Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 205

Sin city. Michael Cera. Anime. Comix. Kill Bill. Manga. Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. And Jason Schwartzman. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Sacre bleu and holy awesome Christmas present, a sneak preview of Remain in Light, the sequel to Conquering Venus.

Long time TBWCYL, Inc. favorite, This Podcast Will Change Your Life podcastee and the author of the terrific Conquering Venus Collin Kelley has posted a prologue to Remain in Light, the sequel to Conquering Venus, and we are most geeked. Please do take a look and for some excerpt action feel free to read on. No really, go ahead, it just might change your life.

"Hands in motion. Fingers fly over letters and numbers, type out a message, a brief history of self, of time, of need and directionless desire. The screen bathes those hands in bruised light, flickers on a face in the darkness. A face grown two years older, forehead scarred by a bomb blast and more tiny lines around the eyes. There is an unmistakable tattoo on the left hand: two interlocking crosses, equal but opposite."

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live, full of bl pawelek and just in time for the holidays, all full of birds and angels.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live and all about moms and children. Or something like that. We have two new poems and a triptych by bl pawelek, which we are way excited about, and, (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and compromised tax prose love from Pete Anderson. We hope you enjoy this edition and we appreciate all shout-outs and links. Finally, please note, we are hoping more of you will submit comix, and music, and art, and video, yes, video, and combinations there of. And most finally, Happy Holidays to you and yours.

99 Problems is Pete Lit Good Reading 2010. And we are most proud. And thankful.

Most proud we are to learn that 99 Problems has made the Pete Lit Good Reading 2010 list. We are also most thrilled to be in such fine company, the Mel Bosworth, Tim Hall and Matt Bell, not to mention, Studs Terkel and Nelson Algren, yes that Studs Terkel, and yes, that Nelson Algren, among others. Big thanks to Pete Anderson and the crew, drinks on us, soon, somewhere, yes? Good. And please note that our Top Ten lists are forthcoming, soon, like next week.

Rocky. Lowell. Mark Wahlberg. Mothers. Sons. Punch Drunk Love. Christian Bale. Spanking the Monkey. Loyalty. Intervention. And Amy Adams. The Fighter.

Street art. Thierry Guetta. Stencils. Hoax. Shepard Fairey. Obey. Fraud. Pop culture. Graffiti. Spray paint. And Banksy. Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Betrayal. Pointe Shoes. Natalie Portman. Death. Discipline. Mila Kunis. Self-mutilation. Perfection. Mothers. Daughters. And Winona Ryder. Black Swan.

Winter Solstice Small Press Holiday Recommendations.

As previously noted here, the Karen Lillis asked us for three holiday small press recommendations and asked that we limit these books to releases from the last two years.
We stuck to releases from the last two years, but we did not stick to just three, we should have, and could have, but we did not and are happy to report that we were not admonished for doing so, which is always nice.

For a more detailed commentary on our part please do hit the Karen the Small Press Librarian post containing our recommendations, but for those of you who just cannot wait, here's our list, with apologies to many, many others.

(1) Big World - Mary Miller

(2) Hush Up and Listen Stinky Pooh Butt - Ken Sparling

(3) Grease Stains, Wisdom, and Maternal Wisdom - Mel Bosworth

Also, and, somewhat collectively:

(1) Stories II - Scott McClanahan

(2) The National Virginity Pledge - Barry Graham

(3) Songs of Insurgency - Spencer Dew

And finally, because this book just has not gotten enough attention:

(1) The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli - Ginetta Correli

Holy super freaking Google Earth 3D story map 99 Problems "Long Haul" future forward literary happeningness.

You may recall that Jason Pettus of CCLaP Publishing fame decided to play with Google Maps and create a freakishly cool story map for our story the "Long Haul" from the CCLaP published 99 Problems. Apparently, the Pettus has decided, however, that there is no reason to settle for freaking coolness when you go for super freaking coolness and do a 3D version of the story on Google Earth. So please do enjoy this look into the future, which may or may not change your life at this very moment, but may very well already be changing it in ways we cannot even yet conceive of.

The Watch List. Squared. Yar.

We are The Watch List squared this week and we are most appreciative.