some good writing i’ve come across lately…

i’m not quite halfway through jonathan lethem’s fortress of solitude, which is a good story made spectacular by the occasional sentence that’s pure brilliance in its simplicity and/or humor. two examples i can’t help but record here in the simple hope of better remembering them:

fathers, fathers, why so grim? today you emerged from your houses, your hiding, and were warmly welcomed. smile, fathers. relax. today this world wants you in it.

i mean, that last sentence — only seven words — just nailed me. pure poetry. and then, of course, there’s this:

the [disco] enforcers go first. they’re an all-black crew, ‘enforcers’ compensating easily for any faggy associations in the first part of their name. similarly, all their partisans dance on roller skates – ‘uprocking’, that’s what they call it – and nobody’s laughing. they balance knee-bends and one-heel spins against a series of crotch-grabbing and fist-clenched poses, an in-your-face aspect. one mimes feeding you an endless firehose of dick.

oh MAN did he get me with that one. this time nine words, but with enough punch to be worth its weight in laughter. precious golden laughter.

in other places, an article spencer sent me a link to about the wire creator david simon, which is both about how incredible the show is while revealing how dark the man behind it is in one fascinating essay.

the angriest man in television

and this is a bit old, but they mentioned it in the rose bowl broadcast on new years and it reminded me that more people should have read it — basically it’s a lengthy profile of pete carroll and why he’s probably the most amazing football coach ever.

23 reasons why a profile of pete carroll does not appear in this space.

please, do enjoy.