Austin Kleon – Page 579

200,000 RIDES A DAY

Thursday, May 11, 2006

These are caricatures I did last night during a poetry reading. Poetry folks are a different clan. More about that later…

Meg always saves me the Science Times section. I’m obsessed with it. It’s the only part of the newspaper I read regularly.

Today I read about a tribe in Columbia that walked out of the jungle after thousands of years, and declared it wanted to be part of civilization. They asked “whether the planes that fly overhead are moving on some sort of invisible road.” A thousand miles away, a boy is slowly turning into bone. Other people with his disease twist into living statues. He has a mother who protects him, but not all creatures are so lucky.

To my imagination, this stuff is golden. Magic. What is it about reading science that has this effect on me? That makes life seem so spectacular and mysterious?

All other news pales in comparison: the remix page for MLITBOG is finally up, there’s a nice long post about the novel Kurt Vonnegut didn’t write, and George Saunders recalls leaving Ayn Rand for Sam Beckett.

SOMEBODY REASONABLY BRIGHT BUT ALSO REASONABLY AVERAGE

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

I don’t know a whole lot about non-fiction journalism, but the way i think about [it] in terms of what I can do is: I think of it as a service industry. Essays like this are occasions to watch somebody reasonably bright but also reasonably average pay far closer attention and think at far more length about all sorts of different stuff than most of us have a chance to in our daily lifes…—David Foster Wallace

If you haven’t read David Foster Wallace’s CONSIDER THE LOBSTER, you might want to take a look. Meg and I read it a few months ago and liked it a lot. (I’ve yet to read his fiction, myself.) I took this quote from his great interview with Michael Silverblatt (I know MS’s voice is hard to take, but he’s a smart reader and he talks to some great folks.)

* * *

The interviewer asked, “How does your wife take the way she’s depicted in your comics?” and James Kochalka replied, “She used to hate that I would draw about her at all, especially if I drew something that was dirty. But, she’s getting more used to it.”

I haven’t written a story about Meg yet, (I’ve drawn her a bunch) but it’s bound to come up.

Legend has it that Etgar Keret’s girlfriend was always bugging him to write a story about her, so he wrote the excellent story “Fatso.”

That’s what you get for asking, I guess.

BIRDSEED…

Tuesday, May 9, 2006

…this is a hard world to be ludicrous in, with so many human beings so reluctant to laugh, so incapable of thought, so eager to believe and snarl and hate.

– Kurt Vonnegut, MOTHER NIGHT

Not sure where this is going. All I can tell you is that these two characters will meet…

You can read the two Kelly Link stories that won Nebula awards online: “Magic For Beginners” and “The Faery Handbag.”
Touring is how we make money. There’s a big scam in the record industry and you don’t make any money from royalties. Just keep coming to shows. Will do!
Is DEVO more relevant than ever? In Devo’s heyday, Mothersbaugh and Casale wrote many of their songs only after they had come up with a concept for the video.
Clive Thompson on beating video game bosses.
Don’t believe them! Don’t believe them! You gotta su-su-su-su-su-su-pect device!! Ted Leo covering Stiff Little Fingers’ “Suspect Device”: [MP3]

If you happen to be downtown tomorrow afternoon, stop by the RTA offices on 6th Street from 5-7 to see the poetry bus.

(DELIBERATE) PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Monday, May 8, 2006

Another 900-page academic book proves what most artists already know to be true: that “talent is highly overrated,” “practice makes perfect,” and “when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love.” The key, what some of us might not be so aware of, is “deliberate practice”: “setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.”
Later this month, Michael Silverblatt is going to interview Stuart Dybek. Listen to a previous interview on Bookworm.
Barry Yourgrau will be the guest blogger on Powell’s this week. Read a previous essay on writing his latest book.
Emmy The Great’s new single was produced by my old friend Jeremy. You can listen to it at MySpace.

HOW COULD I SAY NO?

Friday, May 5, 2006

We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.

– Thomas Edison

New interviews with George Saunders and Etgar Keret.
Read Edward Gorey’s meditation on the literary life, THE UNSTRUNG HARP, online.
I mean, here I am sitting in Cleveland, Ohio. What do I know about the New York literary scene?
Speaking of Cleveland, Mac’s Backs finally has an operational website, and Books Cleveland is a website for all the independent bookstores in the area.
The first vignette of Daniel Handler’s (aka Lemony Snicket) ADVERBS, and the review, which calls the book a “concept album.” (I had no clue he played accordian on 69 LOVE SONGS.) As far as concept albums go, my ambition is to write the literary equivalent of Wire’s PINK FLAG.
1-2 punch: Destroyer’s “European Oils” [MP3] and “Painter in Your Pocket” [MP3] Stream all of RUBIES. And, oh heck, just go here and fill up your Ipod with Destroyer.