Palahniuk Ripped Off
Guitarist Steve Vai recalls asking Frank Zappa for advice. “What’s the one thing you would tell an aspiring musician?” the awe struck kid asked. Zappa took a piece of paper and scribbled something down. He handed it to the young musician who opened up the scrap and saw a name and a phone number. “Music…
continue reading
Sally Field, BEA 2018, and the “C” Word
The first thing I noticed upon entering the Javits Center’s #BEA2018 was the above poster of a young Sally Field, circa The Cannonball Run. “She must have a book coming out,” I thought, and, being Master of the Obvious, I was right: “In Pieces,” Sally Field’s autobiography, debuts on September 18th, 2018 through Hachette’s Grand…
continue reading
Philip Roth Has Died
Philip Roth died yesterday at the age of 85 from congestive heart failure. And ? what else can be written about Philip Roth that hasn?t already been written? Or that Roth himself hasn?t written? Self-exploration?starring America, Newark, Jewishness, and sex?drove the plot of many of Roth?s novels, most notably Portnoy?s Complaint, where the title character…
continue reading
The Bonfire Extinguished
Pamela Paul, editor of the New York Times Book Review, described Tom Wolfe’s death as the “passing of an era.? He was known for coining phrases such as “radical chic”?a derogatory term for pretentious liberals?and “the Me Decade,? which described the self-indulgence of the 1970s. Wolfe once told the Wall Street Journal: “I think every…
continue reading
Montfort on the future
Nick Montfort, author of The Future recently sat down with Slushpile patron saint John Biggs for an episode of the Technotopia podcast. A professor in Comparative Media Studies/Writing at MIT, Montfort advocates a “future making” perspective. Instead of just trying to predict the future, he advises, folks should strive to shape and influence the future.
continue reading