{"id":5118,"date":"2010-03-19T04:58:01","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T09:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5118"},"modified":"2010-03-21T06:35:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-21T10:35:14","slug":"unrequired-reading-march-19-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-march-19-2010","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: March 19, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know I left those Unrequired Reading links around here somewhere<\/em> . . .<\/p>\n

Really, who WOULDN’T<\/em> want a Bill Pullman pinball machine — what? A Bill PAXTON<\/em> machine<\/a>? Nevermind.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I’ve only read 1.33 of the books on Tyler Cowen’s top 10 “most influential” list<\/a>. (And here are more of them<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Dog-guerreotype<\/a>?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I can name that Jason Statham movie in five notes! Okay, actually I can’t<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Paris, in 26 gigapixels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

“Why, yes, I live in a grain silo<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I’ve started dressing well this year, now that I’ve finally found suits that fit (read: don’t make me look like David Byrne in Stop Making Sense<\/a>) and picked up some decent shirts. So I no longer look like this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I’m enjoying Sam Lipsyte’s novel, The Ask<\/a>\"\", so I bet this walking tour of Queens with him<\/a> is pretty entertaining.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Omega the Unmotivated<\/a>. (Tom S. is the only reader who will laugh at that title, but hey.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know I left those Unrequired Reading links around here somewhere . . . Really, who WOULDN’T want a Bill Pullman pinball machine — what? A Bill PAXTON machine? Nevermind. * * * I’ve only read 1.33 of the books on Tyler Cowen’s top 10 “most influential” list. (And here are more of them!) * … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: March 19, 2010”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,5],"tags":[989,990,991,870],"class_list":["post-5118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paris","category-travel","tag-bill-paxton","tag-jason-statham","tag-sam-lipsyte","tag-tyler-cowen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1ky","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5423,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-july-9-2010","url_meta":{"origin":5118,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: July 9, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"July 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe next week's Unrequired Reading will be an hour-long special on ESPN, but for now, all you get is this silly-ass blog. Here's a neat essay by John Crowley about Herman Hesse, the Glass Bead Game, and the nature of competition. * * * Speaking of which: be a man.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003TWZ86C","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3176,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/meta-unrequired-reading","url_meta":{"origin":5118,"position":1},"title":"Meta-Unrequired Reading","author":"Gil","date":"January 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Jason Kottke offers up his favorite posts of 2008. I only discovered his site recently, and realized it's like my Unrequired Reading section, but every day of the week. So I suck.","rel":"","context":"In \"kottke\"","block_context":{"text":"kottke","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/kottke"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4541,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-oct-16-2009","url_meta":{"origin":5118,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Oct. 16, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"October 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's snowing in mid-October! Up is down! Black is white! Links are here! Just click \"more\"! Self-sabotaging Higgs bosons of the future! (This was a much more interesting time-travel premise than the final issue of Planetary.) * * * Regretsy: the worst of Etsy! * * * NOPD = Not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5413,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-july-2-2010","url_meta":{"origin":5118,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: July 2, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"July 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I not only managed to wrap the Top Companies ish by the deadline, I also managed to get you a full dose of Unrequired Reading this week! Now get to reading! Now that I'm done with the big issue, I can get back to writing here on VM! I still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0312428227","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5826,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-december-31-2010","url_meta":{"origin":5118,"position":4},"title":"Unrequired Reading: December 31, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"December 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy New Year's Eve, dear readers! Welcome to the final installment of Unrequired Reading! That's right! Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story! This feature is O-V-E-R! For a while now, I felt like I've been battling against the tide of instant\/mini-blogging by posting a weekly collection\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4893,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-feb-5-2010","url_meta":{"origin":5118,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Feb. 5, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"February 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Wowzers! Unrequired Reading for all! Enjoy! Just click \"more\"! Wouldn't it be nice to take a walk in the woods? * * * Now that J.D. Salinger's out of the way, Bill Watterson can come out of hiding! * * * In Louisiana, Cracklin' Oat Bran is made of crackling.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5118"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5130,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5118\/revisions\/5130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}