Just sent this book, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, to Weirleader because its exactly the kind of essentially wholesome but irreverent stuff inquiring kids love. (Weirleader–I hope both boys dig it but its more suited to your eldest at the moment)
Hopefully it can figure into your 24 books for 2008.
A brief synopsis courtesy of Publisher’s Weekly (via Amazon):
Schlitz (The Hero Schliemann ) wrote these 22 brief monologues to be performed by students at the school where she is a librarian; here, bolstered by lively asides and unobtrusive notes, and illuminated by Byrd’s (Leonardo, Beautiful Dreamer) stunningly atmospheric watercolors, they bring to life a prototypical English village in 1255. Adopting both prose and verse, the speakers, all young, range from the half-wit to the lord’s daughter, who explains her privileged status as the will of God.
Some representative quotes from the review in The New York Times of December 17, 2008 after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »
Yeah, so I procured a PS3 on Saturday. Got Rock Band. That was the priority and FIFA 2008 will soon be mine. Oh, yes, it will be mine.
But today I just did a quick blog search for my Monday morning tech-crush news o’ the moment fix and I saw the picture above.
From the shot (since pulled from GameStop’s website) we see on the box that the item will be an “interactive light and smoke stage show” add-on to the cool-enough-already Rock Band game.
Gratuitous? Hell, yeah.
Essential. You betcha.
At least for any gathering where you want to turn the camp knob all the way up to 11 …
The ad bills it for Xbox 360 but what’s good for the goose is good for the PS3. And though the GameStop image shows a July 23, 2008 release date, we all know it’s just a kiss away … it’s just a kiss away … it’s just a kiss … away …
I know a lot of Southern California hamburger purists prefer Tommy’s or In ‘N Out but I still have a soft spot for Carl’s, Jr., despite their Paris Hilton ads and the lamentable dismissal of their once excellent hot dogs and fried burritos.
In any event, this is just to say that Carl Karcher, “deeply religious father of 12″ and founder of Carl’s, Jr., has died at 90. Carl’s, Jr. is the most notable chain in the CKE conglomerate Karcher founded and constitutes the bulk of their over 3,000 restaurants, spanning most of the states in the Southwest. In addition to Carl’s, Jr., CKE also owns Hardee’s, La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill and Green Burrito.
No offense to Karcher, I hardly need touch on the fact that Green Burrito jumped the shark the day it was bought out by CKE and is now a pale imitation of the stuff I grew up on in Hawaiian Gardens and Downey, California. Pero es la vida …
“Dessau, Germany, 1945. In a camp of displaced persons waiting for repatriation, a Gestapo informer who had pretended to be a refugee is discovered and exposed by a camp inmate whose face is illuminated by the strong, sharp light of rage.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson
One thing I think about–having had some limited exposure (ouch) to the classic photo development process–is that there’s always been manipulation after the initial capture of a shot, to say nothing of the initial editorial decisions involved in selecting what to capture and what to leave out.
But pre-digital manipulations already included use of print-making chemicals of relative strength that affected the contrast and the extent to which a developer chose to burn and dodge (terms which must have little meaning to somebody growing up in our present digital era), not to mention the first precarious stage when the roll itself is developed.
Yes, these are minor compared to the level of transformative digital manipulations but there is a philosophical consideration here. Should photographs be held to a higher standard of realism than other arts because of their unique ability to replicate reality?
Most people engaged in historical study and journalism (often called “the first draft of history”) these days agree that total objectivity in their fields is not possible. The same is true of photography. There can be no pure objectivity though obviously most photographic reproductions are far more likely to be technically correct than paintings. What we can shoot for, though, is what some of the best historical narratives manage, a poetic truth, something that with its combined weight of apt metaphor and factuality can be, synecdochically, more than the sum of its parts and yet avoid the pitfalls of being overly cynical or celebratory.
What is annoying about the most syrupy digital manipulations is that more often than not they are neither beautiful nor revelatory. But I am perhaps particularly biased as I prefer a more raw, documentary style. If I do enjoy the occasional romantic image its probably not going to be a black & white of a gray three-year-old stranger in a gray raincoat with the only color in the brushed photo either a pink umbrella or scarf or something.
I like my romance straight-up, like this:
A couple asleep on a Romanian train (Henri Cartier-Bresson)
Strange Maps is a wonderful blog and an instant (as of 15 minutes ago) personal favorite.
Its post–illustrated above–on the standard kiss count of French regional greetings was my introduction (via the WordPress homepage).
(Although, hmmm, I see a ‘5′ category listed at the base of the chart—in dark red—but don’t find any corresponding regions on the map representin’ with that degree of bilabial ardor)
Do take a few minutes to scroll through other Strange Maps entries as there is a very nice variety, including maps from German antiquity, the probable prehistoric course(s) of the Mississippi River and a new simplified look at London.
This is a perfect little blog–focused yet delightful.
