stephen.news

hypertext, words and more

Books

  • 2022 in Review

    •

    5 min read

    •

    Every subsequent year feels like it’s worse than the previous year. That’s not the reality of course. It just feels that way. Due to the connected nature of life now (thanks to Twitter and the Trinet). Each of us are saddled with an incalculable weight of the year’s past. We sulk around with so much in our little heads. The inane, the devastating, the memes, the news, the crosswords, the work, the emails, the to-dos, the payments, the notifications and yes — even your parents social status updates from Facebook.

    Naturally, we’re all very tired. I guess we live for this, right? We are after all, members of the human race. Despite what the madness every year brings us, we’re also graced with some good things too. When the years brings good tidings more so than bad tidings, I’d call it a good year.

    2022 was mostly a good year, I’d say.

    Let’s look over a few things from this past year. I even threw in a couple of things from 2021 I was dying to get caught up with.

    TV & Film

    There was a lot of content to watch this year. Ever since the pandemic became an endemic, I’ve found myself in theaters more than ever before. Alamo Drafthouse, I love you so ❤️ But the fact remains that streaming is now the de facto means to consume America’s greatest export, film and TV programming. Here’s some of my favorites from this past year (in no particular order or grouping).

    There’s so much more that belongs on this list 🥲

    Music

    There’s so much more I listened to, but I’m my favorite artist I discovered in 2022 is probably Sugar Candy Mountain. If you enjoy Tame Impala, you’re going to love them.

    Art

    Didn’t see much art this year. But, thankfully I had a friend who came to visit, and had a big list of exhibitions and galleries to see. We hopped around all day seeing art. I’ll need to see more art in 2023, that’s for sure.

    The Diane Arbus exhibition at David Zwirner was a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit.

    Games

    I played a lot of games this year. Or maybe I should say, I played a lot of Modern Warfare II this year. Activision/Blizzard really knocked it out of the park. But there were a few games that really outshined others.

    Apps

    I have become a person who regularly relies on apps on my iPhone and Mac now. Wether or not I enjoy that admission is another thing.

    • TickTick – I don’t know where I’d be without this app
    • Duolingo – learning Korean, Finnish and Spanish!
    • Citymapper – old trusty, my daily carry for getting about NYC
    • Letterboxd – the original film diary
    • iA Writer – literally nothing compares

    Places

    Every year, my goal is to travel somewhere new. This year, I flew to Las Vegas twice. I traveled by Amtrak once in the summer. I hope to do more train trips in the future. It’s a luxurious and chill way to travel.

    • Las Vegas, Nevada
    • Saratoga Springs, New York
    • Great Sacandaga Lake, New York
    • Fort Worth, Texas

    Books

    I’m notoriously slow at reading. I have a Kindle that I swear by, but alas — like you, I am a mere mortal and only have so many hours in the day (and night). These books I really enjoyed (a few on this list, I have yet to finish, oops).

    Looking Ahead

    A lot happened in 2022. Personally, and globally. Not a lot of good things happened globally honestly. But, personally I feel like I’ve grown a bit. Things are looking up, I’m feeling positive about myself, and where I’m headed.

    Looking at my calendar for 2023, I really hope to travel more. Wait, why does that sound familiar? In 2022, I went back to the gym, and rode the ol Peloton quite a bit. Next year, will hopefully be no different. Another goal I have in mind is to speed up my reading habit, because I’m not getting any younger. Looking ahead, feeling’ rad. See y’all around✌️

  • To read, is to evolve

    •

    1 min read

    •

    I’m not a speed-reader. I would say, I struggle to read more than 5 books a year. I buy more books than I’m able to read. That’s not a problem per se, just a matter of fact. Maybe one day I will get through all the books on my shelf. I wish I had the self-control and bandwidth to read more day to day. Shit, who doesn’t?

    Today, I came across this tweet, and I have no thoughts to offer up other than, she’s right.

    To read, is to evolve.

    Lot’s of good reads and thoughts from her Kao’s blog.

    Check it out here.

  • BBC Dracula billboard comes alive at night in the shadows

    •

    1 min read

    •

    Sometimes, advertising can be really really fun. BBC really outdid themselves here. Drive or walk by this billboard during the day and you see one thing — but at night you see a ghastly vampire visage. Very clever:

    (shared via u/lllDUNN at r/gifs – Reddit)

  • Word on the Water, a Floating Bookshop in London Kings Cross, Regent’s Canal

    •

    1 min read

    •

    The whole idea of a floating bookstore is just so quaint and charming. The interior of Word on the Water is probably exactly what you are imagining. Bobbing up-and-down in London, England at Regent’s Canal, is the utterly unique Word on the Water bookshop.

    It’s has cozy corners, thick carpets and a complimentary hardwood interior. The dimly lit hull interior is stuffed with tall stacks of books for reading. My idyllic nap decor if we’re being completely honest. The exterior features planks that over-extend over the canal sidewalk for laid-out books for passerby customers. I wonder if the unique bookstore has a book on boat speak?

    You can read more about Word on the Water at Atlas Obscura, here.

  • Arcade Game Typography

    •

    2 min read

    •

    I have nothing but praise for those who study niche topics like these. Toshi Omagari of MonoType, studied typography at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. He’s worked alongside big brands like H&M, and he’s previously contributed to Google Noto, and more notably introduced Tibetan Script support to Google Noto which is spectacular work. He helped resurrect Metro Nova from the dead.

    Omagari has a limited-release book coming out (sufficed to say, it’s already sold-out but you can buy the paperback version here on Amazon). He has meticulously researched the wonderfully niche topic of video game typography and it’s freaking awesome:

    The first book of its kind – a definitive and beautifully designed survey of ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s arcade game pixel typography. Exhaustively researched by author Toshi Omagari (a celebrated typeface designer at Monotype UK) Arcade Game Typography gathers together 250 pixel typefaces, all carefully chosen, extracted, redrawn and categorised by style, and each with an accompanying commentary by Omagari. The title also features 4 illustrated essays on videogame typography theory and practice, documenting the unique advantages and challenges presented to designers of these bold, playful and often quirky alphabets.

    A beautifully produced celebration of the eclectic typography featured in hit games such as Super Sprint, Pac-Man, After Burner, Marble Madness, Shinobi, as well as countless lesser-known gems. Unlike print typefaces, pixel type often has colour ‘baked in’ to its characters, so Arcade Game Typography looks unlike any other typography book, fizzing with life and colour.

    Love this bit about the original 1978 Space Invaders typography (image below):

    The original game, and most of the clones, featured the above typeface, copied from Tank 8 with a minor modification to M.

    Photos via Read-Only Memory
    Left page: RoboCop 2 (Data East/1991), Captain America and the Avengers (Data East/1991)
    Right page: Spider-man: the Video Game (Sega/1991), Xexex (Konami/1991), X-men (Konami/1992)

  • The Library That Almost Wasn’t, Hunters Point Community Library

    •

    2 min read

    •

    Libraries, all-too-frequently, are sadly neglected. They serve so many wonderful purposes. They are civil centers, repositories of information, waypoints of knowledge and are doorways to other worlds. What should be celebrated is often left to decay. Libraries for many, are their own personal Room of Requirement. In short, libraries are awesome.

    The Hunter’s Point Branch of the Queens Public Library almost didn’t happen. Classic New York City problems, time and money:

    Over the years, it became a poster child for the perils of public architecture in New York, as if the ambition of its design and not the city’s broken bureaucracy was to blame for the library’s extended timetable and escalating budget.

    From the start, pea counters in the city’s Office of Management and Budget didn’t see why Hunters Point needed a big fancy library, notwithstanding all the new apartment towers going up, bringing in droves of young families. The pea counters held the project up. Delays raised costs.Over the years, it became a poster child for the perils of public architecture in New York, as if the ambition of its design and not the city’s broken bureaucracy was to blame for the library’s extended timetable and escalating budget.

    Behold this stunning, marvelous, and albeit slightly self-indulgent piece of New York architecture.

    Looking upon the library from Manhattan
    The exterior
    The interior is awash in warm sunlight throughout the day and has plenty of cozy corners to curl up into

    The New York Times has some incredible stunning photography of the library. You can view all the photos here.