Forward Thinking Education

Typography of Gandi’s famous quote.

Be the change you wish to see in the world

explore-blog:

New Pew study charts the explosive growth of American social media. Usage of Twitter alone is now at a 16%, having doubled since late 2010.

New Pew study charts the explosive growth of American social media. Usage of Twitter alone is now at a 16%, having doubled since late 2010.

kafkasapartment:

A page with handwritten annotations by Vladimir Nabokov in his personal copy of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.Translated by A. L. Lloyd
New York: Vanguard Press, 1946. The following is an excerpt from Nabokov’s lecture on “The Metamorphosis.” I like Nabokov, probably better than Kafka, but he was a “big baby” in many ways and that comes through in his almost idolatrous analysis of The Metamorphosis. Along with some wonderful insights.

Of course, no matter how keenly, how admirably, a story, a piece of music, a picture is discussed and analyzed, there will be minds that remain blank and spines that remain unkindled. “To take upon us the mystery of things”—what King Lear so wistfully says for himself and for Cordelia—this is also my suggestion for everyone who takes art seriously. A poor man is robbed of his overcoat (Gogol’s “The Greatcoat,” or more correctly “The Carrick”); another poor fellow is turned into a beetle (Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis)—so what? There is no rational answer to “so what.” We can take the story apart, we can find out how the bits fit, how one part of the pattern responds to the other; but you have to have in you some cell, some gene, some germ that will vibrate in answer to sensations that you can neither define, nor dismiss. Beauty plus pity—that is the closest we can get to a definition of art.

slavin:

Kenyatta was telling me about his cousin DJ Cheese today. For reasons too long to explain, it recalled Kid Koala’s “Moon River” and the chills it gives me every fucking time.

And yes, it’s worth sitting through a :30 to listen a song. This one, anyway.

Koala. “Moon River”. No Macbook Pro. No Serato. Records. Turntables. Crossfader. Brilliance.

thepianofarm:

My performance from TEDx Atlanta is up! It includes these poems:
Closer, Here Am I, For those who can ride an airplane for the first time…, Galumpf Deez Nuts Galumpf Deez Spines Shoulders & Collarbones of Mine, and Shake the Dust. All of the above, except for Galumpf…, can be found in my new book Songs From Under The River.

The original texts and some of the earliest performances of these pieces drop f-bombs and such. Here, for TEDx, are clean versions. Perfect for the classroom.

“Don’t ever make something for “Everyone” make it for someone. And make that person love it.”

Dan Sinker (cf. Kurt Vonnegut: “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”)