Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Playlist, and much more

A playlist of music by Godspeed! You Black Emperor, interviews with Kathleen Alcott & Panda Bear, an excerpt from Robert Coover's new novel, and more

I started actually teaching last week, and that comes with a surreal amount of paperwork. When I am grading classwork and homework, working on lesson plans, or planning my days, I have been spinning mostly instrumental music (not unlike my writing playlists).

Godspeed! You Black Emperor’s post-rock has been at the center of these playlists. The mix of instrumentals and field recordings create the perfect soundtrack for a sometimes monotonous task, crescendos arriving at the perfect time to swell the spirit and invigorate my soul.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Playlist (11 songs, 1 hour and 58 minutes)

Largehearted Likes:

1. BK2BAMA
   BK2BAMA is a yearlong program that immerses Brooklyn middle school students in the history and present day of the Civil Rights movement through weekly events and a yearly trip to Alabama and Georgia.

   

2. Juliet Escoria
   ’s short fiction collection Black Cloud, and poetry collection Witch Hunt are being published in a new edition, which includes new writing and an introduction by Scott McClanahan. Read/listen to Escoria’s playlists for Black Cloud and Witch Hunt.
   

Largehearted Links

1. How much does it cost to open a bookstore?
   Book Riot puts a number on our dream.

2. Panda Bear (Animal Collective) Talks with Paul Maroon (The Walkmen) on the Talkhouse Podcast

3. An excerpt from Robert Coover’s new novel Open House

4. Annie Zaleski
   on Wilco’s “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (and much more)
   To me, the song also sounds like a funeral. Jeff Tweedy is a droll protagonist, narrating his own emotional and romantic collapse with eerie calmness. But by the end, his voice starts to disintegrate and grows faint, as if he’s peeling off from the song to go elsewhere or maybe ascending heavenward to another plane. Fittingly, the last verse describes someone trying to disappear into their anguished grief…

5. Jacqueline Woodson named New York State Author

   Jacqueline Woodson is one of our most talented and versatile writers, the perfect choice for New York state author.

6. An unpublished excerpt from Greg Mania’s memoir about how he almost accidentally killed Lady Gaga

7. Book Publicity: What Works and What Doesn't by

   Kathleen Schmidt

   See also: part 2

8. In and Out of Tune: A Guide to Alternate Tunings on Bandcamp

9. New short fiction by Allen Bratton

10. A conversation between musician A. Savage and author Kathleen Alcott

    ALCOTT: …I’m thinking about your record and there’s that lyric about the gods who held your heels and then, two songs later or something, the gods who don’t exist or care. You’re such a poet. I don’t know what my question is about that—are you aware of these threads that are broken and re-strung, the thematic unity of that?

    SAVAGE: I guess I’m aware of it insofar as anyone is kind of aware of their own lexicon. I think as either songwriters or fiction writers, you have these archetypes. That is kind of what attracts me to the classics. But oftentimes, with specific things like you just pointed out, it’s not as intentional as you might think. As an artist of any sort, there’s just some things that you don’t even see in you that come out.

11. An excerpt from

    Alicia Kennedy
    ’s new book No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating
    

Last Week’s LHB Feature Posts

Courtney Bush’s playlist for her poetry collection I Love Information

Marta Balcewicz’s playlist for her novel Big Shadow

Richard John Parfitt’s playlist for his novel Stray Dogs

Robert McKean’s playlist for his story collection Mending What Is Broken

S. L. Coney’s playlist for their novel Wild Spaces