Lammer

Steely Dan - Dirty Work (from Can’t Buy A Thrill, 1972)

Tue, 29 May 2012 17:11:50 -0400

Steely Dan - Dirty Work (from Can’t Buy A Thrill, 1972)

Sei Miguel & Pedro Gomes - The Pale Star III: Imaginary...

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:19:36 -0400

Sei Miguel & Pedro Gomes - The Pale Star III: Imaginary Grass (from Turbina Anthem, 2011)

Yes, that @whitehouse.

Tue, 22 May 2012 22:44:43 -0400

Yes, that @whitehouse.

Some favorites I put together for the Readlists launch....

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:41:00 -0400

Some favorites I put together for the Readlists launch. Readlists is an Arc90 project in collaboration with Longform. The Arc90/Readability team did a great job and I’m excited to see what people do with the tool.

Fun fact: Readlists is a modified version of an idea called Mixbooks that Max and I pitched to Y Combinator 2 years ago. It was rejected.

longform: “The Atavist Matures as a Publisher and Platform” by...

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:01:19 -0400

longform:

“The Atavist Matures as a Publisher and Platform” by David Carr, New York Times

In a phone conversation, Mr. Schmidt said he was drawn to The Atavist less by the idea than by the people who came up with it. “When you make an investment, you are betting on the team more than the idea,” he said. “If the idea is wrong, but the team is right, they will figure it out.”

Congrats to our officemates, The Atavist (who have a tumblr)

caverns.cc

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:48:32 -0400

caverns.cc

My friend Julien Raffinot spent years pasting stuff in this...

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:46:00 -0400

My friend Julien Raffinot spent years pasting stuff in this giant book, which I saw in apartments in Paris and Berkeley.

He scanned all 160 pages pages and I helped him put up a website: http://caverns.cc/

Smaller scans don’t really do the detail justice, but try hovering over the pages for a magnifying glass, or click to zoom.

longform: Aaron Lammer & Willoughby — Evan Ratliff &...

Fri, 04 May 2012 18:09:10 -0400

longform:

Aaron Lammer & Willoughby — Evan Ratliff & Henry

Feline Fridays at the Atavist / Longform offices.

Photo

Wed, 02 May 2012 19:19:42 -0400

Longform Blog: Two Years of Longform: Founding Editor Aaron Lammer's Top 5

Tue, 01 May 2012 12:00:00 -0400

Longform Blog: Two Years of Longform: Founding Editor Aaron Lammer's Top 5:

longform:

Aaron, who spends much of his time these days working on Longform for iPad, has posted nearly 900 stories since Longform launched two years ago. Here are five that he continues to think about regularly. Follow him on Twitter:@aaronlammer.

Whirl
Scott Eden • The Believer • Nov 2006

This is a history of Ben Thomas, his newspaper, The Evening Whirl, and the black community in St. Louis that has been loving, hating, suing, and reading it for over 60 years. It’s a portrait of a city, an editor, and a scandalous half-century worth of whoring preachers and rhyming crime blotter copy.

The Shipbreakers
William Langewiesche • The Atlantic • Aug 2000

I could have picked from a dozen or so Langewiesche pieces that are all top form—“House of War”, on the leader of Kosovo’s indepedence fighters is another personal favorite—but “Shipbreakers” is his most visceral work. The six-mile stretch of Indian beach where most of the the world’s cast-off big ships are torn apart is a both a cesspool of toxic waste and a lifeline for 40,000 migrant laborers who live, work, and often die inside the cavernous hulls.

Trouble In Paradise
Laura Parker & William Prochnau • Vanity Fair • Jan 2008

Founded by mutineers in the 1700s, Pitcairn Island remained one the British empires strangest and most isolated corners until revelations that child molestation was an established way of life in their tiny society. This story follows the explosive trial that threatened to throw most of Pitcairn’s adult males in jail and possibly end inhabited life on the island.

The Lyman Family’s Holy Siege Of America
David Felton • Rolling Stone • Dec 1971/Jan 1972

Coming across stories like this has been the most rewarding part of working on Longform. It ran across two consecutive issues of Rolling Stone in 1971/1972 and chronicled in nearly book-length detail the rise of the Lyman Family, a menacing Manson-like cult that emerged out of the Boston jug-band folk scene in the ’60s. The Lymans built a fortress in the a poor neighborhood, strong-armed their way into control of a community newspaper and radio station, and eventually were forced to decamp for California. Mel Lyman is a fascinating and unlikely guru who floats through the narrative like an ugly rumor; the scene in which Felton finally meets him is great.

Secrets Of The Magus
Mark Singer • New Yorker • Apr 1993

Again, you could pick a dozen jaw-dropping vintage profiles from The New Yorker—the 2-parter on Ahmet Ertegun comes to mind—but I’m picking this one on Ricky Jay, historian of illusions and card tricks. It’s just so damn good. Singer’s 1989 profile of Errol Morris also deserves inclusion. See? I just got three picks for one. Enjoy.

C-SPAN: President Obama at the 2012 White House...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:20:57 -0400

C-SPAN: President Obama at the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Whoa.

Photo

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:08:08 -0400

Photo

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:36:18 -0400

Longform Blog: Two Years of Longform: What the Hell Did We Just Read?

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:11:46 -0400

Longform Blog: Two Years of Longform: What the Hell Did We Just Read?:

longform:

Hey, Longform is two years old! Huzzah! After nearly 3,000 articles and 14,000,000 words, we thought we’d celebrate by looking back through the site’s most popular stories. We’ve put together a pair of Top 50 lists, one from our first year and one from our second, to see what exactly people…

Action Bronson - A Simple Man (2012)

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:33:13 -0400

Action Bronson - A Simple Man (2012)

Audio

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:05:48 -0400

Audio

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:19:44 -0400

The Band - Up on Cripple Creek (live, 1970)

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:24:09 -0400

The Band - Up on Cripple Creek (live, 1970)

Wait, can you play these Spotify embeds right on Tumblr? I’m confused.

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:10:44 -0400

Wait, can you play these Spotify embeds right on Tumblr? I’m confused.

Gram Parsons - A Song For You (from GP, 1973) Oh my land is like...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:52:00 -0400

Gram Parsons - A Song For You (from GP, 1973)

Oh my land is like a wild goose
Wanders all around everywhere
Trembles and it shakes till every tree is loose
It rolls the meadows and it rolls the nails
So take me down to your dance floor
And I wont mind the people when they stare
Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow we will still be there

Jesus built a ship to sing a song to
It sails the rivers and it sails the tide
Some of my friends don’t know who they belong to
Some can’t get a single thing to work inside
So take me down to your dance floor
And I wont mind the people when they stare
Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow we will still be there

I loved you every day and now I’m leaving
And I can see the sorrow in your eyes
I hope you know a lot more than you’re believing
Just so the sun don’t hurt ou when you cry
So take me down to your dance floor
And I wont mind the people when they stare
Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow we will still be there
And tomorrow we will still be there