The Best Stuff I Read This Week

“I believe in books.”

— Haki R. Madhubuti / “So Many Books, So Little Time”

“The reason why conspiracy theories are so psychologically attractive is because they use clever tricks that the mind is partly predisposed to want to accept.”

— Sander van der Linden / Foolproof

“Why would you trade Paradise for an argument / About Paradise?”

— Roger Reeves / “The Head of the Cottonmouth”

“You are molting,
exuviating what was once safe
It is not catastrophic to be free.”

— Ada Limón / “Slough”

“Art is anything you can get away with … We often get stuck in these ideas of what we’re supposed to be doing, and what systems are telling us we should be doing. As someone who could never accept systems, being an artist the way I have has been hard. But, if you just do what you believe in, time will be kind.”

— Mike Galinsky / The Creative Independent interview

“The bottom half of that woman is like the top half of that man.
(I am one who mourns the chance meeting of sadness.)”

— Yi Sang / “Au Magasin de Nouveautes”

“Even the dead come out to dance
A cueca waltz.”

— Nicanor Parra / “Defense of Violeta Parra”

What I’m Listening To:

“Until the next time with six hits of sunshine
The lights will blind us with blues in haiku”

— Sonic Youth / “Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg)”