Other
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The Daily Grind Of Writing
I laughed out loud, like a lot of writers probably did this week, when I read J. Robert Lennon’s confession in the L.A. Times, The Truth About Writers. The truth, it turns out is that “writers don’t spend much time…
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Poetic Lives Online: Links by Brian Spears
Billy Collins says we need better poets in the US: “There’s an awful lot of bad poetry out there. I’d say about 87 percent of the poetry in America isn’t worth reading.” Collins may be right–the question is who makes…
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Temple of the Cats
I’m sure that if I ever make it to Rome, I’ll go see this, even though I can see something similar every morning when the neighborhood stray/feral cat population (and there is a difference) shows up on my deck for…
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Farrah Fawcett: 1947-2009
Farrah Fawcett and my mother were born about a month-and-a-half apart, and to my knowledge, that’s all they have in common. Fawcett’s death has been overshadowed by Michael Jackson’s, which was inevitable, but tragic in my opinion, since I think…
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Saturday Morning Links
If you really, really need something from a person, ask in the right ear. Especially if you’re in a club in Italy and need a cigarette. Speaking of cigarettes, D. J. Stout has some marketing ideas that will fulfill the…
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No, I Mean the Other Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson, the pop icon, has died, and it’s pop culture news so big, even we can’t ignore it. But although there could only be one Michael Jackson (thankfully?), there have been many people with the name “Michael Jackson” —…
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Morning Coffee
Wes Anderson on screening Rushmore for Pauline Kael. (thanks Craig) Hey, City of Toronto, you can do better than this. Chicago’s South Side nightclubs in the 1970s. The inventor of instant noodles answers the age-old question: Should I quit my…
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An Oral History of Myself #9: Joe
In 2005 I began interviewing people I grew up with and transcribing the interviews, creating a kind of memoir but in other people’s words. This is the ninth interview; you can read the interviews with Roger, John, Dan, Pat, Aaron, Fat…
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Random Media Notes
Fox News attacks ABC for ‘unprecedented’ access to a U.S. president. Apparently they don’t remember the last eight years. Rules of engagement for journalists on Twitter. WSJ publisher calls Google a “digital vampire.” (via Mediabistro) Facebook tries to be Twitter.…
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Morning Coffee
A brief history of Kodachrome, the iconic film that didn’t quite make it to its 75th anniversary. Department of bummer: dinosaurs may have been much smaller than we thought. Ground Zero: 1945 is a collection of drawings and paintings by…
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Elena Dmitrievna Diakonova a.k.a. Gala Dali
Artists are fickle, except when they’re not, and then their lovers are. Elena Dmitrievna Diakonova was born in Tatarstan, Russia to a family of intellectuals — as a kid she hung out with future poet Marina Tsvetaeva. (Tsvetaeva would write…