Results tagged “literature”

Almost completely unadaptable for the silver screen, David Foster Wallace's work has been something that most screenwriters wouldn't dare touch, what with the monolithic footnotes and the complicated structure of his prose. This precedent, however, was not enough to deter a young John Krasinski (who you may know as Jim from The Office or from this spring's Away We Go), who began adapting the 336 page collection of unbridaled male-mind ruminations when he was in his early 20s. Over seven years later, Krasinski's passion project Brief Interviews with Hideous Men will be hitting the theaters this weekend, with several already-sold-out live appearances by Krasinski tonight and tomorrow at Austin's own Alamo Drafthouse Ritz. SInce not everyone will be able to attend those particular screenings (but there are still plenty screenings of the film without the writer/director/actor for you to check out), we decided to chat with Krasinski about his motivations behind this project, the value of truth and honesty, and what it feels like to step inside the mind of one of America's finest literary treasures.

In Cheever, A Life, Blake Bailey combines a biography with some literary criticism. Weighing in at 679 pages, it is an even-handed and meticulously researched picture of this fiction writer best known for short stories. Bailey’s authority comes from his knowledge of John Cheever’s writing and access to his unpublished journals. Although it pains me to say this, in general writers make boring nonfiction characters.They are of deep interest only to biographers and close family. In this case, however, the troubled man-boy who never finished high school made both a mess and magic out of his personal life, creating enough controversy to carry a story.

Don't want to stay in but not sure you want to go out? Split the difference tonight at the Cole Street House and see four talented bands from near and afar.

Monofonus Press is doing it again. Their cup runneth over with creative juices, and they’re giving us another chance to sample the sap. They’ve got the market cornered in this town when it comes to the cross-media, artistic explosion. They began the auspicious endeavor of mixing three different art forms like music, writing and illustration into one release with IF 01 often bringing together three different artists who would normally not collaborate.

Used to be the word “garage” was the template and the starting point for most if not all of rock and roll. Whether the garage was literal was irrelevant - the term could apply to a basement, empty room or vacant storage space/warehouse, or really anyplace a band could put their roots down, plug in equipment and then plug away at songs without disturbing the peace. Back then, rough demos were cut onto cassette tape (putting a pillow over the built-in microphone helped stifle cymbal noise), and “in the garage” recordings were the first and easiest way to get the word out about a project.

There will be readin’s a transpirin’ at Café Mundi! Local writers and connoisseurs of wit-by-words Billy Cope and Benjamin Reed (of The Accidental Gentrifist fame) will both be reading excerpts from their newest works. We here at Austinist are big fans of local writers, and these two both have special places in our hearts as kickass representations of the writing quality present in our special little town.

Watching the presidential primary unfold these last few weeks, the thought has often occurred to us: "When will Obama and Clinton shut up about saving the people of Darfur from displacement and genocide, and start talking about the important stuff, like plaigarized speeches and superdelegates?" Haven't had the same reaction? Tonight, a very different kind of politics will be on display at the B. Iden Payne Theatre at the University of Texas. Our city will play host to one of the great voices for democracy and social justice in post-colonial Africa.

The Utter Reading Series is back tomorrow, with more pathos than Hillary, more transcendance than Barack, more grit than McCain, and more exposure (for local writers) than a bead-strewn balcony on Bourbon Street. As always, the reading is free and open to the public, and the audience is invited to join the readers afterwards for drinks and conversation at Opal Divine's on 6th.

J. M. Coetzee is probably the only Nobel Prize winner for Literature with a degree from UT. He spent several years in Austin in the 1960’s, playing intramural cricket, protesting the Vietnam War in the pages of the Daily Texan, and writing a dissertation on Sam Beckett’s novels. A few years later, he returned to South Africa, the country of his birth, and started writing one amazing book after another. (He hasn’t really stopped since then.) He’s visited Austin a few times since then, including a stint in 1995 as a visiting professor at UT.

The UTTER Reading Series presents two young, local writers who are finding national success and recognition. Poet D. Antwan Stewart will present selections from his two books, The Terribly Beautiful (2006) and Sotto Voce (forthcoming) . Fiction writer Brian Hart, the winner of the first-ever Keene Prize for Literature, may read from his forthcoming and already-awarded novel, The Dog With the Broken Teeth, the One That Fetches Rocks. Stewart has an MFA from the Michener...

Best known as the frontman of alt-country group Richmond Fontaine, Willy Vlautin is now also an author. His debut novel, The Motel Life, takes the same bleak, resigned-to-fate look on life that fuels his music. The story centers around the relationship of brothers Frank and Jerry Lee, who flee town after one of them accidentally kills a boy in a drunken hit-and-run accident. They find a strange kind of freedom in their ensuing travels; it's...

That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works. For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su...

Whether you've just entered your twenties and are thinking about things like what to major in in College, or you can see 30 looming on the horizon (or fading behind you, for that matter) there's at least one thing that everyone has in common: parenthood. Wait, what? Seriously. Think about it: you are either a parent yourself, or you'll eventually become one, or your friends are parents or maybe you simply have parents (and the...

Official Poster of First Night Austin 2007 by Peat Duggins After the tremendous success of last year's inaugural festival, First Night Austin returns to downtown this New Year's Eve with an all-day program full of music, art, theatre, dance, and more. Begun in Boston back in 1976 as a massive public gathering to ring in the new year through "art, ritual, and festivity," First Night events are now held all over the world, from...

Someone other than the government might have your census information. Speaking of the government, the feds allowed the Red Cross to visit the "high value detainees" at Guantanamo. The Yankees pitcher who loved flying was killed yesterday in a fiery plane crash in Manhattan. Gothamist kept us updated throughout the afternoon. No more cursive in schools? What about graphologists? Won't somebody think of them? Students at Gallaudet University are so upset with their proposed...

Aqua Teen Hungerforce is one of our favorite late-night TV shows. Cartoon Network's trippy and witty antics of fast food products living in the suburbs of New Jersey has been entertaining inebriated viewers since Adult Swim's debut. One of the signature artists in Adult Swim's motley crew of hip-hop contributers is DJ Spooky, who penned theme songs and more for these cult cartoon favorites. Hailing from Washington D.C. and armed with a degree in...

FRIDAY [7] [music] Cruiserweight, Driver Friendly, Kissinger, Radio Pioneer at Emo's (link) [music] Low at The Parish (link) [music] The Mercers at Stubb's (link) [music] Mr. & Mrs. Mays, Faceless Werewolves and Pocket Symphonies at Hole in the Wall ($3) (link) [music] Dark Star Orchestra at La Zona Rosa (Through Sat) (link) [art] A slew of public art makers and thinkers get together to discuss "Public Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Temporary" at...

This Friday at the Velvet Spade, quite possibly the greatest literary rock star on the planet returns for a one-off reunion show with his Neal Pollack Invasion. Pollack, author of the seminal piece of satirical literary journalism, the Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature (an Austinist favorite), left our fare shores last year to move to the moral abyss that is Hollywood. But he is back this week to help celebrate the launch of...

-Nearly two dozen of Austin's finest civic leaders gathered together today to declare their opposition to November 8th's Prop. 2 measure, which would effectively define marriage as solely between "one man and one woman." Among many others, Mayor Will Wynn let it be known that "a fundamental cultural characteristic of Texas is that we mind our own business" - something Great Hills Baptist Church pastor Michael Lewis was unaware of when he decried the...

-Some organization called Safe Kids Worldwide voted us the safest metropolitan area for kids. And proving why we're probably not the hippest metropolitan area for kids, the entire student body of Oak Springs Elementary celebrated ... by making 300 children walk two blocks from ACC to their their school. Back in our day we called that exercise. And in unrelated news, that assistant principal from Bastrop High remains under investigation for possession of child...