Hustler of Culture
“My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. … Writers are always selling somebody out.” —Joan Didion (via The Writer’s Almanac).
Jesus Camp (2006): “Required viewing for the entire progressive left.”
Notes: Seen at the Red Vic. This being San Francisco, there was plenty of twittering. Twitter at your peril. The right knows how to reach kids. Where is the camp that makes kids weep about love and peace and honor for the environment and people of all races, genders and sexual orientations?
Fellow liberals, wake the f-ck up.
“Why do keep spreading democracy to places that resent our spreading of it?” –John Stewart on the reelection of Hugo Chavez.
My Darling Clementine (1946): ” “As late as the 1940s, America could imagine itself as a very small country”
Notes: Seen via Netflix after ignoring it for 3 months. Sweet and sad. Part of my dual quest to view the entire AFI 400 and all of the movies in Roger Ebert’s Great Movies series.
SFist confirms that James Kim has died looking for help for his family. This is heartbreaking.
Best conversation ever at Consumating about this quote from Martha Graham…
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening
that is translated through you into action,
and because there is only one of you in all time,
this expression is unique.
If you block it,
it will never exist through any other medium
and be lost.
The world will not have it.
It is not yours to determine how good it is;
nor how it compares with other expressions.
It is your business to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.
You have to keep open and aware directly
to the urges that motivate you.
Keep the channel open.
No artist is ever pleased.
There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.
There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction;
a blessed unrest that keeps us marching
and makes us more alive than the others.”
It may be the greatest sentiment about human creativity ever uttered. But if you’ve got another, please tell me.
(via my friend Tonya who first brought it up and Tim O. Thompson whom I first heard it from).
The wife and young daughters of James Kim, a senior editor at CNET, have been found. The family went missing after failing to show up at a hotel in Oregon where they were scheduled to spend Thanksgiving vacation.
Mr. Kim is still missing after going for help. Our hopes and prayers are with his family.
CNET has the whole story.
Dan Wolf, an artist I respect a great deal recently pointed me to the 33 1/3 series of small-format books, published by Continuum Press. The 33 1/3 series takes legendary albums of the last 50 years and brings in a variety of journalists, writers and academics to disect them song by song. Newly released titles include Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisted, Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark and Nirvana’s In Utero.
This couldn’t have come at a better time. Inspired by my friend Willo, I recently converted my entire CD collection to plastic sleeves and will be disposing of the jewel cases soon. That process reacquainted me with albums I hadn’t thought about in years. Also I’ve decided to get in the habit of reading, listening and watching everything I do much slower and more deliberately. Reading a disection of a great album, listening and listening to it again sounds plain heavenly.
Update: I just ordered the Born in the USA volume. It begins.
Today is the birthday of Ann Patchett, George Saunders and T.C. Boyle, three of my all-time favorite writers (via The Writer’s Alamanac).