There’s potential for a doctoral dissertation about The Rhetorical Use of Capital Letters in the Writing Of George Saunders. The usage comes in a couple flavors. There are the ineffable concepts, like Freedom and Humility. There’s the personalization of general categories, like Writers and the Little Guy. There’s the tongue-in-cheek categorization of human sub-groups, like, […]
Alex Ross writes about Johnny Greenwood’s soundtrack for There Will Be Blood. STILL haven’t seen the movie. Need to fix that this weekend.
Heather Armstrong has a book coming out in a few months: Things I Learned about My Dad (In Therapy). Her writing is a daily joy. Pre-order it.
I grow to love Ill Doctrine more with every post, like his take on the Clinton/Obama handshake controversy.
Photos of stuffed animals turned inside out. I think these inverted bears have more personality than the ones you see on the shelf. They should sell them like this. [via michael surtees]
The Carter Center is hosting a photography exhibit by Robert Glenn Ketchum. Several dozen of his large-format prints are on display, and Mr. Ketchum himself will be at the Carter Center this Thursday night to talk about his photography of southwest Alaska.
On NPR, a conversation about Holden Caulfield, protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye. The literary remembrance has some interesting segues into how you read the book differently as you grow older, the beginnings of a teenage culture in the ’50s, and whether or not you can imagine Holden as an adult.
This page has some awesome ideas on taming iTunes for classical music. I don’t think I need to go quite so granular with the tagging, but the article nails one issue right off the bat: the Gracenote CDDB is a HUGE thorn in the side when it comes to classical works.
Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections is a new documentary about voting manipulation and the disastrous state of our polling systems. The trailer strikes a balance of citizen activism and paranoia that I usually get a kick out of.
Against his better judgment, Austin dragged me in to a meme thingy. My instructions read as follows:
Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you’ve written. But there is a catch:
Link 1 must be about family.
Link 2 must be about friends.
Link 3 must be about yourself, who […]
The Dining with Notebook Manifesto outlines an ingenious way to get a better dining experience, with some effort and preparation:
Because I’m a bit of a food-geek, I always had a notebook to take down my observations in text and drawings. I semi-noticed that the chefs and staff would become aware of my scribbling in the […]
I like this bit from an interview with Ellen Lupton, talking about common design pitfalls: “My students avoid printing out their work, to save time and money, but then they are disappointed that it doesn’t look good. I explain to them that everything looks good on the screen, because of the glowing light and the […]
When Bela Fleck gets an idea for a song that he can’t develop completely at the time, he calls himself and leaves a voice mail.
Terry Gross interviewed Chuck Close a couple years ago. Chuck Close is known for his super-large portraits built up from smaller bits. For some reason I just really liked his interviewing style. [via 43 folders]
“There are only two kinds of reform that have any chance of actually reducing total expenditure on presidential elections. The first is to reduce the value of the presidency itself… The second is to reduce the uncertainty about who’s going to win.” I vote for the former.
Arnold Kling on politics and cults:
I do not know Ron Paul. He may be wise. He may be decent. But to dismiss all doubts about his judgment and his character would be to succumb to a cult.
Let me hasten to add that I do not think of the Paul cult as unique. I am equally […]
“The electromagnetic field surrounding the power lines is enough to make fluorescent tubes glow.” [via jb]
Over the past 5 years, 32% of the New Yorker’s fiction came from 14 different authors. [via Pete Lit]
Over the next year, Get Rich Slowly is tracking how much money a garden will save. The monthly reports should be worthwhile.
On January 28 is Unseen Forces: Electronic Music by Atlanta Composers at Eyedrum, presented by the Atlanta Composers Group. Here’s the program.
Nick Hornby interviews David Simon, of The Wire fame:
There are two ways of traveling. One is with a tour guide, who takes you to the crap everyone sees. You take a snapshot and move on, experiencing nothing beyond a crude visual and the retention of a few facts. The other way to travel requires more […]
Paul Festa left a comment that his film, Apparition of the Eternal Church (trailer), will be playing in Athens, Georgia on January 30, and showing across the south in the following week. I’ve got it on my calendar.
A video montage of almost all the uses of Turbo Boost in the Knight Rider television show. I used to watch Knight Rider religiously. [via waxy]
Clyde Fans: Book One, by the cartoonist Seth, is split into two halves. Each half tracks the memories and relationship between two brothers, both of whom worked for the family business, the Clyde Fans Company.
In the first section, set in 1997, we see the older Abraham walks from room to room in the old Clyde […]
It’s 23 degrees outside, and I catch myself silently complaining that the shower is too hot. One 2008 goal among many: complain less. There are bigger problems on this planet.
A panel interview with Seth and Chris Ware conducted by Ivan Brunetti, told in comics form. I love the way that Gordon McAlpin, the cartoonist, mimicked each of their styles when they had the floor.
Chip Kidd interviews Milton Glaser: “My father was a kind of a metaphor for the world, because if you can’t overcome a father’s resistance you’re never going to be able to overcome the world’s resistance.”
This year’s question from edge.org: “What have you changed your mind about? Why?” Dozens of scientists, researchers, philosophers, writers, and thinkers respond.
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