Doggy Bags, is a new public art installation on Broadway NYC’s Manhattan Garment District. The sculptures by New York-based artist Will Kurtz are entitled Doggy Bags and are all create from recycled materials. The works on display are diverse breeds including an English bulldog named Harriet, chihuahua called Harriet, a pug named Maisy, a bassett hound called Stanley, and a bull mastiff known as Daphne. The installation is part of a year-round program from the Garment District Alliance and this autumn there is an added impetus: to welcome New Yorkers and visitors back to Manhattan.
Doggy Bags is situated on Broadway between 38th and 40th Street. The Garment District Art on the Plazas installations are supported through Arterventions. It will be up through November 20th.
After recently spending more than an hour making minor repairs to a damaged 19th century book, I have an even greater appreciation for book conservation professionals. This nine minute video shows how King’s College Library Cambridge conserves its collection of rare English literature.
Screenwriter Todd Alcott, creates these wonderful digital mashups that combine the language of pop music and the visual language of 20th century pulp fiction paperbacks.
While Alcott finds many of his vintage book covers online, he still discovers a few gems in secondhand bookstores and has a soft spot for the battered originals.
I’d never understood pulp design until I started this project. As I started looking at it, I realized that the aesthetic of pulp is so deeply attached to its product that it’s impossible to separate the two. And that’s what great design is, a graphic representation of ideas. When I started examining the designs, to see why some work and some don’t, I was overwhelmed with the sheer amount of artistry involved in the covers. Pulp was a huge cultural force, there were dozens of magazines and publishers, cranking out stuff every month for decades, detective stories and police stories and noir stories and mysteries. It employed thousands of artists, writers and painters and illustrators. And the energy of the paintings is just off the charts. It had to be, because any given book cover had to compete with the ten thousand other covers that were on display. It had to grab the viewer fast, and make that person pick up the book instead of some other book. I love all kinds of midcentury stuff, but nothing grabs you the way a good pulp cover does.
Quarantine Public Library is a brilliant online publisher of free short downloadable books created by independent writers, photographers, and artists. The diminutive books are designed to be printed on one sheet of paper, then folded into a zine-style book. The clever project was created by Katie Garth, a Philadelphia-based printmaker and graphic designer, and Tracy Honn, a Madison, WI–based printing history educator, and artist.
The contributors to the Quarantine Public Library were free to create whatever they want for the project. This has resulted in a wide-ranging collection of 43 books to date. There’s something for everyone with works in diverse genres.
You can support QPL project by buying a print-your-own library card or giving a donation through the Quarantine Public Library website. All proceeds generated by the project will be donated to EveryoneOn, a nonprofit that provides low-cost computers, internet service, and technology skills training to low-income families.
Two short works from underappreciated Canadian poet, essayist, Greek scholar Anne Carson.
Paris-based Mathematic Studio produced this wonderful animation for Bob Marley’s timeless “Redemption Song.” Directed by Octave Marsal and Théo de Gueltzl, the video draws heavily on imagery and iconography surrounding the Rastafarian movement.
From Maine to New Mexico and from Alabama to Minnesota a series of roadside poetry signs have been popping up across the United States. The often philosophical works are all based on Japanese Senryū style a sister poem to the Haiku. While traditional Haiku are about nature, Senryū follow the same 5-7-5 syllable format to address elements of human nature. You can discover more about the secretive project at Roadside Senryū.
Science Fiction fans around the world—myself included—were excited to see the first trailer for the new Dune film last week. (see below)Although I enjoyed the first cinematic interpretation of Frank Herbert’s interstellar saga, like many I found David Lynch’s version lacking in many ways. So, I’m hopeful that the new movie will get it right this time.
As a life-long sci-fi geek, I discovered the original Dune novels early and actually read most of the Frank Herbert series including three of the five sequels. I only recently found out that Herbert originally published Dune in a serialized format in Analog magazine over 9 issues in 1963 because he was unable to sell the novel to any publisher. In fact, he was rejected by at least 23 publishers before Chilton, which was better known for publishing auto repair manuals than novels, picked up the book. Quite surprising since Dune went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
If you are not familiar with the Dune saga, the story is set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which various noble houses control planetary fiefs, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose family accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis. While the planet is an inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland, it is the only source of melange, or “the spice”, a drug that extends life and enhances mental abilities. Melange is also necessary for space navigation, which requires a kind of multidimensional awareness and foresight that only the drug provides. As melange can only be produced on Arrakis, control of the planet is thus a coveted and dangerous undertaking. The story explores the multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the factions of the empire confront each other in a struggle for the control of Arrakis and its spice.
Secondhand and used bookstores around the world have been struggling during the Pandemic just like most other retail businesses. But they have the added burden of replenishing their book stocks. Many used booksellers rely on customers bringing in books to sell. As an antiquarian and secondhand bookseller, I can attest to the supply chain problems. In my case, I have not had access to the usual book sales, estate sales, library sales, or individuals selling their personal libraries.
A recent advertisement for Book Off, a popular used bookstore chain in Japan, features Book Off staff pleading with customers to sell them their used books so that the booksellers can replenish depleted stock. The employees “stand solemnly in two lines along a near-empty Book Off aisle with hands clasped in front of them. Each one says a phrase in which they plead with the viewers to sell them books. It starts off with a line from one of their previous commercials featuring child actor Kokoro Terada, which goes, ‘Book Off nanoni hon nee jan!’ or ‘This Book Off doesn’t have any books!’ ”
Staff go on “to list off the kinds of books customers might have in their home that they could sell, shouting together ‘Hon!,’ or ‘Books!,’ with each description.
“The types of books start off ordinary, like, ‘Books you’ve read already’ or ‘Books that won’t fit on the book shelf.’ But as more and more types of books are listed off, they get funnier and funnier. ‘Books left behind by the girlfriend you forgot about!’ ‘Books you thought would make you look cool!’ ‘Books someone could not stop talking about but didn’t interest you at all!’ ‘Books you still didn’t read even though you were stuck at home!’ ”
Travel Between The Pages 