Brain Pickings is showcasing a number of covers for sheet music designed by Magritte during his days as a commercial artist. They're quite charming, and done in an Art Deco style.

Flavorwire has a slideshow featuring some gorgeous paintings made by Akira Kurosawa juxtaposed with stills from his movies.

The Los Angeles Times has a few interesting articles on movies that are shot digitally vs. movies that are shot on film. In one article cinematographers who have been nominated for Oscars describe their preferences for film vs. digital formats, and how these media affect the visual aspects of the movies. Another article discusses a new documentary by Chris Kenneally and Keanu Reeves called Side by Side, in which Reeves interviews several directors (including David Lynch, Lars von Trier, George Lucas, Christopher Nolan, and Richard Linklater) about the use of film vs. digital formats.
What does everyone think, are you sad that digital movies are displacing movies shot with photochemical film, or is this change an improvement?

The Schirn is currently exhibiting numerous works by Edvard Munch, which includes rarely seen paintings as well as his photographs (nudes and self portraits) and films. You can read Art Daily's coverage of the exhibit here and view a slideshow of some of these works on the Schirn's web site. (I can't seem to link it directly, but just click on the "Galerie" tab.)

I came across a number of interesting author interviews this week:
a Joan Didion interview from late last year
Sherman Alexie interviewed by Neko Case
Geoff Dyer is one of the interviewees for The Guardian's article "Should We Celebrate Scathing Book Reviews?"(via the literary saloon)
a Tom Stoppard interview (via the literary saloon)

A long time I go, I posted some links such as this one that people had compiled of the world's most beautiful libraries. Now, Flavorwire has compiled a slideshow of beautiful bookstores from around the world. Enjoy!

The nominations for the Academy Awards were recently announced. Has anyone seen any of these movies or are you rooting for any of the nominees? Are there any films or people that you think shouldn't have been overlooked?

I've been trying to cook more often this year, and was curious-- what are everyone's favorite spices or seasonings to use? Are there any that you consider to be essential?

Happy Birthday , erebor! I hope you have a wonderful day. :)

I've really been enjoying listening to Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film reviews, a BBC podcast that was introduced to me by my friend muse_books. Mark Kermode is very funny,opinionated, and intellectual, while the more low key but also very smart Simon Mayo makes a great foil to Kermode. Definitely check them out if you're a film buff. :)
Has anyone else found interesting podcasts to listen to lately?

Today was David Bowie's birthday; The Daily Record has an article about what he's up to these days.
His upcoming art project sounds intriguing:

"His first public piece of creative activity in a decade will be in October when he publishes Bowie Object, a typically quirky project.
He has chosen 100 significant objects from his life which will be photographed and accompanied by his text on why they were an influence. A Bowiesque twist on the autobiography concept."

Happy New Year, everyone. :)
I didn't read as much as usual last year. Most notably, I did not even finish 1Q84 yet. Hopefully I'll make more reading time in 2012. Anyway, here's what I ended up enjoying the most. I'd love to hear what everyone else's favorites were!
(  ten favorite books for 2011 )

Date:	2011-12-30 06:17
Subject:	Helen Frankenthaler
Security:	Public
Mood:	sad

One of the greatest American abstract artists, Helen Frankenthaler, passed away a few days ago. The Guardian wrote a tribute here. NPR also has a nice feature on her.
I always loved her use of color and the luminous quality of her paintings.

I hope all my LJ friends are enjoying the holidays. :)

Are RSS feeds on LJ broken?

So, who else is reading 1Q84? I got my copy a few days ago, but have only had a chance to read a little bit; so far I'm enjoying it a lot, though. I noticed a lot of effort seems to have gone into the book design--I don't know what it looks like in other countries, but with the American version, among other details, the numbers of the right hand pages are inverted, which I think goes nicely with the "mirror reality" theme that is present in a lot of Murakami's work. Also...( Read more... )

There has been a lot of mourning across the Internet over the loss of Steve Jobs. He was a brilliant and charismatic man who will be greatly missed. Here are a few news stories and tributes:

Apple fans reach for Jobs' devices to mourn him

Jobs set the course forward for music,movies, books

The Guardian features 10 tributes to Steve Jobs

Typographic portrait of Jobs featured at lines and colors

Jason Kottke has compiled a number of links, including a moving speech Jobs made at Stanford's 2005 commencement ceremony

In happier news, Tomas Tranströmer has won the Nobel prize for literature. I'm a fan of his works; his poems are lovely and mysterious.

I really enjoyed these pretty photos of magnified sand.

There's some amazingly intricate cut leaf art by Lorenzo Duran featured at Design Boom.

This is rather cool: there's actually a countdown clock for 1Q84. :) (link via the literary saloon)