The upcoming video for Stephen Malkmus’s “Gardenia” will feature guest appearances by Girl Talk, Ratatat, and the mayor-elect of Portland. This is the first music video by Portland-based filmmaker Dan Woods, who’s also making a documentary out of his interviews with artists like Kraftwerk and Sonic Youth. Be sure to check Bureaucracy later this week when the video is released, and every week for up-to-the-minute Stephen Malkmus coverage.

Anne Trubek thinks Catcher in the Rye is irrelevant in the classroom. I think Catcher still holds ground for literary merit, but Trubek makes a compelling point that if the book’s strength is its relatability, then we definitely outgrew Holden Caulfield some years ago. And for any lit nerds out there, you’ll appreciate her jab at the modern bildungsroman.

Video of Gnarls Barkley covering Radiohead’s “Reckoner.” Also sort of related, I found this video of Thom Yorke.

The mp3 mixtape site Muxtape.com is down “temporarily” while it resolves a conflict with the RIAA. Muxtape offers only a one-sentence explanation for the downtime. Damn you, PC Magazine, and your “Top 100 Undiscovered Sites” article. I need my Savage Henry Muxtape for data entry! (Also, don’t miss the Bureau’s Muxtape Staff List.)

Free digital texts begin to challenge costly college textbooks in California. The value of textbooks is egregiously inflated. Publishers churn out unnecessary new editions, add useless CD and media content, and refuse to produce paperbacks to keep students spending. In the long run, a comprehension of supply and demand would keep costs down and profits up, rather than artificially raising prices and encouraging the used book market and free, open-source alternatives. Well, maybe publishers couldn’t afford a book on economics 101.

Looks like the Watchmen movie might be in trouble. Apparently, Warner failed to acquire all of the rights to the film, some of which are held by Fox. A judge ruled in Fox’s favor last week. Somewhere in Massachusetts, Alan Moore is smiling.

(via @gruber)

A one-two punch that’ll put the fear of God in you. David Remnick on Putin’s deft expansionist politics: “To deal with him will require statecraft of a kind that has proved well beyond the capacities of our current practitioners.” Paul Krugman on the cost of Obama’s soft economic rhetoric: “If Mr. Obama can’t find the passion on economic matters that has been lacking in his campaign so far, he may yet lose this election.”

Project Franchise hopes to raise enough money to purchase a minor league sports franchise and establish fan control. For five bucks, you can earn a vote in all team management decisions. Wikipedia has a list of fan-owned sports teams throughout the world, and predictably, there are only six franchises in the U.S. Props to the Green Bay Packers though, who’ve been fan-owned since 1923 and won 12 league championships. Then again, Steve Hofstetter isn’t sure fan decisions are a great idea.

(via GOOD Magazine)

Looking at Lolita 50 years later. The article discusses the shortcomings of the various film adaptations, casts off the “Lolita Effect,” and gives all due credit to Vladimir Nabokov, one of the great authors of the 20th century.

The Bureau on Twitter: Olympics Edition
caitlinboersma: Beginning to think the Olympics are just a ploy to keep the TV on during crappy local news.

knguyen: I’ve caught Olympic fever, by which I mean a regular fever. Staying home today.

nmartens: I love Costas’s little digs at Andrea Kramer. Has she been awake for like 93 hours, or does she have Alzheimer’s or dementia or something?

afritzsche: According to expert Mary Carillo, “nothing cutens up a country like panda bears.” Is “cuten up” a phrase you can use on national television?

caitlinboersma: @afritzsche Matched by “lots of panda baby-making going on.”