song:
Download 09_waleshalloween_rerip.mp3
"Halloween" by Unknown Welsh band from Dracula's Dulcimer
meme (boo):
-Dylan reads the Raven...
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October 2008
SotD 10-30
songs:
"Nowhere Near" by Yo La Tengo from a live performance in paris. anybody got a date on this? Dom?
-or-
Download 02_like_dylan_in_the_movires.mp3
"Like Dylan In the Movies" by Belle & Sebastian from the BBC Sessions
meme (infinite rest):
Even though you don't want it to be true, with twelve speakers at a famous person's memorial service there can be an underlying sense of competition: who will best capture how he really was, or best convey the sense of loss, or illuminate some unseen aspect of his work. At yesterday's celebration of David Foster Wallace at NYU, most of the speakers rose above that, simply groping for ways to do him justice. The non-writers in particular showed great dignity as they shared the stage with literary stars.
Amid incalculable esteem and love and funny memories, apparently no topic was off-limits: his suicide, his depression, his suicide attempt as a teen, the misery of the final months, the speaker's anger at him, the speaker's own depression, the speaker's own bouts with suicide. Dave would have wanted it honest, they said. They unanimously praised his parents, his sister Amy, and his wife Karen, all in attendance.
Photography prohibited.
4:09 Michael Pietsch, his editor, said the speakers would appear more or less chronologically, in the order they knew Dave.
4:11 Mark Costello,
novelist, roommate at Amherst and after. Whole class had "sick
hyper-awareness of everyone and everything... swimming in 100% pure,
unadulterated insecurity" and they all knew Dave was "smart," a word
that "obviously impoverishes him." Dave corrected the logic prof's
logic solution. Every night Dave did his "drag queen act" which meant
green hoodie, open robe, and Timberlands as he went to brush his teeth
each night at 11:45 for 45 minutes. Rituals, germs already key. "A mind
in splendid overdrive." Self-awareness to mask problems, if he can joke
about it then it's under control. The hoodie & boots guy was to
Dave what the Little Tramp was to Chaplin. "Very dark times after the
publication of Infinite Jest
Unsuppressed math: He spoke for 21 minutes! If everyone does, that's 4 hours 12 minutes.
4:32 Amy Wallace Havens, sister. Very moving family stories, and grief. Dave taught her how not to throw like a girl and she still has a decent arm, though she suspects, "I throw like a boy who would rather be reading Kafka."
4:40 Bonnie Nadell, agent. Dave had never published a story outside of college, she had never sold a book. Agent as buffer and protector. Argued that his first novel needed a complete final sentence and period; lost argument, of course.
4:46 Gerry Howard, editor of first two books only. Dave miserable at Yaddo with "Jay McInerny, Mona Simpson, David Leavitt" where it was all "Andrew this and Binky that" and hated coming to NYC for a glossy magazine photo shoot with "Tama Janowitz and Christopher Coe. Coe was this flamboyant gay novelist who was camping it up." He's reading Our Mutual Friend "by Charles Dickens" and thinks Dickens was heavily influenced by Dave.
4:53 Colin Harrison, editor at Harper's Magazine. Dry, extra funny re-enactments, with perfect accents ("traish!"), of Dave's piece on the Illinois State Fair and his epic cruise ship essay, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
5:04 Michael Pietsch, editor of IJ and everything after. Read droll, perfectly chosen excerpts from Dave's letters protesting cuts to IJ with "bared canines" and "teeth bared to second molars." Thought Dave wanted to use every known word at least once in his books before he was done. Like all the speakers, praised Dave's extreme kindness; everyone wanted to meet DFW when he came to the office, and he agreed but deflected attention, asked about the assistants, people's children. At Michael's house he played tag with his daughter until "that grew dull and they invented broom tag."
5:14 Don DeLillo. More a short piece of writing than spoken remarks. Ended: "Youth and loss. This is Dave's voice. American."
5:18 Zadie Smith. Beautifully done. Her favorite is Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
5:25 Donald Antrim. Dave called out of the blue to ask if he could give him advice when he heard from a mutual friend of Antrim's difficulty. They had never spoken intimately before. Antrim read powerfully from "Another Paradox" about politicians and salesmen. "Not someone to believe but someone to believe in."
5:37 George Saunders. Reading BIWHM he found himself "agitated, flinchy, on the verge of tears," by this completely new kind of experience in writing, especially Dave's "terrified tenderness" conveying "what a fix we're in on this Earth." Dave's work is, "if it's not too corny to say so, sacramental." Saunders, thinking about these remarks, heard his "internalized Dave" saying "Don't look for consolation yet." It's too soon. "Now there's only grief... Grief is the bill that comes due for love." Dave is first among us, the best, the most talented. His legacy: "Mostly we're asleep but we can wake up."
5:43 Jonathan Franzen. Dave used "details as a way of letting out the bottled love in his heart." Franzen, like Saunders and others, admitted to nervousness at being found inadequate in Dave's presence. Twice Dave stood him up. Their early meetings were "stressful, rushed, less intimate" than their letters. They agreed "fiction is a way out of loneliness." Life got better when Dave met Karen. Life got worse when he went off his meds of twenty years. In August, asked Franzen to tell him a story about how all of this would end fine. In September, stopped listening.
5:54 Deborah Treisman, the fiction editor at The New Yorker, read from "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley," a poetic choice in part because at first it seemed an odd selection. Then not.
SotD 10-28
songs (grabag day):
Download 02_My_Cigarette_and_I.mp3
Download Low_-_02_-_Murderer.mp3
Download 02_happy_singing_band.mp3
meme (pet costume taxonomy):
via Cute Overload
1. The Famous Human Costume
The Good: You always have to explain it. "He has a mini mohawk! He's Mr. T., SEE!?"
The Bad: Your pet still hates you if you don't step it up to make it recognizable
Exhibit A: Mr. T:
And a well-crafted Martha:
2. The Cutesy Hurl-a-Thon
The Good: You'll get a lot of "Awn, he looks adorable!" from other insane people
The Bad: Anne Geddes will come after you with enormous hedge clippers
Behold Bunny in a Lettuce Cup:
3. The Non Sequitur Costume
The Good: Often very well-crafted. Drugs and/or heavy wine use is almost always associated with each costume idea.
The Bad: Lots of WTF?...OK! reactions.
The "BoomBox":
The "Mix Tape":
The "Buttered Pupcorn":
The "Rice Krispy Treat":
The "Ham":
The "Metro Line"!?!?!?!
4. The "I Had it Lying Around" Costume
The Good: You finally clean up the house
The Bad: Your cat continues to hate you
There's the Boxed Wine Kitteh Leaf Thing:
And Aluminum Foil/Rubber Band Turtle 'Jaws';
5. The "My-pet-is-going-to-kill me-but-I'm-doing-it-anyway" Costume
The Good: Target Dog Costume Sales reach all-time high thanks to you
The Bad: Your pet kills you.
Nah, don't take the tag off. What's the point?
5. Build on Your Strengths Costume
The Good: A costume that takes advantage of and accentuates a particular pet attribute
The Bad: Your pet's "attribute" is on display (the fact he looks like a pimp cannot be helpful)
Behold the Golden Retriever Lion:
The Built-in Ewok Face:
The Fish in a Bowl that Happens to look like a Jack-o-Lantern:
The Cow-Spotted terrier:
The Suave Hedge:
The Built-in Wetsuit:
And the Dog that Happens to Look like a Pimp:
6. The Epic Transformation Costume
The Good: The pinnacle of a great costume—creative! imaginative! inspiring! Transforming!
The Bad: Everyone else instantly feels like crap when they see your genius
Behold...Elvis:
The Jumbo Dachshund Dog:
The Wizard of Oz:
The Croc Versus Pup: (more photos here)
The Fast Food Gang [Making gang doughnut symbol with hand]:
The Thanksgiving Turkey Decision: (That thought bubble is actually part of the costume):
And, our current favorite, the Headless Horseman:
7. The Just Plain Wrong Costume
Don't worry if costume types 1 through 6 don't encourage you. There is always type 7; just plain wrong. When in doubt, you can always create fake cleavage for your Boxer.
SotD 10-25-26
song:
"Mao Mao" by Claude Channes
Download claudes_channes_mao_mao.mp3
meme (despot birdhouse):
via Big Fun >
A birdhouse based on Mussolini’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in King’s Wood, Kent in England
Super Kingdom is an art installation with a difference: each of the pieces on show in King’s Wood, near Ashford in Kent, is a fully-functioning animal house. They just happen to be based on a selection of infamous dictators’ palaces…
Artists Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson (of London Fieldworks) are behind the series of structures. They plan to make a film of the various native and non-native creatures who take up residence in the houses, as a comment on the displacement of animal (and human) communities in the face of urban development.
Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, Romania (the third largest building in the world, no less, and now home to the Romanian government) inspired this one:
While this intricate structure is based on Benito Mussolini’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (or Colosseo Quadrato) finished in 1943:
SotD 10-22
song:
"You Were Sleeping" by Jay Reatard from Matador Singles 08
meme (Mabusing):
"You Were Sleeping" by Jay Reatard from Matador Singles 08
Download 12_you_were_sleeping.mp3
meme (Mabusing):
