Yokai Museum: The Art of Japanese Supernatural Beings from Yumoto Koichi Collection is a compendium of Japanese demons and ghosts as visualized over 300 or so years up through the mid-20th Century. That cut-off period is important to those of us who love Japanese science fiction, especially the crazy monsters spawned by shows like Ultraman and made into some of the weirdest toys ever. The resonance of these Yokai with Pokeman is also strong, if not stronger. Although this book doesn’t get into those topics, and it seems not written for a U.S. audience, just looking at the pictures will
Continue readingCategory: Culture
Food Truck Visions: A Street Food Environment
The vibrant visual environment created by food trucks on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is a longtime favorite at Interesting Ideas. These photos of this vernacular art experience are from our third session there, in August 2015. You can also see some glorious details at Food Truck Visions: Art of Street Food, D.C. . See our existing National Mall food truck gallery.
Continue readingShort Review: What Is Happening to News
Jack Fuller is a member of that unlucky generation of journalists who were in charge when the online flood started to swamp the newspaper industry. Contrary to some popular cliches, Fuller and many of his colleagues were well aware of the challenges posed by the Internet and tried very hard to turn them into opportunities. The Chicago Tribune, where Fuller was editor and then publisher, invested heavily in digital publishing and brought some great ideas to fruition, many quite successful. Unfortunately, the circumstances undermining the economics of the newspaper business were beyond control. In this book Fuller goes beyond the
Continue readingR.I.P. Car Talk’s Tom Magliozzi
Tom Magliozzi, of NPR’s Car Talk, was one of the most honest, funniest, kindest, smartest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. My favorite Tommy moment: A Cars.com team was meeting with the brothers at Car Talk Plaza early in our partnership and the person from our PR agency was going on about how we could get Tom and Ray on the TV morning shows. They could do it from Boston and would just have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. or so to get on the satellite. Tom stared at him and said “f— that s—“, and that was it for
Continue readingReview: A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens My rating: 3 of 5 stars The opening and closing lines are immortal classics, and the book does has some great characters and set pieces. But it’s my least favorite Dickens, showing off his biggest flaws, especially overwrought language, rank sentimentality and coincidence so arbitrary as to be lazy. Plus, his characterization of the French Revolution is distinctly unhelpful. Indeed, it shows that this champion of the downtrodden was still absolutely terrified of poor people. View all my reviews
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Review: The Machine Stops
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster My rating: 5 of 5 stars I read it long ago, but it’s been hugely influential on my thinking. Another case of a writer with uncanny prescience. View all my reviews
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Review: Rebecca
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier My rating: 4 of 5 stars Excessive self-consciousness meets over-the-top atmosphere, and atmosphere, much like the title character, prevails. The famous first words are “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” But the wisest lines might be these: “I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth.” View all my reviews
Continue readingReview: Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis My rating: 4 of 5 stars Pretty scary stuff about the global financial crisis, and great insights and anecdotes. I’m not sure I’m as convinced as Lewis that each country’s unique flavor of crisis can be attributed to each country’s unique national character, but it’s an interesting perspective. View all my reviews
Continue readingReview: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien My rating: 5 of 5 stars Forty+ years since I last read it and I still skip many verses of the songs and chants. But otherwise still great. View all my reviews
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