• More structural advice from John McPhee. “Much of McPhee’s work sits at some thrilling intersection of short story, essay, documentary, field research and epic poem…He gathers every single scrap of reporting on a given project — every interview, description, stray thought and research tidbit — and types all of it into his computer. He… Continue reading

• The philosophy of awesomeness. “I arrived at the view that being awesome is being good at creating ‘social openings’—moments of mutual appreciation between people when they break out of their norms and routines by expressing their individuality in a way that gets others to express theirs. Someone sucks when they reject a social opening… Continue reading

• Playwright David Mamet on speaking. “People only speak to get something. If I say, Let me tell you a few things about myself, already your defenses go up; you go, Look, I wonder what he wants from me, because no one ever speaks except to obtain an objective. That’s the only reason anyone ever… Continue reading

(In this image from an atelier in Kishangarh, India in the early eighteenth century, the female entertainer plucks a tempura, a drone instrument used in Indian music.) (Curious about the sound of the tanpura? Go to http://upasani.org/home/Welcome.html).     Continue reading

• An article about Facebook. (I recommend reading this in its entirety.) “Facebook’s mission used to be ‘making the world more open and connected’. A non-Facebooker reading that is likely to ask: why? Connection is presented as an end in itself, an inherently and automatically good thing. Is it, though?” • An article about Rafael… Continue reading

• An article about creative work. “Resist the urge to judge your art prematurely, or to abandon it altogether. Just welcome what comes, and let it be that simple.” • An article about style and monoculture. “Since the early 1990s, Eijkelboom has surreptitiously photographed pedestrians in urban settings, for no longer than two hours in… Continue reading

• An article on how to read a poem (or: how to listen to music?). “When we release ourselves from the need to boil the poem down to a single meaning or theme, the mind can move in a dreamlike, associative way. This associative movement in poetry can at first feel disorienting, but it is… Continue reading

• An article on the language of flavor. “I think of smell as being one of the least objective experiences. Smell enters us. And one of the great virtues of smell is that it is so far removed from language. That makes them difficult to describe, but it also means that we naturally come upon… Continue reading

• A short video on French artist and sculptor Pierre Soulages on his creative process and use of black paint. “It’s the light that is the real tool!”   • An article about hearing loss and volume at popular music shows. “If musicians and listeners are both suffering as a result of exposure to loud… Continue reading