January 2012
3 posts
December 2011
21 posts
Anthony Bourdain's Worst Meals →
sickeninglyliberal:
A Snickers bar at the airport. It was slightly past its expiration date and had the flavor and texture of peanuts preserved in wax. It nearly strangled me as it descended my gullet and it just sort of sat there, choking off my digestive process with its corporate nougat.
A Big Mac eaten between…
“corporate nougat” gives me shivers.
the way to peace is on the point of a bayonet →
emrgency:
earlier this year i wrote about kim jong il and what his wardrobe says about both him and north korea as a whole. it also adds me to the curse list, as qaddafi and steve jobs were written about by others for the same project.
Can you be a dictator without a uniform?
Our Own Worst Enemies →
longformorg:
In the fantasy and superhero realm, the most chilling and compelling villain of the year was surely Magneto, who in X-Men: First Class is more of a proto-villain, a victim of human cruelty with a grudge against the nonmutants of the world rooted in bitter and inarguable experience. Magneto is all the more fascinating by virtue of being played by Michael Fassbender, the ...
4 tags
Lunch With The Critics: Second-Annual Year-End...
How will 2011 be remembered in architectural history? A year in which the public reclaimed public space? The last hurrah of starchitectural extravagance? After long deliberation, Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange offer you their awards for the year. The Silver Star Award: Michael Kimmelman, for his conversation-shifting debut as The New York Times’s new sheriff in town. [ML] Old[er] Dog,...
Alexander Girard by Oldham & Coffee | Daily Icon
casualoptimist:
via dailyicon.net
I cannot wait to see this.
W. W. Norton: Jane Austen fires shot in Literary... →
wwnorton:
My dear Sir:
You are very kind in your hints as to the sort of composition which might recommend me at present, and I am fully sensible that an Historical Romance, founded on the House of Saxe-Couborg, might be much more to the purpose of Profit or Popularity than such pictures of domestic Life…
November 2011
23 posts
2 tags
“Designers can’t wait to be “hired” to enhance or improve these offerings. We...”
– I’ve been banging this drum for some time. Designers need to be able to explain why they do what they do in terms to which others can relate. Yes, business leaders need to sharpen up too, and learn to respect and trust practitioners of a profession that might just provide the keys to a sustainable...
“1. Maybe the broad concept of a “positive” review has been misconstrued in our...”
– If you are interested in criticism, you have to dip into the comments on Sam Allingham’s review (including this one by Allingham) of Jonathan Lethem’s review of James Wood’s review of Lethem’s book. Eight years ago.
The Millions : The Disappointment Author: Lethem v....
Ann Beattie's 7 Truths About Writers
scribnerbooks:
7. Writers wear atrocious clothes when writing. So terrible that I have been asked, by the UPS man, “Are you all right?”
—from the New Yorker’s Book Bench blog to mark the publication of her new book, Mrs. Nixon
I was like this until my UPS man asked when I was due (before many of my friends noticed I was pregnant). Then I realized they are totally paying attention.
On getting rid of those pesky Word docs*
I’m having a conversation with 1pgbk about the future of books, and art books in particular. We’re already at three reblogs, and I can’t figure out how to Tumblrize a conversation, so I have started a new post in response to his last.
1. There was a quote going around recently (sorry, no attribution) about the growing divide of ebook publishing. Summed up: single writers can...
Designers = Buttons; Writers = New Narrative... →
1pgbk:
Despite the oddly we-love-you-but-we-don’t-respect-you tone towards designers and our button-making, there’s some frankness here. In order to make really great lit/book/narrative storytelling thingamajawn apps, we need a new type of writer.
No more Word documents would be a nice start.
But I do wonder about the costs for this. An obvious place to start making a book more than words is...
1 tag
The Title Design of Saul Bass (A Brief Visual...
casualoptimist:
I’ve been waiting for a book about Saul Bass since I was bookseller. Now Saul Bass: A Life In Film & Design is finally in bookstores, Ian Albinson of the brilliant Art of the Title has put together a brief visual history of some of Bass’s most celebrated work:
(For the record: Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design is published by Laurence King and distributed in Canada...
“The next time you make breakfast, pay attention to the exquisitely intricate...”
– In A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design, Bret Victor goes ballistic over some of those “Future of Technology” videos that have been doing the rounds of late. His problem: that the ideas contained therein are lame. Or, as he puts it:
This vision, from an interaction perspective, is not...
emrgency:
neil young unknown legend
seriously,...
Mondo Cavalli →
longformorg:
A profile of fashion designer Roberto Cavalli.
It’s 11 a.m. Cavalli has just risen from his wolf-fur-covered bed and said good morning to Boy, his tiger-striped Bengal cat, and Gino, his miniature monkey. At a breakfast table covered with a cloth of one of his swirling bird patterns, on which are placed four packs of cigarettes and two cigars, Cavalli sinks down on a leopard-print...
October 2011
39 posts
An Anatomy of Uncriticism →
If Apple is the firmament, who is up there with it? Who else is above criticism? I want to hear from you about design’s icons, sacred cows, gatekeepers, and institutions. People, organizations, blogs, and living legends that shed negativity like Tyvek and apparently never need to respond to critique. For example, how many anguished protests would it take for Apple to take the wood grain off...
