John Waters Drops By

The great John Waters dropped in today and signed copies of his just released book, Role Models, a collection of profiles of the director's favorite personalities. George Washington? Not so much. Martin Luther King? Uh-uhn. Perfect gift for dad, if your dad is a bit twisted.

Books on TV

LOST is over. Were you following it? Well, I don't blame ya' if you don't watch TV. Amid the myriad of total crap out there I can hardly understand why most people turn the damn thing on in the first place. I mean, I enjoy the absurdity that is commercial programming, but I don't think you can even find real news on it anymore, can you? I'm skeptical, but that's beside the point. What I'm meaning to get at is LOST.

I don't think there's been such a game changer on TV since the X-Files. LOST was challenging the ugly paradigm that is prime time programming. What other show today, albeit through the veil of sci-fi action/entertainment, was questioning the unknown and pushing an interest in physics and literature? The series is littered with books and literary references, usually featuring specific works in episodes in which they might pertain. They range from the obvious (Huxley's Island or Hawking's A Brief History of Time), to the slightly more obscure (Casares' The Invention of Morel or A. Merritt's The Moon Pool). So if you're hurting for something to read, it might not be a bad idea to take a look at this list of literary references in the series. There's a hell of a lot of gems in it. Also, if you didn't watch the show, pick it up on DVD from our fiction annex. It'll screw you up with island fever!

Woulda, coulda, shoulda...

As mentioned in a post here last week, Green Apple and Daniel Handler became finalists in the 1st Annual Moby Awards for Best and Worst Book Trailers, sponsored by Melville House Publishers. I'm saddened, however, to have to mention that the grand Mr. Handler was not victorious. Claiming the blue ribbon in the catagory of 'Best Author Appearance' was instead the highly deserving Head Case with Dennis Cass.

When I mentioned to Daniel that he / we were finalists for this award, he replied that," This is not one of those things where it's an honor to be nominated. I MUST WIN!"

So, if you see Daniel around town this week, please be nice him - I can only imagine how his heart is breaking...