Hemingway, responding to a question about “the function of [his] art” from an interview published in the Paris Review.

From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality. That is why you write and for no other reason that you know of. But what about all the reasons that no one knows?

Seems true for all creative endeavors. Really enjoying the interviews series at the Paris Review.

Seems many people are on a redesign tear. All focused on readability and putting content front and center, and abstracting other elements to the background — navigation elements, ads, etc. Zeldman’s the latest — and most extreme — case. His site looks pretty amazing (and striking) and probably looks outstanding on retina-calibre displays (to be confirmed in a few minutes). If we believe the following, we’re blessed:

This redesign is deliberately over the top, but new ideas often exaggerate to make a point. It’s over the top but not unusable nor, in my opinion, unbeautiful. How can passages set in Georgia and headlines in Franklin be anything but beautiful? I love seeing my words this big. It encourages me to write better and more often.

…

But this is my personal site. There are many like it, but this one is mine. And on this one, I get to try designs that are idea-driven and make statements. On this one, I get to flounder and occasionally flop. If this design turns out to be a hideous mistake, I’ll probably eventually realize that and change it. (It’s going to change eventually, anyway. This is the web. No design is for the ages, not even Douglas Bowman’s great Minima.)

…

I don’t think you will see much type quite this big but I do think you will see more single-column sites with bigger type coming soon to a desktop and device near you. For a certain kind of content, bigger type and a simpler layout just make sense, regardless of screen size. You don’t even have to use Typekit or its brothers to experiment with big type (awesome as those services are). In today’s monitors and operating systems, yesterday’s classic web fonts—the ones that come with most everyone’s computer—can look pretty danged gorgeous at large sizes. Try tired old Times New Roman. You might be surprised.

The present day designer refuses to die.

Beth and I saw Gary Snyder speak at Berkeley in Doe Library a few nights ago. Snyder is among my favorite poets; hearing him speak and read some of his works fulfilled an old dream. He lectured mainly on his acts of translation, interwoven with anecdotes from his past.

This interview from the Paris Review sums up many of the reasons I like the man. A few gems follow (some line breaks added to split up the text):

I guess one’s work as a writer really holds one to the literally physical act of writing and visualizing and imagining and researching and following out the threads of one’s project. However, if one is a nonfiction prose writer or a poet, one is apt to be much more closely engaged with daily life as part of one’s real work, and one’s real work actually becomes life.

And life comes down to daily life. This is also a very powerful Buddhist point: that what we learn and even hopefully become enlightened by is a thorough acceptance of exactly who we are and exactly what it is we must do, with no evasion, no hiding from any of it, physically or psychologically. And so finding the ceremonial, the almost sacramental quality of the moves of daily life is taught in Buddhism. That’s what the Japanese tea ceremony is all about. The Japanese tea ceremony is a model of sacramental tea drinking. Tea drinking is taken as a metaphor for the kitchen and for the dining room. You learn how to drink tea, and if you learn how to drink tea well, you know how to take care of the kitchen and dining room every day. If you learn how to take care of the kitchen and the dining room, you’ve learned about the household. If you know about the household, you know about the watershed. Ecology means house, oikos, you know, from the Greek. Oikos also gives us economics. Oikos nomos means “managing the household.” So that’s one way of looking at it. I understand that there are other lines and other directions that poets take and I honor them. I certainly don’t believe there’s only one kind of poetry.

…

And then the fundamental ethical precept: whatever you do, try not to cause too much harm.

Imagine your favorite rock band… as a sandwich. My favorites below, but check out the whole list. It is outstanding.

Led Zeppelin: Arum sandwich with hummus, lettuce, 22 thin-sliced deli meats; side of Colman’s mustard.

Bob Dylan: Scrapple, melted pepper jack, hemp-seed garlic bread.

Ted Nugent: Cubed Grizzly bear, white buffalo brisket, unicorn haunch, Jim Beam barbecue sauce, white bread.

Bruce Springsteen: Cheesesteak, peppers, grilled headband, ketchup, seeded bun.

Queen: Fried Corinthian leather, Pop Rocks, sprouts, mayo, baguette.

Prince: Braised peacock cheeks, lavender spread, mustard, mayo, baguette.

Delicious.

Some gems from the NYT Obit follow:

Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche, died on Tuesday in Danbury, Conn. He was 83 and lived in Ridgefield, Conn.

In book after book, Mr. Sendak upended the staid, centuries-old tradition of American children’s literature, in which young heroes and heroines were typically well scrubbed and even better behaved; nothing really bad ever happened for very long; and everything was tied up at the end in a neat, moralistic bow.

Though he understood children deeply, Mr. Sendak by no means valorized them unconditionally. “Dear Mr. Sun Deck …” he could drone with affected boredom, imitating the semiliterate forced-march school letter-writing projects of which he was the frequent, if dubious, beneficiary.

But he cherished the letters that individual children sent him unbidden, which burst with the sparks that his work had ignited.

“Dear Mr. Sendak,” read one, from an 8-year-old boy. “How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive, my sister and I would like to spend the summer there.”

See some great interviews between Sendak and Stephen Colbert here and here.

So dope.

Deschutes County, Oregon may be Mecca for American beer aficionados. There’s Deschutes, of course, but also Cascade Lakes, Bend Brewing, Three Creeks, Boneyard, and Crux. Sounds pretty outstanding - and turns out all the craft beer making has had positive economic impacts. From the NYT:

While places like Seattle and Denver and Brooklyn and Delaware can claim impressive craft brewing scenes, and a weirdly large number of people nationwide now speak of hop fetishes and beer crushes, Bend is a per capita powerhouse. With 80,000 people surrounded by not much of anything — with no Interstate, no university, and the closest major city 160 miles away across steep and snowy mountains — beer has had room to make a difference.

And, from the Oregon Employment Department,

Eight brewers sold 106,115 barrels of beer, 27 percent of the total barrels sold in the state by Oregon breweries and brew pubs. In people terms, local breweries and brew pubs sold 222 pints per Deschutes County resident of legal drinking age in one year. This was more than six times the number sold by all Oregon breweries and brew pubs per Oregon resident of legal drinking age last year. Since 2005, Deschutes Brewery sold at least 20 percent of the state’s total taxable barrels concocted by Oregon breweries and brew pubs.

In Oregon, there were approximately 3,000 jobs at the 94 breweries and brew pubs that reported taxable barrels of beer in 2010. Not all of the 94 businesses on the OLCC list reported employment last year, but 80 firms did report. The reported jobs made up just 0.2 percent of the state’s total employment.

Deschutes County breweries and brew pubs reported 450 jobs in 2010. That is 15 percent of all of the brewing employment in the state. For a county that had 4 percent (one of every 25 jobs) of the state’s total employment that year, one out of seven jobs in Oregon brewing is quite impressive.

One wonders about the sustainability of the enterprise and the potential for dilution of quality by flooding the market with (delicious) niche products. That said, one of my favorites parts about my time in the Pacific Northwest was discovering small, local breweries that don’t sell their beers outside of a small geographic zone. In our increasingly globalized marketplace, it’s nice (and admittedly quaint) to be able to enjoy something at the site of its creation and nowhere else.

Stephen King, just slaying it with righteous anger. I appreciate anyone who can use “bullshit persiflage” and keep on steam-rolling. A few passages from the article below, though the whole thing is worth a read.

Cut a check and shut up, they said.

If you want to pay more, pay more, they said.

Tired of hearing about it, they said.

Tough shit for you guys, because I’m not tired of talking about it. I’ve known rich people, and why not, since I’m one of them? The majority would rather douse their dicks with lighter fluid, strike a match, and dance around singing ‘Disco Inferno’ than pay one more cent in taxes to Uncle Sugar. It’s true that some rich folks put at least some of their tax savings into charitable contributions. My wife and I give away roughly $4 million a year to libraries, local fire departments that need updated lifesaving equipment (Jaws of Life tools are always a popular request), schools, and a scattering of organizations that underwrite the arts. Warren Buffett does the same; so does Bill Gates; so does Steven Spielberg; so do the Koch brothers; so did the late Steve Jobs. All fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough.

What charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility—America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts. Charity from the rich can’t fix global warming or lower the price of gasoline by one single red penny. That kind of salvation does not come from Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Ballmer saying, ‘OK, I’ll write a $2 million bonus check to the IRS.’ That annoying responsibility stuff comes from three words that are anathema to the Tea Partiers: United American citizenry.

…

I guess some of this mad right-wing love comes from the idea that in America, anyone can become a Rich Guy if he just works hard and saves his pennies. Mitt Romney has said, in effect, “I’m rich and I don’t apologize for it.” Nobody wants you to, Mitt. What some of us want—those who aren’t blinded by a lot of bullshit persiflage thrown up to mask the idea that rich folks want to keep their damn money—is for you to acknowledge that you couldn’t have made it in America without America. That you were fortunate enough to be born in a country where upward mobility is possible (a subject upon which Barack Obama can speak with the authority of experience), but where the channels making such upward mobility possible are being increasingly clogged. That it’s not fair to ask the middle class to assume a disproportionate amount of the tax burden. Not fair? It’s un-fucking-American is what it is. I don’t want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share. That our civics classes never taught us that being American means that—sorry, kiddies—you’re on your own. That those who have received much must be obligated to pay—not to give, not to “cut a check and shut up,” in Governor Christie’s words, but to pay—in the same proportion. That’s called stepping up and not whining about it. That’s called patriotism, a word the Tea Partiers love to throw around as long as it doesn’t cost their beloved rich folks any money.

Via kottke.org.

Cool photographs, all set against a white background with their respective color pallet below them. Nice idea and beautiful implementation. Check out the full set.

These are non-sarcastic gems — honestly outstanding quips. First, on Congress and interest rate hikes on student loans (emphasis added).

For the first eight years of our marriage, [Michelle and I] were paying more in student loans than what we were paying for our mortgage. So we know what this is about.

And we were lucky to land good jobs with a steady income. But we only finished paying off our student loans—check this out, all right, I’m the President of the United States—we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago.

Madness.

Second, on false and forced dichotomies:

There will always be people in this country who say we’ve got to choose between clean air and clean water and putting people back to work. That is a false choice. With smart, sustainable policies, we can grow our economy today and protect our environment for ourselves and our children.

I heard some interesting facts along these lines today from John Harte. No amount of praise I can heap on John is sufficient — he’s a brilliant scientist, an outstanding professor, and occupies a rare, trusted position in the realm of public intellectuals. John discussed a few examples of the environment vs. jobs myth, honing in primarily on old growth preservation in the Pacific Northwest. He noted that instead of jobs being lost by forest preservation, quite a few were created through the processing of “lesser” wood products that had a larger market. Profits increased, as well. He also pointed to rapid growth in the environmental sector in other countries who have a larger focus on renewables — China and Germany, predominantly.

Finally, back to Obama and the students, as he slow jams the news with Jimmy Fallon.

That mic drop was priceless.

Karl Kerschl’s art in the Abominable Charles Christopher is absolutely gorgeous. He’s styled it as an old-fashioned comic strip which comes out once a week. The stories are funny, poignant, touching, hysterical, and often carry some pro-environment overtones. Highly recommend — for kids big and small.

I wrote about Pep Ventosa's composite photographs a little while ago. Pretty amazing stuff. Aanand Prasad, a London based developer and designed, created a little tool to create something similar sourcing photos by keyword from Flickr. This is highly recommended -- really neat. The photos aren't as resolved as those created by Pep, but the effect is startling for some words. I tried a few different keywords, but really enjoyed how Dalai Lama (below) turned out. A few others that are pretty neat:

Steve Jobs | Moon | Rose (macro)

Officials near Conundrum Hot Springs have a literal conundrum on their hands -- what to do with several frozen cows stuck in a cabin?

"We decided we were going to snowshoe to Conundrum Hot Springs near Aspen," said cadet Marshall Kay, 21, a junior at the Air Force Academy.

"When I walked up to the doorway there was a head," said junior Air Force cadet Cameron Harris, 20. "It scared me. I thought it was a bear initially."

"Cameron got there first and he says, 'Ah, I think we're going to have to sleep on the snow tonight, man. The cabin's full of frozen cows,'" said Kay.

"There's no way we're staying here tonight. The floor is covered," said Harris to Kay during their hike. "And he's like, 'What are you talking about?' and I was like, 'Well, there's dead cows in here.'"

"I didn't know what the heck he was talking about," said Kay.

Perhaps the above dialogue wasn't as ridiculous as it sounds; the way its reported, however, is ridiculous. And, of course, the kicker:

"Finding cattle in a cabin, frozen, is quite unusual," said Steve Segin, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. Segin said the dead cows in the cabin now create a nuisance and a thorny issue concerning how to remove them.

"It's 8 miles in. It's within the wilderness, so we can't use any mechanical means. No aircraft, no helicopters, no chainsaws, no ATV's," said Segin. "They are prohibited."

So the forest service is considering blowing up the cabin, along with the cows inside.

Of course. There's a cabin in the frozen hinterlands full of dead cows. We have to blow it up.

Learned about via Daring Fireball

Update Follow the full store at the following links:
Discovery, March 31
The Challenge, April 16
The Quandary, April 18

A question I ask myself from time to time. Often. More importantly, an official confirmation from Annie Clark / St. Vincent about an upcoming collaboration with David Byrne.

From Pitchfork:

Annie Clark: “… It’s not what I would expect— in a good way— though you will recognize both of us in it. It’s an honest-to-god, straight-down-the-middle thing. He wrote music, I wrote music; he wrote words, I wrote words. He sings half the songs, I wrote half the songs. I’ve never been that closely entwined in the songwriting, arranging, singing, and lyric-writing process with anyone. On occasion, I found myself writing vocal melodies that were very much like, “What would David Byrne do?” It ends up that I’m singing some of that stuff, though.”

“David has this amazing ability to not be critical of anything. He’s so curious and eager that he just throws out every wild idea from A to Z and then there’s this other process where he refines it and picks the best part. It makes him fearless— that’s why he’s David Byrne.”

Can’t wait.

Last Thursday, there was a crazy thunderstorm here unlike any I’ve encountered since we moved. It reminded me of storms back in Louisiana and Georgia — booming thunder, raucous rain, and a lot of lightning.

I went looking for photos from that night o’lightning, hoping enterprising individuals were out capturing it. I wasn’t disappointed - and the photo by Phil McGrew really sealed the deal. Pretty terrifying looking and crazy 20 second exposure. Check it out on Phil’s flickr stream or click here.