November 2010
41 posts
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In New York and Los Angeles and Washington it is common to hear a sort of disdainful criticism of the values of the American masses: materialism, consumerism, obsession with celebrity and fame, vanity, political polarization, solipsism. This criticism cannot be countered: it is true. But wherefrom does it stem? We have been led to materialism on the exchange floors of Manhattan, idolatry on the...
October 2010
65 posts
Hanging Out With The Beer Brothers
BARRETTA: Hey, you know what I should do?
FIRST: No, what?
BARRETTA: I should get together with you guys more often! This is fun. We never hang out anymore.
SECOND: Definitely.
THIRD: We used to be such good friends!
BARRETTA: Oh yeah, man, good times.
FOURTH: But you know what? Let's invite Five.
BARRETTA: Sure! Sure, why not.
FIFTH: What's up dude? Hey, I hope it's all right, but I brought Six and Seven.
BARRETTA: Oh… uh, hey dudes. Haven't seen y'all in a while.
SIXTH: Yeah, compadre. Long time no see.
SEVENTH: We thought you didn't give a shit about us anymore. That true?
BARRETTA: No man, we're buddies…
SEVENTH: Nah. I think you think you're too good for us.
BARRETTA: Hey… what—what are you guys doing?
SEVENTH: HOLD HIM DOWN!
FIFTH: I got his wallet, guys!
SIXTH: Maybe when you taste the bricks you'll learn not to FUCK with our FEELINGS!
(After the beating.)
SEVENTH: Look, don't take this personal. Once you get your wind back, we're all going to go make some terrible life choices. You can come if you want.
BARRETTA: (through a mouthful of blood) Sure. Sounds fun.
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“The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward...”
– Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality.
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“Straight is the line of duty,
Curved is the line of beauty.
Follow the...”
– William MacCall as quoted in Isak Dinesen’s “The Monkey,” from Seven Gothic Tales. These lines are difficult to trace—Dinesen, as often was the wont of the era, did not attribute them: what today would be plagiarism was in that mode a game with the educated reader. I have done...
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“Putting aside the murder being covered up, Claudius seems a capable king,...”
– G. Wilson Knight, The Wheel of Fire: Interpretations of Shakespearean Tragedy.
I saw someone today I haven’t seen in eight years. We saw each other—the instant light of recognition—and looked away. And walked away.
How far we have come, to know the wisdom of this.
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“Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the...”
– Marcus Aurelius, in book II of his Meditations, 1862 Long translation.
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“And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and...”
– Marcus Aurelius, in book II of his Meditations.
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“We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood...”
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods.
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“For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? They are the...”
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods.
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Historians Admit To Inventing Ancient Greeks →
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Come, Winter
You’ve come here to the trailhead, your aim to sit alone on the low mountaintop. The crag surrounded by leaves turning. This is the zenith of autumn: from here, fall rushes headlong down to winter, when all the valley and all the mountain will be glassy white with frost. She was to meet you here, to hike up the high track with you and see the town in the valley and the people in it. But she...
Is it mean-spirited of me to wish that any Tumblr that is more than 50% reblogs or ask box questions be automatically deactivated?
But what a beautiful world that would be.
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In Which The Basic Reason Was William Faulkner... →
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“It didn’t matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were...”
– Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides.
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“You know that Shakespearean admonition, ‘To thine own self be true’?...”
– Chris Eigeman in Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco.
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This one goes out to all the heartbreakers out...
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Haiku Thursday
Isak Dinesen and Jackass in theaters It’s a good Thursday
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“He always thought of the sea as la mar, which is what people call her in spanish...”
– Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea.
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When he woke, the substitute wasn’t there. She had been a skinny little black-haired thing, with small high breasts, narrow fingers and clean white skin that marked easily from his hands, like daisy petals in the grubby fingers of a boy freed to maim a sprawling backyard. And that is how he felt, when he held himself over her: as if a park closed through the long winter season had opened,...
Las Vegas resort has luxury suites, pool deck,... →
Be careful, your future is watching.
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“Man and woman are two locked caskets, of which each contains the key to the...”
– Isak Dinesen, “A Consolatory Tale” from Winter’s Tales.
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Rosencrantz: Do you think Death could possibly be a boat?
Guildenstern: No, no, no… death is not. Death isn't. Take my meaning? Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not be on a boat.
Rosencrantz: I've frequently not been on boats.
Guildenstern: No, no… what you've been is not on boats.
So I finished Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and I have to say, no amount of bullshit can redeem this Amir character for me. It’s even more galling that “Amir” was my name in immersion classes when I was learning Arabic. Incidentally, this is why bestsellers don’t often find their way to my bookshelf. It’s rare that one of these doesn’t leave a bad...
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The stone's no augur and no oracle
The stone’s no augur and no oracle But he searches for children in Refracted rainbows, anniversaries In cut crystal. The band flashes gold as Her hair when she turns away, the jewel’s white Is as brief as a vanishing smile— but The gift can’t answer him, and so he waits.
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“In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the...”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” from the margin glosses added to the 1817 version included in Sibylline Leaves.
Reminder to Self
If ever there was a day to be who you want to be: oh wait before you say tomorrow. Today’s the day and tonight’s the night. Remember always that it’s not that good happens to men. The world is neither good nor evil. It just is. No, remember good men, good women, they happen to the world. They keep it spinning.
Columbus Day for the Old World
Just in case you not hailing from the Americas aren’t aware what Columbus Day is, I’ve written up a little synopsis of one of our most beloved holidays.
Basically, Christopher Columbus was this Italian, or maybe Spanish, guy who sailed over here in a couple ships around 1492. He discovered a whole new set of lands occupied by Indians, or people that were close enough, anyway. He called it the New...
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“Women do have an affinity for evil, for believing that no woman is to be...”
– William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury. I must make comment here that one of the statements I most commonly hear from women, especially young women, is that they “don’t like girls” or they “just have one girl friend,” as if this is remarkable, or as if they are...
Is it just me, or does the compound 6-Acetyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydropyridine have a really interesting rhythm to it? Tasty and poetic.
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“Let physicians and confectioners and servants in the great houses be judged by...”
– Isak Dinesen, “The Dreamers” from Seven Gothic Tales.
Solomon Burke has died. I will not speak here of...
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20 Realistic Observations About Dating a Writer →
I’ve been seeing this circulating around and I thought I’d make a few corrections. Here’s the original, and here’s a second look at 20 reasons to date a writer:
Writers will romance you with words. In an actual romantic situation, most writers are more likely to stammer than say something romantic. Also, having poems recited for you: great for two seconds, then just really,...
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“Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is...”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
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“‘Do you know a cure for me?’ ‘Why yes,’ he said,...”
– Isak Dinesen, “The Deluge at Norderney” from Seven Gothic Tales.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the motherfucking Atlanta motherfucking Braves
ARE
STILL
IN
IT
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“Do not enjoy yourself. Enjoy dances and theaters and joy-rides and champagne and...”
– G.K. Chesterton, The Common Man. 