London Indies

London’s independent bookshops have joined forces to publish a map of the city’s bookshops.The London Bookshop Map features 87 indies from across the city including ones selling new, antiquarian, specialist and second-hand titles. The map is free and is available in bookshops and galleries. It features a text work from the artist David Batchelor, who is best known for his 35 foot installation called “Big Rock Candy Fountain” at Archway tube stattion. The map will be updated every six months and rereleased with a new text artwork.

Among the bookshops which have donated money to fund its publication are Housman’s Bookshop in Kings Cross, Quinto in Charing Cross, Woolfson and Tay in Bermondsey and the Atlantis Bookshop in Bloomsbury.

The map’s editor, Louise O’Hare, said: “At their best independent bookshops can offer individual selection rather than market-driven choices of books to customers, sustaining and developing local interests and communities and offering alternative ways for audiences to participate in a range of cultural activities. Such bookshops are crucial platforms for independent publishing culture, and culture in general, and these are the ones I was keen to promote.”

A guide to independent bookshops in the UK was given away in last Saturday’s Guardian newspaper, with more than 350 indies included.The Independent Bookshops Directory is a 74-page guide, with bookshops picked by the Guardian and the Observer. The directory also features an introduction from author Sarah Hall.

Each regional section also has a foreword by an author. Among those contributing are Sarah Waters introducing London; Peter James writing the foreword for south east England; Patrick McGuinness penning the introduction for Wales; and Neil Rollinson writing for the north west England section.

The guide accompanies the launch of Love Your Indie, the Independent Alliance’s nationwide loyalty card scheme for indie bookshops, with more than half a million blank cards also being distributed with the Guardian . Both initiatives form part of the newspapers’ Books Season.

Posted in Books, Bookstore Tourism, Europe, Maps, Tourism, Travel Writing, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Globe Master

Established in 2008, Bellerby Globes resurrected the moribund art of globe making. When designer Peter Bellerby couldn’t find a new quality globe for his father’s birthday, he decided to make his own.

This month, the London-based studio will begin offering limited-edition small versions of his desk globes. The beautiful globes are being released in limited editions of 250. They’re a bit pricey, but they’re marvelous.

Here’s a quick peak.

Posted in Maps | Tagged , | Leave a comment

On The Road (inspired)

Two years ago, inspired by Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel, On the Road, Benjamin Oliver Jenks left his job at a school for at-risk teens and set off on a 14,000 mile hitchhiking trip around the United States. Using more than three thousand photographs from his adventure, Jenks created an amazing stop-motion video of his trip with help from 930 random strangers. The humorous and touching short film manages to incorporate iconic locales around America as background for Jenks’ social experiment.

Posted in Film, Photography, Tourism, USA | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

French Wines by Metro

I may not be an oenophile, in fact I don’t know a quality Beaujolais from Thunderbird, but I do know a cool map when I see one.

Designed by David Gissen, the Metro Wine Map harkens back to Harry Beck‘s iconic  London Underground Map from 1931. Traditional wine maps have typically been boring affairs, confusing to non-experts and definitely not fun. Gissen’s brilliant schematic map manages to help clarify the relationship between region and appellation.

Posted in Europe, Maps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Power To The People

Jamaican-born, Brooklyn-based Sean Stewart once owned the brilliant bookstore/gallery/performance space called Babylon Falling in Nob Hill, San Francisco. Now he has edited the soon to be released exciting book on the underground press in the U.S. during the 60s called On the Ground: An Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S. .

Sean also curates an engaging blog on underground publications and counter-culture media from the 60s through the 90s called Babylon Falling.

Here’s a sample of the ironically still relevant posters, comics and ads from the blog:

Posted in Art, Books, Freedom of Speech, History, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Occupy Wall Street

As the Occupy Wall Street protests continue to to grow and spread, in their down-time hundreds of demostrators are reading books donated to the protest’s official outdoor library.

If you’d like to donate reading material to the library, here’s the mailing address:

Occupy Wall Street Library

c/o UPS Store

118A Fulton Street, #205

NY, NY 10038

Along with union members from the AFL-CIO, UAW, CWA, TWU and the United Federation of Teachers, the Writers Guild of America East has joined the demonstration.

 

Posted in Books, Freedom of Speech, Libraries, USA, Writing | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

MetaMaus

This week Art Spiegelman released a new multimedia publication, MetaMaus, which explores the legacy of his groundbreaking, Pulitzer prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. The following is a press release from the publisher’s website:

“In the pages of MetaMaus: A Look Inside A Modern Classic, Maus (going onsale October 4), Art Spiegelman re-enters the Pulitzer prize–winning Maus, the modern classic that has altered how we see literature, comics, and the Holocaust ever since it was first published 25 years ago.

In MetaMaus, Spiegelman probes the questions that Maus most often evokes—Why the Holocaust? Why mice? Why comics?—and gives us a new and essential work about the creative process.

MetaMaus includes a bonus DVD that provides a digitized reference copy of The Complete Maus linked to a deep archive of audio interviews with his survivor father, historical documents, and a wealth of Spiegelman’s private notebooks and sketches.”

 ‘METAMAUS: A Look Inside A Modern Classic, Maus, Art Spiegelman’

You can find out more about  MetaMaus  at the Random House website.

Posted in Art, Books, Freedom of Speech, History, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Arthur Conan Doyle Mystery

Lost or unknown manuscripts seem to be turning up at a surprising pace these days. In September, the publication of a long lost book by James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, etc.) was announced by publisher Charles Ardai. Cain’s novel, The Cocktail Waitress, will be released by Hard Case Crime in September 2012.

Now, it appears that Arthur Conan Doyle’s long lost first novel, The Narrative of John Smith, has been published in the UK. Conan Doyle wrote the book when he was a young doctor working in Portsmouth, England. On his first attempt to get the book published, the Royal Postal Service managed to lose the manuscript.

He eventually rewrote the book from memory, but mysteriously never bothered to publish it. The manuscript turned up more than a century later at a Sotheby’s auction in 2004. Earlier this month, the British Library, which purchased the Conan Doyle collection at auction, released the novel. A US edition is due in November. Meanwhile, the British Library is displaying the manuscript and other Conan Doyle works at the Library’s Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery.

What’s next, a missing Twain ? Or maybe a lost Dickens novel for his 200th birthday.

Posted in Books, History, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Charles Dickens at 200

Charles Dickens fans should not miss the Morgan Library and Museum’s exciting bicentennial celebration of the author’s birth. With North America’s greatest permanent collection of Dickens manuscripts, books, letters and documents, the Morgan Library in midtown Manhattan is the perfect venue for this extraordinary special exhibition of Dickensiana drawn from international collections. The show runs until February 12, 2012.

If you plan to visit the Morgan, be sure to pencil in the time for three other concurrent shows at the venerable (and frequently overlooked) institution. This Fall the Morgan also has the first-ever showing of David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France: Drawings from the Louvre. Along with exquisite drawings from the special exhibition Ingres at the Morgan and the gorgeous show Treasures of Islamic Manuscript Painting.

 

Posted in Art, Books, History, Libraries, Museums, Tourism, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is It Map Week ?

Naw, it’s not map week, but maps are…

A schedule containing a description of the world,

A representation of the whole globe of the earth, or of some particular country upon a plan, or plain superficies.

A representation of the globe of the earth, or of some of its parts, upon a plan or plain superficies.

A description of the earth, or some particular part thereof, projected upon a plain superficies; describing the form of countries, rivers, situation of cities, hills, woods, and other remarks.

The resemblance of the heavens or the earth on a plane superficies.

A description of the earth, or some particular part thereof, projected upon a plain superficies; describing the form of countries, rivers, situation of cities, hills, woods and other things of note.

A representation of the earth or some particular part thereof upon a plain superficies.  A general map is a description of the whole earth, with the several countries, islands, seas, rivers, &c. therein contained, and also the circles of the globe. Particular maps, are either of the four parts of the world; or of particular kingdoms and countries.

A representation of the earth, or some part of it, on a plane superficies.  A general map in geography is a description of the whole earth, with the several countries, islands, seas, rivers, &c. therein contained, and also the circles of the globe. Particular maps, are either of the four parts of the world; or of particular kingdoms and countries.

The problem of composing geographical maps: the situation of an infinite plain, or one to be produced at pleasure, being given, to represent in that the places of the superficies of the earth, according to the rules of perspective. The end of these tables or maps is to the life, and exactly as may be to express the situation of places in the superficies of the earth; maps of small regions do not require the rules of perspective.

A plain figure, representing the several parts of the surface of the earth, according to the laws of perspective, or it is a projection of the surface of the globe, or part thereof in plano, describing the several countries, islands, seas, rivers, with the situation of cities, woods, hills etc. Universal maps, such as exhibit the whole surface of the earth, or the two hemispheres. Particular maps, are such as exhibit some particular part or region thereof.

A representation of the whole earth, or some part of it, upon a plain superficies.

A description or projection of either the whole world or a part of it upon a plane, in which the situation, figure &c. of a country, both in respect to its own absolute possession of a particular space, or in relation to the bordering nations about it, is described according to the laws of perspective.

A representation of the whole, or a part of the earth, upon a plane superficies, describing the situation and form of countries .

A geographical picture on which lands and seas are delineated according to the latitude and longitude.

A geographical picture, or a projection of the globe, or a part thereof, on a plain surface, representing the forms and dimensions of the several countries, rivers, and seas, with the situation of cities, mountains, and other places, according to their respective longitude and latitude.

A geographical picture, or a projection of the globe, or a part thereof, on a plain surface, representing the forms and dimensions of the several countries, rivers, and seas, with the situation of cities, mountains, and other places, according to their respective longitude and latitude.

A portable, simplified picture of the world or some portion of it.

A topographic transfer, relative to a given part of the earth surface, is a set of signs informing about spatial relations conditions occurring between objects or phenomena connected with the said part of the earth surface. The map of a given part of the earth surface is a topographic transmitter that informs only and solely by means of a disposition on the plane of signs designating objects or phenomena.

A symbolised picture of an area or piece of ground, drawn as accurately as possible, as it would be seen from directly above.

The primary function of a map is to serve as a reduction of all or part of the earth’s surface for the purpose of recording, presenting, or analysing the spatial positions and the interrelationships of phenomena occurring thereon.

A graphic representation, usually on a plane surface and at an established scale, of natural and artificial features on the surface of a part or the whole of the earth or other planetary body. The features are positioned as accurately as possible, usually relative to a coordinate reference system. Also, a graphic representation of a part or the whole of the celestial sphere.

An abstract, abbreviated representation of a part or whole of an area, usually the earth’s surface.

A representation, usually on a plane surface, of a region of the earth or heavens.

Conventionalised representation of spatial phenomena on a plane surface. Unlike photographs maps are selective and may be prepared to show various quantitative and qualititative facts, including boundaries, physical features, patterns, and distribution. Each part of a map corresponds to a geographical position in accordance with a definite scale and projection.

Representation on a plane surface at an established scale of the physical features, natural or artificial, of a part or whole of the earth by means of symbols with the method of orientation, such as north, indicated.

 

Posted in Africa, Art, Asia, Canada, Europe, History, Maps, Middle East, South America, Tourism, Travel Writing, USA | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment