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May
11th
Sun
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szymon:


San Zhi complex by the sea outside Taipei, Taiwan. It was built in the 70s as a resort for residents seeking to get out of the city, but was later abandoned.

szymon:

San Zhi complex by the sea outside Taipei, Taiwan. It was built in the 70s as a resort for residents seeking to get out of the city, but was later abandoned.
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Alexey Titarenko (via Kottke)
Alexey Titarenko (via Kottke)
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… the idea of taking a cow’s leg, mulching it into a fatty pulp, and forming it into a pancake makes me gag. And hot dogs … I mean, hot dogs? You do know what that is, right?
— Taylor Clark in Vegetarian Myths Debunked at Slate
May
10th
Sat
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May
8th
Thu
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J.R.R. Tolkien comparing himself to a hobbit in Humphrey Carpenter’s Tolkien biography:
“I am in fact a hobbit in all but size.  I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats.  I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humour (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible).  I do not travel much.”
J.R.R. Tolkien comparing himself to a hobbit in Humphrey Carpenter’s Tolkien biography:
“I am in fact a hobbit in all but size. I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humour (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much.”
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Cyril Connolly asked Auden for a poem to make him weep

The Fall of Rome - W.H. Auden
(For Cyril Connolly)

The piers are pummelled by the waves;
In a lonely field the rain
Lashes an abandoned train;
Outlaws fill the mountain caves.

Fantastic grow the evening gowns;
Agents of the Fisc pursue
Absconding tax-defaulters through
The sewers of provincial towns.

Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.

Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extol the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.

Caesar’s double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.

Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.

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If steampunk has a mission, it is, in part, to restore a sense of wonder to a technology-jaded world. “Today satellite photos make the planet seem so small,” Mr. Brown lamented. “Where is the adventure it that?” In contrast, steampunk, with its airships, test tubes and time machines, is, he said, “sort of a dream , the way we used to daydream. It’s like part of your childhood’s just bursting forward again.
May
7th
Wed
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Batter against the brilliance…
— Richard Wilbur
May
6th
Tue
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Drudge goes out on a limb and makes the call…
Drudge goes out on a limb and makes the call…
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You Are So Unaware of Your Beauty, Peter Garfield (via Vulture)
You Are So Unaware of Your Beauty, Peter Garfield (via Vulture)