He did, however, have certain foibles. Motor racing was his great passion, and he produced and starred in Winning, a poor movie with the Indianapolis 500 as its background; two years ago he provided an appropriately gravelly voice to oldtimer Doc Hudson, an ancient but well-preserved vehicle in Pixar's animated movie Cars.

There are too few men like you in this world my friend. You will be sadly missed.

Philip French on Paul Newman - an actor of true genius, and a man of great decency

Michael Pietsch, Publisher of Little, Brown and Company, announced today that rock legend Bob Mould, founder of the pioneering American punk band H�sker D�, will write his memoir for publication in autumn 2010. Michael Azerrad, author of the bestselling Our Band Could Be Your Life and Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana will collaborate with Mould to tell the full story of his blazing, era-defining life and career.

Boblog

I don't know how big this is but there's this new theory that Donny is just a figment of Walter's imagination. Like he's an old army buddy that had died or something. It almost works. There's the "your phone is ringin', Dude" "thanks, Donny?" [exchange]. But that's the only acknowledgement that the Dude makes of Donny. If you watch those scenes, it's like Donny would come in, Walter gets so upset and it's like the Dude never hears it.

Donny was a figment of Walter's imagination?

Behind the Dude: Steve Buscemi on "The Big Lebowski" : Rolling Stone

Jeremy Mayer collects antique typewriters, but he doesn't display them in a curio cabinet. Instead, he tears them apart, then turns the components into sleek, sci-fi-inspired bugs, skeletons and anatomically correct human figures.

Typewriters Morph Into Creepy Sci-Fi Creatures

Coming in September.

Anathem is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely inverted—world.

Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside—the Extramuros—for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.

Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

Sir Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children has won the Best of the Booker prize, as voted for by the public.

wonderful -- Midnight's Children is a glorious novel

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Rushdie wins Best of Booker prize

not the best recording but so it goes

RIP Esbjörn

YouTube - Esbj�rn Svennson Trio

Esbjorn Svensson (April 16, 1964 - June 14, 2008) was a jazz pianist and founder of the jazz band Esbj�rn Svensson Trio, commonly known as E.S.T.

RIP to a great musician who I had the privilege of seeing play in concert and made me cry at the beauty of the performance -- a great loss

Esbj�rn Svensson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Artist Beryl Cook, known for her colourful and comic paintings of larger-than-life ladies, has died at the age of 81.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Painter Beryl Cook dies aged 81

Some writers complain that semicolons are subversively ambiguous, that they vaguely imply a connection between two statements without having to specify what that connection is.

Punctuated (Pause) With a Semicolon