BULLETT

Today in culture: Clint Eastwood’s glory days, Tyler Perry’s faux pas, and the matter of Phillip Roth’s existence.

-Nathan Englander is working on a play called “The Twenty-Seventh Man”. It has nothing to do with Einstein. It has everything to do with his first short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. Hopefully it will be adorable.

-Does anyone remember Clint when he actually had all his marbles and was interesting to look at? If you’re feeling nostalgic in light of his mental decline, gander at these Dirty Harry pics. Savor the Dirty.

-Can anyone truly make peace with Tyler Perry? One woman gallantly tries.

-Existential questions for 500: Does Phillip Roth exist?

-The Ellington question: “American journalists…responded with headlines like “Harpsichords and Jazz Trumpets” and “‘Hot Damn!’ Says Ellington When Ranked with Bach.” Ellington’s media image was reborn. Comparisons between the black jazz giant and white European classical composers have been a touchy issue ever since.”

-Happy-making clip of the day: Nardwuar interviews E-40.

-Happy-making longer viewing of the day: the films of the Dziga Vertov group (pretentious French people of the late ’60s) can now be viewed online.

-On J.G. Farrell’s Troubles, a semi-magical-realist epic of bizarreness. “We don’t fully identify with any of the novel’s characters, and yet to some degree we identify with them all.”