If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.

Natalie Goldberg (via ilovereadingandwriting)

glimflashy

wordjournal:

adjective • [obsolete] angry, or in a passion.

From The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.

Clients are the difference between art and design.

Michael Bierut (via soulellis)

also, thanks to those online friends i got to mirl… nice to finally meet face to face…

thanks all for joining me at malaprops… i was surprised to look up during the reading & find the cafe full & with people standing in the back!

Poetry reading tonight

Tonight’s one-hour poetry reading at Malaprop’s Bookstore (55 Haywood St., Asheville, NC) begins at 7 p.m.

I’ll read from 7:00 to 7:30. Here is my set list:

  1. Immigrant
  2. Quits
  3. Leave my girlfriend alone
  4. Three shots in the night air
  5. Autobiography I
  6. Autobiography II
  7. Wander
  8. Immolation
  9. Dream catcher
  10. We are so far from home
  11. Stone upon stone I’ll bleed the river
  12. Always departing
  13. Where can men weep?
  14. Harvest moon
  15. Winter roost
  16. Bonfire
  17. What divides us
  18. We shall carry our pajamas in our book bags

This list is subject to change.

just returned for the celebration singers of asheville’s winter concert. the soloist, a 9-yr old, performed memory from the musical cats! amazing!

ireadintothings: Blogging is the art form of the 21st century. When you’re blogging, you’re doing art. Quote me on this one.

paperbackgirl: directus: A perfect disguise, this zippered hardcover Macbook sleeve dresses up your laptop as a book. Each BookBook is brought to life with hand craftsmanship and distressing, ensuring no two are exactly alike.

$79

(Source: http://twelvesouth.com/products/bookbook/)

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.

Charles Wadsworth (via rulesformyunbornson) (via thomasfitzpatrick)

Upstart Publishing l Seth Godin

fluffynotes:

Consider this quote from a high-ranking book publisher who should know better, “We must do everything in our power to uphold the value of our content against the downward pressures exerted by the marketplace and the perception that ‘digital’ means ‘cheap.’ …”

Hello?

You don’t have the power. Maybe if every person who has ever published a book or is ever considering publishing a book got together and made a pact, then they’d have enough power to fight the market. But solo? Exhort all you want, it’s not going to do anything but make you hoarse.

Movie execs thought they had the power to fight TV. Record execs thought they had the power to fight iTunes. Magazine execs thought they had the power to fight the web. Newspaper execs thought they had the power to fight Craigslist.

Here’s a way to think about it, inspired by Merlin Mann: Imagine that next year your company is going to make 10 million dollars instead of a hundred million dollars in profit. What would you do knowing that your profits were going to be far less than they are today? Because that’s exactly what the upstart with nothing to lose is going to do. Ten million in profit is a lot to someone starting with zero and trying to gain share. They don’t care that you made a hundred million last year from the old model.

If I’m an upstart publisher or a little-known author, you can bet I’m happy to sell my work at $5 and earn seventy cents a copy if I can sell a million.

Smart businesspeople focus on the things they have the power to change, not whining about the things they don’t.

Existing publishers have the power to change the form of what they do, increase the value, increase the speed, segment the audience, create communities, lead tribes, generate breakthroughs that make us gasp. They don’t have the power to demand that we pay more for the same stuff that others will sell for much less.

And if you think this is a post about the publishing business, I hope you’ll re-read it and think about how digital will change your industry too.

Competition and the market are like water. They go where they want.

Via Seth Godin

Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard LIMITED EDITION BOX SET (One Fast Move Or I’m Gone Kerouac’s Big Sur)

I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me

Donald Miller

GPOYW – promo edition

The Traveling Bonfires’ “Vagrant Wind”

The Traveling Bonfires return to Asheville with a one-hour poetry reading featuring founding members Pasckie Pascua and Matthew Mulder.

Friday, January 22, 2010
7:00pm
Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe Street, 55 Haywood Street City/Town: Asheville, NC

nikography:

i went to school for graphic design, and did not spend my nights getting drunk. instead, i worked my ass off, spent most of my outside-class time learning/trying/doing as much as possible, and then got an awesome job after graduating.

protip: if you’re lucky enough (and i mean it when i say lucky) to be in college, you should be spending all available time learning, trying, making things, messing things up, experimenting and READING. (seriously. they make sketchbooks with words in them already. they are just called books.)

i didn’t waste a single day. and neither should you. build your momentum and go with it.

for the but-i’m-an-artist’s: you want money? learn a technical skill related to your field and get good at it. then get better at it. jonathan harris built wefeelfine on the weekends while working a full time job. just sayin’.

final note: i had a BLAST in college, and miss it like crazy. working hard does not mean no-fun-allowed, it means relax harder 🙂

orginal image via synecdoche

(Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/workerman/4285870664/)

The 7 Components Of Design

(via vanseodesign)

dear tumblr

i really, really need to quit you… you’re interrupting my work…

palinoia

wordjournal: noun • (pal-ih-NOI-uh) • compulsive repetition of an act until it is perfect

brocatus: Mike gives a very good example here. mikearauz: We’ve trained ourselves to recognize videos, images, and messages that will be most appropriate for spreading, repeating, and remixing. The concepts of “viral” and “memes,” i.e. things that spread on their own without human control or volition, are dead (Read Henry Jenkins and co. if you don’t believe me). And with each new Susan Boyle we discover, the creation of overnight internet celebrities becomes an even more deliberate and conscious act.

Spreadability Is No Accident: Pants On The Ground

Unknown's avatarAuthor coffeehousejunkiePosted on Format LinkCategories generalLeave a comment on brocatus: Mike gives a very good example here. mikearauz: We’ve trained ourselves to recognize videos, images, and messages that will be most appropriate for spreading, repeating, and remixing. The concepts of “viral” and “memes,” i.e. things that spread on their own without human control or volition, are dead (Read Henry Jenkins and co. if you don’t believe me). And with each new Susan Boyle we discover, the creation of overnight internet celebrities becomes an even more deliberate and conscious act.

“Moral #1: “If you work hard, stay focused, and never give up, you will eventually get what you want in life.”

Moral #2: Sometimes the things we want most in life are the things that will kill us. “

Donald Miller

Moral #1: “If you work hard, stay focused, and never give up, you will eventually get what you want in life.”

Moral #2: Sometimes the things we want most in life are the things that will kill us.

Donald Miller