Books
AT BRIGHTON FESTIVAL, A REAL-LIFE EXHIBIT OF THE ART OF COLLABORATION
The third in a series looking at the similarities between Long Beach and Brighton, England. Both are home to many artists, a happy circumstance that Brighton annually leverages into a month of major arts festivals that reach into every part of the community. Could Long Beach do the same?
LONG BEACH’S ARTS & CULTURE SCENE—COULD IT USE SOME “BRIGHTON-ING?”
GreaterLongBeach.com contributor Victoria Bryan---born-and-raised in Great Britain, a 27-year resident of Long Beach---begins a month-long series of reports from the annual arts festivals in Brighton, wherein she wonders: could something like this happen here?
HAVE-A-GREATER-WEEKEND: DEEP JAZZ, SPACE ODDITIES, OCCUPY EARTH DAY
"Have a greater weekend!" we cheerily well-wished them. "Don't tell us what kind of weekend to have!" they sharply bubble-popped us. So, instead, we're going to tell you to have a greater weekend ... and how.
LONG BEACH: THE OTHER COAST CITY WITH A COMIC CON TRADITION
A week after the third annual Long Beach Comic & Horror Con wrapped up its successful Halloween weekend run, there is a sense that a tradition is taking shape in the LBC. It's not like San Diego, which has a four-decade connection with its Comic Con ... but it feels a bit like San Diego used to.
THE HORROR: LONG BEACH COMIC CON RETURNS … AND ITS NOT ALONE
In an expansion that fits with its yearly appearance around Halloween, the Long Beach Comic Con has added an element of horror---lots of them, actually. Now it's being called "Long Beach Comic & Horror Con," proving yet again what we've always said about the people who attend this convention: they love comics ... and horror.
JACK “AMERICAN DEMON” GRISHAM: STILL RIVETING, REVOLTING AND REAL
Jack Grisham has cannonballed into the pop-culture hot tub. The punk icon, breakthrough author and changed man is also the same person. With "An American Demon," as with his music-making, his art is alternately riveting and revolting. He is riding the momentum of a wave he created, which may again become more than he anticipated. Grisham will be interviewed by Elizabeth Glazner and Dave Wielenga on Greater Long Beach Radio on Thursday morning at 10.
MORRISSEY: MUSICIAN, CELEB, HERO—AND GOOD GRADE ON MY COLLEGE PAPER
For three months, I conducted research on Moz, fan culture, ‘zines, hero worship, celebrity cycles and Manchester whiteness. In the process I concocted more theoretical shit about the Pope of Mop than I’ve ever wanted to---and officially became Smith’d out. But I got a good grade in my Celebrity Culture class.
TIMES LIKE THESE CALL FOR DAVID FOSTER WALLACE, BUT HE’S NOT ANSWERING
Where are you when we need you, David Foster Wallace? We're waiting for the story of 9/11ii. It's the story of a world where a great national tragedy took place---so immense and consequential that, 10 years later, the United States government transforms it into secret policy. The world needs that book, but David Foster Wallace is somewhere else.
‘WATCH THIS BOOK’: FREE SERIES STARTS SATURDAY WITH ‘TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD’
Sure, everybody always says they liked the book more than the movie, but sometimes the movie is so perfectly cast and executed that you can never read the book again without imagining the characters as anyone else but the movie actors and the scenes as anything but the Hollywood sets.
COUNCIL MEMBER PATRICK O’DONNELL READS ‘ROBERT THE ROSE HORSE’
Only a few hours after 4th District Councilmember Patrick O'Donnell wrapped up another week of teaching history at Paramount High, he was back in front of a room full of children at the Dana Branch Library for the First Books segment of First Fridays in Bixby Knolls.
“THE USE OF REGRET:” COULD IT BE A HEART-SHAPED BLOOD STAIN?
Greggory Moore will be at { open } Saturday night to read from his first novel, "The Use of Regret," which he agrees has a very intriguing title---but about which he is otherwise inscrutable. Very cagey, Mr. Moore, very cagey.
GET LOST IN SPACHE WITH LB POET AND BON MOTIER DERRICK BROWN
Maybe you’re seeing this too late to make it to Gatsby’s Books (3555 Spring Street, Long Beach) for today’s (Feb. 19) high-noon appearance by Derrick Brown, where the Long Beach poet, performer, comedian, musician, magician, boat captain, paratrooper, author, editor, publisher and entrepreneur was scheduled to sign copies of his new children’s book, dance, laugh [...]
HAILEE STEINFELD WOULD BE A DOLL AS KATNISS “HUNGER GAMES” EVERDEEN
Movie-casting people, please don’t screw this up. Katniss Everdeen of "The Hunger Games" is is grappling with all the questions and insecurities of young adulthood: Which boy do I like? Why is my mom so lame? Is the flaming arrow more deadly than the poison-tipped one?
LB REACHES THE BOYLE-ING POINT, AND BY COINCIDENCE, HERE HE COMES
Father Greg Boyle's appearance in Bixby Knolls Wednesday night---scheduled before Saturday’s gang-related shooting---is pure coincidence ... whether you define that word as a) a sequence of accidental events that seems to have been arranged; or b) a miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.
WHETHER WRITING OR WHISPERING, HE COMES THROUGH LOUD AND CLEAR
By the end of the third season of Cesar Millan’s popular show, “The Dog Whisperer,” the diminutive Mexican-American had professional dog trainers, animal behaviorists, and dog lovers in a tizzy. If you believe the testimonials of some dog experts (get over the names of the publications: “The Woofer Times,” “The Bark,” “Urban Dawgs”), Millan’s training methods are [...]
THERE’S STILL TIME TO RESOLVE TO JOIN BIXBY KNOLLS LITERARY SOCIETY
Lots of New Year’s resolutions have already been trashed, but there are ways to recover—basically by resolving to do something for which, so far in 2011, there has been no opportunity to do … like, let’s saaaay … attending all 12 meetings of the Bixby Knolls Literary Society. The first one of those isn’t until [...]
BEYOND GREATER: MUST-READ STORY WE DIDN’T WRITE—FACT-CHECKING JAY-Z
The bulk of Jay-Z’s new book,"Decoded," consists of a lyrical exegesis of 36 of Jay’s own works. What better source could there possibly be? Vulture.com turned to RapGenius.com, the world's premier rap-lyric-explanation website, to provide its Top 10 Decodings of “Decoded.”
{OPEN} HAS BEEN OPEN FOR SEVEN YEARS—AND IT’S SALE-A-BRATING
{open}, the little bookstore whose brackets have become pillars of culture and commerce on Fourth Street’s Retro Row, will turn seven years old on Nov. 15 and owners Sé Reed and Shea Gauer are celebrating today and Sunday with music, treats, sales and a chance to win $77 worth of books by purchasing $7 worth. [...]
GET BUSY ON STEINBECK’S ‘IN DUBIOUS BATTLE’ FOR BIXBY KNOLLS LITERARY SOCIETY OCT. 13
Less than two weeks remain to finish reading In Dubious Battle before the next meeting of the Bixby Knolls Literary Society on Oct. 13. That doesn’t sound like much time, until you consider the John Steinbeck classic was published in 1936. Then it sounds like a major case of procrastination. In Dubious Battle came out [...]
‘MARK TWAIN’S OTHER WOMAN’: A CREEPY TWO-TIMER, BUT STILL A GREAT READ
One can only guess why Twain broke up with his live-in secretary. Only a few weeks before, her journal reports that Twain sent her on an errand to buy a vibrator. Meanwhile, by this era of his life Twain had begun cultivating the company of underage girls.
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST—SWEET, SWEDE NOTHINGS
It felt like we English-speakers had to wait a really long time for this final installment in the late Stieg Larsson’s Millenium series. I knew once I started reading, I might be tempted to consume it all in one sitting, like a box of chocolates. Like a box of sweet, sweet lutfisk-flavored chocolates.
TODAY IS ABSOLUTELY THE LAST DAY TO SHOP ACRES OF BOOKS
Although it was said many times during the slow and painful closing of Acres of Books (has it really been two years already?), Saturday is seriously the LAST CHANCE to troll around inside Long Beach's beloved used bookstore. From 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
THE HAPPINESS PROJECT: ACING A CLASS NEVER FELT SO GOOD
Once you get past author Gretchen Rubin's seemingly good fortune, there is a lot of good information in the book for those who want to tackle happiness like a grade-point-defining, end-of-semester project---whether you're the type to start organizing your index cards the day of the assignment (Rubin), or the panicked typist finishing up as the birds greet the rising sun (me).
RESOLUTION READING REVIEW: ‘A GATE AT THE STAIRS,’ BY LORRIE MOORE
David Sedaris, why would you do this to me? By the time I reached the end of Lorrie Moore’s recent novel, A Gate at the Stairs (Random House), I had sunk so deeply into melancholia that I was pretty sure I would be unable to leave the house for at least the next few days. [...]
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NICK SCHOU TO DROP A LITTLE “ORANGE SUNSHINE” SATURDAY EVENING AT LATITUDE 33 BOOKSHOP
Nick Schou, my former colleague at OC Weekly, who has never let being a tremendous investigative reporter get in the way of being a great human being, will be at Latitude 33 bookshop in Laguna Beach on Saturday evening at 5 to read from his new book, "Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World."
RESOLUTION READING REVIEW: “AMERICAN NERD: THE STORY OF MY PEOPLE”
Nerdiness is probably like gayness—depending on the percentage of it in your DNA, your life will take an entirely different course. Stridently hetero or campily homo, charismatic captain of the polo team or socially awkward Dungeonmaster. We’ve all known nerds, and many of us have been nerds to some degree. Or maybe even are. It’s [...]
RESOLUTION READING REVIEW: "HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY"
I am a bookworm who has metamorphosed into what? A cable worm? A gaming worm? An Internet worm? Thus, my No. 1 New Year’s Resolution for 2010: Read more books! OK, that’s admittedly general, and I suppose not even measurable, as I don’t know what I read last year. My original goal for this year [...]
