Austin Kleon – Page 518

GEORGE SAUNDERS WAS ON LETTERMAN LAST NIGHT

Friday, September 7, 2007

george saunders on letterman

It was so bizarre watching him. Dave’s got great taste. (And George a good publicist, probably.) I’m just glad we got to meet him before all this “breakout tour” madness. Nicest, sweetest guy in the world. And brilliant. My favorite bit was when GS was talking about his past work experiences, how he was trying to live out his romantic, Hemingway-esque idea of working “lowly jobs,” like convenience store clerk, roofer, knuckle-puller in a slaughterhouse…

Letterman: But one learns from experiences that way, right?

Saunders: One does…don’t be an idiot!

And “Old Turkey Buzzard” cracks me up every time.

ALWAYS WORKING, ALWAYS PLAYING

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Words from James Kochalka, courtesy of Dan Stafford’s hand-written interviews with cartoonists:

Here’s a cool post from Tom Kealey about writing and the importance of play.

THE TINY SCRIBBLES THAT NOBODY MENTIONS

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Why post only the good stuff? Why not post the crappy little doodles that make up the majority of a sketchbook?

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Monday, September 3, 2007

This blog has been dead lately, and it makes me feel guilty, but I was having too good of a weekend to get in front of the computer and post:

Thursday, I hit the annual Labor Day sale at Austin Books. I walked away with 3 Eddie Campbell books, 3 of the Complete Peanuts books, and Ivan Brunetti’s anthology — all 50% off.

Saturday was my first experience of the Alamo Drafthouse. A Shiner on tap, basket of french fries (done just the way I like them: seasoned and crispy), and the last Bourne movie: I was in heaven.

Last night we watched the documentary You’re Gonna Miss Me about Roky Erickson, the legendary singer for the 13th Floor Elevators. It wasn’t as great as I thought it was gonna be — if you want to watch a movie about a whacko genius musician from Texas, watch The Devil and Daniel Johnson instead. But the music was incredible…that electric jug! (Watch the Elevators.) I’d love to see someone release a Roky Erickson “unplugged” with just him singing and playing acoustic guitar. There was a great quote where Roky was talking about being in church and hearing “O Holy Night!” and it knocking him out. Come to think about it, go ahead and Netflix it if you’re an Elevators fan…

Today we went to see Superbad with friends. Absolutely hilarious. Worth the money in gut laughs. Afterwards, we went to the famous Hut’s Hamburgers and had burgers and shakes. More thumbs up.

On the way home, I stopped at BookPeople on a whim to see whether they had the new George Saunders collection of non-fiction, The Braindead Megaphone. They did! So now I have something to read on the bus this week.

What a great city.