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Don’t tell me it wasn’t real

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HAPPY 3/16 DAY!

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The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality. And these days, my life is vital, even on the days when I’m sad. I think that while I hated being depressed and would hate to be depressed again, I found a way to love my depression. I love it because it has forced me to find and cling to joy. I love it because each day, I decide, sometimes gamely and sometimes against the moment’s reason, to cleave to the reasons for living. And that, I think, is a highly privileged rapture.

Andrew Solomon, Ted Radio Hour: Headspace (via npr)

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Where to start with Mel Brooks’ high-quality low comedy

The Essentials

1. Young Frankenstein (1974) Blücher! While rarely mentioned among its decade’s greatest films, Young Frankenstein absolutely should be. This is an essentially perfect comedy, one that features remarkable visual beauty and even some pathos among the huge belly laughs.

2. Blazing Saddles (1974) A safe choice for the funniest movie ever made, this is Brooks at his most deliciously vulgar and anarchic. It’s forever the standard for comic Westerns, but behind the jokes is an unflinching look at race.

3. Get Smart (1965-70) Brooks would become less involved with this classic spy comedy after its first season, but the whole series is tremendous fun. Even if he hadn’t graduated to film, this effort would be enough to position Brooks as a force of major influence.

4. The Producers (1967 and 2001) Brooks’ cinematic debut remains a masterpiece of low comedy, one that doubles as a thesis statement for his own success-despite-tastelessness. The onstage version is sweeter, but no less enjoyable.

5. Spaceballs (1987) While not his most assured or out-and-out funniest film, Spaceballs perfectly demonstrates how enjoyable Brooks’ goofiness can be, even when he’s operating on auto-pilot (at ludicrous speed).

Read our full beginner’s guide to the works of Mel Brooks at avclub.com

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Music, ultimately, is one of the great ways that we as humans have for coding internal life. It’s glue that joins people together.

Yo-Yo Ma (via npr)

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“The value of my education is priceless, but the value of my education is also not $140,000 in debt.”

That was the statement of a Hunter College graduate with a master’s degree, as quoted in the documentary Ivory Tower. And a new national poll suggests that thousands of graduates, especially younger graduates, agree with her.

For the second year in a row, the Gallup Organization, along with Purdue University, surveyed around 30,000 graduates of four-year colleges in the U.S. The survey asked about how their college experience influenced their happiness in life and at work, years or decades later.

The researchers say their broader goal is to develop a measure of college performance that focuses on what matters most to students themselves.

$50,000 Or More In Student Loans? You Probably Don’t Think College Was Worth It

Illustration: LA Johnson/NPR

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Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you’ll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you’ll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room.

Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things (via westheritage)

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GOP Maintains Solid Hold On Youth That Already Look Like Old Men

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I feel like my life is so scattered right now. Like it’s all the small pieces of paper and someone’s turned on the fan. But, talking to you makes me feel like the fan’s been turned off for a little bit. Like things could actually make sense. You completely unscatter me, and I appreciate that so much.

John Green and David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson (via wordsnquotes)

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I’m far beyond the Cliffs of No return

at Explodingdog.com

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Will You?

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So Now I’m Going

This archival print and more available from Buildingaworld.com