I just got some new Cretacolor conte pencils; I really like them, they have a nice, velvety black. And I also got a little Moleskine sketchbook. So, I'm going to start drawing portraits. Here's Rip Torn, looking a little like Josh Brolin and a little like some other guy who isn't Rip Torn.

"A book is like a man—clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun."

--John Steinbeck, via Letters of Note

Banksy on Advertising

via this isn't happiness

via Jerkstore

"You can’t afford to be too precious about your work. Caring is important, but preciousness is the opposite of making stuff. There is no room on the internet for Special Snowflakes who want to procrastinate all day and then drink themselves to sleep and dream about their unwritten novel."

--Jesse Thorn, excerpt from his 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively, 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success, via Transom

Don Knotts/Smokey the Bear mashup, apparently. Via Punk Rock Mom Jeans

Saru Dango

via Awkward Stock Photos

On the Road

I'm in the airport, waiting to catch a flight to Bloomington, Indiana. There are business people all around, talking about important things on their phones.

"I'm making deals!"

"Here's what I think about that thing--I'm angry! That business business is business, Bob."

"I'm a boss, so I'm not afraid to talk tough. Paper paper numbers account thing. Are you kidding me?"

"Would a stupid person speak this confidently? I don't think so."

The Audacity of Louis Ortiz

Louis Ortiz is an Obama impersonator who was featured recently on an episode of This American Life. Before Obama ran for president, Ortiz was unemployed, broke, and suffering from m.s. Looking like Obama has helped him make a little money—appearing in Japanese films, rap videos, and an episode of Flight of the Concords—but he's still struggling. His life has also become very weird. Filmmaker Ryan Murdock has been following Louis for almost a year, and is trying to raise money to turn the footage into a movie. You can see the trailer [which looks pretty good] over at Kickstarter.

Most girls would be happy to model on a magazine cover—but Candy isn't most girls. Smut peddlers! Thrill pills! Zip-gun killers! The good old days, when a goon was a goon! What's a zip-gun? Just googled it: it's an improvised firearm. Apparently they were very popular with teenage gangs in the 50s. I wonder why they went out of style? I guess they realized non-improvised guns were better. Image via Generic Eric

New old Westlake novel

Hard Case Crime is releasing a previously unpublished Westlake, The Comedy is Finished.

The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go.

Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck up American troops in the field. And not the five remaining members of the self-proclaimed People's Revolutionary Army, who've decided that kidnapping Koo Davis would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life...

The final, previously unpublished novel from the legendary Donald Westlake!