Present Imperfect

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

“I guess what I’m saying is that this all feels very familiar. But it’s not mine to be familiar about. I just know that another kid has felt this. This one time when it’s peaceful outside, and you’re seeing things move, and you don’t want to, and everyone is asleep. And all the books you’ve read have been read by other people. And all the songs you’ve loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that’s pretty to you is pretty to other people. And you know that if you looked at these facts when you were happy, you would feel great because you are describing ‘unity.’” Read more...

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman

“Now, please do not misinterpret my thoughts on this album; I am not saying that we should have been warned by it, or that John Ashcroft should have played Kid A in spring 2001 and said, “You know, we really need to ramp up airport security.” I am also not suggesting that Thom Yorke is some kind of pop Nostradamus; in fact, the opposite is probably true. When composing this album in the wake of Radiohead’s OK Computer, Yorke had a severe case of writer’s block and resorted to scribbling discarded lyrics on scraps of paper, throwing them all into a top hat and withdrawing them at random, one line at a time...Lyrically, there is no conscious structure to Kid A’s songs at all. Which is, of course, the only way this could have happened. A genius can be a genius by trying to be a genius: a visionary can only have a vision by accident.” Read more...