Heaven Words
From the Folio Society edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan. I’m teaching the Earthsea books right now; what a joy. Judging a book by its cover:...
Images and Architectures
Photography by Henri Prestes While my big blog is on hiatus, I’m posting more -- and more experimentally -- on my micro.blog. Just a reminder that you can...
Planless
Colin Hayes I wrote about going to the canyon and letting go of my plan. With a pencil in hand, I read Roger Deakin on having a pencil in hand. I wrote about...
In Lieu of a Newsletter
Friends, I don’t have a newsletter for you this week because I am taking a brief head-clearing roadtrip to New Mexico and a bit of Colorado. But I do have a...
Comedy This Morning
Holly Astle W. H. Auden: Comedy … is not only possible within a Christian society, but capable of a much greater breadth and depth than classical comedy....
Mudlarkers and Drinking Fountains
The Sussex Downs in Winter by Eric Ravilious (1935) From an exhibition by the Society of Technotextnicians John Ruskin, from The Seven Lamps of Architecture...
Crocodiles and Thesauri
Tirzah Garwood, “The Crocodile” (1929) -- otherwise known as a "walking bus," but I love the word "crocodile" in this context. Looking at maps of Mars like...
System, Sequence, Mystery
Eric Ravilious, “Vicarage in Winter” (1935) Searching for the mystery of flowers. The joys of Blackletter type. I love this wall-mounted unfolding desk. My...
The Quality of Mercy
Paper sculpture by Layla May Arthur So much wonderful music coming from my friend and former colleague Shawn Okpebholo, whose “Songs in Flight” – featuring...
Ain't Got Time for the Small Stuff
I started this newsletter on Mailchimp before moving to Buttondown – and if you ever start a newsletter of your own I would strongly discourage you from...
A Riot of Linkage
Forthcoming in Comment: Now let’s just do links! (My collection of hey-this-could-maybe-go-in-the-newsletter links is getting huge, so I’m going to shrink it...
Highways of Empire
Johann David Steingruber’s Architectonisches Alphabeth (1773) Matt Crawford’s Why We Drive is full of wonderful reflections, like this one: Americans noisily...
Here's What's Next
I’m calling this the question for 2023. Cassiodorus, writing in the sixth century about Psalm 91: This psalm has marvelous power, and routs impure spirits....
Christmas Epiphany
Shakespeare’s Snow-Globe Illustration by John Austen John Donne, from a sermon preached at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Christmas Day 1626: The life of Christ was...
Whoops! Broken link
Sorry for the second intrusion into your inbox, but: This is the post by Tish Harrison Warren in which she commends A Rocha International. Blessings to all,...
The Winter Storm of Advent
This year London’s St. Pancras Station “Christmas Tree” deserves those scare quotes, because it isn’t a tree and isn’t Christmassy. But it’s kinda cool! -- a...
Picture-boxes in the stars
Bethlehem in Germany, Glitter on the sloping roofs, Breadcrumbs on the windowsills, Candles in the Christmas trees, Hearths with pairs of empty shoes: Panels...
Harvest Time
Harold Burdekin, photograph from London Night (1934) A very different image from London: Piero della Francesca’s Nativity has been restored and is back on...
Madnesses, Gentle and Otherwise
Edna Andrade Maybe scholars and collectors of manuscripts are afflicted by an ungentle madness: Frederic Madden had his own neuroses. He maintained a...
The Idea You Have
Bill Myers Love to see Frederick Wiseman picking out some Criterion videos. I almost said I want to be that sharp when I’m 92, but I guess I should first...