Neal Stephenson

Jacket Copy: “Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ to be film”

David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Paul Rudd will join the cast of the film “Howl,” according to today’s Hollywood Reporter. […] The roles of the new cast members — lawyer, judge — indicate that the film will highlight the 1956-57 obscenity trial against publisher City Lights.

Jacket Copy: “Neal Stephenson: a deeper look”

Author Neal Stephenson (“Cryptonomicon,” “The Baroque Cycle,” “Snow Crash”) has just published a new novel, “Anathem.” L.A. Times staff writer Scott Timberg talked to Stephenson for an upcoming profile. But since you’ll have to wait a few days for that, we thought we’d share some excerpts from his recent interviews with the author.

Weekly Standard: “Forty Years On: Tom Stoppard’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and the end of the Soviet empire.”

By Stoppard’s own admission, the play is a modified rendering of the extended argument that took place between Václav Havel and Milan Kundera about their country under communism. Stoppard tells us in his excellent introduction to the Rock ‘n’ Roll script that Jan was originally called Tomás, not just because this is the playwright’s own birth name but because it is that of Kundera’s lothario physician in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Jan’s friend and sparring partner in Prague, the passionate intellectual Ferdinand, is named for Ferdinand Vanek, Havel’s alter ego in three of his plays, Audience, Private View, and Protest. So here, roughly, are our stand-ins for a great Czech debate between two titans of 20th-century resistance.

Miscellanea: A collection of miscellaneous matters; matters of various kinds (Webster’s 1913).
Noteworthy tidbits gleaned from all over, sans commentary.

Welcome back, bicycle bell
The ding of a cycle bell as a cheery postman wave across the village green. Something from a bygone era? Not quite. (BBC News | UK)

ring my bell
This article highlights another difference between Canada and the UK. Here, cycle helmets are not compolsory, but bells are! I use my bell a lot when cycling over the high level bridge - the general rule is ring it every time you are about to pass someone so they know you are there…. (Dream Time)

A Day In The Life Of A Baseball Stadium
Check out this time-lapse video of the Anaheim Angels baseball stadium. It shows 16 hours (including a complete game), compressed to less than a minute.(via Off On A Tangent) (J-Walk Blog)

David Stern’s Nightmare
How about the NFL Draft attracting more viewers than the NBA Playoffs?… (Off Wing Opinion)

To The Five Boroughs
Gothamist will have to wait until the Beastie Boys’ new album, To The Five Boroughs, is released on June 15, but we can enjoy this great vista of what Lower Manhattan looked like back in the day…. (Gothamist)

Writer Hubert Selby, Jr.
He died Monday at the age of 75. In 1964, his book Last Exit To Brooklyn, shocked readers with its salty language and explicit portrayal of prostitutes, thugs, ex-cons and striking dock workers along the Brooklyn waterfront in the 1950s. Selby’s other books included The Room, Requiem for a Dream, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period. (This interview was originally broadcast on May 4, 1990.) (Fresh Air)

Smart Breeding and Green Biotech
…Dick Manning has written a provocative piece on the agricultural future of green biotechnology ‘…the quest for a longer-lasting tomato didn’t end there. As the Flavr Savr was stumbling (Monsanto eventually abandoned it), Israeli scientist Nachum Kedar was quietly bringing a natural version to market. By crossbreeding beefsteak tomatoes, Kedar had arrived at a savory, high-yield fruit that would ripen on the vine and remain firm in transit….’ (WorldChanging)

The Irrepressible Shabana
Norwegian-Pakistani humorist Shabana Rehman pulled a stunt during a public debate with Mullah Krekar, the controversial former leader of the militant group Ansar al-Islam that left the religious man fuming and threatening a lawsuit…. (Beyond the Beyond)

Old-timer’s advice for Jeter: Bunt!
Advice is coming from all sides to Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, whose batting slump stands at 0-for-32 heading into Thursday night’s game against Oakland. Harry Schwarzkopf, the manager of the Lynbrook Dodgers, a softball team of senior citizens sponsored by the Bristal Assisted Living Community on Long Island, N.Y., has written a letter to Jeter offering advice…. (ESPN.com - MLB)

Archaeology on High School doorstep
Students from Sacred Heart Catholic High School at McClennan, Calhoun County (USA) have discovered the remains of what may be an ancient Native American hunting camp within a stone’s throw… (Stone Pages Archaeo News)

Diamond Age Approaching?
The CRN (Center for Responsible Nanotechnology) reports that nanofactories (like the ones that were installed in every home in Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age) will arrive ‘almost certainly within 20 years’. In short they claim that molecular nanotechnology manufacturing will solve many of the world’s problems, catalyze a technologic revolution, and start the greatest arms race we’ve ever seen. They conclude the risks are so great that we should discuss how to deal with this technology so that we don’t kill each other when it arrives…. (Slashdot)

Facts in fiction; Fiction in facts
I was browing through this site called Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics, and thought again of that delicate balance between fact and fiction…. (On Learning How to Write)

Taxis in Lima, Peru
There is one taxi driver for every man, woman and child in Lima. They range in size from station wagon down to circus clown transport. You can identify a taxi by its propensity to slow down and draw near as you walk down the street, similar to a beggar asking you for change; also, they all have a colorful sticker in their front window in one of several biohazard florescent colors…. (Travis’ Column: Hot Off the Presses)

(Miscellanea: A collection of miscellaneous matters; matters of various kinds (Webster’s 1913). Noteworthy tidbits gleaned from all over, sans commentary.)

Steinbeck, at Last, Welcomed Home
During his lifetime, John Steinbeck and his hometown became so estranged that the author once objected to the naming of a local school building after him because he figured it would be an excuse to cuss his name. Theirs was a troubled and mostly unforgiving relationship, one with spells of love and hate and most emotions in between…. (NY Times)

Briton returns book 42 years late
An ex-RAF serviceman has been rewarded with a cup of tea after returning a book to Malta 42 years late. (BBC News)

Salon Interviews Neal Stephenson
Salon has a great interview with Neal Stephenson, author of such science fiction favorites as Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Quicksilver…. (Slashdot)

Things for me to catch up with
I had a romantic notion that I would keep a diary throughout all of last week, perhaps even blogging as I went, but the realities of running so far through somewhere so hot and inhospitable pretty much put an end to that…. As a sneak preview: it was over 120 degrees; I broke some bones in my ankle on the third day; most people were on heavy painkillers by the sixth… (Ben Hammersley’s Dangerous Precedent)

How Life Imitates Star Trek
40 years of invention inspired by Star Trek. Enterprise’s gadgets come back/down to earth. ‘In the 23rd century universe of Star Trek, people talked to each other using wireless personal communicators, had easy access to a vast database of information and spent hours gazing at a big wall-mounted video screen….’ (SF gate) (2020 Hindsight)

Olympic flame ceremony
Pictures from the ruins of Ancient Olympia in Hera as the Olympic torch is lit. (BBC Sport | Olympics 2004 | UK Edition)