work in progress, 18
Afoot, the town glittering along the wires, yellow lights, and the stars above the roofs where corrugated tiles stack one upon the other. A door ajar. The midst of it populated by a man sitting alone, head turned, the rows of bottles in the light behind him, a mist of smoke. Everything vibrant while he stands in the street and looks. A bat or swallow. The sky. A sense of coolness already and motionlessness except for the thin beads of light wavering on their wires. He imagines the heel of his boots on the wood of the porch. The hollowness and change as he walks through the door, but stands resolutely in the dimness of the street. Awash in its dimness, the light from the stars, and imagines the fear of people drinking, everything calm in this moment, the surface of things, wandering in the pockets of his coat, trying not to look, then succumbing and walking this way up the slope of the hill. Reaching the top, turning, and looking out to see the spire of a tree and below the town laid out and the lights of the town a yellow glow and the stars with their immense depth a certainty like sweat in the glare as he stands and licks his wrist. The immensity of space inside him, mercifully, closing his eyes as he walks in the dark with the sound of his feet finally on stone past the door of the tavern with the lights on the wires shining comfortably and his step on the stairs to the room that is home.
“Dear Theo.”
Frank Miller’s Charlie Brown
Pure awesome (via Andrew Sullivan)
Flickermood
Flickermood is experimental typographic cinema, imagine a DJ with a turntable and text that moves to the beat. Nifty and unembeddable, so go and watch. (via autumn 2.0)
Jorge Colombo | iPhone Sketches
Done on the iPhone application, Brushes. (via Quips)
Did anybody see
Ari Fleischer’s absolutely disgraceful appearance on Hardball?
These are
Brazilian bunnies, I’m pretty sure.
NOON 9
The newest issue of NOON is now out with my stories “Somewhere,” “We’re Safe Now,” and “Gas Station.” Also included are stories by Kim Chinquee, Deb Olin Unferth, Gary Lutz, Christine Schutt, Tao Lin, Rebecca Curtis, translations by Lydia Davis, and more.
work in progress, 17
The bridge he painted twice. There was a cart standing on it. Part of the bridge was up, or was yet to be lowered. Women were washing in the river. Their movement began to disturb the water out farther from the shore. The sky was the same color. The horse was watching. Everything stopped. Of course, the carriage moved on. And the water that rippled reached the other shore. Of course, one of the women stood and put her hands behind her back, resting. He saw her face. It caught the sunlight. It was too bright and his paint was not. He licked the paintbrush, tasted it, waiting for the paint to dry.
Return of the Meat Goat
The Greatest Sign Ever. Andrew Simone.
Meat Rabbit
In conjunction with my post below in re a new Malta drawing, Terrorkitten has sent along a photo from his recent trip to the US, also treating of rabbits as fine dining.
Of binder and butterfly clips
It would appear that English and American terms for those Office & School Supplies designated for the benefit of US Amazon customers as Clips, Clamps & Rings are not identical.
I went to amazon.co.uk for help. Perhaps I will find it in this book.
Elves
Elves are occasionally thought to disrupt construction in some parts of Iceland:
According to a poll conducted in 2007, 54 percent of Icelanders don’t deny the existence of elves and 8 percent believe in them outright, although only 3 percent claim to have encountered one personally. The ability to see the huldufólk, or hidden folk, can’t be learned; you’re just born with it. To find elves, seers don’t really need to do anything—they’ll just sense an elfin presence. The Vanity Fair article says that elf detection can take six months, but it’s usually a quick process that can last under an hour. And although the magazine claims that a “government expert” had to certify the nonexistence of elves, the Icelandic Embassy insists that these consults are performed by freelancers, not government contractors.
For Deron
From the Big Chief Tablet Project (Swear Jar Inc on Flickr).
Aimee Mullins
Sheila and Andrew
seem to like these composite drawings of mine. The rest of you don’t have to look if you don’t want to. This is another homage to Malta (and, yes, fresh rabbits are involved.)
gateway words
Two words I use to allow me to imitate Sean Connery: Seabiscuit, submarine. I find if I nail one of these, I can get my mouth in the right place to follow up. Anybody else have specific words they use to jump-start an impersonation?
Youth & Aging
truth, lies, and body odor
The Department of Homeland Security is conducting a proof of concept study to see if body odor can be used to detect deception or as a unique physical marker such as fingerprints.
Recent scientific research shows that so-called volatile organic compounds present in human sweat, saliva and urine can be analyzed using a technique known as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Research published by the Royal Society in London in 2006 found “a substantial number of marker compounds (in human sweat) that can potentially differentiate individuals or groups.”
Researchers took five samples each from 179 individuals over a 10-week period and analyzed them, finding hundreds of chemical markers that remained more or less constant for each individual over time.
An analysis of these compounds “found strong evidence for individual (odor) fingerprints,” the researchers concluded.
A better paperclip
by Art. Lebedev Studio (via)
unnamed series
work in progress, 16
The wood and the market. The weave of wicker chairs. The way the chair bulges, the way the wood that makes up the bulk of the chair bulges. The shape of it. The barrel, to an extent, of the wood that makes up the legs and back, not counting, of course, the weave of the wicker that sags between. And the lights of the streets as he walks. The well lit light of the streets seen from the porches he had the other way around, the streets lit with the light from the windows onto the porches. The porches lit and the streets less so, and a cleanness in the smell of the air he didn’t think he’d be able to get into himself outweighed by a sense of accomplishment at noticing the bricks.
an architecture of learning, two perspectives
The new biochemistry building at Oxford was built as an extension of Le Corbusier’s maxim “a house is a machine for living” and has been described as an interaction machine. Fascinated by the first article I read about the building (no pictures alas) I googled to see what the building looked like and came across a counter argument:
The lobby of a building is a noisy place. Imagine placing your desk in the middle of one, and that’s basically what working in the new building is like. Headphones are a must, which is a bit counterproductive, considering that the whole point of this open design was to encourage socializing. Also, don’t count on having a private conversation about sensitive results–the postdocs in the lab across the atrium will hear every word.
Surrounding the office space, in the outermost ring, is the lab space. This, of course, is sealed off–as it should be. The thing about having the labs on the outside (with nothing but floor-to-ceiling windows separating you from the public outside) is that you feel a bit like you’re working in a zoo if you’re on the ground floor.
A panorama of the building can be seen here.
Cave Family Sleeper
A Missouri family who put the home they built in a cave on eBay in case they couldn’t make a payment that had come due has been offered a way to keep it.
Curt Sleeper said Tuesday that a New Jersey-based business offered a 15-year loan with a low interest rate that should allow the family to keep their home in Festus, about 30 miles south of St. Louis.
“We’re excited about it.” To celebrate: “We’re throwing a party at a friend’s cave,” he said.
Lincoln’s Watch
Rumor had it, as the Civil War began, Jonathan Dillon, a watchmaker on Pennsylvania Ave., carved an inscription in Lincoln’s watch. A hundred and fifty years later the rumor was confirmed.
“Jonathan Dillon April 13 – 1861,” part of the inscription reads, “Fort Sumpter (sic) was attacked by the rebels on the above date.” Another part reads, “Thank God we have a government.”
The words were etched in tiny cursive handwriting and filled the space between tiny screws and gears that jutted through the metal plate. A magnifying glass was required to read them.
Dillon’s story was passed down among his family and friends, eventually reaching a New York Times reporter. In a 1906 article in the paper, an 84-year-old Dillon said no one, including Lincoln, ever saw the inscription as far as he knew.
Dillon had a fuzzy recollection of what he had engraved. He told the newspaper he had written: “The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a president who at least will try.”
Shadow Monuments
Monumental shadows created by University of Brighton illustration students Henrietta Swift and Christopher Smith.
(Via Coudal)
