http://www.alburian.com Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:48:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en             The last few months I have been writing articles for FULL MOON, a Czech music magazine. It has been a pretty optimal experience: they pay me, let me write about whatever subject I want, and, best of all, publish my columns in Czech translation.  It is lovely to see ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=409  “Al Burian Goes to Hell”Migraine publicationsVS.“You will rot in Hell, Al”by Räuberhöhle             They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But what about intellectual property theft? According to radical anarchists like the Crimethinc collective, stealing- or, excuse me, reappropriating- is a high form of praise indeed, a sign that ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=359              Writing is easy, as Robert Pollard said. It really is. If you can formulate a coherent spoken sentence, the leap from that to transcription, assuming some basic literacy and a spell check program in your native language, is not such a great one. If that minimal exertion of energy ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=355               I have the problem of procrastination. Waking up, the sun streaming in the window, beckoning, almost being pushy about, the break of a new day. Why be so eager to start your morning? What’s the hurry? Procrastination is a crafty demon, because each little indulgence, individually, feels so good. ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=327            The world’s creepiest billboard is back. I first noticed it about a year ago, as one in a series of youth-oriented anti-alcohol ads; the general template is a picture of people casually enjoying themselves in a bar. Above each actor, a caption prophetically reveals their fate: ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=318               This is Water, the first posthumously published book by David Foster Wallace, has problems. Most obvious would be its price tag. $14.99 is a lot to shell out for a book that you can easily speed-read in the store. (For an extra $10, you could take home Infinite Jest, ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=311              Berlin is a tough city for agoraphobes. People just don’t get it. It’s like having body image hang-ups at a nude beach, or not drinking in Chicago. You get blank stares if you express your issues. In Chicago, at least, when you tell people that you are pathologically afraid ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=306                Tegel International airport, following the eruption of the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, and less than 24 hours after the resumption of normal airspace freedom, seems very serene- surprisingly so. I don’t want to say disappointing. But where are the long, thronging lines I had imagined? The chaos? Early Friday morning ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=297                Spring has sprung, and I feel foolish. This is one of the inherent risks of self-documentation: even as the vitamin D overload of sudden exposure to UV rays creates synaptic explosions of optimism in the brain, the nagging knowledge persists that the reader can simply scroll down, and catch ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=295     Museum of Book Pathology, Rome Italy             The “Istituto Centrale per la Patologia del Libro” was founded 1938 by Alfonso Gallo, in hopes of “uniting scientific and historical studies on books in order to rationalize conservation techniques.” A small museum has existed since the institute’s foundation, and was renovated and updated ... http://www.alburian.com/?p=279