the itis
June 2010
26 posts
Back In The Day, a Michael Jackson tribute
By John Jeremiah Sullivan for GQ
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“Oh!” Swedien says, suddenly understanding. His voice drops to a whisper, “He’s unbelievable.”
He gives the most beautiful description. “Michael records in the dark,” he says, “and he’ll dance. And picture this: You’re looking through the glass. And it’s dark. With a little pin spot on him.” Swedien lifts his hand to suggest a narrow cone of light shining directly from overhead. “And you’ll see the mike here. And he’ll sing his lines. And then he disappears.”
In the outer dark he is dancing, fluttering.
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Read more here.
Play
“Thousands of days are lost to us completely. They pass out of our memories like songs
half heard on restaurant radios. A few days stay with us forever. We recall every detail. We
remember what people said and wore, what we ate and how it tasted, even the unimportant
thoughts that passed through our minds before things got serious.” —Evening’s Empire by Bill Flanagan
half heard on restaurant radios. A few days stay with us forever. We recall every detail. We
remember what people said and wore, what we ate and how it tasted, even the unimportant
thoughts that passed through our minds before things got serious.” —Evening’s Empire by Bill Flanagan
Sandwich Monday: The Mighty Jibarito →
npr.org
“When you go to a restaurant, sometimes it can be hard to decide what to order. Here’s a rule: if a restaurant has an oil painting of one of their sandwiches on the wall, you should order that sandwich.”
(via NPR)
The Burden and Boon of Lost Golf Balls
By BILL PENNINGTON
The New York Times
In a sonar search last year for the Loch Ness monster, scientists with a submersible device instead discovered more than 100,000 golf balls.
Who knew the Loch Ness monster even played golf?
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I worked on a golf course for five summers, and frequently, I’d see guys with rudimentary reaching devices to scrape lost golf balls from the ponds and woods. One time, a group of men with diving gear and giant contraptions that looked like giant crab traps, scoured all of the lakes on the course, finding an embarrassing amount of balls, reminders to my dad and the other golfers of all their wayward drives.
IU's Brown County Playhouse presents 'The Nerd,' a comedy set in Terre Haute, Ind., opening July 9 →
newsinfo.iu.edu
Yeah, I automatically blog about anything related to my hometown. That’s all.
LPGA, the spoon thing and nerds
- A: I'm dressed like a member of the LPGA tour. Oops. Where's my visor?
- L: polo and khakis?
- A: no, black dress bermudas
- and oxfords
- the oxfords are key in this LPGA ensemble
- L: hahaha
- A: I think I had an aneurysm while I was getting dressed
- L: hahaha
- and recovered once it was too late?
- A: exactly
- anyway, how are you? Who are you dressed like today?
- L: ashley olson?
- i am wearing a shirt she mass produced for walmart
- A: sweeeeet
- if you were really wanting to channel her, you'd need to work on your duck-lips pose, and also wear clothes that are 6x too big for you
- also, you need more hair than is humanly possible for a person your size
- if you were here
- her*
- L: yeah
- way to make me feel like i am not doing a good job at this, andrea
- i was SO her before
- now i'm going to be MK and go do some drugs
- A: OH NOOOOO
- L: it's too late
- A: I'm just trying to make others feel bad because I look like a lesbian
- L: i have a vial of crack in my ever-shrinking fist
- oh man
- A: Like you could even lift it to your nose
- cus, you're weak, see
- wait, do people snort crack?
- L: yeah. i'm a narc at heart.
- they snort it and they do the spoon thing.
- i don't really understand the spoon thing or what it does
- this is just what i've gathered from random episodes of the wire
- A: hmmm...yeah, what I know about drugs I learned from HBO or Intervention
- L: hahaha
- although the thing they make me put on my inhaler looks like a self-fashioned bong
- so
- that's cool
- for an inhaler
- A: coooool
- I didn't know you had an inhaler
- or I forgot
- because I don't like to remember how nerdy my friends are
- get it, cus you have an inhaler?
- sorry, I'm tired and I don't have enough nickels to buy a soda
The “Thriller” Diaries →
vanityfair.com
Ola Ray and I strongly agree on one thing: we both like to remember Michael Jackson the way he was on the night of October 13, 1983. I can’t forget the way he looked as I peered at him through the glass of the ticket booth at the Palace Theatre: elfin, radiant, ascendant. To me, Thriller seems like the last time that everyone on the planet got excited at the same time by the same thing: no matter where you went in the world, they were playing those songs, and you could dance to them. Since then, the fragmentation of pop culture has destroyed our sense of collective exhilaration, and I miss that.
(via givemesomethingtoread)
Vampire Weekend at IU Auditorum on Sept. 6 →
idsnews.com
Tickets go on sale to public this Friday at 10 a.m. Anyone interested in going with me? FYI - Sept. 6 is a Monday, and it’s Labor Day.
