latest: where did you put your faith?

I'm a guest blogger today at Jason Boyett's cool O Me Of Little Faith blog on Belief.net

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bookish coffee sideways: v cool design

designed by Anurag Nema

D'Espresso, 317 Madison Avenue (42nd Street)

Nema turns a normal room sideways. Glazed tiles printed with images of books created the illusion of bookshelves tilted sideways, running along the ceiling, down the rear wall and onto the floor.

very cool

via NYT

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naughty bad mannered piggies LIVE

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portraits, photos + something to do with death

Truman Capote 1947, by Cartier-Bresson

"As time passes by and you look at portraits, the people come back to you like a silent echo. A photograph is a vestige of a face, a face in transit. Photography has something to do with death. It's a trace." Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)

must be why old photos can make you feel sad.

at least they do me.

new blog up: on writing--first you must lose yourself

"I'm not responsible for my photographs. Photography is not documentary, but intuition, a poetic experience. It's drowning yourself, dissolving yourself and then sniff, sniff, sniff--being sensitive to coincidence. You can't go looking for it; you can't want it or you won't get it. First you must lose your self. Then it happens." Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)

I think it's the same thing with writing--you as the writer are no more responsible for your stories than Cartier-Bresson was for his photographs.

The story tells you how it wants to be told. And it's cleverer than you are.

You're like the servant of the story. Your job is to be available and to listen. Do what you're told. And then get out of the way. "First you must lose yourself."

Being available means showing up, being "one of the people on whom nothing is lost" (Henry James).

Listening means not shoe-horning things that into the story just because you love how they sound (those "Darlings" G K Chesteron tells us to "murder").

If you're asking, "Am I a good writer?" you've got in the way of the story. It's not about you, remember. It's about the story.

The only question you need to be asking is: "Am I telling a good story?"

And then get out of the way and let the story through--whatever it is and in whatever way it wants to be told.

new blog up: How To Draw

Apparently there is an ultimate test of drawing. And the often told story is this: (in the cool Opinionator blog today: "The Frisbee of Art" by James McMullan, illustrator of I STINK the wonderful children's book about garbage trucks)

When Pope Boniface (I love his name. did he make it up?). Hopefully he was handsome or it might have been quite hard to go round with that name--imagine it would be like being called Mrs Gorgeous and then going right ahead being plug-ugly. But I suppose, if he wasn't good looking, he could always have changed his name and been Pope Ugliface.

Anyway. Stop it. Back to the story. So when this stunning Pope Boniface VII was looking for a new artist to work on the frescoes in St Peter's Basilica, James McMullan continues:

"He sent a courtier out into the country to interview artists and collect samples of their work that he could judge. The courtier approached the painter Giotto and asked for a drawing to demonstrate his skill. Instead of a study of angels and saints, which the courtier expected, Giotto took a brush loaded with red paint and drew a perfect circle. The courtier was furious, thinking he had been made a fool of; nonetheless, he took the drawing back to Boniface. The Pope understood the significance of the red circle, and Giotto got the job."

However, James McMullan argues it's not the circle so much as the ellipse that is the true test.

(Warning: if you read his blog all the way through you will start to see ellipses everywhere and might not be able to get out the door. If you don't mind that, read more here)

must go and sharpen my pencils now I just saw two ellipses on my toe

marcel the shell with shoes on

“Marcel The Shell With Shoes On”, directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp with the voice of Marcel by SNL’s Jenny Slate.

the voice! it makes my heart hurt

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your food fell on the floor... do you eat it?

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