February 2012
4 posts
January 2012
1 post
September 2011
20 posts
Why we react to wonderful music the way we do
When a listener experiences a frisson, Huron believes that he first reacts with fear toward the stimulus, then comes to enjoy it by consciously recognizing that the stimulus is actually harmless.
Story on music-evoked frisson.
We Who Are Your Closest Friends
by Phillip Lopate we who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting
as a group
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want
nor cutting you adrift
your analyst is
in on it
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband
and we have pledged
to disappoint you
as...
A really slow social network
“I read Catcher in the Rye for the first time and knew what it was like to have someone speak for me, to close a book with a sense of both triumph and relief, one lonely isolated social animal finally making contact.”
—Anne Lamont on the power of connection in reading from Bird by Bird
President meets with medal of honor winner
Dakota Meyer thought he’d die the 1st,2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th time he drove into enemy fire. Probably didn’t expect this.
2 tags
W. W. Norton: Faulkner? Never heard of him. →
Sounds like Bob Dylan talking and I’d like this description: “Not dangerous: just crazy.”
wwnorton:
It is said that Faulkner wrote his second novel, Mosquitoes, “for the sake of writing because it was fun.” Read this passage from the book, proof he was feeling playful, wherein Faulkner has his characters talk about…well, Faulkner. It seems he didn’t leave much of an...
August 2011
33 posts
“I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end,...”
– Abe
Peter Kaplan's nicely turned reflection on 9/11 →
The enduring American character
‘You have come to visit our country, sir, at a season of great commercial depression,’ said the major.
‘At an alarming crisis,’ said the colonel.
‘At a period of unprecedented stagnation,’ said Mr Jefferson Brick.
‘I am sorry to hear that,’ returned Martin. ‘It’s not likely to last, I hope?’
Martin knew nothing about America, or...
I am sorry for posting this. →
Apparently I am the kind of guy who finds some of these sarcastic sign modifications amusing. I am not proud.
From Firefox to Google Chrome and back again
There are a couple of pages still loading on Firefox from Friday. Time to switch back to Chrome.
WatchSitting in for Gwen on Washington Week and trying not to break anything.
Flight Home
Bright plane sunlight
and the long workday feeling of successful accidents
and an empty bucket
of rivets put one right after the other
after the other
in their solid.
I can entertain lonesome and melancholy.
I’ll make them coffee (look what it’s doing for me)
up here
in this sunlight of big plans.
“It’s hard to be in love and wise at the same time.”
– Bob Dylan
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A lede
The vast new organic Whole Foods Store on Kensington High Street in London is so quiet you can hear the cheese breathe in the specially designed glass room.
from this story.
2 tags
Risk, Creativity and Improvisation
The musician takes a huge risk, trusting, hoping that his brain and fingers will successfully allow him to “walk the tight rope over the precipice and arrive at the other side,” Levin says. “Or you might crash and burn. You never know.” But the spectators, as they live vicariously through the musician’s adventure, love him for it.
…Levin admits, he didn’t always know how to improvise....
2 tags
