An interview with John Ashbery at Guernica Magazine.

Martin found this on galleycat. It's ridiculous and funny. In support of his new novel, The Learners, Chip Kidd's got this on YouTube:

People LOVE Common Good Books!

In Honor of Valentine's Day/Suggested Readings for Procrastinating Romantics

Elmer suggests:

The Art of Loving by Eric Fromm

The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford

Suggested Short Stories from Joe. These short masterpieces show the thematic possibilities of love in an unconventional light. A mother and daughter bond after a divorce; a young girl raises pigeons in an inner city D.C. neighborhood. These stories prove that love can be complicated, difficult, and messy. Just like real life:

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

The Girl Who Raised Pigeons by Edward P. Jones

The Fat Girl by Andre Dubus

The Kid's Guide to Divorce by Lorrie Moore

Suggested Poem From David:

"Having A Coke With You" by Frank O'Hara

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonneor
being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluoresent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I'm with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o'clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look

at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it's in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven't gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn't pick the rider as carefully
as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

(Not the correct line breaks, due to Blogger limitations. It's still good.)

Read & Love, y'all.

20th Annual MN Book Awards Finalists Announced

Some names that have come up a few times here since this blog began appear on the list for the 20th Annual MN Book Awards as well: Garrison Keillor, Patricia Hampl, Kevin Kling.

Charles Baxter's The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot is in the General Nonfiction category. His new book, The Soul Thief, comes out on Tuesday. Here's an excerpt from the first chapter, and you can pre-order here. (If you read the bio from Ploughshares and the first chapter of The Soul Thief, notice what the person on the West Coast says after reading one of Baxter's early novels and the way Jerome Coolberg describes Nathaniel Mason when talking about his name. A little insight into the working mind of this author, eh?)

Others on the list are Leslie Adrienne Miller for The Resurrection Trade and Eireann Lorsung for Music for Landing Planes By, both books of poetry; The Wet Collection by Joni Tevis--a nonfiction collection that I know at least one of the judges is very excited about; and William Kent Krueger for his novel Thunder Bay.

Winners will be announced on April 12.

With the closing of Zander Cafe our community is down one important business. As our economy slips into that dreaded "R" word that no one really wants to mention, but is all too real; now, more than ever, there is a need to focus our attention on where we shop and why we shop where we do.

The fact is independently-owned businesses help the local economy. A study done by Civic Economics and published by Livable City in Austin, Texas showed that every $100 spent at chain stores puts $13 back in the local economy, while the same $100 spent at a locally-owned store puts $45 back into circulation in the area. With all the talk of tax rebates and economic stimulus package and everyone wondering just what to do about the situation we find ourselves in, here we have something concrete that can be done to help the economy.

We've all heard the arguments for buying local and independent: knowledgeable sales people; inventory chosen by that staff to represent the desires of the customer, rather than by a corporate office only concerned with bottom-line issues; quality of product; et al. But these are only discussion points for the dinner table if we don't put them into action and actually start buying from the people who have literally set up shop in our communities in an effort to not only advance their businesses, but to advance the communities where they put those businesses. A quick scan of home addresses of local business owners in any area would show an important point: the owners (and many times, most of the staff) live where they have chosen to work; they are invested in ways that chain retailers are not.

So, here in Cathedral Hill we're--is mourning too strong a word? If so, we're thinking of a neighbor who had been a staple of this neighborhood, but who has now shut down operation. In times of economic despair, the big businesses will survive; they have the money backing them to outlast the rough tide. The same cannot be said with any certainty for the smaller, independent shops.

President Bush's proposed budget eliminates funding for Reading Is Fundamental.*

Read the official statement from Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO, of Reading Is Fundamental, here. Seems like a valuable program...more valuable than some of the places our money is going.

If you feel like contacting members of Congress and telling them to reinstate funding, click here.


*From web site: "Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, motivates children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. RIF’s highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provides 4.6 million children with 15 million new, free books and literacy resources each year."

McSweeney's Knows Funny

In honor of Superbowl Sunday the hilarious folks over at McSweeney's put up one of their priceless lists. Click here to laugh.

The Erdrich Sisters

The three sisters will be reading at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Minneapolis Public Library. I had Heid as a writing professor at the University of St. Thomas -- a great teacher. Among other things, she introduced me to another of my favorite Minnesota (kind of) writers: Bart Schneider. Rumor has it he may be close to finishing his next book. I hope so.

-David