John, Paul, George, and Ringo...

...you know, Crime Spree!

Over at Hey Dullblog, Mollie gets drawn into an alternate universe thanks to her tote bag.

Table-Talk of Parkus Grammaticus for July 28, 2008

I. Short-story wizard Deb Olin Unferth's first novel, Vacation, is coming out soon (the unofficial prequel to Personal Days?!)—and there's already a nifty trailer for it:



There is a plan for Deb and I to read together at KGB in December, along with the mysterious Heidi Julavits........and speaking of HJ—she and I will be introducing something Believer-y at Symphony Space in November.

No need to mark your calendars now—I will remind you about these things constantly in the intervening months!

II. Wait—speaking of KGB—I'll be reading there this Thursday! More reminders soon...

III. Dzyd Mollie wonders:

[S]ay you were to construct a speculative Venn diagram of 'People who are familiar with the movie Once and/or independent Irish rock band the Frames' and 'People who are familiar with Mary Worth (in a nonironic fashion).' You would probably project a very, very small overlapping space..."

(That's an exceptionally limiting Venn diagram...but can it match this one?)

IV. There should be a flip-book about...the making of a flip-book.

V. Rounding out today's Table-talk, a note from Dzyd Luc:

"Here's an interesting variant on the Ouroboros. It's an emblem by Maurice Scève—the viper's suicide: 'to give you life I give myself death'—and I found it on the excellent blog A Journey Round My Skull."


Hard to tell exactly what's going on here, but: Is the serpent spilling its own blood to provide nourishment for its spawn? Eagle-eyed Dzyds, please call in.

(Speaking of Luc: new post—at last!—up at his Pinakothek.)

Table-Talk of Parkus Grammaticus for May 21, 2008

I. Alice Boone has a lengthy, thoughtful post on Nicholson Baker and the method at work in Human Smoke.

II. Interestingly, AB favors Baker's Double Fold and recent Wikipedia essay (and the weird little story "Subsoil") over his earlier work; I find all aspects of Bakerdom interesting, but in the end I think it's those first three books—The Mezzanine (which I've been trumpeting loudly in interviews for PD), Room Temperature, and U & I—that establish him in the EP pantheon.

A few months ago, I don't know that I would have put RT up there—but a recent re-reading made me think that this was possibly his best book. Incredible! Some of this clearly has to do with my current situation—after all, the entire book takes place during the time it takes for the narrator to give his infant daughter her bottle. It's also, I think, a supremely well-conceived (and breathtakingly–ha!—written) variation on Burton's "Digression of the Air."

III. Spinster Aunt: "I've been reading short stories; I read an Ellery Queen story in which the perp was a man named Harry Potter."

IV. Huge thanks to everyone who came out for the reading/discussion last night at McNally Robinson! That was fun! (Next reading is Chicago, 6/5; next NYC reading is at Happy Ending on 6/11—more details here.)

V. Have said it before—will say it again: I like when Mollie complains! I've had grumblish dealings with the exact same post office she mentions, and reading her post made me want to reopen the case of "Why did you send a mailperson bearing a slip for an Express Mail package two days after I was supposed to get the package instead of just having her deliver the package itself"!

VI. I like that the NYT called me a poet—I'm not! I'm just a poet of...life?! Wha...

Dizzies Newsfeeds for February 13

I. Molls reflects on A Hard Day's Night over at Hey Dullblog.

II. Time for self-reflection: I tend to use "over at" a lot, when I'm linking.

III. Heart-wrenching Pinakothek; Waughdehousiana from Levi.

IV. I'm a big Light Reader, but now I'm also reading Jenny's other blog—Triaspirational! It has stuff like this, which I don't understand:

2 x 50 free on 1:05

3 x 50 choice on 1:20

2 x 50 free on 1:00

3 x 50 choice on 1:20

2 x 50 choice on :55

50 easy swim

But also a delightful use of "Hmmm...":

One reason I know I'm fretting about half-marathon pace and times is that I am (pointlessly; procrastinatorily!) thinking ahead to my first marathon in November.

Like many runners, I obsess about arbitrary times that end with zeroes!

(Hmmm, should convert everything into someone's wayward eighteenth-century or science-fictional decimal time system and shake up those expectations...)

V. Also, there's a new New-York Ghost.

Between the Bibles, and Any Witch Way You Can

Our Molls lashes back with a spiritual drama that is also a palindrome of sorts....



...but is it enough to fend off this playful assault from Idalia?

American dreams

The Dizzies is proud to present the first entry in the title bout challenge—Dizzyhead Mollie's epic narrative of striving and ignominy:

"I used my fiancé's library—with its many books about finance and religion, as well as lots of great literature in paperback—for this (and another one I'm still perfecting), and what I came up with reminds me of those "cinquains" I used to write in grade school... except it's more than 5 lines. I am the epic novelist of bookstacking, apparently."

If you can't see the titles: An American Dream, How to Make Money in Stocks, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, The Virtue of Selfishness, An Area of Darkness, Losing Ground, Harvest of Sorrow, Interrogations at Noon, The Defense, Crime and Punishment, An American Tragedy

The uses of boredom — Parlor game — "The Best Approach" to Shakespeare

"A Case of Boredom," Ghita Schwarz's excellent essay in the new Believer, is featured on the Wisconsin Public Radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge. Hear Ghita read from her piece, and learn what scientists are saying about boredom—it's not boring at all!

* * *

About a day after I listened to the segment, I came across another Ghita, or rather Ghitta, in something I was reading: a reference to the Hungarian photographer Ghitta Carell. I realized why the name was so fascinating—it's that abecedarian cluster of letters at the beginning.

A B C D E F G H I t-t-a...

This suggested a game of sorts—how many writers/artists can you think of whose names contain three letters in alphabetical order?

GHIta Schwarz/GHItta Carell
Oscar HIJuelos
Seth MNOokin
Mos DEF

* * *

Dizzyhead Mollie has a very funny take on the Times review of the Theater of the Blind production of A Midsummer Night's Dream ("Every single assertion is completely false!"). Her own response to the show is worth reading:

I knew I was in trouble as soon as I read the "Director's Note." Directors and academics are always claiming to have found The Best Approach to interpreting and/or performing Shakespeare, but it takes a special kind of pomposity to claim, as director Ike Schambelan does in his notes for the Theater by the Blind production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, that "this is a deeply revolutionary production, so entertaining and clear that you never want to see another Shakespeare that doesn't let him speak in his own form, his own voice."

Leaving the theatre two hours later, the boyfriend said to me, "He was right about one thing—I never want to see another production of Shakespeare."

Heidi — Mollie — Visualization

I was going to post this yesterday—Heidi is interviewed by Robert Birnbaum. (Via the other Ed.)

* * *

In other developments, intern of yore Mollie Wilson now blogs! Her site is called Restricted View, dwelling mostly on matters theatrical. (Sample lede: "Quick, what’s your favorite Restoration comedy? I’ll wait while you decide.") But she also writes about Law & Order, the show she loved so much she once gave it up for Lent! Highly recommended.

* * *

And via Equanimity, check out this Periodic Table of Visualization, which reminds me of Michael Gerber and Jonathan Schwarz's Periodic Table of Rejected Elements (originally in The Atlantic, reproduced here).