Hello hello.

Here’s some good stuff made by humans:

1. A recent cover I designed for Dalkey Archive Press: Aldous Huxley’s Antic Hay (aka one of the ones that isn’t Brave New World). I found a splendid Charles Martin illustration from 1920s magazine Gazette du Bon Ton that seemed to fit the bill. Here’s a brief synopsis:

   “The story follows Theodore Gumbril, a teacher in an English boarding school who invents Gumbril's Patent Small-Clothes, trousers which contain a pneumatic cushion in the seat. Gumbril's quest for love occasionally makes him resort to utilizing ‘The Complete Man’ which is a disguise he concocts around a false full beard. With it he is able to overcome his shyness and approach women in public places with a bold directness. However he is then left with the problem of how he reveals his real self to the women he befriends.”

   Coincidentally, this is the plot of the next Bond film.

2. I am once again trying to figure out how best to use instagram, which mostly involves me looking at the UI salad that is the Story interface while doing little yelps of despair. Anyway, here are some rectangles.

3. From pre-wedding shoots to digital nomads, Catherine Hyland explores how China shifting relationship to the countryside. A couple of these images – especially the last one in this story – were my highlights of the National Portrait Gallery’s Photo Portrait show last year. Incredible work.

4. Excited to see the relocation/reopening of York’s Lucius Books, full of gorgeous first editions that I couldn’t possibly afford but are always worth a pore over. And in other local bookish news, Topping & Company is opening this month – can’t wait to get in there and wander, crank my neck to the right and have good old browse.

5. Good to see the return of the Wallpaper* travel guide series. They’ve led me to right gems at home and abroad over the years. Still waiting for a York one though.

6. Björk’s first recorded performance – of Tina Charles’ I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance) – from fifty years ago. FIFTY.

7. Saddened to hear of the passing of Tony Stella, truly one of the great contemporary poster artists. He did a mean book cover too – somebody somewhere needs to commission a new series of Columbo novelisations just to make use of his Peter Falk paintings.

8. Tom Gauld on the launch of a new publishing imprint.

9. Boring is the new fascinating! At least according to a study by Elizabeth Trinh published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (via Kottke):

   “Participants were asked to predict how much they would enjoy talking about specific topics they identified as boring. Topics were many and varied, including World Wars I and II, non-fiction books, the stock market, cats, and vegan diets. In some cases, participants were asked to suggest a topic they found boring (responses included such topics as math, onions and Pokémon). Participants then had real conversations with strangers or friends, in person or online. Afterward, they reported how much they enjoyed the conversations. Across experiments, the pattern was clear: people expected the conversations to be fairly dull, but afterward they reported enjoying them much more than they had predicted. This pattern held even when both parties agreed the topic was boring.”

10. This week’s niche Richard Littler thread: film posters inadvertently photographed by postwar town planners in Manchester.

That is all.