Wood, And Other Mediums

I’m glad it won’t ever stop, because I don’t...

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:03:31 -0400

I’m glad it won’t ever stop, because I don’t want it to ever stop.

I love wooden coat hangers.

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:11:14 -0400

I love wooden coat hangers.

Caressed a lot of plywood over the past half-dozen years. Never...

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:22:19 -0400

Caressed a lot of plywood over the past half-dozen years. Never thought to make a movie about it. I have to live with that. (via BuzzFeed, which was via Metafilter, which got it from somewhere, all last week)

Links (hyper) to the 2012 ASME-nominated stories

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:09:00 -0400

In case I’m not the only deadbeat who hasn’t read most of the stories nominated for ASMEs. There’s a good chance this link collection already exists somewhere else. It’s cool.

…

REPORTING

The Atlantic for “Our Man in Kandahar,” November

Los Angeles for “What Happened to Mitrice Richardson?” September

The New Yorker for “The Apostate,” February 14 & 21

The New Yorker for “Getting bin Laden,” August 8

Vanity Fair for “Echoes From a Distant Battlefield,” December

…

FEATURE WRITING
Esquire for “Heavenly Father!” October

GQ for “The Man Who Sailed His House,” October

The New York Times Magazine for “You Blow My Mind. Hey, Mickey!” June 12

The New Yorker for “A Murder Foretold,” April 4

Rolling Stone for “Arms and the Dudes,” March 31

…

PROFILE WRITING
D Magazine for “He Is Anonymous,” April

ESPN The Magazine for “Game of Her Life,” January 10

Men’s Journal for “The Blind Man Who Taught Himself to See,” March

Rolling Stone for “Santiago’s Brain,” December 8

Sports Illustrated for “Dewayne Dedmon’s Leap of Faith,” November 14

…

ESSAYS AND CRITICISM
Esquire for “The Loading Dock Manifesto,” May

GQ for “Too Much Information,” May iPad Edition

New York for “Paper Tigers,” May 16

The New Yorker for “The Aquarium,” June 13 & 20

Slate for “The Stutterer: How He Makes His Voice Heard,” February 22

12angrymascots: NEW VIDEO: JOHN AXFORD’S AX MUSTACHE SPRAY As...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:34:33 -0400

12angrymascots:

NEW VIDEO: JOHN AXFORD’S AX MUSTACHE SPRAY
As YouTube user dsm92eclipsegsx13 put it, “Noiiiiiice! Better actors and this could be on tv.” In other words, we over-achieved.

Signed, a proud sub-par actor

One of these skittering across a windy cross-street would...

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:39:39 -0500

One of these skittering across a windy cross-street would single-handedly bump the Homeland Security advisory level a shade or two.

How To Create a Microsoft Word Macro for the Phrase “Rich...

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:21:00 -0500

How To Create a Microsoft Word Macro for the Phrase “Rich Harden Was Injured”

ESPN asked 12 Angry Mascots to make a demo video for its Get Me...

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:00:00 -0400

ESPN asked 12 Angry Mascots to make a demo video for its Get Me To The World Cup contest. So one enchanted evening, Hilary, Ballard and I cobbled this Hamlet homage together. And I got some lacy lady-stockings for keeps.

12angrymascots: We participated in a shoot for Baruch College’s...

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:00:00 -0400

12angrymascots:

We participated in a shoot for Baruch College’s Dollars & Sense on Wednesday. As evidenced: Crushed it.

"He runs rampant across the world, helping and killing and saving and selling, buying and raping and..."

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:57:29 -0400

“He runs rampant across the world, helping and killing and saving and selling, buying and raping and stealing and feeling and making love and running away and laughing and crying and dying and being born and dying and being born and dying and being born and dying and being born.”

- A doozy of a sentence from a solid story featuring the type of whimsy too often lacking in “mainstream” short fiction.

"[TREY] PARKER: Half of it’s laziness, but half of it is — like Matt was saying — after year 3, we..."

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:32:08 -0500

“[TREY] PARKER: Half of it’s laziness, but half of it is — like Matt was saying — after year 3, we really learned our lesson. Which is, if you’ve got something good, pay attention to it and do it right.”

- Via a NYT interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, a lesson from “Accomplishing Meaningful Things 101” that I’ll hopefully internalize … soon.

“Symphonies,” by Dan Black, with Kid Cudi. If...

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:00:00 -0500

“Symphonies,” by Dan Black, with Kid Cudi. If you’re a musician, director, editor, film buff or general appreciator of all things artsy and swell, it’s impossible watch and listen to this without shaking your head and thinking, “You bastard.”

(via...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:52:23 -0500

(via hilarysiegel:matthewvandoren:youmightfindyourself:waxandmilk)

jakezucker: Valerie D’Orazio (of whom you have not heard the...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:09:00 -0500

jakezucker:

Valerie D’Orazio (of whom you have not heard the last) featured this picture on her blog on Friday, and I thought it was worth posting here. Take a look at the top left corner! Coincidently, I just found all of my old Calvin and Hobbes collections and unofficially committed to rereading each one in succession. This terrific cover — illustrated by Ed Hannigan — was commissioned as part of a fund raising effort for The Hero Initiative, a worthwhile group that “creates a financial safety net for comic creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work.” For more information, visit Marvel Comics’ promotional page.

Two of my last seven posts involved Calvin & Hobbes. Why stop now? (Heroes live forever, but legends never die.)

Stop-motion animation is old, but will never get old. (I...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:43:01 -0500

Stop-motion animation is old, but will never get old. (I don’t think I’ve done as much planning in my entire life as this one video must have required.)

Few things had as big an impact on me as a writer / humorist /...

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:27:22 -0500

Few things had as big an impact on me as a writer / humorist / reckless youth than Calvin and Hobbes. (It also introduced me to the expression (nay, philosophy) “it builds character,” which I now bandy around with aplomb—much to the chagrin of friends who value things like air conditioning and umbrellas.)

It’s killer that Watterson hung it up when he did and became a recluse; if you’re not going to die at 27, disappearing while wildly popular is an admirable back-up plan. A Cleveland Plains-Dealer reporter recently got Watterson to give his first interview in 20 years, albeit via email. It’s brief, but insightful. There’s also a link to a slideshow of Watterson’s pre-C&H newspaper work. [Via.]

The N’Awlins Times-Picayune rounded up images of newspaper...

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:53:29 -0500

The N’Awlins Times-Picayune rounded up images of newspaper front pages from ‘round the country. Geaux Steelers.

Just in time for the big game, our NFL Writers Room finds a new...

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:38:09 -0500

Just in time for the big game, our NFL Writers Room finds a new home at Atom.com.

REASONS YOU SHOULD NOT DATE WRITERS (IF YOU ARE A WRITER) 1. Writing is not mysterious to them, so...

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:27:53 -0500

REASONS YOU SHOULD NOT DATE WRITERS (IF YOU ARE A WRITER)

1. Writing is not mysterious to them, so they will not romanticize, mythologize, or idealize what you do.

2. You will not as easily be able to get out of things because you need to write. (And you should be able to. You should be able say “I can’t go to the movie tonight like I said I would, because I got this idea and I have to write it down, otherwise I’ll lose momentum.” It’s a legitimate excuse.Paradoxically, non-writers are much more understanding about these things than writers.)

3. Reading and/or critiquing each other’s work is terribly awkward and fraught with nuance. It may result in the laying of emotional landmines.

4. If you are more successful than they are, they will, at least on some level, be jealous. If they are more successful than you, you will, at least on some level, be jealous.

6. One person using the relationship as material is problematic enough. Both people using it is like CatDog trying to eat itself.

7. You will be poor.

[Neil’s note: On the other hand, it would help to have someone around to handle counting-based tasks.]

hilarysiegel: thedailywhat: Photo Set of the Day: Thirty eight real-life recreations of Calvin...

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:07:00 -0500

hilarysiegel:

thedailywhat:

Photo Set of the Day: Thirty eight real-life recreations of Calvin & Hobbes snowmen.

Above: Snowman-eating snowman, spotted in Florence, MA.

[nerdcore.]

This is amazing!!

Clicked this because I have long hearted Calvin and Hobbes. BUT ONCE I LOOKED AT IT CLOSELY, I became intrigued by something else: Physics. Namely, how the tentacle can support an entire snowman. That’s a lot of heavy snow being held up by … more snow. (Or is it concealed foam?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!;;;?!?!?).

It reminded me, just ‘cause, of a chair I saw at MAD in November:

That’s a lot of Asian man being held up by very thin wood legs. Turns out the chair has a thin steel skeleton, which was veiled by astonishing craftsmanship on the part of Nendo, the shop that built it. MAD’s site has a video showcasing the chair, as well as some of Nendo’s other slick projects.