1. Smell the summer flowers at Hence the Elizabethan. Also, columbines in Telluride.
2. I'm glad to see that I'm linked to by this German blog. I wish I could read German. I especially wish that when I watch two of my favorite movies, M and The Blue Angel. (Some brilliant acting from Peter Lorre, Marlene Dietrich, Gustaf Gruengens and Emil Jannings in those two films. The moment in The Blue Angel when Emil Jannings crows like a rooster is the most shattering thing I've ever seen in a movie. A middle aged intellectual destroyed by a pretty young blonde... I tried to get some family members to watch these movies, and their response was, "Black and white? Subtitles? Fuggedaboutit." Their loss.) Mark Twain, on the other hand, was no fan of the German language. (Thanks to Inspector for that link.)
3. Dianne Durante posts pictures of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where I lived for 11 years. How I miss walking across the Williamsburg Bridge in April or October, when the weather was not too cold or too hot. When the air comes down from Canada and pushes away the humidity and haze, New York City is the most beautiful place on earth. The lines of the buildings are crisp and the deep shadows almost make reality look like a painting by a master. Now I live in California, where the weather is always nice and easy but never thrilling as it can be back east.
4. Ross Douthat thinks blog writing leads to "better punditry, but fewer masterpieces." Writing this blog has made my non-fiction writing better and quicker because it forces me to solve writing problems every day and to solve them fast like a journalist. And yet, I wonder about the long-term effects. If someone wrote a blog for, say, 5 years, might he then be incapable of writing anything better or deeper or more rigorous? If someone drew comic books, I suspect he would soon be incapable of painting a great, profound work of art because he would have the cartoon level of drawing automatized in his subconscious. A writer of TV sitcoms would probably be incapable of writing a philosophical play on the level of Schiller or Ibsen.
5. Politics and Pigskins sees the Raiders winning seven games this year. I would like to see them rise above expectations and win nine games. I would also like to see world peace, FTL travel, time machines and women propositioning me for sex.
6. Dave Chappelle was exhausted so he checked into an emergency room. It seems silly to check into a hospital for exhaustion when you can climb into your bed for free.
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