Bill Cheng's Blog, page 106
April 21, 2013
April 20, 2013
condalmo:
jtotheizzoe:
The Distance of the Moon
Looking for a...
Looking for a beautiful way to kill some time on a weekend afternoon? Listen to Liev Schreiber reading Italo Calvino’s “The Distance of the Moon”, from Cosmicomics. It’s a tale of the evolution of our moon, from a time when it was not so far away, milked for nourishment by lunar herdsmen.
How wonderful that a story could be built on science (our moon did used to be closer to us, and moves farther away every year) yet journey so far into the imagination!
A+, Radiolab.
(photo by Laurent Laveder)
Italo Calvino.
Hacking Politics from O/R Books
“Hacking Politics is a...
Hacking Politics from O/R Books
“Hacking Politics is a firsthand account of how a ragtag band of activists and technologists overcame a $90 million lobbying machine to defeat the most serious threat to Internet freedom in memory. The book is a revealing look at how Washington works today – and how citizens successfully fought back.”
With contributions from the likes of Ron Paul, Cory Doctorow and the late Aaron Swartz
Excerpts available at http://www.orbooks.com/hackingpolitics_tldr.html and right now, the book is pay what you want in solidarity against CISPA— the bill that if passed, would endanger your civil liberties online, rendering your private data subject to governmental surveillance.
Writing at Tisserie on 57th and 7th Ave and their playlist has...
Writing at Tisserie on 57th and 7th Ave and their playlist has been particularly good this afternoon:
B.B. King - Chains and Things
Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man
Etta James - I’d Rather Go Blind
B.B. King - Rock Me Baby
Thurston Harris - Little Bitty Pretty One
Ray Charles - I’ve Got a Woman
April 19, 2013
penamerican:
Brilliant, unnerving extract from Shahrnush...
:
Brilliant, unnerving extract from Shahrnush Parsipur’s forthcoming memoir, ‘Kissing the Sword’, about being in a women’s prison in Iran:
When the American space shuttle exploded, the prisoners all looked upset. I was puzzled. Since the start of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, “Death to America” had been the constant slogan of the Islamic Republic and at Friday prayers the crowd would start by chanting “Death to America, death to Israel….
It had gotten dark outside and they had closed the doors to the courtyard. As I stood by the door, wishing I was in the fresh air, a young girl of perhaps seventeen walked up to me and in a somber tone asked if I had heard the news. I nodded and said, “Don’t you all constantly claim that you’re opposed to America? Then why has news of the shuttle exploding upset you so much?” She looked at me wide-eyed and said, “But this is science. It is humankind’s knowledge. It belongs to everyone.
Shahrnush Parsipur will be participating in In Conversation: Shahrnush Parsipur at the 2013 PEN World Voices Festival
Tuesday, April 30, 2013, 7:00pm
Brooklyn Public Library: The Central Library: S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Tickets: Free and open to the public. No reservations.
bycheng:
(What a ham…)
Meanwhile: A NEW DERANGEMENT OF THE...
Meanwhile: A NEW DERANGEMENT OF THE SENSES is just days away! Up on the gallows Friday night:
Chavisa Woods
Ivory Fox
Sam Dingman
Miracle Jones
Tanner Pratt
Kendra MaloneThis Friday, 7:30, Happy Ending Lounge in New York City
See you tonight!
wordbrooklyn:
The Whale: An Animated Gif, presented by Jenn and...
The Whale: An Animated Gif, presented by Jenn and Chad.
With thanks to:
The Odyssey, Homer
Drown, Junot Diaz
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid
Our Friends from Frolix 8, Philip K Dick
The Folly of the World, Jesse Bullington
Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, David Bellos
April 18, 2013
colchrishadfield:
I’m not all that artistic, but I appreciate...
I’m not all that artistic, but I appreciate it when others are.
I’ve decided to start using the posts I find in my feed as writing prompts. Nothing long. A couple hundred words. Maybe just a scene, or an image. Might even post some of the better ones. Here is the first.
tumprompt #1
The city’s fathers remembered the first days, the blue-ink’d evening at Morgan’s Field where the charter was drawn on the back leaves of Mrs. Reddy’s Bible; and the rough-hewn stones set across the loose soil, marking the main street. And there they felled a young yew and in its place erected a hand-painted sign: Jacobville. And in so naming breathed life to the infant city, placed a warm pleasing song in its people’s throats. And from its heart, it spread itself outward into the desert settlements and the dead villages, folding those souls into its own, spreading, spreading, finding ocean and mountain and stretching its hungry edge along those contours. And when there were no more lands left to conquer, it made a skin across the Earth and set its eye toward the upper air.
