During the past week, I stumbled on three different references to H. G. Wells’ iconic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, including a new French-British television series (which was mediocre at best). The early sci-fi classic was originally published in 1897 with illustrations by the British artist Warwick Goble. These were murky, black-and-white depictions of Wells’ story of a Martian invasion of Earth.
Bookstock 2020, is an online books and music festival spearheaded by Eddy Nix, musician and owner of Driftless Books and Music in Viroqua, Wis.. The special event will run this weekend, May 15-17, with the goal of celebrating musicians and independent bookstores while raising money for both.
Indie booksellers, authors and musicians are all invited to participate. Musicians can record individual songs or entire sets, while authors and booksellers can record messages about their own or their favorite bookstores. Messages by and about specific bookstores will be played between sets during the festival, and participating indies are encouraged to try to team up with local musicians. Donations will go directly to participating bookstores and musicians. For more information and to participate as a bookstore, musician, author, or artist click here.
Like many folks self-isolating these days, I have been spending way too much time on virtual video tours. I have taken train rides through the Swiss Alps, long car journeys around New Zealand, hikes in Icelands, and much more. Some of the most fascinating digital visits have been around museums that are shuttered due to the pandemic. here in Philadelphia, the Mütter Museum is temporarily closed but has found a new way to introduce visitors its macabre collection of medical oddities and relics.
For the first time, the museum is offering a virtual tour. It’s lead by curator Anna Dhody and shows some of the Mütter’s most interesting items, including the wall of human skulls, The Soap Lady, Einstein’s actual brain, the world’s largest human colon on display and the body cast of famous conjoined twins Chang and Eng.
Don’t be squeamish, take the fascinating 25-minute tour:
Recently a new multi-artist street art project called Fill the Walls with Hope has popped-up on walls and boarded up windows across Philadelphia. Organized by Mark Strandquist and created with submissions from local Philadelphia and national artists, the project incorporates a series of inspirational collaged artworks wheatpasted together. The individual artworks feature messages related to the pandemic crisis. The messages are a hodgepodge of public health information, like reminding people to remain 6 feet apart with a diagram of what that looks like, professions of gratitude for essential workers, and progressive political ideas about healthcare, housing, racism, and human rights.
Fill the Walls with Hope is supported by both community arts grants in Philadelphia and a crowd funding page. Money raised pays for printing costs and also helps to provide income to struggling artists. The project began with open artist submissions and the artists paying for printing out of their own pockets. Check out the GoFundMe page.
Nicholas Love created the super fun Penguin Classics cover generator which allows you to upload an image and set type for an amusing imitation of the famous book cover design. It’s a great way for bibliophiles to while away the quarantine hours.
My family and friends who are on lockdown in New York City have noted just how preternaturally quiet it has been lately. Not day in the country quiet, but actual birds singing, wind in the trees, individual voices, and cars make up the collage of the city soundscape right now. It’s hard to imagine the city without the constant low level cacophony as background. The good news is that the New York Public Library is offering some aural normalcy with their album Missing Sounds of New York which was recently released and is described as:
A new immersive experience, the album is a collection of audio landscapes that evoke some of the sounds of New York City. Missing Sounds of New York, a partnership with creative agency Mother New York, is a love letter to NYC, connecting New Yorkers around the familiar sounds of urban life that they love and miss during this unprecedented time of social separation.
Tracks include “To See an Underground Show,” “Never Call It a Night Again,” and best of all for us bibliophiles “Not-Quite-Quiet Library.” Each soundscape is not just white noise, but a narrative. The “Not-Quiet-Quiet Library” follows a reader into the Stephen A. Schwarzman Library, past a tour group and a helpful librarian before finding a quiet-ish place to read.
Travel Between The Pages 