SMALL MEN returns this Thursday 6pm at UCBT-NY!
Come see Neil Casey and Will Hines’ sketch show! Holy shit, you gotta see this!
Previous efforts have been workouts, this is our full show!
COME SEE A SKETCH SHOW ABOUT THE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF A MEDIUM SIZED CITY IN THE NORTHEAST CORRIDOR!
Paired with Kathy and Emily Regret Everything!
Holy shit. This show was incredible. A Neil Casey’s Irish Christmas, but made for the secular masses, with the contribution of an A+ Will Hines. HOLY SHIT!!!
Matt Cohen slumped over playing a dead serial killer in a sketch at the High Five Fest/Fun Fun Fun show, with Natasha Vaynblat. (Taken with instagram)
Hey, I wrote this and people laughed at it! That’s basically a first, so in my heart, there was much rejoicing.
Click this link to watch a Zoo employee cuddle with lion cubs -
SPOILER ALERT: He gets mauled to death at the end.
(…just kidding! This video contains only adorable baby animals and attractive male zoo employees.)
… I was like:
(And then I donated to his campaign.)
This months show features!!
Megan Neuringer - Stand-up
Kelly Hudson - Singer/Songwriter
The Ladies of SKOMP - Sketch
Rachael Mason - Story Telling
Cocoon Central Dance Team - Dance
Plus one lucky Audience member joins us on stage, and another gets to perform a talent!
Thursday May 10th, 11pm at The UCB EAST
CLICK THIS LINK OR THE PHOTO ABOVE FOR RESERVATIONS
This is going to be fun! Come see Halle Kiefer, Allie Kokesh & Natasha Vyanblat act in a sketch I wrote! Also see all the other really good stuff/people in this show! Exclamation points!!!
WHERE MY ONE DIRECTION FANS AT?!?!? (!!!)
(Koala Bear fans are also welcome at this picture party.)
Remember the good old days when everyone read really good books, like, maybe in the post-war years when everyone appreciated a good use of the semi-colon? Everyone’s favorite book was by Faulkner or Woolf or Roth. We were a civilized civilization. This was before the Internet and cable television, and so people had these, like, wholly different desires and attention spans. They just craved, craved, craved the erudition and cultivation of our literary kings and queens.
Well, that time never existed. Check out these stats from Gallup surveys. In 1957, not even a quarter of Americans were reading a book or novel. By 2005, that number had shot up to 47 percent. I couldn’t find a more recent number, but I think it’s fair to say that reading probably hasn’t declined to the horrific levels of the 1950s.
All this to say: our collective memory of past is astoundingly inaccurate. Not only has the number of people reading not declined precipitously, it’s actually gone up since the perceived golden age of American letters.
So, then why is there this widespread perception that we are a fallen literary people? I think, as Marshall Kirkpatrick says, that social media acts as a kind of truth serum. Before, only the literary people had platforms. Now, all the people have platforms. And so we see that not everyone shares our love for Dos Passos. Or any books at all. Or reading in general.
After I posted this chart, Twitter friends made some good points: 1) This chart does not establish that high-quality literature readers have increased. That is true. 2) There are a lot of factors that go into these numbersand variables that are unaccounted for. 3) The big spike is partially driven by higher levels of higher education attainment. 4) Perhaps the quality of books has fallen, even as the number of readers has grown.
Point four comes with an embedded assumption that the books of the past were, on average, better than the ones today. But we tend to judge the past by the very best books (Nabokov!) and the present day by the worst books (Snooki!). The bad ones of yesteryear have gone out of print while the bad ones of today are alive and being sold in supermarkets.
To be honest, I’m not sure whether there is a larger or smaller market for great fiction and nonfiction than there used to be. But I think the onus is on those who think we have experienced a decline to prove it.
(!!!!!)
(via natedern)
(via shererer)
A doodle of the Archbishop’s Seal, drawn by Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury. Makes me wanna join the Church of England!
“
Things to worry about:
Worry about courage
Worry about Cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship
Worry about…
Things not to worry about:
Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s advice to his 11-year-old daughter. (via elwags)
(Do not worry about your alcoholic father’s increasingly poor health which will leave him dead in less than decade.) But macabre aside, I like this!
