These wonderful graphic representations of air travel routes were based on 600,000 flight routes from 3,200 airports around the world. Swiss programmer Martin Grandjean utilized data from OpenFlights.org to create the graphics. Check out his fascinating website to learn more.
Here in the New World we tend to forget that we too have a history. Montreal, one of my all time favorite North American cities, was founded in 1642. In the run-up to next year’s 375th anniversary celebrations, Montreal tourism folks have created a marvelous project to remind visitors and citizens alike of the city’s great history. The Montréal en Histoires activities include the stunning Cité Mémoire installations, which includes dozens of projections of historical figures throughout Old Montreal every night beginning at dusk. There’s also a neat multilingual app which allows visitors to use augmented reality to learn more about Montreal’s history and culture.
I’m a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino’s films, so naturally I’m also digging these faux vintage pulp novel book covers. The project by graphic artist David Redon (aka Ads Libitum) is called “Pulp Books”.
I don’t know who is the brilliant photoshop artist behind the Paperback Paradise project, but I love the semi-NSFW manipulations of old YA and kid’s paperback novels. Here’s a sample:
The French street artist known as Lor-K has been transforming abandoned mattresses from Paris sidewalks into a variety of “street food”. The selection below covers just a sample of the pastries, sandwiches, snacks and sushi that has been turning up for weeks. Yum.
Of course mindless violence is never an alternative, but sometimes you just want to kick some smarmy asshole in the nuts. Like a Trump supporter for example, or that moron that you never met who keeps commenting on your Facebook posts. Still, I’m deeply ashamed to have gotten so many laughs from the new Mindless Violence Colouring Book. Brought to you by the folks behind Modern Toss comics, who deftly skewer contemporary culture, this “adult” coloring book strikes a deep cord on many levels. Not the least—what’s up with all of these “adult” coloring books?
You can purchase your very own Mindless Violence Colouring Book on the Modern Toss website. Even if you can’t abide this coloring book craze, check out their other titles.
The British Library has just released over 300 literary treasures relating to 20th century writers available online for the first time. The amazing collection includes literary drafts, rare first editions, notebooks, letters, diaries, newspapers and photographs from James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Ted Hughes, George Orwell, and Angela Carter among others. These items, which relate to some of the 20th century’s greatest writers, are available through the Discovering Literature website.
Some highlights include:
• Virginia Woolf’s manuscript draft of Mrs Dalloway and an early travel notebook in which she begins to explore her ‘stream of consciousness’ technique • George Orwell’s notebook in which he lists ideas for what would become Nineteen Eighty-Four, including “newspeak”, “doublethink” and “two minutes of hate” • Ted Hughes’s manuscript drafts of Birthday Letters • Sylvia Plath’s draft manuscripts of The Bell Jar and extracts from her diary • Angela Carter’s manuscript drafts of Wise Children and The Bloody Chamber • J G Ballard’s manuscript drafts of High-Rise, Crash and Empire of the Sun • A letter from Virginia Woolf to James Joyce’s patron, Harriet Shaw Weaver, declining to print Ulysses • A letter from TS Eliot declining to publish George Orwell’s Animal Farm • A poem in which James Joyce attacks contemporary Irish writers • A letter from Bernard Shaw to Sylvia Beach in which he gives his opinion of Joyce’s Ulysses: “It is a revolting record of a disgusting phase of civilization; but it is a truthful one” • A review by Angela Carter of J G Ballard’s Empire of the Sun
Discovering Literature: 20th Century was created to bring the work of some of the period’s most illustrious writers to life. It also offers over 300 digitized items from the Library collections and over 90 essays written by writers and academics helping to place the works of the 20th century writers in context. The collection on Discovering Literature: 20th Century demonstrates the ways in which important writers of the 20th century rejected inherited traditions and experimented with new forms and themes. Through their notebooks and first drafts, we see their creative processes, innovation, self-doubt, rejection, rebellion and the risks they took on their journey to becoming the literary greats we know today.
Travel Between The Pages 