Upcoming Talk: Venture Café STL →
Excited to be presenting on 9/14 about Forest Park, Forest Park Forever, and finding new ways to engage as a visitor.
Nick Paumgarten Profiles St. Vincent →
Following his exceptional profile of Father John Misty, Paumgarten goes deep with the intriguing, shrewd and self-aware St. Vincent:
When she listens to a playback, she often buries her head in her arms, as though she can hardly bear to hear herself, but, really, it’s just her way of listening hard. Once, during a mixing session, while she was at the board and I was behind her on a couch, surreptitiously reading a text message, she picked up her head, turned around, and said, “Did I lose you there, Nick? I can feel when attention is wandering.” Her cheery use of the name of the person she is addressing can seem to contain a faint note of mockery. There’d be times, in the following months, when I’d walk away from a conversation with Clark feeling like a character in a kung-fu movie who emerges from a sword skirmish apparently unscathed yet a moment later starts gushing blood or dropping limbs.
STL Public Radio Remembers Agnes Wilcox →
I was very sad to learn about the sudden death of a woman I was lucky enough to know while serving on the Prison Performing Arts Board. Agnes opened many eyes, including mine. She prized art, championed underdogs, fostered resilience, brought joy. Hers was a world-improving life.
Teju Cole in Words & Pictures
I loved every minute I spent with this beautiful, poetic, searching, confident book.
Bringing Forest Park to MN
I'm excited to be heading to Minnesota to take part in "Greater & Greener 2017," the national conference put on by the City Parks Alliance. As part of a panel on "Park Soundscapes," I'll discuss the ListenForestPark.org project my Forest Park Forever colleagues and I launched last year.
Father John Misty, In Depth →
Fascinating, entertaining profile in The New Yorker.
Lethem on Knausgaard: "My Hero" →
After discovering this short appreciation in a Jonathan Lethem essay collection on bookish things, I just read it aloud to my wife, who'd been curious about why I've been so utterly taken by this series and increasingly hungry for each subsequent volume. Lethem nailed it ("Knausgaard's approach is plain and scrupulous, sometimes casual, yet he never writes down. His subject is the beauty and terror of the fact that all life coexists with itself."), and he was only one volume in.
A Conductor's Swipes
This isn't exactly news, but I saw this project recently spotlighted in Cannes Lions coverage. Very clever concept for a new visual identity: A conductor's swipes create a new lettering system. Here's Under Consideration, and here's The Partners themselves.
Gregory Crewdson: "Brief Encounters"
I can still remember encountering Crewdson's work for the first time in The New York Times Magazine more than a decade ago. Original, absorbing and haunting. Today's "Monocle Weekly" interview with him had me heading to his website, which alerted me to this documentary.
Brian Dillon on One Sentence from Woolf →
Great idea for a piece, well-executed. (And what a sentence.)
Low: "Will the Night" →
Just a demo — but among the most beautiful three minutes of music I know.
A Father's Tradition
A Happy Fathers Day nod to a dad who passed down his now-40-year tradition of logging the culture he took in each year. He turned 75 today, and said he’s going to go back through his decades of notes and see what’s risen to the top.
Our conversation moved me to page through my own logbook. Here, a few pics of pages covering books, films and concerts during the late 90s/early 2000s, a few years before my process went digital.
Steidl, Publisher →
An inspiring profile by Rebecca Mead.
"A Father's Final Odyssey" →
A special piece by Daniel Mendelsohn about Homer's epic, his father and a journey they took together.
Song Exploder →
Where have I been to miss this marvelous podcast for its first 101 episodes? Hrishikesh Hirway interviews musicians and asks them to break down a single song, which we hear in bits ... and bits ... and then in its entirety. It's a fantastic idea executed with great polish, sensitivity and humility (Hirway is almost never heard from). I've so far enjoyed Jeff Tweedy/Wilco, Ghostface Killah and Bjork, with many more in the queue.
"Daniel Dennett's Science of the Soul" →
A wonderful and humbling New Yorker profile of this 74-year-old philosopher (and so much else).
Remembering Robert Silvers
What a rich life to have lived, at the helm of the New York Review of Books, to have these warm, admiring, vivid remembrances follow your passing:
Jack White's World →
Insightful and entertaining New Yorker profile by Alec Wilkinson. I can still vividly recall seeing the White Stripes at The Pageant in 2002, a blazing tricolor duo that owned that room from start to finish.
"Exit West"
What a time for this deeply affecting Mohsin Hamid novel to appear. Here's Jia Tolentino on The New Yorker's website:
The novel feels immediately canonical, so firm and unerring is Hamid’s understanding of our time and its most pressing questions. Whom are we prepared to leave behind in our own pursuit of happiness? Whom are we able to care for, whom are we willing to care for, and why are our answers to those questions so rarely the same? At one point, Saeed points out to Nadia that millions of refugees previously came to their own native country, “when there were wars nearby.” Nadia replies, “That was different. Our country was poor. We didn’t feel we had as much to lose.” Comfort, she knows, can anesthetize one against concern for others.
This is my first Hamid book, and I'm impressed. Looking forward to catching up with some recent interviews.
Mike Rigby Interviewed on Design Matters →
Terrific interview with a designer and strategist who's done work with the greats (Landor, Pentagram, Interbrand, R/GA).