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Writing in cafés, writing in brothels

There was a fascinating interview with the author Lee Rourke published today. One response is worth quoting at length: Read the rest of this entry »

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Elvis Costello wrote and recorded his first album while also working as a computer operator for the Elizabeth Arden factory, only resigning when his record company agreed to match his salary. Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner continued his day job of laying floors even once they became successful. The story went that the group sat down on stage as they would generally all be worn out from their day jobs. Read the rest of this entry »

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July 11, 2011

Plimpton!

Kickstarter is a pretty fantastic idea for a website. The site facilitates the funding of creative projects, with various people pitching their idea and encouraging people to back their project. If enough money is raised, the project goes ahead and the backers get some sort of reward, depending on how much they contributed. Read the rest of this entry »

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April 19, 2011

Peeking behind the curtain

Yesterday, I did a little catching up on the backlog of articles I’d allowed to build up on Instapaper. Reading Dan Kois’ piece for the New York Times, “Why Do Writers Abandon Novels?” helped kick my brain into some degree of action, to focus on some related issues that I’ve been mulling over for some time now. Why do we like peeking behind the curtain so much? Read the rest of this entry »

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September 7, 2010

My Big Dumb Cultural Diary: Part One

Inspired by the Paris Review’s Cultural Diaries, my blog post that covered it, and having ideas above my station, this week I shall be mainly inflicting my cultural consumption upon you, my lucky readership. Here you’ll find what I’ve been reading, watching and listening to. For your pleasure. And, perhaps, in a bid to make me consume more worthwhile stuff. Plus, I’m up to some interesting things this week. Read the rest of this entry »