Thursday, April 29, 2010

What I'm Reading


Will let you know how they are. Read along if you'd like.

Brothers - edited by Andrew Blauner
How To Live - Henry Alford

Remembering Midnight Soul

 2004 - 2007


Reminisce 1. Reminisce 2. Reminisce 3.

Bryant v. Durant



I like this article.  Have yet to see Durant or Stephen Curry play in a pro game.

Of Interest


No theme here.  Just links that caught my attention.

Sex and Hamburgers - Sandiego.com

Ignorant Music - Miller-McCune

Millennials and Promiscuity - Slate

Ghost Town - Good

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Know Your Mandarin



China reigns. At Big Think.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Moving Forward


Systems change. Standards change. Every so often, you might too.


On Rings And Hang-Wringing - Intelligent Life

Accelerated Learning / Paternal Instincts - Hemispheres

Dating Double Standards - Very Smart Brothas

Five Remakes That Improve on The Originals - Nerve

5 Questions That Can Could Change Your Life - Experience Life

Monday, April 26, 2010

The Hardest Part


Alcohol, marijuana, prescriptions.  No better than "hard" drugs, these crutches can't support people's every ill.  The users who try turn into abusers. They all fall just as hard.

You can tell when he's under the influence.  His eyes shine from liquor.  They crack red from smoke.  They water uncontrollably, unnoticed by him, as he sniffles.  When you tell him so he gets testy and defensive, argues himself in circles. 

"Crackhead logic," a friend joked.  Thank God it's not.  But legally and socially legit drugs are just as debilitating.

Obama On Facebook


Laugh a little. At Slate.

The Day They Call You Sir


Young muscle and corporate pudge were once taken for my age and better.  At 26, a new job that evenly split office time and foot patrol, along with a retreat into the near-vegan diet I was born into, shed some 30 pounds and five years in four months.  Now, two years shy of 30, bartenders are as generous with ID checks as co-eds are with attention.  In either case, one of us fears giving up the goods may put them on the wrong side of the law.  Yet peers, as young as me or as old as my parents, still call me "sir" while I am on the clock. Both bring relief, reprieve from each other.  While the people who see shirt and tie remind me I've done well with the years that passed, the after-hours crowd reminds me just how many I have left.

Great Philosophers, Parties, & Rock Stars - Black Book

Resurrecting The Jetrosexual - Fly Brother

A Selection Of Five Trenches - Fantastic Man

(Don't) Put A Ring On It - Nerve

Modern Maturity - Art of Manliness

Friday, April 23, 2010

Never Say Die


Larry Dobrow at Ad Age ponders whether the New Yorker is sustainable in its current form.  I doubt the weekly mag is going anywhere or changing much, since the flagship publication is the only title Conde Nast didn't subject to budget and staff cuts when the media conglomerate pulled out the ax last year.  Personally, I think it's probably the best publication out there and should find reason to exist indefinitely, if only for my own benefit.  But I do agree with a few of Dobrow's points.  I declined to renew my subscription as well, if only because I couldn't keep up with five 10,000 word features per week, no matter how good they are.  New Yorker, along with Harper's and The Atlantic, provides informative escape when I need some (and solid fiction when I don't need the info).  Even if it's now only once in a while instead of once a week.


Read the entire article at Ad Age.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Friday, April 16, 2010

The World In Here


"To recover that sense of belonging to a natural landscape is indeed to recover the sanity of one's own nature.  That's probably because we spent 95 percent of human history wandering such places in small bands in nomadic omnivores.  The human mind evolved here, not in cities.  The mind's interior landscape feels at home, much as we try to deny it, in the 'wilderness' that has really been our species' domestic domain for almost all of our existence."


Quoted from "In The Presence of Rock And Sky," by Erik Reece, in Issue 412 of The Sun.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Road Less Traveled


I enjoy my annual trip to the rural town outside of Philadelphia.  I come here each year to drive my Great Aunt north a few days before she flies back home.  She likes that the long roads cut across sprawling farmland, small ranch house communities, and rest stops. The big cities have too much going on, too many people living on top of each other, too much murder and mayhem on the news.  Either way, moving to America for good, like so many of our other relatives, was never a consideration.

Five and Counting


I learned of spoken word group El Grito des Poetas after watching two of the seven members perform on three separate occasions.  Talented poets spin words into journeys.  Good actors suspend disbelief.  Chance and Simply Rob lean back into memories, rock forward into personas, and speak with a momentum only a life lived, staggered, survived, and conquered can carry.  They carried the audience with them every time.  I had to see where the rest of the group would take me. 

Good Morning DC


A night out in DC with friends, family, and more go-go than I could stand was well worth the trip.  The morning after was even better.  Early, post-party, weekend morning strolls are routine in whatever major city I'm in, whether I got in at 11 last night or 6 AM.  DC is my favorite morning city of them all. Enough of the city sleeps to make it feel serene.  Enough of it functions to make it feel accessible and accommodating.  For a couple hours I get lost in the illusion of owning my domain, with nothing more to do than be in the moment. The multinational entourage of government officials retire to Virginia or wherever they flew in from.  They leave the parks, plazas, and coffee shops to a public in no rush to beat the crowd or time.  I take full advantage while the city is still mine.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Whole In One


Reading Glenn O'Brien's "Bane In Vain is Mainly on The Wane" and the "Facts Of Life," a book excerpt republished in this month's issue of The Sun (in print only), felt like looking in the mirror.  That the world's people are uniform in their variety and impermanence is as clear as water, a principle I live by and depend on.  Translating disjointed and self-contained subcultures into a single, flowing id is a personal choice.  One needs to at least in part decide who they are instead of being dependent on others to define their world for them, and never become attached to the idea that either will remain permanent.  Once person, personality, and exchanges precede the barriers that previously defined them, the individual is free to soak in the greater context - true, unadulterated, and equally familiar in all its distant parts.

Read "Bane In Vain is Mainly on The Wane" at GQ.
Preview Issue 412 of The Sun.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Frasier Knows


"I don't think there's a universal reason for drug addiction or alcoholism. I do believe in an axiomatic truth: Addiction is the result of unresolved grief."

Read "Kelsey Grammer: What I Learned" at Esquire.

Monday, April 5, 2010

The Reorg


I lay restless thoughts, random interests, and an urge to write on this blog.  Mostly without regards to purpose, direction, or readers. Still, I try to maintain some standards for you three or four regulars.  Or, at least, let it be known when I have no plans to.  While keeping up with the "Daily" title has been a bit of challenge at times, it did help me sort out what I had an interest in writing about.  And so, for the next few weeks (or more) I'll be spending more time writing for and pitching to some relevant outlets.  The blog isn't going anywhere.  It just won't be five days a week for now.  But I should have more to say, more often, when I return in full.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Shook #8


After Straight No Chaser wrapped up its final issue, some of the mag's leading editors went on to produce Shook.  From Issue #1, the new zine' became my favorite print music magazine not named Fader. Today marks the release of Issue #8.  I suggest you order yourself a copy.