« December 2006 | Main | February 2007 »

January 20, 2007

CHARITY GIRL in Today's New York Times

My stint as "guest writer" at the University of Cincinnati went well. The people there were amazing, especially the grad students in the writing program, and the program director Jonathan Alexander was a perfect host. (I also finally got to meet fellow Hutchinson, KS native Michelle Gibson, with whom I've been corresponding for years; Michelle teaches at the university, and you can read a great poem of hers here. I kicked off the reading series at the gorgeous Mercantile Library--exciting since the next two readers are Dorothy Allison and Mary Gaitskill--and then headed back to Boston.

But here's news of an even more exciting kind: Today's New York Times has a lengthy article about Michael's novel, complete with photos of old WWI propaganda posters and Michael himself. I'm so proud I'm floating.

Posted by scottheim at 11:48 AM | Comments (2)

January 15, 2007

Two Readings: One for Michael, One for Me

Just a quick reminder that my main man Michael Lowenthal is giving his first reading to kickoff the publication of his new novel Charity Girl (which just got an excellent review in this weekend's Washington Post by none other than Anita Shreve. The reading is this Tuesday night at our local indie powerhouse store, the Brookline Booksmith.

Unfortunately, I won't be there! I'm off to the University of Cincinnati to serve as their guest writer for two days. I'm giving a talk as part of their Ropes Lecture Series on Tuesday night, and then reading from my forthcoming We Disappear on Wednesday.

Posted by scottheim at 01:51 AM | Comments (0)

January 09, 2007

My Top 25 CDs of 2006

I do it every year: obsessively chart everything I'm listening to from January through December, all I've bought and/or downloaded from emusic and iTunes, just so I can narrow everything down to my 50 favorite CDs. This year's list is pretty eclectic. Here's half of it, in descending order up to #1 (I'm too lazy to post all fifty of 'em).

(25) Film School, Film School

(24) 120 Days, 120 Days

(23) Love Is All, Nine Times That Same Song

(22) Robin Guthrie, Continental

(21) Isan, Plans Drawn In Pencil

(20) I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Fear Is On Our Side

(19) Gregor Samsa, 55:12

(18) Liars, Drum's Not Dead

(17) Band of Horses, Everything All the Time

(16) The Brother Kite, Waiting For the Time To Be Right

(15) Wilderness, Vessel States

(14) Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther

(13) Hammock, Raising Your Voice, Trying To Stop an Echo

(12) Junior Boys, So This Is Goodbye

(11) Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit

(10) Scott Walker, The Drift

(9) Thom Yorke, The Eraser

(8) Camera Obscura, Let's Get Out of This Country

(7) Lansing-Dreiden, The Dividing Island

(6) Mogwai, Mr. Beast

(5) Grizzly Bear, Yellow House

(4) The Knife, Silent Shout

(3) Mahogany, Connectivity!

(2) Ellen Allien & Apparat, Orchestra of Bubbles

(1) Cyann & Ben, Sweet Beliefs

Posted by scottheim at 12:25 AM | Comments (4)

January 04, 2007

Happy Birthday, Robin Guthrie

Ah, Robin, a true genius. Co-creator of this and these. The only soul on my "list of musical idols" who has actually spent a night sleeping on my floor. Click on this link and you'll catch his terrific and snappily written blog, which recently reported that he's working on music with ex-Ride member Mark Gardener. Or celebrate by watching the slew of rarely seen videos like these on YouTube.

Posted by scottheim at 02:31 AM | Comments (0)