Over at Doodlers Anonymous they are having a doodle competition to create bookmarks. I usually use sticky notes or receipts from the library as bookmarks, so it will be interesting to see what other people come up with.
I decided to try my hand at the matter with a few quick sketches. I have a thing for monsters. And I also think that sometimes when I open a book, it should be like receiving a free hug.
Nick Hornby‘s novel follows four complete strangers (Maureen, JJ, Jess, and Martin) as they meet by chance once New Year’s Eve on Topper’s House roof where they come with intentions of jumping off. They decide to live another day creating a bond between these four characters, the only common thing between them. They agree to meet again on the roof in a few weeks to see if their desire to jump is still strong. As time passes Maureen, JJ, Jess, and Martin become more important to each other than imaginable, filling each other’s need for human connection despite all their misadventures and disagreements.
Perhaps the directness in which Hornby writes each of his character’s views on life and choices is what helps lighten up what could be an entirely dark book. His characters are looking for something to change their minds about life and refocus their attention; they just weren’t aware of it until they met one another.
“For reasons unknown, some readers think understanding a text is important. I’m not one of those people. I read theory and fiction and poetry to experience, to consider, to become other, to shift, to mutate, to change. I most certainly do not read those things to understand them.”
-Christopher Higgs from HTMLgiant.com
Blueprints on How to Build Better Girls by Elissa Schappell provides stories that expand on common archetypes of women— the slut, the college grad, the has-been mother— to allow these women to come to life through their trials and tribulations. The book is made of multiple short stories, but the lives of these women are loosely interconnected, which helps give context to where each woman is in her life. If you’re looking to read stories about women that remind you of someone you might know, this book is worth a read.
The New York Times Sunday book review also has a nice post up about the book.
Are QR codes still a thing? I know they were hot for a while, especially with technology artists using augmented reality to make their pieces more engaging for the audience. An article with some examples of AR related art projects can be found at artinfo.com The basic idea of how this works is that a piece of artwork is associated with an app that the viewer can download on his or her smartphone. When he or she points the phone at a designated spot in the artwork or at a QR code in the artwork (or on the wall tags) the viewer is given further information about the piece or projected images to complete the piece. This is different than virtual reality in that it adds virtual elements to an existing (read: real) environment where as virtual reality makes up the entire environment.
“Einstein” by Kim Mooyong
The artist Kim Mooyong has taken QR codes to a different level by incorporating the codes directly into her artwork. She works with the codes to create lifelike portraits of iconic figures. I haven’t been able to figure out if the QR codes are functioning or not.
However, at http://www.qrstuff.com/ besides providing resources on how to understand QR codes and create your own, have a free service QR code generator. The generator can create codes for blogs, facebook profiles, telephone numbers, and Paypal buy links among many other things. I created a QR code for this blog, but I haven’t put further thought into how to optimize user experience of this site.
“You see when you’re middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you. You have to live with the fact that history can never champion your causes and that history will never feel sorry for you. It is the price that is paid for day-to-day comfort and silence. And because of this price, all happinesses are sterile; all sadnesses go unpitied.”
—From Generation X by Douglas Coupland
Generation X by Douglas Coupland details a brief segment of the narrator Andy’s life, where not a whole lot happens…no life changing events or major conflicts, just a narrator trying to figure out how to to ease his boredom and live a satisfying life without feeling like he fed his soul to the system of over-crowded media consumption and demands for perfection. It’s a book full of stories that him and his friend tell each other to help make sense of their lives and the world around them, a way to indirectly open up to their own feelings. As depressing as their existence can be at times (really whose isn’t), they continue searching for their own versions of happiness, love, and belonging whether or not they vocalize those needs.
Maybe we are all lost at one point or another with different backdrops…
Finally here…a few performance photos (by Emilia Javanica) from the Sober Show at the Performance Lab in December. I performed the first musical number of my piece Jobless, which is still under construction slowly but surely. Check out those sexy khakis.
Other amazing performers:
“Cindi Dumont Whitaker”
Aaron Timlin, Jackie Strez and Nick Pobutsky
Megan Montgomery
North Carolina re-defined their state law to make marriage solely between a man and woman with the passage of Amendment 1 yesterday. As disheartening as this news is, President Obama gave an interview with ABC News this morning, which gives me some hope. In it, he describes his evolving viewpoint on same-sex marriage concluding that he believes same-sex marriage should be legal.
“Every one of us is losing something precious to us…lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads–at least that’s where I imagine it– there’s a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in a while, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you’ll live forever in your own private library.”
-from Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The book is written with two different major plot lines: one follows a fifteen year old boy who runs away from home and the other follows an old man who, through a wartime accident, has been left unable to remember his past and how to read. The plots start out as distinct from one another but become more closely connected as the book continues, although the two characters never physically cross paths. The book has raised many questions for its readers, myself included, so much so that upon its initial release in Japan, Murakami’s publisher started an online forum to house over 8,000 questions submitted by readers. Murakami personally answered about a fourth of them.
In summary, Murakami had this to say about his novel: “Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren’t any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It’s hard to explain, but that’s the kind of novel I set out to write.”
To put it in other words: Like most works of art, the person creating the work has a specific idea of what he or she wants the work to be about, what he or she is trying to communicate to the audience, but because people have such vast life experiences, there is no way to control all possibilities.
The book to me seems to be about each character figuring out their path in life and what parts are the most important.
Bound by fear and endless life choices, what is the path to choose and how much of a choice do we really have. I might be fated to walk alone, but of course that isn’t true. I will meet you along the way, even if for a brief moment. We’ll share a part of our souls that the other will carry on until they’re through. No way to know whose lives you’ve touched and those you haven’t because memory isn’t that strong except for the times when it is.
I visited 3.7 Designs the other day for some helpful tips on becoming a web designer. We talked a lot about companies feeling “friendly”, which seems to be an overall trend in company branding, for example Apple. With social media exploding, relating to your consumer base on a more important personal level seems to be the way to go. Making people feel more invested in your company than the others will set your company apart from the mass number of products and things available. Another trend and type of friendly is the “eco-friendly” designs. As mass culture learns more about how humans have destroyed their environment, looking to scale back and take care of mother Earth has become more of a priority in design and consumer choices. The Creative Lounge has a very small blip on their website about eco-friendly branding which is worth a look.
I often wonder about the carbon footprint that all this computer and mobile phone access is leaving, and how creators of these devices are looking into solutions to the problem.
