I just finished up an interview with writer George Pelecanos, and I have to say I’m *very* excited about tommorow’s show. The theme’s going to be Elements of Style…
Last week, I had a really fascinating conversation with Maira Kalman, who created an illustrated version of the classic writer’s guide “The Elements of Style.” When I heard about the book, I was intruiged, and when I saw it, I was sold a bajillion times over. One of the really amazing things about the original Elements of Style is how surprising and funny it is. One of the most wonderful things in writing is extreme pithiness, and EB White had that in spades. Kalman’s illustrations bring that to life in amazing ways… the one above is for the entry, “Illusion: see allusion.” She had wonderful things to say about it.
Later on today, I’m talking with Nico Muhly, who wrote a song cycle about the book. He’s my age (24), and has already worked with John Adams and Bjork. We’ll see if there’s room for that in the show, otherwise it’s going up on the web here. They were nice enough to let me use Nico’s music in the show. Here’s a beautiful artwork/interview about his work with Bjork.
And as I mentioned earlier, I also got to talk to George Pelecanos. He’s a brilliant crime novelist, and a writer/producer for HBO’s The Wire, which I’m pretty sure is the best show on television. He just edited a new compilation of stories called “DC Noir,” and he’s working on The Wire now. I talked to him about both of them. After the interview, I allowed myself a moment to gush… I told him how many copies of his books I’d sold to people when I worked at Borders at 18th & L in DC.