I still have all the afternoons in the world
…eventually I began to walk, at first tentatively, like an invalid just liberated from the sedentary months of his sickbed, taking one precious step and then another…I spent most of that torpid, shimmering day walking, frequently stopping at corner saloons to sip pensively on draft beer. Very late in the afternoon, for no reason I can think of, I took a ferry to New Jersey, went to a saloon, drank a half-dozen beers, and headed back. It was coming back that I saw the city for the first time. Standing in the tug-like prow while the cool spray off the Hudson mingled with the sunshine, I looked up through the mist of heat and water and saw, to my astonishment, not many towers but one august pillar of gold. Its golden shadow on the water was like an arm stretched forth in benediction, promising that it would deny me nothing…The city commanded me to stay, and in obeisance I did in my mind’s eye reach out & offer my hand. It was at that moment I granted the city magnanimity.
Frederick Exley, A Fan’s Notes; c. 1968
If this at all compels you, read Exley’s book as well as this feature.
He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
Every once in awhile, I return to the Random Wodehouse Generator for a brief but intense bout of highly literate fun.
It T-Shirt Tuesday, Yo.
100% true.
Have you seen Beck’s cover of David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision”?
Not heard, but seen - because phenomenal though the music is (and I really do think it’s phenomenal), the live performance is electric. If, like me, you are a cretin who has yet to watch the 157-PIECE ORCHESTRA DIRECTED BY BECK’S FATHER perform Bowie’s 1977 single, please take my advice and watch this video. Delight in Beck’s unexpected musical arrangements. Regardez Chris Milk’s generous swirling cameras. Feeling snappy? Clap your hands. And when you hit the 6:49-minute mark, sheer ecstasy will kick in.
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“Pyrite from Ampliación a Victoria Mine, Navajún, La Rioja, Spain” [2009] by JJ Harrison
One of my favorite geode varieties.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/0b88ef560300c2329b9d7468b3e078c8/tumblr_mkwaml6qQC1qz59yco1_500.jpg)
“Pyrite from Ampliación a Victoria Mine, Navajún, La Rioja, Spain” [2009] by JJ Harrison
One of my favorite geode varieties.
Daniel Kukla, “Porcupine Wash”; Joshua Tree National Park, 2012
From the excellent “Looking at the Land: 21st Century American Views” series.
A video game about space has haunted me since 2011. I was a first-time judge for the Independent Games Festival, deliriously scanning a then-record five hundred sixty-seven entries, when this page (and this teaser video) stopped me surgically cold. “You,” promised Faraway, “are a shooting star that refuses its fate of disappearing in the ether, to instead go travel space and draw constellations through its journey.” If this were the military’s pitch, I would be enlisted.
Rob Dubbin, “Faraway: The Makings of a Universe”; The New Yorker, May 2013
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This surreal, Planet of the Apes-like image, taken in 1982, shows sand dunes seemingly at the foot of the World Trade Center towers, when Manhattan’s Battery Park was still a beach.
Photo by Robin Holland, via BLDGBLG.
![cook-it-raw:
David Chang’s dish from Cook it Raw Collio 2010: 40 north, 120 west[Image from Cook it Raw © Per-Anders Jorgensen courtesy of Phaidon Press]
Hang out with David Chang & friends.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/07765b0adb669fad7d2e1cfa81a4d4b8/tumblr_mlvdlnRzHe1snq4ygo1_500.jpg)
David Chang’s dish from Cook it Raw Collio 2010: 40 north, 120 west
[Image from Cook it Raw © Per-Anders Jorgensen courtesy of Phaidon Press]
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