December 2010
2 tags
“The interesting thing is why we’re so desperate for this anesthetic against...”
– David Foster Wallace
The first sentence of this quote gets quoted/posted a lot online, but the rest of it is equally - if not more - important to read.
“Working so hard to create our own perfection, we forget that we are human...”
– Marion Woodman
The Night House Every day the body works in the fields of the world Mending a stone wall Or swinging a sickle through the tall grass- The grass of civics, the grass of money- And every night the body curls around itself And listens for the soft bells of sleep. But the heart is restless and rises From the body in the middle of the night, Leaves the trapezoidal bedroom With its thick, pictureless...
Death is Not the End →
“If you operate, which most of us do, from the premise that there are things about the contemporary U.S. that make it distinctively hard to be a real human being, then maybe half of fiction’s job is to dramatize what it is that makes it tough,” he said in an interview. “The other half is to dramatize the fact that we still ‘are’ human beings, now. Or can be.”
Wallace became the chronicler of a...
“Can a man possessing conciousness ever really respect himself?”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground
(via buongiorno)
“Can a man possessing conciousness ever really respect himself?”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground
(via buongiorno)
Thirteen - Big Star
a bright wall in a dark room.: Metropolitan (1990) →
brightwalldarkroom:
Metropolitan, or How I Learned to Stop Kvetching and Love Christmas
by Ben Mauk
Falling for the shiksa girl is a cliché at least as old as Goodbye, Columbus, but you should have seen Christina, the newt-nosed, willowy blonde in my sixth-grade algebra class. Christina—her very name…
Christmas Week: The Nutcracker (1977) →
brightwalldarkroom:
The Nutcracker, Or: Baryshnikov’s Incredible Body and Kirkland’s Dream
by Elizabeth Wilcox
Christmas is the one time of year when a larger subsection of the population than usual—say, 5% instead of 2%—thinks about ballet. Yes, I know Black Swan just came out, but that’s not an…
“And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer and pizza are...”
– from the much reposted “Why I’m an Atheist” by Ricky Gervais
(via professionallush)
The Night House Every day the body works in the fields of the world Mending a stone wall Or swinging a sickle through the tall grass- The grass of civics, the grass of money- And every night the body curls around itself And listens for the soft bells of sleep. But the heart is restless and rises From the body in the middle of the night, Leaves the trapezoidal bedroom With its thick, pictureless...
The Improvisational Brain (Seed Magazine) →
“Watching a musician in the throes of an improvisational solo can be like witnessing an act of divine intervention. But embedded memories and conspiring brain regions, scientists now believe, are the true source of ad-hoc creativity…”
Any article on music and the brain is bound to be interesting, but this one - on how a musician ‘learns’ to improvise - is top-notch...
“And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer and pizza are...”
– from the much reposted “Why I’m an Atheist” by Ricky Gervais
(via professionallush)
a bright wall in a dark room.: Christmas Week:... →
brightwalldarkroom:
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE?
by Chad P.
It’s easy to lose track of your life. All of us do it, in one way or another, locked up so tightly in our own heads - our own private little worlds - that we lose sight not only of The Big Picture, but of even our own smaller pictures: our families, our…
My thoughts on It’s a Wonderful Life, and the meaning of existence,...
The Improvisational Brain (Seed Magazine) →
“Watching a musician in the throes of an improvisational solo can be like witnessing an act of divine intervention. But embedded memories and conspiring brain regions, scientists now believe, are the true source of ad-hoc creativity…”
Any article on music and the brain is bound to be interesting, but this one - on how a musician ‘learns’ to improvise - is top-notch...
friscalating dusklight: Christmas Week - A... →
michelle-said:
Have you guys ever wondered what the characters of A Christmas Story would write in their Amazon.com reviews? No? Why not?
brightwalldarkroom:
AMAZON REVIEWS AS WRITTEN BY THE CHARACTERS OF A CHRISTMAS STORY
by Michelle Said
Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-Shot Range Model Air Rifle…
Come for the premise, stay for the rigorous formatting and creative genius.
Roger Ebert's Top Films of 2010 →
Christmas Week - Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause →
brightwalldarkroom:
NO ESCAPE
by Evan Bryson
An ideal secular holiday film might be based on Lydia Davis’ short story, “We Miss You: A Study of Get Well Letters from a Class of Fourth Graders.” It contains all the warmth, longing and spiritual ambiguity of this strangely rapacious season, and many of its…
Evan’s bah-humbug is well-worth reading for the Grinch in all of us.
“An infinite question is often destroyed by finite answers. To define everything...”
– Madeleine L’Engle
Thirteen - Big Star
Drain You - Nirvana
(2.22.94, Rome, last known...
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) →
brightwalldarkroom:
AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN MCCALLISTER ON THE 20TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HIS ABANDONMENT
by Bebe Ballroom
He is forty minutes late. The pigeons in Central Park have taken the seat on the bench next to me. His hot chocolate is cold chocolate now. My phone buzzes and sends the pigeons scattering….
You will honestly not read anything more wonderful or hilarious than this...
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) →
brightwalldarkroom:
AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN MCCALLISTER ON THE 20TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HIS ABANDONMENT
by Bebe Ballroom
He is forty minutes late. The pigeons in Central Park have taken the seat on the bench next to me. His hot chocolate is cold chocolate now. My phone buzzes and sends the pigeons scattering….
You will honestly not read anything more wonderful or hilarious than this...
“Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or...”
– Sigmund Freud
There is so much goodness in the year-end Said the... →
crumbler:
This is pretty much the one time a year I click on random MP3s from bands I’ve never heard of. And I never regret it. Go on, get to clicking. (Start with “Bully in Disguise,” or “Sara.”)
For the past several years, I’ve made it a point to listen to every single song on Gramophone’s year-end list, and I always find at least a few songs I’d never heard of that wind up...
“An infinite question is often destroyed by finite answers. To define everything...”
– Madeleine L’Engle
