Cormorano
May 2012
“Quelli che hanno un’indole romantica decidono di lavorare nell’editoria, nel teatro, nel cinema… Non mettono su una ditta di autospurghi, aspettano che la metti su tu (loro hanno studiato i classici). Aspettano che fai una cazzata, perché con una ditta di autospurghi una cazzata prima o poi la fai. A quel punto arrivano loro con libri, inchieste… 500.000 copie vendute, 1 euro a copia. Fa un miliardo di vecchie lire. Chiamali scemi. In più si lamentano: “Non c’è libertà, c’è la censura”, e altre balle. Speriamo la gente si accorge.”
—Innamorato Fisso del 17 maggio 2012
The Surreal Selling of Man Ray →
online.wsj.com
How a Long Island family with an auto-body shop wound up controlling the artist’s legacy. The $20 million collection in the garage.
Listen
“I’m 101 at the moment, I get older by the minute.” - Ronald Coase on Planet Money
Roland Barthes - Toys →
xroads.virginia.edu
Toys are essentially a microcosm of the adult world; they are all reduced copies of human objects, as if in the eyes of the public the child was nothing but a smaller man who must be supplied with objects of his own size.
[via tetw]
“In the spirit of full disclosure, it should be noted that Jay McInerney is thought to be the only Wall Street Journal columnist to have appeared on “Gossip Girl”.”
—WSJ
“Dispiace tra una latrina e l’altra mettere dei lastroni di ferro. Però per i pederasti ci vuole: sbattono giù i pannelli divisori. Il problema è che se rimani chiuso dentro chiami il pederasta e lui ti butta giù la lastra in ferro. “Almeno un bacino?”. “No, no, mi dispiace…”. “Ma dai, un bacino…”. “Ok, eccoti il bacino”.”
—Innamorato Fisso dell’8 maggio 2012
“A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.”
—Walter Scott [via Legal Writing Prof Blog]
On the origins of the arts - E.O. Wilson - Harvard Magazine →
harvardmagazine.com
We are forced to stumble through our chemically challenged lives in a chemosensory biosphere, relying on sound and vision that evolved primarily for life in the trees. Only through science and technology has humanity penetrated the immense sensory worlds in the rest of the biosphere. With instrumentation, we are able to translate the sensory worlds of the rest of life into our own. And in the process, we have learned to see almost to the end of the universe, and estimated the time of its beginning. We will never orient by feeling Earth’s magnetic field, or sing in pheromone, but we can bring all such information existing into our own little sensory realm.
“Ero in un residence. Mi telefona in stanza il direttore: “Scusi, un sondaggio: vorremmo cambiare nome al residence, lei cosa dice?”. Io: “Che nome vorreste mettere?”. Lui: “La Prugna”. Io: “Residence La Prugna? Non è brutto. Ma anche Mirtilli, in onore dei mirtilli…”. Lui: “Grazie, molto gentile”. Io: “Quando lo cambiate?”. Lui: “Domani vengono gli operai a tirar giù le insegne”. Io: “Le potete dare a me?”. Lui: “Certo, ma per curiosità, cosa ne fa?”. Io: “Le butto nel Lambro, così poi vengono a prendervi per smaltimento abusivo di insegne luminose”.”
—Innamorato Fisso del 4 maggio 2012
“In the [past] five years, federal courts of appeals have cited Wikipedia about 95 times, including a case last month in which Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit pointed to Wikipedia’s entry on anal fissure – ”no fun at all,” he noted with understatement. His colleague on the Seventh Circuit, Judge Diane Sykes, cited Wikipedia’s entry on the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy ”Blazing Saddles,” in a ruling earlier this year. Last year, Judge Terrence O’Brien of the 10th Circuit looked to Wikipedia for the definition of “happy hour,” which, according to the entry, occurs between four and seven in the evening. The Ninth Circuit, in a per curium opinion last August, relied on Wikipedia’s entry on Elvis Presley, as if to prove his status as “the King.”
—WSJ Law Blog
April 2012
“I don’t want this Parks Department to build any parks because I don’t believe in government. I think that all government is a waste of taxpayer money. My dream is to have the park system privatized and run entirely for profit by corporations. Like Chuck E. Cheese. They have an impeccable business model. I would rather work for Chuck E. Cheese.”
—Ron Swanson (S01E01)
