Mitch Epstein
English Elm, Washington Square Park, Manhattan, 2012

Totally bowled over by this series by Mitch Epstein that was featured in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine. Luckily, the slideshow is online too. 

Shields up! A teaser of my contribution to the Triforce Tribute show. 

Best Skype ever, Tom. 

Desk One is a friendly, functional little desk with a ton of character made by Another Country. I’d buy this in a heartbeat for my new place if I had $1300 burning a hole in my pocket, but sadly that is not the case. This Stash Desk from Blu Dot is a decidedly cheaper alternative. 

In today’s edition of My Talented Friends, look at this magnificence Eleni made for her sister. A Russian Scrabble board (which came complete with tiles). Insane. 

Blondie the Pet Lion (via Retronaut)

YES!!!, by Telegramme. Approved.

I’m excited to be a part of this insane Zelda-themed show organised by Jolby and Always With Honor. Would you just look at that roster? Good lord. Not only has it given me a chance to play some video games and call it research, but it’s also a nice excuse to finally make it to Portland (I hope). Here’s hoping I finish my piece, instead of getting distracted by fishing, catching chickens, collecting bugs, or hacking mindlessly at grass for money. 

Do you remember me, followers? Do you even care? After over two months of cruel neglect, I wouldn’t blame anyone who might turn tail in search of other, more dependable blogs. But this is what happens when you, like a jerk, leave everything and everyone you know behind for a new job in a new country. These past few months have seen more changes in my life than I could ever have anticipated - some exciting, some heartbreaking. I intend to resume a dependable regime of posting in order to document what happens next. Can you forgive me? Let’s do this thing. 

Above is the view from the top of Strawberry Hill this afternoon, as I walked the length of Golden Gate Park and back, reacquainting myself with M. Ward’s Transistor Radio and Transfiguration of Vincent. 

Given that this blog is, at least in part, a collection of things I like, here are some things I have been enjoying over the past couple of months: 

1. Letterboxd is beautifully designed new web app for film lovers, the use of which has increased my moviegoing enormously. You can find me here. Some movies I’ve particularly enjoyed recently include Tyrannosaur, Beginners, The Descendants, and The Artist. I believe the site will launch to the public soon, but I have a bunch of invites available if you’d care to use one sooner.
2. Rob St John’s Weald: A bewitching record that gets me as close to Edinburgh as I can get without boarding a plane. See also: Meursault. 
3. Rdio. A nice perk to being in the US is access to Rdio, which is almost single-handedly responsible for my iTunes library gathering dust. 
4. Tom Rosenthal’s Keep A Private Room Behind The Shop, a strange and endearing thing that Josie Long describes perfectly as ‘an antidote to malice’. This song is very important indeed. Preview the whole thing on SoundCloud. 
5. Solo. ‘A sort of diary about doing things in London by Lizzy Stewart’. 
6. Wristwatches. I have accidentally started a collection of sorts. Here is the beginning of a list of some I would like to add to that collection. 
7. @mountain_goats. The continuing adventures of John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, on Twitter. Essential. 

It’s nice to be back.