Because after a Cap’n Jazz reunion and a novel by your lead singer, what else is there to do but score a 1928 film about the French heroine/Roman Catholic saint who your band is named after?

Joan of Arc (the band) has announced that they’re releasing an instrumental soundtrack to the 1928 silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, to be released on vinyl and digital only on the Joyful Noise label.

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It’s funny how things changes when you learn one of your favorite writers is behind a project you were initially skeptical of.  In this case it’s finding out about Michael Chabon’s involvement with the upcoming Disney film, John Carter, has made me quite curious after seeing commercials for the film and muttering an “Ehhhh…”  Chabon co-wrote the screenplay for the film, and coupled with his upcoming work with HBO, it would seem he’s finally getting on the right track when it comes to getting his work on the screen — be it small or silver.

According to

It’s funny how things changes when you learn one of your favorite writers is behind a project you were initially skeptical of.  In this case it’s finding out about Michael Chabon’s involvement with the upcoming Disney film, John Carter, has made me quite curious after seeing commercials for the film and muttering an “Ehhhh…”  Chabon co-wrote the screenplay for the film, and coupled with his upcoming work with HBO, it would seem he’s finally getting on the right track when it comes to getting his work on the screen — be it small or silver.

According to Jacob Silverman at Tablet:

Chabon has spoken frequently and bitterly about his vexed relationship with Hollywood. The list of unfilmed, abandoned, or otherwise bungled projects is long: a romantic comedy about old Jews on a cruise, sold to Hollywood’s resident littérateur, producer Scott Rudin, but never filmed; rejected story ideas for X-Men and Fantastic Four; the unproduced Kavalier and Clay adaptation, which Chabon spent more than a year writing; a draft screenplay ofSpiderman 2, only part of which was used for the eventual film; and a live-action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which Disney hired Chabon to write, in 2004, before they replaced him. In 2008, the Coen brothers announced they were adapting The Yiddish Policemen’s Union on the heels of A Serious Man; that, too, has landed in development purgatory, never to be heard about since.

Silverman goes on to mention Hollywood’s relationship with famous scribes like Fitzgerald and William Faulkner, but also tells the tale of Mark Leyner, who went from appearing on the Charlie Rose Show with David Foster Wallace and Franzen, to having his fiction-writing career “derailed.”  Silverman wonders what will happen to Chabon’s career now that he’s employing his writing skills to both books and films/television shows, and it is definitely a question worth pondering.

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Both Snider and Southgate focused on sexual tension within very particular groups of colleagues. In Snider’s case, it was among several war correspondents in Mogadishu; in Southgate’s (an excerpt from her novel The Taste of Salt), it was a slow-burning flirtation between a pair of marine biologists.

Kate Zambreno [...]]]>

Penina Roth introduces the event.

On February 13th, five writers gathered at Brooklyn’s Franklin Park as part of the bar’s monthly reading series. This month, the lineup encompassed Will Snider, Chiara Barzini, Kate Zambreno, Martha Southgate, and Ben Marcus. Host Penina Roth introduced the theme as being loosely related to Valentine’s Day, albeit “twisted love stories.”

Martha Southgate searches for the perfect selection to match the night's theme.

Will Snider reads from a short story about war correspondents.

Both Snider and Southgate focused on sexual tension within very particular groups of colleagues. In Snider’s case, it was among several war correspondents in Mogadishu; in Southgate’s (an excerpt from her novel The Taste of Salt), it was a slow-burning flirtation between a pair of marine biologists.

Chiara Barzini reading one of several short stories from her debut collection.

Kate Zambreno reading from "Green Girl."

Kate Zambreno read a trio of selections from her novel Green Girl, while Chiara Barzini read six of the short stories included in her collection Sister Stop Breathing. Hearing Barzini read these out loud, I found myself noticing details that didn’t stand out as much during my reading: a discarded flute in “Practice Items,” for instance.

Ben Marcus tells tales of toxic language.

Ben Marcus closed out the night with a series of short excerpts from his novel The Flame Alphabet. “It’s…just good times throughout this book,” he quipped after reading scenes outlining the slow crumbling of civilization, the implosion of language, and scenes of small children talking their elders into oblivion. (Given its themes and verbal imagery, I’m now wondering how Marcus’s novel might work as a sort of double bill with China Mieville’s Embassytown.)

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I love Wes Anderson as much as the next person whose college years took place during or right around 9/11, but that didn’t stop me from getting drunk one night and spouting off a bunch of crap about how Whit Stillman is Wes Anderson — for adults!  Whether this is true or not I will leave up to you, but Stillman’s trilogy of films dedicated to the ”Urban Haute Bourgeoisie” rank among my favorites, and I am willing to bet that Damsels in Distress, his first film in fourteen years, will also go pretty highly on my list.

Joyland’s co-founder, Brian Joseph Davis, draws police sketches of some of the most famous characters in literature.  Oddly enough, the least creepy one is the murderous Misfit from Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.”