By: Matthew Battles

A new Levi’s advertisement uses a wax-cylinder recording of what is believed to be Walt Whitman reciting his own poem.   Of course, it’s by no means Whitman’s first trousers ad — O soul in […]

By: HILOBROW

A Kindle just wouldn’t work as well in this propaganda poster, would it? *** Fifth in an occasional series.

By: Joe Alterio

Robot: “Pilot, Happy, Balanced” — by Adam “Apelad” Koford *** Robots and Monsters, a website that swaps custom-designed cartoons and pop art in exchange for a donation to charity, was field-tested in May 2007 by […]

By: Joshua Glenn

Sculpture by unknown artist — image found on Flickr and sent into us. If you have info, please drop us a line. *** Fourth in an occasional series.

By: Joe Alterio

Robot: “Enormous, Retro, Snob” — by Joe Alterio *** Robots and Monsters, a website that swaps custom-designed cartoons and pop art in exchange for a donation to charity, was field-tested in May 2007 by our […]

By: Joshua Glenn

Artist: Broder, S. Title: “Books are weapons in the war of ideas : books cannot be killed by fire” Publisher: Washington, D.C. : U.S. G.P.O. : Distributed by Division of Public Inquiry, O.W.I., Date: 1942. […]

By: Joe Alterio

Monster: “Spicy, Green, Outgoing” — by Joe Alterio *** Robots and Monsters, a website that swaps custom-designed cartoons and pop art in exchange for a donation to charity, was field-tested in May 2007 by our […]

By: Joshua Glenn

From John Holbo’s Pulp Mystery photostream on Flickr. *** Second in an occasional series.

By: Matthew Battles

Electronica composer John Boswell remixes the preambles and perorations of Carl Sagan for a groovy take on the wonder-struck spiritual cosmology at the heart of the landmark PBS series Cosmos. With a guest appearance by […]

By: Joshua Glenn

Ringtone: “The Twist”

By: Matthew Battles

In the 1990s, the artists Komar and Melamid began polling art lovers to discover the world’s ideal painting. I’m curious to learn whether we can use similar methods to discover the ideal book. The short […]

By: Matthew Battles

I can’t decide whether this is evidence of the book’s staying power, or a sign that its end is near: to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the first lunar landing, the art publisher Taschen has […]

By: Lucy Sante

Like the ant, the teenage stoner labors ceaselessly and uncomplaining, pursuing an arduous task that casual onlookers would dismiss as pointless, yet which is essential to the little creature’s survival. Like the ant, the stoner […]

By: Matthew Battles

Here’s a short film that captured my fancy, discovered via Twitter architecture maven @twiliteprincess: Alex Roman’s “Kahn’s Library,” which features the 1965 Phillips Exeter Academy Library designed by Louis Kahn. As a modernist interior the […]

By: Lucy Sante

The first time I met Jean-Michel Basquiat was in November or December 1978, at the Mudd Club. His hair was dyed orange and cut very short with a v-shaped widow’s peak in the front. He […]