September 2011
3 posts
MCPHEE
You write a lead. You sit down and think, Where do I want this piece to begin? What makes sense? It can’t be meretricious. It’s got to deliver on what you promise. It should shine like a flashlight down through the piece. So you write a beginning. Then you go back to your notes and start looking for an overall structure. It’s three times as easy if you’ve got that lead.
Once I’ve...
MCPHEE
He spoke so softly. I was awestruck: the guy’s the editor of The New Yorker and he’s this mysterious person. It was the most transforming event of my writing existence, meeting him, and you could take a hundred years to try to get to know him, and this was just the first day. But he was a really encouraging editor. Shawn always functioned as the editor of new writers, so he edited the...
INTERVIEWER
Why don’t you read aloud to yourself?
MCPHEE
I think because...
– http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5997/the-art-of-nonfiction-no-3-john-mcphee
August 2011
1 post
January 2010
1 post
September 2009
5 posts
Elegant Field Guide To Leaf, Branch And Bud : NPR →
Need.
How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? - NYTimes.com →
PK on the track
ADORED in the United States, ignored or mocked almost everywhere else, peanut...
– The Minimalist - Exploring Peanut Butter’s Potential - NYTimes.com
When Stuck for Dessert, Make Crepes - Bitten Blog... →
Fuck. Yes.
The Prague Post - Tempo - Ten days that shook the... →
I’ll be checking this out. Oh yeah, I have my internets sorted out over here. More updates to come.
August 2009
4 posts
"The future isn't big anymore. The future is... →
Did you know that the United States of America, the Land of the Free, puts a...
– I smoke pot, and I like it - THE WEEK
The Believer - Concerning the Spiritual in Indie... →
July 2009
14 posts
Vol Libre, Incredible 1980 CGI Film. Via kottke.
Senior City-zens: The World's 10 Oldest... →
Beat America by Aram Saroyan : The Poetry... →
What we learned from the beat poets.
Fancy Fast Food →
Like putting lipstick on a pig, then eating it.
NASA Releases Preview Partially Restored Apollo 11... →
40 years ago, a man walked on the moon. Restored footage.
June 2009
12 posts
I write this with Wi-Fi from the train station in Urbana. I’ll ride this...
Oxford American :: Thomas Swick’s Hard Times →
The life of the writer.
Top 10: The architecture of Star Wars (pt I) | The... →
Via Kottke.
Exclusive Video - Extreme Kayaking - National... →
Sometimes you have to do 186-foot drops.
May 2009
16 posts
With a quirky contrariness as deeply etched in the national character as the...
– Norway Thrives by Going Against the Tide - NYTimes.com
Don’t get married just because there’s a run on weddings. Happens to...
– Deadspin - A Special Balls Deep Message To The Class Of 2009 - Drew Magary
We’re here to celebrate the power of words,” President Obama said....
– Obamas Host Speakers, Musicians for White House Poetry Jam - washingtonpost.com
Atlantic video on a long-form Harvard study on what happiness is. I think you should watch it.
Address of the peers of england to pope Clement... →
Germany Imagines Suburbs Without Cars -... →
Dear Graduate →
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Hobbits 'are a... →
Scientists have found more evidence that the Indonesian “Hobbit” skeletons belong to a new species of human - and not modern pygmies.
Still no word on Ewoks.
30 Rock's weird conservative streak. - By Jonah... →