• Their Finest Hour, or, Triumph and Tragedy

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    I, Big George, do solemnly swear that on the second of July I captured my first bug. The reader should be reminded that in the jungle many sounds occur which it is impossible to account for; so that on hearing a sudden crash or wail or plea ahead, the only thing to do is shoot…

    : Their Finest Hour, or, Triumph and Tragedy
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    July 1, 19431: I was joining the Observatory of Haute-Provence. I was full of emotions and feelings, which certainly had, in a very subtle way, an influence on my scientific life. It was the beginning of an illegal life. I had a complete set of papers (false papers), identity card, food card, and most important…

    : The Way to Astrophysics
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    Two weeks from now I’ll be playing saxophone for Shanghai punks Round Eye on their East Meets West tour with Fang and the Besmirchers.

    : Coming Attractions
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    It’s June and summer’s heightthe longest bride of lightleaps from all the rivetsof the skyYet it’s of earthand nowhere else I have to speakOnly on earth has this light taken onthese swiveled meanings, only on this earthwhere we are dying befouled, gritting our teethlosing our guided stars has this lightfound an alphabet a mouth

    : These Swiveled Meanings
  • The Citadel

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    As Péguy said on June 17, 1940: “In war, I side with he who won’t surrender the citadel.”

    : The Citadel
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    SALEM, June 15, 1835. – A walk down to the Juniper. The shore of the coves strewn with bunches of sea-weed, driven in by recent winds. Eel-grass, rolled and bundled up, and entangled with it, – large marine vegetables, of an olive-color, with round, slender, snake-like stalks, four or five feet long, and nearly two feet broad:…

    : Vase de Noces
  • Three Year Agreement

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    Douglas Sirk’s signature on the 24-page (!) contract he signed with Universal before making Imitation of Life, which Leo Lensing rescued from a Baltimore book dealer.

    : Three Year Agreement
  • Alternative Hair

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    Shoutout to whatever Liverpool punk collaged this flyer together. I can’t decide which is funnier, “Softly Feminine Nausea: Real Adult Entertainment” or “Mix ‘n’ Match Disaster — What Balls!”

    : Alternative Hair
  • Memory Rehearsal

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    My report on last month’s launch party for Eleni Sikelianios’ new book Memory Rehearsal is now live at Zona Motel, where I’m talking Proust, dogs and ukuleles.

    : Memory Rehearsal
  • Hypothetical Self-Epitaph

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    “Everyone should have an epitaph ready,” Everette Maddox told an interview in one of his rare radio appearances. “Just in case.”

    : Hypothetical Self-Epitaph