NPR album streams

NPR’s streaming albums from The Corin Tucker Band (former member of the defunked band Sleater-Kinney) and Sufjan Steven’s new album ‘The Age of Adz‘

Book Review: Stretch

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude
by Neal Pollack

With the novel’s back cover touting the book “mercilessly lampoons the bizarre, omnipresent culture of yoga…” I steeled myself; ready for the onslaught of cyncism, snark and skepticism about my precious yoga, which I love, but the book’s back cover goes on to say that it’s “also a story of a profound personal transformation” and watching this transformation is what I really enjoyed about the book. Stretch is well researched, providing a wealth of information on the current yoga culture, various yoga styles and teachers, both the veritable and also the should-not-under-any-circumstance-be-able-to-teach-yoga-kind , and the mythology and history of yoga, which sounds boring and didactic, but I found it informative and useful. Pollack, questing for his “better self,” takes you on a funny journey deeper and deeper into the yoga world, shows you that, yes, it is bizarre and omnipresent, but he, as I did,  falls immediately in love with yoga at it’s best: when it’s pure and simple, and so the criticism he gives is with insight and passion and ultimately Stretch made me want to immediately get on my yoga mat.

You can read the first chapter here

Watch Neal’s yoga videos:

Release Day Picks…late of course

Books and Books caught my attention this week. Must be because I’m almost done with what I’m reading and so looking for the next.

Some highlights:

• Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception By Charles Seif

• The Wave by Susan Casey about surfing and studying big waves

• Dick and Jane and Vampires … oh lord

• Even Silence Has an End by Ingrid Betancourt…here’s a video excerpt from her appearance on Oprah this week.

• Always good picks from Word Bookstore

• New in Paperback (from last week…geez) including last year’s great graphic novel Stitches: A Memoir by David Small and this week

• And finally, the music releases of the week

Recap of the week

I have been obnoxiously lazy about posting this week, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been paying attention. So I thought to have a nice little recap of things that crossed paths with me this week:

• Hipsterrunoff makes the case for the band Ok Go to go away in light of their new video that hit the web this week

• NPR streamed the new Deerhunter album

• In case you still buy physical albums (like me) Rolling Stone lists the US’s Best Record Stores

• Sesame Street version of True Blood

• Learn about Shojo Manga– Manga for girls

• Messages of hate turned into poetry for love

• The 2010 Booker Prize Shortlist came out

• An essay on America’s true history of religious tolerance

• And finally, I mean come on, I found what I want for Xmas this year

Fashion Week UPDATED

For whatever reason I’m really into fashion week this year. It started today and if you’re into it as I am, here’s a New York Times site that has and will have pictures of all the collections.

UPDATE: Other great sites to enjoy fashion week photos:

• Buzznet

• Tom and Lorenzo kill it every year and this year’s no different. Check out their gallery of Atelier Versace. I love the last three dresses.

• And finally, Betsy Johnson will live stream her show Monday, Sept. 13 at 6pm.

More to come…

A small roundup of release day picks UPDATED

Just a sampling of the many books, Dvds and music out this week. More should be added as the week goes on…

Music

• Spin reviews the new Interpol album and 7 more that are out this week. You can hear most of them here
• In honor of “Super Tuesday” Sept. 14, NPR has streams of many albums coming out next week, including Of Montreal and Robert Plant
• Listen to a live song from the Dirty Projectors, who are reissuing last year’s Bitte Orca. Out Sept. 28

DVD

• Tool’s Maynard James Keenan’s doc on his other passion: wine. Blood into Wine is out on DVD this week

Books

• C by Tom McCarthy is getting good reviews. Read an excerpt
• Read an excerpt from William Gibson’s sci-fi novel Zero History
• Amelia Gray’s story collection Museum of the Weird is out
• New York Times reviews  Sean Wilentz’s Bob Dylan in America
• Adventure Stories and comic strips, sounds like a perfect match to me in Kevin Huizenga’s The Wild Kingdom…NPR profiles the book
  

Graphic Novels

• Belle Yang’s Forget Sorrow

50 Essential Manga

I’ve always wanted to get into Manga, but had no idea how to dive in. So this list of 50 Essential Manga Books might help me start my manga library.

Bjork’s single for UNICEF

You can buy the new single The Comet Song from the movie Moomins and the Comet Chase on Itunes. All proceeds go to UNICEF

Weezer New Album Streaming UPDATED

Weezer’s new album ‘Hurley’ is streaming on their myspace page

Update: Apparently Weezer is getting into the clothing business with a “Hurley” clothing line.

Happy Labor Day!

In honor of the national day of rest, here’s author John Grisham on how he became a writer and began to work.

– From the New York Times