Tag Archives: typeface

Monday’s Link Roundup.

In this Monday’s Link Roundup, don’t pass up Affirmation, Etched in Vinyl. It speaks passionately to why personal historians do the work they do. As someone who loves a pen in my hand, I was intrigued by Why creative writing is better with a pen. For a little blast of nostalgia, take a look at What Record Stores Looked Like in the 1960s.

  • How Do You Spell Ms. “Forty years ago, a group of feminists, led by Gloria Steinem, did the unthinkable: They started a magazine for women, published by women—and the first issue sold out in eight days. An oral history of a publication that changed history.”
  • Getting Ready for Next Year–Now. “While the end of the year is likely not in the minds of many, it’s closer than you may think.So before the ball drops and that tax deadline gets even closer, it’s a good time to think about the many things you can do to prepare for the end of the year–and the promising year ahead.”
  • Why creative writing is better with a pen. “In a wonderful article published on the New York Review of Books blog the poet Charles Simic proclaimed “writing with a pen or pencil on a piece of paper is becoming an infrequent activity”. Simic was praising the use of notebooks of course, and, stationery fetishism aside, it got me thinking about authors who write their novels and poems longhand into notebooks rather than directly onto the screen.”
  • Affirmation, Etched in Vinyl. “For years I tried to construct a viable idea of my long-gone father by piecing together scraps of other people’s memories. I was only 6 when he died,…My father’s death stole many things from me, including the sound of his voice. For instance, I have tried to remember his laughter from that final night — its timbre and roll — but my mind is an erased tape. I possess the knowledge of his laughter and of Angie and Johnny’s bubbly white noise but have no memory of the sounds themselves. It’s as if I have garnered these details by reading a biography penned by a stranger.” [Thanks to Pat McNees of Writers and Editors for alerting me to this item.]
  • 7 Little Things That Make Life Effortless. “Life can be a huge struggle, most of the time, and for years it was a struggle for me.I’ve gradually been learning what causes that struggle, and what works in making life easier, better, smoother.Life can feel effortless, like you’re gliding along, if you learn to swim smoothly, to glide, to stop fighting the waters of life and start using them to buoy you up.”
  • What Record Stores Looked Like in the 1960s. “Just think: kids being born today will probably never see the inside of a record store. And why would they? Buying music used to involve wandering around a store browsing, picking things up based on cover art, putting them down based on scornful glares from record store employees, and generally being outside your house. Now, buying music usually amounts to nothing more than a click of the mouse from the safety of your couch.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

In this Monday’s Link Roundup I particularly enjoyed Toss Productivity Out.  It questions our usual notion of what it means to be productive.  And for the grammar challenged like myself, you’ll find More one-or-two-word confusables a handy reference.

  • The iPhone: a Scanner in Your Pocket. “The next time you read a document that contains information about your ancestors, wouldn’t it be nice to immediately scan an image of it and email the image to yourself? Even better, how about uploading the image immediately to Dropbox or to MobileMe iDisk?  If you own an iPhone, you can do that right now by installing a bit of low-cost software.”
  • How to survive the age of distraction. “In the 20th century, all the nightmare-novels of the future imagined that books would be burnt. In the 21st century, our dystopias imagine a world where books are forgotten. To pluck just one, Gary Steynghart’s novel Super Sad True Love Story describes a world where everybody is obsessed with their electronic Apparat – an even more omnivorous i-Phone with a flickering stream of shopping and reality shows and porn – and have somehow come to believe that the few remaining unread paper books let off a rank smell. The book on the book, it suggests, is closing.”
  • Confessions of a Typomaniac. “Of all the truly calamitous afflictions of the modern world, typomania is one of the most alarming and least understood. It was first diagnosed by the German designer Erik Spiekermann as a condition peculiar to the font-obsessed, and it has one common symptom: an inability to walk past a sign (or pick up a book or a menu) without needing to identify the typeface. Sometimes font freaks find this task easy, and they move on; and sometimes their entire day is wrecked until they nail it.”
  • Toss Productivity Out. “Toss productivity advice out the window. Most of it is well-meaning, but the advice is wrong for a simple reason: it’s meant to squeeze the most productivity out of every day, instead of making your days better.”
  • The typewriter lives on in India. “India’s typewriter culture survives the age of computers in offices where bureaucracy demands typed forms and in rural areas where many homes don’t have electricity.”
  • Teen volunteers to ghostwrite life tales for patients. “For some teen volunteers at Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center in Sun City West, they’re discovering more about many patients’ backgrounds — and themselves in the process — during one-on-one interviews through a program called Life Stories. Started in January, the program offers two volunteers — this summer it’s 18-year-old Zack Welch and 15-year-old Lauren Harrell — a chance to get to know patients of all ages by asking questions relating to life as a child, interesting vacations, their jobs and careers, and dating and marriage.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

In this Monday’s Link Roundup don’t miss  Jonathan Harris: The Storytelling of Life. What a unique way to tell your life story! For something to get your week off to a smile be sure to check out Photos of Famous Writers (and Rockers) with their Dogs. Now  for us cat lovers all we need is Photos of Famous Writers with their Cats! Let me know if you come across such a collection.

  • The Long Goodbye. “Meghan O’Rourke’s memoir about the death of her mother, The Long Goodbye, is out this week [February 16,2009]. The book began as a series of essays for Slate, which we’ve republished below.”
  • How Genius Works. “Great art begins with an idea. Sometimes a vague or even bad one. How does that spark of creativity find its way to the canvas, the page, the dinner plate, or the movie screen? How is inspiration refined into the forms that delight or provoke us? We enlisted some of America’s foremost artists to discuss the sometimes messy, frequently maddening, and almost always mysterious process of creating something new.”
  • Tech Tips with Lisa Louise Cooke: WDYTYA Revisited & Photo Gems. “Photographs capture once-in-a-lifetime moments and treasured family memories that we certainly don’t want to forget. But assembling them in a way that can be enjoyed for years to come is not as simple as it was in the old days when we sat down to our scrapbooks and prints. Here are three tips for assembling your precious pics in a way that will delight you and those you share them with.”
  • Photos of Famous Writers (and Rockers) with their Dogs. “Courtesy of New York Social Diary, here is a lovely series of photographs featuring famous authors and their dogs. If you’ve ever wondered which breeds have served as muse to William Styron, Stephen King, William F. Buckley, Kurt Vonnegut, then this collection is for you.”
  • Jonathan Harris: The Storytelling of Life. “When he [Harris]turned 30, he decided to start taking one photo every day and posting it to his site before going to sleep — a seemingly simple, private project that soon turned into a fascinating exploration followed by thousands of people around the world. Our friends from m ss ng p eces — you remember them, right? — are back with another lovely documentary, capturing the project and the vivid, earnest curiosity with which Harris approaches the world.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

Happy Monday! And welcome to Monday’s Link Roundup. As always there’s  a tasty mix of sites to sample. My favorite this week is The Future of the Book. There are some innovative and exciting ideas here and a glimpse of what some  personal histories could look like in the near future.

  • If you have lofty ambitions for your legacy, head for the attic. “As we cheerfully embarked on communicating our thoughts via evanescent media such as SMS and Twitter, storing our photographs on Flickr and Facebook, keeping our email messages on Gmail and Hotmail, did we ever give a thought to how much of this will endure beyond our lifetimes?” [Thanks to APH member Valerie A. Metzler for alerting me to this item.]
  • On covers. “I’ve been thinking about covers for a while now. One of the many great debates around the ephemeralisation of music has been the lamentations for the loss of cover art: now, we are reaching the same point with books.”
  • The Future of the Book. “Meet Nelson, Coupland, and Alice — the faces of tomorrow’s book. Watch global design and innovation consultancy IDEO’s vision for the future of the book. What new experiences might be created by linking diverse discussions, what additional value could be created by connected readers to one another, and what innovative ways we might use to tell our favorite stories and build community around books?”
  • TypArchive. “Over the last 10 years I’ve been visually inspired by hand painted lettering. I began shooting while living in Brooklyn, New York 2001-2008. This obsession lead me to travel and shoot in other locations including, France, Mexico, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, Austin, New Orleans, Miami and Memphis.”
  • Retrofuturism Revisited: The Past Imagines the Future. “Last year, we looked at the 2020 Project, which invited some of today’s sharpest thinkers to imagine tomorrow. But how will their visions look to future generations? To get a taste for it, we looked to the past: Here are 6 charming visions for the future, from the past — a delightful exercise in retrofuturism that embodies humanity’s chronic blend of boundless imagination, solipsistic foolishness and hopeless optimism.”
  • Library and Archives goes digital. “Within the next seven years, Library and Archives Canada will put most of its services online, transforming the country’s leading memory institution into a fully engaged digital organization, just in time to celebrate Confederation’s 150th anniversary in 2017.”
  • What the census can teach us about ourselves. “… as family historians know, it’s the personal fragments garnered from census documents that tell the most dramatic stories of American life. These historical gems often provide clues that, knitted together, can weave a story as cherished as any family tapestry or ancestral tartan.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

This Monday’s Link Roundup has some items that are a  feast for the eyes. My favorite is Creative Cartography, a site showcasing a dazzling collection of unique maps, the likes of which you’ve never seen. We have lost Kodachrome but the images live on. Be sure to drop by A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon. The images are luscious!

  • PBS Director’s Cut Interview with “Typeface” producer. “In a time when people can carry computers in their pockets and watch TV while walking down the street, “Typeface” dares to explore the twilight of the analog craft of wood type printing that is freshly inspiring artists in a digital age.”
  • Oral History Methods – U.C, Davis Extension Course. “Learn to conduct and record an oral history project at your own pace, in your own community, following the complete process of historical documentation. Create historical context, plan and organize interviews to meet your objectives, and decide on materials to use during interview sessions. Enroll now through Feb. 9 and complete by March 30. Fee: $325.00 ($345.00 if postmarked after 01/19/2011).”
  • Last Words by George Carlin. “For more than a decade before his 2008 death, groundbreaking stand-up comedian Carlin had been working on his autobiography with writer Hendra (Father Joe), who finished it by distilling hours of conversations with the irascible social commentator. Armed with an eye for detail and a seemingly photographic memory, Carlin retraces his life in full, chronicling petty crimes and stolen kisses, escalating drug problems and the death of his wife with unflinching honesty.”
  • The Gift. “Famed editor and author, Diana Athill, 93, reads her poem about her mother’s death, that was included in her best-selling memoir ‘Somewhere Towards the End’, published by Granta in the UK and Norton in the USA.”
  • Creative Cartography: 7 Must-Read Books on Maps. “We’re obsessed with maps — a fundamental sensemaking mechanism for the world, arguably the earliest form of standardized information design, and a relentless source of visual creativity. Today, we turn to seven fantastic books that explore the art and science of cartography from seven fascinating angles.”
  • Travel Film Archive. “Want to see what the world was like for your ancestors? Perhaps you wish to catch a glimpse of where they lived? Need videos for an archival documentary? You might even see a place you remember when you were younger if you look at a film on the Travel Film Archive.”
  • A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon. “They say all good things in life come to an end …It was a difficult decision, given its rich history …We at Kodak want to celebrate with you the rich history of this storied film. Feel free to share with us your fondest memories of Kodachrome.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

Happy Labor Day! I’m back from my “staycation” (somewhat) rested and ready to bring you more wonderful links. This Monday I highly recommend My father still laughed in the face of death. And for those of you interested in graphic design be sure to watch the trailer for Typeface.

Smalltopia: A Practical Guide to Working for Yourself. “…full of tips, tools, and strategies to help you create personal freedom through a very small business. Smalltopia is broken up into three sections: Philosophy, Business Essentials, and Case Studies. The ebook tells my personal story of escaping the rat race and the lessons I learned along the way.”

The Power of Storytelling: Creating a New Future for American Muslims. “In seventh-century Arabia, the storyteller was valued more than the swordsman. The audience sat on the floor surrounding the gifted orator as he captivated the eager listeners with beautiful poetry narrating their history. In the twenty-first century, the art form may have evolved to include motion pictures, TV shows, theater productions, novels, and stand-up comedy, but they all serve the same function: storytelling.”[Thanks to APH member Marcy Davis for alerting me to this item.]

My father still laughed in the face of death. “At the hospice he and his favourite palliative-care nurse would fall into fits of contagious laughter. It was his drug of choice.”

Home Life: A Journey Through Rooms and Recollections. “This is a memoir, but don’t be put off. Fox has organized her memories around a witty and beguiling conceit: rooms, homes, and spaces she has stayed in or, in the case of the Bordeaux room at the Metropolitan Museum, been enchanted by.” ~ from Booklist [Thanks to cj madigan of Shoebox Stories for alerting me to this item.]

Make the Most of Your Memory: 10 Tips for Writing About Your LIfe. “Because memoirs are categorized as nonfiction, you intend to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” right? But how can you be sure your words are true (and avoid controversy)? How can you tell the whole truth of your richly detailed life, when you can’t even remember what you had for breakfast yesterday? And if you aim to tell “nothing but the truth,” does that mean you can’t invent a little when certain facts escape you but are vital to the depth and/or coherence of the story?”

Typeface Official Trailer. “In a time when people can carry computers in their pockets and watch TV while walking down the street, Typeface dares to explore the twilight of an analog craft that is freshly inspiring artists in a digital age. The Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, WI personifies cultural preservation, rural re-birth and the lineage of American graphic design.” [Thanks to Marcy Davis for alerting me to this item.]

We Are All Cousins. “People are connected in surprising ways, says Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA — arguably the most influential genealogist of our time. Learn from the best with the NGS Online Video Series, produced by award-winning filmmakers Kate Geis and Allen Moore, featuring today’s most distinguished genealogy experts.”