Franz Kafka once called his writing a form of prayer.

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

“Not His Best”

by

Joy Williams

from 99 Stories of God

Franz Kafka once called his writing a form of prayer.

He also reprimanded the long-suffering Felice Bauer in a letter: “I did not say that writing ought to make everything clearer, but instead makes everything worse; what I said was that writing makes everything clearer and worse.”

He frequently fretted that he was not a human being and that what he bore on his body was not a human head. Once he dreamt that as he lay in bed, he began to jump out the open window continuously at quarter-hour intervals.

“Then trains came and one after another they ran over my body, outstretched on the tracks, deepening and widening the two cuts in my neck and legs.”

I didn’t give him that one, the Lord said.

NOT HIS BEST

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Sometimes going backwards is good

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently  revealed a revamped map of the city’s subway system that takes its cues from a 1970s throwback that was cheered by design connoisseurs and reviled by many traditionalists. It is the first major overhaul of the subway map to be introduced by the authority in almost 50 years. The current version (above) is serviceable, but takes time to master. The new version (below) is colorful and much easier to read.

“The new map — a brightly colored variation on the current version that sacrifices some geographic detail for clarity — is reminiscent of the 1972 Unimark map, a modernist streamlining of the subways that straightened the curvy contours of the system. The map was short lived, replaced in 1979 by a version resembling the current one.”

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Eggciting Travel News

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Tomorrow marks the opening of the Osaka World Expo, which will run until October 13,2025. The world’s fair, which is being held at Yumeshima Island outside of Osaka, is projected to welcome 28.2 million visitors.

One of Japan’s signature pavilions, Earth Mart, is shaping up to be tasty. Located within the Expo’s Green World zone, Earth Mart will make you rethink and reevaluate the current state of food by exploring new ways of eating through interactive exhibitions and installations. One iconic installation is a chandelier made from 28,000 eggs, a figure that represents the average number of eggs every Japanese person consumes in their lifetime.

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Beyond Gravity’s Rainbow

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Last week, Penguin Random House announced a new novel from Thomas Pynchon. The novel, his first in a decade, is called Shadow Ticket and is set to publish on 7 Oct. 2025. PRH’s copy:

 

Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a one-time strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.

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“Trimalchio in West Egg.”

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

It seems a bit incredible that F. Scott Fitzgerald originally titled the great American novel “Trimalchio in West Egg.”But in the end he called it “The Great Gatsby” and it remains one of the 20th century’s most read and beloved works of fiction.

Today marks a century since the book’s first edition, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s slender novel about a mysterious, lovelorn millionaire living and dying in a Long Island mansion is still among the most widely read American fictions. Like many, I first read Gatsby in high school and have since returned to re-read it many times.

In January 2021, The Great Gatsby finally entered the public domain, allowing any hack to raid the original iconic novel for second rate, rip-off content. Personally, I’m only interested in the genuine article. We can read the Project Gutenberg’s e‑book of the original text, or listen to the free audio book versions of The Great Gatsby. This five hour recording comes courtesy of Nolan Hennelly, and you can stream it below.

 

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What could be better than a hotel/library

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

I’ve visited Amsterdam more often than any other city outside of North America and I only just discovered the Hotel Library. Situated in a beautiful 18th century canal house in the heart of the city on Prins Hendrikkade, the hotel offers great waterfront views and easy access to Amsterdam’s tourist attractions.

The highlight of this three star establishment is a constantly growing lending library. The proprietors cleverly ask guests to leave books at the end of their stay. And, it’s even possible to purchase reading materials from the hotel’s collection.

I almost always stay in the Jordaan, but the Hotel Library is awfully tempting.

 

 

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A NYC Culinary Mystery

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

I recently discovered a tasty mystery in New York City’s East Village neighborhood. When you enter Surprise Scoop  it’s quickly obvious that this ice cream shop isn’t like the others. There are no employees in sight and no ice cream is visible in the store, which consists of just a room with two electronic kiosks and a pickup window.

Shoppers have just one choice on the menu: a $10 double scoop of ice cream. Customers order at the kiosk and don’t know what flavor they’re getting, or what the available options are.

When the ice cream is ready, a computerized voice on a speaker calls out the name on the order, the small window opens, and a barely visible employee places the order on a small ledge before shutting the window again.

The experience is the brainchild of Jackie Luu, a Brooklynite who has been in the ice cream business for nearly a decade. His first shop, Stuffed Ice Cream, sells doughnut ice cream sandwiches and used to occupy Surprise Scoop’s current space before moving to Bensonhurst.

 

 

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“A Grief Observed”

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.

At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.

~ C.S. Lewis, “A Grief Observed”

 

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Live from around the globe

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

TVgarden is an amazing website that allows you to tune in to live television broadcasts from around the world. There have been similar sites, but this one really works. However, be prepared to loose an afternoon or evening to fascinating shows and news coverage.

 

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Book Day, 1932

Posted on April 5, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

I have been intrigued by this photograph for many years and finally made the effort to find out about the image and the photographer who captured it. Titled Día del libro or  Book Day, 1932, the picture was created by Gabriel Casas.

Working mainly in Barcelona during the 1920s and 30s, Casas was one of the most influential Spanish photographers of the interwar period. He was an early adopter of the pictorial language that became known as New Vision, a movement started in Germany which stirred up the photography field with the use of surprising framing, low angle and high angle shots, light and shape contrasts, and photomontage.

Gabriel Casas managed to add a psychological component to his photographs beyond simple formal aesthetics. His photographs had a huge impact, illustrating magazines, advertisements, books, and even propaganda posters.

Did he wait for someone to fill the empty frame of the window?  Or maybe he took other photos of passers-by pausing to look at the display of books before this perfect moment occurred. Or possibly he staged the picture by asking the boy, who might have been someone he knew, to press his face and hands against the glass?  But none of that matters in the slightest. It’s a great image.

I think that it resonates so much for me because when I was that age, and already a budding bibliophile, I could only long for new books in a real bookstore. All of my reading material came from the library or the flea market.

 

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