Iago speaks.

This week (and the next), we’re doing Othello in class. Here’s Kenneth Branagh’s Iago in a (truncated) soliloquy, then.

[via YouTube]

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Radiohead x Stephen Colbert

Radiohead visited the set of Stephen Colbert’s late night show and played a few songs and had a couple of amusing interviews. Hit the link for a few videos and a write-up.

[via Pitchfork]

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The Nobel Game

Oh hey, it’s time to play the Nobel Guessing Game again. Apparently, according to this article, Syrian poet Adonis is the frontrunner for this year’s prize. [via The Guardian] Tomas Tranströmer is in second, though I have to admit I think Tranströmer is the better bet.

As I’ve done for the past two years, I’m going to pick five. I got Mario Vargas Llosa last year, so I’m hoping to go two-for-two this year. I’m going to go for Cormac McCarthy (the USA), László Krasznahorkai (Hungary), 残雪 (China), António Lobo Antunes (Portugal), and Antonio Tabucchi (Italy).

Yeah, I pick the unlikeliest bunch, but hey, it’s not like the committee has traditionally gone for the hot candidates.

I was going to go for Enrique Vila-Matas and Nicanor Parra, but I realise how unlikely it is that a Spanish-language writer will win for the second year running. Oh well. Next year.

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Stream a concert.

YouTube will be streaming Pink Floyd’s 1974 The Greatest Gig in the Sky concert in celebration of the reissues of the entire Floyd catalogue coming out this week. Head over there now to catch it. (It loops over and over.) [Official Pink Floyd channel]

[via Consequence of Sound]

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German Literature Month

I have trouble committing to big reading events like this, but if you don’t have the same issue, do consider taking part in the German Literature Month event hosted by Caroline of Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy of Lizzy’s Literary Life. [via Beauty is a Sleeping Cat]

Might I suggest some Sebald, Andreas Maier, and early Jakov Lind to go along with all your Kafka, Kleist, and Böll?

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Lost Hitchcock screened.

Alfred Hitchcock’s The White Shadow, his first film and one that was lost for eighty years, was screened last week in New York.

[via The Telegraph]

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Rojak: Recess week over!

Rojak is a regular collection of assorted links as well as a bulletin summarising the week (or thereabouts) on this blog.

Recess week is over, which is of course bad news for me, but here’s a bumper edition of Rojak for you to end your weekend and start your new work week with.

Assorted

On sexual violence in film (and literature). [via The Millions]

A Twin Peaks game for the Atari 2600. [via Kotaku]

Interesting non-fiction. [via Three Percent]

Get a preview of more Samuel Beckett letters. [irishtimes.com] [via A Piece of Monologue]

You think your Schrödinger’s Cat is cool? I raise you a Quantum Cheshire Cat. [via Scientific American]

New Atoms For Peace album coming, according to Thom Yorke, and Radiohead to play live dates in 2012. [via Consequence of Sound]

Salman Rushdie is on Twitter. [via The Atlantic Wire]

Mocking lame and generic interviews, Hilary Hahn interviews a fish. [via YouTube]

Bulletin

• R.E.M. have disbanded.
• The music of Sean Lam.
• T.S. Eliot writes Virginia Woolf.
• New Björk video.
• Maurice Sendak.
• Jonny Greenwood teams up with Krzysztof Penderecki.

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Omnivore: Recess Week

Omnivore is a regular report on some of the things that I’ve been enjoying during the week (or thereabouts).

It was recess week for school this week, but I was essentially fighting fires all around, but I feel quite happy to say that I managed to re-read Othello, The Handmaid’s Tale, and also read The Practice of the Wild, which is my first Gary Snyder book. This, of course, along with various other readings.

I managed to squeeze in a bit of time to watch A Cat in Paris last night, too, which I thought was a really entertaining picture.

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Moon

Björk has a brand new video, Moon.

[via Vimeo]

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Defective compositions.

Oh look, a letter from T.S. Eliot to Virginia Woolf.

One thing is certain: I MUST stay in London, where Vivien will be, after this week, is uncertain. But
When do you want to publish my defective compositions?
When do you want the MSS?

[via The Paris Review]

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