Amazon, which recently entered the world of original broadcast content, has subverted television’s traditional “pilot season” by forgoing a staggered release schedule in favor of plunking all fourteen of its pilots onto its website at once. The idea is for audiences to watch the eight comedies and six animated shows for free, and then help the company decide which options are the most promising for long term development. Just a tip: Alpha House features appearances from John Goodman and Bill Murray.
Amazon Releases Fourteen Pilots
Down South
“We’re both gay boys from the south, and we both write about growing up in places that deny the value and dignity of LGBTQ lives.” Garth Greenwell and Garrard Conley are headed to North Carolina! It’s not too late to catch the duo as they hit the second leg of their reading/anti-HB2 events across the Old North State.
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Telling the Truth
“There is no such thing as a true story. I know this because my daughter insists I told her to put her dirty dishes in the sink when I know I told her to put them in the dishwasher.” Over at The Rumpus, Ellen Urbani writes about telling the truth.
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Best Foreign Fiction from Jessa Crispin
Jessa Crispin offers “Picks for Best Foreign Fiction,” at NPR, including selections from Russia, Colombia, the Netherlands, and Israel.
Notebook on Cities and Words
“We believe in the digital with abandon. So when something of artisanal quality is placed in our hands, or we see something hanging on a wall drawn by an actual hand, we feel a little shock. We remember how to feel something. Maybe not quite an emotion, but the touch of paper does something to us. We use our senses again.” Celebrating fifty years of the French publisher L’école des Loisirs, Gnaomi Siemens reflects on the power of hand-drawn images and the future of the book.
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