I tried uniformly applying a variety of “systems” — note cards, wall-sized outlines, all kinds of things. Color-coding and cross-referencing may or may not have been involved. I may or may not own a triple hole-punch. Ultimately, though, I felt I was spending more time playing reporter/writer than being reporter/writer—the systems search, I realized, was a form of procrastination. Here’s what I do now, and it’s very basic: Bring the scraps back to the nest, arrange them chronologically, develop a timeline that shows everything more clearly, and then build out from there, hewing to that backbone yet following each thread to its known end. That’s just an organizing principle, [...]
For the few who care about hilarity in Brooklyn politics, watching old Edolphus Towns give the finger to everyone by endorsing wonderful New York City councilman Charles Barron for his seat in the House of Representatives is just terrific—particularly as Ed Koch comes rolling out of his apartment to trash him. He's what Wall Street doesn't want! We've tried before, but now it's time to do this thing! Charles Barron for Congress!
"Yet, increasingly, the pundits who had been laughing at her antics are beginning to say that she could be a candidate for the Republican nomination, especially if Ms. Palin decides not to run." —Run, Michele Bachmann, run! Two things: 1. "Increasingly" alert. (Where!?) 2. Yay! Yes please, on all counts!
Um! Enthusiasts of the work of Jay Kang (this and this) will be interested in this: "Crown's Lindsay Sagnette made a six-figure pre-empt for North American rights to a debut novel by Columbia M.F.A. Jay Kang. Sterling Lord's Jim Rutman sold The Dead Do Not Improve, which the publisher is comparing to works by Junot Díaz and Gary Shteyngart. The novel follows a frustrated young writer with an M.F.A. who becomes the focus of a "violent scheme," per the publisher, after his neighbor is murdered. Crown said the book follows the protagonist as he wanders through 'a suddenly menacing, unknowable San Francisco, fending off militant surfers, [...]
Local blogger Lydia Davis is blogging about translation, in anticipation of her new translation of Madame Bovary: "We say to ourselves, complacently looking to Darwin, that [translations] will compete with one another and the fittest will survive. But a significant problem is that the fittest will not necessarily be the best, although it, or they, may be. The ones that survive may be the best edited, and/or the best promoted, and/or the cheapest, and/or the ones accompanied by the most useful apparatus…."
Death Culture at Sea, with Awl pal Matthew Gallaway on guitar and vocals, has released an EP, "God Loves Lola," which can be downloaded here. They have amps!
