The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
Review of Look at the Birdie. By Kurt Vonnegut. Delacorte Press, 251 pps., $27.00 Posthumous publishing could be called the business of endings. It often...
Paul Soglin: Waxing America (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
On a favorite new site, Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, Shaun Usher posts original versions and transcripts of "fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos." While most are really interesting, this first letter from Kurt Vonnegut to his family after he survived being a German POW in World War II is gripping. As Vonnegut readers know, he survived...
CBC Radio 3 (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
I wonder how many music journalists this year have succumbed to drawing the obvious parallel between Dan Managan's latest album title and his own personality. So let me be the 150th. Dan Mangan is definitely a nice, nice, very nice guy, BUT his music is anything but. Don't think beige when you think of the bearded bard, that one Halifax newspaper called "a dream boat". You won't catch me...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
Innovative editor, publisher and literary agent with a love of the good life William Miller, who has died aged 75, lived a life of many passions, but perhaps the most enduring of these was to try to make "good books popular and popular books good". And, first as an editor, then as a publisher, and finally as an agent, that is what Miller did. His first job was as an editor under Frank Rudman,...
Foma* (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
Original here The latest storyline in 9 Chickweed Lane (aka The Horniest Strip In Print) has to do with Grandma Edie retelling the tale of how she aided the war effort. In today's episode, a mysterious officer recruits Edie to become a singer for the Reich under deep cover. That story sure does sound familiar. Like maybe Howard W. Campbell Jr. in Mother Night . Methinks somebody owes Kurt Vonnegut...
Thinking About... (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man who has come unstuck in time. Much of Billy’s time is spent during World War II. As an new soldier, Billy is sent to the front, where he is captured at the Battle of the Bulge by the Germans, and sent to Dresden [...]
the beat bike blog (Free subscription) | 11/22/2009
"Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God." -Kurt Vonnegut I've always been fond of both that quote and peculiar travel suggestions in general. This is why I was all ears when Josh put forth the proposition that we should ride our bikes from Hartford to a bike show and swap meet in Dudley, Massachusetts this past Saturday. He mapped out a route that would take us through 50+...
Hitchens Watch (Free subscription) | 11/22/2009
Angrysoba shares his thoughts on one of the most readable of Britain's new generation of old fogies — Theodore Darlymple — together with a few reading recommendations. By the way, the photo is not of Dalrymple nor Soba nor Me, but Victor Meldrew, the sort of character I think Dalrymple (real name: Anthony Daniels ) has molded his persona upon. — Greywolf A few weeks ago someone posted...
Blog Made for the Purposes of One P (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
... I was standing in line at the Met at 8 A.M. and heard my Dad exclaim, "Evan! Look! It's Kurt Vonnegut!" and I froze and watched him pass and my Dad mused aloud, "Where is he?" and I turned around and he was right there right behind me -- looming and glowering -- and so I kept on turning, my back as stiff as an arrow.
Geekologie (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
I can't even imagine weaving bacon so tight as to not let liquid (well, molten cheese ) through, but apparently somebody did. My hat oven mitts are off to you, bacon mug maker. Cause one time I tried weaving bacon and it didn't even make a solid placemat. It did, however, make a solid after-school snack. Kidding, I'm vegetarian. Did you feel that? That was your head imploding. Bacon Beer Mug [thisisfreakingridiculous]...
Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
I've made no secret of my fondness for Grace Metalious's Peyton Place , and I've also mentioned Vin Packer's The Girl on the Best Seller List. Packer might be best-known for her lesbian-themed fiction for Gold Medal, but she wrote a number of quality crime novels for the line. Sometimes the novels might be based on actual cases ( The Evil Friendship ). In this case, it's the author imagining what might...
yewknee.com (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Posting this as a reminder to myself and a decent heads up to you.. Find time to read these: The Uncollected Stories of JD Salinger, Collected . The title pretty much says it all. Letters of Note: Kurt Vonnegut - a short read but an important one as it is a letter sent from Vonnegut during his time in Dresden; which pretty much shaped the rest of his life. Also, remember to thank Kate for providing...
Fraggmented (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
OK, I still must be at least a tiny little bit sick, because my brain just stopped dead to consider how funny the word "Peeve" looked, and wonder if it was somehow etymologically related to "reeve", and now I'm trying to remember what the heck a "reeve" actually is, but I'm too lazy to wiki it... Anyhow, my pet irritation of the day: Science-fiction authors who insist...
virtualreview: china|blogs (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Flickr/kudumomo Our story on China's earliest snowfall in decades got picked up by Green Patriot Radio, which interviewed me on the ins and outs of the country's extensive rainmaking program. Among the trivia I share: - Rainmaking technology was...
Eco Friendly Mag (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Fake Snow in China, Kurt Vonnegut’s Brother, Falling Cement and Other Weather-Mod Tales Flickr/kudumomo Our story on China’s earliest snowfall in decades got picked up by Green Patriot Radio, which interviewed me on the ins and outs of the country’s extensive rainmaking program. Among the trivia I share: - Rainmaking technology was first [...]
Videos