A lot of things are new.

Namely, this wonderfully flattering piece of news:

Earlier this month, I got an email from James Toth, who plays music under the name Wooden Wand.

Basically, he wrote to say, “I was very moved by Last Words of the Executed – so moved, in fact, that I wrote a song using a lot of words from the book as lyrics. The song is called ‘Dungeon of Irons,’ and it will appear on my new album, Blood Oaths Of the New Blues. The album won’t be out until October…”

He then sent me a copy of the song. I may have teared up, more than a little, and was sworn to secrecy.

In short, it’s an amazingly powerful song and I’m proud to have even a small part in it. James will be through Chicago at some point,  I’m looking forward to hearing it live…

In the meantime, here are a couple of interviews James has done, a recent one with M3 and another with Magnet magazine. If you want to hear more of his music, some older songs can be heard on MySpace.

I’ve been named as the managing editor for DNAinfo.com‘s launch in Chicago. Crain’s wrote about it here.

Check out all the good work they’ve been doing in New York for the past two years.

1) The nice folks over at Google Play have listed three of my books.

2) Adam and the crew over at Filmspotting ran my interview with Kimberly Peirce. We chatted about “The Godfather” and other things for my series at the Music Box called “The Film That Changed My Life,” based on my book of the same name. You can listen to that interview here.

I’ll be one of their speakers, along with author Christine Sneed, talk show host Mark Bazer, Sourcebooks founder Dominique Raccah, Chicago Review Press CEO Curt Matthews, plus agents and editors and more.

More details & Kickstarter campaign can be found here.

Also, a video:

At some point in the future, the folks over at Filmspotting may run it on their podcast.

Steve James on stage at the Music Box Theatre Feb. 19, 2012

I taped an interview with Seattle’s KOUW about “It Was Over When” and “It Was Love When” that will run today.

It’ll go up here, but if you’re in the area, it’ll air at 10:14 a.m.!

The next entry in my screening series with the Music Box, based on my book “The Film That Changed My Life,” will be:

Sunday, February 19

Who is coming? What are we showing?

Director Steve James (“Hoop Dreams“) will show the film that changed his life, Barbara Koppel’s “Harlan County USA” and his own latest documentary, the Oscar-buzzed “The Interrupters.”

Stay tuned for official showtime and ticket sales.

(I’ll be doing most of my events and interviews in February).

First, listen to me talk about the project with the amazing Mare Swallow on the Chicago Publishes podcast.

Then, take a gander at the new (very pink) cover:

It’s official; winter is starting. Ug.

But, good news. Flattering news, actually.

Poetry Magazineasked me to write an essay for its section, “The View From Here,” about how poetry has impacted my life. Past essayists include: Alfred Molina, Daniel Handler (aka, Lemony Snicket), Christopher Hitchens, Lynda Barry, Lili Taylor and various other folks in the world of arts and letters.

My favorite essay in the section, the one that inspires and scares the shit out of me, comes form Neko Case.

It’s called “My Flaming Hamster Wheel of Panic About Publicly Discussing Poetry in This Respected Forum.”

Read it, it’s amazing.