Monday, March 12, 2012

Mysterious Trousers, Future of the iPad, iBook Author App, La Tregua, Brian O'Leary, Feral Hog Plague, Marfa Mondays

Yay! Mysterious Trousers: I don't know these guys but I think the spirit of and products on their website are the future. Via Swiss Miss.

Is this the future of the iPad? Probably.

I am so totally psyched about the iBooks Author app and yes, I am turning my e-books into iBooks. More news about this soon.

My amigo Harry Morales is publishing his translation of Mario Benedetti's La Tregua in the Brooklyn Rail.

Speaking of the future and of on-line publications, Brian O'Leary offers his thoughts on the book as context, not container.

I say it's a mandala of consciousness. Ommmm.

On a completely different subject: Because I'm writing a book about West Texas, I've been following the feral hogs story. It's wild. Thousands have crossed the border into Mexico. Old Jules, a Hill Country Texan (a little east of my bailiwick) has this to say about the feral hog plague. Now if you really feel the need to blast a few of them to beyond bacon, you could sign up for a weekend at Dos Plumas outside of Abilene. There are a bunch of hunting ranches in the Marfa-Alpine-Fort Davis area. But I would think the ranchers would pay you to get rid of the feral hogs, not the other way around. (OK, OK, I know you gotta feed 'em and house 'em.) Where to git yer gun? Why, Walmart!

Stay tuned for the next Marfa Monday podcast on Monday March 19th. I'm interviewing Mary Bones, curator of the Museum of the Big Bend, on the lost art colony. (Listen to my previous podcast, a bit about Cabeza de Vaca and an interview with Charles Angell, owner of Angell Expeditions, about the Big Bend, here.