or those of you not in the know, Old Spice, the deodorant company, has recently sponsored a series of ads featuring the guy you see in the video below saying hilarious, manly stuff. Yesterday they ran a marathon, viral campaign on youtube featuring videos of him responding to comments on twitter, facebook, and reddit. He said all kinds of amazing stuff, including responding to Apolo Ohno, GQ, and even giving a marriage proposal. Here’s what he has to say about libraries:

The Printer’s Ball is coming up! Don’t miss out on one of the most fabulous lit events in Chicago. Click above for the full schedule.

n one of the most eloquent and information-packed epistolary rebuttals I’ve ever come across, Commissioner Mary A. Dempsey handily puts Fox News in its place.

“The public library is supported by taxpayers for the common good of all the people of Chicago – just like public school. We don’t ask our schools to make profit. Neither should we ask it of the public library. As journalist Walter Cronkite once remarked, “Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”

Finally, like thousands of our fellow City employees, the management of the Chicago Public Library is taking 24 unpaid holidays and furlough days this year to help close the budget gap and to keep city services, including libraries, operating for the public. Interestingly, I was on an unpaid furlough day when I watched your story last evening. And I had just returned from the annual library conference in Washington DC, a trip I paid for myself, not with taxpayer dollars.”

y level of disgust over this would be hard to approximate.  Despite rising rates of library attendance and the fact that libraries are fantastic resources for citizens of all stripes, Fox News is wondering if they’re a waste of our tax money.

I can think of many things our government has blown money on in the last, oh, ten years but libraries certainly are not one of them.

his isn’t lit related, but I still think it’s cool. And anyway, aren’t storms perfect reading weather?

Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time! from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

ussell Smith writes some interesting editorial on the state of sex in the publishing industry inspired by the firing of Penguin Canada’s CEO David Davidar for sexual harassment.

“Despite the staggering ratio of brainy beauties to tweedy egotists in this industry, you would be surprised by how little sex there really is. It’s not exactly rock ’n’ roll. A guy who really can’t resist acting on every romantic inclination is in the wrong business.”

hile I’m still a bit unclear about how dirty this gets, I can tell you that the Poetry Brothel is a group of artists whose mission is to develop intimacy, community, passion, service and transformation of environment and self through poetry.  Their events feature one on one sessions replete with soul baring (though what other kinds of baring is yet to be disclosed).

The group is looking to add local poets to their performance at the House of Blues on July 10th. Email at thepoetrybrothel@gmail.com if you’re interested. More details on the event’s time and price will be reported as they come up.

he Printers Row Lit Fest was filmed by C-Span, and they have hours and hours of great video from the event that you can watch on their website.

h, Printers Row. Books. Authors. Booksellers. Readings. Signings. Shitty weather. It never fails.

Pull on your galoshes and don’t forget your umbrella. It’s time for Printers Row, the biggest outdoor book festival in Chicago. Even with the rain, you don’t want to miss it. Check out the full schedule of events at the Printers Row website.

he popular literary radio program Writers on Record, hosted by Victoria Lautman and aired on 98.7WFMT, is coming to a close this Thursday evening, June 10th.  You can view the final broadcast at the Harold Washington Library Center’s Pritzker Auditorium at 6:00 pm.  The final broadcast will feature prominent Chicago writer and publisher Jonathan Messinger, owner of Featherproof Books and senior editor of Time Out Chicago’s book section.  Also featured will be Chicago Tribune book editor Elizabeth Taylor.  The evening will include a discussion of summer reading suggestions, big books for fall, and the future of publishing.  Audience participation will be encouraged.  Be sure to arrive early!

More about the book, including purchasing info, at the author’s site.

his last weekend I traveled from Chicago to Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit friends and family, and I spent a good deal of the trip messing around with the Poetry Foundation’s recently released iPhone app.  I really enjoyed it both because it contains a great selection of famous poetry, and because it has a really unique way of searching through the poems.  You can view this more clearly at their website, but they allow you to scroll through the poems using two different categories at the same time, such as Passion and Youth, or Enthusiasm and Nature.  It’s a great way to discover new poems and to find poems that suit your current mood.  And one of the best things about it is that it’s free.  You can download it at the link above or at Apple’s app store.

recently caught wind of a rumor floating around the Chicago literary community that Granta 108: Chicago was the British literary journal’s highest selling issue of all time. I spoke with Patrick Ryan of Granta to confirm this fact. “I don’t have the numbers,” he said, “but, yes, it was our highest selling issue ever. We’re very happy about it, as you can imagine.”

The Chicago literary community is very happy about it too. The extremely high sales of this issue of Granta, focusing specifically on Chicago authors and essays about Chicago, signifies both that our writers are well renowned and respected in the literary community, and that the literary community in Chicago is booming.

¶ View In Entirety… ⇒

espite the fact that I’m somewhat conflicted about book trailers, I can’t help but love them.  The book should sell itself, right?  It’s all about the writing, right?  I guess I’m a product of the digital age, though, because a good book trailer hooks me every time.  Check out this trailer for Chicago author Scott Turrow’s new book Innocent.

ey, everyone.  In case you didn’t get the memo, today was Free Comic Book Day (always the first Saturday in May).  Publish Chicago did a quick tour around Chicago to find out which book stores were celebrating, and if we could score some free comics.

My first stop, Brainstorm Comics, did not offer any free comics.
They had some discount if you spent over $50 dollars.  Lame. ಠ_ಠ

¶ View In Entirety… ⇒

ark your calendars, comic book fans.  The first Saturday in May is always Free Comic book Day, and this year promises to be a good one.

To see a full list of the comic book shops around Chicago that will be participating in handing out free comics, as well as hosting famous comic artists, visit The Chicagoist.

hicago author Cris Mazza recently released a podcast for FC2’s blog on her upcoming novel and, more generally, writing.  She goes over independent presses, editing anthologies, short story versus novel writing, and how to pick the right narrator to address subject matter in which you, as the author, don’t have expertise.

rominent Chicago Author Luis Urrea has just won an Edgar Award–sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America to highlight the best writing in their genre–for his short story “Amapola,” published in the book Phoenix Noir.

Congratulations, Luis!  Also, we love your sense of humor.