Here are some shiny things that caught my eye recently:
♦ Kate Bush has a new album coming out in November called 50 Words for Snow. So many things in that last sentence I love: Kate Bush, words, snow. I admit to being partial to more of her earlier work (like The Sensual World, Hounds of Love, The Dreaming, and…), but I’m always happy to know there’s a new Kate Bush album on the way. And, yes, I’ve already pre-ordered a copy. Discovered via.
♦ Over on Warren Ellis’s blog, Jess Nevins did an interesting guest post on the history of commonplace books, which was a bit different than what I thought I knew about the subject. The part about Lord Byron and his fans’ commonplace books was fascinating.
♦ Warren Ellis has a lot of cool things on his blog. One of the latest is a series of Three Panel comics, where comics artists submitted stories in only three panels. I’m particularly fond of this one about magic words by Eric Esquivel, Scott Godlewski, Ryan Cody, and Henry Barajas.
♦ My friend Andy sent me the link to this article on Cheeming Boey who draws amazing art on Styrofoam cups. Some of these pieces have sold for over $1,000! Pretty impressive. One cup I liked in particular is Jiang Chi, to the left. It only costs $1250.
♦ Apparently, a rumor was going around that IKEA had changed the design of the popular Billy bookcases because people were buying fewer books. Thankfully, that rumor was untrue! I do appreciate bookshelves with more depth, though. Via.
♦ Need help on how to put your art on the walls? Kevin Sharkey over at Martha Stewart’s website has a great post with a lot of useful tips for organizing and hanging pictures.
♦ T.N. Tobias has a thought-provoking post about writing unlikable characters in fiction. The comments are interesting, to boot. Via.
♦ An anonymous artist has been leaving elaborate paper sculptures made from books in libraries throughout Scotland. The work is pretty amazing and reminds me (and others) of Su Blackwell‘s sublime work. Via.
♦ My friend Cameron told me about Sean Durkin’s upcoming film, Martha Marcy May Marlene (due out next month), about a young woman who escapes from a cult and then sent me the link to the trailer below, which is disturbingly beautiful. I tracked down the poster image to the left, which really knocked my socks off.
♦ Another beautiful film trailer that caught my eye was for Tony Ching’s The Sorcerer and the White Snake, based on a Chinese folktale, so you know my interest was piqued from the start. You can check out another trailer here. Via.
