The Color of Fiction

Am utterly enamored with artist Jaz Parkinson's "color charts"--visual representations of the colors mentioned in various novels. I ask you, could anything be more perfectly tailored to the tastes of a book-lover and color-lover such as myself? Seriously, I think these fit neatly into some sort of special receptors in my brain. Not to mention they'd make great book covers. Anyhow, enjoy!

Vintage Photo Fun Time

Between it being Mother's Day and then my happening to spend a recent Throwback Thursday at my mom's house I've been recapturing a bunch of old photos lately. Something about having a girl of my own makes me especially like these shots of my own wee self, especially with my own Mama. And then the photo at the bottom is from my senior year in high school, just for kicks and hilarity.

Kisses from Daddy and Nooe

Last month Mabel was super excited to receive a week-long visit from her paternal grandmother, known in our affectionate family lexicon as her Nooe. In this week's Polaroid the three generations snuggle and smooch on the sofa in a sunbeam.

Brief Hiatus

Here's something I like to do, though I'm not sure why: when for this or that reason I need to put the Cabinet on a short break (which I don't love doing), I find it encouraging to leave you with a good old Abstract Expressionist painting. In this case "Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 54" painted in 1957-61 by our pal Robert Motherwell. Image source is here. See you next week! xoxo b

The Poem Series About the Winter of 2006 Continues (Though Spring is Approaching)

February 3, 2006
Last night I had just about entirely convinced myself

to take the bus home
(bad)

when I stepped outside
and was seduced
once again
by the sky
into walking

A big soft pink spring sky
and soft spring air too
impossible to resist

And on the way home
I saw a small brown paper lunch bag
that someone had put over the top of a fire hydrant
with a frowny face drawn on neatly
in black magic marker
the effect was comical

And the workers seen through the window of a restaurant
bustling around in their sweatshirts
getting ready for the dinner service
reminded me of actors backstage before a play


image source is here

Art NYT Bestsellers

Ever wonder what an art, design, or photography New York Times bestseller looks like? Probably not. But in my line of work it's certainly relevant. Here are a few recent examples. I love the idea of people wanting to read about and look at these topics, to the degree where books about them end up ranking on the famous list of the Paper of Record. Above: Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. Below: Building Stories by Chris War, Underwater Dogs by Seth Castee, and Just My Type by Simon Garfield.

Muppet Magazine

The other day the always excellent Brain Pickings posted the Muppet Star Wars spoof from the fine periodical below--a 1983 issue of Muppet Magazine. Though this was a little before my time (the familiarity of certain other covers posted here lets me know that I was a loyal subscriber in 1985 and 1986), it nevertheless sent me back in that classic Proustian way. Muppet Magazine! Like the set of Sesame Street, those ALA reading posters, and the Espirt catalog, this was part of the seminal visual language of my childhood, a touchstone object over whose pages I would pour for hours. Sure, I read a lot of novels and watched a lot of cartoons in the 80s too, but it was this sort of image-driven printed matter that got into my brain and, I am convinced, turned me into a person who would grow up to want to be a visual book editor. Just saying.