Lit Links: I Bleed Green

by dace on Etsy

This is a great week, isn’t it?  NBA Finals are closing up shop, World Cup Soccer just began, and Lords of Dogtown is free on Comcast.  Really, it’s the little things that make me happy.

1.  Hey Oscar Wilde, It’s Clobbering Time will continue to be one of my most favorite sites that the Internet has ever produced.  I love this illustration of Truman Capote and Holly Golightly by Eric Canete.  You can’t quite see all the exquisite detail in the picture I’ve posted– but there is a movement in Canete’s ink work that I envy.  His lines are impeccable.  I’m completely in love with his drawing.

2.  Any story involving Kevin Costner reminds me of this running joke we had in college about Waterworld.  But now, it looks like some of that sea water got to Kevin’s head and he’s shopping around a “miracle device” that will drain the ocean of BP oil.  I know there’s a joke in there somewhere, but I’m honestly too baffled by this story to make one up.

3.  I’m in summer mode.  Which means I’ll be YouTube-ing surfing videos for the next few days.  This is Jordy Smith nailing a rodeo flip, last year.

4.  Steve Almond’s post at The Rumpus is an unbelievably personal consideration of the once-in-a-decade publication of The New Yorker‘s Fiction Issue.  Contained within the magazine is a list called “20 Writers Under 40,” which, as Steve points out, is how The New Yorker says, “really, these are the only young writes worth knowing about for the next ten years.”  It’s an inspirational and yet depressing time for accomplished young writers not included on the list.  And the way Steve writes about what this means to him tears a bit at my core.

5.  Newspaper Blackout, poems by Austin Kleon.

6.  I don’t want any lectures about soul-killing corporate coffee culture… but I’m very excited to hear that Starbucks will be offering Free Wifi, beginning July 1st!

7.  Carolyn Kellogg, of the LA Times, blogs about her encounter with Bret Easton Ellis and his peculiar interview routine.  I’ve actually never read a Bret Easton Ellis book– though I’ve picked one up many times at my local bookstore, only to put it down on one of those tables inexplicably selling Godiva chocolates and bedazzled kitten bookmarks.  However, I love hearing about the quirks and idiosyncrasies of writers.  It absolutely fascinates me how the creative mind works, no matter how weird or deranged.

8.  Paper apartment by Don Lucho.  (via Lost at E Minor)

9.  This song, blasting full-volume on my stereo with all the windows and door thrown open, is my pump-up song.  In the middle, where Dave gets all growly and screamy, unleashes something completely primal.  I appreciate Hendrix and Dylan,  but the DMB version is by far the best version of this song.  And it took me 8 concerts before I even got to hear them play it.  In fact, that reminds me: this is the first summer in a long list of summer when I won’t be attending a Dave Matthews concert.  It’s a bit devastating– I think I’ve gone at least once a year since I was 16.  I’m sorry, but there’s nothing better than being on the lawn of an amphitheater with a group of friends, happy-feet dancing your way through #41.  That’s what summer is all about.