Friday Things: 1/23/2015

So I’m not very good at posting Things every week. I’m not sure whether I want to make myself be better about it or give up the venture entirely. We’ll see what happens. This week, anyway, you’re in luck!

• It appears that Haruki Murakami, one of my Very Favorite Authors, is writing an advice column. It’s not up and running yet, but you’d better believe I’ll be watching. The whole idea confuses me.
• I had no idea, but book-lovers also tend to be Youtube-lovers, and they like to post book reviews and reactions for the world to watch. I’m not one of those people, but you might be.
• Seth Grahame-Smith, best known for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (and who wrote Unholy Night, which I reviewed last year), is working on some screenplays that might be relevant to your interests. Titles include a Beetlejuice sequel, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and IT. I’m intrigued!
• Here’s a really neat article with photos of soldiers’ ration packs from around the world.
• This week, one of my top five favorite bands, The Decemberists, released their first new album in four years, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World. Here’s an interview with Colin Melloy, a band-member, listing his favorite Decemberists songs from all of their albums.
• If you haven’t heard it yet, give it a listen because it’s fantastic.

• Finally, to continue with the…interesting art theme, I’ll add an interesting photo of an interesting artist (Dalí, of course) that recalls one of my favorite Murakami novels, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World:
  

If you haven’t guessed, the featured image is one of Dalí’s paintings. If you can name it, I’ll give you a cookie.