more of what i like

Urban Legends - By Joel Kotkin | Foreign Policy

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:46:27 -0400

Urban Legends - By Joel Kotkin | Foreign Policy:

Why cities grow and why urban planning as we now practice it won’t really help the millions who are moving to mega-cities (read: slums) in other parts of the world.

Slaughterhouse 90210: Where high meets low | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:19:23 -0400

Slaughterhouse 90210: Where high meets low | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times:

An interview with Maris Kreizman of Slaughterhouse 90210. (via)

Apres Garde is one of my favorite tumblogs.

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:45:00 -0400

Apres Garde is one of my favorite tumblogs.

Hyperbole and a Half: The Four Levels of Social Entrapment....

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:40:44 -0400

Hyperbole and a Half: The Four Levels of Social Entrapment. “There is a special kind of awkwardness between two people who don’t know each other well enough to interact effectively, but are familiar enough that ignoring each other’s presence isn’t really an option.”

"Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile."

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:36:55 -0400

“Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.”

- Hippocrates. We know it best as the phrase “life is short”, but I didn’t know that was shortened from a longer, more interesting line: “Life is short, the art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment fallible, judgment difficult.” Ars longa, vita brevis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

How To Raise A Superstar | Wired Science | Wired.com

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:34:16 -0400

How To Raise A Superstar | Wired Science | Wired.com:

Single-minded focus too soon can be a hindrance. Better to branch out and learn how to practice and fail well.

David Grady: The Conference Call.

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:54:42 -0400

David Grady: The Conference Call.

"The real risk is in not changing. I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money,..."

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:53:40 -0400

“The real risk is in not changing. I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money, fine. But I’d rather be striving. It’s the striving, man, it’s that I want.”

- John Coltrane, quoted in Paul D. Zimmerman’s “Death of a Jazz Man”, Newsweek, July 31, 1967.

utnereader: Phony wildlife photography warps nature and is...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:48:30 -0400

utnereader:

Phony wildlife photography warps nature and is rarely revealed.

So much more than the world could offer

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:47:52 -0400

linedandunlined:

From historian Daniel Boorstin’s introduction to The Image, his book from 1961:

When we pick up our newspaper at breakfast, we expect — we even demand — that it bring us momentous events since the night before. We turn on the car radio as we drive to work and expect “news” to have occurred since the morning newspaper went to press. Returning in the evening, we expect our house to not only shelter us, but to relax us, to dignify us, to encompass us with soft music and interesting hobbies, to be a playground, a theater, and a bar. We expect our two-week vacation to be romantic, exotic, cheap, and effortless. We expect a faraway atmosphere if we go to a nearby place; and we expect everything to be relaxing, sanitary, and Americanized if we go to a faraway place. We expect new heroes every season, a literary masterpiece every month, a dramatic spectacular every week, a rare sensation every night. We expect everybody to feel free to disagree, yet we expect everybody to be loyal, not to rock the boat or to take the Fifth Amendment. We expect everybody to believe deeply in his religion, yet not to think less of others for not believing. We expect our nation to be strong and great and vast and varied and prepared for every challenge; yet we expect our “national purpose” to be clear and simple, something that gives direction to the lives of nearly two hundred million people and yet can be bought in a paperback at the corner drugstore for a dollar.

We expect anything and everything. We expect the contradictory and the impossible. We expect compact cars which are spacious; luxurious cars which are economical. We expect to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful, active and reflective, kind and competitive. We expect to be inspired by mediocre appeals for “excellence,” to be made literate by illiterate appeals for literacy. We expect to eat and stay thin, to be constantly on the move and ever more neighborly, to go to a “church of our choice” and yet feel its guiding power over us, to revere God and to be a God.

Never have people been more the masters of their environment. Yet never have people felt more deceived and disappointed. For never has a people expected so much more than the world could offer.

A 1910 illustration of how Atlanta’s Peachtree Street...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:16:29 -0400

A 1910 illustration of how Atlanta’s Peachtree Street would look in 2010. The future is now! « pecanne log.

The 72-Hour Expert

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:39:16 -0400

The 72-Hour Expert:

P.J. O’Rourke goes to Afghanistan.

A Pashtun tribal leader told me that a “problem among Afghan politicians is that they do not tell the truth.” It’s a political system so new that that needed to be said out loud.

Bowie + Keaton. Photo by Steve Schapiro, I believe.

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:12:58 -0400

Bowie + Keaton. Photo by Steve Schapiro, I believe.

newspaperblackout: A VICTORY OF SORTS : a newspaper...

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:36:01 -0400

newspaperblackout:

A VICTORY OF SORTS : a newspaper blackout poem by Austin Kleon

This was nicely juxtaposed in my tumblr stream.

In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit? | The Onion

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:52:00 -0400

In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit? | The Onion:

(via)

TMR: An Interview with George Saunders

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:23:18 -0400

TMR: An Interview with George Saunders:

meaghano:

George Saunders in a wonderful, wonderful interview.

Success is nice because then you don’t have to worry so much about having been unfairly robbed of your very richly deserved success. Success is bad because momentary good fortune can temporarily hide the fact that you are still, despite your success, full of shit.

So much good stuff here:

Interviewer: So much of your fiction is charged with social import. Given our recent political upheavals, have you ever thought of writing overt political satire?

Saunders: I’m not very interested in that kind of satire because it works on the assumption that They Are Assholes. Fiction works on the assumption that They Are Us, on a Different Day.

And:

Any mastery you can achieve in writing is totally personal and incredibly nuanced. It’s a sort of antimastery, feeling comfortable with being unsure.

And also:

One of the wonderful benefits of energetically pursuing a writing career is that I’ve come to understand the staggering limitations of my abilities. […] So one way I cope with this humbling state of affairs is via a little mantra: If I just stay fully engaged in whatever has presented itself, things will be fine. That is, I try not to think about things like: Next, I begin MY NOVEL!

Chicken Butchering 101. (via)

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:08:02 -0400

Chicken Butchering 101. (via)

Humpday. I thought this was a really great movie. One on level...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:17:00 -0400

Humpday. I thought this was a really great movie. One on level it’s a sort of male bonding tale with a tone that is somewhere between the melancholy, awkward (and excellent) Old Joy and the goofy, chummy I Love You, Man. There’s bro love and macho one-upsmanship and adventurousness there, to be sure. But one thing that it shows—the wholly improvised dialogue probably helps here—is the halting, roundabout way that caring people make space for each other and test new emotional waters. A refreshing reminder of how surprisingly thoughtful people can be. Alycia Delmore is especially good.

And on a whole different level it’s about the call of art and the challenge of performance. “We’re doing this because it scares us more than anything else.” Also, I have a new crush on writer/director/producer Lynn Shelton. Worth seeing.

A Death on Facebook - Magazine - The Atlantic

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:17:52 -0400

A Death on Facebook - Magazine - The Atlantic

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:45:15 -0400

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”

- That’s attributed to Socrates, but who knows? Nonetheless, mental note. It pays to keep a healthy skepticism of how you spend your time, busy or not.