well you know my name is simon

Via Kottke, we quite enjoyed being introduced Ralph Ammer through his easily digestible and assayable sketching exercises, parsed as gifs rather than video, a format that does not leave much to the imagination and probably not the best mode of instruction. The looping repetition seems to be a really effective way to impart the process and elements of drawing, regardless of one’s aspirations of the moment.

luftbrücke

Preparations are already underway to commemorate the role of Wiesbaden US Army Airfield during the Blockade of Berlin (previously here and here) for the seventieth anniversary of the operation’s successful completion, which resulted after a year of non-stop flights in the Soviets relenting and permitting the UK, France and the US access to their sectors of the city. In one of the traffic round-abouts, they’ve erected a steeple topped with a weather vane that depicts the Luftbrücke (it turns out that the piece was salvaged from a roof of a barracks building that housed the pilots and crew, installed as an earlier commemoration) and as the ceremony approaches, we’ll have a better idea of the schedule of events to mark this occasion.

0.1% pure elation

Having enjoyed his gentle and perseverant comics for quite some time, we were pleased to learn that illustrator and humourist Grant Snider had recently released a collection of his panels as a book called The Shape of Ideas with an abundance of valuable insights on the creative process. There is of course an idiosyncratic aspect to routine and ritual and the only superpower that Nature bestowed on humans was grit, stamina and the ability to stick with what works, and we appreciated the invitation into how Snider begins his day and not being overwhelmed by a day-job and can relate to the struggle and accomplishment of keeping things in perspective. Be sure to check out the whole review from Hyperallergic at the link above and to follow Snider on all the things.

häxan

Based on the filmmaker’s study of the Malleus Maleficarum (previously), Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 silent “Witchcraft Through the Ages” is sometimes accorded with the recognition as the art form’s first documentary work—though there some elements of classic horror are established as well, the film is one of the first not based solely on fiction and included meticulous research over a long period of production, and goes about dispelling superstition, misunderstanding and misogyny which can result in witch hunts. Censored in many places during its initial release in Scandinavia, Häxan saw something of a revival in 1968 when an abbreviated version premiered set to an eclectic jazz soundtrack featuring Jean-Luc Ponty and intertitles read by William S Burroughs.

6x6

falindromes: phrases that look like they might be palindromic but are not

shrinky-dinks: advances in printing could make self-assembling, heat-activated furniture a reality   

performance art: Tim Youd retypes classic novels in the locations were they are set word for word on an antique mechanical typewriter

la miniatura: the tragedy and therapy behind the Mayan Revival homes of Frank Lloyd Wright, via Nag on the Lake

ludomania: bookies are using artificial intelligence to exploit gamblers in novel ways, via Slashdot

plumcot: the caretaker of the historic gardens of famed horticulturist Luther Burbank is working to unravel his poorly documented, unscientific method