May 2013
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Elisabeth Donnelly: It is strange that a memoir... →
elisabethdonnelly:
It is strange that a memoir from 2003 can seem so utterly out-of-place and dated, but yes, this book is about ten years old and talks about a media world that doesn’t exist anymore, where the urge to be young and make something of yourself manifests itself in one glittering issue of a…
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The longer-term implications of shutting down Boston are troubling. If we come...
– Justin Davidson
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She Wants to Be All Horse
She wants to be all horse,
stars sparking from hooves,
galloping though fields
of thistle and milkweed.
She wants fists of poppies
to wall her papa’s window,
opiates to tar the locks.
In her house, sewerwater
gurgles from faucets,
leaves mold in closets
and at 4 AM, the ping
of a dropped belt
on a daughter’s floor.
She wants to steal basil plants
from the neighbor’s...
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Maya's Little Death
“To the extent that ZD30 instigates curiousity, it’s largely directed toward conjuring an inner life for a character whose exterior fills so many frames. The feminist gesture of casting a young woman as the central architect of bin Laden’s downfall is undercut by the cinematographic reliance on Chastain’s exquisite cheekbones, flawless skin, and lithe form to keep us...
April 2013
28 posts
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[PANK] :: 8.4 :: April 2013 :: Self Portrait ::... →
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The English word 'bad'
“The English word ‘bad’ probably derives from the Old English word for effeminate, so culturally rooted was the degradation which ancient penetrators ascribed to those suspected of being penetrated!”
Trexler, Sex and Conquest: Gendered Violence, Political Order, and the European Conquest of the Americas
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High Maintenance // Jonathan
I would bet this is better than next week’s episode of Mad Men.
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25 seconds of rain in the alley behind the federal building.
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However I talk
Wanted to post this for H. James’ birthday. MT, from Chapter VI, Portrait of a Lady:
I don’t know about novels. I don’t suppose they’re very accurate. We once had a lady who wrote novels staying here. She was very positive, but she was not the sort of person you could depend on for evidence. She took down my conversation. American peculiarities, nasal twang. Yankee...
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Paralyzed with manners
This Helena Fitzgerald piece is old and I found it today. Kindest, warmest regards.
___
“Internet socialization is far closer to a 19th century mode of intimacy than to a dystopian future of tragically disconnected robot prostitutes. There’s a Jane Austen-ish quality to online social life. The written word gains unmatched power and inarguable primacy.
Personal relationships now, to a much...
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Victor Vazquez > Kendrick Lamar →
‘I listened to this album and was like “I should call my sister” and then didn’t.’
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Emily Jane Bronte
Emily Jane Bronte died of consumption when she was only thirty. The calendar called it Tuesday, the 19th of December, 1848 … birth of the Festival of Winter. On Monday the 18th, Charlotte had read to her from Emerson’s essays “… I read on until I found she was not listening.”
—
Quoted in Susan Howe: My Emily Dickinson
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John Brown
Before he was executed for leading the attack on Harper’s Ferry, John Brown handed a last note to one of his jailers:
Charlestown, Va., Dec. 2, 1859
I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.
—-
quoted in Susan...
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David Sedaris constructions I could not stop...
Leafing past the painting, I would admire….
Asked to render a bowl of grapes, I would turn in….
Had she been a braggart, it would have been…..
March 2013
37 posts
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That I write and translate comes from the fact that when I place my mouth to the...
– Kent Johnson. Happy birthday (yesterday) to Frank O’Hara.
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Occasionally a human being
Occasionally A human being Saw my light Rushed in Got singed Got scared Rushed out Called fire Or it happened That he tried To subdue it Or it happened That he tried to extinguish it Never did a friend Enjoy it The way it was. So I learned to Turn it low Turn it out When I meet a stranger— Out of courtesy I turn on a soft Pink light Which is found modest Even charming. ...
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What Spanish Poets
“What Spanish poets have had the greatest influence on your writing?”
“Lorca,” I lied. “Miguel Hernandez.” But then, to my horror and amazement, I could not think of another poet; my head was emptied of every Spanish proper name. Finally I thought of two famous poets I’d just barely read: Juan Ramon Jimenez and Antonio Machado, but the names collided and...
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