Kerouac

thanks to @kerouacquotes

Peter Matthiessen, R. I. P.

Peter Matthiessen died. His writing, particularly The Snow Leopard, made a big impression on me. And some early explorations I took in The Paris Review opened my eyes to a different kind of world, a literary world, that was interesting, challenging, provocative, and humanistic. To me, Peter Matthiessen is someone to learn from and to some extent, pattern after.  Thank you Peter.

New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/magazine/peter-matthiessens-homegoing.html
[image thanks to New York Times]


Here is more good writing about Peter:
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/10/29/Seniority/An_examined_life_wort.shtml

Good Friends

Together with good friends, some old and some new.

Kerouac on writing, per BrainPicker

I was a Kerouac fan from early on, and growing up not that far from Lowell added to my enthusiasm.  But I never found this before, thanks much to Maria Popova @brainpicker.  Its about writing, but its about a lot more than that, seems to me.

See: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/22/jack-kerouac-belief-and-technique-for-modern-prose/

William Gibson "takes to Twitter like a duck to water"

You’ve taken to Twitter (GreatDismal).
I have indeed. I’ve taken to Twitter like a duck to water. Its simplicity allows the user to customize the experience with relatively little input from the Twitter entity itself. I hope they keep it simple. It works because it’s simple. I was never interested in Facebook or MySpace because the environment seemed too top-down mediated. They feel like malls to me. But Twitter actually feels like the street. You can bump into anybody on Twitter.

see: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/09/vulture_transcript_william_gib.html

thanks to nymag.com

people who died

Jim Carroll joins his own list: 'Basketball Diaries' author Jim Carroll dies

I enjoyed his work back in the day.

update: Boing Boing posts an interview Jim Carroll did in 1987: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/14/jim-carroll-intervie.html