New Fiction in Five Parts

in Literature | September 28th, 2008

This post is a twofer. First, I get to tell you about FiveChapters.com, a web site that posts new fic­tion in kind of a nov­el way. Almost a throw­back to the 19th cen­tu­ry, FiveChap­ters pub­lish­es short fic­tion in ser­i­al for­mat. Each week, they present a sto­ry in five parts, and you can fol­low along as the week unfolds. Now (and here’s the sec­ond part), let me men­tion that FiveChap­ters show­cased last week a sto­ry from Scott Hutchins, a good writer and col­league of mine. It’s called $30,000. Here it goes.

The Financial Crisis Explained

in Business, Current Affairs | September 25th, 2008

NPR’s Fresh Air has been doing a very good job of demys­ti­fy­ing the finan­cial cri­sis. Here, we have an inter­view with the Pulitzer Prize-win­ning finan­cial jour­nal­ist, Gretchen Mor­gen­son. As you’ll see, the pro­gram (iTunes — RSS Feed — Stream Here) does an excel­lent job of con­nect­ing many small dots, explain­ing pre­cise­ly how the reck­less­ness of Wall Street threat­ens to spill over into Main Street and beyond, harm­ing our indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive finan­cial future. Even if you live out­side the US, this all prob­a­bly applies to you. Def­i­nite­ly worth a lis­ten.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Ten Days That Shook The Finan­cial World

This Amer­i­can Life Demys­ti­fies The Cred­it Cri­sis

The 2008 Bailouts V. The Great Depres­sion Bailouts

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The Life of “W” According to Oliver Stone

in Film, Video - Arts & Culture, Video - Politics/Society | September 25th, 2008

Rather slick trail­er. (And got to won­der how film­ing the pret­zel scene did­n’t hurt.) “W,” Oliv­er Stone’s new biopic, hits the the­aters this fall.

Michael Moore’s New Film (Slacker) Now Free Online

in Film | September 23rd, 2008

Just a quick reminder. Start­ing today (Sep­tem­ber 23), you can down­load Michael Moore’s new fea­ture film — Slack­er Upris­ing — via the web for free. This is unfor­tu­nate­ly only avail­able to US and Cana­di­an res­i­dents, and it will remain free for three weeks. You can get more info and down­load the film here.

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Chris Rock on Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin and Shooting Moose

in Comedy, Current Affairs | September 23rd, 2008

Because it’s elec­tion sea­son and Rock cracks me up …

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Live Performances at AOL Sessions

in Music, Uncategorized | September 22nd, 2008

Cour­tesy of Metafil­ter:

“AOL Ses­sions has live videos from more than 150 dif­fer­ent artists spe­cial­ly record­ed for the series. Here are just a few of the artists on offer: Paul McCart­ney, Bri­an Wil­son, Mod­est Mouse, Tom Pet­ty, Red Hot Chili Pep­pers, Weez­er, Sarah McLach­lan, Bon­nie Raitt, Iggy Pop, and more. To the left of the videos there’s a Q&A link that has short inter­view videos with the artists as well as behind the scenes footage and longer inter­views.”

Philip Roth’s New Novel: Read The First Chapter

in Books | September 21st, 2008

Philip Roth’s lat­est is out. And, as one review­er described it, the nov­el, like his last two, is “ruth­less­ly eco­nom­i­cal and relent­less­ly death­bound.” You can read the first chap­ter of Indig­na­tion here for free. Or, buy the nov­el here.

Ten Days That Shook the Financial World

in Current Affairs | September 18th, 2008

If you’re won­der­ing why so many domi­nos (Fan­nie & Fred­die, Lehman Broth­ers, Mer­rill Lynch, AIG) have fall­en so swift­ly this past week, give a lis­ten to today’s episode of Fresh Air (iTunes — RSS Feed — Stream Here). It fea­tures Michael Green­berg­er who gives a very lucid expla­na­tion of how/why our unreg­u­lat­ed shad­ow finan­cial sys­tem final­ly col­lapsed, and why the gov­ern­ment is sprint­ing to social­ize the loss. Good stuff here.

Sep­a­rate­ly, in anoth­er won­der­ful case of Amer­i­ca reward­ing utter fail­ure, you can read all about how Mer­rill CEO John Thain and his two senior lieu­tenants will get $200 mil­lion for “less than a year’s work which cul­mi­nat­ed … in the bank sur­ren­der­ing its 94-year-old inde­pen­dence.” Pathet­ic.

When Fiction Failed David Foster Wallace

in Books | September 16th, 2008

The news of David Fos­ter Wal­lace’s sui­cide came as a shock. 46, supreme­ly tal­ent­ed, and gone. We’re not left with much. His books, his essays, and the under­stand­able desire to find some link between his writ­ing and his end. Here’s a line that caught my atten­tion from David Stre­it­feld’s blog. (He’s a for­mer books edi­tor at The Boston Globe, and now a reporter for The New York Times.)

Fic­tion, [DFW once said], is “one of the few expe­ri­ences where lone­li­ness can be both con­front­ed and relieved. Drugs, movies where stuff blows up, loud par­ties — all these chase away lone­li­ness by mak­ing me for­get my name’s Dave and I live in a one-by-one box of bone no oth­er par­ty can pen­e­trate or know. Fic­tion, poet­ry, music, real­ly deep seri­ous sex, and, in var­i­ous ways, reli­gion — these are the places (for me) where lone­li­ness is coun­te­nanced, stared down, trans­fig­ured, treat­ed.” Maybe he asked too much of fic­tion. Maybe it failed him in the end, and there was noth­ing left.

How Did We Get Into This Financial Mess? This American Life Explains

in Current Affairs, Uncategorized | September 15th, 2008

The stock mar­kets are bleed­ing red today. Lehman Broth­ers has gone BK, even though it nev­er had a quar­ter­ly loss as a pub­lic com­pa­ny until this past June. The finan­cial sys­tem is a com­plete mess.

How did we get into what Alan Greenspan has called a “once-in-a-cen­tu­ry” finan­cial cri­sis? Let me refer you back to an episode of This Amer­i­can Life (“The Giant Pool of Mon­ey”) which we fea­tured ear­li­er this year. (Lis­ten here.) Step by step, the show traces in its trade­mark, enter­tain­ing way how this cred­it deba­cle took shape. Along the way, you’ll dis­cov­er how 70 tril­lion dol­lars of glob­al mon­ey need­ed to get parked some­where, and it found the US hous­ing mar­ket. As the mon­ey poured in, the Amer­i­can invest­ment com­mu­ni­ty cranked out as many mort­gages as it could. And when there were no more qual­i­fied home buy­ers left, the banks start­ed low­er­ing lend­ing stan­dards until there were none left. In the end, even dead peo­ple were get­ting mort­gages (sad­ly, a true sto­ry). Give the pod­cast a lis­ten. The whole deba­cle gets pieced togeth­er in a way that you’ve prob­a­bly nev­er heard before.

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