A SHORT, insightful new book about the making of the modern world – told in microcosm – has just come from the pen of a noted indie rocker.Here at The Misread City, we’ve been impressed with the melancholy genius of Matt Kadane since the first record, What Fun Life Was, from his old band, Dallas slowcore quartet Bedhead. Like the group that followed, The New Year, Bedhead was defined by melodic … [Read more...]
Benjamin Nugent’s "Good Kids"
EVERY once in a while, something – a book, a short New York Times story, an n+1 essay – appears by a mysterious character named Benjamin Nugent, and damn if every time it isn't funny, smart and insightful.Now Nugent – who I’ve interviewed over the years on Elliott Smith, songcraft, and the history of nerd-dom – has a new novel called Good Kids. All I can tell you so far is that its opening … [Read more...]
The New York Literary Life
A few years ago -- before the crash, back when everything seemed to me moving forward more or less fine -- I went to New York to interview three youngish writers with first novels due. I asked:Is it possible to lead a dedicated literary life in the billionaire-filled, media-crazed New York of today? To be heedless of the material world as you burrow into novels and ideas the way the old Partisan … [Read more...]
The End of Jazz?
THIS year -- soon drawing to a close -- has gotten me thinking about the American songbook in a major way. Part of this is because of the publication of Ted Gioia's wonderful The Jazz Standards -- which has shown up on a number of year's best lists, and through which I have whiled away many hours.Another is the notorious Atlantic article, "The End of Jazz," which is both a review of the book and a … [Read more...]
The Soul of Bettye LaVette
HERE at The Misread City, we’re longtime fans of the LA-based biographer and ghostwriter David Ritz. Many of you know his work – his definitive biography of Marvin Gaye, Divided Soul, and his "collaborative autobiographies" of Ray Charles, Jerry Wexler, Cornel West, and many others. He’s among the most productive and genuinely soulful people we know. (Ritz is, among other things, a former student … [Read more...]
Publishing and the Creative Class
IT was easy to miss, because of the chaos created by Sandy, but publishing may be on the verge of a serious contraction or at least rearrangement. It's hard to tell what is going on -- a lot of only vaguely related issues are coming together at once -- but this is not good news for people working in the business.Here is my story from Salon, the latest in my series on the pressure exerted on the … [Read more...]
Michael Chabon’s "Telegraph Avenue"
LONGTIME Californian is one of our favorite writers here at The Misread City.I had the pleasure to speak to him the other day about his new novel, set on the Berkeley/Oakland border. It's a long, rich book centered around a used vinyl shop that specializes in various styles of black music from the '60s and '70s. (If Brokeland Records really existed I would go digging for an original Blue Note … [Read more...]
"Creative Destruction" Announcement
GANG, yesterday the Los Angeles news/media website LA Observed made the first public announcement of the book that grows out of my Salon series. Here it is.The book's working title is Creative Destruction: How the 21st Century is Killing the Creative Class, and Why It Matters.There's a lot up on the LAObs post, so I'll leave that to explain the project. (Here are links to individual parts of the … [Read more...]
Surfing With "Savages" Writer Don Winslow
ONE of my liveliest conversations with an author came the day a few years ago when I met with the crime-fiction writer Don Winslow. We met in Laguna Beach to talk about what was then his crisp new novel, The Dawn Patrol, which includes a posse of surfers.Winslow struck me right away as a great storyteller -- he talked about growing up in a Navy family where well-told tales were taken very … [Read more...]
Owen and Kidman as Hemingway and Gellhorn
SOMETIMES, in this business, you have to do things you don't want to do -- deal with unpleasant people, write about a production that bores you to tears. Other times, you get to talk to Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman about Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, the strong-willed war correspondent who would hate to be remembered at Papa's third wife.Later this month, HBO will broadcast a film, … [Read more...]