Jon Cogburn's Blog

nice Salon slideshow on transgressive readings, but one that inexplicably fails to discuss David Brin and Jacqueline Carey [click link for full post]

One thing that fascinates me aesthetically is when people come up with interesting and plausible readings of a text that are consistent with everything the text says, but radically at odds with the author's intentions. Salon dot com has a really nice slideshow of ten prominent cases of this, where the another artwork reinterprets an earlier one, called "What if the villains actually were good?"

via www.newappsblog.com

Them boys, they'll think about the wrath that's about to set down on it

Given my descendence from the Oklahoma Cogburns, I'm supposed to like the original film adaptation of Charles Portis' True Grit as well as the sequel Rooster Cogburn. But from a very young age I've found John Wayne movies unwatchable. . .

So I'm very glad that the Coen brothers are bringing their interpretation to the novel. Just from the trailer it looks to be filled up with several pickup trucks full of awesomeness, manifesting the most awesome of all Western tropes, the sweet taste of revenge slowly turning poisonouly sour in the protagonists' mouths, with a building crescendo of inescapable mayhem. For what more could one ask?

 

And some more evidence of awesomeness here.

 

And of course, even more (if slightly predictable) awesomeness.

James Lileks is an underappreciated national resource

James Lileks, brilliant writer of some of my favorite books (i.e. The Gallery of Regrettable Food, Gastroanomolies: Questionable Culinary Inventions from the Golden Age of American Cookery, Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice, and Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible 70's) and host of one of my favorite blogs (The Bleat, linked to in the Daily Read section at the right), has posted a set of vignettes from a cruise he just took with his family. As usual, they are insightful and hilarious.

PART I

PART II

PART III

PART IV

PART V

There ought to be a category for the kind of popular anthropology at which Lileks excels. He's a national treasure. His website is one of the best things on the interwebs, containing:

	Matchbook Museum. Lovely examples of commercial art in its smallest, most portable form.
	Comic Covers. Unusual or risable examples of old comic book cover art. Part of Comic Sins.
	100 Mysteries. Chewing through a big box of public-domain Hollywood mystery movies, one at a time.
	StarTribune. Column on Friday and Sunday.
	Black & White World An ongoing look at movies that decided color was just so obvious.
	The 30s. Devoted to the detritus of a misunderstood decade.
	Comic Ads. Delightful examples of comic book ads. Part of Comic Sins.
	Miscellany. For those things that go nowhere else.

Werner Herzog on one form of the liar paradox (from Kaspar Hauser)

"Are you a tree frog?" Fantastic.

Vice Guide to North Korea (fascinating documentary)

part 1part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

part 6

part 7

part 8

part 9

part 10

part 11

part 12

part 13

part 14