Great lines

I've been watching alot of Cary Grant movies on Netflix; His Girl Friday, Monkey Business and People Will Talk. So many great lines. Cary Grant reminds me of Mel Gibson and George Clooney.

I write this openly because I feel that with you one must be open.

Most...no, all of my dearest friends live in other parts of the country.  Some even countries away! While telephones chats are nice, and texting is good to keep in contact on a day-to-day basis, my favorite way of communicating with them is through letters. There's nothing that brightens my day more than the mailman delivering an envelope enclosing a personalized message just for me. The actual physical nature of letter writing is special in itself. The content of what goes into a letter is different than an email also. Letters are written knowing there's time and space differences, emails are immediate, you could get a response in minutes! The dialogue is prolonged, you have to make whatever you want to say more relevant over longer times...if that makes sense. There are other differences too... Writing a good letter takes time and care! 

I randomly found this letter to Walt Whitman from Bram Stoker--the Irish writer of Dracula:
(The rest of the letters are here ) 









Dublin, Feb. 14, 1876.
        My dear Mr. Whitman.

     I hope you will not consider this letter from an utter stranger a liberty. Indeed, I hardly feel a stranger to you, nor is this the first letter that I have written to you. My friend Edward Dowden has told me often that you like new acquaintances or I should rather say friends. And as an old friend I send you an enclosure which may interest you. Four years ago I wrote the enclosed draft of a letter which I intended to copy out and send to you—it has lain in my desk since then—when I heard that you were addressed as Mr. Whitman. It speaks for itself and needs no comment. It is as truly what I wanted to say as that light is light. The four years which have elapsed have made me love your work fourfold, and I can truly say that I have ever spoken as your friend. You know what hostile criticism your work sometimes evokes here, and I wage a perpetual war with many friends on your behalf. But I am glad to say that I have been the means of making your work known to many who were scoffers at first. The years which have passed have not been uneventful to me, and I have felt and thought and suffered much in them, and I can truly say that from you I have had much pleasure and much consolation—and I do believe that your open earnest speech has not been thrown away on me or that my life and thought fail to be marked with its impress. I write this openly because I feel that with you one must be open. We have just had tonight a hot debate on your genius at the Fortnightly Club in which I had the privilege of putting forward my views—I think with success. Do not think me cheeky for writing this. I only hope we may sometime meet and I shall be able perhaps to say what I cannot write. Dowden promised to get me a copy of your new edition and I hope that for any other work which you may have you will let me always be an early subscriber. I am sorry that you're not strong. Many of us are hoping to see you in Ireland. We had arranged to have a meeting for you. I do not know if you like getting letters. If you do I shall only be too happy to send you news of how thought goes among the men I know. With truest wishes for your health and happiness believe me

Your friend

Bram Stoker.

sensory awareness to tell what the world is made of

The present is only faced in any generation by the artist. The artist is prepared to study the present as his material because it is the area of challenge to the whole sensory life, and therefore it is anti-utopian, it's a realm of anti values And the artist who comes in contact with the present produces an avant-garde image which is terrifying to the contemporaries. Marshall McLuhan

Norman Mailer and Marshall McLuhan Debating 1968

91 N Rembert St Memphis

 

Last year I made it a point to be in Memphis on the anniversary of Jeff's death, a fan pilgrimage of sorts. This year I was driving through and by chance was there at the same time. These are some pictures I took of his house on Rembert St. No one lives there so I went around back and took a look through the windows. I wonder what the neighbors think haha!

another year

november 17 1966

anyway

the big house, macon

This summer I went to The Big House in Macon, Georgia. Pretty much heaven for any Allman Bros fan. It was absolutely lovely. We were the only people there, just a few of the workers/volunteers getting ready for Gregg's book signing the next day. I took my time looking and reading everything and I really loved all the handwritten lyrics. My favorite room was "casbah lounge" upstairs with big windows with a six head shower, cushions, hookahs, record player, etc. I could just imagine spending a rainy day in their, listening to music and never leaving. After that we went to H&H diner which was the bands favorite place and had some collard greens and okra... not many vegan options! hah but cool atmosphere! I definitely could go back to the chitlin circuit. Good vibes around there.

photography was a massive intervention into our knowledge, our consciousness

You get so used to photos, you think, I know that guy, but it's not true... You know the world of the photos, but not the world they photographed. I can't remember it. The photos create a world, but I don't know what's happening outside the frame.

Gerhard Richter, Gerhard Richter Painting

you have to be really practical about what you want to do

"I’m pro-education. I think it is a great privilege to stop for a period of your life and just walk into the halls of a place and allow yourself to be a sharer and collaborator. I mean it’s a great opportunity, but I don’t think we should fool ourselves that just because we’ve been given an education, it means we’re educated. Just because they have a degree doesn’t mean they’re pedigreed!"

"My whole thing is if you’re not in your truth, doing what you want to do, you’re going to be really fucking let down, even if you have PhD after your name, or 90210 at the end of your address, or whateves!"

Kelly Cutrone 

lessons from the queen of PR.  columbia spectator

time coats the ordinary with gold

"Was she still as pretty as I remembered? Is anyone? How memories lie to us. How time coats the ordinary with gold. How it breaks the heart to go back and attempt to relive them. How crushed we are when we discover that the gold was merely gold plating thinly coated over lead, chalk, and peeling paint."

Henry Rollins