A bookmarklet that always finds its way to all of my browser toolbars is Alisdair McDiarmid’s Kill sticky headers bookmarklet. For web sites that have header or footer elements that obscure part of what I’m trying to read, clicking this bookmarklet instantly clears the page display. And if you ever need those elements back — …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
RIP, Leon Redbone
Variety published a wonderful, respectful, and damn interesting obituary on the mystery man of 20th Century Americana music, digging up his real name and enjoying his piquant patois. We spent a pleasant evening tonight listening to the songs he left us and the mood of the mythical time and place he evoked. Shine on, Harvest …
Is Mercury in Retrograde?
I was swimming upstream most of the day, having trouble with all my tech (software, phone) and wondered, “Is Mercury in retrograde?” Must have been just me, I guess. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Three times a year, it appears as if Mercury is going backwards. These times in particular were traditionally associated with …
Recent Enjoyments
An acquaintance asked for recent books or movies I liked. This is what I wrote.
A Colossal Self-Satisfaction
Walt Whitman: It does a man good to turn himself inside out once in a while: to sort of turn the tables on himself: to look at himself through other eyes—especially skeptical eyes, if he can. It takes a good deal of resolution to do it: yet it should be done—no one is safe until …
Dream-child
Walt Whitman tells a story: A woman I knew once asked a man to give her a child: she was greatly in love with him: it was not done: he did not care that much for her: he said to her, “all children should be love children”: then he thought she might repent if the …
The Ubiquity of Smartphones, as Captured by Photographers
The first image in this collection of pictures of smartphone users around the world reminds me of nothing so much as those images of 1950s movie audiences wearing 3D glasses. Will those images of smartphone users look as quaint and innocent in 50 years? via CJ Chilvers’ newsletter
Who is our Community?
Brilliant, tough, compassionate story from Buzzfeed’s Joe Bernstein on the Baraboo photo: The culture of racist irony that prevails online and offline today is, in part, a distancing technique that creates the space people need to dehumanize and harm other people. The Christchurch shooter’s video is the most chilling and extreme documentation of this phenomenon. …
Because They’re There
From Robin Sloan’s latest newsletter: Beware, anytime you hear anybody talking about reading novels as self-improvement – because they “increase empathy” or something like that. A close cousin is when people say you should read science fiction because it “helps you imagine the future.” Here is my proposed alternative: read novels because there are novels… …
Dracula as Hero of His Own Story
It’s been done before, but I’m still interested.
Brownstudy's Blog 