The Bwog Book Club invites you to join our discussion of the first segment of Denis
Johnson's serial noir, Nobody Move. If you missed July's issue of Playboy, feel free to read the plot summary provided here and join us next time for a discussion of second segment published in this month's magazine.

Here are the main events from section one:

Jimmy Luntz, who starts off in a barbershop chorus, receives a ride from a man named Gambol. After they talk in the car and pull over at a rest stop, he realizes Gambol has been hired to hurt him because of a debt Luntz owes to a man named Juarez. Luntz shoots Gambol, calls an ambulance, and goes after Juarez. Meanwhile, Anita Desilvera, a woman about to divorce her husband, drinks heavily, and is good with guns, sees Luntz disposing of his weapon. Predictably, they end up sleeping together (after having sex in case you aren't familiar with that euphemism.) Meanwhile Gambol rehabilitates with an unnamed woman, and plans to come back at Luntz.

1. For starters, Nobody Move is, of course, published as a serial in a magazine. How much of Johnson's writing and narrative structure do you think is determined by this?

A while back we introduced readers to the next Bwog Book Club book, Denis Johnson's Nobody Move, a serial noir novel published in Playboy magazine. There's been a slight change of plans: we're reviewing the first two sections at once, starting early next week. That means you should find the nearest newsstand to pick up the August issue of Playboy if you want to join in.

This particular series is being run by first-time book-clubbers. We're thinking up some questions, but if you have any good suggestions, e-mail bwog with your words.

For the next Bwog book club, you'll have to acquire a Playboy magazine - just like the old days. (If they don't have it in your local corner store or gas station, you can pick it up at Border's). You may be buying it for the breasts, but for the purpose of the book club we'll be discussing the Johnson that's inserted between them - all 263 inches of it. That's the length of the first sec tion of Nobody Move, the new Denis Johnson novel, which will run in the July, August, September, and October issues of the magazine. This book club is a pretty good deal - for about $20, you get a wide array of articles as well as a full novel, and an intellectually stimulating conversation as well as some visually stimulating imagery.

Columbia's undergraduate monthly (and Bwog's benevolent guardian and namesake) The Blue and White is currently accepting applications for senior editorships. The application and information about the position are after the jump.

And remember, both the magazine and Bwog are always looking for new writers, graphic designers, artists, editors, those with financial and technological know-how and generous folks with access to free food. Get in touch by sending an email to bweditors@columbia.edu (for the magazine) and bwog@columbia.edu (for Bwog).

Look who else is getting a re-design!

Or rather, excuse me, a website. Not a re-design. Just an initial website. Because they never had one before (this didn't really count). Because it's 1999. Oh, no, no. That's not right either, is it? Hm.

Vanity Fair has released its 68th Annual International Best-Dressed List; the top ten best-dressed women include the very Vogue Bee Shaffer CC'09 (Anna Wintour's daughter, but you knew that). Her company at the top includes Renée Zellweger, Michelle Obama, and, for some reason, Fran Lebowitz.

Congratulations, Bee; we're sure your summer is far more glamorous than ours.