shot in the back of the head

David Lynch directs the new Moby video.

sunday short stack

"Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was." - Margaret Mitchell

• Consult this guide to books you should read before the movies come out. (Do NOT see The Road without reading the book first.)
• Nobody understands Emo Bun.
• The New York Review of Books special fiction issue features work from J.M. Coetzee and Michael Chabon, among many others.
• Look at this fucking hipster.
• New York magazine has twelve writers on their most memorable summer flings.
• Animals like drugs, too.
• Betty LaVette sings "A Change Is Gonna Come" on The Late Late Show. (via @luxlotus)
• Top 10 Literary Ménages à Trois
• The dancing inmates of Cebu prison in the Philippines present their Michael Jackson tribute (now with nuns!)
  

you can't go up against assassination

The Eclipsed Celebrity Death Club:

The championship trophy for badly timed death, though, goes to a pair of British writers. Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, died the same day as C.S. Lewis, who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia series. Unfortunately for both of their legacies, that day was November 22, 1963, just as John Kennedy's motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository. Huxley, at least, made it interesting: At his request, his wife shot him up with LSD a couple of hours before the end, and he tripped his way out of this world. Which, if you're going to go to your reward without anyone's noticing, is probably not a bad way to end it all.

the future is coming

Via The Inquisitor:

michael jackson (1958 - 2009)

I always loved this song. RIP.

what is postmodern, anyway?

In an act of hubris, I try to locate meaning for the word "postmodern" over at Jacket Copy today. The piece was originally titled "How Can Bigfoot and My IT Department Both Be Postmodern, Or What Does Postmodern Mean Exactly?"

sunday short stack

"Should we all confess our sins to one another, we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality." - Kahlil Gibran

• Beck's Record Club gets together for a day, records an iconic album, and posts the songs here. The Velvet Underground is first up.
• 20 Books of Shattered Childhoods
• Watch the trailer for Jonathan Ames's upcoming HBO series, Bored to Death.
• Watch the trailer for It Might Get Loud, Davis Guggenheim's documentary about Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White.
• 50 Best Websites for Moviemakers
• LA Weekly's Summer Fiction Sampler has new work from Michelle Huneven, Peter Gadol, and Charlie Haas.
• Mic to Mic streams the two previously unreleased Beastie Boys tracks from the Check Your Head collector's vinyl set.
• This photo essay collects abandoned places from all over the world.
• And for all the dads out there, the Top 7 Father's Day Films to Watch. Happy Father's Day!
  

an otherwise savvy lady

At The Rumpus, Elissa Bassist pays tribute to The Women of McSweeney's. My favorite links would have to be:

Essay Prompts for the 2009 Senior Advanced Placement High School Engish Exam for Women by Wendy Molyneux

and

Comments Written by Actual Students Extracted from Workshopped Manuscripts at a Major University collected by Tanya Rey

cleveland leads the nation in drifters

These "hastily made Cleveland tourism videos" are comedy gold.

Via Greg Q

sunday short stack

“Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful,' and sitting in the shade.” - Rudyard Kipling

• An Indie Rock Alphabet Book
• Dzanc Books launch a new online literary journal: The Collagist.
• Scary freaky anti-drug ads (not for children)
• Album covers of Eastern Europe '70s pop stars (via @mikhailg)
• Don't miss the latest installment of Vermin on the Mount tonight.
• You suck at Craigslist. (via @GreatDismal)
• Literary agent Nathan Bransford put together a very helpful writing advice database.
• The 100 Essential New England Books
• The Decade's 25 Most Essential Foreign Films
• An Israeli newspaper asks authors and poets to write the news. (via @EdanL)
• The Top 10 Most Absurd Time Covers of The Past 40 Years
• Two very different quizzes: From a 2001 issue of Wired, where do you fall on the autism spectrum? From a 1933 newspaper article, are you a good husband?
• 10 Best Bookshops in the World - One down, nine to go!

no tattoo = mute or mysterious?

Via Luke McKinney at Cracked, what does your tattoo location say about you?

special event status

LA Weekly on the current state of Sunset Junction:

Their message: Either work with the community or stop the festival. Until the permits are issued, the fate of this year’s fair is far from assured. Some think it may not happen at all, and blame decisions that SJNA has — or hasn’t — made. Says Sarah Dale, one business owner twice burned by the alliance: “It’s very hard to negotiate with people who at the end of the day don’t do what they say they’re going to do.”

spontaneous joy explosion

Be sure to watch 'til the end...

Via @drmabuse

the big milk

Vintage LA tour company Esotouric has launched a new blog to replace the one that got them started. The 1947 Project isn't active anymore, but it was partly responsible for two of my favorite early escapegrace posts: suicidal tendencies circa 1947 and poison is the new black.

The Esotouric blog's first post takes us back to when Raymond Chandler was but a humble creamery bookkeeper.

Photo via Guardian Books Blog

sunday short stack

"Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words."
- Roland Barthes

• Tom Waits on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour: I particularly like the Jewish curses.
• Barbara Ehrenreich tells Berkeley journalism grads at their commencement: "You have abundant skills and talents - it's just not clear that anyone wants to pay you for them."
• I want these panthers to be real.
• An indie label posts mind-melting demo disasters. (via @jonfine)
• 10 Myths About Writers
• Wired/Bruce Sterling offers eighteen challenges in contemporary literature.
• 5 Bad Songs Made Good, 5 Good Songs Made Bad
• I still miss the sticker that was on my old car when I sold it. I think I'll need to get the T-shirt version.