November 2011
-
Steve Jobs the “Tweaker”
“I’ll know it when I see it. That was Jobs’s credo, and until he saw it his perfectionism kept him on edge.” Malcolm Gladwell examines (what be believes to be) “the real genius of Steve Jobs.”
-
The Spirit of Violent Lamentation
My Twitter feed blew up last night when the news came down that Joe Paterno had been fired by Penn State University for his role in the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse case.
-
Homegrown Textbooks
“The problem with mass-produced textbooks…was that they can cost $65 each and aren’t aligned with Minnesota’s math tests so the district would be paying for whole chapters that are never used.” A few Minnesota high school districts look to save…
-
Laurie Weeks Interview
This week Bomblog interviewed Laurie Weeks about Zipper Mouth (our October Monthly Rumpus selection). Topics included gardening, writing, and portals. “If I do cut-ups or mix things together with, say, journal writings or other stuff that’s just hideous on its…
-
From Helplessness to Competence
Lily Tuck’s engaging new novel I Married You For Happiness explores a 40-year-plus marriage from the vantage of one night.
-
The Rumpus Interview with John Wesley Harding
Well as a singer-songwriter you kind of have a right to hijack bands. I’ve never really had my own band for too long.
-
“Russian Doll” Cinema
“But every so often a filmmaker sneaks a piece of mini-perfection into their movie that’s so self-contained, such an unnecessary tangent, it can stand alone as its own perfect short.” Nerve archives “five great short films” that can be found…
-
Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Presidential candidates, Dungeons and Dragons edition. Lions, and tigers, and half-billion-year-old multi-legged predators, oh my! Turtles eating things.
-
Love and Shame and Love TONIGHT
Love and Shame and Love (this month’s Rumpus Book Club selection) is having a Novel Launch TONIGHT from 7:30-9:30pm at The Booksmith (1644 Haight Street). There is free food and drink, as well as a lively reading! Find out why…
-
Sam’s Casual Reading
The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume 2, 1941–1956 was published recently by Cambridge University Press, and on its blog the publisher has compiled a list of books Beckett read during those years, culled from his letters, with commentary from the…
-
The Rumpus Review of The Skin I Live In
Here’s a game: try to imagine what great directors would do if they had been forbidden by some cosmic entity from making films.
-
Erin Rose’s Tech Links
Should the FCC carry the Emergency Broadcast System over to social networks? Common sense says yes. It’s easy to forget the Internet actually comes from somewhere, namely data centers like these. This “flirtatious” dress changes the transparency of its fabric…