The Booklovers

 

I came up to Michigan with several goals in mind, high amongst them is getting into the practice of doing more reading.  Back in the day I was quite the voracious reader but haven't exactly been flexing that muscle as of late, with the exception of whatever might be the newest David Sedaris book.

That being said, I shipped an ambitious box-full up to camp and hope to knock out quite a few over the course of the summer… that's what days off and beaches are for, right?  Many thanks especially to the two Catherine's (Couturier, my boss / Roberts, my aunt) for suggestions and loaning!

I'll certainly have more to say about some of them later but thought this would be the perfect time to empty out one of my favorites folder dedicated to our lexicological repositories (how's that for a pretentious euphemism for "book"!)

 

Self-described interdisciplinary artist Guy Laramée creates absolutely stunning sculptures out of books, inspired by nature, the death of his mother, history and a myriad of other topics.  Hooks-Epstein, can you PUH-LEASE do a show?!? [found via io9]

Ryoanji

 

Untitled / Stupa (Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary)

 

 

Toronto, Canada's Type Books created this stop-motion short entitled "The Joy of Books" to champion the continued creation and purchasing of physical books (as opposed to the burgeoning eBook business). [found via BoingBoing]

 

 

Spanish artist Alicia Martin has created several site-specific installations in her Biografias series using 5,000+ books cascading from various windows of multistory buildings. Talk about word vomit!! [found via BoingBoing]

 

The artist inside one of her creations

 

 

Last March a staff member of the Scottish Poetry Library came across a beautifully carved art piece and an accompanying note written to the library's Twitter handle (@byleaveswelive):

It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… … We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)

Many believed this was just a "one-off" creation until another one showed up some time later at the National Library of Scotland, leading to many creations being found for months to come in many of Scotland's great institutions.  There's a really fantastic review of the entire story, including photographs of all the discovered pieces, here.  Was the mystery ever solved?!? [found via io9]

 

National Library of Scotland: from Ian Rankin's Exit Music / National Museum of Scotland: from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World

 

 

To round out our literary themed post let's take a look at the Oscar winning animated short film from this years' 84th Annual Academy Awards. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessermore, by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, is described thusly by the production team: "Inspired in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, 'Morris Lessmore' is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor."

 

First up on my reading list, you ask? Neil deGrasse Tyson's Space Chronicles!

 

Artist: The Divine Comedy / Album: Promenade

Angels from the Realms of Glory

 

         BEST.

                                COSMIC.

                                                          TREE-TOPPER.

                                                                                               EVAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“The two-lobed star-forming region, dubbed Sharpless 2-106, is located in an isolated part of our Milky Way galaxy nearly 2000 light-years from Earth. The bluish ‘wings’ are lobes of super-hot gas illuminated by a monster star—dozens of times the mass of our sun—forming in the center of the still-expanding nebula. A dark ring of dust and gas circling the star (dark bands, center), material that may one day coalesce into a planetary system, acts like a belt, cinching the nebula into an hourglass shape.” [via ScienceNOW]

 

Artist: Renee Fleming and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir / Album: The Wonder of Christmas

To Build a Home

 

I have officially been an “inner looper” for two weeks now and through setting up my new apartment I have come across a few decorating deficiencies with which I figured you blog friends could help out.  Gift registries courtesy of BoingBoing, Gizmodo and io9.  There’s a wide variety of items and price ranges to chose from, so spend spend spend!

Carved Gourd Lamps: Calabarte’s stunningly intricate lamps come in a variety of styles and sizes.  Check out his homepage for more examples his work.  Also, seeing as how it’s been just shy of six months since I’ve put up a new header I figured this was as good a time as any to change it up. (Plus it seems appropriately October-y for some reason).

 

 

 

Fancy Pantsy Toothpaste Squeezer: For just the price of around a hundred tubes of toothpaste you too can own this absurdly opulent device intended for the laziest and richest amongst us.  Yay dental hygiene!!

*Note—$10.00 tube of Marvis toothpaste not included

Elipson “Sound Tree”: Umm… do I really even need to explain this one?! It’s a tree made of speakers!!  Also, feel free to throw in that pair of chairs on the right and we’ll call it a joint housewarming/Christmas present.

“Tree of Life” poster (option 1): It’s a tree trunk made out of ANIMALS!!!  Noah would be so happy.

 

Tree of Life poster (option 2): I mentioned previously how I was lucky enough to catch this movie showing at the Michigan Theater when I was in Ann Arbor this summer and I’m a bit ub-sessed with the movie poster. PRETTY COLORS!!!

Blown-glass Goldfish Bowl: The only pet I’ve had since moving away from Crockett was when I was living in Ann Arbor.  My friends Will and Clinton had a guinea pig, Mr. Piggles, that seemed reasonable enough to deal with so I decided to get one, thinking they might become friends as well—they just ended up fighting a lot.  At any rate, I decided to give Phineas away after about a year because I wasn’t home enough to spend any quality time with him.  A goldfish, though… you don’t even have to pet them! (In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s recommended you don’t do so).

 

Tsunami Hurricane Capsule: And now perhaps the human equivalent of a fish bowl—a Japanese designed survival pod intended for use in a tsunami but, I’m assuming, perfectly acceptable for hurricane season here in Houston.  Plus… it “could hold four adults and had survived many crash tests.  It has a lookout window and breathing holes, and could also be used as a toy house for children.” 

A. Can’t you see me floating down Richmond in that?  B. I LOVE that he removed his shoes before going into the capsule.

 

Artist: The Cinematic Orchestra/ Album: Ma Fleur