Dennis Cass Wants You To Be More Awesome

A big thanks to Wolverine for stopping by my class the other day. We’re listening!

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Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present:

Auto-Tune the News

Have a great weekend!

One of the great joys of being a professional writer: Spontaneous Spring Break!

DCWYTBMA returns next week. In the meantime, please enjoys these freshly dumped links:

Nick Hornby on the perils of recommending books

The Daily Beast on “Twitterature“

The Minnesota Orchestra invites 60 people to play conductor for a day (audio version recommended)

For those of you who are interested in a more artistic take on “world building” please enjoy the City of Work

Because I take requests, #amazonfail (now with updated link to Clay Shirkey’s blog)

Finally, the awesomely bad video “Shine on Me”:

Happy Friday, everyone. I’m off to the basement of the University of Minnesota’s Wilson Library, which is where I go when I need to take a break from the internet (wireless for students only!).

One reason for the internet break is I spent all of Tuesday morning binging on this:

Greg Rutter’s Definitive List of the 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced on the Internet Unless You’re a Loser or Old or Something

Have a fine weekend!

The purpose of this site is not to provide an outlet for my television disappointments, but I cannot resist.

Last night’s Top Chef finale broke my heart.

It was fan (and personal) favorite Carla’s to lose. Not only did she lose it, but she lost it for the worst possible reason. To come so far on the merits of your own work, your own passion and your own voice and then to go down because you listened to someone else is unconscionable.

Season Three Loser Helper was there to be your dog, Carla, not your co-captain. You said you’ll never make this mistake again. I hope you get the chance.

Write a scene based on the following series of diagrams:

I don’t listen to telephone conversations. There are just too many of them and most of them aren’t very good.

Write a short-short story from the point of view of the gilded presidential pitcher in the upper righthand corner of this photograph.

Saul Loeb AFP/Getty Images

Off the top of my head, in no particular order, and with some (but not total) regard for release dates, here is who I have to thank in 2008:

1. Tina Fey for creating an imitation that’s more true than the original
2. Simon Rich for telling animal jokes about human suffering
3. James Wood for making How Fiction Works both practical and idealistic
4. Wii Tennis for allowing me to play a sport I love, but with a giant cartoon head
5. Deadspin for making sports gossip strangely fascinating
6. Rhizome at the New Museum in New York for taking new media seriously, while also maintaining a sense of humor about its ridiculousness
7. MGMT for writing a song that somehow manages to be hippie, meta and danceable all at the same time
8. The Week for making the news easy to digest without making it dumb
9. Virginia Heffernan for thinking deep thoughts about the intersection of television and the internet
10. Nathan Bransford for fighting for better writing while never forgetting that people also like to watch The Hills
11. Moonrat for giving the world an inside look at New York publishing, plus indie rock moments, plus the inspiration for people to go out and save books
12. David Mitchell for writing Cloud Atlas and reviving my love of writing fiction

I know there’s more, but for now there’s not.

Next up: 2008 Year in DCWYTBMA Recap and Thank You

Cheers!