John Scalzi’s new book is out. Being a Sci-Fi movie geek, I’ve already one-clicked. I read Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and Agent to the Stars in single sittings because I couldn’t put them down. The Ghost Brigades
Category: Literature
Literature
Music Is Not a Loaf of Bread
Wired News interviews Jeff Tweedy, frontman for one of my favorite bands, Wilco. He talks about file sharing, DRM, and releasing music online. The Wilco Book, which I am thumbing through now, is also mentioned. The book is “a collaborative picture book about music” that also includes some music on an accompanying CD. The book features Henry Miller’s essay “The Angel is My Watermark”, an interesting piece that I first discovered some years ago during a phase when I read much of Miller’s work. They essay discusses creation and ego, activism and the “crumbling of civilization”, and the pleasure of pissing away time. Many of Miller’s comments bear relevance to the file sharing debate. He concludes the essay with this.
No one can be paid to give us his joy, it’s always freely given.
Given Tweedy’s interview and Wilco’s history of freely sharing their creative output, I can see why they included “The Angel is My Watermark”. Miller offers a fine creative philosophy.
What I recommend for the few remaining years that are left to us is — to piss the time away enjoyably.
I’ll drink to that.
Hat Tip: PhotoMatt
Interior Desecrations
James Lileks new book, Interior Desecrations : Hideous Homes from the Horrible ’70s, just arrived. My god is it awful. Luckily, that’s the intention. Photos of awful 70s interiors are accompanied by Lileks’ amusing commentary and critical barbs.
You just now there’s a De Lorean in the garage. And a pound of blow in the closet.
If you lived here, you’d be laid by now. If it was 1973, anyway.
The inventor of Technicolor was sitting right here when they shot him in the head.
It’s a fun piece of nostalgia, a slice of history that we should laugh at and vow never to repeat.