Month: June 2006

Three from this month’s issue of The Believer. First, from the liner notes to the enclosed music compilation CD:

…we figured we could permanently erode the listener’s sense of the world, which is what, we are certain, any music worth its mettle wants of its spectators.

From Rick Cohen’s essay on Elvis, Sinatra, and “My Way”:

If Elvis was having a bad day, he would say, “My mouth feels like Bob Dylan’s been sleeping in it.”

And from Nick Hornby’s monthly book column:

I was actually in North Carolina when I finished The March [which chronicles William Sherman’s journey to the state] — this is something I like to do when I’m particularly enjoying a novel, despite the cost. (Did you know that there’s no such planet as Titan? Vonnegut just made it up. They could have put that on the jacket, no? Oh well. You live and learn.)

Say what you will about Kevin Smith and his upcoming film Clerks II, I find this very interesting:

In an ingenious new ploy, he has recorded a commentary for “Clerks II” that will be available for free download on iTunes, encouraging viewers to take their iPods to the theater for a second viewing.

I’m a fan of most of Smith’s work, having seen everything but Jersey Girl, so I’ll probably end up seeing this one as well. The commentary, though, will probably have to wait until DVD.

Regarding the furor over Alan Moore’s new Lost Girls, Neil Gaiman makes an interesting point:

And I keep wondering what would have happened if Shakespeare had given the revenue to Romeo and Juliet to the Cheap Street Home for Indigents and Mendicants, and Parliament had enshrined some kind of perpetual copyright in the law for that play. I don’t think it would have been a good thing in the long term, even if many mendicants and beggars were helped by it, because it would have removed a piece of world culture from the table.

I don’t mind watching ads to view free online content. I don’t like it, and I’ll try to avoid it whenever possible, but for the most part I understand and accept it.

But does it have to be the same ad, over and over and over again? Sheesh.