I missed this earlier: HUO interviews Raoul Vaneigem: http://e-flux.com/journal/view/62.

Reading the 1300 pages long study of the border area between California and Mexico by William T. Vollmann now. 200 pages on the way and until now it is simply … stunning. Much, much better than expected, with some breathtaking ‘excursions’.

Of course, the repetition starts now, the excessiveness, the too much and too long. But I have good hopes that he will keep my interest going.

Well, I hope to write more on it at some point, later.

Two reviews that look good – I haven’t read them yet, and won’t until I’ve finished the book -:
http://nymag.com/arts/books/reviews/58062/ and
http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/booksliterature/story/751879.html.

Polis is this, documentary about poet Charles Olson is available on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch&c.. Haven’t seen it yet, will soon. (Via http://transversalinflections.wordpress.com/).

Longish remarks on a.o. William Marx, Afscheid van de literatuur under ‘pages’. Of course my remarks are pretty soft – (apparently with my background in literary theory I can stand W. Marx’s approach which centers on what literary critics wrote) – for a harsher but quite fair assessment (in Dutch) read: http://achillevandenbranden.blogspot.com/

For when you get bored reading all the ‘murikan reviews of 2666: http://venepoetics.blogspot.com/search/label/RobertoBolaño

Just reading a bunch of reviews and essays I come across this in a London Review of Books essay on computer games by John Lanchester:

“Northrop Frye once observed that all conventions, as conventions, are more or less insane; Stanley Cavell once pointed out that the conventions of cinema are just as arbitrary as those of opera. Both those observations are brought to mind by video games, which are full, overfull, of exactly that kind of arbitrary convention. Many of these conventions make the game more difficult. Gaming is a much more resistant, frustrating medium than its cultural competitors. Older media have largely abandoned the idea that difficulty is a virtue; if I had to name one high-cultural notion that had died in my adult lifetime, it would be the idea that difficulty is artistically desirable. It’s a bit of an irony that difficulty thrives in the newest medium of all – and it’s not by accident, either. One of the most common complaints regular gamers make in reviewing new offerings is that they are too easy. (It would be nice if a little bit of that leaked over into the book world.)”

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/lanc01_.html

I’m not sure if I totally agree with this (but I’m not a gamer), but as a quote I like it.

Informal exchange about contemporary art — in Dutch: http://www.endlesslowlands.nl.

A call for contribution for Video Vortex 4 is up (ah, since the 2nd of december): http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/videovortex/archives/108. Also a a pdf of the reader covering Video Vortex 3: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publications/inc-readers/videovortex//.

I know, I should write on 2666 myself. For now, I’ll just point you to an Interesting discussion over at Waggish: http://www.waggish.org/2008/12/16/notes-on-roberto-bolano-2666 and http://www.waggish.org/2009/01/18/more-notes-on-roberto-bolanos-2666.

In de Rekto:Verso die nu in de winkel zou moeten liggen (wel, in België dan, en wellicht op een enkele plek in Nederland) staat een interview met Arjen Mulder, de vragen zijn van mij: http://www.rektoverso.be/content/view/849/15/. Ook hier http://www.urbanmag.be/artikel/1469/interageren-om-te-overleven.