h/t Thomas Paine
I have been lucky enough to have been in the Netherlands many times during the spring flower season. It’s quite a sight to see millions of tulips and other flowers in bloom. Sadly,the well-loved fields in the Netherlands have been suffering serious damage due to many stupid Instagrammers’ selfish behavior. Thoughtless tourists who try for the perfect selfie with the flowers have been trampling fields and causing growers to suffer thousands of Euros in losses.
The Netherlands’ tourism board has launched a campaign reminding people to take “tulip-friendly selfies” with the help of the hashtag ‘#watchyourfeet’. The probably useless campaign is currently being showcased on Visit Holland’s Instagram account, @visit_holland.
Some farmers and communities have decided this approach might not be enough to dissuade social media fans from further destroying their blooms. They have built fences around the tulip fields, with signs in both English and Chinese that read, “Enjoy the Flowers, Respect Our Pride.” While some towns have hired tourist guides to try and dissuade the mindless selfie brigade from trampling the flowers.
Maybe some peer pressure would help ? Would you be willing to call out other travelers who were trespassing and damaging private property ? It’s not an easy thing to do, especially if there are language issues. I know that on my last trip to Iceland I tried to “nicely” point out to other visitors that they were trampling vulnerable terrain, but it usually fell on deaf ears or I was just ignored.
New York City’s High Line, the formerly abandoned elevated train tracks on the lower west side of Manhattan, is opening the last remaining section of the wildly popular attraction on June 5, 2019. The Spur section includes the Plinth, which is a dedicated site for changing displays of monumental artworks. Although you can’t access the Spur yet, it’s possible to view the first piece on display from 10th Avenue and 30th Street. The impressive sculpture is titled Brick House. The 16 foot-tall statue was created by Simone Leigh.
Simone Leigh, Brick House, 2019. A High Line Plinth commission. On view June 2019 – September 2020. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy the High Line
I was recently asked: “Why do you call softcover books paperbacks ?” So, I had to get an answer and here it is.
Not to burst your bubble, but here are 5 reasons you shouldn’t work in a bookstore.
Although I stopped visiting Venice over a decade ago due to the overtourism and Disneyfication of the city, I am still intrigued by the magical place. This short film offers a fascinating look at the city’s unique infrastructure.
Every few days I check in at the Books and Art blog. It delivers just what it says on the tin and more.
Offering 500 years of the vulgar tongue, Green’s Dictionary of Slang is now online and free to use.
I was absolutely blown away by the blockbuster show “Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future” at the Guggenheim New York earlier this year. Although the exhibition has closed, the recent issue of The New York Review of Books had a great article on the artist called “Painting the Beyond.”
I know that it’s my juvenile sense of humor, but I do love these silly re-imagined vintage book covers. You can find more of these parody covers at the website for Vintage Covers and even purchase posters and postcards of your favorites.
Those of you who regularly visit this humble blog are all too well aware that I am an enormous fan of street art and basically obsessed with books. So when I stumbled upon the book Minima Muralia, which explores more than 200 large murals painted by the Italian artist known as Blu , I was hooked. The book covers every major piece created by the pseudonymous Bologna-based street artist over the first 15 years of his career. This special edition of the book was released with a 32-page zine, two posters, and a specially-designed book casing from Zooo Print & Press.
GoGoBooks is a new mobile bookstore specializing in books for young readers that has hit the road in the state of Delaware. Owner Kate Keeper has turned a former delivery truck into a bookmobile carrying a couple thousand titles that range from board books and picture books to young adult novels, as well as some children’s-focused sidelines. The bookmobile launched earlier this month.
Keeper, who left her job as a registered nurse to found GoGo Books, says that she was inspired to open a bookstore of her own after visiting Stories Bookshop + Storytelling Lab in Brooklyn, N.Y. about a year ago. While they felt that they could make a bookstore work, Keeper was skeptical about the idea of a bricks-and-mortar store. After researching bookmobiles, however, Keeper decided to take the leap.
She plans to host storytime and singalong sessions at the truck, and set up shop at festivals and other events in the area. She hopes to form partnerships with a variety of local businesses, and her next appearance is scheduled for May 4-5 at the Creamery of Kennett Square, across the border in Pennsylvania.
“I left my nursing job because I wanted to do what I want to do when I want to do it,” Keeper said. “And this is what I hope will help me get there. I seriously just love being around books, I love being around people. I just want to be out in the community.”
Most of us don’t give a second thought to the greatest human achievement in history. But now the British Museum’s new interactive exhibition Writing: Marking Your Mark is celebrating more than 5,000 years of our most amazing legacy. The exhibit, which runs through August 27, 2019, offers an introduction to five millennia of technological innovations in writing. Visitors can discover the extraordinary evolution of writing from Mesopotamian tablets to the early printed text, and onto the age of emojis. From my observations of the children in my family and community, the act of writing with a nondigital instrument should be disappearing by the mid-21st century.
Sandstone figure of a sphinx
Travel Between The Pages 