Big Window

Two Yellow Beach Huts by Andy Bell

More wonderfulness by British photographer Andy Bell. Check out his photoblog, Deceptive Media, if you want to get happy.

Absence Makes the Heart

Have you seen the wondrous new issue of Absent Magazine?  Exemplifying said awesomeness, I've re-posted "love Poem" by Lauren Ireland. Also represented in this issue are:

Dan Boehl
Karen Carcia
Darcie Dennigan
Jessica Fjeld
Andrea Henchey
Matthew Klane
Reb Livingston
Marc McKee
Daniela Olszewska
Matt Shears
Kim Gek Lin Short

~

Love Poem

I am not ready for dark    dear friend    I shout    and we walk

underground    a tiny city roars over    a tiny city below    and

it is hard to say this    I am dead tonight    I had been practicing

walking light    and slow    through a museum    the imaginary

groves    and turning to love you    rough like a clever boy but I

am dead tonight    friend    O kill me I am dead

by Lauren Ireland

photo by Michel on flickr

Which Watch Which Watch

I read this post about the newest in watch design on Design Boom. This one is called Sol by Shin Azumi. You can read about an experiment called untrod:

untrod is a project which collaborates with international designers on various project themes - the first theme is 'watch'. designers have been asked to investigate the possibility of bringing new meanings to the conventional form of a watch. these are the initial design concepts, so only renderings are available for some pieces.

This one has the basic elements of the wrist watch as we know it. Some are much further from the norm. For the complete story, click here.

The Art of Burning

Burning Man, that is. A recent post on Matador Nights features photographs of some cool art installations from the annual desert festival. Click here to see more.

Water by Design

Evian's newest water bottle grooves, thanks to UK designer Paul Smith. It's a limited edition.  via DesignBoom

Death by Bananas by Daniela Edburg

See more work by Daniela Edburg here

Beware, Beware: The Poetry Instigator

If you are always looking for new poetry writing prompts, there's a new kid on the block, The Poetry Instigator. It's a blog, it's a forum, it's a poetry machine, I tell ye! They're completely mad over there. I think you'll love it.

photo by shikoooooo via flickr

Adventures in Language

This is an ad for the Anagram Bookshop in Prague by kaspen.

I found it on a great blog called word and image by Sigrid Jones.

5 Best Sites for Free Desktop Wallpaper

Eleanor Grosch of pushmepullyou design

fudgegraphics for lovers

NoushinBlog

Pixelgirl Presents

Smashing Magazine

Feel free to add your favorite sites in the comment section below.

The Manifold Moleskine Monday

This sketch comes from an Australian artist who's living in the US, Auk Wrecks & Ark Larks. The piece looks aquatic. Here in the US it's Labor Day so we're off to the beach!

Laholm by Mitchell Johnson

He paints in the colors of awe.  Visit Mitchell Johnson's site to see more of his work.

Eclipse the Light & Crudely Divide by Amy King

Milk is a mythical moth that sees its own heart, mostly
in summer. Some kind of pillow moves me too
and dissolves my palate; I cannot taste
the shabby white wings
and behold each shadow’s infancy
beneath the definition of sleep.
I’m the kind of person who rides between towns
in terra cotta music, green’s death beat
turning air into earth, a Roman ruins kind of day, impolitic.
Blank sheets of ice to float on appear,
saving me from my lackluster heart, a platter adrift,
so that to carry you is
my only dark sleeve
essayed to reduce the people of things.
You say you know me, understand my ways,
but people love their homes, their locks that work
both ways. My hands are the in ’s that tremble
out the beats of verbatim, infection, bacterial electrics.
Roused, I was reading a book that fell
from your hands while we paddled,
completing the myth of our symmetry.
It held many pages and was a prefix
to our relations.
I am the gruntwork and a mystery of the gruntwork
precedes the masks along the entrails
reflecting our lives. Stand here in the rain
on this coral shelf, hold out for land.
We’ll make way if we eclipse the light
and crudely divide, dissolution of the mewing
across the decks of countless ships, home to the anti-us.

by Amy King

published in NOO Journal

photo of Columbus Circle by T. Scott Carlisle

Consonant Clusters

Check out a new vispo ezine by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen called Consonant Clusters. In this ezine he publishes some of his own work (as in the example below) as well as other visual poets from around the world. It's a great blog.

Watercolor Moleskine Monday

Moleskine Monday comes courtesy of artist Joan M. Mas. Check out his blogs, including Acquarela or  view more of his work on flickr. Beautiful!

Illustrator Erin Stead Interviewed at Seven Impossible Things

Erin Stead's illustrations will get their first publication in book format with A Sick Day for Amos McGee, which is due out later this year. Check out the swell interview with her over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

Most Pop Posts on Big Window

Eve of the Election Moleskine Monday

Pixelgirl Presents

Title Waves

The Kingfishers by Charles Olson

From April Showers Spring

Furniture Poems

Some Feel Rain by Joanna Klink

Writing in Restaurants

Insomnia by Elizabeth Bishop

12 Links to Writing Prompts on the Web

YOU & ME & MIRANDA JULY: A Fanzine by Becca Klaver

I loved this piece by Becca Klaver published on Delirious Hem earlier this month. Delicious. Do you love it too? Please say you do.

Big Wordle-O

Here's this blog, Big Window, boiled down to its essences, via Wordle. Click to enlarge. Read to enjoy.

Blog Reader Appreciation Day is Thursday, April 16

Bloggers depend on loyal readers but rarely get a chance to really thank them. Blog Reader Appreciation Day gives bloggers a chance to pour on the love!

After the taxes are filed, on Thursday, April 16, please join us in thanking and celebrating your blog readers with special tributes, posts, contests, and give-aways.

Sign in here or simply leave your url as a comment below.

Feel free to chose a badge for your post and use the tag:

brad2009

 

Stencil Graffiti Master, Señor X

You can see more of Señor X's work on his blog.

(via a post on My Modern Metropolis by Alice)

Blog Carnival for Lovers

Over at my Other blog, The Other Mother, I'm hosting a blog carnival in celebration of freedom to marry week.  If you love love, or even if you don't, please consider joining in on the fun.

Each day this week, post to your blog or facebook page something on these topics, according to the "olde" wedding tradition:

Tuesday, Feb. 10... Something Old

Wednesday, Feb. 11... Something New

Thursday, Feb. 12... Something Borrowed

Friday, Feb. 13... Something Blue

Saturday, Feb. 14... Valentine's Day: Celebrate Love

Click here for the complete guidelines.

Poems for Obama's First 100

Arielle Greenberg and Rachel Zucker are poets, friends and frequent collaborators. Their latest project commemorates the first 100 days of Barack Obama's presidency with a freshly commissioned poem each day. They share each text on a blog called Starting Today: poems for the first 100 days. Here is how they organized the project:

The day before the inauguration we sent out a call to poets we admire to write poems that respond, however loosely, to the presidency, the nation, the government or the current political climate. More than one hundred American poets responded immediately. The first 100 poets were each assigned one of President Obama’s first hundred days in office, and each will write a poem reflecting on the state of the nation and the world on that day. A new poem is posted every day.

The first poem is, as you might guess, Elizabeth Alexander's poem written for and read at Obama's inauguration. They are collecting poems from a wide variety of writers, including:

Cornelius Eady

Fanny Howe

Matthew Zapruder,

and Matt Rohrer.

Two of my favorites so far are:

Man, Roll the Window Down! by Patricia Smith, and

Overwinter by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

Bookmark this one--we still have over 80 poems to look forward to!

Verisimilitude of You by Tyler Nixon

I've shared the amazing work of Tyler E Nixon before. His photoblog Wink is a source of continuous pleasure and inspiration.

Because Poem by Lisa Jarnot

I've thought about Lisa Jarnot's political poetry often during the Bush years. Check out the "Because Poem" posted this week on Poetry Politic.  She writes addresses the white-collar atrocity with unmatched bravery. 

This week PoetryPolitic shares her "Because Poem" with us. It is a must-read poem (or must-hear--audio version is provided as well) for the decade.

Happy Blog Day 2008

Today is BlogDay 2008. This year I almost missed it. Thanks to Alessandra at  Out of the Blue not only for reminding me but also for nominating Big Window. BlogDay is a day dedicated to expanding our own personal blogospheres just a little bit more.  Here's how it works:

1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2008
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
   http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2008 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org.

Here are five beautiful art/design blogs that always inspire me:

• How About Orange 
• Smashing Magazine  
• Rhizome  
• DesignBoom 
• Wooster Collective 

Notebookism

I recently discovered Notebookism, a blog dedicated to all-things-notebook. Here's an excerpt of the About page written by the founder:

We all share a pleasant affliction - the urge to create on paper. 

The smell of smooth creamy paper sends our hearts aflutter. The delicate tinkling of nib against inkwell accelerates our pulse rate. We stare endlessly at the first blank page.   

Welcome to Notebookism. This is the place to indulge yourself with kindred spirits.

Notebookism will showcase our stories and the methods to our madness, product reviews, mods (a.k.a. hacks)   - the kind of links you've gotten used to in my other blogs. If it’s notebook-related, let's hear about it.

Armand B. Frasco

They have a flickr pool too.  Dive in, friends.

Clouds That Wow

Check out the ten clouds with the most wow at Cool Stuff.

The Ampersand

I've always been fascinated by the ampersand and now I've found out that there's a blog called The Ampersand devoted to the topic.
(via grain edit)

A Backwards Glance through the Big Window

Here's what was up for your perusal on Big Window:

• 1 year ago: Emergency Postcard

• 2 years ago: Cloudburst for Barbara Guest

• 3 years ago: Poetics Influences (10, 11, who's counting?)

Feel free to borrow this meme.  We could call it Blog Retrospective.  Or Retroblogging. Or Way Back When.

(photo by UltraBerlin via flickr)

Dusting for Prints

The subject is distant from and dark.
The subject is seen through glass.
The subject reflects, or has a luminous body.

If you feel you can no longer pray, care less, don't be selfish.

Was he an artist?
I remember him cutting a sword out of wood, and painting it gold.
"Arms" seems wrong. It's their nearness.

Sometimes it's you and I'm calling to you but I say the wrong name.

Several glass ashtrays, the panther lamp. The light  bent toward the map.
I spent a long time under the table, learning to recognize wires. How we would change        
her. How the bullet is scraped as it moves through the barrel.

The subject is distant, and dark.
Each instance has its rewards. Sex can't explain it.
Their goal is to empty themselves."

If you feel you can no longer pray, personally, I like trees, birds.

Personal & unintelligible, my addiction bores me.        
We still need spoons, plates, and knives. Bowls. Your star sign.
Those weeks with you?       

I remember driving you somewhere. Driving, and it was snowy.
Nothing was figured out.
You said redemption looked like a painting of fire, after a fire.

by Kate Greenstreet

published in Diagram

 

 

 

 

(photography of California wildfires by Richard D S via flickr)