Bulletin Board
In case I haven’t mentioned it, hockey starts today!!
Bruce Springsteen, who endorsed Obama earlier this year, is performing at four events for the candidate in the coming week. The first three are rallies today through Sunday in Philadelphia and college campuses in Ohio and Michigan. Then he’ll perform Oct. 16 at “Change Rocks,” a fundraiser in New York City that includes Billy Joel “and friends.” This one ain’t free. Tickets, which will end up being a campaign contribution, range from $500 for balcony seats (already sold out) to $10,000 for “lounge” seats. (If you raise $25,000, you not only get a lounge ticket you are part of the “host committee.”)
Bookish Linkage
More proof of the adage that if you have to ask you can’t afford it. (But I sure wish I could!)
PC World gives some love to a brick-and-mortar bookstore’s internet presence, saying “Big, diffuse Amazon is fine, but Powell’s is the best online bookstore in America.”
Ouch! The top member of the award jury for the Nobel Prize in Literature says American authors don’t stack up because ”[t]he U.S. is too isolated, too insular.” The prize winner is to be announced next week.
Looking back at when books could change your life.
A positive SF manifesto. (HT)
Charlie Stross, meanwhile, says “it is not currently possible to write near-future SF.” And then clarifies what near-future SF is.
What happens to SF writers after they die?
One view of the 10 most disturbing novels. I admit having read none of them.
Non-bookish Linkage
Interesting thought: Foreign films with subtitles won’t put people off as much thanks to the increased use of text-messaging and e-mail.
Part of the reason I generally don’t watch local TV news noted by Scott H., who evidently does.
If you hadn’t noticed, Jon Swift has returned after temporarily suspending his blog to fix the nation’s economy.
Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage becomes an actual rock opera.
Want to know what McCain or Obama (or other politicians) said on a particular issue? Check out Google’s new In Quotes.
Here’s your chance to interview Sarah Palin. The site claims the answers are computer generated based on probabilities calculated from things she has actually said.
In addition to the 10 most disturbing novels list, there’s also The New Yorker‘s list of the five scariest movies ever. I admit having seen three of them.
Random notes
On a voice vote, the House of Representatives this week passed a bill that would preclude U.S. courts from enforcing defamation judgments from foreign countries unless the U.S. court determined that the judgment is consistent with the First Amendment. The bill is aimed at so-called “libel terrorism” where American authors and writers are used in foreign courts that offer few, if any, of the free speech protections of the U.S.
Time may heal all wounds
But time will steal you blind
Title track, Jackson Browne, Time the Conqueror
