http://www.lacunae.com/ Douglas Wolk's digital simulacrum en-us mt@douglaswolk.com Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:45:10 -0800 http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000564.html I got back from Burning Man on Tuesday afternoon; it's taken me this long to write up notes because I came back very, very tired--I've been sleeping at least ten hours every day, and just starting to feel something like normal again. I've discovered that I'm pretty good at sleep deprivation, but that debt does mount up. My main personal project this year was a two-part thing. I printed up a set of stickers from the Black Rock City Department of Requests, labeled "ASK ME"; I'd go up to people and tell them that I was from the Dept.... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000563.html I'm headed away on vacation; between now and September 4, I will not be checking email (or able to get phone messages). So if you write to me and I don't write back promptly, don't think it's because I don't want to hear from you. See you all after Labor Day!... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000562.html A few more links, in lieu of my having any actual non-promotional-type experiences to blog about (other than Liz & Mike's wedding, which was magnificent but would require more time to detail than I've got here): A nice review from Peter Terzian in Newsday! Chris Mautner interviewed me over at Newsarama! New York magazine thinks Reading Comics falls about 2/3 of the way along the "despicable"/"brilliant" axis! (It's on the good side. And just barely above the "highbrow"/"lowbrow" line.) Apparently the issue of Vibe with Barack Obama on the cover has a good review of Live at the Apollo! I... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000561.html Tom Nissley interviewed me over at the the Amazon Bookstore blog! Tomorrow from 4 to 7 PM I'll be at Comix Experience in San Francisco, 305 Divisadero St., along with at least three of the other Savage Critics. Come kibitz with us. And then Sunday I'll be reading--not from Reading Comics but from Live at the Apollo!--and signing at Pegasus Bookstore, 2349 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley, at 7:30 PM, along with two other 33 1/3 authors, Kate Schatz and Shawn Taylor. Quick mental arithmetic suggests that I have over 11,000 words due in the next week, and basically no wiggle... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000560.html Up now: the first installment of my new weekly column at The New Republic's site, "The Critical Browser"--literary analysis of the political Web. (I kinda wanted to call it "The Strict Deconstructionist," but I seem to be the only person who thought that was funny.)... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000559.html Chris Eckert reads Countdown so I don't have to...! Schuler's Books reading went great, & quite a few people from my past put in appearances, including Ray Walsh, Dan Mishkin, Evy Wood and Randall Scott. More details when it's not quite so late at night, probably.... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000558.html Thank you, Monica! Thank you, Linsey! Thank you, Mairead! Thank you, everyone else who made Chicago such a pleasure! Really fun reading at Quimby's in Chicago last night. I figured I should do something place-appropriate, so I made up a Jimmy Corrigan theme song I sang to a very familiar melody: Corrigan, Corrigan Timid little round-headed man Scared of girls, bored at work Lonely heir to a line of jerks Look out! It's Jimmy Corrigan Is he sad? Listen, chum-- His stepsister thinks Jimmy's scum! Is God dead? Look around-- He's in a pool of blood on the ground! Hey... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000557.html Rod Lott at Bookgasm really likes Reading Comics. Kiel Phegley at Wizard did an interview with me. This may be the most entertaining riff I've ever seen on something I've written. Me? I'm in Chicago, reading at Quimby's on Saturday night. I vaguely remember that I used to sleep, but I'm not sure any more how one does it.... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000556.html A review of Death Note over at Salon! I'm in San Diego, and... there sure are a lot of people here. My. Really, there are an awful lot of people here. I just took up Idolator's challenge to condense "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" into a limerick in this Zoilus post... only to find that Carl had already done it better.... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000554.html The reviews are continuing to come in: Steve Duin at the Oregonian! The comics panel at The Onion! Jeet Heer in The Globe and Mail! Lewis Shiner in the Raleigh News & Observer! Michael Sims in the L.A. Times! I'm having a good weekend!... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000553.html The fabulous Cecil "Seaskull" Castellucci just posted my "mix tape" of ten amazing punk YouTube videos over at Beige Is Punk! My first post at The Savage Critic(s) wasn't about Essential Defenders after all--it's about Giant-Size Marvel Adventures The Avengers #1, except actually it isn't. And thanks to Amadeo over at El Baile Moderno, there's an interview with me in Spanish. The Spanish isn't mine, by the way.... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000551.html A bunch of errors crept into the first printing of Reading Comics. (I say that in a passive sort of way, but in fact I put all of them there.) In the spirit of Franklin Bruno's Adcidents Will Happen, I figured it'd be wise or at least useful to have a "virtual errata slip" online until I can correct them in future editions. Pg. 83: With regard to the "Journal of MODOK Studies": "MODOK" is a "Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing," not a "Mechanical Organism...," and there are three issues to date, not "at least four issues." Thanks to... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000550.html Links keep popping up! Whitney Matheson of USA Today interviewed me for her Pop Candy podcast; there's also a little excerpt from Reading Comics there. Plus a plug for Keven McAlester's Roky Erickson movie! And Nextbook.org has a piece I wrote about Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp's Testament. Gabe Roth has some kind things to say about Reading Comics, too. Thank you, Gabe!... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000549.html The sidebar usually takes care of this stuff, but I figured I should indicate where I'm going to be over the next month for people who get an RSS feed; more details will be filled in when I've got 'em! July 25-29: Comic-Con International in San Diego July 26: "Drawing Style and Storytelling" panel, 12:30-2 PM (with Darwyn Cooke, Carla Speed McNeil, Colleen Coover, Cameron Stewart, and possibly a special guest--unfortunately, Brian Wood probably won't be able to make it) Signing at Comic Relief booth, 2-3:30 PM July 28: "Meet the Press: Writing About Comics" panel, 10:30-11:30 AM (with Heidi... http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000548.html Link time. I contributed today's "Book Notes" entry over at Largehearted Boy--a playlist of 15 songs that are vaguely relevant to Reading Comics. Some of them have YouTube or MP3 links, too! This is also how I learned that I have a Wikipedia entry. (Well, a stub.) Immortality is mine. A review of James Brown's The Singles, Vol. Three over at Pitchfork. And word seems to have gotten around about this, but I've just joined the new All-Star Justice League lineup of The Savage Critic(s). Not sure what my first post is going to be, or when, exactly, but I...