Recently updated blogs

The 1976 Fender Guitar catalogue was fairytale-themed. Lot of links today, not much commentary, just to get rid of a few open browser/mental tabs. Currently: Maybe part of it is just that you can hear what the characters are saying. Watching: All the President’s Men. The definitive paperwork movie. For a film that’s almost completely made up of people making phone calls and writing things down, it never feels slow …

(There are some photos, with appropriate warnings, at the end of this entry.)I started using a wheelchair on and off from around the age of 17 years until, eventually, I had to use it full-time; I made the conscious decision to stop walking on my 30th birthday, in 2003, and a consequence of this was that my feet would swell slightly due to the lack of use and movement. A …

Billions of exoplanets orbit their Suns in our galaxy and more than a few are likely to be habitable. But are any inhabited? The Habitable World Observatory is not being designed and developed to give our best answer to that question. (PHL@UPR Arecibo, ESA/Hubble, NASA) In a solar system far, far away, life of some sort is just waiting to be found. Or so the world of astrobiology sure hopes …

From the Whitney Museum of Modern Art: On the occasion of Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith, we spoke to Greil Marcus about the reverberations felt around the world after the 1952 release of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. “It was a sensibility—this set that Harry Smith created—that was passed on to people. Where it said to them, ‘There’s more in this music. There’s …

This blog post will delve into the details of each tool you need for plein air painting.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Transit Maps has never taken a look at the map for Portland’s northern neighbour, the (original) Vancouver. With the recent addition of their second “The Vine” BRT route along Mill Plain Boulevard, now seems like a good time. At first glance, it seems to be a pretty solid map with some nicely simplified geography and routes clearly delineated. To my eyes, it seems to take some design …

I used to have a blog on wordpress.com called “Proper Gander”, so I revived the name but added a heavy metal umlaut1. To avoid unnecessary disappointment, please don’t expect me to stick to a particular theme, topic, or schedule. caveat lector Any opinions I post are mine unless attributed, and should not be mistaken for my employers' views or those of their clients or partners. Nothing I post here should …

My first trip to Scotland was when I was sixteen. At the end of the summer term I was asked not to return to Lancing College, my boarding school, as I was deemed ineducable. My parents didn’t really know what to do with me but, somehow, my mother learnt of adventure training courses run by the Scottish Council of Physical Education (now Sportscotland) at Glenmore Lodge a Highland centre near …

https://meangreennation.substack.com Over on the first post on MGN Substack we listed the main reasons why we are moving over. The great challenge of writing consistently…

The terrain of American mental health is as vast and colorful as this country’s geography. I’ve been interested in exploring the landscape since 2019, when I dashed off a quick blog post on cultural differences in psychology. Backburnered for four years, the topic is now top of mind for me. My interest in the economies of cultural and spiritual production, the topic of Life After Lifestyle, led me right back …

Last Updated on October 12, 2023 by Real Men Sow Nowadays, rapid advancements in science and technology as well as humanity’s pursuit of environmental sustainability are driving innovation in various fields. In the world of horticulture, hydroponic systems, with their unique advantages, are becoming increasingly popular, capturing the attention of numerous gardening enthusiasts and professionals. 1. The Origin of Hydroponic Agricultural Technology The history of hydroponics can be traced back …

Comme bien des montréalais depuis quelques années, des travaux sont en cours sur notre rue depuis deux semaines. Aqueducs, conduites d’eau contenant du plomb, remplacement de ci et de ça, la totale. Ce matin un camion avec tuyau articulé mêne un bruit d’enfer en pompant ou injectant quelque chose au fond d’un trou, je n’ai pas investigué. En revenant à la maison tantôt, autre camion au coin de la rue, …

Eric C. Wilder is a freelance designer living in Upstate New York. Here he takes us through his process for creating three covers for Open Letter Book’s Translator Triptych series. I have previous experience as a packaging designer, so when I get a series like this I tend to look at it as though I’m developing a product line. That is to say, instead of developing three covers for three …

We go back to Marlin Apartments in Stratford, where homeless families live 4 and 5 to a single room – around which they are pursued by militias of rats, mice, bedbugs, cockroaches, tiny flies and other pests that I didn’t care to view closely at the time. There are pictures and stories here if you can stand it. Being eaten by bedbugs was plenty to be getting on with, but …

This is a fraction of the items currently in my to-do list app, which functions more like an underpass covered in graffiti tags these days than a tool for productivity. I’m passing through, jotting down names of people I meet, frantic reminders of deadlines, books to read, errands to check off. The chaos of it gives me shivers. As my dad loses access to words, memories, faculties, ranges of motion, …