elliott on online content theft and how it spreads. ESPN puts the squeeze on its employees’ twitter habits. Euna Lee and Laura Ling credit Clinton with ending North Korean “nightmare.” Chuck Norris is a birther, writes “I…

  • Attack of the E-Readers

    Looks like Amazon‘s Kindle has got some competition. Sony announced two new e-readers today, The Reader Pocket Edition and The Reader Touch Edition. The Pocket is small (5-inch screen) and lightweight, whereas the Touch has a (surprise!) touch screen, an…

  • The Wind Has Stopped Blowing (Your Pockets Are Filled With Wind)

    It’s April and I’m back home for Passover and Easter and my brother’s birthday. I’m wandering my parents’ farm. The air is cold and I expected warm, the trees are sparse and I expected leaves. Yesterday it rained and rained.…

  • Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno

    “Isabella Rossellini’s bizarre and hilarious look at sex in the natural world as she explores the mating habits of worms.” See more of Rossellini’s “Green Porno” here.

  • Morning Coffee

    Seven unmade Kubrick movies. Kitten calender graffiti. Sorry, let’s try and smarten this thing up: a concise history of light and particles. Slate on the history of airport design. Instructattoos. I like every single thing about this link: Swedish vintage…

  • TRUTH SERUM:
    Double Bubble

    Truth Serum books, if you aren’t Ted Wilson.

  • Movies Briefly: New Muslim Cool

    One of the highlights of this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival was the documentary New Muslim Cool, by director Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. It’s about Hamza (Jason) Perez, pictured above at left, an extraordinary person whose life evolved from that…