A flickr user has posted scans of the covers for Penguin’s Great Ideas, Volume III. They were designed by David Pearson, who’s website has his work for Volume I and Volume II of the same series.
Where the Hell is Matt? Dancing like a fool all over the world with everyone everywhere. So good.
Killing the Buddha, an online magazine dealing with religion and culture is returning to life.
Whitman’s Brooklyn, a blog with images and facts about the Brooklyn of our past.
French footie player Rémi Gaillard finds goals all over the city, to the dismay of many, many people.
Dozens of photos of old New York.
Beautiful timelapse video of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Cranford Rose Garden. And the music is perfect.
Nerd Watch: videos of some of the best cinema sword fights but with lightsabers.
So this is what being a morning person is like, I thought. It’s like being 80 years old. Deepa Ranganathan makes the transition from night owl to morning person.
Teach the Controversy: Intelligently designed t-shirts urging you to show both sides of every story.
Kevin Kelly writes about a concept called scenius, defined by Brian Eno as such: “Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius.”
Bob reports that he was not able “to obtain a grade above a ‘C’ until I changed my political views when interpreting, say, a Robert Frost poem.” But why should your political views have anything to do with the interpretation of a Robert Frost poem? You’re trying to figure out where Frost stands, politically or otherwise; where you stand is simply not to the point. Stanley Fish responds again on the topic of politics in the classroom, arguing that there is never a correlation when the teaching is done right. Conservatives have found themselves in the minority in the academic world, and a few have made very public how it offends them.
Absolutely stunning inlay artwork on these guitars by Larry Robinson. This guitar is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
So Bill Maher and Larry Charles have a new movie coming out called Religulous. I’m excited and hesitant at the same time. I enjoy a good swing at organized religion (whether it be Woody Allen or Nietzsche), but Maher’s brand of anti-religiosity throws the baby out with the bath water, so to speak. There’s a lot of wisdom in the Bible, it’s just a shame all the miracles, prophecies, and mythologies got mixed in there, too. Even so, I’m sure each and every interviewee in this film deserves the ribbing they receive.
Wonderful jewelry from Paraphernalia. Cory Doctorow is right, this heart necklace is lovely.
Beautiful and terrifying photos of Chilean volcano Chaiten erupting.
Linzie Hunter loves lettering, and she has a sketchbook full of beautiful drawings.
These color pages need to be flipped. So flip them. Won’t you please?
Barack Obama is already known for inspiring excellent poster design. Here’s another by Scott Hanson.
Mike Sacks takes photos of his TV just when it’s funniest to do so.
Tom Waits Interviews Tom Waits.
Q: Most thrilling musical experience?
A: My most thrilling musical experience was in Time Square, over thirty years ago. There was a rehearsal hall around the Brill Building where all the rooms were divided into tiny spaces with just enough room to open the door. Inside was a spinet piano- cigarette burns, missing keys, old paint and no pedals. You go in and close the door and it’s so loud from other rehearsals you can’t really work- so you stop and listen and the goulash of music was thrilling. Scales on a clarinet, tango, light opera, sour string quartet, voice lessons, someone belting out “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”, garage bands, and piano lessons. The floor was pulsing, the walls were thin. As if ten radios were on at the same time, in the same room. It was a train station of music with all the sounds milling around… for me it was heavenly.
The dirty little secret of mainstream American journalism is that it operates within invisible constraints that conform to some imagined Middle American consensus. The issue isn’t that journalists share Hagee and Parsley’s views so much as that they know that they are widely held, which makes them reluctant to acknowledge how truly outrageous they are. From Psycho Christians and the Media. I’m usually adverse to articles about “the Media”, but this statement rings true.
John Gall gives 5 rules for book jacket design in a short video.
Resource-cursed countries like Equatorial Guinea are prone not only to authoritarian rulers but also to civil strife, since the prospect of obtaining fabulous wealth by wrenching resources from a poor country often sets off a violent struggle for the prize. From the eye opening article We All Own Stolen Goods — and How Defending Property Rights Can Help the World’s Most Oppressed People.
Haha! Darth Vader is not just Luke’s father, he’s also Sonny Terry!
Exhaustive Wikipidian list of isms
The only painting of Jesus I’ve ever admired. It’s Christ in the Wilderness by Ivan Kramskoi, who “believed that a portrait should characterize a person by demonstrating his or her moral convictions.”
We need to assert that religion is not just a source of abstract individualized standards of right and wrong, nor is it simply the wellspring of universal compassion. Religious traditions animate our legal, economic, educational, political, and penal systems in subtle yet profound ways. Religious sensibilities underlie diverse yet fundamental notions of jurisprudence and citizenship that circulate through the discourses and deeds of our daily lives, whether we choose to “cling” to them or not. From The Confession Forum by Omri Elisha.
