Love to a Monster

Sissy Spacek Twirling a Goddamn Baton

Meet the Queenpin

Megan Abbott's Queenpin is a knockout punch. If I had to make a list--and I'm goddamn well fond of lists--it'd be neck-and-neck with Vicki Hendricks's Cruel Poetry for best crime novel of Aught-Seven. The race should get really interesting in the next couple of months, as new books by James Lee Burke, Duane Swierczynski, and Charlie Huston drop (not to mention Dutch Leonard's Up in Honey's Room, which I haven't picked up yet).

In any case, Megan Abbott is reading at Partners and Crime in Greenwich Village at 7 p.m. tonight. Check out www.crimepays.com for more information. Richard Aleas, aka Charles Ardai, is also reading (see www.hardcasecrime.com for more on him). Should be good.

And, in case you're interested, I'm currently listening to Icky Thump by The White Stripes. If it's not a knockout, it'a a hard-fought thirteen round TKO. Yes, it's better than Get Behind Me Satan (which wasn't bad, by the way). And there's a cute picture or two of Meg White in the liner notes.

The Time of Man

Watch this video. And read The Time of Man by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, a neglected American masterpiece.

Venice Noir

Read this good account by Eddie Muller of the state of Italian/Mediterranean Noir

Busted Flush

I finally got my ass in gear and bought Duane Swierczynski's Damn Near Dead anthology from Busted Flush Press. It's a hell of a great book. Looks good. Smells good. Makes you sit up straight when it walks across the room. It's about old timers, sure, but what's more hard-boiled than getting old?

Busted Flush also just reissued Miami Purity by Vicki Hendricks. It's got a foreword by Ken Bruen and an afterword by Megan Abbott. I'll tell you one thing: If you don't buy this book, you're a no-good sonofabitch.

http://www.bustedflushpress.com/

If It Wasn't For Hardluck

I have a story called "Dirty Blues" in the Blues Noir issue of Hardluck Stories. Check it out now at www.hardluckstories.com -- It'll shine your shoes, clean out your bird cages, and make you a damn decent cup of coffee.

My Typewriter

Check out this great site:

http://www.mytypewriter.com/

"Notoreity, women and life's necessities."

A brief word about Cormac McCarthy's appearance tomorrow on Oprah (from allheadlinenews.com):

Chicago, IL (AHN) - Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer-prize winning novelist who authored The Road, will be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on June 5. It will be the first television appearance McCarthy, well-known for his reclusivity, has ever made.

The Road has been on the New York Times Bestseller List since it was announced that Winfrey had picked his novel for Oprah's Book Club in March. The book is a post-apocalyptic tale that chronicles a journey undertaken by a father and son after most of life on earth has been destroyed by an unnamed disaster.

During McCarthy's taped interview the author shares his ideas regarding "notoreity, women and life's necessities."

No Country

I found this link on Anthony Neil Smith's page:

http://www.commeaucinema.com/bandes-annonces=76586.html

No Country For Old Men is, as I once heard it referred to, a furnace blast of a novel. The Coen Brothers look like they're doing it some kind of justice.

Engine 143

Mike Deuce reports:

I was reading this article about Mr. Rogers on a site linked off of Digg.com (great time killer site that has links to various general interest articles), and I found this little tidbit to be interesting, and kinda creepy:

3. He Watched His Figure to the Pound!
In covering Rogers’ daily routine (waking up at 5; praying for a few hours for all of his friends and family; studying; writing, making calls and reaching out to every fan who took the time to write him; going for a morning swim; getting on a scale; then really starting his day), writer Tom Junod explained that Mr. Rogers weighed in at exactly 143 pounds every day for the last 30 years of his life. He didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine. And while I’m not sure if any of that was because he’d mostly grown up a chubby, single child, Junod points out that Rogers found beauty in the number 143. According to the piece, Rogers came “to see that number as a gift… because, as he says, “the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three.”


For the rest of the article, go to
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/5943?rss

H.R. Stoneback's new book

Get this book now:

Reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises by H. R. Stoneback. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-87338--867-2. Paper. Available now from Kent State University Press www.kentstateuniversitypress.com

Advance praise:

"Stoneback's inaugural volume in the most important and extensive Hemingway publication project of the 21st century sets the bar very high for future volumes in the Reading Hemingway Series."

"The ultimate guidebook and commentary on one of the most important novels of the 20th century, Stoneback's dazzling volume has much to offer all readers--Hemingway scholars, teachers, students at every level, and the general reader."

"Ideal for classroom use."

"Brilliant! Breathtaking!"

H. R. Stoneback is Distinguished Professor of English, The State University of New York. (For announcement of ALA booksigning in Boston, image and further description of book, see below).

http://upress.kent.edu/books/Stoneback_H.htm

Out of the Gutter

Nobody reads this blog--not now, and maybe they never will--but I have a story called "Neighborhood Girl" in issue two of Out of the Gutter. The first issue of the magazine was a goddamn knockout, and I hope you check out the new one.

Magnolia Electric Company boxset

This from Secretly Canadian:

MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. Tour the World, Release Boxset
So far this year, Magnolia Electric Co. has trekked across the Untied States on tour with Son Volt, spent two and a half weeks in Europe, including All Tomorrow's Parties and show no signs of slowing down.

Starting late June, the band return to Europe to spread their own form of Democracy then return stateside to finish the job.

EUROPE
06/19/07 Lleida, Spain - Cafe del Teatre Escorxador
06/20/07 Madrid, Spain - El Sol
06/21/07 Seville, Spain - Teatro Central
06/22/07 Malaga, Spain - Teatro Canovas
06/23/07 Granada, Spain - Teatro Alhambra
06/25/07 London, United Kingdom - Scala
06/26/07 Nottingham, United Kingdom - The Rescue Rooms
06/29/07 Ebensee, Austria - Kino
06/30/07 Vienna, Austria - Szene
07/01/07 Munchen, Germany - Rote Sonne
07/02/07 Stuttgart, Germany - Schocken
07/03/07 Karlsruhe, Germany - Jubez
07/04/07 Kristiansand, Norway - Kristiansand Quart Festival

NORTH AMERICA
08/23/07 Bloomington, IN - Bluebird
08/24/07 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
08/25/07 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
08/26/07 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
08/27/07 Kansas City, MO - Grand Emporium
08/28/07 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
08/29/07 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
09/01/07 Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot Festival
09/05/07 San Francisco, CA - Bottom Of The Hill
09/06/07 Los Angeles, CA - Echo
09/07/07 Pioneer Town, CA - Pappy & Hariet's Pioneer Town Palace
09/08/07 Pioneer Town, CA - Pappy & Hariet's Pioneer Town Palace - JASON MOLINA ONLY
09/11/07 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress
09/13/07 Austin, TX - Emo's
09/16/07 Houston, TX - Rudyard's Pub
09/19/07 Jackson, MS - Hal & Mal's
09/20/07 Birmingham, AL - The Bottle Tree
09/21/07 Atlanta, GA - EARL
09/22/07 Athens , GA - 40 Watt Club
09/23/07 Columbia, SC - Columbia Music Festival Association
09/24/07 Mount Pleasant, SC - Village Tavern
09/25/07 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
09/26/07 Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom
09/27/07 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09/29/07 New York, NY - The Blender Theatre at Gramercy
10/01/07 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
10/03/07 Montreal, QC - Pop Montreal at La Sala Rossa
10/04/07 Ottawa, ON - Zaphod Beeblebrox
10/05/07 Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
10/06/07 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick

EUROPE AGAIN
11/23/07 The Hague, The Netherlands - Crossing Border Festival

August 7th, Secretly Canadian will release The Sojourner Boxset by Magnolia Electric Co. It is the accumulated work of thirteen musicians, five locations, four recording engineers, three filmmakers, two designers and one songwriter, including enough new material for three full lengths, one EP and one DVD.

Nashville Moon was recorded by Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, Illinois and features the most frequent line up of Magnolia Electric Co.

Black Ram was recorded by David Lowery at his Sound Of Music studios in Richmond, Virginia and features an entirely different cast of characters.

Sun Sessions was recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee

Shohola was recorded by Jason Molina and features himself, alone, with a guitar and microphone.

The DVD is a film called The Road Becomes What You Leave which was produced by Todd Chandler and Tim Sutton. It follows the band as they tour across the prairie provinces of Canada and shows the loneliness and isolation one can feel even when traveling in a pack.

Together, these make for the most ambitious and robust Magnolia Electric Co release to date all wrapped up in a special box, with artwork by Jason Molina and some special trinkets as well.

We're so excited by this that we're offering a sneak peek of the box and music on our site now:

http://www.secretlycanadian.com/press/magnolia/magnoliasojournerpress.php

Complete list of Sojourner players:

Jason Molina
Rick Alverson
Andrew Bird
Molly Blackbird
Mike Brenner
Jonathan Cargill
Jason Evans Groth
Michael Kapinus
David Lowery
Mark Rice
Pete Schreiner
Miguel Urbiztondo
Alan Weatherhead
Tim Sutton, Producer, Editor (DVD)
Todd Chandler, Director (DVD)
Ava Berkofsky, Director Of Photography (DVD)

Track Listings

NASHVILLE MOON
Lonesome Valley
Montgomery
Don't Fade On Me
Hammer Down
No Moon On The Water
Nashville Moon
What Comes After The Blues
Don't This Look Like The Dark
North Star
Bowery
Texas 71
Down The Wrong Road Both Ways

THE BLACK RAM
In The Human World
The Black Ram
What's Broken Becomes Better
Will-O-The-Wisp
Kanawha
A Little At A Time
Blackbird
And The Moon Hits The Water
The Old Horizon

SUN SESSION
Talk To Me Devil, Again
Memphis Moon
Hold On Magnolia
Trouble In Mind

SHOHOLA
Steady Now
Spanish Moon Rise And Fall
Night Country
Shiloh Temple Bell
The Spell
Take One Thing Along
The Lamb's Song
Roll The Wheel