Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

He wasn’t trying to be the punk of his day: he didn’t try to make extreme music to shock and was baffled when people simply didn’t love it. He just didn’t understand it and thought the world was unfair. Diaghilev knew what exactly was coming and he tried to prepare him for it, but he was like, ‘No. They’re gonna love it!’ The film begins with the debut of The Rite of Spring in Paris and the riot was actually far worse then we show, some of the audience actually started to try and burn down the theatre.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

He wasn’t trying to be the punk of his day: he didn’t try to make extreme music to shock and was baffled when people simply didn’t love it. He just didn’t understand it and thought the world was unfair. Diaghilev knew what exactly was coming and he tried to prepare him for it, but he was like, ‘No. They’re gonna love it!’ The film begins with the debut of The Rite of Spring in Paris and the riot was actually far worse then we show, some of the audience actually started to try and burn down the theatre.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Badass as Ever

"I don’t really have much pity for the record industry — I think it’s corrupt and always has been. So it’s not like the Blues Explosion was ever waiting around; if we got anywhere, and if we achieved any popularity, it was through our own hard work and our own sweat. And it wasn’t because we wanted to play the Pitchfork festival and wore shorts because it was hot. We worked our fucking asses off. Yeah, I think things are different now, but my hunch is a lot of people who are crying about it and making a fuss are a bunch of lazy bastards."

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Badass as Ever

"I don’t really have much pity for the record industry — I think it’s corrupt and always has been. So it’s not like the Blues Explosion was ever waiting around; if we got anywhere, and if we achieved any popularity, it was through our own hard work and our own sweat. And it wasn’t because we wanted to play the Pitchfork festival and wore shorts because it was hot. We worked our fucking asses off. Yeah, I think things are different now, but my hunch is a lot of people who are crying about it and making a fuss are a bunch of lazy bastards."

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Badass as Ever

"I don’t really have much pity for the record industry — I think it’s corrupt and always has been. So it’s not like the Blues Explosion was ever waiting around; if we got anywhere, and if we achieved any popularity, it was through our own hard work and our own sweat. And it wasn’t because we wanted to play the Pitchfork festival and wore shorts because it was hot. We worked our fucking asses off. Yeah, I think things are different now, but my hunch is a lot of people who are crying about it and making a fuss are a bunch of lazy bastards."

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Badass as Ever

"I don’t really have much pity for the record industry — I think it’s corrupt and always has been. So it’s not like the Blues Explosion was ever waiting around; if we got anywhere, and if we achieved any popularity, it was through our own hard work and our own sweat. And it wasn’t because we wanted to play the Pitchfork festival and wore shorts because it was hot. We worked our fucking asses off. Yeah, I think things are different now, but my hunch is a lot of people who are crying about it and making a fuss are a bunch of lazy bastards."

Borges: The Task of Art

The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory. That is our duty. If we don’t fulfill it, we feel unhappy. A writer or any artist has the sometimes joyful duty to transform all that into symbols. These symbols could be colors, forms or sounds

Borges: The Task of Art

The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory. That is our duty. If we don’t fulfill it, we feel unhappy. A writer or any artist has the sometimes joyful duty to transform all that into symbols. These symbols could be colors, forms or sounds

Lest We Forget

Unbelievable photos from Afghanistan in 2010.

Matthew Friedberger On Making, Marketing, and Listening to Music

"People are just as happy with the talk about the object, or the talk about the processes making the object, being interesting. They don’t mind that the object or the processes themselves aren’t interesting. There’s no difference to them. They’re very happy with having Vampire Weekend in place of Elvis Costello. As the media gets smaller and smaller, because of closer small-worldness I guess, success is the only thing that’s interesting."

Matthew Friedberger On Making, Marketing, and Listening to Music

"People are just as happy with the talk about the object, or the talk about the processes making the object, being interesting. They don’t mind that the object or the processes themselves aren’t interesting. There’s no difference to them. They’re very happy with having Vampire Weekend in place of Elvis Costello. As the media gets smaller and smaller, because of closer small-worldness I guess, success is the only thing that’s interesting."

“Everybody Told Me That He Doesn’t Understand”

I truly look forward to seeing this (thanks for the heads up, Courtney) when it comes out in Sept., but I believe it was also on HBO so that might be an option as well. One more really moving and somewhat painful glimpse into the lives of the families who struggle with this impairment every day. Though my son is relatively low on the spectrum, so much of this trailer makes my heart jump: the head-banging, the nervous ticks, the inability to say what you feel (“I’m happy, I’m sad”, like they’re just words you’ve heard someone else say). So much of autism is difficult to face and hard to fathom, and I myself and guilty of pushing it aside at times to try and just enjoy my son just the way he is, but as one of the parents points out here, you can’t take your kids into a black hole and love them and keep them away from the world. They have to learn to live in it, and that education and eventually, letting go, is one of the hardest things a parent can ever do.

But man, does that black hole sound nice.

Strange Son: Portia Iversen

"I know one little boy with autism pretty well. He can't tell me what he's thinking, but when I look into his sparkly brown eyes, I know that he is in there and that he's counting on us to help him get out. Portia Iversen's Strange Son is a wake-up call to the world that there are many more of these children than anyone ever knew, and that we must try a lot harder to find a way to connect with them."