Category Archives: books

The Monocle Guide To Better Living

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Just received this Monocle book entitled “The Monocle Guide To Better Living”.  If you’ve never read the magazine Monocle, then i would strongly advise you to pick up a copy.  For people such as me with an imagination that finds itself wondering about different places, ideas, people, and ways of living—Monocle is sort of like the ‘ultimate’ magazine of sorts.  It focuses on culture and society—but not in a way you would pick up from the news or from regular every day information outlets.  It focuses on the small details of things that really captivate and interest people such as myself.

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Monocle as a magazine is a challenging, but captivating read.  I have spent a few breezy minutes flipping through this book thus far and my only description would be to say that the book continues where the magazine leaves off—but with a more concrete and themed presentation.  Beautiful old-school yellow cover and binding and lovely matte pages.  400 pages.  Wonderful for my bookshelf.  Highly recommended.

ORDER HERE

 

 

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“Exit Through The Gift Shop”

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I watched this a while ago, but was for some reason reminded of it today when i saw an article about Banksy.  Most people have seen Banksy’s work somewhere at some time either in person or online or on a record cover…and didn’t even know it.  Whatever you think of him, he is definitely iconic!  This documentary is less about Banksy, and more about the scene around him and prominently the french guy who tried to make a documentary about Banksy! ha.

90 minutes well spent watching this though! HIGHLY recommended!

 

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quote of the month: mediocrity.

I’ve never read anything that a gentleman named Norman Mailer has written, however while perusing Nolan Bushnell’s twitter feed, I came across this quote which is just phenomenal.

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Anatomy book re-imagined.

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This is beautiful.  I wish my Anatomy books looked like this when I was in Med. School.  A concept for a futuristic/re-imagined/beautiful anatomy/osteology book by Irene Shkarovska.

Irene: if you’re reading this.  I want a copy….or two!  Just take my money.  I’m blown away.

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video:

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the machine age.

“The Machine Age” by artist unknown (circa 1916, although thought to be a Vorticist drawing)

This drawing is on sale at Young & Son for a price not listed.

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Vivian Maier.

I only recently discovered the story and the photographs of Vivian Maier—-and both (the story and the photographs) are fascinating!

“An American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, Vivian bounced between Europe and the United States before coming back to New York City in 1951. Having picked up photography just two years earlier, she would comb the streets of the Big Apple refining her artistic craft. By 1956 Vivian left the East Coast for Chicago, where she’d spend most of the rest of her life working as a caregiver. In her leisure Vivian would shoot photos that she zealously hid from the eyes of others. Taking snapshots into the late 1990′s, Maier would leave behind a body of work comprising over 100,000 negatives.”

 

 

 

 

 

the story of how these photos and the intriguing person behind them were discovered:

more information here: Vivian Maier

 

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book: Leica “Witness To A Century” (2012)

 

I ordered this book a while ago on pre-order, and it arrived this week.  $22 from Amazon.  An amazing and beautiful book for a very low price. Hardcover, by Alessandro Pasi (2012).  Highly recommended beautiful short history of Leica with full page spread profiles of every significant camera produced in their illustrious history.  This book does not read like a publicity book—-instead it is full of beautiful and iconic photography throughout their history.   This is the 3rd edition of this book, revised to include the digital range through the recent M-Monochrom.

Yes I am a Leica fanboy these days and it is driven by my love of creating fotos.  And there’s nothing you can do to stop me!

Being inspired to create is so much nicer than obsessing to appreciate. 

 

 

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RGB colourspace atlas.

A 3000+ page book displaying the entire spectrum of colours?  Useful? uhhhh……wicked cool? YES.  This 8 x 8 x 8 inch cube shaped atlas would be available in different colour axis configurations.  Would make for a lovely psychedelic coffee table book.

 

 

videos (by axis):

src:  colourlovers

 

 

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artist of the day.

I found these stellar manga style automotive art/drawings on DeviantArt with the artist being known as teardrop-sidemarker (aka Will Kingstone).  Very cool stuff…

 

 

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230SL

Always had a soft spot for these; Mercedes-Benz 230SL “Pagoda”.

Photos taken from here:

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proof my wife loves me…

Well today is my birthday and my wife ordered me exactly what i’ve been wanting! I’ve been trying to find this book for months now….but (A) it is damn expensive when i do find it ($250-$500), and (B) they were all in Europe so the shipping would be like $30 to get it here to New York City.  There are 2 versions of the book; one in french and one in german.  No english versions, i’m afraid.  It is an absolutely beautiful piece of literature…..as i do know how to read very rudimentary french (think disabled french child-level french), I can understand bits and pieces of the text, however it is the photography which really stands out in this book; SO MANY rare and never before seen photos of Alpines.

Through the last 4 or 5 years, I have collected thousands of rare Alpine A110 photos from the web, and collected them into my digital storage—-however I really wanted a beautiful book to keep which displayed vintage photos of my favourite car in the world—and this one does exactly that.  400+ pages and what seems like multiple photos per page; this is the holy grail of Alpine books!  And now it is mine!  I thank my wife for getting me this…..finally! I am enjoying it very much.

This was published in 1982 by E.P.A Publishing.  The author is Dominique Pascal and of course is out of print! In addition to the A110; It also covers the history of the Marque, as well as the A106, A108, A310, and prototypes for racing.

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book review (erm, partial): “Gold Plated Porsche…….”

Yes I am in the midst of a Porsche phase right now. Bought this fantastic book entitled Gold Plated Porsche: How I Sank A Small Fortune Into A Used Car And Other Misadventures.  The author is journalist Stephan Wilkinson, who has worked at Car & Driver in the past, among other places.   I am calling this a “partial” review….even though i should probably call it “fractional” as I am only on pp. 50! ha.  But i think the book is definitely worth picking up.  Wilkinson’s banter about cars, the culture of petrolheads, and how he selected his 911 has already paid the measly $10 i paid for the softcover.

Summary so far: he wants to restore a car…by himself…and properly restore it.  this is the story of him buying a run down old 911 SC and pouring money into it to turn it into exactly what he always wanted; HIS perfect 911.

Apparently, Mr. Wilkinson has written some other car books as well.  Will have to check them out after i finish reading this one.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592287921/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1592282563&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0NY9T0VNY14G4VFN5T1X

 

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