I bought the Jonathan Franzen book, the rest of the pile be damned. I know, you’re not surprised either.

In which Stan Lee defends video games — and once again claims that he (and evidently he alone) “created Spider-Man, Iron Man and the Hulk, the virtual ancestors of the characters in today’s games.” I guess Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko played no role.

Fox “News” playing tricks with editing. Again.

Every politician running for office should watch this video. It provides a primer in what not to do. The rest of us will find it equal parts hilarious and terrifying.

My God, I love this song, and this video. Cee Lo Green’s new song is, in the words of my friend Terence Anthony, “Best. Song. Ever.”

Cee Lo Green is the vocalizing half of Gnarls Barkley (mutli-instrumentalist music whiz Danger Mouse being the other half), who are justly famous for the best song of the aughts, “Crazy.” Cee Lo is the finest soul singer of this generation. If you go to Cee Lo’s website and sign up for his emails, he gives you two free downloads. (Although not this song.) I recommend you do this, because they’re pretty terrific. Not as inspirational as this particular song — the video of which is required viewing, if anyone has any doubt as to the lyrical point he’s trying to make — but nonetheless marvelous.

I don’t know what genius put Cee Lo together with Danger Mouse, but now I’m thinking they’re the best pairing since… Lennon & McCartney? (And certainly better than Loggins & Messina. Or Hall & Oates.) Separately, each is a potent musical force. Together, they’re astonishing.

Continued evidence that newspapers are approaching their end:  The Pew Research Center reports that even as Americans are consuming more news, they’re reading fewer newspapers. Two notable findings:

Overall, the proportion of daily print newspaper readers decreased from 38% in 2006 to 30% in 2008, before slipping to 26% this year. That represents a 32% drop in the size of the newspaper-reading population in just four years.

In a stark illustration of the shifting generational dynamics of news consumption, just 8% of the 26% cohort who read a print newspaper every day was between the ages of 18 and 30, compared to about 20% of the U.S. population.

In other words, they’ve lost two generations. (I started reading the newspaper at age 11. None of my kids reads the newspaper.) The report also finds that the proportion of people who get their news from newspapers, even the digital editions, is declining as well.

On a side note, the grammarian in me can’t help correcting the headline, “Pew: Americans Consume More News, Less Newspapers.” Rather than “less,” they mean to say “fewer.” Going forward, I think that fewer and fewer of us will know that.

 I’ve written here before about my friend Gerald Locklin. Gerry is a poet who somehow made a career in academia while being shunned by it. That fine distinction — being in academia while not being of it — has resulted in a fine poet.  Gerry’s work is insightful and accessible, which practically makes it unique today. This poem, which I’ve printed here before, states the case:

The Iceberg Theory

all the food critics hate iceberg lettuce.
you’d think romaine was descended from
orpheus’s laurel wreath,
you’d think raw spinach had all the nutritional
benefits attributed to it by popeye,
not to mention aesthetic subtleties worthy of
verlaine and debussy.
they’ll even salivate over chopped red cabbage
just to disparage poor old mr. iceberg lettuce.

I guess the problem is
it’s just too common for them.
it doesn’t matter that it tastes good,
has a satisfying crunchy texture,
holds its freshness,
and has crevices for the dressing,
whereas the darker, leafier varieties
are often bitter, gritty, and flat.
it just isn’t different enough, and
it’s too goddamn american.

of course a critic has to criticize:
a critic has to have something to say.
perhaps that’s why literary critics
purport to find interesting
so much contemporary poetry
that just bores the shit out of me.

at any rate, I really enjoy a salad
with plenty of chunky iceberg lettuce,
the more the merrier,
drenched in an italian or roquefort dressing.
and the poems I enjoy are those I don’t have
to pretend that I’m enjoying.

If you like that poem (and I hope you do), here’s some good news:  the online poetry zine Rusty Truck is dedicated this week to the work of Gerald Locklin.  Here’s the announcement, and here’s the first day’s poem.  And here, on the same site, you’ll find an interview where Gerry discusses his friendship with Charles Bukowski, the conflict between “underground” and academic writing, and just how one goes about writing more than 125 published books. Gerry’s work embraces Wallace Stevens’ maxim that a poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman. It’s a pleasure reading him, and knowing him.

Because 15 years later, Jerry Brown will still be making fun of you for it.

“If you give people a choice between a Republican and a Republican, they’ll pick the Republican every time.” Harry Truman

I was just checking out this obit for actor Kevin McCarthy, who starred in the science fiction thriller “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Want to know what’s truly science fictional? Evidently, the LA Times sent this obit back to us from the future.