Whitelaw’s Beckett’s Not I
[For the full performance, plus an intro by Whitelaw, as well as the text transcribed, see Ubu]
Don’t: A Manual of Mistakes & Improprieties more of less prevalent in Conduct and Speech, by “Censor,” real name Oliver Bell Bunce (1st ed. D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1884) is a little known book full of hilarious advice, offered in earnest, for both ladies and gentlemen of refined sensibilities. Here Oliver beseeches us regarding spitting.
Don’t expectorate. Men in good health do not need to expectorate; with them continual expectoration is simply the result of habit. Men with bronchial or lung diseases are compelled to expectorate, but no one should discharge matter of the kind in public places except into vessels provided to receive it. Spitting upon the floor anywhere is inexcusable. One should not even spit upon the sidewalk, but go to the gutter for the purpose. One must not spit into the fire-place nor upon the carpet, and hence the English rule is for him to spit in his handkerchief — but this is not a pleasant alternative. On some occasions no other may offer.
36 Comments
July 26th, 2010 / 12:00 pm
July 26th, 2010 / 12:00 pm
Some Sentences Recently Written In My Moleskine
“I saw the flag, and the sun slanting on the broad grass.” — William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
“Thank you for not walking your dog in this area.” — Sign at an RV park in Estes Park, Colorado
“Summer or winter, the shade of trees or their hard shadow, I never seem to get into my Rice Krispies until noon.” — Grace Paley, The Little Disturbances of Man
“Talk to LaRhonda: SEX” — From a notebook found on Southwest Flight 620, San Francisco to Denver
“When Haley Joel Osment thought about Dakota Fanning’s father he saw a normal-looking man sitting on the edge of a bed in the morning, standing in an office with a neutral facial expression, walking to his apartment at night, walking into his bedroom, quietly closing the door, screaming in agony, brushing his teeth, sleeping.” — Tao Lin, Richard Yates
“But then, why would I want a chick no one gives a shit about?” — Some guy walking near 16th and Dolores
“The sun was like a huge fifty-cent piece that someone had poured Kerosene on and then had lit with a match and said, ‘Here, hold this while I go get a newspaper,’ and put the coin in my hand, but never came back.” — Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America
Wheel of Fortune
The answer isn’t “Asshole,” as the letter “s” would have lighted up in the primary round of letters — yet that is what we see, what we hear. Language lives in the eye and ear before it enters the brain, except for Vanna White’s, who stares ahead with a straight botoxed face wondering why all the snickers? I don’t know what the correct answer is, keep on seeing A S S H O L E, like think about anything but elephants and what do you think? The elephant in the room is at once both erroneous and implicit, its verity beyond its actuality. The contestant (let’s call her Cphog) no doubt is thinking what we’re thinking, the expletive that doesn’t exist but might as well. Say goodbye to that 25K or SUV honey, you’re linguistically fuckd, missing vowels or not.
Composition With JavaScript
Composition With JavaScript: create your own Mondrian.
(via @Powell_DA)
Jimmy Chen—
This man needs to write a novel.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGsoMbvHU50
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SR-rCjEnV4
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exu4HOZiXFs
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Blake Butler—
Ships that pass is “A collection of fake, imagined, and literary missed connections posted to Craigslist and then re-posted here with real and actual responses to fake, imagined, and literary missed connections.” And it’s good, recently featuring Sommer Browning, Fiona Maazel, ++.
Mondo Review/Reflection/Notes On Inception
The other day, Lily wrote about how she “found Inception potentially very interesting but in the end quite disappointing.” I didn’t get a chance to see it until yesterday, but I had a different reaction: I found it uber freaking fascinating.
My thoughts after the jump…with Spoilers Aplenty, so beware if you haven’t seen it yet!
105 Comments
July 24th, 2010 / 12:11 pm
July 24th, 2010 / 12:11 pm
Deconstruct This
It’s Saturday morning. I have missed capoeira practice because of last night’s asinine behavior. I’m sitting in front of the tv watching the VH1 Top 20 Countdown. Adam Lambert is doing his Mad Hatter / Mad Max / wood nymph thing.
My friend says to me, “Is this the video that makes us suspect that music itself might have dementia?” Then he says something about the structuralist utterance out of the void. Fuck, this music really is bad. It’s not just that I’m getting old, is it?
This same house guest, I just discovered, was responsible for this bathroom poetics when it originally read “SUCK IT.”
Frigg Magazine: Summer 2010
The Summer 2010 issue of Frigg is really outstanding. There is fiction from Daphne Butler, Thomas Cooper, Jessica Hollander, Billy Middleton, and Ethel Rohan. There’s poetry from Laurel Blossom, Neil de la Flor and Maureen Seaton, Donora Hillard, Sam Rasnake, Tim Tomlinson, and Jeanan Verlee. The issue is consistently strong and beautifully designed. Check it out this weekend.
Uncategorized / 16 Comments
July 23rd, 2010 / 10:22 pm
July 23rd, 2010 / 10:22 pm