With a Little Help From My Friends

For the record, I think this is the only Beatles cover that surpasses the original.

My worst fear

After, you know, Nothingness and all of that. Via Ashley.

I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door

I loved Maira Kalman as a kid (Ooh La La, Max in Love), Tibor Kalman as a teenager (he's responsible for Red Square on Houston St, among a multitude of other wonderful things), and now I'm back to being in love with Maira Kalman again. Her new post on her New York Times blog is beautiful.

Positive and Negative

Photo of the 1919 eclipse said to have verified Einstein's theory of General Relativity.

SIPs

Dennis Cooper posted a game of sorts, where you try to guess a book based on its Amazon.com "Statistically Impossible Phrases" - aka phrases that are unique (more or less) to the book. But it's fun to just read them, because it's like revisiting old friends without rereading the entire book. And each phrase signifies a concept that's vital to the book, and the meaning behind it.

The Infinite Jest ones are pretty amazing: medical attaché, annular fusion, entertainment cartridge, improbably deformed, howling fantods, feral hamsters, dawn drills, tough nun, professional conversationalist, new bong, ceiling bulged, metro boston, tennis academy, red leather coat, soupe aux pois, red beanie, addicted man, magnetic video, littler kids, little rotter, technical interview, police lock, oral narcotics, sober time, veiled girl.

My Favorite Pen

The original Zebra F-301 Retractable Ballpoint Pen.



Sleek stainless steel barrel, sturdy metal pocket clip, textured grip, refillable. I like it because it will stay clipped to the spiral wire of my notebook, and it writes evenly and smoothly.

David Foster Wallace

It's nearly a year since he killed himself. RIP.

Richard Farnsworth

I just found out that he killed himself in 2000. How could I have missed this? I loved him.

Second Skin

Via Colin Meloy. Particularly interesting w/r/t Infinite Jest.

Creepshow

"Junior" Gaultier