David Simon, primary force behind The Wire, in a recent interview in The Believer:

Another reason the show may feel different than a lot of television: our model is not quite so Shakespearean as other high-end HBO fare. The Sopranos and Deadwood-two shows that I do admire-offer a good deal of Macbeth or Richard III or Hamlet in their focus on the ( Read more... )

Tenuousness is a song by Andrew Bird that contains these lyrics:

From proto-Sanskrit Minoans to Porto-centric Lisboans, Greek-Cypriots and harbor sots who "hang around", in quotes, a lot.

... which song made me think of my dear Journalists as I listened last evening in the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Download it here for a limited time only, if ( Read more... )

First, consider these two quotes from the perspective of a synesthete:

“The noise of the passing carriages begins to sound like thunder, in the stench of the street I detect thousands of different smells, while the lights of the eating-house and the street-lamps fill my eyes with blinding flashes of lightning. All my senses are at a fever pitch ( Read more... )

A survey of sorts: how many of you use RSS to subscribe to website updates? Which websites?

In the Donald Barthelme collection The Teachings of Don B., there's a short piece
called Languishing, Half-Deep in Summer... that, although it was originally published July 30, 1979, perfectly captures my experiences with online dating (Nerve.com) in the middle of this decade ( Read more... )

Of possible interest to my friends here:

• A loose biographical essay on Giuseppe Arcimboldo, by yours truly
• The secret lives of particles, by my pal the Nonist
• 100 Ways to say "I love you,", enumerated by my home-boy Paul Ford

... enjoy.

There is a character in Barthelme's Overnight to Many Distant Cities called Sweat Papa Cream Puff who speaks in the manner of the old jazzmen interviewed in documentaries about old jazzmen. The wife of the protagonist of this particular short piece, Claire, winds up with S.W.C.P. Shortly thereafter one finds this passage (all three of the ( Read more... )

So, I'm havin' a look at the Nikon Small World microphotography contest winners, and I'm thinkin' to myself, I am, why no Molly? The photo at 15th place, in particular, already seems a part of her oeuvre.

I've just been sent this link to an interview of James Joyce by Djuna Barnes. Some of you may be interested. If there's still unslaked thirst thereafter, consider this 1922 review of Ulysses by Edmund Wilson.

Lastly, have a lovely day, but, for fuck's sakes, don't drink any green beer.