This amazing video was created using the audio of our 10 Questions interview with astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson as he talks about what he considers the universe’s most incredible fact. (That’s our Gilbert Cruz interviewing him.)
How New York Pay Phones Became Guerrilla Libraries
An interview with the creator
The concept, sponsored by Locke’s imaginary Department of Urban Betterment, is that New Yorkers will pick up unfamiliar titles while running their errands and then, perhaps, replace them the next day with favorite books of their own. That’s in an ideal world. Of the twoguerrilla libraries that the artist has fashioned, one has been used properly while the other has had its entire collection repeatedly ganked by sticky-fingered pedestrians. Its shelves were also stolen.
But Locke has many more libraries planned. With plywood consoles that slip over payphones as neatly as aprons, these sidewalk objets are endlessly replicable. (No doubt they’ll feature in his 2012 Columbia course, “Hacking the Urban Experience.”) I caught up with Locke over the weekend to ask him about what was and wasn’t working with these literary outposts, as well as why he started the project in the first place.
Remember a few months back,when we did the analysis of Time’s covers to see if the balance between hard and soft news was consistent around the world? The issue’s cropping up again, with Slate pointing out how Time passed on giving Americans a Mario Monti cover. Just a couple points to this: First: The prior week, Time gave Americans (and the rest of the world) a cover on a prosecutor trying to clean up Wall Street, a story which treads some of the same ground as the Monti cover. Two weeks ago, Time passed on giving Americans a cover on soccer icon Lionel Messi, which would’ve been a weird time for one considering the Super Bowl was on the way. As I said last time, I personally don’t think it’s a matter of Time trying to soften the news — but more a matter of Time playing to different markets. Though it’d be nice if Time thought Americans cared about the Italian leader enough that they’d pick up a magazine with his face on the cover. — Ernie @ SFB
This was another portrait I did for the Charles Dickens feature in the January 30th issue of TIME Magazine. Although it didn’t run in the article, I still thought that it was a good study of her likeness.