Hey smallpressers — throught you would find the following post (from my personal blog) of interest — if not, move along, nothing to see here!

Of primary interest to me, as of late, is the use of the hyphen-particularly as it relates to foreign words (especially Japanese)-as we work through Yoko Danno's translation of the Kojiki. I prefer to use them only where it is established convention to do so or where omission would result in ambiguity or confusion. My mantra: when in doubt, leave it out!

Anyway, check out the rest of the post here.

Via Ron Silliman comes this opinion piece from the Guardian:

Self-publication of a neatly produced, high quality (the paper is never less than 100 gram, preferably 120 gram) booklet with a smart Photoshop cover professionally folded and stapled makes a great gift, or maybe a summary of a good year at the writing group, a fundraiser for a school, or a memorial for a special person.

Why bother to go through all the heartache and hassle of fighting to get your precious memories or thoughts into mainstream publication? Your own PC, printer and digital camera are waiting to make someone's day. If you really want to go big and produce a novel, there's the internet or print on demand (no surplus stock there!).

Getting published by a mainstream company is great, but in all honesty, how many of us can reallyafford to give up the day job, even when we've signed that contract? Such a long, heartbreaking haul for what? The joy of writing should be just that - the writing.

Define your audience and publish yourself. Get your books and anthologies into the hands of people who really want to hear from you - whether it's one copy, or a couple of dozen through print on demand.

Check out the rest of the article here. An interesting perspective, nonetheless. Could it be that the joy of writing is fuel that drives the desire to write? It's this joy that sustains a writer's identity rather than the promise of being published?

I'd like to think so, but from the volume of submissions Jesse and I receive, it's likely not!

 This looks very cool:

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. Helvetica will screen at film festivals, museums, design conferences, and cinemas worldwide, followed by the DVD release this fall. More about the film...

From the clips I've seen on youtube, the film moves between interviews and clips of Helvetica in our mental landscape. According to the filmaker, the montages, backed with incidental music, was the original conception of  the film — which was first conceived walking around NYC listening to an MP3 player. 

The film really illustrates how ubiquitous Helvetica is in our culture presently.

On a completely unrelated note, I put a quick typography note on the ellipsis on my other blog. Actually — I just wanted to see if the trackback option was working.

From the Washington Post:

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark, satirical vision in works including "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle" was shaped by the horrors he witnessed during World War II, has died at age 84.

Vonnegut died on Wednesday after suffering brain injuries following a fall weeks ago, said Donald Farber, Vonnegut's friend, lawyer, agent and manager.

Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction, but his 14 novels were classics of the American counterculture, resonating with the U.S. antiwar sentiment during the Vietnam War era.

The author's Web site, updated after his death, displayed a simple black-and-white image of a bird cage -- a symbolic element in his writing -- empty with an open door. "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922-2007," the page read.

"All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental. " Rest in peace, Kurt!

Neil Young unleashes a digital broadside today. His new album, "Living With War" (Reprise), was recorded and mostly written three to four weeks ago and as of Friday can be heard in its entirety free right here!

EDIT: They've removed  the link, of course-- so this exists no longer!

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser is a major poetic voice for rural and small town America and the award-winning author of ten collections of poetry, most recently 2004's Pulitzer Prize-winning Delights and Shadows. Nebraskan Kooser often draws from his native Great Plains and his poems are acclaimed for their simple, straightforward style. Kooser reads from his poetry before a standing-room only audience in Campbell Hall at UC Santa Barbara.

Here ya go...

This is some cool footage -- found this via Google Video...

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris. The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit. The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.

Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground until a DVD release a few years ago.

Here's the video from google -- hope this works!

Here's the link to the page on Google video...

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