Loose ends

• Former Talking Heads frontman, David Byrne, discusses his new book, How Music Works, with The Quietus.
• Simon Reynolds attacks the popular dismissal of genius and originality, summed up by Kirby Ferguson's series "Everything is a Remix." 
• A good friend of mine, Jeff Diamanti, shares some of his recent work on contemporary architecture and critical theory at  The Analogous City.
• Jacob Mikanowski helps us sort out what's going on in P.T. Anderson's latest film, The Master.
• Biblioklept sketches several readings of Melville's classic short story, "Bartleby, the Scrivener," and includes images of his own annotations.
• Terry Eagleton, a frequent critic of postmodernism (and its attendant school of French theory), changes his tune and sings the praises of Derrida in his review of a recent biography.
• Stereogum tackles the issue of Christian pop music and, like most of us who've recognized its redundancy, holds up Sufjan Stevens as a Christian artist who actually uses the category to his advantage.
• Adam Kotsko offers his advice on "How to Read Zizek."
• Nicholas Dames sizes up some of my favourite contemporary American novelists and considers how their writing has been shaped through the Ivy League love affair with high-minded literary theory.
• Theologian and activist Mary Jo Leddy offers a poignant sermon on human suffering and the role of the church over at Catholic Commons.