Tag Archives: Lent Magazine

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Journey On

1. The Oxford Conference for the Book starts today. Some good stuff lined up as usual. Especially pumped for Kevin Young on Thacker Mountain Radio tomorrow night.

Here’s Kevin Young talking about Book of Hours on NPR recently.

And here’s his “Ode to Ol’ Dirty Bastard,” one of my favorite poems of his.

 

2. The Southern Literary Festival starts tomorrow. Lots of good stuff lined up for that, too. I’m teaching a fiction master class on Saturday morning at 9. I’ll be talking about writing advice from Richard Price, David Milch, Don Carpenter, Flannery O’Connor, Nelson Algren, and a bunch of other stuff. The Isom Student Gender Conference is happening simultaneously, and I can’t wait for Laura Lippman’s Friday keynote: “When Harriet the Spy Grew up: Feminism and the Second Golden Age of American Crime Fiction.” And the great Megan Abbott is giving the Southern Literary Festival’s keynote right after that.

3. Here’s a damn good profile of Killer Mike from The Bitter Southerner. He has a son named Pony Boy – that’s just the best.

4. That ’80s Dylan tribute is out. Hit or miss but worth it for these tracks: Craig Finn, “Sweetheart Like You”; Built to Spill, “Jokerman”; Hannah Cohen, “Covenant Woman”; and Elvis Perkins, “Congratulations.”

5. Angel Olsen – Live on KEXP. Man.

6. Spent Saturday at The End of All Music spinning the Merge reissue of one of my all-time favorite records, Richard Buckner’s Bloomed.bloomed

7. Clay Jones made a mix for Lent Magazine.

8. Download this: The War on Drugs at the Bowery Ballroom on 3/19/14 via NYC Taper.

9. Joe Hill said this about The Fall on Twitter the other day: “In a golden age of TV, Gillian Anderson drops a steely, quietly commanding performance [. . .] to match the very best of the day.” Completely agree. Easily one of the best things I’ve watched lately. Anderson is fucking incredible. It’s streaming on Netflix.

10. Rectify is also streaming on Netflix now. One of my top two or three shows from the last few years. Ray McKinnon rules.

11. Haven’t read much Harlan Coben – this Times By the Book feature really makes me like him.

12. Shailene Woodley was goddamn brilliant in The Spectacular Now, but holy shit, this is the funniest thing I’ve read this year.

13. Got to see David Gordon-Green’s Joe at a screening here in Oxford last week. Thought it was top-notch. His best movie since George Washington. Nic Cage and Tye Sheridan were damn good, but the non-actors stole it. Just a great take on one of my favorite books.

14. Tracklist for Songs: Ohia’s Journey On: Collected Singles.

15. Tumblr bullshit.

16. Other things I’m listening to: New one from The Hold Steady, Teeth Dreams, is killer. I was pretty lukewarm on Heaven is Whenever, so I’m glad to have them back.  Paradise of Bachelors just reissued Lavender Country – So damn good. Can’t stop spinning Bob Mould’s Workbook 25 from Omnivore. Got it on CD for the bonus stuff on the second disc. Been listening to Crooked Fingers’s Dignity and Shame for the first time in a long time. Almost forgot how goddamn perfect this song is:

17. Finally watched The Counselor last night. Thought it was way better than most folks said but also felt pretty let down. Couldn’t sleep and watched West of Memphis, too. A brutal and beautiful documentary. Finished it around 3 in the morning and got into bed next to my wife and son and just held them.

 

 

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The Best Things

Pal & hero Jimmy Cajoleas interviewed pal & hero Jack Pendarvis over at Lent Magazine. I was there. It was a great night. We got drunk and talked for six hours and had a tape recorder going, which made it different from all the other times we’ve gotten drunk and talked all night.

Jack says so much great stuff about writing and living but my favorite thing is his response to my question about whether or not it’s wrong to encourage people who aren’t very good writers:  “I don’t really see the harm in encouraging someone who is not good. So what? Some of the best things I’ve ever read were not good.”

Also:

I’m reading at the Oxford Public Library on 2/19/14 at 12 PM.  Here’s the Facebook event page.

I’m reading at Nightbird Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Saturday, 3/8/14 at 6:30 PM.

The new Angel Olsen LP is streaming on NPR this week. I’m melting in a puddle of boners.

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Magic Against Death

A couple of good friends of mine, Jimmy Cajoleas and Phil McCausland, just launched Lent Magazine, and I wrote a profile of one of my favorite bands, Water Liars, for them. Check it out here.

And check out the other great content on the site, including Jimmy’s interviews with Mary Miller and Scott McClanahan, Phil’s interviews with Cole Furlow and Manuel Gonzales, and Andy Paul’s reconsideration of The Blair Witch Project.

Here’s Water Liars doing a new song, “Tolling Bells,” from their forthcoming record. I’ve been listening to the record for the last few weeks and this is one of my favorite tracks.

And here’s a version from that same show of “Swannanoa,” which I talk about in my profile. Might just be my favorite goddamn song ever.

 

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Glenville State College Reading Series

I’m reading at Glenville State College in Glenville, West Virginia with one of my favorite writers, Scott McClanahan, on Thursday, November 7 at 4 PM. If you’re anywhere near West Virginia, you should come. My friends Jimmy Cajoleas and Phil McCausland, who just launched Lent Magazine, will be making the trip with me.

Here’s the Facebook page for the event.

Update, 11/7: Just as we were pulling out, we got word that Scott McClanahan had the flu and wouldn’t be able to make the reading. The event will be rescheduled, possibly for January.

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