A while back we posted a story on artist Matt Kalish’s awesome project to illustrate every page of Moby Dick . That challenging enterprise inspired Philadelphia-based illustrator Allen Crawford to hand-letter and illustrate his own version of Walt Whiman’s “Song of Myself” , the beloved long poem from Leaves of Grass.
Here in the Philly area, where Whitman spent his last years, we take the American literary icon very seriously. This is how Crawford explains his passion for the project:
“I try to treat the poem as almost a landscape, in the sense that I’m exploring this unknown territory and I’m taking field notes from the mind of Whitman. He treats ‘Song of Myself’ as this broad, epic sweeping poem where he’s trying to include everything about American life he’s experienced. So it is a kind of landscape, a kind of world. It is a kind of continent in itself. And as you’re travelling through it, you have different impressions, your style will change, the type will change, sometimes the type will take the fore and you’ll get a very pictorial sort of a interpretation, or a symbolic one. Sometimes the image doesn’t necessarily jive, and isn’t depicting something that’s actually in the poem. I’m trying to provide a parallel narrative to Whitman’s in visual form.”
Brooklyn-based book illustrator Aaron Meshon has created a series of colorful illustrated maps of his neighborhood. Sure doesn’t look like the Brooklyn of my childhood, but it’s really cute. If you’d like to see more of Meshon’s vibrant, fun maps, or purchase your own prints, you can visit his Etsy shop.
Global Breakfast Radio is a simple, but brilliant concept: Live streaming morning radio shows from across the globe as they happen. The website is the brainchild of Seb Emina and Daniel Jones, who describe the service as “the equivalent of a plane flying west with the sunrise, constantly tracking chatter and music of people across the planet. In the background of breakfast is radio, soundtrack to a billion bowls of cereal or congee, shakshuka or api, porridge or changua.”
The live streaming service works seamlessly from any web browser and on most mobile devices. Give it a spin; it’s like traveling the world by live radio.
Portlandian graphic artists and printmakers Lyn Nance-Sasser and Stephen Sasser create these remarkable archival pigment prints by superimposing popular, local,iconic spots on vintage 50s tourist maps. Their clever You Are Here In The City series currently features prints from hometown Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and NYC. The couple plan to expand the series to include cities such as Miami Beach, Nashville and Baltimore. To further that end, they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign. Check it out here. I’m already in for a t-shirt.
Who can resist the photogenic charms of France and its amazing cultural heritage—photographer Maia Flore certainly can’t. That’s a good thing for all of us vicarious travelers, because she just opened a wonderful exhibition called ImagineFrance : A Fantastical Voyage at New York City’s Emmanuel Freemin Gallery.
The show incorporates the results of a 66-day photographic Tour de France that Flore and her partner Jeremy Joseph complete last summer bouncing around the country visiting castles, museums, parks, chateau, monuments and churches. Flore’s whimsical pictures are a blend of captured inages and post-production digital hanky-panky. Even if you can’t get to the show, you can see the photos here and on her website.
With its breathtaking Gothic city center, stunning Begijnhof, awe-inspiring medieval churches, wonderful museums and magnificent Belgian beer, Bruges has more than enough tourist magnetism to draw massive crowds. But to top it all off there’s the Friet Museum (Musée de la Frite or French Fry Museum).
Located in a stunning 14th century building, the attraction is the “first and only museum dedicated to potato fries.” Founded in 2006 by Eddy Van Belle, who also created the Choco-Story Chocolate Museum around the corner, the Friet Museum offers an 8,000 year tour of the history of the humble potato over three floors of the gorgeous medieval mansion. And of course, there are all the fries you can eat at the end of the tour.
Filmmaker Randy Scott Slavin recently shot this awesome two-minute video tour of New York City using a DJI Phantom quadcopter drone and a GoPro Hero 3 camera. The fantastic little film offers unique perspectives on the world’s greatest city that even locals never get. I particularly love the shot through the Washington Square Arch.
I’m a sucker for early 20th century travel promotional art, so I was bowled over by these vibrant, colorful, nostalgic posters. London-based advertising design agency Hatched went full on retro with their poster campaign promoting the natural attractions of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in western Wales, UK.
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