Genius! Notes on the new Believer

From Dzyd Brandon's "A Blaze in the North American Sky," in the new Believer music issue:

A little over a year ago I went to the Norwegian city of Trondheim to attend a mostly indie rock, non–heavy metal festival so I could meet Snorre Ruch, a.k.a. Blackthorn, a black-metal musician likely best known in for his connection to the murder of another black metaller, Øystein Aarseth, a.k.a. Euronymous, on August 10, 1993.

Now that's a lede!

The cover is genius (can't explain it here), the CD (masterminded by Ross Simonini) is quite different from that of previous years but also genius in its own way, there are articles that are genius, it is an embarrassment of riches (Dzyd Douglas on "A review of the only known mechanically reproduced copy of a really great record"; Ange Mlinko! Haruki Murakami?!! Dzyd Paul on music and...dentistry??), I am perhaps overusing the word genius but last night I read the Barthelme story "The Genius" and hence that is our theme today! (Two things by Rick Moody! John Adamian's notes on liner notes! Lavinia Greenlaw......interview with Fugazi dude...) MORE!

Dizzies Newsfeeds for November 7

There's a blog called Vertigo—and it's about Sebald! (Via Selfdivider)...Dizzyhead Hua is on Wikipedia...How about this Barthelme review done in the style of D.B.?...Dizzyhead Andrew is mainstream America...Tomorrow: Come to "Make It News," a symposium at Columbia's J-School as poets, journalists, and critics talk about poetry, journalism, and criticism! Update: For a preview of topics TBD, check out Dizzyhead Jessica's feature, up at the Poetry Foundation site...A 10-year-old speaks 11 languages and resembles Robert Donat (via Paperpools)...Meanwhile a worker putting floral patterns on NYC taxi hoods, with the great name Hamed Fall (like a jumbled hall of fame), is "a Senegalese-born former taxi driver who speaks French, a bit of Arabic, Wolof and Fulani"...I myself speak a little bit of English...rimshot, please...We just bought milk but the milk is almost gone, at least I can read Levi on milk. Here he quotes from Peter Ackroyd's London: A Biography:

It was certainly true that, as Addison wrote in 1711, "People know the Wares [tradesmen] deal in rather by their Tunes than by their Words." The words were often indistinct or indistinguishable: the mender of old chairs was recognised by his low and melancholy note, while the retailer of broken glass specialised in a sort of plaintive shriek quite appropriate to his goods. . . . There was also in the passage of years, or centuries, the steady clipping or abbreviation of jargon. "Will you buy any milk today, mistress" became "Milk maids below," then "Milk below," then "Milk-o" and, finally, "Mieu" or "Mee-o." . . . Pierce Egan, author of Life in London," recalled "one man from whom I could never make out more than happy happy happy now."