negative capability

“You are just always in that bitchface-laden state of jaded hesitation. You’re not sure this...

Thu, 23 May 2013 19:49:08 -0500

“You are just always in that bitchface-laden state of jaded hesitation. You’re not sure this scene is for you, or if you’re going to like these new people, so the best course of action is to be all slitty-eyed and reclusive until your emotional whiskers brush against enough things to declare it okay to proceed.”

-8 Signs You Are Actually a Cat

Photo

Thu, 23 May 2013 19:29:11 -0500

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:43:34 -0500

natgeofound: Tourists atop the Chicago Tribune building look...

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:41:24 -0500

natgeofound:

Tourists atop the Chicago Tribune building look down on the Chicago River, the site of Old Fort Dearborn.
Photograph by B. Anthony Stewart, National Geographic

vanityfair: Vanity Fair in the age of dizzying, glittering...

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:41:06 -0500

vanityfair:

Vanity Fair in the age of dizzying, glittering hedonism | September 1924

thereconstructionists: Few artists have done more to...

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:32:39 -0500

thereconstructionists:

Few artists have done more to reconstruct the course of contemporary culture than Patti Smith (b. December 30 1946). Celebrated as the “Godmother of Punk,” her musical influence reverberates across acclaimed artists from Garbage to Morrissey to Madonna, and Michael Stipe famously cited her as the core inspiration for founding R.E.M. As a poet and visual artist, she has explored with lyrical poignancy issues of irrepressible urgency, ranging from foreign policy to mortality.

Among Smith’s greatest feats it the systematic demolition of the the perilous and artificial divide between “high” and “low” culture. In 1978, her song “Because the Night” from the groundbreaking album Horses reached #13 on the Billboard 100 chart; in 2010, her remarkable memoir Just Kids earned her the National Book Award. William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud have inspired much of her music, which has moved generations of hearts and bodies across dance floors and mosh pits. In 2005, she was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture; in 2006, she brought down the house at CBGB’s with an extraordinary 3½-hour masterpiece of a performance. The following year, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Allen Ginsberg once bought her a sandwich in the East Village after mistaking her for “a very pretty boy.”

In the decades between Horses (1975) and Banga (2012), Smith recorded nine other studio albums, delivered countless poetry readings, and authored a number of books, including the breathtaking The Coral Sea, which chronicles her grief over the loss of her onetime lover, lifelong friend, and comrade-in-artistic-arms Robert Mapplethorpe.

In Just Kids, which documents how Smith found her creative voice during her early life with Mapplethorpe when both were aspiring artists in New York City, she articulates the singular duality of her muse:

It’s the artist’s responsibility to balance mystical communication and the labor of creation.

Learn more: Just Kids | Wikipedia

I think this captured the mood of the book well. super raw and...

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:26:09 -0500

I think this captured the mood of the book well. super raw and gritty.

and I watched Cloud Atlas the same day. heavy stuff.

katrinablair: me.

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:57:04 -0500

katrinablair:

me.

theparisreview: In a note to Fitzgerald, Hemingway shows he was...

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:54:11 -0500

theparisreview:

In a note to Fitzgerald, Hemingway shows he was better at being aggressive than passive-aggressive.

For more of this morning’s roundup, click here.

"She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! alas! she must confess to herself that she..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:52:44 -0500

“She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! alas! she must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.”

- Jane Austen, Persuasion (via thelifeguardlibrarian)

modernhepburn: The Cranberries - Linger memories of car rides...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:06:50 -0500

modernhepburn:

The Cranberries - Linger

memories of car rides in the 90s with this song on the radio

liking this mix

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:10:03 -0500

liking this mix

Video

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:09:40 -0500

Photo

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:09:30 -0500

cabinporn: Worlds End Farm 30 miles west of Albany, New...

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:13:01 -0500

cabinporn:

Worlds End Farm 30 miles west of Albany, New York.

Photographs by Sarah Ryhanen.

libraryjournal: nypl: Was one of Brooklyn’s finest in Harlem...

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:15:09 -0500

libraryjournal:

nypl:

Was one of Brooklyn’s finest in Harlem in 1939? This Sid Grossman photo of “Harlem Loiterers” from the Prints Collection at NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture has created quite a stir since being posted to the Center’s Facebook page the other day. Why? Because the man on the right looks a heck of a lot like Jay-Z (for evidence, check out these photos of Jay-Z when he visited The New York Public Library in 2011). Cue Twilight Zone music, right? Schomburg’s Curator of Digital Collections Sylviane A. Diouf found the photo while researching an exhibition, and said, “I was immediately struck by the similarity to Jay-Z and actually laughed out loud … I still hope somebody will tell us who that you man really was.”

So is Jay-Z a time traveler? Is this someone else - anyone know who? What do you think?

My favorite answer so far has been Tumblarian librarianpirate’s: “Wrong. Beyonce is a time lord, Jay-Z is her companion.”

throughkaleidscopeeyes: Solange - Locked in Closets Mini Music...

Thu, 09 May 2013 18:05:01 -0500

throughkaleidscopeeyes:

Solange - Locked in Closets Mini Music Video

commovente: .

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:20:41 -0500

commovente:

.

Photo

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:29:05 -0500

life: Ann-Margret with family and friends, Fox Lake, Illinois,...

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:26:39 -0500

life:

Ann-Margret with family and friends, Fox Lake, Illinois, 1961. See more photos here.

(Grey Villet—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images)