InDigest Picks

Books:
Chronic Cityby Jonathan Lethem [Doubleday]
+ Lethem's newest book crosses the river from his beloved Brooklyn and utilizes Manhattan as a central location. The book is a meandering study of friendship and everyday observation as two odd friends, Chase Insteadman, the spouse of an astronaut stuck in space, and Perkus Tooth, a cultural critic with too little to do, wander on the margins of the cities elite.

Hear an interview with Lethem about the book at Amazon here.

Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Listsby The Onion AV Club [Scribner]
+ Inventory is a collection of some of those amazing lists you read every week in The Onion AV Club, with a lengthy intro by Chuck Klosterman. On top of the AV Club writer's lists there are lists from Andrew WK, Patton Oswalt, John Hodgeman, Zach Galifinakis, Paul Thomas Anderson, "Weird Al" Yankovic and more.

Photography:
Grungephotographs by Michael Lavine and text by Thurston Moore [Abrams Image]
+ With a similar feel to Moore and Byron Cooley's No Wave, Grunge is a collection of photography that seeks to capture the zeitgeist. Grunge lacks the intimacy and sense that Moore is letting you in on a secret no one else knows about like he did in No Wave. Yet, there is something really spectacular about the photography here. Seeing Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Billy Corgan and others who've become something totally different in our over the last two decades (see: Chris Cornell's hip-hop album...blek); they are heroes, major rock stars now, but these photos are a beautiful reminder of where these people started, how the music they made at that time was the focal point of an underground movement that changed the trajectory of rock music in America.

Music:
Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights[Load]
+ Multi-hyphenated noise rockers Lightning Bolt come out with a new album that's just as noisy and incomprehensible as their brilliant Hypermagic Mountain. Oddly enough you can sense maturation in Earthly Delights, which isn't something that always happens with bands as loud and spastic as Lightning Bolt.

Preview their track "Collosus" from Earthly Delights here. [via Pitchfork]

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic[Warner Bros]
+ The last LP from Wayne Coyne and co. was a mixed bag. Some catchy tunes and some songs that were less than exciting. The good news for those of you who were also disappointed: Embryonic rocks. It's The Flaming Lips playing with their sound, evolving and taking risks again. It's an incredibly beautiful album.

Other Notable Releases: Anti-Pop Consortium: Fluorescent Black, Bob Dylan: Christmas in the Heart, Fuck Buttons: Tarot Sport, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down: Know Better Learn Faster,

In Theaters:
One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur (Curt Worden) [Kerouac Films]
+ This often surprising documentary tracks Kerouac as he deals with becoming an international phenom, an alcoholic and reluctant figurehead of a movement. He retreats to Big Sur and writes the novel of the same name. Friends remember the circumstances surrounding the book and, along with fans, read excerpts of the novel. The documentary illuminates the novel and is essential viewing for any fan of Kerouac.

Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze) [Warner Bros]
+ One of the fall's most anticipated films finally hits theaters. The build up from McSweeney's releases (both Egger's Wild Things and Heads on And We Shoot), The Arcade Fire laden trailers, coloring books, short films from Spike Jonze at MoMA and in the new issue of Wholphin, along with enough hype to choke The Killers and the rumored fights between Jonze/Eggers and the studio makes it a frightening weekend where we will remember how fallible the hype machine is, while, probably, still enjoying this film quite a bit.

Other Notable Releases: Black Dynamite

DVD:
The Mighty Boosh Special Edition (Seasons 1-3)[BBC Warner]
+ If you aren't watching this show yet you've made a mistake. Now, go watch crack fox.

Dusan Makavejev: Free Radical- Eclipse Series 18 [Criterion]
+ Eclipse series is one my favorite things happening in the world of cinema. The Eclipse series (by Criterion) restores important, but marginalized, films that have never seen a DVD release in the US. Even if I know nothing about the films being released I get excited. Previously releases of Sam Fuller's early studio work, the first screenplays of Bergman and Flamenco films of Carlos Saura have made my loins throb.

Comics:
Deadpool #900[Marvel]
+ Deadpool hits his 900th issue (is that right?) with a 104 page epic comic. Might as well buy this now before Ryan Reynolds ruins any enjoyment you get out of Deadpool. The whole Merc with a Mouth thing is great when it's written but when Ryan Reynolds keeps blathering on it becomes, not surprisingly, quite painful. (He was only in around five minutes of Wolverine and I wanted him dead.)

Other Notable Collections: The Batman Chronicles Vol. 8 (various), Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk Vol. 1 (Damon Lindelof, Leinil Francis Yu)

Other Notable Single Issues: Red Robin #5, Batman #691