A Brooklyn grows in Brooklyn

Jonathan Lopes has built a Brooklyn of Legos.

Correction: “of LEGO® blocks.” See Comments.

Thanks, Seth!

Stephen Fry on pencils

Actor and comedian Stephen Fry on pencils: “I love pencils. No, I really do. Pencils. We don’t hear enough about them.”

Amazon Kindle with Euphemism

Amazon has introduced a cheaper Kindle with Euphemism. Because we never get tired of looking at [euphemism]. I wonder how many people will decide that saving a mere $25 is worth a device-lifetime-supply.

[The Kindle with Special Offers: ads, ads, ads.]

Van Dyke Parks on Bananastan

[Design by Art Spiegelman. Click for a larger view.]

Van Dyke Parks will soon release six 7"-vinyl singles on the Bananastan label. Two singles will drop (as they say) in the first week of May, with four more to follow in the summer. Downloads for the digital crowd from iTunes.

Not every record label has a logo designed by Art Spiegelman. Very cool indeed. Thanks, Van Dyke.

Update, May 4: The release date for the first single is now May 16.

Related posts
A new Van Dyke Parks project
Van Dyke Parks on Bananastan, cont’d.
Van Dyke Parks, two singles (imaginary liner notes)

John Lennon’s letters

The Los Angeles Times reports that in 2012 Little, Brown will publish a book of John Lennon’s letters, edited by Beatles biographer Hunter Davies. From the publisher’s announcement:

Pen and ink were his medium. John wrote letters and postcards all of his life; to his friends, family, strangers, newspapers, organisations, lawyers and the laundry — most of which were funny, informative, campaigning, wise, mad, poetic, anguished and sometimes heartbreaking. . . . many of the letters are reproduced as they were, in his handwriting or typing, plus the odd cartoon or doodle.

[I haven’t thought of Hunter Davies in years. Anyone else remember this book?]

Virgil out of context

Caroline Alexander on the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and a line from Virgil:

The impulse to turn to time-hallowed texts, like the classics or the Bible, is itself time-hallowed. In the face of powerful emotions, our own words may seem hollow and inadequate, while the confirmation that people in the past felt as we now feel holds solace. And the language of poets and great thinkers can be in itself ennobling.

But not in this case. Anyone troubling to take even a cursory glance at the quotation’s context will find the choice offers neither instruction nor solace.

Out of Context (New York Times)

Roger Ebert on Donald Trump

From a post on wealth in America:

[T]he most visible plutocrat in America is Donald Trump, a man who has made a fetish of his power. What kind of sick mind conceives of a television show built on suspense about which “contestant” he will “fire” next? What sort of masochism builds his viewership? Sadly, I suspect it is based on viewers who identify with Trump, and envy his power over his victims. Don’t viewers understand they are the ones being fired in today’s America?

The One-Percenters (Chicago Sun-Times)

Antique Packaging

From Josep Maria Garrofé, Antique Packaging (Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press, 2008).

Antique Packaging is a book of photographs of old cardboard boxes. Francesc Serra found these boxes, which now form a collection at the Spanish packaging firm Tribu-3. Is Serra a founder of the firm? Does he work there? The book does not explain. I like this sentence from an endnote about Sr. Serra: “There is no way he will reveal to us where he has found the boxes and how.”

My son Ben gave me this beautiful book. Thanks, Ben!

Van Dyke Parks, “the epic opportunity”

The question: whether he plans more live performances. The answer, or part of it:

I have lived through McCarthyism, through riots with race at the core. I have seen dark times, but nothing to match the complacency, materialism, triviality, and Stone Age beliefs that dominate our current state of affairs. So I turn to the epic opportunity — the song form. Songs interest me that much.

The 405 Interview (The 405)

In Chicago last year, Parks also spoke of the work of the songwriter as “epic.”

A related post
A new Van Dyke Parks project

Digital nostalgia

The New York Times reports on the return of the Commodore 64. Says Commodore president and chief executive Barry Altman,

“There are a lot of really young computer users who want to own a retro-looking computer. And of course there are those 30- to 40-year-olds who owned the original Commodore 64 and want the nostalgia of their first machine.”

From the Commodore website:

Commodore OS 1.0, along with emulation functionality and classic game package, will be mailed to purchasers when available. In the meantime, units come with the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS operating system on CD ready to install. Don’t forget that the new Commodore 64 is a fully functional PC compatible, so you can even install and use the latest versions of Windows if you really feel you need to.

That’s a new one: the operating system is in the mail.

A related post
Digital natives and typewriters