Not Your Typical Literary Museum

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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Anita Thompson, Hunter S. Thompson’s widow, has announced that she is planning to open a museum dedicated to the father of gonzo journalism at their Owl Farm retreat in rural Colorado. The always outrageous author lived at the Aspen area farm from 1969 until his suicide in February 2005.

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The notorious compound is currently home to the Gonzo Foundation, but off-limits to fans. Although it has been the site of cannabis legalization events.

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As you might expect from a Hunter S. Thompson-related project, there is no firm launch date for the museum project. Anita Thompson has indicated that the site will focus on Thompson’s literary legacy, activist journalism, American literature and politics.

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Playing on the High Line

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has just created a wonderfully playful little project for New York City’s hugely popular High Line park. The collectivity project , developed in collaboration with ten architectural firms with local buildings, is an interactive installation that invites the public to construct an imaginary cityscape with thousands of white LEGO blocks.

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The installation runs until September 30, 2015 and is located on the High Line at West 30th Street.

photos by Timothy Schenck

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When to let go

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

Anyone who has been to my home knows that I have a little book hoarding issue, but I’m working on it. This amusing infographic, created by San Francisco-based illustrator and designer Jon Adams, should resonate with kindred spirits.

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Europe’s Smallest Museum

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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When I was recently checking on some Amsterdam travel suggestions, I discovered Europe’s newest and smallest museum. Situated in the famed Paradiso music venue, The Small Museum is easy to overlook. In fact, it’s just a cabinet attached to the building façade. And museum “visitors” need to use a special set of steps to view the “exhibition” under custom-built lighting.

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The inaugural museum show is an installation by conceptual artists Lernert & Sander, who are also responsible for the recent viral image of 98 perfect raw food cubes. You’ll have to stop by a look for yourself to discover the nature of the installation.

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Never Too Many Butlers

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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It’s Just Common Courtesy

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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We’ve covered “courtesy campaigns” from public transit agencies in Tokyo, London, New York City and Paris. Now we have a peek at the new poster campaign from the Chicago Transit Authority reminding Chicago’s 1.6 million daily bus, train and subway riders to behave like human beings.

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Poetry Can Be Dangerous in the USA

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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According to Miegan and Chan Gordon owners of The Captain’s Bookshelf, a terrific antiquarian and secondhand bookshop in Asheville, North Carolina, an unknown poetry hater surreptitiously removed a signed first edition copy of Nine Horses by U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, took it home, then peppered it with shotgun pellets. The secretive book thief also defaced the poet’s book jacket portrait with a malicious mustache, beard and inked-out eyes. To compound the mystery, the nefarious culprit also managed to slip the book back onto the store shelf in its original place.

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Maybe it was poems like this by Collins that pushed the perpetrator over the edge:

“All they want to do is tie the poem to a chair and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it means.”

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A Boutique Hotel Like No Other

Posted on May 30, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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On my next visit to Vienna I plan on staying at the new magdas HOTEL across from the iconic Prater Park. This 78 room hotel is like no other in town. The décor is typically Euro-Ikea style, and it offers a trendy café, communal lounge and tablets for all guests, but what makes this hostelry unique is the business model. Run as a “social business” by the non-profit charity Caritas, the hotel provides vocational training, jobs, social support, and even residential space for refugees and asylum seekers in Vienna. Current staff represent 14 nations and speak 23 different languages.

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Conveniently situated, the hotel also features original art work throughout the facility created by students from the Academy of Fine Arts. And the rooftop views of the Prater Wheel and Vienna can’t be beat.

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Denmark is chill

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

“The World’s Most Relaxing Film” is seven minutes of lush meadows, verdant fields, tranquil forests, and some cinematic sunsets. The short was filmed on the west coast of Zealand to promote tourism in Denmark. It brought me back to a sublime camping trip there many, many years ago. Maybe it will get viewers thinking outside of the Copenhagen box for their next trip to Denmark.

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Turn Over A New Leaf

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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If you read this blog on a regular basis, you probably are aware of my unnatural proclivity for all things cartographic. So it will be no surprise that I love Brooklyn-based graphic artist Andrew Martis’ brilliant leaf-inspired cartography. The poster-sized urban maps are a beautiful mash-up of city and nature. The attractive letterpress prints of Brooklyn, Boston, Austin, Chicago, San Francisco and Portland are available for purchase here.

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Posted in Art, Maps, USA | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments