austinkleon:

Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence

I tore through this. Lethem’s original 2007 Harper’s essay was a huge influence on Steal Like An Artist and probably a bunch of other people. (Heck, David Shields took the method of the essay and turned it into a whole book, although I’m guessing from Lethem’s acknowledgements, their influence on each other is a two-way street.) I had fun in the book version of the essay, highlighting and annotating the passages from other sources, showing the unmarked passages that Lethem wrote as the glue between them.

It’s such a big book (over 400 pages) that it’s impossible to share all my underlines, but this passage from the intro says a lot:

[I pit myself] compulsively against bogus valorizing notions of originality, authenticity, or naturalism in the arts….For if we consent that what appears natural in art is actually constructed from series of hidden postures, decisions, and influences, etc., we make ourselves eligible to weight the notion that what’s taken as natural in our experience of everyday life could actually be a construction as well.

Other than his writing on other writers and influence, I really loved his pieces about musicians. His piece on Rick James, his profile of James Brown, and interview (!) with Bob Dylan are all very much worth reading.

Again, it’s a huge book, not as tight or as focused as The Disappointment Artist, but not meant to be either.

Recommended.

Still working on this, but, yes. Highly recommended.

MURK AVENUE: I FOUND ICE CUBES 'GOOD DAY'

murkavenue:

CLUE 1:
“went to short dogs house,
they was watching Yo MTV
RAPS”
Yo MTV RAPS first aired:
Aug 6th 1988
CLUE 2:
Ice Cubes single “today was a good day” released on:
Feb 23 1993
CLUE 3:
”The Lakers beat the Super
Sonics”
Dates between Yo MTV Raps air date AUGUST 6 1988 and the release…

I would have also looked for “Days Where Ice Cube Didn’t Have to Use His AK”, but this is pretty thorough. 

“At Sundance, Weinstein Co.’s Bob Weinstein got a first-hand taste of the challenge facing the studios when a technician fixing a television set in his hotel room recommended the film “Apollo 18.” Mr. Weinstein, whose company distributed the film, says he was thrilled—until the man added that he had downloaded a free copy and could do the same for Mr. Weinstein within 20 minutes. “That’s my movie!” Mr. Weinstein says he exclaimed. “You’re arrested!”

Attention, Wall Street Journal archivists: Please file this anecdote under “Things that probably didn’t happen.”

(—The Web’s Growing Muscle - WSJ.com)

  • The Wall Street Journal