I'm setting up TheDarlingBudds.com this weekend, and for some reason that requires that the main site be offline all weekend. I don't know, maybe I'm doing it wrong.
Everything should be back up by Monday.
Saturday, July 11
Thursday, July 9
Conduct Unbecoming A Hobo
From a 1949 issue of Time:
The shifting tides of social acceptance were charted in the 1950 edition of Manhattan's Bowery Social Register (also known as The Almanac de Skid Row), blue book of U.S. hoboes. Blue-penciled out this year by Bowery News Editor Harry Baronian: Crown Prince Bozo, for conduct unbecoming a hobo; Frisco John, for abusing people who turned him down for a handout; Buffalo John, for taking a dental bridge from the mouth of a sleeping companion.Incidentally, Gould was the subject of two classic New Yorker profiles by Joseph Mitchell: "Professor Seagull," and the book-length Joe Gould's Secret. The latter is exquisitely moving, and both can be found in Up In The Old Hotel. Recommended about as highly as possible.
In the book this year: Prince Robert de Rohan Courtenay, for inventing a new poetic medium called Pling Plong; Box-Car Betty, ex-hula dancer and snake charmer, for research indicating that the flavor of a cigar is enhanced if dipped occasionally in beer; Harvard man ('11) Joe Gould, perennial Greenwich Village drink-cadger and author of an uncompleted 9,000,000-word book (An Oral History of Our Time), for turning out a new couplet: 'In the winter I'm a Buddhist/In the summer I'm a nudist.'
Wednesday, July 8
Bruno's Philosophy
“My philosophy is: Treat your clothes like you would a pet — love them for a week, then stick them in a plastic bag and throw them in the Danube river.” -Bruno
Tuesday, July 7
Joe
In a 1988 interview with John Waters, he mentions that when he was in high school, most of the girls had beehives...but then a few of them started showing up to school with super-straight hair. This was referred to as "going Joe," short for "going Joe College," i.e. becoming a beatnik.
I want this to come back, but age-reversed. For example, when discussing a 26-year-old broker who wears Abercrombie & Fitch and drinks too much Budweiser, one could say: "He's a nice enough guy, but I could never get serious with him...he's still Joe."
You guys get on this.
Monday, July 6
Style Sages
Men.Style.Com--the home of Details and GQ magazine--is usually an unusable mess and Example Number One about how corporate magazines suck at online publishng. However, this spring they posted two quite good videos that they couldn't stop themselves from calling Style Sages. Ugh.
The first features author Gay Talese discussing in elegaic terms the need to support the tailoring industry. Then he gives you a tour of his closet:
The other video features Alan Flusser, who is a bit too taken with his own bitchiness, but it's an entertaining video nonetheless:
The first features author Gay Talese discussing in elegaic terms the need to support the tailoring industry. Then he gives you a tour of his closet:
The other video features Alan Flusser, who is a bit too taken with his own bitchiness, but it's an entertaining video nonetheless:
Saturday, July 4
44
I just posted installment 44--The Secret Origins Of Ron The Baptist!--over on the main site. (Wouldn't it be awful if The Darling Budds really was about stuff like revealing secret origins? Wouldn't you be so sad for me?)
If you're reading this in your RSS reader, you'll want to visit the book site to see the stark new design.
Sharp-eyed readers will note that I've changed the description of the book: it's now called a "Young Adult serial" instead of a "Young Adult novel." I'm not 100% percent sure about this change, but my thinking is that there's not really a good word for what The Darling Budds is...it's a novel in that it has a definite plot with a pre-planned beginning, middle, and end, but it's more of a serial in that there are back stories, sideplots, and character developments that don't necessarily tie into the main story. Really, the book is more like an entire season of a serialized TV show than it is a novel.
Let me know what you guys think. Like I said, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Oh, and then when we get that settled, we can tackle the "Young Adult" part; case in point, this installment doesn't have a single teenage character.
This week's soundtrack is Marsha Hunt's cover of Dr. John's "I Walk On Gilded Splinters," which I feel has the combination of New Orleans atmosphere and creeping menace that this installment was going for.
This is totally true: I'm only posting the Hunt version because I can't find the amazing Cher version from the 60s. Yeah, Cher...I know, I know, but I'm not kidding, it's totally mindblowing and one of my favorite songs ever. Try to find it if you can. (Here's some more information about it.)
BONUS: Here's another cover of the song, this one by Johnny Jenkins. Recognize that drumbeat? It was sampled in Beck's "Loser."
Oh, and don't forget about the Darling Budds: Swipe File tumblr, which is sort of a visual companion to the book. I've been updating it every few days.
If you're reading this in your RSS reader, you'll want to visit the book site to see the stark new design.
Sharp-eyed readers will note that I've changed the description of the book: it's now called a "Young Adult serial" instead of a "Young Adult novel." I'm not 100% percent sure about this change, but my thinking is that there's not really a good word for what The Darling Budds is...it's a novel in that it has a definite plot with a pre-planned beginning, middle, and end, but it's more of a serial in that there are back stories, sideplots, and character developments that don't necessarily tie into the main story. Really, the book is more like an entire season of a serialized TV show than it is a novel.
Let me know what you guys think. Like I said, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Oh, and then when we get that settled, we can tackle the "Young Adult" part; case in point, this installment doesn't have a single teenage character.
*
This week's soundtrack is Marsha Hunt's cover of Dr. John's "I Walk On Gilded Splinters," which I feel has the combination of New Orleans atmosphere and creeping menace that this installment was going for.
This is totally true: I'm only posting the Hunt version because I can't find the amazing Cher version from the 60s. Yeah, Cher...I know, I know, but I'm not kidding, it's totally mindblowing and one of my favorite songs ever. Try to find it if you can. (Here's some more information about it.)
BONUS: Here's another cover of the song, this one by Johnny Jenkins. Recognize that drumbeat? It was sampled in Beck's "Loser."
Oh, and don't forget about the Darling Budds: Swipe File tumblr, which is sort of a visual companion to the book. I've been updating it every few days.
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