Monthly Archives: April 2020

Keep a sharp lookout

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The Peasant and the Cucumbers” by Leo Tolstoy (trans. by Leo Wiener) A peasant once went to the gardener’s, to steal cucumbers. He crept up to the cucumbers, and thought: “I will carry off a bag of cucumbers, which I … Continue reading →

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Adventures in Writing

Posted on April 29, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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NYC: A Day in the Life

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The cover of this week’s New Yorker magazine features a wonderful still life by cartoonist   Chris Ware. He drew several vignettes of New York City arranged in his now iconic grid to accompany this incredible piece about a single day … Continue reading →

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Mid-century Minimalist Monday

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Way back in the days before plague times, I previously featured artist Henning M.Lederer’s animations  and gifs of mid-century minimalist book covers and vintage psychology and philosophy books. He reimagines the abstract geometric patterns frequently used by book and record company designers … Continue reading →

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A Turn of a Phrase

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I am often impressed by the cleverness of artist/illustrator/cartoonist Ella Baron’s work, but this week she out did herself with this brilliant cartoon puzzle published in the TLS. I tried but could not discover all 57 idioms depicted in the … Continue reading →

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Diary of a Bad Year

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The recent successes of human reason in its long contest with virus thinking should not delude us, for it has held the upper hand a mere instant in evolutionary time. What if the tide turns; and what if the lesson … Continue reading →

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An Unknown Hobbit

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Slovak illustrator Peter Klúcik was commissioned to illustrate a new version of J R R Tolkien’s The Hobbit in 1988. For the project he created 40 illustrations that were rich in detail and quite different from previous works for Tolkien … Continue reading →

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A Social Distance

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I found this simple film of everyday people from 30 countries most impacted by COVID-19 who filmed themselves in isolation to be surprisingly moving. This touching three-minute short was directed by Ivan Cash and Jacob Jonas, and it is accompanied … Continue reading →

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Philadelphia Story

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

This past week, Philadelphia has used a number of those plywood panels on boarded up businesses around the city to post messages of gratitude to Philly’s essential workers. The project is from the tourism folks at Visit Philly, who created … Continue reading →

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Perhaps the world ends here

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Perhaps the World Ends Here Joy Harjo The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live. The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, … Continue reading →

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