May 2013
6 posts
1 tag
long hair, don't care (and other rhymes)
mad bear, death stare
fat mare, won’t dare
dumb fare, not fair
dark lair, pied-a-terre
macklemore: au pair
The Great Gatsby (2013)
brightwalldarkroom:
AMONG THE WHISPERINGS AND THE CHAMPAGNE AND THE STARS.
by Chad Perman
I can’t handle how quickly modern culture moves. Mostly, I’m simply ill-equipped—needing time to think and reflect and sort out one’s thoughts feels dangerously close to being a handicap in the digital age. But at the same time, I’m in no way immune to the seductive pull of an ever-happening right now,...
“Wolf-Meyer refers to the practice of going to bed at around eleven o’clock at...”
– “Up All Night”, Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker (via cityography)
Relevant to my life/interests/way of being.
April 2013
10 posts
I’m at the eye doctor and my pupils are huge and I’m overhearing some guy with a British accent telling the guy behind the counter that you have to live in New York for six years before you’re a real New Yorker and he has been here for 12 so he qualifies. And anyway my pupils have been dilated and now everything is getting fuzzy. Two days ago I was in Australia and now I am in...
SPRING!
K-X-P - Melody
Sleigh Bells - Crown On...
3 tags
The other day I quit my job. I’ve told you this several times already, in various ways, but it’s still noteworthy, not least due to the fact I had been at that job for almost three years. There are people who I know now, who are my dear friends, who I talk to every day, who did not even know me before I started this job. A week or so after I had given my notice, I was walking to lunch...
podcasttime:
104b
Business Time
Jake thaws...
a bright wall in a dark room.: Reflections on the... →
brightwalldarkroom:
Upon hearing the awful, sad news of Roger Ebert’s death yesterday, I sent out a note to all our Bright Wall/Dark Room staff writers, asking them to send along any thoughts or reflections on Mr. Ebert and what he meant to them, which I’ve collected throughout this post. Obviously, being the…
March 2013
10 posts
3 tags
I don’t care. I love it.
A Letter to Our Readers
brightwalldarkroom:
Hello, everybody. This is Chad, the guy behind this site. I am coming to all of you today, directly, because A Bright Wall in a Dark Room has arrived at a (very promising) crossroads—but if it’s to go any further, we need your help.
It has been vitally important to me over the years to keep BWDR a clean, ad-free and independent reading experience, and as a result not a single...
voltai-re asked: the doctor strangelove fanfic... I just... It's the best thing I've read in ages. And I've been reading a lot of Oscar Wilde lately so that's saying something!
a bright wall in a dark room.: Dr. Strangelove or:... →
brightwalldarkroom:
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT DOOMSDAY
by Michelle Said
It had been a long, tough day for Dimitri. Cold as usual. A blistering sort of cold that made you feel like your blood would freeze over just thinking about it. He was tired. So very tired. As premier of the Soviet Union, he…
That time I wrote Dr. Strangelove fanfic for BWDR.
2 tags
I am in an amazing mood right now so I’m...
February 2013
14 posts
1 tag
give me your book recommendations
Here is a fun thing: I am awake right now! I shouldn’t be because I ran all over the city today actually trying to do my civic duty as a member of a grand jury except I failed miserably and I have to come back in June. There are more layers to this story but I won’t tell you them because I am too tired and yet I am not tired enough to go to sleep.
So this delayed jury duty has ruined...
“Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start...”
– Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s answer to the question “Any advice to a young person who wants to get into this field?”
a bright wall in a dark room.: Amour (2012) →
brightwalldarkroom:
I WILL FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK
by Michelle Said
This is what we want: to fall in love, to find the person that will make the day-to-day bearable, even enjoyable, to have security in finding a home within another.
We want to grow old with that person.
We will attend operas and eat…
Perhaps my personal favorite for Best Picture. If you haven’t seen it yet, you...
1 tag
SO YOU’VE DECIDED TO GIVE UP DRINKING FOR A MONTH...
Here we are in week three of the Sober February experiment and things are… fine. They’re fine! They’re absolutely totally fine. Fine, fine, fine! (If you are looking for other updates on this subject, you can stop because there aren’t any.) I took a break for Valentine’s Day and overindulged, which resulted in a massive migraine, but it was all worth it for that champagne. My tolerance right...
“It doesn’t really feel like driving when you don’t know where you’re...”
– Miranda July, “Making Love in 2003”
Gradually you realize that you have gotten used to the cold weather, kind of. There are people out there that would laugh at me for saying that (mostly my boyfriend, who is always warm when I am freezing and is always sweltering when I am comfortable), but I feel like it’s true. I sat here for a few minutes contemplating what I will wear tomorrow, carefully gauging the weather and trying to...
HERE ARE SOME SONGS I LIKE RIGHT NOW
“Sadly, my hopes of critics abandoning the tired refrain, “If tween/teenage girls...”
– a bright wall in a dark room.: Les Misérables (2012)
This entire post is truly excellent and worth your time but this section is so. dead. on.
January 2013
19 posts
a bright wall in a dark room.: SUNDANCE 2013: The... →
brightwalldarkroom:
by Michelle Said
“I lived here once,” I said to the host of the apartment where we were staying in Salt Lake City. My friends Jimmy and Danielle and I decided to make the trek together into the great West and we camped out on top of air mattresses and couches in Jimmy’s friend’s apartment….
I went to Sundance and then I got to write about it for BWDR!
“A final thought: sometimes joy multiplies itself dangerously. Children are the...”
– Zadie Smith, Joy (via cityography)
Once again I’m wondering why I’m not reading everything Zadie Smith has ever written.
1 tag
1 tag
Things You Can Eat Instead of Gluten, I guess
Doctor informed me today that I should lay off the gluten because I may have a “sensitivity,” which is the most horrific thing anybody has ever said to me. So he gave me a list of alternatives:
Corn
Rice
Arrowroot
Dust
Action figures
Ketchup
Napkins
Almond meal
Sand that still is on the bottom of my purse from that time I went to the beach
Rice vermicelli
Vermin (all types)
...
4 tags
“Youth was often wretched, the struggle to become themselves tore the young to...”
– Salman Rushdie, Joseph Anton (via restinvermont)
1 tag
“So, obviously you passed the aesthetics test or shallow men (such as myself)...”
– My friend is compiling the messages she receives via OK Cupid. They alternate between hilarious and soul-crushing and are oftentimes both. 