The Real Grant Martin

dsdascola: nprfreshair: Neil Patrick Harris is getting...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:57:39 -0400

nprfreshair:

Neil Patrick Harris is getting excellent reviews for his opening number at the Tony Awards Sunday night. It’s definitely “bigger.” What do you think?

Here’s a link to his interview on Fresh Air a little while back.

This guy. This is why the Tony Awards had their highest-ever ratings. This is brilliant.

Reblogged specifically for whizkidliz.

thefuzzydave: The worst way to be killed.

Sat, 25 May 2013 22:33:06 -0400

thefuzzydave:

The worst way to be killed.

theatlantic: Astronauts Snag Dramatic Photographs of Alaska’s...

Thu, 23 May 2013 21:49:45 -0400

theatlantic:

Astronauts Snag Dramatic Photographs of Alaska’s Erupting Volcano

Images of volcanoes from space are often kind of dull. These, we assure you, are not.

See more. [Images: NASA]

newyorker: In January, 2013, photographers Magda Biernat and...

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:32:07 -0400

newyorker:

In January, 2013, photographers Magda Biernat and Ian Webster began a yearlong journey from Antarctica to Alaska. Here, The Photo Booth provides pictures from their Brazilian leg: http://nyr.kr/129bvnV

Reblogging mainly so my sister, Gail, will see this.

mlb: Happy Cinco DiMaggio!

Sun, 05 May 2013 21:12:32 -0400

mlb:

Happy Cinco DiMaggio!

newyorker: A cartoon by Emily Flake. For more cartoons from the...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:08:09 -0400

newyorker:

A cartoon by Emily Flake. For more cartoons from the issue: http://nyr.kr/11RkFpf

Don’t Ask Who the Bell Tolls For Just when I had (almost)...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:26:00 -0400

Don’t Ask Who the Bell Tolls For

Just when I had (almost) figured out how to properly use “whom” comes word of its impending demise.

Frankly, I can’t wait to see it go. I think William Safire, who is quoted in this Atlantic magazine article, had it right: Whenever whom is required, recast the sentence.

Illustration credit: Nishant Choksi

Slow Art for a Fast World What do the following have in...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:28:00 -0400

Slow Art for a Fast World

What do the following have in common?

The British documentary, 56 Up
The resurgence of the vinyl LP record
Websites such as Longreads, Longform, and Byliner
The viral video, Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 12.5 years
Richard Linklater’s upcoming film, Boyhood
TV series such as Madmen, Dexter, and Downton Abbey

They’re all examples of a growing trend toward what is being called “slow art.”

David Zweig does a great job of explaining the concept of slow art and the reasons for its popularity in an (intentionally meta) article in the March 5, 2013, issue of The Awl: “This Is a Longreads on the Internet: The Inroads of Slow Art In a Fast Culture.”

According to Zweig, “…as the natural order always seeks balance, an era of impatience demands a corrective. More and more, it seems, people are seeking permanence from art both as a reaction and remedy to the anxiety imbedded in our culture of impermanence.”

Slow Art Day will be celebrated at about 200 venues worldwide on April 27, 2013.

georgetakei: Happy Pi Day, friends. Mmmmm….Pi

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:43:01 -0400

georgetakei:

Happy Pi Day, friends.

Mmmmm….Pi

"It has never been easier to be a writer; and it has never been harder to be a professional writer."

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:45:58 -0400

“It has never been easier to be a writer; and it has never been harder to be a professional writer.”

- Adam Gopnik on writing today: http://nyr.kr/ZFRu7k (via newyorker)

Word.

newyorker: Cartoon by Tom Toro. For more from this week’s...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:56:38 -0500

newyorker:

Cartoon by Tom Toro. For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/XwWKdv

Reblogging this mostly so my buddy Mike M. from the Philly area will see it.

nprfreshair: Good morning! Here is Willie as Vincent and Marge...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:28:03 -0500

nprfreshair:

Good morning! Here is Willie as Vincent and Marge as the Girl with the Pearl Earring.

insolacion:

David Barton

Either my human growth hormone has finally kicked in, or one of...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:54:00 -0500

Either my human growth hormone has finally kicked in, or one of my co-workers has just given me a can of tennis ball-shaped gum. You be the judge.

Got Caught Singing in My Car Today Does this happen to you?...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:39:52 -0500

Got Caught Singing in My Car Today

Does this happen to you? Today I was sitting in traffic, mindlessly singing along to one of my favorites songs, when all of a sudden I could feel the eyes of the person in the next lane on me.

So I look over, real slow-like. And yup, they’re looking right at me. And they’re giving me this goofy grin as if to say, “Caught you singing in the car, doofus.” As if they never do it.

I learned to drive in 1971, and the little town I grew up in—like many others back in the day—had a circuit for cruising. Gas was cheap, and it was the thing to do on warm summer nights. Back then, the only music source was the AM radio, and the majority of the kids on the circuit were tuned in to the exact same station. (Our town only had four stations anyway, two of which broadcast news and oldies. And by “oldies,” I mean Big Band Era.)

So you can guess what’s coming next: More often than not, if you got caught singing in the car, there was a pretty good chance that the person who caught you was tuned in to the same song. And half the time they would then commence singing right along with you to the song.

With the advent of the iPod, satellite radio, Pandora, and Spotify in the car, what are the chances today that two cars sitting side by side would be tuned in to the exact same song at the exact same time? I’d say “slim and none.” And slim is packing his bags.

A note about the video: The guy in the car reminds me so much of my late college buddy, Brent Heywood, who played the best—and funniest—air drums ever. For example, he would regularly toss his air sticks high in the air and catch them, but every fifth toss or so he would flub the catch. At this point, Brent would give a quick look of embarrassment, grab a replacement air stick off the air stack, and blissfully resume air drumming.

Done (Feb. 3, 2013) Well, that only took a little over four...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 17:16:38 -0500

Done (Feb. 3, 2013)

Well, that only took a little over four months. I will now return to my regularly scheduled life, already in progress. Maybe watch a little TV. I wonder if maybe there’s a football game or something on today.

grantmartin:

Daunting

Along with exhilarating, breath-taking, audacious, triumphant, virtuosic, brilliant, epic, ambitious, sprawling, stunning, and edgy, the word “daunting” is one of the most commonly used words to describe this 1,079-page brick of a masterwork from the late David Foster Wallace.

I’ve been afraid to read this thing since I became aware of its existence. Afraid of the time commitment. Afraid of the jillion footnotes. Afraid that I wasn’t smart enough to fathom it.

My previous strategy of waiting for the right time proved fruitless. It will never be the right time. So I’m jumping in now¹ before my eyesight totally fails me and my brain becomes even more addled than it already is.

I’ve got my three bookmarks, a list of characters, and a dictionary close at hand. See you in 2013 or thereabouts, Internet. I am undaunted. More or less.

^{1 Technically, yesterday, September 29, 2012, at approximately^a 4:56 p.m.}
^{a Unnecessary sub-footnote inserted for comic effect}

There is no easy solution to the gun violence problem in...

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:34:00 -0500

There is no easy solution to the gun violence problem in America, but I feel that we have let that paralyze us for far too long now.

Here’s one way to get started. It may not be the fastest or the most efficient way, but at least it’s better than the big fat nothing I’ve been doing up until this point.

nprfreshair: Jazz great Dave Brubeck has died at 91. Above, his...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:28:42 -0500

nprfreshair:

Jazz great Dave Brubeck has died at 91. Above, his 1966 performance in Germany of “Take the ‘A’ Train” with Paul Desmond on alto sax, Eugene Wright on bass and Joe Morello on drums. Brubeck’s finger-work starts around the 3:50 mark.

Listen to the Fresh Air interview with Brubeck here. We’ll rebroadcast it on Friday.

A moment of silence in honor of the great Dave Brubeck. In fact, go ahead and Take Five.

It finally hit me who Harvard Law School professor and the U.S....

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 22:37:00 -0500

It finally hit me who Harvard Law School professor and the U.S. Senator-elect for the state of Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren reminds me of.

It’s Mrs. Beasley, Buffy’s doll from the 1960s sitcom, Family Affair.

theatlantic: The President is Unimpressed [Image: Flickr user:...

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:09:29 -0500

theatlantic:

The President is Unimpressed

[Image: Flickr user: The White House]

I was sure this was fake. Apparently it isn’t, and the legend of The Coolest President Ever just continues to grow.

I’d like to see this inserted at the end of the next Mitt...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:05:09 -0500

I’d like to see this inserted at the end of the next Mitt Romney press conference clip. (Jon Stewart: Feel free to use this idea at your discretion.)