Not I

Found. In the library at work. Along with a collection of critical essays from 1965 and DVD's of Beckett's Works for Radio. All to be explored...

As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life

Remember, Body...

International Women's Day

I did some work for this (Women's day) for sports news last year when I was at BBC Sport. And used Calvert for the typesetting, designed by Margaret Calvert.
I thought the colours in this were very nice, a good alternative to the usual pink and purple.

Dante break

Manchester Council

Design love

Back to work

Penguin Acquisitions

Akram Khan at the Lowry

I've been carrying this leaflet around in my pocket for the last two weeks, and finally made it over to the show at the Lowry. One of the best exhibitions I've seen in Manchester. All tucked away in the middle of the Lowry theatre behind the matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs.

Central Library

It has taken me way too long to get down to the new Central Library in Manchester. It's brilliant, and complete with mini mediatheque similar to the one in the BFI in London. Now also seems a good time to give a hat tip to the brilliant designer/s at Manchester Council. When I worked at BBC Sport I used to walk past a billboard on the way to work every day that advertises council events and activities. The ads were without exception brilliantly designed and beautiful. I wish I had taken photos and kept them, but for now can enjoy the new city library campaign, above.

John Cage

I haven't read a good life changer in ages, and then this came along. I had to get through it at break neck speed because it was on a two day loan from the library. Although as it happened it was almost impossible to put it down. I need to read it again.

Dhammapada

 This isn't Japanese, but does seem to fit with the current reading-from-abroad theme. It's a collection of Buddhist verse and reminds me a lot of reading the Divine Comedy. This version is from 1975, the translation is interesting in itself.

Japan

I've been thinking a lot about Japan. And even more so since watching the newest Studio Ghibli film, which is brilliant. It inspired a revisit to Murakami, somehow I've managed to miss Norwegian Wood.

Ragtime

I've become a big fan of these Penguin Modern Classics. The books are all really nicely designed and have a good feel to them. Good stories too, this is a sort of fact intermingled with fiction, set in America in the early 1900's.

Reading

Reading, watching, doing

Two cinema trips and the most recent Art Academy reading

Solzhenitsyn

 Soviet fiction and prose from the author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Alone in Berlin

Set in Berlin during the second world war. The book is based on the true story of a couple who dropped political postcards across the city as an act of resistance against the Nazis. An exceptionally nice edition too. An image of one of the postcards below.

Manchester International Festival

Do it 20 13 at the Manchester Art Gallery, including an excellent talk with Peter Saville and Richard Wentworth. I particularly enjoyed the printed material on coloured photocopy paper, and gallery walls painted to match.

Followed by a Dan Graham performance at the Mayfield Depot. This photo was taken on the way out.

The Mantle

The most recent Art Academy text: The Mantle, or The Overcoat by Gogol.