:::::: Praise for the author: "And it's stupid that you aren't making money from them if you give them to anyone because the only thieves would be them." - PT
JW: ok, so i’m biased, but the interview with my parents i’m putting together for buzzfeed is FASCINATING ML: im sure it is. is it for buzzfeed or the hairpin? JW: wirecutter. oops, i dont know why i said buzzfeed. JW: NO STILL WRONG JW: ITS FOR THE BILLFOLD ML: gah I meant billfold too. ML: wrong in all the ways.
I remember some of the first “creative” writing I ever did was up in my bed, age 12 or 13, listening to a radio recording I’d made on a cassette of the Kronos Quartet’s performance of the Dracula soundtrack. I wish I could dig up the old file I produced. Something says it was less egregiously awful than I, at this time, imagine it to be. Here, Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet perform the Dracula soundtrack at Les Nuits de Fourvière in 2010.
I don’t read a lot of novels because you can usually see the fucker writing it trying to will himself a Pulitzer. Just tell the story and get on with it.
I’m for supporting young writers, but wouldn’t all writers benefit more from initiatives that encouraged more people to read books? What’s the point of helping a first-time author to finish that novel, if you’re just going to usher them into a world where they can’t get anyone to read it, let alone buy it? The Zell Family Foundation grant furthers a pattern that resembles teaching a man to fish, then dumping him on the shore of lake with only one fish in it. And that fish is playing Angry Birds.
— Salon’s Lauren Miller on why Sam Zell’s $50 million donation to creative writing programs is a misplaced effort to foster literary culture.
2013: As Pope Benedict XVI steps down, questions emerge about the details of his post-papal life.
1086: Japanese emperors develop the Insei system, a process that allowed them to ritually abdicate whilst continuing to exert behind-the-scenes control.
A weekend viewing of Kurosawa’s Ran (in which an abdication goes not at all as planned) and a little further reading gave birth to this post exploring the connection between the retiring pope and the Cloistered Emperors of Japan. (Also, I will never pass up the opportunity to advise Cardinals to take the advice of a 12th century court poet.)
Has your editor stopped your piece from the press? Call up Marky Mark — don’t think to do less. He’ll comfort you dearly and commend your hustle— His advice: “When in doubt: Rely on some muscle. “My words you should heed in the sun or the rain. “I’ve more hair on my chest than you’ve cells in your brain. “My style is sweet, sly, and sour like lemons. “Big ups to me, ‘cause my real name’s Sam Clemens!”
