“ It isn’t possible to quantify the extent to which society and culture are indebted to Bohemia. In every age in every successful country, it has been important that at least a small part of the cityscape is not dominated by bankers, developers, chain stores, generic restaurants, and railway terminals. This little quarter should instead be the preserve of—in no special order—insomniacs and restaurants and bars that never close; bibliophiles and the little stores and stalls that cater to them; alcoholics and addicts and deviants and the proprietors who understand them; aspirant painters and musicians and the modest studios that can accommodate them; ladies of easy virtue and the men who require them; misfits and poets from foreign shores and exiles from remote and cruel dictatorships.
“Last Call, Bohemia” Christopher Hitchens, on the threat of urban development in the West Village. (via zoee)
Randomness
If you have a Tumblr account, check out the Image Viewer by topherchris… a great little mash-up that displays all your Tumblr image posts… here’s mine.
Interesting 2008 - thirty more interesting things
Interesting! Roo Reynolds has posted link-fallout from Interesting 2008.
Kick out the Jams Mother fucker! Kick out the Jams C’mon! The MC5 at Royal Festval Hall rocked my socks!
Five Dials
Nice one. Thanks Paul.
“…is the product of a few editors and writers who would like to push a small enterprise into the inboxes of anyone interested in good writing. It comes from Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin books, and though HH publishes writers like Dave Eggers, Zadie Smith, John Updike and Jonathan Safran Foer, the magazine will not only feature the work of HH- ers, nor will it feature only Penguins, nor will it feature only published writers. The magazine will come out monthly. It will be distributed as a free PDF and if you’re interested in reading it on the bus or during the intermission of the musical Chicago or anywhere else, you can print it up on any printer.”
Featuring Iain Sinclair, Alain de Botton, Rachel Lichtenstein and Gustave Flaubert and designed by Dean Allen.
Drawn (not coloured) in a meeting. I’m thinking there’s a little bit of sub conscious stress bubbling away under the surface.
“ is there some kind of top secret humor police? They should give fines to all Monty Python quoters. That show was fresh back in the Jimmy Carter Era
Twitter
“ Heath brothers found that sticky messages have six key attributes: simplicity unexpectedness concreteness credibility emotions stories
Twitter / sparkey
“ Hundreds of Apple fans and onlookers clogged the pavements of George Street in the heart of Sydney’s CBD on Thursday night to witness the opening of Australia’s first Apple Store. Fifteen minutes before the allotted hour of 5pm, the queue to enter the store stretched from the corner of George and King Streets, around the block and back down York Street, almost to Market Street. In places the line was five deep and police, City of Sydney council officials and private security guards had their job cut out keeping order as workers spilled out of their offices and merged into the streets with late night shoppers.
CBD chaos as Apple Store opens - smh.com.au
Seriously people. It’s a shop!