No more polaroids - Polaroid has announced it will stop producing the film that is used to produce its iconic pictures. Apparently stocks will last until 2009.
As a gesture of mourning, my partner has just bought a selection of old polaroids he found in a secondhand shop. I might just scan one..
Why smart songwriting is huge in Sheffield and guitar-pop thrives in Glasgow: You hear where you live? An interesting look at how geography may help shape your taste in music - whether you are aware of it or not. Meanwhile, it's nice to note that Hillary Clinton wants to share her political views with the part of the American public who are devoted to gossip magazines: Hillary Clinton: My Worst Outfits!. Not only is it low-brow journalism - it is also low-brow journalism that panders to stereotypes (i.e. why is nobody asking John McCain to go through his fashion mistakes?) and makes the vast mistake of underestimating women voters.
Finally, I followed the Beeb's The Genius of Photography when it was aired last year and was very pleased when I found Jörg Colberg's blog where he writes eloquently about fine-art photography. His What Makes a Great Portrait? stands out as a wonderful meditative essay on portrait photography. Not only does he cite many examples of portrait photography (and I should point out that some of these may not be entirely safe for work as they include nudity and violence), but Colberg explains why he thinks some photos work better than others. It is hugely inspirational and educational for an amateur photographer like myself.
Oh, and a music recommendation on the fly: Alaska in Winter is on constant rotation in our home. So gorgeous.
Heard sung outside on the street at around 9am: I do, I do, I do believe in faeries...
I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's excellent The Road yesterday. Its sparse, exquisite prose reminded me of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead as did the preoccupation with love and tenderness. However, while Gilead is about a place and staying there, The Road travels through nameless towns, through woods and across mountains. It deals with a world where there are no places or localities - insofar as 'place' is situated in time (cf. Foucault and the discussion of space/place) or in memory. McCarthy's book is bleak, austere and shockingly beautiful. It is also a strong contender for Best Read of 2008.
Speaking of which, one of the best reads I had last year was the flawed but absolutely fascinating The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas. I just picked up her PopCo and I am somewhat reassured by reviewers insisting that despite the ghastly cover, it is 'intelligent and witty'.
Finally, astute readers with stalkerishly attention to blog-details may note that I have re-designed Fourth Edition and that it now bears an astonishing resemblance to a certain blogspot blog I kept years and years ago. What can I say? I'm retro.
A tired day today.
So why not go look at Strange Maps instead?
It's seriously one of the coolest, most informative websites around. It does what it says on the tin: Maps. Strange ones.
The content ranges from the very informative - a map of how various denominations of Christianity are distributed throughout the US - to the bizarre - a map of Neu-York: how New York would have looked had Nazi Germany conquered it.
Personally I like looking at maps that challenge my preconceptions - who knew that Papau New Guinea is such a polyglot society that it dwarfs the rest of the world? Or that Great Britain could easily fit within Borneo?
If you think this sounds all a bit too heavy, there are maps of the US made out of pumpkins, the US as perceived by Japanese people, cats' maps of the bed etc. And for you über-geeky technosavvy ones out there, how about a subway map of the Web 2.0?
Since I last had an MRI scan (mid-90s, if I recall correctly), technology has allowed the patient to listen to the radio during the scan. Unfortunately this meant I was forced to listen to a talk show debating killing stray dogs and then people suffering from claustrophobia. Not ideal listening material for someone who likes dogs and is trapped inside a snug plastic tube for 40 minutes.
Seeing as today is Super Tuesday, the Slate article, Can I Get My 5-Month-Old Daughter Photographed With Every Presidential Candidate? is a very apt link. The photos are great - I particularly like the first Barack Obama photo and the hilariously panicky Rudy Giuliani photo.
Today is also Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Tuesday - here in the UK. I made pancakes earlier today and served them Danish style with butter, a touch of ground cardamom and granulated sugar. Multi-culturalism r us, yo.