Which are you currently reading: a magazine that looks like a blog, or a blog that looks like a magazine? It’s getting harder and harder to tell, says Slate‘s Farhad Manjoo.
There’s Blog in my Magazine. No, There’s Magazine in my Blog.
Light ‘Em Up
Fact or Fiction: Smoking makes you look cool. According to Christopher Urban at The Paris Review, it’s an inarguable fact. Now at least let him defend himself. How cool does young Raymond Carver sound with his candy Lucky Strike?
America: A Review
“Airing from the 1776-77 season through today, America focuses on a small ensemble of white people using things in the ground to become rich or kill brown people.” Megan Amram reviews America at McSweeney’s.
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Have Fun and the Money Will Come
Richard Branson has built a global business empire (Virgin Group) around the philosophy “have fun and the money will come.” Branson’s new book, Screw Business as Usual, says there’s a way to make money and also do good. And speaking of having fun, watch Branson and Steven Colbert get into a fire extinguisher/water fight.
Finding God by the Creek
“The striking thing about her search for God is that she sometimes finds him. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’s second chapter, after a kind of introduction, is titled ‘Seeing.’ There are two kinds, she explains. The common variety is active, where you strain, against the running babble of internal monologue, to pay attention to what’s actually in front of you. But, she tells us, ‘there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go.’ You do not seek, you wait. It isn’t prayer; it is grace. The visions come to you, and they come from out of the blue.” On Annie Dillard’s turn to silence.
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Teju Cole’s Photography
Amitava Kumar writes complementary text for Open City author Teju Cole’s photography exhibit. You can check out Cole’s Flickr page over here.
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