Tao Lin Offers a Cure to Existential Despair Through Strategic Investment Opportunities

Poet/author/blogger/etc. Tao Lin is selling ten "shares" of his new novel, totaling 60% of the U.S. Royalties, on his website. Beyond the simple support-your-local-artist philanthropic benefits that buying into the book might bring you, he also suggests that you may get some long-needed existential relief out of it as well:

People who buy shares will also have more meaning in life if they already like and promote my writing, because they can promote my writing and also be making money for themselves, which can be exchanged for "goods" in concrete reality; therefore existential despair due to "having to do what you normally wouldn't be doing if you had a lot of money" can be relieved to some extent... If you don't know what to do with your life, or even if you just want to relieve boredom for the 10-15 minutes it will take to send me a check or paypal me, or email me, I recommend that you buy shares of the royalties of my second novel. I recommend this because you will then know what to do for a while, and if you ever feel bored in the future, and own shares of my second novel, you know you can always promote me in order to make more money for yourself. You will never not know what to do with your life again if you own shares in my second novel, sort of.

I haven't yet read "Eeee Eee Eee", Lin's first novel, but "You Are a Little Bit Happier Than I Am" is one of my favorite books of poetry released in the past few years.

At $1,250 per share, investing in Tao Lin's artistic future is a little out of my price range at the moment, but those of you with recently-matured trustfunds or an excess of pocket change may want to take a moment to consider the possibilities.

LINK: Reader of Depressing Books.

Sing Along With the Horrible Doctor

Following some unfortunate technical glitches, the first two parts of Joss Whedon's three-part web serial Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog have finally dropped online, and they are awesome.

Horrible is the story of the titular Doctor ("with a PhD in Horribleness"), a wanna-be mad scientist desperate for membership in the Evil League of Evil; the girl at the laundromat he pines for but has never spoken to; and Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible's superheroic arch-nemesis. It is, naturally, a musical.

Those of you with social lives more active than my own might not instantly identify Joss Whedon as the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, recent Astonishing X-Men scribe, and co-writer of the first Toy Story movie. Whedon also wrote and directed Buffy's musical episode, which was notable not merely for featuring choreographed dancing vampires, but also for having songs that were actually, you know, good. Word on the street is that Dr. Horrible will see a DVD release in the near future, and feature a sung audio commentary.

WHERE: http://www.drhorrible.com

PRICE: Free until July 21st, or download the whole thing for just $4 on iTunes.

Design won't change the world...

Click on image for more info.
Also, check out Frank-C's designs on Flickr...

Each beautifully simple design comes with some fine nugget of wisdom!
Most are not this blatant or crass, but I think he makes his point effectively!

Here's a less intense sample...