The semester is nearly over for me, and then there will be great good times ahead. In the meantime—links!
1. I recently attended a reading by Michael Griffith, author of Bibliophilia and other works, and was charmed and intrigued by his work. An excerpt from his forthcoming novel Trophy, entitled “Possum Agonistes,” is available at the online journal Blackbird. It’s well worth your time. It includes a passage about an evangelical baseball league, is all I’m going to say about it.
2. Victor Gischler, whose praises I have sung here before—it was a pretty vulgar sea chanty, as you may remember; we got a lot of negative feedback—recently announced that his new novel Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse, in addition to having rendered all other book titles forever pointless and obsolete (publishers will just use author’s names, barcodes, and catalog numbers now—can’t wait to read Toni Morrison’s new 1881100042!), is on its way! Much rejoicing. But much sadness, too: it’s not out until June 2008. How to fill the time until it arrives? Well, you can go read the high pre-release praise it has already garnered from such luminairies as Joe R. Lansdale and James Rollins. Or, you can order Gischler tomes such as Pistol Poets and Suicide Squeeze—already published for your convenience! I recommend that you do.
3. As a belated coda to National Poetry Month, I direct you Scott Standridge’s blog The Sonnet Project. Mr. Standridge took upon himself the hefty burden of writing one sonnet every day for a full year—no stockpiling ahead of time, no retro-posting after the fact. He modestly asserts that they ain’t all gems, and while that may be so, there are assuredly more diamonds than disappointments.
4. Bahlactus’ contributor Munson’s weekly feature Milestone Mondays is a fun read and a useful resource for folks like me who are just now discovering the joys of the sadly defunct Milestone universe of superhero comics. I’ve been reading issues of Dwayne McDuffie and M.D. Bright’s Icon as quickly as I can find them, and it’s been a real treat: smart, thoughtful, exciting superhero stories that handle the issue of race in comics with subtlety and complexity far exceeding what you’ll find in other recent, loudly ballyhooed, ultimately disappointing treatments of same (I’m looking at you, Truth and The American Way). Unfortunately, it seems that the TPB collection Icon: A Hero’s Welcome is no longer in print. Shame.
5. Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report offers a useful run-down on the career of Jerry Falwell, who died yesterday at age 73. (I’d avoid the comments section, though.) This means that Pat Robertson now has only to eliminate Tim LaHaye in order to receive . . . the Quickening! And in this short video clip about MSNBC’s coverage of Falwell’s death, Josh Marshall provides further evidence that watching cable news is a waste of time unless you enjoy pulling your hair out:
I’ve been wanting to read some Lansdale. I just haven’t had the time lately. Maybe I will now that the semester’s over.
‘Preciate the shout-out! My boy “Munson”, who actually crafts the Milestone Mondays feature will appreciate the love. Even though it’s a feature on my site—he really deserves the full credit for that weekly post!
Ah! Thanks for the tip, B—I’ll edit the text above to reflect.
Milestone Mondays has spun up a TON of interest in Milestone in my world and, from what I can see, the blogosphere. I wasn’t reading comics when they were out but the BAHLACTUS!! spotlight has sold me.
It doesn’t hurt that the only thing out of Civil War anyone likes is Dwayne McDuffie’s all-new FF, the most integrated team in comics (I refuse to count the Claremont/Cockrum X-Men, as 1 Irishman, 1 Native American, 1 Russian, 1 demon German, 1 Candadian/Japanese fetishist, and 1 African thief/goddess (with white hair and blue eyes!) makes my head hurt. And Doc Bright is Iron Man to me.
TLG, I was a big Joe Lansdale fan back in the day—do y’all remember those Batman paperbacks??—but do yourself a favor and pick up Pistol Poets. It was one of the most fun things I read all last year.
Gorjus—I do remember those Batman paperbacks. I had forgotten about the Jonah Hex graphic novels. I’d like to look at those as well as perhaps some of his other works. Regarding Gischler, when was he at USM? ... Checking library database… Ah, okay, he earned his PhD in 2001.
I can see that Steve Benen, too, has been fooled by the misinformation that has been floating around regarding the death of Jerry Falwell. He is, of course, deceased. However, he obviously died some years ago and his handlers refused to admit it, making a deal with the handlers of Jaba the Hut to stand in for him at public appearances. The death of Jaba this week brought about the current announcement.