Books: Blog of New Orleans, Gambit

T. Geronimo Johnson is a finalist for PEN/Faulkner Award

Will Coviello — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:45:00 -0600

T. Geronimo Johnson's Hold It 'Til It Hurts has been named among the five finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award, a prestigious peer-juried prize for writers. It's his first novel and it's partially set in New Orleans.…

Brooklyn Brewery Mash heads to New Orleans

Ian McNulty — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:26:00 -0600

The Brooklyn Brewery Mash rolls into town next week with a six-day schedule of events at venues around town mixing cuisine, art, film, music and, of course, beer.

New Orleans is the second stop on an 11-city national tour for the Brooklyn Brewery Mash, which is organized by the New York-based brewery and benefits the nonprofit Slow Food USA.…

George H.W. Bush on his son's leadership following Hurricane Katrina

Kevin Allman — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:11:00 -0600

President George H.W. Bush's 1999 book, All the Best, George Bush; My Life in Letters and Other Writings, is being reissued this month in an updated version, and CNN was provided an advance copy. In the book, Bush 41 discusses his feelings after Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures, when his son, President George W. Bush, was being criticized for the federal government's response to the unfolding disaster in New Orleans:

"I am really down about the way the President has been attacked," Bush writes in a 2005 letter to journalist and long-time friend Hugh Sidey about the criticism directed at his son for the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.…
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Justice League of... Louisiana?

Alex Woodward — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:50:00 -0600

DC Comics’ storied superhero supergroup Justice League of America will become Justice League of Louisiana, sort of. On Wednesday, Feb. 20, the publisher will unveil its series of covers picturing League members hoisting every U.S. state flag, including Louisiana's.…

Interview with a professional organizer

Missy Wilkinson — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:42:23 -0600

Today's a good day for cleaning house here in New Orleans, and January is National Organization Month, so what better time than now to talk to clutter-buster extraordinaire Virginia Barkley? The professional organizer's first book, ClutterBusting for Busy Women, was published this month and is a number-one bestseller on Amazon in its category (Home Improvement & Design).…

Did anyone else notice Frank Opelka using a Machiavelli quote in his presentation on the LSU hospital cuts?

Charles Maldonado — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:11:50 -0500

(Note: This is an extended version of a section we cut from an early draft of this week's cover story on Southeast Louisiana Hospital.)

I found the choice of a quote from Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince a little strange given the context.…

Henry Rollins brings "Capitalized" to Baton Rouge tonight

Kevin Allman — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:21:00 -0500

Muscled rabblerouser Henry Rollins is on a 50-state tour of U.S. capitals in advance of the November presidential election, and tonight the Black Flag frontman and SoCal punk elder statesman will be stopping at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge.

DIG Baton Rouge got an interesting interview with Rollins about why he's touring right now:

When someone says, “Oh, this safety net is making America into a nanny state” — then again, if you think you’re such a rugged individualist, then you won’t be using my road, a public road.…
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Stan Lee, Patrick Stewart and others headed to Wizard World Comic Con

Alex Woodward — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:35:00 -0500

Though its last stop in 2012 was in January, pop culture's moustrap Wizard World Comic Con returns in November for its annual three-day event at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

This year's recently announced celebrity headliners include Star Trek: The Next Generation's Patrick Stewart, Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee, and actors Eliza Dushku and Michael Madsen.…

David Sedaris coming to Tulane on Oct. 24

Lauren LaBorde — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:46:00 -0500

WWNO announced in an email to members that the fiercely witty writer and monologist David Sedaris will come to Tulane's McAlister Auditorium on Wednesday, Oct. 24 for a reading and book signing. There is a special pre-sale for members now, and tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. on Aug. 17.…

News hoax artist Ryan Holiday signs book at Octavia tonight

Will Coviello — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:56:30 -0500

As a marketing officer and online media buyer for American Apparel, Ryan Holiday has bought millions of dollars in advertising. But he has gained a reputation for the hoaxes and pranks (more on media deceptions) that gained free publicity for his company (as well as Tucker Max, the author/professional lout he’s advised on media strategies).…

Chef Marcus Samuelsson appears at Restaurant August, not Octavia Books

Will Coviello — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:07:41 -0500

Chef Marcus Samuelsson is in town Friday on a book tour event, but he will be at a dinner and signing at Restaurant August, not Octavia Books, as was incorrectly listed in Gambit.

Samuelsson is a native or Ethiopia who was adopted by a Swedish family at 4 years old.…

Public Transit Tuesdays: Tchoupitoulas

Megan Braden-Perry — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:19:08 -0500

Since the Tchoupitoulas bus comes only once an hour—with the exception of coming once every half hour in the early morning, late afternoon and early evening—this bus adventure was more of a walking tour. A very exhausting walking tour.…

French connections and Parisian peculiarities

Ian McNulty — Thu, 31 May 2012 09:00:00 -0500

Parisians are obsessed with cherry tomatoes, and they're crazy for sushi. They feel guilty about sweets, yet they can justify any dessert so long as it includes salted caramel, which they find “makes indulging almost enjoyable.”

Every Parisian under age 50 wears jeans, but they consider people who wear white socks beneath contempt.…

Who would make the best big screen Ignatius J. Reilly?

Alex Woodward — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:52:00 -0500

The trailer for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby adaptation and the news that Zach Galifianakis may be cast as the hero of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces broke almost at the same time — confirming many people in my Facebook feed haven't read much after high school.

Dunces has never, ever successfully made the big screen leap.…

Casting Confederacy

Kevin Allman — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:36:00 -0500

Yesterday New York magazine's pop-culture website Vulture brought the ruckus when it reported comic Zach Galifianakis was "attached" to the latest attempt to bring A Confederacy of Dunces to a multiplex near you. Galifianakis is hardly the first Ignatius-attachment since Confederacy was published 31 years ago; the late Chris Farley, John Candy and John Belushi were all once "attached" (the curse of Ignatius?)…

Bobby and the Big Apple

Kevin Allman — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:10:00 -0500

Gov. Bobby Jindal was the featured guest at last night's New York Republican State Committee dinner at the Sheraton New York in midtown Manhattan. (Dinner: $1,000; photo op with the gov, $5,000.…

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A Confederacy of Dunces: in search of the manuscript

Kevin Allman — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:12:00 -0500

There have been a couple of books written about John Kennedy Toole and A Confederacy of Dunces — one a charming personal reminiscence, the other unworthy of its subject — but we now have Cory MacLauchlin's Butterfly in the Typewriter, which is the first serious biography of Toole.

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Walter Isaacson talks Steve Jobs at the New Orleans Public Library

Kevin Allman — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:41:54 -0500

New Orleans native Walter Isaacson wrote the book on Steve Jobs — literally — and he'll be discussing it tomorrow at the New Orleans Public Library (219 Loyola Ave.) from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Admission is free.…
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Play House Hunters bingo with Michael Ian Black

Alex Woodward — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0600

Michael Ian Black visited New Orleans at precisely the best and worst time, depending why you're here and how long. Black, a veteran of sketch groups The State and Stella and their respective TV shows (and a member of that deep rolling David Wain posse, with credits from cult favorite Wet Hot American Summer to the recently released Wanderlust), was in New Orleans on Lundi Gras to promote HGTV's popular series House Hunters — specifically, a bingo game centered on the program (which you can download here).…
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Jonathan Franzen appears at Tulane tonight

Lauren LaBorde — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:26:50 -0600

Jonathan Franzen, author of lauded First World Problems fiction Freedom and The Corrections, appears at Tulane's McAlister Auditorium tonight for the university's Great Writers Series.

The author has graced the cover of Time, won the National Book Award for The Corrections (which is being adapted for an HBO series), and has been subject to a slew of soaring accolades as well as criticism.…
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Tonight: Darrell Hammond at House of Blues

Alex Woodward — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:45:49 -0600

Back for an encore, Darrell Hammond, he of Saturday Night Live and last year's best Fresh Air interview fame, joins the All-Star Comedy Revue at House of Blues tonight.

Host Leon Blanda also gathers local comics Dane Faucheux, "Principal Daniels" (CJ Hunt), and Chris Trew, with house band Adam Bock and the Wheels of Fortune — and it's a free show.…
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Wizard World Comic Con, other comic book events begin

Alex Woodward — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:20:00 -0600

The 2012 Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con opens its doors tomorrow at 11 a.m. But tonight, the weekend comic rager begins with a meet-and-greet with Marvel Comics founder and nerd world demigod Stan Lee (6 p.m. to 7 p.m.), followed by a kick-off party at The District (177 Tchoupitoulas St.) from 8 p.m. to midnight.…
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Cooking under the (Louisiana) influence

Ian McNulty — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:59:00 -0600

Mitch Rosenthal is the chef and owner of four popular restaurants on the West Coast, but it’s easy to see his affinity for Louisiana food in his new cookbook “Cooking My Way Back Home.” Right on the cover, in fact, there’s a photo of “angels on horseback,” or fried, bacon-wrapped oysters, dabbed with remoulade.

Familiar local flavors run through “Cooking My Way Back Home,” though it’s hardly a traditional Louisiana cookbook.…
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Political pot shots and a liberalizing mac and cheese

Ian McNulty — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:45:00 -0600

Local writer Liz Scott Monaghan riffs a bit on the fact that there are indeed still some liberals and Democrats on the Northshore, which she describes as the place “where people from New Orleans live when they want higher ground and lots of Republicans around them.”

More importantly however, and also contrary to the area’s well-heeled image, she points out that there are also people going hungry on the Northshore.

Raising awareness of the problem and raising money to help address it are the goals behind "Cookbook for the Hungry," which Monaghan co-edited along with Slidell resident Ann Porter.…
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William Shatner joins the 2012 New Orleans Wizard World Comic Con

Alex Woodward — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:40:00 -0600

Star Trek deity, recording artist, ageless pop cultural icon and fried turkey guru, William Shatner will headline the second annual Wizard World Comic Con New Orleans, a two-day pop culture-obsessed traveling roadshow.

Shatner appears at the convention Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.…
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