Martinis or cheap cigars
Henry Threadgill, on the importance of adjusting to the economic difficulties of life as an artist, filmmaker, musician, writer.
Kurt Vonnegut, advice for students
“Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”
Van Dyke Parks, getting things done
A memo that got results
Nelson Riddle on the Blackwing pencil
He liked it
Stephen Sondheim on pencils and paper
A Blackwing and legal pad man
The Burt Britton Collection
Auction of self-portraits by actors, artists, athletes, musicians, photographers, and writers
Whitney Balliett (1926-2007)
The jazz critic Whitney Balliett died yesterday. His style, like any distinctive style, is easily parodied, but there is no better writer to...
Proust: "one phrase rising"
Excerpt from Swann's Way, first description of Vinteuil's violin and piano sonata