Remember "Paul is Dead"? Well, so far he's doing pretty good, so maybe someone should let the people at this website in on it. Talkbackwards.com is all about the phenomenon of reverse speech, i.e. the hidden messages in everything from rock songs to human speech. From the looks of it, it doesn't seem to be made by some hysterical right wingers trying to blame yet another human tragedy on metal, but it's still really weird. It actually claims to be based on science (and trying to get you to work for them) and research about the supposed two modes of language, one being conscious and the other being subconscious. According to them, if you lie, someone listening to a backwards tape of you can discover the truth because as you were lying in normal language, you were telling the truth in backwards language! If GPS locator phones weren't enough, now teenagers are really fucked.
One night at a party, Magnus Muhr noticed a dead fly on the balcony. For some reason, seeing it laying there inspired him to find more dead flies, a pencil, some paper, and a camera so he could create these clever, funny photos. It's weird how some pretty simple line drawings can turn something from "Ew!" to "Ha!"
Entire series here.
Do you remember how when you were a kid, getting to get on a plane was always so exciting, no matter where you were going? It made no difference that you were being dragged to your grandparents' smelly Florida home; the idea of flying always trumped the terrible places your parents thought would be "just lovely" to visit. Nowadays, flying is the bane of our existence: security lines, IDs, lost luggage, uncomfortable seats, babies who just won't stop crying, people with mysteriously strong peanut allergies. But above all, it's the bitchy stewardesses with an attitude problem and an awful uniform that seem to really make it a miserable experience. Seeing these photos of when air hostesses had great outfits and were excited to do their jobs makes me nostalgic not only for a time I wasn't alive, but also for the time in my life when I was oblivious to the downsides of air travel.
See 50 of these here.
Here's an interview from Bookslut with Horacio Castellanos Moya, journalist, poet, short story writer, and novelist. His books have barely been translated into English, but the third one, Dances With Snakes, was released a few weeks ago. The interviewer asks all the questions I would have asked myself, which prompt answers that make me really happy. For example:
"I considered myself a poet who wrote short stories. I’m not one of those cases of the journalist who becomes a writer of fiction, but rather the reverse. I came to journalism later, as a way of surviving. Of course this experience influenced the works of fiction that came later: first, negatively, because journalism is an absorbing profession that didn’t leave me time to write literature; second, in a natural way, because some of my characters are journalists, or are connected to the world of journalism."
"I considered myself a poet who wrote short stories. I’m not one of those cases of the journalist who becomes a writer of fiction, but rather the reverse. I came to journalism later, as a way of surviving. Of course this experience influenced the works of fiction that came later: first, negatively, because journalism is an absorbing profession that didn’t leave me time to write literature; second, in a natural way, because some of my characters are journalists, or are connected to the world of journalism."
An essay by Jonathan Lethem on the importance of Philip K. Dick's work throughout his life. No need to be a Philip scholar to appreciate the story.
Read the whole thing, for free, here.
Read the whole thing, for free, here.
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