Seventy-five years ago folk singer Woody Guthrie penned the initial lyrics to “This Land Is Your Land,” considered by many to be the alternative national anthem. Sung in elementary schools, children’s summer camps, around campfires, at rallies, and during concert encores, “This Land Is Your Land” is the archetypal sing-along song, familiar to generations of Americans. But what most do not know is that Guthrie, the “Oklahoma Cowboy,” actually wrote the song in New York and that its production and dissemination were shaped by the city’s cultural institutions.
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Ahead of a trip, many of us gravitate toward books that depict the history and culture of our travel destination. But it can work the other way around, too. Sometimes a book provides such a powerful sense of place that we find ourselves longing to visit the area we read about. Some of us even [...]
Johnny Depp is teaming up with HarperCollins to launch a new imprint called that will publish a book on Bob Dylan and a previously unpublished novel by folk legend Woody Guthrie. The imprint will go by the name Infinitum Nihil, the same name as Depp’s production company.
“I pledge, on behalf of Infinitum Nihil, that we will do our best to deliver publications worthy of peoples’ time, of peoples’ concern, publications that might ordinarily never have breached the parapet,” said Depp in a statement. “For this dream realized, we would like to salute HarperCollins for their faith in us and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship together.”
The Associated Press broke the news and had more details about the imprint’s books. Check it out: “The Dylan book is scheduled for 2015. Dylan and [Douglas] Brinkley also will collaborate on the editing and publication of a previously announced novel by one of Dylan’s heroes, folk musician Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967. The novel, ‘House of Earth,’ was completed by Guthrie in 1947 but was only recently discovered. It’s scheduled for January.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Similarities between our time and the Great Depression era are extending beyond the fiscal crisis.
My latest New York Times Magazine mini-column looks at a sandstorm, “Steinbeck-ish in its arrival,” that rolled through Lubbock, Texas last month, as a harbinger of a possible impending (and permanent) Southwestern Dust-Bowlification. “I expected at any moment to see a line of Model Ts coming through headed to California,” a city councilman said. “It really did look like pictures I had seen of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.”
See (and hear) also a tour of Grapes of Wrath country as of 2009 and Woody Guthrie’s “Talking Dust Bowl Blues” (above).
First things first:
My fortune cookie of the day:
Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupied.
I made that big and red. That fortune hangs on my bulletin board and comes from a cookie my coworker brought me last week after going out for Chinese (she, for some odd reason, doesn't like fortune cookies. My gain.)
It's pretty cheesy, but is also really speaking to me right now.
Also, Rachel won my Vibes contest and so the book will be in the mail to her shortly. And for those who didn't win, it'll be in stores (and hopefully your library) next month.
And, to taunt you further, today I review
Paper Towns John Green
First things first--this is John Green's best book.
If you've read a John Green book before, you know that you can never really describe the book by describing the plot--it's hard to get too into the plot without giving much away, but also, the books are about
so much more than just what's going on.
If you haven't read a John Green book before, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
Quentin has always loved Margo Roth Spigelman, the girl next door. One glorious night before graduation, she takes him out all night to exact revenge on her cheating boyfriend and a few others. The next day, she's gone. Margo often disappears, but this time she doesn't come back. Quentin thinks she's left clues and is off on a hunt to find her.
As in his other works, Green's real strength is in his characters, especially the secondary ones. But this time, Green takes it a step further as his characters realize that you can never fully know another person. How Quentin sees Margo is not how Lacey sees Margo and it's not how Margo sees Margo. We all present different facets of our selves to the world--we very rarely let one person see all of us, but, at the same time, when viewing people, we view them through our own lenses and project our own ideals or hatreds on to them. And, when you idolize someone from afar, as Quentin does Margo, the difference between what you think and what he or she actually is, is much greater.
Smart, funny, heartbreaking, thought-provoking... John Green has done it again.
The man has 3 books out, one with a Printz, one with a Printz honor, and this one will be hot in contention for this year's top prizes. He's my age. I'm horribly jealous, especially because his work deserves all of it.
Look for it on October 16.
In the mean time, listen to A LOT of
Mermaid Avenue and brush up on your
Leaves of GrassAnd, I leave you with this:
Last night or the night before that,
I won´t say which night
A seaman friend of mine,
I´ll not say which seaman,
Walked up to a big old building,
I won´t say which building,
And would not have walked up the stairs,
not to say which stairs,
If there had not been two girls,
leaving out the names of those two girls.
Banda Islands, Indonesia
Coordinates: 4 37 S 129 50 E
Total land area: 17 square miles (14 sq km)
Wars continue to be fought for resources and control of territory, but it’s been some time since any nation took up arms against another for spices. (more…)
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I can't wait to read Paper Towns. It's great to hear that he's done it again.
Yay, I can't wait! I just finally read Looking for Alaska and immediately went out to buy An Abundance of Katherines. You're so right in that his books are about more than just the plot. Great description! :-)
oh the OH Chinese lunches...i remeber those. I had a rather amusing fortune the other week, i'll have to try to remember it.