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From Stephen Elliott
I’ve been in love with people who’ve had excerpts from Lord Jim scrolling up their arms, and Faunia Farley tattooed on their chest with an arrow going through a heart. It’s like you can’t escape these literary tattoos. But it makes sense; if the books are already living inside of you, why not let them show a little bit, through the skin?
...moreDespite the glorified notion that we’re supposed to grow up and not repeat the same mistakes our parents made, some of us go out and do even worse jobs.
For example, when you thought it couldn’t get worse than Bush Sr., we got, well, you know. From financing coups to driving 90 miles an hour on the wrong side of the Champs Elysees to torture by pouring sand in someone’s mouth, here’s a procession of some of the world’s worst sons.
...moreSome people think cover songs are for people who don’t like music; I happen to see them as heart-warming love letters from adoring fans, and at their greatest, revealing other aspects the song didn’t even know it had.
Stephen Elliott recently mentioned the rise of the middle-class artist in a Rumpus daily email: “What I think we’re seeing is that culture is becoming more diverse.
...moreI was waiting on a couple the other night at a restaurant where I work, and I saw a strange box on their table that had Jonathan Lethem‘s name printed on it.
When they opened it up, a pair of black glasses rested inside, and they asked me if I would try them on. So I did. Then they asked, “Do you see any chaldrons?” at which point I was like “wtf?”
They tried to explain to me what The Thing is. Started by Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan, The Thing is “an object based quarterly publication” where artists, writers, musicians, film artists, etc., create an object that somehow includes text. The object is made, wrapped and sent out to you, the diligent subscriber. The point is that Jonathan Lethem got involved with The Thing, made some crazy glasses, and talked about chaldrons.
...moreSex educator and writer Lux Alptraum, who is also the editor of Boinkology, has an article in Black Book that investigates the absence of condoms in porn. Is it because of production challenges, or because the companies don’t want to protect the health of their performers? No. It turns out, the absence of condoms might be because of you.
...moreIn the current political crisis in Iran, the boldest tool, turns out to be civic technology. Iran has gone out of its way to block the BBC, Yahoo, mobile phone networks, foreign journalists, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites during the election. What this has revealed is that the Iranian government is very sophisticated in blocking access to technology.
...moreIf you’re tired of the frenetic pace of life, being hampered by your 140 character limit, and can’t remember the last time you made it through a book, then you might smile at conceptual artist Jonathan Keats’ new project. He’s written a nine word story that will take 1,000 years to read. The catch? It requires a century of light to expose each word – Read about it here.
...moreIt’s hard to overstate how endearing Thu Tran is. I mean basically when Pee Wee’s playhouse came to end, so did surrealism in TV. But now it’s back, and Thu Tran might be the most adorable person on the planet. Her collaborative anti- reality food cooking show, FOOD PARTY, is part puppet show, part cooking show, if by cooking you mean putting a cornish game hen over a can of Mountain Dew and putting it into a fake cardboard oven and then feeding it to a baguette paramour. Exactly. She herself says of her work, “I strive to achieve visual MSG.”
...moreOriginal story at The Millions.
You probably didn’t even know that Haruki Murakami has a new book coming out today. That’s because the hype has been largely suppressed, and also because it’s only coming out in Japanese. In fact the only major leak came from Murakami himself when he spoke last October at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, where he described his new book, 1Q84, as a “real doorstop”. He said, “It’s least twice the size of Kafka on the Shore,” which received applause from the bookish crowd.
...moreElvin Jones, one of the most influential jazz drummers, most known for his work with John Coltrane, died this week five years ago, on May 18th, 2004. Adam Mansbach, who is recently well known for his novel Angry White Black Boy, also wrote a jazz novel, Shackling Water, that some consider second only to James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues.
...moreIn the wake of losing several authors of extreme significance this last year, David Foster Wallace, Studs Terkel, and now John Updike, a bevy of reflection floods in. Search for David Foster Wallace on the Rumpus, and you’ll find a host of articles ranging from Elisa Bassist’s expansive review of Infinite Jest to Stephen Elliott’s unfinished notes on DFW.
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I’ve always wondered why Ada Lovelace, first female computer programmer, only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the person I idolized in high school, hasn’t been more glorified in culture, seeing as she was one of the first females to envision computers as being something beyond mere number crunching machines. Keep in mind she died in 1852.
The much-hyped, long-awaited debut album Manners by electro band Passion Pit has finally leaked. You can only keep such stuff away from Internet-savvy people so long. If you haven’t heard “Sleepyhead,” one of the tracks off Manners, then it’s time to wake up.
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The idea behind Sebastian Kempa’s latest photographic endeavor, The Naked People Project, is simple: Photograph people with their clothes on and then, with a simple click of the computer mouse, watch as their clothes disappear and transform into glorious nudity.