weekend links: road trips, David Foster Wallace, Jean-Michel Basquiat
Literary road trip map. Image courtesy of Atlas Obscura.
It’s summer, the season of road trips. If your wanderlust is stirring in the heat, take a look at this excellent map of literary road trips. You’ve got your Kerouac, your Pirsig, your Wolfe, and a few surprises. My favorite surprise: everyone’s studious avoidance of Dallas. [Atlas Obscura] Mike Powell ruminates on three versions of David Foster Wallace, the most recent being Jason Segel’s depiction in The End of the Tour. I will probably see The End of the Tour, but Powell is really testing my enthusiasm with this phrase: “Ultimately, maybe secretly, the movie is about men.” Great! We don’t have enough of those. [Grantland]
Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of the twentieth century’s most lauded artists, remains underrepresented in most museums across the country. Why? Museum people are stuffy, and probably racist. In related news, the 1980s are “now entering history,” and we are all hurtling ceaselessly toward death. [ARTNews]
Have you ever wondered about the world of competitive bagpiping? “Why, of course!” you say, with a hearty laugh. “Who hasn’t?” Well, I hope this longread on Boston’s best bagpipers can answer some of those burning questions. [Boston Magazine]
And speaking of burning questions: why do babies in medieval paintings look like creepy old men? [Vox]
We’re having a party next week! Come see us at Butterfly Bar on Wednesday, August 5, to celebrate the launch of issue four. Pro tip: order the red sangria. [Facebook]
—Alyssa G. Ramirez