I learned not long after I moved to Portland that a few celebs call the place home. Of course, reader that I am, I immediately thought of Chuck Palahniuk (who may actually live in Seattle by now, what do I know). Little did I know, Portland is fast becoming a mecca for indie musicians. Modest Mouse, The Shins, The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, and a slew of others either have a member or two living in-town or are fully based in Portland. And more are on their way. Qwazy, I tell you.
I wouldn’t know most of these people if I ran into them on the street, but that’s what makes this place so cool: folks can just kinda be here and not make a big deal out of it.
That’s right: FREE, as in beer, as in don’t cost nuthin’. Actually, it costs $0.01 and you have to pay for shipping, but yeesh, this is quite a deal. $0.01 + shipping is worth it for the CD alone.
Of course, being a McSweeney’s book, it contains adult content. Here’s an example, just to pique your interest:
blowkay [bloh’-kay] adj. of an attitude, typically exhibited by the electorate, that elected officials who have sexual relations outside of marriage while in office are less deserving of impeachment than officials whose decisions lead to the loss of human life. Folks say the new senator from Rhode Island is a skirt chaser, but as long as he doesn’t send thousands of Americans off to die in a war on false pretenses he’s blowkay with me.
Larry McMurtry’s book Dead Man’s Walk, the first in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, ends in an unexpected manner. As I am not a spoiler, details are not forthcoming. Details aren’t important, though; it’s the feel of the ending that counts here. (more…)
No phone service means no dial-up, which in turn means no Internet access at the townhouse. I have to go to Starbucks and use a T-Mobile Hotspot account to get online.
I’ll be soooooo happy when we finally have a house.
[Update: I made a really bad video of the apartment using my Macbook’s built-in camera and mic. Really, folks, it sucks. It’s also boring. If you like video that’s sucky and boring, feel free to give it a whirl.]
‘Kay, M’sF went on a short hiatus (who am I kidding? It’ll probably go on another one after today). Recent events have made it necessary to pull M’sF out of semi-retirement.
McSweeney’s seems to be in a bit of a pickle. Their distributor went bankrupt a number of months ago, forcing them (and all the other small presses that used the distributor’s services) to switch to a new distributor. The news guys seem to be working out well. However, the bankruptcy enabled the defunct distributor to simply cancel profits that it owed the presses. That sucks.
For some odd reason the financial loss is hitting McSweeney’s now. That’s why now more than ever they need money. This is a temporary setback, one that was 100% out of their control, and once the storm blows over it’ll be business as usual. To help the storm blow over, please consider popping by the McSweeney’s store and buying something.
I’ll recommend the McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern bundles, particularly the #11/#12 bundle and the #13/#14 bundle. I’ll also recommend two books: The Better of McSweeney’s and Ben Greenman’s Superbad. You actually can’t go wrong with most of their stuff. I will say Samuel Johnson is Indignant by Lydia Davis and McSweeney’s Outlaws, Noisy Blobs, etc. book didn’t impress me, though. You can’t win ‘em all.
[UPDATE: It looks like those two bundles are sold out. Individual copies of the books are available.]
If you don’t wanna help, no biggie. I just figured I’d bring this up. (Note to my Utah friends: McSweeney’s publications tend to be Rated R. You’ve been warned.)
…I can honestly say I officially don’t give one quarter of one half of one rat’s ass about the iPhone. I used to care, I really did. Those days are over.
