Damn. Dalkey’s running a summer sale again: 5 paperbacks for $35, 10 for $65, 20 for $120.

(via JoshMaday)

Vanity Fair edits and researches Sarah Palin’s resignation speech.

see noah cicero read poems here.

Dictionary illustrations from the 19th century in the Pictorial Webster’s.

Hey, melt your brain! Why not?

Musician Jay-Z’s DECODED, in which he will “decode all the lyrics from my records; I’m going to pick the select ones and reveal the double entendres that people may have missed or may have got and want confirmation on it,” to Chris Jackson at Spiegel & Grau, by Matthew Guma at Guma Agency.

(h/t to Kate Ankofski, who had this posted as her gchat status message)

Even though I think most ‘canon’ talk is just another popularity contest — I would not include a book in any ‘canon’ unless it has huge cultural impact, and longevity of 500 years or so, and, um, that leaves what?  foundational Judeo-Christian texts?  other similar religious monomyths?  what else?  Seriously.  — the book-centered site The Second Pass has listed books they would nominate to nix from the Western Canon — wait, just the definition of the word ‘canon’ alone makes me gag a little: since when are writers supposed to respect any sort of institution/law/principle, and can we really say definitively that another artist’s work is ‘authentic’ outside the catharsis the artist achieved in his/her bedroom/prison cell/cabin while they’re creating?  I guess the calling-into-question of what makes something ‘authentic’ is another discussion.  Maybe it’s only ‘quality’ being talked about, and then doesn’t that just revert back to the culture-boom/500yr thing anyway?  Ddddoinkyff.

My dear friend Brad, one of the best-read and brightest autodidacts I know, reads Burroughs’ Queer and wonders if maybe he would have developed an appreciation for it earlier if he had been introduced to it in a classroom. Bonus: Four Tet managed a Madvillian remix that is as good as the original. I know. Hard to believe. Forgive me Madlib.

The 8th issue of Sleepingfish, coedited by Derek White and guest Gary Lutz, is now open for electronic submissions.

Cool idea here: Flatmancrooked’s LAUNCH program. Interested to see how this goes down. Emma Straub is nice.

I like when rappers rhyme one phrase with the same phrase. Like Jeezy says, “I commentate the game like John Madden / Cause I played in the game like John Madden.” For sure. What’s your favorite forced rhyme?