December 2008
67 posts
Ra Ra Riot - Oh, La
I’m pretty sure (I...
MY MOMENT WITH JON VOIGHT
Jon Voight was on my flight from New York to LA. I was good—I didn’t bother him, though everyone else did. The older adults thanked him for “Midnight Cowboy”; teenagers paid their respects to the man who gave us a decade of films about corrupt politicians, Zoolander’s coal-mining dad and Angelina Jolie. Jon Voight sat in first class,...
kosher?
“There has been a nagging sense of uncertainty in the last couple years of whether anyone is really afraid of Israel anymore,” he said. “The concern is that in the past — perhaps a mythical past — people didn’t mess with Israel because they were afraid of the consequences. Now the region is filled with provocative rhetoric about Israel the paper tiger. This operation is an attempt to re-establish...
WatchPeter Sarsgaards SARS Guards
Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas is You
...
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows...
Best and Worst Logo Changes of 2008 →
andrewjay:
The commentary is priceless. My favorite: “Capital One / A swoosh in 2008? And, even by swoosh standards, a crappy one at that? Really?” (via kottke; see also n+1 on Payless logo)
Tom Waits - “Silent Night/Christmas Card...
“Bright visions came to haunt him of a world that could and should have been his,...”
– Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road
WatchNabokov Interview 1965
WatchFrom.
"I want to be at least as alive as the vulgar."
My Heart — by Frank O’Hara
I’m not going to cry all the time nor shall I laugh all the time, I don’t prefer one “strain” to another. I’d have the immediacy of a bad movie, not just a sleeper, but also the big, overproduced first-run kind. I want to be at least as alive as the vulgar. And if some aficionado of my mess says “That’s not like Frank!”, all to the good! I don’t wear brown...
Peter Gabriel & Hot Chip - Cape Cod Kwassa...
Belly Boat - “Little”
in large...
Deerhoof - The Little Drummer Boy
The Story of Christmas: A Christmas Pageant
My co-worker sent me the script for the Christmas Pageant his friends and family performed; there are appearances by R. Kelly and Gertrude Stein, Baby Jesus can be played by a baby turtle, and optimally there would be papier-mâché masks of a horse and a bear. What follows is the climax of the pageant.
SCENE THE TENTH
STAGE MANAGER:
I always forget how bloody the Story of Christmas is. Now...
His New York Years
When archivists try demarcate this period of my life, the erratically underlined books will prove extremely useful.
James: 1
N Train: 0
Life is Sweet
somehow:
A very special submission of poems arrived in the offices yesterday. I transcribed the entire book for some of the editors, who promptly manipulated the font and tacked copies of the poems to the walls of their cubicles. Behold, a selection:
The Front Went Through
I look at the clock and it’s eight o’five
Listen to the world it’s awake and alive
Dappled shadows on the window sill can be...
Federal Writer's Project
“The Federal Writers Project operated from 1935-1939 under the leadership of Henry Alsberg, a journalist and theater director. In addition to providing employment to more than 6,000 out-of-work reporters, photographers, editors, critics, writers, and creative craftsmen and -women, the FWP produced some lasting contributions to American history, culture, and literature. Their efforts ranged...
WatchLittle Joy - No One’s Better Sake
“If the artist is excessively dependent on simply being “liked,” so that her true...”
– David Foster Wallace in interview with Larry McChaffery
WatchI was going to link this in the last post, but it’s just as nice.
3:05: (This is you, guys.)
3:10: Everyone sings, “What might have been lost”
3:31: Don’t bother me.
3:50: (Keep getting louder now.)
4:25: Fireworks.
Bon Iver - Blood Bank
I had to post this...
“To act: that is what the writer would like to be able to do, above all. To act,...”
– Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio
From his Nobel Lecture, “In the forest of paradoxes.”