claire foley

It’s my first byline in The Tampa Bay Times! And...

Sat, 25 May 2013 16:57:28 -0400

It’s my first byline in The Tampa Bay Times! And it’s about Tumblr, or more specifically, how it’s what Yahoo does with the site that matters, not that the deal happened in the first place. Anyway, I’ve already got it tacked up on my wall.

This week I’ve had a wave of inexplicable nightmares: a man chopping a maid’s head in...

Sat, 25 May 2013 12:48:03 -0400

This week I’ve had a wave of inexplicable nightmares: a man chopping a maid’s head in half with an axe on the steps of a campus building, group suicides by my friends that left me standing alone, a wild lack of control behind the wheel — with my family in the car — that led to a crazy swerve off the road and a plunge over the guardrail and beyond, into the crevice below.

Every morning I’ve woken up deeply shaken and unsure of which storyline is real. Sometimes bad dreams are entertaining, telling anxiety scenes warped by low-grade fears about grades or running late. These are deeper and more brutal and they leave me wondering why, at my happiest in a very long time, the darkness lingers in the fringes, seeping into the first minutes of every day.

On the wishy-washy, soft and squishy world of food blogging, and...

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:34:33 -0400

On the wishy-washy, soft and squishy world of food blogging, and all the absurdity that goes on behind the scenes. From Buzzfeed, weirdly enough.

Low — Cracker Today ends my first week of work, and I...

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:03:00 -0400

Low — Cracker

Today ends my first week of work, and I fucking killed it. I also argued with the CEO about his praise of the Boy Scouts’ new policy today because I knew I had enough to go on. It earned me some head nods later in the day.

(I read Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell and gave it 5/5 stars.) Ree Dolly is a heroine of the...

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:48:00 -0400

(I read Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell and gave it 5/5 stars.)

Ree Dolly is a heroine of the best brand: fiery, sharp, unstoppable, yet possessed by a deep interiority and profound love for her clan. Woodrell’s Ozark upbringings are clear throughout. His unearthly, lilting, powerful prose flickers from dark to light and back in sentences, and his dialogue rings true to his own troubled, otherworldly Ozarks. I’ve never read someone’s work that uses words like he does, but it calls to mind Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy. Gritty and rhythmic and lyrical all at once. An exquisite display of taut prose, backwoods cadence and horror made more terrifying in its grim simplicity.

One time my grandma made me and my American girl doll matching...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:02:27 -0400

One time my grandma made me and my American girl doll matching skorts.

I don’t know if I can adequately describe to you all my deep, furious hatred of the phrase...

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:18:24 -0400

I don’t know if I can adequately describe to you all my deep, furious hatred of the phrase “artsy-fartsy.”

I almost bought “Yoga for Women” today at a used...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:39:17 -0400

I almost bought “Yoga for Women” today at a used bookstore, but turns out flipping through the pages was enough. (Also turns out I’ve been dealing with my period the wrong way for seven years.)

Towers — Bon Iver I still think this is the perfect music for a...

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:00:37 -0400

Towers — Bon Iver

I still think this is the perfect music for a summer night after the heat breaks.

I was hesitant to take this job at first, not because it...

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:19:15 -0400

I was hesitant to take this job at first, not because it wasn’t what I wanted, but because I didn’t know if I’d be good enough. The editorial board is pretty venerable here, nicking two Pulitzers just this year. But today, my first day, they liked what I pitched — and now I have an editorial column coming out later this week. (It’s about Tumblr, fittingly, and I’m pretty proud of it.)

I loved it today. I loved waking up to get ready in 6 a.m.’s early, quiet heat. I loved reading news and editorials and essays for hours — the things I’m now, in a sense, paid to read and think about. I loved the freedom of crafting an editorial, the new structure in which I can do more than I ever have in a 14-inch news story. It’s a whole different voice and tone, and I loved it. I’m just fucking jazzed.

Here’s some art I like this week. 1. Michelle Armas.2. Mia...

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:25:32 -0400

Here’s some art I like this week.

1. Michelle Armas.
2. Mia Nolting.
3. Anthony Cuhady.

therumpus: Cancer: This week, you’re going to be overwhelmed by love for the people and places and...

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:54:29 -0400

therumpus:

Cancer: This week, you’re going to be overwhelmed by love for the people and places and mountains and cities in your life, overwhelmed by feelings that are strong enough to knock you over. It’s a good week to do what you want to do, it’s a good week to do everything for the people you love, it’s a good week to watch lightning in the sky and believe in miracles. It’s a rare and magical thing, this kind of heady generosity, this strange power. Let it make you kind; let it make you wild.

Soft lamplight in my pale yellow room. My wonky cactus growing sideways in a small pot. Shoulders...

Mon, 20 May 2013 01:08:15 -0400

Soft lamplight in my pale yellow room. My wonky cactus growing sideways in a small pot. Shoulders radiating heat from an hourlong walk around my new neighborhood of stucco and palm trees and ivy. Car wheels clicking slowly over cobblestones outside, the sss of a street asleep. The thick, hot haze broken by the lull of night. The thrum of a fan, stacks of books on the floor, shoes being placed in their new rack. A plastic peony awaiting a jar. The transformation of a space into my space, of a small room into a place entirely mine to be.

"Be humble because you are made of earth. Be noble because you are made of stars."

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:57:04 -0400

“Be humble because you are made of earth. Be noble because you are made of stars.”

- Serbian proverb

Anyone else read this book? Am I crazy?

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:25:00 -0400

Anyone else read this book? Am I crazy?

Hey I live here now! In a way-too-nice apartment that’s so...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:11:02 -0400

Hey I live here now! In a way-too-nice apartment that’s so goddamn hot I’m sweating while sitting on my bed.

How the hell am I supposed to choose which books to read this...

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:54:42 -0400

How the hell am I supposed to choose which books to read this summer?

lookwhathappens: By Maira Kalman

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:20:10 -0400

lookwhathappens:

By Maira Kalman

My night. My nightmare. Going to burn my whole house down.

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:18:35 -0400

My night. My nightmare. Going to burn my whole house down.

booooooom: Illustrations by Fumi Koike.

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:08:03 -0400

booooooom:

Illustrations by Fumi Koike.