In 1997, novelist George Dawes Green was homesick. Back in his native Georgia, on muggy, cricket-filled nights, his friends used to gather outdoors on the porch to spin stories to one another, chatting into the night while moths gathered overhead, bumping into the lightbulbs. Green, determined to recreate those gatherings in New York, founded The Moth, a non-profit literary organization dedicated to just that.
Over the past decade, The Moth sponsored live storytelling events in communities across the country, as well as launching a Moth podcast and public radio show, featuring heavyweights like Malcolm Gladwell and Salman Rushdie. Last night, The Moth had its annual fundraising gala at Capitale in Manhattan. Wry comments, feather boas, and vintage ballgowns abounded, and literary rock stars — like host Jonathon Ames and honorees Calvin Trillin — mingled with past Moth contributors. Check out our photos and read some of the best quotes of the night, after the jump.
The world of Twitter can be hard to navigate. We know that you’re already following us @flavorpill, but we decided it would be fun (and possibly helpful) if we rounded up some of our other Twitter favorites in a series we call “The Followables.” This eighth installment, inspired by the new that Maya Angelou (who already has 385,000 Facebook fans) plans to launch her Twitter account at a belated 82nd birthday party, spotlights the tweeting literati we love. (If you want to learn about critics and publishers as well as authors, we’ve got a list for that, too.) Do us a favor and leave a comment with anyone who you enjoy who didn’t make our list.
1. Bruce Springsteen, the Killers, Jon Bon Jovi, and Lucinda Williams are set to contribute to a forthcoming album of Kinks covers by former frontman Ray Davies. [via TwentyFourBit]
2. In case you were wondering, Lil Wayne is allowed to bring his diamond-implanted teeth to Riker’s Island. [via Slate]
3. Is this new trailer for The Karate Kid remake more exciting than the first one? [via Yahoo!]
4. Jonah Hill will star in The Sitter, a new David Gordon Green comedy that’s inspired by Adventures in Babysitting. [via THR]
5. It was announced yesterday that books by Sherman Alexie, Barbara Kingsolver, Lorraine M. López, Lorrie Moore and Colson Whitehead are finalists for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. We interviewed Moore about A Gate at the Stairshere. [via WaPo]
Bonus Giveaway: We use Yahoo! Search to help find the top culture stories of the day. Now we’re giving you the chance to play editor, and you just might win a trip to Coachella.
Use Yahoo! Search to find an interesting link about The Kinks, and drop it below in the comments below. Our favorite entry will receive a copy of The Kinks Greatest Hits 1970-86 (2CD/DVD), and more importantly, be entered to win a VIP trip for two to Coachella. Topics will be changing throughout the week, so get your search on and keep playing to increase your chances of winning!
Remember when Williamsburg was just a collection of warehouses? Longtime Brooklyn dwellers Sam Brumbaugh and Bronwyn Keenan sure do. Brumbaugh, writer of Goodbye, Goodness, and Keenan, the Guggenheim’s Director of Special Events, recognize how far Brooklyn has come in its artistic development in the past decade, going so far as to dub it a “renaissance.” To commemorate the borough’s achievements and celebrate the museum’s 50th anniversary, they’ve co-produced a new concert series called “It Came From Brooklyn,” to take place in Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous rotunda. Read More »
An update from Maud: “I didn’t realize my post might be misleading, so here’s what happened: Last week at Happy Ending, Colson read some of his ‘Tony Danza Miracles’ — haiku based on TV shows — and within the next few days I asked him (at Twitter) if he would post one. He responded (at Twitter) with my favorite of the night, about ’24.’ Not too long after that, Colson said (at Twitter) that he was reading the new Cheever bio and couldn’t stop thinking about Seinfeld. (There’s an episode in which George’s fiancee’s father turns out to have been receiving love letters from Cheever.) I said (again, at Twitter) that the highest form of the Tony Danza Miracle would probably be a Cheever-Seinfeld haiku, and Colson wrote one. If you’ve read the book and seen the episode, it’s pretty great.”
, and more importantly, be entered to win a VIP trip for two to Coachella. Topics will be changing throughout the week, so get your search on and keep playing to increase your chances of winning!
