I’ve been working my way through Gwynne’s Grammar, a delightful little book with a somewhat cheeky subtitle: The Ultimate Introduction to Grammar and the Writing of Good English.

N. M. Gwynne is a prescriptivist; as such, he is “prepared, on the one hand, to welcome any innovations—such as new words for new things—that are useful, and, on the other hand, to fight in order to resist any changes that are not in the direction of greater richness, clarity and precision, and are not consistent with the best features of our language, the features that have been tried and tested over a long period and not found wanting.” So he’s a lot like these guys.

Try this grammar quiz Gwynne created for The Telegraph. You’ll want pick up his book at Auntie’s—they have a copy on their shelves right now—when you’re done.

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

Only in Florida: A quadruple amputee is “armed and on the run” from authorities, a shoplifter managed to stuff a chainsaw down his pants and make his getaway on a bicycle, and proof that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

New in the animal kingdom: A Slovenian unicorn, a recently discovered “bat frog” named for Ozzy Osbourne, and a breakthrough in the race to clone a woolly mammoth.

Music recommendation: John Luther Adams’s Become Ocean, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Film recommendation: The Station Agent (2003). It’s streaming on Netflix.

This day in history: In a letter to J. C. C. Davidson on November 17, 1935, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin wrote that “I feel we should not give him [Churchill] a post at this stage. Anything he undertakes he puts his heart and soul into. If there is going to be a war—and no one can say that there is not—we must keep him fresh to be our war Prime Minister.”

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

We talked a little last week about poetry and rhythm, and it occurred to me afterward that poetry is an awful lot like jazz: there’s a tendency to want to get it, rather than simply experience it in the moment. And because we don’t always immediately understand what we see on the printed page, we walk away rather than engage with it. Plus, there’s a sense that poetry—again, much like jazz—is so rarefied as to deliberately thwart expression. Nonsense, say I! And I’ll prove it with a poem by Zbigniew Herbert.

From Study of the Object, Herbert’s third book of poems, originally published in 1961 (translated by Alissa Valles):

NOTHING SPECIAL

nothing special
boards paint
nails paste
paper string

mr artist
builds a world
not from atoms
but from remnants

forest of arden
from umbrella
ionian sea
from parkers quink

just as long as
his look is wise
just as long as
his hand is sure—

and presto the—world—

hooks of flowers
on needles of grass
clouds of wire
drawn out by wind

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  comments(1)

Because it’s Friday—and because the 70s were awesome—I bring you Sean Connery in what is quite possibly his finest role ever:

Why yes, that is a mankini in helveticka red. Here’s hoping it’s the new corporate uniform.

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

While there are a lot of reasons for bad writing, the one I most frequently see is a lack of rhythm. When writers are more intent on cramming information into a sentence or bullet points into a paragraph, the result is akin to slamming one’s forearm onto a piano keyboard: yes, the notes are all there, but nobody can make any sense out of them.

There are a couple of ways to address this. The first is to listen to more music. A Bach partita is all about the right notes at the right time (the correct sequencing of words to form a sentence); early John Cage teaches the value of the silence between the notes—Strunk & White’s “omit needless words” principle.

The second? Read more poetry. Some argue that it’s all about imagery, but, to me, good poetry is pure rhythm, whether it’s T. S. Eliot…

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

…or the Grateful Dead.

Jack Straw from Wichita
Cut his buddy down
Dug for him a shallow grave
And laid his body down

And if you’re lazy like me, you’ll want to streamline the process, incorporating the best poetry and music into your life at the same time. How, you ask? Two words: Bob Dylan.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  comments(1)

Dan Friedman was an extraordinary designer. His work is currently on display at the American Institute of Graphic Arts National Design Center in New York City through January 9, 2015. Dan Friedman: Radical Modernist explores his range of skills as an educator, designer, artist, and writer.

Friedman worked comfortably between these disciplines—from teaching (Yale and Cooper Union) to straight-up corporate design (one-time partner at Pentagram) to his experimental work in the East Village art scene (with the likes of Basquiat, Haring, and Koons).

Before he died in 1995, Friedman offered up a 12-point “radical modernist” agenda, among which are (1) engage in self-restraint; accept the challenge of working with reduced expectations and diminished resources, (2) bridge the boundaries that separate us from other creative professions and unexpected possibilities, and (3) be radical.

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: the design life  |  make a comment

One of the great things about visiting NYC is that you never run out of things to see. The Museum of the City of New York is running an exhibit through January 19, 2015 titled Mac Conner: A New York Life. Conner’s illustrations from the late 1940s to the ’60s promoted the likes of Bell Telephone, Ford, United Air Lines, and Hi Ho Crackers. His work graced the pages of Redbook, McCalls, Collier’s, and the Saturday Evening Post. Now 100 years old, Conner’s beautiful acrylic paintings are just as remarkable today as they were back when commercial artists favored illustrations over photography. It’s great to see his talents on display.

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: the design life  |  make a comment

I’ve been on the road shooting for Hecla Mining Company—a client we’ve worked with since 1988. The shoot involved both still photography and film footage taken above and below ground level. Our intrepid shoot team (l to r: Cary Seward and Jim Swoboda from ILF Media, and photographer Jim Van Gundy) is shown at the 5,500-foot level at Hecla’s Lucky Friday silver mine. That’s right: more than a mile underground. We eventually went even lower, to a depth of 6,250 feet. Most people think it’s chilly down there, but it’s actually quite warm, with temperatures hitting the high 80s.

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: on location  |  make a comment