Tuesday, July 28, 2009

"I think one of the true ways I've gotten smarter is that I've realized that there are ways other people are a lot smarter than me. My biggest asset as a writer is that I'm pretty much like everybody else. The parts of me that used to think I was different or smarter or whatever almost made me die." -DFW

The original title was A Failed Entertainment, and the book is structured as an entertainment that doesn't work

For whatever reason, the call volume's low today at Freddie. So I'm reading an article that's almost made me cry.

The Lost Years and Last Days of David Foster Wallace: Rolling Stone

In related news, IJ status: 343 out of 1079. I must triumph!

Tomorrow I get to see my family! Going over to Capon Springs, WV, where my parents' families meet up every year to chillax for a week. My parents met there, so it's very Dirty Dancing.

I'm looking majorly forward to seeing everyone, as well as lying by a pool, getting tan and *trying* to make a dent in DFW. Good week :)

How are you guys doing?

Friday, July 10, 2009

In other news..

I'm so pissed off about Playboy buying Nabokov's last manuscript I could scream.

It was his DYING WISH not to have it see the light of day. Fuck you Hugh Hefner!

Okay maybe it's more his son's fault for selling it, but still.

Happy Friday!

Quote of the Day

"One of the most powerful lessons I learned growing up in a semi-rural suburb...is that celebrities—and especially great writers, who to me were the most magical possible subclass of celebrity—were totally unreal super-beings with whom you had literally nothing in common.

"All authors existed in a Platonic fourth dimension of abstract verbal perfection (sometimes called “France” or “Russia”) where they never had to put up with subliterary indignities like being vomited on by carsick siblings or having their off-brand shoes mocked by bullies—and if they did suffer such things it would only have been by choice, as an experiment, so they could write prizewinning literature about it later.

"It was a big shock, then, to grow up and discover that this was not actually true."

-Sam Anderson, Nymag.com

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Infinite Jest-isms

Ughhhh Infinite Jest was SO amazing today! I have to share with you some of my favorite lines:

-"If..you ever chance to spend a little time around a Substance-recovery halfway facility... you will acquire many exotic new facts."
  • "That certain persons simply will not like you no matter what you do."
  • "That no matter how smart you thought you were, you are actually way less smart than that."
  • "That you do not have to like a person in order to learn from him/her/it."
  • "That loneliness is not a function of solitude."
  • "That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt."
  • "That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do."
  • "That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness."
  • "That it is possible to fall asleep during an anxiety attack."
  • "That most Substance-addicted people are also addicted to thinking, meaning they have a compulsive and unhealthy relationship with their own thinking."
  • "That no single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable."
  • "That if you do something nice for somebody, in secret, anonymously, without letting the person you did it for know it was you or anybody else know what it was you did or in any way or form trying to get credit for it, it's almost its own form of intoxicating buzz."
  • "That there may not be angels, but there are people who might as well be angels."
  • "That God might regard the issue of whether you believe there's a God or not as fairly low on his/her/its list of thing s/he/it's interested in re you."
Just.... wow.

<3333

Friday, July 3, 2009

Things I Love (mainly all music)

Hi everybodyyy! It's been a while, I know. Things at the Mac are pretty good, and I have the day off! Yay for holidays! In celebration, I have spent most of the day sleeping and watching music vids on youtube. Here are my three favorites!

Bat for Lashes- Moon and Moon
This is the perfect band to listen to while trying to fall asleep, and everything about this performance is perfect. It's insanely haunting, and her outfit is unreal (I love the huge collar and all the glitter!)

Animal Collective- My Girls
FAVORITE band right now. They are so freaking eccentric, and I love them for it. Their newest album takes that trippy feeling and makes it feel happier and more mellow, kind of like Pet Sounds on even *more* drugs. It's kind of a refreshing change- their last album was probably the musical version of a bad LSD trip.

Fiona Apple- Not About Love
Because she's amazing, and ZACH GALIFIANAKIS IS IN THE VIDEO OMG. Everybody needs to see the hangover.

Infinite Jest status 180 out of 1079! I'm gonna finish this book on the 12th of forever! Weeee!

What are you all up to? :)