Another one for your Google Reader. The blog compiles correspondence worthy of broader attention, like this letter from the Campbell’s Soup people to Andy Warhol:
Highlights from the letters? John Lennon and Jack Kerouac, it turns out, were both pompous, insecure, grasping assholes. It turns out so many good letters are the result of over-boiling self-importance; what a relief to know that these qualities needn’t be a barrier in life, after all.
Lennon responding to a negative review of his wife’s show like a total jerk, how would he survive in the world of internet comments, I wonder? And Kerouac petitioning Brando to act alongside him in a movie of On The Road confirms my college dissertation thesis: That old Cacky was marketing rebellion rather than indulging in it. Can’t imagine two such monster egos acting alongside each other, but what a disrespect to Brando’s craft. Brando wasn’t about to write a novel in return, was he?
Also enjoyed the Steve Martin ‘form’ letter to his fan, and the Tiger Oil Company memos were hilarious. I especially enjoyed imagining all the Tiger employees indulging in all the behaviors that their boss had to so repeatedly prohibit. Like, for example, talking to him:
Thanks to Jason for the tip.
Off-topic, but Google’s flagging your site as malware.
http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://mattdavisopenshismouth.com/2010/08/lettersofnote-com/&client=googlechrome&hl=en-US
“Of the 9 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 7 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2010-08-06, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2010-08-06.
Malicious software is hosted on 5 domain(s), including myads.name/, freead.name/, mybar.us/.”
Yes, I feel rather like I’ve been accused of communism in the McCarthy era. See response here.
http://mattdavisopenshismouth.com/2010/08/about-these-malware-warnings/
I expect this to have been cleared up in the next few weeks — this site’s creator, Dane Hesseldahl, is working on the problem and eradicating it as I type. In the mean time thanks for visiting, Aaron. It means a lot to me that you’re continuing to read despite the obvious risk to your computer’s health and safety!