Are you E yet?

This is the new Nook by Barnes and Noble's. It affords lots of things including sharing your books with your like-minded friends. About $260. Millions of books.



This is the Amazon Kindle, about $300, with millions of books if they are on Amazon.



And finally we have the inventor of the personal portable listening device (the Walkman cassette player), Sony bringing up their Sony Reader.

Didn't really want the Nook to be the biggest; just couldn't get the sizes to match up and didn't want to spend a lot of time futzing about.

The Question is, Are You an E-book reader yet or do you refuse to plug in? Do you prefer the portability of a book made of paper over the portability of carrying your entire library around in a device that weighs slightly more than a couple of Stephen King novels?

The question is not Will these things change how we read but How will these devices change we read; how will we view physical books ; will our reading habits change from lounging around in our pajamas on a lazy windy cloudy rainy day to only while we are on the bus headed toward work?

Personally, I would like to play with these devices if someone would give me one. No way I'm shelling out $300 for what is essentially an iPod Nano on steroids.

Besides, I enjoy the physical-ness of turning a page, checking out the binding, and tossing the sucker across the room when the writing iritates the bejasus out of me. Wouldn't want to do that with a Kindle, now, eh?

What is Woodstock Online? Peace & Love, Hippie.

As at over at 手取川 Tedorigawa 手取川 this week we will be showering you with love and music at the

Smallest Woodstock Festival Online Parade

in celebration of finishing not one but three books this last weekend, one of which is the largest book I have ever done. Photos coming in the future. Meanwhile, listen, enjoy, and spread the

Love, hippie

•
The Listening List

Wagner - The Bridal Chorus
John Entwistle - Bass Solo
Joan Jett - I Hate Myself for Loving You
An Amazing Bass Solo
Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust Live 75
Les Claypool - Bass Solo
Juan Lennon - I Met the Walrus
Jorge Harrison - Gopala Krishna

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

What Else Do You Do?

I have a few podcasts and blogs that keep me hopping and in order to keep track of what each one contains, I made these two Episode Guide books. As you can see, they are pocket size. Each is about 120 pages mas or menos. They have six sewn signatures of five sheets each, book board was covered with book cloth, and copy paper was used. These are episode guides, not Gutenberg's 42 line Bible.

One is for my Audio Drama podcast called DinoSoar Pix. DinoSoar Pix has audio and video but mostly audio. I make the audio drama when I have the time and recently I have been gathering voice actors from space - the internet tube-things - and doing some cutting and pasting. I also do one wherein I do all the voices and manipulate them with the audio editing program I use. In any case, I enjoy the work and the thought that people are enjoying the work I do.

The other episode guide is for the more educational podcast. Hokudai/Cast is a trilingual podcast that celebrates Japanese, Chinese, and English. I don't speak all these languages; other people do. I speak one. Okay, one and a half (English and Japanese), but many people around me speak Chinese so I use them to my advantage. Hokudai/Cast is from Hokuriku University, where I work. It's a pleasant little liberal arts college on the other side of Japan from Tokyo, Osaka, and other big noisy cities with too many people.

A Tune with Two Videos (Book related.)

A rather cool slide show with some rather cool coptic bindings from Artist Books. All it needs is some music. So, click on the player, then click on the slide show. The music lasts longer than the slide show, however, so click on the second video and watch two people make a book. Since the 2 videos take a total of about 3 minutes the song takes about 5 minutes, you can watch the videos Almost Twice!

The music is by Ariyasamade and it's called Just Relax. It can be found at PodSafeAudio.com





Find more photos like this on Artist Books 3.0

Also from Artist Books 3.0. You may like to cruise over to their website, too.

Find more videos like this on Artist Books 3.0

Extreme Bookbinding

Read this detailed and exciting account of some book restoration taken to the extreme: very old book (6th century Abba Garima Gospels) in a very old monastery (Monastery of Abuna Garima) in a very old country (Ethiopia). The actual book restoration starts about a third to half-way down the page.

Skin Deep Newsletter

I'm fascinated by the binders who worked nearly 1400 years ago in the middle of what must have been a hot dry mountainous desolate place but still made beautiful and enduring books. Coptic binding, of course, as Ethiopia is the home of coptic binding (from Wikipedia).

And here's a sample of coptic binding from Two Brides and SugarAdded blogs:

For those interested, here is a quick video about coptic binding:

We Can Use Mr. Griffith's Barn!

Making movies, that's what this is about. The title is a reference to all the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland Andy Hardy movies where they always seem to be running off to produce a musical in someone's barn. (In this case I named the barn-owner Griffith after both the Mayberry RFD sheriff and filmmaker D.W.)

First, a clip from Sundance's director's workshop



Next, a flick from Vimeo about using a roof to have a garden, in this case 6 acres on top of the Vancouver BC Convention Center. Interesting use of public space.

Vancouver's 6 Acre Living Roof from Dave Budge on Vimeo.

Finally, a light flick from Vimeo showing how GM tried to meet the challenge of Japanese cars. I assume this was filmed before the bankruptcy?

Low Cost of Ownership from DFN Studio on Vimeo.

Bookbinding Tools

Bookbinding Tools
Uploaded by Mitsubachi

I like this photo from Mitsubachi (from Flickr, of course. Where else?) because it looks so organized and uncluttered. Completely alien to my work space. On this table you can see scissors, brushes (for glue?) a bone folder for folding, a ruler to use as a straight edge, and the back, front, and spine of a work in progress, a jar of water and a cup of, I'm guessing, coffee? And a ghetto blaster on an old fashioned steam (?) radiator.

The reason I'm showing you this is to show you the essential tools a bookbinder needs. Not much. Besides what's in this picture, I'm guessing Mitsubachi also has some needles and tread. The main thing you need if you're going to bind books is space to lay all your stuff out and time. Lots of time. An amazing amount of time. 

Enjoy your time!

The Puccini Boheme Book

What we have here is a small yet fun to make blank notebook with a zillion pages. Or, really, B5 paper folded into quarters - about 30 of these little darlings - and sewed together and a Puccini 'La Boheme' flyer used as the cover.

Perhaps the pen gives you a sense of the size of this thing - a cute little number that was fun to make, after some difficulty with coming to terms with it.


Perfect binding was used and the one main problem is that the spine bit of the cover was just a tad too big. It doesn't exactly close properly but ripping it apart to fix it would be too much of a trauma - I'd have to destroy the cover - and I'm pleasantly pleased with it. Why? Well, one reason could be that it is the first book I've made in Three Full Months! Unbelievable.

By the way, not to change the subject, but La Boheme is the second most performed opera. The first-most performed opera is Madame Butterfly. Both were written by this Puccini fellow. I guess he had good fortune with operas starting with 'B.' Hence, the name of this little gem is The Puccini La Boheme Book (The Puccini The Bohemian Book?).

Tweet Me Baby Til the Juice Runs Down My Twitter

The title is, of course, not taken from a Led Zeppelin song or even an older Leadbelly song but the even younger Howling Wolf song "Killing Floor" retitled "Lemon Song" by the Brothers Zeppelin (James and Bobby). All this has nothing to do with the

Twitter

On which, if you go to Tedorigawa on Twitter (http://twitter.com/tedorigawa) you will find Tedorigawa Bookmakers tweeting like cheerful little birds hoping for regurgitated worms from mom. Boy, there's a delightful image.

Crapsey Update Part Two

I found some nice rough artistic hand-made paper for the Crapsey project. And where did I find this paper? In my pile of paper. I must've bought it a long time ago and today, while cleaning up around my paper pile, I found this rough, off-yellow/pale white paper that, when ink is applied to it, blotches quite nicely. And I was quite surprised. So, I'm going to use it for the Crapsey poem project.

Crapsey Quintain Poetry Coptic Binding Book Project

With a name like Adelaide Crapsey, isn't it any wonder she created a new poetry style called quintain? Quintains have 22 syllables in five lines with, at best, each line being slightly longer than the previous. This is not a hard and fast rule, however. Ms Crapsey, who died of TB at 36, didn't even follow the rule 100% of the time.

I am creating a hand-written coptic binding book of a few - about 25 - of her quintains. I hope to finish soon and get onto my Circular Book. Both have great expectations.

Meanwhile, if you like undead horror, check out Humanagers: Where the Undead Live it Up.

An English (?) Bookbinder

It has been a month since the opening and running of the fat loss podcast Goya2Goya and in that month I have lost and gained 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) and lost it again. A mini-yoyo if you will.

I have also toyed with link and/or long stitch. This can be seen here. It is a blank notebook with a fanciful cover and closed by three stands of industrial twine. My first long stitch and it went, uh, reasonably well. For my first time. I shall be practicing it more as the weeks go on.

Also, an English, I assume, bookbinder shows some of his leathers and tools in this two-minute video. Enjoy.

Chester bookbinder Andrew Brown from TONY CLIXBY on Vimeo.

Goya2Goya: The Weight Loss Podcast

New Podcast at Podomatic.com called Goya2Goya. This is a podcast I've thought about for awhile. Just me talking, sometimes with a guest inquisitor, while I walk around my town and discuss losing weight.

How I hope to lose weight, how much I used to weigh and how much I weigh now, how what you eat is as important as how much you eat (those empty calories in alcohol tend to cause weights to balloon upwards), how much I hope to lose, and general observations as I walk around.

My current weight is 67 kg (148 lbs) and according to US standards, I'm not fat. But I have a beer belly (or, more politely, a 'paunch') that I'd like to get rid off. My goal is 57 kg (125 lbs). Good luck with that, eh?

Goya2Goya stands for Get Off Your Ass To Get (it) Off Your Ass. The (it), of course, is fat. Fat. Big Fat. But in my case, and in most men's cases, it's not so much the ass as the stomach:

The Beer Belly is Evil.

And here's why: those with beer bellies tend to suffer more heart attacks. And more fatal heart attacks. And they are ... uuuuuuugly.

If you're trying to lose weight and want some support, download Goya2Goya and listen to it on your mp3 player as You walk around losing weight. Then send me your tips and tricks for losing weight - I really need them.

Thanks. Our email is goya2goya@gmail.com

Art and the Word on Wordle.net

This just in from Wordle, a fun way to play with words.

Having a Little Fun

During the recent New Year's vacation I dabbled in a miniture book. Well, maybe not so miniture. It measures 6.5 cm by 10 cm and its theme is Halloween. Why Halloween which is either 10 months in the future or two months in the past? Because I used a box as a cover and the box originally housed a plastic jack-o-lantern and, as such, had a carved pumpkin on one face and a bat on the other.

The interior of the book - perfect binding, by the way, meaning not 'perfect' but like a 'real' book - continued the Halloween theme with a short essay on why certain folks don't like Halloween, a variety of Halloween-themed drawings (bats, pumpkins, a ghost or two), and Trick or Treat. The main difference between this book and others is that each 'signature' is actually a folded single piece of paper using what seems to be called the 'Hot Dog' folding method. This is actually a quite common fold here - lots of elementary school kids do it when they should be listening to the teacher - but handy.

Most of the 'art' in this book was done before the paper was folded so it's a surprise to see what pops up on what page. The essay, for example, starts on one page but doesn't conclude until several pages later and the middle is hidden. Fun. A pleasant way to spend a little snowy afternoon.