I watched Ghost World in December, and really enjoyed the feel of the whole thing. It’s quirky and dark, like the comic, and manages to be optimistic in the end.
I still recommend reading Clowe’s comics more than seeing the movie, but if you like the comic, or refuse to read comics, then I suggest checking out the film.
I finished reading Cradle to Cradle this morning, and this is definitely a book to read if you have concerns about the environment, the things we use, and making the world a healthier place.
Cradle to cradle is not about getting rid of everything we have, it’s not about throwing out all our technical progress, it’s about taking a different but possible approach. It’s well thought out, and they guys who wrote it practice the stuff they talk about. It’s a pleasant change. It’s interesting to look at many of their complaints about recycling, since what we recycle now can’t be reused at the same quality level, it has to be used as something at a lower level, so it’s not really recycling, it’s downcycling.
It’s really fascinating since I only know about efficient and effective sewage treatment. This is similar to that, but in other ways seems a whole 20 steps ahead.
Here are a couple of people (and a design firm) who have managed to make inroads to companies in different parts of the world showing them that they can save money doing things smarter. They did design for a cloth factory in europe (making cloth for wheelchairs) where the fabric is biodegradable, and the factory has no hazardous wastes… their effluent is cleaner than the water they take in, so the factory prefers their own waste water to the river water. I mean… damn. that’s pretty neat.
Maybe we aren’t going to kill ourselves off so easily after all…. I hope.
I finished reading Flight Volume One. I really like the book and the organization of the collection. The theme was vague enough to give the artists an amazing range of freedom, yet gives a strong cohesion to the book. I first heard about the book back when it was published because Vera Brosgol was involved and she mentioned it on her site.
I liked Vera’s piece, it’s very different from rts, and to me that is a bit of a hats off anyway. Of the 24 pieces, Jake Parker, Vera Brosgol, Jen Wang, Khang Le, Rad Sechrist, and Clio Chiang are particularly worth checking out.
If this type of stuff floats your boat, Flight Volume 2 is due out March 23 (yay!) and Jeff Smith is one of the contributors on the list.