Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Heartbreaking and beautiful

Days With My Father

Please look at this.

"I would take it further"


A disabled woman, who had her legs amputated, received a prosthetic tail so she can swim like a mermaid.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Public Ad Campaign


Yesterday I noticed a bunch of the billboards in Williamsburg were painted white, over the ads, with words like "hope" written on them. (Maybe not "hope" exactly. Maybe "peace"?) At first I thought it was some kind of viral marketing that co-opts everything exciting about art for use in advertising, but turns out it's just the opposite. Over 120 illegal billboards (ads not registered with the city) were transformed by artists/volunteers into art. Pretty amazing.

More here. Organized by Public Ad Campaign.

John Drury


St. Marc Cemetary, Goat, Haiti

Steve MacDonald


Su Blackwell



Thursday, April 23, 2009

Oklahoma's state song



...is now officially Do You Realize?

Faith the dog


This dog only has two legs but can walk like a person. This may or may not have made me cry. Look at him walking out the door, to face the world, ready for anything.

Dr. Zizmor?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Moose in the lake

From a New Yorker interview with Wells Tower:

There’s this metaphor I settled on for revisions. I was in Alaska on a kayaking trip, and I was warned by this park ranger to be really careful in the arctic lakes when the moose are around. A male moose will jump into the lake with the idea that a female moose is on the other side, and then he’ll get to the other side and think that the female is on the other side, and often the moose will continue to go back and forth until he drowns from his own indecision. To me, it’s a sitting metaphor for revision. You can’t keep mindlessly pacing from one impulse to another or you’ll drive yourself insane.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Two movie recommendations

Anvil, the Story of Anvil


Guest of Cindy Sherman

Bob Dylan, on Obama's writing style

"It makes you feel and think at the same time and that is hard to do."

More here.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Never again



"You realize there'll never be another January 17, 1944? Never again."
Au Revoir Les Enfants

Friday, April 3, 2009

A minimum of illusions

"When he was asked, as he had so much money, and was besides so afraid of death, he chose to live in a house which was both flimsy and dangerous, Grimace said only that this form of habitation allowed him to live with a minimum of illusions."

Paul La Farge, Haussmann, or the Distinction