Rebecca's Pocket

Gorgeous fake movie posters and film paraphernalia

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:15:00 -0800

Take a walk through the world of fan-produced movie posters and fake peripheral properties. These are gorgeous works, ranging from Fake Criterion DVD Covers (scroll down for Star Wars), Aliens vs Pooh and The Poohing (a Winnie the Pooh/The Shining mashup), and this gorgeous Star Wars travel poster art - and those are just my top 3.

2010 Seafood Dirty Dozen

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:14:00 -0800

12 Fish Every Eater Should Avoid: the most unhealthy, environmentally, and socioeconomically unsustainable seafood choices in the world. It's from the Smart Seafood Guide, which also lists your best and worst choices nationally and regionally (since where you are will define sustainability in certain cases).

Is American espresso as good as Italian coffee?

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:15:00 -0800

What's wrong with American espresso? Well, pretty much everything, really. A well made espresso is a balance of 5 elements - and most Americans just don't have the experience to judge. "Here in the U.S. the coffee they use is good, but the way they prepare it is bad. Fifty percent of the result of a good espresso is in the hands of the barista. And if consumers can't recognize that, we lose." - Giorgio Milos, the master barista at illy

Out of print? Print on demand!

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:15:00 -0800

Thanks to a digital database and special printers, a few independent bookstores have begun printing out-of-print books on demand for their customers. I predicted this way back in the mid-90s, but in my vision the entire Library of Congress would be available, and buyers would be able to customize the size, typography, and illustrations of their book.

Summer Reading - 08/30/10

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:55:27 -0800

This week: The top 100 thrillers, Fantasy and Science writing award winners, spy novels by real spies, and 6 books to read after you finish Mockingjay.

Adults:
CSM: Five books to read after checking the egg recall list: Here are five books that help to place the egg recall in context
NPR: Top 100 Killer Thrillers: Your picks for the most pulse-quickening, suspenseful novels ever written
NPR: Tina Brown's Must-Reads: Stories Of Survival
NPR: Three Books For Surviving Graduate School
Guardian: The Books That Made Me: Penelope Lively
Guardian: Ten of the best railway journeys
Seattle Times: Spy novels by real spies
Shelftalk: Solidarity Forever! Celebrating Seattle's Workers and Labor History
Food & Think: A Summer Reading List for Food Lovers
Locus: 2009 World Fantasy Awards Nominees
The Royal Society: Prize for Science Books 2010 shortlist
Guardian: Guardian first book award longlist ranges around the world

Children and Young Adults:
6 Flashlight Worthy Children's Books to Read After You Finish Mockingjay

In just 10 years, electronic books will be the predominant form

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:15:00 -0800

Mike Shatzkin reflects, and very sensibly, I think, on the future of the printed book for immersive reading. I prefer paper for immersive reading - in fact, I've never read a book using an electronic device - but I can't argue with his central premise, which is this: "Print books aren't getting better. Ebooks are." Judge for yourself.

The Play Streets of New York City

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:31:09 -0800

Wouldn't you like to live here?

Jacob rolled on his scooter alongside Andrew. He climbed on to a chair to watch other kids play a board game. He grabbed a cup of water and drank it. He walked over to a woman and got a hug. He hopped on his scooter again. This went on for a couple of hours.

"Is anyone watching Jacob?" I asked Hetty Fox, matriarch of the Lyman Place play street.

"Uh," she scanned around for a moment. "No, not right now. But his cousin Andrew is right there, and everyone else here knows him, too. Besides, he has lots of aunts and uncles and cousins who live right here on the street, as well as his grandmother and grandfather. In fact, his great-grandmother lives here, too."

How old would you guess Jacob is from hearing about this situation? [...] Jacob is two - just barely two.

This isn't a scenario from a small town. This happened in the South Bronx, on a "Play Street" run by Hetty Fox. What a remarkable institution, and what a remarkable woman. I really wish we had these in San Francisco.

JMFF is looking for an apprentice

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:16:00 -0800

Have you ever dreamed of having a farm where you raise sheep and goats and sell roving and yarn? If so, Susie is looking for an apprentice. Experience is not necessary - a good pair of gloves, a solid work ethic and a 6-month commitment is all you need.

Top best-paid authors in the world

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:15:00 -0800

CSM: The 10 Best-paid authors in the world. JK Rowling is not even in the top 5.

Summer Reading - 08/23/10

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:19:14 -0800

This week: Nonfiction for the summer's end, astronomy-themed books, a thriller roundup, and the most wicked uncles in literature. Plus: Business book of the year longlist and the Thurber Awards.

Adults:
CSM: Beyond flooding and fundamentalism: best books about Pakistan Which books best deliver Pakistan behind the headlines?
CSM: 5 great books about obscure presidents: The lives of our worst presidents make surprisingly good reading.
NPR: Back To Reality: Nonfiction For The Summer's End
Guardian UK: Star attractions: From Copernicus's struggles to tales of mad space exploration projects and the enduring mystery of black holes, the author of The Big Questions picks the best reads about 'this most noble of sciences'
Guardian UK: Crime fiction roundup
Guardian UK: Ten of the best wicked uncles in literature
Guardian UK: Summer Fiction Special: five established writers, plus the winner of our short-story competition and five runners up
Guardian UK: John O'Connell's thriller roundup
Guardian UK: Audiobook review roundup
Tufts University Faculty and Staff: Recommended Reading
Tufts University Faculty and Staff: Books for the Dog Days
Shelftalk: Nightstand Reads: Debut novelist Laurie Frankel shares her summer reading
Pittsylvania County Library Blog: Beach Reads
Reader's Advisor: Under the Radar: Music Makes the Difference
Urbanite: Summer Reading
jen michalski: A Shower of Summer Books
2010 Shamus Award nominations
2010 Business Book of the Year Longlist
2010 Thurber Prize Finalists

Children and Young Adults:
Shelftalk: Come on, try this at home! Fun science titles for kids

How to donate to relief in Pakistan

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:10:33 -0800

I'm late to this, but of course you know about the disaster in Pakistan. Beyond the obvious humanitarian reasons, perhaps you're also hip to the security implications for the US. Here's how you can help. Remember, even small donations add up.

Web Design: 2001

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:14:10 -0800

This is what it was to be a web designer in 2001:




	

	

	

	

	

	 

	 

	 this review of The Shallows (a book in which the author posits that the Internet is rewiring people's brains to be less contemplative and more superficial) is this quote from Professor Andrew Burn of the University of London's Institute of Education:

Equating the internet with distraction and shallowness, he tells me, is a fundamental mistake, possibly bound up with Carr's age (he is 50). "He's restricting what he says to the type of activities that the middle-aged blogosphere-addict typically engages in," says Professor Burn. "Is there anything in his book about online role-playing games?"

Not much, I tell him, and he's off. "Carr's argument privileges activities of the skimming and browsing kind. But if you look at research on kids doing online gaming, or exploring virtual worlds such as Second Life, the argument there is about immersion and engagement - and it's even about excessive forms of immersion and engagement that get labelled as addiction. The point is, to play successfully in an online role-playing game, you have to pay an incredible amount of attention to what your team-mates are doing, to the mechanics of the game. You can set up a thesis for The Depths, just as much as The Shallows."

As you know, I'm of a mind that the Internet really is re-wiring our brains to make us more distracted - and I still think Carr has it wrong. Professor Burn is absolutely right that the Internet provides a variety of experiences, and that new and repeated experiences of every kind change the brain's configuration.



Video games as art? Yes.
Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:31:12 -0800
NPR: Video Games: The 21st Century's Fine Art Frontier? Yes.


Why are books by women about contemporary life automatically classified as Chick-lit? Also: feminism
Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:15:00 -0800
Chick Lit? Women's Literature? Why Not Just ... Literature? Why not indeed?

[I]f Tom Wolfe had written "The Recessionistas," he would have noted the brands of shoes, the Birkin bags and the personal trainers. And he would have been praised for his attention to detail. [...] But my concern is larger, for the issue is insidious: the way Chick Lit has been used to denigrate a wide swath of novels about contemporary life that happen to be written by women.

[...] No serious woman writer want[s] to be painted with the Women's Lit label, and issues contemporary and domestic, if not presented with violence, are apparently (to academics, to critics and to the general culture -- male and female, alike) seen to have less value.

Feminism failed, really. Originally the movement was about equality for men and women. This was often framed as the freedom for women to enter the workplace as equals and for men to commit themselves to the domestic sphere if that was their calling in life. Of course the subtext to that is the reinstatement of the domestic sphere to a place of respect (the rise of factories having transformed the home from an important and necessary production facility - food, cloth, medicine, and the like - to the Victorian ideal of a haven from the working world).

Instead, women entered the workplace and the tasks necessary to survival - cooking, cleaning, and childcare - were purchased (and usually at low cost), or done as an afterthought to their "real work". Instead of shifting male attitudes about the importance of the work women have traditionally done, women's attitudes realigned to the prevailing male notion that the amount one is paid is the strongest indicator of one's worth.

Anyway, those attitudes extend to literature, apparently.