Recently updated blogs

Two short articles in Shanghai Daily‘s SHINE news site describe historical hermits of China. The first article describes the book collecting work of the 14th-century hermit Sun Daoming.URL: https://www.shine.cn/feature/district/2309138605/. The second article is titled “Chen Jiru: the hermit scholar of Ming Dynasty,” Chen Jiru abandoned the imperial court of his era to live as a … Continue reading "Two Chinese historical hermits"

The Necessary Tools for Sashiko The Right Needle for Sashiko The Right Thread for Sashiko The Right Fabric for Sashiko The Right Thimble for Sashiko The Best Sashiko Patterns for Beginners The Technique Basic Sashiko Rules How to Start Sashiko Stitches How to End Sashiko Stitches How to Connect Threads in Sashiko How to Carry Threads in Sashiko Corners and Crossings in Sashiko Final Advice for Your First Sashiko Project …

New York City songwriter and producer Common Air is taking his combination of folk rock and melodic pop-rock to new heights with new single ‘Sweet Time’. The artist behind the name is Nick Reichheld, a multi-talented individual who began his journey under Common Air in 2022 with singles ‘Worth’ and ‘Control’. Whilst these were folk rock focused, Nick has amped up his production skills on ‘Sweet Time’. The song is …

While crossing the Ponte Vecchio in Florence I stopped to change the battery in my camera. This street seller approached and asked if I would like to buy something from him. I said no thanks, so he started in with his background story. I told him I was from Canada so he asked if I spoke French, to which I replied un petit peu. Anyway we exchanged a few words …

Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.

Back in 2011, when I purchased the Golding Jobber № 8 from Bill and Gertie Campbell, I spent a morning with Bill, in their shop in Tryon, learning the ins and outs of it. It was, in essence, a very compressed course in running a job shop with a workhorse letterpress at the centre, taught by someone who'd forged a close relationship with the press.One of the things Bill showed …

Artist: Thirteen Goats Album: Capricorn Rising Year: 2024 Genre: Death Metal / Thrash Metal Web: https://thirteengoats.com/ / https://thirteengoats.bandcamp.com/ Country: Canada Quality: 320 Kbps Tracklist: 1. Sign of the Goat 2. Murder Lives in the Heart 3. A Wolf in Shepherd’s Clothing 4. Global Fuckup 5. Beheading Zoo 6. Permission to Die 7. Beating the Disease 8. Goats of War 9. Animal Kingdom Witness: -[*]- Wow, here is a band that …

This is a mild movie with mild thrills doing it’s best to trade on George Clooney and Brad Pitts movie star charisma and shared cinema past instead of doing the work. What work? You know the part where you create interesting characters, put them in increasingly dire situations and watch them scramble and bump off each other? Yeah, there’s not much of that here. Instead, it’s Clooney and Pitt playing …

Adam and Aldo discuss the win over Tulsa as the defense completely dominated the Golden Hurricane while the offense ripped off scoring drives after a slow start. ForumDefense

A calendar of the best and brightest astronomical events visible during the month of October.

The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE. NEW ON DVD/BLU-RAY/4K IN SEPTEMBER: ALL OF US STRANGERS, MENUS PLAISIRS, GREGG ARAKI’S TEEN APOCALPYSE TRILOGY, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL All of Us Strangers (The Criterion Collection): With previous films like Weekend and Lean On Pete, writer-director Andrew Haigh has revealed his fluency in the language of heartache and longing, …

The elections for the board of the OpenStreetMap Foundations are upcoming and the most interesting part of this for the OSMF members has traditionally started with the publications of the self-presentations of the candidates, which happened during the last days. My impression after the first reading of these is that the OSMF seems to have arrived in the post-truth era. Some might claim this has already happened years ago, but …

Lena Cohen writes: A new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report confirms what EFF has been warning about for years: tech giants are widely harvesting and sharing your personal information to fuel their online behavioral advertising businesses. This four-year investigation into the data practices of nine social media and video platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, and X (formally Twitter),... The post FTC Report Confirms: Commercial Surveillance is Out of Control appeared first …

Agatha Harkness in her various guises was the breakout star of WandaVision three years ago and is now back with her own spin off. It’s a fun show that revels in its witchiness so expect high camp, scary moments, and lots of knowing references. Anchored by Kathryn Hahn’s delightfully broad range of gestures and expressions and a script that leans into spooky lore the first three episodes are top class. …

Hey, do you remember the last time I wrote a blog post when I was at a crossroads? Yes, I'm talking about that one where I announced the end of Pepper&Carrot at episode 42 (in four episodes from now) and also the start of the Mini Fantasy Theater comic project. That was months ago, and, oh dear... a lot of things didn't turn out the way I thought they would. …