March 2010
58 posts
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The Hungry Metropolis - Saveur.com →
I’m to make my first trip to Los Angeles in just a couple weeks. I will bring my elastic pants. Manhattan may boast the highest concentration of high-end restaurants in the world, and Singapore hawker centers may pack more joy into each square inch, but Los Angeles is the best place in the world to eat at the moment, a frieze of fine dining overlaying a huge patchwork of immigrant...
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Baffler - A Cottage for Sale →
A piece about painter Thomas Kinkade and the California real estate market.
We have to accept that the violent orange glow that emanates from the interior of nearly every house in a Kinkade painting merely indicates that the house is warm and inviting, not burning to the ground. […] He says that as the son of a single mother who worked late, he often came home to a house that was dark and...
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February 2010
59 posts
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Top Ten Glissandos →
noiseforairports:
Sorry about the couple photo-less posts in a row, but you have to hear this: Alex Ross’s “Top Ten Glissandos.”
For maximum effect, press all the buttons in quick succession.
(via Unquiet Thoughts)
This is delightful. Might I also suggest The Beatles’ A Day In the Life?
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“People say you teach during the day and you’re free at so-and-so, but...”
– Steve Reich on resisting academia and driving a cab back in the early days.
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The Cocktail Renaissance →
You should be able to anticipate your first drink after the day’s work and use it to refresh your spirit and relax your mind. It should awaken senses dulled at the office and by the speed and distances of contemporary life. It should move you from the determined needs of a workday to a thoughtful consideration of the better and more charming aspects of living and talking and reading....
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“Lately, I’ve been wondering if sitting quietly in a café, pretending to...”
– On Writing, Publishing, and Living : clusterflock
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Figure Skating Fashion Through The Years →
“Today, according to the ISU, figure skating’s governing body, ‘Ladies must wear a skirt. The Ladies dress must not give the effect of excessive nudity inappropriate for an athletic sport. Men must wear full-length trousers: no tights are allowed and the man’s costume may not be sleeveless.’”
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Tasting wine blind | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters →
“The kind of wines one loves in blind tastings are not necessarily the kind of wines one actually likes to drink in real life.” See also: Pepsi vs. Coke. I’m wondering how this would apply in a museum, perhaps. Maybe what you like to gawk at for a few moments in a gallery is different from what you’d want in your living room. Is there psychological concept for liking...
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First Listen: Joanna Newsom : NPR →
Hear ‘Have One On Me’ In Its Entirety. Finally.
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Ignoring: There Is Such a Thing As Free Sleep,... →
“A few weeks of ignoring can easily buy parents extra years of good sleep.” Mental note: train my future kids to not expect me to comfort them in the dark of night.
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Andy McKenzie: The Blog: Subsdize Earnestness →
I see two paths towards a more earnest culture:
1) Glorify the revision process. The goal would be to illuminate the messy middle steps that underly successful endeavors. For example, in his interview with Ben Casnocha, Colin Marshall suggested a museum of rough drafts that would emphasize how most everyone’s first draft sucks. This applies particularly well to art but generalizes, as we...
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can I tell you the one thing that gets me about...
agrammar:
It sometimes feels like there’s not a ton of synergy between the persona and the (generally really good!) songs — I put on the music and enjoy it a lot, but I’m nagged by the feeling that I could engage with Gaga-world a lot more fully by turning the stereo off and logging on to the internet.
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"The Greatest Love Story of the 20th Century" →
austinkleon:
Sarah Vowell on June Carter’s “Ring of Fire,” In this song, to compare love to fire isn’t just the music sexy/heat cliche like you give me fever, or, hunka-hunka burnin’ love, or, it’s gettin’ hot in here. This is fire as in brimstone. Old time religion. Written by the daughter of a people who believe in the eternal flames of hell. June Carter was coveting her neighbor’s spouse,...
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Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Why Have I Not Done Drugs?... →
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The Limits of Bioethics: Where the profession ends... →
“What are we to make of their willingness to issue life-and-death pronouncements involving other people?”
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Music = dye
I’ve been listening to more Indian classical music lately, so I was reading about ragas, these traditional musical forms that guide how you play and develop a piece. Instructions for creating a mood, if I can semi-ignorantly generalize. And take a look at the etymology… Raga. 1788, from Sanskrit raga-s “harmony, melody, mode in music,” literally “color, mood,”...
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Roger Ebert: The Essential Man →
“When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be.”
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Bernstein on the Blues - The New York Times →
Video of Leonard Bernstein finding iambic pentameter in blues lyrics, then inventing a brief tune out of an excerpt from Macbeth.
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Atlanta Food Carts →
The ATL Pecha Kucha pleading for ATL food carts was well-received. It’s great to see a local culturo-political movement take shape in front of your eyes.
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“I simply want to celebrate the fact that right near your home, year in and year...”
– Kay Ryan (via austinkleon)
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Men Without Work | Mother Jones →
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Streatery hot dog carts take foot in Atlanta -... →
We’ve got a toehold!
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“It’s Friday night, and you’re home alone making Nutella. Remind...”
– Whisk Away: Homemade Nutella. A couple friends of mine have a food blog and a way with words.
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LOVE BEGINS A PICTURE: An Anthology of Google... →
“Since the transcript/poem often bears little resemblance to the actual words spoken, who are the real authors - the Voice, the callers, or some synergistic combination of forces beyond our limited understanding?” (via).
WHATEVER THIS IS (Caller: My friend Christina)
Hey mister
it’s Christina
just left you a message and then
I got your message and realized
you’re...
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Ben Casnocha: The Blog: The Paradox of Attitudinal... →
“So who is buying these books? Thesis: Already-motivated people who think just a tiny bit more motivation and inspiration will make the difference. But I’m not so sure it will.”
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In which I realize I'm sort of a believer in the... →
agrammar:
Isn’t this whole Olympic narrative sort of a dream we’ve made up to make ourselves feel better? Well yeah: of course it is. That’s sort of the point. That’s how ideals work, isn’t it? They’re a way of practicing for things we can’t actually do yet.
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“A couple of other things that you might not have heard yet, because they’re not...”
– Kronos Quartet’s David Harrington | The A.V. Club Chicago. The song in question.
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“The best way to describe it is I’m like this energy-gathering dynamo. I...”
– Interview with Coolio, describing what it’s like to perform.