August 2011
51 posts
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"Can You Learn Anything From a Void?" →
Adam Kirsch:
If the Holocaust holds a political lesson for us today, it is to be especially vigilant about threats to the justice of our institutions, the freedom of our society, and the confidence and tolerance of our culture. When those bulwarks break down, as they did in Germany in 1933, innate human goodness is not enough to protect anyone from the consequences.
Said the Gramophone: RIP JACK →
Sean Michaels:
His cheeriness and optimism was so persistent it sometimes felt fake: how could it not be fake, we asked. But there is a difference between a lie and a performance. I believe Jack was a persistent optimist, an unflagging hoper, but in those instants when his optimism was impersistent, when his hope flagged, he still behaved like the person he wanted to be.
Malcolm Gladwell on the NBA lockout →
The big difference between art and sports, of course, is that art collectors are honest about psychic benefits. They do not wake up one day, pretend that looking at a Van Gogh leaves them cold, and demand a $27 million refund from their art dealer. But that is exactly what the NBA owners are doing. They are indulging in the fantasy that what they run are ordinary businesses — when they never...
“What is it that enables an institution to take in stride such a series of...”
– Letters of Note: We were not found wanting
The Comeback That Wasn’t →
Benjamin Wallace:
In the boom years, Stewart’s extravagances could reasonably be seen as the cost of doing business. But with MSLO losing money, the clash between business imperatives and Stewart’s perfectionist aesthetic became increasingly problematic. “The entire workday would come to a halt so we could discuss the virtues of sea-foam green over more of a blue-green, and would take literally...
“Special operations is about doing what’s not expected, and probably the least...”
– The Mission to Get Osama Bin Laden : The New Yorker
“I can intellectually perceive the concept of people who don’t want to be...”
– A Bit Of A Chat with Ken Plume & Dan Harmon
Long but excellent podcast with the creator of Community.
“So the whole point of this episode was to create a showcase for him to be funny,...”
– Michael Schur walks us through Parks And Recreation’s third season (Part 2 of 4) | The A.V. Club
Answers to All of Life’s Questions. →
7. The mere fact that you’re asking that tells me more about you than I even cared to know.
On babies →
It takes 2 to 3 years before they finish their period of utter madness, at which point their brains are completely empty, and you can start teaching them about counting and animal noises.
Things They May Never Tell You 002 →
danharmon:
There are the people that, by default, prefer you to know what they’re thinking, and there are the people who, by default, prefer you not to know. Nobody’s good and nobody’s bad but it’s safer to keep to your half of the world.
“It just never took. It’s like the first day you check into a hotel in L.A....”
– Bill Murray on Ghostbusters 3, Get Low, Ron Howard, and Kung Fu Hustle
Facebook and the Epiphanator: An End to Endings? →
Paul Ford:
In the world of social media, it can feel bizarre that potent evidence of grieving from one friend is followed so quickly by pictures of oven-fresh cookies from another. But Facebook is generated by algorithms without feelings. It’s not a narrative: The breast cancer went into remission, but the stories of the radiation treatment continue; the lost children remain as photos,...
Uncle Sam Buys an Airplane →
James Fallows:
As the JSF competition intensified in the late 1990s, the only thing that mattered as much as the success of the lift fan was the opinion of Darleen Druyun. Druyun’s official title is principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisitions and management. Through the past decade she has been one of the most important civilians at the Pentagon, and she is...
John Lanchester reviews ‘The Murdoch Archipelago’... →
Between 1992 and 1997 News Corp declared profits of A$5.8 billion in Australia, under Australian accounting rules; profits of A$3 billion in the US, under SEC accounting rules; and paid tax consistent with having earned profits of A$1 billion. … And then Chenoweth has found, looking at the accounts, that the company’s profits, declared in Australian dollars, were A$364,364,000 in 1987,...
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gifparty:
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whatbryanismissingonfacebook:
Do I dare to eat a peach? Yuuuuuuup. [This one is mine. -Ed.]
I love these little confessions mixed in with the rabble-chatter.
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Everyone Loves Miller Lite →
nocatsforconor:
Apparently, no one enjoys Miller Lite? I’m wondering how this group conducted their research. Good friends did an extensive taste test for their selection of cheap house beer. Miller Lite won for both taste and alcohol to calorie ratio.
It was very scientific.
Indeed.
Dan Harmon's advice to aspiring writers →
A lot of people say “what about my heart, what’s going to pump my blood around,” which brings us to step two: you have to be made of something other than flesh and blood. I prefer to be made of mud, because it keeps women and children away from me. Other writers are made of dirt, or excrement, the choice is yours, it just can’t be anything that anyone would want in their bed and it has to be a...
Gun Talk →
tomewing:
These stories have very different vibes and imply very different aftermaths. The first is a local news story. The second is part of a national panic. But when passing news on, there’s a tendency to go for the stronger spin not the weaker one - and you can guess which way Twitter jumps. Now imagine that spread across far bigger stories, and a hundred of them happening at once. This is a...
Just North of Something Important: “Regimes” →
alanapost:
It’s kind of amazing because it takes an otherwise normal statement and catapults it into the dimension of absurdist metaphor; as though the person is saying, ‘I don’t just have a routine series of things I do to maintain my aesthetic appeal, I am literally the dictator of a police state constantly bringing every resource I possess to bear on suppressing the resistance group...
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Watchcrumbler:
pitchfork:
Arcade Fire perform a dramatically stripped-down version of “We Used to Wait” for “Sound Opinions”.
You can feel conflicted about the lyrical bombast of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs and still acknowledge that this is a gorgeous live recording of a wonderful song.
Wish I could locate an MP3 of this.
How Disease Works →
“How many people do you expect?”
“Well, the first 800 tickets were gone in a few hours,” she replied, “although we’ve got some more in reserve.”
Oh. Oh my. I have never done anything in front on a crowd even a quarter of that size, outside of anxiety dreams.
Fortunately I arrived onstage very well prepared. By which I mean that the storytellers received complementary beer, and I helped myself...
Hanging Out With Indiana Jones →
tensexyladies:
“You think your sister will be back from Walgreens pretty soon?”
“Yeah, she was just gonna pick up some sex gel and Pringles.”
“Maybe I’ll go wait in the biplane.”
