Bill Cheng's Blog, page 52
December 24, 2013
scottcheshire:
Jason Porter and Electric Literature want to...
Jason Porter and Electric Literature want to know: Why Are You So Sad?
"Take a seat by the Christmas tree and tear open the wrapping of your darkest secrets. This Sadness Survey is in honor of Recommended Reading’s upcoming Christmas issue, ‘We Were Down’ by Jason Porter. The author of the saddest survey—judged by Mr. Porter—wins a free phone session with a certified life coach and a bottle of gin from the NY Distilling Company. With your permission, we’ll also feature some of our favorite answers on Electric Literature’s blog."
https://www.facebook.com/ELlitmag/app_140144849426314
December 23, 2013
wnycradiolab:
One man. One cat. Multiplied.
Mike Holmes is a...
Mike Holmes is a cartoonist who sometimes does portraits of himself and his cat, Ella, through the eyes of other cartoonists. They’re great. Click through for more.
December 22, 2013
oh, good morning:
orangepenguino:
glowcloud:
effington:
This...
oh, good morning:
This is one of the purest and goodest videos that exists on the web
human mans making music for me!! for only me, a beluga?? music just for me, me, a beluga whale????
And its companion video (in my eyes) cows enjoying jazz music.
December 21, 2013
explore-blog:
This is strangely wonderful: Cassandra Gilling...
This is strangely wonderful: Cassandra Gilling reads poetry over pop songs:
track 1 frank o’hara & drake
track 2 alice notley & justin timberlake
track 3 dana ward & katy perry
track 4 dylan thomas & miley cyrus
track 5 william carlos williams & wale/miguel
track 6 dorothea lasky & raekwon
track 7 richard brautigan & mariah carey
track 8 sylvia plath & eminem/rihanna
track 9 ted berrigan & kendrick lamar
scottcheshire:
Re Books:
Two strengthening and complimentary...
Re Books:
Two strengthening and complimentary passages, from what might appear unlike sources (but of course they are not), that I came across today while lazing on the sofa, feeling reduced by a killer cold and the weird brain-haze that comes with Sudafed:
The first comes from an essay called “Imagination and Community,” from Marilynne Robinson’s latest, When I Was a Child I Read Books (and as always the writing is so well-lit and lived in and beautiful), and the second comes from Bertrand Russell’s “1953 Speech to the Authors’ Club,” from The Collected Stories of Bertrand Russell (I had no idea Russell wrote fiction; although the title of the collection is inaccurate as it contains fiction, notes, audio transcriptions, and other ephemera. The man is/was a powerhouse.).
“So long as a writer is working to satisfy imagined expectations that are extraneous to his art as he would otherwise explore and develop it, he is deprived of the greatest reward, which is the full discovery and engagement of his own mind, his own aesthetic powers and resources. So long as a writer is working below the level of her powers, she is depriving the community of readers of a truly good book. And over time a truly good book can enrich literally millions of lives.” – Robinson
“Fiction emancipates man from the tyranny of fact and liberates the imagination. Imagination, not slavery to fact, is the source of whatever is good in human life.” – Russell
I feel better.
December 19, 2013
I’m at the Soda Bar tonight for The Buzzard’s...
I’m at the Soda Bar tonight for The Buzzard’s Banquet with Rebecca Schiff (who has that fantastic story up with Recommended Reading) and Roy Scranton (the amazing editor of the veteran’s collection Fire and Forget), Ryan Skrabalak, George del Valle, Joe Fritsch, and Matthue Roth
December 17, 2013
thetinhouse:
A Letter From Santa Claus, as written by Mark...
A Letter From Santa Claus, as written by Mark Twain
My Dear Susy Clemens,
I have received and read all the letters which you and your little
sister have written me… I can read your and your baby
sister’s jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But
I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your
mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters—I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myself—and kissed both of you, too… But… there were … one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock…
There was a word or two in your mama’s letter which… I took to
be “a trunk full of doll’s clothes.” Is that it? I will call at your
kitchen door about nine o’clock this morning to inquire. But I must
not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to the door. You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak— otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurse’s bed and put your ear to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, “Welcome, Santa Claus!” Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be… and then you must tell me every single thing in detail
which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say “Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susy Clemens,” you must say “Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much.” Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall—if it is a trunk you want—because I couldn’t get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know… If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven’t time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag—else he will die someday… If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and someone points to that mark which your good old Santa Claus’s boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart?
Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell.
Your loving Santa Claus
Whom people sometimes call
"The Man in the Moon"
!!!
