All Work and No Rest Makes Everyone Dull

Rest is free, and according to brain specialists like Devanchi, it’s also good for you. So drink up as much as you can. At the very least, taking a few minutes every day to reflect peacefully can remind us we still have our own thoughts, our own goals unrelated to work, and that we do have control over our lives, even when times are shitty.

Kanye’s Ego Has Landed on Twitter

Last week Kanye West found himself a new toy called Twitter and in the gleam of a diamond-studded mouth grill every other Twitter feed became history. In his first week, Kanye snagged just under 500,000 followers as of this writing and the number grows every second.

Lollapalooza Recap

Music festivals are like the sickest buffet one could imagine consuming. There’s too much going on, you want it all, and if you don’t pace yourself you’re going to get hurt. Lollapalooza, with its summer heat, hundreds of bands and eight stages turns some fans into yearly pilgrims and others into victims in the name of music.

Vladimir Putin: A Cautionary Tale

Putin’s talents are just limitless! Kind of like another beloved world leader, North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, who it has been claimed can predict the weather, has written several operas and is a golf expert to the tune of several holes-in-one per game. I can’t source this information, because I don’t think anyone on earth can actually prove it. But if it says so in his official biography, it has to be true, right? Right?

“Fuck You” is our “Tears of a Clown”

It’s a simple sentiment: “Fuck you.” Perfect in brevity and poignant as a bootheel on a bare foot, it can be replaced by nothing else when one’s intended sentiment is a slap to the mind, a provocation of violence or the rearrangement of facial features.

Books Spring Eternal

Old is new again. Again. The recent reappropriation of the past in American youth culture (see: steampunk fashion, the booming knitting industry, the comeback of the mix tape) might be indicative of a popular desire to return to simpler times. Or to work our hands instead of our cash. Or in the case of writer/illustrator Lane Smith’s new children’s book, It’s a Book, to remind us that reading books – as opposed to screens – is a worthy pursuit.

Who Will Make Our Dreams Come True When Oprah’s Gone?

Our jones for Oprah started because she asked the right questions as a reporter, extracted the most important tears from the most important people and brought to light the issues others passed on. She did Good. And out of that came Oprah the Mogul, Oprah the Car-Gifter, Oprah the Career-Launcher.