Some Great 2008 Book Covers (picked by NYT)

The NYTimes blog, "Book Design Review," has selected a nice little selection of their Favorite Book Covers from 2008. Check it out, there's some good stuff in there.

[Note: I'm not electing the Zizek book as my favorite book of the year or anything, just a great cover.]

mmm... Giant Squid... Giant Elbowed Squid

Read the story over at National Geographic.

(thx trace)

Barbecue Shrimp, My First Attempt

Barbecue Shrimp, My First Attempt, originally uploaded by jamiegp.

The Louisiana variety (which means, among things, no actual grilling) from a Saveur recipe. Threw in some green peppers -- a suitably cajun-esque addition. The top lighting in the kitchen makes this puppy look pretty glisten-y and unappetizing, eh?

The flavor of the sauce wasn't strong enough. And I put it over grits... I'm gonna go with the traditional french baguette as the side next time. Will post any recipe mods if they come in the future.

Both True Blood and Entourage Wrap Until Next Summer

I wish this was the "thing to blame" re my reduced productivity.

In other news I'm reading Murakami's After Dark which has a cover most gorgeous that I won't share here. It's reflective and shite and will be lost in photo-translation. I'm talking about the paperback. Get thee to a bookstore and contribute to thy local economy.

Anyway, having read a number of Murakami books and enjoyed them (despite cloying pretention) I'm left wondering at times if Japanese culture breeds such direct, soap operatic dialog. I'm assuming this is just a Murakami stilting of reality. After all, the book seems to be part Japanese ghost story, part romantic teen comedy, and part random gangland. The boy-meets-girl-light-flirting-ensues parts feel really Chungking Express in a good way.

For the descriptive prose version of such lack of any opacity, here is an excerpt from the first chapter:

Through the eyes of a high-flying night bird, we take in the scene from midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature-or more like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organisms.

I love you Murakami, but really... isn't that the dictionary definition of "city" being passed as insight? Is the translator at fault? Cultural difference?

Someone once said (sourcing quotes is for the weak) that writers were folks that come to realize something and make a big deal out of the revelation, while everyone around them tries to pretend they haven't known it their whole lives. I know I have been guilty of this more than once.

Just Paid Under $2/Gallon; Worried for the Angel of Progress

On Notice 1

On Notice 1, originally uploaded by jamiegp.

Traffic on the Overpass

New Title Graphic Grinding Toward Happy

I spent way too long on that new title graphic you see up there. Or maybe just the right amount. How many text layers are too many?

Sepia Fingerless Gloves Cliché

Affecting familiarity against my instincts lest it all rot.
We find ourselves on a strange stoop
In a strange city on a day stranger still.

Quick for step you struck up conversation.
Hook and latch from hint to hint.
The weather, an Aunt, a school, financial ruin
In the not-too-distant past. Button to button to pin to pin.

Did you know your mother? Your father?
We haven’t gotten that far back in the real world
Where we’re anonymous faces,
Self-fashioned grifters running from debt

Of one kind or another. And televisions bark
Landfall predictions for the season’s next named storm.

Pose, you say, this one is for Auntie.

5. Oil Futures

An irrational fear of oil futures

Very Most Good, Pilot Two

Here lies the second pilot for Very Most Good. I'll miss the easy post tools of Tumblr, but this seems to have more going for it re what I be needing. I'll be sorting out the layout over time, migrating content from the previous pilot, and generally tweaking the edges.

This is a test post for sorting out formatting, mostly.

4. Eating Alone

How I hate eating alone...

3. A Ringing

one day he got a ringing in one ear

two months later he was dead

2. Improv with Country

Improv w/Country

shirts ... pick out of a bin ... hang on a line behind when each is "done"

little fact cards per country? CIA factbook entry?

project behind the scene ... flickr pics ... "visual improv" from on the spot web browsing+

What Is 95 Thoughts?

Random jottings. Ideas and ideas for ideas. Gifts to anyone. Run with them, build on them. Let me know.

Comments are another of those things I have to get in line so you can let us know right here or otherwise spout.

1. The Freeway

the freeway is always creeping
-- Death Cab

the whitehurst freeway

95 thoughts