Big Laughs of Loudness

2012-01-27T08:26:00.000-05:00

Beautiful Day at the Dog Park from Kelsey Wynns on Vimeo.

We Must Go On

2012-01-26T18:33:00.000-05:00

I love this new music video from Pretty Lights.

Pretty Lights - We Must Go On (official music video) from Pretty Lights Music on Vimeo.

2012-01-26T15:56:00.000-05:00

Reboot?

2012-01-26T00:02:00.002-05:00

Welcome back, BLOL. Here's a record player that has been modified to translate growth rings on a tree into piano music.

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

Reboot Panoply

2012-01-25T14:25:00.003-05:00

Since I have been blagging so much, and since I feel this particular blog is a testament of my days, I have decided to reopen the Platter for intermittent business.

Firstly, a treatise on a practice which I have had ingrained in me. Using two spaces after a period. I can't tell you enough how hard it is to stop myself. I hope my brood will use just one space. Evolve!

Secondly, an article about the first time the military has been called out to break a strike in over 4 decades. Common Dreams is usually pretty propoganda-y but in this case I demure to their rhetoric on this matter. LINK

Thirdly, a wiki about an interesting UFO incident. LINK

Fourthly, the invention of the heterosexual. An interview with the author of "Straight" and some good insights about the whole shebang. LINK

Lastly, the Gandhi essay that made me take another look at his life. I will definitely have to read a good biography of him now. LINK

Virgin Galactic Astronaut Job Opening

2011-10-17T13:28:00.000-04:00

2011-08-31T10:03:00.000-04:00

I guess this blog is done. It was fun. I've been posting randomly HERE. Probably nothing of too much interest though - quotes, videos, pictures, random short thoughts, &tc.

2011-05-16T21:56:00.000-04:00

NYC Bike Polo

2011-05-11T14:30:00.000-04:00

Not sure if I'm supposed to be blogging or buzzing stuff to you.

Found my sport for the summer though.

2011-05-03T12:02:00.001-04:00

Goldblum Sings the Rules from Jeff Goldblum

WTC Rally last night

2011-05-02T19:58:00.002-04:00

2011-05-02T19:57:00.000-04:00

digging Dub FX lately

2011-04-29T19:25:00.002-04:00

WTF Sentence of the Day

2011-04-29T15:02:00.000-04:00

The erection of the terrorist detumescers of the American phallocracy as some retro-standard of Belief does not - in and of itself - provide the West with a new idea, any more than taking the contrary view - www.alQaeda.com - will lead us into an ideological Eden.

- Will Self in the forward to The End of Everything: Postmodernism and the vanishing of the human.

2011-04-25T12:23:00.000-04:00

Don't Text and Drive

2011-04-19T10:28:00.003-04:00

Where I'm at

2011-02-17T18:35:00.001-05:00

Just so you know...most of my online activity will be taking place at benjaminlainhart.com and on the blog there. It's still under construction.

Kara Luiz hits one on the head

2011-02-08T16:10:00.000-05:00

2011-01-31T21:15:00.001-05:00

Assange today

2011-01-30T23:03:00.001-05:00

Interesting essay in the New York Times Magazine today.

Assange on 60 Minutes tonight.

VBS - Taliban in Pakistan Part 1

2011-01-26T00:45:00.002-05:00

Wojtek Wolski shoot-out goal

2011-01-25T12:58:00.002-05:00

Awesome goal by my favorite Polish player to help the Rangers grab an important shoot-out win.

Latest interview with Christopher Hitchens

2011-01-24T17:31:00.000-05:00

Sad but inspiring interview from C-SPAN:

I agree with Richard Dawkins. Christopher Hitchens is my hero of 2010 as well.

Eloquent, witty, literate, intelligent, knowledgeable, brave, erudite, hard-working, honest (who could forget his clean-through skewering of Mother Teresa's hypocrisy?), arguably the most formidable debater alive today yet at the same time the most gentlemanly, Christopher Hitchens is a giant of the mind and a model of courage. A lesser man would have seized the excuse of a mortal illness to duck responsibility and take it easy. Not this soldier. He will not go gentle into that good night; but instead of a futile raging against the dying of the light he rages, with redoubled energy (and concentrated power in his vibrant, Richard Burton tones) against the same obscurantist, vicious or just plain silly targets as have long engaged him. But he never rants. His is a controlled, disciplined rage, and don't get on the wrong side of it.

As you may or may not know, I enjoy writing letters to authors that I admire. I am ashamed to say that I have never written one to Hitchens, especially after hearing him talk about how much he enjoys getting them.

2011-01-24T14:27:00.001-05:00

from Jerzy with love

2011-01-24T13:04:00.003-05:00

It occurs to me that I never posted my birthday gifts from fellow blogger and Kara Luiz enthusiast Jerzy.

It is what it is, lol!

Not the plant, not the books. That's right, the...paper weights? One has my favorite meaningless tautology written on it while the other proudly portrays the anachronistic "LOL." Apparently, BLOL has not yet hit FL. I guess there are too many old people who aren't hip to the blargon yet.

Since one episode a week is not enough:

Philosophical Novel

2011-01-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

An essay in today's New York Times Book Review asks, "Can a novelist write philosophically?" Many novelists and philosophers have debated this question (as the essay goes on to explain), but my answer remains a firm "yes." Perhaps advocates of a stricter analytical philosophy would disagree. However, writers like David Foster Wallace, David Markson, Neal Stephenson, Philip K. Dick, a lot of the famous Russians, Kafka, Joyce, and even Mark Danielewski are just a few off the top of my head (and that I've read) who write very philosophical novels.

Moreover, as AC Grayling recently stated, reading novels - even the ones that are not often thought of as philosophical - promotes philosophical thinking. To quote Grayling,“It allows us to live experiences through characters of fiction, to witness different lives, different experiences and different choices,” and this, I would argue, is a place where philosophical thought can begin.

Pics of Brazilian Floods

2011-01-22T14:22:00.001-05:00

LINK

really missing my garden right about now

2011-01-21T19:19:00.001-05:00

The Kennedy plumbing problem

2011-01-18T06:49:00.004-05:00

I read this following article LINK about the Kennedy/Nixon campaign of 1960.

It stakes out the claim that Nixon's plumbers were an outgrowth of a burglary done by the Kennedy camp to disclose illegal donations from Howard Hughes and the origin of the "October Surprise"...something which has become a mythical "golden goose" that many operatives and candidates search for and plan against in today's modern era.

Below I have included a brief selection of images to show you the obsession:

Hold my calls, Jim. I'm blogging.

2011-01-08T10:48:00.000-05:00

I've been working on another new blog. It's really just a convenient place to keep all the talks and lectures that I watch online. I'm still updating it with my favorites, but if anyone is interested, you can find it HERE.

Also, lots of discussion in Film Club lately.

Russian Spy

2011-01-04T12:06:00.002-05:00

Doing Everybody

2011-01-03T13:07:00.000-05:00

Wonderful sprawling and inspiring discussion between Zadie Smith and Nathan Englander.

Nathan Englander talks with Zadie Smith at the Matawi Fundraiser from Guernica Magazine on Vimeo.

Running

2010-12-31T12:04:00.000-05:00

I ran 417 miles in 2010. 500 is well within my reach for 2011.

Library Girl

2010-12-31T11:57:00.001-05:00

The Runner in Winter

2010-12-27T00:49:00.002-05:00

A short documentary about trail runner Anton Krupicka's daily summit near his home in Colorado.

Video removed. See it here.

Why Japan? WHY?

2010-12-27T00:29:00.000-05:00

BoobBling

2010-12-23T20:59:00.002-05:00

Saw this out in the wild today. It's called a "micro-dermal" piercing. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with an active love life.

Year in Reading: 2010

2010-12-23T16:10:00.002-05:00

(cross-posted here)

Even though there is still a week left in 2010, I think now is as good of a time as any to review the books that I have read this year. I do not plan to start any new books before January 1st anyway. I'll close the year out by finishing up the Concrete comics that John lent to me and reading Logicomix, my gift from Mark.

This year I read a total of 58 books (see Google doc for full list). Of these 58 books, five were graphic novel TPBs and four were books that I had read before. Fiction consisted of 39 books and non-fiction made up 19 on the list. For my top ten list below, the four books that I read in previous years were not considered.

My Top Ten List:

1. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
-- With Freedom getting so much attention I decided that I needed to read The Corrections this year. I was not disappointed. This is a rich, complex and finely tuned book about the modern family. The writing sparkles off the page. Franzen does things with words and sentences that are so wonderfully perfect that it is easy to miss in the true joy of reading his book. In terms of craft, style and substance, this is the best book that I have read this year.

2. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
-- See my thoughts on this book here.

3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathan Safron Foer

-- Without a doubt the best book about 9/11. This book is a love letter to NYC and Foer writes a touching narrative about a precocious boy traveling around the city post-9/11. At moments touching, heart-breaking, humorous and perspicacious this novel ends with a haunting image that has been etched in the minds of many since the horrible day back in 2001.

4. Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself by David Lipsky
-- This is a transcript of the week that David Lipsky spent with David Foster Wallace while on his Infinite Jest tour. DFW was one of the brightest minds I have ever read and I am always excited to hear more from a man who took his life way too early.

5. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
-- This is the second book of Atwood's Mad Adam trilogy and her follow-up to Oryx and Crake. This series of books by Atwood is currently the best dystopian speculative fiction works being created. Anyone interested or worried about our future should read them.

6. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
-- This is the story of Lewis Carrol's muse for Alice in Wonderland. This novel is captivating and so fluidly written that it is hard not to be sucked in to the complicated and confusing lives of those involved. So many misunderstandings and unfortunate circumstances lead to a rather sad tale.

7. The Convalescent by Jessica Anthony
-- Anthony really challenges the reader by writing a book about an unlikable character struggling in the modern world on the backdrop of the history of his family. What this book does is highlight the people who live unnoticed with wonderful subtlety and nuance. When this funny and smart book ends you realize that Rovar is in all of us more than we ever knew.

8. Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
-- An exploration of suburban life, friendships and family. Just as the book seems to be settling in to a narrative, a whole new aspect is introduced that stretches the reality and confronts the reader with entirely new questions. Coupland's sentences are electric.

9. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
-- Aimee Bender writes wonderfully fantastic stories. I already talked about this book here.

10. Waiting by Ha Jin
-- I am going to include this book on my list even though Jin has not answered any of my letters yet. I'll assume he is busy teaching and writing. Jin's writing is not as crisp as other books on this list - probably because Jin writes in English, which is his second language. But this adds a layer to the work that I find both interesting and explanatory. Waiting is a fascinating but quiet look into Chinese life with a love story that will connect with everyone.

Honorable Mention: Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
-- This book is great in theory, but lacking a bit in execution. I found it to be too anecdotal and had a few too many unsubstantiated claims. Nevertheless, I think that it should be required reading and Gatto's opinions about open-source learning are spot-on.

group showers

2010-12-22T10:55:00.002-05:00

Strange Love

2010-12-21T00:18:00.002-05:00

BBC Strange Love starts off with a guy saying "I've grown apart from people, ordinary run of the mill people. I've lost the skill of interacting with them, knowing what to say and when to say it."

I thought of you.

@EZTV

WikiRebels

2010-12-19T12:08:00.000-05:00

Sweden's public service television, SVT, is releasing this one-hour documentary chronicling the history of WikiLeaks.
From summer 2010 until now, Swedish Television has been following the secretive media network WikiLeaks and its enigmatic Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange.

The case for collaborative consumption

2010-12-17T14:17:00.001-05:00

Teddy Bear toss

2010-12-17T13:58:00.000-05:00

23,096 Teddy Bears tossed during a recent Calgary Hitmen game.

2010-12-16T13:25:00.000-05:00

Prodigal Sons

2010-12-12T16:10:00.000-05:00

I just finished watching this documentary and have a feeling I will be thinking about it for a long time. It's available on Netflix Instant.

Putin gets us in the mood

2010-12-11T20:12:00.001-05:00

Hannah rips some salvia

2010-12-10T10:59:00.000-05:00

and acts really fucking annoying

Bad Kitty

2010-12-09T13:57:00.001-05:00

Sorry, Aaron Sorkin. You're wrong.

2010-12-09T11:31:00.000-05:00

(Hastily written rant below)

I like Aaron Sorkin. The West Wing is one of my favorite TV shows. I saw The Social Network this week and thought it was a pretty slick film (soon to be reviewed here). However, his recent blog at Huffington Post is way off the mark. He says that Sarah Palin killed the caribou because she enjoyed doing it. I can't disagree with that. However, I can disagree with the fact that Sorkin is able to draw a moral distinction between her killing and his eating of meat. Here's why: Sorkin eats meat purely for the enjoyment of it, which is exactly what he is calling Palin out on. There is no necessity involved. He could live a healthier life, leave a smaller imprint on the environment and ease much animal suffering by cutting the meat out of his diet. Just because he does not go out and enjoy hunting the meat himself does not absolve him from the moral implications involved. If I'm being honest, I'd rather eat Palin's caribou. At least it had a better life than one of Sorkin's broiler chickens that was confined, overfed and stuffed with antibiotics.

Sorkin's blog is funny and witty and fun to read. It's easy to draw a self-righteous rage from it, especially because it's targeted at Sarah Palin - a woman whom I agree with about nothing and have very little respect. But it's too easy. I hope that people who read it realize that, in fact, he is being hypocritical and that it's hypocritical in the worst way because he is actually wrong.

Sorkin seems to think that doing harm is worse than allowing harm. I'd urge him to rethink this.

Hold my calls, Jim. I'm film club blogging.

2010-12-07T10:58:00.001-05:00

I've been having a lot of fun blogging on our other site lately. My friend John has a "blogging film club" thing that I've been participating in. The other three people (John, Brandon, Jason) have a much larger knowledge of movies and films than I do; so, this has exposed me to a bunch of new movies while providing a platform to discuss what I've been watching with knowledgeable people who have actual opinions and ideas and don't just sit in front of a movie to turn their minds off.

I like the fact that the film club is so conversational. You really have to read all three blogs to understand a lot of what is going on as many posts are about responding to each others thoughts. Very cool.

Alright, lots of conversation for me to catch up on over there. Plus, I rewatched The New World last night and need to talk about how stunning it is.

Looks like I know how the rest of my day is going to go...

A Book Lover's San Francisco

2010-12-05T11:10:00.000-05:00

Very cool article about the literary scene in SF from the NYT's.

The Case for a National Digital Library

2010-12-04T10:09:00.000-05:00

The director of Harvard University Library makes the most recent argument for a National Digital Library in a long and excellently-reasoned essay in the New York Review of Books.

Would a Digital Public Library of America solve all the other problems—the inflation of journal prices, the economics of scholarly publishing, the unbalanced budgets of libraries, and the barriers to the careers of young scholars? No. Instead, it would open the way to a general transformation of the landscape in what we now call the information society. Rather than better business plans (not that they don’t matter), we need a new ecology, one based on the public good instead of private gain. This may not be a satisfactory conclusion. It’s not an answer to the problem of sustainability. It’s an appeal to change the system.

More on a National Digital Library here and here and here and in video below.

Rita King at TEDxNASA - Creativity and Design of Identity and Community

2010-12-03T16:34:00.000-05:00

The Philosophy of David Foster Wallace

2010-12-02T22:40:00.000-05:00

David Foster Wallace's Philosophy Thesis is going to be released in a sleek-looking volume called Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will on December 14th. I've blogged enough about DFW for everyone to know that I'm a fan of his work. I have to admit, I might be more excited to get my hands on this than to read his upcoming posthumous novel The Pale King.

So, fair warning: I won't be taking calls or emails or writing blog posts beginning December 14th for a few days. Maybe longer if this books sends me down another DFW spiral.

For lots of cool stuff related to this upcoming work, check out Context and Conversation at Columbia University Press.

The Case for Net Neutrality

2010-12-02T22:08:00.000-05:00

It's videos like this that make me appreciate Rocketboom so much more.

Paradoxical Truth

2010-11-29T09:06:00.001-05:00

I wrote my Philosophy Capstone paper on dialetheism and true contradictions. I also wrote an independent study related to the those ideas and Cantor's paradox. For both of those papers I drew largely on the work of Graham Priest. So, it was pretty cool to read his piece in the NYT's about the topic.

So let’s come to back to the Liar Paradox. Which of the two kinds of paradox is this? Can we accept the conclusion, or must there be something wrong with the argument? Well, notice that the conclusion of the argument is a bald contradiction: the claim on the blackboard is both true and false. Now, the principle of noncontradiction says that you can never accept a contradiction. And the principle of noncontradiction has been high orthodoxy in Western philosophy since Aristotle mounted a spirited defense of it in his “Metaphysics” — so orthodox that no one seems to have felt the need to mount a sustained defense of it ever since. So the paradox must be of the second kind: there must be something wrong with the argument. Or must there?

slang term "readers"

2010-11-28T20:03:00.000-05:00

Toothpaste For Dinner

2010-11-28T01:02:00.001-05:00

Reminds me of "Walking Dead"

Education as obedience

2010-11-27T20:36:00.001-05:00

In 1989 Noam Chomsky was asked a question about the educational system. Here is his excellent answer.

Anyway, getting ready to head into a week full of paper writing.

Christopher Hitchens debates Tony Blair on religion

2010-11-27T17:23:00.000-05:00

Missed it last night. Found it tonight. Better watch it soon before it's taken down.

The rest here.

2010-11-27T11:51:00.001-05:00

Black Friday

2010-11-26T01:02:00.000-05:00

Well, it's 1 am. Time to start looking for the good deals.

idolcoupon

Longest game of Yinsh ever...

2010-11-24T23:57:00.000-05:00

Gaming through the holiday

2010-11-24T12:39:00.001-05:00

Clyde (pictured) smoked us all in Ingenious but Myriah took Can't Stop. Looking forward to a good Thanksgiving Day game of Bohnanza and Ticket to Ride.

"Communication is not just words. Communication is architecture." -Tad Danielewski

2010-11-23T23:10:00.002-05:00

Whenever I reread House of Leaves I become fascinated by architecture and space. Since I've talked about the book and MZD quite a bit on this blog, I'll just post a really interesting talk by artist and architect Alex Haw.

with good intentions...

2010-11-23T16:46:00.000-05:00

I'll take another shot at this

New video from Symphony of Science

2010-11-23T09:44:00.000-05:00

I like this one because there are a lot more scientists in it than some of the other ones. It also contains a bit from Phil Plait's Don't Be a Dick talk, which is just awesome.

This one is still my favorite though.

2010-11-22T09:16:00.000-05:00

By poesygalore | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

2010-11-21T23:38:00.002-05:00

Thinking about a resurrection...

Pearls Before Breakfast

2010-11-21T09:50:00.002-05:00

Remember one of the best WaPo pieces ever? It's been made into one of those posters.

Ink

2010-11-20T10:53:00.001-05:00

Just realized this is on Hulu.

2010-11-19T13:56:00.000-05:00

Wow.

Very possible I'll be watching all three seasons again before January 9th.

Derrick Jensen on Democracy Now!

2010-11-17T12:08:00.002-05:00

Skip to 41:00 to see Jensen.

What I really appreciate about Jensen is that he continually questions and attempts to turn our culture inside out. I've said before that his book The Culture of Make Believe is one of my top books in terms of impact it had on me. I don't necessarily agree with everything he says - though that's to be expected. However, the more I think about his writing and his work, the more important I think it is that people hear it and are forced to ask questions of the "dominant culture." That's why I'm glad to see him on Democracy Now!

The Strange Happiness of the Emergency Medic

2010-11-15T13:09:00.002-05:00

There is your life before the truck, and there is your life after the truck. An apprenticeship with paramedics shows what it really means to have a bad day.

LINK to a great little article in Esquire.

Yolandi is from the future

2010-11-15T08:20:00.003-05:00

via

2010-11-11T11:01:00.001-05:00

Bill Moyers at the Howard Zinn Lecture

2010-11-09T18:31:00.001-05:00

Watch this video on YouTube

Hacker Makes the 5th of November One to Remember

2010-11-09T12:17:00.000-05:00

via

life in debt

2010-11-08T19:27:00.001-05:00

The thing that is so tragic about America today is that young people who go to college, unless they're from extremely wealthy families, have to take out student loans. The great tragedy, therefore, is that young people who have been very educated start out life in debt. People in debt tend to be frightened people.

Paul Auster in an interview for Goodreads

umm...

2010-11-08T12:29:00.001-05:00

2010-11-06T19:08:00.001-04:00

I figured out what my problem was while I was at the conference.

2010-11-06T14:48:00.001-04:00

LINK to lulz

2010-11-06T13:07:00.001-04:00

Abinanti Wins

2010-11-03T01:30:00.002-04:00

“We are very pleased from the outpouring of support in this district,” Abinanti said. “I thank everyone for their expression of confidence and promise to do the best I can on behalf of the people of this district.”

The sole appropriate outlet for this story LINK

and a big Dobbs shout-out LINK

E-voting without fraud

2010-11-02T12:31:00.001-04:00

vote on tuesday

2010-11-02T09:01:00.002-04:00

New Left Media interviews people at the Rally to Restore Sanity

2010-11-01T16:00:00.000-04:00

The New American Isolationism: The Cost of Turning Away from War’s Horrific Realities

2010-11-01T09:06:00.001-04:00

A new isolationism is metastasizing in the American body politic. At its heart lies not an urge to avoid war, but an urge to avoid contemplating the costs and realities of war. It sees war as having analgesic qualities—as lessening a collective feeling of impotence, a collective sense of fear and terror. Making war in the name of reducing terror serves this state of mind and helps to preserve it. Marked by a calculated estrangement from war’s horrific realities and mercenary purposes, the new isolationism magically turns an historic term on its head, for it keeps us in wars, rather than out of them.

- William J. Astore in Guernica

2010-10-31T16:17:00.002-04:00

Today is basically about listening to The Black Keys, reading the Times and watching Californication.

Zach Galifianakis Smokes a Joint on Real Time

2010-10-30T10:13:00.001-04:00

Dating as an Historical Perspective

2010-10-29T14:24:00.001-04:00

Capitalism, man!

Tom Perrotta

2010-10-29T10:20:00.003-04:00

Tom Perrotta writes the ultimate "suburban" novels. I read Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher in just a few sittings last year because they are just that good.

In the hands of someone else, this passage could easily be tedious. But when Perrotta writes it in Little Children, it really seems to explain Sarah and make her alive in the story.

Along with dumping Ryan, applying to graduate school seemed like the perfect solution for escaping the rut she was in—a way to recapture the excitement of college while also making a transition into a recognizable version of adulthood. She cultivated an image of herself as a young professor, a feminist film critic, perhaps. She would be a mentor and an inspiration to girls like herself, the quiet ones who’d sleepwalked their way through high school, knowing nothing except that they couldn’t possibly be happy with any of the choices the world seemed to be offering them.

Within a couple of weeks of starting the Ph.D. program, though, she discovered that she’d booked passage on a sinking ship. There aren’t any jobs, the other students informed her; the profession’s glutted with tenured old men who won’t step aside for the next generation. While the university’s busy exploiting you for cheap labor, you somehow have to produce a boring thesis that no one will read, and find someone willing to publish it as a book. And then, if you’re unusually talented and extraordinarily lucky, you just might be able to secure a one-year, nonrenewable appointment teaching remedial composition to football players in Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the Internet’s booming, and kids we gave C pluses to are waltzing out of college and getting rich on stock options while we bust our asses for a pathetic stipend that doesn’t even cover the rent.

Sarah could see that it was all true, but she didn’t really mind once she adjusted her expectations. Graduate school didn’t have to lead anywhere, did it? Wouldn’t it be worthwhile just to spend a couple of years reading and thinking, reawakening her mind from a long stupor induced by too many espresso drinks and lame one-liners? She could just get her master’s, maybe teach in a prep school after that, or join the Peace Corps, or even figure out a way to climb onto the Internet gravy train like everybody else.

What did her in was the teaching. Some people loved it, of course, loved the sound of their own voices, the chance to display their cleverness to a captive audience. And then there were the instructors like herself, who simply couldn’t communicate in a classroom setting. They made one point over and over with mind-numbing insistence, or else they circled around a dozen half-articulated ideas without landing on a single one. They read woodenly from prepared notes, or got lost in their muddled syntax while attempting to speak off the cuff. God help them if they attempted a joke. The faces looking back at them might be bored or confused or hostile, but mostly they were just full of pity. That’s what she got from her two semesters of teaching: enough pity to last her a lifetime.

Broke and demoralized, Sarah quit school and landed back at Starbucks, this time with a seriously diminished sense of herself and her future. She was a failure, a twenty-six-year-old woman of still-ambiguous sexuality who had just discovered that she wasn’t nearly as smart as she’d thought she was. I am a painfully ordinary person, she reminded herself on a daily basis, destined to live a painfully ordinary life.

- Tom Perrotta, Little Children

On Suburbia:

h/t to LibraryLand for posting this quote today.

Shelf Check: The Social Physical Library

2010-10-28T11:11:00.002-04:00

Shelf Check has an interesting idea:

"What if (in addition to these events) there were neat, social, community-building opportunities for patrons to engage in whenever they happened to step foot in the library? That didn't require planning on the library's part, or remembering on the patrons' part? That were targeted to their own individual interests? That fostered connections between them and their neighbors? That made stopping by the library just to see what's up in the building worthwhile, as opposed to only using the digital branch? That helped people to learn and to better use our resources and our spaces?

Here's what I'm thinking: a living, updated-in-real-time site (somewhat like Twitter or Foursquare in the way it works--and it would need IM capabilities built in), ideally displayed prominently on a large screen in the lobby/entrance, but workable even if it was just on the web via a link on the library's home page (that automatically loads when you use the library computers, and that wireless users can choose to load). The page's content:

The large prominent screen (almost like a flight status screen at an airport) would be nice because most of us are curious--even if we're just dashing in to the library, not logging on to a computer, we'd glance at the screen to check it out, then maybe find something we want to stay for. You'd automatically look at it when you walked in the door."

-I don't see it ever working in libraries around here. I think that it would be great in academic libraries though.

15 books

2010-10-27T20:58:00.002-04:00

I avoided my INFO640 assignment for at least 30 minutes this evening by filling out one of these facebook tagged note things about my 15 influential books.

In no particular order:

1. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder - A YA novel about the history of philosophy with some great POV shifts correlating to the text. I read this book my last semester at BU and it reminded me how much fun philosophy could be when you take the academics out of it and once again insert wonder. I re-read this book about once a year.

2. The Politics of Experience by R.D. Laing - This is another book that I turn to a lot. I first read it back in 2004 and I can safely say that this may have done more to shape my thinking than any other book I have ever read. He ends the book by saying, "If I could turn you on, if I could drive you out of your wretched mind, if I could tell you I would let you know." Well, he certainly did drive me out of my wretched mind.

3. The Culture of Make Believe by Derrick Jensen - There are a lot of things Jensen says that I just can't get behind. However, this long book is both an historical and philosophical look at our culture and the atrocities it commits. This book is impeccably researched and has some conclusions that are brilliant yet so obvious that it's painful.

4. The Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands - A book about a philosophy professor raising wolf-hybrids? Awesome. I came across this book by accident a few years ago and ended up buying and reading it very quickly. I just re-read it a few weeks ago and the study of life through the lens of our relationships to animals, specifically dogs, is really interesting. Also, for a philosopher Rowlands has some really moving prose. I dare anyone to not feel overwhelmed with emotion at the end of reading this book.

5. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender - This is a book of short stories that literally changed how I view fiction. She writes so fantastically but so truthfully. The very first story in this volume, The Rememberer, is my favorite short story of all time. So much truth in it.

6. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - This book launched my interest in experimental fiction and probably holds the distinction of being my most read fiction book on the shelves. There is so much going on in the book that it is hard not to be awed, inspired and moved by it.

7. Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski - I think that this book is too often misunderstood. People who liked House of Leaves and were expecting something like that will surely be disappointed. However, I think that OR is much more ambitious than House of Leaves and accomplishes much more. The story is lyrical and beautiful and the book is a work of art. Combine it with the audio book (read by MZD) and it's an indescribable experience.

8. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - Such a rich, complex and finely tuned book about the modern family. The writing sparkles off the page. Franzen does things with words and sentences that are so wonderfully perfect that it is easy to miss in the true joy of reading his book.

9. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse - I went through a huge Hesse phase during college and this book is the one that I read the most often. It's a wonderful existential exploration of man's soul that affected me deeply.

10. The World According to Garp by John Irving - This novel really sparked my interest in reading again after high school and made me remember what it was like to sit up late reading long books with great stories.

11. Sexus, Plexus and Nexus by Henry Miller - I'm including all three of the Rosy Crucifixion series because when I read these books, which was my first experience of Miller, my mind just about shattered. I spent an entire summer reading just about everything he had written after that. I still refer to him as my favorite author.

12. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - Another book that plays with the form of the novel and does it with such mastery that it is hard not to be impressed.

13. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - Not my favorite Murakami book but the one that really got me interested in his work. I wasted a day in Spain sitting in my hostel reading this book but don't regret a moment of it. The characters are haunting and book is quite affecting.

14. The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace - Again, not my favorite book by this author but the one that turned me on to him. I've spent so many hours in the world of David Foster Wallace since reading this book that it's hard to remember how I first felt. I just remember thinking that he wrote the book that I would want to write if I was just a bit smarter.

15. Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - These were my constant companions from about 5th until 8th grade when I started to get into the Sword of Truth series.

Honorable mention: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls and Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. These were some of the books that I first read in elementary school that I really remember connecting with and re-reading a lot.

I could easy make this list 25 or 30, but I'll stick to the rules.

2010-10-27T08:55:00.001-04:00

Back from the future campaign

2010-10-26T17:40:00.000-04:00

2010-10-26T00:45:00.001-04:00

Bob Woodruff reports on the familial coup d'etat happening in the DPRK. Watch for the brief cameo by a Polish colonel. LINK

"Fuck everyone. Amen."

2010-10-25T20:20:00.001-04:00

Ripple

2010-10-25T10:17:00.001-04:00

2010-10-24T11:42:00.002-04:00

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.