Scrapbooks made for sharing

From the Wikipedia entry on the origins of the scrapbook in the 15th century and their ongoing function as self-portraits:

From the standpoint of the psychology of authorship, it is noteworthy that keeping notebooks is in itself a kind of tradition among litterateurs. A commonplace book of literary memoranda may serve as a symbol to the keeper, therefore, of the person’s literary identity (or something psychologically not far-removed), quite apart from its obvious value as a written record. That commonplace books (and other personal note-books) can enjoy this special status is supported by the fact that authors frequently treat their notebooks as quasi-works, giving them elaborate titles, compiling them neatly from rough notes, recompiling still neater revisions of them later, and preserving them with a special devotion and care that seems out of proportion to their apparent function as working materials.

The writing being performed via collecting is thus somewhat unconscious; the sum greater than its parts.

In our age, visual communication is as commonplace as literacy. Thus, for at least the last century, scrapbooks have consisted of both clever phrases and the equally smart typography in which they are set, of notions of selfhood as well as the fashion with which these identities are performed.


Tumblr circa 1912

Recent tools like Ffffound, Tumblr, Polyvore and Pinterest not only facilitate the practice of collecting but, also, transform this once personal process into both a performance and/or a collaborative process.

the vessel of exploration

The making of planet Earth – a process better known as globalization – begins after the Renaissance, as newly empowered groups embrace the idea that, contra the Church, the world is both knowable and mostly unknown.


before

The frontier – the unsettled terrain – is thus not just an economic and political prize but also, importantly, a stage for intellectual and spiritual advancement. To travel to distant lands is to make the world known.


after

The system which emerges, beginning with the colonization of the Americas and ending with the Cold War, is the largest cosmos to date; so ubiquitous, it is capable of viewing itself from orbit.


hello, world

A new self-image, a more unified self is the destination of every figurative voyage. Thus, the lore of the traveler is that of self-discovery. In such representations, any vessel is a means to a psychological end.


a cryptic note to self

The more perfect vessels offer us shortcuts by becoming mirrors. Such reflective ships move the traveler, inwardly. To a world always in creation, one that can never be fully known.

Two ideas for a fusion taco stand

1) Guatequeria: Cuban. e.g., tacos de ropa vieja or tacos de rabo encendido. Roast pork.

2) Pintxos tacos: Northern Spain. e.g., tacos de pulpo con papa or tacos de bacalao. Anchoas.

Blue Valentine: the love story as murder mystery

Surely, for every lover who asks “I love you” (which is to say “Do you love me?”) there is another who asks “Why don’t you love me anymore?” or, simply, “What went wrong?”

Few movies so deftly tackle this whodunnit as well as Blue Valentine. Using the techniques of a mystery – the withholding of information, presenting events out of sequence, framing characters as suspects – it offers an honest account of romance; the falling in and out of love.

Perhaps, all love stories are mysteries, filled with ambivalences, contradictory accounts and motives unknown. For what is love but a suspense; the suspension of doubt and self and even reason as the distinct perspectives of two people merge together, drift apart and, sometimes, reunite.

As in Julio Cortazar’s novel Hopscotch:

You look at me, you look at me closely, each time closer and then we play cyclops, we look at each other closer each time and our eyes grow, they grow closer, they overlap and the cyclops look at each other…

The questions come later because they were always already there.

Related: Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together.

Peeling back the layers of nonsense around the “Catholic, contraceptives” campaign talking point

Garry Wills expertly peels back the layers of nonsense and cynicism around the American bishops decision to make common cause with Rick Santorum:

Catholics who do not accept the phony argument over contraception are said to be “going against the teachings of their church.” That is nonsense. They are their church. The Second Vatican Council defines the church as “the people of God.” Thinking that the pope is the church is a relic of the days when a monarch was said to be his realm. The king was “Denmark.” Catholics have long realized that their own grasp of certain things, especially sex, has a validity that is lost on the celibate male hierarchy. This is particularly true where celibacy is concerned.