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Get Post-Apocalyptic on Valentine's Day

Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: Andre Dubus III, books, bookstores, documentaries, Ernest Hemingway, events, fiction, Jackson Five, Joyce Carol Oates, movies, music, Orson Welles, radio, Ray Bradbury

A friend forwards this heartening bulletin from Brooklyn's indie bookstore Freebird:

Just a reminder that this Thursday, Feb 14, at 7:30 pm, Freebird is kicking off our monthly Post-Apocalyptic discussion group with a special A/V presentation of Ray Bradbury's classic short science fiction, "There Will Come Soft Rains." Come listen to the '50s radio play version, watch a 9-minute Soviet animated adaptation, and hear about the forthcoming months' book and film selections. And if you'd like to read it beforehand, check out this site.

That reminds me of "War of the Worlds," not surprisingly; if you haven't heard it for yourself, listen—laugh, but it'll spook you. Here's an incredible old-radio site I just discovered, which includes the Orson Welles classic. One of these days, I want to hunt down my great-grandmother's recordings. She was a pip, from what I've heard!

While we're on the subject of radio, I'd be denying you the pleasure of hearing this if I didn't mention the BBC Radio 2 documentary on the Jackson Five that my friend and Scrabulous opponent Chris Skinner produced. It's not stuff you've heard before, and it's really about the music.

Meanwhile, I went to a merry event today for Andre Dubus III's new book The Garden of Last Days, at which the charmingly persuasive Dubus urged me (a group of us were talking about classics we haven't read yet, including The Sun Also Rises, for which he provided a very un-Cliffs Notes synopsis; wonder if Freebird has any in stock?) to read Joyce Carol Oates's short stories, especially "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" So I'm about to do that, right here on Oates's website. They made a movie from the story in 1985, Smooth Talk. Move to top of queue?

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I'm Emily Gordon, reachable at emily@emdashes.com.

I'm an editor at PRINT magazine in New York City. I've worked at The Nation, Newsday, PEN America, and Legal Affairs. I've written for the NY Times Book Review, Salon, The Washington Post, The Village Voice... continued

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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.

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Written and edited by Emily Gordon (plus various guest contributors), designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

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