Representing everything from wartime paranoia to outright racism, Manzanar paints a rather sordid picture of American history in the 20th century. And yet today—some 75 years after 10,000 Japanese Americans and resident Japanese aliens were incarcerated there—it’s, well…beautiful. Desolate, depressing, and infuriating, sure, but, despite everything, there’s something about it that also quiets the soul.

A reproduction of one of the eight guard towers that loomed over the one-square-mile residential area of Manzanar War Relocation Center.

Pinnacles, on the other hand—the newest of our national parks, achieving that status in 2012—holds an entirely different spell over me. I grew up in the area, spending many a Saturday afternoon exploring its talus caves, wandering dry creek beds in search of fossils, and trying (somewhat successfully) to avoid scorpions. It’s been 40 years since I last wandered its trails, and nothing’s changed—other than the 30-odd California condors, who were introduced to the park in 2003.

Looking southwest from the Balconies Cliffs Trail—and back four decades in time.

Yosemite was breathtaking, Death Valley mesmerizing, Joshua Tree stupefying. But Pinnacles was easily the most meaningful stop on this year’s road trip for me. Chalk it up to nostalgia, I guess.

Check out #superhappyfuntimeroadtrip on Instagram for more photos.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Okay, so, I’m back. (Yeah, I know, you probably hadn’t noticed I’ve been gone for a couple of weeks. Just…humor me, mmm-kay?) Anyway, I don’t have a lot of time for my typical profundity, so here’s a list of things you ought to be aware of.

The fact that this argument needs to be made is a sad commentary on the state of conversation these days.

Speaking of such things, here’s a collection of “philosophers philosophizing about philosophy on world philosophy day.”

In praise of the lowest form of wit: “Puns straddle that happy fault where sound and sense collide, where surface similarities of spelling or pronunciation meet above conflicting seams of meaning.”

In archaeology news, the lost city of Tenea has been found—while the mosaic floor of a 1,600-year-old synagogue appears to depict some rather unusual subject matter.

And finally, “all seven units in the International System of Units…will no longer be defined by material objects and instead will be defined only by abstract constants of nature.” About time, amirite?

Read up, and we’ll be back with our regularly scheduled awesomeness tomorrow.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Joshua Gill, Daily Caller: “Sergey Savitsky, an engineer at Bellingshausen Station in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica, stands accused of stabbing welder Oleg Beloguzov in the chest after arguing with him over Beloguzov’s habit of repeatedly spoiling the endings of the books that Savitsky was reading.”

Holly Genovese, Electric Lit: “In September, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections announced that all free book donations to incarcerated people in Pennsylvania state facilities would be banned. This ban was created alongside stringent mail search policies, in a purported effort to prevent drugs from entering prison.”

Me: “Yay! People are reading!”

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

“Rarely was the practical task of textile creation considered an artistic pursuit,” writes Kylie Warner. “One woman changed that.” Anni Albers gets some welcome recognition at a new retrospective exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. You know, if you happen to be in the area.

Speaking of art exhibits, did you know that Victor Hugo—yeah, that Victor Hugo—had a talent for creepy drawing? The Hammer Museum at UCLA is showing some of his work.

And in acquisitions news, this is pretty cool.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

You know Gmail’s new “Smart Reply” feature? Those “bland formulations of convenient and functional corporate language” that sit there at the bottom of your received emails? Sophie Haigney has some thoughts:

The algorithm is mimicking us, but now we’re also mimicking it. The algorithm—which I’m using as shorthand for a series of complicated machine-learning processes—has been absorbing human-email-speak by creeping through billions of perfunctorily worded emails—and it is now spitting them back at us. It’s a refraction, then, of how we write to each other online. But suggestions are also manipulations, as we might know from, say, Amazon’s effective monetization of RIYL logic. Yet these seemingly gentle intrusions into our digital lives are not so passive as they might appear.

It’s the degeneration of language, she writes, the function of which is “to eliminate complexity, to pare communication down to dumbness, to ‘acknowledge’ or ‘affirm’ without saying much of anything.”

So, basically, perfect for the world we live in.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

Last Friday, you’ll recall, we linked to Michael Watts’s “Cover Stories: A History of Magazine Design,” which argues that “a striking image and a few well-chosen words still have the power to influence.”

Today, Madeline Raynor makes the case that “some of the least aesthetically pleasing artwork you’ve ever seen” can make even Dostoevsky look like a “literary abomination.” Really, folks, you have to see these steaming piles book covers to believe they exist.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the design life  |  make a comment

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’d like to draw your attention to this security camera footage, obtained just this morning:

Note Ms. Sowards’s absent-minded demeanor as she discovers she no longer holds a pen in her hand, and how long it takes—measured in distance—before she realizes she’s actually dropped it: three full steps. Note the exaggerated way in which she puts herself together after bending over to pick up said pen, and how she nearly collides with the table on her left. Note also how her left leg simply stops working, how she collapses into a heap onto the floor, and how she staggers about in a haze once she returns to an upright position.

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that something is amiss.

Ms. Sowards is not only young, but also fit. She goes to the gym at least twice a week. It’s simply not possible for someone in her condition to fall like an 85-year-old in need of a hip replacement. And as you can see from the footage, there’s neither a banana peel on the floor nor evidence of structural weakness in the concrete.

There are only two possibilities here. Either (a) Ms. Sowards is new to the world of fashion and is wearing heeled booties for the very first time, or (b) she was, in fact, quite drunk at 10:56 a.m. on a Wednesday. The former is clearly untenable—which leaves you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, with the only evidence you need to make a decision.

I rest my case.

No individuals were harmed during filming, though Courtney’s knee is admittedly still a little sore.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the design life  |  comments(2)