“Be careful… what you use as a bookmark.”
Links
“The way to understand storytelling now, as it pertains to business/brand/campaign/product/service is through what those in the trade of Service Design call, touch-points.”
Perhaps the smallest of the small press ventures, though definitely not the least significant, the English-language chapbook has a history that can be traced back to the sixteenth century… [more]
We might not like to admit it, but most of us choose our books on the basis of a quick read of the back cover. So what makes a good blurb?
In the age of blogging, great critics appear to be on life support. Salon’s book reviewers discuss snobbery, how to make criticism fun and the need for cultural gatekeepers.
“Toronto artist Robert Burley is currently documenting the fate of chemical photography, recording the abandonment and demolition of various Kodak plants. The films, papers and processing chemicals these factories produced will soon be obsolete…” Link
“Reading too much… is a disaster for a writer. To immerse yourself in literature – particularly those of your contemporaries – makes your work derivative at worst, and unoriginal at best.”
Why should contemprary poets care what Wikipedia does or does not find “noteable?”
YAYss! Thank you Deborah. Couldn’t agree with you more. See previous post for context. Link
“The surface of graphic design”
1) “the equal footing on which everything lends itself to art”
2) “the surface of conversion where words, forms, and things exchange roles”
3) “the surface of equivalence” between “the purity of art” and “forms of life.”
“Independent bookstores do everything big corporate bookstores do, with only one significant difference: Independents do it better.”
Before audio books…
“Of all the repetitive, mind-numbing jobs in the late 19th century, cigar-rolling was special. “Unlike sewing clothes, mining coal or forging steel, it was blessedly quiet. And thus cigar workers, whether in Chicago or Havana, were the first ones in their time who managed to introduce that vital commodity — distraction — onto the work floor.“Using their own wages, and backed by a powerful union, they paid for a “reader” who sat in an elevated chair and began the morning with the news and political commentary. By the afternoon, he would usually have switched to a popular novel. The 100 or so rollers on the floor were his captive audience, listening as they worked.”
(via NYT — thanks AdPulp) Link
Socrates: wanted dead or alive
“Given the choice between Socrates dead or alive, Western thinkers have preferred him dead. At least as a symbol. A symbol of what? That’s where it gets complicated.”
Coffeehouse Junkie 