I am not a huge fan of NPR, but I am enjoying their newish Jazz Profiles series. Over the weekend I listened to the two podcasts about Miles Davis. The first is called Miles’ Styles and is more of an overview of his career. The other focuses on his album Kind Of Blue.
Checking these podcasts out also led me to two other features on Davis that NPR has done which focuses on two of my favorite albums: Sketches Of Spain and In A Silent Way.
Ready Steady Book interviews the always interesting Melinda Gebbie.
The New York Times reviews the new biography of Leonard Woolf.
Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the excellent young adult book Speak, has her own blog.
National Public Radio discusses “wikinomics.”
Simon Armitage discusses his new translation of Sir Gawain & The Green Knight over at The Guardian:
The poem is also a ghost story, a thriller, a romance, an adventure story and a morality tale. For want of a better word, it is also a myth, and like all great myths of the past its meanings seem to have adapted and evolved, proving itself eerily relevant 600 years later. As one example, certain aspects of Gawain’s situation seem oddly redolent of a more contemporary predicament, namely our complex and delicate relationship with the natural world. The Gawain poet had never heard of climate change and was not a prophet anticipating the onset of global warming. But medieval society lived hand in hand with nature, and nature was as much an enemy as a friend. It is not just for decoration that the poem includes passages relating to the turning of the seasons, or detailed accounts of the landscape, or graphic descriptions of our dealings with the animal kingdom. The knight who throws down the challenge at Camelot is both ghostly and real. Supernatural, yes, but also flesh and blood. He is something in the likeness of ourselves, and he is not purple or orange or blue with yellow stripes. Gawain must negotiate a deal with a man who wears the colours of the leaves and the fields. He must strike an honest bargain with this manifestation of nature, and his future depends on it.
Margaret Atwood was recently interviewed on NPR about her latest book Moral Disorder.
ReadySteadyBook has an interview up with Alan Moore about Lost Girls.
From the July issue of the Iowa Web Review comes interviews with game designer Jane McGonigal and author Shelley Jackson.
The winter issue of The Quarterly Conversation is now online.
Starry Constellation has an interview up with Amber Benson.
News that Arthur Miller had passed away late last evening saddened me greatly. I was first turned onto Miller's play The Crucible in 11th grade by my English teacher (ironically named McCarthy!) and I immersed myself into the work. Miller is my favorite playwright outside of the Greeks and Shakespeare. Getting to act out The Crucible in high school, and Death of A Salesman in college was an honor. With the current climate in our country, The Crucible is one of our most important pieces of literature now more than ever.
NPR has a piece up online about Miller's passing.
Yay to Jessa Crispin for being interviewed on NPR!
Blogged via...hey how about that, Book Slut