More from the Texas Book Festival:

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Sonic 100:

Dailysonic, my favorite podcast, just celebrated their 100th episode. Well, they did Oct. 5. I'm just catching up now.

Dailysonic was a huge inspiration for me both in getting to know podcasting and in starting my own. As a kind of NPR's Morning Editon for the Internet generation, Dailysonic creates 30-50 minutes of consistently funny, smart, diverse, radio 5 days a week. I can only hope to do a little bit of the same.

Tunes From Da 'Hood:

Neighborhoodies, which you've seen if you live in any city with a college campus, new offers a free .mp3 every weekday. I'm cynical about such things since a) Neighborhoodies are way cooler than I and b) I have Pandora, the musicial equivalent of a 24-hour shoulder massage.

Well shut my mouth. I've downloaded a half-dozen tracks and have been thrown back in tuneful ecstacy each time. Just this morning, I downloaded "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" by The Hold Steady, a band I've been "whelmed" with so far.

Listen for yourself. It friggin rocks.

The Omni:

Prelim report from the Texas Book Festival...


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Indictment Parties:

The Stranger, Seattle's alternative weekly newspaper, plans to throw an Indictment Party tonight celebrating whomever gets hauled in over the Valerie Plame affair. Special drinks include "The Judith Miller", "The Scooter Libby" and the "George W. Bush."

Bottoms up. That's fabulous.

88 Years in the Making:

Congratulations to Justin, Andrew, Wendy, Claire, Mara, Tara, Alan, Amber and all my friends in Chicago on the White Sox World Series victory. I'm not a baseball fan and didn't catch one game this year. My interest in sports only extends to underdogs. Winners bore the heck out of me. So the Red Sox last year and the White Sox, 88 years overdue this fall? Now that's my kind of fall classic.

Cubs 2006, anyone?

Please Be Kind: First Podcast

I've just put together my first podcast (say what?). Your 10 Minute World is a palm-sized audio goodiebag of news, culture and factoids designed to be utilitarian in the extreme. Each episode will feature one song, one book or movie and one fun fact of the day. What you do with it is up to you.

If you already subscribe to this site's rss feed (available here), do nothing. It should send the podcast directly to you as an .mp3 file. Or if you want the podcast, plug this URL...

http://feeds.feedburner.com/WhereTheresSmoke

into iTunes or whatever your favorite podcast client is (a huge list).

Or you can listen to it right here.

Please be kind. I don't know the first thing about audio and spent the last 3 days learning Garageband and putting this thing together. I know I have a long way to go but am proud of the results.

As always, your feedback is welcome. Shownotes forthcoming...

2000...

This photo really brings it home.

R.I.P Rosa Parks:

An icon passes on.

"Throwing a Spear"

Director Noah Baumbach of the new film The Squid and the Whale had this to say on "The Treatment" last week. I'm paraphrasing...

"I read an interview with Ingmar Bergman where he said writing the first draft of a script is like throwing a spear into the woods." You know you have to say something but you're not quite sure what. So you just chuck. Successive drafts are about finding the spear."

I friggin love that. It makes the hardest part of writing (starting) seem like instinct rather than cleverness or a surprise vist by your muse.

I've got something brewing. I need to go throw.