She comes on drenched in a perfume called Self Satisfaction from feather boa to silver pumps. She does not need to be loved by you though she’ll give you credit for good taste. Just because you say you love her she’s not throwing herself at your feet in gratitude. Every other star reveals how worthless…
1) On the notions of “success” that bind us to big cities Success and failure were the terms in which young people who had just moved into the city spoke. It was not a place to live as much as it was a test or a game. I despise both. “Why don’t you leave?” I…
One attempts to be significant on a grand scale in the knockdown battle of life but settles. It is clammy today, meaning wet and gray, not having a hard, calciniferous shell. I love the expression “happy as a clam,” how it imparts buoyant emotion to a rather, when you get down to it, nonexpressive creature.…
(an excerpt) Several weeks ago, as I was reflecting on what I might say at this occasion, I encountered a friendly colleague, whom I asked for ideas and suggestions. “What is the title of your lecture?” he asked. “Identity, Authority, and Freedom,” I replied. “Interesting,” he responded. “You mean, therefore, identity is the faculty, authority…
5 examples of primal desires in movie storytelling 1. The desire to save one’s family (Die Hard) 2. The desire to protect one’s home (Home Alone) 3. The desire to find a mate (Sleepless in Seattle) 4. The desire to exact revenge (Gladiator) 5. The desire to survive (Titanic) 9 rules for finding and fixing…
Your death, near now, is of an easy sort. So slow a fading out brings no real pain. Breath growing short Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain Of energy, but thought and sight remain: Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls On that small…
1) An essay doesn’t begin with a statement, but with a question An essay is something you write to try to figure something out. Figure out what? You don’t know yet. And so you can’t begin with a thesis, because you don’t have one, and may never have one. An essay doesn’t begin with a…
Lower the standard: that’s my motto. Somebody is always pushing the food out of reach. We’re tired of falling off ladders. Who says a child can’t paint? A pro is somebody who does it for money. Lower the standards. Let’s all play poetry. Down with ideals, flags convention buttons, morals, the scrambled eggs on the…
1) The first grand discovery was time, the landscape of experience The first grand discovery was time, the landscape of experience. Only by marking off months, weeks, and years, days and hours, minutes and seconds, would mankind be liberated from the cyclical monotony of nature. The flow of shadows, sand, water, and time itself, translated…
By Douglas Rushkoff From an entry on his June 1, 2002 weblog (an excerpt) One great function of the blog is to reach more people with the same message. Since I receive a few emails each week asking me to explain the best ways to “get started” as a writer or journalist, or to find…
Something has been growing around here, something is going on. I look for signs that we are all being filmed by slow cameras. Around us beds go mad making themselves; pots boil & empty & fill again like magic; toilets convulse & flush under cold porcelain; Wall paint thins to a sigh. Our underwear greys…
