Missives From Troy

Sunday Soundtrack: The Airborne Toxic Event — This Is...

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:36:40 -0500

Sunday Soundtrack: The Airborne Toxic Event — This Is London

"There are millennial entrepreneurs everywhere, from Perry in Silicon Valley to StirList creator..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:15:30 -0500

“There are millennial entrepreneurs everywhere, from Perry in Silicon Valley to StirList creator Amber Pankonin in Omaha, Neb. and coffee shop owner Byron Knight in Jackson, Miss. But that’s not the only way we wield our influence. There are also community organizers like Nelini Stamp, 25, who advocates for working families in New York. There are fast food workers like 20-year-old Jevon Walker, who walked out of his job to demand $15 an hour just yesterday in Milwaukee, Wisc. There are countless twentysomethings who are working two jobs and pursuing their passion projects on the side. There are hordes of young people who work for Senators, and who organized and canvassed for the 2008 and 2012 elections and continue to be involved politically. None of these millennials seem to be filling their days taking selfies in their parents’ basement.”

- I name-check mad amounts of my favorite Millennials in this piece for TODAY.com. (via minimumragers)

dallasmorningnews: Staff photographer Vernon Bryant found this...

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:45:23 -0500

dallasmorningnews:

Staff photographer Vernon Bryant found this blown-out Dairy Queen sign in Ennis, Texas, a casualty of last night’s storms in that town about 30 miles southeast of Dallas.

• Follow news coverage of the deadly tornadoes in Granbury and the widespread storms across North Texas, and view more photos of the damage.

cracked: Doctors still won’t replace your hands with robotic...

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:30:19 -0500

cracked:

Doctors still won’t replace your hands with robotic lobster claws. Even if you ask real nice. But regrowing teeth is a nice start.

5 Unbelievable New Ways Science Can Modify the Human Body

#4. Regrow Your Teeth

[T]here are not one, but two teams who’ve set their sights on taking down the denture industry by regrowing your very own teeth right inside your very own mouth-hole.

First, there’s a team from the University of Alberta in Canada (where hockey-related tooth loss strikes virtually every male before age 15) who say they’ve managed to regrow broken teeth by using ultrasound emitters. Seriously, they just point sound waves at your teeth and they grow back. The procedure worked so well on rabbits that the scientists figured, screw it, why not scale up the difficulty and try it out on an animal whose entire diet isn’t just cabbage and water? So they tested a variant of their ultrasound method on humans and found that it worked, even when the root itself was damaged.

Read More

Bring on the tooth regrowth!

Emily Blunt in Talks to Join Disney’s ‘Into the Woods’ | Variety

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:15:52 -0500

Emily Blunt in Talks to Join Disney’s ‘Into the Woods’ | Variety

"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it."

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:56:41 -0500

“My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.”

- Mark Twain

amandaonwriting: 15 Writers - The Best Writing Advice They...

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:53:46 -0500

amandaonwriting:

15 Writers - The Best Writing Advice They Received

Alice Kahn: The best writing advice I’ve ever heard: Don’t write like you went to college.

Andrei Codrescu: Best advice I ever got was from the Romanian poet Nichita Stanescu, who told me in Bucharest, before I emigrated: ‘Learn English. French is dead.’

Christopher Buckley: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was from William Zinsser: ‘Be grateful for every word you can cut.’

Cynthia Ozick: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is: Write with authority.

David Guterson: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is to take it seriously, because to do it well is all-consuming.

George Plimpton: I think the best advice on writing I’ve received was from John Steinbeck, who suggested that one way to get around writer’s block (which I was suffering hideously at the time) was to pretend to be writing to an aunt, or a girlfriend. I did this, writing to an actress friend I knew, Jean Seberg. The editors of Harpers forgot to take off the salutation and that’s how the article begins in the magazine: Dear Jean….

James Atlas: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was from Dwight Macdonald: ‘Everything about the same subject in the same place.’

Margaret Carlson: Best writing advice I’ve ever received: Sell everything three times.

Nick Tosches: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was given to me, like so much else, by Hubert Selby, Jr.: to learn and to know that writing is not an act of the self, except perhaps as exorcism; that, in writing what is worth being written, one serves, as vessel and voice, a power greater than vessel and voice.

Patsy Garlan: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is: Don’t answer the phone.

Peter Mayle: Best advice on writing I’ve ever received: Finish.

Richard Ford: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received: ‘Don’t have children.’ I gave it to myself.

Robert Lipsyte: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was, ‘Rewrite it!’ A lot of editors said that. They were all right. Writing is really rewriting—making the story better, clearer, truer.

Russell Banks: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was probably something Ted Solotaroff told me years ago when he was my editor. Going over a manuscript line by line again and again he kept reminding me, ‘Remember, this is your book, not my book. You’re the one who’s going to have to live with it the rest of your life. I might publish 30 or 40 books this year, you’re only going to publish one, and probably the only one you’re going to publish in two or three years.’

Whitney Balliett: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is, ‘Knock ‘em dead with that lead sentence.’

From Writers Write

After DVD Shipping Error, BBC Asks Fans Not to Spoil ‘Doctor Who’ Finale | NY Times

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:45:31 -0500

After DVD Shipping Error, BBC Asks Fans Not to Spoil ‘Doctor Who’ Finale | NY Times

"If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us…then there wouldn’t be so much fuss..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:30:19 -0500

“If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us…then there wouldn’t be so much fuss about love in the first place.”

- Amor Towles, Rules of Civility (via simply-quotes)

huffingtonpost: Texas Photographer, Recreates Iconic Women’s...

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:15:45 -0500

huffingtonpost:

Texas Photographer, Recreates Iconic Women’s Portraits With Her Daughter

By: Ryan Grenoble

When Jaime Moore’s daughter, Emma, turned 5, the Texas mom and photographerset out to commemorate the occasion in pictures. Searching for inspiration online, however, she was dismayed to find the majority of girls at that age dressed up, unrealistically, as fairy-tale princesses. So Jaime decided to raise the bar.

Mom searched for better role models, and together with Emma selected five real women that a girl can actually aspire to be like. Then, they replicated iconic portraits of those figures — Susan B. Anthony, Coco Chanel, Amelia Earhart, Helen Keller and Jane Goodall.

The title of the series, “NOT just a girl,” is meant to be an inspirational message for young women seeking to realize their full potential — beyond vague dreams of Disney princesses.

Read More: http://huff.to/14hMaKg

Photo Credit: Getty Images/Jaime C. Moore

"For the last three decades many Americans have puzzled over a system that gives an R to a movie in..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:45:15 -0500

““For the last three decades many Americans have puzzled over a system that gives an R to a movie in which a women is carved up by a chainsaw and an NC-17 to one that shows a woman sexually pleasured. From such ratings one might conclude that sexual violence against women is OK for American teenagers to see, but that they must be 18 to see consensual sex. What message does this send to the kids the MPAA presumably means to protect?””

- Carrie Rickey

(via fireworkselectricbright)

“You have to question a cinematic culture which preaches artistic expression, and yet would support a decision that is clearly a product of a patriarchy-dominant society, which tries to control how women are depicted on screen. The MPAA is okay supporting scenes that portray women in scenarios of sexual torture and violence for entertainment purposes, but they are trying to force us to look away from a scene that shows a woman in a sexual scenario which is both complicit and complex. It’s misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman’s sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than this film.”

-Ryan Gosling on the controversy around the rating of his film ‘Blue Valentine’

(via misandry-mermaid)

"DiCaprio and Mulligan, meanwhile, don’t seem like star-crossed lovers so much as a delusional man in..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:30:18 -0500

“DiCaprio and Mulligan, meanwhile, don’t seem like star-crossed lovers so much as a delusional man in love with a bauble of a woman. Maybe that’s intentional?”

-
People Magazine’s review on ‘The Great Gatsby’

(via brucewaynes)

READ A BOOK

(via lexcanroar)

Say what you will about the movie, this is hilarious.

(via laughterkey)

papsicle: matthen: When you plot the position of Mars in the...

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:15:23 -0500

papsicle:

matthen:

When you plot the position of Mars in the sky, you’ll notice that in general it moves from West to East. But when we are closest to Mars, it seems to go backwards for a bit before continuing. This is called retrograde motion, and this challenged early models of the Solar system which had Earth at the centre. The animation shows why Mars appears to go backwards for a bit. [more] [code]

And there I was thinking Earth was just shooting lasers at Mars. Go figure!

Oh Ptolemy, the anguish this caused you.

Headgear for Halloween: Hat Three!

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:19:00 -0500

The weeks, they do fly. While I am assembling the Triceratops hat and taking pictures for you, allow me to introduce the next hat!

Or I should say “hats,” as this time it’s a two-fer. Depending on the availability of yarn (and time!), I will crochet either:

Hat 1: Kid’s Crown by Alli Hyer

or Hat 2: Child’s Royal Crown by Amy Shelton, published by Red Heart

Obviously, Hat 2 is a lot more complicated and painstaking than Hat 1. I am also torn because I plan on also crocheting this hat (King’s Crown by Corina) to make a two crown set for all your monarchy needs, and the “boy’s” crown would be less ornate than the “girl’s” crown if I went with Hat 2. Odds are good it’ll be Hat 1 just because of time being an issue, but I’ll let ya’ll know when I decide.

Onward to Halloween!

A Belated Mother's Day Thought

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:33:24 -0500

Y’know how sometimes you get a gift, particularly in your teens, and you’re like, “Geez Mom, what were you thinking? This is totally not me and bitch/moan/whine, etc.”? Not out loud, of course, but somewhere deep inside where your inner-petulant-child resides.

And then, fast forward a couple of years and you rediscover that gift and you’re just like, “Mother, you are a fucking GENIUS. Why are you so ceaselessly amazeballs? It staggers me, truly it does.”

This message brought to you by shearling slippers. And my mother, who is always, ALWAYS, going to end up knowing me better than my inner-petulant-child does. Love you, Mom.

Sunday Soundtrack: Janelle Monae ft. Erykah Badu — Q.U.E.E.N.

Sun, 12 May 2013 23:22:00 -0500

Sunday Soundtrack: Janelle Monae ft. Erykah Badu — Q.U.E.E.N.

Morning Anthem: Stanford — Coelos Ascendit Hodie

Sun, 12 May 2013 09:02:41 -0500

Morning Anthem: Stanford — Coelos Ascendit Hodie

burritos are earth's gold: Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson May NOT Return for "The Avengers 2"

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:30:41 -0500

burritos are earth's gold: Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson May NOT Return for "The Avengers 2":

dduane:

thomaswh-loki:

Posted: May 8th, 2013 by WorstPreviews.com Staff

We just reported that Robert Downey Jr is in talks with Marvel to return for “The Avengers 2” and “The Avengers 3.” But the actor isn’t even discussing “Iron Man 4,” and we may now know why.

Downey earned somewhere between $50 million and $80 million on “The Avengers,” and has already earned over $35 million for his work on “Iron Man 3,” but his “The Avengers” co-stars aren’t making anything close to that. In fact, most of the actors are being paid around $200,000, far less than they would earn on any other movie.

Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth received only a $500,000 pay increase for returning for the “Captain America” and “Thor” sequels. And unlike Downey, the actors will earn only $500,000 more if their movies break the $500 million mark at the box office.

Despite having a contract, Hemsworth considered backing out of “Thor 2,” because he earned $5 million working on “Snow White and the Huntsman” and Marvel isn’t offering anywhere near that, despite the fact that “Thor” and “The Avengers” are massive franchises. Scarlett Johansson is also fed up and isn’t willing to take a pay-cut to return for “The Avengers 2.”

Marvel is known for low salaries and replacing any actor who doesn’t accept the company’s way of doing business. In fact, the studio has already threatened to replace Hemsworth. But Marvel doesn’t want to replace Downey at this point and it seems that the actor is using that leverage to fight for his co-stars by threatening not to return for “Iron Man4” and possibly any other Marvel film unless they all get appropriate pay raises.

Source: Deadline

Bloody cheapskates.

textsfromtheprogram: Lucretius, De rerum natura

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:15:37 -0500

textsfromtheprogram:

Lucretius, De rerum natura

"All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn’t your pet — it’s your..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:03:04 -0500

“All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn’t your pet — it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.”

- Joss Whedon (via i-m-an-angel-you-ass)