Via Magpie Mapper
All that was bright and shiny in my eye last week (with more to come on Wednesday)…
♦ THE BOOK NOOK.
I love how the shelf dividers curve at the ceiling in the Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, NYC. Via.
Greenlight Bookstore at Brooklyn, NYC
Whovians with Kindles might like this vinyl TARDIS Kindle Fire skin from Etsy. Via.
TARDIS Kindle Fire skin by Simplevinyl
Ah, the fine avant-garde art of Japanese book stacking, via Share Your Shelf.
Check out this sampling of awesome bookish flooring at Book Riot, including the one below:
“Bibliophilism (2006), by Pamela Paulsrud. Photo from her website, original tip from Apartment Therapy.”
I enjoyed and could relate to Ned Vizzini’s Searching for Shadow Man, about his quest to find the YA book he read in his youth that had a profound impact on him.
♦ THE HORNS OF ELFLAND.
More blasts from my past! Here are two more songs I listened to over and over again in the ’70s. Couldn’t get enough of them!
Vicki Lawrence’s “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” from 1972 (Reba McIntire did a great cover of the song in 1991).
Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones,” again from 1972 (I also really like Michael Bublé’s cover, with a little assistance from Emily Blunt).
♦ TURN THE PAGE.
Is Twitter poetry a thing? If Frank Bidart’s Twitter poem for Farrar, Strauss & Giroux is any indication, I may have to reconsider my aversion to Twitter…..
Joe Hill interviews Neil Gaiman about The Ocean at the End of the Lane (which includes a recipe for lemon pancakes, by the by). I’m very much looking forward to reading the novel. You can read the prologue to the novel here, and below is another video of Gaiman reading from The Ocean at the End of the Lane:
And more Gaiman: his top 10 mythical characters (we share many favorites, though I’d have Arianrhod, Hades, Kali, and Persephone on my list, too).
A feeding frenzy of the ocular kind:
Flax-golden tales: The Tiny Maybe-Witches Down the Street by Erin Morgenstern
From The Hairpin: Six Fairy Tales for the Modern Woman by Renee Lupica (I’m afraid I can’t remember where I found the link to this in order to give a proper cite, so please do accept my apologies).
From Poets.org: Complaint of Achilles’ Heel by Charles Jensen—read for the swoon-worthy imagery of the last two lines, though you will not regret the poem in its entirety; What Is True by Ben Kopel (short but sweet)
From Daily Science Fiction: Pictures in Crayon by Elizabeth Shack; Note to Self by Hans Hergot; Three Wishes by Melissa Mead; and True Love by Alex Shvartsman
From Tor.com: A Visit to the House on Terminal Hill by Elizabeth Knox (author of The Vintner’s Luck, one of my favorite novels); Porn & Revolution in the Peaceable Kingdom by Micaela Morrissette
♦ SOMEONE’S IN THE KITCHEN….
Beth Galton‘s photographic series Cut Food is weird and wonderful. Check out the short gallery at Flavorwire and Galton’s website for more. (Click to embiggen the image below.)
Breakfast by Beth Galton
Thug Kitchen gets read with recipes for Sundried Tomato Spread and a Summer Tempeh Sammie (despite the fact that I do not care for calling sandwiches “sammies,” this recipe still sounds good for those of you who like tempeh).
Wonder Woman cookies! Via.
Wonder Woman cookies by Kate’s Cookies
Oh, the intersection of food and technology: YO! Sushi is experimenting with the first flying tray to deliver food to customers:
Famed for being the first Sushi chain in the UK to deliver food to customers on a conveyor belt, we have now gone one-step further with the introduction of the world’s first flying tray to deliver the YO! Burger to YO! Sushi lovers.
The ‘iTray’, which is now being trialled at YO! Sushi Soho with a view to rolling it out across the UK next year, is a high-tech flying platter custom built using the most advanced RC Drone quadicopter technology and is remote controlled through an on-board Wi-Fi system and iPad software.
The gadget is made from a light-weight carbon fibre frame and consists of four propellers making it incredibly nippy. Two built-in HD cameras allow YO! Sushi kitchen staff to check that the new burger range is delivered through a real time video broadcast viewable on an iPad screen.
Developed by our Executive Chef, Mike Lewis, after spending a considerable amount of time researching different regional foods in Japan, the YO! Burger removes the greasy stodgy bun and beef patty and replaces it with innovative buns made from the highest quality Japanese toasted rice and a range of five fillings – teriyaki chicken, kimchi salmon, prawn katsu, tilapia katsu fish and tofu katsu.
Each YO! Burger is served on a beautiful bespoke Japanese bento tray and is accompanied by a palate cleansing pickled daikon slaw, nori crackers in place of fries and instead of ketchup, misochup. Perhaps the best part is that the burgers deliver a maximum of 423 calories for the whole meal, making the bento tray the healthiest burger-combo ever.
Via.
I enjoyed Rebecca Joines Schinsky’s Life Is Too Short to Eat Egg-White Omelets: An Eater’s Manifesto at Food Riot. I agree particularly with her views on reduced-fat cheese, almond butter, butter imposters, unbuttered popcorn, and artificial sweetners.
Literary desserts for your bookish sweet tooth, like these Butterbeer Cupcakes (with recipe!):
Butterbeer Cupcakes by Kristin Rosenau
Stuff your face with these recipes:
Dude Food Magic Bars takes the concept of the divine Seven-Layer Bars and goes nuts (though without any nuts): pretzels, bacon, dark chocolate, peanut butter chips, potato chips, and salted caramel. Oy! Via.
Five Ingredient Yum: Pine Bark (at Food Riot)
5 Magical Uses for Cauliflower.
Strawberry Sour Cream Pie by Carolina Charm
Zombie Burger + Drink Lab in Des Moines, Iowa, has created The Walking Ched burger, which sounds like both heaven and hell but still I want to go to there. According to the Zombie Burger menu, The Walking Ched is a double burger with a breaded, deep-fried macaroni & cheese bun (“bun”?), plus bacon, cheddar cheese, caramelized & raw onion, macaroni & cheese, and mayo. Feast your eyes on this monstrosity! (Via)
The Walking Ched at Zombie Burger
♦ THE NINTH ART.
Go read Post by Molly Brooks right now! It’s a short webcomic (her MFA thesis comic) “about a courier who falls in love with a beautiful lady scientist after being hired to deliver a series of anonymous love notes to her isolated workshop.” The comic is lovely, and I enjoyed it so much I ordered a paperback copy!
Mighty fine mash-ups last week from Super-Team Family, including these two darlings:
and for Fara:
The Beat also has a preview of OGN Avengers: Endless Wartime, written by Warren Ellis with art by Mike McKone and colors by Jason Keith. So sayeth The Beat: “The book is intended for both new and existing readers and features an Avengers lineup more similar to the one from the film—while adding a new characters like Captain Marvel and Wolverine to the mix, which they may never see in the film universe. The story, Ellis says, was inspired by military drones as a kicking off point.” I kind of like the behind-the-scenes, slice-of-life opening, but I suspect many readers may find it a bit boring.
Breaking news from The Beat: The comics industry is not dying! Comic-book movies aren’t dying either!
Check out a preview of Jordan Mechner’s graphic novel Templar, illustrated by LeUyen Pham and Alexander Puvilland, over at Tor.com, which describes the book thus: “Martin is one of a handful of Templar Knights to escape when the king of France and the pope conspire to destroy the noble order. The pope and king aim to frame the Templars for heresy, execute all of them, and make off with their legendary treasure. That’s the plan, anyway, but Martin and several other surviving knights mount a counter-campaign to regain the lost treasure of the Knights Templar.”
♦ THE WRITING DESK.
Theodora Goss on Dreaming and Writing.
Chuck Wendig on 25 things to know about sexism and misogyny in writing and publishing, as well as the challenging responses to sexism and misogyny he received on that post and a follow-up on why men should speak out about sexism, misogyny, and rape culture.
Questions every writer should be asking but isn’t.
The eloquent Lady Elocutionist on writing stories and writing histories and what we’re really searching for.
The ever-effervescent Paul Kirsch on time travel: plot or plot device?
Inestimable poet-professor Marnie Bullock Dresser says, Creative People Say Yes (Sometimes)—and they do!
Elizabeth Spann Craig on giving villains more depth.
Some wisdom about the work of writing (or any art) from Jane Yolen.
Jason Kong on how to promote books and win fans.
Zen Pencils on John Green’s Make Gifts for People—click through to read the entire thing.
Zen Pencils
♦ VIEWERS’ PARADISE.
Criterion shared 12 more title designs they love, including the one below for Howards End. Do you also love these title designs? In addition to the title design for Howards End, I’m also quite fond of the titles for La Belle et la Bête, Hunger, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Royal Tenenbaums.
Some movie trailers for you: first up is a not-new trailer for R.I.P.D., which opens next month. The film’s based on Peter M. Lenkov’s comic book, Rest In Peace Department.
Elysium has a great concept—“Set in the year 2159, where the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth, a man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.”—plus Jodie Foster!
I’m charmed by the trailer for Lake Bell’s In A World…: “An underachieving vocal coach is motivated by her father, the king of movie-trailer voice-overs, to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voiceover star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation.”
I’ll admit it: I love to see Keanu Reeves working. You’ll just have to sue me. But I’m not sure what to think of this trailer for Man of Tai Chi.
Speaking of film trailers I’m not entirely sure what to think of, here’s the first trailer for 300: Rise of an Empire. Now, I think the trailer looks beautiful, which is the same reason I liked the original 300, but I already have some reservations about the content….
