o wall

“‘I am amazed, o wall, that you have not collapsed and fallen,’ reads an ancient wall in Pompeii, ’since you must bear the tedious stupidities of so many scrawlers.’”

—Matt Mason, The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism, 2008.

Obay

a huge synthetic, silver orb

“Our second act opens on a huge synthetic, silver orb floating in a cavernous black space. The orb is immensely powerful, the tool of a new world order sworn to wreak havoc across the galaxy, hell-bent on destroying ancient preconceptions pertaining to class, race, economic group, and sexual orientation, mercilessly tearing down any and all social barriers in its path.
    This orb is a mirror ball.”

—Matt Mason, referring to the rise of disco in The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism, 2008.

the Frisbie Baking Company

“Humans have always created new things by repurposing old ones. Like when some New England college kids began playing catch with empty cake tins in the late nineteenth century and invented a new sport (the tins all came from the Frisbie Baking Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut).”

—Matt Mason, The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism, 2008.

the prism of punk

“Despite the short-lived nature of this subversive shake-up, Hurricane Punk was one of the most powerful youth cultures the world ever endured, leaving a deluge of sounds, scenes, and movements in its path. The innovative ideas that traveled through the prism of punk illuminated every subculture that followed, wiping the slate clean of perceived limitations and introducing a range of new possibilities. Punk presented us with a new perspective, a perspective we can apply virtually anywhere.”

—Matt Mason, The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism, 2008.

the tuning knob

“He turned the tuning knob of the radio and tried the aerial at every angle its swivel allowed. His fingers moved in hesitant concentration, someone feeling out, listening for the combination that would spring a lock.”

—Nadine Gordimer, July’s People, 1981.

?

—Saul Steinberg, from Steinberg at the New Yorker, 2005.

Fontastic

the colours were lovely

“‘Was the film good?’. . .
    ‘It was very sad,’ she said, ‘but the colours were lovely.’”

—Graham Greene, The Quiet American, 1955.

Smoky Sky