We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.
Ray Bradbury
EVERYTHING I Need to Know about BUSINESS I Learned from IMPROV
You learn a lot about acting when you’re performing off-the-cuff, in-the-round, and surrounded by folks armed with swords and halberds.
After billions and billions of miles…
So brave. So alone. When—finally—we do look his way he wears his heart so openly. Pluto is our solar system’s Duckie.
Read moreAnyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.
— Garrison Keillor
Quotable: Garrison Keillor on Church
Is it Still Genius if We Can See the Bits that Were Scratched Out?
Last week a draft of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” sold for more than $2 million at a Sotheby’s auction. Handwritten in pencil on hotel stationary, the draft includes the songwriter’s scribbles, scratched out bits, doodles and seemingly random marginalia — a chicken, a hat, a reindeer and Mavis (Staples, of course).
Read more“Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. It’s basically a license to proudly emote on a somewhat childish level rather than behave like a supposed adult. Being a geek is extremely liberating.”
Quotable: Simon Pegg On Being A Geek
— Simon PeggRead more“Sprinkling the Internet on a bad business model does not magically make it a good business model. It merely means that the people who are pursuing a bad business model are hoping you are credulous enough to believe that being electronic is space-age zoomy and awesome and there is no possible way this brilliant business plan could ever fail. Or even worse, that they believe that being electronic means all these things, which means they are credulous. Which is not a very good thing to have as the basis of one’s business model.”
— John Scalzi
Just a Sprinkle of Internet…
John Scalzi on e-publishing imprints bamboozling a new crop of fresh-faced and too-trusting authors.
Amanda Palmer’s Viral TED Talk: The Art of Asking
[ted id=1682] I watched Amanda Palmer’s TED talk — a talk about fairness, and reciprocity, and art — and was struck by just how deeply I miss making connections with people as a performer… kinetic, buzzing, random, wholly improbable and...
SPAM that’s actually (plagiarized) good advice: is this a new thing?
The contents of comment SPAM I received this week. So far as advice goes, I like it, though I don’t see any reason you couldn’t have your coffee and recess, too.
Your Weekend Dose of Wonderful: Yosemite Range of Light
Read more“When people keep shitting on your lawn, might as well plant flowers. Which is to say, make other, better things out of that otherwise useless pile of shit. If they didn’t want me to do that, why did they keep giving me shit?”
— John Scalzi
The Money Quote
Author John Scalzi describes his wildly successful “Counteract a Bigot” drive.
Full Moon Silhouettes
Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait has a great explainer on how this perspective — a real time, real motion perspective — is even possible.
Remains of the Day: Lost 500 Years, the Bones of Richard III Have a Tale to Tell
In a stunning bit of archeological detective work, folk from the University of Leicester have identified the remains of English King Richard III in a long lost and “clumsily cut” grave excavated from a parking lot. Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from...
Tell Me a Story
“Tell me a story,” she says, her eyes bright in the light of the campfire.
“About a pirate ship with crimson sails, billowing in a gale…”
The God Shop
I’ve had a bit of a mental paper jam, in that it appears I’m not to write anything of particular substance without first I should relieve myself of a play that’s been taking space in my head for the better part of two years, now. And so — tadaa! — I’m writing a play.