Michael Janairo

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  • Quote of the day: Jane Smiley on writing porn

    The Complete Review links to an LA Times article written by Jane Smiley, whose new book “Ten Days in the Hills” — a novel about Hollywood — was recently released.

    From the LA Times:

    A FEW WEEKS before Christmas, I was talking to my mother about my new book. I said, “I’ll send you a copy, but I’ve got to tell you that there’s a lot of sex in it.”

    She was silent for a moment, then she said, “Did you do that for the money?”

    I was silent for a moment, and then I said, “Yes.”

    But I didn’t mean it. The truth is that I did it so I wouldn’t have to write about the Bush administration for 450 pages.

  • 2007 Albany Word Fest

    The Albany Poets Web site announces:

    In celebration of National Poetry Month, Albany Poets is proud to present the 2007 Albany Word Fest featuring the poetry, spoken word, music, and art of upstate New York. This year’s event will take place on Friday, April 20 and Saturday, April 21, 2007.

    The 2007 Albany Word Fest will start off on Friday night with a cocktail party at Tess’ Lark Tavern (453 Madison Ave.) at 5:00PM. This is a chance for all of the poets and performers to get together and talk with each other before the event begins. This is open to all. Must be 21 or older to drink.

    At 7:00PM, the poetry and spoken word begins at the Friday Night Open Mic at the UAG Gallery (247 Lark Street). We are hoping for this open mic to be our biggest and best yet. In previous years we have had over 50 poets perform at the open mic, this year we are hoping for twice that number. Poets who wish to participate in the open mic will be able to sign up online at http://www.albanywordfest.com starting on March 15. Performers will also be able to sign up at the event. Each poet will have three minutes to share their work. The open mic is open to all. Admission is based on donation.

    On Saturday afternoon, day two of the Albany Word Fest begins at Tess’ Lark Tavern for spoken word, music, and art with a special edition of Experimental Cabaret, starting at 3:00PM. This event, hosted by Nicole Peyrafette, will feature multi-media work from local poets and musicians. Performing at this event will be Mary Panza with Monica Roach and John Weiler, Mother Judge and Nicole Peyrafette, and Thom Francis with local musicians. This event is open to all. Admission is based on donation. Must be 21 or older to drink.

    At 8:00PM, we move to Valentines (17 New Scotland Ave.) for Psycho Cluster F*#k ’07, featuring music and spoken word from local acts to be announced. Admission for this event is $5.00. This event is 18+. Must be 21 or older to drink.

    The 2007 Albany Word Fest is sponsored by Albany Poets, Tess’ Lark Tavern, UAG Gallery, Valentines, and the very generous donations of supporters of the arts and artists of upstate New York.

  • Tek Jensen — a satire of a satire of a satire

    Whodda thunk it?

    Stephen Colbert — not the real one but the one Stephen Colbert plays on TV — is not only a commentator, but also (like other commentators) a novelist of the Tek Jensen adventure series.

    Now along comes some real artwork to go with the fake books written by a fake commentator. Go figure. Thanks to The Beat.

    tek_1_cassaday.jpg

    That’s the John Cassaday/Laura Martin cover to STEPHEN COLBERT’S TEK JANSEN #1 above.

  • Not so big in Detroit

    A cover story I wrote from the Times Union about two audiobooks by Murakami — clocking in at nearly 1,000 words — is sent out on the wires and any paper that picks up can do whatever they want with it.

    Here’s what the link to what the Free Press did with it, including giving star ratings. I feel so Ebert-ish now.

  • Black History Month: Sonia Sanchez

    ssanchez.jpg
    Sonia Sanchez is one of the most influential poets of the Black Arts Movement.

    Read more about her from the Voices from the Gap Web site.

    She will be speaking tonight at Skidmore College’s Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall, Saratoga Springs at 7 p.m. The playwright, scholar and American Book Award-winning author (“Homegirls and Handgrenades”) gives the Black History Month keynote speech.

    Hear and see her read her poem “Peace” in this YouTube video (which was uploaded in August of 2006):

    From Poets.org:

    Sonia Sanchez is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, including Homegirls and Handgrenades (White Pine Press, 2007), Shake Loose My Skin: New and Selected Poems (1999); Like the Singing Coming Off the Drums: Love Poems (1998); Does your house have lions? (1995), which was nominated for both the NAACP Image and National Book Critics Circle Award; Wounded in the House of a Friend (1995); Under a Soprano Sky (1987); Homegirls & Handgrenades (1984), which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation; I’ve Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems (1978); A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women (1973); Love Poems (1973); Liberation Poem (1970); We a BaddDDD People (1970); and Homecoming (1969).

    Her published plays are Black Cats Back and Uneasy Landings (1995), I’m Black When I’m Singing, I’m Blue When I Ain’t (1982), Malcolm Man/Don’t Live Here No Mo’ (1979), Uh Huh: But How Do It Free Us? (1974), Dirty Hearts ’72 (1973), The Bronx Is Next (1970),and Sister Son/ji (1969). Her books for children include A Sound Investment and Other Stories (1979), The Adventures of Fat Head, Small Head, and Square Head (1973), and It’s a New Day: Poems for Young Brothas and Sistuhs (1971). She has also edited two anthologies: We Be Word Sorcerers: Twenty-five Stories by Black Americans (1973) and Three Hundred Sixty Degrees of Blackness Comin”at You (1971).

    Among the many honors she has received are the Community Service Award from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, the Lucretia Mott Award, the Outstanding Arts Award from the Pennsylvania Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Peace and Freedom Award from Women International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Humanities, a National Endowment for the Arts Award, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

    The previous authors and writings featured on this blog:
    “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”
    Gwendolyn Brooks
    August Wilson
    “Our Nig” by Harriet Wilson
    “Twelve Years A Slave” by Solomon Northup
    “The Souls of Black Folks” by W.E.B. Du Bois
    Langston Hughes
    “Cane” by Jean Toomer
    “The Great Negro Plot” by Mat Johnson
    “Passing” by Nella Larsen
    “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”
    “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”
    “I Have a Dream” speech”
    “Sula” by Toni Morrison
    “The Known World” by Edward P. Jones
    “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
    “The Intuitionist” by Colson Whitehead
    “Up From Slavery” by Booker T. Washington
    “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison

  • All about the NYTimes Book Review

    The Elegant Variation has all the links you need about:

    Everything you ever wanted to know about the New York Times Book Review but were afraid to ask.

  • Professor Martin Amis

    From the Guardian:

    Manchester University will announce an academic coup: Amis has agreed to take up his first teaching role as its professor of creative writing, a decision that will bring the one-time enfant terrible of British literature, author of 11 novels, including Money and London Fields, firmly into the literary establishment.

    And a quote from the son of Kingsley Amis:

    “I may be acerbic in how I write but I’m not how I live. And I would find it very difficult to say cruel things to people in such a vulnerable position. I imagine I’ll be surprisingly sweet and gentle with them. One of the things I’ve learned about fiction – you really do lay yourself open in a way that no other so-called creative artist does. Most other art you’re just exhibiting a particular talent, even poetry up to a point, but by writing fiction you expose not only your talent but your whole being, your social, sexual and psychological being and you’re never more vulnerable than when you do that, and I’m well aware of that fact and will take it into account.”

    Read the story here.

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  • Equiano’s story on film, sort of

    I saw a preview of the movie Amazing Grace over the weekend and am not sure what to expect. A lot of white British guys talking about the need to end slavery, and then a black man says, “I was a prince in my country, like you,” I thought — Could this character possibly be Olaudah Equiano? Could this movie be telling his tale, but through the point of view of white people, including the guy the wrote the song Amazing Grace? Maybe the movie will be fine, after all it is directed by Michael Apted, but it does seem Equiano could use his own film.

    By the way, Equiano is played by Youssou N’Dour,
     a musician the New York Times has called “West Africa’s cultural ambassador to the world,” who will be making his feature film debut.

    Here’s the movie trailer:

    Here’s the write up from the film’s Web site.

    Amazing Grace, based on the life of antislavery pioneer William Wilberforce, is directed by Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough, Coal Miner’s Daughter) from an original screenplay written by Academy Award® nominee Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things).

    The film stars Ioan Gruffudd (Black Hawk Down), Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich), Romola Garai (Vanity Fair), Michael Gambon (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Benedict Cumberbatch (Hawking), Rufus Sewell (Legend of Zorro), Ciaran Hinds (Rome) and introduces Youssou N’Dour.

    Executive Producer is Jeanney Kim, with Mark Cooper as co-producer. Producers on the film are Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line) and Ed Pressman under their Sunflower Productions banner, Patricia Heaton and David Hunt for FourBoys Films, and Ken Wales.

    Gruffudd plays Wilberforce, who, as a Member of Parliament, navigated the world of 18th Century backroom politics to end the slave trade in the British Empire. Albert Finney plays John Newton, a confidante of Wilberforce who inspires him to pursue a life of service to humanity. Benedict Cumberbatch is William Pitt the Younger, England’s youngest ever Prime Minister at the age of 24, who encourages his friend Wilberforce to take up the fight to outlaw slavery and supports him in his struggles in Parliament.

    Elected to the House of Commons at the age of 21, and on his way to a successful political career, Wilberforce, over the course of two decades, took on the English establishment and persuaded those in power to end the inhumane trade of slavery.

    Romola Garai plays Barbara Spooner, a beautiful and headstrong young woman who shares Wilberforce’s passion for reform, and who becomes his wife after a whirlwind courtship. Youssou N’Dour is Olaudah Equiano. Born in Africa and sent as a slave to the Colonies, Equiano bought his freedom and made his home in London, where he wrote a best-selling account of his life and became a leading figure in the fight to end the slavery of his fellow countrymen.

    Here’s a video from Youssou N’Dour in concert at an Amnesty International event in 1999: