Spheres, Goats, Modernists
Decades ago, I looked in every issue of the Atlantic for the inevitable painting by Guy Billout -- so it’s nice to see that he has an Instagram. You’ll find...
A Bit of Iconoclasm and Much Blogging
My friend and colleague Philip Jenkins on iconoclasm old and new: It was in this context that I had my personal encounters with an active and literal...
Discovering the Maize God
It me. No, wait, it a maize god. Some magnificent woodcuts by David Gentleman from a limited edition of Swiss Family Robinson. Sophie Yeo, of the fine...
Getting Back to Business
Via my friend David Hooker: Isn’t it time for you to outhorse your email? Paul Klee’s puppets are delightful or creepy, and sometimes both. Some of my recent...
Further Miscellany
I love the idea that a university would create and publish its own calendar/diary for its members, and, though I have no connection whatever to Cambridge...
Treeish
As the maker of a website called Gospel of the Trees, I see some exciting material in this story about great British trees and forests. Most of my photos...
On Music and Gentleness
Another of these intermittent messages.... Look: The greatest a capella group in history is The Persuasions. This is not something about which reasonable...
A Literary Update
One shortcoming of many of us who critique our social media culture: We say what we don’t like but fail to say what we like. I have tried to remedy that...
An Unexpected Message
Hello again. Here’s another of my intermittent messages. The most time-consuming part of my old newsletter was selecting, formatting, and uploading the...
Just Checking In
Hello folks! I am not able to resume the newsletter at this point, not in its former glory anyway, but I do want to send a brief update. I have an essay out...
A Quick Note
Hello folks, just briefly: I don’t expect to be able to resume this newsletter anytime soon, but I am still writing at my main blog; I post mainly photos but...
Lenten Thoughts and Roman Images
Piranesi’s fantasias. And while we’re considering Roman things, here’s the extraordinary Aeneas intaglio from the Getty Museum: I blog, therefore I blog. I...
Songs We're Entitled to Sing
David Jones, Flora in Calix-Light, 1950 (graphite & watercolor on paper). See a brief Lenten meditation on the drawing here. I wrote about songs you’re...
Anomalous Electric Prairie
The Franks Casket is an exceptionally curious object. Made probably in Northumbria in the 8th century, it offers an eclectic collection of images: The front...
The Cup and the Hawk
The Hove Amber Cup (ca. 1750 BC), one of many treasures at the World of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum. A passage from one of the great...
Typographical Excellence and Portable Soup
Some wonderful typography from The Wisconsin Central Lines, back in the day. From the same era on the other side of the pond, Croydon, South Loondon, 1892: I...
The Dynamic Range of Microbes
Diana Bloomfield The Halstow Wassail takes place each year on a Devon cider farm that has been in the Gray family since the late 1600s. Watch this beautiful...
Harmonies and Dissonances
Updating the furnishings of a 1960s church I’ve been blogging away, thanks to the support of people who have bought me dragons. (N.B. I could always use more...
Sir Shi and the Wanderer
A peacock mosaic at the recently excavated Church of the Holy Apostles in southern Hatay province, Turkey. The Holkham Bible Picture Book, ca. 1330 A while...
More Fakes, Plus Hittites
Claudia Rilling In my capacity as ... um, let me revisit that later ... anyway, I have declared 2021 to be The Year of Repair! Also, I am a Homebound...