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Some tidbits that came out of Als’ gentle if not meandering interviewing style touched on her earlier days and “characters” in her records. At 20 or 21 Harvey put her first band together (a folk band in Dorset that performed Irish tunes) and her goal was “to do musically” what she “wanted to see in art.” And the “art” of it all was her course of study at university where she was an adept and unique sculptor who enjoyed casting her face and hands, and sticking them “on flying machinery.†Of Harvey’s individual records, Als posited that “each record is a character study,” and that “after ‘Dry’ each record was about different people in different societies.” Harvey didn’t seem to agree with this assessment, but did offer that as she gets older, she has “felt more comfortable” allowing her lyrics to be more biographical, as opposed to when she was younger, she “tried to shield herself with distance.” She also later noted that as she gets on in years, she is getting better at expressing herself in her personal life.Speaking of music, ever since I heard the New Pornographers play live on Saturday after their interview with Jim Surowiecki (in which the band members were alternately as sweetly fidgety as the high school band and as elliptical and arch-Dada as Dylan or the Beatles in a press conference, but mostly just reticent in a harmless Canadian way), I love them even more, especially “Mass Romantic,” which they really knocked the stuffing out of.
Robin Williams, a reformed alcoholic and drug addict, also admits he colourful past automatically rules him out.A LiveJournalist went to the Jonathan Safran Foer/Edward P. Jones reading and took some brief, good notes; this guy enjoyed the festinis at the Steve Coogan and George Saunders talk. Anonymette from Movie News and Views wrote a detailed blow-by-blow of the Milos Forman and David Denby conversation (minus Forman’s incredible, elastic, tragicomic face).
He revealed at the New Yorker Festival: “I would never run for office — because I make Bill Clinton look Amish.â€
However, Williams thinks Jack Nicholson should go into politics because he would be happy to be open about his past.
Impersonating ‘The Departed’ star’s voice, he said: “Jack would say, ‘Sex scandals? What do you want? I’ve done ‘em all. Twice. And I have it on tape!’â€
Other interesting factoids from the New Yorker FestivalHe was at the New Pornographers show too, and did a bit of eavesdropping on top of his laudably detailed reporting—want a job without any pay, Gabe? I like the way your mind works! Here are some New Pornographers photos, including a fetching one of Jim S. and Neko Case (who, it’s rumored, indulged in some serious karaoke afterward). Funny line from aforementioned roundup: “Suroweicki won me over immediately by being less good-looking than the photo on the jacket of his book, which is to say he’s only very good-looking, as opposed to intolerably good-looking.”
New Yorker staffers who, at separate events, made gratuitous references to the Gnarls Barkley song “Crazy”: star reporter Malcolm Gladwell and features editor Daniel Zalewski.
How Roger Angell pronounces the last name of the late Donald Barthelme: BARL-mee.
How Zadie Smith pronounces it: BARTH-elm.