today, i got hold of an original copy of the ‘thanksgiving’ special which the very talented ‘chris ware’ made for the new yorker magazine several years ago (i posted about this last year) it’s printed on A3 sized sheets and as usual is absolutely immaculately produced…
the final printed version of my book cover for the novel ‘broken glass’ arrived back from the printers yesterday, i’m pleased with the result
…although the publisher asked me, last minute, to make a spot varnish for the water drops on the cover, which is perhaps a little too ‘visible’ contrasted against the matt laminate in the final result…
when ‘sander plug’ and i were invited to do a talk in utrecht, on the subject of inspiration (last night) we thought it would ‘inspiring’ to not plan ahead and just see what happens on the night, that seemed like a good idea until 5 minutes before we started, at which point it seemed like a very bad idea… we both wished we had prepared a slick presentation instead of just eating chinese food in front of a room full of students and talking off the top of our heads… (that’s sander above trying to eat, talk and be interesting all at the same time (he succeeded)
in fact it would appear that we didn’t do too bad at all… most people found it ok and we both enjoyed it, i was intending to write this post ‘live’ during the talk in front of the audience, as i had my laptop with me but somehow forgot to do it… the student’s presentation and accompanying book were also very well done, next time i might skip the chinese, thanks for the ‘inspiration’ to sander and the audience…
many thanks to ‘wendelien daan’ (who i’m currently working with) for pointing me to this great image/story:
Sylvie Guillem was the top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet from 1984 to 1989, before becoming a principal guest artist with the Royalt Ballet in London.
When Guillem was approached by French Vogue to be photographed in 2001, she was presented with a clutch of the world’s best fashion photographers to choose from. She rejected all of them. She claimed that they would not ‘see who I was … I knew I would end up as a mannequin. I would not do that.’ To prove the point she instead picked up the camera and photographed herself naked for the magazine. The result became a dramatic and candid view of a working, punished dancer’s body and a testimony of what hard work, no compromise and no censorship can display. Hats off to you, Sylvie. Literally.
some funky old ads i found this week at a french flea market
