Brain Dump

Stream of Consciousness links post today, folks:

First of all, I am super excited that Jonathan Lethem won a MacArthur Fellowship. Actually, check out his site, the front pages cycles through a number of different images each time you load it.

He's one of my favorite genre fiction writers, or perhaps cross-genre writer would be a better description. He's written a bizarre romance between a man, woman & a scientific anomaly. He's written the story of a teenage girl that is a frontier-environmental psychological novel that takes place on another planet -- that has deer the size of mice.

I really loved Motherless Brooklyn, which is the story of a detective with Tourette's, which is being made into a movie by Edward Norton, who will also be starring as Lionel. I don't know how many of you saw The Score, but I think he'll do a faithful, yet tasteful job of playing someone with Tourette's. It should be interesting since in the book Lionel is perfectly able to narrate to us in normal tones about what's going on & how he responds to his Tourette's. But the tics themselves are considerably harder to handle.

While I'm on the subject of movie adaptations, I'm quite interested in Steve Martin's Shopgirl. I liked the novella quite a bit. It reads a bit like Milan Kundera, but in an American style, that is to say, it's a bit lighter. Instead of being set against, say, the Prague Spring, this May to December romance/love triangle is set in New York at the end of the 90s. Plus it's got Jason Schwartzman & Claire Danes. [hawt]

I've also been fascinated by the combination of plotting information on to Google Maps. There's the obvious usefulness of posting real estate listings. There's the pure entertainment of mapping HotOrNot. And there's the strange mixture of the two when you start mapping sex offenders.

Maybe even better than Nixon Bowling, is the ability to check out Celebrities Playing Table Tennis. Man, I wish I had a table. I also wish I had the Achiever's Edition of the Big Lebowski, which is coming out the same time as LebowskiFest-NYC this year. Yes, I'm a big nerd for wanting to go, but I have a feeling that Jim and I will hit the road one of these days for some serious bowling/movie action.

The British Library has an online exhibit of really old books, like the Diamond Sutra and Alice's Adventures Underground. I found the pages kind of hard to turn, but you can also have the audio read to you while you check it out.

Ever wonder to yourself, "What should I read next?" Well, here's a collection of answers for you. Just enter the last book you read, or a favorite book, and it'll do the rest.

If you are a fan, you might want to listen to cover versions of songs by The Magnetic Fields. Even if you are not a fan.

According to Jeff Roland, Sam Jackson is going to star in a movie about Snakes on a Plane. Damn.

For you hipsters out there, check out the annotated lyrics to LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge." Follow along at home. Tell your friends. You were there.

Finally, Will bananas become extinct?

Comments

[kate]

I watched the shopgirl preview and it hit all of the girl buttons in me and I teared up a bit. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THAT HAPPENS!!!
but I want to see the movie!

[Megan]

I am also enjoying Shopgirl. I wish I would have read it before seeing the preview. It has been sitting on my bookshelf for at least a year. Now when I read the book Claire Danes and Steve Martin appear in my mind. It is still a great read. I would highly recommend it.

[Max]

"Girl Buttons" is going to be the name of my next short novella.

[Sonali]

I am totally and utterly disappointed by the idea of a "Shopgirl" movie. It's been a novella for close to ten years now and I wish for once we could let things be in the form the author originally intended them to be it. Maybe Steve Martin's in the movie for quality control purposes, but I think this is horrible. And I hope evey cent of the money he makes off of it doesn't give him a moment's happiness.
I hate the movie industry.

[basil]

Who's to say Steve Martin's intentions didn't include adapting 'Shopgirl' from day one? He didn't have to allow the book to be developed...

[Andrea]

I just read Shopgirl (by read I mean listened to the book on tape) and am very excited to see the film version. But Claire Danes? She's so fresh-faced and happy, was picturing someone more tortured... I hope Steve Martin does the film justice.