Cautionary tales for kids that are too creative

Want to teach your children not to make the terrible* life choices I have made (i.e. making career choices that involve magazine publishing and freelancing)?

For your ambitious, cultured daughters: All the Young Girls by Mary H.K. Choi
(/via @chantalbraganza)

"Being a new girl here is a lot to process. Your dopamine receptors are haywire from so much of what feels like the right kind of attention and you preen out of paranoia. Sometimes you tap-dance about books, music, movies, food and politics for complete strangers. For hours. You mind-meld with people you hope to never see again because they scare you a little. You get sick from the options and the sleep deprivation and the vodka."

And for your talented, confident--even cocksure--sons: Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup by Richard Morgan
(/via Michelle)

"Just this past Friday, I got an email at 3:38 a.m. from a Pulitzer-winning friend who wanted my help with a New Yorker assignment; I called their cell at 3:39. I never wanted to be one of those broken, bitter people. Why would anyone want to lose friends and alienate people? I was particularly struck-and maybe scared-by a story a friend told me after he snagged a great job at Condé Nast. He talked about how he shared his apartment with a married couple and their cat, and that the couple was on vacation and there he was, in his bathroom, trying to take a dump, and this cat was lonely and pawing at the gap under the door, and all he could think is that he had this glamorous job at this stylish magazine and he couldn't even manage a life where he could take a dump in peace."

*Actually, fantastic but limiting in terms of financing food and shelter

Favourite things: Oprah's audience

I can't believe this is the last one ever...





If you enjoyed this, you might like these:
* Faces Of The Last Season of Oprah
* Holy Maury Mother of God

Distractions

Disclaimer: There is no thematic connection here. This is just me Internet vomiting a whole bunch of links.





Aretha Franklin - Ain't No Way

Hibernation Sickness/NARWHAL

Things I love from people I love

Small Stunted Ways
"A collaboration between a new indie publisher and brilliant poet."

My dear, dear friends Kathleen Fraser, Tracy Hurren and Cynara Geissler (of the formidable publishing houses, Caitlin Press, Drawn and Quarterly and Anvil Press, respectively) are the forces behind this illustrated book of poetry due out in Spring 2011. Small Stunted Ways will be published under Hur Publishing and they need your help to get it made. Fundraising for the book is happening online. Guarantee yourself one of the first copies of the book with a $30 donation. If you want one of their children thrown in with a copy of the book, it costs only $5000 on IndieGoGo. Pretty good deal, no? These kids have good genes.

For a very good taste of Geissler's poetry, click over to hurpublishing.com

Shacs with a Pack
My best friend, Lauren Schachter, is travelling the world. I miss her all the time and wish she was in Montreal with me. Thankfully, she is regularly writing about her adventures on her blog. Lauren is usually shy about showing her writing, obsessively editing until you forget what you asked to read in the first place (though I'm positive that what is being produced is brilliant -- some of her work has appeared in Sad Mag). Her blog posts, though sometimes intimidatingly lengthy, are absolute treasures.

I'm thinking there's major blog-to-book potential here. Check it out and tell your friends if you like it.

Decoded

I am loving all the activity around Jay-Z's new book, Decoded. First of all, the book: the cover is awesome. Secondly, the timing is great since it's a worthy distraction from the Yale University Press Anthology of Rap debacle. Since the editors at YUP managed to bungle up their book so badly, we could have lost an opportunity to talk--however briefly--about the literary value of rap, but thankfully Jay-Z released his book at the same time.

In promotions for the book, he's already appeared in conversation with Cornel West and directors of NYPL programs, Paul Holdengräber at the New York Public Library.

Then, last week, he was on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Tracy and I were talking about how Terry is such a dork before I heard this interview; I love listening to her talk to pop stars and trying to have a serious conversation about *NSYNC. She may have an irritating voice, but she brings out the most polite and charming qualities in guests I never cared for before. The wide sociological gulfs between her and her guests can also be a recipe for hilarity, as demonstrated by the incredible mess that was her interview with Tracy Morgan last year.

All of this was evident in the interview with Jay-Z. Terry was like your mom (you're soooooo embarrassing!):

GROSS: I have to say some of those baggy jeans are so loose around the waist like they fall down to the middle of your behind and I think if you had a weapon in there they'd definitely drop to the floor because the weapon would like drag them right down.

and

GROSS: ...You know how a lot of hip-hop artists, when they're on stage they kind of like grab their crotch?

HOVA just takes it all in stride, dutifully answering the questions without a hint of impatience. It's all very endearing. And the later, I found out that he's also an investor in the Spotted Pig. Big pimpin' indeed (sorry, Terry's rubbing off on me).

Magical Dinners

Illustration by Adrian Tomine for "Magical Dinners" by Chang-Rae Lee in the New Yorker Food Issue (November 22, 2010).

Read: "Magical Dinners" by Chang-Rae Lee in the New Yorker Food Issue (November 22, 2010)

Lee's writing in this piece is divine. Frank and vivid:

"[My mother] cooks an egg for me each morning without fail...there is always a fried egg, sunny-side up, cooked in dark sesame oil that pools on the surface of the bubbled-up white in the pattern of an archipelago; try one sometime, laced with soy and sweet chili sauce along with steamed rice, the whole plate flecked with toasted nori. It'll corrupt you for all time. But one morning I'm finally sick of it, I've had enough....I steal into her bedroom with my plate while she's talking on the telephone with Mrs. Suh...and drop it onto her best shoes, black patent-leather pumps. And here's the rub: there is no sound a fried egg makes. It lands with exquisite silence. This is the dish I've been longing to prepare."

Quoted: Zing! Liberal arts students

"The verbal fluency [liberal arts] students attain will [not] necessarily led them to lead more selfless lives”; the most we can say is that 'holders of bachelor’s degrees tend to be . . . more adept at crafting paragraphs to justify what they want to do'"

- pulled from an op-ed about books about why the American university system is broken, too. I thought it was funny.

shocking, amazing, etc.

A tumblr that compiles the most stunning Google Street view scenes ever: 9eyes

I don't understand technology

food...warm feelings...

Um, yes, hi. I'm looking to make all these recipes. Do you want to join me?

Prediction re: online stuff

David Cho is going to take over your Internet. Carr beat me by a few days on this premonition but I'm taking credit because I just found his article.