- YEAH, I LIKED RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. BLOW ME. I heartily endorse John Scalzi's case for an Oscar for Andy Serkis.
- TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY THINK, PHIL. "How can I put it? It’s like winning the Pulitzer. If you take it too seriously, you’re an idiot. But if you look at the names of the other poets who have won it, most of them are damn good. Not all of them — I’m not going to name names — but most. My editor was thrilled, and my wife jumped for joy. She hasn’t done that in a while.” Philip Levine on being named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.
- WEDDE THE MEMORIOUS IN THE LIBRARY OF BABEL. Closer to home, contrats to Ian Wedde who has just been appointed to a two year term as our own Poet Laureate. Wedde says he'll " among other things - work on projects dealing with memory."
- BEST #LONDONRIOTS-RELATED TWEET. EVER. Waterstones staff member to me last night: “We’ll probably stay open. If they steal some books, they might actually learn something.” London bookstores mostly escaped major damage which is a very good thing, don't get me wrong, but still kind of depressing. Still, I don't want to meet a London bookseller in a dark alley. They sound way hard.
- PARTY AT DAVID'S PLACE! There's a case to be made that Stop Making Sense is the best concert movie ever (though Jonathan Demme's lousy remakes of Charade and The Manchurian Candidate are unforgivable). But while I love the performance of This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) in the film...
... this video (directed by Byrne) is just excessively sweet.