The Basement

A place for random things and flights of fancy.

Mom Knows Best

  • Mom: There's this crazy new show on TV called 'Housewives of New Jersey'.
  • Me: Mom nooooooo
  • Mom : I don't intend to watch it. I'll just stick to 'Law and Order' and 'CSI'
theparisreview: “What is the imagination? In the long run, it’s a matter of attaining a certain degree of generality, of truth about what is, about what one actually lives.” Happy birthday, Simone de Beauvoir. Read our full 1965 interview with the French writer here.

theparisreview:

“What is the imagination? In the long run, it’s a matter of attaining a certain degree of generality, of truth about what is, about what one actually lives.” 

Happy birthday, Simone de Beauvoir. Read our full 1965 interview with the French writer here.

Books I read in 2012

Books I read till the end:

‘The Argumentative Indian’ - Amartya Sen

‘Kafka on the Shore’ - Haruki Murakami

‘The Castle’ - Franz Kafka

‘Norwegian Wood’ - Haruki Murakami

‘Orlando’ - Virginia Woolf

‘The Second Sex’ - Simone De Beauvoir

‘Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy’ - Bil Wright 

‘The Sound and the Fury’ - William Faulkner

‘Baal’ - Bertholt Brecht 

‘The White Castle’ - Orhan Pamuk

‘A Void’ - Georges Perec

‘Leaving the Atocha Station’ - Ben Lerner 

‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ - Truman Capote 

Books I started but didn’t finish:

‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ - T.E. Lawrence 

‘This is the Hour: A Novel about Goya’ - Lion Feuchtwanger 

Living it up in Downtown SoPo. Where third world power supply and Wall Street brats collide. Two months since Sandy and still no love from ConEdison.

Living it up in Downtown SoPo. Where third world power supply and Wall Street brats collide. Two months since Sandy and still no love from ConEdison.

newyorker: As the doctors cautiously revealed the details of injuries inflicted on the young woman, who needed a gut transplant as her intestines had been torn by iron rods, thousands of students from colleges and universities in the city gathered in a spontaneous protest in Delhi. Anger spread like a heat wave. In my years in Delhi as a student and a reporter, the protests against the various instances of sexual assault would be attended and lead by left-leaning women’s organizations student groups. India’s conservative middle and upper-middle classes mostly stayed home. This was different… Basharat Peer on the fury in Delhi after the rape and murder of the 23-year old unnamed victim: http://nyr.kr/YSQPOw Photograph by Rakash Singh/AFP/Getty.

newyorker:

As the doctors cautiously revealed the details of injuries inflicted on the young woman, who needed a gut transplant as her intestines had been torn by iron rods, thousands of students from colleges and universities in the city gathered in a spontaneous protest in Delhi. Anger spread like a heat wave. In my years in Delhi as a student and a reporter, the protests against the various instances of sexual assault would be attended and lead by left-leaning women’s organizations student groups. India’s conservative middle and upper-middle classes mostly stayed home. This was different…

Basharat Peer on the fury in Delhi after the rape and murder of the 23-year old unnamed victim: http://nyr.kr/YSQPOw


Photograph by Rakash Singh/AFP/Getty.

jtotheizzoe:

Birds of Paradise

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology brings you a jaw-dropping look at the gorgeous evolutionary miracles that are birds of paradise. Their colorful dances are are one of the pinnacles of biological art.

(via Science-Based Life)

Required bedtime reading. Thanks @ldeakfri

Required bedtime reading. Thanks @ldeakfri

Why it's humbling to have parents who've lived in Europe.

  • Mom: So what did you do yesterday?
  • Me: Attended mass at Trinity Church. They performed Bach's 'Magnificat' and a whole lot of carols. It's a grand old church with a lot of history.
  • Mom: Ah! Your father and I went to St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna for Christmas. We also attended the Easter Sunday service at Notre Dame. They had services in French, German, and English and we sat through them all!

Merry Christmas!

(Source: Spotify)

tommypenner: Star Wars was ruined long before Disney bought the franchise. I mean look at George Lucas. Just look at that face. Edit: I found that photo by Googling “George Lucas Disney Regret” My BFF is a die hard Star Wars fan. I don’t have the heart to show this to her.

tommypenner:

Star Wars was ruined long before Disney bought the franchise. I mean look at George Lucas. Just look at that face.

Edit: I found that photo by Googling “George Lucas Disney Regret”

My BFF is a die hard Star Wars fan. I don’t have the heart to show this to her.

(via sweendawg)