"I guess the nice thing about driving a car is that the physical act of driving itself occupies a good chunk of brain cells that otherwise would be giving you… Read the rest of the article: Why you do your most creative thinking in the shower, car, or bed

As much as many Boing Boing readers no doubt like science fiction, I suspect quite a few of you prefer the term "speculative fiction." That considerably less restrictive label reflects… Read the rest of the article: What if a vampire had saber teeth? "The Sabertooth Vampire" answers that burning question

The closer a form's digital version gets to perfection, the more we seem to value its analog version's imperfection. We've seen it happen (or rather, heard it happen) with music,… Read the rest of the article: Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography: Hand-Drawing All of Los Angeles, One Neighborhood at a Time

I would relish no time-travel opportunity more than a trip back to Japan in the eighties.

An amazing, under-appreciated genius worth discovering.

Before I moved to Los Angeles, I asked a friend who preceded me here (and who happens to do a weekly radio show interpreting the place) for tips on how… Read the rest of the article: What it's like to fly over LA, London, Tokyo and Seoul

If we think of the aphorism a dead form, I would argue that we do it only because the best-known aphorisms tend to be the oldest. But just as the… Read the rest of the article: Aphorist proves Twitter is the form's perfect new home

What struck my teenage self as an impossibly obscure pursuit has become one of the central elements of my life.

"Like starlets striving to be noticed, many announce their names in whimsical midcentury script—the Camelot, the Wilshire, and, hilariously, the Crapi."

And is the "you can buy Japanese schoolgirls' underwear" thing true, or creepy urban legend?

I recently traveled to the Philippines to perform best-man duty at a wedding, and to write about Manila's mall-based urbanism. But I stuck around longer so I could get a… Read the rest of the article: Meet the Eraserheads, the most important band in Filipino rock: a 90-minute mixtape

I don't know how much wisdom you expect to find on the side of your Chipotle soft-drink cup, but when I pop into one of their more than 1,600 locations… Read the rest of the article: The life-changing trick author Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker, Moneyball) wrote on a Chipotle cup

Toronto-based host/producer Keith McNally weaves together memory, music, and a magpie's collection of appropriated media, often with a This American Life-style aesthetic.

We may now be in the golden age of Japanese beer, but we've missed the golden age of Japanese beer advertising.

The influential French filmmaker died in 2012. Play him off, keyboard cat.

I think we can take this small-living-space obsession to the next level

Yeah, yeah, we've all seen This is Spinal Tap; we've all laughed at its depiction of Japan as the last place where washed-up Western rockers can cash in. And it's… Read the rest of the article: Megadeth lead guitarist Marty Friedman explains how he taught himself Japanese

Despite having died more than a quarter-century ago, architectural historian Reyner Banham remains as cited an interpreter of Los Angeles as Jonathan Gold. This owes mostly to his 1971 book… Read the rest of the article: WATCH: 1970s Los Angeles in full-color glory and shame

Most of us have art in our heads we'd like to make in reality. Many of us would like to write novels. Kim breaks down the reasons why we don't.

Just look at that guy's grin.