At the height of their fame, the Monkees teamed up with Jack Nicholson to film the psychedelic classic Head – and destroy their careers in the process.

These days, it is fondly remembered as one of the weirdest and best rock movies ever made, and a harbinger of the so-called New Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright are both fans. DJ Shadow and Saint Etienne have sampled its dialogue. According to director Bob Rafelson, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones both requested private screenings, while Thomas Pynchon attended a screening disguised as a plumber.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/28/monkees-head-jack-nicholson-interview

Inherent Vice, narrated by Thomas Pynchon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjWKPdDk0_U&feature=player_embedded#!
what year is this again?

There were a lot of internet rumors and some clues over the last week. Now I can confirm that Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film will be an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Inherent Vice.” And also, it does like Robert Downey, Jr. and perhaps Charlize Theron will be the stars, with more names coming.
http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/01/08/confirmed-paul-thomas-anderson-making-thomas-pynchon-novel-into-a-film-with-robert-downey-jr

He is suspicious of e-books, does not like to have his picture taken, and is often rumored to be on the short-list of American novelists who might win the Nobel prize for literature.
The secretive novelist Thomas Pynchon is back. He will publish a new book, titled “The Bleeding Edge,” his long-time publisher, Penguin Press, said on Friday. No publication date has been set.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/thomas-pynchon-to-publish-new-book/

Bjork

Tesla Coil on bass

Flying Toward Grace

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2012/nov/29/earth-international-space-station-timelapse-video?fb=optOut

The Rich Don't Always Win

Polls now show that two-thirds of Americans believe that the nation's enormous wealth ought to be "distributed more evenly." But almost as many Americans—well over half—feel that protests against inequality will ultimately have "little impact." The rich, millions of us believe, always get their way.
Except they don't.
A century ago, the United States hosted a super-rich even more domineering than ours today. Yet fifty years later, that super-rich had almost entirely disappeared. Their majestic mansions and estates had become museums and college campuses, and America had become a vibrant, mass middle class nation, the first and finest the world had ever seen.

http://catalog.sevenstories.com/products/rich-dont-always-win