Overheard in the cafeteria

"So how's your new apartment?"
"We have a six-bedroom place."
"Six bedrooms!"
"We have a library."
"Whoa, that's so Brooklyn."

Brooklyn Authorati Gather On Area Woman's Stoop For Some Reason

But be careful, some of them bite!

For a good time, Photoshop yourself into this Conde Nast Traveler portrait of a number of (though by no means all of) the borough's finest and pretend they all showed up to talk shop with you.

Check out the original via Jami Attenberg. (Also, that's not my stoop, although if you have an inkling of where it is...)

How to resist subscribing to The Believer now?

Not only did the Believer bring Nick Hornby back, they also added Daniel Handler reading one Nobel Laureate's book a month? ... I've been really, really good this year... and I had a day of woe yesterday... so tempting. (Great idea of Handler's by the way.)

The Brooklyn Book Festival lineup has posted. Thank goodness.

Edit: There's a panel called "From Wisconsin With Love," about organized labor (reflecting the protests of earlier this year). I was hoping for a Jane Hamilton/ Peter Straub*/ Neil Gaiman**/ Lorrie Moore***/ Chad Harbach quintuple feature, but this is also good.

*Not sure if he still lives there, but he was born there.
**"Near Minneapolis" my ass!
***Well, she lives there now, so.

Music Video By The Decemberists Invokes INFINITE JEST's Eschaton

Sorry we need to digest this so we're not doing anything else for the rest of the day.

Video is directed by Michael Schur of "Parks and Recreation" and Mose Schrute fame. Source: NPR's All Songs Considered.

Notes:
1. The beanies. The beanies!!
2. The bandanna'd one I assume is Jenny Conley, who just returned to the Decemberists' tour after taking most of the summer fighting breast cancer. Don't mess with her.
3. Is it just me or were you also imagining the students at ETA as somewhat older and less conventionally attractive? I mean, the age thing is just a chronological error in my mind but something else is off.
4. For more like this, although without the literary tie-ins, check out the Decemberists' "Sixteen Military Wives" -- probably my favorite song by them.
5. If BHD (bookworm hipster douchebag) could be assessed on a score from 1 to 10, this video would probably get a 9. Agree/disagree?

Things that happened during Blogger Blackout '11

• I started Douglas Kennedy's THE MOMENT and I am bowled over by it right now. Kennedy is one of those American writers who is most famous overseas, and all I can say is... the rest of the world is probably right.
• My review of Jen Lancaster's IF YOU WERE HERE went up, complete with extraneous commentary (scroll down).
• I got mild to moderate vertigo on the "catwalk level" of one of the libraries near my office (see photo). Translucent floors -- why would you ever? I'm fine now but I was shaking for at least 10 minutes. 
• Did you miss my post about the rise of a new genre? I was fairly excited that it had been rescued.
• Speaking of new things, someone I know took a job at a startup called Bookish.com, described in the New York Times as wanting to be the Pitchfork of books. (If you just rolled your eyes, congratulations! You're a BHD!) It hasn't launched yet but I'll be keeping an eye on this project. 
• Isn't it ridiculous that Yankee Stadium would try to prohibit fans from bringing in Kindles? Even for the Yankees, that is a new low. /NewEnglandforever /RedSoxfan
• The film adaptation of Lionel Shriver's WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and got good to glowing reviews. It hasn't been picked up yet but look for it this fall starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly.

And that about covers it. This entry has been brought to you by Oren's Daily Roast's Beowulf blend, for the undercaffeinated monster inside you.