Month: January 2009

Friday various

  • “The mind is a limited machine….And we’re beginning to understand the different ways that a city can exceed those limitations.” How cities hurt your brain. Working in one of the busiest cities in the world, I wonder if I can put in for hazard pay? [via]
  • I shared this yesterday via Twitter (are you following me on Twitter? Why not?), but I think it’s worth sharing again: A Beginner’s Guide to MaximumFun.org. The Sound of Young America and Jordan, Jesse, GO! are two of my favorite podcasts, and I’m happy to support them.
  • It’s a long way off from actually being made, but I am still filled with dread at the prospect of a Hyperion movie. If Dan Simmons’ story could be adapted to film — and I think it maybe could be — I don’t think a single two-hour movie would do it justice. A miniseries, maybe.
  • In what I suppose is a case of “Do as I say, not as I do,” the Sundance Film Festival this year was kind of a heavy polluter, even with the many environmental films being showcased.
  • And finally, some abandoned amusement parks. Delightfully creepy. [via]

Three on writing

Cory Doctorow on “Writing in the Age of Distraction.

Joss Whedon‘s “Top 10 Writing Tips.”

And Maureen F. McHugh:

For a competent writer, the way they do these things is intuitive. I don’t tend to think about how much of the narrative is from the narrator and how much from the character. I’m not even aware that I’m making those decisions. Neither is the unpracticed writer. The difference is that after years of practice, I have a set of unconscious skills that tell me what is more likely to be successful. I know when it ‘feels right.’ For me, only after 10,000 hours could I actually start to think about a lot of the decisions I made to solve those problems. Before that, like learning to ride a bicycle, if I thought too much, I fell off. The prose got stiff, overly self-conscious, mannered in a bad way.

Random 10 1/30

Last week. This week:

  1. “Misery Is the River of the World” by Tom Waits
    You can drive out nature with a pitchfork
  2. “Leave Me Here” by Hem
    But love seemed sweeter and sure in the light of the day
  3. “Cold Turkey” by John Lennon, guessed by Eric B.
    Can’t see no future, can’t see no sky
  4. “Click Click Click Click” by Bishop Allen
    But when I stood next to her brother for the photograph, he was laughing
  5. “Amazing Journey” by the Who, guessed by Betty
    He’s in a quiet vibration land
  6. “The Pointless, Yet Poignant Crisis of a Co-Ed” by Dar Williams
    I’m not a left-wing rhetoric mobilizing force of one
  7. “Hollow” by Heather Nova
    I found a photograph of how we used to feel
  8. “I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, guessed by Eric B.
    I won’t be as angry ’bout the hell you put me through
  9. “Heartbreak Express” by Dolly Parton
    The only thing that’s gonna keep me warm now is my overcoat
  10. “Dear Prudence” by the Beatles, guessed by Eric B.
    So let me see you smile again

Guess the lyric, win no prize! And, as always, good luck!