Ooh ... shiny.

This is as good as a song gets in my book.

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:58:24 -0700

This is as good as a song gets in my book.

“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait...

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:17:00 -0700

“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” – Hugh Laurie

[via MrLaurie, SilkAndMarble]

"Who the hell wants to be a writer? Who ever says, “Well, I was thinking about professional..."

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:07:37 -0700

“Who the hell wants to be a writer? Who ever says, “Well, I was thinking about professional basketball, but frankly, I want the eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, slowly weakening liver, and social anxiety that only a career in writing can afford. Oh, and the constant rejection and low pay! Those, too!””

- Mark Straub, “How to REALLY Manage Creative People”

"The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste..."

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:55:33 -0700

“The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

- William Saroyan (not Ernest Hemingway, despite the many, many Tumblr reblogs that say otherwise)

Marriage equality logo, Black Flag editionAlso: “Henry...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:32:34 -0700

Marriage equality logo, Black Flag edition

Also: “Henry Rollins: Gay Marriage Is Punk Rock”

"In my opinion, and this is just an opinion, art exists to be shared…so share it. I don’t know what..."

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:28:08 -0700

“In my opinion, and this is just an opinion, art exists to be shared…so share it. I don’t know what you’re worried about protecting it from, but it’s absolutely certain that /nothing/ will happen to it, good or bad, if it’s not shared.”

- Hank Green (via wilwheaton)

"Picking a pope name is usually like trying to get a screen name, where you’re like, “I..."

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:14:45 -0700

“Picking a pope name is usually like trying to get a screen name, where you’re like, “I wanna be Pius,” and they’re like, “Sorry, we can give you Pius XIII, but that’s about it.””

- Chris Hardwick

"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t..."

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:51:57 -0700

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

- Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint Exupéry

"I’ve sometimes imagined that if sin had a flavor, it might very well be bacon. It even tastes..."

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:53:00 -0700

“I’ve sometimes imagined that if sin had a flavor, it might very well be bacon. It even tastes smoky, as if it emerged piping hot out of the fiery pans of hell. More than any forbidden fruit, this delectable treat—best when crispy, the little grease bubbles still dancing happily on its crenelated edges—epitomizes things we know we shouldn’t eat, but still crave and keep going back to. In short, it’s food crack.”

- George Takei, Oh Myyy! (There Goes the Internet)

"I’m a professional writer, which means I’m a commercial artist. That doesn’t mean..."

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:00:02 -0800

“I’m a professional writer, which means I’m a commercial artist. That doesn’t mean that commercial art can’t be sublime. Some of the greatest art of the 19th century was done for French advertising. The mindset that works for me—what I have in the back of my head—is that ‘commercial writer’ does not simply mean giving the people what they want or trying to predict an audience or trying to write toward a perceived customer base. And even the grossest of commercial artists have been aware of that.”

- Warren Ellis, Nerdist podcast #303

Still so good. Mick Grøndahl’s bass line. Even through...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 12:46:23 -0800

Still so good. Mick Grøndahl’s bass line. Even through headphones, I can feel it in my chest.

"Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person..."

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:00:05 -0800

“Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.”

- Pudd’nhead Wilson, Mark Twain

"Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others..."

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:10:26 -0800

““Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.””

- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

"See, I’m a dreamer, man. And when I was a cook I’d always work with people who..."

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 01:11:55 -0800

“See, I’m a dreamer, man. And when I was a cook I’d always work with people who weren’t dreamers. Like, I was cooking at this restaurant and I put a hot dog on the grill and my kitchen manager came over, and he said, ‘Mitch, put the hot dog up here, in the right hand corner of the grill, so in case you get a whole bunch of orders at once you have all this space available.’ See, that’s how I knew he wasn’t a dreamer, ‘cause the day I give up my dreams is the day I have strategic grill locations. A dreamer has a philosophy: the entire grill is hot.”

- Mitch Hedberg

"When you’re a writer, you spend a lot of time not living, because you’re putting all..."

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:51:15 -0800

“

When you’re a writer, you spend a lot of time not living, because you’re putting all your life and your thought and your effort into your writing. So, after a while, you have this very tortured relationship to the act of writing.

What comes to mind is getting on one of those roller coasters, and it’s like ‘chug chug chug’—you’re going up the thing, and you know you’re about to go down some ‘woosh.’ It’s this sense of anticipatory—like this is going to suck all my energy out of me.

A lot of times, procrastination, for me, isn’t because I’m lazy or I don’t want to write. It’s because I’m trying to store up the mental energy that I know it’s going to take to start, middle, and finish something.

”

- Mike White, WTF

There is music, and then there is music. When I listen to Ida, I...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:06:30 -0800

There is music, and then there is music. When I listen to Ida, I feel like everything around me changes a little.

"I don’t think that people should strive to be perfect musicians. My favorite drummers are..."

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:53:42 -0800

“I don’t think that people should strive to be perfect musicians. My favorite drummers are fucking insane—Keith Moon and Bonham and Copeland. Listen to live recordings of those people. They’re this close to train wrecking the entire fucking time, but that’s what’s so exciting about it. That’s why you get the chills when you hear it.”

- Dave Grohl on Nerdist

I think this is a place where I could sit for a very long time.

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:52:46 -0800

I think this is a place where I could sit for a very long time.

monocoleporter: joeymcallister: I never grow tired of Hoagy...

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:01:45 -0800

monocoleporter:

joeymcallister:

I never grow tired of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Rockin’ Chair”—any version will do. This one actually features Hoagy, which is neat, and Jack Teagarden, who would go on to perform it lots and lots with Louis Armstrong (including at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, which was captured as the concert film Jazz on a Summer’s Day). The bit in the middle where they give each other a hard time is a nice touch.

Just before they start “Rockin’ Chair,” Hoagy smiles and sort of bobs his head. It doesn’t really fit with the tone of what comes before (the sarcastic but straight-faced back and forth with Jack) or after (“Rockin’ Chair” itself). I wonder if he just really liked Jack’s trombone part, or if perhaps he was excited about having nailed the dramatic bit of the presentation.

(“Washboard Blues,” which opens this video, is good, too, with an interesting vocal line that echoes the tiresome chore of washing on a washboard.)

The part where he smiles, he was totally fangirling I think. Much more adorable alternative to throwing a chair/whatever else he used to do when he heard music he liked… :)

monocoleporter’s repost of my post from a year ago sent me on a Hoagy Carmichael listening spree tonight. Sometimes the Internet helps you remind yourself of things you’d like to be doing.

neil-gaiman: Fail better…

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 21:29:31 -0800

neil-gaiman:

Fail better…