January 2012
1 post
“Transcendent moments and mundane moments are both made of seconds and oxygen and...”
– Megan Boyle
June 2011
4 posts
“When people romanticize the ‘90s, it’s not because it was particularly “better”...”
– I wonder Jonathan Franzen would think about this Thought Catalog article, titled Communicating in the ’90s, by Stephanie Georgopulos. More specifically, this quote.
In other Jonathan Franzen news, I finished The Corrections a few days ago. I miss all of the characters dearly.
“Oh, misanthropy and sourness. Gary wanted to enjoy being a man of wealth and...”
– Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
No, I am not only reading things by Jonathan Franzen and/or turning this website into a Jonathan Franzen quote blog. This is just a coincidence.
“But if you consider this in human terms, and you imagine a person defined by a...”
– This quote is from Jonathan Franzen’s May 28th NYT Op-Ed piece Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts. I half imagined (slash hoped) that the next sentence would read “The person I have in mind is Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert.”
“A long time ago I was in the ancient city of Prague and at the same time Joseph...”
– John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
November 2010
2 posts
A Semi-Annual Conversation
My mom: What is a hipster? Is a hipster kind of like a modern hippie? Me: It’s kind of like a hippie who wears clothes that look like they came out of the garbage except that it means something different to everyone and also I probably am one. Because I wear flannel shirts.
I came across this today weeks ago, and was about to send her an email with a helpful “Maybe this literature will clarify...
The more things change, the more they stay the...
Dear Me as a high school senior,
Here is a quote from an article from today’s (11/4/2010) StarTribune:
“Ward 5 City Council Member Don Samuels supports the proposal to close the school on the city’s North Side.
‘When all the cards are on the table, the logic of the superintendent’s decisions might likely prevail,’ he said recently.
Three years ago,...
September 2010
2 posts
“INTERVIEWER
For ten years you waited until you were ready to write about the...”
– Elie Wiesel, The Art of Fiction No. 79
“Develop a point of view. Think about what experiences you have that many others...”
– Frank Chimero
August 2010
1 post
Do you remember when this book was a fucking big... →
July 2010
1 post
Bare Handed
One year ago I was living in Brooklyn, sleeping from 5 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon on most days. I went weeks at a time without going to the laundromat and baked brownies (the regular kind) almost every other night. I spent more time alone that summer than I ever had before or have since. More recently I:
. Spent 4 months living in Prague . Drove from New England to Minnesota...
June 2010
1 post
“And except on a certain kind of winter evening—six-thirty in the Seventies, say,...”
– Joan Didion, Goodbye to All That
May 2010
5 posts
Tell Me Something I Need To Hear
Please pardon the silence.
For starters you are more expected here than the soccer world cup. I shall write to you much more elaborately tomorrow. I am using a borrowed internet line that is very slow.
How are you doing in E Europe. I knew you were explosive, but so much ash? now that is serious.
I firmly believe that “Having been fucked is no excuse for being fucked up.” Most of the time.
“The Holocaust refuses to go the way of most history, not only because of the...”
– Nora Levin
“If I could show you, you would never leave...
April 2010
4 posts
"We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live"
Via California Psychics: “Mercury rules the mind, thought and all forms of communication; as the wing-footed messenger of the gods that also rules transport, transmission and travel. As a small planet that whips around the sun in a tight orbit, Mercury symbolizes the speed of thought and the mind’s gifts: analysis, reason, logic, knowledge, learning, education and even intelligence...
Justin Townes Earle covers Can’t Hardly Wait...
March 2010
1 post
“Why’d we all do it? It’ll take a long time to figure that out. The one thing...”
February 2010
2 posts
To Revisit
If I were in New York next week, this would be my Wednesday night plan.
January 2010
2 posts
Things I Ate in Prague →
In lieu of a detailed account of my day to day life while studying in Prague, I have created a food blog to keep track of my various Czech gustatory experiences. Click above.
In Summation
2009 was my year of lessons.
December 2009
6 posts
“All, all, becomes profitable. Education is of the most satisfying and available...”
– Sylvia Plath
“When the earth rights itself again,
And taste tries to return to the tongue,...”
– Maya Angelou, Men
“LOCKHART: Ah, you’d have loved heaven, Sharky. It’s unbelievable. Everyone feels...”
– Conor McPherson, The Seafarer
November 2009
12 posts
By Inches
by Maya Stein
You want it here and now, a remedy for everything
gone wrong. A magic wand, perhaps, alighted
on your shoulders. An angel whispering
sweet nothings while you sleep so you wake benighted
with certainty that you are whole once again. You realize
your patience is diminishing, and yet what’s required is the reverse.
This will not be some biblical miracle before your eyes,...
Friday the 13th
So, I messed up NaBloPoMo. Surprise, surprise. Questions I have been pondering as of late:
What kind of an engine does a Dunbar armored car have?
How soon is too soon for someone to leave their toothbrush at your house?
Why isn’t Top Gear on BBC America more often?
“Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
Where everything shines as it...”
– Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII
Day 9
We can go to The Cheesecake Factory together but we can’t go back to May.
Bare Necessities
The silence, while necessary, is heartbreaking.
The silence, while heartbreaking, is necessary.
In Another Life
Hey, remember when I hung out with Emily Gould?
6 Things for NaBloPoMo Day 6
1. I made my bed this morning.
2. I very much want to go to Vietnam.
3. I think Jimmy Clausen will go pro after this season.
4. I buy Oprah magazine but rarely make time to read it.
5. Within the next 6 months, I intend to visit Russia.
6. I am starving - time for a bagel.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Time has caught up with me and I no longer make my bed before leaving the house in the morning.
Severance Fees
I paid your parking tickets.
“Just last night I woke from some unconscionable dream
And had it nailed to my...”
– The Shins, Fighting in a Sack
“November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.”
– Emily Dickinson
October 2009
10 posts
Dear Old Love →
None of my notes were published, but you might as well buy it anyway.
Ballad of Paul and Sheila by Mason Jennings....
“Whoever saves a single soul, it is as if he had saved the whole world.”
– Talmud
Amazing Adventures
This can’t be about me, can it? Because my bedroom floor is not a mess, and it is on my bedside table and I am going to read it. Soon.
“We’re going to live like we’re telling the best story in the world.”
– Penelope Stamp, The Brothers Bloom