April 2008
47 posts
Fairport Convention “Autopsy” from...
A month or so back, Fecal Face’s John Trippe interviewed photographer Amy Stein. In the interview, she discusses her photography process, her first show that I mentioned in early March and her relocation to NYC. [SuperficialSnapshots]
“Describe your process for creating a new series of work… Interest is piqued, research is done, locations are scouted, pictures are taken.”
Wired Magazine’s politics/security blog Threat Level is suggesting a new spring color update to Homeland Security’s color-coded threat level system. Their recommended colors (which include the lowest threat level, Daiquiri) propose a less-paranoid, calmer America.
“As a reminder the country is largely now at Freesia, or Elevated. though the threat level is Cantaloupe,...
March 2008
38 posts
“You owe me one, Diddy.”
– Font designer Jonathan Hoefler was recently asked by The Smoking Gun to analyze FBI 302 reports relating to the murder of Tupac Shakur. The report denies connection of Sean “Diddy” Combs with the assassination. Though Hoefler was unable to confirm type inconsistencies, he noticed some...
Got an itch to play that $3.9 million, 265-year-old violin you bought? Yeah. Me neither.
But after buying the instrument last month at a Sotheby’s auction, Maxim Viktorov, a 35-year-old Russian lawyer and violin collector, has that itch. Prior to last Saturday when noted violinist Pinchas Zukerman performed a private concert in Moscow, the 1741 Guarneri violin hadn’t been played in...
A few weeks back, Apartment Therapy posted on a London couple’s book-lined staircase. Shortly after, the architect behind it explained how they came up with this space-saving and visually-stunning solution. [FormFiftyFive]
Limited by space, we melded the idea of a staircase with our client’s desire for a library to form a ‘library staircase’ in which English oak stair...
About a month back, I heard author Richard Bausch read one of his short stories on the Valentine’s Day episode of This American Life, the best radio program ever. Originally published in the New Yorker in October 1989, “Letter to the Lady of the House” is a beautiful story of an aging man recalling a visit to his cousin’s house and witnessing a loving moment between the...
“Roving packs of wild dogs”
Back in March 2007, mental_floss blog posted their second batch of abandoned Detroit photos in their “desolate series.” Their initial chunk included photos of “urban prairies.” [mental_floss]
Additionally, they linked to an undated DetroitBlog post, which describes the “wild neighborhoods” of the Motor City in the most post-apocalyptic manner. Sadly, even...
WatchMarion Bataille has developed a pretty beautiful and clever pop-up alphabet book. ABC-3D will be released in late 2008. You can pre-order now. [TypeNeu]
According to Motionographer, the soundtrack is “Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On” from The Boswell Sisters.
“Moral victories. I’m tired of that. They don’t have a trophy for that.” - Mark re:Mavericks.
“3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
– “The poet laurate of Science Fiction” Arthur C. Clarke passed yesterday at his home in Sri Lanka. While driving last night, I heard a pretty interesting NPR segment on his fascinating and influential life.
Clarke’s Third Law codifies perhaps the most significant of...
“He’s the type who considers frisbee exercise… and that’s only if you throw it right to him.”
Actress Miranda July walks through the complicated process of button-making. You should watch… it’s truly a beautiful transformation. [Viceland]
Highlining + (possible) basejumping = baselining
One of the world’s top climbers, Dean Potter, has a plan of “walking between ledges of a U-shaped rim above Hell Roaring Canyon, a 400-foot sheer sandstone wall on his right, a 900-foot drop to a dry riverbed on his left” carrying only a 12 pound parachute. If he falls and deploys the parachute, the result will be an unattempted fusion of tight rope walking and basejumping....
Starting with his original apartment key and those of his father and brother, Brooklyn artist Daniel Bejar created the installation “Visual Topography of a Generation Gap (I, II, III).” [YourMonkeyCalled]
A copy was made from each original key, then a copy was made from that copy. This process was repeated until the original keys information was destroyed, resulting in the topography...
“Jason’s knack for gathering and stylishly telling interesting stories using...”
– Merlin Mann discusses the significance of Kottke.org’s ten year birthday on kung fu grippe.
Kottke is one of my favorite sites, if not my very favorite, on the web, and ten years is an incredible accomplishment.
Austin, see you in October.
The blog of GOOD Magazine has been on an amazing run lately. Today, they informed me that the H2 is dead. Also see the FUH2 site mentioned on Kottke last week. Before that they posted on London’s awesome secret cinema society.
But the best of the best is yesterday’s post on the incredible effort of the Outstanding in the Field organizers.
Plenty of restaurants have a nice patio,...
In the way only Kottke can, he has gathered the internet’s best coverage of The Wire series finale: loads of interviews, summaries and awesome trivia.
About 120 years after it was taken, researchers have uncovered a photograph of a 8-year-old Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan. Keller is photographed with “one of her beloved dolls,” which happens to be “the first word Sullivan spelled for Keller after the met in 1887.” [mental_floss]
What’s equally fascinating to finding these amazing documents of history...
"Mutnemom"
Slate’s Mickey Kaus leaves late night voicemails for NPR’s Day to Day. On Friday, his explanation for why Hillary Clinton gains steam when she’s up against the ropes was aired. The word use to describe this reverse momentum is, well, momentum spelled backwards: “mutnemom.”
Typographica recently published their favorite typefaces of 2007. [Quipsologies]
Check out Greta and the adjusted Neutra font, Neutraface No. 2.
“I don’t want her talking to Putin, I don’t want her talking to Kim...”
– After compromising and sympathy-supporting Hillary, Larry David posted on why he’s actually scared of her potential victory. [AzizIsTumblr]
Ironic Sans has an idea for Polaroid’s last product. So even when the film medium is dead, the concept can survive. [Anarchaia]
“Because sometimes it’s nice to preserve at least a little bit of the old way of doing things.”
As part of their on-going The Wire coverage, Slate’s Jeffrey Goldberg and David Plotz answer many reader questions about The Wire and the upcoming series finale.
Tags: Track to Nowhere, Fast
Not Hired is a database of grammatical, logical, inappropriate and/or generally obvious errors used by people in their job application process. Whether they’re legit or totally fake, most are pretty funny in that sad, shake your head in shame type of funny. [NevenMrgan]
Aspects of cars of the future, specifically the obvious “when will they fly?” question, is a pretty regular conversation topic in my office.
Answering many of my questions, the mental_floss Blog shares “five things your car will finally do in 2020.”
In June 2007, Thrun’s new robotic roadster, Junior, completed several test runs in preparation for the DARPA Urban...
In just under five and a half minutes, Stefan Nadelman described the history of war. That in itself is impressive, but he did so through elaborately animating food. Food Fight has no narration and represents nations through their cuisine. [Cynical-C]
HI + LOW posted two of their favorite book covers from their bookshelves including one of the beautiful Pelican Books. The theme was two “graphic and simple” things: shape + color.