Marginalia and riffs

Having been gone for a few days, here’s a couple catch-up items:

• Ooops. An ad campaign for Iain Bank’s Hugo-nominated novel, The Algebraist, has bad timing. Posters promoting the book in London’s Tube, the site of recent bombings, described the book as “a perfect place to have your mind blown to smithereens.” (Via Blog of a Bookslut).
• A college in New Jersey is hosting Glory Days: A Bruce Springsteen Symposium in September. The three-day event includes not only speakers but more than 150 presenters of papers on Springsteen in about three dozen topics, such as “Theology and Springsteen” and “Psychological Alienation in Springsteen’s Music.” Abstracts of the papers are online but I’m not sure what I think of parsing any artist’s music to such an extent. I’ve often thought music’s force can be diminished by too much analysis. (Via jukeboxgraduate).
• As Erin notes, the local liberal blogosphere appears to continue a “hands off” approach to Stephanie Herseth. With the exception of Proud Liberal, I’m not aware of any commenting or even noting Herseth’s recent Bush party line votes.
• The local daily has a piece on local filmmakers. Seems to me the erstwhile film society might be a logical vehicle for these films to be seen by area residents.

“Iris,” The Goo Goo Dolls