Discussing Gass on St. Louis Public Radio
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
I was honored to join Lorin Cuoco last week on Don Marsh’s “St. Louis on the Air” to discuss the life and work of William H. Gass. The audio is embedded in the station’s obituary.
On Meeting & Knowing William Gass
Monday, December 11, 2017
I wrote this piece, “Words of William H. Gass touched readers around the globe," for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was published this past Sunday. (The anecdote at the beginning — which in a way launched my relationship with Gass — almost didn’t happen. I went to that literary reading only after hemming and hawing about maybe staying home to watch “24.")
William H. Gass, Rest in Peace
Friday, December 8, 2017
A great fortune of my life has been to know this once-in-a-generation writer and be transformed by his work. At ReadingGass.org, I’ve begun sharing the many memorials coming in, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch obituary, which includes a few comments from me. I send my deepest condolences to Bill’s wife, Mary, and their entire family. Photograph by Washington University in St. Louis Libraries
Family fun in KC. Thanks for joining us, @fourletter — and for the 📷!
Tim Carmody on Bill Callahan
Friday, November 3, 2017
With this terrific Kottke.org guest post — “Bill Callahan, the only sad man worth loving” — Carmody had me immediately returning to the handful of albums I own. (As Carmody points out, Callahan’s not on Spotify, my own daily streaming service: “This means his legacy risks being eclipsed for a whole cohort of fans. I find this unacceptable.")
George Saunders on Monocle 24: A does-the-heart-and-mind-good interview with Georgina Godwin.
When Lapham Played Beethoven for Monk
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Thanks to a surprise purchase by my wife, I’ve been enjoying the new issue of Lapham’s Quarterly, which takes music as its cover-to-cover subject. I’ve enjoyed reading Lapham for years, but hadn’t known that he’d studied piano as a youth, or that he’d spent time in New York City as a young writer waiting (and waiting and waiting) to write about Thelonious Monk. After several months of sharing late-night space in the Five Spot, this happened:
Karl Ove Knausgaard Walks Central Park
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
For The New Yorker Radio Hour, Joshua Rothman walks Central Park with one of my favorite living writers. I especially loved this bit, which comes after Knausgaard is asked about the differences between the way children and adults go through their days: I have four children, and maybe when I spend a summer day with them, it is like nothing. Time is just passing. There’s nothing remarkable happening. It’s like the world is not attached to me, and I’m not attached to the world anymore.
Nick Paumgarten Profiles St. Vincent
Monday, September 4, 2017
Following his exceptional profile of Father John Misty, Paumgarten goes deep with the intriguing, shrewd and self-aware St. Vincent: When she listens to a playback, she often buries her head in her arms, as though she can hardly bear to hear herself, but, really, it’s just her way of listening hard. Once, during a mixing session, while she was at the board and I was behind her on a couch, surreptitiously reading a text message, she picked up her head, turned around, and said, “Did I lose you there, Nick?
STL Public Radio Remembers Agnes Wilcox
Saturday, September 2, 2017
I was very sad to learn about the sudden death of a woman I was lucky enough to know while serving on the Prison Performing Arts Board. Agnes opened many eyes, including mine. She prized art, championed underdogs, fostered resilience, brought joy. Hers was a world-improving life.
Teju Cole in Words & Pictures
Sunday, August 6, 2017
I loved every minute I spent with this beautiful, poetic, searching, confident book.
Fascinating, entertaining profile of Father John Misty in The New Yorker.
Lethem on Knausgaard: "My Hero"
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
After discovering this short appreciation in a Jonathan Lethem essay collection on bookish things, I just read it aloud to my wife, who'd been curious about why I've been so utterly taken by this series and increasingly hungry for each subsequent volume. Lethem nailed it ("Knausgaard's approach is plain and scrupulous, sometimes casual, yet he never writes down. His subject is the beauty and terror of the fact that all life coexists with itself.
Gregory Crewdson:
Sunday, June 25, 2017
I can still remember encountering Crewdson’s work for the first time in The New York Times Magazine more than a decade ago. Original, absorbing and haunting. Today’s “Monocle Weekly” interview with him had me heading to his website, which alerted me to this documentary.
Demo of Low’s “Will the Night.". Among the most beautiful three minutes of music I know.
An inspiring New Yoker profile of Steidl by Rebecca Mead.
"A Father's Final Odyssey"
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
A special piece by Daniel Mendelsohn about Homer's epic, his father and a journey they took together.
Song Exploder
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Where have I been to miss this marvelous podcast for its first 101 episodes? Hrishikesh Hirway interviews musicians and asks them to break down a single song, which we hear in bits … and bits … and then in its entirety. It’s a fantastic idea executed with great polish, sensitivity and humility (Hirway is almost never heard from). I’ve so far enjoyed Jeff Tweedy/Wilco, Ghostface Killah and Bjork, with many more in the queue.
Remembering Robert Silvers
Friday, March 24, 2017
What a rich life to have lived, at the helm of the New York Review of Books, to have these warm, admiring, vivid remembrances follow your passing: An array of writers at the NYBOOKS blogAn array of writers at Newyorker.comAdam Gopnik at Newyorker.com One of his longtime assistants at Newyorker.comCass Sunstein in Bloomberg
Jack White's World
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Insightful and entertaining New Yorker profile by Alec Wilkinson. I can still vividly recall seeing the White Stripes at The Pageant in 2002, a blazing tricolor duo that owned that room from start to finish.