The fires engulfing most of California have been casting a red film across the sky. And it feels like living on Mars. It is a bit distressing yet somehow peaceful.
Something about nature’s subtle reminder that it will be here long after us places everything into context.
20200910
Going Postal — Book review with one of the best opening paragraphs Ive ever read. Really captured the mood of the COVID lockdown.
Bonfires of Reason — Book review of the upcoming Burning of the Books by Richard Ovenden. Ive pre-ordered my copy.
The Sturgis Statistical Misfire — “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Phrase popularized by Mark Twain. This Wall Street Journal OpEd exemplifies the hidden wisdom of this phrase.
Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom’s a junkie
Strung out in heaven’s high
Hitting an all-time low — David Bowie
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers – Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
20200804
The heroic couple who defied Hitler | The Spectator — good story about a couple of anti-nazis in Berlin who paid for their resistance with their lives.
David Lynch Posts His Nightmarish Sitcom Rabbits Online–the Show That Psychologists Use to Induce a Sense of Existential Crisis in Research Subjects. — strange, uncomfortable, and yet fascinating short film.
Holly: Do you think she’s talented? Deeply and importantly talented?
Paul: No. Amusingly and superficially talented yes. Deeply and importantly, no.
Reads from the web 202008
Father and Son Investment Bankers Describe Wall Street Regrets — Good interview with father and son about being black in Wall Street.
Amazon Drivers Are Hanging Smartphones in Trees to Get More Work — Clever delivery drivers figured out that by dangling cell phones on phones near the store they can a jump on other drivers, making more money. Reminds me of Michale Lewis’ Flash Boys.
Retail Eviction Proceedings Pick Up as Economy Restarts — this is one of those second or third order effects from the pandemic.
Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious licence and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind – A Tale of Two Cities
Meaning vs Experience – The whole idea of my architecture is about stopping any communication and placing within architecture itself a device that causes you to react emotionally, physically, and intellectually. Without representation. My architecture means nothing. But the experience is something else. – Peter Eisenman
Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn’t ask ourselves what it says but what it means. – The Name of the Rose
CYBERTONIA 