John Cage–renowned composer, music theorist, writer, artist, and Zen enthusiast–is a a veritable treasure trove of Curiosities. Here’s a video from 1973 of Cage performing his most famous piece, 4’33”, in Harvard Square. It’s hard for even the man himself to top the genius of this inspired performance, however.
Do You Hear A Cricket?
Glitz and Glamor
Red carpet, DJs, Molly Ringwald – are the National Book Awards selling out?
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But Do Listen
Live in New York? Like Flavorpill? Then you should probably mosey on down to their event on Thursday, where they’ll be listening to the songwriter Holly Miranda and talking with Lindsay Hunter about her new book, Don’t Kiss Me. (If you’ll recall, our own Nick Moran wrote about Lindsay’s work here and here.)
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The L.A. Times Festival of Books
Speaking of festivals, recaps of last weekend’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books are up at Jacket Copy. Rafael Yglesias took home the top fiction prize for his novel, A Happy Marriage.
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Lorrie Moore, Short Stories, and America
Good news, fans of short stories, Lorrie Moore, and America! The author is editing a special edition of the Best American series, 100 Years of The Best American Short Stories, to be released in October.
Need Not Apply
“It may be vanity on my part … but I have a fairly high opinion of the two pieces that I sent in.” A 68-year-old aspiring writer has accused the Iowa Writers’ Workshop of age discrimination, reports The Los Angeles Times. In his complaint, Dan Thomson cites “statistics from the program that reveal that, in the last five years, just over 100 would-be graduate students over the age of 50 applied to the program, but none made the cut.” Doesn’t he know you don’t need an MFA, anyway?
Edwidge Danticat on Gabriel García Márquez
“I had always felt that [Gabriel] García Márquez’s short stories often took a back seat to his longer works, and that his deadpan dark humor was not discussed often enough,” writes Edwidge Danticat.
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Brief Encounters
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Dun-Dun
Planning on writing a prison scene? Worried your characters might sound a bit unrealistic? Then see if you can get your hands on the Bonne Terre dictionary. Written by inmates at a prison in Louisiana, the dictionary includes such idiosyncratic terms as “boat,” meaning a plastic bed, and “pumpkin,” meaning a new inmate.