I'm no physicist, and even I know that The Grand Design is a little premature. It's also a little bit of linkbait owing to the examination of the need for a creator to set the universe in motion ("ZOMG, Hawking said there is no GOD!!!!!1111!!!")

Still, it's interesting, a little bit funny and if you keep up with popular distillations of cutting-edge physics it's not impossible to wrap your head around.

I stayed up late a few nights reading The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.

America's first serial killer + architecture + landscape design (c'mon, I'm surrounded by Olmstead out here) + Chicago politics + the freakin' Ferris Wheel = "wow, that was really good"

The one complaint I had was the lack of photographs of the Fair itself. Failing to provide more visual record of the magnificent results was a mistake. I mean, Wikipedia even has a nice set of images.

Other than that? It's a unique combination of art, crime and American history; well written, paced like fiction and full of an amazing collection of historical figures.

Read it if you haven't.

This probably won't be a very straightforward review. Hopefully you don't mind.

Fashion. That's what I walked away thinking about after reading Zero History, William Gibson's latest. There's more to it than that, of course, but the bits about clothes in this book were fascinating to me. I've been paying more attention to clothes myself these days, so watching Gibson dig around under the guts of fashion was a lot of fun.

I've since read about the military connection to the evolution of the business suit, so the fascination continues.
(more…)

Quick, go look through my old school Boston skateboarding flickr set.

Then, ask yourself how much I enjoyed Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art.
(more…)

Yes, I read BIKE SNOB Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling . I mean, of course I read it. I'm a bike nerd on at least three different level (I commute by bike, ride a road bike and watch pro cycling year road,) so I'm drawn to this like a Dentist to a Serotta (< - a stolen bike snob joke. GUILTY of stealing.)

It was a while ago now, but that's the nature of these reviews this year. I'm way behind.

On with the review...
(more…)