The Sartorialist

I think it's pretty safe to say that Scott Schuman (aka The Sartorialist) is the preeminent street fashion photographer and blogger of our age. There were a couple of years where I could hardly wait to see what he posted each new day. Sadly for me, my attention span for a blog usually drifts after a while, and nearly all the ones I once loved I eventually stop reading religiously and only peak at now and again, despite (or perhaps, ironically, even because of?) the fact that the folks are still hard at work out there making the same awesome stuff they were before. But luckily in this case this super well-executed book came out a while back, and has recently reminded me how very awesome Schuman's curatorial eye, personal taste, and prodigious shooting skills really are. See for yourself--

The Ongoing Series of Poems About the Autumn of 2005 Continues

September 29, 2005
Getting sick

illness numbs your capacity to see
to notice and most especially
to get to the chewy center of joy in things

aside from all your standard observable symptoms
your sore throat, your aching body, the special fatigue that weights your limbs
you’re walking around with a jar over your head

but you cut yourself some slack
forgive yourself for all the stuff you’ve missed
figure it can’t be helped

at least there’s still the spicy red germanium
the stream rising off the pasta in the colander
there’s still prose of course and split pea soup 

image source is here

Editorial Perks

I guess there are jobs where you fly around the world in first class shipping champagne, where people lend you couture gowns to wear, where you have to worry about whether the number of expensive gifts you've received is going to get you in trouble with some sort overseeing body. Well, as you probably already know: Editing books is not one of those jobs. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have it's occasional perks. For instance--

Being interviewed. I was recently interviewed here about this book (photo credit for the above shot is not actually from the interview, but rather from the divine post about the book that Brain Pickings wrote a while back, which includes many other gorgeous photos well worth clicking through to see).

And then I also got to talk to Felt & Wire for this piece about the recent Pantone products I worked on (which I've already gone on about, at great length, here, so will spare you any more on that subject).

Getting mail. The interview was conducted by the lovely Alyson Kuhn, who also sent me some of the postcards, with beautifully matched stamps, in a few of my own favorite colors. 

Getting treats. It doesn't happen all that often, but occasionally an author shows up bearing goodies--like the Miette macarons above (rose geranium and pistachio: my favorites!).

Or these amazing Recchiuti chocolates that feature art from Thomas Pringle of Creativity Explored.

And sometimes there are flowers around the office. Because one coworker brought some in for another, or because someone is having a going away party.

image source for photo at top of post is here

Wallpapered Dumpsters

I am beyond besotted with artist Christine Finley's wallpapered dumpsters. The combination of pretty/feminine with street-art/illegal, and the resulting jarring-yet-pleasing juxtaposition of these things in the urban landscape is completely fantastic. And I just love it when art is witty. Bravo Finley!

Person Face

When Mabel was a tiny baby and I was still on maternity leave, we used to go to this most excellent mama/baby yoga class. On the first day of class the fortuitously named teacher, Jane Austin (much and deservedly loved in this town as a teacher of yoga to pregnant ladies and new mothers) commented that the so-small baby Mabel already had a "person face." This description has stayed in my mind ever since, as it so accurately captures both her elfin good looks and autonomous spirit. The above polaroid admirably reflects what her dear person face is looking like these days. (The arm-moving-so-fast-it-looks-like-smoke also very truthfully represents her daily level of vigorous activity as she approaches her first birthday).

Women Artists in Interwar France

In honor of this being my one-hundredth post here on the Cabinet, I'm breaking the rules a bit today. My own rules, that is. Which are somehow both the easiest and the hardest sort of rules to break, aren't they? Normally for these Friday Art book reviews I'm talking about a book I actually have here in my possession; taking pictures of the pages while the book is lying on the floor or on my desk or sofa or what have you. But in this instance, this is not a book I own--rather, it's one my dad covered on his own blog, Spencer Alley, a few weeks back--the images of which have stuck in my mind to such an degree that I feel compelled to re-post them here for your enjoyment. Women Artists in Interwar France: Framing Femininities, despite it's unpromising academic title, appears to be rich with wonders indeed, if the below samples are any indication. For individual painting titles and artist attributions, see here.

This Week's Installment in the Series of Poems About Autumn 2005

September 27, 2005
Cooked dinner together last night

Parmesan-crusted chicken pieces with apples and leeks over rice
Comfort food for the first meal we’ve eaten after dark this autumn
chopping, dredging, deglazing, reducing a sauce
And great fun in the kitchen with Bill and little jelly jars of red wine
the smell of leeks and apples browning in their own juices

After dinner we sat at the table
having a long rangy chat about
Bill’s students (it’s getting better now I’m nearly sure)
also food, cooking, cuisine, domesticity, detail
Talked about how we’re told
that we only think food is comforting and that we should stop thinking that
When food really is comforting
It’s nourishing and warm and can be solace
Ideally every dinner should restore

After that I made Bill’s bag lunch
opening the big moss-green tin
where the supermarket bread nestles next to the supermarket cookies
We bought the tin at a junk shop in Tahoe
to hold bakery bread and tortillas and crackers
But now it holds shelf-stable items for packing lunches
On this subject Bill said that what a person eats is always “very in process”
and I loved that turn of phrase

The new morning routine is that
Bill showers
I shower
we eat breakfast
Bill leaves
I get dressed
do my hair and makeup
make the bed
do the dinner dishes
and leave a clean house more or less on time
I like it

When I got to work
the sunlight was coming in brightly
through every window and even under the doors
yellow with a suggestion of pink
And there were a bunch of those bright green pears on the kitchen table again
gorgeous and hard as rocks and cold to the touch
their still-alive color jumped out at me unexpectedly
and made something jump up inside my chest
Whoever leaves them lying all over the table
is doing me a great favor
though I’ve never eaten one

image source is here

Luck Favors the Prepared

For today's Publishing Wednesday post we continue the pencil theme from last week. Alyson of Felt & Wire sent me this great video made by the folks at Elixir Design (who, full disclosure, design books for the same publishing house that employees me, and, as well, one of the designers who works there, Kyle Pierce, contributed to a much-beloved book of mine) when they were sharpening a whole bunch of pencils for their company Christmas presents. I can think of absolutely no reason why a video of five guys sitting quietly and sharpening pencils should be so entertaining, but it is. Also on the Elixir site, if you go to "about" and then to "people" (I can find no simple way to link to this, sorry) you will have another pleasing experience.

Some Random Fashion Inspiration Today

From top to bottom:

Fashion 156 blog
Toast
Lanvin
Dries Van Noten
Duro Olowu
Fahion 156 blog
Peter Pilotto
Josh Goot
Libertine
Marc Jacobs
Milly
The Sartorialist
The Sartorialist
Julia Renne’s Flickr (don’t know who made the shoes)

New Pail

Sometimes, by the time I get home, it is too dim inside the apartment to take a Polaroid (without the flash, that is; all the picture-takers our household having great flash-aversion). But the golden-hour sunshine is streaming down on the sidewalk right outside our front door. And so we step outside to take the daily photograph. And sometimes we take our new green metal pail from Grandma with us.

Work/Life 2

Here's a delightful book: Work/Life 2, a "directory of illustration" from the creators of Uppercase Magazine. Featuring illustrators from around the world, this little paperback treasure-trove gives each artist a single spread featuring one big representative piece of their work facing some text and smaller images from their life (hence the title). Lots of old favorites here, as well as many new discoveries. Super charming and great fun.