Posted by Jason Diamond

People keep telling me how fucked everything is, and to that I say, “Tom Waits just released a new album, and Joan Didion put out a new book, and they’re doing a lot of talking to promote those things.  These are amazing times*” 

For instance, Tom Waits telling Terry Gross he used BBQ chicken as a sound effect, and also saying things like “As a kid, I did want to be an old-timer, since they were the ones with the big stories and the cool clothes. I wanted to go there. Now, I guess I want to bring that with me and go back in time.”

Combine that with the fact that I’m still trying to read all of the Los Angeles Review of Books essays on Didion, as well as the Evan Hughes piece at The Awl, and I think I’ve got enough Didion to last me a lifetime.  (Or at least a week…)

*Except for all the war, unemployment, and having to hear about Kim Kardashian.

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