News and Media Suggestions
There are many questionable sources of "news." Where can we find some good starting points for legitimate news coverage?
Lots of junk out there posing as news. Where's the real stuff? My suggestions...
Media/News Suggestions
• New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal - Print still rules for accuracy. Want to know who to trust? Check to see who prints retractions, who disciplines or fires folks for errors, etc.
While the Post and Times are deemed left and the Journal right, that tends to be valid primarily on the op-ed pages, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Their reporting has been excellent, and typically supportive of each others’ work.
• Reuters: https://www.reuters.com
• Economist: https://www.economist.com
• Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com
• Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us
• Columbia Journalism Review: https://www.cjr.org
News and analysis of those that cover the news, which in itself is helpful for following the news!
• The Week: http://theweek.com
Best, most balanced print magazine; essentially a “Reader’s Digest” of current news, giving various viewpoints from various angles. For opinion items, there’s usually a version of at least two sides, with a middle position as a wrap up. The magazine is better than the web version, but online is still useful.
• Cook Political Report: http://cookpolitical.com
This is respected by those in politics for being fair and accurate.
• Market Watch: https://www.marketwatch.com
• Weekly Standard: http://www.weeklystandard.com
Clearly conservative, but that’s the philosophy, which they espouse, not blind party loyalty, and often includes strong writing. If you want to know what bright, honest conservatives think, check this out. (Particularly if you have different views.)
• NPR/PBS
Often considered a view from the left, but they actually take great pains to present both sides. If they have a bias, it would be most fair to say that’s the case in what they cover, rather than how. NewsHour is one of the few TV news shows worth the time. (And it’s legitimate news and analysis, rather than talking head personalities.)
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Email Newsletters:
• “Reliable Sources”: https://www.cnn.com/email/subscription
• Signal (Zero Media): http://eurasiagroup.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe…
• FiveThirtyEight “Significant Digits”: https://fivethirtyeight.com/newsletter/
• Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/?kid=3c6b0a
• Marketplace: https://www.marketplace.org/newsletters
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Twitter:
Twitter is as good or useless as the folks you follow. I constantly change this group to be worthwhile in terms of news, and it really is! Lots of stuff immediately from the journalists themselves. Currently 89 sources in the list:
https://twitter.com/visualrealia/lists/headliners
You can check it our once or subscribe if you want easier access.
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List of sources deemed trustworthy by consumers:
Mitch Lyons, d. March 5, 2018
Mitch Lyons not only developed the new art form of clay monoprints, but he was the major artist of the technique and shared his knowledge freely with his students.
"True innovators in the art world, and Mitch Lyons is one of them, make the complex appear to be so simple, so clear ... Mitch Lyons has added to the vocabulary of contemporary art."
- Leonard Lehrer, Department of Art and Art Professions, New York University
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Consider art forms developed in the 20th Century. With each, one or two names come forward in the mind as the leading forces in ushering in new techniques, visions, tools and terms of expression. There are very few that can lay claim to a truly new method of expressing those visions.
Mitch Lyons had a unique combination of backgrounds that was most likely necessary for the introduction of his equally unique techniques. His graphics degree and printmaking experience met with his art and ceramic degree elsewhere. As fusion in jazz and rock brought forth new sounds, his fusion of clay work and printmaking brought new sights.
He noticed that while working on decorating pottery works he created, he could transfer a design he made elsewhere to the pottery via paper; a small amount of colored clay would stick to the paper, and would display a faint image of the design. He rightly surmised that if he experimented with various papers, he might eventually come up with materials that would hold on to enough clay to make an art work in itself, without the need to further transfer it to a clay vessel. Each work would be one of a kind: a clay monoprint. A new art form was formed by his groundbreaking insight.
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"Viewing Lyons' prints could be compared to viewing the interior walls of an old house being demolished, when layers of paint and wallpaper reveal the stratum of lives lived, lives changed and the elements of time and history."
- Jenine Culligan, Associate Curator for Exhibitions, Delaware Art Museum
Mr. Lyons didn’t hold his new techniques as a secret, but shared his skills and methods with numerous students of all ages via his workshops, often with his wife Meredith nearby to help make sure everyone was able to appreciate their time with Mitch. Students would not only share their artistic successes and failures, but make new friendships.
Mr. Lyons not only developed the form, but maintained his status as the clay monoprint artist. His passing marks a loss to the art community and all who studied with him, but those same individuals move forward with new artistic visions of their own, continuing to add his color to their works.
For more information on Mitch Lyons, including photographs of some of his works, visit:
https://www.mitchlyons.com/clay-monoprints
https://www.facebook.com/mitchlyonsstudio/
For information on his technique:
https://www.visualrealia.com/articles/2017/10/15/art-of-the-clay-monoprint
This Book is a Lot of Things
"This Book is a Planetarium" is a lot of things, and a pop up book at that!
"This Book is a Planetarium" includes a cellphone-driven.... planetarium!
Chronicle Books' "This Book is a Planetarium" is a lot of things. In fact, six different things, all wrapped up into one pop up book for children and design-loving adults to enjoy and interact with.
The author, Kelli Anderson, notes that all six demonstrations, carefully crafted of paper, show the work of science, with "Why it Works" sidebars discussing the background of each. The simplest is a two-sided insert with a decoder ring and a perpetual calendar sharing one pop up.
Sounds are the focus of two pop ups, including a "speaker" that amplifies a cellphone's music, and a five string musical instrument. Clever demonstrations and designs, although I'll note that the tension on the strings is a bit too loose to provide a good enough sound to completely pull off the concept. The cone does, in fact, amplify the sound, but it's probably a stretch to call it a "speaker" in any technical sense.
The pop up holds the cellphone at the cone, which amplifies the sound level of the playing music.
I was excited to see the inclusion of the spiralgraph, a paper version of the Spirograph toy many of us loved as kids. Sadly, I found it very difficult to keep the gears in the proper positions while drawing.
The title piece, the planetarium, is the highlight of the book, and works surprisingly well, using the light of a cellphone's "flashlight" app. Impressive design and concept, pulled off. A lot of fun.
"This Book is a Planetarium"
by Kelli Anderson
Chronicle Books
Published 2017
Amazon Link (I am an Amazon affiliate, and would receive a small amount from a purchase using this link.)
Pros:
• Excellent concept and construction
• Attractively designed
• Planetarium is well crafted and fun
Cons:
• Decoder and Calendar are a bit more simplistic than the other items
• Questionable use of "speaker" for the one pop up
• Spiralgraph is challenging to use
• Somewhat lacking a sense of cohesiveness of popups included
Zojirushi SM-SC60HM Mug Review... Hot Coffee!
Coffee fan? Need a hot drink for the cooler weather? Here's my suggestion...
Zojirushi SM-SC60HM
With cooler weather ahead, warm drinks will be welcome.
I am a coffee fan, and a bit of a coffee snob. I'm too good for convenience store coffee! ;)
I'd make my own at work, but I don't have a sink, so clean up is kind of a pain. I decided to get a "pour over" coffee dripper and make it at home before leaving. Easy clean up, and I could use great, local coffee. (Merlin's Coffee, right here in town.)
Problem? I tend to nurse my coffee for about two hours. How to keep it hot long enough?
Found a very positive review for this stainless mug online, and checking Amazon's reviews, it was well thought of.
I can see why. Made my first batch early in the morning over the weekend. 7 ½ hours later I checked the temperature, and it was still at 145º. (In fact, I needed to adjust my water heating point to a lower brewing temperature, or it would be too hot to drink a few hours later!)
I've shaken this thing around and can find no leaks or drips. (I've been called one, but we'll ignore that for now.) The lid snaps tight but is still easy to open without looking during a car ride. And want to carry it without fear of bumping the lid open? There's a sliding lock.
I've had cups and drink contraptions before where moving parts cause difficulty in cleanup, leading to some gross, unreachable areas. Not here. The lid comes apart in to four pieces, and quite easily. Probably ten seconds or less to disassemble.
I can't yet speak to longevity, but if you need a mug/thermos, check out the Zojirushi SM-SC60HM. It's not the cheapest you'll find, but you'll be pleased.
Easily disassembled cap area, easily cleaned and reassembled.
History, Discarded
History was discarded. Or was it?
“People tend to forget that the word ‘history’ contains the word ‘story.'”
- Ken Burns
The main living area of our house had its carpet removed this week, and with good reason.
For more than two decades, my family walked, ate, slept, talked, laughed and played over this carpet. Friends gathered on it, as did family. We met new people and renewed friendships with those we’ve known a long time.
When a previous owner of the house installed the carpet, they no doubt celebrated what it brought to them; it made them feel good. It was a source of pride.
But while it once provided comfort, it no longer supplied the same positive result. Time had altered it. While still essentially the same object, it was now worn, dirty and frayed. It no longer provided pride.
It was pried loose, rolled up and hauled away.
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The carpet that supported many memories is no longer here, but…
The memories are. I’ll still remember my kids and friends just the same. The meaning of history isn’t in something we can hold or touch, but in the connections, emotions, hopes and fears. History’s importance is in the stories we tell.
Our experiences individually and collectively aren’t erased because the status of an object changes.
But change can impact the usefulness of those same things. While facts may hold permanence, meaning is fluid. What we revere can not only change over time, but it should; as we mature and gain understanding as a community, our ideals must also mature.
History won’t be forgotten. Let’s not let it be our destiny.
A Working Kitchen in the Mansion
Food, food, and more food. Better yet, food in a working kitchen in one of Hanover's landmark buildings.
H.D. Sheppard and C.N. Myers started the Hanover Shoe Company in 1899 after planning to both manufacture and sell their own products via retail stores that their company would run. The first store was opened in 1900 in York, Pennsylvania.
Their families began construction of “twin” neoclassical mansions in 1911, designed by Philadelphia’s Herman Miller. The Athenaeum of Philadelphia holds numerous architectural drawings of the projects.
I was fortunate to photograph the working kitchen of their wonderful restaurant on three occasions during the period between 2009 and 2010 at Hanover's (Pennsylvania) former Sheppard Mansion. A gallery of photographs from these visits is available for viewing. All photographs were shot during typical evening food service, and plated items shown were as-prepared for guests. (Or “in progress’ photographs.) Lighting was limited to the room's lights and one flash unit, mounted on-camera.
Many thanks to the owners and kitchen staff for their indulgence. And here's the gallery!