Book covers that appear in The Royal Tennenbaums.

From The Awl: The Rise And Fall Of Grunge Typography

Love it - what could be more American? Dream Act Activists Push Into Mainstream With American Protest Movement Tactics 

Image: source.

Video: The Invisible Bike Helmet

Soup recipes make me excited for fall. And that's good, because in less than a month, I'm moving back to Boston; few places do fall better than New England. Yep, after 2+ years back in my small-town, rural Oregonian home, east coast city life is calling. I'll be arriving out there Sept 18th and starting my new gig on Oct 1st. Thanks for all the encouragement and support, friends and fam - you all are the best.

“I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling.” - Jack Kerouac

Top 5 Motown Singles: 1965 and the AV Club's Guide to the Musicof Motown

Maira Kalman on thinking, feeling, walking

Image: source.

The Believer interview with Richard Rorty (old, but new to me)

Photos of San Francisco's independent bookstores, new and used. Mmmm.

He Hit Send: On the Awkward but Necessary Role of Technology in Fiction

RIP David Rakoff: On Already Missing The Angry, Passionate Writing Of David Rakoff (by the wonderful Linda Holmes), and excerpts from his Fresh Air interviews.

This week is the week, y'all: Young Immigrants, in America Illegally, Line Up for Reprieve 

“The stars we are given. The constellations we make. That is to say, stars exist in the cosmos, but constellations are the imaginary lines we draw between them, the readings we give the sky, the stories we tell.” ― Rebecca Solnit

TruthOut: Michelle Alexander on the Irrational Race Bias of the Criminal Justice and Prison Systems

Gut-wrenching, heartbreaking.... From WBEZ: The weight of the city's violence, on one school principal, A principal reflects on the last 13 months: 27 current or former students shot, 8 dead.

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"Reporter Julia Scott spent time with three people who ended up living on the streets of San Francisco after losing their homes. Scott brings their stories to this episode of American Public Media’s Marketplace, exploring the correlation between losing a job and the “downward spiral” into homelessness."

“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.” - James Baldwin

Worth a repeat appearance: “If you are a woman. If you are a Person of Colour. If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, if you’re a person of size, if you’re a person of intelligence, if you’re a person of integrity, then you are considered a minority in this world. And it’s gonna be really hard to find messages of self-love, and support anywhere, especially women’s and gay men’s culture. It’s all about how you have to look a certain way or else you’re worthless. You know when you look in the mirror, and you think, ‘Ugh, I’m so fat, I’m so old, I’m so ugly,’ don’t you know that’s not your authentic self, but that is billions upon billions of dollars of advertising, magazines, movies, billboards, all geared to make you feel shitty about yourself so that you will take your hard-earned money and spend it on some turnaround cream that doesn’t turnaround shit. When you don’t have self-esteem, you will hesitate before you do anything in your life. You will hesitate to go for the job you really wanna go for. You will hesitate to ask for a raise. You will hesitate to report a rape. You will hesitate to defend yourself when you are discriminated against because of your race, your sexuality, your size, your gender. You will hesitate to vote. You will hesitate to dream. For us to have self-esteem is truly an act of revolution. And our revolution is long-overdue.” - Margaret Cho

Get it, girl. "Last week, after the BCC aired a documentary about British Olympic weightlifter Zoe Smith and her teammates, dudes on Twitter responded with some highly original quips about the athletes not being feminine enough. (Yep, people actually still say things like, “Now piss off back to the kitchen and make your boyfriend a sandwich he’s hungry.”) The 18-year-old Smith gave them the “verbal kicking they deserved” on her blog:

As Hannah pointed out earlier, we don’t lift weights in order to look hot, especially for the likes of men like that. What makes them think that we even WANT them to find us attractive? If you do, thanks very much, we’re flattered. But if you don’t, why do you really need to voice this opinion in the first place, and what makes you think we actually give a toss that you, personally, do not find us attractive? What do you want us to do? Shall we stop weightlifting, amend our diet in order to completely get rid of our ‘manly’ muscles, and become housewives in the sheer hope that one day you will look more favourably upon us and we might actually have a shot with you?! Cause you are clearly the kindest, most attractive type of man to grace the earth with your presence. 


Oh but wait, you aren’t. This may be shocking to you, but we actually would rather be attractive to people who aren’t closed-minded and ignorant. Crazy, eh?! We, as any women with an ounce of self-confidence would, prefer our men to be confident enough in themselves to not feel emasculated by the fact that we aren’t weak and feeble."

source: Olympic weightlifter Zoe Smith speaks for us all when she tells sexist trolls we don’t care if you don’t find us attractive

From Mother Jones: Plant Tomatoes. Harvest Lower Crime Rates. "Looking at Schiffer's photos and talking with people involved in urban farming, I've come to realize that their efforts have less to do with providing healthy food than they do with a reclamation of sorts, taking ownership of their community and their daily lives...  There's been a growing body of research that suggests that urban farming and greening not only strengthen community bonds but also reduce violence." [photos & text]

Image: source.

Dying of laughter. Also, maybe in love with this man: Dramatic Readings of Yelp Reviews: 1-Star Review of Stratford Diner by Dan B

From The Atlantic: What My Son's Disabilities Taught Me About 'Having It All': "Because of her child's problems, the author will never have a tidy, peaceful life. But none of this keeps her from being happy -- as long as she asks herself the right questions." (I feel like the title and summary aren't perfect fit for the article but...it's not super long, and it's definitely worth the read.)

From Salon: Not Here: ‎"Were we serious—truly serious—about making the civil massacre disappear, having it become, like the amok, nothing more than an antiquated curiosity, the history of the amok tells us precisely what to do: divest evil of its grandiosity or mythic resonance by completely banalizing it." (The article also includes some interesting notes on superheroes and their role in American culture.)

Oakland Leads Way as Restorative Justice Techniques Enter Education Mainstream: "Restorative justice attempts to break the cycle of violence by addressing the underlying cause — often, a traumatic experience, such as physical or verbal abuse or witnessing a violent crime — and acknowledging the emotional impact of such trauma on young people. Through active communication, young people in restorative justice programs have been able to overcome their violent impulses." (I'm going to a restorative justice training later this month, really excited about it!)