No Categories

The work of Karel Martens is untouchable. Or, let’s rephrase that – it’s actually ultra-touchable (as in: tactile, physical, material):
www.instagram.com/p/DMFiCFFqsCT/
It’s a practice (or indeed, praxis) in which making becomes thinking, and thinking becomes making. (In that sense, it brings to mind the way Régis Debray once described “the professional typographer” as “the prime example of the working intellectual and the intellectual worker”). Seeing all of Karel’s work together, in the flesh, for the first time (in the current KM retrospective ‘Unbound’, taking place at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, running until October 26, 2025) is an electrifying experience – invoking the lost spirits of Dutch social-democratic structuralism, of stubborn materialism, but above all, radiating the pure joy of making. So do visit this exhibition – we strongly recommend it!

Amazon’s Kindle Vella is shutting down. Why? Doesn't anybody want to read “Drag Racing Werewolf” or “Hot Vampire Next Door”?

R.I.P. Kindle Vella 2021-2025 Amazon’s Kindle Vella , a platform for serialized storytelling, is winding down its service this month, after only a few years of existence. Despite its promise to revolutionize the reading experience with bite-sized episodes unlocked via tokens, Vella has failed. Why?

Every story has both show and tell to it. The good ones are more show than tell, but so much depends on how they're told. Here's a video essay, an editorial take: Star Wars is told as a fairy tale, and it's time for a remix.

De-Infantilizing STAR WARS (It Works) If you liked this one, come watch our The Acolyte review: https://youtu.be/wggR45TOH1AIf you want to support us further: https://www.patreon.com/BeghastChapt...

When it comes to photo restoration, it looks like AI isn't ready for prime-time. It's an interesting concept, though, and this sarcastic video makes me want to watch a good-quaility restoration of Hitchcock's "Vertigo." I didn't know that the film has colors that couldn't be shown until recently.

AI Can Ruin Movies Now, Too - Aliens and True Lies on 4k A belated review of Cameron's 4k filmography, arriving dead last but for the very firstest of first world problems.Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.co...

This joke never gets old.

Art is a verb. Writing is art. Reading brings the writing to life.

Richard Serra’s “Verb List” is both art and to-do list. Image of Verb List from MoMA.org The artist Richard Serra died yesterday at 85. His sculptures combined the monumental with the intimate, pieces that overwhelm and envelop but are often the only on…

It's a sad day for small, independent presses and publishers, and for writers and readers as well. Small Press Distribution (SPD) is closing its doors.

From the announcement:

For more than five decades, SPD has distributed books for hundreds of independent literary publishers, allowing thousands of writers to bring diverse, experimental, and disruptive literature to audiences across the globe. SPD’s impact on the literary world over the past 55 years is hard to overstate. Against all odds, a tiny distribution service in the back of Berkeley’s Serendipity Books grew to help authors attain some of the literary world’s crowning achievements. SPD-distributed authors won multiple National Book Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” Grants, PEN Awards, Lambda Literary Awards–nearly 100 awards since 2019 alone.

Unfortunately, these accolades were no match for the challenges of a rapidly changing book industry and funding environment.

Small Press Distribution Small Press Distribution (SPD) is a non-profit literary arts organization located in Berkeley, California. As their name indicates, the core of their mission is to act as an umbrella distributor and marketer for hundreds of smaller literary publishers. SPD's primary mission is to get the books of th...

Might have called the owls a hootenanny.

A Parliament of Owls and a Murder of Crows: How Groups of Birds Got Their Names, with Wondrous Vintage Illustrations by Brian Wildsmith Language is an instrument of great precision and poignancy — our best tool for telling each other what the world is and what we are, for conveying the blueness of blue and the wonder of being…

Beetlejuice 2 had better be good. Don't touch a classic unless you can promise something good. But does that really happen anymore?

First look at Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder as Astrid and Lydia Deetz in ‘BEETLEJUICE 2’.

It's a rainy Saturday morning. The cat is snoring. I'm looking at typewriter designs.

Karl Clauss Dietel's Typewriter Designs Hundreds of typewriter users worldwide will be very familiar with the designs of German Karl Clauss Dietel, probably without realising the p...

📚 Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a literary aficionado, or someone who enjoys the fusion of modern and post-modern concepts, this post is for you. Let's reminisce together and get inspired for what the future holds!

👉 Check out the full post here:

The Year in Words and Wires: Reflecting on 2023's Literary Tech Scene As we embark on a new year, let’s take a look at 2023 and what happened where tech meets text.