August 2010
2 posts
April 2010
2 posts
The Sistine Chapel (best for fast connections)
March 2010
2 posts
Effective punishments for children: A Clockwork Orange edition
The headmaster of the school where children are forced to listen to classical music as a punishment for bad behaviour said infractions of school rules have dropped by about 60 per cent since he began the special detentions.
“What he’s saying in effect is children don’t like classical music and we will exploit this...
February 2010
8 posts
Judefa: Chernobyl from the inside →
Elena Filatova is a real-life hero of mine. She explores abandoned places and has been especially admired for her observations on Chernobyl. Having been born in Prypiat, nearby, she has returned there several times, and published this elegant, moving and very reflective…
'A penetrating insight into what the reviewers are...
Here, then, is a brief glossary of literary euphemisms:
Edgy Any author under the age of 30, being reviewed by someone over 30, is likely to be described as edgy. The edginess factor will increase in proportion to whether the author is non-white, female and attractive, and the reviewer is white, male, and fat. Drugs, sex and racial conflict are also contributory factors. Edgy is also a synonym...
Advice to aspiring careerists seeking to ride in...
CHOOSING COMPANIONS * * * Seek out the acquaintance of people richer and more important than yourself and never take an interest in people who cannot do you any favors. This rule admits of no exceptions. When Henry Kissinger was secretary of state, he put it plainly to a woman seated next to him at a Washingtondinner party. “A great nation,” he said, “is like an ambitious...
Stick this in your goddess group meeting:
“If women allow themselves to be consoled for their culturally determined lack of access to the modes of intellectual debate by the invocation of hypothetical great goddesses, they are simply flattering themselves into submission (a technique often used on them by men). All the mythic versions of women, from the myth of the redeeming virgin to that of the healing, reconciling mother, are...
intothe90s:
Elastica - Stutter
Catchy tunes...
“People read or they don’t read — by the time they’re adults, it’s usually too late to change that. As for kids, well, there does seem to be some odd virus that affects some and not others, no matter what their intelligence. My guess is that kids who read yearn for something they don’t have in their own lives.”
-Michael Dirda
“‘Is that tuna?’ Hampton asks, peering at Iris’s plate.
Every marriage, Kate thinks, seems to have one person wanting what’s on the other’s plate.”
-Scott Spencer, A Ship Made of Paper
Muriel Spark was a sneaky old lady. There I was, going through Aiding and Abetting and thinking to myself, Oh dear, the old girl’s was a bit past it when she wrote this - when all the time she’d been having me on. Leading me up the garden path.
The book, I thought, was turning out a bit dull and old-fashioned. And not terribly well focused. But then she suddenly ups and hits you with...
January 2010
1 post
November 2009
1 post
July 2009
2 posts
I’m glad you had a baby. I’m really glad. You must be so happy. It’s a beautiful thing, babies. That’s great. Listen, I don’t give a shit. Stop sending me photos.
“He thought of straw: was this the kind you clutched at, or the kind that broke your back?” -Martin Amis, London Fields
June 2009
4 posts
Let’s face it. I’m probably never going to watch The Reader and this review makes me feel like now I don’t have to.
“Finally got to viddy Winslet hunching her shoulders like an iron hausfrau in that bourgeoisie omnibus THE READER, so without further ado: The Oscar Bait Dozen, a handy checklist of things Oscar-hungry actors look for in their star vehicles: 1. Nudity/Sex(The...
May 2009
12 posts
fresherhells:
Patti Smith- Gloria
A little...
lickystickypickyme:
Cindy Lauper -Girls just...
And to everyone? I don’t think you need to insult smokers’ intelligence by telling them that ZOMG SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU.
We know. We get it. What nonsmokers don’t understand is that people who smoke just don’t give a fuck. It’s just like any other “unhealthy” activity. Yeah, french fries will kill you, but that doesn’t stop me. Life sucks, and so...
“The trouble with Romeo & Juliet was that they hadn’t had adequate counseling.”
-Actual quote from last night and further support for my decision to swear off dating therapists.
April 2009
12 posts
Miscellaneous lateral link...
spiers:
I was just reading some memorial pieces about Eve Sedgwick and it reminded me in a (completely lateral and nearly unrelated) way of an essay one of my alma mater’s professors, Dale Martin, wrote about why undergrad teaching is so abysmal at most research universities. It was a funny essay, mostly because—as the cliche goes—it was true. Here’s an excerpt:
The system doesn’t reward it....
Did you know that a crowded train is no excuse for...
frangry:
If you are the victim of a crime, tell a police officer or MTA employee. Neither of which will give a shit.
fresherhells:
“It was a disappointing weekend for Seth Rogen.”- New York Times
“His Observe and Report opened in fourth place with an estimated $11.1 million [thus performing below expectations]. The movie, written and directed by Jody Hill, may have suffered from poor word of mouth. Reviews were sharply mixed, with some critics arguing that the picture, from Warner Brothers and Legendary...
songsyouusedtolove:
Day 195.
“Ignorance is a lack of information, not a genetic defect or a “cultural style;”...”
– Stanley Crouch on Mos Def is one of my favorite things we have up right now. (via rach)
My reach exceeded my grasp.