Book of the Day — The Loom of Language: An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages
Learning language is something that every single one of has done. Learning many languages seems like an insurmountable task for many of us. Here, in The Loom of Language, Frederick Bodmer give a practical and exciting approach to learning many languages.
Photo of the Day — Two men at Greyhound Bus Terminal. New York City. 1947 by Esther Bubley
Esther Bubley has such an interested eye, and it comes through in her photography in a way that is unmistakeable. Here, two men at Greyhound Bus Terminal in 1947 NYC.
Photo by Brian David Braun
Poem of the Day - Berryman by W.S. Merwin
Berryman
by W. S. Merwin
I will tell you what he told me
in the years just after the war
as we then called
the second world war
don’t lose your arrogance yet he said
you can do that when you’re older
lose it too soon and you may
merely replace it with vanity
just one time he suggested
changing the usual order
of the same words in a line of verse
why point out a thing twice
he suggested I pray to the Muse
get down on my knees and pray
right there in the corner and he
said he meant it literally
it was in the day before the beard
and the drink but he was deep
in tides of his own through which he sailed
chin sideways and head tilted like a tacking sloop
he was far older than the dates allowed for
much older than I was he was in his thirties
he snapped down his nose with an accent
I think he had affected in England
as for publishing he advised me
to paper my walls with rejection slips
his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled
with the vehemence of his views about poetry
he said the great presence
that permitted everything and transmuted it
in poetry was passion
passion was genius and he praised movement and invention
I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can’t
you can’t you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don’t write
More on John Berryman
Book of the Day — The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum) by the Venerable Bede written in the 8th century is a key original source on Anglo-Saxon history and in the formation of the English national identity.
Deserted London — Photos by Genaro Bardy
French photographer Genaro Bardy tells the Daily Mail:
It turns out there is a moment in the year when streets are totally empty, when people are home or away, when nobody is partying all night long. That moment is Christmas. Between London Bridge and Piccadilly Circus I saw no one, no cars. The city was truly asleep. Very long exposure could erase people walking, although imperfectly, but car lights would ruin any picture. Between 11:00 pm and 4:00 am, it’s pretty hard to find 20 to 30 seconds slots without any cars. But starting at 4:00 am it’s truly magical, almost no one is in the streets.
Book of the Day — Twentieth Century Pleasures by Robert Hass
The essays on poetry in this book, Twentieth Century Pleasures by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, has been a deep well of insight, mystery, inspiration and thought for me for 15 years.
If Star Wars Were Made by Studio Ghibli - Illustrations byLap Pun Cheung
Very much in the visual style of Studio Ghibli (creators of Totoro, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke), illustrator Lap Pun Cheung brings us some tasty scenes of the Star Wars epic that I will gladly watch all over again if ever it is remade this way.
Book of the Day — The World's Major Languages
"From English, French, Spanish and Russian to Pashto, Tagalog, and Swahili, this is the first comprehensive reference work to provide detailed information about the world's forty major languages. " The World's Major Languages by Bernard Comrie.
Kurt Cobain's Handwritten List of His Top 50 Albums
1. Iggy and the Stooges, “Raw Power”
2. Pixies, “Surfer Rosa”
3. The Breeders, “Pod”
4. The Vaselines, “Pink EP”
5. The Shaggs, “Philosophy of the World”
6. Fang, “Landshark”
7. MDC, “Millions of Dead Cops”
8. Scratch Acid, “Scratch Acid EP”
9. Saccharine Trust, “Paganicons”
10. Butthole Surfers, “Pee Pee the Sailor” aka “Brown Reason to Live”
11. Black Flag, “My War”
12. Bad Brains, “Rock for Light”
13. Gang of Four, “Entertainment!”
14. Sex Pistols, “Never Mind the Bollocks”
15. The Frogs, “It’s Only Right and Natural”
16. PJ Harvey, “Dry”
17. Sonic Youth, “Daydream Nation”
18. The Knack, “Get the Knack”
19. The Saints, “Know Your Product”
20. anything by Kleenex
21. The Raincoats, “The Raincoats”
22. Young Marble Giants, “Colossal Youth”
23. Aerosmith, “Rocks”
24. Various Artists, “What Is It”
25. R.E.M., “Green”
26. Shonen Knife, “Burning Farm”
27. The Slits, “Typical Girls”
28. The Clash, “Combat Rock”
29. The Faith/Void, “Split EP”
30. Rites of Spring, “Rites of Spring”
31. Beat Happening, “Jamboree”
32. Tales of Terror, “Tales of Terror”
33. Leadbelly, “Leadbelly’s Last Sessions Vol. 1″
34. Mudhoney, “Superfuzz Bigmuff”
35. Daniel Johnston, “Yip/Jump Music”
36. Flipper, “Generic Flipper”
37. The Beatles, “Meet the Beatles”
38. Half Japanese, “We Are They Who Ache With Amorous Love”
39. Butthole Surfers, “Locust Abortion Technician”
40. Black Flag, “Damaged”
41. Fear, “The Record”
42. PiL, “Flowers of Romance”
43. Public Enemy, “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”
44. Marine Girls, “Beach Party”
45. David Bowie, “The Man Who Sold the World”
46. Wipers, “Is This Real?”
47. Wipers, “Youth of America”
48. Wipers, “Over the Edge”
49. Mazzy Star, “She Hangs Brightly”
50. Swans, “Young God”
Edgar Degas Meets Misty Copeland
Photographers Ken Browar and Deborah Ory coax the images from the Paris Opéra Ballet that Edgar Degas painted from American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland for the March 2016 issue of Harpers Bazaar in advance of MOMA's Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty.
Also check out their NYC Dance Project
Book of the Day — The New Sentence by Ron Silliman
The New Sentence by Ron Silliman turns its bright intelligence onto syntax and linguistics.
Book of the Day - How To Read a Poem by Edward Hirsch
It isn't an uncommon experience, friends asking me how to read a poem. I often quote this book, How to Read a Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry by Edward Hirsch in my answer.
Intensely Vivid Photographs Iran’s Mosques By Mohammad Domiri
Mohammad Domiri, a remarkably talented Iranian photographer, has amassed this startlingly gorgeous portfolio of the interiors of Middle Eastern mosques.
Spine of the South – The Andes in Timelapse
From the project:
In 2015 Overland Collective photographer Eric Hanson traveled the Andean spine of South America, from Ecuador to Patagonia. For seven months, he traveled almost entirely solo, via a mixture of public transportation, trekking, and a Great Wall Wingle (if you don't know what that is, it's the finest vehicle known to man). Along the way, he took a few hundred thousand photos.
Edo Japan With Computers — Imaginative Animated GIFs
Atsushi Segawa had been making animated GIFs out of ukiyo-e for a while when he was commissioned by Japanese computer maker NEC to mix computers and computer use into Edo-era Japan.
Hong Kong At Night — Photos by Peter Stewart
Photographer Peter Stewart, brings us these stunning night cityscapes of Hong Kong.
Eerily Beautiful Monkey Portraits by Hiroshi Watanabe
Papercraft Wigs and Gowns from Asya Kozina
With a penchant for papercraft, artist Asya Kozina created these funny and gorgeous paper wigs and gowns.
Logos And Paintings Undercutting Each Other — Graphic Designs from Eisen Bernard Bernardo
Eisen Bernard Bernardo, Philippines-based graphic designer, brings together modern logos with well-known paintings, making each a little suspect, and the whole pretty awesome.
