What is the most interesting thing you have read this week?

Annoyingly, you have to be a New Scientist subscriber to access the whole article online, but:

NOT FADE AWAY
As discs disintegrate and tapes decay into an unplayable goo, Barry Fox reports on the race to prevent the world's sound archives vanishing into oblivion

Hardboiled Wonderland and the End Of The World (heh it even sounds like a spacerock band) by Haruki Murakami (sp?). It's one of those books you want to press on your friends and make them read it.

i just finished that, and bought one for L in manchester

Did we have a thread about bookcrossing.com a while back? Matt's just started doing it and I have some Murakami I'd like to cross too. He seems to be a shareable kind of writer...

*looks*

Yup, short and sweet.

Dead heat between "Roister Doister" (Nicholas Udall) and "Funeral Music For Freemasons" (Lars Gustafsson), which are kind of different: 16th Century London lairiness against classic Scando miserabilism.

So, anything shorter? Links to articles etc please!

this week I'm reading Joyce's 'Portrait of the artist'. That's very interesting so far.

I have been reading this: 'Ears have walls' by Steve Connor.

Yay leaky sound.

Idea for exhibition: unplayably degraded Betamax tapes and 'sticky cassettes' as in NS article. It's very sad actually.

i am still reading wittg.phil.invest. on the bus

it is eg entirely responsible for my mentalist position on "infinity" (= i have been given permission to be worse than i already am)

I believe one of these actually _happened_ following a relatively recent FAP.

-- Douglas (il...), February 26th, 2003 3:30 PM.

Coming back to ILE. And discovering that Nigel Slater likes his veg well done, which surprised me a bit.

Hopefully it will be my roast dinners thread!

If you haven't read anything interesting yet this week, read this:

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/1997-06-05/feature.html/page1.html

BLIMEY.

have given up on books for a while and am currently reading a stack of articles ripped from guardian saturday and observer sunday magazines before i put the unsaved bits in the recycling. only thing i read on the train here that i remember the details of is an article on banksy, the graffiti artist from 26 may 2002.

http://www.observer.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,722217,00.html

'Paul Klee said that his painting was like taking a line for a walk,' says graffiti artist Banksy. 'Whereas my style is like taking a photocopier down a darkened alleyway and roughing it up.'

that and his publishing company is called 'Weapons of Mass Distraction' which describes ile to a t.

am also re-reading Alan Moore's Top 10 from the beginning after finally finding a copy of issue 8.

andy

germaine greer essay on Rochester and the cannon, the biographical note and some poems by James Merill, sections of crash, an essay by a queer trappist, a prayer to humility.

I am still ploughing through Philosophy in the Flesh, which kindly explains why (almost) every fundamental question in philosophy is just a pseudo-question with no reality behind it. marvellous.

Banksy is great! There's quite a bit of his stuff in Brighton and we have the book Existencilism somewhere I think.

I saw that today in Magma over the road.

I've been reading "Welcome to the Desert of the Real" by Slavoj Zizek: all pop cons!

Amazons by Cleo Birdwell

:(

the banal convo's thread, it rules.

oh and the issue of Eightball that DV was talking about ages ago, the one with these short strips that are all inter-linked, it was ace.

and the Situationist Reader on the origins of psychogeography in Paris

(Alcogeography has its origins in Brussels)

The most interesting thing I have read this week would have to be an unexpected card that came through the door on Monday morning from a friend of mine thanking me for being such a good friend and...sorry, need to get the handkerchiefs out now. *sniff sniff*. Made me so happy. :)

Combination between a history of Byzantium, a study of 18th century Midlands personalities called The Lunar Men and the new issue of Smithsonian.

I'm loving Chabon's Kavalier and Klay (maybe two thirds of the way in), and I've been reading a huge history of sculpture too.

this made me laugh: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/03/rauch.htm

couple of new City of Tales comics

that article someone posted about introversion, the first few pages of passage by Connie Willis, and college admissions letters. (Those interest me a great deal!) My reading this week has mostly been deadly dull stuff for school

Article/Item: The suicide of the French 17/20 chef...
Book: Finishing Black List, Section H by Francis Stuart - classic!

I started The Flight of the Romanovs last night. So far so good - actually pleasantly readable for being reasonably scholarly and all. (Though maybe a wee bit more gossip than is necessary, even if it makes the reading more entertaining.)

This is a time period that I am seriously remiss in my knowledge of - well, time period and location (I know the Ottoman Empire stuff much better - and the whole Victorian movement, too). Anyway, it's quite engrossing and I am actually learning about something new, so all of that is most excellent. And waiting for me next is a two volume bio of Coleridge, that may get stuck further down the pile if it looks too scholarly.

"la is the capital of kansas" is cracking me up a lot, but i don't think its as interesting as what i read last week.

Still plowing through Mike Davis' Dead Cities

a review of a tv breakfast that supplies 215% of your daily food requirements in one sitting. the first page of nightwood by djuna barnes.

"Nam". Short first-hand accounts of Vietnam by lots and lots of veterans. Fucking intense.

i inadvertently read a chapter of no logo about reclaim the streets,it was photocopied to be read for college...
cynicism about no logo had prevented me from reading it thusfar,but it seemed a lot better than i imagined,so i might give it a try...

Don't know how I forgot about this one:

Letter in the mail for me, Monday, from the IRS. I open it and start reading - the letter says that their records indicate unreported income from investments and that I need to tell them why I didn't report it AND send them the money owed, plus interest.

So panic sets in. Fast breathing, sweating, instant headache, etc.

Then I read the following pages. They show my SS# at the top, and then list multiple (over 40) bank accounts, all credited to ANOTHER SS#. Next to the account numbers and the SS#/Taxpayer ID #, is the amount of interest earned on each acount for 2001. The first account shows $38,753.22. That's the INTEREST mind you. As I read further down the list and onto the next four pages, the interest earned amount decrease - the smallest one was for $0.71. But lots were in the thousands-of-dollars range. What went through my mind was "Shit, I've never had $38K in one account at one time!"

So emotions get REALLY weird, now, and I decide to call their 800 number to see what in the hell is going on. I immediately end-up in the "recorded message menus" from hell. Going from one menu to the next the volume significantly changes - some menus I have to hold the phone away from my ear so as not to be deafened, at others I have to guess at the options because I cannot hear them. Eventually I end-up in some qeue to talk to a real person.

In the meantime, my immagination is racing - what if I can't convince them that they're wrong? I can't afford a lawyer right now! Hell, my doctor still has me in quarrantine - I can't even go to tax court! And then I have the dual inspirations: I'll either file for bankruptcy (the only currently in my name is my car) OR I'll contact one of the local TV stations that run those "We're here to help you" features about bad big government and stuff. Surely they'll love taking the case of a sick young woman, destitute, who is being violated by the IRS and forced into debtors court where she will die because she's exposed to germs and her immune system can't handle it. Brilliant, eh?

So then this man comes on the the other end of the line - and he has the sexiest voice! I mean, REALLY sexy - deep, with a hint of a twang. And he's cheerful. And friendly. And so I am immediately thrown off balance and for a momnt cannot recall why it was I called in the first place. I am about to hang-up in shame for having foregotten when I glace down into my hand and see the letter (which I have managed to doodle all over while biding my time on hold).

So I explain the situation. And he looks-up my account. And comes back on and says "You're not , are you?" And I say "What?" And he says "Somehow, Organization's Tax Payer ID number has become associated with your number. I can take care of that for you right now. Don't worry." So he puts me on hold, does whatever it is that he did, and then comes back on the line to tell me that it's taken care of and that I'll be getting a letter in the mail confirming the correction. And he's all apologetic and flirtatious. So we discussed the weather for a moment or two. And hottubs (don't ask) and dogs (they were wrestling in the background). And then the conversation ended.

So I was emotionally relieved and VERY let down at the same time, having already figured-out my life being spent fighting the IRS and becoming a crusaders for the "little people" and everything.

But I've kept the letter, and the account numbers. They must be good for something!