On Thumbs and Bibles and Stuff
Look, it’s Leonardo da Vinci’s thumbprint “The Saint John’s Bible is the first handwritten, illuminated Bible of its scale in over 500 years. The Bible gets...
The One About Stones
A photograph by Constantin Brancusi of his studio, from a new exhibition of his work at MOMA Many of you will remember the scene from Citizen Kane in which...
The Long Here, the Long Now, and the Indiana Jones of the Art World
Glenstone Museum, Potomac MD Brian Eno on the Big Here and Long Now: Today we view as fellow-humans many whom our grandparents may have regarded as savages,...
An Early and Artful Edition
Hello, friends! If you’re thinking Wait, didn't I just get a newsletter from this guy? — yeah, you did, just a few days ago. But today I’m embarking on a new...
Post-Truth Realism and a Musical Reconstruction
Venice in 1574. For a much larger version of the map, click here. I have recently discovered an amazing musical production: the Gabrieli Consort’s A New...
The Language of the Hand and Walt Disney’s Train
Hello everyone, and the happiest of New Years to you all. We’ve all overdue for a good year, so with fingers liturgically crossed and prayers uplifted.......
Christmas, Thomas Merton, type design
Merry Christmas, everybody! Christmas is of course a season, rather than a day, and we’re only a quarter of the way through that season, so to get us...
Old Material Is the Best Material
Hello, and welcome back! I’ve spent a lot of time in the last year learning to disconnect myself from the minute-by-minute stimuli of social media, to get on...
Mars, Harvard, and A Students
Greetings, old friends and new, from the beautiful Hill Country of Texas, where I’m on a short retreat at one of my favorite places on Earth, Laity Lodge. I...