Author Archives: Brian D. Butler

The Best of France

Posted on April 3, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Like many North Americans, I had a romantic notion of France before I actually visited. Growing up with a Francophile Mother who spoke fluent French, read French literature, and played Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour records daily, I was conditioned … Continue reading →

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True Grit

Posted on April 2, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

By now, regular visitors to TBTP are well aware of my fascination with all forms of printing and printmaking. So it will be no surprise that I was impressed by this brilliant, short demonstration of stone lithography. In the video … Continue reading →

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It was the best of times…

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I was quite amused by Eli Grober’s piece in the New Yorker, where he rewrote the opening sentences of iconic novels to make them reflect the insanity of our pandemic times. Here are a few choice examples : “A Tale of … Continue reading →

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Age is just a state of mind (or not)

Posted on March 31, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Inspired by his own series of giant paste-up portraits, the French street artist known as  JR started a scheme back in 2011 encouraging people around the world to participate in his Inside Out project by doing their own pastings. They … Continue reading →

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Paris For Free

Posted on March 30, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Every time that I visit Paris, I go to the Louvre. In fact, on some trips I have gone twice in a week. It doesn’t look as though I’ll be popping in to France’s most iconic museum for quite a while. … Continue reading →

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Time Travel Is Possible

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Although I hide it well, I have been a little obsessed with London for decades. I don’t know why, maybe it was my love for British Invasion music from the 60s or a childhood crush on Marianne Faithfull . Who … Continue reading →

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A Strange Case

Posted on March 28, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

New York City’s amazing Morgan Library has scanned the entire handwritten manuscript to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  and it’s now available for paging through and reading online. The manuscript of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella “The Strange … Continue reading →

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Hotel Book Club

Posted on March 27, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Hotel lending libraries are not a novel idea, but the project from Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants in conjunction with Literary Hub puts a new spin on the concept. This month they launched the Kimpton X Literary Hub Book Club. Lit … Continue reading →

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Certainement pas The New Yorker

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Over the years, I’ve seen quite a few attempts to pay homage to the brilliant cover art of the iconic The New Yorker magazine. None compares to the creativity of the project called The Brusseler  from Belgium’s Maison de L’Image … Continue reading →

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Kubrick for Kids

Posted on March 25, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

One of the strangest episodes of film and book crossovers that I have every run across has to be this multimedia children’s book of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey for kids that came with an accompanying record or cassette tape. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Film, movies, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments