in defense of

"The tattoo is primal parent to the visual arts. Beginning as abstract maps of spiritual visions, records of the 'other' world, tattoos were originally icons of power and mystery designating realms beyond normal land-dwellers' experience.

The extra-ordinary qualities of the tattoo's magic-religious origin remain constant even today, transferring to the bearer some sense of existing outside the conventions of normal society."

Empire of the Senseless, Kathy Acker

lessons from Nora

While watching Heartburn, I realized I want to be the kind of woman who can have a man over to her apartment and, when we get hungry at 4am, duck into the kitchen only to come back with an impeccable plate of spaghetti puttanesca, all briny and saucy and messy, all wild in a large bowl, that we eat together in bed.

*Edited to say I care much less about having a man than I do about having the ability to cook that spaghetti.

random act of bravery

a diptych:

From Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Letter #9: "And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me, life is in the right, always."

random act of bravery

Everything happens in black and white with short hair. It's European, or something. 

two things

These artist studios on Fogo Island, off the coast of Newfoundland.

This essay, about greatness, and the Pulitzer mishap of 2012.

mirror

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, LÂETRUSCO (1973–1976) 

(FROM: H. FRIEDEL, ED., DER TRAUM DES ORPHEUS, [1984] 24). 

Here. 

Thinking about what we see today. What we choose to see, what we choose not to. Willful blindness. People who may not ever stop to look themselves in the face, direct hit, more than cursory, inside.

random act of bravery

two things

This song, on repeat, since Glen Hansard did it at his epic jam session last week at Le Poisson Rouge. He had a tiny mandolin and a tumbler of whiskey. He also had every heart in that room for every minute of those three hours.

The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done. 

This article, and the mystical South of France residency where everyone loves each other and you get a boyfriend just for showing up.