Monthly Archives: March 2007

Mail, Birthdays, and Book Signings

Posted on by

First thing first: Happy Birthday Dave Eggers and Jack Kerouac.

Today’s mail included:
A $1020.68 federal income tax refund
A $34.45 check from my insurance
A $50 Barnes and Noble gift card.
…..pretty much one of the most profitable day’s mail I’ve ever had.

Tonight’s book signing was wonderful – Jhumpa Lahiri with the  director of The Namesake: Mira Nair. It was a very interesting conversation, they both told the story of turning the book into a movie. Very cool to hear the process from the director’s point of view as well as from the author’s. I got my copies of The Namesake and The Interpretor of Maladies signed. I love them, but am a little sad that they wouldn’t let them personalize our books – there were too many people. I was surprised how many people showed up – heaps of people. More people than for Norman Mailer, I’d guess.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

Vox Hunt: Enjoy The Sunset

Posted on by

Show us your favorite sunset picture.
Submitted by B. Mag.

This one is my favorite. I took it my first evening in Nice, France.

I also love this one. I took this on my 21st birthday in San Francisco. I don’t know the person in the picture, but they seemed happy to be alive. It was a happy to be alive sort of day.

I also like how somber this one is. I took this from the spanish steps in Roma. It was a beautiful evening.

And for kicks, here is my favorite picture of a sunrise. Taken before class at The American University of Rome.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

"Oh wow"

Posted on by

Probably the effect of having someone visiting and staying in our apartment and being busy, but I couldn’t focus on only one book the last few days. I’ve started numerous books, and am reading all of them. I’m not one who likes to read many books at one time, two is my normal max. But now I’m reading The Great Gatsby, What is the What, Clementine, The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair, Life of Pi, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Out of control.

Today I found McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #22 at Barnes and Noble, and had to take it home with me. I highly recommend this. It’s absolutely beautiful – a leather cover with three books held within by magnets. The titles are:

  • From The Notebooks: The Unwritten Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The State of Constraint: New Work from Oulipo
  • The Poetry Chains of Dominic Luxford: Poets Choose Poets Till We Have Fifty

Some links for today:

This is way out of my budget, but incredibly awesome: A Giant Sticky Note Table.

A bookstore temporarily arranged by color, creative and stunning. (also see this picture)

The Top 10 “so bad they’re good” lines from bad science fiction novels. (#5 is my personal favorite: You could tell it was a real UFO because there weren’t any wires holding it up and it smelled like outer space.)

Come In Go Away doormat – extremely cool typography.

This color profile is certainly interesting, but I don’t really find it accurate at all.

(most of my links today were found through Neatorama, a truly wonderful blog.)

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

Cyberspace

Posted on by

A few random links for today:

Here’s a site that chronicles one guy’s mission to call the famous 867-5309 number in every single US area code.

Test your knowledge of the 50 states. As soon as you click on this link, you will be on a web page where you have 10 minutes to type in the names of all 50 US states. I got all but 1, I should have gone letter by letter instead of by region, I think I would have done better.

10 interesting facts about the Oscars.

How to love like a genius.

Creative advertising from around the world. Some of these are really cool ideas.

This is an oldie but a goodie: click on the horse heads.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

John Mayer: Madison Square Garden

Posted on by
B000H0MKGK.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SS260_V41662590_JohnmayerJohnmayer-1Concert-poster


My first concert in new york. Madison Square Garden. John Mayer. Things don’t get much better than that.

John was incredible, as always. He was charming, funny, clever, chatty and appreciative. I’ve seen him four times now, and each time has been better than the last. This show gave me a real appreciation for Continuum, an album I love (especially now) but that took me longer to get into than his previous releases. My favorite songs from it are Stop This Train and The Heart of Life.

His encore was amazing. He came into the middle of the floor and stood on a small stage and sang Stop This Train and Your Body is a Wonderland, just him and his guitar. Then he went on stage and joined the band for Vultures and Gravity. During Gravity Alicia Keys made a surprise visit and sang with him. It was incredible. Madison Square Garden is the most amazing venue. It’s massive and yet still intimate, and if you could harness the crowd’s energy it would power Manhattan for the evening.

The set list:
Belief
Good Love is On the Way
No Such Thing
I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)
Clarity
I Don’t Need No Doctor
The Heart of Life
Waiting on the World to Change
Bigger Than My Body
Why Georgia
I’m Gonna Find Another You

– encore –
Stop This Train
Your Body is a Wonderland
Vultures
Gravity


(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)