Is Music Like Language?

Rather than try to encapsulate what Clive has said so well and then steal his links, I'll link you straight in to Clive's post and let him fill you in. Trust me, it's really interesting. Just come back afterwards, 'kay? (Thompson's a great writer, and very successful too, but I gotta ask - where the fuck does he get the time?)



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It is clear that Nick Hornby must die

William Shatner, of Tambourine Man fame, is set to release his second solo album. It appears kitsch IS a kind of currency...

Captain Kirk teamed up with Ben Folds (yes, that Ben Folds) to create this pop-driven new album. The majority of the album was written by the duo, with the exceptions of "Trying," co-written by Folds and novelist Nick Hornby (yes, the guy behind High Fidelity)

That which we have long feared has finally come to pass. Go to plan Zeta, code Blue.



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Just the other day I turned to Press Gal and said, "Whatever happened to Sebastian Bach of Skid Row?"
Thankfully, the Globe and Mail has the answer.


The former lead singer of hair-metal band Skid Row has re-invented himself as a Broadway star, most recently touring the United States in the title role of Jesus Christ Superstar.


You'd think an article on rock stars would at least get the spelling of Axl Rose right though.

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You have bad taste in music

Okay, this isn't book related, but dammit, someone should do this at a Danielle Steel book signing... (Note: the videos are the funny part.) (From Incoming Signals)



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Notes on the lyric

Carl Wilson looks at the literary icon as rock lyricist...

Despite any stigma, in recent years such authors as Denis Johnson (Jesus' Son), mystery writer Carl Hiaasen, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and Canada's Guy Vanderhaeghe have become backstage Cyranos, putting words in the mouths of those with better voices and bigger hair.
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In centuries past, it was common for eminent novelists such as Henry Fielding, Ivan Turgenev or André Gide to write words for music, usually as opera librettos. But when opera was eclipsed by pop, writers staged a walkout. Poets and even music critics since then have often turned into songwriters; but serious novelists, almost never.

Novel writing was the 20th century's most upwardly mobile, bourgeois literary pursuit. You could be an author and a composer, such as Paul Bowles, or a fine singer such as James Joyce (whose wife Nora reportedly said late in life that her husband should have stuck to music). But to dally with pop would have seemed too cheap or, for the higher-minded, too commercial.

And it's nice to see him quoting from such prestigious, reliable, downright sexy sources, too...



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Rock on!
Apparently it's Maud singing backup on this adaptation of one of my favourite songs of all time, Iron Maiden's "Die With Your Boots On"!

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Sine Fiction
Very cool project to create soundtracks for classic sci-fi texts, so you can have some ambient noise while reading. They've got a good list here, including 1984, "The Nine Billion Names of God" and good old We. Ambitious list of future projects too. I think I'll put these on all day to drown out the apocalyptic cawings of the gulls outside.

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Where music and poetry meet

New England. That state is, like, so gay.



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Poetry and music

I was actually listening to "Famous Blue Raincoat" when I came across this article.* Some keywords to pique your interest: Leonard Cohen, Rufus Wainwright, Birth of a Nation, Nick Cave, William Burroughs, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tom Waits, and Francis Bacon. Hot.




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Edited by author 06-09-2005 09:21 AM
Bach spotted in Germany

A new handwritten aria has been found in a book of poetry that Bach apparently gave to the Duke of Weimar. No mention of who the poet was.

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The Dream King and the Gorillaz
Neil Gaiman interviews the animated pop band Gorillaz and the conversation inevitably turns to zombies. You can never go wrong with zombies.

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Edited by author 07-25-2005 12:06 PM
Safran Foer caught cross-dressing in Berlin

I mean crossing genres.

Seven Attempted Escapes From Silence, an opera with a libretto by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, will debut at the Berlin State Opera on September 14.

I'd say, if you are a Bookninja Berliner this would be one to catch.

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Rock rock rock rock, rock-n-roll novels!

Bookslut's resident punk-assed-bitch (wait, is that still good?), Michael Schaub, throws down the rock novel gauntlet. I held my breath as I read this list, not wanting to kill someone who has become a good cyber friend. Luckily, he mentions Hard Core Logo. It's the same old story: how close we come to dealing out screaming, shuriken-addled deaths on a daily basis and don't even know.


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