Thursday, November 25, 2010

Pynchon being Pynchonesque

Favorite fake law firm name:

Salitieri, Poore, Nash, De Brutus, and Short

GR p. 591

Monday, November 22, 2010

Surprise party

Recipe for successful surprise party:  invite only people that the guest of honor does not know.  

Friday, November 19, 2010

Jokes

1.     Movie Review

Man #1:   I'm here to recommend to you the movie "127 Hours."

Me:  Oh, I hear James Franco is totally disarming in that.



2.    Fish and Chips

Man originally from Chester, England

I will say that last year I went back to Chester and was very disturbing to see that my favorite chip shop, which had been there for years and years, was gone.

Man #1: 

And you are telling us this because . . .?

Me:

You don't understand.  He went back to his old hometown, and his old neighborhood.  And on the block where he used to go, to his favorite chip shop, where he used to eat and hang out, looking forward to it, he discovered the chips were off the old block.

Monday, November 15, 2010

from Gravity's Rainbow

Rain drips, soaking into the floor, and Slothrup perceives that he is losing his mind. If there is something comforting -- religious, if you want -- about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many if us can bear for long. Well right now Slothrup feels himself sliding onto the anti-paranoia part of his cycle, feels the whole city around him going back roofless, vulnerable, uncentered as he is, and only pasteboard images now of the Listening Enemy left between him and the wet sky.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Bringing People Together Through Violence Against Others

I need you to beat someone up for me.

from Gravity's Rainbow

Nice sentence:
Trudi, the blonde, and Magda, the sultry Bavarian, have spent the day looting a stash of Wagnerian opera costumes.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Why She's So Good at Her Job of Recommending What Books to Make Movies Of

Patrons at the bar:

A.   She does coverage of manuscripts.

B.    Is she a literary person?

A.    I wouldn't say she is a literary person. I'd say I have more of a literary background than she does. admiringly:  But she reads much faster than I do. 

A.    It's exactly like forcing yourself to go to the gym, getting yourself to read.
I can read scripts, but not a book. She can do it.

The Bar Where The Bartenders Have Problems

Bartender reading e-mail:

"You keep saying how much your life sucks. How do you think that makes me feel as the man in your life?"

Later, not reading:

I'm a such a perfectionist and, it's so, stupid!

Later:

It's bad, his business is doing so well he makes so much more money than
me.

Self Portrait

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Overheard at a museum shop

Young girl looking at doll: Who is this Mommy?

Mother: She's an artist.

Girl: Why is her face like that?

Mother: That's what her face looks like.

Girl: That's a BAD face.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Roger Angell sighting

On Tim Lincecum.

Wait for that mound-eating stride of his: he’s a January commuter arching over six feet of slush. No, no—look at the tilt, the twist and torque, the flying arms, the balance lost and regained, the skinny bod, the high-school hair: he’s an X Games skateboarder headed for the Olympics. Nobody has ever pitched like this before.

Roger Angell cite:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2010/10/lincecum.html

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Nice scene from show biz

 Bob Newhart backstage in Vegas, psyching self up and finding bearings, by listening to a different Richard Pryor bit each time
before going on stage.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Found Poem Overheard

"Wine, bread, butter and cheese. Wine, bread, butter and cheese. Wine, bread, butter and cheese and sex."