Exploring the Redwood Forest: Journals and the Private Self
Lately, over crumb-laden dinner tables and cups of coffee and on windy hillsides I ask friends, family, and peripheral acquaintances whether or not they write in a journal.
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Posts by: Hannah Kingsley-Ma
FURTHER GLIMPSES INTO ZADIE SMITH’S NEW NOVEL
“Pencil leaves no mark on magazine pages. Somewhere she has read that the gloss gives you cancer. Everyone knows it shouldn’t be this hot. Shrivelled blossom and bitter little apples. Birds singing the wrong tunes in the wrong trees too early in the year.
...moreEnough About the Cheaters
This past week has seen its fair share of breaking stories about cheating.
Giants’ fans were saddened to hear about the downfall of Melky Cabrera, whose performance-enhancing drug scandal was made all the more sordid by recent allegations of an elaborate cover-up attempt.
...moreWhat We’re Missing
If you’ve ever wondered about a particular brand of wit in France or what it means to be perpetually unlucky in Yiddish, Mental Floss has a list of eleven wonderful idioms with no direct English translations. Read them here.
...moreFiction Blurred in Oakland
The LA Times reports that a Bay Area bookstore will be transformed into a pop-up record shop this coming September, in connection with the release of East Bay author Michael Chabon’s forthcoming novel Telegraph Avenue.
Diesel Bookstore is an independent bookstore in Oakland, the city in which Chabon’s book is set.
...moreIn Defense of Lolo Jones
Much controversy has been sparked over the recent media attention being bestowed on the American hurdler Lolo Jones.
Jones, who placed fourth in this Olympics’ 100-meters hurdle competition, has been a figure of debate since the New York Times wrote an scathing article about her reliance on image to win endorsement deals and garner national attention.
...moreCommunity Bookstore 2.0
The Washington Post reports on the efforts to save a bookstore near and dear to the hearts of many Bay Area residents.
Until its first closure in 2005, Kepler’s Books had been a Menlo Park institution since it’s founding in 1955.
...moreMark Twain, Silent Movie Star
Check out the “only existing footage” of iconic American author Mark Twain – a silent film snippet from 1909 taken at Twain’s Connecticut home by his friend Thomas Edison.
(Via The Atlantic)
...moreNotable San Francisco: 8/6-8/13
This week in San Francisco . . .
Monday 8/6 – Quiet Lightening will be having a reading at the Conservatory of Flowers as part of their summer series The Greenhouse Effect. Doors open at 6:30pm so people can peruse the assorted flora and fauna before the 7:30pm show.
...moreWhat To Do With An MFA
Over at The Millions, writer Nick Ripatrazone offers his advice on what to do once you’ve graduated with a MFA: teach high school.
Ripatrazone makes the argument that a career in secondary education can often times be a more conducive fit to the life and routine of an aspiring writer than the adjunct professorial positions sought after by many recent graduates.
...moreEVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT STEVE ALMOND’S TAXES
“Further questions should be referred to my accountant, the aforementioned Marty, who is no longer employed by H&R Block and who was, last time I checked, living in a small cardboard domicile outside Davis Square.”
In response to Mitt Romney’s recalcitrance to release more of his tax returns, Rumpus columnist and author Steve Almond has provided Boston’s NPR affiliate radio station WBUR with his own returns — complete with explanatory notes that give financial transparency a new meaning.
...moreLook Closer
Yesterday marked the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Landsat, America’s longest running Earth-imaging satellite program.
Since the NASA-run program began in 1972, Landsat has captured more than three million images of our planet. To look at some particularly stunning photographs taken by the satellite (pictures chosen through Nasa’s ‘Earth as Art’ contest), click here.
...more“I’ve had guns pulled on me by four people under Central Mississippi skies . . .”
” . . . Once by a white undercover cop, once by a young brother trying to rob me for the leftovers of a weak work-study check, once by my mother and twice by myself.”
All across the country, people are having conversations about the insanity of gun violence here in America.
...moreOlympic Poetics
“It’s easy to say poets are attracted to sport for reasons that have something to do with form. I’m sure that’s true, but I also think that it has something to do with the possibility of failure and, in the case of many Olympic sports, the fact that nobody really watches what you do most of the time .
...moreThe Art of the Book Blurb
How many methods are there to be uniquely flattering?
Over at The Kenyon Review, poet and Rumpus contributor Jake Adam York takes a stab at naming the different ways to sing one’s literary praises.
(Via The New Yorker)
...more#REALTALK RETURNS
Ann Friedman, former executive editor of GOOD magazine and current staffer at Tomorrow, has relocated her much beloved blog #realtalk from your editor to the Columbia Journalism Review.
It’s there that you can find sage advice about media new and old with the assistance of quips and gifs.
...moreBOB ROSS MOMENT OF THE DAY
PBS is teaming up with Symphony of Science to remix old PBS classics.
Devoted fans of the television network will recognize the distinctive head of hair on the star of their latest song – it’s a tribute to the late painter and host of “The Joy of Painting,” Bob Ross.
...moreLife and Times of A Bibliophile
“The love of books, the possession of them, can be thought of as an extension of one’s self or being, not separate from a love of life but rather as an extra dimension of it, and even of what comes after.
...more“Just a Bunch Of City Kids Climbing a Mountain . . .”
That’s the slogan for Washington II Washington, an annual week-long camping trip started by FOUND magazine editor Davy Rothbart.
The coming trip will take kids from inner-city Washington D.C. and Southeast Michigan to Monogahela State Park in West Virginia. Washington II Washington is dedicated to the memory of Emmanuel Durant, Jr., a close friend and neighbor of Rothbart’s in Southeast Washington D.C.
...moreA NEW KIND OF NEIGHBORHOOD LIBRARY
The New York Times writes about community-generated libraries that are popping up on sidewalks across the country.
Little Free Libraries are small wooden boxes full of books with latched glass doors, slanted roofs and a sign that reads “Take a Book and Leave a Book.” You can purchase the posts directly from Little Free Library or build your own; each new library is asked to pay $25 to register with the nonprofit organization.
...moreA Literary Take on America’s Sacrifice Zones
Check out this audio slideshow of author Chris Hedge’s and graphic journalist Joe Sacco’s newest endeavor, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (June 2012).
Hedge and Sacco traveled across America to document different sacrifice zones – “areas that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement.” The book glimpses into the lives of people residing in impoverished regions of South Dakota, West Virginia, New Jersey and more – ending with a depiction of the Occupy movement in Zuccotti Park.
...moreAI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY
Devoted fans of Ai Weiwei this side of the Pacific have reason to celebrate: Alison Klayman’s documentary on the celebrated Chinese artist is scheduled to premiere in U.S. theatres on July 27th.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry follows the artist over the course of several months, including in the aftermath of his outspoken critique of the Chinese government’s handling of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
...moreDave Eggers Public Signings
Dave Eggers will be signing copies of his new book, A Hologram for the King, at two independent San Francisco bookstores this week:
Tuesday, July 17th: Books Inc. (Opera Plaza)
Noon to 1 pm, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, July 18th: Green Apple Books
Noon to 1 pm, 506 Clement St, San Francisco, CA
Stop by and support your local bookstore!
...moreTiny Beautiful Things Round-Up
“’In the end, Tiny Beautiful Things is a guide for anyone who is lost, and those who only think they might be.”
That’s an excerpt from today’s San Francisco Chronicle review of Cheryl Strayed’s new collection of Dear Sugar columns, Tiny Beautiful Things.
...moreWhose Opinion Is Missing?
Talking Points Media reports on the deficit of female op-ed writers, citing an assessment conducted by The OpEd Project.
The article quotes Katherine Lanpher, a member of the organization, who tells the website: “We are seeing that women aren’t narrating the world, even though they’re half of the world.” TPM cites the Byline Survey, writing “women authored thirty-three percent of op-eds in new media publications and twenty percent of the op-eds in traditional media during a twelve-week period last year.” Op-eds are stratified by content too – only eleven percent of the opinions written on the economy during this time were produced by women.
...more“Twitter For Authors”
The LA Times reports that Twitter has released a how-to-manual titled “Twitter for Authors.”
The guide details six tips particularly geared towards writers, some of which include the not-so-helpful “Be Authentic, Be Yourself,” and “Above All, Have Fun.” Nowadays many authors use the social networking site as a means of self-promotion, and entire transcontinental book clubs have sprung from its 140 character limit.
...moreA PEEK INSIDE ZADIE SMITH’S NEW NOVEL
The Millions has excerpted the first lines of Zadie Smith’s forthcoming novel NW.
Set in northwest London, this book is Smith’s first novel since the publication of On Beauty in 2005. NW will be released this September.
...more“The stuff we write has to matter, and I’m always pushing to the core, the heart of that”
The 99 Percent interviews Cheryl Strayed in anticipation of her soon-to-be released collection of Dear Sugar columns, Tiny Beautiful Things.
The author discusses Sugar’s origin story, writing as a means of self-discovery, and the particulars of composing for the Internet.
...moreWAL-MART-TURNED-LIBRARY
The Los Angeles Times details a former Wal-Mart that has been converted into the “largest single-story library in the country.”
The McAllen Public Library, located in a Texan town right on the border of Mexico, is reportedly larger than two football fields and has been scooping up architectural awards for its remarkable use of converted space (did you know there is a competition specifically for library interior design?) You can read more about the transformation here.
...moreTHE F-WORD & THE NEW YORKER
Mary Norris writes about the gradual inclusion of profanity in The New Yorker in this short piece, exploring questions on how one properly quotes Earl Sweatshirt, and whether or not the term “star fucker” is hyphenated.
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