A Haiku Composed of Three Quotations from the New York Times on the Occasion of The Democratic Party Winning Both Houses in the United States of America Midterm Elections.
Is it too early?
Rather like a “real” person,
The salesroom burst into applause.
From a Times article about Jonathan Littel’s Les Bienveillantes, the 900-page debut novel which just won the Prix Goncourt—
Gallimard, which received the manuscript under a French pseudonym and planned to publish only 12,000 copies, has used paper reserved for the new Harry Potter book to print thousands more.
(Time to write the first draft: 112 days).
[...]A partial list of things which scared H. P. Lovecraft—
Sexuality, procreation, the human body, invertebrates, marine life in general, temperatures below freezing, fat people, people of other races, race-mixing, slums, percussion instruments, caves, cellars, old age, great expanses of time, monumental architecture, non-Euclidean geometry, deserts, oceans, rats, dogs, the New England countryside, New York City, [...]
A chapter from the novel that decided Patrick White’s Nobel Prize was submitted to a range of publishers and agents in Australia, and rejected by each. The reaction to the fallout from Peter Craven is spot on. See here.
Starry Night (excerpt) [MP3]
A minimalistic improvisation by:
Mazen Kerbaj (Trumpet)
The Israeli Air Force (Bombs)
Recorded by Mazen Kerbaj on the balcony of his flat in Beirut, on the night of 15th to 16th of July 2006. Via Microsound, MP3 hosting from Sound Transit. If you read one source while bombs continue to fall, let it be Mazen’s [...]
Details from a photo of Barbara Epstein released by the New York Review of Books with her obituary.
From the entrance exam for Chinese civil servants (via Harper’s).
8. Often, when a thing is just begun, it is impossible to know how it will end, much less whether society will acknowledge it. If you want success you must make every possible effort, you must keep a cool head and resist anxiety. If you work [...]
While many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large, with plenty of resources to accommodate all the people He knew would come into existence. All the 5 billion people on the earth could live in the state of Texas in single-family homes with front and back [...]
The Cad Factory is currently calling for readers for the next recording installment of their Bible Project:
The entire bible being read then cut up into 3 and a half minute segments and placed on top of each other, so the whole time you hear hundreds of voices. There will also be a 3 second version.
The [...]
“I was completely dumbfounded but I actually had this vision of … of Jesus, and I’m sure it was Jesus.” Anticipating a raised eyebrow, she adds quickly: “But it wasn’t this crazy theological thing; it was just this figure who was the most perfected human being – full of light and full of love. And [...]
Pleasurable recent searches that landed people at http://zuihitsu.org.
observing peoplepeople crawlingcultural desertacumulus noblitatusfuture of literaturefiction writers as a speciesinappositenoisicednirheumlessmoney falling from the skyphilosophy is speculationi was reminded of something-an elusive rhythmdo like half a gram of mushrooms and then read some parmenides
Recently I bought a beautiful old copy of Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici from Berkelouw Books. I had been looking for a nice copy for some time, having been intrigued by William Sebald’s description of Browne’s life and work in his masterpiece Austerlitz. The copy was around AU$40, but I decided it was worth it. Having [...]
Once, nationality was something that an ambitious writer hoped to transcend. A novelist aspired to recognition not as a New Zealand writer or a Nigerian writer but as, simply, a writer. Now nationality is transcended downward. Recognition comes from having one’s work identified with a marginalized or “endangered” community within the larger national or global [...]
Via The Age:
Breast augmentation, at about $US2,000 ($A2,700), is a third of the price in the US. A nose can be sculpted for $US1,500 ($A2,000), as little as a tenth of the US price.
Which prompts the question, how long before there exists a vibrant sector of the travel industry—cosmetic tourism. Venezuela! Get a new tan, [...]
But suddenly I was 29, earning my living as a freelance public-relations writer—an activity I can recommend to no one—and it was increasingly clear that I had better write a novel soon.
(Richard Yates, “Some Very Good Masters”, in The New York Times Book Review, 19 April 1981).
I’m currently reading Blake Bailey’s Yates biography, A Tragic [...]
In the year 2004, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America sent two remote-controlled rovers to Mars, hoping to discover traces of water on the barren desert surface of that planet. From a scientific and political point of view, it was uncertain whether the mission could be justified, however [...]
N and I recently have been spending some time with Jonas and Jennifer, artists from Amsterdam, and Jonas was kind enough to ask me to play some music at their opening the other night. It was mostly drowned out by the rather loud (but fantastic) video installation next door, but here is what I had [...]
Walking home under this afternoon’s blanched grey sky, I followed two jaunty drunks from parking meter to parking meter, their pockets jangling with coins extracted with some sort of wire contraption. Outside the AMWU office on Elizabeth Street, a union lackey sat with his feet up on a collapsible table, bottle of VB in one [...]
American man, 57. I just want a girlfriend. What the hell is going on here? Box no. 16/08.
London Review of Books, 18 August 2005, p. 39.
Hunter S. Thompson left a suicide note of sorts, written in black marker four days before he shot himself.
Football Season Is Over
No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. [...]