A history book by local authors about music created in the Pacific Northwest? Of course I was going to read to 26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie’s Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest by Greg Vandy and Daniel Person, and of course I was going to like it. It […]
It all started with an act of kindness to a passer-by. A man saw a paperback copy of Norman Podheretz's Making It as part of a used book sale spread out on a blanket on the street, and asked the flith-smeared fellow who placed it there how much he wanted for it. It was just a […]
Hard Listening is the biography of a rock supergroup (consisting mostly of best-selling authors) that lasted for twenty years (playing to audiences that consisted mostly of librarians). Hard Listening is an experiment in multimedia literature, with interactive quizzes and video clips in addition to the standard interviews and essays. But really, at its heart, Hard […]
Even though he’s not from around here, it would be hard to name any single person who has had more influence on Seattle’s indie music than Neil Young. From Pearl Jam to Fleet Foxes and just about everyone in between, Seattle owes a pretty big debt to the fiercely independent folk-jam rocker. This year is […]
There is a feeling of neurotic helplessness I sometimes suffer from; when I realize I live in a world where I have the freedom to make infinite choices over what music I listen to, what gigs I attend and what literature I choose to delve into. There is such an overload of witty, critical music […]
Deep Focus is a new line of small but richly rewarding studies, the first one about a favorite film by a great writer, Christopher Sorrentino. They’re cheap and hot little books perfect for reading at the bus stop, before a movie or concert, and especially along with a DVD of the flick being playfully examined. […]
For those who were thrilled by the tribute to film noir at this year's Seattle International Film Festival, and are craving that same sexy, dark psychosis in some graphic novels, locally-based/internationally renowned publisher Fantagraphics recently put out three books to cooly creep out your summer. Abandoned Cars: Stories by Tim Lane was released last […]
Have you ever seen Eraserhead? In David Lynch’s first B&W Surrealist mind-hump of a movie, there is scene with a little song the “Lady in the Radiator” sings in which the only lyrics are: “In heaven, everything is fine.” It is a supremely affecting and menacing moment in an art film filled with them. Josh […]
“We’ve always been of the mind that it’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.” –Eddie Spaghetti, The Supersuckers. So begins We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut: 1988-2001 by Eric Davidson, whose name you may have seen on by-lines for succinct, sucker-punching articles in Village Voice media papers and on […]
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atWbirC77SY] This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, March 13 and 14) Seattle area comics fans have a big old funny book hootenanny to party at inside the Washington State Convention Center. There are some panels and huge rooms full of comics and toys being sold. Also, dealers of another kind: I found the bootleg soundtrack to […]
