June 2012
74 posts
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Hello, Houston!
I visited Houston this spring and, while there, wrote this for The Tangential. I never came up with a title for it, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. I decided not to publish it on The Tangential because in the end I wasn’t sure if it had much value as a piece of writing independent of my experience, but I didn’t just want to throw it out either. Here you go, Tumblr!
Hello,...
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That awkward moment when someone in your corporation sends a corporate e-mail to everyone in the corporation unironically thanking the corporation for generously presenting the corporate training event they just made him coordinate as part of his job.
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“It is now clear that the brevity of an indecent broadcast—be it word or...”
– Chief Justice John Roberts. So health care reform will stand, and also we’ll never have to see a breast on TV even for half a second ever again.
It’s hard to know how I feel about being an American in 2012.
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MP3: Tilly & The Wall – "Love Riot"
Hell yeah! And hopefully will announce a tour as well. Tilly and the Wall are currently #5 on my obsessively monitored most-listened-never-seen-live list—behind only Lana Del Rey, Talking Heads (sigh), Tom Waits, and Peter Gabriel.
minneapolisfuckingrocks:
MP3: Tilly & The Wall – “Love Riot” Tilly & The Wall will release their new LP, Heavy Mood, in October via Team Love.
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“Welcome to iTunes Store Customer Support. My name is Rahul and I am glad to help...”
– BRB, going to see if I can find somewhere where I don’t have to be in the same room as myself for a while.
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Why Are American Kids So Spoiled? →
newyorker:
With the exception of the imperial offspring of the Ming dynasty and the dauphins of pre-Revolutionary France, contemporary American kids may represent the most indulged young people in the history of the world. It’s not just that they’ve been given unprecedented amounts of stuff—clothes, toys, cameras, skis, computers, televisions, cell phones, PlayStations, iPods. (The market for...
“By using social networks we voluntary put on public record ‘who we are’, ‘what...”
– “Technology will not advance democracy and human rights for (and instead of) you”. Zygmunt Bauman on the use and mis-use of new media. (via sociolab)
Yes, Zygmunt Bauman, I am indeed cooperating with people who want to cheaply, quickly, thoroughly, and easily stalk me.
Come at me!
Anybody want to...
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“A rock thrown through the passenger’s side window of a car was the entry...”
– I like the way this one-sentence crime report from the Southwest Journal is written to lead with the most exciting part.
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In this post, Minneapolis musician Jeremy Messersmith volunteers the fact that he makes about 0.49 cents—that is, about $0.0049—for every stream of a song.
I just figured that I play about 30 songs a day on my laptop. That’s about 900 songs a month. I pay $5.00 per month for Spotify Unlimited, which works out to 0.56 cents—that is, about $0.0056—per song.
This doesn’t really prove...
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“We’re getting married, right?”
– Preschool-age boy to preschool-age girl, overheard while passing a playground. She paused for so long that I was too far down the street to hear whatever answer she finally gave.
Unreality House: I wish that you would yell at me... →
Proud to publish Mira Gonzalez in Unreality House.
unrealityhouse:
it is 2nd grade and the P.E. teacher asks me “are you feeling alright?”
she says “why don’t you sit with me. would you like me to call your mom?”
i don’t remember if i am crying or not
then i am holding my mom’s hand as we walk across black asphalt
my shirt is a comfortable…
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“In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get the future!”
– Dan Quayle, 1988
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Dispatches from the Road, 2001: Home
Previously: Shoney’s and Kevin Costner
INTERSTATE 94, VICINITY OF EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN—”Come on, highway!” Dad is reprimanding the road surface for jostling the Camry and causing the Gordon Lightfoot CD to skip.
Unbelievably, we are on the last leg of our odyssey—fast approaching the Badger State’s western border and the promised land of 10,000 lakes. We did end up...
Overheard at Subway
Kid, pointing at diet soda tap: Mom, did you know this kind doesn't have sugar?
Mom: I know, honey, but it has chemicals that make it...
Kid: [waits patiently for mom to finish]
Mom: ...that make it taste...
Kid: [waiting]
Mom: ...it has...
Kid: [waiting]
Mom: ...look, just get your water. We've got to go!
Kid: Alright, Mom.
I don’t even feel bad about not following you on social media, because when I knew you seven years ago you let an eyelash grow out of your eyelid in a weird place.
WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?
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Dispatches from the Road, 2001: Shoney's and Kevin...
Previously: The Camry gets an oil change
INTERSTATE 39, SOUTH OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS—”Excuse me, I just need to stretch this out.” Jenny pardons herself as a Nike sneaker appears over my right shoulder. 12 hours in the Camry, and some of us are getting a little stiff.
As “the last vestiges of the sun disappear into the west” (Dad has taken to waxing poetic), we press...
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