I've been planning a big entry that goes through all the music, books and movies I've recently acquired, because I obviously suck at entering stuff one at a time. One item that deserves its own entry, though, is Good News For People Who Love Bad News, Modest Mouse's latest. As obsessively documented elsewhere, I usually just listen to my music collection on random, but since I've bought this CD it's been played in its entirety at least once a day. Highly recommended.
If you need more reason to despair about the state of the world, here you go:
Every minute, two people are killed in conflicts around the world.
Often very little is known about the people who are fighting and dying.
The BBC programme One Day of War follows individual fighters in 16 of these wars, over the same 24 hour period.
Excellent use of the web though.
Via Howling Fantods, two stories from DFW's new collection, Oblivion
The collection is out June 1st.
Too short article/interview with Jane Jacobs:
New York still has so much pizzazz, because people make it new every day. Like all cities, it's self-organizing. People looking for a date on Third Avenue make it into a place full of hope and expectation, and this has nothing to do with architecture. Those are the emotions that draw us to cities, and they depend on things being a bit messy. The most perfectly designed place can't compete. Everything is provided, which is the worst thing we can provide. There's a joke that the father of an old friend used to tell, about a preacher who warns children, "In Hell there will be wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth." "What if you don't have teeth?" one of the children asks. "Then teeth will be provided," he says sternly. That's it - the spirit of the designed city: Teeth Will Be Provided for You.
What's In Your Gadget Bag, Peter Maass?. Stuff you need to report from a war zone.