Paul Constant, the long time book editor and content machine for The Stranger, has announced he is leaving “Seattle’s Only Newspaper.” Following on the heels of other top writers and contributors who have recently exited, his departure marks the end of the glory days for the paper. This is a huge blow for the Seattle book scene. Nobody covered the local book beat better. Nobody provided more extensive coverage, nobody showed up at more events, nobody. Constant clearly has some renaissance leanings, he has also capably covered film, food, breaking news and the 2012 presidential election, but he is first and foremost a...
A Peek into Sigmund Freud’s Life
Sigmund Freud was born on this day in 1856. Trained as a neurologist Freud was the founding father of psychoanalysis and left one of the larger footprints on 20th century thought and culture. His "innovative treatment of human actions, dreams, and indeed of cultural artifacts as invariably possessing implicit symbolic significance has proven to be extraordinarily fruitful, and has had massive implications for a wide variety of fields including psychology, anthropology, semiotics, and artistic creativity and appreciation." "Massive implications," a huge public impact. Well, what about the his private life? In 1975 The Sigmund Freud Society published a catalog, Sigmund Freud=House, listing...
The Literati Descend on Seattle: Over 10,000 Book Folk in Town for AWP
image James Yamasaki, via The Stranger It stands for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and their 2014 conference begins this week in the Emerald City. Though it sounds a bit academic and something you get credit for it is actually the largest literary gathering on the continent and best thing to happen around here since the Seahawk parade. Thousands of writers, poets, publishers, editors, and related book folk are here for the conference. Plenty of headline acts, Annie Proulx, Sherman Alexie, Robert Haas, Gary Snyder, Sharon Olds and there are also 650 vendors at the bookfair! I'll...
Jack Kerouac reads from ‘On The Road’, 1959
[youtube]http://youtu.be/QzCF6hgEfto[/youtube] Published in 1957 by Viking, On The Road would quickly become a cornerstone work of the Beat Generation and the bible of the American counterculture. Here is Kerouac appearing on the Steve Allen Show in 1959. First we get a nice background of the book's history from Kerouac: 7 years on the road, 3 weeks to write, and that it was written on a continous piece of teletype paper. Then Kerouac gets reading and Steve Allen gets playing, providing a stellar piano accompaniment. Reading from a novel written "in a form that reflected the improvisational fluidity of jazz" with Allen and company...
Jimmy Fallon’s Do Not Read List: 2014
[youtube]http://youtu.be/hM5M6leqbSQ[/youtube] How to Abandon Ship and other "books you should avoid, lloyd. Like The 2009-2014 Outlook for Wood Toilet Seats in Greater China