L*z

"There's a part of me that doesn't want to be a career bitch at all. That wants to raise children and arrange flowers and host bunco nights. I want to grow my nails so long and wear clothes so delicate I can't function without a man. That turns me on. And yet at the same time, I want to do the rock thing."... I hand her the pen. In script that would make Emily Post proud, she writes: "Thank you! I took the best crap!"

I love Liz Phair more every day. This and other things Katy Perry will never say here. Here she is again in a Speakers in Code interview:

Finish this sentence: The hardest thing about being a musician in today's society is...

The same thing that has plagued the artist for centuries. Most people focus on externals, don't place a premium on their inner life, so the artist, whose job it is to nurture that inner life, is subject to undervaluation at the marketplace. Yet if you removed us, the world would quickly feel the absence!

I agree with that view, the exclamation point not so much.

Baby you're the best magazine advice

New season of Mad Men about to start here, which means I can read the internet on Mondays again. Commentators have complained that the Rolling Stone cover looks shopped: don't care. Would upload copy if Blogger let me. Slow morning on the servers, I guess. Me, I'm up early. That's what writing on paper does for you - the laptop seems like a novelty again.

Gizmodo has a good essay on why writers are bypassing publishers and putting their own work online. Although every point they make could also be seen as a negative. With great power comes great responsibility, basically: the time you spend publishing your own work is time you could have spent writing. Still, got my eye on it.

Great essay on Liz Phair's new online album Funstyle at Rock Turtleneck. I still would.