David Foster Wallace–readings [audio] (2000-2005)

[LISTENED TO: October 20, 2010] Readings This (all too brief) collection of readings by David Foster Wallace includes several excerpts and a few shorter pieces.  I’ve noticed that there seem to be more and more videos (audios) of DFW reading on YouTube.  If I had time I would try to gather all of these videos [...]

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James Joyce–Dubliners (Part II) (1914) [audio book]

[LISTENED TO: October 20, 2010] Dubliners Part II This collection covers the last five stories from the book.  They are all longer stories, especially the fantastic novella “The Dead,” which runs well over an hour.  The titles included in Part II are: A Painful Case Ivy Day in the Committee Room A Mother Grace The Dead [...]

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Antonya Nelson–”Party of One” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK Hello Hawk (1999). Hello Hawk is another of my favorite Superchunk songs (and it’s vastly different from “Hyper Enough”).  It opens with some really interesting guitar noodling.  And then after a bridge that promises a noisy chorus, the chorus backs down into another gentle section (followed by the loud and heavy post chorus…a [...]

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William T. Vollmann–”The Saviors” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-”watery hands” (1997). Even though I enjoy the manic energy of early Superchunk, I find myself really enjoying the later, more “sophisticated” songs. “Watery Hands” continues this more “sweet” sound that Superchunk has been exploring.  It also includes a cool break that offers a little bass solo as well as even more keyboards (so [...]

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Rick Moody–Garden State (1992)

SOUNDTRACK: PETER, BJORN & JOHN-Living Thing (2009). After the raging (relative) success of Writer’s Block, with their crazily catchy whistling song, “Young Folks”, PB&J could have gone in any direction. And I was quite surprised when the opening song of this follow up (actually, there’s an instrumental disc in between) opened with single note and [...]

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David Foster Wallace–eulogies [audio] (2008)

[LISTENED TO: October 19, 2010] David Foster Wallace Eulogies There are some really nice eulogies done for when DFW died.  The official (written) memorial service eulogies (from Jonathan Franzen, Zadie Smith, George Saunders and others) are available here (from an outstanding online journal called Five Dials).  They’re all beautiful (I was amused that the second [...]

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Allegra Goodman–”The Local Production of Cinderella” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-Laughter Guns EP (1996). The first track “A Small Definition” is a surprisingly slow track from them.  Even when the band kicks in about midway through, it’s still a fairly mellow sound  And yet it is not a light track by any means.  (A nice squalling guitar solo certainly helps.)  But in case you [...]

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A.M. Homes–”Raft in Water, Floating” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-Hyper Enough (1995). “Hyper Enough” is one of my favorite songs of all time. I don’t know if there’s much more that i can say about it. “Never Too Young to Smoke” sounds surprisingly like a Cure song to me.  The guitar seems very unSuperchunk and Mac’s voice even has traces of Robert Smith in [...]

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James Joyce–Dubliners (Part I) (1914) [audio book]

[LISTENED TO: October 5, 2010] Dubliners Part I I found listening to Ulysses to be rather satisfying.  And, since I have recently commenced an indoor exercise regime, I thought it would be “fun” to listen to some audio books during the workout.  I started with Dubliners because and because Jim Norton is the reader (and [...]

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David Foster Wallace–interviews [audio] (1996-2005)

[LISTENED TO: Week of October 10, 2010] David Foster Wallace interviews There will soon be a group read of Consider David Foster Wallace, a book of essays about, yes, David Foster Wallace.  In a sort of preparation for the group read, I decided to immerse myself in the available audio files online. The David Foster [...]

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