Illustration corner

Today's featured illustrator is Sara Guindon from Montreal, now living in Denver. Theres a great interview with her on the Pikaland Blog about her work and inspiration, and more info on her own endearing blog. I like her indoor scenes at night of people sitting thinking - they remind me of an illustrated version of  Edward Hopper!

Reading list with lectures...

I must be having withdrawal symptoms from college (or have lost my mind) because since Academic Earth was highlighted by our library blog I've been toying with the idea of using one of the series of lectures (The American novel since 1945, given by Amy Hungerford of Yale, if you dont mind) as a structured reading list - picking those books I want to read (such as The Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth and Franny and Zooey by Salinger) and watching their accompanying lectures. Free schoolwork, yay! Image courtesy of Jesscreadsbooks.

Weekend reading listening browsing

Listening
A new compilation has been released of Buddy Holly covers by the likes of Karen Elson, Jon Brion, Fiona Apple, Lou Reed, She and Him, Modest Mouse and the Black Keys. I'm a bit taken with the Black Keys version of Dearest. Although let it be said: theres no substitute for the original. And for some reason they've got Kid Rock on there. Ahem. And then theres this Francoise Hardy song, thanks to Tomboy Style.

Reading
And these are the two books I've just received from Amazon: A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas and the Collected works of Nathaniel West.


Browsing
Sorry fellas, this ones for the girls:
Zooey Deschanel (she of the perfect fringe and mascara adds) has created a fun blog with her friends called hellogiggles. There may be a faint odour of hipster about it but we'll let them away with it!

Enjoy your weekends!

Publishing

Libraries and publishing houses sometimes line up against eachother because we want to offer things free, or as cheaply as possible, while they need to meet publishing costs in order to survive and pay everyone involved, including writers. The video above from Techcrunch shows a new initiative called Cursor by the publisher, Richard Eoin Nash which aims to change the role of publishers. He also answers some of the questioins that could be (and often are, to our chagrin) levelled at library staff and librarians such as "what do you actually do??", or "cant people find their own stuff these days?", implying that with the advent and spread of technologies intermediaries are no longer needed. The same problem in a different light was discussed on The View during the week - the role of critics and whether or not we need them anymore, as mentioned by this 23things post. Lots of professions seem to be subject to this kind of questionning!
Have a look and see what you think.

Google Reader stats because I'm a loser and I like stats

Just had a look in the Trends part of my Google reader (which, by the way, is one of the 23things I have grown fond of)....
From my (ironic enough number of) 23 subscriptions, over the last 30 days I read 88 items, clicked 18 items, starred 0 items, shared 0 items, and emailed 1 items. Since April 11, 2011 I have read a total of 189 items....In the graph above the blue represents items posted from my subscriptions and the orange represents items read. Which might indicate that my eyes are bigger than my belly?! And below is a breakdown which provides me with the "information" that despite subscribing to some knowlede-related stuff its the fluff that I'm actually reading. And I dont seem to be sharing much! :)

Reading trends (last 30 days) Subscription # Read % Read frankie magazine :: all about fashion, art, craft, music, creative people, homewares and good times.   19 36% antler magazine   10 100% Film | guardian.co.uk   4 1% Stacey Rozich   3 50% Pugly Pixel   3 25% TED | Talks | List   3 14% TechCrunch   3 1% An Apple a Day   2 50% mint   2 20% Daily Art Fixx   2 7% Show: top 10 - top 20 - top 40	Subscription trends (last 30 days) Subscription Items/Day % Read NYT > Arts   28.4 0% Film | guardian.co.uk   18.2 1% TechCrunch   13.6 1% Cinematical   10.6 0% Books - The New York Times   6.7 1%   1.8 36% Daily Art Fixx   0.9 7% TED | Talks | List   0.7 14% europeana   0.4 0% Pugly Pixel   0.4 25% Show: top 10 - top 20 - top 40
Friends trends (last 30 days) Add some friends to see trends about them.	Tags Art Blogs Books General culture Libraries Magazines Movies Reviews

Another Illustration Corner

This week's illustration corner is from Finnish illustrator Anna Emilia Laitinen. She has a sweet blog called Weather Diary where she documents her musings on the colours and things that inspire her artwork. The one in illustration corner is called Tiny Tickles. The one above is called Heterochromia and the one below is called Rain Fresh Tea from a series called Tea Ceremonies (which I've included in honour of Buttonbeano). I love the delicacy of her paintings.

New illustration corner

Time for an illustration shake-up. I like totems (dont ask me why), and the ones in Illustration Corner and to the left are by Raymond Lemstra who I found through a blog called Ape on the Moon, run by two illustrators. It showcases a bit of contemporary illustration every day. I'm a fan of  hand-drawn looking stuff so Lemestra's art ticks that box, and the creepy box too!

Books and bookshelves

Hello, I have some book-related items for your delectation today, pilfered from the English Muse Blog that I've mentioned before. First of all for those of you who like to nose through other people's bookshelves (who doesn't?!) there is a new flickr bookshelf pool where you can unabashedly do so without having to justify your nosiness. Second of all the English Muse also brought to my attention this beautiful series of books from Penguin called Great Ideas. Now, there will be some who object to a  list of books which presumes to limit the world's greatest ideas to one hundred items, chosen by a publishing house - but I would suggest they take it with a pinch of salt. The books are great to look at, unaccompanied by pretext/context, and reasonably priced. Read more about them (and why they made the cut) on the Penguin book blog. I personally would like to buy the series in its entirety but I dont have a thousand pounds spare at the moment. Wouldn't that make a great prize for some sort of competition?! I think I just drooled on my keyboard a little.

Friday song

Ok seeing as the theme is summer songs and I'm doing a Beatles on it, I should really have picked Here comes the Sun, but I couldnt resist going for this one instead; its my favourite song at the moment and I could listen to it all day! So enjoy Michelle by the Beatles.

Social media

I came across some more stuff thats kinda interesting (if not earth-shattering) about social media. I found 'em both on the Pugly Pixel blog - another favourite. The owner shares lots of tips on the technical side of blogging. The two snippets I've chosen were in a Links loved post which directs you towards lots of online cool stuff that Katrina has been enjoying of late. The first is a short video from Techcrunch with entrepeneur Gary Vaynerchuk  about why manners and a human touch matter when using social media for business and how "99.5% of social media experts are clowns". Oh dear. The second is an article called "The illusion of social networks" by Semil Shah, and it somewhat reinforces my own flimsy and dubious stance on social media. Useful yes. Truly social? ...not so sure. I must say I really enjoy the interaction we've been having on our blogs! But that might be because I know you all:)

Old movie alert!

As well as their recent showings of the African Queen, Apocolypse Now and Taxidriver, the IFI has a 'High Anxiety' season coming up (from today until the 26th) brimming with dark and paranoid thrillers like the Manchurian Candidate and Chinatown. Thats if you can stand to be crammed into their uncomfortable seats for a few hours! I know I can, but I have to give somebody else painkillers to get them to come along:)

Illustration Corner from Rilla Alexander

I know, I know; I'm pulling the carpet out from under your feet with a new Illustration Corner post so soon after the last. But I really love this sleepy-looking friendly bear on a bike illustration by Rilla Alexander. I also like his little sleepy freeloading back-friend. She's responsible for the fantastic, graphic ark pattern to the left aswell. I found Rilla on the Animalarium blog which is another of my absolute favourites because (a) I love the iconography of animals and (b) the 'zookeeper' has a great eye for beautiful pictures arranged into interesting categories. For example this post looked at illustrations of animals on bikes. Call me simple-minded (if you must), but does it get better than that? I dont want to know if it does!